Epic Universe VIP experience info

[nevertoo muchdisney]

So, I splurged and booked the VIP experience for Epic. I have done the two-park VIP twice. But, I called and found out some more info -- in case anyone wanted to know. Or, if anyone else knows other info, please share!
* Just like other VIP tours, the price depends on date of tour and how busy the parks will be. This is a four-hour tour (so, like the one-park tours, but those were not as popular in the past and I have not done one). No breakfast and lunch offering. For now, the tour is starting at 9 am. The Team Member said to get there 15 minutes early (they told us to be there earlier for the longer two-park tour because breakfast was offered).
* She also said that they average around 8 rides during the tour and they prioiritize Ministry of Magic and Mine Cart Madness since those do not work with Express Pass, but that Dragon Racer's Rally will likely NOT be on the tour because it is "so short."
* You do get Express Pass for the rest of the day (only for one ride each for those rides that DO take express pass).

I know you get some other perks I will likely not use -- like valet parking. A discount on select merch as well, but I have an Premier AP, so not sure if that adds anything to me personally.

You also should know you ALSO have to buy a separate tickets on top of the VIP experience.

I did hear on one youtube on the Dis that during their VIP tours, they missed some of the queue (which I figured). But that Monsters Unchained, the queue is apparently amazing, so hoping with express, can see some of it. The Ministry of Magic queue also looks amazing so hoping we can see some of it at least.

My son and I absolutely LOVED the tours we have done (as I said, two VIP experiences for Universal/IOA and also a Christmas tour -- can't remember what it was called). They do such a fantastic jobs with these, I'm really looking forward to this. Hope other folks will tell us about their experience once they start happening!

Which rides are typically included on the 2 park tours or IOA/USO?

 

[angryduck71]

Which rides are typically included on the 2 park tours or IOA/USO?

When I did it, neither Hagrid's or VelociCoaster were open... so, I will not be much help, but it was all the headliners with lots of trivia thrown in. And, breakfast and lunch. Now, for EPIC, I hear not a lot of trivia and no food.

 

[glamdring269]

Decided we were going to do an epic vip tour in October. Waste of a debate I guess since it looks like they’re totally sold out through most of December. Makes me wonder just what to expect if we go even with just express pass now.

Anyone have better luck calling in vs waiting for cancellations to pop up online?

 

[Disneyhanna]

Someone posted on another site that their non-private VIP tour was cancelled for staffing reasons and the recovery was a full refund, unlimited express pass, and a one-time use express pass for Ministry and Mine Cart.

Honestly praying that happens to me as the main reason I'm doing the VIP tour is for Ministry

 

[Rory607]

Someone posted on another site that their non-private VIP tour was cancelled for staffing reasons and the recovery was a full refund, unlimited express pass, and a one-time use express pass for Ministry and Mine Cart.

Honestly praying that happens to me as the main reason I'm doing the VIP tour is for Ministry

That’s a pretty good deal, actually! I wouldn’t be mad.

 

[princessebird]

TLDR; I enjoyed the Shared VIP Tour.

We (40 something couple and young teenaged daughter) splurged on the non-private/shared VIP tour on Tuesday August 5 at Epic. I like to have a very clear idea of what to expect, so here is a “more than you ever wanted to know” account of our day without spoilers.

We stayed at PBR and took advantage of the free valet parking. We had a 9:30 tour. We valet parked at 8:45am and entered the VIP entrance at the main gate a few minutes later. At this entry point, a team member helped VIP tour members purchase Epic tickets if they didn’t have them. We were checked in, given our lanyards, went through a private security lane, and then escorted to Club Jupiter.

We arrived at Club Jupiter a little before 9am, and the seating area downstairs was packed. We got the valet parking ticket validated (which wasn’t written in the instructions we were given). We then ventured upstairs to find somewhere to sit, but we were told that they weren’t ready for guests, so we went back downstairs to stand. After a little while, someone checked in at the desk (I guess they didn’t check in at the VIP entrance?) and we overheard them be told to head upstairs. So at some point, it became okay to go upstairs; you just won’t necessarily know when. When you go upstairs, you will be put on the balcony, which has a decent view of the park, but isn’t air conditioned. Downstairs is air conditioned. The bathrooms are upstairs. On the balcony, there were bottles of water and a selection of snacks (I remember granola bars and pretzels). I recommend taking a few of these with you to snack on as you walk between attractions.

Around 9:20, our tour guide began gathering our group. We had 12 people in our group plus a 6 month old. We had outgoing young kids, shy young kids, people who didn’t speak English, and people who had some health issues. Despite this diversity, our tour guide did a fantastic job balancing everyone’s goals and needs and anticipating issues. I won’t talk more about our tour guide, save to say she was wonderful, efficient, and kind.

Our group decided that our priority was doing as many of the attractions as we could, so our downtime was spent with our guide telling us the backstory of the attraction that we missed by bypassing the queue. Here's our tour accomplishments.

