OI meetup question

the last email I received said I would receive another email with check in instructions 48 hours prior... you already revived you’re email on where to check in?


received 11/18

Important information for our December 11-12 Orlando Informer Meetup
Dear,

Thank you for registering to attend our December Orlando Informer Meetup! We wanted to share important check-in instructions and other details with you.

Your experience is very important to us. To maximize your evening, we'd encourage you to fully review this email. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reply to this email or call/text us at (855) 245-4636.

Our records indicate you have registered to attend: December 12 (ONE NIGHT).

Tap here to view a map for Friday, December 11. Tap here to view a map for Saturday, December 12.
Arriving at our Orlando Informer Meetup
When: anytime between 2:00 pm and 8:00 pm
Where: ticket booths to the left-hand side in front of Universal Studios Florida
Bring: a photo ID matching xxxxxxxxxx to pick up your 3 credential(s)

Display this QR code upon arrival to check in faster. Please note this is not your ticket, but it will allow the process to proceed more efficiently.

At 3:00 pm, Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure will open to Orlando Informer Meetup guests. We're allowing earlier entry than in the past to help facilitate social distancing upon your arrival.

Universal team members with Orlando Informer signs will be in CityWalk to help guide you to the check-in area. Regular parking at Universal Orlando is $26; after 6:00 pm, parking is free.

Please note there are two check-in areas for our OI Meetup. If another member of your party purchased his or her tickets separately and was assigned to the other area, please contact us.

If you've registered for both nights, you will need to check in at the start of each evening. You will be able to enter the OI Meetup immediately upon receiving your credentials.
Switching parks at our Orlando Informer Meetup
On Friday, December 11, Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Florida will close to daytime guests at 7:00 pm. On Saturday, December 12, Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Florida will close to daytime guests at 8:00 pm. Please make sure your credential is visible.

Our Orlando Informer Meetup will conclude at 12:30 am on Friday and 1:30 am on Saturday.

Should you wish to switch parks, please use the normal park exit and walk through Universal CityWalk or take the Hogwarts™ Express.
Food and beverage at our Orlando Informer Meetup
Friday:
unlimited food and non-alcoholic beverage service will begin at 8:00 pm in Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Florida. Restaurants will close at 11:30 pm. Snack carts will close with the OI Meetup at 12:30 am.

Saturday: unlimited food and non-alcoholic beverage service will begin at 9:00 pm in Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Florida. Restaurants will close at 12:30 am. Snack carts will close with the OI Meetup at 1:30 am.

Almost every restaurant across the parks will participate.

A lot of guests choose to eat dinner towards the back of Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Florida immediately at the start. We suggest starting at one of the restaurants towards the front and enjoy those in the back later on in the evening.

Enjoy a meal prior to unlimited food service beginning: upon arriving, each guest will receive a dining card. This dining card can be used for one (1) quick-service meal (including one [1] entrée and one [1] non-alcoholic beverage), one (1) snack, and one (1) additional non-alcoholic beverage before the parks close to daytime guests! This added benefit will allow you to enjoy a meal and drink while you wait for unlimited food service to begin.

Please note that the dining card will expire once the parks close to daytime guests, and it is not valid for a different date.

Food venues that provide service at the counter (as opposed to having a server) are considered quick-service. There are numerous locations to choose from, including Green Eggs and Ham™ Cafe, the Leaky Cauldron™, Thunder Falls Terrace, Mel's Drive-In, Fire Eater's Grill, and more. Any item on the menu marked with the "UD" symbol is eligible.

Snack options are found at food carts or quick-service venues and include items such as popcorn, ice cream, frozen beverages, Butterbeer™, churros, Cinnabon®, and more.
Questions during the Orlando Informer Meetup
If you have any questions or concerns during the OI Meetup, please let us know. You can text us at (855) 245-4636.

We will also have an Orlando Informer hospitality table located in each park. They will open one hour after the parks close to daytime guests and close 30 minutes prior to the conclusion of our OI Meetup:

Universal Studios Florida: outside of Lombard's Seafood Grille in San Francisco.
Islands of Adventure: between The Mystic Fountain and the Hogwarts™ Express: Hogsmeade™ Station.
Pteranodon Flyers Virtual Line passes
For your convenience, Pteranodon Flyers will utilize a Virtual Line at our Orlando Informer Meetup. New for December 2020, a limited number of passes will be distributed in advance of the Orlando Informer Meetup. Please tap here to register your interest. Guests who are able to secure Virtual Line passes will be notified by Monday, December 7 and will pick up the passes alongside their credentials upon arrival.

