Universal Holiday Crowds 2020

[Disneyhead]

 

[ThemeParks4Life]

I'm a little surprised it took them until noon to fill up. Maybe Tuesday/Wednesday will reach capacity faster?

 

[Mad Dog]

Do we know if Universal had increased their capacity like Disney did, though not saying anything about it until weeks after the fact like Disney did ?

 

[UniversalRBLX]

Do we know if Universal had increased their capacity like Disney did, though not saying anything about it until weeks after the fact like Disney did ?

Saturday felt like a busy summer day. Capacity has been definitely raised.

 

[vgp]

.

 

[Mad Dog]

The idea of "capacity" is much more vague/amorphous for Universal than it is Disney (who can simply close/open reservation slots). I wouldn't read too much into it either way.

Mostly just curious. I would 'guess' they've been using their own 'internal formula' , and it's likely significantly above the early covid much quoted 25% capacity. Probably increased it when DeSantis took the ceilings off
a good time ago. Of course, i doubt Universal would want to make those internal decisions public knowledge if they weren't required to do so. Keep controversy to a minimum. I would doubt any Universal employees,
except the most high executives, would be privy to the 'real' attendance and self standardized attendance ceilings. '

 

[Frank Drackman]

Mostly just curious. I would 'guess' they've been using their own 'internal formula' , and it's likely significantly above the early covid much quoted 25% capacity. Probably increased it when DeSantis took the ceilings off
a good time ago. Of course, i doubt Universal would want to make those internal decisions public knowledge if they weren't required to do so. Keep controversy to a minimum. I would doubt any Universal employees,
except the most high executives, would be privy to the 'real' attendance and self standardized attendance ceilings. '

I imagine (to me) it would start to become a question more on how are they spacing the queues (are the set for social distancing)--do they still run at lowered capacity (skipping ride vehicles/seats). I guess just in that I understand at theme parks (to me) it matters more where the crowds are/what the people are doing then trying to understand how many bodies are in the park.

I know the kids are out of school and I know UoR offered that buy a day get the rest of the year so I would expect them to be crowded this week.

I know my wife and I have not been to Disney in many years, but they are not selling AP's this year and it doesn't make sense (to us) to try and get day passes (but my brother took my daughter to hollywood studios so she got to go ;-) ) and UoR, well they do not make sense to get a pass this year...so I shall wait as next year is almost here---

But for UoR, I'd still be more interested in how the enforce distancing, mask wearing---how they deal with that--do the rides ever run at full capacity? That sort of thing.

 

[Disneyhead]

Remember "Capacity" for USF pre-COVID was close to 50K. And they rarely hit that. The parks mostly run at 40-60% "capacity". Summer, the Holidays, and Spring Break were the only times they actually came close to capacity.

That said, aside from today's numbers, I am hearing REALLY positive things about how things things are going all over Orlando. Westgate is sold out through early Jan. Universal are opening Portofino and Dockside months earlier than projected. Disney is opening more rooms and dining across the resort. Things are happening because demand is there.

 

[Mad Dog]

Remember "Capacity" for USF pre-COVID was close to 50K. And they rarely hit that. The parks mostly run at 40-60% "capacity". Summer, the Holidays, and Spring Break were the only times they actually came close to capacity.

That said, aside from today's numbers, I am hearing REALLY positive things about how things things are going all over Orlando. Westgate is sold out through early Jan. Universal are opening Portofino and Dockside months earlier than projected. Disney is opening more rooms and dining across the resort. Things are happening because demand is there.

The demand makes sense. On a slightly different level, the malls we've shopped in the past couple weeks are as crowded as they were 10 to 15 years ago before the malls started dying. Statistics are showing savings are at an all time high, and with the exception of those pour souls out of work, there's lots of disposable income....plus people are getting antsy and covid exhaustion has set in. Retail economists today projected a very healthy Xmas sales season with 3% to 5% growth over last year. And that's with wide swaths of the country, like California, under fairly heavy lockdowns. Orlando parks are surprising many it seems....Good for future Epic decisions.

 

[agentj]

Just a personal observation but the parks are very busy. We come down this same week every year and don't ever remember it this busy. Spoke to friends who are also managers and they said the crowds are unexpectedly good. Waits in CW are up to 2 1/2 hours. Happy for Unii and the team members who have been brought backl

 

[shiekra38]

Remember "Capacity" for USF pre-COVID was close to 50K. And they rarely hit that. The parks mostly run at 40-60% "capacity". Summer, the Holidays, and Spring Break were the only times they actually came close to capacity.

That said, aside from today's numbers, I am hearing REALLY positive things about how things things are going all over Orlando. Westgate is sold out through early Jan. Universal are opening Portofino and Dockside months earlier than projected. Disney is opening more rooms and dining across the resort. Things are happening because demand is there.

All good things to hear, even with our current winter spike we're experiencing