Epic Universe’s Second-Most Popular Ride Is Skippable.
Two things can be true at once. Epic Universe is a really good theme park with several excellent attractions. It’s also Universal Orlando’s most frustrating park due to ride breakdowns, high wait times and crowd levels. This presents a ‘something’s gotta give scenario’ as it’s impossible to do everything at EU in a single day on many dates.
This is the underlying premise of our article, Here’s Why You Need 2 Days at Epic Universe. The salient point of that piece is that it’s very difficult to do it all in a single day, both because Epic Universe has so many good-to-great offerings–and because the new park is still finding its footing and is so bad operationally (for now).
There major downsides to visiting this highly-anticipated new park during its opening season(s), as laid out in Why You Should Skip Epic Universe. This new park has growing pains, and its envelope-pushing attractions are plagued by reliability woes. If you visit Epic Universe during its first year (or two?), you’re likely going to encounter technical difficulties and other frustrations.
Obviously, there’s a tension between those two posts. That extends to my feelings about Epic Universe as a whole. I’ll direct your attention back to the opening line: two things can be true at once. For my part, I have not delayed visiting Epic Universe. I love the new park and am eager for my next visit.
My workaround for all of this is choosing my dates based on Secret to Conquer Crowds at Epic Universe: Best Dates to Visit in 2025 & 2026. While there’s no guarantee that’ll continue to be foolproof, I have managed to do it all at Epic Universe by targeting the least-busy days and avoiding the bonkers ones.
At the same time, we have delayed our family trips to Epic Universe. And when we’ve had more casual friends and family who infrequently (every few years) travel to Florida ask about Epic Universe, my immediate reaction is “you should give it a couple of years.” Not everyone has the same tolerances for growing pains, downtime, delays, etc–and there’s risk of that even on the least-busy dates.
With all of that preface out of the way, what if you’ve already made the decision to visit Epic Universe this year or in 2026 and you’re only going to visit for a single day?
It is safe to assume that many (if not most) tourists who do opt to visit Epic Universe sooner rather than later won’t have the time or money to allocate multiple days to the park. Then what?!
There are a couple of fairly quick and easy (depending on your definition) answers to that dilemma. If time is your scarcest resource as opposed to money, you should buy Express Pass.
I am not normally one to advocate for Universal Orlando’s pricey paid FastPass, but Epic Universe right now while there are so many operational woes is a big exception. I’ve heard enough horror stories of people only getting on a few rides without Express Pass to think this is a pragmatic move.
Express Pass is best thought of as an insurance policy. Hopefully you don’t need it and will actually regret purchasing it, finding it to be a waste of money. If that ends up being your perspective with the benefit of hindsight, it means you were fortunate enough to visit on one of Epic Universe’s good days. For more on this, see Should You Buy Express Pass at Epic Universe?
Another solution if both time and money are scarce resources is Single Rider lines.
Single Rider lines can be fantastic and save a ton of time versus standby. The biggest problem with these is they mean riding alone. That can be a non-starter for many families. Another issue is that, even though Single Rider lines are shorter, that doesn’t mean they’re short. I’ve been quoted over an hour wait in certain Single Rider lines.
Moreover, just because an attraction has a Single Rider line, doesn’t mean it’s open at all times. I’ve seen some attractions not offer Single Rider lines for entire days of my visits. It’s also common for Epic Universe to close the Single Rider line when it gets too long, which often happens when the posted standby wait is highest. See Single Rider Lines Are a Game-Changer at Epic Universe.
The final solution is the most obvious one: you’ve gotta make tough choices, prioritize what matters most, and skip some attractions at Epic Universe.
Everyone does this when visiting theme parks, so it’s not really groundbreaking new advice. But it’s worth underscoring the extent to which this is necessary, as some planners might have unrealistic expectations about how much can be accomplished in a single day at Epic Universe.
Epic Universe crowds have been awful since its official opening. There have been several days that have broken 80 minute averages, weekly averages above 70 minutes, and monthly averages above 60 minutes. Those are wait times on par with Walt Disney World during the peak week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
This is a function of low capacity and inefficient operations at Epic Universe, not high attendance. Wander around Celestial Park midday and you’ll encounter far lower “feels like” crowds than any Walt Disney World theme park.