Pteranodon Flyers is a family attraction that soars through the air above Jurassic Park. If you do not wish to experience this ride, you do not need a Virtual Line pass.

received an email last week saying we got the passes for Pteranodon Flyers
 
Wow. I did not get that one. Thank you so much for posting. I’ll have to see what’s going on.
 
This is later than I wanted to post this (was hoping to have this up before the meetup guests entered the park today), and it’s long. I just included anything I would have wanted to know prior to the event. Short recap: longer than expected waits (lower your expectations), but still fun!

Thoughts from the meetup last night (12/05):

Check in begins at 2. I’d recommend getting there on the earlier side - we arrived around 2:20, and it was very, very busy, but the line moved quickly. They let you in as soon as you check in. I’d guess we were in the Universal by 2:45. Credentials are a paper Universal ticket (for going between parks during the day) and a paper wristband (non-light up).

After checkin, we went to Diagon Alley and went to the Leaky Cauldron for lunch. The parks were busy. Much, much more crowded than when we were at Disney in October. Line for LC was very long (wrapped into Knockturn Alley). You can’t mobile order and use the dining cards, so you have to wait in line to be seated, and then wait until they allow one person from your group to go the register to pay. We had a large group (9), but the entire meal ate a huge chunk of our time. I think we left the Leaky Cauldron after 4:30? Food service during the day was incredibly inefficient (which thankfully changed after hours, likely due to the lack of payment processing).

We had snatched up return times for the virtual line for Hagrid’s during one of the drops earlier in the day. Frustratingly, we missed both of our windows due to the long time at Leaky Cauldron and the looong time it took to leave Diagon Alley and switch parks (we walked, as the Hogwarts Express was ~100 minute wait). By the time we got to Hagrid’s, we’d missed the return time. We were ~15 minutes late, but they wouldn’t let us in.

Wait times before official park close were insane. All of the HP rides (except for Hippogriff) were over 100 minutes. We rode Hippogriff (posted @ 20, was around 5) and then Jurassic Park River Journey (posted at 40, was 10).
Be prepared to wait on long lines to use your dining card before official park close (especially as it gets closer to close). At any quick service place (non kiosk), they insisted on seating us and then taking our order/delivering it to the table. It was a long process. Took over 35 minutes to just get a milkshake from Burger Digs (when there was no line).
We ended up getting another virtual return time for Hagrid’s, which we were relieved about. We were able to ride just before the parks closed to the public. I’d definitely try to be smart about picking your return time to Hagrid’s to be sure you’ll be able to be there during the limited window. They seemed to drop at the hour mark - we noticed them at 8 AM (times through ~2), 11 AM (times through ~4), and 2 PM. We checked on the other hours and didn’t see anything come up (unless I’m forgetting something). The return times we got at the end of the day dropped randomly around 6:35 PM. I’d recommend that each person in your group download the app, and remember to slide the bar at the top to the number of people in your party when the times do show up!

Once the park closed to the public, Three Broomsticks/Hogs Head shut their doors to new customers (I’d assume that was the same for all QS restaurants). We rode Forbidden Journey (they checked for wristbands - only time they did the whole night, except when we re-entered the park), which was ~20 minute wait. We then got in the line for Three Broomsticks, which looked long but we got in & were seated immediately when they opened the doors at 9. Service was great! Super efficient!

Wait times... didn’t drop as much as we expected (which became a theme for the night). Half our party took Hogwarts Express to Kings Cross (posted as 10 minutes, took 30+), other half rode Kong (walk on) and Hulk (10 minutes). Stopped for lots of food - fun to be able to try anything without paying.

Hogwarts Express had consistently long waits nearly all night. It was consistently posted at 40+ minutes both ways. I think it’s because there wasn’t an open path between the parks this time, which was frustrating as it drove the wait times for HE up. We decided to leave IoA and walk to Universal. At this point it was ~11. Rode Gringotts (25 minute posted, took ~15), then split and half re-rode Gringotts (posted 25, took 10) and the other half rode Rip Ride Rocket (essentially a walk-on and rode 3x in a row). We wanted to ride both before they closed the lines, as they had to be cleared before midnight (along with Hagrid’s, Flight of the Hippogriff, Transformers, and Hulk).

