Our First Visit to Epic Universe!

Join us live as John, Claire, Becca and Ben share their very first experiences exploring this incredible park. Between the four of us, we visited on three separate days, giving us plenty of stories, tips, and honest thoughts about what it’s really like inside Epic.From the immersive lands and thrilling rides to the food, atmosphere, and overall park experience – we’ll dive into whether it’s possible to do everything in just one day. 🎢🍔🌍

Episode Transcript

(00:05):
New rights, new lands, new memories.
We finally experienced Epic Universe.
So Universe Orlando's brand new theme park has blown us away.
And between the four of us, we visited on three separate days.
So tonight we're sharing our first reactions, The riots, you
can't miss the food, the surprises, and a big question,
how much can you do in one day? So let's dive in.

(00:51):
It's that time of the week again.
It's Wednesday. Thank you so much for joining us
live. So put in the chat today, let us
know which land of Epic University is heading to 1st.
We'd love to hear, hear your picks.
So between all of us, we've walked through the gates of Epic
Universe not once, not twice, but three times and three
separate days. So I'm Ben and with me tonight
are Becca, Claire and John. How are we all?

(01:13):
I have a cold. We started with that because
I've actually put a hoodie on because I was been wearing AT
shirt and. I mean, I literally have a cold.
I've got a cough. I'm just bold.
If I cough, if I cough all the way through this, I do apologise
now. I'll try my best not to.
I had a jumper on today, but I'mOK I.

(01:35):
Was going to say it's been raining all day.
It's. I miss.
I miss Orlando weather. Yeah.
We left the ring in Orlando, whoI hoped.
Yeah, I think it's been everywhere with us.
We just don't have the humidity or the air or the occasional
sunshine so. Well, the need for air con in

(01:56):
the house, where is that? I need it.
I did consider the heating todayto be.
Honest. Yeah, I actually as well.
Then I ended up with the hotel instead.
That was that was that was just.It was just one step too much
to. Well, we're in September.
It needs to be like Halloween before we think I put in heating
on. Oh no, there we go.

(02:18):
Oh. Is that is that fishing yet?
I'll. Be heating watch every Wednesday
now until the end of October. That's.
Not a watch. The moment was like Guardians of
the Galaxy was like a white sortof wait time check.
Now it's going to be weather watch.
Yeah, well, it's very British office, isn't it?
Indeed. Indeed it is.
I'm very much going forward to tonight's show because all the

(02:41):
talks that we all did before we went on holiday, we all got a
chance to experience Epic and we're all trying to avoid
spoilers. So there will be a few spoilers
ahead tonight. So anyone who is planning on
going and wants to avoid it all,I don't blame you.
But feel free to catch up with areplay once you've been and just
share what you look, what you'relooking forward to, because I

(03:01):
know leading up to our chip, it was all we could think about.
So I did the first one we've. Actually got Simon in the chat
who's actually there at the moment.
Which is which makes it, doesn'tmake it and doesn't make the
feeling any better, I must admit.
But I know he was. He was an epic yesterday and I
pretty much imagined. You dried out yet Simon?

(03:24):
I know it got a bit wet at. One point it was so good
yesterday. It was so difficult to do,
especially when you've only you know you've only got one day me
14 day ticket or you booked a specific date.
It's really difficult to try andwork out how much you can fit in
with so much with it being new. I would say that that was one of
our first things that we thoughtof them.

(03:45):
And actually, I actually think it helped us massively because
we didn't have any expectation when we first walked in.
I was more than prepared to actually walk in and just soak
up the theme park. And I understand that there's
some of the attractions that youwill have to queue for.
And obviously I don't like queuing too long.

(04:09):
And I just thought, well, if we don't get on much, that's fine.
At least it can say I've seen, I've been there and then I can
go, go again if I think it's anygood.
So that that was that was my starting point.
I actually protected myself quite a bit, I think from from
that over, over expectation, butpart of it, yeah.
It was so difficult on social media.

(04:30):
I think when the preview days were on like April and May and
before opening it, every way youopen on TikTok or Instagram,
someone was sharing like ride Povs.
And it's like, I like an idea oflike getting a flavour of what's
there. But I don't want to know what
the details that the best thing is to go and experience it.
And even though I watched a few videos before we went, it was a
very different experience walking around a park that we'd

(04:54):
never been there before. Yeah, I I deliberately didn't
watch any videos at all. In fact, I disengaged with any
Epic content. So I know that we've talked
about it a few times previously on the show and I've probably
been a little less engaged than people.
And that was that was completelydeliberate because I actually

(05:14):
didn't want to have any sort of preconceived ideas of what I
would see, what I would experience.
I wanted to sort of touch it, feel it, taste it all in one go
at the in the in real life. So I actually didn't take too
many photos on the day we were there.
We just, we had a good day. It was fun.
We did film pretty much a lot ofstuff.

(05:35):
We did that, I think. We managed to get quite a bit in
but. We did.
And it is camera film and everything.
Yeah, yeah, at some, at some point there will be a video on
it going up on our YouTube channel.
But I have to, I did look at some of the videos and pictures
that we we did take and it was like I was just blown away by
the filming. It was another level.
What was your appearances when you walked into the park, like

(05:58):
into Celestial Park? You got through the gate.
Honestly, I I wasn't blown away.I walked in and it seemed like a
lot of concrete. When you look across the park, I
think having Helios Hotel at theother end was really cool.
So you can see the hotel at our end and like the fountain in the
middle and the carousel you could see.

(06:21):
But there was something about the fact that that central area
seemed a bit desolate. It really is just like a hub.
There's not a huge amount there and I, I kind of like have we
made the right decision because we went there on day one because
we were up early and it was a day that it was least likely to
rain. When we looked at the weather

(06:41):
for the following sort of four or five days because it
hurricane error, Erin was just coming towards the coast.
So it was like, let's go before we don't want to go and have a
day where everything's washed out.
So we decided to do that on day one when we got there.
And I think that was the right decision.
It was a super hot day, which I think probably enhance the the

(07:03):
fact that it felt like there wasa lot of concrete.
I think it's a bit weird the fact that you can't really see
into any of the lands from the centre.
I'm someone had done that, but I.
Liked that. I think that's AI think that's a
real. I think it's very Disney.
Yeah, it's very different. Universal Park I.
Think it's very sight lines if you think that in a Disney park.

(07:27):
You can't. Really.
See Asia from Pandora or vice versa.
It's when you you know, when youwalk into islands of adventure
and you can see in one thing to lagoon, Harry Potter and
Velocity in in one thing. It was like you sort of know
what you're getting when you're through there.
When you look through this wholepoint of going through a portal

(07:47):
and even when you're in that portal at any different land and
you look across and go like, I can't see where I am, sometimes
it felt a bit like, oh, I'm lostbecause I'm stuck in this portal
and I'm not sure where the exit is.
And it's really, and I think a lot of that is, is incredible
theming that they have done to make it feel like you have

(08:08):
stepped through that portal and you are just, you get to
experience the theming, the smells, just the attraction.
It's all about that immersion. Immers immersiveness.
Yeah, I'd go with that. And actually, I couldn't
understand where you're coming from, Cloud, because actually I
think it will need a few years for certainly some of the trees

(08:29):
and some of the plants to actually grow in and for them to
become established, which I think will take away a little
bit of the concrete part of it. What I did like about Celestial
Park was the use of the fountains.
And I actually, we actually stood later in the day and just
had a really good chuckle about the fact that Universal are just

(08:53):
absolutely laughing in the face of Disney by putting in the
fountains and actually having the fountain show every what,
every half an hour or whatever after what they did at Epcot.
And I just thought this is how it could have been done with an
Epcot. And I just thought that's,
that's just a little, a little bit of a salute down the road a

(09:14):
little bit. The one thing when you enter,
I've said this to a few people, this probably my biggest sort of
take away from from the day is the signage within the park
isn't great either. So if you I think it would
actually help if you actually drew yourself a little, a little

(09:34):
circular map and actually plotted each of the portals and
just kept it either on your phone or whatever.
So you could actually, you actually knew in which direction
you wanted to go first because when you go in, it just becomes
this vast, just totalness of, ofspace and you don't know where

(09:55):
you're going to begin. Well, I certainly didn't.
And I think that's The thing is if you haven't done any sort of
research to it, you're not sure what's there.
I don't feel like it is a it's not one you can just go and
explore. It doesn't feel like it at the
minute that it's an easy one to go and explore and see what's
there. It was more like, OK, when we

(10:15):
walked in, it was sort of as thepark was opening, there was a
team member sort of making announcements of like what's
open and what what lands for early entry, How to get that you
go left or do you go right when you enter in?
That was useful. But once you've got past that,
how far do you walk? Because I remember they made the
answer when we walked in, but sort of battle, the ministry was

(10:39):
due to open at 10:00 and they were now sort of preloading
ready to go in. So we thought, OK, we're going
to go there straight away. But it was like it would go
right and we just had to follow it all the way around until we'd
come across the portal for it. And then of course, the problem
we got there, it wasn't preloading, it was just laid.
Open and it didn't open to time a bit of.

