July 8: Universal's Epic Universe
We made it! Today, we finally got to see Universal's brand-new theme park, Epic Universe!
But first... we had to take care of a few things. Unfortunately, we were woken up way too early by construction going on at our hotel. Since early mornings and theme park touring do not mix, we asked to move rooms. We did a quick pack-up and moved to another building, which, funnily enough, was much closer to where we stayed a few years ago during our first trip to Bonnet Creek.
Then, when we arrived at Epic Universe, we had to make a quick stop at Guest Relations because we had made a small mistake when buying our tickets. Fortunately, the staff was amazing, fixed our error in no time, and we were on our way!
NOTE: This blog will contain spoilers about Universal's Epic Universe Theme Park, which opened in the summer of 2025.
Epic Universe opened last summer, and it is always super interesting going to a brand-new park. In many ways, it is absolutely mind-blowing—new technology, awesome new rides, deeply immersive lands, and everything is sparkling and fresh. On the other hand, there are still bugs to be worked out and lands that need to be expanded. With less than a dozen major attractions open, many rides had wait times of 2 to 3 hours, and several were closed for much of the day (and not because of the weather!). Needless to say, planning our day was an adventure in itself!
The main hub of Epic Universe is Celestial Park. It
features gorgeous fountains, a splash pad/playground, restaurants, and shops. There are two attractions right in Celestial Park: the Constellation Carousel and Stardust Racers—a dueling twin-track roller coaster. Surrounding Celestial Park are four "portals" that transport you into the four different lands: How to Train Your Dragon: The Isle of Berk, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic (themed to 1930s Paris and the British Ministry), Dark Universe (Classic Monsters), and Super Nintendo World.
We started our day on Stardust Racers, which only had a 20-minute wait. This coaster was built by Mack Rides (the same brilliant minds behind VelociCoaster), but the track feels tighter and packs in more positive and negative G-forces in quick succession. While it's an absolute blast, it’s a bit more headache-inducing, meaning it's not a coaster Grant or I could ride over and over again. It was super fun to notice a brilliant little Easter egg, though: the back of each roller coaster train sports none other than a Flux Capacitor, a great nod to Back to the Future!
Also, I should mention, Florida is currently in the middle of a record-high heat wave. As if Florida isn't usually warm in July, temperatures are averaging over 95°F during the day, without our usual afternoon rainstorms to cool things down. In fact, we haven't used our umbrellas once and have only seen a smattering of rain one evening after 9:00 PM!
Anyway, next we explored the Harry Potter portal, which might actually be my favorite of all the Harry Potter lands across the Universal parks. There were so many winding pathways and alleys to explore; you really felt like you were walking through a neighborhood in old Paris. The main attraction, Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry, was down (and in fact, remained down until 7:30 PM), but there was still plenty to look at. We decided to eat lunch at the quick-service French restaurant, Café L'Air de la Sirène, because the menu looked amazing. (We had originally planned a sit-down meal, but due to our later start, we pushed that to a different day.) Geoffrey got the chopped steak and frites with a side salad, Katelyn got a ham and Gruyère cheese baguette, and Grant and I shared another chopped steak and frites along with a classic French onion soup. We also grabbed a frozen Butterbeer and one of the other fun, exclusive Wizarding World drinks. We were incredibly impressed by the quality of the food!
After lunch, we caught one of the live-action shows: Le Cirque Arcanus. When you first enter the land, you find a modest circus tent at the intersection of the main street. It looks about the size of a tall, one-room house—maybe 16 feet wide and 12 feet tall. But when you step inside, the tent just keeps going, and going, and going! Suddenly, you realize this seemingly small tent is housing an entire massive circus, complete with beast cages all around, and trapeze swings, bicycles, and glowing lanterns hanging from the high ceilings. You walk through the atmospheric queue lines all the way back to the first pre-show area, then move into a giant theater to watch a magical performance full of acrobatic surprises that truly bring the Wizarding World to life. It's just like the magical tents described at the Quidditch World Cup - from the outside it looks like a camping tent but on the inside its a multi-roomed house? Yeah, like that except a full blown thousand seat circus. ) We thought this show was phenomenal
and thoroughly enjoyed it!
