Zand

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.

Breaking news: Cedar Point is the devil.

Dueling Superman doesn't exist. You don't have to be scared of it. Six Flags: Yet.

No lies detected here. I had some great rides on Wild One in 2020 but for some reason when I rode it in 2023 it was absolutely awful. It is very sad to lose something so historical though. It has a fun layout. The first B&M will officially bite the dust and good riddance. Might be the worst looping coaster I've ever ridden. The SLC just got overhauled but I'm not sure there's really any place sensible to relocate it to. Maybe some independent park will pick it up like Trimpers. Joker's Jinx would be great in a new home but is also pretty old at this point and there aren't a lot of LIM coasters around these days. Would be sad to see this scrapped but I can't imagine it getting relocated at its age. I have to imagine Superman will get relocated to a park that needs a hyper but that's a pretty small list. Maybe Michigan's Adventure? If not RIP I guess although Darien Lake is still a thing. Also RIP to the last remaining Vekoma Flying Dutchman. Won't miss the restraints but the layout is so superior to the B&M Supermans. I have to imagine this will be scrapped. Good riddance to Roar. There's a few flats that may get a new home. Also the spinning mouse could move again. I still don't have that credit, it's closed every time I go. I will try to get down there one more time this summer but we'll see. Considering the price of real estate and how much of a dump this park is, it's definitely not surprising news.

Sooo....why new trains for Superman? Oh if you're not really gonna use them, feel free to ship them to 1623 Main St Agawam MA 01001

I guess I should rephrase... I'm not upset that the ride is unreliable and that may be the reason for me not riding it. I'm more upset that the virtual queue seemingly works for some people, but not others at the exact same time. And then will shut you out for not being in the park while you're waiting in line for a ride in the park (I was on data, not wifi). Some people are able to get multiple reservations in the same day while others can't get one. It's just a terrible system.

Alright here's my attempt at a full trip report from my first visit to Epic Universe. Scroll past to avoid spoilers! Arrived around 10:40 with an 11am official opening, although hotel guests had early entry into Celestial Park and Nintendo World. They were already letting non-hotel guests in at that point and you were able to go pretty much anywhere. No wait at all to get in although we got the usual ambush from the survey takers. The entry plaza has a gorgeous view into the center of the park and back to Helios. The app showed that Stardust Racers would be delayed to start the day so we headed back to Dark Universe to begin the day at Monsters Unchained. They were just opening the line, so we were sent around to the left past Curse of the Werewolf to access the line. While waiting for them to open, 11:00 came and literally everybody was staring at their phones for the same reason. At 11 on the dot, Battle at the Ministry virtual queue went live and 3 separate times I clicked on a time only to get to the next screen and be told that "that time is no longer available" each time. Meanwhile a lot of the people around me were celebrating getting a time, which was a little dejecting. Anyway, we eventually made our way into the queue for Monsters Unchained which is absolutely stunning. Room after room with crazy good theming made the ~45 minute wait go by seemingly in no time. The pre-shows were very good as well although tough to hear because as usual no one shuts up. The ride itself was a bit of a letdown to be honest. I don't think using the Forbidden Journey ride system here was the right play. It serves a purpose on that ride. But here, the point of the ride is to see the incredible animatronics but all the ride vehicles do is point you at them for a second or two before being swiftly pulled away. This would've been much better suited for slow moving vehicles ala Haunted Mansion. The animatronics are indeed amazing, I just wish you were able to see them for a little longer. Between the queue and the animatronics this is absolutely a must-do for anyone visiting but I just wish they went down a different path with the ride system. Grabbed a beer from the Burning Blade tavern and caught a fire show (I think every 15 minutes?) which was neat and I would love to see at night. The tavern was a little empty on the inside, kind of expected more theming in there but I'm sure they will add to it. Also grabbed a Frankenstein pretzel from the stand by Monsters which was pretty good. Curse of the Werewolf was posting a 25 minute wait so I hit that real quick on the way out of the area. This is a very short spinning coaster but also spins a lot more than I expected it to. Fun enough coaster when it has a short line but wouldn't want to wait much longer than I did. On the way back through Celestial Park I intended on heading over to Berk, but noticed Stardust Racers running with riders so I ran over and I'm glad I did. They only opened up the yellow side so this had a 60+ minute wait shortly after I got to it. Luckily I only had to wait 30. Sat in row 8 and simply put this thing is an airtime machine. There is awesome ejector all over the course. I saw a lot of folks reporting that they like it more than Velocicoaster and without the dueling element I can't say I agree, but this thing is definitely a home run. I was a little apprehensive about the seating after finding Copperhead Strike uncomfortable, but the trains on this are very nice and look great. Hopefully next time I can experience some dueling and see this thing at its full potential. Continued over to Berk which is stunning. One of the most colorful and well themed lands I've ever seen. Got into a 45 minute wait for Hiccups Wing Gliders which turned into about 1:15 because it is an Intamin and broke down multiple times. This is a very fun ride with very uncomfortable seats. The back support protrudes into your lower back and the lapbar tightens continuously during the ride and staples the crap out of your legs. It's a terrific family coaster with fun swoopy turns and great scenery but I was also kind of happy when it was over so I could stand up. Don't miss this, but also be forewarned that it's not a comfortable train. When we got off it was just about 3:00 but when 3:00 came and went the Battle of the Ministry times never came up on my phone. My wife tried 45 seconds later and they popped up on her phone but then got the same "this time is no longer available" message. Maybe this system works better on iPhone? Not sure but either way it's super annoying. We ended up walking over to Paris just to check out the area and it was really nice looking, but at the same time it's not the same feeling as walking into Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley and feeling like you just walked into the movies. Went over to the ride to see if I could use the single rider line and the attendant was like "you need a return time to access this attraction" so why even advertise the single rider line at all? There were numerous people standing around arguing with her so I just walked away and left the area. The roll out of this thing is a disaster. Either do it like Disney where you assign all the slots at once in the morning or just let people wait in line. Stopped in for a brisket sandwich at Oak and Star tavern which was very good. I like the full service seating at this park's restaurants where you just sit where you want and order on the app. Nice not standing in a long line to order. Made our way into Nintendo World next which is absolutely amazing. I've never seen HTTYD so Berk didn't give me that walking into a movie vibe as I didn't know what it is supposed to look like (although I've heard it is similar and that area is absolutely stunning). But this was just a total nostalgia trip into the video games of my youth. Started with Mario Kart which had no line before the preshow, and the queue for this is incredible. Literally felt like walking through the Bowser's Castle track on Mario Kart. After the preshow you need to wait another 20 minutes on like 528 flights of stairs before you finally get down to the station. The ride itself was pretty cool although my neck hurt from the weight of the goggles by the time it was over. I think using a Men in Black type car would've worked better for this but it was a lot of fun overall. Wife didn't want barbeque earlier so we stopped at Toadstool Cafe where she had a Mario Burger and Tiramisu and I had some garlic knots. The burger was good but the bread almost tasted stale. Tiramisu and garlic knots were very good. Made our way to the Yoshi ride which to me was amazing as Yoshi's Island was my favorite game when I was a kid. Heading the music and seeing things from the game was just a huge nostalgia blast. The ride itself is very short but has some good views and it had a short line so overall very enjoyable. It was pushing 6:00 and we had to leave for the airport by 7, so upon arriving in Donkey Kong country I saw Mine Cart Madness was posting a 90 minute line. I lucked out though as they had just reopened the single rider line and I was on in 20 minutes. While I was waiting the 6:00 Potter drop came up and the times finally came up on my phone! But then I clicked a time and it says "looks like you're not in Epic Universe"...WTF?!? This system is atrocious! Anyway...after heading the same 3 lines being spoken over and over about the golden banana, I got on an interesting ride. It has a fun layout and some neat visual tricks, but I can't believe how jerky and tough almost every transition on this ride is. Felt like an arrow mine train which is surprising for a brand new coaster. Overall though DK country is really awesome looking...all of Nintendo World really blew me away. Did a little gift shopping before heading out to the airport. Overall this is a really nice park and it looks amazing. It almost doesn't feel like a Universal park. When you walk into IOA the grand reveal of all the huge rides around the lagoon is one of my favorite things in the world. When you walk into this place it feels like Disney built a park in front of the Bellagio. You can't really see much from the entrance except a little bit of Stardust and the mountain in Berk. I think when they fully open on May 22nd the park is going to feel like it needs more in it. There's 11 total rides in the park, many of them with kind of low capacity, and a couple shows. Doesn't really feel like enough to handle the crowds they're going to get. It will be interesting to see how quick they add to it. I will be back on June 2nd (my birthday) and I will be pretty pissed if I don't get on Battle at the Ministry for a second time in a row. Thankfully I hit everything else I wanted to yesterday so won't have to worry about dealing with crazy lines. I plan on spending more time seeing shows and just enjoying the ambience of the park more. I'm not sure this beats out IOA as their best park until they add to it, but still very worth checking out.

