How to Join the Virtual Line for Harry Potter & Battle at Ministry in Epic Universe
The most popular ride in Epic Universe is Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry, and for good reason. It’s the best attraction in all of Universal Orlando, but also by far the most difficult & frustrating due to no standby line–only a virtual queue. This ride guide explains how to join the VL/VQ, along with answers to questions and other tips.
A comprehensive ‘how to ride’ guide for one attraction might seem excessive, especially for our first substantive post about Epic Universe. After all, isn’t it just a matter of “sitting down and buckling up”?! However, protocol and procedure for Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry is frustrating, and experiencing this attraction during a day at Epic Universe is almost make or break. This ride is confusing even theme park pros, so our goal here is to help you avoid headaches.
If you simply show up at park opening for Epic Universe and think you’re going to be able to rope drop Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry, you’re in for colossal disappointment. To the contrary, you’re almost guaranteed you won’t be riding if you don’t learn about the Virtual Line (VL) in advance (we’ll also call it the virtual queue/VQ throughout this guide, since that’s the terminology Walt Disney World popularized). Hence this ride guide and FAQ, so you can plan accordingly, beat the crowds, and have an enjoyable day at Universal Epic Universe…
We have a 100% success rate thus far for Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry, which may not seem like much only a few days into previews, but in talking to other guests around Epic Universe, that is very much not the norm. I would hazard a guess that, on a good day, fewer than one-third of all guests are experiencing Battle at the Ministry. And this is still during paid previews, when park capacity is capped pretty low. Meaning that later this year, it could be ~15% of guests experiencing Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry on a regular day.
Speaking of good days versus bad days, Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry is plagued by unreliability and downtime woes. The ride breaks down a lot; even when it is operational, it is not efficient. One entire side of the attraction is often offline, and we’ve observed a slow and methodical dispatch. I don’t want to guess as to its current operational hourly ride capacity versus theoretical hourly ride capacity, but let’s just say throughput is not so hot right now. No knock on the ride–it’s a highly sophisticated attraction in a brand-new park, so this is to be expected.
Virtual queues offer a means of pulsing demand and are the imperfect solution to operational woes. This website has been vehemently against VQs beyond the point when they’re needed, as they create needless friction for the guest experience. That’s not the case here. This one is very much needed. The friction, while unfortunate, is better than the alternative of sitting in line for 3+ hours and enduring a breakdown (or multiple) during that time stuck in line. You might have that happen even with the VL!
Suffice to say, our first warning is that you need to be prepared for the very real possibility that you will not ride Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry. And even if you do score a spot in the Virtual Line, you should not expect it to be a de facto Express Pass to bypass waiting in a line. The three longest waits we’ve had in lines at Epic Universe have all been at Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry.
One final warning is that all of this is subject to change. Since Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry started using a Virtual Line during the tail end of Team Member previews, this process has already changed three times (with a couple minor tweaks in addition to that).
It seems to be very much a moving target, as Universal operations and tech teams figure out the best approach. Given guest confusion and “feedback” (angry complaints to Team Members), we’d be willing to bet the process will change again between now and mid-Summer 2025. The biggest question is how quickly Universal can get a better and more robust system built.
If you’re a longtime Walt Disney World fan and this is sounding familiar, it should! Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry is eerily similar to Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance in its first ~6 months. From the unreliability & downtime to the virtual queue process being a moving target.
Not that it’s a competition, but Universal’s Virtual Line system is worse than even Walt Disney World’s first generation of Virtual Queue. Also, I strongly suspect that the worst experiences with Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry will surpass the worst experiences with Rise of the Resistance. Personally, my worst VQ experience is with that Star Wars ride at Disneyland (we joke that the reason I’ve never had COVID is because I unknowingly caught an early strain stuck in that queue in early 2020), but it’s still early in the game for Epic Universe.