• Mario Kart (done about 10am)
• Donkey Kong (no EP) (done about 10:30am)
  Bathroom/Water Break
• Ministry of Magic (no EP) (done about 11:30am)
• Stardust Racers (green) (done about 11:45)
  Bathroom/Water Break
• Curse of the Werewolf (done about 12:15pm)
• Monsters Unchained (done about 12:30pm)
  Bathroom/Water Break
• Dragon Racer’s Rally (no EP) (done about 1pm)
• Hiccup’s Wing Gliders (done about 1:45; ride went down at 1:20 just before we boarded)

I kept track of the wait times when we passed the entrances. If we had gotten in the stand-by line at each point (which, obviously, would have been impossible in practice), we would have waited 12.5 hours to do those 8 attractions. We walked about 3 miles during the tour.

After the tour,

• Lunch at Blue Dragon
• Magic in Paris
• Cirque Arcanue (used EP)
• More magic in Paris
• Butterbeer Crepe
• Monsters Unchained (EP: no wait to first preshow).

The plan at that point was to go over to Berk and reride Wing Gliders and see the show. But weather came in and closed all the outdoor attractions across the park, and, for reasons I didn’t understand, the Untamed Dragon show was cancelled two minutes before showtime. So we pivoted to Nintendo.

• Mario Kart (EP: 30 min; standby was 120)
• Power Up games including Bowser Jr’s shadow game
• Carousel (one of only 2 attractions open in the park (HP had closed due to capacity around 7ish?), so even with EP it was a 40 min wait).
• Stardust Racers (yellow side) just as it came out of the weather delay (EP: no wait).

The only attractions we didn’t experience were Yoshi (were waiting until evening, and it never reopened), Fyre Drill (we don’t like water attractions), and the Untamed Dragon show. We exited the park at 9:30, and we had our car at 9:40, and we were back to PBR at 10pm.

So. The famed question: Was it worth it?

This was, undoubtedly, a huge splurge for us. We’ve never done a VIP at any theme park. I’ve done my very best girl math and the only way to read these numbers is as "very expensive." Based on the cost of express passes, the VIP (with tip) just about doubled our cost for a single day in the park.

And, if I were to visit Epic again for the first time (especially in the summer), I’d do it again.

First, I’m a meno momma, and that heat was brutal. It’s a beautiful park (especially at night, which right now is all of 75 minutes), but during the day, whenever we were crossing the park, we just sizzled. You could see the heat vapors rising from the stone. Our guide did a great job of finding shade, directing us to water dispensers, and setting us up in front of shops or exits to attractions that had AC blasting out.

Second, 8 different attractions in 4 hours is kinda bonkers. We chatted with some people the next day while in line at Hagrids who had done early entry Epic with EP the same day we went. They didn’t get on HP Battle of the Ministry and did a total of 8 attractions (5 unique; they repeated Mario Kart and Stardust Racers and saw one show). They spent a lot of time playing in Nintendo World (so they did some of the unlisted attractions there) but didn’t have time to do much in WWOHP Paris. And then they got caught by the weather that shut most everything down 3.5 hours before close and inflated the waits on the 2 things that remained open. I don’t know if our outcome is worth twice the cost, but I’m not sitting here wondering “what if.”

Finally, I got to relax a little bit. Usually in these situations, I’m the one that must be making decisions and direction my pod. That was relegated to someone else, and I could be a happy little lemming for a few hours and enjoy the attractions without thinking, “ok, if we get done here in the next 10 minutes, then we will cross the park to get the next show, but if we don’t get done that fast then we’ll need to eat, which means…” Not having to do that computing was kinda amazing.

But that being said, we wouldn’t do the VIP again for a second trip. We now know what we like and what we don’t like, and we can prioritize the attractions and activities that fit us.

 

[Disneyhanna]

TLDR; I enjoyed the Shared VIP Tour.

We (40 something couple and young teenaged daughter) splurged on the non-private/shared VIP tour on Tuesday August 5 at Epic. I like to have a very clear idea of what to expect, so here is a “more than you ever wanted to know” account of our day without spoilers.

We stayed at PBR and took advantage of the free valet parking. We had a 9:30 tour. We valet parked at 8:45am and entered the VIP entrance at the main gate a few minutes later. At this entry point, a team member helped VIP tour members purchase Epic tickets if they didn’t have them. We were checked in, given our lanyards, went through a private security lane, and then escorted to Club Jupiter.

We arrived at Club Jupiter a little before 9am, and the seating area downstairs was packed. We got the valet parking ticket validated (which wasn’t written in the instructions we were given). We then ventured upstairs to find somewhere to sit, but we were told that they weren’t ready for guests, so we went back downstairs to stand. After a little while, someone checked in at the desk (I guess they didn’t check in at the VIP entrance?) and we overheard them be told to head upstairs. So at some point, it became okay to go upstairs; you just won’t necessarily know when. When you go upstairs, you will be put on the balcony, which has a decent view of the park, but isn’t air conditioned. Downstairs is air conditioned. The bathrooms are upstairs. On the balcony, there were bottles of water and a selection of snacks (I remember granola bars and pretzels). I recommend taking a few of these with you to snack on as you walk between attractions.

