Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[Tammy A]

Just back from a week at WDW, here are some thoughts:

• I was concerned with no Fastpass we'd be waiting in long lines, but honestly between using rope drop, riding hard for a few hours, and then taking a long break and coming back at dinnertime to ride hard before close, we avoided most of the insanity. We rode everything we wanted to at least once, and many things multiple times during the trip. We had 2 days at HS and my son and I rode Minnie/Mickey a total of 5 times... my husband and daughter got through RNR three times and Tower twice... we got Space done three times, Splash twice... we really did get as much done as we used to with Fastpass so that was a huge positive. I couldn't get over some of the waits during the afternoon though, they were nuts!
• COVID safety wise, we would have bypassed many situations if we weren't vaccinated and our kids weren't wearing really great masks. Obviously restaurant dining would have been out, but there were plenty of line situations where my husband and I stood on either end of our kids and lingered to try to get some distance between the kids and people doing dumb things. (Some of our favorites... the lady on a phone call who took her mask off and when her husband chided her she defended herself by saying she couldn't hear the other person on the phone with her face mask on... the parents who not only let their 6-8ish year old kid not wear his mask at all but then gave him chewing gum while in line?.... the macho guy who seemed to think getting away with taking his mask off whenever CMs weren't looking would impress his girlfriend). I would still rate mask compliance as pretty high (97-98%) but its hard not to focus on the noses and people who just think the rules must not apply to them.
• Learn and practice Rise of the Resistance. I prepared with obsession and my husband watched a couple videos, and I got boarding group 10 while he was still trying to click through the first screen after Join. I was able to get RoR boarding groups both mornings at 7 using time.gov to count down the seconds and then flipping to my app and timing my Join click for exactly when the clock struck 7 (and then clicking fast through every screen after). It skipped my son one morning and we got him easily added at a low wait Guest Relations stand later (they have them scattered through the park, so don't wait in a long line). The ride was super cool...totally loved it.
• Wearing masks sucks in the heat, not so much because you're sweating under it (which we did no matter which mask type we tried) but you want to be sipping and drinking and snacking on the go during precious low wait times and its so HARD to pull over and stop just to drink. We did it, but it sucked. Disney's newer cloth masks felt pretty breathable to me and I wore those over the surgical masks I brought, my husband settled on his KF94 because it boxes away from his face and felt cooler to him, and the kids wore KF94s without complaint.
• MK, Epcot, and HS all had rides going as soon as they let us enter in the morning, so imagine our surprise when we got up early and raced to Safari at AK later in the week and were told we had to wait 30 minutes until 8am before the ride would start. ***?? They did start running the truck at exactly 8, but that was very unexpected! None of the rides started early (although we didn't ask about the Pandora rides, maybe those opened, but Everest, Dinosaur and Safari were a no go.
• Our Kidani room was ready at our requested 1pm arrival, which really surprised me... so many anecdotes about rooms not being ready on time I did not expect that. Kidani was fantastic, beautiful, all good things we expected.
• To Go from Table Service places was awesome. We grabbed some Kona at the Poly and enjoyed, Sanaa and enjoyed. I hope they keep that!
• We did not experience any long Mobile Order return window issues some reported (but we usually had reservations at lunch).

We really did have a great time and it was a much needed return to our favorite place. We'll do some COVID tests later this week and maybe the week after (our state does free ship-to-home so they're really convenient) and see if we (especially the kids) picked up anything, but so far so good. Even with all the adjustments, it felt so GOOD to be there.

Hey, I'm a MN disney mom too!

 

[TikiTikiFan]

Oof seeing more reports of giant lines for the DME on the Facebook DIS group. What was the name and price of the car service many of you mentioned on this thread? I'm debating just going that route rather than risk a huge line... we would be so crabby haha.

 

[EPCOT-O.G.]

Oof seeing more reports of giant lines for the DME on the Facebook DIS group. What was the name and price of the car service many of you mentioned on this thread? I'm debating just going that route rather than risk a huge line... we would be so crabby haha.

The long lines are dismaying but I have a feeling I’ll either be waiting for the DME or sitting around at the hotel waiting for my check in so

 

[TikiTikiFan]

The long lines are dismaying but I have a feeling I’ll either be waiting for the DME or sitting around at the hotel waiting for my check in so

I don't know whether to laugh or cry...

