Live TR - 8/18-8/23

[jwatts64]

Hello -

I’ve never posted before, but have learned a lot from these forums so I thought I’d share brief observations from our ongoing trip.

My son (17) and I arrived at the Hard Rock Hotel last night around 7:30. The hotel feels almost empty. There were a few folks at the pool and a couple parties walking around, but that’s it. Masks on everyone. The room was clean and in order. No daily cleaning service.

We walked to Citywalk and ate at Margaritaville. No crowds anywhere; pretty much 100% mask compliance. Short line at Voodoo Donut. At 8:15 there was a 30 min wait for a table at Toothsome, just for reference.

I am now having breakfast at The Kitchen and there is only one other party in the restaurant. No one has entered in the last 45 min. Food is good, but a little overpriced.

My son is doing some online school in the room (WiFi is good), and we will hit the parks soon.

I will provide an update on the parks after today’s activities.

 

[Polyonmymind]

Awesome, thanks for sharing this. We'll be there in 2 weeks, I am looking forward to reading about your trip. Proud of your son doing school work on vacation!

 

[DisneyLifePapioNe]

Hello -

I’ve never posted before, but have learned a lot from these forums so I thought I’d share brief observations from our ongoing trip.

My son (17) and I arrived at the Hard Rock Hotel last night around 7:30. The hotel feels almost empty. There were a few folks at the pool and a couple parties walking around, but that’s it. Masks on everyone. The room was clean and in order. No daily cleaning service.

We walked to Citywalk and ate at Margaritaville. No crowds anywhere; pretty much 100% mask compliance. Short line at Voodoo Donut. At 8:15 there was a 30 min wait for a table at Toothsome, just for reference.

I am now having breakfast at The Kitchen and there is only one other party in the restaurant. No one has entered in the last 45 min. Food is good, but a little overpriced.

My son is doing some online school in the room (WiFi is good), and we will hit the parks soon.

I will provide an update on the parks after today’s activities.

Well there is no better way to start posting then to do a trip report!!!

Excellent choice in Hard Rock!!

I agree about the pricing, but hey it’s a vacation.....money and calories don’t matter!

Have a great time!!!!

 

[allaboutthemouse]

Hello -

I’ve never posted before, but have learned a lot from these forums so I thought I’d share brief observations from our ongoing trip.

My son (17) and I arrived at the Hard Rock Hotel last night around 7:30. The hotel feels almost empty. There were a few folks at the pool and a couple parties walking around, but that’s it. Masks on everyone. The room was clean and in order. No daily cleaning service.

We walked to Citywalk and ate at Margaritaville. No crowds anywhere; pretty much 100% mask compliance. Short line at Voodoo Donut. At 8:15 there was a 30 min wait for a table at Toothsome, just for reference.

I am now having breakfast at The Kitchen and there is only one other party in the restaurant. No one has entered in the last 45 min. Food is good, but a little overpriced.

My son is doing some online school in the room (WiFi is good), and we will hit the parks soon.

I will provide an update on the parks after today’s activities.

Please keep posting if you can, I’ll be following along!

 

[jwatts64]

Intra-day update:

We went to Universal Studios today. We did not take advantage of the early admission and entered the park around 9:30.

There are no crowds at all. I’ve been a Disney AP for years and I’ve never seen a main Orlando park this empty in August. I’m currently sitting in a rest area near the Springfield section drinking a Duff beer (why not?) and there is nobody here. I don’t think anybody would hear me if I yelled.

By early afternoon we had ridden all the rides, and many multiple times. Walked straight on Gringotts, MIB, Fallon and others without needing to use the Express pass. The one mistake we made was not using the pass on the Simpson’s ride. We’ve never been here before, so we didn’t want to miss any of the theming in the lines. But, there’s really none for this ride, and the wait was the longest we experienced - about 30 min. I believe this ride must have a lower number of riders per hour than other rides. If you have an express pass and want to ride this ride, definitely use it.

