Our Day At Epic Universe

The preview day that Jameson and I selected for Epic Universe was Saturday April 5th.

We got up a bit early and fought traffic to the guest parking lot.
(This is one thing that still badly needs work...it took us 20 minutes to get into the lot from less than a mile away, and the park isn't even open yet! I really hope they add more access points soon.)

As we were parking, my WhatsApp started pinging. It was my Epic Universe group chat.
The photo/media ban had been lifted! We were allowed to take pictures and video!!
And here I was pulling up to the park, ready for a full day of seeing it!!

I've never had much luck with money...but BOY do I have good luck with life experiences!!

As we were walking to the Chronos portal, parking employees and security guards and EVERYONE was shouting to guests, "The photo ban is lifted! Take pictures! Take video!" One even screamed, "Someone, take a photo of meeeee!!!"

Everyone has had to keep quiet for SO LONG. It's hard! I think we are all relieved and excited to share what we've been working on all this time!

The Chronos portal, the entrance to Epic Universe, and my first photo of the park!


We walked in and were in Celestial Park, which is the hub where all the "world" portals meet.
Here there are gardens, lots of food options, rides, and kiosks for future shops (most of which are still closed.)
It is a very beautiful park, and has been well-documented already, so I didn't take many photos here.

(stock image)

The primary ride offerings are the Stardust Racers coasters, and the carousel.
We watched the coasters for a while...they are beautiful to see, and I've heard that they're one of the best coasters Universal has ever done. I can believe it. The carousel was running, so we rode that. The animals are not attached at the ceiling, which makes for a really cool effect and you also go up higher than expected! The animals are all based on constellations. It doesn't move in a plain circle like a traditional carousel, either, and that was surprising and fun.

CLICK HERE to see my footage of riding the carousel

We continued to the Wizarding World / Ministry of Magic portal, because we wanted to grab a drink and catch my show's set before seeing the Circus Arcanus show.


It was such a cool thing, to walk into this park as a guest for the first time.
Looking around...there was where we rehearsed for 3 hours one day because there were paint fumes where we normally rehearsed. Here's the wall I watched someone "age" for a week. There's the shop where we got to watch a magical creature animatronic being installed. It is truly such a special thing to have seen a theme park being built from the ground up!

Anyway, we first stopped at Bar Moonshine for a fancy cocktail featuring absinthe and limoncello (no idea what else was in it but it was delicious!)


I could hear my group performing outside, so as soon as we had our drinks we rushed out.

For the first time: meet Phillipa, Chandler, Jules, and our puffskein named Plume!!!

CLICK HERE for footage of the band performing!




(video and first 2 photos from Attractions Magazine, last photo from me)

I am SO GLAD that we don't have to hide our show any more!!!

These three (Mariah as "Phillipa," Adrian as "Chandler," Adam as "Jules") are "the PR Trio" that I've been talking about.
They're the three who are chosen to perform any time there's a PR event or Warner Bros. execs in the park. So of course they did an amazing job today!!

After they finished I was gratified to see one of our stage managers take a group photo of them and immediately share it on LinkedIn. The media ban is INDEED lifted. Hooray!

(photo courtesy Brendan)

Soon, I'll have media of my own performances to share! How exciting!

We finished our drinks quickly and queued up for Cirque Arcanus.

Jameson in the queue. The theming of the queue gave us both a bit of nostalgia for our time with Ringling Bros.


The show was, once again, mind-blowingly incredible.
I'll say it again: if you get a chance to visit Epic Universe, this show is a MUST. Make time for it in your itinerary.
The level of performance, and staging technology, happening in this show, is going to change the entertainment industry.

We explored some of the Place Cachee shops and mentally bookmarked some things that we might want.
We visited Cosme's wand shop so I could show Jameson the circus Ringmaster's wand, and introduce him to Cosme herself (all of the Place Cachee / Ministry of Magic performers share break rooms and dressing rooms, so I see all of the Cosme performers, Aurors, Exchange Students, Living Portraits, and Circus performers, EVERY day!) Cosme has a custom wand, and showed it to Jameson, that was super cool :)

We then used my wand to cast a few spells around the park, getting a niffler to drop it's horde of coins and making some musical instruments move around in a shop window!

