Where to go first at Universal Orlando's new Epic Universe?

I argue battle at the ministry because although monsters will probably have in your face animatronics, I just feel like the massive sets of the MoM (plus hp obviously) will be a bigger draw than monsters, although I will obviously go to both.
I will rush MoM, then hit monsters, doing stardust at the end because its a completely different experience at night. soon i might do a poll myself on what LAND your most exited for

Nintendo World for me as a video game fan with Potter right behind.

Stardust Racers is going to have insane capacity, and I can't see the line for that eclipsing 75 minutes even on the busiest of days, so while it's my most anticipated attraction it wouldn't be my first stop. Battle at the Ministry, Mario Kart, and Monsters Unchained will all get 90-120 minute queues regularly, but they each have a single rider line, which should help significantly. I think the best choice will probably be Donkey Kong Mine-Cart Madness, which does not have single rider and has far below-average capacity for a park of this scale. You'd want to hit Mine-Cart Madness and Mario Kart back-to-back, then try to do single rider for Monsters and Potter.

While we won't know for sure how everything is going to work at this park, I'm going to make a few assumptions based on what has been highly speculated and what Universal has done in the past...

Assumption #1: It will be necessary to experience all you wish to do in each portal in one go, as entry to the portals will likely be controlled due to capacity restrictions. Thus, any plan that involves jumping through several portals to hit the big rides in quick succession is not a reasonable strategy for this park.

Assumption #2: It will likely be difficult/impossible to visit any portal more than once, thus it is necessary to consider more than just the rides when planning the sequence at this park.

Assumption #3: It will probably be challenging to see all four portals plus Celestial Park in full detail in a single day, particularly if you spend time participating in all the small scale activities within each area.

Assuming the above are correct, here's my very early game plan for tackling this park...

1. At opening, head directly to Ministry of Magic. The only attraction in this area that I really care about is Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry, so the hope would be to get in, ride this, and get out before any of the other portals hit capacity and a virtual queue is required.

2. This is where things get a bit tricky. If entry to Dark Universe is still open, I would head here next, experiencing both main attractions (Curse of the Werewolf and The Frankenstein Experiment) in the area and then grabbing an (early) lunch at one of the eateries in the land. However, if virtual queues have gone into place (at least for the land), I'd instead go for my first ride on Stardust Racers, which hopefully will have such high capacity it won't develop an extreme queue line. I would then try to get an early lunch in Celestial Park.

3. Early afternoon is the time for Isle of Berk. Hiccup's Wing Gliders and The Untrainable Dragon are the two musts here, so I'd plan my time in this land around the schedule for the show. If possible, I'd try to do the area's other two attractions (Dragon Racer's Rally and Fyre Drill), but I'd be okay skipping them if the lines were excessive.

4. At this point, it's time to try for Super Nintendo World. As I've visited the land in both Hollywood and Japan, Mine Cart Madness is far and away the main draw of this area, but I'd still try to do the other attractions if time permits. However, by this point in the day there's a fair chance virtual queue spots will likely be gone, and if I have to miss a portal this is the one I'm most okay skipping.

5. We're now getting toward evening, and once again the goals vary. If I was unable to get to Dark Universe earlier, that's now the priority, with the same plan as described above. Otherwise, it's time for a lap on Stardust Racers and dinner in Celestial Park.

6. Night has now fallen, so only a couple hours remain. At this point, my hope is that virtual queues have ended since guests have begun to filter out, so my goal here would be to see as many of the portals at night as possible, with Dark Universe being the highest priority and Super Nintendo World the lowest. Riding would be limited, but if attractions feature short single rider queues I might take another lap on my favorites. I'd then try to end off the night with an after dark re-ride on Stardust Racers.

Mine-Cart Madness. Low capacity and an outdoor ride subject to weather closures later in the day.

I won’t be visiting Epic until next January, so assuming the rides available for early opening are still the Super Nintendo attractions I plan on riding those three first. Next up would be Monsters Unleashed, the Ministry attraction and the Untrainable Dragon show. The park will likely be packed by that time, so I would proably head back to the hotel and then come back later to ride the three coasters I missed earlier.