At the same time, Epic Universe has a stacked ride roster. The park has 11 rides, 2 stage shows, plus meet & greets, atmospheric entertainment, and more. It’s also the best food theme park in Orlando, so you’ll want to slow down and savor meals and snacks, which also, obviously takes time.
If you go by our Epic Universe Ride Reviews & Rankings, here’s the distribution of scores:
- 10/10 Rating: 4 Attractions
- 9/10 Rating: 3 Attractions
- 8/10 Rating: 2 Attractions
- 7/10 Rating or Below: 4 Attractions
The good news is that there are 7 attractions that are great. Other theme park fans might quibble with the specific scores, but it’s safe to say that the consensus is there are at least a half-dozen “must do” attractions at Epic Universe.
Having so many great attractions is truly a good problem to have, and it’s one that will serve Epic Universe well over time. As we’ve written on countless occasions, the park has “good bones” and will evolve nicely over time, especially once it finds its operational footing.
But in the here and now, it is a problem. Here are the cumulative average wait times for the attractions in each tier:
- 10/10 Ride Rating: 200 Minutes
- 9/10 Ride Rating: 193 Minutes
- 8/10 Ride Rating: 189 Minutes
- 7/10 Ride Rating or Below: 148 Minutes
Total: 730 Minutes
That’s 12 hours spent waiting in line, and that does not include any meet & greets (like the Toothless one that commands 90+ minute waits). It also doesn’t include stage shows, which are in our rankings and score quite well, but don’t post wait times.
The good news that stage shows are fairly easy to see and would draw down the per attraction average if they were to have posted times. The bad news is that they (obviously) take time to experience, so that 12 hour average is an underestimate of the total average.
On the other hand, you can reduce your own numbers with savvy strategy. Taking advantage of Early Park Admission and regular rope drop, doing less popular attractions during the middle of the day, and staying late. Your average might end up being 10 hours or even less; or it might be more even if you use savvy strategy but get unlucky with ride breakdowns. So much of this is luck of the draw!
The point remains: you’re probably going to need to make difficult choices and plan to skip certain attractions. Even if you’re skilled at experiencing theme parks, you should go in with that expectation. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
That brings us to our main piece of advice here: skip Epic Universe’s second-most popular ride.
With an average wait time of 108 minutes, Donkey Kong Mine-Cart Madness is the second-most popular attraction at Epic Universe as measured by wait times. (Some weeks, it’s #1; others, it’s #3. Over time, it’s #2.) And quite honestly, I suspect that’s the only metric by which it’d be the #1 attraction at Epic Universe.
Donkey Kong Mine-Cart Madness has the second-highest average wait time at Epic Universe not because it’s the best attraction, a fan-favorite, or for any other “good” reason. It’s popular because it’s a thrill ride that’s visible from within Donkey Kong Country, looks and sounds awesome, and is based on a high-profile Nintendo character.
Beyond that, its popularity basically boils down to the attraction having criminally low hourly capacity and being unreliable. Donkey Kong Mine-Cart Madness has an estimated hourly capacity of 700-800 guests. That is, of course, assuming it’s operational in the first place.
To put that into perspective, the theoretical hourly capacity of Stardust Racers is estimated to be over 2,750 guests, which is a big reason why it frequently has the shortest waits in the park. It is similar to Monsters Unchained, which is another people eater. Also notable is that both of those are 10/10 attractions. (I can’t verify the veracity of these capacity numbers, but do know that they are directionally accurate.)
Exacerbating the low theoretical hourly capacity of Mine-Cart Madness is that it frequently suffers downtime and delays. That throughput number goes down when the ride has issues or has to close temporarily in the event of inclement weather or whatever. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if there have been several times when Monsters Unchained had more riders in 2 hours than Mine-Cart Madness did the entire day.
Adding insult to injury, Universal Orlando has expanded Express Pass to Mine-Cart Madness. We didn’t expect this to happen as quickly as it did and, quite frankly, it should not have occurred. But Universal understandably wants to recoup its investment, and Mine-Cart Madness helps sell Express Pass. (It also wouldn’t surprise us if there were a lot of guest complaints.)
