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Theme Parks & Shopping Districts Reopening General Thread

  • Thread starter Thread starter Scott W.
  • Start date Start date May 14, 2020
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ThemeParks4Life

ThemeParks4Life

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  • Jun 3, 2020
  • #561
Joe said:
His photo of no TMs telling guests to social distancing is wrong, I had people standing behind him I know saying it wasn’t the case. People are calling him out for his troll behavior.
Click to expand...
Yeah, TMs were good about calling people out for even having their masks on but below the nose. Ride vehicles are also sanitized if someone’s mask gets dislodged at the unload station

Also the “queue for a virtual queue” is misleading beyond belief


Wonders_Of_Life said:
Are there attractions that ONLY offer VQ?
Click to expand...
Hagrid, Kong, Fallon, DM, and Pteradon Flyers were the only ones I never saw switch to standby at some point. FJ never officially went to standby, but it was open the last couple hours.
 
T

Tbad556

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  • Jun 3, 2020
  • #562
Joe said:
I talked to several people in the park today. There are issues, Brett is right, but he’s totally blown it out of proportion for attention.
Click to expand...
Good to know. Definitely taking your word for it. I gave up theme park twitter like a full decade ago so I can't pretend to know who's trustworthy at this point lol. This is why I usually wait to hear back from TM friends instead :lol:
 
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Brian G.

Brian G.

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  • Jun 3, 2020
  • #563
Tbad556 said:
Good to know. Definitely taking your word for it. I gave up theme park twitter like a full decade ago so I can't pretend to know who's trustworthy at this point lol. This is why I usually wait to hear back from TM friends instead :lol:
Click to expand...

While I cannot say he didn't experience what he shared, I can say I didn't have the same experience. I know I saw quite a few hand sanitizers. Admittedly, they could use more stations but we noticed them at the restaurants we peeked inside of (Louie's, Mel's, B&J, Starbucks, Green Eggs) and a few stores. We also saw hand sanitizers at the exit of Cat and Spidey. I noticed all these without actively looking (we brought our own). There were instances where people would congest (and I'm not speaking on top of each other, just close-ish) and TMs would remind to please keep distant. As far as I'm concerned, Universal did a great job. There were times where "people are dumb" but I felt it wasn't a major issue. The first day of ops back with all these new rules and guidelines went very well other than some hiccups or room for improvement.
 
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GAcoaster

GAcoaster

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  • Jun 3, 2020
  • #564
This was a good test and as the first major theme park to re-open we knew there would still be issues. I'm sure there were several lessons learned and I wouldn't be surprised to see many changes implemented before opening tomorrow.
 
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Evan

Evan

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  • Jun 3, 2020
  • #565
My recommendation would be to setup a line system all the way into the garages for at least the rope drop crowd. Don’t let people out of their cars until they are able to safely enter that line. Would take longer, but would ensure that rope drop bunch up ends.
 
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Bobharlem

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  • Jun 3, 2020
  • #566
If you are going tomorrow or later this week, get reservations for the sit down restaurants in park now (Finnegans/Mythos/Confisco/Lombards). The food lines were kinda crazy with the new rules. Finnegan's bar isn't going (but may start Friday), but the restaurant is. But GET RESERVATIONS, walk ups are usually 2+ hour waits with the reduced capacity. But sit down w/ reservation is a breeze, any other quick serve food place had long lines (didn't matter if you mobile ordered or not in most cases).

It's quickly becoming obvious dining/food is going to be the biggest problem around lunch/dinner rush times. At Disney, this will probably reach insanity levels.
 
Last edited: Jun 4, 2020
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ThemeParks4Life

ThemeParks4Life

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  • Jun 3, 2020
  • #567
More thoughts:

Overall, today was a good experience. The only issues were understandable and will obviously be improved upon in a few days: more hand sanitizer, working out bugs with Virtual Queue, and more structure with temperature checking.

The locker procedures are great and should be kept once the pandemic is over. Having a queue for lockers at Hulk and Rockit makes it so much easier and quicker to access, and team members are doing a great job of sanitizing areas.

Hagrid might be the highest capacity ride in the resort at the moment. My train left the front and last row unseated (probably for sanitation), but the other 5 rows were in use. Of course, demand is still high for the ride, but it only took 10-15 minutes to get through the check-in and queue. It's the first time riding Hagrid hasn't been stressful!

