This is Magical, this is Horrific, and this is Epic! TR 8/27-9/7/25, I Did It, Complete 10/19*

[disneyAndi14]

Do they still fill the train car with other people? I would think it would be the most fun with only the two of you.

Yes they do! I loved when we had a train car to ourselves.

The dinosaur is really cute.

I loved meeting the little Dino!

It sounds like a fun show.

It was an entertaining evening for us!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Hello There!

I am going to write this portion a little differently. I will write about each portal, our hotel, and a couple different restaurants we visited.

We packed up at HRH and checked out around 7:15am. We ordered a Lyft and headed to Helios. Helios is the new premier resort at Epic. The resort is actually facing Epic park. The resort offers direct access into the park. The resort inside and out is absolutely beautiful! I went to check in and our room was not ready yet. We had a standard view room not a park view room. I was able to switch our reservation to both nights at Helios about a week or so before we left for the trip. The price had come down from a crazy $650 a night to $350 so I modified our reservation and canceled the Stella Nova resort. The park access was very good. Security is right in the hotel and ticket check is next then out the doors right into Celestial Park which is the center of Epic. What a perk for staying at this hotel! It will be hard to come in the main portal after this stay. Our room was on the 3rd floor facing the pool. The rooms have an IPad that controls everything from lights, curtains, TV, shower (yes, you could turn on the shower from your bed), and talking with the front desk.

This was fine but with any electronic device problems can arise. I would say not having a TV remote was at times inconvenient. The IPad was a little quirky with the TV.

We also thought the rooms were small for a premier resort.

The beds were very comfortable queen beds. One sink in the bathroom area and a separate toilet/shower room. The mirror over the sink has the lighted mirror which is really nice. Our room was quiet and not far from the ice and elevator. One thing that could be a little hassle is the elevators got extremely busy with a very long line at park closing time. We took the stairs a few times because it would have been a long wait. If you have a higher floor you may have a wait at prime park opening and closing times.

Hotel Lobby

Hotel facing the park





Our room

Bathroom


Don’t mind the scary person in the shower door haha

Room view

The lobby is small overall with a restaurant on the main lobby level, marketplace with coffee, breakfast sandwiches, snacks, and gelato. We got a $12 breakfast croissant on our last day-it was tasty and we had a cup of gelato one night.

We also went out to the pool bar/lounge and had a drink out there. I didn’t get any pictures of that. The drinks were fine but pricey! It was raining at the time and the pool was closed.

We also ate at the main restaurant one evening and I did get to check out the Bar Helios on the rooftop but didn’t purchase anything up there. It was beautiful up there and you could watch the water/light show from up there. This is a show every evening at park closing. It was beautiful with lights, water effects, and music from each portal.

 

[disneyAndi14]

I’m not going to count Celestial Park as a portal. It is the main hub area. There are 2 attractions in this area and numerous restaurants, bars, shops, and dessert options. Almost all the restaurants are elevated QS. Everything has mobile options for ordering. The two attractions in this area are Stardust Racers, this is a big rollercoaster with two sides and it looks like you are racing the other side. This is way too intense for me. Andi did ride this 6x by herself. She tried each side and liked it. It is a dual launch racing coaster. I asked Andi which side she preferred and she said she really didn’t notice much difference but the yellow side moved way faster in the wait line so she did the yellow side 4x and the green side 2x. She said it is a very cool rollercoaster and when the two coasters are coming at each other she said you can actually make eye contact with the people on the other coaster below or above you! Sounds intense to me! I’m a ride chicken got my certificate and everything, haha

Her review of Stardust and Velocicoaster is this, she prefers Velocicoaster because of the inversions, it is faster, taller, and the scenery is cooler. She did say you get more air time on Stardust Racers, yikes, flying up in your seat, no thank you for card holding chickens!

The other ride is more my speed, lol it is a carousel. We rode this twice and it was cute. Your celestial animal goes up and down and circles around the carousel. I rode a Lion and rabbit. Andi rode a rabbit and bear


It is slow loading but overall a cute ride and it was included in EP (express pass) We had multi day EP. I bought it for 2 days, it gave us one time on every ride included in the EP each day. It was not unlimited and unfortunately unlike a MB at Disney, Andi couldn’t use my EP on the rides I didn’t go on. The system recognizes your face in the EP line so that was a bummer since she does ride twice at Disney on the rides I don’t do, she just taps with my MB. The only ride in Epic that didn’t have EP was the Dragon Racer’s Rally in Berk. Celestial Park also has the beautiful fountain of water, which has the water show every evening. We had a late lunch at Meteor Pub one day and I have no pictures. Andi had the Spicy Grilled Chicken without the pesto because of her allergies. She has a life threatening peanut allergy and most tree nuts are bad for her. With all the mobile ordering, you put allergy in your cart with your order and the chef staff comes to talk with you before preparing your order.