(11:00):
Communication, yeah. Front.
And the actual rides? Not quite great first thing in
the morning, that's true. I think everyone's having a
different experience and you know, your experience was really
different to mine and that was different to John's and I think
there is still some clearly someteething issues.

(11:21):
Communication seems to be one ofthem.
And I, you know, we had a totally different experience
when we entered the park. And to be fair, we had early
entry because we were staying atRoyal Pacific.
So we got into the park at 8 andby 8:30 we were in a line for
ministry battle at the ministry.And they were telling us really

(11:43):
because we, we made a conscious decision that we could see
everyone going to Nintendo. So it's left a Nintendo, right,
Isla Birkin and and Harry Potterand, and we made a conscious
decision that everyone's going to Nintendo Wii know a bit like
John, we went with very minimal expectations.
So we said the two attractions that we we want to do, and if
that's all we do all day, that'sfine, was Battle at the Ministry

(12:06):
and Mario Kart. So between the three of us,
that's the two things we said wewanted to do.
And we said, let's just go to battle at the Ministry first
because that was our number one.So we, we enter the park and
then they sort of stop you at the first section and, and they
said right, so it's left of antenna, right to, you know,
Stardust races and those things.And so we walked past Stardust
races and all the way down to the, the Harry Potter area.

(12:30):
And we walked in and we waited for again for like 3 minutes.
And then they let you walk into the area and people were going
straight to the attraction. They were like the attraction
will not open till 10 O clock. It will you will be stood in the
line until 10:00 and you're like, do you know what?
We'll suck it up. It's it's fine because we know
this is. Something we know that you must
do. That's the one you want to do.

(12:51):
By 9:10, we would have been on the attraction and come off
again. It was actually like they were
loading, they were running. So they didn't, they didn't go
until 10:00 to open it. So we were literally, we didn't
stop in the queue line at all. We just walked through.
So we walked through and waited to go through the little flu
powder bit and then we walked through.

(13:12):
I was trying to take photos in size and they were like keep
moving. I was like, I want to take
photos inside the ministry and they're like, no, you're going
to come back out this way. Take pictures on your way out.
You've got to keep the line moving.
And we were literally walking through switchbacks in every
Korea. We didn't stop at all until we
got to loading. So it was, it was that, I mean,

(13:32):
that was incredible because we were on and off and it was a
great attraction. But we were like, well, why are
they telling everyone if it's going to start not going to open
till 10? And actually that's, that's
clearly not true because we could see people coming off.
That's why. I wonder whether it's that's how
they normally run it because they're not sure.
What it's going to do? I was reading the other day that

(13:54):
someone they didn't open it and it was closed all day until 8:00
PM and only at 8:00 PM. Just it seems a bit.
Temperamental, yeah, it seems tobe an attraction that because
it's indoors as well, you haven't even got the weather
element of it. So it it must just be a bit of a
some kinks in the. It's a bit like Rise to

(14:15):
Resistance when that first opened and the first year of
that was like you're not sure itis.
We really need to keep in mind throughout the whole show
tonight because I, I keep seeingso many people's reactions on
Facebook in particular where they're complaining about the
fact I've been to, I think it was rubbish.

(14:36):
Never going back there. And actually, you've got to
understand that Universal have actually pushed the technology
to its absolute limit as it stands right now.
And obviously when you do that and we're in a working theme
park and then you have people inthat theme park day in, day out,
there are going to be problems that do occur.

(14:58):
Now you can't possibly test a ride or a brand new ride system
and then start allowing people to come in when you think it's,
you know, you just basically have to.
And the Universal's way is generally always been let's get
people in, let's get people tested out.
The best way of testing is to have more people because they're

(15:19):
never going to have enough people in a theme park to go
through it. And when you look at other
attractions, whether it be Disney or Universal, I know
John, when we're out the way to discussion of rock and roller
coaster always breaking down. So it's one of those that's
right, sort of technical issues are going to happen and it's

(15:40):
just, it's difficult when you'veonly got one day and you there's
you, there's a lot of pressure. If you have this day, that's
perfect. But I think you've just got to
go in and be not it. We weren't aiming for a perfect.
Day we went on because with previous trips to Florida we've
always used like touring plans or busy day guides.

(16:02):
With this, we don't have that information.
I was talking to a friend on Instagram yesterday and he's
gone through the data since it'sopened and the day where the
lowest queues turns out to be a Sunday and the most busiest
turned out to be a Wednesday, which is ironically the day we
were there. Which I can confirm the queues
are very busy on a Wednesday. I think, I think the queues are

(16:24):
long all the time. I don't, I don't think they're
the queues are ever short to be honest with you.
It also depends on how they're reported as well on Universal,
because sometimes we went in thequeue and it's at 100 minutes,
it wasn't, but there was sometimes when it was.
Yeah, exactly. We had the same experience.
And I think for us, we, as I said, we, we had three nights at

(16:45):
Rob Pacific. And so we were going to go on a
day we had early entry. So it's either going to be day
1-2 or three. And when we looked, we literally
looked at the weather and scanned it, knowing that a
number of attractions can't function when there's lightning
and when there's rain. So we picked the day that it was
the best weather. That's how we chose because we
were originally meant to be going on the Saturday.
And then I looked at the the forecast and I was like, let's

(17:06):
go. Let's just to smash it out
tomorrow, let's do day one at Epic.
Let's get make sure we get the best of the opportunity.
So you know that that for us wasa no brainer, really.
So I think the fashion of the majority of the rides that are
outdoors and can't function in the.
Exactly. Yeah.
And I think we're the only two rides we want to.
The two that we want to do are Intel inside ones, Yeah, and

(17:29):
Monsters. And then the problem you've got
is, is like if the ones that areour doors closed.
Then everything else. Everyone, everyone's going to
three attractions. It's really difficult to to plan
your day when weather impacts and knowing how Florida and
Orlando weather can be, you never know from one minute to

(17:50):
the next. Or did any of us?
We didn't. I don't know whether Ben Becker
or John, you bought the Express passes.
John. I'm thinking you probably
didn't. How did you do that?
Knowing how you feel about thosethings, did you even consider
it? Did you consider?
Buying Express, I did, I did andI realized, hang on a second,

(18:11):
that would like double the priceof our day in ethic.
And actually because because we didn't buy the Express pass, it
meant we had an extra universal day and said we ended up we
ended up with four universal days, obviously only one in
ethic. And actually, actually we got
done way more in one day than I ever thought was going to be

(18:34):
possible. I would gladly recommend that
for ministry and magic. The single rider line worked an
absolute treat for us because, and again, I mentioned this last
week, you know, we've used single rider because we didn't
have the kids. So it wasn't a case that you
were all wanting to be in on thephoto be together.

(18:56):
We just want to go and ride it. And actually having spoken with
a couple of cast members and they and they'd said the single
ride line might, it might be a bit quicker, but we're not quite
sure. Sometimes it could be as long as
as long as the general queue. We thought I'd say what it's
worth the risk and, and we did. We did wait.

(19:20):
I openly admit I waited. We waited over an hour in the
single rider and actually it wasworth every single minute of
that. Yeah.
It just blew. It blew me away.
And just from, and this is this is a bit where you really get, I

(19:40):
don't want to give it away to people, but before you actually
get into the actual proper, proper queue, the spirit where
you actually appear within that sort of metro station area, just
really, absolutely, it was just awesome.
It really was quite an incredible.
It's. Beautiful as well.

(20:00):
It's really, well, absolutely stunning.
We had the unfortunate issue with obviously it got delayed
for us for like 3 hours, but andduring the day we were using the
virtual queue because we had universal devotion of deaths.
We found new that we're with. So it was different to Disney
where we had instead going on anapp to do it.
You had to go to the front of the line and the express line

(20:23):
and they give you a return time.So at one point we left them
Isle of Berk. I ran into Harry Potter to go
because it we just saw the app that you had opened for the
first time that day. So we did that and then as soon
as we went back to it, it got delayed as soon as we got in the
queue. So we we got to enjoy.
Sitting in the queue for 1/2 an hour.

