Lines

You'll be able to join in the chat when you subscribe!

UOQOTD: UO has decided to create "Retroland" at EPIC and it will be huge! YOU get to decide what 5 classic rides and 2 classic shows they bring back and put in this land! It will be exact replicas! :)

9:24am on 10/24/25 by browndalmatian

...view 2 more comments

I'll have to think on this but I'll start with Hitchcock. Especially the exit room.

7:08am on 10/25/25 by TenMileMom

DH wishes he could've ridden back to the future and dueling dragons.

6:35pm on 10/25/25 by sneezy93

I did love dueling dragons! At least Hagrid's is a great ride. F&F isn't cutting it as a replacement for anything IMO

9:13pm on 10/25/25 by Buckeye86

Where is the best lunch at Epic?

8:05am on 10/20/25 by MarvelFan

collapse thread

DH really enjoyed his burger at Meteor Astropub, we both enjoyed our pizza at Pizza Moon and the ribs at Oak & Star were good! This was during previews, haven't been since official opening.

9:47am on 10/20/25 by sneezy93

We did Blue Dragon and Atlantic if you're looking for TS. Atlantic's sea bass was our favorite dish but BD's chili wontons were our favorite app. Slight edge to Atlantic if you're price indifferent, although I realize most would pick the opposite

10:03am on 10/20/25 by OptimusPrimeBeef

We enjoyed a break at Mead Hall right next to Hiccups Wing Gliders with bbq. Other Epic day we snacked on different places between rides at Burning Blade Tavern, Yoshees Snack Stand & PB&J cones mobile order at Spit Fyre Grill & kept moving all were good

1:39pm on 10/20/25 by Chandra.elder

We ate at Goblet Noir. The food is German in style. Think wiener schnitzel, brats, shaved beef with mustard. We loved it and the portions were shareable. Blue Dragon was amazing! Atlantic we paid over $100 for lunch for 3 and left hungry.

6:17pm on 10/20/25 by ladyortramp

Also we snacked at das Stakehouse by ordering kids meals and really enjoyed the atmosphere there! Had fries at mead hall. Everything we ate was very good in the park. Atlantic was good but imo not worth the price

6:20pm on 10/20/25 by ladyortramp

We also shared the shaved beef at Goblet Noir and liked it, bbq Mac and cheese cone in Berk and I can't remember what we shared at Das Steakhouse (maybe something on a stake lol) but it was good too!

6:35pm on 10/20/25 by sneezy93

Also I had the grilled fourmaggio at Astropub that was good. DH reminded me we ate two different times at Pizza Moon and liked both pizzas. I think that's it lol

6:41pm on 10/20/25 by sneezy93

Good to know I might like something else besides Mythos thanks all

12:51am on 10/21/25 by MarvelFan

@marvel in my opinion the tomato soup was better at Astropub! Especially the last couple times I've had it at Mythos because it seemed like it had changed to me.

9:05am on 10/21/25 by sneezy93

Last time I had Mythos it was not "bad" at all but I did think something had "changed" too, @sneezy. Still worth going to but I felt it had been better in previous visits or something.

11:26am on 10/21/25 by browndalmatian

Just watched this & thought he did a good job. Top 10 places to eat in Epic based on combo of Yelp, Google & TripAdvisor reviews: https://youtu.be/7v0owbBUcTs

8:43pm on 10/21/25 by OptimusPrimeBeef

We are at both Atlantic and blue dragon and don't think they were worth the price. We liked counter service better.

9:03pm on 10/21/25 by Buckeye86

...view 12 more comments

Will give that a watch later!

1:41pm on 10/22/25 by hodg

Is it difficult getting reservations for TS at Epic? I never had a problem at other TS in UO.

1:38pm on 10/25/25 by BellesRose2K

We didn't have a problem @belle, but went during a slow time. Even changed ours the day of.

6:58pm on 10/25/25 by OptimusPrimeBeef

What attractions are open during EE at Epic?

4:23pm on 10/25/25 by BellesRose2K

Mario Kart, Yoshi, Monsters and CotWW. DK also frequently opens too but not listed

6:57pm on 10/25/25 by OptimusPrimeBeef

I've been looking at the "secret link" for UOAPs for hotels lately, and the prices are never lower than Florida Resident pricing. Is that typical? Just wanted to check! Thanks!

1:08pm on 10/15/25 by browndalmatian

...view 4 more comments

Anyone know where the sweet spot is for cheapest AP hotel booking? I'm looking for May 2026 but know it fluctuates. How far in advance is the best time?

