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Umm…It Was a MESS Getting Into Universal On Its Official Reopening Day!

Today is the official public reopening of Universal Orlando’s theme parks and, of course, we’re there to check it out!

Universal

We attended one of the Annual Passholder early access days this week and getting into the park was relatively simple. But on this first day open to the general public, one particular aspect of getting into the parks has been a little bit crazy so far!

Universal Orlando’s theme parks open at 9AM EST to the general public, so we headed out early to check out what was going on. When we got to the gates to get into the parking garage, we were met with a lengthy wait!

Waiting at Universal Gates

Initially, it appeared only 4 lanes were open at the gate, causing the massive lines of cars to have to quickly merge down.

Entering Universal

Which led to waiting…

Getting Closer

…and waiting. All in all, it took us almost an HOUR from arriving at the parking gates to enter. Getting our temperature check and getting through the turnstiles were much swifter and more efficient processes and so far, the crowds actually don’t seem too bad!

Temp Checks

We’re assuming that as the parks open they’ll open more lanes to enter the parking garage, so hopefully, others won’t run into the same trouble we did.

Click here to check out our coverage of the reopening day of Universal (that’s today!)

Are you planning to visit Universal soon? Let us know in the comments!

From our friends at www.disneyfoodblog.com
Filed Under: Featured, News, general public, Parking, Universal, Universal Orlando, universal parking, Universal reopening, Universal Studios

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Disney Parks Other

We’re LIVE from the Grand Reopening of Universal Orlando’s Theme Parks

A few days ago we reported LIVE from the Universal Orlando’s Annual Passholder preview.

Universal

Today, the park has officially reopened to the general public and we’re back to see how crowds look and to see if Universal has implemented new procedures and worked out a few of the kinks we saw at the Annual Passholder preview.

We will be updating this post LIVE throughout the day, so be sure to check back for more information.

Parking

We arrived at 7:15AM to a line of people waiting for the parking garages to open. Around 8:30AM, the garages opened and the line slowly began to move.

Parking at Universal

This process took about 45 minutes from start to finish.

Parking at Universal

But once we actually entered the garage, things went very smoothly. Universal is continuing to park cars in every other spot, so guests can distance themselves from others when exiting their vehicle. Once you exit your car, team members will likely fill the empty spots next to where you’ve parked.

Parking

Temperature Checks

As a reminder, everyone planning to visit Universal Orlando must undergo a temperature screening. If you have a temperature above 100.4F, you will not be granted access to Universal’s CityWalk area or their theme parks.

Temp Checks

Although there were quite a few people, the temperature check process was very smooth and efficient.

Turnstiles and Ticketing

Universal is NOT using a reservation system like SeaWorld and Disney World will be upon reopening. Universal, is still limiting capacity. So let’s take a look at how they are implementing this process. According to a manager, the parks did not hit capacity during the Annual Passholder previews. But if the parks do fill up, team members will inform guests at the turnstiles of which park is full and it will then become a situation where more guests can enter as other guests leave.

8:30AM: The line for the turnstile was about 15-20 parties long. And team members ensured that each party was keeping the appropriate amount of distance from each other.

Universal Lines

The line of people waiting to get tickets was much longer. While this looks like a lot of people, remember this line was spaced out and organized by team members as well.

Universal Ticket Line

Entering the Park

They did not scan our finger, but a team member did check an ID with our Annual Pass.

Turnstile

The park is supposed to open at 9AM EST but they started letting guests through around 8:45AM this morning.

Entering Universal

So far crowds are looking relatively light this morning.

Universal Studios

Virtual Line

Like it was at the Passholder Preview, the Virtual Line was in use today. We actually noticed a bunch more attractions than were available when we were here the other day! The Virtual Line screen features a list of all of the rides with the virtual queue option. You’ll notice the greyed out times were the ones that weren’t available when we took our screenshot (before 9AM).

Virtual Line

When you select an attraction, you tell the app your party size and what upcoming time works best for you.

Virtual Line

Then, you’ll get your spot in the Virtual Line! The passes look like this.

Virtual Line

For some attractions, you may have to wait in a physical queue when redeeming your Virtual Line pass. We’re looking at you Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure! This morning though, there wasn’t much of a queue built up with the low crowds.

Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure Queue

We actually got to experience what happens when an attraction has downtime during your Virtual Line window! Hagrid’s was down for a short period this morning and we got this alert in our Universal app.

Virtual Line alert

When this happens, you are automatically given a one-time use Express Pass that lets you skip the line at an attraction. Just keep in mind, you can’t use it for some popular attractions — like MOST of the Harry Potter rides.

Express Pass

The Attractions Experience

With such low crowds, a lot of the wait times were pretty low. The most congested part of the park when we entered was around The Incredible Hulk Coaster.

The Incredible Hulk Coaster

On the other hand, some rides were walk-ons like Doctor Doom’s Fearfall…

Doctor Doom’s Fearfall

…and The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man. Wow! Usually, Spidey makes for a pretty popular attraction!

