Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[Turksmom]

Here now, I was prepared for chaos and mayhem and have been pleasantly surprised! Yes, it is crowded. The lines are long at peak times but if you plan a little strategy it is possible to do everything! We have a DAS and have been using the lightning lane all week. I’ve noticed that there are hardly ever more than a couple of other people going into the lightning lane with us. Even on things like Remi, MMRR, FoP. These things are selling out first thing in the morning, but where are these people? Either they are hardly releasing any slots, or…? Except for rare rides where the LL merges really early, we’ve walked on, literally walked on. On rides that aren’t individually paid, there is rarely more than a few people in the LL with us. I feel like Genie+ is not the money maker that Disney hoped and not as widely purchased as they hoped. I’ll be honest, if we didn’t have DAS, we’d be skipping genie+ and just picking our ride times more strategically to avoid the 120+ minute waits. Not worth the money when you get maybe 3-4 rides out of it if that.

LL was definitely busier last week. We did all standby and had long waits with no movement while a seemingly endless stream of LL guests went past.

 

[DisneyElite4]

Checking out today after 7 nights at Old Key West. We had the most wonderful trip we have had in a long time! We had 3 adults and 3 children under 10. We used a combination of Genie+ and DAS. We slept in every day and got to the parks around noon and stayed until closing. We usually got about 3-4 Genie+ at each park with very little effort on my part. I did not feel like I was on my phone the whole time, and I did with FP+. We waited in very few standby lines, as my middle child uses a DAS, but when we did they moved quickly as we only did this on attractions/shows with low wait times.

CMs were lovely and helpful, and the parks did not feel overly crowded walking through them even though all of our days were sold out. We moved about just fine, but we never came at rope drop.

We had many amazing table service meals - we were always seated quickly and food was fantastic. The rest of our meals were in our villa, which was also lovely, clean and relaxing.

We only encountered one grumpy family, and it wasn’t directed at us. We spoke to/met so many interesting and kind people from all over the world in lines and at shows and restaurants.

We had a few minor issues related to having a child with special needs that I won’t go into, but none of those were Disney’s fault, just part of life with a child like ours, and they were all resolved quickly within our own family coming up with solutions that did not impact others negatively.

I really came into this trip expecting the worst and I could not have been more wrong. I’m glad I had lowered my expectations because it helped the overall vibe of the trip - we took it slow, we sat often and took in the atmosphere, we enjoyed each other’s company, and at the end of the week it was perfect and I could not be more pleased!

 

[godfather927]

MK 3/16..

We accomplished a ton by starting with early entry. We like to have 2 full days at MK to ride attractions multiple times. We did the following LLs…Small World, Pooh, Speedway, HM, Pirates, Little Mermaid, Big Thunder, Space, and PP. Space I found at 6 pm for a return time of 825 pm. Peter Pan I found a return time of 10 pm at 8 pm. We also watched the parade again and rode standby for Laugh Floor, People Mover, Teacups, Carousel, Dumbo x4 without getting off while watching the fireworks (a fantastic way to do it since we don’t like being stuck in the massive hub crowd and my daughter is boycotting projections since HEA is gone). Also took a 3 hour break to go to Wilderness Lodge and eat at Geyser Point.

Takeaways…

Yes, Genie is a pain to pay for. We decided beforehand that we would rather have Genie for some days for our party of 3 than have one table service at a restaurant like BOG or Topolinos. I wish you could modify or be able to select times for LL. But FP is not coming back. I could complain about it forever, but we bought it, used it, and had success. We got 8 LLs and 9 LLs at our 2 MK days. One HS evening I got 4 LLs to use in 3 1/2 hrs. I was on my phone less than I was with FP. After tapping in or after my 2 hr mark, I would look at next availability for 1-2 attractions we targeted next. If we didn’t see a great return time, I would refresh for 5 minutes. Sometimes when we clicked on a time it would pop up that it was gone, but about 80% of the time we eventually got something close. Then the phone went away until we tapped in or 2 hrs was up.

