Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[DisneyJColeMom]

Im sorry if this has already been discussed, but is it being enforced that you have to wear your mask til your food or drinks come to your table while dining? Or has it been more that you can take off your mask once seated?

 

[beesly]

Im sorry if this has already been discussed, but is it being enforced that you have to wear your mask til your food or drinks come to your table while dining? Or has it been more that you can take off your mask once seated?

Our experience over the past week was that diners could (and most seemed to) remove their masks once seated.

 

[KBL3782]

Thanks to everyone for reporting back on their trips! So helpful! Anyone recently stay at Riviera or Beach Club? Would love to hear about your experiences with the buses and food at the resort.

We stayed at Rivera in early March and had a fantastic experience! The resort itself is beautiful and the service in general was excellent. We had no issues with buses at all, and never waited more than about 10 minutes for a bus from resort to park or to DS. It is a small enough resort that there is not a *ton* of competition for bus space, but its still a good idea to arrive to the stop early so you can guarantee a spot in line. The skyliner was really easy and efficient, both for Epcot & DHS. (I would be in line by 7:30am for a 9am DHS opening if rope drop is important to you though. We did not rope drop Epcot, so I really can't speak to that)

As for the food, here is where I will probably have a different opinion than most. It was fine -- nothing great or outstanding to me but it was fine. The only meal we had at Topolino's was breakfast, and while it was good it isn't something I would do again.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

Just back from our spring break trip 3/25-4/1 and thought I'd share some overall experiences/thoughts. Travel party was myself, DH, DS14 and DS12 and we stayed in a preferred room at CBR. I will preface these comments by saying that I was most worried about lack of FP and crowds on this trip, as we are typically hard core Fast Passers and not used to waiting in lines. I was also worried about the parks feeling less magical with a lot of the experiences still missing. I'll touch on each of these in more detail, but to summarize I'll say we had an amazing trip! There were definitely some things we missed, but I couldn't be happier that we went and had a great time.

Masks/Safety Protocols
I was very impressed by everything Disney has put in place, especially with ride queues. Yes, the lines look incredibly long and it can be a challenge to find the end, but the nice thing is that once you're in line they move constantly so it never really feels that long. The lines are now mostly outdoors, which is good for Covid but not great when it's super hot. MOST people are good about staying on the markers, but occasionally you do get families that aren't paying attention. We also observed a lot of people eating/drinking in line (and not just kids). Not debating whether it's right or wrong, just an observation. Occasionally you would get a CM that would remind people that it's not allowed, but for the most part no one says anything. Mask wearing was very good throughout the parks. I was actually surprised by how well most people complied.

Mobile Ordering
Loved it, hope it stays around forever! We never had an issue getting a time slot and generally would only wait 10-15 minutes to pickup. We found it so much easier to find a shady place to sit, have everyone look at the menu on the phone, and place the order versus the chaos of taking everyone into the restaurant and trying to order with a cashier. Just so much more convenient and nice to always be able to find a table.

Characters/Shows
My kids are older and no longer into meeting characters, but I will say that we definitely missed seeing characters around the parks. The cavalcades are really fun, but I feel like Disney can definitely do more in this area. They could easily have more socially distanced characters throughout the parks and I think it would really bring back an energy that is lacking right now. We really missed the nighttime shows as well. It was so weird not seeing people lining up in the hub in the evenings. I really hope they return soon.

Lines/Crowds
As I mentioned earlier, the rides lines LOOK super long, but we found wait times to be pretty manageable, especially in the first hour after park opening and last 2 hours of the day. For the first hour, most everything will be walk on or less than 20 minutes (SDD being an exception - that lines gets crazy long almost immediately). Same for the last couple hours before park closing. We generally found posted wait times to be exaggerated (especially at MK). The longest we waited all week was for Splash at about 45 minutes (at park closing) and FOP for almost an hour (this was our fault as we slept in on our AK day, knowing we'd have to wait a bit for the ride).

