Latest / Mom Street USA / 111. One Day Park Strategy: Epic Universe

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111. One Day Park Strategy: Epic Universe · Mom Street USA

• 0:05
  Welcome everybody to Mom St. USA.
• 0:07
  My name is Jackie AKA Wishes. Mama and I am joined today with
• 0:11
  our good friends Duck and Jess for this hub episode.
• 0:14
  We are continuing our series on one day park strategies and
• 0:18
  today we are tackling the newest of all of the Orlando theme
• 0:22
  parks and that is Epic Universe. So we are going to do our very
• 0:26
  best to give you as much guidance as we possibly can.
• 0:29
  We're excited. Duck and Jess, how are you guys
• 0:31
  feeling today? Great, I'm.
• 0:34
  Excited to talk about Epic? So happy to be talking about
• 0:37
  Epic finally. Yes, we have touched a little
• 0:40
  bit on Epic when we did kind of our overview of Universal.
• 0:44
  So if you need more information about like what is there and
• 0:47
  what the rides are, we're going to go into a little bit of it
• 0:50
  today. Just to give you guys some
• 0:52
  context because it is such a new park, I felt like we needed to
• 0:55
  kind of rehash a little bit more about like what ride is what a
• 0:59
  little a little bit kind of as we go.
• 1:01
  But most of what you guys will need to know kind of the basics
• 1:05
  before you get into your strategy can be found in that
• 1:07
  Universal series that we did back a few weeks ago.
• 1:10
  So look back there if you need more information about
• 1:15
  everything that is at Epic. Now before we jump in for today,
• 1:21
  a little bit of housekeeping news to chat about before we
• 1:24
  jump into Epic. And that is that there's going
• 1:27
  to be kind of a shift here at Mom St. coming up in a few weeks
• 1:31
  as we go into 2026. We have been working for several
• 1:35
  years with our good friends over at Chip and Co with their
• 1:38
  podcast network. But going into 2026, we are at a
• 1:43
  point in our partnership together where we are going to
• 1:46
  kind of part ways with Chip and Co.
• 1:48
  So we are very grateful for the platform that they've provided
• 1:51
  for us and for all of their support over the past several
• 1:54
  years. But we have kind of decided to
• 1:56
  take a step in a different direction here at Mom St. and
• 2:00
  kind of venture back out on our own to explore some new avenues
• 2:04
  and kind of see where the world of podcasting may take us in
• 2:08
  2026. So if you are listening to us
• 2:11
  over on Chip and Co, please do not let that deter you from
• 2:15
  coming to find us. We are available lots of other
• 2:17
  places. So we hope that you will come
• 2:20
  join us on YouTube or Spotify or Apple Podcasts or all of those
• 2:25
  good places wherever you find your other podcasts.
• 2:29
  Exactly, exactly. So we hope that you will come
• 2:31
  find us wherever you may choose to.
• 2:35
  And we hope to to continue to chat with you and to hear from
• 2:38
  you about all of our future podcast topics.
• 2:43
  That being said, we are going to finish out this year 2025 and
• 2:46
  finish out our one day Park strategy episodes over there as
• 2:49
  well. So don't fear if you're waiting
• 2:52
  for the wrap up and the kind of completion of that series that
• 2:55
  will still happen on Chip and Co, But after that point, you'll
• 2:58
  have to find us elsewhere. So we hope to catch you on our
• 3:01
  feeds in 2026 for sure. OK, housekeeping over, let's
• 3:06
  talk about Epic Universe. Sorry, now to the good stuff.
• 3:11
  I know, yes. So just a couple notes, well,
• 3:14
  quite a few notes actually getting into Epic.
• 3:16
  And here's the thing with Epic, right?
• 3:19
  And you'll hear us talk about this.
• 3:21
  It is such a new park. So we're going to try to give
• 3:24
  you as much information as we can now that we all have been
• 3:27
  there. I think previously when we
• 3:29
  talked about Epic, none of us had been there yet, if I'm not
• 3:32
  mistaken. So, so we were kind of just
• 3:35
  giving you the research aspect of it.
• 3:37
  Well, now we've got some personal experience with it and
• 3:39
  we're going to do our very best to kind of give you guys as much
• 3:42
  information as we're able to. So let's talk about just some
• 3:46
  general notes and then we are going to talk about express
• 3:49
  versus not express, just like we've done in all of our other
• 3:51
  episodes. But before we can get to that
• 3:53
  point, there are several just notes about Epic Universe and
• 3:56
  attending the park that we do need to run through first.
• 3:59
  So to start, you are going to want to arrive at the park at
• 4:05
  least 45 minutes before you can access the park.
• 4:10
  We're going to talk a little bit more about early entry later
• 4:13
  when we talk more about the itineraries, but do note that
• 4:17
  early entry is a thing for Epic Universe for universal Resort
• 4:21
  guests. So typically the park opens at
• 4:25
  10:00 AM as of now. Again, always check your app,
• 4:28
  check the website, make sure you know what your park hours are.
• 4:31
  As of right now, it's opening at 10 AM.
• 4:33
  That means early entry is 9:00 AM.
• 4:36
  So whatever your entry time is 45 minutes before then minimum
• 4:42
  to get yourself in the correct position for wherever it is that
• 4:46
  you're trying to go because it's tricky.
• 4:49
  OK, So keep that in mind. And then I do just want to talk
• 4:52
  about before I kind of turn things over to Duck and chess to
• 4:55
  talk a little bit as well about this is my mom note about
• 4:59
  strollers and navigating the park.
• 5:02
  Epic Universe is a beautiful, scenic, amazing, lovely park
• 5:06
  with a lot of stairs. This is the only theme park that
• 5:11
  I've ever been in, amusement park theme park that I've ever
• 5:14
  been in that has this number of stairs.
• 5:17
  So if you are someone that's got kiddos that are like borderline,
• 5:23
  maybe don't need a stroller, but maybe you would take one if you
• 5:27
  could to like Disney, you may want to reconsider that for Epic
• 5:31
  and just kind of make a game plan accordingly.
• 5:34
  Now don't get me wrong, there are elevators.
• 5:37
  The entire park is completely accessible because it needs to
• 5:41
  be for any wheelchair users or people who maybe need help with
• 5:45
  an assistance with those stairs. But strollers and having to kind
• 5:50
  of go roundabout ways to get on the elevator to be able to
• 5:53
  navigate gets really tiresome and could be frankly quite
• 5:57
  annoying. And it will get annoying,
• 5:59
  especially in the Nintendo area. Specifically, is stairs galore
• 6:04
  to get between the two different levels of that space?
• 6:07
  Was we had such a time trying to navigate it the first time?
• 6:11
  Because I'm like, what's on where level?
• 6:12
  Where am I? Where's the coaster Mario karts
• 6:15
  over here? How do I get to the Yoshi?
• 6:17
  Like it's very, you feel like you're in a Mario level in like
• 6:20
  the best and worst phase where you're like it's you are
• 6:23
  platforming through the park. As well and we came back midday
• 6:26
  after walking a long time and the stairs were not good.
• 6:29
  Bed, bed. Not my friend.
• 6:31
  Well. And there are roundabout ways
• 6:34
  that you can get to like the main level, but then you skip
• 6:38
  the portal entry, which is part of the experience, right?
• 6:42
  So it again, you just you really need to consider whether or not
• 6:46
  you need a stroller. My kids are currently 7:00 and
• 6:50
  9:00 and I would probably push through.
• 6:55
  My son would be fine. My youngest normally needs a
• 6:58
  stroller, but like what if and when in the next year or so I
• 7:02
  take them to Epic. I'm going to tell her you got to
• 7:06
  tough it out because I'm not pushing.
• 7:08
  I am not pushing a stroller around that.
• 7:10
  I'll hype you up a little. Extra on sugary drinks, kid, But
• 7:13
  there's going to be no. Stroller, I'll give you a
• 7:15
  piggyback ride if you need it, but like I can't, I can't.
• 7:19
  So just keep that in mind if you are someone that is debating
• 7:24
  about stroller and thing. Now that being said, yes there
• 7:30
  is elevator access and there is part of the elevator access that
• 7:33
  will still bring you into the entrance that is from Mario 2.
• 7:39
  So like there is, I don't want to give too many spoilers away,
• 7:42
  but like the entrance is really cool and there is elevator
• 7:44
  access into that space, but it's just a lot of backtracking.
• 7:48
  Again, I don't want to like totally spoil it because it is
• 7:50
  still fairly new and there are a lot of people who haven't been
• 7:52
  there yet, so. Let me tell you, don't spoil it
• 7:54
  for yourselves because we didn't know that.
• 7:56
  That's how that worked. Because I really stayed very
• 8:00
  spoiler free for almost all of epic, and I'm not ashamed to
• 8:04
  admit it. I cried.
• 8:06
  I cried walking into almost every land in this silly theme
• 8:09
  park because they were all so good.
• 8:12
  I mean, true, it was, that was a good one.
• 8:14
  So I'm I'm with you where it's maybe a little inconvenient for
• 8:18
  folks who are wheelchair users or otherwise need like the
• 8:21
  accessibility aid of the elevator and for folks with
• 8:25
  strollers. I think that is all very fair
• 8:27
  feedback. Agreed.
• 8:29
  That's my opinion. Others may have other opinions.
• 8:32
  That's my opinion after experiencing the parks and
• 8:36
  thinking through it for when I do bring my kids in the future.
• 8:39
  That's kind of where I'm at with that.
• 8:41
  So, OK, what other general notes do we need to know before we
• 8:47
  kind of jump into our itineraries?
• 8:50
  So just a couple of points before we're really getting into
• 8:53
  the into the nitty gritty here. Jackie said it before, but we
• 8:56
  really want to reiterate this park is very new.
• 9:01
  It is also very unpredictable with crowd times.
• 9:05
  It's really hard to tell. It will follow the general
• 9:09
  patterns that we've talked about with other theme parks.
• 9:12
  Right around the holidays, it's going to be very busy.
• 9:16
  Certain weekends and summer break, it's going to be very
• 9:18
  busy, right? Like those trends still hold
• 9:21
  true. But there are also a lot of
• 9:23
  factors that can impact Epic that may not be as applicable to
• 9:28
  some other parks. The example that we want to just
• 9:31
  throw out there is weather. Epic is very weather sensitive
• 9:36
  and pretty much everything is an outdoor attraction there.
• 9:40
  So when the weather doesn't cooperate, everything goes down
• 9:44
  and it goes, you can tell where the storm is coming from in the
• 9:48
  order that rides are going down, right?
• 9:50
  Because as the storm is creeping closer, we see everything in
• 9:54
  Burke go down and then we see Stardust Racers go down, right?
• 9:57
  And it makes its way across. So it's it's new and so you may
• 10:04
  have to pivot your plans. You can take this information
• 10:09
  here, do additional research, watch lots of videos, go in with
• 10:13
  the best plan that you possibly can, but also understand that
• 10:17
  things can change very quickly. And with it being a new park,
• 10:21
  things can change rapidly. So just always have several
• 10:25
  backup plans. We've talked about it before,
• 10:27
  but this is especially true with Epic.
• 10:29
  Yeah, I think it has gotten better, but a lot of things were
• 10:32
  like going down for a while style to just like the ministry
• 10:35
  for example, like would be broken for like half the day
• 10:38
  sometime. So like because again, it is a
• 10:40
  new park, a lot of these rides have like new technology and
• 10:43
  things like that. So like they tend to go down for
• 10:46
  that too. So it's just something to be
• 10:47
  mindful of them. Just be aware of yeah.
• 10:49
  Agreed. Another thing to keep in mind in
• 10:53
  the same vein of how unpredictable that this is, is
• 10:57
  if doing something, if doing everything or most things is
• 11:02
  really important to you, we recommend doing the express
• 11:06
  passes. I want to be very, very clear,
• 11:08
  they're expensive. They are going to be a large
• 11:12
  portion of anybody's budget. There is no if ands or buts
• 11:15
  about it. However we really recommend it
• 11:20
  because everything so new. The waits can be very long.
• 11:24
  We'll talk about it more. Most things minimum 45 minutes
• 11:28
  in this park, right? Like it can be very long waits
• 11:31
  for things and there's simply no way to do everything in one day
• 11:36
  with so many like huge hit attractions in this park.
• 11:40
  So it's expensive, that's 100% true.
• 11:44
  But it may be worthwhile for folks to try to build that into
• 11:48
  their budget and just plan for it as much as you can.
• 11:52
  And we also do just want to point out that currently only
• 11:56
  the standard Express Pass is available.
• 11:58
  So that is the one where you are one and done.
• 12:01
  There has been no official word on when or if unlimited will be
• 12:05
  coming to Epic. I'm sure it's some point, but
• 12:07
  there is no need for them to do it now.
• 12:09
  It is only going to, shall we say congest things further if
• 12:15
  they were to offer the unlimited.
• 12:17
  So I've heard rumor on rumor on rumor about when it's coming, if
• 12:21
  it's coming, whatever, there's no way for anybody to know.
• 12:24
  So for right now we just have the standard one and done
• 12:27
  express pass. And do also note that at the
• 12:31
  moment that we are recording this, the Universal typically
• 12:36
  offers express passes with their top tier resorts that does not
• 12:41
  apply to Epic Universe. So even if you are someone that
• 12:45
  is staying at those top level resorts that we've talked about
• 12:48
  in our Universal series previously, go back to that if
• 12:50
  you need information on that. If we did a whole thing on
• 12:53
  resorts that that included Express Pass does apply to
• 12:59
  Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure does not apply to Epic
• 13:03
  Universe. Even if you're at the Helios,
• 13:05
  which is literally on property at Epic Universe, it does not
• 13:09
  apply. I know.
• 13:11
  So it does not apply. So you have to include that in
• 13:15
  your budget. So just please keep that in mind
• 13:18
  when you're looking at cost and figuring all of that out for
• 13:22
  your budget. If you're pricing out a trip, we
• 13:24
  always suggest you use a travel agent.
• 13:26
  They are your best bet at being able to find the good deals and
• 13:30
  make sure you don't miss anything.
• 13:31
  But keep in mind that is not included with those top tier
• 13:35
  resorts right now. All right, so one more point
• 13:38
  before we hop into the actual itinerary discussion and that is
• 13:43
  that while Epic is the most kid friendly of all of the universal
• 13:49
  parks thus far, they all every single ride in there still does
• 13:54
  have a height requirement. So the lowest requirement is 34
• 13:59
  inches, which is Yoshi's, which is adorable.
• 14:02
  If you get the chance, we recommend it child or not very
• 14:06
  fun. And and the highest is for four
• 14:10
  is 48 inches, which is like I think almost all of the
• 14:13
  coasters. Certainly something like
• 14:15
  Stardust Racers is 48. Now that being being said, it's
• 14:19
  nice that it is 48 and not 54 like some of the other coasters
• 14:23
  that you'll find at some of the other universal parks.
