Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[Befferk]

I like this idea! So do you walk across the boardwalk parking lot to the sidewalk by the water? I’m trying to remember the details of that area....

If you zoom into the satellite view of Google Maps you can see the walking trails along Buena Vista Blvd

 

[RunWI1265]

Thanks, I was mainly trying to alleviate fears from the poster I quoted who was concerned the pathways would be crowded. I know coming on a site like this where everyone talks about the same thing, it seems like everyone is doing it, but we’re just a small percentage of guests and very few go to the same park on the same days. Definitely helpful to get a better idea from those who’ve done it what the lines up crowds are like prior to temp check opening.

Ah, yes. Reading back I see that now. @vital On my walk, once on the path I encountered three other parties walking in the same direction. So, not crowded at all. Two of the three groups were, however, maskless.

 

[mcomber7]

If you zoom into the satellite view of Google Maps you can see the walking trails along Buena Vista Blvd

Good idea, this will help, thank you!

 

[katyringo]

Magic bands came today! And cute luggage tags!

to Confirm : luggage service isn’t available right now, correct? We need to get our own luggage before heading to magical express.

 

[runjulesrun]

Magic bands came today! And cute luggage tags!

to Confirm : luggage service isn’t available right now, correct? We need to get our own luggage before heading to magical express.

Correct, there is no luggage service currently. You need to pick up your own luggage before heading to ME.

 

[Akck]

We were at WDW last week and before that, Houston visiting family for about 10 days. We just got a negative Covid test result as required by our state upon returning. During our stay, we visited all 4 parks, Disney Springs and ate indoors at several restaurants. IMHO, you can be safe at WDW by following the safety precautions. In general, mask compliance was good, but you did see an occasional nose sticking out or eating/drinking while moving. I was easy to be 10+ feet away from them as they passed by.

Our flight was delayed due to a weather backup, so we were only able to get dinner at La Cantina in EP. Crowds were thin, but it was near closing. Our second day was at HS, where we got BG 45 For ROTR. To me, the crowd felt like EEM in October 2019. Ride-wise, actual wait times were less than posted, anywhere from 5-30 minutes less (I.e., MMRR posted 90 actual 60 minutes). Lunch was at Docking Bay 7, inside to take advantage of the AC and dinner at Sanaa. We were comfortable at both with the table spacing.

AK was our next park, where we went to FOP. While the line extended almost to Africa, it moved relatively fast. We opted to skip Navi, as we didn’t think a 60 minute wait was worth it. Kilimanjaro Safari was a short wait, about 5 minutes shorter than the posted time. Lunch was at Yak and Yeti and was very comfortable in the AC and table spacing. The afternoon was scheduled for DS, where we ate dinner inside at Homecomin‘. The heat was oppressive, making it difficult to do a lot of shopping, so we cut the night short. Mask compliance was good, only the occasional nose peeking out.

MK was our park for the next 2 days and most rides were a 20 minute wait or walk on. The exception being 7DMT, which had a 40 minute posted wait (35 minutes actual). Crowds were smaller here than the other parks. Meals these days were at Pecos Bill, the Wave, Skipper Canteen, Cosmic Rays and Contempo Cafe. All were indoors except the last which we ate in our room.

EP was our last park day, on a Saturday. We were able to walk on Living with the Land and a 15 minute wait for Soaring. When we left the Land Pavilion, there was a line to get in that stretched past the walkway leading to the building. Needless to say EP was the most crowded park. We ate lunch outside at Katsura Grill (not that good), and then explored the world showcase pavilions. We did take a break and rode the skyliner. We were going to ride Frozen, but the line stretched through China and we would’ve missed our reservation at Via Napoli.

Our last day was shopping at DS. Probably one of the slowest queues was getting into the parking garage. Mask compliance was good again, but some of the stores got crowded. Lunch was outside at D-Luxe Burger. We then headed back to the resort to collect our luggage and the off to the airport. We did rent a car for this trip to allow us mask breaks and no waiting for transportation to/from the parks. It allowed us almost immediate cooling relief and likely spoiled us for future trips.

 

[HashberryOTG]

We just got back a day or two ago and were there for a week. MK on a weekend was rough. Wait times were long, but harder to judge because it stormed/rained a good portion of the time we were there. Our other weekend day was Epcot (along with 1.5 weekdays, it's our favorite!). Some areas were uncomfortably busy. We left around 1 when it started getting really bad, came back around 4. Lines for F&W stuff were generally small on weekdays (except that scary 1pm range! lol), so got to try lots of food without ridiculously long waits. AK was great, and HS was just the opposite.

