Flew 1000 miles, rode 3 rides due to delays/closure

This is going to come across as a lambasting, but I don’t want it to. Because I believe once the park fixes some of its issues that all parks have opening, it will be really great. The immersive parks are incredibly detailed and it makes the queues somewhat enjoyable.

But my day, May 27 was an all systems failure and a day Universal will want to put in the rearview mirror. I had read they were attempting to let more into the park that day. What happened was a “what you pray you avoid” situation:

1. Super Mario was the opened section for early entrants (we stayed on resort) so that was us. Everyone at rope drop was effectively shunted that direction. However, DK and Mario Kart both had 50 minute delays to open the day - effectively negating any advantage you got with early admission. My problem with this is, they knew the rides were down prior to park opening, yet STILL shunted everyone there. It was a sad sign of things to come.

2. By the time we got out of Mario Kart, the park had fully opened, and Ministry line went to 300 minutes almost immediately. We didn’t stick around, and looked at the map.

Dark Universe was delayed on both rides, another bad omen. Which shifted us to the Island of Berk.

We rode Hiccups Wing Gliders, which only had a 15 minute wait (at that time). We’d just beaten the rush. That ride was one of the BEST rides I rode during the entire stay! Just fantastic. When we got off the ride, the kids wanted to ride again, and it had jumped to a 90 minute wait. So no dice…

3. Rides start dropping. During this time, Mario Kart goes back on delay, Ministry goes on delay, Both dark Universe rides are still on delay, and DK is 70 minutes. We run for D, get in line. Wait for 40… Boom, ride shuts down (and eventually closes). I go to the map.

At this point, Ministry is delayed, Monsters Unchained is still delayed, Star Dust Delayed, DK closed, Mario Kart Delayed, Frye Drill delayed, Hiccup’s Wing Gliders Delayed. And everything else is over 150 minutes… With 5 kids and two of them 4 year olds, the day is finished and it’s 11am.

There aren’t enough crowd absorbing rides to overcome 70% of the park going on delay. Kids are crying. It’s become a disaster.

We were able to get the day refunded by Universal but that was our one and only shot at Epic, as we were only there 4 days and this was our day earmarked for UEU. But this illustrates, when things go wrong, they can go off the rails in a heartbeat. Pray you’re not there on one of those days.