Universal Epic Universe is currently in the middle of guest previews, which tickets are available for sale for anyone. The park is receiving rave reviews for all of the rides, food, and entertainment, but one aspect of the park-going experience seems to be souring many guests’ day: Virtual Line.

The impressive high tech Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry attraction is garnering some of the highest praise from those who have been lucky enough to experience it. However, it requires you secure a Virtual Line reservation to be able to ride, and it is not easy to obtain. So here are some quick tips and notes from our experience, to help you prepare for your visit.

Be sure to check if the attraction is utilizing Virtual Line or not on the day of your visit, which is usually indicated by signs posted at the entrance to the park. Information about when virtual line reservations will drop will be listed in the app. Scan the QR code on the sign in the park or go to the attraction detail page in the app and scroll down to see what times each drop will occur. Usually they have been at 11:00AM, 3:00PM, and 6:00PM.

Standby line is currently not available for this ride, and this ride only. Single Rider line is not open either. Express passes do not work at this attraction. Guest Assistance Pass only works AFTER securing a Virtual Line reservation.

QUICK TIPS TO BE PREPARED

Here are some quick bits of information to keep in mind BEFORE the first drop:

• You MUST be inside of Epic Universe
• You should have the latest version of the official Universal Orlando app installed and be logged in
• You should have push notifications enabled before attempting to reserve a time
• You DO NOT need to have your park tickets connected to the app
• Multiple people in your party can try to make a Virtual Line reservation at the same time, to increase your odds of success
• You can add the attraction to your Favorites to be able to return to it faster.

What to click on to start your reservation at drop time, and to retrieve it later

STEP BY STEP GUIDE

1. Go to attraction page for Battle at the Ministry in the app at drop time. If Virtual Line button is not blue yet, go back a page and return until it is.

2. Tap on the Virtual Line button once blue.

3. Select the number of people in your party quickly on next screen.

4. Select one of the available time buttons.

5. If a pop up box comes up saying that this time slot is no longer available, click the OK button to dismiss it. And if the time selection button remains on screen, click it again. If it sends the error pop up, once again click it away and click the time button again, over and over, until you succeed in reserving it or that time disappears for good.

IMPORTANT: The pop up error message is LYING TO YOU. As long as that button with the times remains on screen it is still available. The pop up is often the system’s way of pretending it didn’t throw a server load error.

6. Either you will eventually succeed in reserving the time, or all the times will disappear one by one, leaving you with no more buttons to select. At this point you can try adjusting the number of members in your party, smaller or larger, as that can sometimes make times appear again. After a couple minutes, it may be time to give up.

Do not trust this error pop up! If times buttons still show up, keep trying them!

One of the frustrating parts of the process (and there are several frustrating aspects, believe me,) is that the drops aren’t always exactly on the hour. They can be a minute early, or up to two minutes late.

Utilizing the park’s WiFi may not be the best idea, since everyone else is attempting to access the web at the exact same time. So, unless your internet connection is not very strong, you may want to consider using your own data service and not WiFi.

There is debate on whether you need to go back to attractions list or map and then back to attraction detail page to get the Virtual Line button to refresh from “Unavailable” grayed out to blue and ready to click. It is true that the app will refresh the button for you automatically, but it is dependent on when the app’s internal refresh happens. Jump starting the process by leaving the attraction page and returning *may* be quicker.

You may see up to four time slots available, or as little as one. Once there are none, try changing party members number to make them reappear

They key to remember is to not give up trying as long as you see at least one time slot button on your screen, no matter how many times the error message appears. Since the error message is usually a server load issue, that means there are still reservations available, you’re just not connecting to the server to reserve it. And eventually one of your attempts may make it through.

I have tried long enough to get 12 error pop ups before it finally worked.

If you get this on screen, with no buttons left, no matter how many party members you set to, then all times have actually run out for this drop

Of course, since the system is not checking to see that you have park tickets on your account (as of the writing of this article,) everyone in your party should be attempting to secure a virtual line at the same time. This will increase your odds of success. Especially when you consider different devices may refresh at different times, or one of you may have a better connection.

Click on your time on attraction page to show Team Member at ride entrance

If you are successful in securing a time, you can access your QR code to show Team Members at ride entrance by clicking the time button that now shows on the attraction detail page in the app.

It says you can modify your time, but that would only be when more times are available, like during another drop, which is near impossible to time correctly to ever actually get to work.

Technically you would be able to attempt to secure another reservation after using your current one, if there are still more scheduled drops left in the day.

It’s possible that this system changes again in the coming weeks, as it has already changed dramatically since first implemented during previews. The system used to have random drops between the scheduled ones, for example. But that seems to have stopped.

Perhaps the Virtual Line requirement to ride will be dropped by the grand opening of Epic Universe on May 22nd. One could only hope, because the stress of not knowing whether or not you’ll be able to even get the chance to ride this new attraction can take away from what is otherwise an amazing new theme park.

For more details about guest previews and our thoughts on the park, check out our first vlog from inside of Epic Universe below. And stay tuned for more continuing coverage for Epic Universe, as we count down the days till its official grand opening.

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