All the staff on this trip were great help with her allergies.

I had the kids cheeseburger meal with fries and water. Universal’s kid meals do not come with a drink.

We enjoyed our lunch. Andi also had a beer here.

Front of the park the main Portal if entering from the parking area

In the big store

Moon Pizza restaurant

The fountain area

This is how close we were to the HP portal from our hotel entrance!

I will talk now about each portal from favorite to least favorite. All the portals were amazingly well done and each has their own unique experiences and themes. This is my personal opinion for ranking.

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

I did get to check out the Bar Helios on the rooftop but didn’t purchase anything up there. It was beautiful up there and you could watch the water/light show from up there. This is a show every evening at park closing. It was beautiful with lights, water effects, and music from each portal

This sounds gorgeous. Would be lovely to see the light show from the rooftop.

Sounds intense to me! I’m a ride chicken got my certificate and everything, haha

Yeah think I’m with you on that front!

All the staff on this trip were great help with her allergies.

Good to know. Lost some of my earlier words but just wanted to say your hotel room view looks pretty good to me and it sounds very handy indeed for EPIC.

 

[disneyAndi14]

This sounds gorgeous. Would be lovely to see the light show from the rooftop.

It is a beautiful hotel and the fountain show is amazing from up on the rooftop

Yeah think I’m with you on that front!

I would not be riding any intense coasters, haha chicken all the way!

Good to know. Lost some of my earlier words but just wanted to say your hotel room view looks pretty good to me and it sounds very handy indeed for EPIC.

It really is so convenient for park touring. Such a seamless easy way to enter the park!

 

[disneyAndi14]

I will start with my favorite portal “It’s Alive It’s Alive”

The original Universal monsters portal-Dark Universe. This portal is set in a village called Darkmoor. This village has a fantastic castle in the center which is Frankenstein Castle. The story is this is a present day village where the Universal Classic Monsters live, and a new story unfolds where Dr. Victoria Frankenstein’s experiments lead to a revolt by the monsters. There are werewolves, vampires under the village, mummies and many more monsters.


This portal was amazing! The details, the castle, the roaming characters, and the attractions.

Monsters Unchained was my all time favorite attraction in all of Epic, same with Andi.



The other attraction in Darkmoor is Curse of the Werewolf which is a very short rollercoaster ride, the seats turn on the track in a circular motion as you head along the rollercoaster track.

I only rode this once because it did make me feel some motion sickness. Andi rode it 4x, she enjoyed it but agreed it was a very short ride.

We checked out the restaurant but didn’t eat there. We also went into the bar and had a secret menu item the crossbow which is a combination of Mead and strong bow cider. This was very good. The restaurant and bar are themed as a place for monster hunters to gather. We saw Igor, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Storytellers, and The Invisible Man roaming around the village.

We rode Monsters Unchained 10x over the 2 days and we could have rode more. This ride is very similar to HP Forbidden Journey at IOA. It is an arm with seats that guides you through the attraction! This one is 100x better than HPFJ in the fact it has way more animatronics than screens. HPFJ makes many feel motion sickness, me included. I could never ride HPFJ more than once a day. This attraction was totally different, no motion sickness and I could ride over and over. There are so many amazing animatronics. There is Igor, Victoria Frankenstein, Frankenstein, Quasi Moto, Phantom of the Opera, Dracula, Mummy, Dracula’s brides, and Creature of the Black Lagoon. I think that is all the animatronics in the attraction, it is amazing! The ride is also very efficient with continually loading vehicles so the wait is always decent. We walked through almost every time. Maybe a 15 minute wait one time! Thank goodness it is such a great attraction because almost every single other attraction in Epic has “Epic” waits like 40-140 minutes!

We had a meet and greet with Frankie and his bride! Great interaction.


More pictures in the next post…

 

[disneyAndi14]

More in the ride queue for Monster’s Unchained



In the restaurant



Night time pictures



The Invisible Man

 

[disneyAndi14]

My second favorite portal is Isle of Berk, “we, my friends have dragons!”

Before our trip, I watched How to train your dragon 1&2. I really enjoyed the movies and knew a little about Hiccup, Toothless, and Isle of Berk. The musical score from the movies is playing when you walk into this amazing land, it is a Viking Village. There is so much detail! I loved it.



There are 4 attractions in this portal. This is not including the character meet and greets. 3 are rides and 1 is a show. We did 3 of the attractions this trip. We did not ride Dragon Racer’s Rally, this is a high in the sky ride. This ride did not have EP (express pass) and always had a huge line. It is actually like a carnival ride at The Mall of America which we have been on before.