2:56pm on 10/25/25 by BellesRose2K

I just watch rates for a bit and grab the room if I think it looks reasonable based on what I've been seeing. Then I put a link on my home screen to my dates/hotel and check it every day to see if it goes down and rebook. I've saved $120 on our upcoming

6:26pm on 10/25/25 by sneezy93

split Helios/PBH stay in Jan 2026 doing that over the last couple weeks. Rates are going up now tho but I'm going to continue to watch.

6:27pm on 10/25/25 by sneezy93

Where can you purchase EP for Nov Epic ticket? I don't see it on Uni's site. I do not plan to purchase in advance and get it onsite at resort. Just looking at cost.

1:43pm on 10/25/25 by MarvelFan

Been a regular Liner at WDW - new here. Planning a trip during Thanksgiving and we've never been to Universal but have done WDW a dozen times or so. Going to do a 1-2 day trip to WDW and then 3 days at Universal. 6 of us (youngest is 9) and love rides.

1:39pm on 10/7/25 by ma14

collapse thread

Not concerned about how nice the hotel is but want to get the Express passes. Any and all recommendations on where to stay, which parks (hoppers?) and links for strategy would be welcome. Will look at crowd calendars and touring plans.

1:41pm on 10/7/25 by ma14

So the only hotels that offer express passes are Hard Rock, portion, and royal pacific. Royal pacific generally being the cheapest. Or you can buy them separately but might be very costly. Are you planning on doing epic?

4:34pm on 10/7/25 by ivesy

*Portofino

4:34pm on 10/7/25 by ivesy

Tough week and $$$$. Express passes would be included with a stay at Portofino Bay, Hard Rock, or Royal Pacific resorts. You'd have to get 2 rooms or a suite. Either way you're looking at $1500-$2000 per night. If you stayed at a value, like Cabana Bay...

6:59pm on 10/7/25 by allanmayo

...Beach Resort, you could get a family suite that sleeps 6 but you'd have to purchase Express passes for each member of your group which would be about $250-$300 each, per day. Alternatively, one member of your group could buy a Preferred Annual Pass ...

7:03pm on 10/7/25 by allanmayo

...get a substantial resort discount at one of the premier resorts. I'd research the numbers to see what would work best for your family. Good luck!

7:04pm on 10/7/25 by allanmayo

One option is to stay at one of 3 hotels with EP for one night only. U get EP on checkin day AND check out day so that is 2 days for just one night for however many in the room. Check in early, they can hold bags at checkin and checkout. Then stay

8:38pm on 10/7/25 by Buckeye86

elsewhere for other nights.

8:38pm on 10/7/25 by Buckeye86

Unless something has changed, any level of annual pass will do to get the hotel discount. Seasonal is the cheapest but Thanksgiving week is blocked out. Power (next level) works for Thanksgiving week I think.

9:18pm on 10/7/25 by TenMileMom

Do you plan to stay on property the night before your first park day and or the night after your last park day?

9:21pm on 10/7/25 by TenMileMom

Yes @TMM Power does allow entry Thanksgiving week that's what I currently have and yes it allows hotel discounts! but DH has preferred for the food and merch discounts

9:28pm on 10/7/25 by sneezy93

Thanks for all of this. I'll take a hard look and let you all know if there are other questions.

12:59pm on 10/8/25 by ma14

Try this link to price AP rooms https://reservations.universalorlando.com/ibe/default.aspx?hgID=641&lang=en-us&checkin=10/08/2025&nights=1&rooms=1&adults=2&children=0&promo=APH&iata=&group=&hotels=&ada=0&currid=1&vouchercode=&attendeeCode=

9:41pm on 10/8/25 by sneezy93

Just change your date up top. Only one person has to have an AP to book an AP rate and you don't have to have it in hand to book the room at this rate but they may ask for it when you check in.

9:43pm on 10/8/25 by sneezy93

You do need one AP per room tho- 6 won't fit into any of the delux rooms. Tho evem w 2 rooms when we did the maths it was better to book dekux than pay for EP at cabana etc.

1:39am on 10/9/25 by hodg

Recently we've found PBH came up cheaper than HRH or RPR.

1:40am on 10/9/25 by hodg

And welcome to the dark side

1:40am on 10/9/25 by hodg

Sfl

6:36am on 10/10/25 by seren77

I think you'll have a good experience on the UOR side of Lines. Our chat here isn't filled with daily nonsense of people posting the same things or asking the same silly questions every day.