Then enjoyed ice cream at Fortescue’s, Butterbeer, a quieter Diagon Alley, took the Hogwarts Express to IoA so people in our party could experience HE once (posted as 15, just took the time to walk through). At this point, it was nearly 1:30, so we enjoyed a few moments in Hogsmeade and then left the parks.
Overall, I’d encourage you to lower your expectations for the meetup. You will not be seeing the 5-10 minute wait times that I expected to see. That didn’t happen for the HP rides at all - even at the end of the night. Hagrid’s was consistently posted at 60+ minutes during the meetup, so we opted not to ride again. Forbidden Journey was consistently ~20, and Gringotts ~25. Hogwarts Express was 40+ minutes both ways until nearly the end of the night.

Food was great! Fun to get whatever you wanted, but keep in mind you’ll need to be seated at QS locations before they’ll take your order (so you can’t really grab something “to-go”), but kiosks are grab and go.

Looking back, I’d probably do the meetup again, but with a smaller group, after some of the Covid restrictions were lifted (causing longer waits for rides like Hogwarts Express and forcing you to sit at QS), and I’d do two nights (and probably only enter the parks after they were closed to the public, unless I got a virtual return time for Hagrid’s earlier).

Have fun! Happy to answer any questions!
 


Is the Hogwarts Express taking express pass before the meetup starts? How was that line if so?

You provided so much good information, thanks!! It helps a lot :) I feel more prepared for next weekend. I think I'm going to use our dining cards at the hot dog place in City Walk, hit the tribute store, and then anything after that before the meetup is bonus. I'll try to get a hagrids return time from our hotel room around 11:00, and then probably head to the OI line sometime around 1:00?
 
Best food item you tried?
I asked members of our group. Some answers were:
Dulce de Leche churro (at a cart in Jurassic Park)
Cinnabon
Salted Caramel Blondie + Clotted Cream Ice Cream from Fortescue’s
Lavender/Earl Grey Ice Cream from Fortescue’s
A pretzel from a stand near Kong (apparently this particular pretzel was better than all the rest?)
Frozen Butterbeer!
Is the Hogwarts Express taking express pass before the meetup starts? How was that line if so?

You provided so much good information, thanks!! It helps a lot :) I feel more prepared for next weekend. I think I'm going to use our dining cards at the hot dog place in City Walk, hit the tribute store, and then anything after that before the meetup is bonus. I'll try to get a hagrids return time from our hotel room around 11:00, and then probably head to the OI line sometime around 1:00?
I think your plan sounds great!

I think Hogwarts Express was taking Express Pass before the meetup started (but not after). I’m not sure what the wait time with EP looked like.

We opted not to spring for a hotel with EP since we’d only be getting a few hours’ benefit from it and we had such a large group. Looking back, it would’ve been worth it (particularly at the OI group rate!).

Just hard to do a trip where people are on different budgets! We didn’t want to just ditch half the group during those hours while we used EP.
 
I asked members of our group. Some answers were:
Dulce de Leche churro (at a cart in Jurassic Park)
Cinnabon
Salted Caramel Blondie + Clotted Cream Ice Cream from Fortescue’s
Lavender/Earl Grey Ice Cream from Fortescue’s
A pretzel from a stand near Kong (apparently this particular pretzel was better than all the rest?)
Frozen Butterbeer!

I think your plan sounds great!

I think Hogwarts Express was taking Express Pass before the meetup started (but not after). I’m not sure what the wait time with EP looked like.

We opted not to spring for a hotel with EP since we’d only be getting a few hours’ benefit from it and we had such a large group. Looking back, it would’ve been worth it (particularly at the OI group rate!).

Just hard to do a trip where people are on different budgets! We didn’t want to just ditch half the group during those hours while we used EP.
Thanks for your review and suggestions AND snack list.

When did you get the actual tickets to the event? did you load them onto the app? can I purchase EP with JUST the OI admission?

I have never been to Universal and this will be our only time there. We are staying @ Boardwalk for 6 nights after the OI event and we will probably take a rideshare to the event. Did your email tell you where to check in?

Did you take a backpack? Can I leave the park with pumpkin juice? I want to try it, but I don't know if my stomach can handle the sweetness PLUS rides...

What was the weather like? I looked at the weather for next week and it says low 50s and high in the lower 70s but sometimes the wind and humidity make it seem colder. I was thinking of leggings (Ravenclaw of course) and a thin long sleeve shirt and light sweater.

Do you have a suggestion on how to get a pass for Hagrid's?

thanks for the help !!!
 


