Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[GADisneyDad14]

Can i leave luggage at the resort desk before departing to the airport ?

You can store your luggage at bell services and come reclaim it prior to leaving. Remote Airline Checkin (where you can check in and they’ll take your bags to the airport, for select airlines) is not available.

 

[yulilin3]

Does it cost extra?

of course, it's like shipping anything, you have to pay shipping. The price varies by the total amount of the transaction, not sure how much

 

[crayon3448]

We were at MK yesterday (Sunday). On Saturday we played minigolf and it was HOT, I thought with the crowds that were reported at MK plus the heat we'd struggle (plus our first trip without the double stroller so the kids had to walk) but it was one if the best days we've had. We got done a ton even with shorter hours and left the park not dead tired- it helps we we went in a planned path vs back and forth with FP. Definitely not dead with crowds- the parks and resort have felt busy and there was quite a line sat afternoon for the feature pool at CBR- but park wait times were great.

First in line to park shortly after 8. Let in at 8:15 to park. Took ferry boat. Btmrr x2, Splash, pirates, Jungle cruise, Haunted mansion, Peter pan, iasw, pinocchio haus for ice water, teacups, Barnstormer x2, dumbo x2, little mermaid, Philharmagic, Skipper canteen lunch @ 1230. Emporium Shopping. Ferry to car. Back in room 2:45 for rest/swin. Parked & took Monorail. Back at park shortly after 5, Space mountain x2, Buzz, speedway. Ice water stop. 7dmt . Ferry to car, Back at room 7:45 to swim.

 

[MissQueen]

We were at MK yesterday (Sunday). On Saturday we played minigolf and it was HOT, I thought with the crowds that were reported at MK plus the heat we'd struggle (plus our first trip without the double stroller so the kids had to walk) but it was one if the best days we've had. We got done a ton even with shorter hours and left the park not dead tired- it helps we we went in a planned path vs back and forth with FP. Definitely not dead with crowds- the parks and resort have felt busy and there was quite a line sat afternoon for the feature pool at CBR- but park wait times were great.

First in line to park shortly after 8. Let in at 8:15 to park. Took ferry boat. Btmrr x2, Splash, pirates, Jungle cruise, Haunted mansion, Peter pan, iasw, pinocchio haus for ice water, teacups, Barnstormer x2, dumbo x2, little mermaid, Philharmagic, Skipper canteen lunch @ 1230. Emporium Shopping. Ferry. Back in room 2:45 for rest/swin. Monorail. Back at park shortly after 5, Space mountain x2, Buzz, speedway. Ice water stop. 7dmt . Ferry. Back at room 7:45 to swim.

That is quite an impressive list before lunch! Makes me feel good about our MK day coming up next week. Just a one-day birthday celebration for my son. I want to get him on all the things now that he's tall enough for most of it! Sounds like you were able to leave the park and come back in relatively short timing. I was thinking we would just spend the whole day there because the getting back to the TTC, to the hotel, hang out, back to TTC, and to park.... might take up too much time in a shortened day. But we do have littles, so nice to know that might be an option.

 

[Dentam]

Thanks for the info. I guess it is resort gift shop wine for me then. Better to know in advance though!

We've also gotten bottles of wine in Disney Springs at the kitchen/home goods shop - can't remember the name of it offhand. It may be the same wine sold at resort gift shops.

 

[shoegal9]

I have been wondering about purchasing a bottle of wine at one of the shops in Epcot World Showcase, like Les Vins de France. Will we now be allowed/required to carry these out of the parks ourselves? Was thinking that this was not permitted pre-Covid.

I was having dinner at Tutto Gusto and this drunk group was taking swigs of brandy from a bottle they bought in the Germany pavilion. So, you definitely can buy bottles of alcohol and carry them out with you. Eventually the waiter at TG saw them and told them to put the bottle back in the box/bag. I think the wine shop is also open in Italy...

 

[720L]

We got home Saturday from a 8 day in the parks trip. I feel somewhat recovered today LOL. We always go in the summer so I know the intense heat. But with masks on it tripled (for me & DS). DH & DD said eventually they forgot about the masks!! Not me. I was miserable. I won't be going back until no masks. Not even in cooler weather because I always knew I had a mask on & it took away from the magic. Also there were a lot of restaurants/food carts closed. We couldn't find soft serve ice cream in DHS! The crowds were not what I expected. The first day in the parks was a Saturday at DHS. It was busy. I was mad because I expected pretty much walk on. Thankfully the rest of our days were better. I've heard weekends tend to be busier. We stayed at the Swan. I'm not a fan. You can tell its not a Disney resort. The resort fee is supposed to include bottles of water & Smores kits every day. We only got water 2 days probably because of no housekeeping. But still, they couldve had a place for you to pick it up. They could've offered something in place of Smores kit. The swan boats were supposed to be free to guests but they were never open. I honestly was too tired to call & complain. Also lots of people not wearing masks properly in the lobby. I wonder if mask wearing at a Disney resort would be more enforced? The walking paths to Epcot & DHS also had lots of people not wearing masks. Probably because there aren't any CMs around to enforce it.They were great at enforcing masks & social distancing at the parks. I felt safe. Most people in the parks were following the rules.