12:19pm on 10/10/25 by Dpj731

You are going to have SOOOO much fun!

9:33am on 10/11/25 by browndalmatian

Sfl

3:22pm on 10/18/25 by cpowers

If you are able to swing it I'd definitely recommend one of the 3 hotels that has unlimited express passes we stayed at Hard Rock and the walk to the two og parks was worth it and took a break every day at the pool and loved it. Easy ride to epic also

5:21pm on 10/18/25 by Chandra.elder

...view 22 more comments

We're planning to stay at Universal Endless Summer. Going to park hop Universal studios and Islands of adventure Wednesday and Saturday and do Epic on Friday with a WDW day on Thanksgiving. Have EP but not unlimited. Plan make sense?

1:28pm on 10/20/25 by ma14

Sounds great! Please take us along with a trip report! ;-)

5:39am on 10/21/25 by TenMileMom

Can on AP holder still use the AP discount for 2 rooms?

1:42pm on 10/25/25 by BellesRose2K

Rookie mistake! Bought 3 single day AP Epic discount tix this week then realized today that 3 day, 3 park, one park per day tix would be some cheaper. Gonna try to exchange and will report back!

9:31pm on 10/24/25 by sneezy93

Are the 3 parks on that US, IoA, and Epic? Make sure they're not US, IoA, and VB.

7:11am on 10/25/25 by TenMileMom

Yes it's the 3 dry parks and he did verify it can be used for Epic all 3 days as long as it's the only park we enter! And they couldn't just switch the tix but they let me refund and repurchase to save the $50!

11:32am on 10/25/25 by sneezy93

What is the annual pass discount for tickets for your family

6:24pm on 10/18/25 by cpowers

If you want to use your AP to purchase discount tickets for family, you can only buy day of at parks. My understanding is third party discounts are just as good and more convenient

1:11pm on 10/19/25 by disneyday

Thank you!

7:17am on 10/25/25 by cpowers

So, how do we all feel about the "pay per ride Express Pass" thing they're testing out right now (Kong and Mummy I believe)? I'm seeing about 99% of comments online against it, calling it "Universal Lightning Lane" (lol). (I don't like the idea either.)

2:36pm on 10/20/25 by browndalmatian

collapse thread

I'm completely against it. I also think the choice of these 2 rides is odd

4:04pm on 10/20/25 by disneyday

This is what they have at DLP- just back from there & didn't pay for any fastpass but you can buy a premier pass for all at a cost, or ride by ride- not cheap for the rides you'd want it for.

4:25pm on 10/20/25 by hodg

@disneyday I heard they were just "testing it out" on these 2 rides before attempting to roll it out to others... I hope the testing shows that it's a big failure and they decide not to do it at all!

11:05am on 10/21/25 by browndalmatian

That is awful. They should not model Disney.

9:04pm on 10/21/25 by Buckeye86

I agree @buckeye. Other than the survey (they email me every time I go into a park) and maybe social media, how else can we let them know how much we don't like this idea? Any suggestions? I have noticed they DO seem to listen to guests at UO (sometimes).

11:03am on 10/22/25 by browndalmatian

Ok maybe I'm the outlier but I really hope they expand this! I don't ride enough rides to make EP worth the high cost but I would definitely be willing to pay for 2 or 3 separately.

9:28am on 10/23/25 by melcort10

@melcort I can see that making sense for a lot of people. It frustrates me more as an AP that gets a "free EP" I think. It's part of that road that WDW went down where they said (literally said) "we care less about passholders," ...

10:28am on 10/23/25 by browndalmatian

... and I don't want UO to do the same thing. Although I think it's MUCH LESS likely UO would have an actual company stance like that, the way WDW did. UO really does seem to care about passholders genuinely. Again though what you said does make sense.

10:29am on 10/23/25 by browndalmatian

I understand that. But we ride everything and I don't want to have to pick and choose my EP rides nor do I want to pay for each one. I wouldn't (won't) mind it if they continue to offer regular EP and UEP. (And provide UEP with deluxe stays!) My 2 cents.

12:15pm on 10/23/25 by TenMileMom

True. I was assuming they were going to keep the current EP system as is and do this "pay for ep per ride" thing as an ADDITIONAL thing... I don't really want that, but if it's a REPLACEMENT to the current EP system then that's even worse! :\

1:10pm on 10/23/25 by browndalmatian

I'm with @TMM! If it's in addition ok but don't take away my deluxe EP please! Might buy one for a couple rides at epic depending on cost if that's an option. But I would rather get included EP at epic (at least with a Helios stay)!

