Universal Epic Universe redefines the theme park experience

ORLANDO — Only one real place in the galaxy allows humans to interact with a legendary vampire, an Italian plumber, a baby dragon and a house elf all in a single day.

This collection of icons — Dracula, a Mario brother, Toothless and Higgledy — once mainly existing in movies and video games — are now part of a cornucopia of pop culture adventures found in Universal Orlando Resort’s new theme park Universal Epic Universe.

Mark Woodbury, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Universal Destinations and Experiences, introduced the more than $7 billion, 725-acre park during opening ceremonies in late May by saying that visitors would find “five amazing worlds that make up Universal Epic Universe and it’s unlike anything you will experience.

“When you go out there, what you’re going to see, feel, taste and experience is really the culmination of a 10-year journey and is a clear reflection of the incredible creativity, technical prowess and operational excellence of our entire team to make this all happen in a seamless way.”

Without a doubt, Universal Orlando Resort’s latest immersive playground provides arguably the coolest collection of attractions and state of the art, special effects theme park artistry in the world.

Visitors enter the park through an emerald-toned Chronos tower archway as a part of the circular-designed Celestial Park that acts as a main hub filled with restaurants and a trio of attractions.

Specifically, the Stardust Racers dual-launched roller coaster, the Constellation Carousel that mixes a traditional merry-go-round with a tea-cup ride and Astronomica, an interactive water fountain area.

The main path around the Celestial Park leads to the visually dizzying portal entrances of four, self-contained worlds: Dark Universe; SUPER NINTENDO WORLD; The Wizarding World of Harry Potter — Ministry of Magic; and How to Train Your Dragon — Isle of Berk.

Each world stands alone as its own mini-theme park with thrilling attractions and culinary fare, and each will not disappoint fans of all ages.

Here’s a look at the highlights of what awaits those who dare enter Universal Epic Universe.

Dark Universe

Now the official home of Universal’s collection of legendary movie monsters, the portal takes visitors into the Bavarian village of Darkmoor and plunges them into a live creature feature filled with atmosphere, dread and some wonderful, but not-too-scary lessons in horror history.

Two main attractions are available to appreciate, and each offers the exact opposite on the thrill meter.

Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment: For those who would like to know what it’s like to become part of a monster movie, this high-tech, groundbreaking thrill ride takes visitors into the Victorian ornate and deadly Frankenstein Manor, now owned by Dr. Victoria Frankenstein (the great-great-granddaughter of Henry Frankenstein).

Her latest unholy experiment attempts to harness the power of Dracula and while offering a demonstration of her scientific prowess, with help from trusted assistant Ygor, things go very wrong, and the pair release a familiar group of legendary icons.

Within an adventure to escape the likes of the Brides of Dracula, Wolfman, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Mummy and the aforementioned famous king of the bloodsuckers, visitors are strapped into a “Catacombs Navigation Unit” (attached to a KUKA robotic arm, similar to the mechanics of Universal Islands of Adventure attraction “Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey”).

Visitors rotate, twist, drop and tilt through the ghoulishly chaotic, roughly three-minute long journey.

By far the best ride in Universal Epic Universe, Monsters Unchained delivers an onslaught of horrifying delights and has the most life-like animatronics available, including a 9-foot, 800-pound walking and talking version of Frankenstein’s monster; and a waiting area and pre-show that features some incredibly gory displays of Dr. Frankenstein’s experiments.

Epic moments:

• At one point in the ride, the navigation unit stops and shakes violently as guests watch crackles of electricity sizzle across the body of Frankenstein’s monster who takes so large a shock that the energy lights up and streaks across his arms and torso.

• While walking through Frankenstein’s Manor, watch a cackling Dracula in vampire bat form get jolted with a serious blast of energy in a really eye-popping display of visual and lighting effects mixed with practical props.

Curse of the Werewolf: Riders sit on a four-person mini-wagon that becomes a spinning roller coaster flying back and forth through a cursed dark forest at nearly 40 miles per hour.

Sure, there’s some level of a werewolf story tied to the roughly two-minute ride, but the fact that humans are sitting on a roller coaster that also acts like a Tilt-A-Whirl (weight distribution does matter) is about as diabolically delicious as it gets.

Epic moments: Do not miss the life-size werewolf complete with very large teeth and claws hanging out in the battered rafters while swinging through a barn.

