12 Things I Wish I Knew BEFORE Going To Epic Universe! WATCH BEFORE YOU GO!

12 Things I Wish I Knew BEFORE Going To Epic Universe! WATCH BEFORE YOU GO!

well ladies and gentlemen after years and years of waiting the time has finally come the grand opening of Epic Universe is finally here and in today’s video we’re going to be going over 12 things that you guys need to know before you make your first trip some of these things you need to know about the park are good and others not so good i highly recommend staying until the very end of the video because point number 12 is going to affect literally everybody especially if you have mobility issues but we’ll get into that a little bit later after visiting Epic Universe four times over the last month or so I feel like I have a good grasp of this park so I just wanted to make this video to pass off my helpful information to you guys so that way you know exactly what to expect when you visit Epic for the first time but with all of that being said let’s go ahead and get into our very first point again these are in no particular order number one there are no parking garages and no trams at Epic Universe if you guys are used to visiting the OG Universal Studios parks being Universal Proper and Islands of Adventure you guys are probably used to parking in one of two parking garages now these two parking garages are high capacity they can hold a lot of cars and best of all your car is most likely going to be in the shade unless you have to park in the very top level which they hardly ever use unless it is a very very busy day unfortunately Epic Universe does not have a parking garage which means you are going to be parking your vehicle out in an open parking lot and it is going to sit there baking the whole day if you guys are planning on leaving the park in the middle of the day when the sun is still out please be prepared for that there is covered parking in the Epic Universe parking lot but it is reserved specifically for prime parking and some handicap spots and then moving on to the trams like I said there are no trams taking you from your car over to the entrance of Epic Universe be prepared for a walk especially if you’re not paying for prime parking or do not have handicap parking it is a decent sized parking lot and if you park towards the back you are going to be walking the entire way over there so make sure you are mentally prepared for that if you’re arriving in the middle of the day when it’s already hot please make sure you guys have some water make sure you have some umbrellas hats make sure you apply your sunscreen in the car because more than likely you’re going to be baking by the time you make it to the front entrance all right now that we have made it inside the park let’s go ahead and get into point number two that you need to know about Epic Universe epic Universe is comprised of five different worlds when you walk through the front entrance and through the Kronos you are going to be in Celestial Park this is going to be the very first world and kind of your hub world of Epic Universe where from there the other worlds kind of split off from there alongside Celestial Park you have How to Train Your Dragon Isle of Burke the Wizarding World of Harry Potter Ministry of Magic Dark Universe and Super Nintendo World each world has its own set of attractions including Celestial Park which has Constellation Carousel and Stardust Racers which is a dueling roller coaster so that’s three right there plus you have a splash pad in Celestial Park called Astronomica you have three or four separate rides in How to Train Your Dragon including Hiccup’s Wing Gliders Fire Drill and Dragon Racers Rally which is technically two flat rides so two different attractions even though they’re exactly the same thing either way three or four different rides in How to Train Your Dragon plus a stage show with Untrainable Dragon over at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter Ministry of Magic you have Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry and Laser Arcade New Stage Show over in Dark Universe you have Monsters Unchained the Frankenstein Experiment and Curse of the Werewolf and in Super Nintendo World you of course have Mario Kart Bowser’s Challenge Yoshi’s Adventure and Donkey Kong Minecart Madness the third thing you need to know before visiting Epic Universe is that there is very limited amounts of shade in the park i highly recommend coming prepared with your own little umbrella kota and I we recently just purchased some UV umbrellas from Amazon they were nice and cheap and we used them on our most recent cruise they definitely do the trick at keeping us cool and out of the sun for the majority of the day it is a brand new theme park so a lot of the trees that they’ve planted haven’t had time to grow in yet so of course over the next couple of years the shade situation is going to improve and even during the course of these previews that we’ve had over the last several months they have added more shade structures throughout Celestial Park and in some areas throughout the different worlds so it is an evolving situation and I just want you guys to be prepared for it when you guys go again make sure you guys stay hydrated make sure you guys reapply that sunscreen because I don’t want you to leave Epic Universe looking like a lobster