Thanks for the review! I've been reading the FB page all day and I'm incredibly nervous for next Saturday. Did mask enforcement seem to take a hit when the event started? I'm seeing a decent number of maskless photos, and reports of people being allowed to eat in ride lines. I've been to quite a few of these, and not sure I'm ready for the disappointment if this one is as awful as some of the reports.


Thanks for your review and suggestions AND snack list.

When did you get the actual tickets to the event? did you load them onto the app? can I purchase EP with JUST the OI admission?

I have never been to Universal and this will be our only time there. We are staying @ Boardwalk for 6 nights after the OI event and we will probably take a rideshare to the event. Did your email tell you where to check in?

Did you take a backpack? Can I leave the park with pumpkin juice? I want to try it, but I don't know if my stomach can handle the sweetness PLUS rides..

thanks for the help !!!

You won't get actual tickets, and can't put them in the app. The email you should have received will have instructions. Just go to the tent it directs you to, either the lighthouse or the globe, show ID, and you'll get a wristband (and a paper ticket to allow HE)

You should be able to leave the park with anything you want.
 
When did you get the actual tickets to the event? did you load them onto the app? can I purchase EP with JUST the OI admission?
You pick up your tickets/wristband starting at 2 PM the day of your event. I didn’t load them into the app, but you could to be careful in case one was lost or for use with the lockers. You don’t need them loaded into the app to get a virtual time for rides.
I’m not sure about EP if you aren’t buying separate tickets and you aren’t staying in one of the three premier hotels. I’d reach out to OI to see if they know.

Did you take a backpack? Can I leave the park with pumpkin juice? I want to try it, but I don't know if my stomach can handle the sweetness PLUS rides...

We did take a backpack in. We’d planned to pay to store it in a locker, but we heard that they open the lockers when the parks close to the public and clear everything for lost and found. We just decided to hold onto it, as it fit into the free ride lockers so it wasn’t an issue.

You could leave with pumpkin juice! That would be easiest if you just brought something to pour it into. It was very, very sweet! I tried to be very aware of what I consumed because I tend to get motion sick at Universal... between that and Bonine I was fine!

What was the weather like? I looked at the weather for next week and it says low 50s and high in the lower 70s but sometimes the wind and humidity make it seem colder. I was thinking of leggings (Ravenclaw of course) and a thin long sleeve shirt and light sweater.
Weather was 70 during the day and low/mid-50s at night. I had a thicker long sleeve and joggers on and I was fine. No one in our group complained about being cold, and everyone was dressed similarly.
Do you have a suggestion on how to get a pass for Hagrid's?
Have your whole party create their own account on the Universal app so that they’ll be able to try for times.
Check right on the hour (we started checking around :57 and stopped around :03 - they seemed to come out later than sooner, and never really right at :00).
When you do get a time to show up, make sure you slide the bar to the size of your party! I made the mistake once of forgetting to do that in my excitement of seeing a return time and only got a spot for one...
Keep checking! We refreshed whenever we were in line and occasionally did see a time pop up.
Thanks for the review! I've been reading the FB page all day and I'm incredibly nervous for next Saturday. Did mask enforcement seem to take a hit when the event started? I'm seeing a decent number of maskless photos, and reports of people being allowed to eat in ride lines. I've been to quite a few of these, and not sure I'm ready for the disappointment if this one is as awful as some of the reports.
I honestly didn’t notice issues with masks after the meetup started. I asked around in case anyone else did and no one felt it was different during the event than during the day. I was never uncomfortable.

Masks/mask enforcement felt the same to me as Disney. Social distancing/crowds - totally different from Disney. Much, much worse (specifically before the meetup began).
 
Thanks for the updates! I’m a little apprehensive about next weekend, it doesn’t sound like it’s exactly the experience they are advertising. We are stay at Portofino Bay though and will have EP, so hoping that really helps before the park closes to the public. Have never had EP so not sure how it compares to Disney’s FP.
 
Thanks for the updates! I’m a little apprehensive about next weekend, it doesn’t sound like it’s exactly the experience they are advertising. We are stay at Portofino Bay though and will have EP, so hoping that really helps before the park closes to the public. Have never had EP so not sure how it compares to Disney’s FP.

I’m also staying at Portofino next weekend. The Express sound like they will be a life saver during the time the actual daytime guests are still in the parks.
 