We did Fyre Drill, this is a water ride, you are on a Viking ship learning how to put out fires, which occur frequently with dragons flying around. We got soaked on this ride not sure how to avoid that so we only rode once.

It was fine but not anything special.

My 2nd favorite ride in all of Epic was Hiccup’s Wing Gliders, this ride was amazing. A smooth rollercoaster with animatronics and a backward movement. It is better than SDD at Disney in my opinion. It is similar to Hagrid’s motorbike ride at IOA except not as intense. I loved it and Hiccup’s narrative through the ride is wonderful! We rode this 4 times!


The only negative is the ride queue is mostly all outdoors with very little airflow in certain areas so very hot and uncomfortable at times in the queue.


We did the Untrainable Dragon show and loved it. A mix of stunts, singing, dancing, and big beautiful animatronics. We saw Hiccup come flying in on Toothless.

This is the one portal we tried food in. We had the Mac and Cheese cone. We had the one with Nashville style pulled chicken, Mac and cheese, hot honey, Calabrian peppers, chimichurri and crispy onions served in a bread cone.

This was very tasty, we shared this and the cone was probably my favorite part. A buttery seasoned bread cone yummy. Andi liked it but it did give her a stomachache not sure why maybe to rich?

We didn’t make time to do the meet and greet with Hiccup and Toothsome. The wait is crazy and stays long the entire day. It is always 1-2 hours long. I think if you RD the meet and greet especially if you have EP for the other attractions would be your best strategy. It looks like a really fun meet but just not that important to us on our first visit to Epic.

 

[disneyAndi14]

Pictures of the show and more of Berk

 

[disneyAndi14]

My third favorite portal is Harry Potter. “For in dreams we enter a world that is entirely our own”



This portal is a magical wizard Paris in the 1920s.

Again, the theming is amazing. I couldn’t relate as well to this portal because it did not remind me of HP World at all. It is more the Fantastic Beasts theme. I am a huge HP fan, love the books have read the books over and over and watched all the movies. I think I have only seen Fantastic Beasts one time and only the first one. There are two attractions in this portal. One is a show and one is a ride. Our first day HP and the Ministry of Magic was down all day until about 1 hour before the park was closing. Because of this, we didn’t spend much time in this portal. It was very crowded and a small area. Again it is themed very well just not my favorite.
I would much rather be in Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade at the other parks. We rode the ride twice, once each day. I really liked the ride! The queue is amazing! You are transported via Floo powder to the Ministry of Magic in modern times.

The OG crew are Aurors at the Ministry and Dolores Umbridge is causing problems as usual! The Ministry of Magic is absolutely amazing.







Just wow! Is all I can say. The ride is a mixture of screens and animatronics as you try to find Dolores with Harry, Hermoine and Ron! ‘You must not tell lies Dolores” This part of the portal is the best.

We also watched the show LeCirque Arcanus. The first part of the show is standing room squished in with a million of your closest friends, yuck the second part is in a sit down theater with some really cool animatronics and screens with Newt Scamander from Fantastical Beasts.

We enjoyed the second part not so much the first part.

Also the HP ride was coming back up as we were leaving the theater and it was terrifying. People act so bad at times. A ton of people were running and pushing into the portal as we were trying to leave the show! It was terrible.

I had really wanted to try the butter beer crepe here but we never did. We did walk through the restaurant and it was really a nice place, again an elevated QS place. We just weren’t hungry at the time we were in this area.

 

[disneyAndi14]

Pictures of the show in HP portal and more pictures around Paris!




Streets of Paris







Ministry Floo transport

 

[disneyAndi14]

My least favorite portal is Super Nintendo World “Here we go” I didn’t get a picture of this portal entrance. Andi figured out quickly if we enter along the side we don’t have to go up the escalator. This portal has so many stairs! I don’t mind stairs but when walking 30,000 steps each day the stairs are not fun! The portal is a blast of color, music, and stairs, haha




It is stimulation overload especially for me since I have never played any of the games. There are 3 attractions in this area. A PM like ride where you get in a Yoshi themed vehicle. It is an omnimover ride with you guessed a ton of stairs to get on and off the ride.
We rode this 2x.

We rode the other ride Mario Kart Bowser’s Challenge 2x, this is a virtual reality ride. Yes a stairs! You wear a helmet with a video camera thing that attaches to the helmet and you try to collect coins. On our 2nd ride, it broke down and they had to evacuate us from the ride! First Epic evacuation. We had to step out of the vehicle and climb down a step ladder. it did take awhile and we did get 4 extra EPs for the inconvenience. You could use on any ride except HP or Donkey Kong.


