Universally Crowded

Crowds are picking up at Universal Orlando Resort. Last weekend we saw Universal Studios hit a crowd level ‘9’ on both days while Islands of Adventure went ‘7’, ‘8’. These are, by far, the highest crowd levels we have seen at any park since the reopening. So, it is time another Crowd Calendar update.

These recent crowd levels are in line with historical averages for August at Universal theme parks. It may be that the recent Florida Resident Discount is appealing enough to draw local guests. The discount is significant giving Florida residents unlimited admission to both parks between now and December 24 for the price of a single day.

Park Operations and Social Distancing

Our previous update for Universal crowd levels included adjustments for reduced capacity. Since crowd levels are up we are reducing those adjustments. Crowd predictions on this update will look a lot like normal predictions for Universal. Social distancing is still in effect at the parks and attendance may not be as high as normal but wait times are high. The Universal Crowd Calendar is based on posted wait times at the attractions.

Posted Times May Be Inflated

Our staff in the parks today noticed that actual wait times are significantly lower than the posted times, much lower than the 65-80% range we normally see. We recorded actual wait times of 15 minutes for attractions that had a posted time of 65 minutes or more. This is odd. It is difficult to know why posted wait times would be so inflated but it’s good news for anyone planning on heading to the parks. The wait time estimates used for a touring plan take into account this gap between posted time and actual time.

As always, we will continue to monitor the wait times at Universal Orlando Resort and make adjustments to the calendar as needed.

Have any questions about the Universal Crowd Calendar update? Let us know in the comments.

 

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