you were lucky to see a surgery! the most action we've seen is a snake getting an x ray! lol
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Controversial Topics
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Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping
DaniMoon
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2013
We did get it in my room. I think the initial estimate was 275 minutes. (4.5 hrs). So 5:30ish. Our BG was called at 6:12.
DaniMoon
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2013
They were cleaning his teeth and removing a mole, So not too invasive. We've seen them examining animals before, but this was the first time we saw a procedure.
Dentam
Dreaming of Disney
- Joined
- Feb 6, 2015
Feeling encouraged by the recent reports of much lower crowds! We are supposed to get there on 9/8 and I have been going back and forth on canceling. Thank you for the updates those of you who are there now! Now just hoping that this latest wave in FL is going to be on the downward trend very soon...
POOH&PIGLET
I love my DW, DDs, & DVC!
- Joined
- Feb 21, 2001
Got BG #3 for SWGE! 
Someone in the BG tip thread got #2 so I don't feel so special.
Heading to MGM (still can't call it the studios) for rope drop.
Will try to post later.
Someone in the BG tip thread got #2 so I don't feel so special.
Heading to MGM (still can't call it the studios) for rope drop.
Will try to post later.
I hope you complained and got a credit or something. Check in is 3pm. If you were checking out they'd be tossing you out the door.
Eastern
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2006
That was their ride BG time not their hotel room.
Ahh. All the acronyms confuse me sometimes.
POOH&PIGLET
I love my DW, DDs, & DVC!
- Joined
- Feb 21, 2001
7:50 left our Boardwalk room
8:05 through security & waiting
8:09 tapstyles (is that what their called) opened. Past them at 8:14.
8:16 waiting for Slinky (in the shade)
8:05 through security & waiting
8:09 tapstyles (is that what their called) opened. Past them at 8:14.
8:16 waiting for Slinky (in the shade)
POOH&PIGLET
I love my DW, DDs, & DVC!
- Joined
- Feb 21, 2001
This is how far back we were arrived (past security) at 8:09.
At aAOA skyline at 712 2nd in line. started at 731. CBR started at 745. Looks like cars were let in at 748 tapstiles started at 809. We are second at TOT. DS is bitter because a runner passed him to get here first!
started moving at 834. Held in lobby until…well they told us they are not starting early today. I hope that’s the same at all the rides
started at 848
started moving at 834. Held in lobby until…well they told us they are not starting early today. I hope that’s the same at all the rides
started at 848
Last edited:
slyster
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2002
7:50 left our Boardwalk room
8:05 through security & waiting
8:09 tapstyles (is that what their called) opened. Past them at 8:14.
8:16 waiting for Slinky (in the shade)
Oh glad to see this. We were wondering about the walk and rope drop time for DHS.
Yesterday was HS. We walked from BWI, leaving at 7:25. Shortly after we arrived, we were walked up to the security checkpoints. 5 or so min there and they opened up screening. We were first at our tapstyle.
Unfortunately I didn’t do a great job of tracking time yesterday morning. I know they let us though before 8:30 because I was surprised at how early it was.
They had different CMs holding signs for different areas. We went for Slinky and we were right under the archway waiting until they started walking us. We were on the second train. When we were walking down after the ride, the line was already down to the bottom of the hill.
We had BG 7, but we had some time before the end of our window so we did TSMM as a walk on and then headed to ROTR.
We grabbed coffee and a donut and found a shaded table by Dockside Diner . From there we watched Mickey Vacation Fun and then did Star Tours, which was a 10 min wait. We went left at the split, which was a good call because our line moved much faster than the other.
We did some shopping and hopped the Skyliner to head back for some pool time.
We had a dinner reservation at Hollywood and Vine at 5:30 and got on the Skyliner to avoid walking because my foot was starting to bother me again. Storms stopped the Skyliner and we got stuck at Caribbean Beach until they could get a bus to us.
Hollywood and Vine has been a staple of our trips, but it was definitely different. My son described the vibe in there as “sad”. Much less tables, no dance parties, just not the party atmosphere it used to be. We won’t do that one again until/unless it’s back to normal. The characters were great, but it’s got to be tough for them.
After dinner, it had cleared out quite a bit from the storm, so we headed to MMRR with about a 15 min wait. Then DH wanted a peanut butter milkshake from Hollywood Scoops. The milkshake was good, but the paper straw doesn’t really do much for the taste of a milkshake. We headed back on the Skyliner after this. *they were giving each party their own car.
Epcot today for DS birthday!
Unfortunately I didn’t do a great job of tracking time yesterday morning. I know they let us though before 8:30 because I was surprised at how early it was.
