While we’re all about dishing up Disney news, we recently went to Universal Studios to do a little theme park reopening recon!
Jurassic Park River Adventure at Universal
And while we don’t know exactly what Disney World’s theme parks will be like when Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom reopen on July 11th followed by Epcot and Hollywood Studios on July 15th, we do have a better idea of you can expect!
While we already shared six of the most surprising things we saw at Universal’s reopening, our experience at the newly re-opened theme parks also gave us some critical insight! Some of which we’ll definitely be applying to our first trip back to Disney World! Here are six of the most important things we learned from yesterday’s big outing!
3D Glasses Fog Up
While wearing masks on attractions wasn’t that big of a deal (especially once we realized they stayed in place on rollercoasters thanks to all that SPEED!), we had a harder time wearing face masks on some of Universal’s 3D experiences!
3D Glasses Are Now Handed To You on Rides Like Skull Island: Reign of Kong
Hey, ya gotta breathe, right? But for those of you who don’t normally wear glasses AND face masks, you might not be familiar with this pesky little problem! Those pesky masks direct your breath right up to the glasses! We had some foggy lenses on Escape from Gringotts and Skull Island: Reign of Kong thanks to our bodies requiring oxygen!
Skull Island: Reign of Kong
It’s unclear if Disney’s 3D shows such as It’s Tough to be a Bug at Animal Kingdom or Mickey’s Philharmagic at Magic Kingdom will resume right away since these attractions are housed in large indoor theaters, but there are a few 3D rides such as Toy Story Midway Mania and Star Tours that might pose a problem! If you wear the 3D glasses slightly over your mask, that should help cut down on those foggy lenses and help you see better!
Check out what our experience was like wearing a face covering on Universal’s rides here!
Bring a Back-Up
While we didn’t have to pull out our spare face masks we brought with us yesterday, we were happy to have them — just in case! One of our friends wasn’t so lucky and lost hers on a ride (Universal is allowing its guests to remove their masks once they’re seated on water rides, but she didn’t properly secure hers and it flew off her lap!). They didn’t have a disposable one to give her, so it left our friend in a strange situation.
New Face Masks on Display at Universal
Luckily, Universal has plenty of face masks for sale, but we’d rather not chance it when Disney World reopens! What if it rains or falls off the table while your eating and gets stepped on? Like we said– it’s much easier to just have a dry, clean mask ready to go in case we need one instead of covering our faces while frantically searching the gift shops for a replacement!
You’ll Be On Your Phone — A LOT!
Between all the pictures we like to take at the parks as well as how frequently we’re using the My Disney Experience app to change dining reservations and to mobile order our meals, we already on our phones a lot at Disney World! And yesterday we realized we were on our phones even MORE at Universal since so much of the theme park experience has now been switched over to the app!
Mobile Order Menu
We were draining our batteries a lot faster reversing spots in the virtual lines, looking up where the URest “relaxation zones” were located on the map, and well as getting all of our mobile ordering done!
Universal’s mobile order was struggling yesterday! Learn more here!
Universal Has U-Rest Areas Similar to Disney World’s Relaxation Zones Where Guests Can Temporarily Remove Their Masks
Take our advice and bring a charging cable and portable back-up battery so that you don’t completely drain your device — almost everything is done on your phone now that the parks reopen, so you gotta keep it juiced! FuelRods are available at Universal, but if you’d rather not interact with one more heavily touched area, we recommend packing your own.
Learn more about Universal’s URest Areas here!
Plan on Taking Your Own Photos
It’s likely when Disney World reopens, you won’t be able to hand a Cast Member your device to snap a pic of you and your crew.
It’s Spider-Man!
Disney hasn’t officially made a statement on this matter, but a leader of one of Disney World’s unions has said Cast Members won’t be taking photos for guests. This has also been our experience since being back at Universal Studios — you can still take all the selfies you want and photos of characters from a distance, though! And team members aren’t able to take these fun photos for ya.
Click here to see more about this potential change in Disney World
Longer Waits
Despite having reserved ride times, we still ended up waiting to get on attractions for a good 20-30 minutes at Univeral. This was due largely to the ride vehicles being loaded with guests every-other row, and lots of cleaning occurring between guests.
Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure
Elevators at the hotels can only operate with one party at a time. Mobile order pick-up lines were bananas. Everything in general just seemed to take a little longer, despite fewer people being inside the parks. We’re not sure what the sitch will be at Disney World, but it might be a good time to start brushing up your patiently-waiting skills.
Click here to learn more about Universal’s Virtual Lines
You Might Need to Space Out Your Rides A Little Differently
Something we’ll definitely be on the lookout for when Disney World reopens is how the normally higher capacity rides will be operating. While Universal attractions such as Skull Island: Reign of Kong and Fast & Furious — Supercharged are usually super-efficient at getting guests on and off, we noticed other attractions like The Incredible Hulk Coaster were loading a lot faster.
Fast & Furious
We think rides like Flight of Passage might take longer to disinfect between guests versus something with fewer components such as Big Thunder Railroad Moutain or Peter Pan’s Flight. It’s definitely something we’ll be thinking about if we’ll be stacking more complicated rides back-to-back since we don’t want to be late and miss our window!
Krusty and Sideshow Bob
We’ll be carefully considering all of these things before Disney World reopens, but of course, we’ll be at the theme parks on July 11th so that’ you’ll know exactly what’s going on and how to navigate a newly re-opened Disney World like a pro!
Take a look inside one of Universal Studios’ newly reopened hotels here!
Have you been to Universal since it reopened? What tips or tricks did you pick up? Let us know in the comments below!
From our friends at www.disneyfoodblog.com
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