Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[eva]

We were at WDW Nov 28 to Dec 5. We had a great time and found the lines very manageable. Love the new scanners at the entrances. Just walked on through with no issues. Some days the parks were very deserted. We didn’t do any rope drops and found waits for rides were never an issue. AK last Monday was a ghost town. We rode FOP three times, never waiting more than 20 minutes. Epcot on Tuesday we walked on to every ride, except Frozen. MK and HS seemed more crowded when walking around. But we still never waited more than 30 minutes for a ride. By Friday the crowds were picking up a bit. But wait times were still pretty good. All wait times but one were very inflated. FOP said 45 minutes and we waited 17. Most of the rides were like that. They would have wait times listed between 45 and 60 minutes, but take only 15 or 20.

 

[hlrubin507]

Thank you for sharing but I have to admit this surprises me. Most other groups I am part of has said DS is a madhouse and to avoid. We had planned on skipping entirely. Perhaps weekends should be avoided? I would like to get a clearer picture of this.

I was at DS yesterday (Sunday 12/6). We got there about 1:15pm, had a 2pm reservation for the Boathouse. In the afternoon it was busy but not crazy. By the time we left at 6pm it was a MADHOUSE. Impossible to physically distance. I think the evenings must be the busiest. Mask compliance was good, but I did not see a single CM out and about enforcing anything. They seemed to all be tied up managing the queue at World of Disney. The World of Disney store was fine in terms of spacing of people. They opened up a virtual queue at 2pm and I got a text when we were allowed to go in. When we arrived at DS at 1:15 there was a loooong line and no VQ. We got about 3 trees into the Christmas Tree stroll and had to leave, it was just too busy for my personal comfort zone (which is pretty liberal).

 

[hereforthechurros]

I dont want to delve too far in theoreticals since this is an actuals thread but, yes, I believe its very possible that Disney is staggering transportation starts, park openings and ride start times in an unpredictable fashion in light of the fact that I recall Disney stating that one of the safety aspects they were implementing was the smaller, unpredictable cavalcades to prevent crowding. To bring it back around to actual experiences, unpredictable staggering is certainly what people are experiencing and what should be planned on. No guarantees right now, if thats a deal breaker then perhaps Disney isnt the right vacation right now (not directly aimed at you hereforthechurros, to anyone that cant deal with that level of uncertainty).

Staggered openings are completely strategic and I respect/like that. It's the different transport times each day that I am not quite understanding, if it's purposeful. If I want to make MK rope drop, I'm going to head to the bus station early regardless of what time things are actually running that day. So if you expect a bus at 8 am for a 9 am opening, but the bus doesn't show up until 8:30 am, you're risking crowding at the bus stop from the large group of people trying to make rope drop that typically expect a bus one hour before park opening. Not saying how dare WDW not be perfect right now, but if they're creating confusion via unpredictable transportation schedules is that because it saves them money in transportation costs, or for safety purposes?

In a time where Disney is hurting for guests, especially on-site guests that would use park transportation, not sure the "don't like it, don't come" helps anyone.

 

[kelscross]

We arrived early Sat 12/5. MK before noon. It had crowds but we would just move away from people and kept our own distance. When I say crowds nothing like pre-Covid but much more than early re-opening. Never felt unsafe. Honestly if you think it’s going to be empty and not pass people when waking through the parks makes you feel unsafe then it won’t work for you. The cavalcades are cute and hard to distance we just stepped back. Lines in MK people didn’t follow directions and would be all up on you so I did have to say something to people nicely time to time. Wait times were less than posted. Example space mountain had 55 mins we were on and off little over 30. Transport worked out fine from Pop. A few noses peeking out here and there and people still walked around eating CMS said nothing but again I just stepped away.

EPCOT yesterday was BUSY but again we kept our own distance. Ride lines people seem to follow directions better. Honestly disappointed in EPCOT. I knew several things not operating in the countries but disappointed in the lack of decor and holiday feel. Again lines less than posted except Frozen. 100 mins we skipped it not a must do for us.

HS today we got BG 30 from resort. Rope dropped and had MMRR, all of toy story done before 10am. Came back to eat and rest and about to head out again.

 

[Tormania]

We were at WDW Nov 28 to Dec 5. We had a great time and found the lines very manageable. Love the new scanners at the entrances. Just walked on through with no issues. Some days the parks were very deserted. We didn’t do any rope drops and found waits for rides were never an issue. AK last Monday was a ghost town. We rode FOP three times, never waiting more than 20 minutes. Epcot on Tuesday we walked on to every ride, except Frozen. MK and HS seemed more crowded when walking around. But we still never waited more than 30 minutes for a ride. By Friday the crowds were picking up a bit. But wait times were still pretty good. All wait times but one were very inflated. FOP said 45 minutes and we waited 17. Most of the rides were like that. They would have wait times listed between 45 and 60 minutes, but take only 15 or 20.