AJ, your post reads like circa 2019.

Any Portal gatekeeping outside of maybe early entry for hotel guests or certain portals closing 1/2 an hour before park close to funnel people to Celestial Park night shows is unacceptable. I wont be patronizing this park until this goes away... central florida isnt exactly a desert when it comes to options.

Ill wait this out like i waited out Virtual Queue at Disney World. I would have probably visited Disney from out of town around 5 to 10 times over the last 2 years instead of just twice and opting for seaworld and busch gardens season passes and spending my money there. Disney World is back to being an option. ill wait it til their first expansion...

i brute force theme parks. I will not be doing this 7am fingers-crossed login to experience something (again). Nor will i buy my way into experiencing everything my way.

*Voted Ministry of Magic since Twilight Tower of Terror is my favorite ride of all time. Going to need some randomizer or something like Guardians music overlay to make rerideability interesting... im really concerned about wanting to repeat this park since unlike Universal there isnt some giant movie poster for a coming soon movie i want to see. Nor is there the option to riff off contempary times in a Beetlejuice stage show. I mean if i cant hear " I'm just a teenage dirtbag baby"... on my day coming from speakers made to look like rocks what are we even doing? Is this place over themed?

@puckpilgrim - I think with a brand new park containing IPs with significant fanbases with strong loyalty, it's smart for operators to be prepared to manage crowds. You just can't have a situation where 20k Harry Potter fans show up and all head to Ministry of Magic, clogging the land that only has one primary way in and out. I really don't think they going to be counting one person out, one person in, but I do think they are going to be looking at overall numbers and queue lengths and restricting entrances if individual portals get too crowded. Personally as a theme park fan, I want parks to take an active roll in controlling crowds to make sure guests can enjoy their time in each land without facing massive lines. The last thing I want to do is try to rope drop Ministry of Magic, and end up behind 10k of my closest friends who beat me to the portal and standing in a 2+ hour line for Battle of the Ministry or 15-20 minute lines for each of the wand interactions if I don't want to stand in the massive ride line. I'd much rather be "steered" towards another portal that is less crowded, put into a virtual queue for MoM, and notified when that portal is less crowded.

I think if you're a theme park fan, you should welcome the possibility of virtual queues being enabled when crowds get too heavy so you don't end up in an overcrowded dead end, which is the one big flaw with Epic's design since every portal has just a single access point/entrance/exit

As far as touring the new park, I would probably go along with much of what AJ has outlined with MoM being my highest priority. All of the buzz that's been coming out of the TM previews is that Monsters Unchained is the greatest dark ride ever created, but I do think the trend will be for guests to lean towards the Wizarding World because of its familiarity and wider appeal/popularity. I would feel confident that I could get into the portal before crowds got too crazy, and hopefully get through the Battle of the Ministry line within 1-2 hours, leaving another hour or 2 to watch the show and experience all the wand interactions. Hopefully at some point, a virtual queue would be available to enter for Dark Universe, and I would head there once I received notification to enter. If that notification didn't come before I was finished with MoM, I would probably go to Stardust Racers or have lunch at one of Celestial Park's eateries. Once in Dark Universe, I would take that entire land in and enter the virtual queue, if available, for Isle of Berk, which I'm hearing might be the best overall land within Epic but doesn't necessarily have the same following as the other IPs, so demand might not be quite as high. At a minimum, I would want to experience Monsters Unchained and the Wolfman coaster before leaving Darkmoor, and might take time to have a pint at the pub, though I would probably not want to take time for the sit-down eatery or makeup experience on a first visit to the park.