Anyway, this is a lot of preface for what’s advertised as a “How to” post, but I think expectations-setting and understanding the why of the Virtual Line for Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry is more important than the step-by-step. That part is definitely useful, but it could also change tomorrow. But the VL for Battle at the Ministry will probably exist through late 2025 or early 2026 unless a quick fix is found. It is a series about magic, so I guess anything is possible.
How to Join the Virtual Line for Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry:
According to the official Universal Orlando Resort app: a Virtual Line return time is required to experience Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry, and a standby line will not be offered. Please see a Team Member with any questions (probably not the best advice).
Return times for the Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry Virtual Line occur at set times. As of April 19, 2025, those drop times are officially 11:00 a.m., 3 p.m., and 6 p.m. Unofficially, there’s another drop around 10:45 a.m. for the first time slot of the day (since the first VL drop is at park opening–if the ride is up then, they want guests starting to cycle right away).
Note that this attraction, Epic Universe, and the Virtual Line system are all in technical rehearsal. Some elements may not be available during this time. Virtual Line return times are limited and subject to availability according to Universal Orlando.
Join the First Virtual Line – The 10:45 a.m. Virtual Line is going to be your best option, if that’s offered. And it may not be every day–I’d assume it’s shadow-dropped only on days when Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry is cycling smoothly ~30 minutes before the first official VL drop and park opening.
If that’s not offered, or even if it is and you miss it, you need to put all your eggs in the 11 a.m. VL drop. Even if this means stopping what you’re doing to be in an area of the park with strong WiFi or cell service (for what it’s worth, I had terrible coverage back in Donkey Kong Country and some of the queues). Don’t be in line for Stardust Racers, as you won’t even have a phone there!
The reason for this is pretty simple–if Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry has reliability issues early on, those subsequent Virtual Line drops may not even happen, or may have extremely limited inventory. Downtime woes in the first few hours of the day create a backup, and Universal will distribute fewer VL slots–or none at all. This isn’t theoretical–we’ve already experienced this firsthand!
Ticket Linking Doesn’t Matter – Universal Orlando’s app has a really bad system for linking with family and friends. By that, I mean it doesn’t have one at all. It’s honestly mind-boggling to me that Universal has launched a high-demand Virtual Line without such a feature.
Even more mind-boggling is that their fix (for now) to this problem is making this not matter. You do not need to link tickets. They don’t even need to be loaded into the app. As opposed to validating admission for a set number of guests, the Virtual Line for Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry is geofenced. Meaning that if you are in what the Universal Orlando app identifies as Epic Universe, you can join the VL. (This alone is probably causing some technical difficulties, but didn’t for us. Make sure you allow the app to access your precise location in your phone’s settings!)
So how does the Universal Orlando app know how many people are in your party without ticket validation? It doesn’t! You specify the number. This is the same system Secret Life of Pets: Off the Leash uses, except in a way higher stress/demand environment. Honestly cannot imagine that this is actually sustainable once the park officially opens, but it is the system for now.
Refresh Repeatedly – We have a whole spiel about how “milliseconds matter” with Walt Disney World VQs, and that it’s necessary to sync your clock, and refresh at exactly the right moment. That’s out the window when it comes to the Universal Orlando app, as we’ve yet to have the Virtual Line drop occur at exactly 11:00:00 a.m. And this is not just our clocks being slightly out-of-sync; it’s dropped one minute after the hour more than once.
The key here is to just spam refresh the Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry attraction page. To do this, I recommend going to the map, filtering to just Epic Universe attractions, clicking Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry and then the back button if the Virtual Line button is still greyed out (above). Just keep doing that on repeat until the Virtual Line button is blue (below).
Select an Early Return Time – Once the VL button turns blue, you’re presented with all “available” return times. Select one of the earliest ones. The reason for this is simple: this is more like Harry Potter and the Race Against the Ride Break Down.
If at all possible, you want to “beat” the first break down (and it will break down) of the day, as that creates a backlog of guests with (un)Express Passes to return at any time. The latter in the day your return time, the higher the likelihood that it’s not just your time slot that’s returning…but multiple hours of time slots all returning. And that means a longer line, and higher chance of another breakdown while you’re in line.
Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry needs to be your #1 priority in Epic Universe, so even if you have other plans or it’s going to conflict with your itinerary or whatever, throw them out the window and do Battle at the Ministry ASAP. You may not thank me for this advice if all goes smoothly and you threw out your plans “for nothing,” but you’d be cursing yourself if you didn’t and things went off the rails. Trust me–speaking from experience here.
Spam the Return Times Button – Just because you see a time slot does not mean it’s actually available. Hence the air quotes above. You’re bound to get a “Sorry, this time slot is no longer available. Please choose a new time slot and try again.” pop-up message. Don’t even bother reading it–just hit okay and keep spamming the time slots that repopulate.
Keep doing this until everything is gone. Just because you try a time slot and it shows that message doesn’t mean it’s actually gone. Keep picking times until you either get a blue screen confirming your spot in the Virtual Line or another message that all spots are taken.
This is not like the Walt Disney World VQ system where you have one shot and you either get it or you don’t. One of our VL successes didn’t happen until almost 11:02 a.m., and was just a matter of spamming those buttons repeatedly as quickly as possible until something struck.
I’m sure this will change and it’ll become even more competitive and will go instantaneously once the park is operating at full capacity, but for now, the Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry Virtual Line is more “laid back” (air quotes) in the sense that it lasts longer. It’s counterintuitive, because it is very competitive and most guests will be shut out. The point is to not give up prematurely!
Everyone Should Try – Do not just designate one person in your party to try the Virtual Line for everyone. More people attempting increasing your odds of success, especially given how seemingly random the spamming strategy works. Also, because glitches do happen–see the above screenshot, which shows the app freezing during the process. We’ve heard from others who had the app crash or not recognize them as being inside Epic Universe.
If you’re really lucky, this might result in multiple people in your party having success joining the Virtual Line. This might feel unfair, whether you’re on the winning or losing end of things (especially the latter). And it is. Unfortunately, this is the system Universal Orlando has decided to implement, so it’s a “don’t hate the player, hate the game” kind of scenario.
Our advice would be cancelling one of your Virtual Lines (the later one!) if you succeed multiple times. In theory, this should return your allocated capacity back to the bucket for the next drop, assuming there’s a ride breakdown between 11 am and 3 pm (there will be). We do not recommend riding more than once in a day, tempting as that might be, as the likelihood you’ll endure downtime while in line on two different occasions is high. You’re playing with fire, and there’s a lot to do in EU.
Single Use Express Pass – When Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry is down (“delayed”) during your return time, your Virtual Line slot will convert to a Single Use Express Pass that you can use anywhere, anytime.
Obviously, you want to use it at Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry. The safest strategy is using it ASAP when the ride is back up. Hopefully you’re stalking the app and see when the “delayed” message disappears from the attraction page. If so, race over there. Be warned–everyone will have the exact same idea, and the line could be incredibly long depending on how long the ride was down.
Another approach is waiting for the end of the evening and hoping for the best. This will likely result in a shorter line, but is also much riskier. We’ve seen multiple attractions (including Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry) go down during technical rehearsals…and just not reopen. Guest tolerance for this will decrease once the park is officially open, but if the ride breaks down and can’t be brought up, guests getting angry isn’t going to fix that.
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Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry FAQ (Work in Progress)
Given that the VL is geofenced and at park opening, do off-site guests have any chance at success?
Yes. Regular guests are allowed to enter the park before park opening, and are held near Isle of Berk or Super Nintendo World. So long as you arrive by 10:30 a.m., you should be fine (although we’d recommend earlier for that 10:45 a.m. stealth drop, if it happens).
Can we leave the park once joining the Virtual Line?
Yes. You could go back to your resort and take a nap, eat lunch, etc. Especially easy if you’re staying at Helios Grand Hotel!
When will this all die down?
Never? Maybe when your kids have kids?