• 14:25
  So it is far more accessible. But just keep that in mind
• 14:29
  because even when I was doing my research, I was like, oh, do
• 14:32
  they all have height requirements?
• 14:34
  I was like, yeah, like even Yoshi's has a height requirement
• 14:37
  and it is the most tame of all of the rides at at Epic
• 14:41
  Universe. So you really have to keep that
• 14:44
  in mind. Again, between the height
• 14:46
  requirements and the stroller accessibility, just major things
• 14:50
  to keep in mind when you consider this.
• 14:52
  Again, we love Epic Universe, all three of us.
• 14:54
  I you cannot recommend it enough.
• 14:57
  However, there are some things you really need to consider
• 14:59
  before you go. Cool.
• 15:01
  All right. Are we ready to talk about our
• 15:04
  game plan using Express? I was born ready to talk about
• 15:08
  what to do at Epic. Truly, I love it.
• 15:13
  OK, let's dive. In I'm going.
• 15:15
  To do a little preamble and I'm going to talk over to Jess to
• 15:18
  actually talk about the itinerary and run us through
• 15:20
  thing. So on our last trip, as we said
• 15:24
  we had Express, we really made the most of it.
• 15:28
  I have to say I'm pretty impressed with how much we did
• 15:31
  with Express. Like we really crushed it.
• 15:35
  Like not to say that we're so fantastic or anything, but we're
• 15:38
  pretty fantastic. We did really well.
• 15:41
  So we were able to ride pretty much everything at least once,
• 15:45
  most things twice, and a couple of things like 510 times.
• 15:50
  And by a couple of things, I mean I went on Frankenstein
• 15:53
  experiment and an embarrassing amount of times.
• 15:58
  I I love that ride so much. Jess was like, I think that has
• 16:05
  to be enough. I gave really, I think we're
• 16:08
  done here. I think if it wasn't for the
• 16:09
  rain bringing the ride down, it would have kept going on.
• 16:13
  I think. If I went down and never came
• 16:15
  back up. Jess, the rain even effects that
• 16:18
  one. I.
• 16:19
  Don't know if it was the rain, but something.
• 16:21
  Affected something. Something caused that, right?
• 16:22
  I think. Down and it never came back.
• 16:24
  Yeah, I think the rain, I don't know if it's like the rain
• 16:26
  forced it to go down or like the rain coincided with an issue.
• 16:29
  Yeah. But I it's.
• 16:31
  Perfect. We can just go wait out the rain
• 16:33
  in the castle and Jess is like, it's down.
• 16:35
  We just did it six times in a row.
• 16:36
  You're done. You're that duck actually broke
• 16:39
  it. It was.
• 16:40
  Aids me, you're done. Frankenstein was like, that's
• 16:46
  enough. Get off my ride all right.
• 16:49
  So I really love that ride. It was the best thing I rode
• 16:53
  that whole time. We wrote it so many times
• 16:55
  anyway. It's it's pretty great ride.
• 16:57
  It's so, it's so impressive. It's I do not want to give
• 17:01
  anything away, but it is one of the most, if you are a theme
• 17:04
  park person, it is the most impressive ride that I have ever
• 17:07
  been on. It's so good.
• 17:10
  That being said, if you want to know the rest of my thoughts on
• 17:13
  my trip because I'm going to try not to go on too many tangents.
• 17:15
  I did a whole little mini exclusive podcast on my trip to
• 17:19
  Epic that is available on our YouTube.
• 17:21
  So if you like want to know my thoughts about because I am a
• 17:25
  Disney diehard through and through.
• 17:27
  But if you want to know what I thought about Epic, my personal
• 17:29
  opinions and like what all I did when I went and everything are
• 17:32
  all on the Youtubes. So find them there.
• 17:35
  OK, let's talk about what we're actually here to talk about.
• 17:38
  All right, sorry we had to. We had to go on our tangent.
• 17:41
  From here on out, we are going to focus.
• 17:43
  Hello. Podcast, just podcast listeners,
• 17:46
  if you wanted to listen to our little side tangent that we just
• 17:49
  had, go ahead and sign up for our Patreon.
• 17:51
  Thank you. Yeah.
• 17:55
  OK, let's. Talk about what in the world
• 17:58
  we're supposed to do at Epic Universe using our Express Pass.
• 18:02
  Yes. So for your morning itinerary,
• 18:05
  we recommend heading to Super Nintendo World for the Mario
• 18:09
  Kart ride or the Minecart Madness ride, or to the Harry
• 18:13
  Potter section so that you can knock out the Ministry of Magic
• 18:16
  ride. If either of these are of
• 18:18
  interest to you, be you guys with the Harry Potter ride can
• 18:21
  have a very, very high wait time if you mistime your entry, so
• 18:26
  you may be better off kind of keeping an eye on wait times and
• 18:28
  jumping in later in the morning. Or it may just have to be like
• 18:31
  one of those things you burn an express pass on right away and
• 18:34
  only get to really do once because the line can get very
• 18:37
  long. Yeah, I do not recommend waiting
• 18:40
  until the end of the day for Ministry of Magic because they
• 18:44
  frequently almost daily, cut that line an hour or more before
• 18:50
  park close just to alleviate some of their team members
• 18:53
  having to be there for several hours after the park actually
• 18:56
  closes. So.
• 18:57
  Team members want to go home. How they do, they do.
• 19:00
  They are lovely, wonderful, hard working humans.
• 19:03
  They want to go home. So yes, yes, that is not a ride
• 19:08
  that you can get in line at a minute before close.
• 19:11
  So please keep that in mind. That is so crucial to know
• 19:15
  whether you're doing standby or express either way.
• 19:18
  Like those lines will close like when they close the standby,
• 19:21
  they typically also close every other line.
• 19:23
  So just you have to be in line and they will say typically like
• 19:29
  in the entry as you're walking in, it will tell you like, hey,
• 19:32
  ministry of Magic and they'll just leave it generic.
• 19:34
  It'll say is closing early tonight.
• 19:37
  What that typically means? Not every night.
• 19:40
  So don't take this as like Bible, but what that typically
• 19:43
  means is that they're closing at an hour ish or more before park
• 19:47
  close for the line. So just please don't get caught
• 19:52
  off because if that's something that you really, really want to
• 19:55
  do, you really just either have to do it first thing or just
• 19:58
  plan accordingly to do it during like mealtimes or things that
• 20:02
  we, the tips that we told you about all the other big rides
• 20:05
  that we've talked about, just plan accordingly for that one.
• 20:08
  Absolutely. So for us personally, when we
• 20:11
  were there, we chose to head to the Super Nintendo world first
• 20:14
  and knocked out all the big ticket rides there.
• 20:18
  We did Donkey Kong's Minecart Madness, and then we did the
• 20:21
  Mario Kart ride and we were able to walk right onto Yoshi, you
• 20:25
  know, while we were in there. I don't.
• 20:26
  Does Yoshi even take Express Pass?
• 20:28
  Yes. It does.
• 20:29
  It does, yes. Cuz I know there was the one
• 20:31
  right in park that does not take express pass.
• 20:32
  At all. I believe that is the only ride
• 20:35
  in park. I confirmed that on the
• 20:37
  Universal website today just to make sure that that was all
• 20:41
  accurate cuz again, brand new park.
• 20:43
  Things are changing constantly. They change their mind every 47
• 20:46
  seconds that were there. Yes, yes.
• 20:48
  So yes. So Yoshi's will take express.
• 20:51
  Yeah, typically it's a short wait though, so you may or may
• 20:55
  not need it, but. It's, I'm sorry, not to cut you
• 20:57
  off, but it's like their equivalent of People Mover,
• 21:00
  right? You're on a Yoshi and you are
• 21:02
  just driving around Super Nintendo World on your little
• 21:05
  Yoshi's back and you're seeing all like the fun Mario enemy
• 21:09
  characters, right? You see like Goombas and
• 21:11
  whatever. So yeah, that is that is a
• 21:15
  people mover ride. It is an Omni mover and it just
• 21:19
  moves quite a few people. It's very efficient.
• 21:22
  So there's very rarely more than like a 15 minute quoted wait,
• 21:26
  which is like a 5 minute wait, right?
• 21:28
  Like it's really not. It can get higher, it really
• 21:32
  just depends because often times you will have that is the most
• 21:38
  little kid friendly attraction in all of the parks.
• 21:41
  So if you've got a group that's splitting and going to minecart,
• 21:45
  the other half may be going to Yoshi's.
• 21:48
  So it has what I like to call the Pooh effect because we
• 21:51
  talked about Winnie the Pooh and Magic Kingdom getting a really
• 21:54
  high weight because 7 doors mine train is so close in proximity
• 21:57
  to it. Similar things can happen to
• 21:59
  Yoshi's. So if it is more than like a
• 22:02
  1015 minute wait, either use your express if you're like,
• 22:05
  we're not going to come back here for a while and might as
• 22:07
  well just get it done and over with and move on.
• 22:10
  Or just like wait and come back later because it it will drop
• 22:14
  for the entire last like 3 hours of the park.
• 22:17
  It's usually 15 or less. So 5%.
• 22:22
  So we waited less than like 15 minutes for minecart in the
• 22:27
  standby queue and. And that was what we went right
• 22:29
  to. Yeah, that was our first right
• 22:31
  to minecart. Yeah.
• 22:32
  Because I knew, because actually there was.
• 22:36
  There's some back and forth at the time, whether it was or was
• 22:38
  not going to take express. It didn't when the park first
• 22:41
  opened. By the time we got there at
• 22:43
  Labor Day, it was taking it. But I wanted to go right there
• 22:46
  just in case, for whatever reason, they decided to not take
• 22:48
  it that day again. Like you never know.
• 22:51
  Yeah. You guys were utilizing early
• 22:53
  entry, correct, because you were staying on universal property.
• 22:56
  So listeners, keep that in mind. Nintendo's and ministry are
• 23:00
  really great to go if you've got early entry.
• 23:02
  And I'll talk more about the differences between those
• 23:05
  because it really matters when you get to non express and we'll
• 23:08
  talk about that later in the episode.
• 23:09
  But just keep in mind that this is with that early entry time
• 23:13
  that we're talking about right now, yes.
• 23:15
  Absolutely. We walked right onto Yoshi and
• 23:18
  then we went and used our express pass on Mario Kart
• 23:21
  'cause even though it still might have been early entry time
• 23:24
  by the by that point, but the line was still very long.
• 23:28
  It was it was an hour late, Yeah.
• 23:30
  So we had to just burn our express on that one.
• 23:34
  And that was kind of finished up our morning in Super Nintendo
• 23:39
  World. And then after that, we kind of
• 23:41
  hightailed it over to the Isle of Burke to say hi to Toothless.
• 23:44
  They typically will open the sign starting around like 10 AM
• 23:48
  and they are super cute experiences.
• 23:51
  The meeting greets in the How to train your Dragon area.
• 23:53
  It is like, literally like the most lifelike animatronic things
• 23:58
  you've ever seen is. In front of you, it is like,
• 24:01
  it's crazy. It really very impressive
• 24:04
  technology. And that line gets crazy.
• 24:06
  So plan accordingly for that, yeah.
• 24:10
  So here we did use our express pass to get on hiccups wing
• 24:14
  gliders. Which is that family friendly
• 24:17
  coat launch coaster that's over in Isle of?
• 24:19
  Burke yeah. And because of that, it
• 24:21
  definitely gets a very long line.
• 24:22
  So we just use our Express pass right away on that.
• 24:25
  And then if you want, you can also use your Express pass or if
• 24:29
  there's not a long standby line, you can get in line for a fire
• 24:33
  drill. We don't really do water rides
• 24:35
  so we passed on this one, but it does look super fun if that is
• 24:39
  your jam. It's like a water cannon
• 24:41
  situation, right? Like you're going to shoot in
• 24:42
  the other team as you're floating past each other.
• 24:45
  It looks very fun. I have no interest in a wanna.
• 24:48
  Base ride I also Yep, I also opted out of that one.
• 24:54
  I did stand for several minutes from because there's a bridge in
• 24:57
  Isle of Brook where you can look down onto the ride and like
• 24:59
  watch everybody with their little water cannon situation.
• 25:03
  Very, very cute. I felt like I got enough of it
• 25:06
  just by watching and I it did not need to experience getting
• 25:08
  drenched. So Yep, exactly.
• 25:12
  Thrilled, Thrilled for everybody who enjoyed it.
• 25:13
  It's not for me. Yes.
• 25:17
  So then we get to the other ride in Isle of Burke, which is the
• 25:21
  one we talked about that does not take express pass and this
• 25:23
  is dragon racers rally. It usually gets a pretty long
• 25:27
  wait, but that's just because of like the way that it loads and
• 25:30
  how many people it can fit on it at a time.
• 25:33
  So it's probably not a ride that you would want to like.
• 25:37
  If it's got a long line and there's other things you want to
• 25:39
  do, you can honestly skip it. And I.
• 25:43
  That was our opinion. Yeah, I mean, like we wrote it
• 25:46
  and it was fine. I'm not like horrified that we
• 25:49
  wrote it or anything, but like, I wouldn't do it again.
• 25:52
  And I saw and heard throughout the rest of the day many people
• 25:57
  with children between the ages of eight and 14 who were not
• 26:00
  thrilled that they waited as long as they did.
• 26:03
  It's a very, it's a, it's a good fun ride, but it's very quick.
• 26:08
  So like the the return on investment you may not feel was
• 26:11
  necessarily worth that particular weight of experience
• 26:15
  when there's so much else at the park offers.
• 26:18
  That's totally valid and you can kind of eyeball that one too,
• 26:22
  because you can see a good portion of it from the walkways
• 26:25
  and everything to kind of watch it and look at it and see what
• 26:29
  you think. If you are someone that like
• 26:31
  doesn't want to look at stuff ahead of time and isn't quite
• 26:33
  sure about that one, take a look at it and make your decision
• 26:36
  based on that. Yeah, very fair.
• 26:39
  Most of Isle of Burke is like very open.
• 26:41
  So you can get like get the vibe for the lay of the land and how
• 26:45
  attractions are looking and what may interest you.
• 26:47
  And if you were on the fence about something, you can kind of
• 26:50
  watch whatever's happening all. Right, so this brings us to
• 26:53
  lunchtime, and there are plenty of places to eat throughout the
• 26:56
  park. There's at least one like kind
• 26:58
  of larger quick service place in each kind of area or land of the
• 27:03
  park. So we chose to eat at the Meat
• 27:06
  Hall in the Isle of Burke area. It has great air conditioning.
• 27:11
  Such good air conditioning. Good, amazing.
• 27:14
  And we got some chicken fingers and then we also bought the Mac
• 27:18
  and cheese cones. There is a sand across the
• 27:21
  bridge from it. What is the, I forget the name
• 27:23
  of the stand that had the Mac and cheese cones, but they are.