(20:45):
Yeah, and they got it back. Up we did have a little bit of
entertainment. I would say no and that would be
expensive. Some other guests what happened
was. That's the right fault.
I'm going to be honest. Do not use the emergency exits
when the ride is delayed. But they're not emergency exits,
they're staff only exits. Because they go outside of

(21:07):
property and there was UniversalSecurity outside.
So then, yeah. That's what.
That's what. And there's no way for them to
go back to to get back to the park once they've left out of
that. Really.
No. I think that that might need to

(21:28):
become a little bit more publicized as well, hadn't it?
Like, you know. I would say we wait another half
an hour or 45 minutes. We thought we waited.
We did a lot of attractions earlier in the.
Night. She also quite lucky because
when we got in there there was athunderstorm, so everything else
was closed. There was no point in going
anywhere else anyway, so Max was.

(21:50):
Clever and we did and the ride was incredible.
The theme is worth it and I can't wait to go back and do it
again. It was, and I think this is the
thing, when you've experienced the theme park for the first
time, it's so there's going to be stuff you miss.
You're never going to fit it allin one day.
We had a list of stuff that we'dlike to have done, but we know
we've got a trip booked in January.

(22:11):
So what we didn't do, there wasn't pressure to do
everything. And I think like you said, clear
having a couple of like ear mustdos.
And I can't wait to go back and ride ride this attraction again
with a different point of view instead of just that secondary,
I think. Knowing what it is so you can

(22:35):
enjoy the rest of the experience.
The reason I asked about the express passes is Simon.
Who's in the chat? My cousin Nikki and her husband
Simon are at the moment they were they arrived and they're
staying at Helios. And they did have express passes
yesterday. And I'm just pulling up what she
said to me because she said theyhad the most incredible

(22:58):
experience that actually they had done what she said.
Bye, she said Express Pass is definitely worth it.
By 10:00 they've done Donkey Kong twice and Mario Kart, and
by 11 they'd been on Monsters and Curse of the Werewolf and by
12:00 they'd had a cup of Tea and Bean on Stardust Races.

(23:19):
Within like 3 hours they'd smashed out a hole and there's
only the two of them. But by using the express passes
they'd actually done a number ofheadliner attractions and that
was on their second day. They've been there on the Monday
as well. So they said they could have
been on, they could have been onhiccups as well, but they went
for a beer instead, which I, I absolutely respect.

(23:41):
I think that's, you know, the priorities.
Yeah. Definitely on Roberts, your
first ride when you went into the park.
Now this, this, this is actuallyone of the funniest things
because actually we kind of stumbled into Isle of Burke and
and as we went in, we, it was more of a fact.
I was going to try and get my thinking was we'll go against

(24:03):
the flow and we'll leave Potter and Nintendo to later in the
day. And then we, as we went into our
Berg Jerry something I was actually, I was really sort of
taken by the just just the absolute difference in design.
There's a load of wood. So we went on the the kind of

(24:27):
the kind of kids coaster up in the top corner.
Can't remember what it's. Called.
I was, I always want to call it the Rap Pteranodon Flyers.
Yeah. But we went on there.
And actually, from the first moment, it's that bit when you
go into somewhere you've never been, are you, are you engaged?

(24:50):
Are you with it? Are you absolutely blown away?
And I was like a kid. It was just, it was one of those
feelings that you just like, youkind of you're over sensitizing
your eyes and your ears and you're, you're taking this all
on board and you're like trying to take a picture of random
things and you just can't quite believe where you are.

(25:13):
And it it it again was it was such a great place to to begin a
whole day and actually to begin like a the history of going back
to epic because actually from the forever more.
That'll be our first right. And and again, something that
Simon's daughter and I had a conversation about them last

(25:35):
week before they went there within epic.
The actual locker system is much, much better.
Than it is the. Universal part, they use facial
facial recognition, but you willhave to walk through the metal
detector. So you know, sneaking your phone
on, it's not going to happen. Even if you've got coins in your

(25:58):
pocket, you've made to go back, put them in a locker.
It's very, very well organized and and actually you can see why
they need to be absolutely on point.
And actually because some of these some of these rights are
absolutely incredible. We come on to some of the others
as we get through the show, but to actually ensure the safety of

(26:19):
other guests, you have nothing, nothing in your pockets and
you've nothing to worry about. But the lockers are big enough
to actually to put a bag in. And that was the difference to
be found. It was a little bit bigger and a
little bit you weren't sort of dragging your bag off.
The metal surrounded the of the locker and.

(26:40):
And then it was I'm actually from.
The Ballade, so there's no bulges, not as when we went back
into like Universal Lines adventure a few days later.
Oh, Gringotts. Yeah, Gringotts lockers that
should be not down and start again because they have.
It's horrific. I mean, they have, they have
learned from that, thank goodness.

(27:01):
But I just. They should shut that off,
rebuild that whole area because that is probably the worst place
in all times. I did get some inside inside the
knowledge from Simon and his daughter on this one about where
to get the locker and actually not to go in that pain hub.
Go to the exit and if you get through the fire exit just on

(27:24):
that left left hand side. Don't tell everyone.
But you see that was on you and thank you for that, because
actually that was because I'm I'm awful.
You know when you come off and you come off your eyes, right
and you because it's because it's just your ticket in the
other two universe. But so I'll scan my ticket.
I won't think about who's who's on the eye level and gets
smacked in the face by the locker.

(27:44):
I'm like, sorry, sorry. You came.
Open, I know. Yeah, I thought.
I thought I was the locker over there and it was over there.
And it's like freezes somewhere from my unlocker and.
That's, that's why the facial recognition really is good
because actually for some attractions, you do need to take
your, you leave your phone in the locker.
And actually we had digital tickets.

(28:05):
They were on our phone. So I had, I do, I use a locker
if I need to keep my phone, you know, and, and luckily I was
wearing shorts and like side pockets, so it was fine.
But you know, it had it, had it been a different day, I wouldn't
have been able to take my phone on with me And that would have
been how am I going to lock my locker if I have?
If anyone's listening to this and wonders the few rides,
Velocicoaster in particular, where that happens, but they

(28:28):
will hand out a little bit of a card with a barcode.
And then you can put everything in the locker.
Yeah, Yeah, there's a team member there and that will allow
you to do that. So you can actually deposit your
phone as well. It is AI think it's a real issue
and I think it's maybe somethingthat, you know, universal
perhaps haven't I thought about in the first two parts, but now
with facial. Recognition.

(28:49):
So talk to the philosophy coaster and I was going
completely off topic but make sure your watch is secured on
your wrist because there was where I was sitting there was
something in front of you. Lost their watch mid ride on
Velocity coaster. Whoops.
So he put his arm and stuff likethat and in Ox.

(29:09):
Oh, no. When Wendy's just asked, are the
lockers ride specific? That is correct.
Yeah. So certainly in Epic, the right,
the lockers are at the ride system.
So you as you're walking throughthe queue line, you come to a
bit like Tron or you come to a like Bank of lockers, you
deposit everything in and then when you come off you're at the

(29:30):
other side of the locker. So you take everything out the
other way. So it's sort of like a one way
system in the lockers which works brilliantly like they do
at Tron, unlike the other two parks where it's like a melee to
get through. Yeah.
And the lockers are a lot biggerepic and it's more so you can
fit reasonable sized bag. So were there any attractions

(29:52):
that disappointed you? The Mario Kart.
I know, really. Yeah.
Yeah, I think that's a cue. Was amazing.
Yeah. And I'm sure these dead pieces
for Mario Kart were lovely and brilliant as well.
Except I couldn't really enjoy them because I had this huge
BIAIVR headset on. Maybe it did screen, it was

(30:18):
just, but it wasn't great. Yeah, it got me headache.
Yeah. But then I find a lot of that 3D
stuff, it's me. OK, so that might be a use that
might be a better be. A very welcome meeting.
It does mean that I'm not going to enjoy.
I found the VR, it was all right.
It wasn't. I've seen things done better
with that technology and I thinkit's good.

(30:39):
But my issue with it is you've got a lot of physical set pieces
that you can't see because you've got the VR headset on and
like lots of sort of and things moving in front of these
interactive bits. So it's a difficult one that I'd
like to go through it and do it without that to see what all the
stuff. Absolutely that I'd.