Flight of Passage is just as popular today as it was when it opened nearly a decade ago. And that’s for a ride based on Avatar–this is Harry Potter. On top of that, crowds are only likely to get worse, as Epic Universe is likely to be busier after its opening months. Waiting will hopefully result in improved ride reliability…but it could also result in disabled effects to achieve that.
We are visiting in May 2025, November 2025, February 2026 (and so on), what will happen then?
The virtual queue system has already changed several times since it debuted last week, and will probably change a dozen more times between now and Fall 2025.
Suffice to say, it’s way too early to think about any dates beyond this summer. If you’re planning a trip for later in the year, you might want to stop reading this and any practical planning advice about Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry now. You should only be reading for the sake of asking yourself, “is this worth it to me?”
Will I like this if I’m not a huge Potterhead?
Much like you can enjoy Flight of Passage without ever seeing Avatar or Rise of the Resistance without ever seeing a single Star Wars film, you can enjoy Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry without seeing a single Fantastic Beasts or Harry Potter movie (or reading the books).
Fans of the franchise will likely get more out of it, but the ride works on multiple levels and the storyline requires no prior knowledge to understand. I’ve never read the Harry Potter books and have only seen one or two of the movies (not sure I made it all the way through the second). Much of our time spent during a lengthy breakdown was spent with my friends trying to explain the interplay between Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts. I still have no clue what’s going on.
Is Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry better than [insert your favorite ride]?
Possibly.
I want to ruminate on where I’d rank this ride on a global scale, but it’s definitely my favorite of the Harry Potter attractions. Taking that a step further, it belongs in the conversation for best theme park attraction in Orlando. There’s really nothing like it that I’ve ever experienced, so drawing comparisons isn’t easy.
With that in mind, I’ll equate it to Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. Not because the ride systems or underlying technology are similar (they aren’t), but because they’re both lengthy attractions with a “how did they do that?!” quality that advance the medium of theme park attractions. Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry is a gamechanger, just like Rise of Resistance.
Should we just wait to do Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry or Epic Universe as a whole until 2026?
Although the virtual queue creates winners and losers, if you’ve already read the ~3,000 words above, you’re much more likely to be one of the winners. You are far better positioned than 95% of other guests–many of whom arrive without knowing what a virtual queue even is or when it’s offered–and are more likely to succeed in scoring a boarding group. With a virtual queue, your wait time could be significantly shorter than if you just wait until next year or whenever the virtual queue is replaced with a standby line.
The big wild cards right now are that Universal Orlando is capping attendance at Epic Universe below capacity and there are no Annual Passes for the park (yet). This means that you’re competing with a limited number of other tourists, who are typically lower knowledge guests. There’s nothing to say that the Virtual Line will go away in 2026 or that attendance will still be capped or that Annual Passes won’t start being sold.
Who knows how things will play out–again, it’s still early–but based on what we’ve seen thus far, it feels like this Virtual Line is going to be around for several months. Perhaps things will get better and it becomes easier later this year–we’re not trying to be all doom & gloom. But it’s also possible to envision a ‘worst of all worlds’ scenario where ride reliability doesn’t improve, but attendance does increase, exacerbating all of the above. It’s a gamble no matter how you approach it!
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Your Thoughts
Do you have any questions this failed to answer about the Virtual Line for Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry? If you’ve done the new ride, do you think there’s anything else first-timers should know? Is Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry worth jumping through all these hoops or enduring daily downtime? Where does it rank for you among Epic Universe or Orlando attractions? Do you agree or disagree with any of our advice or answers? Any questions? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Tom,
Any idea how this ride will work with the accessibility ride access pass? Can we just forego the VQ entirely and report direct to the ride at any time to ride or get a return time? (Like all other attractions)
I’m sorry–I don’t know!
What I can tell you is that with Walt Disney World’s VQs and DAS, you still had to join. I would guess that’s also true here, as the VQ is more like a standby return time.
Thank you for all your detailed informations, without it we were totally lost.