Around 9:20, our tour guide began gathering our group. We had 12 people in our group plus a 6 month old. We had outgoing young kids, shy young kids, people who didn’t speak English, and people who had some health issues. Despite this diversity, our tour guide did a fantastic job balancing everyone’s goals and needs and anticipating issues. I won’t talk more about our tour guide, save to say she was wonderful, efficient, and kind.

Our group decided that our priority was doing as many of the attractions as we could, so our downtime was spent with our guide telling us the backstory of the attraction that we missed by bypassing the queue. Here's our tour accomplishments.

• Mario Kart (done about 10am)
• Donkey Kong (no EP) (done about 10:30am)
  Bathroom/Water Break
• Ministry of Magic (no EP) (done about 11:30am)
• Stardust Racers (green) (done about 11:45)
  Bathroom/Water Break
• Curse of the Werewolf (done about 12:15pm)
• Monsters Unchained (done about 12:30pm)
  Bathroom/Water Break
• Dragon Racer’s Rally (no EP) (done about 1pm)
• Hiccup’s Wing Gliders (done about 1:45; ride went down at 1:20 just before we boarded)

I kept track of the wait times when we passed the entrances. If we had gotten in the stand-by line at each point (which, obviously, would have been impossible in practice), we would have waited 12.5 hours to do those 8 attractions. We walked about 3 miles during the tour.

After the tour,

• Lunch at Blue Dragon
• Magic in Paris
• Cirque Arcanue (used EP)
• More magic in Paris
• Butterbeer Crepe
• Monsters Unchained (EP: no wait to first preshow).

The plan at that point was to go over to Berk and reride Wing Gliders and see the show. But weather came in and closed all the outdoor attractions across the park, and, for reasons I didn’t understand, the Untamed Dragon show was cancelled two minutes before showtime. So we pivoted to Nintendo.

• Mario Kart (EP: 30 min; standby was 120)
• Power Up games including Bowser Jr’s shadow game
• Carousel (one of only 2 attractions open in the park (HP had closed due to capacity around 7ish?), so even with EP it was a 40 min wait).
• Stardust Racers (yellow side) just as it came out of the weather delay (EP: no wait).

The only attractions we didn’t experience were Yoshi (were waiting until evening, and it never reopened), Fyre Drill (we don’t like water attractions), and the Untamed Dragon show. We exited the park at 9:30, and we had our car at 9:40, and we were back to PBR at 10pm.

So. The famed question: Was it worth it?

This was, undoubtedly, a huge splurge for us. We’ve never done a VIP at any theme park. I’ve done my very best girl math and the only way to read these numbers is as "very expensive." Based on the cost of express passes, the VIP (with tip) just about doubled our cost for a single day in the park.

And, if I were to visit Epic again for the first time (especially in the summer), I’d do it again.

First, I’m a meno momma, and that heat was brutal. It’s a beautiful park (especially at night, which right now is all of 75 minutes), but during the day, whenever we were crossing the park, we just sizzled. You could see the heat vapors rising from the stone. Our guide did a great job of finding shade, directing us to water dispensers, and setting us up in front of shops or exits to attractions that had AC blasting out.

Second, 8 different attractions in 4 hours is kinda bonkers. We chatted with some people the next day while in line at Hagrids who had done early entry Epic with EP the same day we went. They didn’t get on HP Battle of the Ministry and did a total of 8 attractions (5 unique; they repeated Mario Kart and Stardust Racers and saw one show). They spent a lot of time playing in Nintendo World (so they did some of the unlisted attractions there) but didn’t have time to do much in WWOHP Paris. And then they got caught by the weather that shut most everything down 3.5 hours before close and inflated the waits on the 2 things that remained open. I don’t know if our outcome is worth twice the cost, but I’m not sitting here wondering “what if.”

Finally, I got to relax a little bit. Usually in these situations, I’m the one that must be making decisions and direction my pod. That was relegated to someone else, and I could be a happy little lemming for a few hours and enjoy the attractions without thinking, “ok, if we get done here in the next 10 minutes, then we will cross the park to get the next show, but if we don’t get done that fast then we’ll need to eat, which means…” Not having to do that computing was kinda amazing.

But that being said, we wouldn’t do the VIP again for a second trip. We now know what we like and what we don’t like, and we can prioritize the attractions and activities that fit us.

Awesome review! Seems like most of the tour reviews have been positive, and with hiccups, it sounds like they compensate people fairly. I've seen a lot of poor reviews from people visiting without EP and even with EP, so the tour seems like the best chance at doing everything in one day.