• 27:27
  Is it delicious? There's a couple of different
• 27:30
  flavors. I don't think you can really go
• 27:32
  wrong with any of them. From what we've ever tried. the
• 27:35
  IT was the Buffalo chicken 1 was what we had, but there's a
• 27:38
  couple of other flavors and I've heard they're all amazing as
• 27:40
  well. So definitely, you know, there's
• 27:42
  a lot of really good food options here in the park.
• 27:45
  And I fully thought that that was going to be like stunt food,
• 27:48
  right? Like it's just for Instagram or
• 27:49
  whatever. That was really good.
• 27:54
  So good. One of the things that Epic does
• 27:57
  fully right from every corner is their food.
• 28:02
  They really universal really up to their game when they created
• 28:06
  these menus and these offerings. And you'll hear us, we'll talk
• 28:09
  about some of the other food options and some of the other
• 28:11
  lands kind of as we go through. There are tons of really great
• 28:14
  options. So you really can't go wrong
• 28:15
  with anything that you choose at at any in any of the the portals
• 28:20
  at Epic. Agreed.
• 28:23
  OK, so you've eaten lunch, you sat down for a couple minutes
• 28:27
  and some air conditioning where we headed.
• 28:29
  So now we're basically continuing counterclockwise
• 28:32
  across the around the park, right.
• 28:34
  So that's the order that we're going to continue in.
• 28:36
  So we started in Super Nintendo Wii cut across to go to Isle of
• 28:41
  Burke, and now we're just going to continue in order.
• 28:43
  So between Isle of Burke and Harry Potter, which is where we
• 28:47
  were headed next is Stardust Razors.
• 28:49
  So we hopped right on to Stardust Racers.
• 28:52
  So it had a 20 minute standby. We chose to use our express pass
• 28:57
  there because we were like, I've heard it's a good ride.
• 29:00
  Let me just let's just use this and knock it out and we can
• 29:02
  continue on our way. But a it's such a high capacity
• 29:07
  ride, there is very rarely a long wait.
• 29:11
  Truly the 20 minute wait was because it had just gone down
• 29:14
  and came back up. Like that was the crux of the
• 29:17
  wait. Like it is such a people moving
• 29:19
  ride in a shocking way. Like it's because there's two
• 29:23
  sides that each have like 25 or more seats and there's two cars
• 29:30
  on each running, right. So that's like, I don't know, a
• 29:32
  trillion people or something. I can't do math.
• 29:35
  You know, it's 100 or whatever, right?
• 29:37
  Like you were moving so, so quickly through the, the weights
• 29:40
  do not usually even on pretty busy days, like we went Labor
• 29:43
  Day weekend, that's a pretty busy time.
• 29:45
  And even then it was not very high of a weight.
• 29:48
  So we wrote it once with the Express pass and then it was
• 29:52
  literally a walk on right after. So we just got right back on.
• 29:55
  And did I think, did we do the other side that day or do we do
• 29:58
  it OK? So we then rode the other side
• 29:59
  because there's two sides to it. I think the next time we go, we
• 30:05
  will hop still. Still, this is the itinerary
• 30:08
  where we're following. But I would wait until the
• 30:11
  evening to use the Express pass because then we went twice over
• 30:15
  that weekend. So we went on the Friday I think
• 30:18
  and then on the Saturday and on the Saturday we wrote it at
• 30:21
  night and it was an entirely different experience.
• 30:26
  It was fun during the day, it was fantastic at night.
• 30:31
  So like I fully would wait and don't even bought like yet.
• 30:36
  Knock it out during the day if it has a 10 minute wait but wait
• 30:38
  until the night time and even use the express pass if you have
• 30:41
  to because it is unreal at night it is so good.
• 30:46
  I feel like all of Epic was designed to be enjoyed most at
• 30:50
  night. This true.
• 30:51
  Which kind of stinks that they're not open as late as some
• 30:54
  of the other parks. Like I hope they extend their
• 30:56
  hours at some point because the whole thing just lights up like
• 31:00
  dark more. Looks so cool at night.
• 31:02
  The Celestial, the Celestial Park area is just beautiful at
• 31:07
  night and all lit up. Like even like Mario Kart, like
• 31:09
  all of the areas just look so much better at night because
• 31:13
  there's so much lighting and like cool stuff that happens.
• 31:16
  It's just an amazing park. I'm going to say something
• 31:19
  dramatic. Seeing the portals at night was
• 31:22
  like a borderline religious experience.
• 31:24
  Standing in the middle of Celestial Park and just doing a
• 31:28
  360 and seeing literally something that was taking you to
• 31:32
  another world. Like unbelievable.
• 31:35
  The whole thing that is a that is a night time park that is
• 31:39
  100% true. Yeah, and they did eventually
• 31:42
  for some of the the fall extend their hours to 10 PMI think this
• 31:47
  is later in our notes, but we'll chat about it now that we kind
• 31:50
  of brought it up, but it seems like they're going to kind of
• 31:53
  fluctuate between a 9:00 PM and a 10:00 PM closing.
• 31:57
  But truly, the evening hours there are are pretty
• 32:00
  spectacular. So you know, we'll we'll talk
• 32:03
  again, continue to talk about this more, but the more after
• 32:07
  dinner time that you have, you really just got a hit.
• 32:11
  Whichever your favorite portal is because it truly does change
• 32:15
  the entire experience seeing them at night.
• 32:17
  Yeah, firmly agree. And I think I think dark more in
• 32:23
  particular is was meant to be seen at night I.
• 32:28
  Think the thing about dark more is like golden hour and a little
• 32:34
  bit after. I think that's right.
• 32:37
  Like that is because that that was the time that we hit it and
• 32:39
  it was like it was perfect. And then once it got fully dark,
• 32:45
  we then circled back to some of the other portals at that point
• 32:48
  in time because we wanted to see some of them at night.
• 32:51
  And the, the thing that's crazy is that they were so smart about
• 32:55
  the way that they planned so many of these outdoor
• 32:57
  attractions in that it is a vastly different experience
• 33:02
  during the day and then at night.
• 33:04
  So it's and it's so hard to choose, right?
• 33:07
  Like it's so hard to choose what you go back to at night.
• 33:11
  But I would just encourage you to go back to whatever your
• 33:14
  favorite thing is. And again, I'll talk about this
• 33:16
  again later. I know I'm jumping like 18
• 33:18
  points ahead on our notes but but.
• 33:20
  Even to continue on what you're saying and just to like bring it
• 33:23
  back to the Express pass, if we were not as tired as we were,
• 33:28
  our flight, we were run, we were doing all of this on two hours
• 33:31
  of sleep. Yeah.
• 33:32
  Oh God, no way. Like.
• 33:33
  That the most delayed of any flight.
• 33:35
  It was crazy. We were supposed to leave at
• 33:37
  7:00. I don't think we left until like
• 33:39
  1:00 AM. Like we landed I think in
• 33:41
  Orlando at like 3:00 AM or something.
• 33:43
  Like it was crazy. It was unbelievable.
• 33:44
  We got like 3 hours of sleep and we were like, this is it though?
• 33:47
  Like we had like we were so, so excited.
• 33:50
  Nothing was going to stop us. The way that we survived so much
• 33:55
  of this day is a because of the express pass and B if we were
• 33:58
  not as tired as we were having used the express pass in the way
• 34:02
  that we did, we easily could have seen every single land at
• 34:06
  night. Like we truly could have re
• 34:08
  experienced the whole park a second time at night.
• 34:11
  And that is the appeal of the express pass.
• 34:14
  You. Truly can get so much done so
• 34:17
  quickly and I know it is very expensive.
• 34:20
  I know it may not be within everybody's budget, but if you
• 34:24
  can plan for it even one day of your whole trip packing in this
• 34:28
  express pass, for such a new park and so much to experience,
• 34:33
  it is very much worth it. I cannot recommend it enough.
• 34:37
  Yeah, absolutely. OK, back.
• 34:40
  So continue circling back. So we talked about Stardust
• 34:43
  Racers and what did you guys do after Stardust Racers with your
• 34:46
  express? So post Stardust we went right
• 34:49
  over into Harry Potter. So we run right onto Ministry.
• 34:53
  We just used the Express pass Rd.
• 34:55
  Ministry. That was the end of it.
• 34:59
  There is also the show the Cirque Arcanu.
• 35:02
  We did not do it that day, we did it the next day.
• 35:06
  It's a pretty good show. I actually enjoyed it much more
• 35:08
  than I thought that I would. It's a very fun show.
• 35:11
  There's lots of like creature elements to it, if that's your
• 35:14
  thing. We were not terribly interested
• 35:16
  that day and extending our time in the Harry Potter area, so we
• 35:19
  just burned the Express pass and got on out of there.
• 35:22
  So once we were done with the Harry Potter section, I'm so
• 35:28
  sorry, I call it Joanne's transphobic adventures and like,
• 35:31
  I just almost called attacks. I'm so sorry.
• 35:35
  I'm so you know. Don't be sorry.
• 35:38
  I'm a leave that in, yes. It's am I wrong?
• 35:42
  Am I? No, I didn't go on it because I
• 35:45
  had no desire to. I literally.
• 35:47
  Was just like, I feel like I have to experience like the
• 35:49
  technological interest in it and that was it.
• 35:53
  And but yeah, what I didn't buy anything while we were in there
• 35:56
  for. Why would I want to at this
• 35:57
  point? That woman is so horrible and
• 35:59
  hateful. Sorry, not sorry.
• 36:01
  I'm just going to talk about this forever.
• 36:02
  That woman just ruined so many people's lives with her money
• 36:05
  because she just lobbied so hard to change the definition of what
• 36:09
  a woman is and ruin so many people's lives for zero reason.
• 36:12
  She is so rich and so hateful it is unbelievable.
• 36:16
  Just shut up and be rich and be quiet.
• 36:19
  Mind your own business. Have your views in quiet.
• 36:22
  OK? Thank you everybody.
• 36:23
  Love you all. I'm.
• 36:26
  Just going to say that is the the universal opinion of Mom St.
• 36:29
  USA. So Joanne can go kick rocks so.
• 36:34
  We're going to, we're going to leave it at that.
• 36:36
  So let's continue on to the best part in your opinion of Epic.
• 36:42
  Let's talk about dark more now that we haven't already talked
• 36:44
  about dark more. I'll talk more, I will talk
• 36:47
  about dark more until I die. I loved everything in the
• 36:50
  section so we so we went into dark more.
• 36:55
  We walked around a little bit, experienced it some and then we,
• 37:00
  I would say incorrectly chose to use our Curse of the Werewolf
• 37:06
  express pass right then and there.
• 37:08
  That is a ride. I would say the two rides that
• 37:11
  100% were meant to be seen at night are Stardust Racers and
• 37:15
  Curse of the Werewolf. When we rode Curse of the
• 37:18
  Werewolf during the day, I was violently disappointed.
• 37:21
  I was not happy. I thought it was I it was like
• 37:24
  it was very fine, just fine. But I wouldn't have waited more
• 37:27
  than like 10 minutes for it. When I went on it at night, my
• 37:31
  opinion entirely changed. That is a ride that is designed
• 37:35
  to be at night. It is scarier, it is more
• 37:39
  thrilling and more intense. And if you get lucky enough to
• 37:43
  time it right, there is a certain curve that as you are
• 37:47
  going up because it's a coaster, but it also spins you.
• 37:50
  In 360 we got so lucky because as we when we wrote it at night
• 37:54
  the next day as we were spinning then coming around the corner,
• 37:59
  the Burning Blade Taverns fire went on so.
• 38:02
  Love, that's awesome so. Lucky like as we were timing it,
• 38:05
  but yeah. Like.
• 38:06
  Everything about that ride is so so much better at night, even
• 38:09
  without like that nice little bonus of the burning blade going
• 38:12
  on. So like our advice is experience
• 38:16
  what you want in here, walk around, have a good time, say hi
• 38:19
  to the Invisible Man, talk to Igor, ride the Frankenstein
• 38:23
  experiment 47 times, and then go experience other things in the
• 38:27
  park and come back for Curse of the Werewolf.
• 38:30
  At night. See, that's so interesting you
• 38:32
  say that because I did ride Curse of the Werewolf at night
• 38:35
  when we went on it too. I was also underwhelmed yeah by
• 38:42
  that ride in general. I wish it were longer.
• 38:45
  Agreed. Yeah, and I completely missed I
• 38:51
  I don't want to spoil it through.
• 38:53
  The barn scene, yes. Completely missed it.
• 38:55
  Yes, so I. Will and then and I turned to
• 38:58
  Katie and I went, wait, what? There was like I realized I
• 39:02
  missed something because it just looked like an empty barn.
• 39:05
  And I was like, there is no possible way that is an empty
• 39:08
  barn. Yeah, and it's not for those of
• 39:11
  you listening is so when you when you are.
• 39:13
  Yeah. But it it's so dependent on how
• 39:16
  you're turning because the ride vehicle, imagine Cosmic Rewind
• 39:22
  if you've been on that at Disney, where the the individual
• 39:24
  cars spin right, but you are seated back-to-back.
• 39:28
  Yes. So it really is your, the great
• 39:31
  thing about it is your, your experience changes every time
• 39:34
  you ride it because you're in a different part of the vehicle
• 39:36
  and you're going to be likely on a different part of the rotation
• 39:39
  of your vehicle at every different aspect of the ride.
• 39:42
  That part I think is genius, but I think it is so dependent.
• 39:45
  And I think I got really unlucky about the way in which I was
• 39:49
  facing you. I don't want to give spoilers.
• 39:54
  I did, I, I was able to figure out what I missed very quickly
• 39:59
  and I'm going to leave it at that because I don't want to
• 40:01
  give spoilers about the way in which the ride operates.
• 40:04
  So I, I'm hit or miss with that one.
• 40:06
  I personally would not wait longer than about 20 to 25
• 40:10
  minutes for that ride. I think that's fair.
• 40:13
  And I will also say the first time that we wrote it, we had
• 40:16
  that problem where where we didn't really spin because of
• 40:21
  our, the, we got paired with somebody and like the weight
• 40:23
  distribution just didn't work out right spin you enough.
• 40:26
  When we went back the next day with our friends Lemuel and
• 40:30
  Ashley, the weight distribution like who sat diagonally
• 40:34
  back-to-back across from who worked out perfectly.
• 40:37
  So we spun a ton, we saw everything and we got like that
• 40:42
  little burning blade situations. So like I I would totally agree
• 40:46
  that it is very situationally dependent.
• 40:49
  I think it was a fun ride. It wasn't quite what I was
• 40:52
  expecting for a werewolf themed coaster.