I'm sure this will surprise nobody but the virtual queue for Potter is an unmitigated shit show. I was in line for Monsters Unchained at 11 when the first drop happened, people around me were celebrating that they got a spot but every time I clicked on a time it would say "no longer available" after I tried pushing through. Then at the 3pm drop the virtual queue didn't pop up on my phone at all. My wife tried like 45 seconds later and got the times to pop up (and then got the same message about no longer being available) but not once did the times pop up on my phone. It feels like shit traveling all this way for the virtual queue to just totally shit itself on me.

From what I've seen the Nintendo stuff gets long lines first but folks tend to move along by 2 or 3 and the lines for down a bit. Honestly a lot of the time I'm seeing lines under 30 mins for every ride once 3 or 4pm hits. Honestly I do want to do the Nintendo stuff but it's probably my least must do of everything. Getting a VQ for Potter, getting on Monsters, and getting on Stardust are the big 3, then Hiccups. But based on the lines as long as everything is open I'm fairly confident I will get to do everything the first day, which sets up a more relaxing day the 2nd time around when the park is fully "open".

I've been kind of keeping an eye on the reported queue times on the Universal app since they started doing passholder previews on Friday. The biggest surprise to me is Stardust Racers never seems to get a long line. Must be a people eater and very reliable already. Usually in the 20-30 minute range. Also trying to figure out how the Potter virtual queue works but hopefully I will be able to get on when I'm there next week. Monsters and Hiccups seem to be down a lot. Not very unlike Forbidden Journey and Hagrid lol. Longest lines by far have been the Nintendo attractions. Mine Cart Madness and Mario Kart often around a 2 hour wait. But other than those things have been less busy than I expected so hopefully that means that they're really limiting the amount of people in there. Cautiously optimistic about my day there next week. As long as there's no significant breakdowns I think I can get through the things I want to in one day.

I'm planning a similar upper-midwest trip this summer with a lot of new-to-me parks. Michigan's Adventure, Indiana Beach, Great America, Mt Olympus, Valleyfair, MOA all for the first time. And then Cedar Point (not the first time lol). Never been to CW either but will save that for another Toronto/Buffalo based trip.

I know it's nothing to do with the jungle theme but KD should retheme BSC to I-95 in Virginia and have it stop for 25 minutes when it gets to the helicopter scene for added effect, and then add a Sheetz to the end of the ride with someone getting arrested in the parking lot.