We had made a Virtual Line time scheduled for Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon. For the Virtual Line, you selected an assigned time for your ride. You could do this on the Universal Studios app or at a kiosk near the ride. We did the app, so I’m not sure what the kiosk looks like. When we were there, the only rides with Virtual Lines were Race Through New York (in Universal Studios) and Hagrid’s Motorbike (over in Island of Adventure).
On our way over, it started to downpour. We ducked under an awning and
pulled out the ponchos. Our feet were still soaked, but the rest of us was
pretty dry. We presented the QR code to scan for entrance, walked down a
corridor, were giving a colored ticket, and were directed to a waiting room.
The waiting room did not have social distancing markers on the floor, but
people were pretty good about staying to their own groups. The overhead lights changed to matching ticket colors to announce your group. It was a 3D ride and also had really neat graphics.
The outdoor roller coasters had stopped running due to the rain, so we headed over to The Revenge of the Mummy. The queue lines were also nice decorated for this ride. There were several things to keep your eyes busy and a lot of it was inside, so we were dry and in air conditioning. However, the employees stationed along the queue lines on this ride did not enforce the social distancing rule at all. We saw a few people pulling their masks down and I asked people to back up several times. The markers were clearly placed on the ground, there was just no one enforcing it. This was our worst feeling at Universal, which was too bad because it was a neat looking area. Ben and I did not ride, but the boys did and enjoyed it.
When we were done, the outdoor rides were still closed and the other rides had quite a long wait. We headed over to the Men In Black ride, which had the shortest line. Once again, the queue line was decorated like the movie and was lots of fun to look at. It was a fun ride, although I had to store the wand in a locker. You sat in car that moved along a track and shot at aliens. The seat was molded and a little tight for us. This ride was easy to socially distance at.
Our final event of the day wasn’t a ride, but a stunt show at Bourne Stuntacular. There were two waiting areas, one with queue lines and the other in a large room. The theater was pretty large and they were seating groups with empty rows in between and at least 2 seats apart. This show has a lot of potential. The graphics are incredible. It was really difficult to tell which people were just graphics and who was real. There was a track in the ceiling for additional stunts. The stage is completely smooth (although there are some trap doors in it), so the large set pieces are run on a WIFI type of program. It’s a really neat concept, but it is pretty new technology and they had to shut the show down twice while we were there to get the devices back up. One time “Jason” was hanging from a wrecking ball (update: Ben has since told me it’s called a headache ball) and had to be brought back around to the stage. I think once they get the bugs worked out, it will be an amazing show.
