Welcome to a beautiful, hot July day here at the Universal Orlando Resort! It’s a holiday weekend and we’re ready to celebrate in the parks, so decided to start our day over at Universal Studios Florida, where we found surprisingly low crowds.

Both parks had Early Park Admission, and there was a small crowd of guests waiting for the park to open for everyone. We’re hoping it stays like this all day.

The morning was very quiet and we kept anticipating more crowds to arrive, but it remained quiet. Perhaps the fear of large crowds kept everyone home? We’re glad we decided to visit the parks today!

A few new items for E.T.’s 40th anniversary have arrived in the park. The giant mug is my personal favorite, but you can look at all the new items in our post here.

There are plentiful amounts of “JAWS” Loungefly mini backpacks in the Tribute Store. These have been very popular, so grab one while you still can.

Somebody is cruising the parks in style today.

The Hogwarts Express was experiencing an extended delay this morning. At least it doesn’t take too long to walk over to Islands of Adventure.

Just as quiet over here. Only a 15 minute wait for the High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride.

Do you want your house to smell like a Dragon Duel? Two new attractions inspired candles can be found inside Poseidon’s Treasures. Take another look in our post here and find detailed descriptions for the scent of each candle.

We really were surprised by how calm the parks were today. For a Saturday during a long holiday weekend, this is really dead.

Somehow, Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure had a 150 minute wait. We’re not about to wait and find out the accuracy of the wait time, but it does sound a little inflated considering how quiet the parks have been all day.

When it’s lunch time and food lines are short for restaurants and food stands, we take that as a very good sign.

This has been a very pleasant day here in the parks. We’re quiet shocked by the crowds, but we’re happy we get to be here to enjoy the day!

On our way out of the parks, we noticed the two statues outside of the Universal Legacy Store have been removed.

Time to grab a patty melt and fries from Bread Box in CityWalk and get out of here. Thanks for joining us as we made our way through the parks today. We’ll be back again soon, so make sure you stay tuned to Universal Parks News Today for more updates.

The post PHOTO REPORT: Universal Orlando Resort 7/2/22 (New Attraction-Inspired Candles, Very Low Crowds, Additional E.T. 40th Anniversary Merchandise Arrives, and More) appeared first on WDW News Today.