Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[yulilin3]

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.

earning your ears ribbons are being work now by CM that have been with the company but had to relocate to other areas to continue working not brand new CMs
Training has to be done on the job to get the actual experience, they can't train with no guests around

 

[doombuggy]

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???

As the previous poster indicated, CMs have been shifted around - for example, so Airport CMs were at Disney Springs until last week when they went back to their location to open it. If you were reassigned to a merchandise role and you didn't previously work merchandise, you have to be trained on the register system(s), etc, hence the ribbons.

You are incorrect with regards to your comment about "so it must be a shift from full time CMs to part time.." Merchandise was gutted and the people who lost their jobs WERE part time. F/T were not cut.
Those of us who are part time are just as dedicated.

 

[Kimpossible1]

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.

I would have hoped that by reading these boards that people would understand that CM's are facing a really hard time right now. Most have been transferred to different roles they never even thought about performing, some are working 10-12 hour shifts 6 days a week and almost all of the part-time CM's in merchandise have been laid off to make room for the full-time CM's that needed to be transferred into those roles. As stated before, there are no FT CM's going to PT positions, and again those FT people never imagined themselves in many of the roles so please be patient with them. I am a PT CM that was laid off but it makes me sad and angry to hear that people are not being kind and compassionate to the CM's. They need all the support we can give them right now.

 

[Kimpossible1]

As the previous poster indicated, CMs have been shifted around - for example, so Airport CMs were at Disney Springs until last week when they went back to their location to open it. If you were reassigned to a merchandise role and you didn't previously work merchandise, you have to be trained on the register system(s), etc, hence the ribbons.

You are incorrect with regards to your comment about "so it must be a shift from full time CMs to part time.." Merchandise was gutted and the people who lost their jobs WERE part time. F/T were not cut.
Those of us who are part time are just as dedicated.

I agree completely!!

 

[yulilin3]

I would have hoped that by reading these boards that people would understand that CM's are facing a really hard time right now. Most have been transferred to different roles they never even thought about performing, some are working 10-12 hour shifts 6 days a week and almost all of the part-time CM's in merchandise have been laid off to make room for the full-time CM's that needed to be transferred into those roles. As stated before, there are no FT CM's going to PT positions, and again those FT people never imagined themselves in many of the roles so please be patient with them. I am a PT CM that was laid off but it makes me sad and angry to hear that people are not being kind and compassionate to the CM's. They need all the support we can give them right now.

a complete sense of entitlement on some guests that just because they are at Disney everything needs to go their way and if it doesn't it's all unfair and Disney's management and CM fault.

 

[mrsap]

a complete sense of entitlement on some guests that just because they are at Disney everything needs to go their way and if it doesn't it's all unfair and Disney's management and CM fault.

Funny- a large group was in front of us when waiting for our friends to arrive so we could go on RotR together. The CM asked the group what their boarding group number was and if it was called. They said they didn’t have one, but they wanted to ride on it since they have not been on it yet. The CM politely explained that they need a BG to ride. A woman in the group said it’s not fair and demanded to speak to someone. The CM walked away to get another CM to help. When he walked away, she smiled at her group, and waved over a bunch of other people that were sitting on the side. I guess she assumed he was going to let them in. The second cast member came over and again, politely explained that you must have a boarding group to ride the ride. He told them that they had a second chance at 2 o’clock to try to get one. She was not having it and still pushed to get on the ride, but the cast members stood their ground.

 

[Stefne]

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!

We saw a similar line for the Emporium during Thanksgiving week and decided to brave it. The line moved surprisingly fast and we were in the store within 10 minutes .

 

[yulilin3]

Funny- a large group was in front of us when waiting for our friends to arrive so we could go on RotR together. The CM asked the group what their boarding group number was and if it was called. They said they didn’t have one, but they wanted to ride on it since they have not been on it yet. The CM politely explained that they need a BG to ride. A woman in the group said it’s not fair and demanded to speak to someone. The CM walked away to get another CM to help. When he walked away, she smiled at her group, and waved over a bunch of other people that were sitting on the side. I guess she assumed he was going to let them in. The second cast member came over and again, politely explained that you must have a boarding group to ride the ride. He told them that they had a second chance at 2 o’clock to try to get one. She was not having it and still pushed to get on the ride, but the cast members stood their ground.

