Zand

I did take what will likely be my last Rockit ride on Tuesday night and, in fitting fashion, it was a certified shitshow! They were only running 3 trains and for some reason the trains kept setting up on the last 3 brake runs even without a train in the station. We got stuck on the 2nd to last brake run for a minute or two and could see a train on the brakes in front of us. Also my last ride was in row 4 which is the worst row on the ride because it's rough as shit and for some reason the crotch molds seem to protrude backwards more in this row than the others and yeah...such a fitting last ride. I'll kind of miss it and wondering why there's so many songs about rainbows, but I can't wait to see how good the replacement coaster is bound to be. Rest in pieces! I also had back-to-back lemon rides on Spiderman which was interesting. The first time through we got to the gravity ray section and then the effects and sound stop and the car kept stopping and then slowly meandering to each scene. Most of them were either quiet or no sound at all and the car awkwardly listed to the left, and then the car started playing sounds from 4 scenes prior and...yeah. The ride ops told us to go through the child swap line and ride again. The second time around it made it all the way to the final drop scene but then it did it again. I've ridden this thing a ton and it's usually flawless so it's interesting to get a couple technical difficulty rides. Lastly, one of my fears everytime I ride Velocicoaster on a showery day is that it'll be sunny when I walk in and then after 20 minutes of being cut-off from the outside world things will drastically change by the time I get on the ride. This time around I got on the ride and it was fine, but I started feeling a few sprinkles going up the top hat. When we hit the brake run the skies opened up and because they were running all 4 trains we had the pleasure of sitting on the brake run for a good two minutes with no escaping the deluge. And naturally the firehouse shut off just as the brakes released and we rolled into the station.

I love Aventura, it's my go-to. It's a bit more adult orientated than most hotels. Laid back and quiet and the bar on the roof is really neat. I like how everything is in a small footprint and you don't have to walk a mile to get to your room. No long lines for the bus. And best of all the price is usually not bad, often $150-200.

If you're staying on property I would go right to Mine Cart for early entry. If not then you might be screwed (unless what they did yesterday is the new norm and now everyone can go right in for early entry). Mine Cart will immediately have a 1-2 hour line and usually doesn't get any shorter all day. Also it's not on express. You won't have any problem getting the other 3.