(31:02):
Like to, you know when we said about Ratatouille the other week
that you could turn the 3D off and see what my experience is
like, I'd like to be able to do that, turn the VR off without.
It would be right through it andsee stuff.
Yeah, I think it's a good attraction.
I just, I think what as a family, that day, we've hit the

(31:23):
wall. OK.
It felt like it was like, OK, wewere just.
I'd be. I'd be interested to know what
you think the second time you write it.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Because for us, that.
Was the second I think we went forward, I think, yeah, I think
that's a really good thing to bear in mind though.
And I think particularly coming from the UK is, is that whole
bit about timing and when you choose to do something, a day at

(31:46):
Epic is actually a massively long park day.
And you need to be, you need to be prepared to be in from
opening until closing, particularly if you're staying
off site. You need to have be at the top
of your game. And I think if you leave it
towards the end of your holiday when you are flagging a bit and

(32:06):
you're getting tired. And so I think that is the bit
where you maybe need a look at where you time.
We did something similar to you,Claire.
We loaded right at the very start of the holiday.
And again, you know, again be inAugust, you have to be prepared.
You're going to get rain. So don't don't be, don't be

(32:28):
blaming the Florida rainfall forruining your fun.
You know it. You know it's going to happen at
some point in the day. And again, Simon actually
mentioned it in the chat earlieron yesterday.
They didn't they didn't close the rides initially when it
started raining. They would try to keep them
open. And I think that that's

(32:49):
something I think they've learned a little bit more to try
and take away a little bit of the criticism.
Obviously when Thunder and lightning is around, that is an
immediate closure of the outdoorstuff.
A little bit of a hint now tip, if you've got the weather bug
app and you can look at where, look at where the last lightning

(33:10):
strike was. And once you get beyond 5
kilometres away, they will beginto start reopening the rides.
Now we did that with Minecart Madness thinking we're going to
be at the front of the queue. We're going to be, are we?
So we actually, we went and teammembers were at the start,

(33:34):
please don't queue up. No point in queue.
No, don't queue up. Don't queue.
No, we're going to linger here because actually we could be all
a widder here. And so we waited for a little
bit and then they started testing the ride and we're
thinking, yeah, we go. Line formed.
By the time that the ride actually they started to allow
people into into the queue line.The line was right the way

(33:57):
through. Through the archway, yeah.
Yeah, so everyone knew what was happening, but we would have had
to the game. We then got into the queue, I
thinking, and then suddenly we found the rest of the queue that
had decided to stay there while the thundering light it was on
and so the inside. Queue.
Yeah, it was just like. Yeah, we thought that we got in

(34:20):
the IT. Was one of them actually.
But when we got to the front of the queue, the announcement, the
announcement is coming on again.Please note this ride may close
if inclement weather. Yes.
And we know its approach and yousay, Oh my word, there's no way.
The only way I can describe it, if you remember the very end of

(34:41):
is it National Lampoon's vacation, the very first one
where, where the family, the family, the Chris Hall family
arrived in the, in the theme park and then they actually took
apart. The guy was John Candy, the
security guy, and held the gun to his head and said, there's
that deal that you're we're, we're not taking Wallywell's

(35:02):
oozes and we're heading there. And so they made him go on all
the rides and stuff. That was the way I was kind of
feeling at that particular moment in time.
I think minecart madness is a bit of a an issue for that.
I mean, we had a similar, we didhave an A ride stool and that
was the attraction. So we got in the the outside

(35:23):
queue and we were like, this is a ride the outside queue.
It says an hour we're getting. We did the outside queue and it
was super hot. So everyone was like dodging
between the bits of shade and trying to find a bit of a fan
that and it's super hot out there in that outside area.
And then we we went inside and we're like, Oh, we must be
nearly loading. You go inside and it's like,

(35:45):
yeah, that was the first third of the queue.
Here's the rest of it. And it's like inside area was
like, we were like, because we were walking out and sleeping.
I was like, wouldn't it be funnyif there was another whole pile
of switchbacks up here and we walked out and sleeping?
We're like, Oh my. Yeah, and the race I, I given
the Jew the way they've actuallydesigned that the actual inside

(36:08):
queue to again, if, if there is a storm incoming, get yourself
on the inside. Oh yeah, you'll be dry, but
you'll be absolutely bored. There's much thing to see.
No, but the rise. Too many issues with minecart
madness, right? Is one of those.
Yeah, we got to the front. We got what it's meant to be.

(36:28):
Yeah, but it was, to be honest, I felt it was bumpy.
Then I thought it was going to be, Oh no.
I think it's, I think it's designed to be like that.
I think that's the entire point of it.
I mean, we got. To bruises down my side that.
We've got, we got to about about10 people from the loading dock.
We've been in the line for aboutan hour and 10 minutes at that
point. And then it stopped working.

(36:50):
And we, I mean, we were sat on the floor and you sort of, you
know, you try and put your time on it and you're like, we were,
it was about and three and we were like, right, it gets to
3:15, we'll leave the queue because we're wasting our day.
And actually about 3:10 it went back up and we got on and it was
fine. But you know, I, I really like
the attraction. Millie and I were sat in the

(37:10):
front and Dan was sat in the back and he so we could see the
second track. He couldn't see it, so he didn't
know when some of those physicaleffects were going to happen,
whereas I could. See the back so I.
Didn't. OK, so that's possibly why you
felt the lump. So I was sitting at the front on
the right so I could see the second track and I could see
where it was going to turn and where it was going to drop.

(37:31):
And think Millie probably couldn't.
She might not be quite big enough.
And Dan definitely couldn't because he was behind me.
I think it's a really clever coaster.
I don't think it's the best attraction in the world, but I
think it was fun. And I love the fact it was a bit
lumpy, bumpy and, you know, a bit unpredictable.
I thought I was quite, I thoughtI was quite good.
And it's unique. I actually think it was one, it

(37:52):
was one of those ones that because we hadn't watched or
seen any of the spoilers from elsewhere, it actually made the
ride even better because actually.
Not sure what to expect? You don't.
Know. No, it is.
It was quite something else. And and again, talking about the
technology involved in it, this is something that even even when

(38:13):
you're on it, you don't quite grasp the way that it works.
And that allows that's about a light because actually I
thought, you know, again, reallypushing the technology to the
absolute limit. I have to say, I really, I know
Ben and Becca, maybe not quite so much.
I loved Mario Kart. I thought this has for me the

(38:38):
massive rewrite ability. I could have sat and just done
that over and over, a bit like playing Mario Kart at home.
I could have done that attraction 5678 times in a row
and not even considered that I should be doing other stuff.
Because of the fact that I thinkwhen you first get in it and
you, you know, everyone laughs. I put their visor on and then
you put your goggles on and all of this stuff.
And you, it's only when you're starting to drive through it

(39:00):
that you realize you have to turn your head to be able to see
the things to shoot at. And then when you've worked that
out, all of a sudden you're sortof spinning your head around and
do it's so interactive to the next level where I think, you
know, yes, you have got the set pieces that you can't always see
very clearly, but you are gaining points and you're
earning points and it's, you know, it's a bit like Toy Story
mania, You know, they're going to have to rewrite.

(39:20):
And I just think that for me, I would happily just, I reckon
there are probably team members who have been on it multiple
times to build up those top schools who are like, there's a
kid at the arcade who knows exactly how it's how to do it.
And then what I don't know is each time you ride it, is it
different? Do you get different visual

(39:42):
effects or is it the same each time?
And I don't know. And that's something that would
be quite interesting to know. But yeah, I loved it.
I think the one I. Like the queue?
Yeah, I think one thing for people also to bear in mind is
when you're in that whole Nintendo World area now, if
you're in for a considerable amount of time, the noise starts

(40:07):
to get to you. And I'm I'm usually not one for
this but it just went on and youwould use like.
People walking, yeah, it's like.When we when we actually came
off my car and again we could feel the rain started again and

(40:29):
you're just like, OK, let's go, let's go we'll go at the
Celestial park. We'll see see what we can go.
But you know when you walk out the.
Tranquility. And yeah, and you just like.
Silence. Warmth.
It. Is it is It is a lot.
It is. Like I've been sorry.
I never ever you usually complain about noise at all

(40:50):
because again, if you go so manygigs, I can usually put up and
actually blank out noise. You can't.
And it just became one of those that.
You just like, I think if you'vegot, if you've got people in
your family or particularly children who are sensory.
Yeah, sensitive, yeah. Because it's very bright in

(41:10):
there. There's not a huge amount of
shade. So it's exceptionally hot in
most of that that Nintendo Land.It's on multiple levels.
So there's lots of visual thingsgoing on and things moving all
the time as well. There's lots of people jostling
to get to the IT did. Take us a little while to get to
get around as well because. I did.
I couldn't find Donkey Kong at first.

