Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[Sakurachaek]

The holiday kitchens are awesome!! We tried Hawaii and L’Chaim but the food is soooo nice. Crowds don’t seem that bad, went to MK day before yesterday and the crowds were mid-level except just before the after hours party, when a million people started coming in (leave at 19:30 on those nights!). The waits were all under an hour in MK. Going to HS today, very excited.

 

[NeverlandClub23]

We just got home today and all in all had a great trip, it’s just time for a Disney break for us. BUT if you are going during the holidays/50th anniversary, you MUST go to Backlot Express in HS and get the Wookie Cookie (oatmeal cream pie) and the coconut blondie. Both were the BEST desserts/snacks we’ve had all trip!

 

[cjlong88]

Make up weekend trip! We are staying at AKL for the first time. What an incredible resort. The lobby took my breath away, and we were upgraded to a Savannah view room. 3 zebras are grazing just outside our window as we brush our teeth and get ready for bed. Simply amazing.

 

[CampbellzSoup]

So we usually eat off site as I like the food better but man I think last night the “Christmas crowds” arrived. Everything much busier for sure! Sadly tomorrow is my last day gonna check seaworld out. I’m so thankful I get to go to these amazing places but I will say Universal stepped up their game for Christmas for sure.

 

[cjlong88]

We had an awesome morning at MK. Was a bit crowded but far from what we experience in 2019. Was able to fit in Space, 7DMT, BTMRR, CoP, Buzz, PeopleMover, Tiki Room, Philharmagic, and Little Mermaid without a single wait (a healthy mix of G+ and standby).

Waiting for our table at Steakhouse 71 now. Plan to hop to AK. We already have FoP and Everest LL’s set up for the evening. Hoping to snag maybe one more G+. Next window is about one hour.

Having a fantastic one-day visit!

 

[CampbellzSoup]

We had an awesome morning at MK. Was a bit crowded but far from what we experience in 2019. Was able to fit in Space, 7DMT, BTMRR, CoP, Buzz, PeopleMover, Tiki Room, Philharmagic, and Little Mermaid without a single wait (a healthy mix of G+ and standby).

Waiting for our table at Steakhouse 71 now. Plan to hop to AK. We already have FoP and Everest LL’s set up for the evening. Hoping to snag maybe one more G+. Next window is about one hour.

Having a fantastic one-day visit!

tell me how the steakhouse was!

 

[cjlong88]

tell me how the steakhouse was!

We liked it. Wasn’t the best meal we ever had, but my husbands steak was cooked perfectly. Mine was too salty. The atmosphere is wonderful, however. We would try it again for sure.

 

[Lsdolphin]

We had an awesome morning at MK. Was a bit crowded but far from what we experience in 2019. Was able to fit in Space, 7DMT, BTMRR, CoP, Buzz, PeopleMover, Tiki Room, Philharmagic, and Little Mermaid without a single wait (a healthy mix of G+ and standby).

Waiting for our table at Steakhouse 71 now. Plan to hop to AK. We already have FoP and Everest LL’s set up for the evening. Hoping to snag maybe one more G+. Next window is about one hour.

Having a fantastic one-day visit!

i remember your flight difficulties from your last planned trip so glad you finally made it! We had lunch at Steakhouse 71 first week of Dec, and were a bit disappointed....service wasn’t that great took a long time to receive food and ridic amount of time to get the bill. The burger was pretty good but the grilled cheese was not so great...the chocolate cake was fabulous and worth the trip! Hope you enjoyed your meal there.

 

[cjlong88]

i remember your flight difficulties from your last planned trip so glad you finally made it! We had lunch at Steakhouse 71 first week of Dec, and were a bit disappointed....service wasn’t that great took a long time to receive food and ridic amount of time to get the bill. The burger was pretty good but the grilled cheese was not so great...the chocolate cake was fabulous and worth the trip! Hope you enjoyed your meal there.

Yes! The meal was okay, but nothing spectacular. Glad we were able to make it down, too! It’s only one day but it’s sure better than no days.

 

[CampbellzSoup]

We liked it. Wasn’t the best meal we ever had, but my husbands steak was cooked perfectly. Mine meal was too salty. The atmosphere is wonderful, however. We would try it again for sure.

oh no! That sounds like the most meh if I ever heard one! I’m sorry it wasn’t outstanding!

