Trip Report It Wasn't Quite the Trip We Had Planned..June 2020

Hello everyone! We got back from our trip last week, and as you can all surmise, it didn't include much Disney !
First, let me introduce us in case you don't know us.

Me (Amy) and my husband Brian.

Our kids, Logan (17), Lily (15), and Owen (12).

Our original plan was to leave our house early in the morning on Tuesday, June 2 and spend 2 night at Staybridge Suites which is a partner hotel for SeaWorld and included a free tour in the park and free Quick Queue passes for our visit to SeaWorld on June 3. We were then set to check in to Caribbbean Beach Resort on June 4th and attend the Villains After Hours on June 5th. We had ADRs at 'Ohana, Boma, Beaches and Cream, and Whispering Canyon Cafe. Then we would transfer to Hard Rock Hotel on June 7th to spend the 8-11 at the Universal Parks and drive home on the 12th.
Well, we all know what happened to those plans!! First we learned that Disney wouldn't be open and we were forced to cancel our CBR stay. Then Universal announced that they would be opening on the 5th, and, finally, SeaWorld announced they were opening on the 11th. We went back and forth for quite awhile on whether we would go or not. We finally decided to give it a try because we all just needed a break! We decided to move Universal up a day so we could fit SeaWorld in at the end of the trip since they wouldn't be open for our original day. Our new plan: leave early morning on June 6 and drive to Hard Rock to start our Universal days on the 7th through the 10th, switch to Staybridge Suites and visit Disney Springs on the 11th, visit SeaWorld on the 12th, and drive home on the 13th. Still didn't work out that way, but we'll eventually get to that!!

I know that Universal and Disney World are two totally different beasts, but I am writing this in the hopes that something we experienced or learned at Universal will help some of you on your Disney trips that may still happen this year! (Sorry to the CKC peeps that have already heard some of this!)

Ok, let's get started!
We left Dayton, Ohio at about 1 am and made it to Hard Rock at about 4pm. We stopped at a Chick fil A in southern Tennessee for breakfast. The dining room was not open, so we had to eat in the car which we totally expected. We made it to the Florida Welcome Center at lunch time and ate a picnic style lunch that we had packed. Rest stops were about 50/50 with people wearing masks as compared to not. We always had ours on!

Check in at Hard Rock was super easy! You had to have a mask on to enter and they check your temperature right away and give you a wrist band that is good for the whole day so you don't have to have your temp taken each time you enter a park or your hotel. The color of the band changes every day. They had hand sanitizer in lots of places throughout the hotel and they had signs requesting only one party in the elevators at a time. The actual check in was the same except they had plexiglass between you and the team member and they didn't give you a paper map. They did not have daily housekeeping, but they text you shortly after check in and you can ask for anything you need by texting back and they take care of it for you.

We arrived in time to run to CityWalk for dinner. Security was the same to get in other than needing a mask and the hand sanitizer available. They did actually go through my bag instead of just running it through the machine which I thought was funny since that involves touching multiple people's things without changing gloves in between (we later found out that the scanner was not working). Most people kept masks on, but we did see some with them hanging from an ear or pulled down under their chin.

I love the walk over from Hard Rock! We took a quick break off the main pathway to get a pic without masks:

We hit NBC Sports Grill and Brew for dinner. We sat at a foosball table and got to play while waiting on dinner. We got a soft pretzel to share for an appetizer and it was huge! (and delicious!!) They give you a bag to put your masks in to set on the table and the wait staff always wear masks. It was very enjoyable!

We then turned in early to prepare for our first day in the park!

 

[LF85]

Great report so far!!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Ooo I’m so excited for this! We are going to Universal in July, but I’m still on the fence about it. Can’t wait to read about your experience!

We had a good time and felt very comfortable with the precautions they were taking, but I've heard some mixed reports lately, especially about Volcano Bay. Have a good time if you end up going!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Great report so far!!

Thanks!