the fourth thing you need to know about Epic Universe before you go if you guys are planning on purchasing the express pass to skip the lines for some of the attractions in the park you need to know that there are three attractions that are not included in that Express Pass and Cody and I we did purchase Express Pass to use on this opening weekend so that way we can do a full review for you guys to let you guys know if it’s worth it or not and we paid about $250 a person now this price isn’t the lowest end but it’s also not the most expensive so make sure when you guys are doing your research on when you’re visiting you pay attention to the prices because they do fluctuate based on the time of year that you’re visiting and can vary daybyday the three attractions that are not included in Universal Express Pass for now at the time of making this video is Donkey Kong Minecart Madness Dragon Racers Rally and Harry Potter at the Battle of the Ministry now whether or not the Express Pass is going to be worth it for you and your family is going to be based off of those attractions because two out of the three attractions I just listed are very popular and some of the most popular in the whole park consistently throughout this whole preview process we have seen Donkey Kong Minecart Madness have some of the higher weights throughout the whole park and then you have Battle at the Ministry which in my opinion is one of the greatest attractions in the whole world have a very high weight since it started doing standby of course there are ways around that if you do have the extra cash to spare you can get VIP access to every attraction at Universal’s Epic Universe by purchasing a VIP package that’s a subject for a whole different time maybe we’ll make a video on that at a later date but as of right now I don’t have the funds to pay for a VIP package the fifth thing you need to know before visiting Epic Universe is that some of the worlds offer interactive elements unfortunately those interactive elements are locked behind a payw wall so for example over in Super Nintendo World the land is based off of a video game so of course there are going to be little mini games spread out throughout the land there are going to be different items and objects that you can interact with throughout the land and you can keep track of your score and everything else through the Universal Studios app again that’s a whole another video for another time but you will be required to purchase a power up band now these powerup bands do come in different colors and represent different characters in the Mario franchise now these bands if I recall correctly are about $40 or $50 i can’t remember off the top of my head but the point is is that they are not cheap and if you have multiple kids they’re each going to want their own band to track their individual scores so make sure you budget a set of these bands for you and your family into your trip these bands do function as slap bracelets so you can just kind of slap it onto your wrist and it’ll function like that and of course during this opening weekend I will be doing vlogs from inside the park i will have my powerup bands and I will show you guys a bit more in-depth on how these things function how they work and what you can exactly do and of course at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter just like what we saw in Hogsme and Diagon Alley we have the interactive spells so you will need to go and purchase a wand if you want to participate in some of these spells with the opening of this brand new iteration of the Wizarding World we have a whole new set of spells and a whole new set of effects i was lucky enough to get this wand for free during the initial media events but again these wands are not cheap there are several versions of wands out there there is a cheaper version which is this one which I believe is in the range of $40 to $50 and then they have a brand new 2.0 version that has a battery and it has haptic feedback it’s got a little light here in the tip so yeah these wands can vary in price and if you want to participate in some of the cool spells that are located throughout the lands then you’re going to want to factor this into your budget as well and sticking with the Wizarding World of Harry Potter we’re going to go on to the sixth thing that you need to know about Epic Universe in order to get the most out of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter Ministry of Magic you need to be familiar with the Fantastic Beast movies more specifically the second movie which is the Crimes of Grindleald and you also need to have seen Prisoner of Aszaban and Order of the Phoenix in order to understand what’s going on in the Battle of the Ministry ride i’ve already seen several people walk into this land and experience the attractions and not have a gosh darn clue what’s going on and I really feel like not having a basic knowledge of those three movies is really going to put a damper on your experience so yeah before you go about a week before start having family movie nights and get those three movies out of the way so that way you and your family know what you’re looking at once you actually enter the world number seven Epic Universe is at bare minimum a two-day park if you guys are wanting to see and do absolutely everything I highly highly highly