Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[igrsod]

I posted this as a standalone thread but I'll ask you as well -- are trams back at Epcot? I heard they are back at MK but I'm hearing mixed on the rest of the parks. Thanks!

I just replied on your other thread...lol
But no, they were only running at Magic Kingdom. The other parks we had to walk quite a ways to the entrance.

 

[alyspins]

I just replied on your other thread...lol
But no, they were only running at Magic Kingdom. The other parks we had to walk quite a ways to the entrance.

Thanks so much!!

 

[boxer]

How was Turo?? With price of rentals right now, really thinking of trying this out.

 

[mlbrv]

Just got back Monday from a 4 day trip (with park hopper tix) - we did each park 2X (except AK)...2 parks a day.
1st time using Genie +, which I bought for all 4 days/ parks..

here's how it shook out:

day 1:
MK
Peter Pan - early entry, waited in line approx 30 min
Splash
Seven Dwarves - $ILL
Jungle cruise - LL
Haunted mansion
Pirates- LL
Space mountain - LL
Big thunder mountain
People Mover
Buzz lightyear

EP
Soarin'
Livng with the Land

dinner @ Saana

day 2:
HS
Slinky Dog - early entry - waited in line approx 30 min
Toy Story
Rise of the Resistance - $ILL
Rock n Rollercoaster - LL
Star Tours - LL
Mickey and Minnie


EP
Remy - $ILL
Soarin - LL

dinner @ Steakhouse 71

day 3:
EP
Soarin'
Spaceship Earth
Test Track -LL
Three Caballeros
Frozen
Remy - $ILL

(spent most of day stacking for early evening rides at MK)

MK
Space mountain -LL
Buzz lightyear
Seven dwarves - $ILL
Pirates - LL
Big thunder
Splash - LL
Haunted - LL

day 4:
AK
Flight of Passage - $ILL
Safari - LL
Dinosaur
It’s tough to be a Bug

HS
Slinky dog dash
Mickey and Minnie
Tower of Terror -LL (we still waited 40 min in line for this)
Rock n rollercoaster - LL

dinner @ Space 220

MK, EP & HS were all a level 9 or 10 while we were there -- parks were very very crowded....but, wait times on the signs were often off - some rides said 80 min - we waited 40...some said 40 mins, we waited 25 mins....so don't let wait times scare you...they often move much faster.

I don't love Genie +, I prefer FP, but we did make it work...and we got plenty of LL reservations. We also found the old "refreshing" method for FP still works here.....we got LL late in the day for popular rides by just continuing to check...and re-check....
and we also found (as many have said) that rides that get "sold out" at 7am, often have more times released around 7:07- 7:10am....and them more throughout the day.

We got on every ride we wanted - and most at the times we wanted....BUT, I'm very put off that I had to pay for $ILL's in order to ride the popular rides without waiting in a 110 min line.....after paying high ticket prices and then also paying for Genie+, to have to pay even more for $ILL was just wrong. But we weren't there for long and wanted to do these rides so I paid....but I think it's asking too much to have to pay a separate premium for these rides...they should be included in Genie+

 

[Beamerball]

What was your evening at Epcot like with extended hours? We Have an ADR in France at 7. Trying to figure out a strategy with extended hours currently at 9pm-11pm. Thanks!

 

[pens4821]

What was your evening at Epcot like with extended hours? We Have an ADR in France at 7. Trying to figure out a strategy with extended hours currently at 9pm-11pm. Thanks!

Our experience with it wasn’t as good as MK. We got in line for soarin at 830. Waited about a half hour. Walked to tt. Got in line about 920. It went down for about 20 minutes. By the time we got off frozen and remy were both posted around 45 minutes and it was a little after 10. We planned on doing both but prioritized remy so went there. The wait was just about as posted and by the time we got off the ride it was almost 11. So from a little after 9 till 11 we got 2 rides done. If tt wouldn’t have went down I think we would’ve been ok to do tt, frozen, and remy though.

 

[igrsod]

How was Turo?? With price of rentals right now, really thinking of trying this out.

Turo worked out very well. I was apprehensive as it was our first time, but it was great. Easy pick up and drop off at the airport and about 50% of what actual car rental prices are right now.
We loved having a car to get groceries, avoid buses, and getting back and forth to the airport.
We will for sure use it again. It reminded me of our early days as airbnb guests...not really knowing what to expect. Now we use them easily.

 

[igrsod]

What was your evening at Epcot like with extended hours? We Have an ADR in France at 7. Trying to figure out a strategy with extended hours currently at 9pm-11pm. Thanks!

It was great. We did Remy, Test Track and Soarin'. Not much was open as far as food and merchandise. We loved the extended hours. If you can stay til the end, it gets even more quiet.
Highly recommend it.

 

[igrsod]

Our experience with it wasn’t as good as MK. We got in line for soarin at 830. Waited about a half hour. Walked to tt. Got in line about 920. It went down for about 20 minutes. By the time we got off frozen and remy were both posted around 45 minutes and it was a little after 10. We planned on doing both but prioritized remy so went there. The wait was just about as posted and by the time we got off the ride it was almost 11. So from a little after 9 till 11 we got 2 rides done. If tt wouldn’t have went down I think we would’ve been ok to do tt, frozen, and remy though.

That can happen. Last time we were at extended Epcot hours, we only got two rides in as well.
2-3 big rides can be done. So you budget your day for that. We did all the shopping and eating around the world during the day and then rode our favourite rides at the evening hours.

