Visitors who don’t live in California will once again be allowed into Universal Studios Hollywood — as long as they’ve been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
State guidelines limit theme park attendance to in-state guests, or fully vaccinated visitors from out-of-state. However, larger California parks like Disneyland have decided to limit crowds to California residents for the time being.
Under Universal Hollywood’s policy, out-of-state guests will have to provide proof of vaccination. “Acceptable forms of proof of vaccination are a vaccination card or photo/digital photo of vaccination card (including name of person vaccinated, type of vaccine provided, and date last dose administered) or documentation of vaccination from a healthcare provider, in each case showing that at least two weeks have passed since receipt of the second dose in a 2-dose series (e.g., Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna) or since receipt of a single-dose vaccine (e.g., Johnson and Johnson [J&J]/Janssen),” Universal explains on its website.
Because no COVID-19 vaccines have been authorized for people under the age of 16, no out-of-state guests under that age will be allowed to visit the park.
Buying a ticket, however, will be a tad more complicated for these vaccinated visitors. If you already had a ticket purchased before April 8, 2021 — including pre-pandemic tickets — all you’ll have to do is make a park reservation. Out-of-state guests without tickets will have to buy them at the park’s ticket booths in order to show their proof of vaccination.
The only other California park that is allowing out-of-state, fully vaccinated visitors is SeaWorld San Diego.
Theme parks in other parts of the U.S. have not instituted any restrictions or perks based on vaccination status. In Florida, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed legislation that would ban so-called “vaccine passports” and fine businesses (including the likes of Disney World and Universal Orlando) if they required proof of vaccination.