Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[DVCkidsMOM]

Anyone with bus experience from Beach Club for park openings? They (used to?) share busses with Yacht Club. Pre-covid we were often bypassed by busses that filled up at Yacht Club making park opening from Beach Club more difficult. Is this still true, or is park opening from BC working well? I'll hike to YC or BW if needed, but hope it's not necessary.

 

[BrokeMack]

We were there all week (1/23-1/30).

Stayed at the Yacht Club. Location was great, Stormalong Bay was great. Quick service option was disappointing (both the available options and the quality). AKL is still our favorite deluxe I think.

Parks were mostly good.
World Showcase got a little noisy after about 5pm when the drinking crowd showed up. Nothing major, just way more crowded than earlier in the day and pretty congested in Mexico and France.
DHS and AK were the winners last week. We opened up DHS 3 times and got ROTR groups 14, 29, & 9 using Yacht Club wi-fi (better ping than T-Mobile in the room). MMRR was a walk on at park open. We waited about 25 for SDD with a posted 50. FOP was also about half the posted wait and Everest was walk on all week long.
MK was more crowded than I expected. Mask compliance and social distancing were the worst here. Lots of creative mask folding or just outright non-compliance. Also lots of parents buried in their cellphones not watching their kids. I shot some lady a "you gonna do something about him?" look after the third time her 12ish YO kid threw a water bottle about 15 feet and she just mean-mugged me. We made it work, but the afternoon break was a necessity.
We had our best meals at MK (surprisingly). LTT was really good. The toffee cake was the best thing I ate all week. Skipper's was great as usual. If you can get a post-closing BOG, grab it. Totally worth the money. Our table time was 55 minutes after park close. I've never seen the hub and main street deserted before and it was the highlight of the trip (and on our final night too).

Temp checks were starting right at 45 minutes prior at all parks, but MK didn't have much open in Fantasyland or Adventureland. Granted, the day we got there the earliest both Pirates and BTMRR were broken until after official opening (BTMRR didn't open until after noon on Friday). However, we met a really nice CM in front of Pirates (Billy) and ended up being the first people to ride that day, which was really cool.

 

[BrokeMack]

Anyone with bus experience from Beach Club for park openings? They (used to?) share busses with Yacht Club. Pre-covid we were often bypassed by busses that filled up at Yacht Club making park opening from Beach Club more difficult. Is this still true, or is park opening from BC working well? I'll hike to YC or BW if needed, but hope it's not necessary.

We were at Yacht Club last week. Separate buses for rope drop, shared later.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

First AK bus from Contemporary arrived about 7:05 this morning. Got to AK at 7:20 but held on bus they say until 7:30. While line of buses doing the same.

 

[Chris Ehlers]

Is animation class at AK the same thing that used to be at HS

Its very similar, but you draw on lap desks. Def worth it! we do it every trip. sometimes more then once.

 

[yulilin3]

Is animation class at AK the same thing that used to be at HS

a couple of differences
They teach more complicated characters (very rare you get a Mickey or Minnie) and because of this they give you a paper with the guidelines already on them
They also talk a lot more about the animal you are drawing, in terms of real life

 

[SeanWM48]

just returned from a week at Fort Wilderness in a cabin with my girlfriend (her first time going). i'll try and keep it short

-we were both very impressed with the virus protocols. far better than anything we've seen around our hometown or even at the airport/on the plane. Disney did all they could reasonably be expected to do IMO.
-Disney Springs is money. i had more fun walking around there and eating at various great restaurants than at Epcot (!).
-Epcot feels shot at the moment. no live entertainment. lots of construction. just felt flat to me especially in comparison with the fantastic Galaxy's Edge. we bailed at 2 with a hopper.

-campground is wonderful, I've been there a few times, still has all the charm. prices on the golf carts are nuts but it's worth it.
-top restaurants we attended: Morimoto (wow), Wine Bar George, Jock Lindsey (drinks and quick snacks like the pretzel)

wait times were fine. 15-20 minutes all week except for Mickey and Minnie's train and Tower of Terror. Walk-ons for stuff like Haunted Mansion and even Flights of Passage. All the content around Avatar, Star Wars, and Toy Story was new to me so this was a real adventure for both of us despite me doing Disney in the past.

overall a real positive experience. I'd do this again. Mask stuff was worth the limited crowds and short wait times. "Social distance" has its perks like having your own personal space on rides like Pirates where you're in a boat.

I could go on and on but yeah. Great time.

 

[Orion Nebula]

Also lots of parents buried in their cellphones not watching their kids. I shot some lady a "you gonna do something about him?" look after the third time her 12ish YO kid threw a water bottle about 15 feet and she just mean-mugged me.