 

[TheMouseFan]

The kids and I got right back in line for Hagrid's again using Brian's virtual line pass. If you are not familiar with Hagrid's, the ride vehicle is a motorcycle and sidecar. Each seat gives you a very different ride experience, so we made sure everyone switched for this ride. In my opinion, the bike seat was better than the sidecar, but both were enjoyable. A few different pics from the queue:

When we were finished, Brian decided it was time for lunch to try to settle his stomach. We all agreed on Three Broomsticks. For all of the quick service restaurants, they had you line up to enter (we usually only had to wait for 1-2 parties ahead of us) and they would have you use hand sanitizer as you entered the door and then they would seat you at a table. Lots of the tables were not being used, so as to appropriately distance everyone. We were able to request a table out on the back patio. They were encouraging everyone to use mobile ordering. You could use the app to order your food, then hit place my order once you were at your table. Then someone would come around and write down your order number and bring your food out as soon as it was ready. We were able to remove our masks while sitting at the table, but needed them on if we needed to get up and go anywhere else in the restaurant. Some of the places were having you take care of your own trash and some were clearing the tables themselves. I thought it was a very efficient way to handle it and we never had any problems.

A few pics while waiting to be seated:

The kids were happy to have the masks off for awhile!

I took the opportunity to check out the progress on the new Jurassic Park rollercoaster!

I didn't take nearly as many pics this trip and hardly any food pics, as I didn't really think I was going to write a report! We all had the fish and chips and either Frozen Butterbeer or lemonade. I swear I took a pic of my Butterbeer, but I can't seem to find it!

 

[TheMouseFan]

During lunch, I was able to secure another virtual line pass for Hagrid's. You just needed to keep checking back periodically! We then headed over to Ollivander's to schedule a time for us to have a wand ceremony. They were limiting each ceremony to a single party and you could choose who from your party was having a wand chosen. The spots were usually all gone by early afternoon. We secured a 2:10 time slot which fit with the end of our Hagrid's queue time. We then headed over to ride Kong.

Lots of signs directing you to restrooms to wash your hands!!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Owen wanted to ride Jurassic River Adventure, so that is where we headed next.

Once seated on the ride, we were allowed to remove our masks so they wouldn't get wet. I believe the only other rides that this was allowed was Popeye and Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges and Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls.

Then it was back to Hogsmeade to ride Flight of the Hippogriff.

Back through Hogsmeade to get to Seuss Landing:

 

[TheMouseFan]

Next ride:

There were always announcements while you were waiting in line that you needed to have a mask on that covered your mouth and nose and that if you weren't wearing yours appropriately, you would be asked to leave the line. Then, when you were seated on the ride, there would be an announcement that you had to leave your mask on for the duration of the ride. Apparently, someone in our train wasn't following the directions. I was too busy taking pictures, but Logan said that there was a team member on the ground yelling at the people in our train to put their masks back on. They did not comply, and the team member ran to the unload station and met them there with some very stern words!!

Pics from the ride (one of the few that you are allowed to use your camera on!):

 

[TheMouseFan]

More pics from the ride:

 

[TheMouseFan]

Then we dropped Brian off at a table next to "Bob" the fountain while we went to use our virtual line pass for Hagrid's. Brian said it was very entertaining to listen to him interacting with the other guests!

Unfortunately, Hagrid's was down, so our pass turned into a one time Express Pass for certain other rides, or we could come back later to use it on Hagrid's. Instead, we decided to ride Forbidden Journey since it wasn't something Brian wanted to do anyway.

Then it was time for our Ollivander's appointment. Lily was so excited for this. The wand that chose her ended up being the same as George Weasley's wand.

Then we used our virtual line pass to ride Hagrid's before taking Hogwart's Express back over to Diagon Alley.

 

[TheMouseFan]

 

[TheMouseFan]

Then we spent a little more time in Diagon Alley and Lily purchased a large pink pygmy puff to keep her large purple pygmy puff company. Her last one she named Petunia, this one was Fred.

We stopped in here for a little treat:

I got a strawberry peanut butter fudge sundae. It was delicious!!

Then one last dragon pic before we left to go back to the resort for a short break:

 

[TheMouseFan]

We couldn't take a very long break since the parks were closing early, but we got a little one since they were open until 7 this night. The kids decided to take the water taxi since there was one pulling in as we were leaving Hard Rock. We decided to try paper masks to see if they were any more comfortable.

They weren't! And the kids wouldn't stop messing with them, so we went back to our fabric masks for the rest of the trip.