After Dark Universe, I would head straight to Isle of Berk unless being forced to wait in a virtual queue, at which point I would probably take another spin on Stardust Racers while waiting to enter Berk. Inside Berk, I would want to see the show and ride the coaster, but the flat ride and water ride would not be a high priority unless I could not immediately enter Super Nintendo World. If a virtual queue required me to wait for Super Nintendo World, I would experience the stock rides in Isle of Berk and the interactive meet and greet experiences before jumping to SNW. At this point, it would probably be close to the end of the operating day, so the hope would be that I could experience all 3 Nintendo rides before the park closes. If there's still time left, I would have to probably decide whether to try to get a night ride in on Stardust Racers or go and experience Dark Universe at night. That decision would probably be dictated by virtual queues and the length of the queue for the coaster, which I predict will end up with very long lines at the end of the night.

Nonetheless, I'm of the same mind with AJ in that I think that it's going to be tough to experience everything in Epic in a single day, which is annoying since Universal is only letting guests buy one day at the new park when purchasing multiday tickets to the legacy Orlando parks. Maybe Universal can keep crowds manageable with virtual queues and other systems so guests can more easily experience every major attraction, but I think it's a disservice to not allow guests to get a second day to the new park.

As ive said before i think Disney really killed their virtual queue to make Virtua Queues seem like the chore they always were. I do agree that something needs to be in place to accomodate rabid fans. I think Universal is going to suffer immensely on all properties... the park is 2 months out and im not hovering over a "buy now" button because I cant trust what they are going to do... The park needs to be open from 8am-12 midnight for months. If they do some skimpy 10-6pm hours they can kick rocks. This park is make or break for me. There is so much i dont like about parking fee situation, the infinite moving sidewalk, and the limited hours of the parks. We shall see.

i really do think the dead-endscenario is a big mistake. a moat around the whole thing with boat service to all lands could have been amazing. I guess my professional choices kept me from being a decision maker... i am well set up to be a key decision maker in the next phase.

Just go guys .... who cares what's best or worst. Here you all are meticulously planning an Epic trip, when you all lambast Disney for all its planning requirements.

Yes, I'm local, and yes I don't have to worry about if I can do 1 portal, or all portals in one day.

If I can get a preview day, I'll just get a lie of the land until I go back in November.

Really looking forward to the new park, but heaven help us with all the traffic chaos that will surely ensue.

Most of the TM's I know are visiting this week, so it'll be interesting to see what they think.

I tend to agree Mako, but I do think there will be an advantage to have some strategy going into this completely new park, which may be dictated by operational procedures instituted by Universal (VQs). I don't think many here are saying that you need to plan out your day like you would at Disney, but there might be some advantages to setting priorities if you want to make the most of your first visit to the theme park. As you say, you're local, so will have the luxury of visiting pretty much any time you want once Universal removes ticketing restrictions, However, for many of us, a visit to Orlando is a once every few years opportunity, and if Universal is only allowing guests to buy a single day ticket for Epic, it will be critical for those guests to get as much out of their day as they can.

On the other hand while I can empathize with someone like puckpilgrim who doesn't want to commit to a park that has limited hours and potentially limits access to individual portals, I think it's something guests need to understand and accept as necessary to manage overall crowds and demand for the new park during its first few months. Maybe Universal will discover that they won't need to institute any of these potential crowd control procedures, but if I were planning a trip to the park this summer, I would rather hear that they have a plan knowing the potential is there that I might not be able to see everything in a single day, rather than encounter total chaos on the one day I try to visit because the park is simply overwhelmed.

FWIW, I don't currently have plans to visit Epic right now, for the simple fact that I want to know that everything is working and how Universal is going to manage the new park before I spend thousands of dollars to take a trip to Orlando. However, don't begrudge the folks who feel the need to be first to experience something new.

Spoke to some TM's earlier, and the verdict is overwhelming positive (as I'd like to have hoped)

They had no restrictions going from portal to portal, and in their 6hr allocation, most managed to do everything they wanted.

Stardust Racers was a fan favorite, along with Dark Universe.

Just gotta see how they handle the passholder previews now .... will they give us a freebie ???

Universal is pulling a Disney. The ticket system for Epic seems like extortion. You have no choice but to stay for multiple days if you want to set foot in Epic Universe and you literally have to visit the other parks.

I see how they are trying to cut Disney out of the equation all together. You are now captive for a minimum of 3 days, making a Universal and Disney split visit less likely.