From there we entered the portal to Super Nintendo World.
The last time I was able to go, the park was still heavily under construction. This was my first time seeing it complete!

CLICK HERE to see the portal to Super Nintendo Land courtesy Attractions Magazine

We saw that Mario and Luigi were out for a meet-and-greet, and only had to wait about 10 minutes for that!


We explored the gift shops and saw LOTS of things that we wanted, but managed to narrow it down to a few things haha.
Since it was about lunch time we decided to eat at Toadstool Cafe.

(stock image)

The theming in there is absolutely adorable. Every once in a while Bowser's flying battleship floats through and the lights dim, things become ominous, ADORABLE, then it moves on and the Mushroom Kingdom continues going about it's business :D

All of the restaurants in the park, by the way, are self-serve, which is SO MUCH FASTER.
There are QR codes at every table. You scan them for the menu, pick what you want, order it, and pay.
Done. No waiting for the check. No hoping your server heard you say "No mayo" above the racket. You just eat and leave when you're ready. We absolutely loved the convenience of this throughout the day!

Anyway, We got a bunch of foods to try!

Jameson had spaghetti and meatballs. I tried his meatball and it was delicious, tender and with a little bit of spicy heat (not too much, just barely noticeable and very tasty!)

(LA Times photo)

I had the chicken Caesar salad, which I realize is "boring" but A) look at the adorable Super Star plating! B) I knew we'd be eating A LOT today so tried to at least be slightly healthy here lol.


Mushroom-shaped "garlic knots." Very tasty!


Our dessert, a Question Box tiramisu. The question box was shortbread cookies, and inside was an absolutely decadent and delicious tiramisu. We enjoyed it very much, and it looked so cute!


We decided to walk our lunch off at Berk.

(stock image)

This is the only park I'd never visited during construction, so I was very excited to see it. It did not disappoint! The theming is immersive and adorable. It's a land definitely geared toward a younger audience, but it is also beautiful and there's lots of people of all ages to enjoy. We tried to ride a Viking water boat ride/shooting game, but it broke down while we were in queue so we ended up bailing. Then we queued up for a Toothless meet-and-greet, which was going smoothly until a huge crowd of INFLUENCERS showed up with media passes and bogarted the line (-_-#) What started as a 15-minute wait became an hour.

But we consoled ourselves with the knowledge that once the park was open, the wait would be at least 2 hours long, daily. Not only that, during previews meal and merch prices are HALF OFF. There were only about 11,000 people in the entire park, across all the worlds. Every queue that we were in, every experience that we enjoyed today, was EXCEPTIONAL compared to what paying guests will have to endure. We made very sure not to EVER forget that, and be appreciative even while waiting!!

Finally, our patience was rewarded :)

CLICK HERE to see our meet and greet with Toothless!



As you can see from the video, the level of expressiveness and interaction from Toothless is astounding. I know that he is controlled by a puppeteer, and also some of his sounds and expressions are controlled by someone with an iPad somewhere. Seeing al this artistry and tech come together in this experience was absolutely wonderful. We got to see several small children interacting with Toothless, and you could tell...they completely thought he was REAL. It's going to be a very memorable experience for kids and their parents, that's for sure.

We saw lots of other cool interactive tidbits throughout this world, including an Astrid and Stormfly meet and greet, and several fun statues that would move or make noise if you turned a big wheel at their base. I'm sure loads of footage will be forthcoming...we didn't take as much footage here because of all the media/press swarming around while we were in this world. I felt silly with my little phone while surrounded by people wearing stabilizers and high-fidelity mics and thousands of dollars-worth of media gear. Let them document this for you :)

We entered the Untrainable Dragon stage show. You can already see this show in its entirety on YouTube because it's in Universal Beijing. Jameson had seen it before, but I hadn't. Again, the technology and puppetry, animatronics and acting and staging, all made for an incredible show! In my opinion the Circus show is still "the groundbreaking one," but this show is also extremely impressive and well worth seeing if you can stand the wait.