 

[rtill]

We got back yesterday after a long weekend. Very hot obviously but we all had a great time. We felt that mask compliance was very good at the parks. Disney has really done a very good job with everything and all of the CMs were awesome that we came into contact with. The heavier crowds on the weekends are real - we were at AK yesterday and Pandora felt very crowded - really not much different than a normal day. While Disney has done a good job providing for physical distancing in line areas, there really is not much that can be done in the common areas. This should really be considered by anyone with an upcoming visit - there will be many times where physical distancing is not possible.

 

[SPSRAS]

We were at MK yesterday (Sunday). On Saturday we played minigolf and it was HOT, I thought with the crowds that were reported at MK plus the heat we'd struggle (plus our first trip without the double stroller so the kids had to walk) but it was one if the best days we've had. We got done a ton even with shorter hours and left the park not dead tired- it helps we we went in a planned path vs back and forth with FP. Definitely not dead with crowds- the parks and resort have felt busy and there was quite a line sat afternoon for the feature pool at CBR- but park wait times were great.

First in line to park shortly after 8. Let in at 8:15 to park. Took ferry boat. Btmrr x2, Splash, pirates, Jungle cruise, Haunted mansion, Peter pan, iasw, pinocchio haus for ice water, teacups, Barnstormer x2, dumbo x2, little mermaid, Philharmagic, Skipper canteen lunch @ 1230. Emporium Shopping. Ferry to car. Back in room 2:45 for rest/swin. Parked & took Monorail. Back at park shortly after 5, Space mountain x2, Buzz, speedway. Ice water stop. 7dmt . Ferry to car, Back at room 7:45 to swim.

This makes me feel so much better about our trip! We are leaving tomorrow and I was honestly thinking of cancelling with all the war stories from the weekend. I am keeping my fingers crossed that by Wednesday the crowds will have thinned out. Glad to hear you had such success even on one of the busier days!

 

[TheNotSoGreatGonzo]

OK - I've been stalking this thread and have a list of (hopefully) quick questions that I wished some recent visitors could respond to. Over the weekend, my wife and I went and booked a trip only 4 days from now (we've never been so spontaneous before like this - we usually book everything the minute that we can (FPs, ADRs, etc.)). It'll be just the two of us, leaving our 4 kids at home (2 are so young that they wouldn't be able to keep masks on). We've just gone stir crazy and need to get out, and we had 2 free nights (from a previous nightmare trip).

4 nights at the Riviera
Friday Epcot with Dinner at Rose and Crown
Saturday DHS with Dinner at Mama Melrose
Sunday Epcot with Food and Wine all day
Monday MK with Dinner at The Plaza (although we are holding out hope for an ADR at Homecomin')
Tuesday AK

Questions:
1. What are people doing after the parks close? With the parks closing early, I imagine we will want to swim (but pools close at 9) or eat (most dining closes early as well). It seems as though ars care closing at 9 or 10 in most cases. With parks opening later in the morning, it doesn't seem right to just go to the room and watch TV/sleep. What are people doing from 9pm to 11pm/midnight? 2 adults here that want to live their best lives!

2. How crowded are the pools at the end of the evening? Part of me says it'd be crowded because of the heat and there's nothing else to do, but the other part of me says that most visitors are not staying at resorts which are supposedly operating at reduced capacity anyways.

3. Can you sit/eat at the "relaxation stations"? For instance, I heard Akershus is a relaxation station. Can you order from the Bakery (that only has outdoor seating) and go eat in the A/C inside of Akershus?

4. I think I saw that Orlando schools start in-school learning on Friday 8/21. Is it possible this might lead to an even bigger dropoff in park attendance from the recent trip reports from the last week?

5. Beaches and Cream still doing walk-up to-go orders for ice cream/shakes?

6. We've never eaten at Mama Melrose. Should we go with that for dinner or try Topolino's or even Brown Derby - both of which we've never eaten at either?

 

[pepperandchips]

Here are the ones I have thoughts on....

What are people doing after the parks close? With the parks closing early, I imagine we will want to swim (but pools close at 9) or eat (most dining closes early as well). It seems as though ars care closing at 9 or 10 in most cases. With parks opening later in the morning, it doesn't seem right to just go to the room and watch TV/sleep. What are people doing from 9pm to 11pm/midnight? 2 adults here that want to live their best lives!