 

[heartpumper]

Without fast passes but with mobile ordering and checking wait times, how are you doing with your phone's battery life? I ordered a battery pack but it is sooo bulky and heavy, I am thinking of returning it based on experiences in the park right now.

We just got back from 6 days in parks. I actually found my battery lasted longer this trip than in past. I wasn’t constantly refreshing to get a fast pass so I think that was the reason. Did use it a lot to check wait times, bus times, few mobile orders, dinner check in and pictures. I brought a portable charger with to hotel but never brought it to park.

 

[tjmw2727]

The cheer groups here have been prevalent. Not noisy, but their mask compliance (and their chaperones) in lines has been poor. Like they’re above the rules. I’ve noticed a lot of poor mask compliance especially in outside lines. Noses everywhere, eating and drinking a whole meal in line. Cast members are barely around to say something. I would also say in 8/10 lines the people behind us are up our behinds to the point where I have to say something- sometimes several times. It’s like no one can read the signs or they just don’t give a hoot. Cast members have not once enforced the line distancing in the two days I’ve been here. If people are squeamish, be prepared or delay

Agree with most of the above re the Cheer groups.

Just back yesterday and cheer groups were 15/20 in number and while I appreciate that they didn't cheer they did stop often for pictures/selfies and did them maskless and took quite a long time.

A group of about 4 rows of them on the safari turned the driver narration from the safari to everyone needs to have a mask on and covering the nose and mouth at least 6 times. Finally he had to threaten to have security meet us at the exit. Not the best safari we have had!

We only had a few line creepers (none were cheer groups) but they didn't get within the new "3 feet" guideline so I let it go.

 

[Princess Katelet]

Agree with most of the above re the Cheer groups.

Just back yesterday and cheer groups were 15/20 in number and while I appreciate that they didn't cheer they did stop often for pictures/selfies and did the mask less and took quite a long time.

A group of about 4 rows of them on the safari turned the driver narration from the safari to everyone needs to have a mask on and covering the nose and mouth at least 6 times. Finally he had to threaten to have security meet us at the exit. Not the best safari we have had!

We only had a few line creepers (none were cheer groups) but they didn't get within the new "3 feet" guideline so I let it go.

New three feet guideline?? When did that start? Did they place new markers?

I wish places would do a first strike you’re out rather than empty warnings and threats. Stop the ride, remove the non compliant party and be done with it. It would not take long to set a precedent and people would thus behave. I’m so tired of the one bad apple ruining it for everyone and do not understand why THEIR enjoyment matters more to Disney (or X store or X museum or X whatever) than the rule abiding guests they should want to KEEP!

 

[Wood Nymph]

We walked to DS from OKW in the a.m. to buy a few souveniers for the grandkids.

Do they have a well marked and lighted path to DS now? When we stayed at OKW a few years ago, the path wasn't well marked.

For some reason I received two different Disney survey emails prior to my trip asking me to review my trip. Today, the survey links are expired. I have no idea why Disney thought my trip was the week before.

We received two surveys from our April trip. The first survey asked questions about the resort we stayed at. The second survey was interested in transportation - how we got to parks and other places. They asked other questions as well, but those topics seemed to have the most questions.

 

[heartpumper]

Just back from a long desired trip to sunny Florida from frozen Minnesota.
Stayed ay Swan 4/17, AK Kidani 4/18-22, Portofino at US 4/22-24.
Some thoughts/ high lights:
- since staying at Swan we didn’t get DME with trip but our friends did. We were on same flight. They got in a super long line for DME and I had hired Tony Hinds (fantastic once again!!). They were just getting on the bus as we walked in to HS (this is with a grocery store stop for us on way to Swan).

-We lucked out with our rooms being ready early at both Kidani and Portofino by a little after 12pm.

-Buses...all I can say is Wow not the best part of our trip! Tensions are high and lots of arguments about who arrived to what line first at Kidani. It took us almost 1.5 hours to get back from MK one day. The bus drivers said there was problems with bus wifi so he suggested we call 407-WDW-RIDE and they would send more buses. This experience made us really appreciate the boats at swan and portofino!

-RoR... I did lots of research on how to get a boarding group. I even got up early and practiced from home (never got very far) We had 3 HS days to start our trip (2 teenagers excited to ride). Our first day we were at airport and son got a boarding group right away! Our group was 13 people but all arriving at different times. Of course it was called when we were flying. We made it park by 12:30 and at 12:59 we tried again and got back up boarding group (just the 3 of us that were in the park) which was called just before park closed. By the next morning we were pros! Got boarding group 18 for 3 of us called at 8:40-9:40. The following morning I got the boarding group 36 for all 13 of us. We would open the app at 6:59 and just keep pressing join! Don’t worry about who’s in group just join, join, join! Fantastic ride!