Wanted to post some thoughts from my 2nd trip to Epic and first since the park officially opened. For future reference, today was a Monday and the general consensus amongst regular park-goers is that today was on the busier side for Epic. Despite staying on property at Aventura I decided not to get up early for early entry and I'm glad I made that decision. Apparently the security line was a mile long before they opened and then they didn't bother checking for hotel reservations to get into the lands so everyone was able to get in. Therefore lines in Nintendo immediately went over 75 minutes and Ministry was over 3 hours within 15 minutes of opening. I would've been pretty pissed if I got up before 7 to experience that. We ended up hopping on the bus right at 10:30 and in the park around 10:50. After getting shut out on Ministry last trip, that was my #1 goal today. Stopped at the French cafe thing on the way in for a crepe for breakfast which was pretty good, nothing spectacular. Hopped into line for Ministry right at 11:50 which was posting a 150 minute wait. We were sent into the outdoor section but only for 5-10 minutes before making our way to the Floo network. The queue is jaw dropping, there's no other way to put it. Our wait ended up being about 1:45-1:50 and I don't think there were any breakdowns. If you're trying to judge times, I would say once you're through the Floo network it's going to take you 1.5-2 hours. And then add to that with any of the queue outside being used. The ride itself is absolutely one of the best dark rides I've ever ridden, a nice blend of technology and storyline. Not gonna throw out tons of spoilers here. To me it was worth the wait once for sure. If it was 3+ hours? Maybe not. But for the line it had today it definitely met expectations. Thankful to have finally ridden it and for not having to deal with any virtual queue systems to do so. Be patient with this, the line will be insane right from the get go. But it usually comes down a bit midday. Just be careful if you want to save it for later, they capped the line just before 7:00 today. I thought waiting in the a/c during the midday sun was the best choice and my plan worked very well. Stardust Racers is incredible with the dueling aspect which I didn't get to experience. Night rides are mind blowing. They kept it open an extra hour tonight which was terrific of them to do. They got each side running 3 trains later in the day and the line does not stop moving when they do that. The green side is indeed very slightly more intense than the yellow side, but you can often get on in about 3 less ride cycles on the yellow side because everyone chooses green. I think I still cast my preference to Velocicoaster simply because it has the mosasaurus roll which is my favorite element of all time, but I absolutely understand how people can put this ahead. It hits from beginning to end and is frankly one of the best ejector air machines ever built. This ride is a home run and extremely rerideable. I can't say enough good things about it. Nintendo World was a circus. I love hanging out in there but this area badly needs that rumored expansion to happen asap. Rode Yoshi but even that was 30 minutes for a short ride. Mario Kart and Mine Cart almost never dropped below 2 hours today. Monsters Unchained was a lot of fun the 2nd time around. I think the first time my expectations were a little unrealistic. I had a great time on it tonight, the line was very short and fast moving. The ride was great and if anything wasn't working than I couldn't care to notice. Definitely my 3rd favorite ride in the park. Skipped the spinner as it never really got below an hour. Hiccup was a quick 25 minute wait around 6:30 and was fun as always. The restraints blow and I wish they would've done a little better with that. But the ride it zippy and fun and the theming is adorable. Also viewed Untrainable Dragon which is a bit short but a lot of run. Go check it out! Want to point out two negative experiences from today. First of which was Pizza Moon. Went in there around 4:00. Ordered a Space Cowboy which is essentially BBQ chicken pizza. People next to us sat down 5 minutes later and they had their two pizzas and a salad before we got ours even though the app said our pizza was ready. After about 20 minutes we asked a staff member who was like "oh those take extra long to make but it will be out soon!" (then why would the app say it's ready)...so ok. The people next to us are their pizza, left, and the next seating sat down and ordered and still no pizza for us. It was 45 minutes in at this point so I asked again and this time the waiter sent over a manager who had a terrible attitude and made us feel like shit for even asking about it. But he radioed something in and a few minutes later our pizza finally came over just as the people next to us (keep in mind this was the SECOND seating at that table after we ordered) got their meal. The pizza was very good. I still have no idea why it took almost an hour. And some of the staff members here need to remove the stick from their ass when people ask about something. Something obviously happened with our pizza. Just apologize and say you're working on it instead of being a complete jackass about it, and don't gaslight me with "oh that one takes longer" when the app clearly showed that it was done and ready. 2nd negative experience was that goddamn Carousel. We got in line at 7:55 with a posted 15 minute line and a couple switchbacks full. Just after getting in it changed to 25 minutes, understandable because it was one of 3 rides actually open during a small shower that passed through. At 8:45 I saw Stardust running again and finally bailed after being 50 minutes into a 15 minute line and still being multiple cycles away from riding. They were taking at least 7/8ths of each cycle from Fastpass. And the load times on this are atrocious, usually 5+ minutes. The ops are just obscenely bad on this. How can you screw up the ops on a Carousel? All in all definitely a fun day but I'm done with this place till they add it to the annual pass. It's a gorgeous park with 3 great rides and a few other very good rides, but it needs a lot more to keep up with the crowds it is going to get when they open up to max capacity. I shudder to think of how long the lines will be when they allow 100% capacity. Even if it was dead, I'd still rather be at IOA. In a few years this park may very well eclipse IOA but I don't think it's close right now. It's gorgeous and especially stunning at night, but the lack of shade is draining during the day.

Adding express to Hagrid seems to be going swimmingly. Edit: in the past 50 minutes it has apparently gone down to 1.5 hours. That pretty cool that they went through 2.75 hours of line in 50 minutes and no one else got in! Edit edit: I'm currently at Epic Universe and it's unfortunately one of the busier days it's had so far. I'm in line for Ministry and... ...it's not the longest line in the park. I haven't seen that happen yet. Did I walk into some sort of miracle?

Yup, and currently Hagrid has a longer line than Ministry. I'm glad I'm not in love with it...will be down there this weekend and it doesn't bother me to skip when it has an insane line. If I can ride Velocicoaster 3 times in the time it takes to wait for Hagrid once, I know what I'll be doing.

I wish I could answer your question but I'd have to shoot myself before I went to Florida in July so I have no idea how the crowds stack up during the summer. Other times of year, on Tuesdays I've generally found most things to be a walk on depending on what time you get to them. Hagrid and Velocicoaster will probably be 1.5 hrs and 45 mins respectively. Water rides will probably be long. Usually almost everything else is very short. I don't see any reason why you wouldn't be able to get through the whole park without express on a Tuesday. In Epic news...it's day 2 of regular operations. Ministry currently has a 1 hour line. I seriously am starting to think that they sold more tickets during preview than they're selling now. Fingers crossed it's still like this on June 2, I will have a blast that day if it is.