We were in HS for about 3 hours before just giving up and going to Disney Springs for the rest of the day because HS was packed tight. Even "short" line rides were 40-45 minutes. MMRR was mostly a 2+ hour wait, mostly in the sun. Millennium also sat at over 2 hours for a good portion of the time. There was no where to sit to snack or rest, especially if you needed to get out of the sun. Even Muppets was 45 minutes at the lowest. I watched the times throughout the evening so we could head back if they improved. Millennium dropped to an hour for the evening, otherwise not much change for the rides we were watching.

Overall, I'd say we had a good time. Mask compliance was great. Distancing was mostly ok. People seemed to generally try though. I don't mind passing someone briefly in a walkway, but some queues were uncomfortable because some just ignore the distancing, and some walkways did get very backed up. HS was a huge disappointment tho. Having to wait that long for a ride, having no place to sit, add in reduced services, no fireworks, so much closed or simply unreasonable, that day just felt bad.

I feel strongly they need to open more food options, even if it is only during peak times. As things get busier in the parks, it does feel harder to justify that kind of $ for a trip with reduced offerings. On the other hand, you offer more things, people crowd even more. I also wish there was SOME way to offer a limited park hopping, maybe just for the last few hours. But that has the potential to screw over someone returning to the park. I don't have the answers, that's for sure. But had I realized things would pick up like this after labor day I would have scheduled things differently.

 

[pal6860]

We went to HS today. Took a Lyft from Pop at 8:05am to the Speedway, tell the driver to pull through all the pumps and go to the back exit which is across the street from the entrance to the Boardwalk. You have to cross the street without a crosswalk, but there is little Traffic and the sidewalk is right there. We started walking towards the pathway about 8:05 and arrived at the first holding point at 8:15am. There were probably 20 people there. Around 8:45 we were able to start walking to temperature check where we waited about 15-20 min. We were first through the tent, go to the tents on the left side, lines seem shorter there. We arrived at the queue for MMRR about 9:10 And the cast member announced they would not be starting the ride until close to Park scheduled opening time, ugh. We were the 10th people in line.

At 9:30, they opened the doors and we went inside. Made it to the last holding room and waited until 9:50 to get into the loading room. On the ride at 9:52, off at 9:58, stayed in the exit area and got BG 10 for Rise.

We had a much different experience on Tuesday. Railroad was up and running at 9:10am, rode it, walked to SDD, waited about 15 minutes, rode, walked back to Brown Derby area at 9:55, got BG 17.

I love this plan!!! Question: Can I do this plan with a car?

We will be going directly to the airport that afternoon and will have already checked out of our hotel.
We are DVC and Annual Passholders. Can we park at Boardwalk and walk over? Or get breakfast reservations somewhere allowing us to park at the resort?

Thanks!

 

[erinch]

Yesterday, Friday 9/25 AK suddenly announced the day before they would be opening at 8 instead of 9. The family, DH who doesn’t do Fop or Everest, and 25 year old DD who had had a drink sample at EVERY Epcot booth the day before decided to come later. I got an Uber and was in AK at 9:03. Uber was great. Drop off was right at the temperature tents. I walked on to FoP and was on again with 2 rides by 9:30. At that point, I met the family and we did safari, then used the Landry card to get front of line at Yak and Yeti. None of the sit downs had any walk up availability, and people were eating lunch at 10:30. Lines weee very manageable. We did wait for Navi River, about 45 minutes. Because so much of that wait is in the blazing sun it seemed much longer. But we had never been on it! After that we left around 3. It was our second day, so we had done much the day before. If it were less hot, we would have gone back for Everest and Safari again.

 

[yulilin3]

I love this plan!!! Question: Can I do this plan with a car?

We will be going directly to the airport that afternoon and will have already checked out of our hotel.
We are annual Passholders. Can we park at Boardwalk and walk over? Or get breakfast reservations somewhere allowing us to park at the resort?

Thanks!

You cannot park at a resort without a dining reservation and with that, only four 2 hours. Disney can tow your car if it stays longer than that.
Many people do this and haven't had a problem but just letting you know Disney can tow.
You cannot park at the speedway either

 

[pal6860]

You cannot park at a resort without a dining reservation and with that, only four 2 hours. Disney can tow your car if it stays longer than that.
Many people do this and haven't had a problem but just letting you know Disney can tow.
You cannot park at the speedway either

That’s what I thought . Thx.

 

[robinstrip]

I love this plan!!! Question: Can I do this plan with a car?