Epic tip: Within the Dark Universe, make sure to visit The Burning Blade Tavern at night to catch the blades of its tattered windmill catch on fire just like the final moment in the 1931 movie version of “Frankenstein.”

The tavern is, unfortunately, a rather compact area that I am sure is going to be packed with monster hunters and seekers of scares looking to take a break and imbibe one of the handcrafted smoking drinks, so plan ahead and make time for the rest stop.

Epic quotable: “When you think of Universal Studios and our legacy, we have 100 years’ worth of monster films. We wanted to bring those to life in a theme park for many, many years, and we’ve done it. For the monsters now to have a permanent home is really a dream come true.” — Steve Tatham, executive creative director of Universal Epic Universe.

SUPER NINTENDO WORLD

SUPER NINTENDO WORLD initially embraces the child-like appeal of Universal Islands of Adventures’ Seuss Landing.

However, it really caters to the modern, video gaming child and adult looking for a nostalgic adventure within a universe filled with beloved characters that pay homage to two of the most popular game franchises on earth — Mario Kart and Donkey Kong.

Walk through the portal, get to the top of the escalator, stroll through Princess Peach’s castle and get hit with a tsunami of color, light and sound that will stagger mere mortals, but fuel gamers’ passions.

A pair of attractions stand out in celebrating Nintendo patriarch designer Shigeru Miyamoto incredible creations.

• Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge: Within this fully interactive, augmented‑reality dark ride, four players sit in a “kart” and are immersed in an action-packed driving simulator using the latest and greatest technology and vying to beat Team Bowser by collecting gold coins and scoring points.

Each seat has a steering wheel and button to fire Koopa (turtle) shells at enemies, and each player wears a visor and goggles with a transparent overlay to display game elements onto live sets.

And do not forget to absorb any moments standing and walking through Bowser’s castle and library filled with Easter eggs, such as Mario Kart tournament trophies, authentic Mii racing suits, little Boos (Mario’s ghostly adversaries) and bookshelves with titles such as “Anatomy of a Bob-Omb.”

Epic tip: It can take a few times on the ride to fully understand what is going on and, due to the long lines, most families will not have that luxury. Read all of the available tutorials in the queue as well as go online to learn how the attraction works to have the most fun.

• Mine-Cart Madness: A tropical jungle theme complete with temple ruins, a waterfall and some large furry primates greets four riders of this out-of-control coaster as they strap into mine-carts and go down a perilous broken track with a roughly two-minute family-friendly adventure.

The mine-carts mimic an experience with Donkey Kong Country video games as they jump over track gaps and switch rails through some magical engineering feats proprietary to Universal’s patented boom coaster system.

Epic moment: Fans get to meet Cranky Kong and Squawks the Parrot in the waiting queue and almost run into Donkey and his nephew riding a mine-cart, all seen via all state of the art animatronics and perfectly recreated from the games.

Epic notable: Parents will need to crack open the wallet while in the park to also purchase a coveted Power-Up Band ($45) that can be used to capture scores in Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge and interact throughout SUPER NINTENDO WORLD.

Eight character-themed, circular hub attached to a slap-style band works at stations such as Koopa Troopa POWer Punch (perfectly time hitting a block with the band to send a Koopa Shell up the pipe and knock over the Koopa Troopa) to allow owners to play mini-games and essentially act like as a character in a living video game.

Certainly, a must-have for the Nintendo lover who can also use the bands to interact with games for the Nintendo Switch or Nintendo Switch 2 console entertainment systems.

Epic grump: I cannot imagine how Universal Orlando Resort is going to stop this world from becoming a sweaty mass of humanity, overcrowded and oversaturated, loaded with aggravating vibes. It’s a tight space with lots and lots of way too much stuff to look at and interact with, all leading it to become an East Coast mecca for all that is cool about Nintendo.

Epic quotable: “Technology is super important to this park, but we don’t do technology for technology’s sake. We do it to support the entertainment. We do it to really make the experience entertaining, more seamless and more immersive such as the augmented reality in the Mario Kart experience.

“It allows for people to gamify the experience, to collect points and connect it to their app so that they can compete with one another, and they can ride over and over again.” — Mr. Tatham.

How to Train Your Dragon — Isle of Berk

Families take a colorful stroll into a world that’s based on Universal Pictures’ popular animated and live-action movie franchise.

Specifically, go back to a time when warriors and fire-breathing creatures ruled in a perfectly recreated Isle of Berk, complete with a lagoon (“Lake of Berk”) as its centerpiece containing towering 40‑foot statues of a carved Viking and Dragon, wooden ships and rocky cliffs.