I was there lastnight. We are at HRH, so had EP. It looked really busy on the AP, and since we were at MK in the AM, we opted to hit the HR pool until 4:30.
Check in was easy , no lines at that time.
We started at Uni. We have only a few rides there we like, so hit those with EP, watched a bit of the nightime show, and did our 1st OI ride on Gringotts, walked straight on. (about 7:15ish)
Took train to IOA, about 5 min wait.
We grabbed some snacks from a stand and sat to eat. Most snack stand lines we saw were pretty short, keep in mind, no paying. :) Move pretty quick. ONes that offer more food were longer, but the ones you walk into appeared easy. DS8 wanted to eat with the dinos, so we ate over at the Discovery place, easy.
Most of the waits we saw on app were 5-10. (Again, we don't ride everything, some are 1 and dones from past trips or don't need to hit every trip for us) My DH and DS8 did Hulk and walked right on, and we walked on everything else.
Hagrids was 70 most of the night. We hit it at 9:40, posted 70, actuall 45. Still worth it, IMO, BEST ride in Orlando that I've been on! (I think I like better than Rise)
We enjoyed the night, even with a bit of light rain.
I'd do it again, probably on a Sunday, after hearing reports of Sat. :)
 
This is the first Meetup during a pandemic, so it's likely going to be very different! I'm tempering my expectations a bit for not everything to be walk on like last year, but we won't be sitting with randos in all our ride vehicles, so a good trade off for us introverts lol
 
I’ll return the favor and give my update from 12/11.

Left WPB at 7:30am yesterday and got to Portofino Bay at 10am. Room was ready but was pretty disappointed with it (See the Portofino thread for more details on that). It was a beautiful day and I spent about 4 hours at the pool. We had it to ourselves. Actually felt kinda weird having 3 life guards there just for us. LOL

Walked over to IOA at 5pm and checked in between the parks. Decided to start in IOA and try our luck with Hagrids. Was in line for about 45 mins and it as not moving at all. Got out of line and headed to Hulk and used our EP to skip the 45 min wait. When we got off it was 6:50 and the park was about to close.

We wanted to use our dining card real quick so went to Cafe 4. I got a chIcken parm sub and my sister got the chick parm entree. Thank god we did not pay for this! Would have been a $60 meal we threw out. Sauce was horrible and bread was beyond hard. No big deal though.

Park closed at 7 and we did Doom and Spider-Man with no waits. Kong was also a walk on.

Went back to Hogsmeade and Forbidden Journey had a 20 min posted. It was a walk on too. Grabbed some Butterbeer and got in line for Hagrids. Posted 45 min wait but only took 30.

Got more Butterbeer and then we went and tried the tots at Green Eggs and Ham. Interesting to say the least. 😂

The path between the parks was open tonight!

Did Rip Ride Rockit twice in a row and it was the most fun I’ve ever had on that ride. Must have been Metallica and the Doors.

Mummy was a walk on and then we stopped at Finnegans for wings and bread pudding.

Walked into Dragon Alley and straight on to Gringots.

Pretty sure it was almost midnight by then and I had walked 11 miles and had to take one of my shoes off and walk back to Portofino. If you saw a guy with one shoe on and one off last night that was probably me.
 
Last edited:
We did the event on 12/5.

We were staying at Endless Summer 12/4-12/8, but booked a one-night-stay on Saturday at Portifino to get the family of 5 EP for Saturday and Sunday. And man, that paid off huge. We got the EPs around 9 a.m. and having them really helped with how packed the lines were on Saturday.

Two of us did the OI event and the wait times were longer than we had been anticipating, but we understood since not all rides are loading at full capacity. It was a bummer to hear others talk in the queues how prior events had better experiences with wait times, but we still had fun. We'd do another event again once restrictions are over to get a better feel for how these things run.

Earlier in the day, we had to be evacuated off Forbidden Journey. And then it was our first ride of the night during the OI meetup and we got stuck in the Dementors area basically laying on our backs almost vertically. I'll say, seeing the extra Dementors with hands that aren't seen during the ride was pretty cool. We got stuck for probably 15-20 mins I'd guess, but they are able to finish the ride that time.
 
I literally have nightmares about that exact thing happening, lol!

Our experience last night was... Okay. We're getting increasingly worried about our trip to wdw next week cuz it seems reports here and on YouTube about compliance has been greatly exaggerated :(
 
We did the event on 12/5.

We were staying at Endless Summer 12/4-12/8, but booked a one-night-stay on Saturday at Portifino to get the family of 5 EP for Saturday and Sunday. And man, that paid off huge. We got the EPs around 9 a.m. and having them really helped with how packed the lines were on Saturday.

