Two things can be true at once. Epic Universe is a really good theme park with several excellent attractions. It’s also Universal Orlando’s most frustrating park due to ride breakdowns, high wait times and crowd levels. This presents a ‘something’s gotta give scenario’ as it’s impossible to do everything at EU in a single day on many dates.
This is the underlying premise of our article, Here’s Why You Need 2 Days at Epic Universe. The salient point of that piece is that it’s very difficult to do it all in a single day, both because Epic Universe has so many good-to-great offerings–and because the new park is still finding its footing and is so bad operationally (for now).
There major downsides to visiting this highly-anticipated new park during its opening season(s), as laid out in Why You Should Skip Epic Universe. This new park is having major growing pains, and its envelope-pushing attractions are plagued by downtime and unreliability woes. If you visit Epic Universe during its first year (or two?), you’re likely going to encounter technical difficulties and other frustrations.
Obviously, there’s a tension between those two posts. That extends to my feelings about Epic Universe as a whole. I’ll direct your attention back to the opening line: two things can be true at once. For my part, I have not delayed visiting Epic Universe. I love the new park and am eager for my next visit.
My workaround for all of this is choosing my dates based on Secret to Conquer Crowds at Epic Universe: Best Dates to Visit in 2025 & 2026. While there’s no guarantee that’ll continue to be foolproof, I have managed to do it all at Epic Universe by targeting the least-busy days and avoiding the bonkers ones.
At the same time, we have delayed our family trips to Epic Universe. And when we’ve had more casual friends and family who infrequently (every few years) travel to Florida ask about Epic Universe, my immediate reaction is “you should give it a couple of years.” Not everyone has the same tolerances for growing pains, downtime, delays, etc–and there’s risk of that even on the least-busy dates.
With all of that preface out of the way, what if you’ve already made the decision to visit Epic Universe this year or in 2026 and you’re only going to visit for a single day?
It is safe to assume that many (if not most) tourists who do opt to visit Epic Universe sooner rather than later won’t have the time or money to allocate multiple days to the park. Then what?!
There are a couple of fairly quick and easy (depending on your definition) answers to that dilemma. If time is your scarcest resource as opposed to money, you should buy Express Pass.
I am not normally one to advocate for Universal Orlando’s pricey paid FastPass, but Epic Universe right now while there are so many operational woes is a big exception. I’ve heard enough horror stories of people only getting on a few rides without Express Pass to think this is a pragmatic move. (And in fact, my family had purchased Express Pass before completely postponing a trip, so we’ve already “voted with our wallets.”)
Express Pass is best thought of as an insurance policy. Hopefully you don’t need it and will actually regret purchasing it, finding it to be a waste of money. If that ends up being your perspective with the benefit of hindsight, it means you were fortunate enough to visit on one of Epic Universe’s good days. Just remember the words “with the benefit of hindsight” and “fortunate” because your luck could’ve just as easily broken in the other direction. For more on this, see Should You Buy Express Pass at Epic Universe?
Another solution if both time and money are scarce resources is Single Rider lines.
Single Rider lines can be fantastic and save a ton of time versus standby. The biggest problem with these is they mean riding alone. That can be a non-starter for many families. Another issue is that, even though Single Rider lines are shorter, that doesn’t mean they’re short. I’ve been quoted over an hour wait in certain Single Rider lines.
Moreover, just because an attraction has a Single Rider line, doesn’t mean it’s open at all times. I’ve seen some attractions not offer Single Rider lines for entire days of my visits. It’s also common for Epic Universe to close the Single Rider line when it gets too long, which often happens when the posted standby wait is highest. See Single Rider Lines Are a Game-Changer at Epic Universe.
The final solution is the most obvious one: you’ve gotta make tough choices, prioritize what matters most, and skip some attractions at Epic Universe.
Everyone does this when visiting theme parks, so it’s not really groundbreaking new advice. But it’s worth underscoring the extent to which this is necessary, as some planners might have unrealistic expectations about how much can be accomplished in a single day at Epic Universe.
Epic Universe crowds have been awful since its official opening. There have been several days that have broken 80 minute averages, weekly averages above 70 minutes, and monthly averages above 60 minutes. Those are wait times on par with Walt Disney World during the peak week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
Walt Disney World’s average wait time since Epic Universe opened has been less than half of Epic Universe. The same goes for Universal Orlando’s other parks. On some days, Disney and Universal’s other parks are averaging wait times one-third to one-quarter of Epic Universe.
This is a function of low capacity and inefficient operations at Epic Universe, not high attendance. Wander around Celestial Park midday and you’ll encounter far lower “feels like” crowds than any Walt Disney World theme park.
