Amid Delta Surge, Universal Reinstates Older COVID Measure - Inside the Magic

As the pandemic continues, theme parks have had to continuously adapt their rules and regulations to ensure that they are providing Guests with a safe experience and ensuring their employees are protected. Now, with the Delta variant surging COVID-19 cases worldwide, many theme parks have had to take a few steps backward.

We saw Disney reinstate their face mask policy for all indoor areas, and although Universal did not change their mandate to require Guests to wear a face-covering while indoors, they do recommend it. Now, it seems that Universal has had to take a bigger step back when it comes to reinstating older COVID-19 measures.

Universal Orlando Resort’s annual Halloween Horror Nights event will begin this Friday, where Guests will be able to enjoy many haunted houses and scare zones as Jack the Clown welcomes them to the 30th year of the event. Last year, due to COVID, the event was canceled, but Universal did allow Guests to enter three houses during Park hours since they were already completed. In these houses, Guests would have noticed that certain areas had plexiglass up.

Wherever a scare actor would appear, plexiglass would be there to divide them from the Guest. At that time, attraction queues also had plexiglass as well. Since then, we have seen Universal remove plexiglass from Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure.

The Orlando Sentinel reported that:

Haunted houses at Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights will use clear vinyl to separate guests and scare actors this year as a precaution against the transmission of COVID-19, a resort spokeswoman said Friday.

The vinyl will be installed “in key locations” of the houses to allow for safe interactions between scare actors and guests, said Alyson Solo, senior director of public relations.

Team members and performers will also be required to wear face coverings indoors during the event, she said, in accordance with the resort’s employee mask guidelines.

So, it seems that Universal will be reinstating plexiglass into the theme park. Of course, this is happening to protect both Guests and Team Members, but the “key locations” will likely give away where Guests can expect scares in the houses.

It will be interesting to see if more plexiglass is added back into the theme parks now that we see them return to Halloween Horror Nights.

Do you have any issues with the newly added plexiglass at Universal Orlando Resort?