Other observations:

Mask use virtually 100%.

TMs will correct people who are not wearing masks properly (covering nose) or social distancing.

Leaky Cauldron forces mobile ordering with the app. No choice. I presume other counter service locations do, too. It’s easy, but ensure you set up your payment method beforehand.

Wizards Brew is a dark beer (it was good). Everyone here probably knowthat, but I had no idea. Duff seems to be a lager, but I’m not 100% sure.

I think the best rides at USO are Gringotts, Rip Ride Rocket, and The Mummy. My 17 yr old agrees, but he may like The Mummy best.

The mask tends to fog my 3D glasses, and many rides use them. I basically have no choice but to cheat and lower the mask below my nose while on the ride.

That’s all for now. Thanks for the nice replies to my first post.

JW

 

[schumigirl]

Glad to have you along on the Universal boards jwatts.....

Sounds like a nice quiet crowd time for you while you`re there....and you did choose some of the best rides as your favourites

Nice start to your trip report, it`s nice to have a live one....we don`t get many of them......have fun

 

[jwatts64]

Daily wrap-up:

CityWalk crowds light again tonight. A few folks with masks down / off; my guess is that it was “mask fatigue” from a full day in the parks. Light crowds meant social distancing was easy, though.

We ate dinner at Toothsome; it was about a 40 min wait without reservations. I believe most of the other restaurants had pretty much no wait, though. Toothsome was very good and the milkshakes were fantastic. I’d recommend it.

I forgot to mention earlier - as others have noted the TMs squirt sanitizer in your hands before you get on every ride. You end up sanitizing your hands A LOT.

That’s it. IOA tomorrow.

JW

 

[DisneyLifePapioNe]

Daily wrap-up:

CityWalk crowds light again tonight. A few folks with masks down / off; my guess is that it was “mask fatigue” from a full day in the parks. Light crowds meant social distancing was easy, though.

We ate dinner at Toothsome; it was about a 40 min wait without reservations. I believe most of the other restaurants had pretty much no wait, though. Toothsome was very good and the milkshakes were fantastic. I’d recommend it.

I forgot to mention earlier - as others have noted the TMs squirt sanitizer in your hands before you get on every ride. You end up sanitizing your hands A LOT.

That’s it. IOA tomorrow.

JW

You have posted some great info and glad to hear of another great Toothsome experience!!!

Thank You!!

 

[Lynne G]

Wow, nice you are having such great weather and time. Thank you for your live updates, helps me a lot, as arriving late next month.

 

[jwatts64]

Daily update -

We went to Islands of Adventure today. My son had some schoolwork to do, so we arrived at the park around 11. Crowds were light - just a bit more crowded than USO yesterday. Still, we had ridden everything by 3pm.

It’s now 5 and I’m sitting on the porch out the back of the Hog’s Head bar drinking the Hog’s Head Brew, which is an ale. Very quiet. However, the new Jurassic Park coaster is right next to this porch; when it’s running it definitely will not be quiet and peaceful here.

A few observations:

Mask use about 98%. Heat index a little greater today.

When Hagrid’s wait is posted at 45 min it will actually take slightly less than 30. Did this twice.

Kong doesn’t get nearly enough good press. We both thought it was fantastic. Certainly on par with Gringotts, and perhaps Avatar and Rise of the Resistance at Disney.

Universal does not play games with their water rides. We rode the raft ride (Bluto’s, I think) and got totally soaked. I’ve ridden a lot of these kinds of rides and there’s always a chance you will get missed - not this one. It’s one of the best I’ve ridden, but you couldn’t be any wetter if you jumped in a pool. Ripsaw Falls will get you very wet, too.

Wimpy’s hamburgers was open, so we ate that for lunch. Above average for a theme park burger.