Disney Springs closes at 10:00 right now, so that means that most of the restaurants are stopping seating then or well before then, and yes, it is early! We thought that the Boathouse was open until 11 based on their hours on DisneySprings.com but our server told us it was last call around 10:00. The couple sitting next to us asked if anything was open later and our server said that Raglan Road is open a smidge later but that everything has to close by (11, I think, my eavesdropping trailed off). He gave them the name of a local dive bar and they were going to uber there, but he warned them that due to local ordinance some bars are closing earlier as well. We stayed at Raglan Road on Saturday until the outdoor singer stopped playing around 10:40. Looked like drinks were being served still (we were done). At Riviera when we were there in July we watched a lot of stuff on Disney+ cast to the tv in the room late at night. This isn't a great time to visit for night owls. There is a whole thread devoted to what to do at night somewhere but there just isn't as much as in "normal" operations.

FWIW the Beau Soleil pool (quiet pool) at Riviera did not close at 9:00 and we saw lots of swimmers from our balcony. I think the hours say until 11 but I didn't see anyone being swept out.

How crowded are the pools at the end of the evening? Part of me says it'd be crowded because of the heat and there's nothing else to do, but the other part of me says that most visitors are not staying at resorts which are supposedly operating at reduced capacity anyways.

I would also ask in the Riviera thread but when we were there over the Fourth of July weekend there were definitely people in the pool at night but it wasn't crowded at all. I haven't seen reports of the Riviera pools reaching capacity - especially the Beau Soleil pool.

We've never eaten at Mama Melrose. Should we go with that for dinner or try Topolino's or even Brown Derby - both of which we've never eaten at either?

Brown Derby is a favorite of ours, it's really good and the service is impeccable. I think it depends what you're in the mood for but on adults only trip I would be more inclined to try Brown Derby.

Also you mentioned somewhere about waiting for a Homecoming ADR to come through for you - in our experience we didn't need ADRs for any of the places we wanted to eat. Our longest wait was about 20 minutes for Homecoming in July and we just used that time to shop. No problem walking up at Boathouse, Frontera, Spice Road Table, Raglan Road, or Homecoming. The only restaurants we made ADRs for were restaurants at resorts we weren't staying at just to be certain we wouldn't have any problems accessing the resort in our car to park.

 

[Leigh L]

Oh it’s people like that who ruin things! They should of said mask on or get off!
Do you know that when they take the ride photos for photo pass that the riders who don’t have masks on those photos are not shown and not available. So if your on a ride where people in the same photo like Splash have no mask you won’t get that photo.
Unless it has changed.

I'll circle back and let you know!
We rode Pirates yesterday and the family in the front were all masked except a child (he looked older than 2 to me, but wasn't going to judge as some kids are taller). I did wonder if the photo would show up though. So far it hasn't, but neither have some others taken within an hour or two after that. Ride photos are slower to show up than usual.

Just checked again, WDW removing photos without masks hasn't changed. All the photos from our trip showed up except the Pirates ride. The adults in that party were all wearing masks, so either the child not wearing one triggered it or someone else popped theirs off maybe? I think it would have shown up by now since our last park day was on Friday and photos taken after Pirates are now available.

 

[Best Aunt]

3. Can you sit/eat at the "relaxation stations"? For instance, I heard Akershus is a relaxation station. Can you order from the Bakery (that only has outdoor seating) and go eat in the A/C inside of Akershus?

I thought the Norway bakery is closed.

 

[disneyseniors]

NotsogreatGonzo: I can only relate to the last question, about Mama Melroses.
We have eaten there 3 times and had great service and really good Italian food. Take this with a grain of salt, as we are not "foodies" but enjoy good comfort food. We love the kitschy decorations and surroundings.

 

[TheNotSoGreatGonzo]

Here are the ones I have thoughts on....


Disney Springs closes at 10:00 right now, so that means that most of the restaurants are stopping seating then or well before then, and yes, it is early! We thought that the Boathouse was open until 11 based on their hours on DisneySprings.com but our server told us it was last call around 10:00. The couple sitting next to us asked if anything was open later and our server said that Raglan Road is open a smidge later but that everything has to close by (11, I think, my eavesdropping trailed off). He gave them the name of a local dive bar and they were going to uber there, but he warned them that due to local ordinance some bars are closing earlier as well. We stayed at Raglan Road on Saturday until the outdoor singer stopped playing around 10:40. Looked like drinks were being served still (we were done). At Riviera when we were there in July we watched a lot of stuff on Disney+ cast to the tv in the room late at night. This isn't a great time to visit for night owls. There is a whole thread devoted to what to do at night somewhere but there just isn't as much as in "normal" operations.