Two of us did the OI event and the wait times were longer than we had been anticipating, but we understood since not all rides are loading at full capacity. It was a bummer to hear others talk in the queues how prior events had better experiences with wait times, but we still had fun. We'd do another event again once restrictions are over to get a better feel for how these things run.

Earlier in the day, we had to be evacuated off Forbidden Journey. And then it was our first ride of the night during the OI meetup and we got stuck in the Dementors area basically laying on our backs almost vertically. I'll say, seeing the extra Dementors with hands that aren't seen during the ride was pretty cool. We got stuck for probably 15-20 mins I'd guess, but they are able to finish the ride that time.

We got stuck on Forbidden Journey too! Right after the dementors though, and like DD said, at least it wasn‘t spiders!

I’ll post a longer update later, we did the meet both nights. The only thing we didn’t get to do that we wanted to was the Hulk. We definitely could have, but it was one of the ones that closed at midnight due to the noise ordinance and we didn’t realize that or we’d have rode it earlier. Did ride Hagrid’s both nights though and that was the only one that had a wait, right around an hour each time so that’s where a lot of our time went. Glad we did both nights because the time does go by so fast!
 
I attended last night's (Saturday 12/12) meetup. It was a little different from the ones I've been to previously (I think all of them except the first 2 or 3?).
We stayed at HRH so we had EP and EPA. We went to IoA around 7:30 on Saturday morning, walked on Spiderman and Kong, and I had a Virtual ticket for Hagrids. That took about 20 minutes start to finish - but be aware that the entrance to the line was at the mystic fountain, with no real signage, so it was kind of annoying having to walk alllll the way back there to get in a line that there was no one in. Anyway.. the crowd was HUGE by then (9:30?) so we left and went to get some rest. The lines to get into each of the parks converged somewhere around the Universal Store in CityWalk.

The meetup itself - we headed back to the park around 6. We took the boat from HRH and found out when we got to the globe that they had closed that entrance so it was exit only. We had to walk alllll the way back around to IoA and then into the BlueMan Group courtyard to check in. That did not start off our night on a good note. We got in finally, and walked through Seuss Landing and did those rides. Then we went to Thunder Falls and had a burger and hid out for awhile, then walked on to HE. USO side was a little calmer. Diagon Alley really wasn't too bad when we got there. We got in line at Florean Fortescue's about 8:45 and got ice cream (received it around 9:05) and found a quiet corner to eat it, then took our butterbeer outside DA to get some air. We then walked on to MIB, got corndogs, and just kind of wandered around for awhile. The rest of the evening we ate various things - no lines for anything that we saw but the taco truck - and just took in the atmosphere.

I was really nervous about mask enforcement during the meetup due to the relaxed atmosphere. It wasn't terrible... but I do wish that Universal would enforce the stationary eating/drinking. There were a lot of people walking around with no masks because they were eating or drinking, even during the day. At least at the meetup it was empty enough to cross the road or something to avoid them, but still.

So, it was a little different than 'normal', but I felt safe enough to stay, and ended up having a great time.
 
Huh, I saw hardly anyone walking without masks and we were there both nights. Saw hardly anyone buying/drinking any alcohol and we assumed it was because who wants to buy a beer and have to sit/stand in one spot to finish it. I know during normal times i would have bought a few to drink while walking around but not this trip. Even with butter beer it was kind of a pain to have to be stationary to consume it.
 
I have to agree with @missnic - mask enforcement was great on my short September trip to UOR, so I felt super comfortable coming back for meetup. Unfortunately, I just didn’t feel the same this past weekend. I avoided the parks outside of early entry/meetup times, and still noticed a good amount of folks walking and eating/drinking, and some chinstraps. I did see UOR TMs walking with signs and reminders, but rarely saw them say anything to anyone.

UOR also allows gaiters without ear loops, so the entire family in front of me on Hagrid’s immediately dropped their gaiters as we pulled out to ride, and had to be reminded to pull them back up as we came into the station. That was after their teen son spit off the side of the ride. In a pandemic. I should’ve trusted my gut and asked to wait for the next car, since their noses were peeking the entire queue.

I’ll also add- the OI Facebook group is super positive and friendly, which is generally great but can also lead to not-so-great behavior (specifically, folks posting so many pictures in the park unmasked without friendly reminders to stick to the rules).

I won’t be back until I’m vaccinated, or case levels are low enough where I feel comfortable even with folks not complying (probably not the June meetup, hopefully later in the year).

YMMV so excuse my curmudgeon post - just wanted to share what I experienced.
 

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