Universal Studios Hollywood Reopening Report

For our first visit to a West Coast theme park in over a year, we head to Universal Studios Hollywood! In this reopening report, we’ll share photos, crowds & wait time info, health & safety measures, rule compliance, plus commentary on Florida v. California.

Let’s start with some details about our visit. Wanting to lock-in cheaper pricing and rental car availability, we actually booked this right after receiving the first dose of our vaccines. At the time, California was still largely closed, but everything could be cancelled without penalty. So, we made some guesses about when things would reopen and we’d be able to visit.

With each passing week, more pieces fell into place. When California announced that fully-vaccinated out of staters could attend anything open to Californians, we felt totally vindicated. It seemed that everything we wanted to do would be possible and we paid around half price (less than that for the rental car!) for the major components of the trip by booking early with no downsides. Unfortunately, that ended up being not totally true…

Disneyland never changed its policy to comply with the state guidelines. Consequently, we didn’t visit those parks; it probably would’ve been possible, but we’re just not the rule-breaking type. While this was initially disappointing, it ended up not being much of an issue. We love California, have missed our favorite spots in the state immensely, and now have an excuse to go back this summer (oh darn). For this trip, we ended up splitting time between Los Angeles and Orange County, with stays in several spots, including a few more Anaheim hotels.

During the Universal Studios Hollywood portion of the trip, we stayed in an Airbnb off Mulholland Drive in the Hollywood Hills. If you’re a tourist contemplating a trip to USH, we’d highly recommend this area. It’s convenient to Universal (plus anything in Burbank and Glendale), Griffith Park, Hollywood, and even DTLA. We started every morning with a “sunrise” hike in Runyon Canyon to feel better about all food we’d eat throughout the day.

Let’s turn to our Universal Studios Hollywood visit.

Like our last visit to a California theme park–Disneyland for the opening week of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance–we were joined by our homie, Guy Selga of TouringPlans.com. I would say that “time flies,” but it really doesn’t. That feels like a lifetime ago.

Despite being Annual Passholders for several years, we’ve never done a park report from USH–just occasional updates to our Universal Studios Hollywood Planning Guide. Part of this is because we don’t visit that often; probably an average of 4 days per year (USH APs are cheap and have a low break-even point).

Part is because there’s simply less reader interest in Universal Studios Hollywood, probably due to its distance from Disneyland. However, hopefully this will change. As discussed in our effusive Secret Life of Pets: Off the Leash Ride Review, Universal Studios Hollywood has improved a ton in recent years, and has more big additions on the horizon. Speaking of which, next up is Super Nintendo World:

I’m not really sure what readers want to see out of a Universal Studios Hollywood park report, or if anyone wants to see this at all. I’ll breeze through a few different things, and we can revisit whatever topics are most compelling later this summer.

From my perspective, health safety protocol is not particularly interesting, but I’ve also been visiting Florida theme parks since last July. What Universal Studios Hollywood is doing amounts to “more of the same,” albeit on a delayed timeline.

There are two interesting wrinkles at California theme parks. First, dedicated outdoor dining areas. Personally, I would’ve loved to see this at Walt Disney World over the course of the last year. As has been pointed out here repeatedly, indoor dining was objectively the highest risk thing at Walt Disney World last July, and despite the rule changes, that still remains true today.

It’s now easier to dine outdoors at Walt Disney World than it was last July, but the options remain limited. In fairness, California’s climate is much more conducive to this than Florida, so most restaurants in California theme parks have always had outdoor seating areas–not much was necessary in the way of modifications.

Second, one-way walkways that are physically divided.

This strikes me as overkill, both in terms of health safety and practicality. Maybe this will be nice when walkways are more crowded, but for now, it’s unnecessary.

One of the narratives that has emerged recently, in a different way than normal, is Florida v. California. As you’re undoubtedly aware, the two are essentially diametrically opposed when it comes to how they’ve approached the last year. Polarization being what it is, one of those is awful and the other awesome, depending upon your perspective and politics. At least if internet sentiment is to be believed, there’s almost no middle ground.

The thing is, people are alike all over.

Sure, there are regional variations and obviously differences in park policies. However, I did not notice an appreciable difference in guest behavior at Universal Studios Hollywood v. Universal Orlando. Little things, but nothing major.

Mask compliance was more or less the same, with exposed noses being just as common in California. Most notably, physical distancing in queues was observed to roughly the same degree. Some people diligently stood only on markers, others floated around obliviously.

I’m not complaining–this didn’t bother us in the least. I’m pointing it out because we’ve had several readers remark that they’ll be visiting one of the two coasts because it comports more or less with their personal viewpoints on health safety.