 

[igrsod]

Our MK evening hours was awesome from 11-1 am. Most people cleared out at 11 and the everything was pretty much a walk on. We did all of tomorrowland plus some of fantasyland.

 

[jimmymc]

How did you do your Turo rental? I'm trying them for the first time soon. Also my first time renting a car at Disney.

Also how were the lines for the Epcot festival booths? I don't have any reservations for my Epcot day and want to use them for dinner.

 

[lovethattink]

We just returned from a sold out week at WDW. If anyone has any questions, I would be happy to share my knowledge and experience.
We were able to do everything we wanted to do including all major new rides, without purchasing Genie+ or ILL$. Without waiting more than an hour for any ride all week.
It is possible, you just have to have a good strategy.
We stayed at BWV and AKL Jambo.
We also rented a car with TURO... new one for us.
Happy to help anyone out.

I merged your just back thread into the Here Now, Just Back thread.

 

[igrsod]

How did you do your Turo rental? I'm trying them for the first time soon. Also my first time renting a car at Disney.

Also how were the lines for the Epcot festival booths? I don't have any reservations for my Epcot day and want to use them for dinner.

I just looked on the Turo website and found a car in the price range I wanted with an owner with a good rating and went from there.
We had never rented a car until our last time (dec 2021) at Disney. Renting was expensive, but we enjoyed having one for many reasons, and will probably always have a car from now on.

Festival booth lines were not that bad. Only one (mexico) that I had to wait any length of time, the rest were quick. The food at Flower and Garden was delicious. We didn't have lunch or dinner reservations. We just snacked all day when something at a booth struck our fancy.

 

[jimmymc]

I just looked on the Turo website and found a car in the price range I wanted with an owner with a good rating and went from there.
We had never rented a car until our last time (dec 2021) at Disney. Renting was expensive, but we enjoyed having one for many reasons, and will probably always have a car from now on.

Festival booth lines were not that bad. Only one (mexico) that I had to wait any length of time, the rest were quick. The food at Flower and Garden was delicious. We didn't have lunch or dinner reservations. We just snacked all day when something at a booth struck our fancy.

How did you do the airport pickup for the car? Did they meet you at the airport?

And great to hear with the festival!

 

[igrsod]

How did you do the airport pickup for the car? Did they meet you at the airport?

And great to hear with the festival!

The owner I had rented from, parked the car in a lot at the airport with a lockbox on the driver's side door. When we arrived at the airport, he messaged me the location and code for the box... secret agent style lol.

 

[jimmymc]

The owner I had rented from, parked the car in a lot at the airport with a lockbox on the driver's side door. When we arrived at the airport, he messaged me the location and code for the box... secret agent style lol.

Haha cool!

 

[meghanmione]

Here now! We spent the day at the MK and are finishing up a nice dinner at the Crystal Palace! We ended up sleeping in and even tho I slept through my 6:30 alarms I was still able book 7DMT and BTM for midday at 8 AM. Worked out perfect!

I must say, every park at capacity outside of EPCOT did make me apprehensive, but we’ve been having the best time! Lines aren’t outrageous imo and if you can stack genie+ well, you can have a pretty solid line free day for the most part. It is crowded, but absolutely not as bad as I was expecting and we aren’t packed in like sardines like I feared.

With genie we have accomplished 7DMT, BTM, SM, HM, BLSC, JC, AND I just managed to snag a PPF after refreshing for a min or two. We also did pirates and people mover as standby and both were under 30 mins even tho the wait times were higher.

 

[T'Lynn]

Here now! Waiting for HS rope drop. Got a RotR $LL selected 12:25, got 3:15 so not too bad (but still crazy) and snagged a noon for MFSR (this all at 7 with some slight delay in loading the app.

Here we go! Day 1 of our trip!

 

[bambialways4ever]

We're here now!

Hit up Typhoon Lagoon yesterday and it was amazing! It being not too hot yesterday made it a great day for waterparks because the concrete wasn't magma and the sun wasn't completely baking us.

Already got a survey this morning with LOTS of questions about "other guests behavior and how it impacted my experience", line wait times, and overall CM reviews for a lot of different areas and specifics.

Today we check into DVC after a quick night at POP!, so excited.

 

[T'Lynn]

HS today EE to about 5

RD SDD - it was down so my DD9 and I rode Swirling Saucers while my DH held our spots. Finally rode it at about 8:45

RotR & RnRC we’re also down so with everyone stuck in line the other rides had short waits a while longer. We were able to do MMRR with a 20 min wait at about 9.

then everything was a huge wait. Star Tours was 65 minutes so we opted to see Olaf and then wait theVacation short film (which was so cute!) before going to Indiana Jones. We were all actually happy that we were diverted and got to see an extra show. It’s nice to enjoy the other park offerings.

After Indy we sampled the milk (DD9 likes green, DH and I preferred blue) then MFSR LL and caught the Pixar Cavalcade on the way to Hollywood Brown Derby for lunch.

After we ate we had Star Tours LL then TSM LL then RotR $LL. Made it just in time for our droid reservation!

It was a full day and very busy but G+ worked ok (mostly because I knew what to expect)

we had dinner and watched Harmonius at Epcot. I loved the new fireworks show!

Full Epcot day with Extended Evening tomorrow!