Universal Shuts Down Half of Theme Park, Guests Removed Immediately

Imagine buying a ticket to Universal Studios Hollywood, only to find out that a majority of the theme park is mysteriously shut down? That means hundreds of dollars are being lost by each guest as their experience was then cut in half. Not to mention removing everyone from some of the most popular attractions in the area.

When guests visit any theme park,  they often expect to experience magic, but being evacuated from an entire land is usually not part of the dream.

Evacuations often happen at attractions everywhere. At Walt Disney World and Disneyland, for example, at times, a guest may be on the Haunted Mansion at Magic Kingdom or Disneyland Park when the ride breaks down, and the only way to safely remove the guests is to evacuate them. Maintenance issues tend to be the big culprit for these breakdowns. Still, in other cases, there have been more severe issues, such as a small fire causing all guests inside Cinderella Castle dining at Cinderella’s Royal Table to evacuate.

Recently, at EPCOT, a sudden evacuation caused guests to be evacuated from multiple attractions and an entire land. One Disney guest took to Reddit to see if anyone knew why they were being evacuated from The Land pavilion in EPCOT. The guest stated, “Anybody in Epcot today knows why the entire Land Pavilion was briefly evacuated? My group was about to board Living with the Land before everyone was rushed out of the building.”

Other EPCOT attractions have been known to break down, including the newest ride, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. An evacuation can indeed occur at any attraction at Disney World and often is not a cause for concern to guests. When guests are evacuated, they will receive a Multiple Experiences pass allowing them to enter the Lightning Lane of another attraction. The ride which was evacuated will likely temporarily close for maintenance and often return to regular operations later in the day.

Most recently, a majority of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge was evacuated due to a fire. Read more on that here.

At Universal, we see ride break downs and evacuations all of the time. If you are at Universal Orlando Resort or Universal Studios Hollywood, you may have ventured into the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in the past. Within Hogsmeade, guests will find the first attraction, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. In this ride, guests can enter Hogwarts for the first time and join Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger as you risk it all to come out as a champion.

The ride is one of the best, but also is notorious for breaking down.

Guests, including myself, have even been found to be stuck nearly upside down at times, with many having to evacuate the attraction.

As we mentioned, at Disney, we tend to hear of entire land evacuations occurring, which does not happen as often at Universal. That being said, things did change at the theme park last night.

Universal Studios Hollywood is currently celebrating Halloween Horror Nights, meaning the park is open from 7:00 p.m. until 2:00 a.m. for spooky fun. At Universal Studios Hollywood, because of the lack of land, the theme park has, it had to built up and down, instead of left to right. There are two “lots” per se, the lower lot, and the upper lot. When guests enter the park, they will enter through the upper lot, which houses the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, The Secret Life of Pets attraction, the streets of New York, Super Silly Fun Land, and more.

The lower lot is home to Revenge of the Mummy, Jurassic World – The Ride, Transformers 4-D, Super Nintendo World, and more. So, naturally, during Halloween Horror Nights, there are houses on both levels. To access the lower level, guests will take a series of four massive escalators both up and down the mountain, meaning it takes at least 10 to 15 minutes to go from up to down at Universal.

Related: Universal Bans Their Own ‘Stranger Things’ Bag From Park, Forbids Guest Entry

Four houses are on the lower lot this year, The Exorcist: Believer, The Last of Us, Stranger Things 4, and Holidays in Hell. These are some of the more popular houses of the event, meaning thousands of guests often flock to the area. Yesterday, all four houses ended up shutting down multiple times throughout the night, pushing guests out of the lower lot entirely.

Although the houses were inoperable, more guests continued to come down the escalators, creating an extremely overcrowded and havoc-induced situation. When asking a team member why the houses were not running, some said that the issues were temporary, while others noted that overcrowding was a major issue.

Guests ended up moving towards the escalator to leave the lower lot after the shutdown began, which created a heavy backup as the escalators allowed for a smaller amount of guests to be moved out.

The houses remained closed for the majority of the night, with Holidays in Hell reopening.

Related: Hundreds of Universal Guests Find Blood in Merchandise

As one may imagine, losing four of the nine houses at Universal Studios Hollywood does put a damper on the experience and overcrowds the lines of the other houses. It does not appear that refunds were being given to those who purchased single-night tickets to Halloween Horror Nights.

Recently, complaints have been made on both coasts after performers at the event have been attacked. It seems that the influx of teenagers has encouraged some rowdy behavior, on top of the already crude behavior that we tend to see from adults who have had too much to drink. Performers have been hit, had water poured over them, and more. Read more on that here.

Would you be upset if you went to Halloween Horror Nights and found four of the houses to be shut down?

At Universal Studios Hollywood guests can enjoy WaterWorld, The Secret Life of Pets: Off the Leash, Despicable Me Minion Mayhem, Super Silly Fun Land, Silly Swirly Fun Ride, Kung Fu Panda Adventure, Universal’s Animal Actors, Special Effects Show, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, Flight of the Hippogriff, The Simpsons Ride, Studio Tour, Jurassic World — The Ride, Revenge of the Mummy — The Ride, Transformers: The Ride-3D, and more.