At the same time, Epic Universe has a stacked ride roster. The park has 11 rides, 2 stage shows, plus meet & greets, atmospheric entertainment, and more. It’s also the best food theme park in Orlando, so you’ll want to slow down and savor meals and snacks, which also, obviously takes time.
If you go by our Epic Universe Ride Reviews & Rankings, here’s the distribution of scores:
- 10/10 Rating: 4 Attractions
- 9/10 Rating: 3 Attractions
- 8/10 Rating: 2 Attractions
- 7/10 Rating or Below: 4 Attractions
The good news is that there are 7 attractions that are great. Other theme park fans might quibble with the specific scores and a couple of those picks are controversial, but so too are a couple of my lower scores. It’s safe to say that the consensus is there are at least a half-dozen “must do” attractions at Epic Universe.
Having so many great attractions is truly a good problem to have, and it’s one that will serve Epic Universe well over time. As we’ve written on countless occasions, the park has “good bones” and will evolve nicely over time, especially once it finds its operational footing.
But in the here and now, it is a problem. Here are the cumulative average wait times for the attractions in each tier:
- 10/10 Ride Rating: 200 Minutes
- 9/10 Ride Rating: 193 Minutes
- 8/10 Ride Rating: 189 Minutes
- 7/10 Ride Rating or Below: 148 Minutes
Total: 730 Minutes
That’s a total of 12 hours spent waiting in line, and it’s worth noting that this does not include any meet & greets (those aren’t in our rankings & reviews, anyway, despite one of them being insanely popular and commanding 90+ minute waits). It also doesn’t include stage shows, which are in our rankings and score quite well, but don’t post wait times.
The good news that stage shows are fairly easy to see and would draw down the per attraction average if they were to have posted times. The bad news is that they (obviously) take time to experience, so that 12 hour average is an underestimate of the total average.
On the other hand, you can reduce your own numbers with a modicum of savvy strategy. Taking advantage of Early Park Admission and regular rope drop, doing less popular attractions during the middle of the day, and staying late. Your average might end up being 10 hours or even less; or it might be more even if you use savvy strategy but get unlucky with ride breakdowns. So much of this is luck of the draw!
The point remains: you’re probably going to need to make difficult choices and plan to skip certain attractions. Even if you’re skilled at experiencing theme parks, you should go in with that expectation. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
That brings us to our main piece of advice here: skip Epic Universe’s second-most popular ride.
With an average wait time of 108 minutes, Donkey Kong Mine-Cart Madness is the second-most popular attraction at Epic Universe as measured by wait times. (Some weeks, it’s #1; others, it’s #3. Over time, it’s #2.) And quite honestly, I suspect that’s the only metric by which it’d be the #1 attraction at Epic Universe.
Donkey Kong Mine-Cart Madness has the second-highest average wait time at Epic Universe not because it’s the best attraction, a fan-favorite, or for any other “good” reason. It’s popular because it’s a thrill ride that’s visible from within Donkey Kong Country, looks and sounds awesome, and is based on a high-profile Nintendo character.
Beyond that, its popularity basically boils down to the attraction having criminally low hourly capacity and being unreliable. Donkey Kong Mine-Cart Madness has an estimated hourly capacity of 700-800 guests. That is, of course, assuming it’s operational in the first place.
To put that into perspective, the theoretical hourly capacity of Stardust Racers is estimated to be over 2,750 guests, which is a big reason why it frequently has the shortest waits in the park. It is similar to Monsters Unchained, which is another people eater. Also notable is that both of those are 10/10 attractions. (I can’t verify the veracity of these capacity numbers, but do know that they are directionally accurate.)
Exacerbating the low theoretical hourly capacity of Mine-Cart Madness is that it frequently suffers downtime and delays. That throughput number goes down when the ride has issues or has to close temporarily in the event of inclement weather or whatever. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if there have been several times when Monsters Unchained had more riders in 2 hours than Mine-Cart Madness did the entire day.
Adding insult to injury, Universal Orlando has expanded Express Pass to Mine-Cart Madness. We didn’t expect this to happen as quickly as it did and, quite frankly, it should not have occurred. But Universal understandably wants to recoup its investment, and Mine-Cart Madness helps sell Express Pass. (It also wouldn’t surprise us if there were a lot of guest complaints.)
The problem with Express Pass is that it inflates standby wait times. Worse yet, when there is downtime, a backlog of Express Pass guests builds up, leading to those guests pulled disproportionately versus standby to “clear” that backlog. It’d be one thing if the ride had a healthy hourly capacity and was reasonably reliable. It is neither.