We went yesterday (party of 4) and got only the last slot. We saw a couple getting earlier slot (I don’t know if fewer people can get earlier slots)
So, the best trick is: if you didn’t get the first hour, keep the virtual queue page open until next window(don’t close that page you select number of people in your group) you certainly get slots ahead people doing the “coming back” strategy (we did both strategy yesterday)
Thank you, Tom, for your advice to not give up on trying to get a spot in the virtual queue. After two discouraging tries at 11:00 and 3:00, we finally got lucky yesterday (4/23) at the 6:00 drop. I “spam refreshed” several times, as you suggested, and ended up with a return window of 8:20 to 8:50, which was perfect. We were just about the last ones to experience the ride, and walking out of the park at the very end of the day was delightful. Again, thanks to your detailed instructions, we had an epic day at EU!
I went on Monday (April 21st) and the attraction was down most of the day. Since they are officially in “Technical Rehearsal” until May 22nd, I am guessing that they used the morning hours for maintenance troubleshooting and reliability testing. Guests attempting the 11:00 am virtual queue reservation system were not successful since the park knew they were going to use the early part of the day for maintenance (just my guess). We did get return times during the 3:00 pm VQ time but Universal changed these to Express Passes since the ride was down at this time. We finally went back around 8:00 pm and waited 45 minutes in the queue to get on the attraction. This long wait was attributed to thousands of guest having their VQ times converted to Express Passes. Even after getting on the attraction, the ride broke down at the end and we waited about 10 minutes for the ride vehicle to slowly make it back to the unload station. It is an amazing attraction but operates on a very sophisticated ride system. It will most likely break down most days for the foreseeable future.
why does it sound like you’re boohoo crying through the entire article? You made nothing but common sense statements. You basically repeated everything for clout. What a waste of time smh
Tom, To Allen’s point which has motivated me to finally offer this opinion. Most articles would be more digestible if written business style with key points appearing at or near the beginning. This could be done with bullet points, a summary, overview or even in outline fashion. Despite your writing style I have read your articles for years because they consistently offer accurate, insightful and the most helpful information of all the Disney blogs I have read. Yet I find it maddening to sift through numerous paragraphs to parse the golden nuggets you provide.
Allen – No, it really wasn’t all common sense. I’m a local/AP holder and I got no less than four takeaways from the article. If I found it helpful, the average park goer could definitely benefit from it (so you can stop SYH now.)
Robert – While I’m sure Tom appreciates your tips on how to write an article, most of the readers are here because we like the long version content so, not despite his writing style as you put it, but because if it!
Tom composes essays, not watered down AI summaries. His writing style is professional and academic, with rich complexity and exploration of multiple perspectives. There’s plenty of what you call “business” articles out there, watered down and overly simplistic. Tom graciously did not respond to your jabs. If your attention span requires bullet points and you can’t discern his intentions, then this isn’t the blog for you. Also, I am not his friend nor have any relationship to him at all. Your comment towards his work is just plain rude and disrespectful.
Is the seating similar to Star Wars, in that large guests will fit? Or is it more like a rollercoaster, in which Universal has a terrible track record of large guests NOT fitting? In other words: what is the restraint system, is in bench seating or single chair (meaning there’s a hard “wall” on either side into which the rider must squeeze) and is there legroom?
Seating is like Tower of Terror, so it should be more inclusive.
Just be warned that most other attractions at Epic Universe have more restrictive restraints. Even rides like Yoshi’s Adventure (a slow moving dark ride) could pose problems.
Thanks so much for this info. How long did you wait on line with the VQ?
What is the status and reliability of the Harry Potter single line?
Tried a couple times yesterday. It was not open when we tried,
They’re not using the Single Rider line yet, and I’d imagine they won’t until the Virtual Line is retired.
Does each person trying for a return time have to have an account and be logged into the app? Also, does the screen asking you to choose the number of guests come up before you have a chance to select a return time? Thanks!