We will be going directly to the airport that afternoon and will have already checked out of our hotel.
We are DVC and Annual Passholders. Can we park at Boardwalk and walk over? Or get breakfast reservations somewhere allowing us to park at the resort?

Thanks!

I could be wrong but I think the rule is that you can only park at the resort for 2 hrs when you have a reservation. (I don't know if they enforce it though.) Can you Uber to Speedway and just leave your car at your resort and take Disney transportation back to your resort/car when you are done?

 

[pal6860]

I could be wrong but I think the rule is that you can only park at the resort for 2 hrs when you have a reservation. (I don't know if they enforce it though.) Can you Uber to Speedway and just leave your car at your resort and take Disney transportation back to your resort/car when you are done?

I think that will be our plan. We’re staying at Bay Lake, so maybe we’ll just Uber it back and forth. I wanted to park close by so we can maximize our time in the park before heading out to catch our 4pm flight. But I’d rather exit the park a little earlier (during peak times), than arrive a little later at park opening (if that makes any sense!!).

 

[robinstrip]

We are planning on going Jersey Week (11/4 to 11/8). Is anyone else concerned about the pictures coming out of the parks lately? It seems one of two things, either more people are coming or they are increasing capacity. The pictures show very crowded walkways and I know camera angles can play tricks, but they look pretty crowded. More people, combined with social distancing on the lines, less capacity per ride vehicle and cleaning, the lines are getting longer and longer. Plus still very early park closing and no park hopping. I went from this is going to be great, to this is going to be a disaster. Someone please walk me off the ledge.

Honestly I was concerned before our trip this week, but we ended up having a great time. MK was great. Longest line we stood in was SDMT but it was less than posted. We knew that HS was gonna be a hurry up and wait situation. But even with that we got to ride all the rides our son was interested in and some of them twice. I would definitely walk or Uber to HS. I could be wrong, but Ubering in looked better they let you off right at the tents. The issue is I don't know if they have a separate entrance or if they have to come in through the parking lot. We were hot and it was a little frustrating to start the morning in lines to get in and for MMRR, but otherwise we wouldn't have been able to ride it without a huge wait. I would also highly suggest ADRs personally. We wanted to eat inside out of the heat. (I know some people would prefer outside.) It was necessary to have an ADR in my opinion rather than taking a chance of maybe getting a seat inside. What concerns me is that the FL governor announced yesterday that he is removing restrictions and said the theme parks should return to normal operations. I don't know what Disney will do, but if they go back to "normal" I think a lot of people just won't come due to Covid. We had a blast but come in with expectations that it wouldn't be like other trips. We really enjoyed a lower crowd MK, but lately we have come in the summer, so are used to crowds.

 

[Helvetica]

I’ve been pretty freaked out by the buses, but I think they’ve done a good job at Old Key West. I decided to try my luck at Epcot and got on the first bus and I was able to get to the que of Test Track at 10:15. They don’t start letting people on the ride until later, but I’m first in line.

They only allow 6 groups per bus, so I can’t imagine what it’s like for people staying at values or moderates. The buses were going constantly this morning.

 

[footballmouse]

We are planning on going Jersey Week (11/4 to 11/8). Is anyone else concerned about the pictures coming out of the parks lately? It seems one of two things, either more people are coming or they are increasing capacity. The pictures show very crowded walkways and I know camera angles can play tricks, but they look pretty crowded. More people, combined with social distancing on the lines, less capacity per ride vehicle and cleaning, the lines are getting longer and longer. Plus still very early park closing and no park hopping. I went from this is going to be great, to this is going to be a disaster. Someone please walk me off the ledge.

I'm right there with you. I have a long weekend planned the weekend after you're there but I'm really on the fence. I really talked this up so my son would go with me, now I feel bad. I started looking at maybe going to Washington DC instead and just stick with next September for a week long trip.

 

[Greta]

Hello DIS friends -
Question for anyone that has been to AK lately: Is the animation experience still happening? The one that you take the train ride to get to and learn how to draw a Disney animal?
Thank you!

5 more days! ️

 

[erinch]

They were during the class on Tuesday this past week. Looked like fun. We just took the train over a d back.

Hello DIS friends -
Question for anyone that has been to AK lately: Is the animation experience still happening? The one that you take the train ride to get to and learn how to draw a Disney animal?
Thank you!

5 more days!

 

[Greta]

They were during the class on Tuesday this past week. Looked like fun. We just took the train over a d back.

Thank you! I think our 14 year old will LOVE this experience

 

[yulilin3]

Thank you! I think our 14 year old will LOVE this experience

they really have upgraded this from the old animation class, I love the animal facts that goes into it as well