***Official DLR October 2021 Check-in Thread***

[RJstanis]

And thanks for running the thread

 

[GatorChris]

Less than a week away! And it looks like no Genie+ for us. Not sure how I feel about that. I like the idea of not paying extra. But I know crowds are picking up. We were fully prepared to pay for MaxPass, and we're still awaiting the refund. Hoping for miraculously low crowds, but I think I know better.

 

[Mommy2PrincessAbby]

We will be there in less than 48 hours… was hoping for genie + sort of… I was willing to pay for it to see how it works. We paid for max pass and Loved it… and this weekend is notoriously busy, and we survived it every year with some sort of fast pass system. So this will be a new one.

Friday could rain… been there done that and loved it. BUT with everyone having to Preselect their dates will that mean no drop in crowds when it starts to rain? Should be interesting.

 

[djmeredith]

We arrive Friday. I am concerned about the crowd levels, but we are rope droppers so hopefully we should be okay. I am prepared for the worst and hoping for the best.

 

[tnzzz]

We are here now and it feels very busy. Tuesday in DL seemed to have heavier crowds than Sunday. We have been rope dropping and calling it a day around 5-6 and that’s working for our family. But I really do miss the Fastpass and Maxpass system. I think we were spoiled before by how many rides we were able to get on with short waits. My kids are just now appreciating roller coasters (5 and 8) but not really patient enough for 60 minute wait times.

 

[RJstanis]

We are here now and it feels very busy. Tuesday in DL seemed to have heavier crowds than Sunday. We have been rope dropping and calling it a day around 5-6 and that’s working for our family. But I really do miss the Fastpass and Maxpass system. I think we were spoiled before by how many rides we were able to get on with short waits. My kids are just now appreciating roller coasters (5 and 8) but not really patient enough for 60 minute wait times.

I thought Sunday was busy so I can't even imagine! I miss having some sort of Fast Pass system bc I always knew how to maximize whatever system was running. We rope dropped as well, took breaks at lunch when no line seemed worth it instead of staying all day, and still had a great 3 days. Hope today gets better!

 

[taaren]

Haven't packed yet, been too busy, but we'll be there Friday too!
I still haven't managed to get Carnation for this weekend so we'll be trying to see if we can get on a walk up wait list.
The crowds are historically bad this weekend but they also have been on past Labor Day weekends and it was pretty mellow this year, wait times were only long in the middle of the day so if this weekend is similar to that one I'll be happy.

 

[ClaudiaKincaid]

EVERYBODY IN AMERICA was here yesterday, all 350 million of us. I am exhausted just thinking about it. Wall-to-wall, elbow to elbow and hip to hip, from the main gate to the outer rim of Galaxy’s Edge - 25 minutes to get a churro, two entire whole hours to ride GOTG: Monsters After Dark; 55 minutes for Peter Pan, 90-minute lines snaking through places I’ve never seen for Pirates and HMH. You’d think it was a holiday weekend in the summer. It is the Worst. And with no Magic Morning/EMH and no maxpass/fastpass, there’s no way to navigate around any of it; we are at half the mileage and one third of the rides of our normal trip (the same week every year). Absolutely brutal.

 

[taaren]

EVERYBODY IN AMERICA was here yesterday, all 350 million of us. I am exhausted just thinking about it. Wall-to-wall, elbow to elbow and hip to hip, from the main gate to the outer rim of Galaxy’s Edge - 25 minutes to get a churro, two entire whole hours to ride GOTG: Monsters After Dark; 55 minutes for Peter Pan, 90-minute lines snaking through places I’ve never seen for Pirates and HMH. You’d think it was a holiday weekend in the summer. It is the Worst. And with no Magic Morning/EMH and no maxpass/fastpass, there’s no way to navigate around any of it; we are at half the mileage and one third of the rides of our normal trip (the same week every year). Absolutely brutal.

Oh dear. I wonder if Saturday will be any better since it is a blockout date for most of the APs. I know Sunday was sold out, my friends had to use our on-site hotel reservation to get their park reservations since they waited until a few weeks ago to book. I'm guessing Sunday will be as slammed as today for that reason.

 

[ClaudiaKincaid]

I sure hope so!

 

[Buson808]

Here now since Tuesday till next foll0wing Tuesday. decor is very beautiful BUT NEVER am I returning again during Halloween. SUPER PACKED! NO FAST PASS OR MAX PASS. Super long wait time. Elbow to elbow. Every churro line, minimum 8-10 ppl line. I feeel really bad for the 1st time visiters? How will they enjoy the attractions and foods?

Weathers so perfect! No sun but cool at night!

 

[Tangled26]

I agree. Here now — we arrived Wednesday (10/6) leaving Saturday (10/9) — and it is insane! On Thursday there was a 40 minute wait to get into the park at 9 am and the lines once we were in were so long we only did Pirates and Haunted Mansion before leaving for lunch. Thank goodness for the party last night or the day would have been a total bust for my kids. We were able to ride GoG 4 times and all the other lines were great. Made up for a crappy morning. Scared to head into the park today but we have lunch reservations. Finger crossed there is some breathing room!

 

[tnzzz]

We’ve wrapped up our October trip! Thursday was our last day and probably the best as far as wait times go so it was nice to finish up on a lighter day. Though it was still plenty crowded lol
We also upgraded to magic keys and look forward to coming back when Genie+ is available. I’ll happily pay the extra fees for shorter waits

 

[2boysmommy]

Everyone reporting crazy crowds is making me so nervous! We aren't in a park until 10/16 - fingers crossed some of these crowds dissipate before then...

