It’s another fantastic day to be at the Universal Orlando Resort. We were expecting the parks to be busy again today, but the crowds weren’t nearly as bad as we had anticipated. Let’s jump in and see what’s new!

The first stop of the day is Universal’s Islands of Adventure, where we spotted promotional filming and photographs being taken around the Jurassic World VelociCoaster. There was a “Hot Set” down behind Mythos and the attraction seemed to be continually cycling. We also noticed several effects were turned on, including the torches at the entrance.

As we were photographing the entrance, we even noticed the sign light up briefly. We love seeing all these little details coming together.

Technicians were also working down in the lagoon viewing area over at Toon Lagoon. We could see the lights flashing inside the tunnel just before the top hat.

We’re excited for the VelociCoaster to open and hope that seeing Tech Team Members working on the large lockers in the Discovery Center is a good sign.

Lines for food were short, which was a good indication of lower park attendance today.

We just can’t believe these crowds! The weather is cool, too, making for a great day to be here.

We’ve been dying to get a shot with both the Incredible Hulk Coaster and the Jurassic World VelociCoaster running at the same time, and today was our lucky day!

It’s interesting that the last few days have been so packed and today is relatively quiet.

Attraction wait times were low around the parks, which is a huge change after the last few days. We have a feeling this weekend is going to be very busy, so we definitely appreciate days like this.

Mardi Gras lanyards and face masks are now buy one, get one 50% off. Last week, the face masks were buy one, get one free.

We have to make sure to grab some of our favorite Mardi Gras foods before the event ends on April 11th!

The Hello Kitty Shop is one of our favorite stores in the park, hands down.

The Ollivander’s Wand Experience is now back to using a reservation system, which should hopefully save everyone a lot of time. Those standby lines have been brutal! Read more about the reservation system here.

Construction walls were taken down from around the new Universal Studios Store and we could see a lot of Team Members hard at work getting the store ready for the grand opening.

We were a little disappointed that the fun “box” videos on the screens were not playing today in the Universal Legacy Store.

Luckily, we found a new VelociCoaster hat in the Universal Legacy Store. We’ve been looking for this one for a while and were happy to find it! What could go wrong?

Thanks for joining us around the parks today. Be sure to stay tuned to WDWNT and Universal Parks News Today for more updates!