(41:33):
Because we like an escalator andthen it's like, oh, I know the
water. Then I need to go down and now I
need to go back up and that and then the sound Volt, yeah, the
volume and the the number of different things that are going
on. I think it is a little bit of
overload. So just, I would say that if
you've got people who are sensitive to, you know, sensory

(41:54):
overloads, just might want to think about how much time you
spend in there. Because I, I lots of noise
sometimes is a bit much for me. And I was certainly like, OK,
I've had enough in here. I need, I need to leave here.
So but yeah, you come back out in Celestial Park.
It's almost like that. Oh yeah, that's nice.

(42:15):
Yeah. It's so different to going
through the entrance. It was like, oh, I promised
apes. It's brilliant.
It's. Yeah, the theming.
What about perfect? What about the the area with
monsters? Dark Universe.

(42:36):
What did you think? Because that was the area you
were super excited about, wasn'tit, Ben?
Yeah, it was, but unfortunately we didn't get to it till sorry,
OK, the very end, the very end of the day.
Did it? Did what you see live up to your
expectations? Oh yeah, it looks amazing.
It looks incredible and especially.
Because obviously by the time wegot there, it was dark as well.
OK. Did you?

(42:57):
Do any of the attractions? No, it was delayed when we got
there. It opened all day by the time we
bought Oh no Mario, because we're in the Keith Mario cart
for quite a while. And once we got through there
and duck time, duck universe, noone else really seemed
interested in it. But I'm going ahead.
I've waited all day for this. I'm going to go and do it half

(43:19):
an hour. The Ford Park close, it's
delayed and spoke to Tim and I said like it's not opening the
rest of the evening. So, which didn't help the
attraction. The werewolf or or.
The we had a 45 minute queue. And we wanted to do the counting
show, the evening fountain show.Yeah.
I would actually say that the monsters Unchained part there

(43:43):
that the Frankenstein ride is a little hidden gem that it's a
lot. It's it's bricks in your face.
But I tell you what as as an actual ride, it is something
else and and it doesn't usually carry a massively long queue

(44:03):
time walks on it's indoors so you know it's going to happen.
If it starts raining, that's your.
That should be your go to place I think.
Pretty much. Did you enjoy your chance?
I loved. It I, I actually, I came off and
I just thought, wow, that's that's like taking the original
Harry Potter ride to the end degree and.

(44:24):
Then. Yeah, you know, and it's just
like, and it was, it was, it wasabsolutely superb.
And and yeah, has a bit of scariness about it as well.
So don't be. Thanks for joining us, Simon.
Good luck in Halloween Horror Nights hoping that you know Axe
Murderer doesn't get you. Or change so.
Wow, have a great time. Thank you for joining us.
And again, Simon, Simon actuallyput together and, and his

(44:47):
daughter is he put together a bit of a CHEAT SHEET that went
to about 5 pages of a four because we haven't been
universal for, for a number of years.
And it was so invaluable of justlooking at really nice places to
eat inside the other parts. And also just a little, just
little bits of advice, again, like was mentioned before about

(45:08):
lockers, etcetera, and and your pass holders.
And I know that they're going tohave a great time tonight.
And now that's one of the busiest big things.
So have a great, have a great time.
I did. The monsters go on.
Yeah, I did the monsters, right.So, so we'd been in to marry.
We'd done her, done Miss Athletic Ministry.

(45:32):
Then we'd gone over and done, you know, a few things in
Nintendo and we came back. We grabbed something to eat in
like that Bunny BBQ places in Cedar Steel Park, because it was
about two O clock and about halfthree and we were a little bit
hungry. So we grabbed something to eat
and I was like, right, I need togo into each of the portals just
so I can say that I've been to the mall, come all this way.

(45:53):
But I have to say that is not anarea that I was particularly
interested in. It wasn't somewhere that I was
desperate go to. Neither of the attractions
really were doing it for me. And I was like, let's go and
see. And we went in and it was fine.
The weather was good. It wasn't too much of an issue.
The queue for them werewolf was about 50 minutes and he for

(46:14):
month for the Monsters attraction was five.
It was yeah, I was just down at Mills and I said look, it's a
walk on, let let me go and I don't.
Millie was a bit like, oh, I'm not sure.
I said why don't I go and ride it?
Take my bag, I'll go and ride it.
Checking one for the team. That clown, I like that.
I'll go and I'll go and check itout and when I come out, if
it's, you know, still going to be a walk on, if it's OK, we'll

(46:36):
all go and do it again. Yeah.
I didn't really know what I was getting by something.
I see pictures of the staircase and the insight, the theming in
the queue line is incredible. Like I, I was walking through
the queue line. I was like, this is amazing.
I took some photos in the queue line and and we got to the logic

(46:57):
and I was like, OK, this is, I know it's there was me, another
single rider and a couple of people.
So I was, I was, you know, completely alone.
And I was like, OK, And I sat down and this thing is, it's
intense. I mean, the attraction is like
Forbidden Journey in terms of it's all people on like a bench

(47:17):
and on an arm and it moves you around and stuff.
But the theming is intense. You know, you have got Dracula
coming at you quite close. It's like the moment in
Forbidden Journey where the dementors come at you.
But then times that by about a million in terms of intensity, I
would say it's not really kid friendly.

(47:40):
I would say any any children under 8 are really probably
unless you unless they're reallybrave and don't care.
I came off and Mills went. What do you think I was like?
No, you'd hate it. Like you'd love the attraction,
but no, I need you to sleep tonight because you will not.
And she would have been beside herself and she's like, she's

(48:01):
quite, quite sensible. 12 year old.
And I was just like, it's it's incredible.
One for when you're older. I feel like it, it is a lot.
It really is. And I've heard and actually
Nicky and Simon both said to me they went on it and they were
like, wow, you know, you don't atheme park attraction.
You don't see many daddy quite. It's like Halloween Horror
Nights, but in an attraction forit's a lot.

(48:25):
It really is. But it is incredible and the
theme is amazing. And if you, you know, if you're
kind of don't care, it's like the Mummy, but then a lot more.
Yeah, it is. It is.
There's a part of me that wants to do it because I've heard that
it's amazing and all of those things you just said.

(48:47):
And there's a part of me that doesn't want to do it because I
know it's been absolutely. Absolutely.
And I was scared and I don't I don't really get, you know, like
I can see Tara, Tara. The theming doesn't bother me.
You know, it's creepy, but I love the fact that it's creepy
and it's clever creepy. This was, you know, I was like,
OK, this is more than I expected.
This is not my usual type of ride, so I would definitely do

(49:10):
it again. I would not take my child on it.
Claire, John, did you experienceDark Universe at night time?
No. Only now it was kind of dusk by
the time that we we came out of there.
And I think night time the lightning just changes the
atmosphere. It is.
It's amazing when I see because the werewolf, you can't see

(49:31):
anything. You can hear the screams.
That's it. And that, that's it.
And I have to. We saw the flaming with it was.
We saw it and it it does look really clever and the theming
are at. We didn't go into any of the
restaurants or anything. Yeah, we went in a cup of the
shops and they were like freaky.I would go back and have another
explorer in that area. It wasn't by that point for us,

(49:54):
it was about half four. We went and did the carousel,
which I love and it was really sweet actually.
And it was, we actually had quite a long wait for the
carousel, which was weird. I don't quite understand the,
the loading if that is slow. And it reminded me a little bit
of the sea glass carousel that we did in Briar Park in New York

(50:16):
in terms of feel and look. And it's it's ugly.
By the time we came off the carousel, the the sky had
changed to grey and that wind was blowing in.
I know what's going on. And because it was our first
day, I had our passports in my handbag and I had a bag that

(50:36):
wasn't waterproof. And so my bag is made from
fabric with like things on it. And I was like, right, I need to
go and find a shop and get a carrier bag to put, you know,
something plastic bag to put ourpassports in #1.
So we went to either Burke afterthat and then did a few things
there asked the rain was starting to come in.
So we didn't. We actually left the park about
7:00. We were only in 11 hours.