(stock image)

We wandered Berk a bit looking for the Mead Hall, yet somehow couldn't find it? Not sure what our problem was haha.
From there we went to Dark Universe for a cooldown and a drink. The Toothless queue had been in the sun for nearly an hour, and the show queue hadn't been much cooler. Stepping into Das Stakehaus, we were greeted by blessed darkness and cool air :D The whole ambiance is to make you feel like you're underground, among twisted tree roots and coffins shifting in the soil of the walls. The lighting is reddish and dim, and it flickers every once in a while whenever Frankenstein's daughter harnesses the town's electricity for one of her experiments.

In other words, it's a VERY cool restaurant!

(stock image. I'm sorry for all the stock images but I was far more intent on enjoying my experience than being an influencer!)

Jameson had a spiced beer, and I enjoyed a Darkthorne Mead which was a very tangy, sweet cider featuring blackberries, vanilla, and spices. Jameson took a lot of footage here for his mom, who enjoys all things spooky.

Outside the restaurant it is quite themed too. Some vampires on display:


As we were rounding a corner we saw Bride of Frankenstein doing a meet-and-greet! Couldn't resist!
We had a big ol' philosophical discussion. She knew right away that I was a musician....I wonder how.... ;)

CLICK HERE to see our interaction with Bride of Frankenstein



I'm kind of going out of order here, but actually the first thing we did when we got to Darkmoor / Dark Universe was try to ride Monsters Unchained. I was very apprehensive about it, but Jameson really wanted to try it so I screwed up my courage.

Nothing to do with monsters....EVERYTHING to do with MOTION SICKNESS.

The queue was incredibly themed and amazing to walk through, I'm sure there will be MANY spoilers soon (HERE is one of the ride.) The preshow is apparently amazing too...but we didn't get that far. Right before the preshow is a holding area where they show you what the ride will be like...yikes. I could feel the blood draining from my face as I watched the seats jerk around, sideways and around and nearly upside-down. Nope. Even just 5 minutes of that was going to be too much. Universal is known for using high-res screens and simulated motion to create an immersive experience. This is not something that my brand of motion sickness can handle, at all. Jameson and I looked at each other, then backed out, following the single-rider lane out to the gift shop.

I'm sorry that we missed out, but also, crisis averted. This was a definite case of "know thyself." Many other people will greatly enjoy this ride. For us, it would have ended the day!

We returned to Super Nintendo World to ride some rides we KNEW we could handle lol.
The Mario Kart ride was awesome! First the queue, which was themed to look like Bowser's castle study. The second part was a factory for the Bomber Bills and Bob-ombs, I didn't record that part. Bowser's study was great, I loved the titles of the books, the Bowser-sized furniture, and the little Boos floating around!

CLICK HERE to see my footage of Mario Kart queue

The ride itself uses Augmented Reality, which is just so incredibly cool and immersive. It felt like you were really in the game at times! There probably won't be many POVs of this ride because cameras won't be able to focus through the AR goggles. If you've played Mario Kart, it's very similar. Jameson got 117 coins, I won with 132! TAKE THAT MUAHAHAHAHAAAA :p

(stock image)

We rode Yoshi's Adventure as well. It's meant for little kids BUT is worth riding for the incredible view of Nintendo World. HERE'S a good clip of the ride in Japan, the one in Orlando is exactly the same.

We went back to the gift shops for the items we'd picked out earlier, then returned to Ministry of Magic for dinner.
Neither of us were deeply hungry, so we treated ourselves to butterbeer and butterbeer crepes.
I got to try the crepes during restaurant testing/rehearsal, but Jameson had never had them and he loved them.
Definitely one of the best dessert offerings in the parks!


