Universal Needs New Ride Locker Rules

Navigating the ride lockers at Universal Orlando Resort can be a tricky task!

As much as we love the Universal parks, we have a more complicated relationship with the rules about their attraction lockers.

If you’re used to the Disney parks where you’re able to carry small bags and personal items with you on most attractions, the ride locker rules at Universal Orlando might catch you off guard. With that in mind, let’s start with a quick overview of the Universal locker situation!

Much like Disney, the Universal parks offer daily paid locker rentals that guests may choose to rent if they have items they’d like to store while they enjoy the parks. These are completely optional, so if you tend to travel pretty light, you might not have much need for them. But the attraction lockers are a different story!

Many of the rides at Universal require guests to store all bags and loose items before riding. Attractions that don’t allow any loose articles provide complimentary lockers nearby for temporary use while riding the attraction. However, there are a few tricky things about the free ride lockers that can make them a pain to navigate.

First, while the “standard” size ride lockers are free to rent while you ride, there is an upcharge for the larger lockers. The standard size lockers are pretty small at most of the attractions (for reference, while we’ve managed to fit a Loungefly mini-backpack in one, it was a super tight fit), so if you’ve got a larger bag or tons of souvenirs, you might end up needing to pay for a bigger locker. Also, remember that it’s only free while you ride, so be sure to empty out your locker as soon as you get off the attraction, or else you’ll rack up an additional rental charge!

Also, while some of the attractions like VelociCoaster and Monsters Unchained have lockers located mid-queue, most of the ride lockers are located before the queue entrance. That means you won’t have access to any of your stored items while you’re in line, which can be inconvenient if it’s a long wait. And it can be an even bigger pain point for attractions that are super strict about absolutely no loose articles. Speaking of that…

For the safety of all guests, a few of the high-thrill attractions like The Incredible Hulk Coaster, VelociCoaster, and Stardust Racers strictly prohibit ANY loose articles from being taken on board. That’s right, no cell phones, no keys, nothing! At these rides, guests must pass through metal detectors in the queue to ensure they aren’t carrying anything with them.

Some of the other rides with lockers can have a little more leeway with small items that can be securely stowed in pockets while riding. If you’re ever in doubt about whether something can be kept with you during the ride, be sure to ask a Universal team member for guidance.

With so many things to consider when navigating the ride lockers at Universal, we asked our Facebook followers what’s the ONE locker rule they’d like to see changed, and they echoed many of the same pain points we’ve experienced. Jay pointed out the issues with the small size of the free lockers, saying, “I propose redoing the locker systems at both Studios and Islands to give more large lockers across and make them free. Charging for a larger locker is ridiculous 🤦‍♂️ not everything can easily fit into those tiny little things.”

While some newer attractions have slightly bigger lockers, they can run into availability issues, which cause their own frustration. Jessica commented, “The locker size at the Studios and Islands needs to be adjusted to make them bigger. It’s hard trying to make your bag fit in when you had no problem doing so at Epic. Also, they need more lockers at Stardust Racers. Both times we rode it we had to wait for lockers to become available.”

Others mentioned frustrations with the lockers being located before the queue entrance rather than closer to the ride itself, including Joslyn, who said, “I just wish more were later in line like Velo[ciCoaster] has it.”

Having experienced similar issues as the commenters mentioned, we agree with their takes on the rule changes they’d like to see! For one, making the free lockers larger (or at least offering a few different size options) would make it way easier to store our items without having to cram, crunch, and shove everything inside.

We’d also love to have more rides relocate their lockers inside the queue, close to the boarding area, so we can keep our personal items with us during longer waits. Plus, that would reduce the number of lockers needed since a much smaller number of guests would need them at any given time, as opposed to everyone in the queue.

The goal of Universal’s ride locker rules is to keep guests safe from loose articles coming free mid-ride, so we’re all for providing a place to store our stuff. But we definitely wouldn’t mind seeing these tweaks to the locker setup!

We’ll keep you posted with all of the latest news from Universal, Disney, and beyond, so stay tuned to AllEars for more theme park updates!

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If you could make one change to the ride locker rules at Universal, what would it be? Let us know in the comments!

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