Dr Doom’s Free Fall should be called Dr Doom’s Quick Ascent. There’s really no fall at all. I expected something like Tower of Terror. Nope. Unless you are really bored or just looking to do every ride, you can skip it. You won’t be missing anything.

That’s all I can think of. I may go ride Hagrids one more time before heading back to the hotel...

JW

 

[jwatts64]

Here is something I just learned - the Universal parks and Citywalk have separate liquor licenses. This means you cannot bring a drink across the boundary.

I bought a beer on my way out of IOA and figured I’d drink it on my walk. Stopped at the gate.

They will let you take a drink on the train between parks; they must share the same license.

The more you know...

JW

 

[DisneyLifePapioNe]

A question was elsewhere about mask wearing while at the pool? Can you update us on that procedure?

 

[jwatts64]

A question was elsewhere about mask wearing while at the pool? Can you update us on that procedure?

I have not been to the pool, but will grab some towels there tomorrow before going to VB so I will check.

 

[DisneyLifePapioNe]

I have not been to the pool, but will grab some towels there tomorrow before going to VB so I will check.

Thank you!

 

[jwatts64]

Went to Bob Marley’s for dinner. It was very good and we enjoyed it. CityWalk was not crowded at all.

 

[jwatts64]

A question was elsewhere about mask wearing while at the pool? Can you update us on that procedure?

I just checked - it looks like there is no expectation of masks in the pool area. Nobody walking around or laying on the chairs is wearing one. Certainly not in the pool, of course.

 

[jwatts64]

Daily update -

Volcano Bay today. We took a bus from HRH around 9am and were first in line when it opened to resort guests at 9:30.

VB is fantastic. Disney has water parks with good themes. VB is a theme park that has exclusively water slides. We were very impressed. Crowds were light and it was easy to socially distance. This will be important to some, since nobody wears masks at the park except at dining venues (and then only in line, not at the table).

We rode everything at least once, and the best rides multiple times, had lunch, and were done by 2:30. If you go to VB and want to ride all the rides, be prepared to climb a lot of stairs. But it’s well worth it; I will certainly return. I don’t have a single negative thing to say about VB; it’s great.

We went back to the hotel, changed, and then went to IOA. It was a little more crowded than yesterday, but not bad. We rode Hulk, Kong, HPFJ, and Hagrids. There were storms in the area, and I’ve learned that Universal is pretty risk-averse in this regard, so the outdoor rides were down for about an hour. When Hagrids opened back up the wait time said 70 min (people just stayed in line through the delay), but we got through in about 40.

We just returned from dinner at Vivo in CityWalk. It was very good and I’d recommend it without hesitation. We had reservations; the waitlist time at 7pm was 45 min.

Observations / tips:

The back part of VB doesn’t open at 9:30 to resort guests; it opens at 10. You can’t access the area before then.

Lockers at VB cost $16 for unlimited in/out. Very handy. I’d bypass the ones at the front of the park and use the ones deeper into the park on the right side; not nearly as hectic.

Ride the acquacoaster as many times as you can before the park gets busy. It had an 80 min wait time by 2pm - and remember, the park was not crowded at all.

I think I’m spoiled and wouldn’t want to visit VB when it’s at it’s true, pre-virus capacity.

That’s all I can think of. Back to the parks tomorrow; I want to see the Bourne stunt show.

JW

 

[jwatts64]

Visited both USO and IOA today, and then dinner at Bigfire.

The hotel and parks were more crowded today. In normal times I’d call the crowds in the parks light to moderate. Mask compliance still very high. It takes more effort to socially distance, but it’s still possible almost all the time.

Ride times got long quickly, and I was glad we had express passes. Maybe I’m spoiled now, but I’d only visit on a weekday if I didn’t have an express pass. Standby lines are long because they can’t fill ride vehicles anywhere near capacity due to social distancing.

