Day 2:
We were up bright and early to get to Universal for early hours. The park was scheduled to open at 9am but for hotel guests, it opened at 8am which basically guaranteed your entrance into the park. This is something I wish Disney would have considered instead of the "reservation system". We were out of the hotel by 7:20 and were the 4th car to park in Kong. Since we got our temperature checked at the hotel, we got to bypass that line and we were in City Walk!
After a quick wait at customer service for my annual pass, we were in the park! The first stop was Starbucks. I took a picture of the empty streets as we made our journey over to coffee.
When entering Starbucks there was hand sanitizer right at the entrance. I sanitized my hands as soon as entering but Nate did not. He was immediately told to go back and sanitize before ordering (gotta keep that boy in line lol). This was our first taste of how clean everything was going to be. Team members were constantly watching to make sure everyone was being safe.
During early hours, Diagon Alley was open. We decided to cast some spells while finishing up our coffees. Nate had never been to Universal before so we really spent some time soaking everything in with low crowds.
First ride of the day, Gringotts! Wait time was posted at 45 minutes but we were on in 15. Team members were assigning lockers to each party (only one person could go in to get a locker from each party). This is something I think should always happen. It made the lockers at Universal so much easier to navigate. Everyone is line stayed the 6 feet apart and listened to the rules. 3-D Glasses were handed to us before boarding and Team Members were boarding one party per row, skipping rows.
Nate loved Gringotts! We decided to upgrade to the Mummy next. As we were walking over to the Mummy we got a Hagrids virtual queue! The mummy is way faster with fewer people on it. This was my favorite ride in the park before and still holds a top spot! Nate liked the Mummy but liked Gringotts more. We had about 40 minutes before our Hagrids pass so we headed over to the Hogwarts Express.
Hogwarts Express was boarding one party per cabin. As soon as the door closed we took a quick "no masks" pic. Universals' untold rule seemed to be you can take your masks off for a quick picture when you are able to social distance. We didn't do this often but it was nice to have a couple of pictures without masks on.
Getting off the Hogwarts Express was one of two anxiety moments throughout the day. The exit of the Hogwarts Express, entrance for Hagrids and the lockers all together makes for a very congested area. I'm talking like Festival of Fantasy coming down Main street and you are trying to walk down congested. There is no way to social distance here. We powered through the crowd quickly and went into the virtual queue for Hagrids.
The line ended up being maybe 10 minutes which was basically just walking through the queue. WOW. This is an amazing ride. We both got off loving it. As soon as we got off I tried to get another virtual queue to ride again (Nate decided he wanted snacks). I was able to get a queue about 45 minutes away! Which seemed like just enough time for Butterbeer.
Again we didn't feel safe walking and drinking so we found a quiet spot to sit for a minute and drink our Butterbeer. Before going into the virtual queue again, Nate wanted to find a cooling spot to eat his pretzel. We went to where the stunt show used to be for our cooling area. Since this area is shaded, it had a great breeze and everyone was able to really space out! Nate hung out here as I went to ride Hagrids Again! After a second ride, I still felt the same way, This ride is amazing!
Part 2 to come!