We cast a few more spells, including a kite shop spell that blasted air on us and a mysterious shop where a Demiguise apparated and then faded away. So cool.
We then walked the Ministry of Magic queue. The ride was not open (it's had troubles since day one), but the queue is so immersive, incredible, themed, and MASSIVE, you have GOT to check it out!

THIS Attractions Magazine footage is better than what I got, so check it out! Simply astounding.

We hit one more gift shop, then it was after 7pm and time for us to leave.

Wow.

Such an incredible experience, that we were grateful to have.
Being able to see and do as much as we did, without massive crowds and essentially for free/at significantly reduced cost, and with a fraction of the wait times, is something that will NEVER happen again in our lifetimes. This was an experience I'll never forget!!

Back home, I lined up our modest merch haul for a photo.


Jameson got the Mario Kart magnets for himself.
He also bought me that Place Cachee picture frame shaped like the Phoenix Arch. He got it so I can put my first decent show photo in it. This was so thoughtful and sweet! I can't wait to find a good photo for it!

For myself, I got a Chain Chomp shirt and a matching Chain Chomp enamel pin (Jameson saw it at the register so I HAD to get it lol)
The Japanese text says "Wanwan," that's what Chain Chomp was originally called. "Wan wan" is the sound of a dog barking.

My wand is pictured just because I've shared it here in Friends Only posts, but not in public ones (I think.)
We also kept our Bar Moonshine cups as a sort of souvenir.

---------------------------------------------------------------

I know I've said it like 80 times but this was such an incredible experience.

I know that the park will be packed and crazy and expensive the minute it opens. But in a year or two, if you have a chance to visit, I highly recommend it. There is no other theme park like it out there. Even with previews (not all rides working, not all restaurants and shops open) we had an incredible time, and this is going to be well worth a visit for anyone coming to Orlando.

Thanks for following my journey of working for Epic Universe, and getting to experience it!

Starting today, there will be LOADS of footage of the entire park.
The jig is up, the secret is revealed!

I cannot wait to work in coming days and see footage of our show popping up!!

The Non-Epic Bits

Up very early again for Epic.

30 minutes to do the hair. I am pretty annoyed because I just got it cut on Monday, and they did not cut it short enough to avoid a potential bun, so now I have to pay to get it cut AGAIN. I've written in this blog many times about never being able to get a good haircut, and once again here I am with the simplest ask in the world--"Please cut it 2 inches shorter"--no special layering or styling or anything--literally just remove two inches of hair--and it's like I've asked for the stylist to bring me the sun, moon, and stars on a platter. I got home and tied up my hair and had to ask what the hell I'd just paid for. Maybe I should invest in a self-haircut 101 course, if there is such a thing, because I am tired to death of the scam that is hair salons.

Anyway. Breakfast and off to Epic.

We had our prop for most of the day...it broke once but in a fixable way, so we only had to do one show without it.
There were good crowds, and we saw Mariah (trombone) with her boyfriend, and I was surprised to see some Main Street Philharmonic people and other musicians that I know around town, who texted later to tell me how much they'd enjoyed our show and to explain that they have spouses or other family working at Universal (hence how they were able to get in for previews.) It was fun to see familiar faces out there :)

Curious to see what people think of the new park after their previews? Reddit thread HERE (Mild spoilers, nothing to ruin a visit.)

The strangest part of the day, for me, was being contacted by almost every single employer/gig on my roster!

Transcription job wrote to say there's a hold on government court cases, and would I like some civil cases instead? Sure, I said.
Easter gig sent more music, and the coordinator asked me to pick up some music from her and bring it to the gig.
My Main Street Philharmonic boss texted to try and get me to fill in as an emergency (literally within the hour), and I had to say no.
An all-female Chicago tribute band that I'd signed on with and completely forgotten about messaged to send music and coordinate a rehearsal.
My third party boss for Epic wrote to offer reimbursement on the junk trombone I bought, if I'd create him an invoice.