 

[Bill McKinley]

Just got back from WDW. It was four days at the parks from 12/14-12/17. We stayed at Swan and all in all it was a fantastic trip. I was getting very nervous based on reading this board and Touring Plans about crowd levels, difficult logistics and nightmare stories about Genie + and mobile ordering. This was our first trip back since February of 2020 and our 10th trip overall as our family of four (Me, DW, DD14, DD10). I'll break this report down into different categories for ease of reading....

Swan hotel - great location for us as we love to the Boardwalk area and the proximity to EP and HS. The pricing was way better than Epcot area hotels like Yacht (our fave), Beach and Boardwalk, but I definitely didn't feel "in the magic" as much as the other hotels. That is my only real complaint, as the room was good and the market was good for us to get grab and go food, and getting to take advantage of one the extra time in the parks like other Disney hotels in this day and age. We don't use the pools as we just want to spend as much time in the parks as possible. So if you're looking for the Disney magic and the use your magicbands for everything, you won't get that here, but I do think it's a nice value for our family's preferred location.

Crowds - very manageable! MK was great because there is always something you can go do that has a 20 minute wait or less or you can get Genie + reservations if you just plan it right or stay on top of it (more on that later). We didn't watch Enchantment so that helped get some good touring done when others were sitting in the hub and we just think that show is a big step down from HEA, so that helped get more stuff accomplished. HS felt pretty busy but I can understand why because of the lack of shows, less shops open and the fact that there are pretty much 7 headliner attractions so everyone is just doing those things. But it was still manageable and we definitely did everything we wanted to do there. Epcot was not busy at all and we were able to use Genie + to get a lot of stuff done in short period of time, so that was a big plus. Although we passed on strolling through the world showcase one evening because the girls were too tired and we wanted to get up early the next day for HS.

Logistics - I'm a HUGE planner and just love it when things come together logistically so we can maximize our time when we're there. Both our flights and uBer rides to and from the airport were super smooth and on time. We never waited for a bus or boat longer than 10 minutes and most of the time the bus or boat was waiting for us when we arrived. Only once was the bus to MK packed, but other times it was very open. We did walk over to Yacht to catch the bus there instead of trying the Mears at Swan. Mobile ordering was outstanding! We never had trouble finding a place to sit and even on Friday at Sleepy Hollow, our favorite snack, the Nutella fruit waffle was ready even before our "scheduled order window" had even started. Also, Docking Bay 7 and Backlot Express were really reliable during our stay.

Genie + - OK, so I was an absolute PRO with Fastpass + and even getting a BG for Rise (4-4 with the worst BG of 24 during our Feb '20 trip). So to say I was sad to see FP+ go would be an understatement. But I wanted to keep an open mind when it came to Genie +. We bought it for all 4 days and do feel that it was necessary for us. The good side is that on our first park day we did a bunch of stuff at MK (Jungle Cruise, Pirates and Small World with LL) then hopped to EP for the afternoon/evening. We were able to ride Test Track, Soarin, Spaceship Earth, Mission Space and Remy all on LL or $LL for Remy and did all of that in less than 3 hours, with time to shop at Creations. We bought Remy that morning and planned ahead to get Soarin and Test Track stacked while we took a break back to resort for about an hour or so. That was definitely a highlight of using the Genie and throughout our trip we really never had any glitches with using the software. But in my opinion it is a far inferior product to FP+ and you have to pay for it! That is the fact I just can't get over. How can Disney roll out a new product that was once free, charge for it now, and make it worse by pretty much all accounts than the original product??!! The fact that you cannot modify an existing LL reservation is completely beyond me. That is something that I would hope would change in the near future but I'm not holding my breathe. The other things like not being able to pick a return time or only booking one at a time or getting up every morning at 7am are all negatives, but the lack of a modify option is the worst for me.

The Magic/cast member interactions - I did see a couple examples of cast members getting short with guests but I have to say I completely understand it. You have no idea how to approach people these days, especially when you're wearing a mask, so it's easy to see where they don't have the patience and chipper attitudes that they normally would have. Also my daughters are now getting older so they don't get treated the same as when they were say 9 and 5. I certainly understand that too, but as a father it kind of hurts to know that our Disney trips and vacation times are going to be ever evolving. I have said to many friends and family that I would imagine we'll still go to Disney when the girls get older and I do believe that to be true, but it's just not the same as when they believe they are meeting the real Cinderella and Belle and Chewbacca as they wear a princess dress or Rey costume.

We'll definitely be back to Disney, but I can't say when that will be. The last few times when we've returned home, we've almost always been talking about planning the next trip. We're not doing that now, even though we had a great time, it's just we need to go other places and do other things before we return.