Resort/Pools
We stayed at CBR and the resort definitely seemed "full". It's really time to open everything back up at the "open" resorts. The food court and pool were very crowded. We never had to wait to get into the main pool, but by mid-afternoon it was packed with most every chair occupied (they did have the chairs spaced out and asked people not to move them). Masks are not required once inside the pool gates. Mask compliance throughout the resort was definitely less than in the parks. However, I'll say this is an area were IMO Disney could ease up a bit. Seems reasonable that walking outside at the resort, when social distancing is not difficult at all, shouldn't be an issue.

Transportation
We used Skyliner a LOT on this trip and absolutely loved it. Total game changer. The lines do build pretty long at park open/close, but move quickly. We had our usual "ok" experience with buses. They are as unpredictable as ever and maybe even more so now with the reduced capacity. It's nice always having a seat though!

TS Dining
They are still doing a great job of spacing out tables. I know there was a lot of recent talk about keeping masks on until food is served, but that wasn't our experience at all. We ate at quite a few TS and none of them mentioned this rule nor did I see anyone seated with a mask on.

I think that covers the major topics. All in all a great trip. Happy to answer any questions

 

[brockash]

Disney has updated their mask policy with a change that starts April 8! You will be able to take massless photos while outdoors, stationary, and socially distanced! I am so excited to be able to see my kids faces in our vacation photos!

Wow...I'm glad, but pretty surprised how quickly they made that change - quickly for Disney lol...especially considering their wasted time on changing (making more strict) the verbiage/policy of mask wearing when eating/drinking a month or so ago. Interesting...maybe we're closer to maskless Disney than I thought.

 

[whiporee]

It’s on the Disney website. Here is a screenshot from the official announcement.

That probably deserves its own thread.

 

[scrappinginontario]

That probably deserves its own thread.

One was started earlier today.

 

[Victoria3]

Im sorry if this has already been discussed, but is it being enforced that you have to wear your mask til your food or drinks come to your table while dining? Or has it been more that you can take off your mask once seated?

I remove my mask when I receive my drink.

 

[HokieRaven5]

Got back from a trip yesterday. Had a great time with my kids and extended family. My kids are a little more anxious or under 40" so we didn't do as many of the big ticket rides as a family. My extended family did more of those in their time.

Day 1: MK (3/31)
We got to the parking gates a little after 7am and they didn't start letting cars through until closer to 7:15am. We were off the monorail and into the park a little before 8am. Most of the rides we did were practically walk on to start the day and our longest wait was about 15 minutes for BTMR. My extended family waited a lot longer for splash mountain due to a cleaning cycle and a lot of folks coming through on the fastpass side (a bunch of people may have gotten a multiple experience pass due to 7 dwarfs being down early in the morning for an hour or so on top of the DAS and rider swap individuals who use the fastpass line. About 3-4pm my kids were done with the parks so we spent the rest of the day at our pool.

Day 2: DHS/EPCOT (4/1)
Got boarding group 16 for all 11 people in my group. Got to the parking gates later than I had wanted to due to hang ups with the family but we still got on MMRR within 15 minutes of arriving in the park. Headed to our boarding group where 7 of the 11 got on ROTR first (operated in B mode) and then the other 4 (some were repeat riders) got to go in line but the ride shut down after the first ride portion and they were evacuated and got experience passes. From there did TSMM, AS2 (which my youngest loved), saw some commercial filming in Toy Story Land and used the multiple experience with my wife to hop on SDD at the same time as my extended family who had waited in line. Then took my kids over to check out Lightning while my family managed to use a single multiple experience to get into the fastpass line for ToT (i'll call that some Disney Magic there) and we got the same to get on MFSR prior to our nice relaxing lunch at Sci-Fi (kids loved some of the old time TV).
Then we hopped over to EPCOT and saw Pooh chasing some butterflies, got on Living with the Land, Nemo, Spaceship Earth, Frozen, and tasted some samples from Flower and Garden before taking the skyliner back to our car at DHS

Day 3: Resort day
Hung around our resort, played some mini golf, went to Disney Springs which was by far our worst experience associated with Disney. Way too many people there for us and way too questionable on the mask compliance. I knew that going into it but it was still jarring the amount of people that were there by comparison to the parks. Had an early DessertDinner at Beaches and Cream before getting an early night sleep.

