We’re going next week as well. We’re honestly not expecting to get on anything. We’re planning on casually walking through the different areas and exploring. I just hope we don’t encounter the mega-lines at all the food places. If we get on something, we’ll consider that a bonus, which is pretty sad given it’s a theme park preview.
If you eat earlier - like 11:30 for lunch its not bad - I was able to get a seat out front in the French place and people watch any morning. About 2 O'clock it starts to get crazy - also some days places are closed for VIP or whatever reason and that just adds to it.
It was not unusual over my 5 days to not be able to get in anywhere - pizza moon was at capacity more than once.
The German place in Harry potter seemed to be available at most times.
Atlantic at the bar seemed to be a good option.
FWIW: lots of talk elsewhere about yesterday being SO bad, Epic’s Guest Services was issuing refunds and EPs en masse with apologies. Yes, it’s a technical rehearsal, but apparently yesterday was a level of bad that Universal considered unacceptable, even under the caveat of being a preview. Some TM chatter sheds light on an “everything, everywhere, all at once” situation in which individual ride problems + a massive power outage + technical issues + inebriated and hostile guests converged at once and for an extended period of time. They’re learning as they go, not just about fixes required for operations, but also how to handle a variety of guest situations, from how to feed a hungry crowd when mobile order is down, restaurants close early due to issues, and the reminding ones run out of food, to getting security/LE into an area ASAP to handle altercations. Oof. I feel for the poor TMs.
Yes it was bad - basically everything was down.
So I did 5 days at Epic in a row - I am just working from ny notes here - I need to write up something more detailed.
Sunday 5/4 - Total of 4 hours over the day waiting on minecart and di not ride it was up and down all day - the food was not great at pizza Moon or the German place.
Monday - Line for minecart was estimated at 4 hours and Mario was down at rope drop - was ready to call it quits and refund the rest of my days.
Tuesday - There were several VIP things going on this day - so the smoke house was closed and for some reason Atlantic. That caused everything else to be overpacked and lone lines for food. Again I was going to give up and refund my tickets.
Wednesday - Minecart is down for the entire day. Stardust is down. basically everything was down. I got them to give me a comp day for Thursday - lots of people got refunds - a woman was screaming at the poor guest services woman. I basically sat in Atlantic and had a few drinks - spoke to a few folks doing the same thing and told them to get refunds since nothing was working.
Thursday - Pizza moon pizza was much better - but its still very inconsistent - mine could have been cooked longer - I saw them serve a burnt pizza to the folks next to me who sent it back - and I did see some that looked perfect so lots of issues still. Stardust was down again all day. Fyre Drill for a while as well.
Personally I think adding the additional ticket availability was a mistake - yes they have to test it - but they were not ready and now there are a lot of angry folks - technical rehearsal or not - it was a mess and they know it.
One problem is you added a bunch of people to the pool of guests that have no idea - so they show up at 3PM to ride Ministry and have no idea about the VQ and then they are not happy.
They probably should have closed one day a week just for maintenance - no guarantee that would have helped of course.
That said there were just as many people just happy to be there, but most wont be going back until its working.
I spoke to many passholders and the general consensus was they wont be back till its part of an AP.
That's great to be able to have knowledge of (guest recovery is a pretty important operations need) it's just the constant complaining about this or that when it's being spoken about previews when people mention things like costs and time spent to be down there, shade, etc. FWIW I think one of the best advices someone could give for shade and/or heat issues is if someone has noticed what places and where someone could go to get out of that if there are places, are there rides they've noticed that provide some breeze or ones to avoid (like Yoshi's) because of exposure, are there water refilling stations that seem plentiful, are there shows that seem great to get a/c, etc all of course with the understanding things could change but really good information for people who have been that can be helpful instead of just the lack of shade is a problem (as it's not something that is going to go away soon).
The shade was a big problem - but not a lot they can do about it - there are some benches with covers - but not many.
Even after 5 days there I don't have any good advice for it. The majority of the benches - and they need more benches - don't have shade. It's an issue that will not get fixed overnight.
There are a fair number of water dispensers - but not as many as I was expecting - they were also very crowded pretty constantly. Since there is no soda in the harry potter area you have to exit to get water. There is probably a refill fountain somewhere - but I did not see it. I tend to go to the soda machines and get water. Everyone should pick up a small 10 or 12oz water bottle that will fit in a pocket - then you can carry it on most rides and in line. The line for Minecart is partially not covered and I spent a good hour in the sun during a breakdown.
There is also a ridiculous amount of steps - the stone steps in Nintendo concern my as far as someone falling and getting hurt.
When you get off Mario cart and see those steps its very disheartening - just more step
I talked about the heat in my review earlier, but the tl;dr of it is:
I used a
UV umbrella - better than nothing.
Water is plentiful - fountains and bottle refills near almost every restroom.
There is some shade - I saw lots of folks resting on the ground at the back sides of retainer walls, signs, etc.
The issue to me was that lack of shade is only part of the heat issue: the Feels Like on my day went over 100º and the heat was nearly unbearable even in the shade. Truly, the only relief was to go indoors - rides, shops, restaurants, whatever: AC anywhere I could find it.
My best advice? Avoid the worst of the heat - don’t spend all day in the park if you go in the summer months. I don’t plan to do a 10-hour day again in summer; I’ll roll up late afternoon and stay until closing.
I would agree - its just a tough park to do and its hard to quantify why it seems hotter. I did feel like there were not enough places to just go in cool off like in Diagon Alley for example. You can find shade - but many times I was searching for a place to sit in the shade and could not find one that was not already in use - everyone is looking for shade. There are plenty of bars to go to with shade - but the indoor ones with seating can be crowded and the outdoor ones don't have seats - just standing.
One problem is its not as easy to get back and forth if you want to go back to the hotel - its a hike to the buses and then waiting - 20 minute drive on a good day - so it can be really time consuming. Also getting from citiwalk to Epic was not as easy as I expected either - I went to early entry at IOA each day and then to Epic and its at least 30 minutes between waiting in line and getting to Epic with traffic it was 45 minutes one morning.
Still can’t wait to experience Epic, though! 
the park is an entirely new park, with 11 attractions, several shows, eateries, 3 hotels, etc built in less time than Disney took to build Tron (a complete clone attraction). That alone is an amazing feat. I find myself saying more and more that even though people seem like they are prepared for a brand new theme park their comments don't always come across to that.