I don't expect many changes to Virtual Queue. Keeping a handful of rides on the system is good for capacity as long as visitors can actually reserve times, which was a massive issue today that will hopefully be fixed soon. I'm predicting MIB to be added (see below), Kong to be removed (capacity is high enough in both the ride and queue), and FJ to switch between standby and VQ when needed like Mummy and Gringotts are. Mummy seems to be switching to VQ when standby hits 25-30 minutes. There isn't much space in the queue due to its layout and darkness, and the extended queue isn't that big either. Gringotts was inconsistent in when it switched, but outside of lines for lockers, there's still lots of queue space. FJ's biggest hurdle is the small lockers, but doing a variable approach could make it easier to get on the ride.

MIB has the biggest capacity hit. It had one of the longest waits this morning because one track wasn't operating and a lot of vehicles needed to be sanitized. Combined with the limitation of one party per vehicle, MIB has become unpredictable. Virtual Queue would help a lot here.

Hagrid might be the highest capacity ride in the resort at the moment. My train left the front and last row unseated (probably for sanitation), but the other 5 rows were in use. Of course, demand is still high for the ride, but it only took 10-15 minutes to get through the check-in and queue. It's the first time riding Hagrid hasn't been stressful!

I expect today and the next four days to be the busiest Universal will be all summer save for the Fourth of July. As has been discussed before, there's pent-up demand locally, but based on today's trends, the parks will likely be very quiet once the initial rush is over. The parks kept getting quieter and quieter ever since my earlier update at 2, and it wasn't even raining for the rest of the day. If Universal's main consumer base for the summer isn't staying long, imagine how a normal day will be without the hype of re-opening. Maybe I'm wrong and demand among non-passholders is moderately high, but I'm not seeing it based on economic and tourism forecasts.

I look forward to going back sometime soon. Today was a pretty stress-free day, and I rarely felt unsafe or uncomfortable. Universal did a good job today, and they're pretty much ready to handle the public. Oh, and the Velocicoaster construction?

OrdinaryWeakBichonfrise-size_restricted.gif
 
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jtsalien

jtsalien

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  • Jun 3, 2020
  • #568
Joe said:
I talked to several people in the park today. There are issues, Brett is right, but he’s totally blown it out of proportion for attention.
Click to expand...

The hand sanitizer thing is a flat out lie, as well. Do they have options as attractive as the Disney pop up sinks? No. But there's hand sanitizer in visible places. And they arguably have over done it in terms of advertising hand washing locations.

There's problems, most definitely. But thats pure trolling.
 
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Tbad556

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  • Jun 3, 2020
  • #569
Alright, so the TM perspective I've been given today. Things went alright. The most common issues they ran into:

- Guests taking masks off during the rides. During a 4 hour span of time, my friend kept track and they had 50 separate instances of guests doing this. They have to clean the ride vehicle every time this happens which led to many delays for guests.
- Many guests are claiming they are medically unable to use hand sanitizer prior to entering ride vehicles due to allergies or other reasons which has caused other problems

Other than that, seems like it wasn't a crazy nightmare on their end at least.
 
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Evan

Evan

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  • Jun 3, 2020
  • #570
Tbad556 said:
Alright, so the TM perspective I've been given today. Things went alright. The most common issues they ran into:

- Guests taking masks off during the rides. During a 4 hour span of time, my friend kept track and they had 50 separate instances of guests doing this. They have to clean the ride vehicle every time this happens which led to many delays for guests.
- Many guests are claiming they are medically unable to use hand sanitizer prior to entering ride vehicles due to allergies or other reasons which has caused other problems

Other than that, seems like it wasn't a crazy nightmare on their end at least.
Click to expand...

I actually have a friend who has an alcohol allergy, she reacts to glue in band-aids... didn't even think about Hand Sanitizer.
 
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Tbad556

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  • Jun 3, 2020
  • #571
Evan said:
I actually have a friend who has an alcohol allergy, she reacts to glue in band-aids... didn't even think about Hand Sanitizer.
Click to expand...
Definitely not denying that it's a real thing for many individuals in case it came across that way. Just pointing out a weird little issue that I hadn't seen come up prior to now. I'm actually not sure how they dealt with those guests. I'd assume they were an exception, but I'd have to ask.
 
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Evan

Evan

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  • Jun 3, 2020
  • #572
Tbad556 said:
Definitely not denying that it's a real thing for many individuals in case it came across that way. Just pointing out a weird little issue that I hadn't seen come up prior to now. I'm actually not sure how they dealt with those guests. I'd assume they were an exception, but I'd have to ask.
Click to expand...

Yes sorry, definitely not trying to imply that. Just also didn't even think of that.
 