Walk around more than 15.5 acres embellished with 162,500 square feet of textured rockwork to find the enormous rocky tower of the Mead Hall perched over groups of Viking homes and dragon lairs, all timber-framed with hand-carved motifs reproducing authentic eighth-century Nordic architecture.

The Viking village also offers versions of the film’s stars such as Hiccup and Astrid and more than two dozen versions of dragons such as Toothless and all cartoony and friendly to the younger demographic.

The world is completely geared toward children. Parents should allow for plenty of exploration and stops for the character encounters and hands-on interactions as well as roaming around a Viking Training Camp complete with rope ladders, a sheep launcher and agility course.

For example, prepare to duck the water droplets spewed from the icy breath of Snow Wraith; or run into the joyous Viking Gobber the Belch with horned headgear and his scaly pal Grump; or turn a wheel connected to giant shell horns that blast sounds or a wooden dragon that flaps its wings.

The pair of themed attractions are also worth the lines and include.

• Hiccup’s Wing Gliders: Visitors walk through Hiccup’s home and workshop before being seated on a traditional coaster looking like a winged dragon that speeds up to around 45 miles per hour.

Riders eventually meet animatronic versions of the Viking and dragon Toothless, with the creature actually pressing a button to send them into a second part of their adventure that weaves and circles through the world.

• Dragon Racer’s Rally: This Gerstlauer Sky Fly flat ride has brave souls practice dragon-riding skills by sitting in a carved dragon-looking vehicle’s cockpit and soaring up to almost 70 feet high.

Riders can actually try to spin around horizontally using a pair of handles to change the direction of the dragon as a dozen riders try to beat Astrid in a dragon race.

There is even audience stands behind that ride (Hiccup’s Wing Gliders coaster snake through it) to make the authentic but way too-short ride come to life. Be ready for some grumpy children due to the wait times, brevity of the ride (roughly two minutes) and inability to make it spin on a first ride.

Epic moments:

• Marvel at the devil in the details throughout the world such as examining a plaque on Hiccup’s Wing Gliders featuring hand-painted illustrations, messages on parchment-style signs and both placed on a wooden (real grain) plank; or the hand-carved and painted dragon-themed benches found around the park; or even the flowing hand-painted tapestries in Mead Hall.

• This was the first time I ever encountered a locker storage system that uses facial recognition. Simply, look into the camera, let it register your face and a locker pops open to store stuff. After finishing the ride, look into the camera at the ride’s exit area, and the locker pops open again from that side to retrieve store items. Just brilliant.

Epic quotable: “I love our locker system, actually, as a big theme park fan, I think it’s an incredible innovation. Our goal with technology is to leverage it to create a seamless guest experience, to create authentic, immersive worlds. And part of that is not seeing it necessarily feeling the technology, but knowing that it’s there, pushing the boundaries of how we can have a great guest experience.” — Kathrynn DiGenova, senior show producer at Universal Creative.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter — Ministry of Magic

Well, it wasn’t enough to spread J.K. Rowling’s incredible world of wizards to not only take up parts of Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure, but now at Universal Epic Universe guests stop by a recreation of a 1920s Paris (known as Place Cachée) and a 1990s British Ministry of Magic.

Walk through the portal and then the Arc de Triomphe and start on the streets of Paris examining stone façades, iron balcony railings, mosaic tiling and café terraces before entering, via a Métro‑Floo travel network (complete with a smoky and green fiery effect), the hallowed grounds of an important wizard organization.

The heart-stopping grand cathedral-style Ministry of Magic boasts an enormous atrium with 1930s British Art Deco-inspired design throughout with polished green tile walls, brass gates, metalwork and black marble.

Look further to find the Fountain of Magical Brethren (a fountain with golden wizard statues); large white tapestries revealing the live faces of Ministry auror Kingsley Shacklebolt; and a swirling dark cloud formation above the government office buildings and magical elevators that could only be the work of evil wizards.

By far, the Ministry is easily the most impressive piece of architecture designed for a theme park atmosphere that I have ever seen. Its ornate structures and sheer enormity are guaranteed to elicit audible gasps from all those who consider the Harry Potter mythology sacred.

Now, the two attractions in the portal are not only required visiting but as impressive as the architecture.

• Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry — Witness the escape, capture and trial of the muggle-hating Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton reprising her role from “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”) in a post-Voldemort wizarding world with help from Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.

