Day 5 continued......

 16 December 2025

Just some more photos and commentary from our day in Epic Universe. 

Epic Universe is also known for its shows. A representative from Epic that we met in City Walk suggested that there were many many shows, but to my knowledge there are only two that are published with a schedule (outside of the character meets). Joshua was dead set that he did not want to attend any of the shows, but he did appear to enjoy the two that we saw. The first of the shows was based on the circus from Fantastic Beasts. It was really innovative, merging stage acting, puppets and sets with 3D videos. According to Joshua it was really good because it used "lore." I think that means that it stuck to the themes of the original movie. Unfortunately we were not able to take photos in this show. 

The photos below are from the How to Train your Dragon show which was somewhat of a musical. I do not for a second think that this show is going to win a Tony Award for its story or singing, but the costumes, puppets and animatronics were awesome. I had read the review's so had somewhat expected that Toothless was going to fly out above the audience, but wasn't quite prepared for it to be matched with the theme music from the movie and for Hiccup to be riding on his back. My photos definitely don't do this justice. According to Joshua (who doesn't use a lot of emotive words at the moment), it was "cool" (I had initially written cool in capital letters, but actually I feel that this over emphasised the expression and underemphasised the emotion attached to Joshua's use of the word). The colours of the dragons were so close to the movies. It was just really clever.

I don't think the kids had realised quite how much emotion Steve and I had tied up with Hiccup and Toothless. Both Joshua and Isabelle were surprised when Steve said that he had cried through the animated movies (as did I - but I cry at the drop of a hankie). I don't think Joshua remembers me reading him to sleep with the books and complaining because he wanted to buy the next book 2 weeks later or taking him to each of the 3 movies. 

And finally the night ended with the water fountain and light show in the middle of the park. Each light in the park and fountain was carefully choreographed with the theme music from each of the park themes. 

Ultimately, we ended up having a really good day once we had moved passed the disappointment of the first few rides. I think it comes down to what you are looking for in a theme park. For us, it is the rides first and foremost and then the technical design and probably not nostalgia. Outside of the two roller coasters we loved, there was not a lot of rides we would go back for (that makes two out of a total of 11 rides available). For a lot of the attendee's and from what I have reviewed, I think a lot of people buy into the nostalgia, technical design and rides are a bit of a bonus. Perhaps, as has been suggested to us, we actually need to move out from Universal and Disney parks and try some of the lesser known ones. Next time maybe 😜 Who knows, there are two new worlds currently under construction. Will we be curious enough to want to go back? I'm  not so sure.