They are finally beating the mouse at their own game. Nobody goes to just one park at Disney, you literally need 4 days, and that's not including water parks.

I'm sure the park will be amazing, but still not going for a couple years. We did talk about Universal / IOA only, which is what I prefer anyways.

@NB - I do think it's interesting, especially with the new marketing video they launched this morning, that Universal is really trying to sell Universal Orlando as a "full-week" destination. I don't think they're necessarily trying to extort guests into visiting their other parks, they just want to do what the folks down the street have done for the past 3 decades in trying to capture an audience and keeping them from visiting the competition for the full week they're in Orlando. With Epic Universe, Universal finally has enough leverage and inventory (both attractions and hotel rooms) to go head to head with WDW as an either/or decision for some guests visiting the region for a week's family vacation. There's obviously going to be some pushback from guests who visit UO frequently enough where they really don't want/need to spend 2+ days at IOA and USF and feel that requiring a multi-day resort ticket to get a single day's admission to Epic is extortion. However, from the GP who still don't know that you can't meet Harry Potter at the Magic Kingdom, which let's face it is more than half the guests who visit the Orlando-area theme parks, they won't see that as a burden at all, just a minor inconvenience to see the world's newest theme park.

Honestly, I'm kind of surprised that given some of the 180's Disney has made recently in their operations that the thought of Universal consuming a family's full week of vacation has not resurrected Disney's Magical Express, which was extortion disguised as a perk.

i think you are all forgetting that there will be new ticket offerings coming soon, and that the new upgrades that they are talking about to the main parks will push people away from epic, so it will be a week long destination soon. not now, but soon

Per what I've heard, there will absolutely be an option to buy a one day Epic Universe ticket, but they will be the last to go on sale and the most restricted in availability. Universal is capping attendance for this park at ~25 thousand per day, at least initially, and they're prioritizing the sale of tickets to those coming in from out of town and staying multiple days as those visitors generate much more revenue for the resort. Once it gets close to opening, single day tickets valid for a specific day will be sold as capacity permits and at a price point comparable to what is being charged for single day tickets to the other Universal Orlando parks. At this point in time, there is no plan to sell multi-day Epic Tickets right now...you'll get one day at Epic with a multi-day ticket, and will need to purchase any additional days a la carte.

Regarding virtual queues, Universal has employed these in their parks before, and their implementation in Epic is expected to be similar. At park opening, all the portals will be open to guests until they reach capacity. Once that happens, guests will need to join a virtual queue to enter that portal (whether or not standby lines will also be available hasn't been finalized). Unlike Disney, you will only be able to join the virtual queue if you are physically inside Epic Universe, and you will select a specific entry window at the time you reserve your spot. Once inside a portal, you will be able to remain inside as long as you like, but if you leave you will not be able to reenter without queuing again. According to what I've heard, if multiple portals are on virtual queue you will be able to hold a return time for each one simultaneously, but you will only be able to get one virtual queue spot per portal per day. You will not need virtual queues for the individual attractions within each land, and can do those in whatever order you wish as many times as you're willing to wait. When USH used this system for Super Nintendo World, they would drop the virtual queue for the last couple hours of the day and allow anyone to enter, but I don't know if Epic will do the same. For those with Universal Express, you'll be able to use it one time per portal to bypass the virtual queue and enter whenever you like.

Regarding crowd levels, if the portals are at capacity Universal expects the attractions inside to have wait times of 1-2 hours. The target is for most guests to be able to experience three of the four portals plus spend a couple hours in Celestial Park during their visit. If you're just going for the rides, it should be possible to do all of them in one day if you wish to do so, but if you also want to do shows, experiences, immersive activities, etc. you probably will need to make some cuts. To accommodate this, the hope is for the park to be open 12-14 hours per day (likely an 8/9 A.M. opening and 9/10 P.M. closing).

Regarding pass previews, word on the street is that anyone who has an active pass processed prior to March 1st will be eligible to reserve one day to visit during the preview period and check the park out (subject to capacity), with the highest tiers getting first crack at the reservations.