• 40:55
  Agreed. But I'm I'm with you where I
• 40:57
  wouldn't if I had to do standby probably 25 1/2 hours the Max I
• 41:01
  would do I would not. I would not do further and
• 41:04
  riding it at night also will help your I think your opinion
• 41:07
  of it. Yes, I do think like thinking
• 41:10
  about if I had ridden it during the day, I don't think I would
• 41:12
  have even had. I think I would have had even
• 41:14
  lesser of an opinion of it just because I think you do need some
• 41:18
  dark. So like again, golden hour
• 41:20
  twilight into it being dark is a really good time just for
• 41:23
  anything in dark more. And the great thing about the
• 41:26
  way that Universal did it and continues to do it is like all
• 41:30
  of the experiences stay out late in dark more so you still get
• 41:35
  Igor and the Invisible Man and the wandering, the violinists
• 41:39
  that are like the storytellers, like all of that exists very
• 41:42
  late into the evening. So like you're not going to,
• 41:45
  chances are good you're not going to like miss out on
• 41:48
  experiencing something in there just because you're waiting to
• 41:51
  do it until later in the night. So I love that Universal like
• 41:55
  thought ahead on that and made sure that the experience remains
• 41:59
  later into the evening. Yep, agreed.
• 42:02
  Yeah. Cool.
• 42:04
  OK, what were we talking about? So we wrote Werewolf Wouldn't do
• 42:08
  that that time again. Got it.
• 42:10
  Then wrote Frankenstein Experiment an untold number of
• 42:12
  times. Once.
• 42:14
  Once Jess dragged me away from Frankenstein Experiment and
• 42:17
  stopped me from spending my life savings in that gift shop, we
• 42:22
  headed over to Super Nintendo World because that is then next
• 42:26
  in the portal sequence. Actually, I think we stopped by
• 42:28
  the carousel, we rode the carousel, we burned the express
• 42:33
  pass because already it was a long wait.
• 42:35
  I personally to do again, I would have waited until actually
• 42:40
  it was dark and then use the express pass and get back on
• 42:44
  there. But at that point we were
• 42:45
  delirious. It was not.
• 42:46
  We were just like, I just get on the carousel, whatever.
• 42:49
  That carousel is fantastic. Please understand, do not like,
• 42:55
  do not think that it is like some overrated.
• 42:58
  No, it is wonderful and magical. Please write it, it's beautiful.
• 43:03
  I would call it less of the carousel and more of a well
• 43:06
  coordinated dance. Yeah, it was unbelieving.
• 43:09
  I don't want to give away more than that, but it's beautiful.
• 43:12
  And next time we go, I'm going to prioritize making sure that
• 43:15
  we can ride it when it's actually dark out because you
• 43:18
  could you can see it and it it made such a difference.
• 43:21
  But we just wanted to make sure that we got on it.
• 43:23
  And again, we were delirious. So at some point, sometimes
• 43:26
  through at some point through the day, you're just like, just
• 43:28
  take my express pass, get me on there.
• 43:30
  I just, I love, I love being here, but I'm so tired just
• 43:33
  taking right. Right.
• 43:34
  And again, all of these rides are so great at night, but you
• 43:37
  have to make some decisions about what you want to do.
• 43:40
  So like Duck was mentioning Stardust Racers, again, you may
• 43:44
  be able to squeeze in the constellation carousel right
• 43:46
  after Stardust because they are fairly close, both being in
• 43:51
  Celestial. Celestial, thank you.
• 43:51
  I was like, what is the name in Celestial?
• 43:54
  So keep that in mind, but you really, you really kind of have
• 43:57
  to pick and choose which ones you're most anticipating riding.
• 44:02
  And if it is Stardust Racers, Curse of the Werewolf or I would
• 44:06
  even throw in Hiccup Swing Gliders too because that is a
• 44:10
  completely different experience at night.
• 44:13
  Those would be ones that I would suggest night time for.
• 44:16
  Yeah, I think that's very fair. So once we headed into Super
• 44:20
  Nintendo World, this is then when we used our Express pass
• 44:24
  for Minecart Madness. So we got one ride in in the
• 44:28
  morning and then when we came back, I think it was like an
• 44:30
  hour and change wait for standby.
• 44:32
  So we were like Express please, thank you.
• 44:35
  Basically walked right on. It was a really easy experience.
• 44:39
  I will say they've done a a great job as high as these
• 44:42
  weights can get. Most of these things are very
• 44:44
  high capacity rides like with the exception of the one thing
• 44:47
  that we're talking about in the Isle of Burke Dragon Racers
• 44:50
  Rally, I think it was. They've done a really good job
• 44:53
  of making things. So a lot of people get on very
• 44:55
  quickly. So once we rode Minecart
• 44:59
  Madness, it was then time for dinner because we were getting
• 45:02
  hangry. It's been many hours since we've
• 45:05
  eaten at this point, so since we were in pretty close proximity
• 45:09
  to it, we tried Toadstool Cafe. This place can get pretty busy
• 45:14
  but then move people through here pretty quickly.
• 45:16
  It is much larger on the inside than you would expect.
• 45:18
  It was a little surprising because as you're going through
• 45:22
  it, so you walk in and it's sort of like the switch back queue,
• 45:25
  as if when you get to the counter, you're going to order
• 45:27
  and then go sit down. And that's not like that's sort
• 45:31
  of true, but not really. Because then you continue on
• 45:35
  down a hallway and all of a sudden it opens up into a giant
• 45:37
  cafeteria. And then you QR code order,
• 45:39
  which is the best thing that Universal has ever done.
• 45:42
  Just order what you want and it shows up at your table.
• 45:45
  It's the most efficient thing ever.
• 45:47
  But yeah, so it was pretty busy and we waited like maybe 10
• 45:51
  minutes really was not. I wasn't long.
• 45:52
  It wasn't anything fatal. So yeah, they do a pretty good
• 45:56
  job of moving people through there.
• 45:57
  And the food was pretty good. I was pretty happy with it.
• 46:01
  The whole tiramisuke was like surprisingly good it.
• 46:03
  Was so cute. It was very cute, like all the
• 46:06
  food steaming is very cute. Like there's little garlic knots
• 46:09
  that look like Toad and like, or like little mushrooms and
• 46:13
  they're tiramisu thing looked like the little locks that you
• 46:17
  hit. Yeah.
• 46:18
  Like, so it's, it was all very cute and very well themed, you
• 46:22
  know, to the Mario universe. Yeah, they did good.
• 46:27
  So once you are sufficient have sat down for a sufficient amount
• 46:32
  of time. We were at this point again,
• 46:35
  because we were running on three hours, we were both just like
• 46:37
  sort of pushing the crumbs of the question mark tiramisu
• 46:40
  around our plates and like staring at each other and
• 46:43
  contemplating our life choices before we stood up again.
• 46:46
  So once once you go through that minor crisis or hopefully you
• 46:50
  don't have it, but should you have it, you totes, totes to
• 46:54
  cafe is a great place to think about your choices as there's a
• 47:00
  billion screens around you of toad screaming.
• 47:04
  You just you just have to think about how you wound up in this
• 47:08
  situation. So once once you have reaffirmed
• 47:12
  your life decisions, then you can head out back into the
• 47:17
  world. So this is now roughly when the
• 47:20
  sun is starting to go down. And like we said before, it is
• 47:25
  it is a night time park. You're going to have to make
• 47:28
  some decisions as to what you want to see.
• 47:31
  If you have saved some of your express passes, you can probably
• 47:35
  go back in. Like if you chose not to use it
• 47:37
  for Hiccups Wing Glider, that would be a good one to go use
• 47:40
  your Stardust Racer. So you're going to have to make
• 47:42
  some decisions. But more than anything, enjoy
• 47:46
  the park at night. Just look around, take it in
• 47:50
  because it is everywhere you look.
• 47:52
  It is on believable at night. It is truly so impressive.
• 47:57
  Every single inch of that park was designed with the visuals of
• 48:02
  night time. Everything's lit beautifully.
• 48:05
  Everything, the portals, the light of the portals in the
• 48:08
  distance is unbelievable. Like really it's it's so
• 48:11
  impressive. And once you have had your fill
• 48:14
  of rides and taking an atmosphere and whatnot, there is
• 48:20
  also a fountain show that we caught at the end.
• 48:23
  It is I, I think you put this a little later in the notes that
• 48:27
  it's not Disney fireworks people.
• 48:30
  It's not temper your expectations, but it's fun.
• 48:33
  It's a lot and it's something cute.
• 48:35
  And I don't want to, you know, spoil too, too much about it,
• 48:38
  but it happens. I think it's like 10 minutes
• 48:41
  before. Close right at Park close.
• 48:43
  It's right at Park close. OK, yes, yeah.
• 48:45
  So, but it's very fun. It's like a great way to cap off
• 48:49
  a very long, very fun day. We're just sitting and watching
• 48:53
  like a celebration of epic is really what that fountain show
• 48:56
  is. So if you can, if you can make
• 49:00
  time at the end of the night, you're not trying to squeeze in
• 49:02
  one more ride on Frankenstein experiment, It's it's definitely
• 49:05
  worth it. It really is.
• 49:07
  Yeah, I, we kind of opted out of it.
• 49:10
  I again spoiled by Disney, right?
• 49:14
  Like, and I don't need fireworks, but like, I just felt
• 49:17
  a little, a little underwhelmed by their fountain show.
• 49:21
  It was fine. It's no fantasmic by any by any
• 49:26
  means. You know what I mean?
• 49:27
  Like you got to think like like fountain show, water show.
• 49:30
  Like it's not that like it's it's cute.
• 49:33
  It's a fun little like recap, I guess is the the best spoiler
• 49:39
  freeway that I can describe it of everything that you have
• 49:43
  seen, but it's just it, it was it was fine.
• 49:47
  So we kind of wandered out and listened.
• 49:50
  I know a lot of people like to sit and they have like a lot of
• 49:52
  seating areas kind of all around, which is nice.
• 49:56
  So like if you're just like I need a break before I trek out
• 49:58
  to the buses or trek out to my car because it's kind of a trek
• 50:01
  from the front gates all the way out.
• 50:04
  Totally valid, totally fair. It's a great thing to do.
• 50:06
  But we just kind of wandered and listened and watched and, but we
• 50:09
  didn't really like stop and watch it.
• 50:12
  Yeah, I think that's fair. I think it just comes down to
• 50:15
  whatever you want to prioritize, right?
• 50:17
  Like, so we did it the second day.
• 50:20
  So we felt like we had seen and done everything and it was like
• 50:24
  just like the cap off of our night with that.
• 50:27
  We were hanging out with friends, right?
• 50:28
  So like to us it was like the perfect way to end that
• 50:31
  particular day. But again, like if you only have
• 50:35
  one day, you may not want to burn it on that.
• 50:38
  You may want to go get a ride on Curse of the Werewolf or see if
• 50:41
  you can sneak in on Mario Kart or something, right?
• 50:45
  Like it really it is. It is fun and it is enjoyable,
• 50:49
  but it is not so important that I would say skip a ride that you
• 50:55
  really want to ride in favor of this fountain show.
• 50:58
  Yeah, for sure. And it wouldn't surprise me.
• 51:00
  Anna in our chat here kind of hinted at they may be adding to
• 51:03
  it. It wouldn't surprise me if they
• 51:05
  add more to that show. We saw what they were capable of
• 51:10
  the open the official opening night of Epic Universe.
• 51:13
  They did a lot with fireworks and drones and all that kind of
• 51:17
  stuff. So my guess is they are in talks
• 51:20
  and negotiations and chatting about how they can do more.
• 51:25
  They're just not quite there yet.
• 51:26
  Maybe they've got some hoops they've got to jump through.
• 51:29
  I heard that potentially if they want to use drones, they need
• 51:32
  it. They need to reconfigure like
• 51:34
  safe landing zones for them and things.
• 51:37
  So I think there's there's more to come, but we'll we'll see.
• 51:41
  So. I, I suspect there will then be
• 51:46
  a drone based celebration for every area, perhaps additional
• 51:50
  fireworks, but I think some of the challenges with fireworks in
• 51:54
  particular are how those spaces are configured and how close
• 51:59
  fireworks would have to be set off near everything, right.
• 52:02
  So I think that maybe drones are the, but of course, like you
• 52:06
  said, there's an FAA regulations and like there's a lot that goes
• 52:08
  into it. And I think if they just spent
• 52:10
  like $70 billion or whatever on this park and so like the drones
• 52:15
  can wait, enjoy the water shooting 50 feet in the air.
• 52:19
  That's what you're getting for now.
• 52:20
  Let's let's just what more do you for now?
• 52:22
  What more do you people want from us?
• 52:24
  Like I think that I think they're like, we will spend more
• 52:27
  money in short order, but just hang tight.
• 52:30
  So true, so true. Perfect.
• 52:32
  OK, so I think that kind of in a nutshell is our suggestions for
• 52:37
  using Express. Let's talk about what to do if
• 52:42
  you do not have Express at the park.
• 52:47
  Yeah, OK. This park is so challenging and
• 52:52
  we said this at the beginning. It's brand new.
• 52:55
  It's going to feel brand new for the next several years because
• 52:58
  it's going to take several years for a lot of people to get to
• 53:01
  Epic, right? And it is very inconsistent.
• 53:05
  They're still kinks that they're working out.
• 53:08
  We're, we're a lot better now than we were several months ago,
• 53:12
  but it's just still so new. So this is our best suggestion.
• 53:17
  And you're going to hear like you could do this or this or
• 53:20
  this, and then you could do this or this or this, as we talked
• 53:23
  about this because there's just so many options that truly have
• 53:26
  to be tailored to your particular group.
• 53:29
  With Express, it's a little bit different because you truly
• 53:32
  should be able to hit I'd say 85% of things using your Express
• 53:37
  pass minimum, right, if not 100%.
• 53:40
  Without Express, you really have to pick and choose,
• 53:43
  unfortunately, if you've only got one day.
• 53:45
  So it is especially, especially critical to choose those top
• 53:50
  three rides and be prepared for a lot of walking because the
• 53:55
  thing about the way that Epic is set up, which we haven't really
• 53:57
  touched on yet, we talked about the stairs, but we didn't really
• 54:00
  talk about the way in which the park is set up.
• 54:03
  So it is a hub and spoke park, but the spokes are not connected
• 54:08
  to each other. So you have to return to the
• 54:12
  hub, which is celestial in order to re access a different portal.
• 54:17
  So it's a lot of in and out and back and forth.
• 54:20
  So a lot of one way pathways kind of to to and when you think
• 54:25
  about it in that regards. So you've just really got to be
• 54:29
  prepared to to do a lot of that kind of in and out and Criss
• 54:33
  crossing across the park. My suggestions, because this is
• 54:37
  so new of a park, I didn't want to kind of just give some
• 54:40
  generalized suggestions. Again, we talked about Epic.
• 54:42
  We gave more details earlier this year on our Universal
• 54:45
  series about what is what and what rides are what.
• 54:49
  But that was again, before we had all been to Epic.
