Universal Studios Orlando during Covid-19

After my experience at Disney during Covid, I decided to also check out Universal Studios to see how they are handling the new restrictions during the pandemic. I had gone to Universal back in June when they had just opened back up to the public. It was very empty just like Disney, so this trip I was expecting the same. After making my plans, I realized that the date I set to go was the first weekend of their new deal, which is to pay for a day and come back the rest of 2020. It was not empty anymore. Not for a long shot.

From the start, trying to get into parking had quite a line. They did “social distance” the cars, parking them back-to-back and leaving a space in-between the two cars. It is for families to have room getting out without being too close to others. Getting temperature checks and going through security was actually pretty quick. In my opinion, Universal’s security check has always been the quickest compared to other theme parks as they have actual scanners and no one has to dig through my bags.

Once past security, we decided to go to the Universal Studios over Islands of Adventure since Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure was shut down due to a fire backstage. There was a line to go through the gate. For the first couple parties there were social distance markers on the ground but after a few there were none. And since it was so busy there were many parties all crammed together and no one directing us. The gate attendants were cleaning the “turnstiles” every so often which was good.

Once in the park, you could see the massive amount of people. I went straight to my favorite ride, The Mummy, but quickly saw that they were implementing their Virtual Line Experience. For those who do not know what that is, you have to go on their app and “get in line” for a ride. You have to pick a ride, how many people, and a time to come back to get in the actual line. And it doesn’t guarantee a shorter wait time. Since I went on a busy day, the popular rides seemed to be all booked up. I kept refreshing the times and I was able to get two reservations. You are only allowed two reservations until you have used them. I had brought someone with me so she reserved two rides as well so in total we did get four ride reservations.

As I said, the Virtual Line Experience reservation does not guarantee a shorter wait time. When it came time for our Harry Potter ride at Gringotts the wait time was two hours. It didn’t advertise it as two hours but I asked an attendant what the wait would be at the point I was at and two hours is what he told me. Diagon Alley itself wasn’t as crowed as normal, which is jammed packed, but it still was more crowed than I thought it should be during Covid.

The other rides were not as bad of a wait. Most said that they were an hour or more of a wait but they actually turned out to be only a 15 minute wait. I guess since everyone is distanced in line, it is hard for them to estimate the wait times.

We waited in line for the new Jason Bourne stunt show which was actually pretty cool. They had a massive screen which was crystal clear and many stage props that appeared to be apart of the scene on the screen. They had some visual affects that made it look like we were rotating around the actors. If you have the chance, I would go check it out.

It was a very hot day out, and I’m a Floridian saying that. The “feel” for the day on my weather app was 106 degrees. Wearing a mask in that kind of heat, only so many people could handle it. I had to use my umbrella as a shade the whole day. They do have relaxation zones where you can take off your mask. The one I went to was right outside of the Simpsons area.

Overall, they did hand you hand sanitizer before getting on every ride. Your party will either get their own ride vehicle or they will space you at least 3 rows apart from another party. But other than that I would say it was a little too crowded to feel completely safe. And since it was August, I would wait for it to cool down a little before attempting to go again with a mask on.