Wow... not only is that obnoxious but being that this kid was around 12 makes it even worse. Although by his mothers reaction it's fairly telling.

 

[Sarahslay]

just returned from a week at Fort Wilderness in a cabin with my girlfriend (her first time going). i'll try and keep it short

-we were both very impressed with the virus protocols. far better than anything we've seen around our hometown or even at the airport/on the plane. Disney did all they could reasonably be expected to do IMO.
-Disney Springs is money. i had more fun walking around there and eating at various great restaurants than at Epcot (!).
-Epcot feels shot at the moment. no live entertainment. lots of construction. just felt flat to me especially in comparison with the fantastic Galaxy's Edge. we bailed at 2 with a hopper.

-campground is wonderful, I've been there a few times, still has all the charm. prices on the golf carts are nuts but it's worth it.
-top restaurants we attended: Morimoto (wow), Wine Bar George, Jock Lindsey (drinks and quick snacks like the pretzel)

wait times were fine. 15-20 minutes all week except for Mickey and Minnie's train and Tower of Terror. Walk-ons for stuff like Haunted Mansion and even Flights of Passage. All the content around Avatar, Star Wars, and Toy Story was new to me so this was a real adventure for both of us despite me doing Disney in the past.

overall a real positive experience. I'd do this again. Mask stuff was worth the limited crowds and short wait times. "Social distance" has its perks like having your own personal space on rides like Pirates where you're in a boat.

I could go on and on but yeah. Great time.

I just want to add, for anyone going, there IS live entertainment at Epcot. We took a break on our last two trips to watch Voices of Liberty, Mariache Cobra (back to back at the theater in the America pavilion), and watched the Jammitors in Canada on more than one occassion. So, it's there, and is the only park with entertainment like that at the moment, it just might not be everyones cup of tea or you could miss it if you aren't paying attention or in the right place at the right time.

 

[NashvilleMama]

PSA on the hand sanitizer stations around the parks - I can't even count the number of times this past weekend when we heard people try them and mutter "they're empty" and walk away, only for us to walk up and find them working fine. They take a full beat to start working...like 1-2 seconds. So you can't just swipe your hand under them and get some, you have to wait a second. Patience is key.

 

[Sarahslay]

PSA on the hand sanitizer stations around the parks - I can't even count the number of times this past weekend when we heard people try them and mutter "they're empty" and walk away, only for us to walk up and find them working fine. They take a full beat to start working...like 1-2 seconds. So you can't just swipe your hand under them and get some, you have to wait a second. Patience is key.

and that is why there is always a clump of sanitizer under them, because people stick their hand under for a hot half second and walk away....and then the sanitizer flows and there is no hand there to catch it.

 

[SeanWM48]

I just want to add, for anyone going, there IS live entertainment at Epcot. We took a break on our last two trips to watch Voices of Liberty, Mariache Cobra (back to back at the theater in the America pavilion), and watched the Jammitors in Canada on more than one occassion. So, it's there, and is the only park with entertainment like that at the moment, it just might not be everyones cup of tea or you could miss it if you aren't paying attention or in the right place at the right time.

i suppose i timed my walk poorly. to me the place fell flat compared to what you get at all the other parks and Springs. especially adding in the construction in the first half of the park.

i've done epcot when it's jumping and alive. it can be great. but walking through china/germany etc with nothing happening is a drag (IMO). i would suggest to others to just do a second day at MK/AK/HS, or spend a day in Springs sampling food and drinks for a more worthwhile experience. just my $.02

 

[yulilin3]

i suppose i timed my walk poorly. to me the place fell flat compared to what you get at all the other parks and Springs. especially adding in the construction in the first half of the park.

i've done epcot when it's jumping and alive. it can be great. but walking through china/germany etc with nothing happening is a drag (IMO). i would suggest to others to just do a second day at MK/AK/HS, or spend a day in Springs sampling food and drinks for a more worthwhile experience. just my $.02

From everything WDW has to offer right now Disney Springs is the most "back to normal" in terms of feel. Love walking and seeing and hearing so much live entertainment.
I agree with you that epcot seems like a mess right now

 

[SeanWM48]

From everything WDW has to offer right now Disney Springs is the most "back to normal" in terms of feel. Love walking and seeing and hearing so much live entertainment.
I agree with you that epcot seems like a mess right now

Springs was great. with the parks closing early we were at springs almost every night and i have no complaints about that. we even did the air balloon ride for $20.

