“For in dreams we enter a world that is entirely our own.” - Albus Dumbledore / Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Hello everyone!

I hope you all are surviving the cold weather. Personally, I’m not a fan! 

Just a quick back story, in December of 2024 my step mom and I became passholders along with my little brother. I have always been a Disney girlie, but we thought he may would enjoy Universal more. If you love Universal, definitely think about becoming a passholder. Between the hotel discounts, the discounts on food and merch it was definitely worth it for us. 

Epic Universe opened in May of 2025 and while we heavily considered going immediately after it opened, we decided to give it a bit to let crowds die down. As passholders, we received a slight discount on our one day Epic Universe ticket. Epic has 5 unique and truly spectacular worlds:

1. Dark Universe - home to the Universal Classic Monsters. 

2. Super Nintendo World - home to real life Mario Kart, Donkey Kong Country & more. 

3. Isle of Berk - Home to all of the characters from How To Train Your Dragon

4. The Wizarding World of Harry Pottery - Home to a real life scale Ministry of magic and set in Paris. 

5. Celestial Park - the cosmic heart of Epic Universe

While we started the day a lot later than we thought we would, we used this day to really walk around, take in the sights and get a lay of the land. First off… we checked into the Grand Helios. The Grand Helios is spectacular and has a direct entrance in to Epic Universe which is a such a bonus. The rooms are beautifully decorated and even come with a tablet that controls the lights, air and tv in the room. Very high tech for this country bumpkin. I could talk probably a whole page about the hotel but I’m going to let the pictures speak for itself. 

Started off with Epic by finding food. We had a long morning and needed something to pick our energy up so we checkout Das Stakehaus. I enjoyed chicken tenders, fries and grapes and I have to admit, for it to be theme park food it was really good. I knew we had a dinner reservation later so I didn’t want to fill up too much. Alex had a burger and his eyes lit up when he bit into it. Over all, we would definitely return for a quick service snack. 

In our best interest we decided not to ride a ride immediately after eating so we headed on over to Super Nintendo World. You guys…. I was literally stopped in my tracks when we walked in. When I tell you it is probably the most incredible thing I had ever seen, I’m not joking. The detail  that went into this “world” is insane. We did learn our lesson and probably need to purchase the “power up” bands for the next trip. One ride you had to have them and sadly we didn’t. However, we did check out the real life Mario Kart and while I wasn’t crazy about it, Alex loved it. Spoiler alert, I still won. We ventured over to explore Donkey Kong Country and I can’t wait to go back and ride Mine Cart Madness! 

As we were headed to the next “world” we walked through Celestial Park, saw the carousel and smelled all of the great food in that area. We also stopped by the sweet shop to grab some macaroons and truffles. Alex says the truffles are a little lackluster, but the macaroons were pretty good in my opinion. There is a Starbucks located in Epic with cute cups that are only available there. 

Now to Isle of Berk. I am a How To Train Your Dragon lover. I have the toothless headband and everything. It’s beautiful. Truly. Even in the dark. We didn’t ride any of the rides here as we were running out of time before our dinner reservation and I wanted to make sure I made it to Harry Potter. However, I can’t wait to go back to ride Hiccups Wing Glider. 

In between Isle of Berk and Harry Potter is Star Dust Racers which is technically part of Celestial Park. Alex won’t ride a coaster that goes upside down but I love a good coaster so I hopped in the single rider line. This wasn’t exactly any shorter. The posted time was 25 minutes and I made it out in about 30. For those of you who may not know the history of Universal, there was once a coaster called the “Dueling Dragons” which is now where Hagrid’s is at Islands of Adventure. This is supposed to be the new version of that. After riding this ride I have to say, Velocicoaster is still my favorite. I am not a fan of the twisting climb on this ride, but it was still amazing and I will most definitely be riding it again. 

Now, to what I thought would be my favorite “World.” Harry Potter…….. Maybe if I worked the opposite way around the park it would have been, but after being in Super Nintendo World, this one was almost subpar. And maybe because I didn’t get to ride the Ministry of Magic ride, but it was still just fabulous to me. It is set in France, which is part of the magic beast series. If you are looking to buy a wand for your trip, make sure you get the new version, as it is interactive in areas of this world. 

Are you still with me? I hope so, because now I need to talk about the roof top bar at Helios. I saw a TikTok where it said to make sure you get a dining reservation at 10 o’clock to watch the light show from the rooftop. 100000/10 recommend. The view of the light show was spectacular. We enjoyed the food and the drinks. My crab cake was topped with caviar and edible gold, I mean…. Come on.

While our trip was short, I’ve already convinced him to go back for my birthday and will most certainly keep you updated to our adventures in Epic Universe.

For any questions or to book a trip, email me at travel@ashleynadams.com!