Based on reports, my expectations were very low about what we would be able to do. It was very crowded and 10/10 days. However, we did way more than I thought. As someone else posted above, we did not see any overflowing trash cans, bathrooms were clean, the park wasn’t trashed. CMs were cleaning quick service tables, picking up litter from the sidewalk, etc. CMs were all nice and some superb. We had the one CM at Epcot who was short with our Remy ILL issue, but we got our refund and it wasn’t that big of a deal. I think we have to remember that the CMs are not some super humans whose purpose is solely to make you have the most magical time ever. They are people working in customer service, one of the most thankless jobs I would suspect. We had a great trip and had tons of fun!

Are you saying you were able to get 9LLs in for one of your MK days? If so, do you mind posting a rough summary of which rides and how you managed that?

 

[DizneyMommy]

I will say we also tour backwards. We don’t make a mad dash for the big rides, we knock out a bunch of small ones with no wait, the shows, and the fun little things that no one ever wants to waste time on, and then tackle the big ones later. If we didn’t have the DAS this trip, we would still do that, and ride the big ones in the evening as the lines start to dwindle. That’s just how we’ve always toured. Totally backwards of how we do Disneyland interestingly! So funny how the parks have such different patterns

 

[Juventus]

About to leave after 10 days/7 park days. Our the best trip yet. We had 3 recovery passes each day for any 3 rides per day minus rotr, mmrr and remi, but even without these it would have been great.

As offsite guests we used to always rope drop...only did this once this trip (our first night was at Disney springs holiday inn so we dropped rotr).

My advice, especially for mk is go to the parks later in the day. Yesterday at mk we booked the following LL all after 3:30 every 2 hours:
Space
Thunder
Splash
Haunted
Pirates
Small world

Standby: laugh factory, Ariel ride, carousal, philharmonicx2

Used our 3 recovery passes for thunder mountain (which was a walk on during fireworks) and 7 Dwarves x2.

Dinner at Plaza.

During the trip I was also able to refresh and buy (after 8:30) rotr x1 and remi x3)

Also did rotr standby 2 nights ago posted wait 120, actual 70.

Definitely more walking around the parks but we are recently strollerless so didn't care as much.

 

[Mango7100]

Are you saying you were able to get 9LLs in for one of your MK days? If so, do you mind posting a rough summary of which rides and how you managed that?

Yes, 9 in one day and 8 on the other.

Made HM for 925 return at 7 am…HM was down so it turned into an anytime pass (could not use for Jungle Cruise, Peter Pan, 7D, or Space). Used it for Small World at 925 (not the best use of it but that’s what my daughter wanted and the standby line was already 45 minutes).
Made Pooh for 1020 when we tapped in Small World. Made Speedway for 11 when tapped in for Pooh. Made Little Mermaid for 1145 when tapped on Speedway.
Made HM for 445 when tapped in Little Mermaid. Made Big Thunder for 915 at 145 (120 minute rule after last LL was made)
Made Pirates for 6 at 345 (120 minute rule)
Made Space for 825 at 6 (refreshed for 5 minutes to find it)
Made Peter Pan for 1005 at 825 (again refreshed for a few minutes to find it).

So the LLs were for some smaller rides but on a busy day those even had a 45+ minute wait so it saved time. The Littile Mermaid line was past the entrance when we went and we walked right on with our LL

 

[pens4821]

Had a relaxing start to our last day, but ended busy. Plan was to get to MK early, but the 14 year old just didn’t want to get up. And really I think none of us did. He said he was ok not riding, just wanted some extra sleep. After about 1.5/2 hours he got up and said we should have just left earlier since he didn’t really fall back asleep.

By the time we got it the park at 10, things were long already. Splash was at 55, and hm and poc were lower but close to that (don’t remember exact times). Prioritized splash. Only took 35. When that was done everything was over 50 minutes. We grabbed some food (some went to lunching pad, some Casey’s), sat around a little, looked in a couple stores on Main Street, and left. Not an ideal last day at MK, but we got plenty of riding done Monday with LL and Wednesday with deluxe evening hours.

we got back to the resort, and since it was so hot went to the pool. While swimming we did some laundry so we don’t have to when we get home. Hopping to HS, we left the resort around 345.

