Pandemic Park Update: Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure Florida
Aren’t my brother and his family the cutest? We were so excited to get to share one of our favorite parks with them this year!
Hey! It’s been awhile since we came to you with any theme park related posts, so I thought I’d hop on and give you an update on our experiences post-COVID. During COVID? Anyways, the world is a tad different now, and the theme parks are no exception!
This year, we had planned on renewing our passes to Disney, simply because they have so many parks, and we didn’t get to do everything wanted to do there, even with a whole year long annual pass. However, COVID hit, and the word on the street was, with their reservation system, it was extremely hard to get in. My biggest requirement with an annual pass is that I’d like to be able to get in most anytime I want to go. I would totally understand if there were days here and there if I couldn’t go (the park hits capacity, for example), but they were prioritizing resort guests, so things were tricky there. Also, in more recent news, they announced they are not selling annual passes to new customers right now anyways, they will only renew current passes. So. Universal it is!
Universal Studios was the first “big” park we ever went to, even back when we were visiting here, and it’s the first place that we had annual passes to. I was excited to hit our old stomping grounds again. Plus, they were the first park to reopen after COVID hit, and all I kept hearing was rave reviews on how great they were handling everything.
The first thing you should know is that they do not require reservations, but they have reduced their capacity. The last estimate I heard was that they are only letting in about 2/5 of their full capacity, but Universal does not release official numbers for that, and I’m sure it can vary. The bottom line is, it’s much less crowded. However, if the park does reach capacity, you can’t get in. This happened a lot more around the holidays this year. Every Saturday in December, and days around Christmas and New Years all reached capacity. We don’t mind this much, because we avoid those busy days like the plague anyways (ha ha get it…the plague). Give me a glorious January Saturday park day over a crowded Christmas eve any day! If you’re planning a trip on a weekday, you’ll basically have your run of the place.
We love Universal masks!
There are some new rules to increase your safety. Masks are required. This was a concern of ours in the beginning, because we got our passes at the end of July/beginning of August (when Florida sits on the surface of the sun), and we work and school at home so we were not used to wearing masks for long periods of time. However, it ended up not being a problem at all, because of their magical masks. This is obviously a matter of opinion, but the masks that they sell in their parks are Cash and I’s favorite masks by far. They are breathable, and so much cooler than anything else that we’ve found. Plus they have really fun designs! We have collected quite a few of them, and if we are going to be at the park all day, we’ll pack a couple of them and just switch them out if we get wet from a water ride or too sweaty.
They have also set up markers for social distancing in lines, so that your group can stay six feet apart from any other groups. Most people do adhere to this. We have had people inch up once or twice into our space, but I just ask them kindly if they wouldn’t mind backing up just a bit to their spot and haven’t had any issues with people being rude about it.
When you’re about to get on any ride, a team member is there ready to squirt a healthy dollop of hand sanitizer into your hands. It’s the industrial grade goopy, smelly stuff, and is my least favorite experience with the new COVID guidelines, but I can’t argue it does keep things a lot cleaner, and it’s a mild discomfort.
Those are the big rules, but some of the experiences have changed a bit as well. The interaction with the characters is unfortunately not quite as fun, though they are doing a really great job trying to make up for it. You can’t give them hugs or stand right next to them, but they do have a way for you to take pictures from a safe distance. Also, the character actors at Universal are all phenomenal and do a great job keeping their energy up and making the interaction as great as can be despite the distance.
A lot of the holiday celebrations have been modified. I think they are doing a great job of trying to keep the festive and fun atmosphere, but but some of them are a bit of a bummer. The biggest one is that there are no parades. Instead of the Superstar parade that normally occurs, featuring characters like Spongebob and Dora, they will wheel out the floats individually for a dance party. At Christmas, instead of the Macy’s parade, they set up the floats in a soundstage and allowed people to walk through and tour them. One really fun new addition is the Tribute store. They started it when they had to cancel Halloween Horror nights. It is very much a gift shop, but they went all out on the decorations and added a bakery. It was definitely a fun walk through experience and a way to spend some of that hard earned vacation cash. You can see some of our photos from it below. They continued the tradition by adding a Christmas store during the holidays, though we missed seeing that one.
Mardi Gras is coming soon, and it looks like they are going with a similar operatis mundi there. The traditional parades are cancelled, but it looks like they will be rolling the floats out for viewing and dance parties. They will have the traditional Mardi gras characters stilt walking and dancing around, and they have added a number of food options. It looks like it might be closer to the popular food festivals that Epcot is known for, and that Seaworld has had a lot of success with lately as well.
Lunching at Mel’s Diner, home of the best chicken strips anywhere.
They have really ramped up their Mobile Ordering system. If you eat at any of the sit down restaurants like Mel’s Diner or the Leaky Cauldron, they will have you seated at a table, and request that you place your order via their app. It’s definitely the most efficient way to order, but if you prefer not to do that, your table will be attended to by a team member who can tell you where to go to place your order in person.
There are a few areas around the parks that seemed to be closed for the duration. Feival’s playland, Fear Factor Live, A Day in the Park with Barney, Camp Jurassic, If I Ran the Zoo, Me Ship, The Olive are all closed. Poseidon’s Fury has also been closed, and the rumor is that one is permanent.
Overall, our experiences have all been really great. We feel safer going to Universal than some retail locations around town. We stayed at their Cabana Bay resort for a week in October, have had friends and family come to visit, and everyone has had a really fantastic time. My advice is to buy their masks, be prepared for a few closures here and there, and take full advantage of the shorter wait times and not having to stand super close to sweaty strangers in line! Feel free to email me or comment below if you have any questions, we are always happy to help!