 

[Makmak]

We went on a quick pre-cruise trip staying at old key west and did EPCOT on Saturday. We were nervous due to the reports of heavy crowds but we were pleasantly surprised. It’s possible we caught “a window” of the incoming Christmas week crowds and departing pre Christmas week people but we didn’t feel it was oppressively crowded. We rope dropped Soarin, land and Nemo, hit Remi (super cute) and frozen with ILL bc we were afraid of not getting a spot. We had test track LL reserved at 7am for a 3:30 time slot. Genie + did “that thing” where it said noon then on booking it assigned 3:30. I refreshed and found a better time, but as there wasn’t a modify option I had to drop the one I had to attempt the better time and then the app said I had to wait until 2pm to book?! Visited guest services and was told their systems were down so come back later. The CM put a note on our account. At 3:00 we went to guest services and they were able to give us an anytime LL for test track but we were unable to use genie until that point so….be aware of tech nightmares as possible. We loved the precious moments disney dolls, and had never seen them before as we generally avoid holidays. I will confirm that LL has crushed standby times. We saw many many upset people that there was no standby for Remi, and many that were unaware of Genie. We loved the candlelight processional. There are people coughing everywhere and we were surprised at that, had heard reports here but it was very noticeable that people were clearly ill. All in all a good time but just very different for us.

 

[Maxie86]

It is very crowded in the parks, with long wait times. I do believe the Genie+ and LL$ rides make the stand-by wait times much longer than they should be. We stood in place for about 15 min. in the 7DMT line at one point. Lines are moving slow as they let those other folks in.

Oh, absolutely. If people didn't believe us about this with Fastpass, they've now had over a year of regular standby lines to see just how true this is. My past three trips were in the last weekend of August, November, and December. It was instantly obvious how much slower the standby lines moved in November & December. It's been frustrating to go back to that.

I completely agree with this. This was our 3rd trip this year and first with Genie+. We were there on October 1st with a crowd level 10 and the ride wait times were way less than they were last week. We didn't buy Genie + or ILLs. It's not that we couldn't afford it but I refuse to give them any more money for things that have and should be included with your park ticket. We didn't ride a lot of rides because of the long lines, but that is OK we have been on them many many times. Standby lines were long and not moving like they were without Genie or FP. I had no trouble getting the VQ for Remy at 7AM. We have been many times at this time of year and this was by far the most crowded.

All in all we had a great trip. We enjoy our resort time, stayed CL at the BWI and it didn't disappoint. The park and resort lobby decorations were beautiful, but was disappointed in the lack of outside resort decorations.

 

[CampbellzSoup]

Leaving the great state of Florida today and thank god the weather was awful only for my last day! Full awesome trip report later for those interested in Christmas themed activities don’t sleep on seaworld either.

 

[M SH]

Tomorrow is the last park day of my trip, Dec 13-22. First 3 days were Universal, followed by 8 days of Disney.
Universal was great, but it’s not really Disney, we all know that. Outside of Harry Potter world, it’s one and done for us, but Hagrid’s was the best roller coaster ride I’ve ever been on. We did it 4 times on standby, and didn’t mind the wait. The line moves quickly and it’s worth it. We were staying first 2 nights at RPR and we had unlimited express and it worked great, very simple and worry free system. I don’t need to wake up early to book anything, or get my family ready in a rush to be anywhere.
Now for my Disney days, we were offsite, driving ourselves to the park. The parks were slammed as everyone was saying, but there was a big uptick this week from last week as expected. we did enjoy our time and did mostly everything we wanted, but it’s not like before. For several reasons a lot of magic was missing, and there are several things that we can blame:
- let’s start by long walks in the morning in the parking lots. The parking lots were a mess especially at MK. Sometimes dangerous. Shame on Disney really for this..
- masks and CMs reminding people about masks. I know it’s not their fault that people don’t fully comply. But it just takes away from the magic everywhere that the cms have to keep reminding people with that. Even in the frozen show at HS, the narrator reminds people of that before every single segment.. that just takes away from the experience. On the other hand, there is no issue with having 50 people in the tower of terror pre show room and filling every available space. SMH
- genie+ and ILL is very inferior to FP. I would have much preferred if FP was kept but just add it as an up charge. I don’t want to wake up early everyday to plan the day of my visit. People are using them heavily, so it’s not going away, but I sure miss fastpass and being able to plan before hand, and refresh day of and do what I want multiple times. Genie+ is only usable at MK. ILL is only worth it for FOP and Rise.
- why do I have to wake up before 7am for BG for Remy, but Epcot opens at 11?
- character meets and character dining is a disappointment. I also miss Star Wars characters in GE roaming around.

anyway just listed some negatives there and I don’t want to totally make it that we didn’t enjoy our time. But this is the most I’ve spent on a Disney trip, and we just did not enjoy it as much as before. We are just not going to do it every year like we usually did, and maybe won’t be back for another 2-3 years as long as we see some positive changes.

