This is Magical, this is Horrific, and this is Epic! TR 8/27-9/7/25, updated 10/18*

[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.