ruthies12
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2011
Went to Universal from 9/17 to 9/20 stayed at Hard Rock. Here are a few thoughts/opinions-
Hard Rock- They are only allowing entry into the hotel from the front entrance and the entrance by the water taxi. There is a person there taking your temp and giving you a wrist band. If you have a wrist band with that days color already you can just show it and walk past. You have to get a new wrist band every day. You can exit from any door, but you can't go back in those other doors so no more cutting through the pool or end of the hallway doors on the way back from the parks at night no matter where your room is. Pack a pair of scissors in your luggage so you can cut your wristbands off at night. They are the waxy paper type wristbands and will hold up to swimming and showering and are difficult to rip off.
Also no more housekeeping during your stay. I always find hotel room trashcans to be too small so brought a few regular sized trash bags and that helped contain the trash since they aren't picking up your trash. You can order more towels to your room and they leave them in a bag on your door, but you end up with a pile of towels in your bathroom since they aren't picking up the dirty ones.
Parks- were very crowded. Saturday and Sunday were packed, Thursday and Friday were moderate. Lines were very long, for rides and for food. Some of the restaurants aren't open and we had to wait between a half hour to an hour every time we wanted a drink or something to eat in the park. If you can grab food in City Walk or your hotel, do so. Don't wait until you get hungry to get in line for food! I got very dehydrated because water was so difficult to get, ended up with a horrible pounding headache that would not go away. I finally learned to grab a few of the free waters or buy a water bottle every time I saw a shorter line at a cart or stand cause they were few and far between.
Lockers- if you can avoid the lockers do so at all costs right now. They are trying to social distance people in the locker areas so you have to wait in a line to go to a locker, then wait in line for the ride, then wait in line again at the end to go back to your locker. At rip ride rocket and hulk, the lines for the lockers were longer than the lines for the rides. I will post some pics to show the lines for the lockers, it was crazy. We were a party of 2 adults so a couple times we just handed each other our stuff and rode separately since we had EP. There is no express line for the lockers lol.
Masks- there is no getting around it, the masks were awful. Our biggest issue was that it was just so dang hot, the realfeel one day was 101. If you can go in cooler temps you will be better off. There were workers standing on the sidewalks in some areas with bullhorns just yelling at people to wear their mask properly, we still saw several people trying to wear them pulled down, not covering their nose, etc. They will yell at you over the loudspeaker if you take your mask off on the rides, especially the train. they are warning everyone when they give their little spiel at the train that you are under surveillance and to keep your mask on. We still heard the loudspeaker several times with things like "Cabin G you must wear your mask while riding" so there were obviously still people who thought they could get away with it (insert eye roll). we found our masks fogged up our 3D glasses, the 3D rides were a huge pain to us with masks.
Also we both found that we got more motion sickness on this trip than we have in the past. Usually we both take meclizine and we are good to go, but this time we kept getting dizzy and nauseous. I'm not sure, but I think it was cause of the heat and hot air on our faces from the masks.
Social Distancing- is ridiculous. They yell at everyone to remain apart in the lines, they leave rows and seats empty on the rides to keep you apart, then they just let you exit all at once so you end up bunched together in the hallways/stairs/gift shops. There is no social distancing in the exits whatsoever so if you are concerned with keeping your distance, make sure you always exit last I guess.
Mobile Order- make sure you have the app, certain restaurants require mobile ordering. If you want to get your food faster, put your order in while you are standing in line and then tell the person seating you that you have already ordered. You need the number that pops up after placing your mobile order, make sure to screen shot it cause we had it disappear a few times and had difficulties. Some places have separate pickup spots for mobile orders but they are not marked in any way, you have to ask where it is. For example at the Hopping Pot the line to order was wrapped all the way around and backed up to the front of Weasley's Wizards Wheezes shop (no, sadly I'm not exaggerating), but if you mobile order you can just walk up to the cashier on the far left and tell them you have a mobile order and they will make it right then and you bypass the whole line.
Early Entry- was awesome and worth it. At US side on Friday we did early entry and used the time to browse the shops in diagon alley with hardly anyone around us. At IOA on Saturday and Sunday we rode Hagrid's twice before 9 o'clock and was able to snag virtual que times on the app while standing in the line before 9, so we got to ride again after virtual que started. All 3 days we arrived at the parks around 7:45ish and they were already scanning people in. The line for Hagrids started in the front of Suess landing which was a very nice way for them to get everyone organized so people weren't running/cutting. We did have a group of young guys push past us one morning and get in front of us in the line, but then they ended up on the back of their motorbike train and we got front row, so yeah karma!