 

[spot28]

We almost canceled after hearing people talk about the crowds, and whatnot but so glad we didn’t. we were able to manage to do everything we wanted to… Genie plus/LL really did help though and being at a WDWresort as at 7 AM we were able to what we wanted and enter parks early. Otherwise not so sure how it would’ve gone. I did see a huge difference in crowds from Friday to Sunday, Sunday HS was very, very busy. One thing that would be helpful if Disney is if listening out there.. is after one day at a park with G+ you really have it figured out pretty quickly. it is hard to really know the ins and outs until you’ve experienced it. we asked several people, cast members and got some misinformation or “I’m not sure I’d have to check into that” kind of thing. by day three we were answering questions for people… It really seems they should have Disney employees have as training one day in the parks with G+ so they can figure out how to do all the stuff in the morning to relay to guests. . On Friday a.m. none of the ILL were available at 7 AM we asked and they said you had to be at the park ( even though we were staying on property so this was not correct ) so i skipped breakfast, any thought of hair and make up and ran into the Magic Kingdom “ As is” only to find out once we tapped in it still didn’t work.. went to City Hall and they said it’s not working for anybody right now the system is down but tomorrow morning you should be able to get your ILL from your hotel room at 7 AM.., it all worked out but it is just surprising several people we ask really did not know how it worked. We got the message on the MDE app about ILL not being available at about 9 AM, saying “we’re having technical difficulties” and that was about the point they actually started working LOL One thing is even if you see a ride says not available and you think they’re all gone just refresh because we saw several times certain rides would be completely gone and then refresh and then it would start again back in the morning with G+ times so they must keep releasing more times if it sells out quickly. Overall it was a great trip the only time people were not diligent about masks indoors was on the bus. On the rides, shops etc. everyone was very good about it and Disney did a GREAT job reminding people to mask up properly but it is hard to drive a bus and see behind you that half the people on the bus have taken them off especially at night…it was very packed too…


another tip rise of the resistance it really seems like the only way to get that is with the ILL… but if you can’t do that DO NOT go there first in the morning and get in line that is what everybody does and it immediately starts with a 2 1/2 hour line. We saw that on Sunday Even with the early entry there was humongous line even getting in yo galaxies edge at 730 early opening ….and later in the day the line went down to more like 90 minutes. The rule for Disney is do the opposite of what the majority do and the majority went straight to rise of the resistance in the interim my kids were able to do rockin roller coaster tower of terror and Smugglers run in the first hour…

 

[Tink03477]

Ok let’s just talk some impressions for those who are thinking about coming and having vacations booked soon…

disney is going to get away with anything because the magic is real…

We didn’t rope drop because I work everyday at 5 am getting up that early is not vacation for me, at all. Additionally I’m not paying for genie Plus for at least this trip as I wanted to see how it worked out.

You need Genie Plus if you want to ride rides without long lines, period. The crowds were insane and thankfully I got to utilize child swap while we took turns without the baby in line.

The plus is that I found the opposite of what you guys are saying about rude people being as I’m single on most of these lines people enjoy talking to me lol. Most people are fabulous and wonderful, so please don’t think the magic in guests is gone.

I travel with a baby now and I’ll be honest I don’t think it’s that bad. This is his 5th trip since the pandemic and the restrictions are null and void pretty much gone it’s funny we went when it was the strictest to now whag felt like normal times.

no jingle bell jingle bam sign off hurt I’m sorry they did some other show but jingle bell jingle bam was so special to end the night and to have the entrance full of snow was so magical.

overall having a magical time as the rides and cast members are magical FOR Sure! The photopass people take the best time and photos of my baby!

overall the magic is here, in diet form.

