In the classical setting, a convex polytope is said to be semiregular if its facets are regular and its symmetry group is transitive on vertices. This paper continues our study of alternating semiregular abstract polytopes, which have abstract regular facets, still with combinatorial automorphism group transitive on vertices and with two kinds of regular facets occurring in an alternating fashion.

Our main concern here is the universal polytope ${\mathcal{U}}_{{\mathcal{P}},{\mathcal{Q}}}$, an alternating semiregular $(n+1)$-polytope defined for any pair of regular $n$-polytopes ${\mathcal{P}},{\mathcal{Q}}$ with isomorphic facets. After a careful look at the local structure of these objects, we develop the combinatorial machinery needed to explain how ${\mathcal{U}}_{{\mathcal{P}},{\mathcal{Q}}}$ can be constructed by “freely assembling” unlimited copies of ${\mathcal{P}}$, ${\mathcal{Q}}$ along their facets in alternating fashion. We then examine the connection group of ${\mathcal{U}}_{{\mathcal{P}},{\mathcal{Q}}}$, and from that prove that ${\mathcal{U}}_{{\mathcal{P}},{\mathcal{Q}}}$ covers any $(n+1)$-polytope ${\mathcal{B}}$ whose facets alternate in any way between various quotients of ${\mathcal{P}}$ or ${\mathcal{Q}}$.

Petrie polygons, especially as they arise in the study of regular polytopes and Coxeter groups, have been studied by geometers and group theorists since the early part of the twentieth century. An open question is the determination of which polyhedra possess Petrie polygons that are simple closed curves. The current work explores combinatorial structures in abstract polytopes, called Petrie schemes, that generalize the notion of a Petrie polygon. It is established that all of the regular convex polytopes and honeycombs in Euclidean spaces, as well as all of the Grünbaum–Dress polyhedra, possess Petrie schemes that are not self-intersecting and thus have Petrie polygons that are simple closed curves. Partial results are obtained for several other classes of less symmetric polytopes.