Three days, one Epic trip! May 18- May 22, 2025 (Updated 5/25)

[SaraSpringsIsHome]

Hi friends!!!

I always enjoy reading everyone else TRs, and I think I have successfully completed one, maybe two throughout my time on the DIS

I figured out most recent trip, a very quick 4 night stay, would be a great way to ease back in, and perhaps actually complete, since we only spent 3 days in the parks.

So, off we go!

Three days, one Epic trip! May 18- May 22.

WHO: Myself, Ali and my DH, Donnie
WHAT: A quick little getaway, with changing plans and a few surprises along the way!
WHEN: The hottest days in May in nearly a century. Woof. Like, I anticipate this for August, but it was brutal in May.
WHERE: 1 night at Stella Nova at Universal, 3 nights at Animal Kingdom Lodge, Jambo House
WHY: We initially were just going to do a longer trip in August this year, but then the Disney bug started itching! Since we both have been very busy at work, a little getaway was just what we needed. Trip was booked March 17, so barely a 2 month countdown

The Plan:
May 19: Drive from Virginia to Orlando
May 20: Epic Universe
May 21: Hollywood Studios, Epcot
May 22: Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom
May 23: Drive home

First, we intro!

I'm Ali, a *coughfortycough* year old performing arts professional living in SW Virginia. I love maximizing $LL, planning, and being a kid in the parks. I'm also a Libra so picking faves is basically impossible for me, haha.

FAVES:
Park: Magic Kingdom
Ride: Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind
Disney Movie: Mary Poppins
Pixar Movie: Toy Story
Character to meet: Goofy
Hotel: The Boardwalk (DVC)

I travel with my DH Donnie, who is a not quite as old as me performing arts professional as well. He lets me do the planning and basically just goes along for the ride. Which works out great! HUGE movie fan and lover of Star Wars.


FAVES:
Park: Hollywood Studios
Ride: Tower of Terror
Disney Movie: Aladdin
Pixar Movie: Toy Story
Character to meet: Donald, because same name!
Hotel: The Boardwalk (DVC)

So this initially started as a 4 night stay at AKL-Jambo in a studio. We would drive down Sunday, and return Thursday. We are DVC members and had used our Member Magic Beyond to purchase APs for a trip we are planning in August, so all in all a relatively inexpensive trip! At first... THEN Universal opened up Epic Universe previews from just AP holders to anyone, so I decided WHY NOT!? I purchased us Epic tickets for Monday May 19, the final days of previews. We would drive over in the morning, and then drive back to AKL at the end of the day. If you've been reading carefully, you'll see this is in fact, not what ended up happening. I love to throw a few surprises into the mix.

From our intro pics, you'll see we are big Harry Potter fans! Despite that, we haven't been to Universal since 2016. We always think about going, and the budgets and logistics get in the way, and we end up just staying at a DVC resort and just doing Disney. This quick jaunt to Universal was awesome, and we will definitely plan on going back to all the Uni parks in the future. Since this is a mostly Disney trip though, I figured the TR could just live here

With that, off we go!

 

[dizneedoll]

Is this our first TR w/ Epic Universe!? Either way Im excited to read! I have Helios booked at the end of our WDW trip in Oct. but Im considering moving Stella Nova. I'll be interested to read how your stay went!

 

[GGOOFY1]

Can't wait to follow along with your adventure. We are heading down in Sept and was thinking about extending to include Epic

 

[SaraSpringsIsHome]

Day 1

Sunday May 18

Travel Day! We are crazy and prefer driving down, even for a short trip. We have an EV, and this was our first time driving it to Florida. It made the trip longer, but also more enjoyable because it is a more comfortable ride and the extra stops were actually kind of nice to get out and stretch our legs. I had dropped the pups off at the dog sitter Saturday, so all we had to do was get up and go!


See you in about a week, babies!

The alarm was set for 4:30 a.m., and we were on the road a little after 5:00. Donnie asked for the address and I told him 4500 Epic Blvd. I guess it was so early that he didn’t question it? We drove for about an hour (it was killing me not to say anything) before I finally asked him, were you curious at all about the address I gave you? He said, I thought it was weird since we’re staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge, aren’t we?

