Universal's Epic Universe - News and Discussion

[georgina]

How were the holiday decorations at Epic? We ran into a scheduling conflict and had to cancel the December trip. Guess we'll have to try again next year.

Spent 2 days there in Dec. I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to the decorations in some lands. There were trees in the various shops and some restaurants I was in. There was a nice Christmas soundtrack playing. I didn't take any holiday decoration pictures at all, but there were wreaths and garlands on the buildings in Celestial Park, some trees around Helios, and the Ministry of magic/Paris had nice lights. (I did all the holiday stuff in IOA and US, but my first trip to Epic focus was not decorations. I did really enjoy watching the fountains at various times during the day).

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Very much as @georgina said. Background music was Christmasy, garlands/lights about certain areas, etc. Nothing otherwise overtly Christmasy. And in Celestial park I'm not sure whether all the pretty white lights are year round or if any were added just for Christmastime. Obviously the wreaths & garlands are holiday additions.





I didn't recall anything in Nintendo, Darkmoor, or Dragon portals - just double checked photos, nothing in those portals. Celestial park had pretty garlands/lights including around the Nintendo store that is outside the portal. Wizarding World is reminiscent of Diagon Alley, but intermittently (some store fronts garlanded, some not). Nothing in the actual Ministry.



Decorated Wizarding shops:


No decorations Wizarding shops:


Very few of my photos from Dec have any distinct Christmasyness, so overall I'd call it minimal.

 

[AustinTink]

Adding to the post above…

I enjoyed how the Christmas music playing in each portal was adapted to fit the theme of the portal. A nice detail.

 

[sandam1]

It looks like my friend and I are going to be at Epic next Monday (1/12). It is her first trip to Epic (my third). I usually zig while others zag to avoid dealing with the crowds, but for a bunch of reasons, we're going with a more traditional strategy and I have some rope drop questions:

- The rooms are really cheap at Helios for Monday night so we're going to be checking out of Cabana Bay and heading to Helios on Monday morning. If early entry at Epic is 9 a.m., what time would you recommend leaving Cabana Bay? We will be taking an Uber and need to use the bag check at Helios before heading to the park.

- What is the current best strategy for doing the Ministry at rope drop? I would normally never head there first, but this is the one and only do-or-die trying ride that my friend wants to do so rope drop it is.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

The best strategy for doing any ride at rope drop is to head to that ride at rope drop and get in line. It's just a matter of hoping for Ministry to open in a timely fashion. Helios gives you a nice edge to easily get there before the front gate crowd. If it opens right up, this is fantastic use of your rope drop! If not, it still is normally an ok use because the longer Ministry waits to open, the more god-awful the line will be 3min after finally opening. (On my day it opened around 10:30am and the line shot up to 3hr+ immediately).

 

[Minnie1222]

If early entry at Epic is 9 a.m., what time would you recommend leaving Cabana Bay? We will be taking an Uber and need to use the bag check at Helios before heading to the park.

Based on our previous trips:

At one hour before EE, there was typically a line of ~100 people already waiting to use the special entrance.

20-30 minutes to check in. You need the room cards to use the Helios entrance.

5 min for bag check.

 

[sandam1]

The best strategy for doing any ride at rope drop is to head to that ride at rope drop and get in line. It's just a matter of hoping for Ministry to open in a timely fashion. Helios gives you a nice edge to easily get there before the front gate crowd. If it opens right up, this is fantastic use of your rope drop! If not, it still is normally an ok use because the longer Ministry waits to open, the more god-awful the line will be 3min after finally opening. (On my day it opened around 10:30am and the line shot up to 3hr+ immediately).

Has the Ministry gotten any more reliable (particularly about opening on-time) than it was when Epic first opened? I know that "any given day," but I wasn't sure what was "normal."

At one hour before EE, there was typically a line of ~100 people already waiting to use the special entrance.

20-30 minutes to check in. You need the room cards to use the Helios entrance.

5 min for bag check

This is exactly what I was looking for. We're going to have been up the previous three mornings at 2 a.m. (I'm running at Disney) so I'm not worried about getting moving early, but I just didn't know what to expect.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

The day I was there was 12/8 and Ministry opened late, around 10:30am. They had signs up all day stating it would be closing early. So based on that, it's still not consistent. Thrill-data would probably tell you when it opened on any given day.

 

[georgina]

There were closing early signs out for Ministry on Dec 9 and 10 also. They told me it was just closing the line early so everyone was off by 10 PM closing. However, it went down early on the 10th and never reopened all day.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

They told me it was just closing the line early so everyone was off by 10 PM closing.

I got that impression too, it was down to a 10min actual wait around 8:15-8:30pm. I don't know when/if they actually closed the ride.