I had read reviews about the ride Mine Cart being really rough. It is a Mine Cart rollercoaster with the false track that the trains run over on a hidden track beneath. Andi loved this ride and rode 2x since it had a long line and the SB wait was always 75 minutes or more. I wish she could have used my EP because she would have had 4 rides. I have heard it isn’t as rough now so maybe I will ride next time.


I think Andi liked this area more than me because she use to play the games when she was younger. So that is my opinion and overview of the portals.

 

[disneyAndi14]

Food Reviews and Goodbye to our Epic Trip!

The two table service restaurants we dined at.

One evening we decided to eat in our hotel at the restaurant Flora Taverna.

We unfortunately looked at the lunch menu not realizing the dinner menu was separate. We really wanted the gyros which were not on the dinner menu. We weren’t very hungry because we had a later lunch that day in Celestial Park.

We had a reservation so we decided to stay and just share a few things. The menu had steaks, wood stone oven pizzas, burgers, salads and appetizers. We decided on the warm focaccia bread for the table, Fritos Misto this was fresh Florida shrimp, calamari, local water fish, Calabrian chili and a gremolata aioli.

Our other choice was the Crispy Falafel with tahini and pickled vegetable salad.

Everything was delicious! It was quite pricey for appetizers but when the food is good it hurts less, haha Andi had a drink and I went with a Diet Coke.

It was perfectly balanced and shared meal.

The other table service restaurant we tried was the Blue Dragon Pan Asian restaurant.

This restaurant was visually stunning inside. It is like you are in an outdoor restaurant.


It has a really big menu, however, it does have a fair share of items with peanut sauce, peanuts, or other tree nuts.

We decided to stay simple. The chef came out to talk to us and really could make anything for Andi without the peanuts but he did say the flavor would be lacking so better to stick with the non peanut items.

There is a tea service and we ordered the Earl Grey Creme. The tea was delicious.

We shared a vegetable spring roll and the crispy orange chicken.


The food was very good. The menu is huge and many more unique dishes. We stayed with a traditional meal which didn’t have peanuts anywhere!

I would definitely recommend checking out this place.

There are only 2 table service restaurants in all of Epic. This one and The Atlantic, which is a seafood restaurant. This does not include Helios.

I really liked our 2 day visit at Epic and our stay at Helios.

The park is amazing, immersive, and visually stunning! Did it give me Disney like feels-NO. I missed that. Maybe because it is very new and we don’t have a connection with it yet? Even the older Universal parks give me more feels.

That is my opinion at this time. I will definitely be going back to Epic, in fact we will spend 2 full days there in January.

Our last morning we had our expensive breakfast sandwiches before heading to the airport.
Last Day

I had switched our flight time a few days earlier because the connection time for the Duluth flight was under an hour and this scared me. There was a flight at 12:20 and it did give us longer in Minneapolis but less stressful for sure and we could have dinner in the airport. Well, luck was on my side because our original flight was delayed and it hadn’t even taken off by the time we arrived in Minneapolis. We would have been in a bind! I’m so glad I changed the flight!

Thank you all for following along. I hope all my information and pointers have helped some over the years and made it easier to plan your Disney and Universal trips!

Take care everyone! Thanks again!

 

[Wood Nymph]

What a perk for staying at this hotel! It will be hard to come in the main portal after this stay. Our room was on the 3rd floor facing the pool. The rooms have an IPad that controls everything from lights, curtains, TV, shower (yes, you could turn on the shower from your bed), and talking with the front desk.

This was fine but with any electronic device problems can arise. I would say not having a TV remote was at times inconvenient. The IPad was a little quirky with the TV.

The hotel is gorgeous! I really like the shower. But I think I would prefer a normal remote for the TV.

We had multi day EP. I bought it for 2 days, it gave us one time on every ride included in the EP each day. It was not unlimited and unfortunately unlike a MB at Disney, Andi couldn’t use my EP on the rides I didn’t go on. The system recognizes your face in the EP line so that was a bummer since she does ride twice at Disney on the rides I don’t do, she just taps with my MB.

I can see why they use facial recognition. People would take advantage of something that can be passed around to everyone in your party. I think it is the wave of the future, though.

This portal was amazing! The details, the castle, the roaming characters, and the attractions.

I am blown away by the amount of detail in everything. I can see why critics claim that it is a challenge to Disney. How long did it take them to build Epic Universe?

I am a huge HP fan, love the books have read the books over and over and watched all the movies. I think I have only seen Fantastic Beasts one time and only the first one.

I'm a huge fan of the books, too. I don't care for any of the other related books.

The Ministry of Magic is absolutely amazing.

I agree! This looks very close to the way I pictured the Ministry to look.

 

[DLo]

Thank you for the detailed EPIC info. I plan to go sometime next year.