The problem with Express Pass is that it inflates standby wait times. Worse yet, when there is downtime, a backlog of Express Pass guests builds up, leading to those guests pulled disproportionately versus standby to “clear” that backlog. It’d be one thing if the ride had a healthy hourly capacity and was reasonably reliable. It is neither.
Most important for our purposes: Donkey Kong Mine-Cart Madness is not a great attraction. It’s arguably barely even a good ride.
We scored in an 8/10 in our original review, and honestly, that now feels way too charitable. Given the above, I wouldn’t be surprised if it has one of the lowest guest satisfaction scores among Epic Universe headliners; it has a big ‘expectations vs. reality’ shortfall.
Whereas other attractions at Epic Universe have grown on me more in time, I like Mine-Cart Madness a little less with each subsequent ride-through. If I could never ride it again, I’d be okay with that. And I’m a huge Donkey Kong fan–I love Bananaza!
Universal Orlando touts how Mine-Cart Madness utilizes an unprecedented ride system, innovative technology and a unique coaster design. The ride vehicles perform the same maneuvers as Donkey Kong and the mine carts in the video games, including getting blasted out of a barrel and jumping over gaps along a rickety track.
I wanted to love this roller coaster so much, but it just doesn’t hit for me. The dark ride aspects are underwhelming, and there’s not enough meat to the scenes to make this a satisfying dark ride.
But because of the show component, and due to the ride trying to do too much with its novel ‘hidden track’ technology, there are also too many starts and stops for a truly satisfying roller coaster.
Mine-Cart Madness tries to do too much, which ultimately prevents it from being a great coaster or a great dark ride. I appreciate that it exists and respect how it’s trying to push the envelope, but it’s just not a fun roller coaster or dark ride. It jerks around too much and never gets into a groove.
The problem, it would seem, is that Mine-Cart Madness doesn’t really know what it wants to be. By trying to please both dark ride and roller coaster fans, it excels for neither. It also really seems like Universal Creative figured out how to accomplish this novel ride system that creates the illusion of the mine cart jumping over broken track, but never stopped to ask: is this actually any fun?
Sure, they created something envelope-pushing and innovative. That’s undeniable. But it seems like they put the technological cart before the ape, and were fixated on the underlying ride system and how cool that is for theme park geeks. As a proof-of-concept tech demo, Mine-Cart Madness is cool. As a theme park attraction, it misses the mark.
This is not to say that you should absolutely skip Mine-Cart Madness no matter what. Rather, it’s to say you should go in with the expectation that you’re not going to ride, and thus, you shouldn’t prioritize it. This means not making it part of your rope drop strategy (not a good idea, anyway, as people pre-queue during EPA).
One thing I will say about Mine-Cart Madness is that its kinetic energy is off the charts. Donkey Kong Country is one of my favorite corners of the park, and that’s in large part due to Mine-Cart Madness circling the perimeter of the land. It’s definitely an atmospheric asset to the land as a whole, and just about as much fun to watch as it is to ride. So definitely make sure you head deep into Donkey Kong Country to soak up the atmosphere.
Another recommendation would be to at least peek inside the Single Rider line (if it’s open). Not too far into that queue, you’ll see one of the marquee Audio Animatronics up-close-and-personal. Even if you turn right around after seeing the figure, it’s worth popping into the Single Rider line just for that.
Finally, I would recommend checking out wait times for Mine-Cart Madness at the end of the night. This is a gamble, but given the forgoing, that should be a risk worth taking. If the ride has a lot of downtime earlier in the day or the park is slammed, the wait time still might be prohibitively long.
It could also drop dramatically, to the point that it’s worth checking out for yourself to see whether you agree or disagree with our assessment of Mine-Cart Madness. On one of my visits to Epic Universe, the wait time peaked at 240 minutes, but was under 30 minutes at the end of the night!
Normally, we’d say that you should ride everything to form your own opinions and that’s true here, too. But if push comes to shove at Epic Universe, and we would strongly recommend not skipping Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry, Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge, Hiccup’s Wing Gliders, and several other less popular attractions, plus the stage shows, restaurants, atmospheric entertainment, and more. Even on great days, I’ve missed things at Epic Universe that I’d consider better than Mine-Cart Madness. It’s a great park beyond the ride roster.