 

[Mzpalmtree]

and that is why there is always a clump of sanitizer under them, because people stick their hand under for a hot half second and walk away....and then the sanitizer flows and there is no hand there to catch it.

I think (at least from my experience anyway) that “hot half second” duration of patience stems from not wanting a line or crowd to build behind you while waiting for the sanitizer to flow. I noticed this quite a bit when we were there over NYE. The machines are actually quite slow to dispense and if every person waited I feel that there would be a large back up into the ride exit in many cases plus exiting is a place that I feel was a social distancing weakness. Grateful for the protocols and availability of the sanitizer but due to this we started to use our own.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

From everything WDW has to offer right now Disney Springs is the most "back to normal" in terms of feel. Love walking and seeing and hearing so much live entertainment.
I agree with you that epcot seems like a mess right now

We did Epcot on the first day of our trip and it almost had me regretting even going... It was so weird. Luckily dinner at Le Cellier plus MK the next day put my head back on straight, and our trip was excellent in many ways.

 

[GBRforWDW]

PSA on the hand sanitizer stations around the parks - I can't even count the number of times this past weekend when we heard people try them and mutter "they're empty" and walk away, only for us to walk up and find them working fine. They take a full beat to start working...like 1-2 seconds. So you can't just swipe your hand under them and get some, you have to wait a second. Patience is key.

I think (at least from my experience anyway) that “hot half second” duration of patience stems from not wanting a line or crowd to build behind you while waiting for the sanitizer to flow. I noticed this quite a bit when we were there over NYE. The machines are actually quite slow to dispense and if every person waited I feel that there would be a large back up into the ride exit in many cases plus exiting is a place that I feel was a social distancing weakness. Grateful for the protocols and availability of the sanitizer but due to this we started to use our own.

There's also a blinking light that comes on after someone gets sanitizer, so if you put your hand under while the light is blinking, the machine doesn't recognize your hand is there, once the machine is ready. My wife and daughter were constantly doing that. Lol

 

[jjpdjr]

Hmm, my 13 yo actually just said to me the other day he was excited for Epcot for our early April trip

where in the past he always hated Epcot
Guess he’s old enough now to appreciate it

but hearing some of these posts, I’m wondering if we should skip it and just do two days at HS

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Hmm, my 13 yo actually just said to me the other day he was excited for Epcot for our early April trip

where in the past he always hated Epcot
Guess he’s old enough now to appreciate it

but hearing some of these posts, I’m wondering if we should skip it and just do two days at HS

FWIW, we did Epcot on our arrival day (a Tuesday). We headed for Epcot a little after 2pm after park hopping had opened up for the day. We walked from Swan to Epcot, checked out the new France bathrooms, then to FEA, then to Spaceship Earth and then to Nemo before grabbing dinner. FEA was a long wait and the wait time was understated. We hit SE during a cleaning cycle so we stood near the ramp up for a long time; then we walked on Nemo and then headed to Le Cellier.

So our first 4 hours at Disney consisted of walking over 2 miles and riding 3 things. And we had just walked in to pandemic Disney with no characters, limited entertainment, and masks everywhere. After dinner we walked on LwtL and then did Soarin where the wait time also seemed inflated (maybe a cleaning cycle issue again?). We skipped Test Track because it still said 45 minutes wait and we honestly were just over all the walking at this point. So our day was 5 hours, 5 rides, 4+ miles of walking and a GREAT dinner.

I would imagine that people who have done Epcot at rope drop, had much better experiences. I think Epcot can still be very enjoyable if you set your expectations accordingly. We probably did it about as badly as we could...but there really was no other way to do that park on our trip. We weren't going to devote an entire day to it with only 5 park days (really 4 1/2) to begin with.

I think the next day at MK we had rode 7 things in the first 2 hours by comparison though.

 

[only hope]

i suppose i timed my walk poorly. to me the place fell flat compared to what you get at all the other parks and Springs. especially adding in the construction in the first half of the park.

i've done epcot when it's jumping and alive. it can be great. but walking through china/germany etc with nothing happening is a drag (IMO). i would suggest to others to just do a second day at MK/AK/HS, or spend a day in Springs sampling food and drinks for a more worthwhile experience. just my $.02

The entertainment is only in America, Canada, and inside the festival showplace or whatever it’s called. So even though there’s multiple groups, it’s not spread out across nearly the entire world showcase like usual, giving energy to multiple pavilions.

Epcot also has quite a few characters, relatively speaking- Alice and Mary Poppins rotate in the U.K., Pooh and Joy rotate in front of Imagination, seen reports of Elsa/Anna on a balcony or something in Norway, plus the calvacades.