A recent post on X by aerial photographer bioreconstruct has shared his experience riding Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry in Epic Universe, which involved an advertised 300 minute wait and being sent down the wrong queue path
Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry
Aerial photographer @bioreconstruct, who has been the source of many photos documenting the construction of Epic Universe, has recently shared a story regarding his experience during one of the Epic Universe preview dates.
In a post on X, bioreconstruct shared that when he arrived to ride Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry on May 17, the posted wait time for the attraction was 300 minutes. He timed his wait in the actual queue and later commented that his total time from entering the attraction to boarding the elevator ride vehicle was actually a little higher, at five hours and ten minutes.
According to the same post, this extended queue included rope drop at the land’s portal, standing in the middle of the street, going through the entire indoor plus outdoor queue for Le Cirque Arcanus, the indoor and outdoor queues for the Metro-Floo section, and the full courtroom queue that goes through Umbridge’s office.
As a part of the post, he shared a story of accidentally being sent to the wrong queue:
Very unfair @UniversalORL Once past the Battle at Ministry sign guests are told to choose left line or right line. TM says “doesn’t matter.”
Right line is eventually to be Express. Directly to Floo. Left line is full queue, including the outdoor berm. An additional 40 minutes.
Bioreconstruct on X
As he explained, the Team Member working the attraction that day was not aware of the difference between the two lines and mistakenly told him that picking either line didn’t matter. In reality, these two lines will become the standard and Express queues once Epic Universe officially opens on May 22. The standard line on the left is longer and goes through the additional outdoor queue section near the Metro Floo hallway. The right Express line skips the outdoor portion, which often results in a much shorter wait time.
Bioreconstruct did add in a reply that he heard the problem has been corrected since he experienced the mistake. Cast Members should once again be properly informing guests to stay in the standard queue when waiting to ride.
Universal previously announced that Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry in Epic Universe would be closed from May 10 through May 16. Despite that announcement, the attraction reopened a day early with a stand-by queue instead of a virtual line. This is why the ride had such a long wait in bioreconstruct’s story, since the virtual line is not currently in use.
Epic Universe is currently in technical rehearsals, with the last previews taking place on May 19. The official grand opening is set on May 22.
If you want to see more of Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry, we have a complete photo tour of the queue as well as a full ride POV video:
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