You probably won’t have time to do it all, making Mine-Cart Madness the #1 popular ride to skip if pressed for time. Two more no-brainers to skip are Dragon Racer’s Rally and Curse of the Werewolf. I actually like the latter and think it’s slightly underrated, but that’s relative to others’ reviews and not wait times. I would not wait over 45 minutes for that coaster, which is about half its average.
Need trip planning tips and comprehensive advice for your visit to Central Florida? Make sure to read our Universal Orlando Planning Guide for everything about Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Florida. Also check out our Walt Disney World Vacation Planning Guide for everything about those parks, resorts, restaurants, and so much more. For regular updates, news & rumors, a heads up when discounts are released, and much more, sign up for our FREE email newsletter!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of Mine-Cart Madness? Would you recommend skipping it or do you think the Donkey Kong roller coaster lives up to the hype? Agree or disagree with our advice? Any questions? Coverage you’d like to see from us regarding Epic Universe? Need to know strategy or info? We love hearing from readers, so please share any other thoughts or questions you have in the comments below!
Tom, just got our 3 day tickets for Epic, actually can use any time during our 6 night stay at Helios in Jan. Helios does not offer express pass, this would be an addional $350.00 per person per day. Did a little digging. it was not in the Lowes contract to offer express pass for Helios, however express pass is in the contract for Portofino, and Royal Pacific Resorts, i think to be offered for ever.
I feel like, right now, Express Pass is a must for Epic to have the best experience. I would skip Mario Kart before I would skip Mine Cart Madness, but I do understand your reasoning. It was down most of the day we were there and the regular wait times are insane.
I want to love Epic but it falls short of my expectations in a lot of ways. I feel like Universal has great ideas and concepts but the execution is not what it could be. It all seems a bit “unfinished” or was too hurried to be completed and opened.
I found Mine-Cart Madness to be completely forgettable. In fact, looking at these pictures, I had to question if I actually went on the ride (my family assures me I did), as I don’t remember the dark right elements. I only remember the outside parts. That’s probably because we watched the coaster before we went on it, and I think watching it from the outside was cooler than actually riding it. It kinda looks like it jumps over the water when you are standing off-ride looking at it. But actually on the ride? It just felt like a normal roller coaster. It doesn’t matter how many ground-breaking things it does if it feels sorta like the same old same old.
“That’s probably because we watched the coaster before we went on it, and I think watching it from the outside was cooler than actually riding it.”
Someone else earlier in the comments compared MCM to Aquatopia at Tokyo DisneySea, but it’s for this reason (with which I agree) that it actually reminds me more of Raging Spirits. Another coaster that offers a better experience if you just spend a few minutes out front, watching it.
We just got back from a Universal and Disney trip. We did Epic on November 29. We did splurge on the express passes, and I am glad we did. We really liked the park. Hiccup’s Wing Gliders was by far my favorite ride. The Untrainable Dragon is probably the best show I have ever seen in a theme park. Atlantic was the best meal we had the whole trip.
In hindsight, I would have given Epic another day, so chalk one up for Tom. I think Tom and Sarah are also right that the week after Thanksgiving is a great time to visit all the Orlando parks.
If I did my trip over again and not thinking of budget….
We would stay at Helios for two nights and do Epic two days.
I think we would skip the other Universal parks just because we have been there before and done what we like.
Then I would move over to Disney at check out from Helios, spend that day relaxing at the resort. Then spread Disney over four days instead of the three we just did.
So on further reflection, DKC is a really strong mini-land (#3/#4 against extremely strong competition), and that’s entirely down to the ride circling the land and the synchronisation with the music.
For a comparison, I’d look to Aquatopia, a fairly high-budget ride that greatly adds to the area despite being dull to experience. (Or for a counter-example, Guardians, which has a case for being the best ride at WDW despite detracting from Epcot).
My takeaway is thus that DK:MCM is a place-making ride misunderstood as an E-Ticket – and maybe the first such example. Viewed through this lens, it arguably does its job well – rides contributing to an area is not just academic, given that the vast majority of people’s time is not spent actively on rides.
