Went today. It was mixed for me. While I enjoyed many things, there's a number of things that need work.
Pros:
- Obviously getting into the park at all is a biggie after a year.
- Most staff is very helpful, and queues for stores are very organized--stores never felt crowded at all; in fact, it was kind of wild to be in such empty stores.
- Park never really felt very crowded in pathways, and tables were generally easy to find (although a bit harder at Hogsemeade and Hollywood & Dine during peak periods).
- Wand stations are open in Hogsmeade, and it's great to see a finished Pet's Place area. There's lots of details to see and hear.
- On the whole, guests were good about keeping masks on when not eating.
Cons:
- Food could use more variety.
- Many key spots had very long and slow moving lines--many food locations felt understaffed.
- Food quality could be better, most notably items that should be hot were coming out lukewarm at best. Worse, the "Elote" corn, which is advertised with a white cream sauce in the promotional picture, only had chili power on it and came with two small lime wedges... no white sauce at all.
- Many items (mostly desserts) were running out as the day went on, but there was no one to tell anyone in line that items were out, nor were menus changed to reflect that.
- Many queues got so long, there were no more "stand here" stickers on the ground to guide the lines, so they just kind of had no real crowd control. The crowd pretty much managed it well on their own, but they really shouldn't have to.
- I was a bit surprised at the lack of hand sanitizer in the park. They're at the entrance to each store, but not really along park pathways.
- They're not giving away cups of tap water (since water fountains are still not a thing), you have to buy a bottle. I suggest bringing water of your own, but that felt a bit wrong to deny tap water.
- Lastly, one team member refused to give me an AP discount for a bottle of soda, which was wrong. To Universal's credit, I did ask about this at Guest Relations, and they verified there are AP discounts for food, and kindly gave me credit for an extra food item (I did have a receipt to back up my claim).
- Aside from a few display cars in the Plaza, there were no real extra touches. A few charters and photo ops, and that was it. Otherwise, it was just a regular day in the park with no rides.
All of the cons are mostly small things, but altogether, they sort of add up. Not enough to stop us from having a good time... we stayed for the full 7 hours and did enjoy the day despite the issues. That said, I don't feel compelled to return, and feel Knott's would be a much better deal.
That said, it's good to remember that Knott's had many of the same issues for their first food event.... I still remember waiting in line for over 50 minutes at just one food station there, and the lines being incredibly long. Then, over time, they worked out the issues. Of course, here, with the park itself opening relatively soon, I'm not sure if they have as much of an incentive to improve in this regard.
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