This is a copy/paste of my day leading up to and at HS from another thread. I spent an extra $90, but honestly it was so worth it. At 7 I booked an ill for rotr. After that we booked for tot. I did wait a few minutes to get one around 5. After that, two of us wanted rnrc and two mmrr. I booked rnrc no issue for 630. I had to refresh a few times to get a mmrr but did for 430 for the others. At 1230 I couldn’t find anything so I did as2 for 620. When 230 rolled around I couldn’t find anything. A couple times something would pop up then disappear. Finally I was able to get the two that didn’t do mmrr later ones for it. Then while I was waiting for the first two to ride mmrr I sat refreshing and was able to get Mfsm for two (the other two were heading back to the hotel so didn’t try to book four).

So when we got to the park we went mmrr,tot,rotr,as2,Mfsm,rnrc,mmrr. Did that from about 430-815. Was thinking of getting in line for sdd, but just was ready to relax.

Came back to the resort, mobile ordered on the way, ate, and came back to the room to relax. Getting up at 5 to drop one part of our party at the airport, then driving halfway home to Pittsburgh. Will finish the trip Sunday.

it’s been a good week. I’ll post a recap of my thoughts at some point in the next couple days. It was really crowded and the lines were long, but we still had fun. I know it adds cost but at these high crowd times I’d say go for the genie. Even if you only get a few rides, it’s nice. We got 5 at MK, 4 at ep (plus the morning we used 1 for tot at hs), and 5 at HS. Even Epcot getting the smaller rides. All the posted waits were pretty high considering the ride so it saved us a lot of time.

 

[armerida]

My advice, especially for mk is go to the parks later in the day. Yesterday at mk we booked the following LL all after 3:30 every 2 hours:
Space
Thunder
Splash
Haunted
Pirates
Small world

Hi! Wondering if you started booking LL at 3:30 or started in the morning to have them stacked for a 3:30 arrival? Thanks!

 

[Gentry2004]

Here now, I was prepared for chaos and mayhem and have been pleasantly surprised! Yes, it is crowded. The lines are long at peak times but if you plan a little strategy it is possible to do everything! We have a DAS and have been using the lightning lane all week. I’ve noticed that there are hardly ever more than a couple of other people going into the lightning lane with us. Even on things like Remi, MMRR, FoP. These things are selling out first thing in the morning, but where are these people? Either they are hardly releasing any slots, or…? Except for rare rides where the LL merges really early, we’ve walked on, literally walked on. On rides that aren’t individually paid, there is rarely more than a few people in the LL with us. I feel like Genie+ is not the money maker that Disney hoped and not as widely purchased as they hoped. I’ll be honest, if we didn’t have DAS, we’d be skipping genie+ and just picking our ride times more strategically to avoid the 120+ minute waits. Not worth the money when you get maybe 3-4 rides out of it if that.

Did you feel the need to have G+ with the DAS? We are going in December and I'm trying to decide if I need G+ at Magic Kingdom or Hollywood in addition to DAS. Part of me feels like it will be too chaotic to manage both though. WDYT?

 

[scrappinginontario]

Hi! Wondering if you started booking LL at 3:30 or started in the morning to have them stacked for a 3:30 arrival? Thanks!

To stack they would have started early in the day, probably at 7AM. Based on the attractions (and dumber of attractions they had stacked) this can only be done by starting early in the morning.

With a 3:30 park arrival, first LL can be booked at 7AM, next one 2 hours after park opening then 2 hours after that Etc

 

[Little E]

@HydroGuy The only times we experienced long lines at the Skyliner were first thing in the am. However, even when the line was crazy long, it seemed to move fast. I don't think we ever waited more than 30 minutes first thing in the am. Certainly not 90 minutes. I will say we were there March 6-11, so things may have changed with increased spring break crowds? Also, we never took the Skyliner home, so I have no intel on an end of park day experience. We were either at other non Skyliner parks, Ubered, or didn't close down the parks. Also, during the day, the Skyliner was basically a walk on. I don't recall waiting more than a couple of minutes any time from mid morning through dinner time. I hope that helps!