Owen wanted to ride Despicable Me, so that was our first stop.

 

[TheMouseFan]

We just wandered for a bit. I know we rode E.T. and I think Men in Black, but I really don't recall.

Dinners were difficult the first few days because CityWalk closed at the same time as the parks due to Orange County's curfew, and all of the restaurants inside the park closed 1 1/2-2 hours before the park. We decided to head back to Hard Rock to see what they had. We weren't very hopeful because they don't have a food court like some of the other hotels. We ended up getting pizza that was decent, but not anything I would jump on eating again! We weren't too terribly hungry since we had ice cream mid-afternoon. Then we had no choice but to chill in the room since no one felt like hitting the pool.

 

[fractal]

On board and caught up! I'm going to have to find a comfortable fabric mask.

Hagrid Coaster looks great and the queue is impressive!

 

[TheMouseFan]

On board and caught up! I'm going to have to find a comfortable fabric mask.

Hagrid Coaster looks great and the queue is impressive!

Glad to have you along! Be sure to take a couple of masks so you can switch out mid day if it gets too sweaty! I took Tide sink packs with us too to wash them after every use and then hung them in the shower to dry. We took personal fans with us too that I found at Target. They are meant to be worn around your neck, but we just held them near our faces a few times to help with the heat.

 

[TheMouseFan]

Monday, June 8

Volcano Bay day! Hours were significantly shorter than typical June hours and they were only open 10-5 with early entry starting at 9:30, so we got to sleep in a little. We caught a shuttle from HRH to Volcano Bay. We were the only ones on the bus, so I'm not sure what the distancing rules were. We ended up being the first ones there!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Back in December I had booked a cabana for us. We decided to keep the reservation just so we would have a private place to relax without having to worry about social distancing. We were the first ones there and we requested to be in the same cabana we were in last time that was nestled up against the volcano. They were happy to put us in that one.

Brian and the kids took off to enjoy the early entry time while I hung out and waited for the SeaWorld reservation site to open. It was a fairly easy process and I had us all set to go for our Friday visit (I'm kicking myself now for wasting that time since there were spots open the entire week for Friday, and especially since we ended up not going! Hindsight is definitely 20/20!!)

I didn't take many pics at all this day since I took a ton when we were there 2 years ago. I decided to just enjoy the time with the family! We were able to do everything we wanted to do multiple times other than the Fearless River which never opened because of a generator problem. We never really waited for anything and the virtual line was never activated that day due to the low crowds. There were less than 100 people in the wave pool at any given time, and less than 50 most of the time. It was an incredible experience. That has apparently changed, as VB has reached capacity the past 2 Saturdays!

A few pics of us relaxing in the cabana:

Apparently, Brian didn't make the cut in the cabana! Oops! I told you I didn't take a lot of pics!

A few pics around the park:

 

[TheMouseFan]

A few more around the park:

They did make everyone get out of the water at about 1 or 1:30 for lightning in the area, so that is when we ate lunch. Then we had a late afternoon snack of ice cream cones. We had the exact same thing as last time, so I didn't get any pics. (they are in my Journey to the Dark Side TR if anyone is interested, as well as all my other VB pics)

Pics on the way out:

We were once again the only family on the bus ride back to HRH. Brian was wearing his Atlanta Falcons face mask and the bus driver commented on it and showed Brian his Atlanta Falcons bag he brings to work every day, and they ended up talking football all of the way home!

By the time everyone had showered, it was too late to get to CityWalk for dinner since they were still affected by the curfew. We decided to just snack around in the room since we'd had ice cream so late in the afternoon.

 

[TheMouseFan]

I forgot to review the mask policy at Volcano Bay. You had to wear your mask when you entered and exited the park, when you were ordering food, and when you were in any of the shops. Otherwise, they just asked you to appropriately social distance. Masks were not allowed on the water slides or in the pools. I did see a few people with them on in the lazy river, but not many. All of the life guards and other employees had them on at all times. We always made it a point to go back to the cabana and retrieve our masks before using the restrooms, but lots of people didn't bother.

 

[PacNWTigger]

I appreciate you guys testing out the waters for us. It has been great to see how Universal is doing their best to keep their staff and guests as safe as possible. Loving all of the pics too!!