• 54:52
  So this is my suggestion and Duck and Jess will weigh in as
• 54:56
  they see fit. Of course, if you are a thrill
• 54:59
  ride person, your priorities are going to want to be Stardust
• 55:04
  racers. You already talked heard us talk
• 55:06
  about this. Ideally at night, Hiccup Swing
• 55:08
  gliders could be day or night Minecart Madness, Curse of the
• 55:12
  Werewolf and Battle of the Ministry.
• 55:14
  So those five are like your top five and just pick based on what
• 55:18
  you your theme is that you think you'll like the most.
• 55:21
  You already heard, Let's talk about Curse of the Werewolf.
• 55:25
  Hiccup Swing Gliders was my favorite attraction in all of
• 55:28
  epic, so I cried it. It was so good.
• 55:33
  I'm not. It was so good.
• 55:34
  When you hear all right spoilers for just a hot second, Fast
• 55:39
  forward fast. Fast forward a few seconds if
• 55:41
  you don't want to hear them. I'm.
• 55:42
  Going to say it as quick as possible when when that song
• 55:46
  kicks in, cry. I literally like just gonna
• 55:50
  text. I started like, I don't know
• 55:54
  what came over me. My I just all of a sudden tears
• 55:57
  streaming down my face like it was unbelievable.
• 56:00
  It hit so. Hard.
• 56:02
  I was not expecting to get as emotional as I did.
• 56:05
  I was not expecting to love the details of that ride as much as
• 56:09
  I did. Yes, I have like a deep
• 56:11
  connection. Unsurprising.
• 56:13
  I'm connected to a lot of things.
• 56:14
  I'm a very emotional person. But like, I really, really love
• 56:22
  How to Train Your Dragon, especially like the first first
• 56:25
  one, the animated one, and you feel like you're flying and the
• 56:31
  soundtrack, you felt, you feel like Hiccup flying.
• 56:34
  Like it's unbelievable. Truly.
• 56:36
  It is a fantastic ride. Well, intrigued.
• 56:40
  So yeah, I'm 100% with you. That was an unexpected favorite
• 56:44
  of mine. I didn't think I would care for
• 56:46
  it as much as I did. I knew I'd like it.
• 56:48
  I mean, it's a coaster and it's How to Train Your Dragon.
• 56:49
  I was gonna like it, but I didn't think I would love it the
• 56:52
  way that I did. I really fully with you on that
• 56:55
  one. Yes.
• 56:56
  OK, Spoilers over. Feel free to listen.
• 56:59
  Spoilers over. Spoilers are over.
• 57:01
  Welcome back. OK, welcome back.
• 57:03
  Yes. So those are your like thrill
• 57:06
  ride priorities. Again, I know that's five
• 57:08
  attractions, but that's just the way that the park is set up.
• 57:12
  Now. If you are more of like a theme
• 57:15
  person or like a vibes person, you like dark rides kind of you
• 57:19
  don't really need the thrill. The carousel we talked about
• 57:23
  fantastic, amazing, love it. Yoshi's adventure, so super
• 57:28
  cute. If you are a Mario or
• 57:30
  specifically a Yoshi fan, it is. It is such an adorable ride, the
• 57:36
  Mario Kart ride as well, which is what Bowser's Challenge I
• 57:39
  think is the technical name of it.
• 57:41
  I don't know, Everyone refers to these as like nicknames and I
• 57:44
  get lost with all of that, but it's the one too many words.
• 57:47
  Mario Kart, Whatever. Yes, and then also you heard us
• 57:50
  talked about Monsters Unchained. This is a thrill ride at the
• 57:54
  same time. So keep that in mind that it is
• 57:57
  not a nice relaxing ride through Frankenstein Manor.
• 58:02
  It's not a. Haunted Mansion or no, but
• 58:05
  right. Exactly.
• 58:06
  But the theming, it's a. Small world, small.
• 58:11
  World, Oh my gosh. But yes, the theming of that one
• 58:16
  is Immaculate. So like don't skip it.
• 58:19
  If you enjoy themed rides, dark rides, you have to go on that
• 58:23
  one. So those are kind of my 2 sided
• 58:26
  suggestions depending on your particular preference.
• 58:30
  I'm just going to say really quick, if you're a vibes person,
• 58:33
  there are a lot of character interactions, a lot of shows
• 58:37
  that are really good to it's the untrainable dragon over at Burke
• 58:42
  is really good. Again, not that I love Harry
• 58:45
  Potter and that situation, but the Cirque Arcanine was a is a
• 58:48
  fun, entertaining show. So that's something good to
• 58:51
  check out. And over in dark more, there's
• 58:54
  like roaming characters that are very interesting and fun to
• 58:56
  interact with. And they also have, I think they
• 58:59
  have the bride and Frankenstein as meet and greets that you can
• 59:03
  get your photos with. And I believe you are correct.
• 59:06
  Yeah, and they also do like face painting.
• 59:09
  Just a note about Epic, you really need to be prepared
• 59:12
  without express to wait a minimum of 45 minutes at almost
• 59:16
  all of these attractions. If something is 30 minutes, 25
• 59:20
  minutes, go on it. Don't even go on it.
• 59:24
  It doesn't matter what it is, get in.
• 59:25
  Line yeah because you it's it's at most times of the year that
• 59:31
  is going to be your minimum weight for everything.
• 59:33
  Now that also being said things like Ministry of Magic, minecart
• 59:37
  madness, some of those get up to 100 and 82110 minutes.
• 59:40
  So like you got to pack your patient pants and really make
• 59:46
  your your itinerary accordingly. Additionally, most rides at epic
• 59:51
  Doox also have a single rider line and we do highly recommend
• 59:54
  you take advantage of that. If you're willing to split your
• 59:57
  party up for the ride, you will wait in line together, but when
• 1:00:00
  you get to the front you will divide technically from all of
• 1:00:05
  the research I did. Universal does not have a strict
• 1:00:09
  set policy on age limits for using the single rider line,
• 1:00:14
  which I thought was fascinating. You do have a height limit
• 1:00:17
  obviously that you need to be able to be eligible to ride that
• 1:00:21
  ride, so keep in mind you will separate from your child in this
• 1:00:26
  line. You have to please be sure that
• 1:00:30
  they are 200% OK riding without you because that is what will
• 1:00:37
  happen. It is very, very, very rare that
• 1:00:40
  you end up with your person. It does happen, but you cannot
• 1:00:44
  count on it. You cannot ask for that to
• 1:00:47
  happen. If you are in the single rider
• 1:00:49
  line, please don't be that person.
• 1:00:52
  Just public service announcement in any single rider line, you
• 1:00:55
  have to understand that you are going to be separated from the
• 1:00:57
  people you're standing in line with.
• 1:00:59
  Yeah. Absolutely.
• 1:01:01
  I've seen team members absolutely do their best to to
• 1:01:05
  get people on the same train together, right.
• 1:01:08
  So you're out fully separated, but it's luck of the draw.
• 1:01:11
  It's what's available. Please don't put the team
• 1:01:13
  members in an unfortunate situation because you are
• 1:01:16
  agreeing by going in the single rider line that you were OK
• 1:01:19
  being a single rider. Sure, you may get lucky and that
• 1:01:22
  would be great, but you're agreeing to be the single rider.
• 1:01:25
  So that's the PSA. Don't get mad at them.
• 1:01:28
  You are a single rider by being in that line.
• 1:01:30
  That's what you're agreeing to. Yeah.
• 1:01:32
  And keep in mind the fact that like my 6 year old now 7 year
• 1:01:36
  old, but like when she was 6, she was 48 inches.
• 1:01:41
  Are you OK putting your 6 year old 7 year old on one of these
• 1:01:46
  attractions had. Visions of of your child on
• 1:01:49
  curse of the werewolf alone and that was not like in a bad way,
• 1:01:53
  but where she's just like nothing's happening like she had
• 1:01:55
  the same experience that you did right went through the barn and
• 1:01:58
  nothing was happening and she's like, this is silly like that's
• 1:02:02
  the vision that I just had that she.
• 1:02:03
  Yup, she got off that way. I'd let you know how dumb it
• 1:02:05
  was. With the attitude and the finger
• 1:02:07
  and everything. Cuz she.
• 1:02:09
  What was that? That is her.
• 1:02:10
  Yup. Uh huh, yes.
• 1:02:13
  But I will just disclaimer your single rider lines at Epic
• 1:02:17
  include Curse of the Werewolf, Battle of the Ministry, Mario
• 1:02:21
  Kart, Bowser's Challenge, There's the full name, Minecart
• 1:02:24
  Madness, Monsters Unchained, and Stardust Racer.
• 1:02:26
  So all of those do have single rider lines.
• 1:02:29
  If that is something that your group is comfortable utilizing.
• 1:02:33
  Highly, highly, highly suggest you use them now.
• 1:02:36
  Some of them are better than others, so keep that in mind.
• 1:02:40
  It's really luck of the draw. A lot of that is so touch and go
• 1:02:44
  and inconsistent right now because these team members are
• 1:02:48
  still figuring out the best way and the leaders of these rides
• 1:02:51
  are still figuring out the best way to move people through their
• 1:02:54
  queues and how to best utilize those single rider lines.
• 1:02:57
  So just keep that in mind. Some of them are better than
• 1:03:01
  others, but it's really kind of hard to predict what you may
• 1:03:05
  encounter and most of the time they will be the same length as
• 1:03:10
  your standby queue or a little bit shorter right at the at the
• 1:03:14
  least. Very rarely will you wait longer
• 1:03:18
  than the standby queue in a single rider line, but it is
• 1:03:21
  possible, so just keep that in mind.
• 1:03:24
  Single rider doesn't always mean super fast.
• 1:03:29
  Agreed. It's a lot, I know.
• 1:03:31
  And I know that's very contradictory of what I said
• 1:03:33
  because we suggested you use them, but but it's it is what it
• 1:03:38
  is. Right.
• 1:03:38
  And we put that and we put that disclaimer there because it's
• 1:03:42
  also really hard to tell how it's going to behave, right?
• 1:03:45
  We've had Hagrid's around for so long.
• 1:03:47
  We know that there's like a pretty good chance that you're
• 1:03:50
  going to be waiting a good amount of time in that single
• 1:03:52
  rider line. It is not necessarily going to
• 1:03:54
  save you time. It's really hard to tell with
• 1:03:57
  some of these because it's all so new.
• 1:04:00
  And like you said, not only are we waiting for team member
• 1:04:03
  behavior and, and their understanding of how to direct
• 1:04:05
  these lines, we also don't know guest behavior, right?
• 1:04:08
  Like I can tell you for a fact that most coasters, people are
• 1:04:12
  paired up, they're in groups of two, four or six, right?
• 1:04:15
  But some of these rides may lend themselves to different
• 1:04:19
  configurations. Or you know, like Frankenstein
• 1:04:22
  Experiment is the perfect example.
• 1:04:24
  You know, there's generally going to be like 1 space.
• 1:04:27
  Somebody may chicken out, they might be in line with them and
• 1:04:29
  they may decide that I don't want to do this, so they may
• 1:04:31
  take the check and exit. Or maybe they just wanted to see
• 1:04:33
  the queue so they may exit, which would free up a space.
• 1:04:36
  Now Frankenstein Experiment really moves people through
• 1:04:39
  fast. So the single rider line is is
• 1:04:43
  there, but you may not necessarily need it because I
• 1:04:45
  really make people through, but you know, so it's kind of hard
• 1:04:48
  to tell how team member behavior and guest behavior impacts the
• 1:04:53
  single rider line. You generally will be able to go
• 1:04:57
  faster, but sometimes you have an outlier like Hagrid's where
• 1:05:00
  you're not going to. So we can't fully blanket
• 1:05:03
  recommend one single rider line over the other because this park
• 1:05:06
  is frankly too new. I love to revisit this two or
• 1:05:09
  three years down the line when we can see what happens and and
• 1:05:13
  see what's happening, right. It's all so new.
• 1:05:16
  So if you have the opportunity to try the single rider line for
• 1:05:20
  something that has a long wait, we say gamble it, but understand
• 1:05:23
  that there's a chance you'll be waiting just as long.
• 1:05:26
  Yeah, it's fine as racers like a two across situation, right.
• 1:05:30
  So I could see that having the same kind of situation as
• 1:05:32
  Hagrid's because most people are at least with one other person.
• 1:05:35
  So then that is like even pairs going through for the most part
• 1:05:39
  unless someone has like somebody that didn't want to ride with
• 1:05:41
  them or something. So right.
• 1:05:43
  And most of these attractions are even seating twos, twos and
• 1:05:49
  force, right? So that's where it's just you
• 1:05:52
  just don't know what's going to happen.
• 1:05:53
  But you know, it's the same as looking at the Disney single
• 1:05:56
  rider lines that we have, right? Look at something like Rock and
• 1:05:59
  roller Coaster, which is terrible as a single rider line,
• 1:06:04
  but then look at something even though it's two across.
• 1:06:07
  But then look at something like Expedition Everest, which is
• 1:06:09
  also two across, which is a phenomenal single, right single
• 1:06:12
  rider line that is super fast. You just never know.
• 1:06:15
  And it really just depends on the attraction and the park and
• 1:06:19
  the situation. But from what I've seen and the
• 1:06:22
  research we've done, the single rider lines usually are faster.
• 1:06:29
  But just be be warned, you've heard our disclaimer.
• 1:06:32
  Be warned before we yes, before we jump into the suggested
• 1:06:37
  itinerary, just do keep in mind that when you are creating these
• 1:06:43
  top three rides, you may truly, especially during busy times of
• 1:06:48
  the year, want to plan to do one of your top three during each
• 1:06:52
  block of time. So like plan for one in the
• 1:06:54
  morning, 1:00 in the afternoon, one in the evening to kind of
• 1:06:59
  separate out because those are going to likely be your longest
• 1:07:02
  waits are the ones that you're most interested in going on.
• 1:07:04
  Unfortunately, that's just the way the park works.
• 1:07:06
  So if you can spread those out a little bit, it might save you
• 1:07:09
  some sanity. It might save your legs a little
• 1:07:12
  bit. So keep that in mind.
• 1:07:14
  And then in between, there's still a ton to do.
• 1:07:16
  If you're not waiting in line, you can.
• 1:07:18
  There's so much to look at and experience and wander.
• 1:07:20
  We've talked about a lot of it already and I'll continue to
• 1:07:22
  talk more about it as we go through this itinerary here.
• 1:07:25
  But just kind of keep that in mind.
• 1:07:27
  So you're not standing in line literally all day and exhausting
• 1:07:31
  your ability to be able to continue to stand in line later
• 1:07:35
  in the day because the the wait times do tend to kind of dip off
• 1:07:39
  after dinner time. So that's kind of been a trend
• 1:07:43
  so far. Again, we are less than we're,
• 1:07:48
  we're barely over six months of the park being open, right.