Next, we headed into Dark Universe. This portal is based on all of Universal's classic monsters: Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, the Hunchback, and more. The spooky village of Darkmoor is home to these classic horror icons, featuring a creepy restaurant, shops, meet-and-greets, and a dark castle that houses one of the most awesome rides in the park. With a very reasonable wait time usually hovering around 15 minutes, Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment tells the story of Frankenstein's great-great... great-granddaughter, Victoria. With the help of Frankenstein's friendly monster, she is on a quest to subdue all evil
monsters, with only Dracula left to capture. Naturally, we go on a tour of the castle's catacombs, Dracula breaks free, and absolute chaos ensues! The ride uses similar KUKA robotic arm technology to Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, but it is highly upgraded and tracks much smoother, and no jarring motion simulator screens, meaning zero motion sickness for me! We loved it so much we rode it twice in a row!
I should also mention that every ride here requiring lockers has built the locker rooms right into the queue line, just like the newer rides have been doing lately (starting with VelociCoaster and Tron). At Epic, this technology is upgraded even further: instead of needing a thumbprint or a park ticket to open a locker, it uses facial recognition technology! It snaps your photo to lock it, and when you return, it rescans your face and pops your locker open. It works flawlessly!
There is a second ride in Darkmoor—a family spinning coaster called Curse of the Werewolf (similar to Sierra Sidewinder at Knott's Berry Farm). The line was a bit long, though, so we opted to skip it for now.
We left Darkmoor and headed back to Celestial Park to try out the Constellation Carousel. Rather than a traditional rotating carousel, the creatures on this ride (based on famous constellations like the bear, the lion, and the ram) don't just turn on one giant turntable—they sit on three separate rotating sub-tables that weave in and out! There are different musical tracks that play for each ride sequence, and the celestial animals move and dance along with the music in beautiful choreographies. It’s gentle like a classic carousel but uniquely stunning to watch and experience.
Next, we stepped through the Super Mario portal into Super Nintendo World. This land is structurally similar to the Hollywood version, but it features a lot of multi-level depth that gives it so many layers to look at. We skipped Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge because it had a 90-minute wait and is identical to the Hollywood version, opting instead for Yoshi's Adventure, which had a 30-minute wait. I was so excited for this because I adore Yoshi, but the ride itself was pretty disappointing. It was slow, short, and frankly, a bit boring. Plus, it is largely outdoors with no shade canopy, so it was incredibly hot. It really should have been designed as a longer "PeopleMover" style ride wrapped around the entirety of Nintendo World. Instead, for some odd reason, it’s confined to one small corner, and despite its slow-moving, gentle track, it features a bizarre lap bar system that enforces a strict height limit. It easily could have been a no-height-requirement family attraction.
We walked to the back part of the land to check out Donkey Kong Country. The highlight here is a revolutionary roller coaster (Mine-Cart Madness) with a line that regularly sits between 120 and 180 minutes. Our plan was to jump in line for this at the very end of one of our nights. What is super cool about this coaster is the "illusion engineering" - the track you are on is hidden, making it look like your mine cart is literally jumping over gaps in the tracks just like the video game! We grabbed a Donkey Kong-themed ice cream treat—pineapple and banana soft serve in a waffle cone with pineapple soda—and shared it while watching the coaster carts "leap" across the tracks.
Once we finished our treat, we checked out the last portal: How to Train Your Dragon: The Isle of Berk. Just as we were walking toward the portal, people suddenly started running out of the land. At first it was just a few, and then it turned into a full-on stampede! Looking around, we noticed an inordinate amount of people booking it toward the back of the park. I whipped out my phone and sure enough... the Harry Potter attraction, Battle at the Ministry, had finally opened at 7:00 PM after being closed all day long. For a brief moment, we debated joining the throng but decided against it; the line was already posting a 120-minute wait. We knew our two end-of-night strategy rides were going to be Donkey Kong and Ministry on two separate nights anyway, so we figured we'd just hop in line a few minutes before the park closed at 9:00 PM.
So, back to the Isle of Berk. This land features three rides and a live-action show. One is a carnival-type hang glider ride (Dragon Racer's Rally) that we skipped because of the line and its basic ride model. The second is a gorgeous launched coaster called Hiccup's Wing Gliders, which, unfortunately, had been closed all day. The third ride is called Fyre Drill, and at this point in the evening, it was a total walk-on. Why? Because the ride exists solely to get wet. You board a Viking boat and use water blasters to squirt targets and other boats. And yes, you get wet. Very wet. There is nothing my kids love more than watching me get soaked at a theme park!
And once you are soaked, what better thing to do than walk straight into a heavily air-conditioned building to see a live-action stage show? The Untrainable Dragon tells the story of Hiccup trying to help the village of Berk with a new, rather troublesome dragon. The show features stunning, life-sized dragon animatronics flying over the audience, great special effects, and live singers, which is always fantastic to see.