Hello, thank you for the post. Did you use Disney Photopass prepaid plan or just the regular one?
TYIA

 

[scrappinginontario]

We almost canceled after hearing people talk about the crowds, and whatnot but so glad we didn’t. we were able to manage to do everything we wanted to… Genie plus/LL really did help though and being at a WDWresort as at 7 AM we were able to what we wanted and enter parks early. Otherwise not so sure how it would’ve gone. I did see a huge difference in crowds from Friday to Sunday, Sunday Hollywood studios was very, very busy. One thing that would be helpful if Disney is if listening out there.. is after one day at a park with Genie plus you really have it figured out pretty quickly. it is hard to really know the ins and outs until you’ve experienced it. we asked several people, cast members and got some misinformation or “I’m not sure I’d have to check into that” kind of thing. by day three we were answering questions for people… It really seems they should have Disney employees have as training one day in the parks with Genie+ so they can figure out how to do all the stuff in the morning to relay to guests. . On Friday a.m. none of the ILL were available at 7 AM we asked and they said you had to be at the park ( even though we were staying at the contemporary so this was not correct ) so i skipped breakfast, any thought of hair and make up and ran into the Magic Kingdom “ As is” only to find out once we tapped in it still didn’t work.. went to City Hall and they said it’s not working for anybody right now the system is down but tomorrow morning you should be able to get your ILL from your hotel room at 7 AM.., it all worked out but it is just surprising several people we ask really did not know how it worked. We got the message on the MDE app about ILL not being available not until about 9 AM, saying “we’re having technical difficulties” and that was about the point they actually started working LOL One thing is even if you see a ride says not available and you think they’re all gone just refresh because we saw several times certain rides would be completely gone and then refresh and then it would start again back in the morning with G plus times so they must keep releasing more times if it sells out pretty quickly. Overall it was a great trip the only time people were not diligent about masks indoors was on the bus. On the rides shops etc. everyone was very good about it and Disney did a great job reminding people to mask up properly but it is hard to drive a bus and see behind you that half the people on the bus Have taken them off especially at night…it was very packed too…

Your post has been merged with the 'Here Now and Just Back' thread so that all recent trips are in one location rather than multiple threads sharing similar information.

 

[spot28]

tell me how the steakhouse was!

We loved our steakhouse 71 breakfast! I had a veggie omelette my husband the prime rib hash and my son the specialty pancakes which were pumpkin pancakes with cream cheese. They also had unlimited mimosas and bourbon coffee if you’d like to partake in the morning.

 

[spot28]

Tomorrow is the last park day of my trip, Dec 13-22. First 3 days were Universal, followed by 8 days of Disney.
Universal was great, but it’s not really Disney, we all know that. Outside of Harry Potter world, it’s one and done for us, but Hagrid’s was the best roller coaster ride I’ve ever been on. We did it 4 times on standby, and didn’t mind the wait. The line moves quickly and it’s worth it. We were staying first 2 nights at RPR and we had unlimited express and it worked great, very simple and worry free system. I don’t need to wake up early to book anything, or get my family ready in a rush to be anywhere.
Now for my Disney days, we were offsite, driving ourselves to the park. The parks were slammed as everyone was saying, but there was a big uptick this week from last week as expected. we did enjoy our time and did mostly everything we wanted, but it’s not like before. For several reasons a lot of magic was missing, and there are several things that we can blame:
- let’s start by long walks in the morning in the parking lots. The parking lots were a mess especially at MK. Sometimes dangerous. Shame on Disney really for this..
- masks and CMs reminding people about masks. I know it’s not their fault that people don’t fully comply. But it just takes away from the magic everywhere that the cms have to keep reminding people with that. Even in the frozen show at HS, the narrator reminds people of that before every single segment.. that just takes away from the experience. On the other hand, there is no issue with having 50 people in the tower of terror pre show room and filling every available space. SMH
- genie+ and ILL is very inferior to FP. I would have much preferred if FP was kept but just add it as an up charge. I don’t want to wake up early everyday to plan the day of my visit. People are using them heavily, so it’s not going away, but I sure miss fastpass and being able to plan before hand, and refresh day of and do what I want multiple times. Genie+ is only usable at MK. ILL is only worth it for FOP and Rise.
- why do I have to wake up before 7am for BG for Remy, but Epcot opens at 11?
- character meets and character dining is a disappointment. I also miss Star Wars characters in GE roaming around.

anyway just listed some negatives there and I don’t want to totally make it that we didn’t enjoy our time. But this is the most I’ve spent on a Disney trip, and we just did not enjoy it as much as before. We are just not going to do it every year like we usually did, and maybe won’t be back for another 2-3 years as long as we see some positive changes.

Yes I do not understand why the Star Wars characters cannot walk around and instead have to be on stage bc of covid … I mean they would be the most protected as they could wear a mask underneath their giant costume stormtrooper mask… There’s so many other cast members serving others with much less protection I did not understand that.