We were at WDW the exact same time frame as you and didn't have quite as short lines as you experienced but I agree that the crowds were manageable and I don't feel like we waited an excessive amount for any particular attraction. We could have been more strict with our touring plan to really maximize rides but we were a large group of 10 spanning 3 generations so that wasn't a necessity and over all our days we did pretty much all we wanted, although I once again failed to stop by Hall of Presidents and the kids in our group (age 7-14) didn't want to bother with the Barn Stormer, but otherwise rode everything else in all the parks for the most part. We also found posted wait times to be inflated most of the time but a few times they were closer to accurate.

 

[dachsie]

Resort hopping restrictions are the same as they have been since the parks reopened. If you take Disney transportation you can go wherever you want. If you are driving/Ubering you should have some kind of reservation/mobile order.

If you use Disney transportation you can freely move between resorts. Driving is another story as you will be required to have a reservation.

Unless its the skyliner in the mornings - they won't let you hop past CBR without a valid reason

 

[HiStitch626]

Please elaborate. We were planning on going to Epcot and thought we would have breakfast at Riviera. But because there is no bus to Epcot at that hour we were going to take the bus to the studios and then take the Skyliner to Riviera. Are you saying that we cannot do that in the morning?

 

[DL1WDW2]

Sounds very confusing.

 

[dachsie]

Please elaborate. We were planning on going to Epcot and thought we would have breakfast at Riviera. But because there is no bus to Epcot at that hour we were going to take the bus to the studios and then take the Skyliner to Riviera. Are you saying that we cannot do that in the morning?

If you have an ADR you will be allowed thru. I had an ADR at topolino's and the DVC folks told me I should take a ride on skyliner to Pop and back. Since I had the time I did. When I got back to CBR, they stopped me and didnt want to let me back there. I told them my car was at Riviera because I had an ADR at Topolinos and had to show them the ADR on my phone. Then he said - it was at 8:30 and I said yea but my CAR is there so they finally let me back on

 

[jenniferahardin87]

This is what I’m planning to do next week for MK! It’s an 8 am opening and I want to RD so I don’t want to take a chance!

Can I uber to Contemporary if i am staying off-site? is a mobile order still needed? Thanks!

 

[Aimeedyan]

Can I uber to Contemporary if i am staying off-site? is a mobile order still needed? Thanks!

It's just going to depend on the guard at the time. We have never had an issue dropping people off, stopping there to shop, etc without a reservation or mobile order but others have had issues.

Since Uber is displayed in the car, I think it's pretty obvious you aren't actually parking there but they may ask why you want to be there.

To be proactive, I might place a mobile order to show the guard and then it's up to you whether you want to actually grab food there or cancel it after you're dropped off.

 

[Carla1183]

Mk today, ill admit it felt packed to me! I was prepared for it to from research but still felt like a huge crush of people compared to our visit a couple of years ago. I think just without characters or shows to eat people almost all 35% are standing in the streets and its a LOT.

We pulled up at the parking gates at 705, were pet in at 715, parked, monorail, in park around 730 or 740? Went to SDMT and posted wait was 45 mins. We knew it wouldn't be shorter all day so we did it anyway and it was more like 20 or 25 minutes.

We did some things that all showed 5 minute waits after that but were actually more like 15. Its funny we found things with very short wait posted were always longer. Things with very long waits posted were usually shorter than posted. Not sure if thats Disney purposely trying to drive crowds to certain things or from people reacting to what is reported and causing the difference.

It rained around 11, but didn't seem to shorten the lines any. From probably 10-5 or so almost everything was over 20 minutes, with anything 'big' being 50+.

But I will say, we still had an awesome day! Open to close and we got in SDMT, all of Tomorrowland (space mountain twice!), splash, btmr, teacups, barnstormer, haunted mansion, pooh, tree house, magic carpets, tiki room, small world, and lunch at LTT.

My one note is do not plan to hit emporium on way out. We popped over there at 6 and the line was wrapped all the way past crystal palace.
Wish we'd gone earlier in day, hope they have some of the Disney babies at epcot or HS bc my son is going to be so sad if we missed our chance when they were everywhere at AK!

 

[disneylover102]

I know Disney Springs doesn't "officially" open until 10, but can you still walk around even when the stores aren't open?

 

[monkeydawn]

Staggered openings are completely strategic and I respect/like that. It's the different transport times each day that I am not quite understanding, if it's purposeful. If I want to make MK rope drop, I'm going to head to the bus station early regardless of what time things are actually running that day. So if you expect a bus at 8 am for a 9 am opening, but the bus doesn't show up until 8:30 am, you're risking crowding at the bus stop from the large group of people trying to make rope drop that typically expect a bus one hour before park opening. Not saying how dare WDW not be perfect right now, but if they're creating confusion via unpredictable transportation schedules is that because it saves them money in transportation costs, or for safety purposes?

In a time where Disney is hurting for guests, especially on-site guests that would use park transportation, not sure the "don't like it, don't come" helps anyone.

And yet we see there are other guests that will choose other modes of transportation because the bus schedule is unpredictable. Beyond that we've seen in this thread that there will be guests that change their mode of transportation after choosing the busses when they dont show up by a certain time. Its not perfect but Disney has been clear that they dont want crowding. Keeping things unpredictable is a way to help mitigate crowding.