 

[sophy1996]

I agree. Here now — we arrived Wednesday (10/6) leaving Saturday (10/9) — and it is insane! On Thursday there was a 40 minute wait to get into the park at 9 am and the lines once we were in were so long we only did Pirates and Haunted Mansion before leaving for lunch. Thank goodness for the party last night or the day would have been a total bust for my kids. We were able to ride GoG 4 times and all the other lines were great. Made up for a crappy morning. Scared to head into the park today but we have lunch reservations. Finger crossed there is some breathing room!

I’m so sorry to hear your morning was terrible! Your story, though, illustrates that getting to the park early can make the difference in the whole tenor of the day. We were at the gate before 7:30 and at the hub for rope drop. HMH and Pirates by 8:30. Then Matterhorn, Buzz, Star Tours, and Rise, a Ronto wrap, and a walk-in to Oga’s around 11:15. Stopped for a beignet and out of the park around 12:15 for a break before heading to the party. For us, it turned out to be one of the best days ever!

 

[tlovesdis]

UGH! We go next weekend and I was so excited about the wait times last week but now everything seems insane. I wish I could have got back to the parks before this to enjoy the lower crowds!

 

[Mommy2PrincessAbby]

Okay… a little perspective… we have done Columbus day weekend Th-Sun multiple times… and yesterday (Thursday) we were in DL from. 12-5— we rode, Small World, Star Tours, Snow White, Pinocchio, Mr. Toad, Winnie the Pooh and Rise… and had time to eat dole whips and lumpia and a churro cookie… it wasn’t that bad! We have seen it so much worse. We then went to the party at OBB and rode all the headliners there… webslingers, Screamin, soarin, fun wheel o death, rsr and the only waits were webslingers—30 minutes and RSR—20 (we closed the park with that one)… we also did villains grove and 3 treat trails and had popcorn and a pyms giant pretzel. In 5 hours we had a good time and were tired!

I think it’s all about what you are used to, we thought it could be much worse.

 

[taaren]

We were also there for Columbus Day weekend, got on almost every ride we wanted, even though it was crowded. Mostly by being flexible and just walking very quickly to whatever had low wait time at that moment. We even slept in on Saturday, although we probably could have gotten more rides in if we'd Rope Dropped (half our party's Keys were blocked out so we wanted to enjoy their company late into Friday and sleep seemed more important than RD since we'll be back in Nov).

For us the situation was fluid and we were always able to find a ride we wanted to enjoy with a line that was under half an hour just by watching the wait times and being willing to cross the park if we saw one that was at 20 minutes, which meant a lot more zig zagging than when FPs/MaxPass existed. For instance, we walked into the park after waking up late Saturday morning, saw that Pirates was under 10 so we went for that, wanted to go on Splash which was at 60, but Smugglers was at 25 so we went there, had a snack, when we got off Smugglers, Splash was at 20 (in theory, but ended up being under 10), and by then Pirates was at 60 and Smugglers was at 55. When we walked off Splash it was 75 but the Canoes were 10 in theory, walk on in practice. The only ride we really wanted to go on during our 3 day visit that we didn't get to was Space Mtn. We rope dropped for it on Sunday but it broke down right after opening, we'd only been in line about 5 minutes, and when it came back up around 11 it jumped from 20 to 55 before we could get over, and since we never saw it under an hour again we gave up. We'll RD for it next month. RSR also never dropped below an hour, but my party had decided on an earlier trip that we want DL as our starting park every time since there are no snacks we want at DCA before 11, so we'll never get to RD RSR, but are okay with that.

I was glad we mobile ordered food first thing in the day, otherwise we might not have gotten as many of the snacks as we wanted, or we would have waited multiple hours for them. We left the park at 2p both weekend days, went back in late (730ish).

We also scored last-minute reservations to the one restaurant I wanted, Carnation. One popped up for Sunday right when my plane landed in SoCal on Friday night, then late that night Saturday came up as well. We ended up eating our beloved Chicken Fried Chicken both days, so that was a win after 2 months of anxiety of not being able to get reservations in the precious seconds that they were available after getting a notification (seriously, I logged in within a minute more than half a dozen times and never got a res).

 

[ktlm]

EVERYBODY IN AMERICA was here yesterday, all 350 million of us. I am exhausted just thinking about it. Wall-to-wall, elbow to elbow and hip to hip, from the main gate to the outer rim of Galaxy’s Edge - 25 minutes to get a churro, two entire whole hours to ride GOTG: Monsters After Dark; 55 minutes for Peter Pan, 90-minute lines snaking through places I’ve never seen for Pirates and HMH. You’d think it was a holiday weekend in the summer. It is the Worst. And with no Magic Morning/EMH and no maxpass/fastpass, there’s no way to navigate around any of it; we are at half the mileage and one third of the rides of our normal trip (the same week every year). Absolutely brutal.

Yep- we were there too. This sums it up. We were there Weds-Sun. Thursday was by far the best day. Wednesday and Saturday were absolutely brutal- just miserable. We only did maybe half of what we usually do in a 5 day trip. We had to give up things we always like to do like draw at the Animation Academy and browse stores and shop to try to get on the rides and we still didn't get to do all the rides we like to do. We waited for 40 minutes for the Monster's Inc. ride!!!

 

[djmeredith]

We were there 8th-12th and in the parks Fri, Sun, Mon and Tues over the holiday weekend. We rope dropped every morning, arriving to line up by 7:00. We would spend several hours in the parks and then take a break before returning around dinner time. The longest line we waited in was GotG Monsters After Dark and that was 60 mins. We did everything we wanted to do, some of them more than once. We did single rider lines for RSR, Incredicoaster the second time, Matterhorn, and Space Mtn the second time. Yes it was busy, but also very manageable if you arrived for rope drop.