• 1:07:52
  So, but that has been the trend so far that it tends to about
• 1:07:56
  5-6 O clock at night. Those weights do tend to go down
• 1:07:59
  so little bit less in the morning.
• 1:08:02
  Kind of think about some of those rides you can wait to do
• 1:08:05
  at night and just be prepared to like fly through them.
• 1:08:09
  So OK, let's talk about itinerary in the morning.
• 1:08:15
  A lot of what you do first is going to depend on if you have
• 1:08:18
  early entry or not. So again, early entry at Epic is
• 1:08:22
  open to Universal Hotel guests and they get one hour before the
• 1:08:25
  park open. Right now the park is opening at
• 1:08:27
  10, which puts your early entry at 9:00.
• 1:08:30
  That makes a massive difference in you being able to achieve
• 1:08:35
  things at the park. So if you have early entry,
• 1:08:40
  you're going to hear me say this is very similar to what Duncan
• 1:08:42
  just talked about with Express, either Nintendo or Harry Potter,
• 1:08:45
  and that's going to depend on your preference.
• 1:08:48
  If going on the Battle of the Ministry is your top choice, you
• 1:08:50
  need to head there immediately there.
• 1:08:52
  There is no other option other than to head there immediately
• 1:08:56
  because it will get at least a three hour wait daily at the
• 1:09:00
  park regardless of of busy time minimum.
• 1:09:02
  At least if it doesn't open with early entry, which does happen
• 1:09:07
  occasionally and it's announced prior to right, It's not just
• 1:09:11
  like a down situation. You need to line up at least 30
• 1:09:15
  minutes prior to it opening. So let's say for some reason it
• 1:09:18
  has a known delayed start. It's not going to open until 10.
• 1:09:22
  You need to line up by 9:30 at the very latest to get ready to
• 1:09:27
  position yourself appropriately to get into that area literally
• 1:09:31
  ready to go. Power Walk safely.
• 1:09:34
  Do not elbow anybody. Yes.
• 1:09:36
  Exactly. Now, if you are with a group
• 1:09:40
  that can move quickly and you know Ministry of Magic is not
• 1:09:44
  going to open right away, you could in theory try to hit your
• 1:09:49
  top Nintendo ride first and then book it over to Ministry.
• 1:09:54
  If you have a group that can move quickly, If you've got
• 1:09:57
  littles with little legs that cannot, that's probably not an
• 1:10:00
  option. And you're going to have to just
• 1:10:02
  pivot and reconsider your pathway to get to Ministry and
• 1:10:06
  maybe pick something that's quick along that pathway,
• 1:10:10
  possibly something like the carousel to kind of knock it out
• 1:10:13
  and get at least something done before that time happens.
• 1:10:18
  Again. It's just so dependent on what
• 1:10:20
  happens with that, with those rides in the morning.
• 1:10:23
  Now, again, if you go to Nintendo, you should be able to
• 1:10:27
  fly through all three of those rides.
• 1:10:29
  Minecart Madness is going to be your top ride that you want to
• 1:10:31
  get done first. So go there first.
• 1:10:33
  Even though it does have a single rider line, That single
• 1:10:36
  rider line, again, we talked about, you never know.
• 1:10:39
  Yeah, you never know. So that one you're going to want
• 1:10:42
  to go to 1st and then you're going to want to hit the Mario
• 1:10:46
  Kart ride and then Yoshi's if that's something you are
• 1:10:49
  interested in doing, or wait and come back to it if the the wait
• 1:10:51
  is too long. At that point in time, if you do
• 1:10:55
  not have early entry, there is no hope in going to Nintendo or
• 1:11:02
  Harry Potter first. It's just not.
• 1:11:04
  It's just not likely unless you hit a day where it's very slow
• 1:11:09
  in the mornings and you look at the wait times and they look
• 1:11:12
  pretty good. OK, then you need to power walk
• 1:11:15
  with the best of them to get where you're trying to go at
• 1:11:18
  that point in time. So if you if those two are out,
• 1:11:22
  you're going to want to go obviously to either Burke or
• 1:11:24
  Dark Universe. I suggest Burke first if it were
• 1:11:28
  me because Dark Universe does definitely start to trickle out
• 1:11:32
  at night even though it's better at night.
• 1:11:34
  The weights are a lot slower at night just by nature of the park
• 1:11:38
  with when it comes to that. So just pick your pick your kind
• 1:11:42
  of options in Burke 1st and then and then go from there.
• 1:11:47
  Now, if meeting Toothless is important to you, that needs to
• 1:11:54
  be the first thing that you do in Burke, especially if you do
• 1:11:56
  not have early entry. You need to be lined up ready to
• 1:12:01
  get into Burke at least 30 minutes prior to the opening and
• 1:12:05
  you need to go straight to that line to be ready because that is
• 1:12:08
  almost like the second longest line in the park aside from
• 1:12:11
  Ministry of Magic. You are, you're laughing.
• 1:12:14
  But that's objectively true. Yeah, it's crazy, actually, yes,
• 1:12:19
  a little surprising. And, you know, I think it's a
• 1:12:25
  combination of how Toothless is hanging out in the park with
• 1:12:31
  you. Yep.
• 1:12:32
  You know it. I think it's that and the time
• 1:12:36
  that folks want to take, understandably, with this very
• 1:12:39
  cool dragon that is right in front of you, You know, So it
• 1:12:42
  is, it is an experience and for sure.
• 1:12:47
  But it gets a lot a long wait times.
• 1:12:51
  It really does. It just is.
• 1:12:52
  So yeah. So if that is at all on your
• 1:12:56
  list in the top five, you have to go there first, especially if
• 1:13:01
  you don't have express to get you through the other rides
• 1:13:04
  quickly. You really you really have to go
• 1:13:07
  there first. Unfortunately.
• 1:13:08
  That's not unfortunately, but just that's just the way it is,
• 1:13:11
  right. So your morning really just
• 1:13:14
  depends on which of those alleyways kind of speaks to your
• 1:13:18
  group the most, depending on your preference when it comes to
• 1:13:22
  that. If you're lucky, you maybe get
• 1:13:25
  two things done in the morning, whether they are two of your top
• 1:13:30
  or just a top one. And then something that's close
• 1:13:33
  within proximity. Because no matter where you go
• 1:13:36
  in the park, except for Ministry of Magic, there are other
• 1:13:40
  attractions nearby, right? So if you're hitting Nintendo
• 1:13:45
  first, we already talked about there are three rides in that
• 1:13:47
  area. If you're hitting Burke first,
• 1:13:49
  there are three rides in that area.
• 1:13:51
  If you're hitting dark more first, there are two rides in
• 1:13:55
  that area. So you really no matter what,
• 1:13:57
  except for Ministry of Magic, you're going to have something
• 1:14:00
  else you can quickly pivot to after getting the big E ticket,
• 1:14:04
  quote UN quote ride done in that area.
• 1:14:06
  So ideally you can knock out an entire portal before lunch.
• 1:14:11
  Ideally may or may not happen, but cross your fingers and move
• 1:14:16
  as quickly as you're able to safe safely.
• 1:14:19
  Hustle through the park, yes. Exactly.
• 1:14:23
  That's a good cadence and a good thing to keep in mind and
• 1:14:26
  something for you to plan ahead of time, right?
• 1:14:28
  So you're going to look at in each portal.
• 1:14:30
  So that way, no matter where you wind up based on wait times, you
• 1:14:34
  can see, OK, this is the top thing that I want to do.
• 1:14:36
  This is my secondary thing. The top thing is either way too
• 1:14:40
  long of a wait or you're lucky enough to knock it out with a,
• 1:14:43
  you know, with a, a decent wait time, then you're going to be
• 1:14:45
  able to go right on to the next thing, whether it's a show,
• 1:14:48
  whether it's a meet and greet, whether it's another ride.
• 1:14:50
  This is where the research really, really is crucial of
• 1:14:54
  understanding what is my top thing in each area.
• 1:14:57
  And then what's that secondary thing that I'm going to go to
• 1:14:59
  immediately after or pivot to in the event that my Plan A doesn't
• 1:15:03
  go, doesn't go accordingly? Yes.
• 1:15:06
  And if you don't have a secondary thing in that portal,
• 1:15:08
  OK, where's my next closest portal then I can get to?
• 1:15:11
  Because again, you have to go all the way out to the entrance
• 1:15:15
  back into Celestial to pivot to the next portal.
• 1:15:18
  So you really have to know geographically.
• 1:15:21
  That is the biggest thing with Epic.
• 1:15:22
  You have to know where you are at the park and how to get to
• 1:15:26
  the next portal that you're trying to get to because they do
• 1:15:29
  not interconnect on the back end.
• 1:15:31
  And you would think that certain parts of Celestial Park are
• 1:15:34
  quicker. They are not necessarily.
• 1:15:36
  So always, always, always consult the map that you have on
• 1:15:40
  your app and cannot stress this enough to the apps going to be
• 1:15:43
  your best friend just like in the other park.
• 1:15:45
  So always check that the path that you're taking is the most
• 1:15:48
  efficient path because sometimes it's a little confusing which
• 1:15:51
  way you should be going. Like this happened to us a
• 1:15:53
  couple times. We're like, we thought we were
• 1:15:55
  going one way and then we wound up on the other side of a ride
• 1:15:58
  in Celestial and we're like, well, this isn't where we will
• 1:16:01
  ride it now because we're here, but this isn't really what we
• 1:16:03
  wanted to do, right? So like always, double, triple,
• 1:16:06
  quadruple check your map as you're walking through the.
• 1:16:09
  Park that you have picked the right fork in the road heading
• 1:16:11
  to your next portal. Yeah, and sometimes from when
• 1:16:15
  you're exiting a portal you can see the other portals, but
• 1:16:18
  sometimes it's also deceptive about where kind of around is a
• 1:16:22
  circle they are to you. So just use your map to double
• 1:16:25
  check for sure. OK, so after you have hopefully
• 1:16:30
  finished a portal, Hooray, good for you, you did it.
• 1:16:34
  Let's talk about lunch. There are tons of great lunch
• 1:16:37
  options. We talked about food already at
• 1:16:39
  Epic no matter what part of the park you're in, but I would be
• 1:16:42
  sure then this goes for either kind of itinerary.
• 1:16:46
  Pick at least one place per portal that you are OK getting
• 1:16:50
  something and in Celestial also that you are OK getting either a
• 1:16:54
  full meal or a snack at so you know where you are headed and
• 1:17:00
  that way you don't have to backtrack.
• 1:17:01
  You don't have to come in and out of portals more than
• 1:17:03
  necessary because you're already going to be doing that a lot
• 1:17:06
  throughout the day regardless of that.
• 1:17:10
  So always pick something. I ended up going to Nintendo
• 1:17:14
  first, so I also ate at Toadstool Cafe for lunch.
• 1:17:17
  Now, when we were there, it was a sold out day, very, very busy.
• 1:17:22
  We actually had to wait outside of the entrance to Toadstool
• 1:17:27
  when we got in line. So if it comes out the front,
• 1:17:31
  they will like do some stanchion switchbacks outside and we
• 1:17:37
  waited probably 35 minutes to get inside.
• 1:17:42
  OK. But the line kept moving.
• 1:17:44
  There's a lot to look at. It wasn't terrible, and we got
• 1:17:48
  in line before we were hangry, so you've got to plan
• 1:17:51
  accordingly. Again, we've talked about this
• 1:17:53
  in every park. I think you got a plan ahead of
• 1:17:56
  time, right? Toadstool is phenomenal.
• 1:17:59
  It was adorable inside, but it was quite a wait to get to get
• 1:18:03
  in. Yeah.
• 1:18:04
  Well, this is where the having your decisions laid out
• 1:18:06
  beforehand come in handy, right? Yes.
• 1:18:09
  And we brought it up in every park because it's so true that
• 1:18:12
  when you are in a theme park, it is so easy to get overwhelmed
• 1:18:17
  and overexcited that you just want to keep looking and doing
• 1:18:22
  and seeing and experiencing like a toddler.
• 1:18:24
  It is like, I fully, dude, I'm a toddler when I'm in a theme
• 1:18:28
  park, like I just want to go and see and touch everything.
• 1:18:31
  I want to look at all the pretty lights.
• 1:18:32
  I want to go say hi to Mario Luigi.
• 1:18:34
  Oh my God, that Toad walking by, I got to go hug him right?
• 1:18:37
  Like like this is this is true. Like I want to go on every
• 1:18:40
  coaster. I want to go on every ride.
• 1:18:43
  And so like, it's really important to have your locations
• 1:18:46
  for a quick snack and for food picked out and have your day
• 1:18:50
  planned around cutting that hanger off at the pass because
• 1:18:54
  it happens so quickly and it is. And once you start spiraling
• 1:18:58
  into hanger, it is really hard to pull back, especially when
• 1:19:01
  you got kiddos and they're going to get hangry and they're hot.
• 1:19:04
  Florida's a hot place. And then you're just like,
• 1:19:06
  everybody is all in a tizzy because they're hot, they're
• 1:19:09
  hungry, you're overstimulated and now you have decision
• 1:19:12
  fatigue, right? So planning ahead is so, so key.
• 1:19:16
  And eating earlier and sooner rather than later is the way to
• 1:19:20
  go, in my opinion. You can always pick up a snack
• 1:19:23
  if you feel like you've missed timed things.
• 1:19:25
  Those lines are generally shorter, but sitting down for
• 1:19:28
  like a, a quick thing of chicken fingers or like the the toad,
• 1:19:33
  the the little mushroom shaped garlic knots or whatever it is
• 1:19:36
  like that is so critical to having a successful day.
• 1:19:39
  And we joke about it, but really, like food timing is
• 1:19:42
  almost as important as ride timing at theme parks.
• 1:19:45
  Yeah, for sure. I will say I love Universal's QR
• 1:19:51
  code. We talked briefly about this,
• 1:19:52
  but I do just want to talk a little bit more about it.
• 1:19:55
  I am somebody that has some dietary things that I have going
• 1:19:59
  on. They made it so easy.
• 1:20:02
  Because all you do. So if you're worried about
• 1:20:04
  allergies, I do just want to speak on it just briefly.
• 1:20:06
  You can still put your order in your app and you can order even
• 1:20:12
  before you speak to the chef. And all you do is in your cart.
• 1:20:17
  You will add a allergy request when you check out and it'll be
• 1:20:22
  on there for you. So you can still check out and
• 1:20:24
  pay and be good. But your then the chef will come
• 1:20:28
  directly to your table, speak to you, take notes.
• 1:20:31
  It is such an easy and quick process and Disney could learn a
• 1:20:35
  thing or two because at Disney you often times have to stand
• 1:20:40
  and wait for 5 minutes to talk to the chef and then you have to
• 1:20:43
  wait additionally for them to actually prepare your meal.
• 1:20:46
  But it's just a quicker process with that whole QR code thing.