recommend spending at least two days at the park you’re going to want to ride as many rides as possible you’re going to want to try as much food as possible you’re going to want to try and see as much as possible you’re not going to get it all in one day even during the early preview days when the park was practically empty I could not see and do everything in absolutely one day if you guys try and speedrun the park in just one day you guys are really doing yourself a disservice and you are not getting the most out of your visit and it is just going to be stressful and by the end of it you’re going to be miserable and I promise you you’re going to walk out of that park feeling disappointed make sure you guys plan for at least 2 days to visit Epic Universe three if absolutely possible i feel like three is the perfect amount of time for Epic Universe and then you guys will leave fulfilled and I promise you you will just have a much better experience number eight we’re going to head on into how to train your dragon is of Burke a lot of you guys have probably seen videos floating around on Tik Tok pictures on Facebook the whole nine yards you guys have probably seen it the Toothless meet and greets over at How to Train Your Dragon where you are able to have your moment where you reach your hand out and touch toothless that is a thing you are able to do it but something that you need to know about this meet and greet number one it’s very popular so be prepared to wait number two it is an all day meet and greet that is open from park open to park closed with minor changes in the middle if there’s a problem so that’s really good the line will always be open the third thing you need to know about this meet and greet and where I have a slight problem with it is that if you are waiting in line to meet Toothless you’re probably going to want to meet Hiccup unfortunately Hiccup is not always there with the meet and greet the Vikings that stand with Toothless change and cycle throughout the day when I met Toothless I was very lucky to have Hiccup there however that is not always going to be the case you could have Hiccup meeting with Toothless you could have Astrid meeting with Toothless when she’s not walking around with Stormfly but be prepared to just have a generic Viking standing there with Toothless and that Viking is going to be in your picture as well especially if you’re looking to buy the picture from Universal Studios using their camera that random Viking is going to be there so just make sure you’re mentally prepared for that they don’t have a set schedule for when Hiccup is going to be meeting with Toothless it’s just kind of a random thing and luck of the draw staying in How to Train Your Dragon I love Burke we come to point number nine we come to point number nine there is only one water ride in all of Epic Universe and that is Fire Drill now I personally have not experienced Fire Drill yet only because I’m not really the biggest fan of getting wet but we are going to be experiencing it on the opening day of Epic Universe because we have an express pass for it so I’ll make sure to give you guys more details on that at the end but based off of what I heard from my friends who have ridden the attraction you could get a little wet or you could get completely soaked so I feel like on these hot summer days Fire Drill is going to be a fairly popular attraction not just for people who are looking to cool down but families with small kids it’s a slowmoving boat ride it’s got a very short height requirement so it’s very accessible to a lot of small children eventually in the future I would love to see more water attractions come to Epic Universe only because it does get so gosh darn hot here in Florida in the summer so maybe in the future but as of right now there is only one water ride so if you’re looking for something along the lines of Popeye and Blueos or Dudley Dorites you’re not going to find that at Epic Universe number 10 get the most out of your visit to Epic Universe by staying on property at a Universal Studios hotel if you guys are staying on property at any official Universal Studios hotel you do get 1 hour of early access into the park so for example if the park opens at 9:00 a.m you will be able to get in and experience some attractions as early as 8:00 a.m you get even more benefit out of it if you’re staying at the official on-site hotel for Epic Universe Helios Grand the Helios Grand Hotel does have its own dedicated entrance into Epic Universe at the very back so depending on what attraction you’re running to you may have first dibs over there at the time of me filming this video the only attractions that are open during the early park entry is the entirety of Super Nintendo World and Stardust Racers over in Celestial Park and from my experience a lot of people go straight to Super Nintendo World and head right to Donkey Kong Madness or Mario Kart Bowser’s Challenge if you have small kids that are really obsessed with Nintendo and Mario make that a priority and do yourselves a favor and stay at an official Universal hotel so that way you guys can get into that land early and get things done nice and early number 11 unfortunately you do 100% need the Universal Studios app at Epic Universe more specifically when you’re ordering food and drinks practically all the quick service