Since we had a little bit of time left before we needed to get in line for our last ride, we decided to squeeze in another night ride on Stardust Racers. We really think this park would look amazing at night. Unfortunately, it doesn't really get dark until about 8:45, and the park closes at 9:00.
We decided that tonight would be our Harry Potter night, just in case it suffered more technical difficulties later in the week. We had heard rumors that Universal sometimes closes the queue early for Ministry of Magic if the line gets too long, so we didn't want to risk waiting until 8:59 PM. We aimed for 8:50 PM instead. That way, if they had already cut off the line, we’d still have 10 minutes to get over to Donkey Kong, which allows guests in line right up until 8:59 PM. (The best part about jumping in line at the very end of the night is that the queue moves much faster once the park closes at 9:00 PM because they stop accepting Express Passes!)
We made it in line for Harry Potter. Huzzah! The ride time was posted at 120 minutes, but it only took us about 90. The queue was incredible. You travel through gorgeous Parisian streets into the grand entrance of the British Ministry via floo powder, which is one of the largest and most breathtaking show buildings I've ever stood in. The ride itself is packed with cutting-edge technology and surprises. To be honest, I'm still not entirely sure how the ride mechanics work! The vehicle feels like a cross between a Tower of Terror elevator car and a Forbidden Journey robotic arm, moving vertically and horizontally. The show scenes reminded me of Escape from Gringotts, but with massive physical animatronics and less reliance on 3D screens. It was spectacularly well done, and I can't wait to ride it again.
We finally made it back to our car around 11:00 PM and stopped at Denny's for a late dinner (Miller's Ale House had a one-hour wait—no thanks!). We were incredibly happy with our first Epic day!
July 9: The Classic Campus
Today, we headed to the main Universal campus. We started our morning at Universal Studios Florida and rode Men in Black: Alien Attack. Then, we hopped on the Hogwarts Express over to Islands of Adventure, where we rode The Cat in the Hat and the High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride!
We stopped for lunch at Mythos Restaurant to have one last memorable meal there. They are tearing the restaurant down later this year as part of the permanent retirement of The Lost Continent to make room for a brand-new land. Mythos is housed in such a cool, cave-like building, and I’m so glad we got to enjoy its special ambience one last time before it goes into the theme park history books.
After lunch, the kids tackled The Incredible Hulk Coaster. Then, we all headed over to Popeye & Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges. This ride is SO MUCH FUN, but you get absolutely soaked. Drenched. Like I literally jumped into a swimming pool clothes-on. I always prepare ahead of time for this one, so I brought a pair of sandals to change into, no soggy shoes or drippy socks for me! We actually rode it twice in a row, because honestly, you can't get any wetter than you do on the first run. It was incredibly hot out, so it was the perfect time of day to do it. Next, we dried off a bit in line for VelociCoaster, which thankfully has a decent chunk of its queue outside under a shaded overhang with massive fans. The wait sign said 60 minutes, but we breezed through in about 35. VelociCoaster is pure perfection. After riding Stardust Racers yesterday, it really reminded Grant and me how much we prefer a coaster with more spread-out, sweeping G-force elements and smooth twists that don't give you whiplash headaches. VelociCoaster reigns supreme!
By the time we stepped off, The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man had a dropped wait time, so we jumped right on. Seriously, it remains one of the absolute best dark rides ever created, even though it’s over 25 years old!
We left Islands of Adventure and walked back over to Universal Studios (the Hogwarts Express line was over 30 minutes, so walking was faster). We decided to check out the new Wicked exhibit, which featured gorgeous costumes and props used in the movie (a mix of replicas and actual screen-used items). As we exited the exhibit, we heard music swelling... and realized we had stepped right onto an empty sidewalk just as the Universal Mega Movie Parade was starting! We got front-row, unobstructed views of the entire parade!
Afterward, we hit up Illumination’s Villain-Con Minion Blast, followed by Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon, and then went with Revenge of the Mummy. We tapped out of the Mummy at 8:20 PM, hoping to squeeze in E.T. Adventure (posted at 20 minutes) and then sprint to Escape from Gringotts for our park-close ride. However, E.T.’s line moved incredibly slowly, and we didn't exit until right at 9:00 PM. Instead of a ride, we ended up catching the nighttime lagoon show, Cinesational: A Symphonic Spectacular, which was a beautiful way to end the night.