Visitors board in a 14-person, omnidirectional, trackless elevator-shaped lift vehicle that simulates a cinematic chase through the Ministry.

Showcasing a battle against dark wizards and exploring a bit of time-traveling, the adventure also stops by the Department of Magical Creatures to even greet a rhinoceros creature called an Erumpent.

The exhilarating ride combines a variety of technology tricks including high-fidelity rear-screen, targeted projections; lifelike animatronics; large digital screens; practical sets; and three-dimensional, synchronized vehicle movements.

However, as in most of the popular pop culture attractions at Epic Universe, waiting in line is nearly as entertaining as the rides.

The Battle at the Ministry may be the best of all the worlds with visitors walking through hallways and offices featuring plenty of living paintings from the Potter universe gossiping about the trial to one another. They include Mad Eye Mooney, Professor Cassandra Trelawney and a truly magical talkative bust of Ulick Gamp (first ever Minister for Magic).

A stroll through Ms. Umbridge’s gold-and-pink office with its living cat plates is pretty special as is watching a robotic sweeper cleaning up paperwork of ongoing cases so detailed that you can read all of the filled-out fields including a security report on Ronald Weasley.

The greatest treat is a meeting with Umbridge’s former house elf Higgledy sitting atop cabinets and lamenting her role. Also, notice a feather duster annoying a cat painting (too cute).

Epic moment: On the Battle of the Ministry ride, there are a couple of key battles with Death Eaters dressed in full costume. Although what I saw were humans in costumes swinging wands in attacks against Hermione, my brain eventually realized that these were not human but state of the art animatronics that seamlessly mimicked human motion. The technological deception was jaw-dropping.

Epic quotable: “We’re looking at fulfilling the Potter fans wishes, and there’s no better wish fulfillment than being able to arrive at the Ministry of Magic and experience it in its full scale.

“We had one of our writers, Chad Jones create an emotional story for the attraction with components, such as the introduction of Higgledy, that really helps make the attraction unlike any other.” — Gary Blumenstein, senior director of creative direction.

• Le Cirque Arcanus — The biggest surprise of all of the worlds was a theatrical traveling circus in the middle of Paris that ushers guests into an unassuming large tent before they go on an adventure into Newt Scamander’s suitcase-accessible creature sanctuary.

Merging cutting-edge projection and lighting effects, multistory stagecraft, animatronics, puppetry and human interactions, the show explores Ringmaster Skender’s role in stealing Newt’s suitcase and the heroic assistant Gwenlyn in saving the magical creature universe.

Expect introductions to a bird-like Diricawl, a moose-like Leucrotta, a large tigerish Nundu, and the massive giant sea creature, that might be an Occamy, that envelopes the entire stage.

Epic notable: Parents will need to stop by the Cosme Acajor Baguettes Magique shop and again need to crack open the wallet to purchase a wand (starting at $85) for their young wizards to interact with many areas around the world.

This second-generation wands, with new tips light up with vibrating features, includes such beauties as the Dogwood model (with a handle featuring golden highlights and near translucent emerald core) or the Vine wand (with a column shaped brass handle and petrified brown vine twisting around it and then straightened out to complete the magical rod).

The dozen or so magical moments with the wand include having a Niffler in a shop window follow the stick, making a Demiguise appear or casting a spell (with instructions from a talking portrait) to bring another portrait to life.

It also pairs with the Universal Orlando Resort App to track the spells, earn points for and owner’s Hogwarts House and even select a Patronus guardian.

Of course, the wands also work in the other Harry Potter locations found in Hogsmeade at Islands of Adventure and Diagon Alley in Universal Studios Florida making it a fairly memorable purchase for families on a wizarding vacation.

• Jacquie Kubin contributed to this report.

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WHEN YOU GO

Where: 1001 Epic Blvd, Orlando, Florida

Fun factor (out of 5): 5 for families.

Hours: Open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. during summer; fall and winter closing times fluctuate, closing at either 8 or 9 p.m. depending upon the night and date.

Price range: Single-day general admission ticket starts at $139.99. Look to the website to find other combo deals tied to park admissions and multiple-day access.

A highly recommended addition is purchasing a Universal Express Pass for the park, especially for single-day visits (starting from $140) that allows much shorter wait times to all of the attractions except Dragon Racer’s Rally, Mine-Cart Madness and Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry.

Website: https://www.universalorlando.com/epicuniverse