So far today the lines have been far shorter than they were during preview. Even the Mario stuff is 15 mins or less. In other unsurprising news, Ministry opened to a 5 hour queue and then has been down for the last 3.5 hours or so.

They do have the hours in the app...mostly 9-9 on weekdays including the days you'll be there. For some reason they're not clearly listed on the website. 9-9 is kind of lame for a new park seeing as IOA is open till 10 those days. Since you have two consecutive days what I would do is try to get everything done on day 1 that isn't Ministry. If things go well maybe you'll still have time for Ministry at the end of the day and your day 2 would be much more leisurely. And if you don't have time then at least you will have ridden everything else you wanted so you won't have to really worry about them on day 2. But long lines, breakdowns, and real life get in the way sometimes so your approach may very well be different!

Someone else will have to answer about the express pass end of things. As for question #2 obviously the crowds could be much different when the park is officially open compared to preview, but I pretty comfortably got on everything except HP in about 7 hours when I was there last month. My 2 cents... 1. If you don't have early entry, save Nintendo World and Harry Potter for later. These two are your early entry lands and the lines will be massive by park opening. I would recommend going to Berk first and then Dark Universe. 2. If Nintendo and Potter haven't died down yet, usually a good time to ride Stardust Racers. When both sides are open that thing chews through people. Seems like the line never gets much longer than 30-40 minutes. 3. I think 2:00 is roughly the time that the lines get more bearable in Nintendo and Potter. The last couple days I've watched Ministry drop from a 4 hour line to a 2 hour line by mid afternoon. If you don't care that much about riding it I would recommend saving it for last because you never know how much of your day it is going to ruin if it keeps breaking down. 4. I got lucky on Minecart Madness by catching the singles line shortly after it reopened. Like Velocicoaster and Hagrid it moves very slowly and closes often. The regular line is often insane too. But if you catch the singles line right when it opens it can save you over an hour, and unlike Velocicoaster you can actually see the line once you're in it to judge for yourself. Ultimately the park has 11 rides. Dragon Racer's Rally is a ride you can do elsewhere if the line looks long (and it usually is because the capacity isn't great). Fyre Drill is usually pretty short. Wing Gliders is usually 45-60 minutes which is why I recommend going there early. Monsters Unchained rarely has a huge line and moves fast. If you check the app a few times you should be able to hit it when the line is 20 minutes or less. Werewolf is hit or miss, again if you check the app you can probably grab a 15 minute line, or sometimes it can be an hour. Carousel never has a huge line. Mario Kart is insane early but usually under 45 minutes later in the day. Yoshi never has much of a line. Minecart you need to play the singles game or be prepared to wait a while. Stardust usually under 45 minutes. Realistically you can do all of the above in 6-7 hours unless they really pump people into the park after opening day. Then there's the wild card of Ministry if it's a must ride for you.

The line stretched back to the entrance to Berk this morning. Highest time posted was 4 hours. Right now it's posted at 2.5 hours which...isn't that bad? Compared to Hagrids and Gringotts when they opened it's basically nothing

Not sure if it's a permanent change but Ministry virtual queue was dropped today. Wait time according to the app was 2-3 hours for most of the day. I'll be happy if this change is permanent. It will be comforting knowing my chances of riding when I am there in 2 weeks don't rest completely in the hands of a flawed lottery system. I know there are a lot of other obstacles but it will be my choice on whether to wait out the issues and the long line.

Not sure if the price has changed, but last I knew you could get a $35 wristband after 9pm. Pretty solid deal if you're looking for some riding after Universal closes especially considering a lot of the rides are $12 a pop.

You should've taken video so you can show this to the groupers at Carowinds when they send trains out with 4 empty rows because they can't keep up for some reason.

I usually grab food from Green Eggs & Ham when in IOA. Usually a nice pick-me-up. Otherwise yes I agree with just going to City Walk for food, most of the stuff in the parks is garbage. Single rider lines for Forbidden Journey and Hulk are worth it, but otherwise I can't think of any others that are. And definitely don't use them for Velocicoaster and Hagrid. Single rider is a little better in Studios, Rockit is hit or miss but the rest are usually pretty good. Hogwarts Express has different videos, but is it worthwhile riding it both ways? Not really. At least going from Studios to IOA you get to see Kings Cross. If the line is short it's worth it but it can balloon to an hour at times. I kind of have a limited experience of City Walk restaurants, but NBC Grill and Toothsomes are good. Hard Rock and Margaritaville are the same as elsewhere. I need to try new places sometime lol.