They had different CMs holding signs for different areas. We went for Slinky and we were right under the archway waiting until they started walking us. We were on the second train. When we were walking down after the ride, the line was already down to the bottom of the hill.
We had BG 7, but we had some time before the end of our window so we did TSMM as a walk on and then headed to ROTR.
We grabbed coffee and a donut and found a shaded table by Dockside Diner . From there we watched Mickey Vacation Fun and then did Star Tours, which was a 10 min wait. We went left at the split, which was a good call because our line moved much faster than the other.
We did some shopping and hopped the Skyliner to head back for some pool time.
We had a dinner reservation at Hollywood and Vine at 5:30 and got on the Skyliner to avoid walking because my foot was starting to bother me again. Storms stopped the Skyliner and we got stuck at Caribbean Beach until they could get a bus to us.
Hollywood and Vine has been a staple of our trips, but it was definitely different. My son described the vibe in there as “sad”. Much less tables, no dance parties, just not the party atmosphere it used to be. We won’t do that one again until/unless it’s back to normal. The characters were great, but it’s got to be tough for them.
After dinner, it had cleared out quite a bit from the storm, so we headed to MMRR with about a 15 min wait. Then DH wanted a peanut butter milkshake from Hollywood Scoops. The milkshake was good, but the paper straw doesn’t really do much for the taste of a milkshake. We headed back on the Skyliner after this. *they were giving each party their own car.
Epcot today for DS birthday!
Last edited:
Sargeant Tibbs
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2015
We love bugs in my house. Spiders on webs stay in their webs, hunting spiders that run fast are captured and set free outside. We try as hard as possible to catch and release all bugs. My daughter, who is almost three, just experienced ITTBAB for the first time and absolutely loved every moment of it.
7:50 left our Boardwalk room
8:05 through security & waiting
8:09 tapstyles (is that what their called) opened. Past them at 8:14.
8:16 waiting for Slinky (in the shade)
ugh that's a HUGE crowd
rotlex
Is it summer yet?
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2007
Just wanted to give a quick review of our recent two week stay in the World. Overall, we had a fantastic trip. This was our first time visiting since 2019. We skipped our yearly trip for 2020 due to covid etc.
Positive highlights:
We stayed at the Wilderness Lodge, our favorite resort, and it was outstanding as usual. We had a standard view room that had a glorious view of the contemporary and MK fireworks. We we were on the 4th floor so we had a closed balcony, and a view of the smokehouse as well. Usually don’t like that, but honestly, the closed balcony blocked the smokehouse view, and the contemporary\fireworks more than made up for any negatives. The remodeled rooms are gorgeous. Wasn’t sure how we would like them being fans of the old decor, but Disney really did it right. Especially the bathrooms, lol.
We were on site for 12 days with a 10 day park ticket. The parks were PACKED and initially we were very concerned without having fast passes etc. After our first two park days that concern went away. Frankly, I hope fast pass does not return as the lines, while very, very long, moved very quickly and efficiently. Example, BTMRR had a line out past the Splash bridge and we were on the ride in roughly 30 minutes. We found this to be the case with almost all the attractions with the exception of huge hitters like FOP which were 60-90 minutes. We also found the posted wait times to be much higher than the actual waits.
Hollywood Studios. What was our least favorite park, is quite possibly our favorite now. Galaxy’s Edge is amazing, and ROR and Smugglers run were fantastic. We managed to score a boarding pass for ROR for both days we were there. It is a truly amazing ride and just can’t be explained without seeing it. We were also incredibly impressed with Mickey and Minnie’s runaway railroad. We absolutely LOVED this attraction. Old school Disney at its absolute best. Feels like a classic already.
Epcot.. Had a great overall experience there regardless of the construction. Love the crystal pillars for the fountain being back, and food and wine was awesome. Animal Kingdom, the same as always, but we love it as well.
Negatives:
Honestly, not much. Our biggest disappointment was that Disney re-instated the indoor mask policy on day 8 of our visit. We were very disappointed in this as one of the reasons we kept the trip booked was they had lifted the mandate some time ago. We dealt with it, but I would not would wanted to have dealt with it throughout our entire stay. Would have been better if it was truly only indoors, but they also had you masking in outdoor queues as well as outdoor attractions. Please no discussions that will close a thread over this. Just noting our thoughts and experience.
Overall, as I mentioned, we had a fantastic trip. Will we be going back again next year? Maybe. It really depends on what type of discounts they will offer. We were there this year with the 25% off room and honestly, it was still one of the most expensive trips we have ever taken. It will be hard to justify doing WDW yearly if things keep increasing as they have.
