One of the last remaining signs of social distancing at Universal Orlando has swept away, and today the Unofficial Guide is taking you on a post-pandemic trip to the Curious George Goes to Town playground at Universal Studios Florida.
It’s been well over a year and a half since Orlando’s theme parks reopened in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and although most rides have long since returned to regular operations, the children’s areas at Universal Orlando continued to be impacted longer than many adult attractions. While we’ve watched the themed playgrounds in Islands of Adventure reopen one by one—including If I Ran the Zoo in Seuss Landing and Camp Jurassic—one attraction in Universal Studios Florida lagged behind its KidZone neighbors.
Happily, the Curious George Goes to Town playground was finally reopened to guests just in time for the 2021 holiday crowds, and now kids can once again join the Man in the Yellow Hat’s precocious primate pal on a romp through interactive wet and dry activities.
KidZone’s Curious George playground consists of multi-story structures featuring spraying nozzles, flying foam balls, and a variety of buildings to climb and clamber around on, all inspired by an oversize storybook about escaped circus animals.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like much was done in terms of maintenance or repair to Curious George Goes to Town during its closure, as worn paint and debris are visible in many spots. However, that doesn’t seem to be stopping kids from enjoying the reopened area.
This interactive playground exemplifies the Universal obsession with wet stuff. In addition to innumerable spigots, pipes, and spray guns, two giant roof-mounted buckets periodically dump 1,000 gallons of water on unsuspecting visitors below.
If you wish, you can attempt stay dry by following the pathway to the far left side of the playground. Or you can guarantee you won’t get wet by watching this 4K POV walk-through of the reopened Curious George attraction:
As an added bonus, another fan favorite has also returned to the other end of Universal Studios Florida’s KidZone, where the E.T. Adventure has resumed its video preshow and distribution of interplanetary passports.
After being briefed about the crisis on E.T.’s home planet by director Steven Spielberg, guests once again tell their first name to a team member and can receive their interplanetary passport prior to boarding their flying bicycles.
The passports allow the E.T. animatronic at the ride’s finale to bid farewell to each guest by name, at least in theory. On my recent trip, I was still only greeted generically as “friend.” But since that’s what typically happened to me long before social distancing disabled the passport system, I guess that means nature is healing!
For all there is to see and do at Universal Orlando, check out The Unofficial Guide to Universal Orlando. If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to our YouTube channel and sign up for our newsletter here. Be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube.