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HandsomePete

HandsomePete

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Joined
Jul 8, 2019
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  • Jun 3, 2020
  • #573
Joe said:
I talked to several people in the park today. There are issues, Brett is right, but he’s totally blown it out of proportion for attention.
Click to expand...
I concur - of the issues I encountered today, distancing was not really one.

There is an inherent risk involved with attending a theme park right now. If you adhere to proper precautions and such, it’s ok to attend. If you want to be wrapped in a bubble, then don’t go. It’s not fair to the TMs who worked hard today to gripe about irrational things.

My only real Ops issue of the day is that I couldn’t get my mobile order to go through at Three Broomsticks (a beer at 9:45am, so maybe I was the problem). So I got up and left, but I found that they sell Pseudo Sue in Jurassic Park, so that was a win.

The Virtual Line system is straight up trash, but that’s not Ops’ fault.
 
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Jerroddragon

Jerroddragon

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  • Jun 3, 2020
  • #574
redy2468 said:
It appears that Universal has released branded face masks:

Click to expand...

I want these, I hope that Hollywood since its opening later has some different styles ready to go day one. Think Harry Potter ones based around the 4 houses would sell out

Also its nice letting Florida do all this testing, get the kinds out of the Virtual Q's and see that I should not ever bring a bag into the parks until things go back to normal
 
ThemeParks4Life

ThemeParks4Life

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  • Jun 3, 2020
  • #575
Uni's price for masks is one for $6 or three for $15. I got the AP design, and it feels great when walking outside. It never slipped once for the 6-ish hours I was wearing it.
 
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Wonders_Of_Life

Wonders_Of_Life

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  • Jun 3, 2020
  • #576
Bobharlem said:
If you are going tomorrow or later this week, get reservations for the sit down restaurants in park now (Finnegans/Mythos/Confisco/Lombards). The food lines were kinda crazy with the new rules. Finnegan's bar isn't going (but may start Friday), but the restaurant is. But GET RESERVATIONS, walk ups are usually 2+ hour waits with the reduced capacity. But sit down w/ reservation is a breeze, any other quick serve food place had long lines (didn't matter if you mobile ordered or not in most cases).
Click to expand...
I called for Mythos for the 6th and they said they’re only taking walk ups.
 
Wonders_Of_Life

Wonders_Of_Life

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Joined
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Messages
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  • Jun 3, 2020
  • #577
HandsomePete said:
I concur - of the issues I encountered today, distancing was not really one.

There is an inherent risk involved with attending a theme park right now. If you adhere to proper precautions and such, it’s ok to attend. If you want to be wrapped in a bubble, then don’t go. It’s not fair to the TMs who worked hard today to gripe about irrational things.

My only real Ops issue of the day is that I couldn’t get my mobile order to go through at Three Broomsticks (a beer at 9:45am, so maybe I was the problem). So I got up and left, but I found that they sell Pseudo Sue in Jurassic Park, so that was a win.

The Virtual Line system is straight up trash, but that’s not Ops’ fault.
Click to expand...
Are some attractions ONLY offering VQ?
 
B

Bobharlem

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Joined
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  • Jun 4, 2020
  • #578
Wonders_Of_Life said:
I called for Mythos for the 6th and they said they’re only taking walk ups.
Click to expand...

Mythos

bentobox Reservation

Find a table online and make bookings for Mythos in real time
www.nextable.com www.nextable.com

Finnegans - Zomato Book Reservation
Confisco's Grill - Zomato Book Reservation
Lombard's Landing - Zomato Book Reservation
 
Last edited: Jun 4, 2020
GAcoaster

GAcoaster

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  • Jun 4, 2020
  • #579
Busch Gardens and SeaWorld will both require reservations when they re-open and reservations go live on their websites on Monday, the 8th at 10:00 AM:

Busch Gardens Theme Park Tickets | Busch Gardens Tampa Bay

Buy Busch Gardens tickets and enjoy over fifty thrilling rides, shows and attractions. Find the best value with single-day and multi-park tickets starting as low as $89.99!
buschgardens.com buschgardens.com

seaworld.com

SeaWorld Tickets - Florida Theme Park Tickets | SeaWorld Orlando

Visit our family-friendly theme park. Meet your favorite marine animals and ride thrilling roller coasters. Buy your tickets today!
seaworld.com seaworld.com
 
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Bobharlem

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  • Jun 4, 2020
  • #580
Right now is about the time the temp check lines got absurd yesterday, anyone know how it went today?
 
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