Last note. We did not miss the parades at all and thought the cavalcades were a great replacement. Spontaneous, short, and not crowd causing. Fireworks at MK and Epcot were great. We were very glad to see them back!
Positive highlights:
We stayed at the Wilderness Lodge, our favorite resort, and it was outstanding as usual. We had a standard view room that had a glorious view of the contemporary and MK fireworks. We we were on the 4th floor so we had a closed balcony, and a view of the smokehouse as well. Usually don’t like that, but honestly, the closed balcony blocked the smokehouse view, and the contemporary\fireworks more than made up for any negatives. The remodeled rooms are gorgeous. Wasn’t sure how we would like them being fans of the old decor, but Disney really did it right. Especially the bathrooms, lol.
We were on site for 12 days with a 10 day park ticket. The parks were PACKED and initially we were very concerned without having fast passes etc. After our first two park days that concern went away. Frankly, I hope fast pass does not return as the lines, while very, very long, moved very quickly and efficiently. Example, BTMRR had a line out past the Splash bridge and we were on the ride in roughly 30 minutes. We found this to be the case with almost all the attractions with the exception of huge hitters like FOP which were 60-90 minutes. We also found the posted wait times to be much higher than the actual waits.
Hollywood Studios. What was our least favorite park, is quite possibly our favorite now. Galaxy’s Edge is amazing, and ROR and Smugglers run were fantastic. We managed to score a boarding pass for ROR for both days we were there. It is a truly amazing ride and just can’t be explained without seeing it. We were also incredibly impressed with Mickey and Minnie’s runaway railroad. We absolutely LOVED this attraction. Old school Disney at its absolute best. Feels like a classic already.
Epcot.. Had a great overall experience there regardless of the construction. Love the crystal pillars for the fountain being back, and food and wine was awesome. Animal Kingdom, the same as always, but we love it as well.
Negatives:
Honestly, not much. Our biggest disappointment was that Disney re-instated the indoor mask policy on day 8 of our visit. We were very disappointed in this as one of the reasons we kept the trip booked was they had lifted the mandate some time ago. We dealt with it, but I would not would wanted to have dealt with it throughout our entire stay. Would have been better if it was truly only indoors, but they also had you masking in outdoor queues as well as outdoor attractions. Please no discussions that will close a thread over this. Just noting our thoughts and experience.
Overall, as I mentioned, we had a fantastic trip. Will we be going back again next year? Maybe. It really depends on what type of discounts they will offer. We were there this year with the 25% off room and honestly, it was still one of the most expensive trips we have ever taken. It will be hard to justify doing WDW yearly if things keep increasing as they have.
Last note. We did not miss the parades at all and thought the cavalcades were a great replacement. Spontaneous, short, and not crowd causing. Fireworks at MK and Epcot were great. We were very glad to see them back!
The Iron Giant
Keep on Rockin’ in the Disney World
- Joined
- Jun 14, 2008
tbholc81
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2016
We returned yesterday from an 8 day trip with 5 days at WDW and 3 days at Universal, including a Volcano Bay day. This was our first time to Universal since 2006 so quite a lot has changed.
I'll write a more detailed report in the trip reports forum, but I thought a couple quick things were worth mentioning here, I'll try not to echo too much of what most people have observed on their trips.
- We arrived Saturday around 4:30 and were on Disney Magical Express by 4:55, and to Wilderness Lodge at about 5:30.
- Meals were at Whispering Canyon, Skipper Canteen, Via Napoli, Grand Floridian Cafe and Topolinos (character breakfast). All of them were excellent but we really miss having full menus. At Universal we ate at Toothsome Chocolate Emporium, and Mythos both had full menus but the service was much much slower.
- We found crowds to be as expected for August. With getting to the park early and taking a break mid day we didn't wait in many long lines, we also had a VIP tour on Tuesday which helped us with the pressure of getting everything done.
- Epcot was very manageable, mid afternoon was almost walk on for Soarin, LWTL, Figment. Our tour guide told us right now they are encouraging people on VIP tours to skip Epcot because the lines are short and getting around is a pain.
- Universal crowds seemed worse, with many long lines and very little space in the parks to get around. The Team Members there were also not as nice/ helpful as Disney. It wasn't even close.
- The parks and resorts busses etc... at Disney were extremely clean, I noticed one garbage can that was full in MK when we walked by in one direction, then walked back the other way a few minutes later and it was empty. The same cannot be said for Universal, many of the bathrooms were a mess, parts of the park (most notably "The Lost Continent in IOA) smelled awful, and there was random trash in a lot of places.
