Florida Theme Parks & Shopping Districts Reopening General Thread

[Brian G.]

We'll separate both states since they are obviously at very different points in reopenings.

We'll repost the VB article to kick off this thread:

Universal Orlando Resort has announced that they will be closing Universal’s Volcano Bay water park on November 2, 2020 and will look to reopen the park on or around March 1st, 2021. @UniversalORL

Universal Orlando closing Volcano Bay water park beginning November 2; will reopen in March 2021

Universal Orlando Resort has announced that they will be closing Universal’s Volcano Bay water park on November 2, 2020. Universal states that this is a seasonal closure and they will look to reopen the park on or around March 1st, 2021. The closure is due to expected lower demand in the coole

www.insideuniversal.net

 

[GadgetGuru]

Even with Florida moving to Phase 3, I can’t see any of the theme parks adding capacity.

It’s clear there just isn’t the demand. I can’t even see Volcano Bay’s closing causing an increase in crowds for USF/IoA

 

[shiekra38]

Even with Florida moving to Phase 3, I can’t see any of the theme parks adding capacity.

It’s clear there just isn’t the demand. I can’t even see Volcano Bay’s closing causing an increase in crowds for USF/IoA

I went in December once...like an idiot...It was dead

I can only imagine what it would be like in this Covid season

 

[Brian G.]

It obviously sucks due to the TMs who got furloughed, but it does seem Universal is shifting a lot of the TMs to other positions and are going to welcome all the furloughed employees back when VB opens in March.

It's not a surprising move though. The park hasn't had any real downtime for maintenance since opening, and traditionally, water parks closed in the winter months.

 

[shiekra38]

It obviously sucks due to the TMs who got furloughed, but it does seem Universal is shifting a lot of the TMs to other positions and are going to welcome all the furloughed employees back when VB opens in March.

It's not a surprising move though. The park hasn't had any real downtime for maintenance since opening, and traditionally, water parks closed in the winter months.

I wonder if the plan is moving all VB employees to "seasonal"

 

[Bulldog45]

Don't Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon close for the "winter" months too? Not sure about Aquatica...I've never been to any of them. Not a big water park guy :shrug:

 

[Journey_On]

Don't Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon close for the "winter" months too? Not sure about Aquatica...I've never been to any of them. Not a big water park guy :shrug:

Yes, TL and BB do close in the winter months. They alternate between having one closed and one opened. I think even Aquatica has planned closure days (correct me if I am wrong).

Universal’s water parks never had planned closure days this far in advance (they have sometimes announced closures for weather like, three days in advance or something like that - and also never for this long of a period).

 

[GAcoaster]

I saw pictures of Aquatica today and it looked empty at noon (and they had been drawing decent crowds) but weekdays are going to be slow for the waterparks. Universal made the right call closing VB for the dead months that will always have several days/weeks of weather closures anyway.

 

[Mad Dog]

Magic is saying they believe WDW has recently increased their capacity to 50%, though Disney hasn't publicly announced it. Len Testa, Touring Plans, said they counted apx. 11,000 in DHS
on both Saturday & Sunday of last weekend. Both Magic & Touring Plans have said line times at WDW have significantly increased.

 

[GAcoaster]

They've definitely upped the number of reservations for each day, but not to 50% of capacity. I believe they went from 20% to 30%, and even then I don't think all who reserve are necessarily showing up.

 

[Mad Dog]

Looking at Touring Plans Covid Era adjusted line times...Universal started today (Saturday0 with moderate attraction line times. But the attraction lines have increased significantly in the past half hour. Looks like it's going to be a pretty busy day at both Universal parks for the regular attractions.

 

[UNIrd]

Spent the weekend at Universal after 4 separate visits to Disney since re-opening. I'll be honest.. Universal is NOT doing as good of a job in any aspect.

Mask compliance was much worse than Disney... understandable when there's A LOT MORE people and a higher concentration of these people in small spaces. One guy or girl on the blvd with a sign in not sufficient to patrol this. There were noses everywhere. Disney doesn't let that fly at all and it seems every CM is tasked to enforce this. Universal saw a lot of TMs turning a blind eye and not policing. I'd say Disney is at 99% mask compliance while Universal guests are at 60%. Pretty sure the rule at Disney is it can be removed while eating or drinking while stationary. This is not the case at Universal. People constantly had them off while walking. If this not the case... again... TERRIBLE JOB policing.

Also, the waits were ridiculous on Saturday. Saw Gringotts go up to 210 minutes and was regularly above 170 minutes... Not sure how they are distancing on this ride but the only visible coaster, HRRR, was seating every row. Shrek went up to 125min and stayed consistently over 100min. Mummy, Minions, and Fallon were virtual line all day so couldn't tell you how long the waits were but they had both run out and asked you to check back at 2pm and 4pm. (This was at noon).

With so many virtual lines, where does that leave people? Yup.. IN THE STREETS. Not the ideal time to have so many attractions on virtual without policing and enforcing distancing. Hand sanitizer not as widely available as Disney. Yes, fingerprint scanning is back and they are cleaning it with what looks like a dirty rag in between parties.

If you feel uncomfortable with the idea of going to theme parks in a pandemic, Universal on a weekend is not the way to go right now. I would start with Disney, though I understand they've steadily increased capacity. The only time it felt remotely uncomfortable was at MK when everyone heads down the exits at closing time. Monorail line looked just like after a regular park night. Even with "sold out" days at DHS or MK, it never feels half as crowded as it did at Universal.