Day 4: DAK/DHS (4/3)
Started the day at the animal kingdom and did the safari a few times on the day, walked around and saw some of the animals. Had a gorilla playfully toss a bucket at the glass barrier so that made the highlight reel for my youngest. Did Navi river journey with the whole family. Rode triceratops a few times while my extended family did Dinosaur. Ate at flame tree and watched the flotillas which the kids loved waving hi to the characters. Then walked to see the tigers while extended family did everest and did one last safari where we had to hop out of line due to bathroom issues for my kids and fortunately the cast member at the fastpass entrance was kind enough to let us go through there to catch up to our family unit (She was even from my home town!).

We then went back to DHS because my oldest wanted to find something star wars related that we didn't get on our second day. We also did the Disney Jr Sing and Dance and my kids lit up seeing mickey in his roadster racer outfit. Youngest did TSMM again while we shopped. Got dinner at Woody's lunchbox and called it an early evening.

Day 5: MK/EP (4/4)
Easter Sunday in the Magic Kingdom and my kids were pretty much burnt out at this point and didn't really have much of an interest in getting on any rides. We saw the princess cavalcade on our way out and my youngest son was blowing kisses back and forth with them!

We then went back to our hotel for a few hours and decided to get dinner at EPCOT and walked around snacking on the items from the Flower and Garden. The Citrus folks were kind enough to give me (2) Orange Bird Smoothies for each of my boys which was great. The M-80s were performing near the American Pavilion and watching my kids (5 and 3) rock out to some Come On Eileen, Don't Stop Believing, Blister in the Sun just made me so happy.

Day 6: Travel Home 4/5


I didn't do as much as I would've personally liked to in my head and in my normal operations in the park, but to just be a part of the experience my kids had during this made it totally worth it.

Mask compliance in the parks was great from what I observed but I wasn't as concerned about it having already had COVID and most of my family unit had at least 1 dose or were fully vaccinated (kids excluded). Disney Springs as has been mentioned is just a whole ordeal and probably our fault for going on a friday but it just felt way too crowded by comparison.

 

[DMLAINI]

Are the parks closing at the posted times? TP is still showing wait times for HS & it should have closed 48 min. Ago.

 

[Triple A Mom]

Thanks to everyone for reporting back on their trips! So helpful! Anyone recently stay at Riviera or Beach Club? Would love to hear about your experiences with the buses and food at the resort.

We are at the Riviera now and loving it! The QS is delicious (we’ve had dinner there twice). Skyliner is fun but the line can be crazy during high traffic times. The opening for HS was great at Riviera but the transfer was long but moved. I was bummed the transfer wasn’t a separate line but we just got off abs had to go to the end of the CBR line. The line looked nuts last night at HS closing but it actually moved quickly and was really fast even during transfer.
Today going to animal kingdom the bus was over a 30 minute wait so we decided to drive. We were parked and at the front entrance before the bus was even quotes to arrive at the resort.

 

[only hope]

Are the parks closing at the posted times? TP is still showing wait times for HS & it should have closed 48 min. Ago.

Maybe TP continues to show wait times as long as people are submitting timing info? I’ve never used it so I don’t know, I’ve just read about it on here. Lines close at park close so if there is a long line for something, people could easily still be waiting 48mn later.

 

[Betty Rohrer]

Are the parks closing at the posted times? TP is still showing wait times for HS & it should have closed 48 min. Ago.

anyone in line at close would get to ride even if after close time

 

[wilkydelts]

Day 2: Hollywood Studios 4/6 9a-8p

Party of 10, do not have the young one this day.

After re-routing once came back at 7:50a and found people held at cones waiting to be let into cones so joined them. Let us to tolls at 7:52a. We were first in line at the tolls. Opened tolls at 8:10a

Straight to Slinky. Took us 22 minutes got in line by the Cast Member side alley. Off ride and straight to Toy Story Mania. Said 15 was 15. My wife whooped everyone in our group.

Headed to Alien Saucers said 40 was 22. Headed to our BG for Rise. Had BG 26 with return time by 10:34a. Got our DAS pass for Falcon on way to Rise. Got in line for Rise at 10:20 off ride at 10:55.

Went to Indiana Jones Relaxation Station and had packed lunch. Finished and head to Muppets at 12:05. Muppets said 30 was 30 to get into the theater and seated.

