Just did my first trip to epic and had a blast.
Went on Friday 8/8 and Saturday 8/9 to celebrate my 33rd birthday. Crowds ebbed and flowed like any other park and those worth their salt understand the game already and can maximize their time accordingly. Early entry on 8/8 - rope dropped mario kart in 45 minutes, did yoshi in 25, did all the mini games and had lunch by 11 at Toadstool(just fine, did it in CA before, no surprises - it's the same). Got in line for Donkey Kong after with a 75 minute wait listed. The front queue worker saw my HBD pin and outfit(full super mario drip) and took us to the front of the line. I hugged him when i got off because he saved us an hour and really made my day.
Did Stardust next, 35 minute wait(yellow-side). Went to Dark Universe and got on Unchained(best ride in the park) in 10 minutes(both pre-shows were down), and had snacks & drinks at Burning Blade where the staff and characters in their really had fun with us. Rain started, so we walked over to Cirque and caught a showing in the next half hour. Got off, saw Ministry was at 110 and it was still raining so decided to do that. Got through in 90, which wasn't terrible for seeing it hit 180 or 210 at different points in the hours prior. I thought Ministry was okay, but wouldn't wait 90 for it again; Hour or less, but more on that later.
Got out of Ministry with the rain slowing and thought to check out Berk with the rain almost gone - got there just in time to see Hiccups reopen with a 30 minute wait. Got to our lockers and the 3 younger workers there loved my get up and we talked and joked about the day we'd been having, and they -at that point in the queue, where there is no express split anymore- took us to the front of the line and gave us the front seat on the next train. Everyone who said this was Hagrid's for kiddos was right on the money because this one surprised me the most. We grabbed a drink at the Astropub and thought about what to do next. While we were sitting there, someone who worked there with a nametag and title came up to us and asked us a ton of questions about how we were enjoying the park so far and what we have and haven't done. We mentioned missing Werewolf because it was never under 110 from afternoon and even after rain went right back up, and how we were gonna try to hit the Untrainable the next day and weren't sure if we were gonna do either of the other rides at Berk(we didn't). She asked us to wait there and came back with two free express passes for any ride. At this point, i was gobsmacked because we had skipped an hour queue with DK that morning and maybe another 10-15 minutes on Hiccup's so this was just getting WILD at this point. We had already planned on going back to Nintendo to do another round of mini-games but this let us do Mariokart again to end the night too, even through the wait was only 35 minutes and basically walk on, the one time express before the day was over was icing on cake.
We finished with Flora Taverna at Helios and loved it. 9:30 res, but again, the staff just loved seeing us and the day we were having and asked about my birthday and i ran them through EVERYTHING and they just loved hearing about it all. We had a REALLY great meal. The seafood trio was amazing, saganaki was tasty, and i did the Lamb burger and loved it. My friend did one of pastas and had perfectly cooked salmon added to it. We had some drinks and ended the day EXHAUSTED but 13 hours WELL SPENT.
Even though that was a lot - we did EVEN MORE the next day! I was dressed in another character based outfit that a lot of people -especially workers- knew and shouted out(Ness from Earthbound). We repeated the same morning to mostly the same effects with early morning entry, Mariokart and minigames. No yoshi, no DK, but went over to Dark Universe and did Werewolf. It took an hour and the queue sucks and the ride isn't worth the wait but it is what it is. Did Unchained again, pre-shows were working this time! Again, done in 15 minutes, that queue is FAST. Did Untrainable(waited 15) and the Toothless Meet n Greet next(about an hour). This is when we decided against the two other rides in Berk, just not interested really, and decided to try Pizza Moon. Did the Lunar Ube crust - loved it. Best park pizza ever.
This is when it started to rain again except almost EVERYONE left the park. I bought my 2.0 wand at this time and walked around in a the rain to do the spells while my buddy sat back and watched in dry areas. It was funny but getting loud with thunder so we also went back to the room at Stella across the street. Chilled, tried the food at the hotel and it was OK, nothing bad but nothing great. It took about 2 hours for the rain to stop but once it did, we were back out and the park was EMPTY. From 6-10 we did Hiccup's, got the PBJ mac n cheese cone(thought it was alright but over-priced), Ministry TWICE IN A ROW, Stardust(at night this time, green-side), Unchained TWICE more, DK, Mariokart, and more mini-games(and they let us stay in the Bowser Jr. showdown twice because we were last ones in there that night). It's crazy how much we did in four hours that night, hitting ALL the best stuff in each land MULTIPLE times that took us almost an ENTIRE day previously to do.
Over-all, we did everything we wanted to and MORE at Epic without the need for express. I realize we got super lucky and got some hand-outs that aren't guaranteed for everyone but even without them, we did everything we wanted to multiple times-multiple days. I understand people aren't all built the same and families are probably going with kids and the need to stop or alter their plans to suit their needs, but as two adults with full freedom - we ran this park back and forth and couldn't get enough. Did not disappoint. One of the best birthday trips i've ever had.
Will be back in October and sure i'll get those last two Berk rides done with the crew i'm going with.