-Covid protocols... I work in the operating room where patients are intubated and have been around COVID since day one. I think I have a healthy respect/concern of this virus. As others have said, don’t go now if you are fearful of COVID. Both my teenagers and I (as well as the rest of our group) were able to get the vaccine a while ago. I was very thankful of that. Disney was much better than Universal as far as crowds mask compliance but there were so many people that would pull masks down once past cast members. I had a lady across from me on the bus pull down her mask and blow her nose as we arrived to AK. Lady wait 2 minutes and do it outside and off bus! People are definitely crowding each other in lines. Our worst experience was last Tuesday at MK. We had mobile ordered lunch and just as it was our time to eat the skies opened and it poured rain like it only can in FL!! The place was packed and of course people are eating so no masks. It was an insanely crazy mad house of people trying to find tables and get out of rain!

-bring lots of masks so you can change them! We had disposable and the latest Disney masks. Glad we had a variety cuz this MN girl was really feeling the heat while wearing a mask. Nice to change them.

-The lines are what they are. Sure we had to wait 25 minutes for Its a small world but we also only waited 30 minutes for FOP in the middle of the day. Lines seem to move pretty quickly. Rope dropping is so important as usual and end of night we also got a lot done. We walked over to HS from Swan our first morning. They opened temp station at 8:05 we dashed to SD. On second ride. Then did TOT, RRCx2 and TSM all before official park opening!

It was so wonderful to get back to our happy place! My 16 year old saw a Disney commercial on tv this morning before going to school. He said when are we going back mom?? I love that my 18 and 16 year old teenage boys still want to go to Disney with their mom

 

[loves to dive]

We just got back from 6 days in parks. I actually found my battery lasted longer this trip than in past. I wasn’t constantly refreshing to get a fast pass so I think that was the reason. Did use it a lot to check wait times, bus times, few mobile orders, dinner check in and pictures. I brought a portable charger with to hotel but never brought it to park.

I think it might depend on your phone. I have an older (probably 3 or 4 years old) android phone (pixal) and would have it out checking wait times or snapping a picture or two or checking for food times or timing wait times while in line - and I had to charge mine twice a day. I have one of the lipstick chargers, like the ones you can get in the machines in the parks, and it was easy to slip in a pocket and just hook it up and still use my phone if needed.

 

[Justin Headley]

My family and I just got back from a 6 day trip and I will echo sort of some of the things that have already been mentioned.

- I know we've heard the number at 35% capacity for the parks right now. This simly can not be true, we've been 5 times in the past 5 years (including the week before Christmas) and it felt just as crowded and some of the times we've went around holidays. As some have mentioned, rope drop and staying late is imperative. Our kids are 7, 4 and 2 so staying late is really tough and long lines can be a nightmare, so we made rope drop a priority. We noticed that about 2-3 hours after the park was opened some of the wait times were insane.
- Mask compliance was mostly ok. We did see some that were blatantly ignoring it, and seemed to always be quickly reminded by a Cast Member to wear it correctly. We did see one large group at AK outside of Na'vi river journey that was not complying and security had to get involved because of some non-compliance (that was a sight to see/watch) but it was mostly obeyed from what we saw.
- Totally agree with others about line spacing. We made it a game with our kids on standing on the distancing stripes all week, as we know many are cautious about their space, but the majority of people we encountered last week completely ignored the spacing guidelines. Seems like many still have the famous "fill in all available space" burned into their brains or just didn't care.
- We only had one HS day, but had no issue getting a RoR boarding pass. We watched time.gov, both my wife and I tried and were able to get boarding group #8. We also watched several youtube videos that had some great suggestions.
- In the past, we've always loved Character Dining with our small kids and was a highlight of our trips. We had a Hollywood & Vine reservation early in our stay and while we knew the character distancing would just be different, and we tried to be up front with out kids about the experience, in the end our kids were just understandably disappointed and it made it tough to fork over the $200+ dollars for it. Just didn't feel like the value was there. We had reservations for Topolino's terrace and Garden grill later in the week and ended up cancelling them. For our family at least, we really look forward and hope for the potential return of "normalcy" again with the character interactions. We definitely missed that part for our trip.