Headed back to Falcon to use the DAS pass. Enjoyed a Blue an Green Milk. Prefer Blue.

Headed to ToT to get a DAS. Some waited in Rockn Rollercoaster for DAS time to come up. Rock’n Rollercoaster said 40 was 35.

Went back and did DAS for ToT. Went shopping for sometime while we waited for DAS for Mickey Minnie Railway.

Ride Mickey Minnie Railway with DAS

Picked up our PizzeRizzo that we mobile ordered around 11:45. We found out PizzeRizzo closes at 5 so make plans early if you want it

Done eating at 5:25 and headed to Star Tours. For some reason they sent us through DAS line for Star Tours. It may be a ride that requires scooters/chairs to go in a back entrance.

Caught a bit of a Mickey and Minnie cavalcade then got in line for 6:30 Frozen at 5:50.

Went back with another DAS for Mickey Minnie Railway.

High tailed it over Toy Story Mania rode it twice to close the night. Wife ended the night as the champion

Then headed to our 8:10 Oga’s reservation to celebrate a birthday. We did not get in until about 8:45 so do not plan to immediately get seated

It was an amazing day again. Other than masks I think I am getting spoiled by Covid precaution Disney.

 

[cpc98]

*I’m only posting this question in this thread because it get a lot of attention from people who have recently visited the parks*

If I were to do an ADR for The Wave and take the Monorail over to The Contemporary (girlfriend’s first time at WDW), what do you think would be a good time to do this? 1:30-2:30 PM? Definitely looking to get out of the heat and crowds for a little bit during the worst part of the day, and wanted some input from people who have been in MK during recent months. Thanks!

 

[TexanInTheMidwest]

*I’m only posting this question in this thread because it get a lot of attention from people who have recently visited the parks*

If I were to do an ADR for The Wave and take the Monorail over to The Contemporary (girlfriend’s first time at WDW), what do you think would be a good time to do this? 1:30-2:30 PM? Definitely looking to get out of the heat and crowds for a little bit during the worst part of the day, and wanted some input from people who have been in MK during recent months. Thanks!

The last time I was at WDW was in early March - and I'd say this is a good time to leave MK - or maybe even closer to 1 PM. With park hopping at 2 PM, you get both an exodus and surge around this time.

 

[MDIME]

*I’m only posting this question in this thread because it get a lot of attention from people who have recently visited the parks*

If I were to do an ADR for The Wave and take the Monorail over to The Contemporary (girlfriend’s first time at WDW), what do you think would be a good time to do this? 1:30-2:30 PM? Definitely looking to get out of the heat and crowds for a little bit during the worst part of the day, and wanted some input from people who have been in MK during recent months. Thanks!

We were at MK on 3/30 and did this. We arrived at the park at 8am and by 1:30 we needed a bit of a break. We took the monorail over to the GF and grabbed drinks in the gift shop and sat in the lobby for a half hour or so. It was so peaceful and exactly what we needed. I recommend it even if you do not have an ADR. Have fun on your trip!

 

[jjpdjr]

Last day today, animal kingdom
Did all 4 parks and a day at both universal parks with EP

had a great trip, the no fast passes definitely took some getting used to
Think if I had the choice, I would wait until there is some kind of fast pass option back

apparently waiting in line for longer than 20 minutes is torture for 13 & 15 year old boys

found Disney wait times to be more accurate than TP for the main attractions

definitely recommend the savi’s lightsaber build
And definitely wait for the smugglers run ride, my boys liked it better than RoR

99% chance this is our last Disney trip, until grandkids

15 trips over the last 10 years, great memories

 

[mlbrv]

We were in WDW 3/27 - 3/31 and stayed at YC.

It was definitely crowded, I can’t say what capacity it was at, but I know this was a major spring break week for a lot of school districts.
Despite the crowds, there was still plenty of space to move around, except for places in the parks that will always be “bottlenecks” - like in Tomorrowland, and walking from Pater Pan to Haunted Mansion, etc…one of the issues is that the lines for the rides are now largely outside the attraction queue, so it encroaches on the walking space. It really didn’t bother us.