(51:04):
What time did we get to the parkwe got?
The park about. 09 just. Before, Yeah, you it's about
9:00. You messaged me because you've
stopped with your flat tire and your.
Breakfast time. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, pretty much.
And then when we got to the park, we then.
Yeah, and we stayed until closing.
Yeah, Fountain show. Yeah, we did the park so it

(51:26):
closed at 9:00, but there's started at 9 and finished up,
but we didn't get the park till 9:30, which was so. 12 hour
deck. It's slightly frustrating.
The fountain show was incredible.
Perfect end of the day. The only frustrations to the end
of the day was I wanted to Stardust races but it closed at

(51:47):
half an hour fall of fountain show it gone tech and so did the
so we just had a bit bad luck there.
Yeah, John, you did Stardust races, didn't you?
We didn't. Do it I I ended up doing it
three times. So I thought you said you did it
multiple. Times and.
And were both tracks running when you did it?
Because when I saw only the yellow track was running.
Yeah. So actually in the interests of

(52:09):
science, because people say, oh,you should do one track and used
to, there's not much difference between the two, Let's let's put
that out there. So it doesn't matter which lane
you're in, the both as good as each other.
That, for me, was my standout attraction.
Oh, really? Because I actually felt it was
even better than Velocicoaster, which I think is quite a

(52:29):
controversial thing to say. And it was.
And it's it's a ride that you just, it doesn't matter where
you are, if you're at the front or the back, you really are.
Is Aspen for breath in certain points of it.
It is absolutely superb. It really is.

(52:49):
I actually, and again, I know, Iknow, I keep talking about
people that I met. I met a bloke from it was a
Leeds fan, but lived in Orlando for about 10-15 years.
Yeah, but ended up chatting to as as I was on like obviously
single rider and stuff that but conversation with him as you're
riding. And I didn't kind of I didn't

(53:11):
tell him that it was me second or third time of the day.
I just he just presumed it was the first time.
And then by the time I came off,he just said and how was that?
I said that was just something else.
And he's actually ridden it about four times in a row.
He's going round and round and round with his with his family

(53:32):
and stuff like that. It is an amazing roller coaster
and again, one that I look forward to going and riding
again purely for the fact that and it goes back to where we
started this whole show, Claire,and you're, you're talking about
the concrete of Celestial Park. You don't feel as if this ride

(53:55):
actually visually impacts as youwalk into the park, and not at
all. I didn't miss it was even there.
Yeah. And it's so cleverly just
positioned that you it kind of it, doesn't it?
I don't know. It's it's one of them things
that some people probably would even be in the park and just be
aware. Oh, that's one of the roll

(54:16):
roller coasters, maybe from Isleof Beck.
Yeah. We've done, we've done that and
then actually understand it and.It's almost tucked away, isn't?
It. Yeah, yeah.
But just ridiculous. It was just superb.
It really was, I don't know, he just took my brush away and I
just, I just think it's one of those ones that you, you

(54:36):
remember, I only went on myself.Alison didn't do it.
She doesn't do that. So that was another reason why
you. Did it three times just to be
sure. Just to make sure.
Yeah, yeah. Like I did, lost the coast at
three times, yeah. Yeah, I.
Lost the coast for intensity. Yeah, I think that's exactly it
back here. I think that's is the intensity

(54:58):
part of it and and they're very similar.
Some of the some of the. It's the last restraint the
same, so is it just? Yeah, there's no, there's no
over, there's no over shoulder stuff.
It's all about that suspended. It's like, and I know I was
getting to trouble when I compare it to the sick crowd at
the Flamingo Land, but it's the same, it's the same, same

(55:21):
system, but they actually got that.
It's like the Corkscrew, inverted Corkscrew.
But because you're going so fast, the actual gravitational
part of it doesn't catch up. And it is, it just is absolutely
amazing. Really is.
Loved it, absolutely loved it. Did you do any of the shows or
any of the other bits and piecesthat were around the parks?

(55:44):
Did you meet Toothless or any ofthose things?
No, no, I really wanted to. Take.
But if you to meet toothless waslike an hour and 15 hours.
Yeah. That's that wasn't.
Going to be on my list. It was a bit.
We did meet the students in the wisdom world.

(56:06):
They were nice. Yeah.
That was a conversation with them, yeah.
We had a couple. Of 10 minute conversation.
That's cool because there was there, there's there sort of the
show in the Wisdom World area, which is inside like the.
Tent that will absolutely blew me away and and actually we.

(56:26):
Didn't get back to that we were going to.
Go back to it. Oh, Claire.
Yeah, as a as a stand alone attraction.
You think there's a circus tent and you won't get a circus tent
it. Looks very innocuous.
Totally. When you actually get beyond the
circus tent, the actual attraction itself is so deep

(56:48):
into the you don't actually understand where you actually
are positioned at this theatre is absolutely superb.
What I would say is actually I had a conversation with a good
friend of the show, Katie Wetzel, but trying to describe
and she's actually seen quite a lot of this is with Lisserk

(57:12):
Arkanus. Now I'm I'm on a warning to make
sure that when you see this for the first time, please don't
mispronounce it because actuallyit will come back and it will
make people laugh so. By your alchemist.
Exactly. That's yeah.
So I've been under strict instructions not to talk it down

(57:36):
because actually when you get inthere's like a pre show area and
then you go into an actual theatre and the actual it's
live, a live circus and live theatre.
It is outstanding, it really is.And actually it is if if you
used to go into circuses and things like that, there's no

(57:57):
animals involved in it. But it's just a lot of visual
and trickery and things. It's really clever.
And gutted we missed it. I just like the fact that it's
live theatre and and again, I'llput this out there because we've
mentioned about the fountains asbeing 1 little dig at Disney.

(58:18):
I think this is another, and I think this is another word
they've invested in a show whereit will be heavy on sort of cost
of staffing and performers, but they're not being frightened of
that. And they've actually put it into
a brand new theme park and that was refreshing because it is

(58:39):
live theatre and I always support live theatre in that
one. Thing I noticed about Epic in a
lot of the portals and of the lands was the roaming
characters. Yeah, there was and and.
There was so many in yeah, and it was.
Whistling World there was loads.Oh my word, yeah.
Whistling World was perfect, it really was it felt like they had

(59:00):
taken what they learned from andthe one that studios and honours
adventure and gone like, oh, we can actually have space here.
It felt perfect. It felt like they fixed the
floor was. I'll tell you what we did find
in in in the actual Harry Potterarea as well.
Now this, this is again, this goes back to what we've always

(59:21):
said on this show. It's about that just taking the
time to just step out, step awayand just letting things happen.
And we were minded. We're just mind our own
business. It got towards we were getting
on towards about 8 O clock at night and I thought I want just
one more look at some of the bat.

(59:42):
So the background detail rather than just going to the Harry
Potter round, rather than going to the circus, I want to just
walk the streets. What we actually found was a
shop window and the picture in the shop window was having a
conversation with this girl and they were having, they were

(01:00:03):
having a two way conversation. So they asked the girl's name.
They go, so their name and. Conversation and you when you
just look at this and you're thinking this is absolutely
clever nailing what theme parks can actually do and I just I'll
love that. It'd be one of my probably one
of my stand out moments. And this girl, she wants to be

(01:00:26):
about 7:00 or 8:00 and she was just, she was just completely
flummoxed as to how this picturecan be talking to her knowing
and, and, and the questions wereclever because actually they
were asking messes and stuff andit was coming back.
But it was and the girls like, how do you how do you know that

(01:00:46):
it's just like it? Was guided in a perfect way and
it was just. Lively.
It didn't feel like it was. There was a push to have an.
It's an interesting thing when you've been to the other ones
and there's like, there's alwaysA1 to shop.
Yeah, so go and spend money on an interactive wand.
And when you think with Nintendothat you can get the power up

(01:01:09):
band and to collect things. So it's people's first opinion
is like, oh, is this like another thing to spend money on?
But I have to be experienced that we had walking around and
just seeing the attention to detail in things.
Yes, yeah. Any extra and it was just, it
was amazing what you could see could be done in the wizarding

(01:01:30):
world. Did you come across the some of
the characters that will? So we were in the one shop and
the character who owns the one shop, Cosme, she came in and she
stayed in there for well, we were in there for like 15
minutes and she stayed in there just chatting to everyone and
amazing. And she it's weird because she
came and she was like bonjour. And Lily immediately went

(01:01:52):
bonjour. I didn't think anything of it,
you know? So yeah, it was incredible.
And I think those roaming characters, obviously we were in
Wizarding World first thing in the morning.
There was all of the area to theright when you walk in the left
is where you go to get to the attraction and you've got the
circus in front of you. All the areas to the right,
there's a couple of there's a restaurant and some some shops.