I get what you’re saying and sort of agree, but I would hazard a guess that Universal intended for MCM to be an E-Ticket, not an atmospheric attraction. And if they didn’t, that was a mistake–as surely a ‘wish fulfillment’ roller coaster based on a Nintendo property was going to be popular. That alone is one big difference from Aquatopia, which seldom commands long lines and is a ‘what you see is what you get’ kinda experience (which MCM also isn’t, since its dark ride portions are concealed in a show building).
Donkey Kong Country is excellent, you’re absolutely right about that. The energy is excellent–I just wish it were bigger!
We skipped Mine Madness (the line was long and my 11yo didn’t like the look of the ride) and Werewolf (again, my dd thought it looked too intense). We still had an incredible day. Rode all our favorites twice (Ministry, Hiccup, Monsters Unchained). Shows, characters, two different restaurants, magic…it was THE BEST. I’m glad to hear we missed nothing by skipping the DK ride. I had heard it was very jerky, so I had it on my skip list from the start.
” I would recommend checking out wait times for Mine-Cart Madness at the end of the night. ”
We did that and found short lines, BUT thunderstorms were starting up and we almost missed it. In the end, its only utility is it’s a coaster ride for people who don’t like coasters.
Tom, if you’re looking for more data on a particular ride or park, I just launched a new theme park related site http://themeparkhallofshame.com, which has some unique reports that compare downtime and waitime across parks. Its in beta, so if you have a particular analysis method you’d like to see follow the instructions for feedback.
I’ve found the park heatmaps to be particularly useful for spotting trends at a particular park.
My 10 year old son who is not a big roller coaster fan LOVED Mine Cart Madness. We rode it twice. We had an EPIC day at EPIC during Veteran’s Day week. We used all of the strategies. Stayed at Helios and went to EPIC from early entry until park close, bought Express Passes and used good strategy. To friends who have asked I have strongly recommended going (the whole family enjoyed it more than Disney) with the caveat of only going if they were going to buy Express Passes.
We did (not in this order):
Mario Kart x4
Mine Kart Madness x 2
Yoshi
Mario mini games including Bowser’s castle
Meet Mario and Luigi
Hiccups Wing Gliders
Meet Toothless
Monsters Unchained x 2
Battle at the Ministry
Fantastic Beasts Circus Show
Celestial Carousel x 2 (day and night)
This blog was so helpful! I had my priorities going in, felt like I knew the times of day that would be best, what a good wait time was that signaled I should get in line, etc. Thank you for helping make such a memorable trip!
Nice post Rebecca. We’re going in Spring Break, staying onsite, and have express passes ready. We’ll have 1 full day for Epic. Please share your basic order… did you save your express passes until later in the day? THx!
There are only 4 seats per train…? I hadn’t realized this was the first roller coaster to be built in a Universal park. It must be, because if Universal had operated one before this, they would have known that roller coasters can be kinda popular…
Dang, you need an editor who will get rid of all the front-end fluff (and a lot of the rest of it). There’s no need for the thousands and thousands of very wandering words on this topic.
I’m sorry, but if you think that is fluff you should read other Disney blogs to see what they do, at least Tom’s introduction and setups make sense and provide information not just SEO filler garbage.
I don’t get these comments. Why not simply switch reading to something that fits your preferences better? The internet is full of click-bait / dumbed-down content – shouldn’t be all that difficult to find something without “fluff”.
I’ve only ridden Donkey Kong in Japan where we used Express Pass every time we rode it. I really enjoyed it, but I’m not sure I would enjoy it after a two hour wait. That said, I’m not sure I’d enjoy any ride after a two hour wait.
You lured me into the article by having me wonder what the #2 ride actually was. Damn you, clickbait!
The wait times seem extremely high right now (120+ mins for all the top rides), and the level of Christmas pretty low. Despite that, this was one of the best days I’ve had at Epic for two important reasons: weather and darkness.
(I wonder if Universal would, at some point, consider letting passholders enter but not ride attractions – which is pretty much the day I had anyway? Selling merchandise and filling up Celestial Park would be a win-win).