 

[szahner]

We are on our way home after being on property all this past week. Our experience was that everything is crowded, but you can get all your priorities done with a plan
We purchased Genie+ for all days, and visited all 4 parks. We are usually rope droppers who take midday breaks, and we tried this approach with mixed results. We found that you can really only get 1-2 rides done before wait times build to 45+ minutes by 9:30am. If I were doing it all again, I would abandon rope drop and stack LLs for later in the day. We stayed at WL, but did not take advantage of extended evening hours— we were exhausted and by that time gave up on the 1 or 2 rides we missed as not worth losing sleep.
Overall, we had a wonderful time. All our interactions with staff were great, and experienced many kind strangers.
I overheard many people having problems with the app. I got very frustrated with times sliding but I did book all the ILL and LLs I wanted in the 7am rush. I suspect that the system will get worse as more people actually figure it out…..it seemed like maybe half of users were really maximizing it.
I appreciate the insights from this thread!

 

[bambialways4ever]

Here now, I was prepared for chaos and mayhem and have been pleasantly surprised! Yes, it is crowded. The lines are long at peak times but if you plan a little strategy it is possible to do everything! We have a DAS and have been using the lightning lane all week. I’ve noticed that there are hardly ever more than a couple of other people going into the lightning lane with us. Even on things like Remi, MMRR, FoP. These things are selling out first thing in the morning, but where are these people? Either they are hardly releasing any slots, or…? Except for rare rides where the LL merges really early, we’ve walked on, literally walked on. On rides that aren’t individually paid, there is rarely more than a few people in the LL with us. I feel like Genie+ is not the money maker that Disney hoped and not as widely purchased as they hoped. I’ll be honest, if we didn’t have DAS, we’d be skipping genie+ and just picking our ride times more strategically to avoid the 120+ minute waits. Not worth the money when you get maybe 3-4 rides out of it if that.

What rides have the lightning lane that merges early? We have DAS too so trying to plan accordingly

 

[tigger2002]

Looking at thrill data it looks like most all rides are not available for LL after about 11:00 at HS. How are people able to get 7 or 8 LL rides by going late in the day, and some can only get 1 or 2?

 

[pens4821]

Looking at thrill data it looks like most all rides are not available for LL after about 11:00 at HS. How are people able to get 7 or 8 LL rides by going late in the day, and some can only get 1 or 2?

We got rides easily on the first two available booking times of 7 and 1030 (we were at MK in the morning and stacking for evening). At 1230 only star tours (seemed to be available pretty much all day all week) and alien were available. We booked alien. We were able to get Mfsm and mmrr by refreshing constantly. It took a good 10-15 minutes to be able to get it. But for us it was ok as at 230 we were in the room relaxing and at 450 we were in HS waiting for others to finish a ride.

 

[Juventus]

Hi! Wondering if you started booking LL at 3:30 or started in the morning to have them stacked for a 3:30 arrival? Thanks!

I waited until 8:59 to book mk opening at 9:00 to make sure times were pushed late enough in afternoon. Usually only JC and PP go that late, but space did that day (high crowds).

 

[scrappinginontario]

Looking at thrill data it looks like most all rides are not available for LL after about 11:00 at HS. How are people able to get 7 or 8 LL rides by going late in the day, and some can only get 1 or 2?

I have not seen anyone report 7 or 8 LL rides at HS. Those who were getting more possibly were visiting at less busy times. We were able to get 5 in late Jan and it could have been 7 if we’d purchased the 2 available to purchase at the time.

We rode the majority of the major attractions at DHS in one day (ToT, RnRC, SDD, TSM, MMRR, MFSR, RotR, ST) plus saw 1 show but some of those we did via standby.

it’s easier to get more attractions done using LL at MK.

 

[Mango7100]

Looking at thrill data it looks like most all rides are not available for LL after about 11:00 at HS. How are people able to get 7 or 8 LL rides by going late in the day, and some can only get 1 or 2?

We got 5 LL for HS Saturday 3/12. We arrived at the park at 545 pm and had SDD, MMRR, TSMM, and Aliens stacked by starting at 7 am during our drive down and booking every 2 hours after park opening. We were also able to find a Smugglers by refreshing once we used our first LL by refreshing. I did have to refresh for several minutes for some Times that worked better for us though…The next day we used 3 in the morning (SDD, rock n roll coaster, meet Minnie) and could have gotten 1-2 more for evening but we hopped so I didn’t look very hard at HS

 

[zillayen]

We did DHS on Friday. I knew we wouldn’t make it to the park for rope drop. I was up at 7 am and booked a LL for RnRC for 11 am and then an ILL for RotR for 9:50 am. Got to the park around 9 am and rode Star Tours standby (my kids love it and the wait was 20 min). Headed over to Galaxy’s Edge and rode RotR. It was cool but I don’t think I’d pay to ride it again or wait more than 45 min for it. Did Smugglers Run single rider with about a 10 min wait (85 min posted standby). Left pilot was a 4 year old who did nothing the whole flight so it was pretty bumpy.