Honestly not sure about the account and logged in question–we all had them.
Choosing a number comes up first, but it’s on the same screen–meaning that you can change the number of people in the party and the times repopulate.
If you are doing a VIP tour, will this ride be included?
We saw VIP tour guides exiting the attraction, but Universal doesn’t publish an official list of eligible attractions. Obviously, it’s gotta be up in order to take advantage of the VIP tour.
After reading Tom’s report and realizing we’ll only have one day at Epic in the heat and humidity of August, I sprung for the biggest splurge perhaps in my life: the shared VIP Experience. The Team Member I talked to asked what our 2 main priorities were. I said Ministry of Magic and Minecart Madness. He then said that those two are prioritized because they do not have Express Passes, and they will make every effort to get us to those two. However, he was exceedingly clear that nothing was guaranteed. He told me that they will guarantee six ride experiences, and right now they are averaging 8, but that could change over time.
Thanks! I splurged for my grandson. We did the 2 park in one day VIP – they said they guarantee 10 rides for that one. Crossing my fingers for him!
I understand why you are doing this. One of the reasons I paid extra for the Universal Premier Annual passes last year was to get express pass included after 4 pm.
If we don’t have an annual pass and want to go to Epic for a day I would seriously consider spending the coin on express passes or a shared VIP tour. By spending extra to hit all the priorities you have an easier touring day and don’t have to come back to the park on another day which kills two birds with one stone: you don’t have to pay admission for another day AND you free up a day to relax at the pool or hit another park or special experience. You buy time somewhere else.
It can make a better vacation.
Is this ride something Sarah can ride without getting sick? Would love to try it when we visit but don’t want to be sick for the rest of the day. We rode the Harry ride at Universal California and we didn’t do good on it.
Thanks, this was super helpful! We were there yesterday (2nd day of AP previews.) We mistakenly assumed only the person with the passes linked to them could get VL for the party (and we’re usually pretty on top of this stuff.) That was frustrating to realize after the second (3 PM) drop. No luck on the 6 PM drop either, even with all three of us trying that time. We heard from someone who was there days 1 and 2 of AP Previews and they were never able to get one. Others got in 3 times in the same day. It’s frustrating that the system allows that. Feels unfair, you shouldn’t be able to get multiple VL’s in the same day when others are getting shut out. We’re going again Monday (4/21, still AP Preview period) so, fingers crossed. Will definitely check for a 10:45 drop.
Adding to clarify: I completely subscribe to the “don’t hate the player…” logic. 100% I would do the same if I were the lucky one in that system.
It’s a truly terrible system.
I don’t know Universal managed to come up with something worse than the circa December 2019 version of Walt Disney World’s VQ, but over 5 years later, they did!
It’s also not like this is catching them by surprise. I heard months ago that Potter was going to be problematic and likely to end up on a VQ. They had the time to figure this out…and just didn’t.
Does the ride open early for early admission hotel guests? We are staying at a universal hotel tomorrow and wondering if the ride is available for early admission!
Only Super Nintendo World and Celestial Park are open for early entry. I’d recommend arriving at least 30 minutes before the start of EE and beginning with Donkey Kong! Have fun!
Thanks for this, I’ll be watching closely on how this changes in the lead-up to official opening, I’m currently scheduled to go on 5/28 (when it will probably still be crazy but this might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to visit a theme park like this opening week). A couple of things I’ve been wondering:
-Do we think these 11am openings are just for the previews? Or might the hours expand for the official opening?
-It was notable when both Ministry of Magic and Minecart Madness were excluded from Express Pass. Obviously HP was excluded because it is using the VQ, any clue as to why Minecart Madness was? Hopefully not a 2nd VQ?
-I’d expect earlier openings during that first week. Hopefully 9 am to 11 pm. They’re gonna need a longer runway for the sake of capacity and to account for breakdowns.
-Donkey Kong has stupid low capacity. That isn’t obvious yet during previews, but the capacity cap is really low. Once attendance is higher, that wait time is regularly going to be 180+ minutes. I assume they don’t want to exacerbate that with Express Pass right at the start.