Good points/suggestions. I wouldn't say we're night owls, but with park openings at Epcot and DHS at 10am and 11am, I just don't think we'll be struggling to make the opening bell even if we were out until midnight.

FWIW the Beau Soleil pool (quiet pool) at Riviera did not close at 9:00 and we saw lots of swimmers from our balcony. I think the hours say until 11 but I didn't see anyone being swept out.


I would also ask in the Riviera thread but when we were there over the Fourth of July weekend there were definitely people in the pool at night but it wasn't crowded at all. I haven't seen reports of the Riviera pools reaching capacity - especially the Beau Soleil pool.

I want to say I saw on WDW Info that the Beau Soleil pool is open 24 hours - maybe because of the heat and the fact that there's nothing else to do.

Brown Derby is a favorite of ours, it's really good and the service is impeccable. I think it depends what you're in the mood for but on adults only trip I would be more inclined to try Brown Derby.

Also you mentioned somewhere about waiting for a Homecoming ADR to come through for you - in our experience we didn't need ADRs for any of the places we wanted to eat. Our longest wait was about 20 minutes for Homecoming in July and we just used that time to shop. No problem walking up at Boathouse, Frontera, Spice Road Table, Raglan Road, or Homecoming. The only restaurants we made ADRs for were restaurants at resorts we weren't staying at just to be certain we wouldn't have any problems accessing the resort in our car to park.

Yeah, I'm thinking I might switch to Brown Derby. Neither of us are that into Italian, and Derby seems more adult-ish. Great tip on Homecoming...I just assumed ADRs are a must given the reduced capacity right now. I know they used to allow walk-ins for bar seating, but I wasn't sure if their bar seating is even open right now. I'm sure it's limited if it is open.

I thought the Norway bakery is closed.

Uh-oh...better keep that from my wife until we arrive or else she'll want to cancel.

 

[koquinn]

6. We've never eaten at Mama Melrose. Should we go with that for dinner or try Topolino's or even Brown Derby - both of which we've never eaten at either?

We enjoy MM, but the menu was limited this time compared to previous. Our server Kyle was phenomenal though and made the experience for us. Topolinos didn't have any ressies I could get last minute. BD wasn't our favorite but it was years ago and we had a naughty toddler that ruined the dining experience so that one might be on us! If you have park tickets for EPCOT, and like Italian, I would highly recommend via Napoli - their prosciutto melon pizza is absolutely to die for and I enjoyed the white wine flight as well. But don't bother with the caprese, it wasn't anything special.

 

[TheNotSoGreatGonzo]

We enjoy MM, but the menu was limited this time compared to previous. Our server Kyle was phenomenal though and made the experience for us. Topolinos didn't have any ressies I could get last minute. BD wasn't our favorite but it was years ago and we had a naughty toddler that ruined the dining experience so that one might be on us! If you have park tickets for EPCOT, and like Italian, I would highly recommend via Napoli - their prosciutto melon pizza is absolutely to die for and I enjoyed the white wine flight as well. But don't bother with the caprese, it wasn't anything special.

Totally agree on Via Napoli. The only thing keeping us from an ADR there is Food & Wine festival.

 

[shoegal9]

Good points/suggestions. I wouldn't say we're night owls, but with park openings at Epcot and DHS at 10am and 11am, I just don't think we'll be struggling to make the opening bell even if we were out until midnight.



I want to say I saw on WDW Info that the Beau Soleil pool is open 24 hours - maybe because of the heat and the fact that there's nothing else to do.



Yeah, I'm thinking I might switch to Brown Derby. Neither of us are that into Italian, and Derby seems more adult-ish. Great tip on Homecoming...I just assumed ADRs are a must given the reduced capacity right now. I know they used to allow walk-ins for bar seating, but I wasn't sure if their bar seating is even open right now. I'm sure it's limited if it is open.



Uh-oh...better keep that from my wife until we arrive or else she'll want to cancel.

We went to Disney Springs on a Saturday night around 9 (August 1st). We were able to walk up to Homecomin' and we were seated. If you are willing to go late you can usually get a table at Disney Springs locations. Same with Raglan and Boathouse.

 

[brockash]

This makes me feel so much better about our trip! We are leaving tomorrow and I was honestly thinking of cancelling with all the war stories from the weekend. I am keeping my fingers crossed that by Wednesday the crowds will have thinned out. Glad to hear you had such success even on one of the busier days!

Crowds should be fine until Fri. and then again especially on Sat./Sun. It seems the weekdays (especially middle of the week) have been pretty tame compared to Fri- Sun.'s from the reports.

 

[disneytraveler]

You can store your luggage at bell services and come reclaim it prior to leaving. Remote Airline Checkin (where you can check in and they’ll take your bags to the airport, for select airlines) is not available.

Thank you