 

[GadgetGuru]

Spent the weekend at Universal after 4 separate visits to Disney since re-opening. I'll be honest.. Universal is NOT doing as good of a job in any aspect.

Mask compliance was much worse than Disney... understandable when there's A LOT MORE people and a higher concentration of these people in small spaces. One guy or girl on the blvd with a sign in not sufficient to patrol this. There were noses everywhere. Disney doesn't let that fly at all and it seems every CM is tasked to enforce this. Universal saw a lot of TMs turning a blind eye and not policing. I'd say Disney is at 99% mask compliance while Universal guests are at 60%. Pretty sure the rule at Disney is it can be removed while eating or drinking while stationary. This is not the case at Universal. People constantly had them off while walking. If this not the case... again... TERRIBLE JOB policing.

Also, the waits were ridiculous on Saturday. Saw Gringotts go up to 210 minutes and was regularly above 170 minutes... Not sure how they are distancing on this ride but the only visible coaster, HRRR, was seating every row. Shrek went up to 125min and stayed consistently over 100min. Mummy, Minions, and Fallon were virtual line all day so couldn't tell you how long the waits were but they had both run out and asked you to check back at 2pm and 4pm. (This was at noon).

With so many virtual lines, where does that leave people? Yup.. IN THE STREETS. Not the ideal time to have so many attractions on virtual without policing and enforcing distancing. Hand sanitizer not as widely available as Disney. Yes, fingerprint scanning is back and they are cleaning it with what looks like a dirty rag in between parties.

If you feel uncomfortable with the idea of going to theme parks in a pandemic, Universal on a weekend is not the way to go right now. I would start with Disney, though I understand they've steadily increased capacity. The only time it felt remotely uncomfortable was at MK when everyone heads down the exits at closing time. Monorail line looked just like after a regular park night. Even with "sold out" days at DHS or MK, it never feels half as crowded as it did at Universal.

I feel like Disney received so much more national and local scrutiny than Universal ever did. Even now, Universal’s opening has been much further under the radar than Disney’s.

Disney’s opening became a stand-in for all theme parks. It feels like Universal has been progressively pushing the envelope more because they don’t get as much attention for doing so.

 

[Mad Dog]

Scrutiny; It's the price paid for being a clear numero uno in the theme park industry. We all love Universal here on IU, and they've certainly made tremendous and significant industry changing strides in the past decade, BUT
they are still a far far away second place in the Orlando marketplace. When the general public thinks of a theme park, it's clearly Disney. Many in the GP don't even know Universal parks exists. In situations like covid safety, it's a
public perception advantage to being less visible. And Sea World even gets less scrutiny, even though just about every report alludes to their very relaxed covid safety.

 

[TheGentTrent]

Scrutiny; It's the price paid for being a clear numero uno in the theme park industry. We all love Universal here on IU, and they've certainly made tremendous and significant industry changing strides in the past decade, BUT
they are still a far far away second place in the Orlando marketplace. When the general public thinks of a theme park, it's clearly Disney. Many in the GP don't even know Universal parks exists. In situations like covid safety, it's a
public perception advantage to being less visible. And Sea World even gets less scrutiny, even though just about every report alludes to their very relaxed covid safety.

Yep. There are STILL people who think Universal is owned by Disney. I remember going to USF one day and heard a family behind me in line ask where the Toy Story Land was.

 

[Nick]

Character Dining Returns to Chef Mickey's on December 16th

Walt Disney World news, photos, and reviews! We provide you with daily news from the Walt Disney World theme parks and beyond

blogmickey.com

 

[RevFreako]

Character Dining Returns to Chef Mickey's on December 16th

Walt Disney World news, photos, and reviews! We provide you with daily news from the Walt Disney World theme parks and beyond

blogmickey.com

I'm assuming they're still not going table to table? As usual, BMs reporting is clear as mud.

 

[OhHaiInternet95]

When the general public thinks of a theme park, it's clearly Disney. Many in the GP don't even know Universal parks exists.

"Harry Potter World"

 

[joelbryant11]

Scrutiny; It's the price paid for being a clear numero uno in the theme park industry. We all love Universal here on IU, and they've certainly made tremendous and significant industry changing strides in the past decade, BUT
they are still a far far away second place in the Orlando marketplace. When the general public thinks of a theme park, it's clearly Disney. Many in the GP don't even know Universal parks exists. In situations like covid safety, it's a
public perception advantage to being less visible. And Sea World even gets less scrutiny, even though just about every report alludes to their very relaxed covid safety.

This is evidenced by how the national media has approached this summer. All of the big stories have been about Disney reopening, meanwhile Uni reopened before WDW. I've met people from around where I live that legitimately think Harry Potter is in Disney. It's funny to me just how out-of-the-loop the GP is sometimes. It's a double-edged sword for Comcast, I guess.

 

[RevFreako]

This is evidenced by how the national media has approached this summer. All of the big stories have been about Disney reopening, meanwhile Uni reopened before WDW. I've met people from around where I live that legitimately think Harry Potter is in Disney. It's funny to me just how out-of-the-loop the GP is sometimes. It's a double-edged sword for Comcast, I guess.

To be fair, the GO doesn't care. Same with wrestling. All wrestling is WWE to to Joey Bagadonuts. That's just the difference between being a nerd about something and not.