(01:02:16):
There wasn't a huge amount down there in terms of people.
So we were walking around and there was there was Actors
Castle, no team members who weresort of like standing on the
street corner with nobody talking to them.
And they were quite clearly Cup team members in costume ready to
interact, just watching emptiness because there was

(01:02:37):
nobody there. And it was like, wow, even when
it's not busy, they have bothered to put people out
because it'd be really easy to go or there's nobody there,
Don't bother going out yet, you know, start the shift in an hour
rather than that. We, we, we, we, we joked away.
We mentioned that as about Disney.
It's like, oh, it's the quiet time.
Oh, we don't need to have them start.
They can start like have a break.
It will call you back when it's busy.

(01:02:58):
And it's, it's, it's really interesting how, and I know
because it's a new theme park that they're trying to.
Yeah. I think they should stay the way
it is. I think it's I love being to
walk through like Dark Universe.Even though it was late at
night, they were still eagle running about scaring you.
It was quite the. Hunter's coming out.

(01:03:20):
Yeah, there's no. Places and apply to this.
Yeah, I had the Invisible Man. Yeah, we saw the Invisible Man.
Yeah, it was really cool. Yeah, we did, because it was
going to start raining. We did go in and watch the
Untrainable Dragon show in Isle of Book.
It was amazing. Again, live actors didn't really

(01:03:41):
know what we were going into. We was like, it's inside,
that'll do nicely. A mate got some amazing seats.
We were like 3 rows from the front.
There's live singers, there's live drummers, there's live
actors. The the actor who was playing, I
want to say what's the name of the person who who trains

(01:04:04):
Dragons? I can't remember his name.
I've never seen him feel. Hiccup is Hiccup.
Yeah, he looked exactly like thecartoon character.
I've never seen the films. So really was like, he's
amazing. So then I looked it up.
I was like, Oh no, he doesn't just like him.
It it was such a great show. It's like half an hour long,

(01:04:25):
original songs, well produced, well delivered.
I thought it was, it was such a great of experience and actually
Toothless wasn't well that day so didn't appear in the show.
I wouldn't have known any different.
So he was he was having a nap, but apparently Toothless
normally appears as well. That was, that was one show that

(01:04:47):
again, when you come out of Epic, you'll realise you've
crammed so much into a day and then you instantly regret.
And that's, that's the one thing.
That's the one thing we didn't do that I wish we had.
Yeah, but I'm glad we didn't because I know that we can go
back. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And see, it was excellent, really good.

(01:05:09):
Yeah. And there was that funny ride in
in Isle of Burke, the one that'slike up on the yard that's been,
Oh yeah, I really wanted to do that, but we ran out of time and
then it started raining and I'm not doing that in the rain.
And I was like, that's, that's abit of me, you know, throw
yourself upside down as much as you were kind of thing.

(01:05:29):
It does look good. I might have to I.
Can't wait to go back and do thethings we missed.
And I think you've got, you've got to understand you're not
going to come away and take it all off in one day.
And I think that's maybe where some people are coming away from
a one day ticket and saying, oh,we didn't do this, we didn't do

(01:05:50):
that, we didn't do. This.
We had to queue for so long for so many things.
We've only got 4 rides done or whatever.
I actually, I came away, I couldn't believe just how much
we'd achieved and how much how much reality soaked up an awful
lot of of what the park was about.
And I also, we also had a reallynice pint in the there's a

(01:06:13):
little, a little bar. I can't even remember what the
name of the bar was. We went for it and then there
was like, there was live music on you.
Know. Sat the one in the middle in
Celestia Park, Yeah. 4 O clock in four O clock in the afternoon
there was. Jazz.
We had two we had two guitaristson singing, sing, singing R.E.M.
songs and things like right up my street really.

(01:06:38):
But but it's a fact that they'relaying entertainment on.
You know, I don't know about youguys.
We've, we didn't, we didn't delve too much into the food
side of stuff because obviously because.
We. Had something and that we I went
we went to Starbucks like, you know, because I know that I
think a coffee. We had the Mac and cheese bread

(01:06:59):
bar, Isle of Burke Incredibles. We had we.
I know it was a Harry Potter. We had steak.
Steak. It was steak.
Wow. Yeah.
You guys didn't go it. Was a quick it.
You know what? It was quick service as well.
Quick service, but the steak wasreally, really a.
Pretty good steak for quick service.
And it was, yeah, it surprised me.

(01:07:22):
And it wasn't table service or quick service.
It was like, it's kind of a quick service, Yeah, They bring
it to you, so you order the. The the French cafe on the left
hand side, we went in there and had we had breakfast in there
about. Because I wanted to.
That looked amazing. We actually walked in and then
realised it was a bit of a queueand then we decided.

(01:07:46):
The thing I liked was that you could sit at a table and use QR
code order on the app and they wanted to you in most of the
Greek service locations across all of Universal.
Actually, they did that in. We did this name with the Mac
and cheese when we went to Mac and cheese.
Sort of a bread cone. I mean Isle of Burke.
It's better than the Disneyland 1.

(01:08:06):
Yes, yeah, really, really good. But yeah, statements better.
Had some goldfish crackers on it.
Amazing. Yeah, it was a nice crunch it.
Was really. Yeah, our breakfast in there was
it was fine. The coffee wasn't amazing.
We had a pastry really had a Well, no, I was.

(01:08:28):
I was disappointed by the coffee, actually.
I thought it'd be better than itwas.
It was only just palatable. We had a some sort of soft drink
and then some pastries and they were fine.
We had a various. I think it's famous just.
Because it's the place you can get the butter beer creep.
Oh, I didn't know that Millie had some Nutella Crips.
She had two kids Nutella Crips and they were good.

(01:08:51):
I mean, it was a good buy. It was good value.
The kids meals again, the same as in Disney are a better,
better value option And and they're not that much smaller,
but the interior of that location is lovely.
It's really beautiful and it does feel very French.
It feels very prissy. And so I think it's, it has, I
wouldn't necessarily go back, but I think it was nice.
I wanted to see inside. Some interesting interaction

(01:09:14):
with team members in there because when we went in there
sort of explained how it works. We choose to see and that that
was perfect. But Hof server who brought our
food out, I think he was workingin the wrong land.
I think he should have been overat Dark Universe because he had
no expression on his face and literally felt like it was like
it's just very. French.

(01:09:35):
Yes. It was his character.
Yeah. Yeah, we didn't delve into any
other food really. It wasn't.
No, I'm I'm going through my photos here and I'm trying
desperately trying to figure outwhat we actually ate.
I think we caught something on the way back down, then the I4
at the end I. Think it is really difficult

(01:09:56):
when you've got one day when if you're going to going forward
from January 26th, you can buy tickets by UK ones.
It's multiple days, it's a binge.
How you change how many days would you do Epic in a future
trip? Because obviously you run big
constraint at 1:00. Well, we, we obviously had 14
day universal ticket and we, there was a point in our trip

(01:10:19):
where we're trying to work out what to do.
And I did look at shall we buy another day at Epic, just a
standalone Epic University. And for the three of us, it's
going to be $450 for one more day.
And at that point, I would absolutely not.
That is not worth it. Especially when you won't have
express parts. Right.
So there is, I think it's still.And that's no cheaper than

(01:10:43):
spending one day at Magic Kingdom.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to suggest that it's
priced over and above any other park, you know.
A day at Magic England is $160 on some some peak times, but I
wouldn't pay that either if I didn't have a, you know, if I
didn't have a 14 day pass or an annual pass or any of that
stuff, I wouldn't, I wouldn't pay that.
So I think it is an expensive outlay and I think that's

(01:11:09):
probably where people are getting frustrated.
If they're there for the day andthey're not, they don't feel
like they're getting their money's worth because they
haven't made it on every attraction that they used to do
or they standard. You know, they were standing in
a queue for two hours and then the ride went tech because it
was lightning. The frustration of that I think
is probably because it's new andthere's this desperation to

(01:11:31):
experience everything that will subside.
And I think that, you know, thatwill ease and the tenseness
around that will get better. But I think for the next 6
months or so, it's still going to feel that intense.
You know, I have to do it all because actually it's costing me
a lot of money because you're either buying a 14 from here,