restaurants located in Celestial Park and all the other worlds rely on the Universal Studios app you do need to have an account you do need to have your credit card on file in order to mobile order your food if you guys are looking to learn more about how to order food at Universal Epic Universe using the app I will be covering that over the course of this opening weekend and I’ll show you guys exactly what to do but for right now you do need the app in order to order food now if for whatever reason you don’t have a smartphone or you can’t use the app or it’s just not working out for you they do have counters but they will direct you to a seat with a QR code and direct you to use the app in order to order food before letting you go to a counter to actually manually order food and pay for it with a card like you would normally that is currently how things are working at the time of filming this video that is subject to change based off of guest feedback in my opinion I think the whole system of ordering from your phone is the best way to do it it’s super convenient you don’t have to stand in a long line to wait for people to order food and then find a table you go find a table sit down relax and then you can order casually from your phone and then just wait for the food to be brought to you now one little thing I want to add to this point is that it may take a little while for your food to get to you some of the quick service restaurants in Epic Universe make your food to order so they’re not going to be bringing it out to you within 5 minutes for me when I went to Dos Steakhouse I waited about 10 minutes for my food which isn’t terrible but I’ve heard in some other locations it could take a little bit longer depending on what you order and how much you order before we get to the very last point guys if you have enjoyed any bit of today’s video or found any of the information that I gave helpful please help us out by leaving a like on the video and subscribing to the channel for more helpful Epic Universe content like this in the future we are on the road to 100,000 subscribers we’re almost at 70,000 and I would love to have you guys be a part of this journey and if you guys want to support a little bit extra you can consider hitting the join button down below and becoming a channel member for exclusive videos and early videos or joining our Patreon for even more benefits and invido shoutouts and number 12 the very last thing you guys absolutely need to know before visiting Epic Universe especially if you have mobility problems there are stairs everywhere good lord you have to climb so many stairs throughout Epic Universe in the lands in the attractions for everything there are stairs involved i personally never realized it from my first couple of visits until I saw other people talking about it there are stairs everywhere more specifically in Super Nintendo World that’s where the majority of the stairs are you need to climb stairs to get through the land itself you need to climb up and down stairs in order to get on Mario Kart Bowser’s Challenge you need to climb stairs in order to get onto Yoshi’s Adventure i don’t think there are any stairs at Donkey Kong but either way Super Nintendo World is the biggest offender in order to ride Monsters Unchained you need to climb stairs in order to get to the load platform and then you need to climb downstairs in order to ride Battle at the Ministry you need to climb up and downstairs in all honesty I think How to Train Your Dragon Isa Burke has the least amount of stairs i haven’t been on Fire Drill yet so I don’t know if those are stairs or ramps that you need to climb in order to get to that attraction cuz you kind of have to go down into the water but yeah there just stairs everywhere so just please make sure you guys are aware of that especially if you have mobility issues now of course Universal did think about this and there are alternative entrances and exits to the different attractions and lands over the course of this opening weekend I will show you guys some of the alternatives by no means is it going to be a comprehensive video talking about mobility alternatives if you guys are interested in a video like that then please let me know just know I am not in a wheelchair i’m not a wheelchair user so I don’t have the mobility challenge mindset that some other YouTubers might have but if it’s something that you want me to cover I will do my best to cover it in some of the videos that we post over the course of this weekend but with all of that being said guys I want to thank you all so much for watching today’s video so once again please leave a like if you enjoyed and let me know down in the comment section below what are you guys most looking forward to when you visit Epic Universe is it a specific attraction that you’re looking forward to is it a specific land are you excited for the whole thing let me know down in the comment section below and let’s get a discussion going i hope you are all having a wonderful day morning afternoon evening and I’ll see you guys in the next video

The GRAND OPENING of Epic Universe is FINALLY here and after 4 visits im ready to share 12 things I wish I knew before going to Epic Universe! Be sure to stick around to the end because number 12 affects EVERYONE!

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