• 1:20:50
  It just, it makes it so much more stainless and I had 0
• 1:20:54
  concerns and 0 issues about anything that I had requested.
• 1:20:58
  So it is wonderful. It was fantastic at both
• 1:21:03
  locations that we ate at. It was, it was really, really
• 1:21:06
  nice to be able to sit and enjoy and relax and enjoy the
• 1:21:10
  atmosphere while I waited on that food instead of standing at
• 1:21:13
  a counter waiting to talk to the chef and then continuing to
• 1:21:15
  stand at the counter to wait for my food like you would have to
• 1:21:18
  do at Disney. So yeah, very different, very
• 1:21:22
  nice. Now go.
• 1:21:22
  Don't get me wrong, Disney does accommodate allergies.
• 1:21:25
  It's just a bit of a lengthier process and not as as
• 1:21:30
  comfortable, quite honestly, for the guest experience, because I
• 1:21:33
  was able to continue to sit at my table chatting with Katie,
• 1:21:37
  who I was there with, we were able to enjoy the atmosphere
• 1:21:40
  while we waited rather than again having to stand and wait
• 1:21:42
  at the counter. So, so much nicer.
• 1:21:45
  And I also love the fact that they seat you before you order,
• 1:21:49
  especially as someone who travels with my kids to theme
• 1:21:52
  parks. You're not then having trays and
• 1:21:54
  trays of food trying to find where in the world you're
• 1:21:57
  supposed to sit. You already have a seat.
• 1:22:01
  They bring your food to you. So it's, it's like a hybrid
• 1:22:05
  quick service, right? And that's the majority of quick
• 1:22:08
  service restaurants at Universal are going to this this process.
• 1:22:14
  Some of the older original ones, you heard us talk about this
• 1:22:17
  previously in the Universal series.
• 1:22:19
  Again, I know we keep referring back to that, but we really did
• 1:22:21
  go very in depthly in that series about all of this.
• 1:22:25
  But a lot of the newer ones really are are top notch when it
• 1:22:30
  comes to that kind of service. For quick service for sure.
• 1:22:33
  Yeah, I hope every theme park adopts this because it's so much
• 1:22:36
  less stressful. You already have your seat.
• 1:22:39
  They can bring it to you. And I agree with their allergy
• 1:22:42
  process. I also have some allergies.
• 1:22:44
  Doesn't come up a lot. It's pineapples for me, right?
• 1:22:47
  Doesn't usually come up a lot. But surprisingly, because they
• 1:22:51
  do like a lot of, I don't want to say exotic food choices, but
• 1:22:53
  like they have quite some variety and there's multiple
• 1:22:57
  things that had pineapple in it. And I was like, Dang, I'm
• 1:23:00
  actually impressed because normally everyone looks at me
• 1:23:02
  like I'm crazy in the theme park when I bring up a pineapple
• 1:23:05
  allergy. So I agree, the way that they
• 1:23:07
  handle things, it's very comfortable.
• 1:23:10
  I feel reassured when the chef interacts with me and explains
• 1:23:14
  what's happening and their substitutions and what they can
• 1:23:16
  do to accommodate when need be. I don't know.
• 1:23:19
  I just, I really wish that every theme park, not just Disney, but
• 1:23:23
  every theme park took notes from this experience.
• 1:23:25
  This is really something top notch that they've done is the
• 1:23:28
  way that their dining is handled.
• 1:23:31
  I agree. 100% I also do think, and I will just put this note
• 1:23:36
  in, we talked about this in our Universal series.
• 1:23:39
  One of the biggest differences is that Universal, according to
• 1:23:44
  their rules, does not allow outside food in.
• 1:23:46
  Disney does. So I think that is something
• 1:23:49
  just to note. Again, I prefer the way
• 1:23:52
  Universal does it, but I understand why Disney doesn't do
• 1:23:57
  it at this point in that way, and I hope that they don't ever
• 1:24:01
  tell us that we can't bring outside food in.
• 1:24:04
  Yeah, God no, please don't. Right.
• 1:24:07
  But just just something to note with with the difference in
• 1:24:10
  that. And again, refer back to our
• 1:24:12
  Universal series. I'm going to continue to plug
• 1:24:14
  our own podcast on our podcast because so hard on it.
• 1:24:18
  We did. It was so we were so invested.
• 1:24:21
  OK, back to what we were talking about today.
• 1:24:26
  So you have chosen your lunch, you have enjoyed a meal, you
• 1:24:29
  have sat and relaxed for a little bit.
• 1:24:31
  Let's talk about after lunch. This time of day is highly
• 1:24:36
  dependent on what you get done in the morning.
• 1:24:38
  Ideally you've gotten maybe 2 rides done in the morning and
• 1:24:43
  then your next plan will be to look at rides three and four and
• 1:24:46
  maybe 5 on your list. Take note of kind of where they
• 1:24:50
  are in proximity to where you are.
• 1:24:52
  And you can be doing all this while you're enjoying your
• 1:24:55
  lovely meal at lunch. You can be keeping an eye on the
• 1:24:58
  wait times because hopefully if you eat early then maybe you can
• 1:25:03
  catch a ride wait time dipping down a little bit while everyone
• 1:25:07
  else is eating. Maybe, maybe not, just depends.
• 1:25:11
  Again, hard to predict with some of these rides at Epic.
• 1:25:14
  If the lines are crazy and they just like they're an absolute
• 1:25:18
  no, it's OK. Have faith they will drop
• 1:25:21
  towards the end of the night like we talked about.
• 1:25:23
  Some other options for the afternoons are the shows that
• 1:25:26
  Duck mentioned earlier. There is a show in the Harry
• 1:25:28
  Potter area this which I did not see her.
• 1:25:31
  Have heard that it is entertaining, so that is an
• 1:25:33
  option. And then there is the show in
• 1:25:36
  Burke, the Untrainable Dragon. Fabulous show, super impressive,
• 1:25:41
  great original storyline, great original songs.
• 1:25:44
  Love that one. Highly recommend.
• 1:25:46
  And it's a nice big theater that is inside with air conditioning.
• 1:25:50
  Yeah, that you and it's got enough showtimes throughout the
• 1:25:53
  day that you don't feel like you have to unless you have like a
• 1:25:56
  massive party of like 12 that all wants to sit together.
• 1:25:59
  You don't necessarily have to line up super early for those
• 1:26:02
  showtimes. So, and that is one of the nice
• 1:26:05
  things about that show in Burke. I would just like to say do note
• 1:26:09
  that Untrainable Dragon will occasionally cancel showtimes.
• 1:26:13
  This happened to us. Unfortunately, it is a very
• 1:26:16
  technically involved show and as things go wrong, they go very
• 1:26:20
  wrong. And so they had to cancel not
• 1:26:22
  only our Showtime, but the rest of the showtimes for the day.
• 1:26:25
  So it happens just one of those things you just got to pivot,
• 1:26:29
  you know, so for sure. Yes, we talked about characters.
• 1:26:33
  There are tons of characters, especially in Nintendo.
• 1:26:37
  And then obviously the Dragons and Toothless in in Burke as
• 1:26:40
  well. Again, that Toothless line can
• 1:26:42
  be extremely long. Some of the Nintendo character
• 1:26:46
  lines can get long, but the nice thing about that area is they
• 1:26:49
  have so many meet and greets that happen at different times
• 1:26:52
  that oftentimes those lines kind of dispersed evenly throughout,
• 1:26:56
  which is a little bit nicer. Whereas like Toothless is the
• 1:27:00
  main attraction in Burke to meet, the ones in Nintendo are
• 1:27:04
  not quite as long because they do have just more offerings over
• 1:27:07
  there, but they do have tons of characters out.
• 1:27:10
  Again, there are experiences like we talked about the the
• 1:27:13
  monster makeup experience in Dark more.
• 1:27:15
  Lots of different things that you can do that don't
• 1:27:17
  necessarily have to be getting on an attraction at Epic.
• 1:27:22
  I would also like to just throw out there, we stumbled upon it
• 1:27:25
  by accident in Celestial Park. They have like a cover band up
• 1:27:30
  there routinely. We have.
• 1:27:31
  Several live music, yeah. So like we dissociating, getting
• 1:27:37
  some coffee because again, three hours of sleep here lap.
• 1:27:40
  I'm not exaggerating. So while we were like sitting
• 1:27:44
  there again contemplating our life choices, all of a sudden
• 1:27:47
  the beef, the B52 start playing this time like, am I dead?
• 1:27:53
  Am I hallucinating that Rome was playing?
• 1:27:56
  I think. I think.
• 1:27:56
  We've talked about it before that the B52 is just hot duck.
• 1:28:00
  Everywhere I go, every shopping mall, every every time I'm stuck
• 1:28:04
  at a traffic light, I hear somewhere in the distance the
• 1:28:07
  B52 is playing. I don't know what it.
• 1:28:09
  Is that is the wildest thing? I love that.
• 1:28:12
  Jackie It's crazy. I I have gone Jackie We were in
• 1:28:16
  Scotland and the basic we I walked into a random small shop
• 1:28:20
  and roamed by the B 52 started. Playing, I was like, Oh my gosh,
• 1:28:24
  this is. Crazy.
• 1:28:25
  So anyway, dissociating, just chugging down this coffee trying
• 1:28:29
  to survive and enjoying my date. Epic.
• 1:28:32
  I was just like, I've died, I've died and this is some weird
• 1:28:35
  purgatory. Yeah.
• 1:28:37
  So there's this little like pavilion on like off to the one
• 1:28:42
  side and Celestial that has like a Plaza opening that they have
• 1:28:47
  three or four different groups I think that are all live music
• 1:28:50
  that rotate through there. So, yeah, that is one thing that
• 1:28:54
  I, I do like about Epic that feels a lot like Disneyland in a
• 1:29:00
  way, is that they have so many like roaming characters and
• 1:29:03
  roaming acts and live music and things like that, which you
• 1:29:07
  don't always, you know, we don't, you don't.
• 1:29:09
  You find that a little bit at at the Disney World parks, but not
• 1:29:12
  nearly as much. I think they used to have much
• 1:29:15
  more to the fair situation then post COVID.
• 1:29:19
  We don't need to rehash this but I think Epic has done a good job
• 1:29:22
  with it. I hope they continue to expand
• 1:29:24
  it because I think the first chunk of epic being open, like
• 1:29:30
  maybe opening weekend, they had like celestials, like people
• 1:29:34
  that lived in Celestial Park roaming around.
• 1:29:36
  I hope they bring those characters back.
• 1:29:38
  I think that very cool idea. I think St. miss fair characters
• 1:29:42
  are a concept that is dying in theme parks and I think if any
• 1:29:46
  part can do it and execute it perfectly, it would be epic and
• 1:29:49
  I really think it would make like it would.
• 1:29:51
  It's an already fantastic park, but I think that would just put
• 1:29:54
  it over the edge. I really do.
• 1:29:56
  Yeah. And I will say there are some
• 1:29:58
  some glimpses of that coming back at Disney, right?
• 1:30:01
  Like Hollywood Studios has some seasonal ones that have come
• 1:30:06
  back. There's a new like jazz ensemble
• 1:30:09
  that plays over by Tiana's at Magic Kingdom.
• 1:30:12
  So we're sitting glimpses. And I think part of that is, is
• 1:30:16
  because of Epic Universe, right? And because Epic is doing it,
• 1:30:21
  Disney is following suit. It's just the way that it works.
• 1:30:23
  They push each other and they they push the boundaries and
• 1:30:26
  they make each other better in a lot of ways, which is really
• 1:30:30
  great. So I think that the more that
• 1:30:33
  Epic does this, the more that we will start to see it become the
• 1:30:35
  norm again in the Florida theme parks especially.
• 1:30:38
  Agreed. Yes, Perfect.
• 1:30:40
  OK. So again, figure out your
• 1:30:43
  afternoon based on what is left on your, your priority list.
• 1:30:46
  If you're able to, if you're not able to, then pivot to some of
• 1:30:49
  these other options that we suggested.
• 1:30:51
  Again, early dinner is my high, my highly, highly suggested way
• 1:30:56
  to go because like I said, those wait times will drop in the
• 1:31:01
  evening. So you really just you want to
• 1:31:04
  get get your dinner out of the way.
• 1:31:06
  Like I hate to say that, but like get your dinner out of the
• 1:31:09
  way. So that way you have a good
• 1:31:10
  chunk of three hours ideally for your evening time.
• 1:31:15
  We typically have talked about that.
• 1:31:16
  This is like your clean up time. It is not necessarily that at
• 1:31:19
  Epic, but it is also to an extent.
• 1:31:22
  But let's talk about dinner really quick before we jump to
• 1:31:24
  that again. You want to pick a place nearby?
• 1:31:28
  We did Pizza Moon for dinner in the Celestial Park area.
• 1:31:32
  Highly recommend. The theming in there is super
• 1:31:35
  cool, unlike anything I've ever experienced.
• 1:31:38
  It's a little trippy and a little like Monty Python meets
• 1:31:43
  an old German pop up book. That's a great and I and I love
• 1:31:48
  it and I'm obsessed with it. It it is again, I was looking
• 1:31:52
  around thinking I was hallucinating.
• 1:31:54
  I was like, I was addressed. You see that paper mache woman
• 1:31:58
  swinging on that swing, right? Like I'm not.
• 1:32:02
  It is almost borderline indescribable.
• 1:32:06
  Yeah, it's it's really something.
• 1:32:08
  I really liked it. It was freaky in the best way
• 1:32:10
  possible. It was so unique.
• 1:32:12
  I really like again, I know we've talked about this.
• 1:32:15
  I like when theme parks take big weird swings, right?
• 1:32:18
  Like this is bizarre, but in the best, but in a way that makes.
• 1:32:21
  Perfect sense, you know, like, yeah.
• 1:32:24
  And I loved that. And I believe if I'm not
• 1:32:27
  mistaken in the designer of that is like German or Austrian or
• 1:32:33
  something like that of that whole area, which like totally
• 1:32:37
  makes sense when you see it and the food is great, absolutely
• 1:32:40
  great there. So it.
• 1:32:41
  Was pretty good pizza I. Used to don't eat pizza in
• 1:32:44
  Florida but that was like pizza. Right.
• 1:32:47
  We're from New Jersey, so we're snobs about everything.
• 1:32:50
  But yeah, no, I was like, I was like, I mean, just like even
• 1:32:54
  baseline theme park pizza like that crushed dude.
• 1:32:57
  That's really good. Yeah, now they you won't find
• 1:33:00
  there just to like forewarn you, you're not going to find like
• 1:33:03
  your standard cheese and pepperoni pizza there.
• 1:33:05
  They do have some different, more exotic flavors, not
• 1:33:10
  necessarily exotic, just some unique offerings there.
• 1:33:13
  So keep in mind that that's not just straight regular pizza.
• 1:33:17
  So take a look at those menus. But it is very, very good.