That's all I can think of for now, I'll post more if I think of anything
Hard Rock- They are only allowing entry into the hotel from the front entrance and the entrance by the water taxi. There is a person there taking your temp and giving you a wrist band. If you have a wrist band with that days color already you can just show it and walk past. You have to get a new wrist band every day. You can exit from any door, but you can't go back in those other doors so no more cutting through the pool or end of the hallway doors on the way back from the parks at night no matter where your room is. Pack a pair of scissors in your luggage so you can cut your wristbands off at night. They are the waxy paper type wristbands and will hold up to swimming and showering and are difficult to rip off.
Also no more housekeeping during your stay. I always find hotel room trashcans to be too small so brought a few regular sized trash bags and that helped contain the trash since they aren't picking up your trash. You can order more towels to your room and they leave them in a bag on your door, but you end up with a pile of towels in your bathroom since they aren't picking up the dirty ones.
Parks- were very crowded. Saturday and Sunday were packed, Thursday and Friday were moderate. Lines were very long, for rides and for food. Some of the restaurants aren't open and we had to wait between a half hour to an hour every time we wanted a drink or something to eat in the park. If you can grab food in City Walk or your hotel, do so. Don't wait until you get hungry to get in line for food! I got very dehydrated because water was so difficult to get, ended up with a horrible pounding headache that would not go away. I finally learned to grab a few of the free waters or buy a water bottle every time I saw a shorter line at a cart or stand cause they were few and far between.
Lockers- if you can avoid the lockers do so at all costs right now. They are trying to social distance people in the locker areas so you have to wait in a line to go to a locker, then wait in line for the ride, then wait in line again at the end to go back to your locker. At rip ride rocket and hulk, the lines for the lockers were longer than the lines for the rides. I will post some pics to show the lines for the lockers, it was crazy. We were a party of 2 adults so a couple times we just handed each other our stuff and rode separately since we had EP. There is no express line for the lockers lol.
Masks- there is no getting around it, the masks were awful. Our biggest issue was that it was just so dang hot, the realfeel one day was 101. If you can go in cooler temps you will be better off. There were workers standing on the sidewalks in some areas with bullhorns just yelling at people to wear their mask properly, we still saw several people trying to wear them pulled down, not covering their nose, etc. They will yell at you over the loudspeaker if you take your mask off on the rides, especially the train. they are warning everyone when they give their little spiel at the train that you are under surveillance and to keep your mask on. We still heard the loudspeaker several times with things like "Cabin G you must wear your mask while riding" so there were obviously still people who thought they could get away with it (insert eye roll). we found our masks fogged up our 3D glasses, the 3D rides were a huge pain to us with masks.
Also we both found that we got more motion sickness on this trip than we have in the past. Usually we both take meclizine and we are good to go, but this time we kept getting dizzy and nauseous. I'm not sure, but I think it was cause of the heat and hot air on our faces from the masks.
Social Distancing- is ridiculous. They yell at everyone to remain apart in the lines, they leave rows and seats empty on the rides to keep you apart, then they just let you exit all at once so you end up bunched together in the hallways/stairs/gift shops. There is no social distancing in the exits whatsoever so if you are concerned with keeping your distance, make sure you always exit last I guess.
Mobile Order- make sure you have the app, certain restaurants require mobile ordering. If you want to get your food faster, put your order in while you are standing in line and then tell the person seating you that you have already ordered. You need the number that pops up after placing your mobile order, make sure to screen shot it cause we had it disappear a few times and had difficulties. Some places have separate pickup spots for mobile orders but they are not marked in any way, you have to ask where it is. For example at the Hopping Pot the line to order was wrapped all the way around and backed up to the front of Weasley's Wizards Wheezes shop (no, sadly I'm not exaggerating), but if you mobile order you can just walk up to the cashier on the far left and tell them you have a mobile order and they will make it right then and you bypass the whole line.
Early Entry- was awesome and worth it. At US side on Friday we did early entry and used the time to browse the shops in diagon alley with hardly anyone around us. At IOA on Saturday and Sunday we rode Hagrid's twice before 9 o'clock and was able to snag virtual que times on the app while standing in the line before 9, so we got to ride again after virtual que started. All 3 days we arrived at the parks around 7:45ish and they were already scanning people in. The line for Hagrids started in the front of Suess landing which was a very nice way for them to get everyone organized so people weren't running/cutting. We did have a group of young guys push past us one morning and get in front of us in the line, but then they ended up on the back of their motorbike train and we got front row, so yeah karma!
That's all I can think of for now, I'll post more if I think of anything
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