 

[KGolf31]

Perhaps a repetitive question:

Are you still except from paying to park at a theme park on the day of checkout ?

Staying at BWV, most of the stay will be using provided Transportation but on the day of checkout was planning on taking bus to MK in the AM, then coming back to our vehicle after checkout hours and hopping over to HS for a Oga's reservation and possibly ending at Epcot before heading over to Universal for the 2nd part of our vacation.

I suppose it would be easier as well to just take Bus transportation over to HS anyways then either walk back to BWV or hop over to Epcot as I'm typing and thinking this.

 

[Elle23]

- I know we've heard the number at 35% capacity for the parks right now. This simly can not be true, we've been 5 times in the past 5 years (including the week before Christmas) and it felt just as crowded and some of the times we've went around holidays

I believe the 35% capacity. One reason is I never waited one time for a bathroom in the parks. Every truly crowded time I have been in the past with unlimited capacity, there were waits for the bathrooms.

Also, I think it feels more crowded because of the long, socially distanced lines and so many attractions, shops, and restaurants being closed (or limited in capacity) that would normally absorb crowds. That leaves more people at the open attractions and out in the walkways, etc.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

So we just did a quick one day visit this past Friday, 4/23/21 and here were our current observations. Our last visit was back in July & August when the parks were empty and WDW had just reopened.

1-Hopping- We started at Epcot and hopped shortly after 2pm to MK. We got on the bus at 2:15pm and entered MK gates at around 2:40pm. We didn't wait very long for the bus and getting on was easy. All timing but it worked just fine. Assumed most hoppers are always headed to DHS. We also left MK right at park close, 9pm and hopped back to Epcot. The first bus that came filled quickly so we waited and the second bus came a few min later. I think we arrived at Epcot around 9:25pm.
2- Posted wait times- all are mostly wrong. Of all the rides we did all day long, the only wait time that was accurate, and our longest wait, was Test Track. At 9:30pm, posted wait time was 45 min and it was a full 45 min wait. The TP lines app was always more accurate than MDE and posted wait times. I guess Disney is going with under promise and over deliver on guest experience. The ride queues and lines look to be way worse than they really are. Frozen was a 20 min wait and the line started next to the reflections of china show entrance.
3- Mobile ordering- if you haven't been to WDW in a while, be sure you are familiar with mobile ordering and also realize that the windows of time food can be ready are slimmer now that everyone uses the app. If you want to eat at high noon or dinner at 6:30pm, you better pre-order your food for that window of time or you likely won't be able to eat for a bit. We ate dinner at 8:30 so there were no issues but I kept checking earlier times for Pecos Bills and a few others at around 6/7 and order windows were 30 min to an hour later in some cases.
4-Cheer groups on that Friday were a non-issue. I think it just depends on the kids in the group. All the kids we saw were respectful park guests and added nothing to crowd concerns. Perhaps a resort issue for some but we stayed at the Swan and saw a few cheer teams but again, no issues. Crowds feel heavier than ride wait times would indicate but likely a byproduct of the fact that there is not much else to do in the parks besides rides/eat/shop/repeat.
5-Plexiglass and ride seating- no rhyme or reason as to why some rides have it and others don't. I'm sure Disney has a science to it and that's fine but as so long as it keeps wait times down, I really don't care much about it but the Frozen plexiglass (new since our August visit) is lame. I don't like the Frozen plexiglass. Definitely detracts from the ride for shorter guests and unless you're in the front row, it really is annoying. But if it keep the line moving, it's fine but I'll be glad when they remove all of this.

Overall for a one day trip for me and my two daughters, 14 & 12, we were able to do every ride we wanted to except soarin, had time to shop and enjoy the festival. It was a tough decision between riding Soarin at 10:30 at night or go eat some more food, food won! I am bummed we missed the Peoplemover reopening by a few days but we'll be back soon. We stayed one night at the Swan and after 28,000 steps last Friday, their hotel bed felt amazing! We had a great trip and while I don't love park hopping for longer trips, I do like having that available to us again now for our shorter visits. Didn't realize that I did miss it.

 

[tjmw2727]

New three feet guideline?? When did that start? Did they place new markers?