• 1:33:20
  Yeah, some more sophisticated palate, yes.
• 1:33:24
  Exactly. Now, I think you guys ate
• 1:33:26
  somewhere different for dinner, which I don't think we chatted
• 1:33:29
  about earlier, right? So yeah, so we ate one night.
• 1:33:32
  We ate at Pizza Moon and the other night we ate at a sit down
• 1:33:38
  restaurant called Blue Dragon. So Blue Dragon, it's like a pan
• 1:33:42
  Asian fusion place. It's towards the back of the
• 1:33:46
  park, I guess the front of the park, depending on where you're
• 1:33:48
  oriented, but it's right by Helios.
• 1:33:50
  Attached to the Helios technically, but you can't enter
• 1:33:53
  through Helios but. It's like a weird basement side
• 1:33:56
  door that like you as a guest can't enter.
• 1:33:59
  But still, it was really good. I was really impressed.
• 1:34:04
  They have crazy. What was it?
• 1:34:06
  Oh, the wings, the the Korean fried wings were crazy.
• 1:34:13
  That was crazy. It was like an inch thick of
• 1:34:16
  crispy batter coating, but it was like it was delicious.
• 1:34:21
  It was really like, I didn't think I'd go for it, but we were
• 1:34:23
  with our again with our friends Lemuel and Ashley, and Lem was
• 1:34:27
  like insisted that we ordered. He's like, trust me, just go
• 1:34:31
  with it. I'm like, hey.
• 1:34:33
  Like Lem knows food pretty well. So that's why I was like, I'm
• 1:34:36
  not going to second. Yes, you in particular.
• 1:34:39
  I'll go with your recommendation.
• 1:34:40
  Sometimes you should, but in this right, that's my friend.
• 1:34:44
  That's true level. Eat almost anything God.
• 1:34:46
  Bless you. Sure will.
• 1:34:48
  A little scary sometimes, but yeah, so, yeah, it was really,
• 1:34:52
  really good. So we had the wings.
• 1:34:55
  I think we each had like some like various entrees there.
• 1:34:58
  We had some drinks that was really, really good.
• 1:35:00
  I was very impressed. I think they got some kind of
• 1:35:02
  like soup dumpling adjacent thing.
• 1:35:06
  The. Hallucinating.
• 1:35:07
  I don't remember that. Weekend was a blur, but it was
• 1:35:09
  good. But what everything was
• 1:35:11
  delicious that we had. Bottom line, would recommend
• 1:35:13
  going. Yeah.
• 1:35:15
  The other place that we do recommend going if you are of
• 1:35:18
  age and choose to partake in some adult beverages, we went to
• 1:35:23
  the Oaken Star Tavern. It is fantastic.
• 1:35:27
  Those were some of the best adult beverages that I have had
• 1:35:32
  on theme park property. They're very generous with their
• 1:35:35
  portions. Their bartenders really are are
• 1:35:38
  very good. So if you want to just like sit
• 1:35:41
  down and slow down for a couple minutes and you are interested
• 1:35:45
  and that is something that you partake in, that is a
• 1:35:47
  particularly good spot. So highly recommend that if
• 1:35:50
  that's something that you're interested in.
• 1:35:53
  Nice. And again, like we said, you
• 1:35:54
  really can't go wrong with the majority of the food places
• 1:35:57
  across all of Epic. So go with what is close by,
• 1:36:01
  have your options ready and available so you know what,
• 1:36:04
  where where you want to end up maybe or plan accordingly so you
• 1:36:08
  end up where you want to end up for dinner.
• 1:36:10
  And I would suggest like a 4:30 dinner time would be like ideal
• 1:36:15
  for for that particular. One thing though to know is that
• 1:36:20
  as you're planning, because I know we've said previously, like
• 1:36:23
  either eat very early or eat kind of late to like miss the
• 1:36:27
  crowds. Be careful because places close
• 1:36:29
  early. We wanted to go eat at Dos
• 1:36:32
  Steakhouse in, in Darkmoor and by the time we made our way over
• 1:36:38
  there, I don't even think it was that late.
• 1:36:39
  I think it was like 7 or something they were closed.
• 1:36:44
  So just just always double check times on things.
• 1:36:47
  That is not necessarily typical of everywhere, but just double
• 1:36:52
  check your times and if one doubt, ask a team member.
• 1:36:55
  You know, just make sure that if you're planning on eating within
• 1:36:57
  a certain time range, that where you will end up.
• 1:37:00
  Does have their food offerings available?
• 1:37:03
  Yeah. Because sometimes that stuff is
• 1:37:04
  readily, easily to find on the app and sometimes it's not
• 1:37:10
  outside of yeah, outside of every portal entrance kind of
• 1:37:14
  there should be some sort of like a guest services little
• 1:37:18
  kiosk kind of. So you can definitely always ask
• 1:37:23
  there if you can't find the information anywhere else.
• 1:37:25
  They do have those like wait time boards throughout Celestial
• 1:37:30
  as well. And I believe some of them do
• 1:37:33
  have like hours and things like that on on those as well that
• 1:37:36
  kind of rotate through the offerings at Epic.
• 1:37:40
  But definitely ask if you're if it's getting late and you
• 1:37:43
  haven't eaten yet and you need to eat so you know what is open
• 1:37:46
  and available so you don't go wandering places and then have
• 1:37:48
  to completely backtrack and go somewhere else.
• 1:37:51
  Yeah. Learn from Duck and Jess's
• 1:37:53
  mistake. Always.
• 1:37:56
  Double, triple, quadruple check times.
• 1:37:59
  And just as like an FYI also because it's not super clear, I
• 1:38:04
  know we've been talking a lot about dark more, but I think
• 1:38:05
  this is the only place where it is unclear.
• 1:38:08
  There is technically three food and beverage places there.
• 1:38:12
  There's the Burning Blade Tavern.
• 1:38:14
  There is. I'm totally drawing a blank on
• 1:38:16
  the second one, but it is physically attached to the back
• 1:38:20
  of Burning Blade Tavern so that is not super clear.
• 1:38:23
  If you are not paying attention, you are.
• 1:38:26
  It's super easy to miss and then it's got a.
• 1:38:28
  Funky name it does. Burning blade is like just the
• 1:38:33
  beverages portion right? Like you can't order food at
• 1:38:36
  Burning Blade. Correct.
• 1:38:38
  Yeah, Burning blade is the mill part, yes and then?
• 1:38:42
  Das Steakhouse is the like sit down restaurant.
• 1:38:47
  Is the sit down restaurant And then there's there's another
• 1:38:51
  one, the Lacey's Cottage. I'm looking, I'm looking.
• 1:38:56
  Yeah. The Lacey's Cottage is like a,
• 1:39:00
  like a snack place. Yeah, yes, that's got pretzels
• 1:39:04
  and cinnamon bites and stuff. Yes, so that closes pretty
• 1:39:09
  quickly. Burning Blade stays open but is
• 1:39:13
  only the drinks and Dos Steakhouse can close a little
• 1:39:17
  early. Now we don't know if Dos
• 1:39:19
  Steakhouse closes early every night, if we just got unlucky
• 1:39:22
  that particular day, or if they choose to close at 7:00 because
• 1:39:26
  at that point most people are just back there for the rides
• 1:39:29
  like. I think it's.
• 1:39:30
  Deeply unclear. Fairly consistent because Anna
• 1:39:32
  in our chat is also saying that that happened to her as well
• 1:39:35
  that Dos Steakhouse has had closed.
• 1:39:36
  They just wanted to go and even just look around and it was
• 1:39:39
  closed. So that seems to be one that
• 1:39:41
  consistently closes early. So definitely again, you got to
• 1:39:45
  look to get all all the little itty bitty details of this new
• 1:39:48
  park because there's a lot of little quirks that you you may
• 1:39:52
  not be expecting. Yes, and unexpected is the name
• 1:39:57
  of the game. Hopefully our our tips of help
• 1:40:02
  to people right and you don't make the same mistakes.
• 1:40:04
  Right, exactly. Yes, that's what we're here for.
• 1:40:07
  So, OK, So again, find a good place to eat after you eat.
• 1:40:12
  This is your time to shine. If you have missed any
• 1:40:16
  attractions that you're like, I really wanna get on this, really
• 1:40:18
  wanna get on this, like this is your time to go.
• 1:40:21
  And I have a plan for what order you're gonna try to hit stuff
• 1:40:25
  in. Again, wait time should drop.
• 1:40:29
  The park is absolutely incredible at night.
• 1:40:31
  You heard us gush about this already and talk about this
• 1:40:33
  already, so I'm not going to go back into all of that, but
• 1:40:37
  literally all of the portals have something special about
• 1:40:41
  experiencing them at night. So like no matter where you
• 1:40:44
  choose to go, you're going to have an amazing experience
• 1:40:49
  because it's just every place has something special to offer
• 1:40:52
  at night. I will say besides maybe the
• 1:40:55
  Harry Potter area at night, not too much different than during
• 1:41:00
  the day, but the other 3 portals for sure are just absolutely
• 1:41:04
  spectacular at night. And again, we talked about there
• 1:41:08
  is the night time fountain show at park close.
• 1:41:10
  It's music and water. It's a nice way to end to end
• 1:41:12
  the day. And this is where I put yeah,
• 1:41:14
  but don't expect Disney level fireworks or notes because it's
• 1:41:17
  just it's just not that, right? It's just not that.
• 1:41:22
  So hopefully that is helpful to give you at least some sort of
• 1:41:28
  guidance. Again, it's a really tough park
• 1:41:30
  right now and we will definitely circle back and hit this again
• 1:41:34
  probably again in six or nine months because things could all
• 1:41:38
  change by then. You just never know with these
• 1:41:41
  new parks kind of what you what you can expect or anticipate
• 1:41:45
  going into them. So Duck and Jess, do you guys
• 1:41:48
  have any final Epic thoughts? Not that we haven't given all of
• 1:41:51
  our thoughts on Epic already, but do you have any final
• 1:41:55
  thoughts about visiting Epic that we need to share before we
• 1:41:58
  wrap up for today? I think we've shared similar
• 1:42:02
  sentiments with the other parks, but I think this is most
• 1:42:06
  especially true. I know we talked about how to
• 1:42:09
  get everything done as efficiently as possible, but
• 1:42:12
  really, please slow down and enjoy the park.
• 1:42:16
  Take it in because the details on every and every single inch
• 1:42:21
  of this park are unbelievable. Everything is so interesting,
• 1:42:26
  from the hand carved intricacies of things over in Burke where
• 1:42:33
  there's like little little like crank toys to make a little
• 1:42:37
  toothless statue fly all the way to like the human footprints
• 1:42:43
  that turn into wolf prints as you get closer to the curse of
• 1:42:47
  the werewolf ride. Right like this, the details and
• 1:42:51
  the love and care that went into this park is simply unmatched
• 1:42:56
  and you can just feel that they were pushing the boundaries of
• 1:42:59
  what a theme park could be in every single corner of this park
• 1:43:04
  and you would be robbing yourself of an experience if you
• 1:43:06
  did not slow down and try to enjoy it.
• 1:43:09
  So I know we all want to ride the rides and we all want to get
• 1:43:13
  on everything and see and do everything, but like really well
• 1:43:17
  and truly, please do not rob yourself of experiencing this
• 1:43:21
  park in the way that it deserves to be experienced.
• 1:43:25
  Yeah, I totally, totally agree with that for sure.
• 1:43:28
  Absolutely. And again, as always, we've
• 1:43:31
  talked about this on all of our other episodes.
• 1:43:33
  If you guys need help, especially with Epic, please
• 1:43:36
  reach out to us. We are more than happy to talk
• 1:43:38
  you through through things to me about Epic Universe.
• 1:43:42
  I've been dying. Jess is not going to talk to me
• 1:43:44
  about it anymore. I think you're going to start
• 1:43:46
  blocking my number soon. Please.
• 1:43:48
  Somebody talked to me about the theme park.
• 1:43:50
  Please reach out to us, we would clearly love to hear from you.
• 1:43:56
  I'll be so normal about it, I promise.
• 1:44:00
  I will screen their messages. I promise you, I promise you
• 1:44:03
  that. But you can find
• 1:44:04
  usmomstusa@gmail.com. You can also always find us on
• 1:44:09
  several social media platforms at Mom St.
• 1:44:12
  USA. You can find us on our Patreon
• 1:44:14
  account at Mom St. USA as well.
• 1:44:16
  And I know I've been saying that graphics are coming and I
• 1:44:19
  apologize to our lovely Mom St. community.
• 1:44:22
  I have not I'm I'm behind. OK, holidays started happening.
• 1:44:26
  Things started happening. I am behind so I will be getting
• 1:44:30
  those graphics, I promise you all.
• 1:44:32
  Everything. Yeah, the the world is
• 1:44:35
  happening. By the end of the month of
• 1:44:37
  December, I promise you I will have those graphics up on our
• 1:44:41
  Patreon account. So be sure you're following over
• 1:44:43
  there. 95% of what we we post over there is free.
• 1:44:47
  I know a lot of people think Patreon, they think it's paid
• 1:44:50
  95% of what I'm posting over there is free.
• 1:44:53
  It's just another place that you guys can find us and connect
• 1:44:56
  with us. We would love to hear from you,
• 1:44:58
  even if it's just like a little comment on a, on a post over
• 1:45:01
  there or a quick message. We really truly love this Mom
• 1:45:06
  St. community and we want to continue to connect with you
• 1:45:08
  guys going forward. Again, just a reminder, like we
• 1:45:11
  mentioned the beginning of this episode, starting in 2026, we
• 1:45:15
  are no longer going to be featured on the Chip and Co
• 1:45:18
  Podcast Network. We are, however, going to still
• 1:45:21
  be on our YouTube and on Spotify and all of those places.
• 1:45:25
  So continue to listen to us over there.
• 1:45:28
  We really hope that you guys will stick with us through this
• 1:45:30
  little shift and we've got a ton of really fun new things coming
• 1:45:34
  in 2026 for everybody. So we really hope to continue to
• 1:45:39
  hear from you. And if you've got ideas for 2026
• 1:45:41
  or things you'd like to see us do or talk about or something
• 1:45:45
  where you're like, I'm trying to research this for my trip and I
• 1:45:48
  can't find anything, can you help me?
• 1:45:49
  Yes, yes we can. That's the whole deal.
• 1:45:54
  Yes, and we would love to help you, so please reach out to us
• 1:45:57
  so that way we can be of service to you because we are here for
• 1:46:00
  our Mom St. community to help give you guys the information
• 1:46:03
  that we think is helpful for you to plan all of your future
• 1:46:06
  trips. So with all of that being said,
• 1:46:08
  I think we yapped enough for today.
• 1:46:11
  Thank you for joining us for this episode of Mom St.
• 1:46:14
  USA and we will catch you on the next one.
• 1:46:16
  Bye everyone. Bye.