Universal's "Getting Closer to Normal" Guidelines

[Mad Dog]

Leaving in a few hours for the long drive to Universal. Ten nights at CBBR and Portofino for our fav time of the year, Holidays, at Universal. We're also slumming it for a day at MK for Mickey's Overpriced Christmas
Party. Looks like good weather this year, a big contrast to the Orlando Nov. Holiday freeze back in 2019, the last 'full' Christmas celebration. . Sooo, I'll be signing off until we come back. ....

 

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

Florida now has the best covid confirmed case rate among all the states at a 7 day daily average of seven cases per hundred thousand residents (Wash Post). Way to go Florida, with my Orlando vacation only 16 days away.
Guess there's not much dry timber left to infect .

And as NH rises..... I....... escape to Florida? Getting my booster soon so.... Man this world is wild lol. I do genuinely think your last sentence has to have SOME affect to Florida doing so well, sadly.

Enjoy your trip!

 

[DK745]

The announcement over the PA they play repeatedly says to still practice social distancing between your party and others. Then you get to attractions and they tell you to keep moving forward and fill in all available space in the room. A bit confusing on the messaging but feels like it's pretty much back to normal other than the PA spiel recommending you still wear masks while indoors.

ET still wasn't doing any pre-show or taking names.

 

[Frank Drackman]

Leaving in a few hours for the long drive to Universal. Ten nights at CBBR and Portofino for our fav time of the year, Holidays, at Universal. We're also slumming it for a day at MK for Mickey's Overpriced Christmas
Party. Looks like good weather this year, a big contrast to the Orlando Nov. Holiday freeze back in 2019, the last 'full' Christmas celebration. . Sooo, I'll be signing off until we come back. ....

hope you lot are having fun, the weather has been great (I guess you had some rain at the start). I never seem to make it to that side of town. I do know (while I am sitting at work) I keep thinking 'what a great day to visit the parks!

 

[Eckert]

The announcement over the PA they play repeatedly says to still practice social distancing between your party and others. Then you get to attractions and they tell you to keep moving forward and fill in all available space in the room. A bit confusing on the messaging but feels like it's pretty much back to normal other than the PA spiel recommending you still wear masks while indoors.

Today will be the first day vaccinated Team Members will no longer have to wear masks indoors, which seems to me like the last piece of the puzzle for Universal's back to normal protocol. I'd love for the spiel to go away at this point because its borderline ironic in certain areas of the park.

 

[shiekra38]

Today will be the first day vaccinated Team Members will no longer have to wear masks indoors, which seems to me like the last piece of the puzzle for Universal's back to normal protocol. I'd love for the spiel to go away at this point because its borderline ironic in certain areas of the park.

They should change it to say "please hover behind other guests in line for no reason and stop with your entire family in the middle of the walkways"

Only then will we have returned to normal

 

[jseal777]

They should change it to say "please hover behind other guests in line for no reason and stop with your entire family in the middle of the walkways"

Only then will we have returned to normal

"please continue walking in a straight line in a crowded walk way, and then for no apparent reason do a complete 180 and start walking in the other direction without warning. and be sure to point with your arm fully extended to random parts of the park in crowded walk ways, ensuring that your arm is in the direct path of other visitors!"

 

[Eckert]

Just chiming in to say I was at the park yesterday and the spiel is still going...conveniently every time the best part of the song is gonna play too!

 

[shiekra38]

Just chiming in to say I was at the park yesterday and the spiel is still going...conveniently every time the best part of the song is gonna play too!

I like getting some solace from the Christmas music

Only one more month until my beautiful loop is restored

I'm mostly talking about Drops of Jupiter of course

 

[Mad Dog]

hope you lot are having fun, the weather has been great (I guess you had some rain at the start). I never seem to make it to that side of town. I do know (while I am sitting at work) I keep thinking 'what a great day to visit the parks!

Weather was considerably better than Nov. 2019, and way less rain than June 2021 trip. . We even did a few pool days at Portofino under a sunny warm sky. A couple afternoons with a bit of light rain, but on the whole, a very good trip.
Universal holidays are really good now, and we talked to sooo many Universal first timers that really loved what Universal is doing....plus...they loved the hotel rates compared to what they paid at Disney. Universal went full in on their Holiday Parade....especially compared to that weak Mickey's Christmas Party Parade that was like a Cavalcade Plus, nothing like past night parades. But Minnies Fireworks show was fabulous.

 

[GA-MBIT]

Hearing that a lot of the Character Performer teams have been working hard to get 90%-100% Vaccination rates so they can go back to contact Meet & Greets asap. Beetlejuice performers are at 100% and are already fully back in the street hanging out with guests as of about two weeks ago. I've heard so far most of the teams have gotten pretty close, if not already reached that goal.

Tentative (and a slight bit speculative) January date for a return to contact Meet and Greets.

 

[hidepak]

Just wondering if they have started doing pre-shows again? I've never seen the Hagrid Motorbike shows. I was thinking of hitting the parks over winter break and was curious if they are still stopped for covid?

 

[Mad Dog]

Just wondering if they have started doing pre-shows again? I've never seen the Hagrid Motorbike shows. I was thinking of hitting the parks over winter break and was curious if they are still stopped for covid?

Hagrid's is the 'only' pre show I noticed missing when I was at Universal in mid November. That may be more of the matter of a constant line for Hagrid's stretching outside for a good bit, than anything about covid. For example, Gringotts pre show & elevator show are densely packed. .

 

[Clive]

Just wondering if they have started doing pre-shows again? I've never seen the Hagrid Motorbike shows. I was thinking of hitting the parks over winter break and was curious if they are still stopped for covid?

The Hagrid preshow seems to be hit or miss at this point. It was running exactly once during my trip in October, so it's definitely turned on every now and again.

 

[kingcooger]

The Hagrid preshow seems to be hit or miss at this point. It was running exactly once during my trip in October, so it's definitely turned on every now and again.

I can confirm this.

I was there in early October and for the most part they were waving all of us through. One time, they suddenly stopped the group behind us, shut the doors, and the show started.

I missed it by seconds and I was so disappointed.

 

[PenguinCowboy]

I can confirm this.

I was there in early October and for the most part they were waving all of us through. One time, they suddenly stopped the group behind us, shut the doors, and the show started.

I missed it by seconds and I was so disappointed.

Same thing happened to us in late September; missed the cutoff by about 3 people and was kind of bummed I didn't get to see it in person. TM said it wasn't a COVID thing, almost the opposite actually, rather it was to prevent too much of a line from building up outside. I would put that explanation a hair above the Dippin' Dots stand guy level of accuracy, haha.

 

[HHN Maddux]

The constant announcement about current COVID rules has been changed again, now just a very calm "we encourage to wear masks where recommended". I think next step is it just going away entirely.

 

[GA-MBIT]

Interplanetary passports are BACK!!! eace:



That should mean all the preshows have returned to at least partial operation, right? Maybe the Hagrids queue is a little by the day? Still crazy that we're finally this close to the everything being back.

 

[shiekra38]

That's a shame I kind of enjoy the rides without the pre-shows and didn't miss them

So happy everything is returning to normal

 

[Brian G.]