Universal / Epic TR

February 27, 2026, 11:06 AM

I thought I would post my thoughts if anyone is interested. Our main interest on this trip was for the Mardi Gras parade which we had never seen before and I originally didn't want to bother with Epic since I know it's still going through some growing pains. I ended up not being able to resist and decided to add Epic anyways.

We went to Universal on a Saturday which was as expected very crowded. We loved the atmosphere of Mardi Gras but wished they had more decorations throughout the park. The Tribute store was great and of course the highlight was the parade which was totally worth the trip.

On the Sunday we went to Epic and we both totally loved it. We normally spend the money on express passes but since I know my husband can't handle most of the rides at Epic I thought I'd save and just do single rider. Looking back I regret not buying Express passes now :(

We weren't on resort so we got there early so we could be close to the front at rope drop. We started with Harry Potter and ended up waiting 2 hours for it. I wasn't sure if my husband could do this ride but since they allow bags on the ride we figured he would be ok. I'm glad the ride is not to intense and he ended up loving it. The queue and ride overall I thought was great and all though we weren't upset waiting 2 hours for it I wouldn't do it again. For me an hour max would be worth it.

After that we went to the Cirque Arcanus show which was good. For us the show was ruined by the pre-show. They made us stand packed like sardines for about 15 minutes which was ridiculous and so uncomfortable. I'm glad we saw it but definitely not a repeat show because of that.

We then grabbed lunch at Cafe Air de la Sirene which we both really enjoyed. The turkey sandwich and butterbeer crepe were both delicious.

After we went to Dark Universe to do the Monster ride which was fantastic! Definitely my new favorite ride and unfortunately to intense for my husband but the single rider line moves so fast I did it 3 times in a row. We also grabbed a garlic Stake from the Burning blade which is unfortunately broken the whole day so never saw it lit up. The stake was super delicious but at $13 obviously overpriced.

Stadust Racers in single rider was next which took about 20 minutes so not too bad. The ride was awesome but I agree with others that Velocicoaster is still the best. Will need to ride it again at night though since I only got to do it during the day.

We then went to the Untrainable show which was also fantastic. Walked around the land a bit but unfortunately the rides were both at over 100 minutes so skipped them and went to Nintendo next.

This was our biggest mistake of the day knowing that Mario Kart isn't intense we were excited to do a ride together so in we went. Posted sign was 70 minutes but we ended up waiting almost 2 hours! That queue is not as interesting as Harry Potter so that was a brutal wait. This ride is worth 30 mins max I would say. Donkey Kong was at 170 so skipped that too.

For dinner we went to Das Stakehaus. I don't get the low reviews for this place, food was good and theming top notch. We really enjoyed our dinner here and I would go back. Dark Universe at night is amazing and love the fog effects throughout. The Monster ride a couple more times and we then just walked around at night enjoying the scenery. The last ride we did was Yoshi with a posted 20 mins sign but was actually a walk on. I mean its a kiddie ride but not having waited we enjoyed it.

I went in expecting us to just walk around do the shows and check out the stores so the fact we got to do as many rides as we did I was happy with my day. Mario Kart definitely ruined it a bit though and has cemented the fact that I will never again not buy express passes. I'm looking forward to going back one day to try the other rides.

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