We had some time to kill before RnRC so we got a snack and sat in the shade. By 10:30 it was super hot and very crowded. I checked Genie+ and the only return times before 1 pm were for ALien SS or StarTours. We weren’t planning to stay after lunch so I booked Star Tours for 12 in case the kids wanted to ride it again. I think TOT return time was 8 pm and TS was 3 pm if you were trying to book your 2nd LL at 10:30 am.

My husband came and met us and we rode RnRC then sent the kids on Star Tours while we grabbed water. Back to Galaxy’s Edge just because my husband wanted to see it. We rode MFSR again single rider as a walk on. Better ride this time as there was an actual pilot on our ship but we still hit a bunch of stuff. By then it was almost 1 pm and 86 degrees so we decided to head back. By 12:30 pm pretty much anything besides Star Tours and Alien SS was gone from Genie+. We’ve ridden ToT before and my daughter hates it and they weren’t really interested in Slinky or MMRR.

If your kids are old enough and you want to do a lot of rides, I’d strongly suggest riding MFSR single rider and using the LL for another headliner. We did 6 rides before 1 pm - one standby, two LL, one ILL, and two single rider.

 

[sweetmama17]

We are just back from 4 day/3 nights and we were able to do more than I thought. We had a combination of DAS and G+ mainly due to the non DAS kid wanting to ride coasters (which DAS kid refuses). DAS is a life savor (for anyone who has to be in a line with that kid) it did take 2 days of being on the phone all day to set it up though. Anyway I really think the best thing is a good plan.

Day 1: MK drove over and booked G+ all day.
7am: booked space
11: booked thunder
1: booked buzz
3: booked Dumbo
5: booked pirates

Entered at 5 (took long at guest services activating tix so got an extra buzz ll)

We did:
Buzz (G+)
Space (with rider swap) (G+)
Ate cosmic rays (mobile order)
Skipped Dumbo due to time constraints
Pirates (DAS)
Thunder (G+), longest ll wait due to earlier weather (kid didn't want to rider swap but could have)
JC (DAS)
HM (DAS)
Fireworks
Buzz (extra LL G+)
Speedway (SB 10 min)
Tea cups (SB walkon)
Did not use G+ Pirates
Offered to stay to do big kid rides for EMH with big kid but everyone was tired so we went back to the hotel.

Day 2 Epcot:
Didn't enter til about 4
Bought Remi LL and got 630pm (jumped about an hour from what I selected)
Soarin and TT with DAS
Stand by for figment and Nemo
Glad I had purchased Remy as when we went back to ride with DAS it went down and didn't come back on for the night.

Day 3 HS (kinda wish I bought G+ this day but it worked out)
We entered about 745 for an 8 early entry. Got in line for ToT. This was our longest wait we didn't get out til about 840 (with rider swap). By that time RnR was over 80 min (was hoping to get both of these with early entry as we couldn't use DAS).
SB for star tours (5 min)
Rise, MFSR, sauces and TSM all with DAS (2 pre booked).
Lunch at brown derby
Mickey ride with DAS
Back to hotel for break.
Kids chose to book MFSR as we left the park as that was their favorite.
Got back to HS around 6pm
MFSR
Ogas
Rise (with DAS since wait times had decreased).
Decided to try for RnR with big kid right before close. Worked out great with only a 15min wait.

AK
Was able to do the 4 rides with DAS. Don't know why this park is so hot with all the shade. This is the only park I felt was extra crowded.

I felt most people we ran into we friendly and positive. This includes guests and cast members. Extra shout out to the concierge at Grand Floridian for helping fix a few things.

I plan to bring my big kid back for some time with him and we won't have DAS for that but I think I have a plan now on how to make a good trip without it.