I wish places would do a first strike you’re out rather than empty warnings and threats. Stop the ride, remove the non compliant party and be done with it. It would not take long to set a precedent and people would thus behave. I’m so tired of the one bad apple ruining it for everyone and do not understand why THEIR enjoyment matters more to Disney (or X store or X museum or X whatever) than the rule abiding guests they should want to KEEP!

No sorry!! The WDW markers are 6 feet apart but the revised CDC guidelines are saying 3 feet is probably fine. So in my mind if they creeped close but not consistently within 3 feet of us I mentally adjusted.

 

[DaniMoon]

• To Go from Table Service places was awesome. We grabbed some Kona at the Poly and enjoyed, Sanaa and enjoyed. I hope they keep that!
• We did not experience any long Mobile Order return window issues some reported (but we usually had reservations at lunch).

Thank you, I am going to try my hardest to get an ADR at Sanaa, it is our favorite restaurant in WDW, but it is good to know we could still the bread service and find a place to enjoy it. I'm glad you had a great time.

 

[Heather07438]

Perhaps a repetitive question:

Are you still except from paying to park at a theme park on the day of checkout ?

Staying at BWV, most of the stay will be using provided Transportation but on the day of checkout was planning on taking bus to MK in the AM, then coming back to our vehicle after checkout hours and hopping over to HS for a Oga's reservation and possibly ending at Epcot before heading over to Universal for the 2nd part of our vacation.

I suppose it would be easier as well to just take Bus transportation over to HS anyways then either walk back to BWV or hop over to Epcot as I'm typing and thinking this.

Yes you still get free parking at the theme parks on checkout day.

You’re also allowed to use your resort pool the entire day, even after checkout.

 

[VAtink]

Here now, just got in yesterday after a crazy morning of just trying to get here. MCO was nuts when we finally arrived, wall to wall people, but I suspect it was because so many incoming flights had to divert due to the weather so there were no planes for people to board.

Line to DME was super long, but only took 35 minutes to get to check-in, and then it was only another 10 to board the bus and maybe 5 before we left.

Went to Epcot yesterday afternoon, and it was pretty crowded, but that was to be expected being a Sunday. It was dapper day so it was great to see everyone dressed up.

Tons of tables around if you want to grab stuff from the F&G booths. Hope they keep all these tables from now on, so much easier to find a place to eat.

Took a late afternoon break and went back to Epcot at 8. Was surprised to see the crowds hadn't really died down from earlier. Rode LWTL, walk-on. The plastic between rows is pretty bad, really hope they remove it soon.

Decided to chance Soarin' afterwards, was hoping the wait time was inflated, it wasn't. Posted 45 minute wait, and took 40 minutes.

Crashed after that, long day!

Today is AK day. The first bus from the YC didn't arrive until 7, so got a later start than planned. By the time we got here the park was already open so at least breezed through the screening and security. Went right to FoP, posted 30 min wait, took about 45. Safari was next, I believe the posted wait was 15, took about 20. Great safari, animals super active and right next to the truck. EE was next, posted 10 min wait, was walk-on. Went to Dinosaur after, and it was posted 5 min, but took 10. Not bad. Like having entire rows to myself! By 10 the crowds had arrived so it was time to stroll around for pictures.

At 10:30 got in line for Nomad lounge, and have been hanging out here since. It is great here, could spend the day!

As for masks, not many had them at MCO, but since arriving at Disney it's been pretty good. A few noses here and there, but not bad that I've seen. Also, wearing one isn't as bad as expected. The first 10-15 minutes I thought I was really going to struggle, but I got used to it and forget it's on at times.

Distancing in lines has been hit or miss. More miss than hit. Some are clearly oblivious, others seem to just not care.

Anyways, great to be back here! Here's a picture of some ducks I saw from my seat here.

 

[cindianne320]

Hey, I'm a MN disney mom too!

Me, too!

New three feet guideline?? When did that start? Did they place new markers?

I wish places would do a first strike you’re out rather than empty warnings and threats. Stop the ride, remove the non compliant party and be done with it. It would not take long to set a precedent and people would thus behave. I’m so tired of the one bad apple ruining it for everyone and do not understand why THEIR enjoyment matters more to Disney (or X store or X museum or X whatever) than the rule abiding guests they should want to KEEP!

Universal does stop the ride if they see people not wearing masks- it happened to us on Minions! (We were wearing ours- other people kept trying to take them off, so the ride stopped...)

 

[elgerber]

Me, too!

Me Three