Most important for our purposes: Donkey Kong Mine-Cart Madness is not a great attraction. It’s arguably barely even a good ride.
We scored in an 8/10 in our original review, and honestly, that now feels way too charitable. Given the above, I wouldn’t be surprised if it has one of the lowest guest satisfaction scores among Epic Universe headliners; it has a big ‘expectations vs. reality’ shortfall.
Whereas other attractions at Epic Universe have grown on me more in time, I like Mine-Cart Madness a little less with each subsequent ride-through. If I could never ride it again, I’d be okay with that. And I’m a huge Donkey Kong fan–I love Bananaza!
Universal Orlando touts how Mine-Cart Madness utilizes an unprecedented ride system, innovative technology and a unique coaster design. The ride vehicles perform the same maneuvers as Donkey Kong and the mine carts in the video games, including getting blasted out of a barrel and jumping over gaps along a rickety track.
I wanted to love this roller coaster so much, but it just doesn’t hit for me. The dark ride aspects are underwhelming, and there’s not enough meat to the scenes to make this a satisfying dark ride.
But because of the show component, and due to the ride trying to do too much with its novel ‘hidden track’ technology, there are also too many starts and stops for a truly satisfying roller coaster.
Mine-Cart Madness tries to do too much, which ultimately prevents it from being a great coaster or a great dark ride. I appreciate that it exists and respect how it’s trying to push the envelope, but it’s just not a fun roller coaster or dark ride. It jerks around too much and never gets into a groove.
The problem, it would seem, is that Mine-Cart Madness doesn’t really know what it wants to be. By trying to please both dark ride and roller coaster fans, it excels for neither. It also really seems like Universal Creative figured out how to accomplish this novel ride system that creates the illusion of the mine cart jumping over broken track, but never stopped to ask: is this actually any fun?
Sure, they created something envelope-pushing and innovative. That’s undeniable. But it seems like they put the technological cart before the ape, and were fixated on the underlying ride system and how cool that is for theme park geeks. As a proof-of-concept tech demo, Mine-Cart Madness is cool. As a theme park attraction, it misses the mark.
This is not to say that you should absolutely skip Mine-Cart Madness no matter what. Rather, it’s to say you should go in with the expectation that you’re not going to ride, and thus, you shouldn’t prioritize it. This means not making it part of your rope drop strategy (not a good idea, anyway, as people pre-queue during EPA).
One thing I will say about Mine-Cart Madness is that its kinetic energy is off the charts. Donkey Kong Country is one of my favorite corners of the park, and that’s in large part due to Mine-Cart Madness circling the perimeter of the land. It’s definitely an atmospheric asset to the land as a whole, and just about as much fun to watch as it is to ride. So definitely make sure you head deep into Donkey Kong Country to soak up the atmosphere.
Another recommendation would be to at least peek inside the Single Rider line (if it’s open). Not too far into that queue, you’ll see one of the marquee Audio Animatronics up-close-and-personal. Even if you turn right around after seeing the figure, it’s worth popping into the Single Rider line just for that.
Finally, I would recommend checking out wait times for Mine-Cart Madness at the end of the night. This is a gamble, but given the forgoing, that should be a risk worth taking. If the ride has a lot of downtime earlier in the day or the park is slammed, the wait time still might be prohibitively long.
It could also drop dramatically, to the point that it’s worth checking out for yourself to see whether you agree or disagree with our assessment of Mine-Cart Madness. On one of my visits to Epic Universe, the wait time peaked at 240 minutes, but was under 30 minutes at the end of the night!
Normally, we’d say that you should ride everything to form your own opinions and that’s true here, too. But if push comes to shove at Epic Universe, and we would strongly recommend not skipping Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry, Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge, Hiccup’s Wing Gliders, and several other less popular attractions, plus the stage shows, restaurants, atmospheric entertainment, and more. Even on great days, I’ve missed things at Epic Universe that I’d consider better than Mine-Cart Madness. It’s a great park beyond the ride roster.
You probably won’t have time to do it all, making Mine-Cart Madness the #1 popular ride to skip if pressed for time. Two more no-brainers to skip are Dragon Racer’s Rally and Curse of the Werewolf. I actually like the latter and think it’s slightly underrated, but that’s relative to others’ reviews and not wait times. I would not wait over 45 minutes for that coaster, which is about half its average.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of Mine-Cart Madness? Would you recommend skipping it or do you think the Donkey Kong roller coaster lives up to the hype? Agree or disagree with our advice? Any questions? Coverage you’d like to see from us regarding Epic Universe? Need to know strategy or info? We love hearing from readers, so please share any other thoughts or questions you have in the comments below!
