Mischievous Minions are having their moment at Universal Orlando Resort, where a new Minion Land opened Aug. 11 at Universal Studios Florida. A new attraction, character experience, and a banana-filled batch of new spots for eats, treats and merch lining Illumination Avenue make this land the new must-visit for Minions fans.
Several new attractions were added to an area featuring an already-existing ride to create the new themed land, which is near the front of the amusement park. Simplemost got a preview the day before it opened, and here’s what you can find in Minion Land now.
Villain-Con Minion Blast
An annual epic supervillain convention is the setting for Minion Land’s new attraction, Villain-Con Minion Blast. The interactive experience challenges guests to flex their inner baddie and see if they have what it takes to join the Vicious 6, a group of supervillains from “Minions: The Rise of Gru.”
More immersive gaming experience than ride, the attraction begins in the queue, where guests walk the show floor past booths touting “Malicious Motors” mobile lairs, “Unlawful Outfitters” weapons displays, LairB&B bad-guy getaways and more.
Guests then pick up an E-Liminator X blaster, step onto a designated colored circle on a moving walkway and blast countless targets across a series of screens featuring villains and Minions.
Guests can enhance the gameplay experience (and kill some time in the queue), by customizing their blaster using the Universal Orlando Resort app. The app will also track scores, unlock perks, earn digital rewards, and seasonal enhancements and skins.
Minion Cafe
Illumination’s Minion Cafe is a bright and spacious quick-service restaurant with three themed seating areas — the Kitchen, the Breakroom and the Dining Room. Playful dishes inspired by the Minions film franchise and its most beloved characters are a visual delight that kids will love. Meanwhile, flavors and ingredients are sophisticated enough to impress discerning adult palates.
Highlights include Despica-Bowls like Carl’s Crispy Cauliflower, served with electric blue coconut rice, and Otto’s Noodle Bowl, with yellow udon noodles served in a Minion-faced cup then released by the diner into a pool of savory tonkotsu broth.
Kids will go wild for the Minion Tots and Mini Bananas, both available a la carte as side dishes.
Desserts play tricks on your eyes — the passion fruit “banana” served alongside the Minion Swiss Roll looks like the real deal until you cut into it, as does Otto’s Pet Rock. This dessert has peanut butter mousse, strawberry jelly, crushed peanuts, and banana cake inside a chocolate shell.
Bake My Day
Move over, Honeydukes, there’s a new pink destination for sweet treats at Universal Orlando. Bake My Day serves up uber-Instagrammable sweets like banana-flavored cake pops, colorful cupcakes, macarons and candy apples, plus playful and cheery Minion merchandise.
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Evil Stuff
For a more villainous merchandise destination, Evil Stuff is a gift shop at the exit to Villain-Con Minion Blast. After testing your skills on the attraction, you can pick up Villain-Con-themed merch and other hilariously negative gear. We love the “Have a Bad Day” shirts.
Illumination Theater
The red carpet gets rolled out at Illumination Theater where the stars of Illumination Entertainment films will strut their stuff, show off their dance moves, and meet guests for interactions and photos. Characters include Minions, Gru, Margo, Edith and Agnes, plus “Sing” characters Rosita, Gunter and Johnny. There’s potential for new characters to be added with the release of new films, too.
Pop-A-Nana
Bananas are even on the menu at this new popcorn stand, serving up classic butter-flavored popcorn along with a banana flavor that tastes a bit like banana-flavored kettle corn.
Freeze Ray Pops
A cooldown is always in order in Florida. Freeze Ray Pops is a walk-up window serving delicious popsicles in fun flavors like Cotton Candy, Cheesecake, and Strawberry Lemonade plus specialty versions inspired by characters like a Nutella-flavored Gru and Blue Banana-flavored Minion.
MORE: Universal to open their third Super Nintendo World at Orlando Resort
Despicable Me Minion Mayhem
Rounding out Minion Land is pre-existing attraction Despicable Me Minion Mayhem, which has been around since 2012. This motion-simulation ride is definitely worth a visit for Minions fans, and will likely have lower wait times than Villian-Con Minion Blast.
This story originally appeared on Simplemost. Check out Simplemost for additional stories.