Outside of a few state rules that differ and are fast-fading, the two Universals–and the two Orange Counties–felt more or less the same. For better or worse, people everywhere are at roughly the same phase in this and behave accordingly. State policies may have created vastly different “vibes” six months ago, but in May 2021, that is simply not the case.

Now let’s turn to wait times and crowds, which are two very different things right now.

Universal Studios Hollywood felt like a ghost town; most walkways were nearly devoid of people. It was the least busy I’ve ever seen the park, and we normally endeavor to visit in the off-season when crowds are low. Normally, this time of year is the start of tour group season and things are crowds are picking up.

Don’t let that lull you into a false sense that visiting is a relaxed experience–wait times are astronomical.

During our day at Universal Studios Hollywood, there were a half-dozen rides with peak wait times over 100 minutes. Those who are familiar with USH know that’s most of the rides!

Under California’s reopening plan, theme parks in Los Angeles County are now able to operate at 35% capacity. Universal hasn’t indicated whether they’re running at that level, but the day we visited was sold out.

As has been the case with the Florida parks, the problem with seeing that number and assuming it’s a good thing is it overlooks physical distancing on rides.

To better understand this, I’ll illustrate with an example. Jurassic World – The Ride is a high capacity raft ride with several rows and seats in each row–I wish I would’ve counted, but I believe it’s 5 rows with 5 seats in each row.

Our raft had 3 parties in it, with a total of 8 people. This would vary by ride vehicle, but a probable scenario would be the ride operating at 35% efficiency, versus 35% park capacity. The end result is that Universal Studios Hollywood is currently in a similar position for wait times as it would be on a peak-season 100% capacity day. While May is the start of summer tour group season, it is most definitely not normally peak season.

Countless commenters have claimed “Walt Disney World can’t be operating at only 35%, wait times and crowds were way too high.” We’ve been through this explanation of why park capacity is misleading, as it doesn’t account for attraction efficiency plus everything that isn’t open at all, or operating with physical distancing.

Judging by complaints on social media, we’ll now go through the same with the West Coast audience. Our message would be to ignore the stated park capacity cap. That number is absolutely meaningless in a vacuum. Among many other variables, on-ride physical distancing makes a huge difference–and that varies from attraction to attraction.

This is also how there’s the seeming contradiction of low feels like crowds v. high wait times.

Wait times for attractions are higher because the rides are operating inefficiently, which also means people are spending a disproportionate amount of time standing in line–rather than in common areas. Additionally, there’s nothing “inefficient” about walkways, so those actually reflect the 35% capacity (or whatever amount under that at which Universal Studios Hollywood is actually operating).

Finally, some preliminary strategy. We want to emphasize that this is based only upon one post-reopening visit, could change as circumstances change, etc.

We’d recommend arriving early and heading directly to the Lower Lot. There, start with Jurassic World – The Ride followed by Revenge of the Mummy and Transformers. Head back up and do the Simpsons. By then, it’ll probably by time for lunch.

Wait times peak midday, so do shows and the Secret Life of Pets: Off the Leash via the Virtual Line then.

Later in the afternoon, do the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, allowing enough time for the Studio Tour afterwards (be mindful of the “last tour of the day” time for that). We should have something more refined in the next couple months, but for now, racing directly to the Lower Lot is the most important piece of advice.

Ultimately, despite the long waits, it was a great day in Universal Studios Hollywood. This is one of our favorite theme parks anywhere, with a beautiful setting, nice atmosphere, stunning views, and one of the most iconic rides with infinite repeatability in the Studio Tour.

Thanks to all of its changes in the last several years, Universal Studios Hollywood is a great place to simply be. The lack of Annual Passes at Disneyland will probably cause more Californians to discover that this year, and we hope Universal will adapt to cater more to that crowd. There are some lessons USH could learn from Disneyland, Knott’s, or even the company’s own parks in Orlando. That’s another story for our next update, though!

Planning a Southern California vacation? Check out our Ultimate Guide to Los Angeles or Southern California Itineraries for day trips to Pasadena, Santa Monica, Laguna Beach, and tons of other places! For comprehensive theme park advice, consult our Universal Studios Hollywood Planning Guide and/or our Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide.

YOUR THOUGHTS

Have you visited Universal Studios Hollywood since the park reopened? Any thoughts on your experience, wait times, crowds, or anything else? Thoughts on health safety protocol, park capacity, or ride efficiency? Do you agree or disagree with our assessments? Any questions? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!