(01:11:52):
you're either buying a 14 day ticket and getting one day, or
you've got an annual pass and you're buying a day or you're
paying for a day on its own. It's a, you know, none of it is
cheap, none of it trip to Orlando is cheap, but this is an
additional cost on any of them. So I think, you know, I
absolutely understand. I think we were lucky with our
day. I think we had a great day and
we experienced everything, pretty much everything we wanted

(01:12:14):
to. There's loads to go back that we
didn't touch. But you know, that's that's the
same everywhere, you know, but Iknow that some people haven't
been that lucky. And if you look on like Facebook
chat groups, there are. Lots of people.
Ranting. If I've had that experience that
you'd feel the same. I think it's it's always

(01:12:34):
difficult and I think I don't know whether Universal have done
it right or wrongly in It's a new theme park that's opened
first time in so many years thatabout.
Trying to control, yeah. Yeah, I think a lot of people
are waiting as well. I spoke to quite a few people
who are locals and they're like Zach, certainly he was like, I'm
going in November, letting it run its course for a little bit

(01:12:57):
and then I'll go later. Something like 26 or 27, right?
Because it's one of those that it's not their must do, but
we'll see what it's like in a few years time.
But I think it's the way Universal seems to be at the
minute. Not they can't do any wrong, but
I'm really impressed with what they've been able to achieve
with this theme park. I mean, I imagine especially if
they're locals or they visit thearea often, they're not running.

(01:13:21):
Because. I think it's a group of people
who were desperate to do it so they could put it.
You know, there are some bloggers who were desperate to
be there early. And then there are people, I
guess, like Theme Park Bazza, who he and Maxine went.
They had a good start to the dayand then it fell apart
completely. And he was super honest about
that. I don't know.

(01:13:42):
They were stuck in the queue forthat.
Yeah. So I know that people have gone
back to universal complaints andhad new days given out to them.
They've been given passes for certain, right.
You know, there is going to be teething issues.
They're not going to disappear overnight.
So I think there's a little bit of patience.

(01:14:02):
If you're going and go with patience, go with, go with, you
know, just go and enjoy it. Pick a couple of rides that you
want to do and if you do them and anything else as a bonus.
That's kind of the way we workedon it.
And I think that worked for us. Certainly, from my point of
view, we when. We got to the end of the night,
we were sitting down, he had some ice cream.
We explained to the fountain show to start and I just said

(01:14:23):
like, I can't wait to sit in this area with a.
Cup of coffee. And just relax.
It felt, really. Weird coffee.
Don't do that, no. We'll go out the pail bags.
Yeah, yeah. Just can't wait.
So your Jaws mug. Oh, this one.
Yes, it is. Yeah, Here we go.
Universal. Yeah, I thought, yeah, I thought

(01:14:48):
I'd try my best. But then I've got to say we came
out and it just exceeded everything that I ever thought
that we would ever get in a brand new theme park.
And that was that was a surprisebecause forever the cynic, I was
expected to come out and have those same complaints that

(01:15:11):
people have been having the pastcouple of it is not so scary
nights where the parades have gone down and it's been raining
and, you know, and they queue upfor two hours to get the money
back. And, you know, I was prepared
for that. I was prepared to be that guy.
And actually it never happened. I actually went with again with

(01:15:31):
no expectation and came out withevery single dreamt expectation
was had been exceeded and and and and rightly so because you
pay a lot of money for it, but. Now, now, now.
You've been once. How do you feel for the next
time you go? Must do, yeah.

(01:15:53):
Got maybe things. That I want to do when we go
back. So for me, it's a maybe do yeah.
I've. I does it depend on something
planning next door? So I'm going, obviously I'm
going on my own in December for five nights.
I'm not going to go to Epic. No, I've got my, I can
understand that. Next May I'm probably not going
to go either. I'm only there for five nights.

(01:16:14):
So if I was there for three weeks, 2 1/2 weeks, 2 weeks,
then I, I probably would. Would I pay for a universal two
week pass? Maybe not, but that's a whole
other discussion. Claire that's that's a really
good one because we didn't, we didn't have a two week
universal. We only had four days and then
and again on the Universal app and then what we did was one of

(01:16:38):
those days, one day out of forward was going to be epic.
What was interesting, and again,having not done Universal for
quite some, some time, I think both Alison and I, I love
coasters. So I'm, I'm I'm pretty well
catered for by all of the parks for Alison, what she came away

(01:17:00):
and she didn't like the disorganization of the other two
universal packs and the way thatthey, it just appears that like
things have been built in randomordering, which was the alpha.
Added on. And but what she did, she
actually just didn't like that sort of chaotic kind of view to

(01:17:23):
it. And actually she loved Epic and
that was the interesting one because actually it shouldn't be
a part that she particularly likes, again because of
intensity of some of the coasters, but she could get it.
And, and one of the things that we spoke about as a family has
been looking back to the UK as to is this actual design of the

(01:17:47):
portals and the design of the central spoke and the hub going
to work when, when the universalbegin to build their park in the
UK. Because if it is, it works.
And it actually works very, verywell because you can already see
that there's massive expansion opportunities within Orlando at

(01:18:10):
the moment, which will come overtime, Not just in rides, but
also, I would think in sort of indoor, indoor things, also
restaurants or the other types. You know, there's, there's lots
of that park already built that not being used.
I think Universal Body said thatthey've got a few plans of war.

(01:18:30):
Future, I think this is again going back back to what we said
months ago, it's a master strokebecause they've actually thought
about the long term viability ofthis.
I really, I take the half because I was, I was willing to
come back and slide it off and and say about we don't see what

(01:18:52):
the horse is personally, but actually the force is absolutely
superb. And actually, I think that the
whole world network, and I thinkwhen you first first realise
where it is within Orlando, you're quite surprised.
It's so far away from regional universal parks and some of

(01:19:14):
their hotel infrastructure. Yet what they've done is they've
built more hotels around in thatepic area.
Yeah. Yeah, and they look incredible.
The new hotels, what's the hotelthat hasn't opened yet?
The one that looks like reflective all the way around?
It is amazing. And Luna.

(01:19:34):
And Stananova. Yeah, they're.
The ones that are open. Are they the open ones because
he they've? Been lost.
They look and like. Valley Hotels, so the price of
them is probably good. So we're staying in Terra Luna
in January. OK.
Interesting to see how that is. I mean, yeah.
You don't get perks like as the premium hotels, so you don't get

(01:19:58):
the Express pass, but for I can get any entry anyway.
But you get early entry, yeah, which is what we're looking
forward to. I've got this feeling being up
early every day in January just to just go to weapons.
Oh God, yeah, too right. I think that's that goes without
saying, doesn't it? You know, I really feel that,
you know, I I it's a tone of part though, even when we then

(01:20:24):
went into the Disney part of thethe whole day.
You then go back and you reflecton that day epic.
And you wish you could have had a second day to just take a
little bit more in because like I said, like I said earlier, to
make use of it, you're in from opening to as late as you can

(01:20:44):
actually stay in that park and. You're going in blind.
Yeah, pretty much. And it's going to be interesting
walking to that one knowing all what we know, everything we've
spoken about this evening of just like using all of that and
going like, OK, I can't wait to get back there.
And. I hope we haven't given too much
away to people listen to this because actually, you know, I

(01:21:06):
felt very privileged in the factthat I know we've done a mid
month show earlier in the year, which again, I had a little
shortlist of must do, must do rides, but I did I didn't really
I've not I hadn't absorbed anything and is the most amazing
feeling going into a theme park without I think without that

(01:21:31):
sense of oh, we'll do this, thisand this.
It's just like, let's go, let's just go and explore because
yeah, we'll probably never get the day that we we did the first
time ever again. It's one of those absolutely
amazing, amazing experiences. So whether you've been to Epic
already or it's on your list to do, let us know how you get on

(01:21:54):
and what you're most excited forbecause it's just amazing to
feel that emotion when you walk through into a brand new theme
park that you've never been intobefore.
So and if you enjoyed tonight's chat, don't forget to like,
subscribe and ring the bell. See David Midsumm waffle live.
And if you want to keep the conversation going, come and
join us in the waffle as arms, our Facebook community.

(01:22:16):
So it's why we'll hang out between shows.
So we'll be back next Wednesday,same time at 8:30 UK with more
Disney universe and fun. So until then, from all of us at
the great British Mickey waffle.We'll see you soon.
We'll. See you real soon.
We'll see you real soon.