We had a fantastic trip - but we have already been a bunch of times so we understood what we were missing…If you have never been, I might think twice about going now and waiting until things start opening up more….the “pre-shows” for the rides are not running, so if you’ve never been on a ride before, you might miss the story of that ride since you are ushered right pass any show you’d normally sit and watch before you go on the ride. Kind of a bummer, but if you’ve seen it, then you already know it…

Mobile ordering was great before covid, and now that you can do it for more places it’s even better. And there is something nice that you can’t even get into the restaurant until your order is ready so we always found a table with ease - better than most people occupying tables while they have someone ordering food and bunch of people walking around with trays of food and nowhere to sit - in general it was much less chaotic at the QS places.

Skyliner is awesome - we took it a lot in the middle of the day between Epcot & HS…never any lines….lines were there in the am and pm….but middle of the day it’s such a nice way to get between those 2 parks.

We used busses in the morning to get to MK & AK. It was easy and we never waited long….we used lyft & uber a few times to get from a park to the hotel - if we needed to get from a park to a dinner rez in a hurry, we used lyft or uber - waits were between 5 & 20 minutes…and costs were low so it’s a really good option if you don’t want to wait for the bus.

Mask compliance was very good - some wore below their noses, but cast members asked them to fix…..waiting in lines were generally not 6ft apart - mostly just due to people not paying attention….if you are covid-fearful then this is not the time to go - there is just no way around this and you’d spend your day telling people to “back up” - lots of kids not staying 6ft back and parents not paying attention to tell them to move…or they didn't care…and lot of adults not staying 6ft apart in line….this is just how it goes…..so if this will upset you then might be best to wait. But it really didn’t feel unsafe…

Overall it was a great trip - as most people said, lines look really really long - but they move almost constantly….it was 90 degrees when we were there so waiting outside in lines was tough at times - especially the parts of the lines that were in direct sun….i cannot imagine doing that in the summer - that part did get to us…longest line we waited in was for TOT - 1 hr…..and FOP was about an hour as well - but in generally even a really long line amounted to about 40 minutes….

Worth getting a Touring Plans subscription as the wait times on it were more accurate than Disney’s….

Definitely way less photo pass photographers around…..

My only real complaint was that it was harder to get food at the hotel - we stayed at YC for the 1st time and the market there had VERY little options....either for fresh food or packaged food. Our last stay was at AK and they had a way better "cafe" with tons of options and better hours...YC market opened at 7am, not great if you are trying to get an early bus to the parks and want to eat before, and closed at 10pm, which was a little early. And Beaches & Cream would even serve ice cream for a walk up - you had to have a full reservation to get in - I felt that was a huge miss on their part as so many people love to grab ice cream during the day.

No FP was fine since lines moved fast - a lot faster then when you are constantly having the FP merge in...and great to decide where to go next on the fly....BUT this was at a lower capacity for the park overall - once the capacity restrictions are lifted, they will have to bring FP back...

Overall, a great trip as usual

 

[fly girl]

Just got back last night from a 5 day trip.

Pre-note: This is our second trip since COVID. Went in early August last year. Crowds were non existent then, unlike now.

WOW it was busy. I knew it would be since it is Spring Break, but evenings at Epcot did not feel like 35% capacity. Lots of choke points and very congested.

We are a FP using family. I know many people love not having them. We did not. We missed them. Terribly. Key to not waiting too long is getting in early and visiting last 2 hours. So that basically means your mid day is pool time. Unless you hit a cold snap like we did. Not swimming when it is 60 degrees. That was a huge bummer.

Mask compliance was very good. Cast members were quick to tell people to use them correctly if they weren't.

Felt safe at dining. We wore our masks until the drinks came. Wasn't a big deal. Still very limited menus. Not surprised, just miss some favorites -- hoping they will return.

Order Lyft/Uber early as they are busy. We stayed at the Swan and had to wait on average 15-20 each time we ordered a ride. One morning when bus to AK was not showing up we tried ordering one and there weren't any available unless you wanted to spend $47 for a Uber to AK. Uhh ... no. I love FOP, but not for that price.

Overall we felt average about this trip. We decided we will likely wait until a little more normalcy resumes. You can still have a good time, but with the crowds you definitely will realize how many shows/restaurants/character meets are missing. Too much personally for us.