Universal

 Universal Studios - unfortunately, it's become a thing of the past for us.  For the time being, I am not an employee so I can longer get in for free. Co-vid restrictions made it difficult to get summer hours and we really have not been in any hurry to expose ourselves to hoards of people if not necessary. 

The cancellation of Halloween Horror Nights was a huge disappointment for us, but honestly, without my employee park entrance I probably wouldn't have been able to go anyway. I am hoping by next summer, things will be back to somewhat normal and I can start working again. 

CJ has a premier annual pass so still goes occasionally. On one of his visits he discovered that, before the Halloween event was cancelled,  two houses had already been completed so Universal decided to open these houses for public walk-through. Needless to say, this was an exciting development!!!!  

On the Friday of an incredibly stressful school week (this has been a difficult year so far in general...maybe I'll post about it later), CJ invited me to use one of his complimentary passes and we both released our teaching stress at the park!  

We arrived about 1 and were able to get an unbelievable deal on an express pass, which my son graciously paid for, and it turned out to be such a blessing because we got so much accomplished in the almost 4 hours we were there. 

Since we couldn't use the express pass until 2, we went to see the new Bourne Stuntacular - which I thought was pretty good. We then made our way around the park going on ET, Woody Woodpecker's Coaster, Simpsons, Men In Black (yes, I still suck at it and CJ is as good as ever), and Transformers.  

Then we went through the two houses (went through Bride of Frankenstein twice) before leaving. 

We ended our day by getting together and watching Beetlejuice! 

I have to say, I felt very safe there. The physical distancing markers were very clear and as a whole, people were really good at following them. The only problem we had was with the family behind us in line for the Bourne show. For the show, they left three seats empty between parties and only filled every other row. After the show you had to remain seated and were dismissed by row.  Every party was given their own ride vehicle and hand sanitizer was given out before every ride. 

I even felt safe going through the houses which gives me hope that even if we're unfortunate enough to be going through this pandemic next year, somehow they should be able to still have HHN.