We left the park and had a late dinner at Bigfire in CityWalk. Grant and I shared a short rib flatbread and the hot honey salmon (I absolutely LOVE the hearth-grilled veggies they serve with the entrees here, they are so smoky and delicious!). Geoffrey ordered the braised beef short rib pappardelle, and Katelyn got the mac and cheese. For dessert, we all shared a rocky road Baked Alaska (so good!) and a skillet-baked chocolate cake. The cake itself was great, but the bourbon ice cream on top? Not so much... We also stopped by VooDoo Doughnut to grab some for breakfast the next morning.
July 10: The 4.5-Hour Wait
Phew—three park days in a row is... a lot. Plus, we had to switch hotels this morning!
We checked out of Bonnet Creek and drove over to check into Wyndham Cypress Palms. Our room wasn’t going to be ready until later in the evening, so we packed our things and loaded up the car. Luckily, we packed light on this trip, so the transition was quick and painless.
We headed back to Epic Universe for round two. As mentioned, Florida has been brutally HOT. We arrived at the gates around 1:00 PM, and the Harry Potter portal had a posted wait time of 90 minutes. We had a 3:00 PM lunch reservation at The Atlantic (the beautiful upscale table-service restaurant in Celestial Park), so we figured heading into the Ministry queue would be perfect, the line is entirely indoors out of the sun, and we’d finish just in time for late lunch.
Well, 3:00 PM rolled around and we were still stuck deep in the queue. We pushed our reservation back. 4:00 PM came, and we were still in line. We pushed the reservation back again. The ride must have suffered multiple technical breakdowns while we were inside because there were long stretches where the line simply didn't move an inch. By 5:30 PM, we finally made the painful decision to ditch the line. We couldn't move our dining reservation any further, we were starving, and we had spent an insane 4.5 hours waiting in a single line. We had been at the park all afternoon, accomplished absolutely nothing, and it was already dinner time. The kids were completely pissed, hungry, disappointed, and frustrated. Frankly, we all were.
We headed to our rescheduled dinner at The Atlantic, and once food arrived, everyone's mood started to lift. While eating, Grant and I quietly discussed the situation out of earshot of the kids. We figured it couldn't hurt to politely mention the 4.5-hour breakdown situation to Guest Services just to see if they could help salvage our day. It’s impossible to make up for lost time, but losing nearly five hours of a park day is brutal. We understand ride breakdowns happen and went in with zero expectations, but we hoped we might get a single-use pass to try Harry Potter again later.
Grant went to speak with Guest Relations while the kids and I hung out to watch the dancing fountains. A thunderstorm had formed a few miles away, casting a spectacular full rainbow directly over Epic Universe, and we managed to capture some incredible photos. The Guest Relations team was absolutely wonderful. They listened to Grant and ended up giving our family four Express Passes each! Two were "Universal Express Plus" passes valid for any ride in the park, and two were regular Express Passes (usable on almost everything except Hagrid’s, Ministry of Magic, or Donkey Kong). We were incredibly grateful for their kindness; it helped turn our spirits around.
Feeling re-energized, we headed straight into Dark Universe and rode Monsters Unchained again. Then, we noticed that Hiccup's Wing Gliders, which had been completely closed during our visit on Wednesday, was up and running! We walked over and used one of our new Express Passes, which skipped a massive one-hour wait.
Hiccup's Wing Gliders is an incredibly fun family launch coaster with a wonderful storyline about flying a dragon through a dragon hatchery. The track is surprisingly long and weaves all around the Isle of Berk. I absolutely love a roller coaster that actually tours you through the physical environment of a land rather than just spinning you in a crazy, dizzying circle where you can't appreciate the views. It was a total blast!
The Express Passes saved us so much time (at least an hour waiting in for this ride) that we were able to walk off the coaster by 8:50 PM and head right over to Donkey Kong Country, jumping into the Mine-Cart Madness queue just before the 9:00 PM park cutoff.
The Donkey Kong coaster is spectacular. It's honestly hard to describe how it works without seeing it in person. The track you think you are riding on is a complete illusion; the real track is hidden underneath. It makes you feel like your mine cart is genuinely launching over broken gaps or jumping onto parallel rails. It feels exactly like playing the classic video game! The set design is gorgeous, complete with rushing waterfalls and cave effects that make you feel like a 3D character moving seamlessly through a vibrant 2D world. The theme work is top-tier.
Overall, a day that started in total frustration ended on a high note, and we left Epic Universe feeling good, and very excited for a much-needed rest day tomorrow! On the drive home, we made a pit stop at Twistee Treat. We weren't hungry for a real dinner, so we just ordered giant ice cream sundaes for dinner instead!
We finally drove to our new hotel, hauled our suitcases (and ice cream) up to the fifth floor, unpacked, and settled into our new room. Good night!