And the coordinator for the Steamboat Lillies (usually known as the all-female band Hourglass) sent more music, and put up an ad for our gig which I promptly shared.


In fact the only job/gig that I didn't hear from today was the tour, but I heard from them just yesterday!

Did the stars align in such a way that compelled people to communicate today, for once?
I love it! If only people were this informative and on top of communication ALL the time! :D

Partly because of this bombardment of music and scheduling, and partly because I felt it was the right thing to do, I cancelled my bass trombone lesson this evening. I couldn't picture Will and I doing anything except the same handful of exercises I've been half-neglecting while all this tenor trombone work rolls in, and also felt I'd be distracted thinking about how I need to practice all the new music I'd just received. Didn't want to waste Will's time nor mine. We can resume again on the 17th, after the busiest week in April is out of my face.

Back home Jameson was out to dinner with friends. I washed myself up, changed our sheets, downloaded the new music, made the invoice for my boss, and practiced bass for about an hour, then crashed. Dancing around in 90F / 32.2C weather drains you quickly, no matter how much water you drink.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Slept poorly and was up too early, but enjoyed the quiet time to myself anyway.

Once Jameson was up and off to the gym I practiced bass trombone for an hour and ran a few small errands before lunch, then after lunch got my stupid hair cut a stupid second time. This time walked in with it up in the ponytail already and showed exactly where I wanted it cut, and she just angrily lopped it off. So now it looks ridiculous, like a little squared tassel, and no shaping at all was done so it looks terrible when it's down as well.

Whatever. I clearly have bad hair karma, and there have been so many bad cuts at this point that I can't afford to expect a good outcome anymore. I can still tie it back and it's certainly not long enough for a bun, so mission accomplished.

I was supposed to practice tenor trombone in the afternoon but felt tired and unmotivated. It's probably because I'm not looking forward to the Steamboat Lillies gig any more...seeing that EVIL JAZZ IMPROV in my part was a big turn-off. I can't tell you guys how much I hate improv, I find nothing enjoyable about it at all and feel like a fool every time I attempt it. Well...at least the other 80% of the gig should go just fine!

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Saturday was my preview day at Epic Universe, and it was absolutely wonderful!
So much happened that I decided to make that it's own post, which you can read HERE.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunday, I was up early to type up that massive Epic Universe blog post. Uploading photos, resizing them, embedding videos, adding links, and remembering how the day went sure does take a lot of time and effort! In the process I found many lovely clips and footage of Place Cachee Jazz featuring Mariah (trombone), Adam (trumpet), and Adrian (clarinet).

Here is a 6-minute clip of our show:

Watch on YouTube

After Jameson got up and around we went to Publix together.
Back home putting groceries away, doing laundry and running the dishwasher, eating lunch, packing for Epic tomorrow, and darning my Chain Chomp shirt because last night I'd found a hole in it!! It was such a clean cut that I think it must have happened when an employee was cutting the merch box open. Jameson suggested that I take it back, but I can't go to the other worlds while working so I'd have to ask a Universal employee to go all that way and switch it out for me. I decided it'd be easier to sew it up myself. I watched a YouTube video and it seemed easy enough...and it was! Except...I wasn't paying attention, and did it backwards, so the bulge-y part was on the OUTSIDE. Lol! I don't mind, you can barely see it anyway and it'll be a cute reminder of this moment :)

Practiced bass for an hour but once again couldn't drum up the motivation to practice tenor.
My plan now is to practice things during the breaks between Place Cachee sets at Epic. We'll see if this actually happens.

The rest of the night was quiet. Jameson made us hot dogs on the grill and we watched anime or gamed respectively.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Monday and Tuesday: Working at Epic Universe. I wonder if anyone will record our shows? I hope so!

Wednesday: Subbing in at the Magic Kingdom.

Thursday: A "day off" that would have been a lesson with Will, but he's got surgery so we've cancelled.

I'm also supposed to be learning how to do civil court cases for my transcription job, but add that to the list of things I'm unmotivated to do right now.