I was really disappointed by the carousel. I didn’t like the music, didn’t find the ride all that fun and aesthetically it just doesn’t do anything for me. I wish they had just restored an old carousel or, better still, built an opulent, traditional one themselves.
My first post regarding Epic labeled it as occasionally sincere to the point of awkwardness. I was primarily speaking on Constellation Carousel.
It's cool, to an extent. The way that the poles that would traditionally lead up toward a low roof instead end with a knob, giving the impression of floating along in space, not bound by any track or mechanical path. The sudden end to the pole also leads your eye up towards a huge star map mural. It feels like a carousel made with modern tech, and that's got some novelty to it.
But, yeah. Besides that mural, there isn't actually that much to look at or do. I have to imagine that the tech used to make the free-floating pole trick happen necessitates far fewer animals than a large grand carousel like this would usually have. For all of its' budget, I feel like traditional ornate carousels honestly have a bit more wow to them. Seeing dozens and dozens of carved horses and animals rising and falling so closely together is fun! Ironically, Epic Universe's Carousel simply has too much space.
Because the tech is unique and there are far fewer animals, it also has the Epic Universe specialty combo-pack of being tough to operate and not having great capacity. I can't tell you how long the load times have consistently been for this attraction whenever I try it out again. They'll list a 20 minute wait and it'll usually take another 15+ minutes than that to actually get on the ride. Doesn't help that the technically shaded queue doesn't operate their large outdoor fans, so it's still pretty sweltering under that big Saucer-shaped dome roof.
You don't actually get full choice of which animal you get to ride either. They have assigned my group to one the last few times I've been on, and assigning usually takes a moment of downtime between rides.
Usually carousels have a few variants of whatever carving you sit on. At least enough variety for a few different paintjobs on the horse's saddles or something similar. But between those different variants there are usually many versions of the same carving, so if you wanted a Green-saddled horse and someone nabbed that one already, there's about 6 more available, so you just have to go find one of those and it's no worries. Not here. All of the animals are unique sculpts, and there's less than 20 if I remember. If you want the Rabbit and it's taken; sorry bud. No rabbit this time.
It also doesn't help that a number of the smaller animals are legitimately uncomfortably small to sit on; and I'm a little guy! I can't imagine a big Wisconsin father trying to sit on the Rabbit after walking up and down Super Nintendo World stairs for the last 3 hours. Lucky(?) for him, the ride is so short he won't be sitting down for long anyways.
For all of its' presentation, it doesn't actually have much of anything to present. The different music tracks are pretty forgettable. The sculpts are nicely fabricated, but the limited variety leads to a number of issues. It's consistently an operational mess. And once you're past all of that, the actual experience is just ... bobbing up and down on a pole for about a minute and a half.
That's how most carousels are, obviously. But CC seems to think of itself as something bigger, flashier, more regal and ornate than it is. Some of the orchestral music tracks portray the ride as a whimsical journey through the stars, or a pumping electric skyride, but the actual experience is very dull, and that difference is felt in the awkwardness of not having anything to do but stare into empty space, or at other riders' as they also bop up and down, half-amused. I've seen double-decker traditional wooden horse carousels with incandescent bulbs with
far more energy and flash.
A friend of mine made a game to play as you're on this attraction, Starball or something like that. It's basically the improv game where you pretend to throw a ball around, but it's a big comet-esque ball that you pretend to chuck to and from other riders in hopes that everyone can play along. She said it was to cut through the awkwardness and to give them and other riders something to do. That says a number of things about the attraction in itself, I think haha.