Hagrids went virtual line at about 10:30. My son and I both tried to get reservations on our phones at that point, and only he was successful - for a 5:10 return time. It totally reminded me of trying to get a Rise of the Resistance boarding pass at Hollywood Studios. If you want to ride Hagrids, be at rope drop or go on a weekday. There’s no guarantee you will get a virtual line reservation.

Other notes:

Hogwarts Express is a must-do for any Harry Potter fan. It’s great, and different each direction.

The Bourne Stuntacular is worth your time. It’s very innovative and we really enjoyed it.

We ate breakfast at The Leaky Cauldron and I really don’t think it’s worth the trouble / cost. The food was just ok, and the atmosphere really isn’t as good as The Three Broomsticks. Additionally, today the entire staff acted like they didn’t want to be there. They forgot our drinks and we had to ask multiple times. Really the only bad service experience we have had this entire time.

You can get regular liquor at the Hogs Head. Butterbeer with two shots of Bacardi works. You have to order them separately and mix them once you are outside of the bar.

We enjoyed Bigfire and would recommend it. I’d be happy to go again.

That’s it. Tomorrow is our last day. We will go to the parks in the morning and leave at 3pm to catch our flight. I will post a wrap-up tomorrow afternoon / evening.

JW

 

[jwatts64]

Trip wrap-up -

We are now at the Orlando airport waiting for our flight home.

Another good day in the parks. We were determined to ride Hagrids, so we got to IOA at 9:20; it officially opened at 10. There were probably 100 people there before us.

They let us in the park at 9:35 and we walked straight to Hagrids (with pretty much everyone else). We walked straight on; the app was showing a 5 min wait. We got off Hagrids at 9:50, and at that time the ride switched to virtual line. There was no way to ride it twice via standby. We each made reservations on the app and got 12pm and 1pm return times.

I think they waited to transition it to virtual line just to give the folks who waited at rope drop a chance to get there and ride it. But you still had to be quick.

We went back and forth between parks and rode HPFJ, Gringotts, MIB, Simpsons, Mummy, and Kong (in addition to the three times in Hagrids). Crowds were about the same as Saturday - not “light” but not oppressive.

Final observations / tips:

The quickest way to get to Hagrids from the park entrance is to turn right into Seuss-land, then turn left in front of the Green Eggs and Ham stand. This is a shortcut to the other side of the Seuss area.

While on some rollercoasters it doesn’t matter what seat you have, the first row motorcycle on Hagrids is by far the best seat on the train.

We believe the four best rides are Hagrids, Kong, Gringotts, and Mummy. That’s the order my son chooses; I put Gringotts before Kong, but just barely.

We had a bunch of Voodoo Donuts on our trip. We think the very best is the one shaped like a Voodoo doll. It has a fantastic raspberry filling inside. A close second is the limited-time (I think) Annual Passholder donut. It has a strawberry lemonade filling. They will sell it to anybody; you don’t have to have an AP.

Overall, it was a great trip. It obviously depends on your personal comfort level, but if you are ok with it (and wearing a mask, which really isn’t that bad), I think this is really an excellent time to visit.

I hope this running TR has been helpful.

JW

 

[Dawn Peterson]

Daily update -

We went to Islands of Adventure today. My son had some schoolwork to do, so we arrived at the park around 11. Crowds were light - just a bit more crowded than USO yesterday. Still, we had ridden everything by 3pm.

It’s now 5 and I’m sitting on the porch out the back of the Hog’s Head bar drinking the Hog’s Head Brew, which is an ale. Very quiet. However, the new Jurassic Park coaster is right next to this porch; when it’s running it definitely will not be quiet and peaceful here.

A few observations:

Mask use about 98%. Heat index a little greater today.

When Hagrid’s wait is posted at 45 min it will actually take slightly less than 30. Did this twice.

That’s all I can think of. I may go ride Hagrids one more time before heading back to the hotel...

JW

About Hagrids. Is it virtual queue or waiting in standby? Might be a silly question but we haven’t been to Universal yet.