The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man

Even those that did have waits were on the lower end of things. Skull Island: Reign of Kong had a 15-minute wait when we walked past.

Skull Island: Reign of Kong

Dining

Mobile Order is being encouraged at dining locations and most spots have physical distancing stickers in place outside of the restaurant. The Three Broomsticks, for instance, is set to handle a queue since it is one of the more popular restaurants.

The Three Broomsticks

Newly open today was the Hog’s Head with distancing markers set up.

Hog’s Head

Of course, we had to get a Butterbeer to celebrate the occasion! Oh, and a Gillywater to stay hydrated.

Butterbeer

Refillable Drink Program

We were surprised to see that Universal is still doing their Refill Thru the Day program with Coca-Cola freestyle machines.

Universal Refills Program

The only changes are that some machines are closed for physical distancing and there are now wipes available for your use. We also noted that team members were cleaning the machines regularly too.

Universal Refills Program

Don’t forget, this post will be updated throughout the day!

Are you planning to visit Universal soon? Let us know in the comments below.

From our friends at www.disneyfoodblog.com
Filed Under: Featured, News, universal news, Universal Orlando, Universal reopening, Universal Studios

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Disney News Disney Parks Other

NEWS: SeaWorld to Use Guest Reservation System Upon Reopening Theme Parks

SeaWorld pitched their June 11th reopening date the same day that Disney World announced theirs.

Mako Coaster in SeaWorld Florida ©MidwayMayhem

Since then, SeaWorld’s reopening has been approved and they are beginning to move towards the reopening of SeaWorld Orlando, Aquatica Orlando, and Discovery Cove a week from today. Now, they’ve announced that the parks will require reservations and they’ve launched a new safety webpage for each of the parks.

The new safety websites for the three parks help to detail information about the health measures and operational changes that will be implemented in the parks like cleaning and sanitizing, physical distancing, face-covering requirements, and information on temperature screenings.

©SeaWorld

You can see the SeaWorld Orlando Safety Page here, the Aquatica Orlando Safety Page here, and the Discovery Cove Safety Page here.

The company also announced that all of the reopening theme parks will require advance online reservations. Guests will be required to make a reservation on the individual reservation pages for the parks (SeaWorld, Aquatica, and Discovery Cove). Reservations will be required for entry so as to limit compacity in the parks. You can make reservations starting at 10AM ET on June 8th.

©SeaWorld

Disney World will be requiring a reservation to enter the parks as well. At this time, Universal Orlando will NOT require a reservation to enter their theme parks, but they will be operating at a limited capacity. We will see what processes they implement once the parks hit capacity when they reopen to the public tomorrow.

We will continue to report in on the updates on Florida theme parks to get an idea of what we can expect in Disney World.  Follow along with DFB for all the latest news!

Click here to learn more about SeaWorld’s opening proposal!

Will you be headed to the SeaWorld reopening? Let us know in the comments!

Related posts:

  1. News! SeaWorld Parks Extend Closures Until Further Notice
  2. BREAKING NEWS: SeaWorld Orlando Announces a Proposed Reopening Date of June 11th
  3. Find Out How to Score FREE BEER at SeaWorld Orlando this Summer!

From our friends at www.disneyfoodblog.com
Filed Under: Featured, News, Aquatica Orlando, discovery cove, seaworld, SeaWorld Orlando, seaworld reopening

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Disney Food Disney Parks Other

Ample Hills Creamery is now shipping Nationwide

Ample Hills

Who else loves ice cream? Hungry Disney guests seek out their favorite frozen treats when they travel to Walt Disney World Resort. Many have visited Disney’s Boardwalk just to acquire a sweet treat from Ample Hills Creamery. For those unfamiliar, Ample Hills Creamery is a Brooklyn-based ice cream company with many delicious flavors. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic brought adverse changes with both the temporary closure of Walt Disney World and slow-down of many other business activities. However, we do have some good news! Ample Hills Creamery is once again offering their ice cream for households with nationwide shipping!

Also, a new location is currently being installed at Disney Springs. The upcoming Ample Hills Creamery storefront can be found on the west side of Disney Springs near the NBA Experience and AMC Theatres. We are quite eager to check out the new Disney Springs location once it opens up! We’ll provide updates when an opening date is announced for the upcoming location.

In the meantime, we hope you enjoy the option of nationwide shipping and consider trying a few of their delicious flavors. If you’ve had their ice cream in the past, then let us know in the comments which Ample Hills flavor is your favorite!

Source: Ample Hills Creamery

From our friends at chipandco.com
Filed Under: Disney Food, Disney Snacks & Treats, News, Parks & Resorts, ample hills, Ample Hills Creamery, Ample Hills Creamery Disney, Disney Springs, Disney’s Boardwalk

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Disney Lists Disney Parks Other

6 Things That REALLY Surprised Us About the Reopening of Universal Orlando

We spent yesterday at Universal Orlando attending a special Annual Passholder preview!