The point of this whole thread is to report how things are right now and to help people decide if they can deal with what is going on. Like it or not, believe that it is by design or not, it *is* what is going on right now. So it helps the people that have come to this thread looking for what kinds of things might be deal breakers.

 

[yulilin3]

I know Disney Springs doesn't "officially" open until 10, but can you still walk around even when the stores aren't open?

Not until security and scanners open, there's no set times when that happens

 

[shu24]

We enjoyed our 7 day trip. Cast members at Pop Century were wonderful. Even the mousekeeping staff which I have complained of not being very magical before were friendly and welcoming. We actually liked the line markers vs. being crowded together in lines. Loved mobile ordering as well. We had a great skipper for Jingle Cruise and a great safari driver as well.

Cast members in the parks were lacking typical Disney magic though. It made us sad for those that might have been first time visitors. From a miserable CM at the MK bakery who was downright nasty to shoppers (I complained to a manager, if Disney is cutting jobs then they should let him go first) to bus drivers that didn't respond to 'Good Morning" or even "Thank you"- just not the same WDW right now. I noticed a LOT of 'earning my ears' ribbons on name tags so it must be a shift from full time CMs to part time by Disney since we know they are cutting jobs. There was a CM that was giving 2 new CMs orientation in Star Wars gift shops in the middle of the day which was holding up the lines even further- such a dumb management decision. I overheard a cast member tell a guest that they couldn't throw trash away in a garbage can he was standing in front of (he was managing a gift shop line) and that she would have to find another???

On the part of guests- I think I was the only person that gave my Magical Express drivers tips. My luggage was close to the last to be pulled both times that I traveled and so I watched most of the other passengers. I thought that was sort of terrible. I used Bell Services twice and I seemed to be the only one tipping there, too.

 

[jsmla]

Park Opening at Epcot

Monday, December 7
12:00 p.m. official opening

I left my room at Pop at 9:50 and walked over to the Skyliner heading to Epcot via DHS. This isn’t something I’d do under ordinary circumstances but I really, really, really want to ride Soarin’ and I’m concerned about avoiding a long, indoor queue. Soarin’ and Flight of Passage are the only two things that I’m willing to be inside for that long for but, even as a walk-on, they come close to violating my self imposed time restrictions. As far as COVID goes, I’m fine with a longish but solitary walk out in the open; standing around while stationary, indoors and near(ish) a bunch of strangers, breathing in their used air, not so much. The Skyliner service to DHS began hours before Epcot and I hoped to catch it during a lull after the opening rush, walk over to Epcot and be one of the first in line there.

There were no lines at either Pop or Caribbean Beach. It was a quick trip to DHS, and a lonely walk over to Epcot. By 10:30 I was in line for the Epcot temperature screening. There was probably 30 or so people ahead of me.






At 10:45 we were moved into the covered queue at the Friendship dock. Temp screening began at 10:52 but we were held outside the gate until 11:05 just as the first Skyliner riders arrived. It was chilly with misty rain, not ideal standing around weather.







It was a solitary walk over to The Land. Outside CMs were warning people that the attractions wouldn’t open until 12:00. I didn’t listen and wished I had.





I ended up waiting 20 minutes which is waaay beyond my self-imposed time limit for an indoor line. It seemed like every time I was ready to bail we’d move forward and I would think, “This is it!” We started in the area with the benches near the exit, where the old FastPass machines used to be. We waited here about 5 minutes then moved into the corridor where we waited for 15. Everyone near me was great with compliance but I was uncomfortable. I try to limit my time in line (especially an inside, stationary line) to less than ten minutes.





The posted wait was 5 minutes when I exited, I should have waited outside, lesson learned.


At noon the waits for things like Spaceship Earth and Nemo were minimal but I’d had enough of line angst and headed to the World Showcase.

Except for the area around Norway WS was very quiet. I stopped and watched the Voices of Liberty Christmas show. I sat near the back and there was, literally, no one within 50 feet of me. The whole area was pretty empty but it was still kind of cold and grey out. I sat outside the Rose and Crown and had a beer. Santa Claus rolled by.






The plan was to stroll around the WS sampling the food festival goodies but I was pretty disappointed in the selection. It was also continuing chilly and damp and after an hour or so I gave up and headed back to Pop.

 

[Raemama]

This is what I’m planning to do next week for MK! It’s an 8 am opening and I want to RD so I don’t want to take a chance!

Would love to know how this goes for you. Thanks!

 

[Orion Nebula]

Going through the more recent posts it seems so hit and miss. I am wondering if the hits are happening more during the week than not? I think what bothers me the most is we are at the traditionally lesser crowded time. So I wonder how things will be going forward.

 

[JulieBeeRN]

My one note is do not plan to hit emporium on way out. We popped over there at 6 and the line was wrapped all the way past crystal palace.
Wish we'd gone earlier in day, hope they have some of the Disney babies at epcot or HS bc my son is going to be so sad if we missed our chance when they were everywhere at AK!

Agreed! I would say that typically from 5p - close, there were long lines for the emporium and the bakery. Best time to shop (for us) was late morning/early afternoon. I will queue for a lot of stuff, but not for shopping.