4:19pm on 10/23/25 by sneezy93

...view 11 more comments

If anyone is "watching" Leave legacy EP as it is. Let Epic find its footing.

10:02pm on 10/23/25 by brerbeer

I think For the price you pay per night for Helios plus your park ticket there should be express pass included since your right there in the park.

9:02pm on 10/24/25 by daemptynester

Agree with all this! Don't mess with EP amd I do think it shld be included for epic for Helios. I'm still mad I missed booking Helios before the prices went up!

6:54am on 10/25/25 by hodg

How long roughly is the express pass line for the big rides (ministry, monsters, hagrids, velocicoaster, etc) on peak crowd days?

7:54am on 10/15/25 by ejgonz22

collapse thread

I hate to not give you a straight answer but it really, really does depend. I've seen it cut times in half and I've seen it cut times by 10-20% (very rarely) and I've seen it cut times by 90%. But...

10:43am on 10/15/25 by browndalmatian

Most of the time I see it cut wait times by a little more than half, personally. I suppose you could look at past wait times on peak crowd days and then just figure "it'll most likely be much better with Express." :)

10:44am on 10/15/25 by browndalmatian

I usually look at the wait time sign or on the app and then tell the family "okay, Mummy (or whatever) is 80 minutes, so do you want to wait 30-40 minutes in Express or do you want to go do something else?" :)

10:48am on 10/15/25 by browndalmatian

We just got back from being there during a busy Columbus Day weekend. We did HHN/US on Saturday, IOA on Sunday and Epic on Monday. We had EP for all. US and IOA EP lines were hit or miss. At US both Gringotts and Mummy EP lines were...

2:12pm on 10/15/25 by TallAndGoofy

...out the door. We ended up skipping Mummy because line was so long going out the door. Kids did do Gringotts which took awhile. Not sure how long exactly but was longer than we usually experience. Still better than standby...

2:19pm on 10/15/25 by TallAndGoofy

...at IOA it was at least 40 minutes the first time we rode and at the end of the night when we rode again, it took a good hour for Express. We got in line and it was already out the arch and just got worse as it wrapped around the corner toward...

2:22pm on 10/15/25 by TallAndGoofy

...the HE display and lockers. I don't do Velocicoaster but whenever the kids did it I think it was 30 - 40 minutes before we'd see them again each time. At Epic, EP really shined. Ministry took maybe 30 minutes with a 3 hour posted. Mine cart was...

2:26pm on 10/15/25 by TallAndGoofy

...less than 10 with a 2 hour+ posted. Hiccup took 20 or so with a 50 minute posted. Mario was 25 or 20 with a 75 minute posted. Monsters we did standby in the morning with 15 minutes posted and with EP at night with 20 minutes posted...

2:30pm on 10/15/25 by TallAndGoofy

...I think it was 5 - 10 minutes each time.

2:31pm on 10/15/25 by TallAndGoofy

Oops - the first IOA times (40 minutes and one hour) were referring to Hagrid.

2:34pm on 10/15/25 by TallAndGoofy

We're APs and have always had EP for IOA and Studios and the only time we had a negative experience was during Mardi Gras, the waits with EP were way ridiculous. Never have done Epic with EP so can't speak to that. Other than that EP rules!

11:06pm on 10/15/25 by sneezy93

I find usually it is 1/3 except for Gringotts which varies depending on queue layout but usually 1/3 and also HExp from London is longer if there is any line.

11:14pm on 10/18/25 by Buckeye86

For hagrid this weekend, posted 150, express 32. Ministry posted 180, express 34. Pretty consistently in long wait attractions like mario, donkey kong, velocicoaster, express was 35-45 minutes.

8:36pm on 10/19/25 by B-squared

...view 13 more comments

So you can only get express pass for Epic if you stay at the three older Universal hotels? And Epic is included in that Express pass? I'm confused because I thought Epic didn't have Express lanes.

9:33pm on 10/24/25 by daemptynester

No hotel includes express for epic. It's a separate purchase.

9:36pm on 10/24/25 by sneezy93

The older three deluxe Uni hotels still include UEP for Islands and Studios.

9:37pm on 10/24/25 by sneezy93

Subscribe to join in!

Chat Guidelines