Greetings from a very windy, rainy day here at the Universal Orlando Resort. The weather was intense all afternoon, but by the time we arrived at the parks, things were a lot more calm. We’re used to splashing around the parks on rainy days, so let’s get right into it and see what’s new.
The 2021 collector’s edition wand is now available around the resort. It’s beautiful! Take a closer look at all the details in our post here.
You never know what you’re going to find inside the Universal Legacy Store. The fly pod is glowing green and if you look closely, you’ll spot the fly.
Last week, a “JAWS” Mold-A-Rama machine was added as well as a U Design kiosk. You can even get Back to the Future and Jaws custom phone cases. This is a nice addition that allows guests to get custom items without entering the parks.
Heading into Islands of Adventure, we noticed that a lot of guests were starting to leave the park due to the weather. We’re not bothered and excited to explore the parks with low crowds.
Seriously, the parks felt empty this afternoon. It was still rainy, but not nearly as crazy as it was during the morning. We feel like we have the park to ourselves today!
Even the Wizarding World had low crowds. This is how you know the park is really dead.
Wandering through Jurassic Park this afternoon felt like being in the movie. Between the sounds of raptors coming from the VelociCoaster and the rain, we were slightly creeped out.
When the only other people in the area are Team Members, you take advantage of some great photo opportunities with nobody else area.
We popped into Jurassic Outfitters to dry off for a minute and ended up buying a cute pair of dinosaur earrings.
We told you it really was empty after the storms we had this afternoon.
Wait times around the park were also low. Most attractions only had a 10 minute wait.
We know we say it all the time, but we truly love when the parks are this empty.
We headed over to Universal Studios Florida next and found it to be slightly more busy than Islands of Adventure, but still not bad. Shrek 4-D had the highest wait time in the park at 40 minutes. We can’t really wrap our head around that one.
Universal Studios Florida has a lot more indoor attractions than Islands of Adventure, so we’re guessing many guests were in this park during the rain. Most wait times were still around 10 to 15 minutes, though. This is so much nicer than the Spring Break crowds we’ve been dealing with lately.
Beads were flying from the stage and everyone was having a good time trying to catch some Mardi Gras bling.
We had a few beads tossed our way, too.
This Team Member working in the Puerto Rico booth seems to be having a good time, too. We love the paper plate and flag hat.
There seems to be one casualty from the storms today. The figure that was near the Italy booth was getting rolled away. It most likely fell and was damaged during the crazy weather this morning, but it will be interesting to see if it returns.
We’re thoroughly soaked from the rain, so we made a quick trip into the Leaky Cauldron for some Hot Butterbeer. We had planned on headed over to Starbucks to grab a shot of espresso to add to our Hot Butterbeer, but we drank it down too quickly. Maybe next time!
It looks like Peek-A-Boo’s house has started to get taken down over by the old A Day in the Park with Barney theater. Bits and pieces of the house were poking out from under the curtain the last few weeks, but today we could see they’ve been ripped out. Just like our hearts.
There seems to be some activity happening in the Fieval play area. We’ve spotted a few barricades in the area as well as a fresh looking rope.
When E.T. Adventure has a 10 minute wait, we can’t resist hopping on a bike and taking a ride.
That’s all for today. Thanks for joining us around the Universal Orlando Resort on this rainy day. Be sure to keep following Universal Parks News Today for all the latest updates!
Nice to look around my old home away from home!!