That was my first thought as well. I would be more concerned with the weather than crowds.
Thank you for this reply. It’s making me think I’ll go for it.
Battle at the ministry gets tight in a few spaces (especially if you do single rider). Mine-Kart Madness also gets very tight once you enter the building...it's a long stretch of hallway thats basically 1 person wide (we were in that area i'd guess for about 20 minutes entering), then it opens up again more. Nothing else off the top of my head stood out to me as potentially being tight. A lot of the queue spaces are outside or fairly wide open room spaces.
I mean we were on the ride by 9:11 on Thursday at park opening (14 minutes in the queue and thats just how long it took to walk it because we basically walked all the way onto it from entering the queue). We then did both rides in Dark universe during the rest of early entry. Personally Dark Universe isn't where I'd go. Monsters unchained rarely got over 30 minutes in the 2 days we were there, outside of rain periods. We also rode it back to back at night (entered line at 8:56 and walked right on) and then when we came off (about 9:15 at this time) they were still letting people enter the queue, so we jumped back on again). This land is easily the least crowded, and lowest wait times of any of the lands.
I did this during the preview and it was not an issue.
I hear ya...I can only tell you what I was seeing as we walked into that area. The cast member was making it very clear with her wording, if you are in a mobility device or a stroller you can enter through these doors. So one parent would push the stroller through, and the rest of the family would take the escalators, or the person in the mobility device would go through and the rest of their party would take the escalator. Now I didn't see anyone push back on this, so maybe they would have let people through if they simply asked, but in the 2-3 minutes it took us to clear that area, we saw 2 mobility devices go through and i'd say 4-5 strollers.
I don’t have any firsthand experience with this one, but I think it’s worth asking when you get there! They seem to be trying hard to do what they can for guests.
Okay, this one I have experience with, though I haven’t done every ride at Epic yet, so there are a few holes. But I have serious issues with feeling “trapped” in a queue full of people - it’s not really claustrophobia for me, but the same types of spaces are problematic.
Thanks for all your questions - we're going in late August too with a LOT of people (11 in total) so I'd love to know these details and any pertinent info people have obtained.
My buddy joined me last minute (like literally booked his flight 48 hours before we left) and had no park tickets or express pass, and was able to purchase both the day of. I talked to the team member about single day tickets being sold out for my dates for awhile, and they commented that they still have them to sell day of, from the pool of 2 days + 1 at epic or 3 days + 1 at epic. You'll be fine in our experience day of, if your date does sell out for single days for some reason.
Celestial Park never felt crowded. Mario/Nintendo world was easily the most crowded I felt of any of the lands (berk and monsters being the least - berk because of the size and monsters because it seems to be the one area people skip). The lands themselves are small, you don't realize it if you watch videos, but when you get there, the whole park honestly feels on the smaller side. Celestial park is big and pretty wide open, but then you get into the portals and with the exception of how far back Berk extends, the other 3 lands felt small.
There was no secret passage way for early entry when I was just there. There is a side door for mobility devices and scooters to avoid the escalator, but there was no other way to enter the ground level (which is important for minecart - but that may be the most unreliable ride in the park to try for at early entry right now). My advice is go up the escalator and take the stairs to your right and you come out closer to the entrance for minecart if you want to head there. Otherwise, go left and do mario kart and yoshi.
Has he done any coasters? It's not a smooth one, but intensity wise, I'd say it's between a barnstormer and slinky dog at disney for comparison. I'd say personally this was the most underwhelming ride for us both, largely because the wait time is insane for the type of ride it is. Monsters is more intense, you get jerked around quite a bit. One minute you're face down looking at the creature from the black lagoon and the next you feel like you're about to be upside down and this happens several times throughout the ride. We loved this ride...I'd argue it's the best ride in the park, yet it regularly has the lowest wait time. My buddy has motion sickness issues, but didn't have any on this ride. If he is ok with being scared, and can handle some herky jerky motions, he will be ok, but based on what you're describing, this may be a struggle for him. Maybe don't tell him and see what happens haha.
You do not need to skip Ministry of Magic/Battle at the Ministry. If they continue to do this at early entry, do it then and you'll more or less walk right onto the ride or close to it. If you'd rather not do the ride, you can still walk through the floo and enter the minstry which is a massive wide open space and walk the perimeter of it. When you walk up to the queue, it will say attraction entry, or there will be a single rider+ministry of magic viewing area entrance...go through that one in order to just see the space and walk through the floo. You go directly to the floo doing this. Of the 3 Harry Potter lands, this is my least favorite. The theming is still great, but the land itself is kind of meh for other things to do. We enjoyed sitting outside at the cafe and people watching while having a beer, but most of the spaces are just faux store spaces at this point, with a wine bar, candy shop and wand store being more or less it in this area. hopefully they fill those in with some additional things to do. The small show/musical at the bottom of the steps was decent.
I'd take the bus. We did 2 days at Helios and 1 at Stella Nova. It's about a 20 minute walk to the front entrance or a 3 minute bus ride. You'll appreciate the bus on your way back.
Like the other Universal parks, you'll need to go through the whole queue with the toddlers and then swap at the family room. Some people love this, I personally hate it. Seems like torture making a kid go through a 60-90 minute line only to not ride the ride.
Oh, definitely. Most likely we won't be taking the toddlers in the queue. Whoever isn't riding will likely take them and do something else - probably the grand parents are they won't do thrill rides at Epic.
I am a walker at home and am very hyper at Universal, and my son is a runner, so I have a feeling we'll walk, but my husband and daughter may prefer the bus. I will probably test out the walk and catch a glimpse of Epic on our arrival day when we are not going to a park.
I have been known to walk from Royal Pacific to City Walk and back simply because I couldn't sit still when others were napping. 
It may be worth watching a youtube video of the monsters ride to get a feel for it. You'll know your sons threshold for that based on the videoI am a walker at home and am very hyper at Universal, and my son is a runner, so I have a feeling we'll walk, but my husband and daughter may prefer the bus. I will probably test out the walk and catch a glimpse of Epic on our arrival day when we are not going to a park.
My son has not been on any coasters. He doesn't like horror (neither do I) but I have heard that Monsters is not horror, and he likes mild creepiness. I think he'll only consider Minecart because it's Nintendo, but maybe it's not worth the risk.
