May 7, 21. The park has carried social distancing to such an extreme that it has created unacceptable wait times. By noon the minimum wait time was 60 minutes on all attractions, by 1:30 it was 80 minutes on the smallest and 120-180 on the large attractions, by 3:00 Jurassic Park was 240 minutes and the studio tour was 150, with all others hovering at 100 minutes in line. The park closed at 6:00 PM- you could not wait 240 minutes and get a ride before the close, do the math.
On this day, attendance was cut off at 9,000, I was told the usual Summer attendance is 45,000. But they are restricting the number of people that can take a ride to 15% of occupancy.
Why? Because one family per row on rides, meaning that rides have 7 seats but only 2 people per row, every other row. On the park tour the ride had 7 rows, 3 were empty, 3 rows had only 2 people in them. That is 6 people in 35 seats. On commercial aircraft the passengers are seated one seat apart, unless a family group. The occupied rows could have held twice as many passengers and still been distant.
I note that someone else bought the Express ticket and said they rode all rides twice. Before Covid we rode HPx4, Mummy x3, Transformersx4, Jurassicx3, and Hippogriff x 6, on a weekday with very light attendance, 9,000, same as Friday. I understand that this was very unusual. Yesterday we had 2 rides all day.
By my estimates, Jurassic had 8 rows with 7 seats, 56 seats. I saw one boat with 1 occupant. We watched the raptor and I saw several boats go by, the most people I saw in any boat was 13. Every other row is empty. On the park tour, our car had 8 rows of 7 seats, again 56 seats. Our car had 14 people. Both examples had family groups of more than 7, otherwise it would have been 2 people per row for a total of, maybe 10 in 56 seats.
Mask enforcement is poor. The temp taker said nothing to the man in front of us without a mask, neither did the security guard. When I asked them about it they did not even realize he had no mask, brain dead, going through the motions in rote. Well, it is poor enforcement unless you are 7 years old and then you are constantly reminded by security to put your mask on.
Sanitizing food tables is good, after every patron.
What is the take away? Buy the one day Universal Express ticket to cut the line, at a cost of $189-269. Of course this does not work if you have an annual pass of any kind. Or get the VIP package$$$$. Or plan your visit to arrive before the park opens, RUN to the most popular ride then Run to the next big ride you want, and try to finish riding attractions by 1 pm. Don't do any shopping until after 2 PM. Eat lunch late. (IMO- Panda Express is the best bargain, $16 for a large portion of food that can be shared). Or visit Citywalk for food at lunch, there was no line to get back into the park at 3.
Oh, and if you want to buy any souvenirs, be sure to take out a line of credit on your home equity. Citywalk stores will welcome you with discounts and bargains.
Or, go to the LA Zoo and the Observatory.
We cannot wait to go back.