- We saw HEA for the last time, got a great spot in the hub at 7:45, right against a railing with no one in front of us. We really miss the later closing, we tried to get some rides in after HEA but really have to chose one and go from there. The worst crowds were getting on transportation at MK closing, it was a sea of humanity. The boat to WL was key to avoiding those huge crowds.
A few frustrating things about this trip:
- The weather was extremely unpredictable. Looked on the radar like rain all day brought umbrellas and ponchos, never rained. Forecast was for no rain, torrential downpour for hours. Also "nearby" storms caused pool closures at Disney almost everyday at the beginning of the week. On Monday they forced everybody out of the pool under sunny skies because of the forecast, it never got cloudy, rained or thundered but the pool was closed for "storms" for several hours. I get why, but it was frustrating and yes I know it's August in Florida.
- Rides were closing right and left. Our first attempt at ROTR was at the end of our tour; the first half was down so we entered into the ship without the pre show. Next day we had boarding group 60, did the pre show, got on the ship, ride went down and we were forced off. Also on that day Mickey and Minnie's went down, and SDD. Everest went down while we were in line for it on Sunday, then was down all day Monday. Plus there were more closures, just can't list them all here.
- Lots of rides were stopped or held up while we were on them. HM stopped at least 3 or 4 times while riding. We waited at the top of the hill on Everest for 5 minutes. We asked why and were told most of the time it's for people transferring from wheelchairs and that Disney is seeing a huge increase in that causing rides to stop more frequently.
Overall still a great trip and the kids had an awesome time.
I'll write a more detailed report in the trip reports forum, but I thought a couple quick things were worth mentioning here, I'll try not to echo too much of what most people have observed on their trips.
- We arrived Saturday around 4:30 and were on Disney Magical Express by 4:55, and to Wilderness Lodge at about 5:30.
- Meals were at Whispering Canyon, Skipper Canteen, Via Napoli, Grand Floridian Cafe and Topolinos (character breakfast). All of them were excellent but we really miss having full menus. At Universal we ate at Toothsome Chocolate Emporium, and Mythos both had full menus but the service was much much slower.
- We found crowds to be as expected for August. With getting to the park early and taking a break mid day we didn't wait in many long lines, we also had a VIP tour on Tuesday which helped us with the pressure of getting everything done.
- Epcot was very manageable, mid afternoon was almost walk on for Soarin, LWTL, Figment. Our tour guide told us right now they are encouraging people on VIP tours to skip Epcot because the lines are short and getting around is a pain.
- Universal crowds seemed worse, with many long lines and very little space in the parks to get around. The Team Members there were also not as nice/ helpful as Disney. It wasn't even close.
- The parks and resorts busses etc... at Disney were extremely clean, I noticed one garbage can that was full in MK when we walked by in one direction, then walked back the other way a few minutes later and it was empty. The same cannot be said for Universal, many of the bathrooms were a mess, parts of the park (most notably "The Lost Continent in IOA) smelled awful, and there was random trash in a lot of places.
- We saw HEA for the last time, got a great spot in the hub at 7:45, right against a railing with no one in front of us. We really miss the later closing, we tried to get some rides in after HEA but really have to chose one and go from there. The worst crowds were getting on transportation at MK closing, it was a sea of humanity. The boat to WL was key to avoiding those huge crowds.
A few frustrating things about this trip:
- The weather was extremely unpredictable. Looked on the radar like rain all day brought umbrellas and ponchos, never rained. Forecast was for no rain, torrential downpour for hours. Also "nearby" storms caused pool closures at Disney almost everyday at the beginning of the week. On Monday they forced everybody out of the pool under sunny skies because of the forecast, it never got cloudy, rained or thundered but the pool was closed for "storms" for several hours. I get why, but it was frustrating and yes I know it's August in Florida.
- Rides were closing right and left. Our first attempt at ROTR was at the end of our tour; the first half was down so we entered into the ship without the pre show. Next day we had boarding group 60, did the pre show, got on the ship, ride went down and we were forced off. Also on that day Mickey and Minnie's went down, and SDD. Everest went down while we were in line for it on Sunday, then was down all day Monday. Plus there were more closures, just can't list them all here.
- Lots of rides were stopped or held up while we were on them. HM stopped at least 3 or 4 times while riding. We waited at the top of the hill on Everest for 5 minutes. We asked why and were told most of the time it's for people transferring from wheelchairs and that Disney is seeing a huge increase in that causing rides to stop more frequently.
Overall still a great trip and the kids had an awesome time.
bbn1122
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2009
I agree it takes me a couple minutes on some posts to figure out what everyone is talking about! LOL!
bbn1122
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2009
Thanks for sharing. Happy Birthday to your son! My family will be at WDW this coming Sunday.
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