Donkey Kong was down for the count this morning during Early Access and after it came back up hit 150 minutes. Capacity really is stupid low.
Total crash and burn at 11 am and 3 pm. Did the whole fastest finger thing but always got “this time is no longer available” multiple times. daughter tried at 3 pm and same result.
crash and birn again at 6 pm. I suspect it has to do with terrible T Mobile connectivity. my access took a full minute to turn blue after my daughter started the fastest finger.
Oof, sorry to hear that. Thanks for sharing your experience–that’s really rough. Hope you were at least able to get a decent amount of other attractions done (or have another day of previews planned in the future).
Thanks, we had a great day! I am stunned. They absolutely hit it out of the park.
The theming is so immersive. Celestial Park is beautiful. The restaurants are excellent. We had lunch at La Serene and dinner at Atlantic. Just Wow. Best food in a theme park we have had.
Recommend the French Onion Soup, the croissant and the salad nicoise at La Serene. The quiche Lorraine at the table next to us looked good.
There are obviously some issues that need to be addressed but everything we saw was really impressive.
Recommend anything at Atlantic.
Recommend Cirque Arcanus. Really unique and a great show.
Stardust racers was great fun and didn’t seem to have long waits at any time of day. It isn’t for the faint of heart.
Werewolf is fun. Sort of a milder outdoor system like Guardians of the Galaxy. Monsters Unchained and one of the rides in Isle of Berk had technical difficulties all day.
We have one more opportunity to try to get on what we missed.
Need to get on Monsters Unchained and see the Dragon show.
We are staying at Helios in August and going to EU for one day—I will be devouring any and all posts about touring plans and advice!! Thank you in advance for all the research!!
Have not experienced the ride yet, but based on all the rave reviews coupled with the advanced technology, my concern is that Universal scales back some features in an effort to reduce downtime. Like the cannons on Rise (though they did fix those in California!). Here’s to hoping Universal sticks to getting the downtime minimized without sacrificing any of the ride experience, even if that takes several months of troubleshooting.
The cannons have come up several times as we’ve sat in the Ministry of Magic, waiting for the ride to come back up.
It’s a double-edged sword: go early and have to endure all this, or wait and (probably/possibly) not get the full experience.
I’m curious about the geofencing for those coming into Epic from Helios Grand Hotel. Is it safe to say we may be able to join the virtual queue from the hotel or will we need to be at least on the dedicated walkway?
It is safe to say that, but they’ve been letting people onto that walkway well in advance of early entry. Around 8:30 am today for a 10 am start.
“I’ve never read the Harry Potter books “,.. no excuse not to participate in the greatest phenom in children’s literature,.. even if you had to struggle,.. you do so many unpleasant tasks that are far less significant,..
I was in high school, college, and then law school when Harry Potter was huge. I was doing plenty of reading.
At this point, I figure I’ll read the books to or with our daughter. No sense in starting just yet! 🙂
This is fantastic advice. With 5 family members and 5 devices I’m hoping we are lucky. I’m greedily reading all of your posts about Epic Universe since I enjoy your posts about Disney so much. PLEASE I beg of you to figure out or suggest a one day itinerary for big kids/adults if you will for those of us who are going very early. I’ve already warned everyone that we probably will not get to do everything. My son who’s turning 18 and graduating from high school asked us to visit so we made the “wise” decision of going before a cruise. It is the 15th day of normal operation. We are staying at Helios so anything you did or suggest I’m absorbing and forwarding. Thanks again!
So you’re going in like the first week of June? Looks like you should just miss the opening rush, which should make things easier. Still going to be growing pains, so pack your patience.
Preliminary strategy posts will be coming soon, with an emphasis on preliminary. It’s difficult to test strategy right now because capacity is capped and there’s so much downtime. Nevertheless, I can already make pretty good educated guesses about how things will (and won’t) work out.