Gringotts

And while we had some idea what to expect based on the new health and safety measures we’d already experienced when several CityWalk stores and restaurants began to reopen on May 14th, we knew our first time back to an ACTUAL theme park was probably going to look and feel A LOT more different!

We had prepared ourselves for temperature screenings, social distancing, and wearing a face covering for the duration of our stay, but that doesn’t mean we weren’t thrown a few curveballs along the way! Here are a couple of things that really surprised us the most about our visit to the newly reopened Universal Studios!

Which Attractions Are Harder to Ride with Face Masks

We were totally expecting our face masks to fly off on Universal’s most-thrilling rides such as Hollywood’s Rip Ride Rockit or The Incredible Hulk Coaster (luckily we brought some back-ups, just in case!). But strangely enough, the speed of these attractions actually helps to hold your face mask in place!

Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure

The rides that proved to be the most challenging for us were ones where you had to wear 3D glasses such as Skull Island: Reign of Kong or Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts. Our breath kept fogging up the lenses until we figured out if we wore our glasses over our masks, it helped cut down on the fogginess!

See what our experience was like on several Universal attractions while wearing face mask here!

Mobile Order Was Glitchy

Universal’s Mobile Order was having a rough go of it yesterday! Even though Universal offered Mobile Order at select restaurants before the temporary closures, a bunch of new locations have been added to the app — even the walk-up spots at Diagon Alley!

Mobile Order Pickup Line at The Hopping Pot

But all of these extra locations really added a lot of strain to the already struggling system (we even had some issues with the Virtual Line Experience in the early A.M.). The app was crashing a lot or not work properly throughout the day. This was the first day of Annual Passholder previews though, so hopefully Universal will be able to work out the kinks over the next few days.

Read more about troubleshooting Universal’s mobile order system here!

Characters Were Everywhere

Even though we couldn’t walk up and hug our favorite characters, we were really shocked by how many of them were out!

Dr. Seuss Characters

Several sectioned-off stage areas have been set up throughout the parks where you can watch and wave to your favorite characters! We saw a bunch of Dr. Suess dudes (including the Lorax and the Grinch!) hanging out in Suessland yesterday along with some of The Simpsons, Blues Brothers, Hello Kitty, Beetlejuice, Spiderman, and lots MORE! Many of these characters wore masks, but there were also a few who did not.

While Disney has shared that character meet-and-greets will be suspended, we’re eager to see if they interact like the character at Universal did.

Water Rides and Misting Effects Were Running

While earlier Universal had stated some of their rides that involve water such as Jurassic Park River Adventure might not reopen with the rest of the park, we were surprised to see it running yesterday! Guests are permitted to remove their masks once they board water rides and are they seated in an every-other row!

One note on water rides, do hold onto your mask in your lap because it would be very easy for it to fly away!

Jurassic Park River Adventure

We were also told water effect features on some rides (such as misters) would be deactivated, but on The Incredible Hulk Coaster and Escape From Gringotts, they were STILL working!

Personal Wand Shopper at Ollivanders

Something we were truly amazed to see was how Ollivanders Wand Shop is operating now!

Hogsmeade

To keep the shop from becoming too crowded, each guest is given their own personal attendant! You can’t handle the wands like you could before, but we think the one-on-one service is pretty nifty!

Virtual Lines Aren’t the Same as FastPassses

Since we’re so used to using Disney World’s FastPass+, it took us a little time to figure out Universal’s virtual queue system is a bit different. We traveled with a group of two and since the apps aren’t linked, we were able to make two reservations at one time. There aren’t any tiers so our two reservations could be made for the same ride.

And despite having a guaranteed ride time, there were still about a 20-30 minute wait to ride each attraction (unlike FastPass where you usually just walk-on). With no preshows, for the time being, the wait can feel a little long.

Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure

But similar to the My Disney Experience app, once you use one of your reservations, you can make another. We also noticed when we refreshed the app, sometimes new Virtual Line Venues appeared like they sometimes do when you refresh the available FastPasses.

Click here to learn of the virtual queue system works at Universal Studios!

We’ll be back at Universal tomorrow reporting all day once the theme parks officially open to the public, so stay tuned! And if you have any questions on the new processes that theme parks are implementing, please let us know!

Did you attend Universal’s Annual Passholder preview? What surprised you the most? Let us know in the comments below!

Related posts:

  1. Here’s A Look at the Safety Measures Being Discussed By Major U.S. Theme Parks Right Now
  2. Universal Studios Has EXTENDED Its Temporary Closure
  3. Universal Orlando’s CityWalk Has Just Reopened! See What Our Experience Was Like Here!

From our friends at www.disneyfoodblog.com
Filed Under: Featured, News, 3d glasses, 3d goggles, 3d rides, characters, face masks, masks, Mobile Order, ollivanders, roller coasters, surprising, Universal Orlando, Universal Orlando Resort, Universal Studios, virtual lines, virtual queues, wand shop, water rides