Surprise! We are staying one night at Stella Nova before our Epic day! He was like, oh cool. And then I told home about Early Entry (mainly into Super Nintendo World) and that we could walk to the park and he got very excited.

All in all, it was a fairly unexciting drive. We did make sure to stop to at Buc-ee’s (around 2:15 p.m.) for a charge and food. It can be so overwhelming and overstimulating, but I just love that mascot! We each had a brisket sandwich for lunch, and shared some grapes and candied pecans.


Hi Buc-ee!!!

We pulled into the hotel right around 5:00 and got all our junk into the room. We quickly realized that Stella Nova was where alllll the media folks (creators) were also staying for Epic’s opening celebrations. There were Media signs all over and I saw a bunch faces I recognized-Ordinary Adventures, RealMouseVibes, ThemeParkFrog, etc. They basically overtook the hotel bar, which is fine since we wouldn’t have gone there anyway, lol. We also were only staying one night to gain Early Entry the next day!

Our room:

Our room! It was an accessible room on the 6th floor.

We had a great view of Epic!!! It also shows how close the hotel is to Epic.


Eeeeep! See you in the morning, Epic!

We decided to head on over to City Walk to check out the Universal Studios Store, grab a bite to eat, and maybe see a movie.

The bus came pretty quickly, and we soon arrived. We saw tons of stuff we wanted in the store, but managed to just get a couple items. Donnie picked up a great Jaws 50th hat and ET t-shirt, and I got a new Super Nintendo World Loungefly. It’s so cute!


I mean, I couldn't possibly carry my Toy Story bag into Epic tomorrow...

We wandered around and checked out the Epic preview center for a bit. It was very cool to see the giant model, and it definitely got us pumped up for the next day. We saw some cute merch, but didn’t pick up anything else.


This thing was MASSIVE and so cool!



V excited for Super Nintendo World



She models well at all angles, haha

We realized we better eat something quick if we wanted to catch the movie. We got Panda Express orange chicken

Hey CityWalk!

And then of course we had to get popcorn at the movies. We saw Thunderbolts*. It was more enjoyable than a lot of recent MCU movies, so that was a win!

We made our way back to the hotel and flopped into bed around 10:30. We were exhausted, but super stoked for our Epic Preview day!! Set the alarm for 6:15 and then we both crashed hard.

 

[SaraSpringsIsHome]

Is this our first TR w/ Epic Universe!? Either way Im excited to read! I have Helios booked at the end of our WDW trip in Oct. but Im considering moving Stella Nova. I'll be interested to read how your stay went!

Hi, and thanks for reading!!

Stella Nova was great for what we needed! One night before our Epic day, easy access to the park and Early Entry. I'm sure literally walking into the park would be a dream, but for our budget this trip, Stella Nova was great. We didn't use any amenities, so I'm no help on dining/pool/etc.

Can't wait to follow along with your adventure. We are heading down in Sept and was thinking about extending to include Epic

Thanks for following along!

We are heading back to the 'world in August for an 8 night stay at Disney. It's really hard to not buy Epic tickets for one day!! I would absolutely go back in heartbeat

 

[iona]

We have an EV, and this was our first time driving it to Florida. It made the trip longer, but also more enjoyable because it is a more comfortable ride and the extra stops were actually kind of nice to get out and stretch our legs. I had dropped the pups off at the dog sitter Saturday, so all we had to do was get up and go!

What do you drive? We find the same - I normally need coffee/food about as often as the car needs feeding so it works well.

We made our way back to the hotel and flopped into bed around 10:30. We were exhausted, but super stoked for our Epic Preview day!! Set the alarm for 6:15 and then we both crashed hard.

That was a long day! Looking forward to reading about what you thought of Epic Universe.

 

[footballmouse]

 

[SaraSpringsIsHome]

What do you drive?

We have had a Tesla for awhile, but have never taken it on a long trip. Definitely had positive and negatives to taking it. In the past, we have taken our hybrid Honda. The EV is a more comfortable ride but absolutely added hours to the trip.

Looking forward to reading about what you thought of Epic Universe.

Spoiler: we had a fantastic time! Can’t wait to share our day!

hi! Thanks for reading!!