My DD that works both GE attractions has stories for days. It's sad that the cm go into work not expecting but knowing they'll get yelled at

 

[meclark3]

We just got home from a 6 day stay (November 29 - December 4) in a 2Br at SSR. We were in Grandstand section which was great for getting on a bus and also for returning to our room, but made for long trips in the mornings. Additionally, the Disney Springs walkway closest to Grandstand was closed. I didn't know this until we were about to cross the bridge which made us late for an ADR one night. Even though we knew that some things would be unavailable during our trip, it was a little disappointing that one of the main perks of SSR wasn't accessible.

Nov.29 - Arrival Day
Left home at 6:20am to drop off our pup at camp. We had very light traffic for a holiday weekend. The drive down was great, arrived at SSR around noon. We had an ADR for T-Rex at 1pm, so we parked at Congress Park and walked over. We checked in at 12:30pm and were seated right away. The kids loved the dinosaurs! We wandered around for a bit and shopped while waiting for our room to be ready. We started walking back toward SSR at 3:30pm and got the notification that our room was ready while walking. We went straight to the room and unpacked then relaxed until a 6:35 ADR at Kona Cafe. We drove to the Polynesian since the monorail isn't running there. Dinner was lovely.

Nov. 30 - Animal Kingdom
Amazing day! We walked up to the bus stop right as a bus was pulling in. Made it through temp check and security without a wait and walked right into the park. It rained a little at park opening which I think contributed to minimal waits all day. Crowds were heading toward Pandora, as usual, so we decided to work the opposite direction. We walked onto Dinosaur, EE (4 times), Safari, FOP with a posted 45 minute wait + rider swap. We saved the trails and planet watch for the afternoon. This ended up being a great strategy. FOP had around a 45 minute wait all day but the other rides were basically walk-ons until around lunch time. We finished everything we wanted to do by 4pm and went back to the hotel to relax before dinner. We had a 7pm ADR at STK. The grandparents took the kids back so DH and I could wander a bit and have a drink at City Works.

Dec. 1 - Hollywood Studios
Set an alarm for 6:50 am to get ready for a ROTR boarding group. We were successful and got boarding group 62 for 5 guests. We got out the door a little later than I had hoped, but still arrived at the bus stop at the same time as the HS bus. We decided to bypass MMRR to hit SDD first but the line was already 70 min. Finished Toy Story Land- checked SDD again and the ride was down indefinitely, then went to MMRR with a posted 60 min wait. It was about 45. The rest of the day was pretty crowded with long wait times. We had a Droid Depot appointment at 1:25pm for DS and DH. It was very quick. We headed back toward RnR and Lightning McQueen's Racing Academy where the group split to do those rides. At this point we were just killing time until our boarding group got called (which didn't happen until around 5pm). We rider swapped for ROTR, got out of the park by 6:15 and caught an Uber to Disney Springs for a 7:00pm ADR at Paddlefish.

Dec. 2 - Epcot
Park didn't open until noon, so the DH and FIL set off for a round of golf at the LBV course. MIL and myself had breakfast in the room with DS5 and DS2. My oldest was able to call into his Zoom class morning session and did some school work while the rest of us relaxed after a few early mornings. At 10:45am, we headed over to the bus to Epcot. We rope dropped Frozen with a posted 45min wait (actual 25 min). Mexico pavilion next for the 3 Caballeros and margaritas! The guys were due to meet us, so we walked toward Spaceship Earth. Hit The Seas, then Soarin (Rider Swaps took DS2 on Living with the Land). Time to see World Showcase. We stopped around the world to see England, Italy, Germany, and Mexico since DS5 is studying the holidays in those countries for school. DS2 fell asleep around Italy, so FIL/MIL took him back to SSR so that DH and I could have some one on one time with DS5. We hit Test Track (posted 45m/accurate) and Mission Space (walk-on). Our longest wait of the day was for the bus back to SSR. We missed the bus that was at the station when we arrived at 7:30pm and waited over an hour for the same bus to return for our pickup. We weren't sure of the Uber pickup location relative to the bus stop or else we'd have left.

Dec. 3 - Magic Kingdom
Rope drop again (after 4 days we are worn out). MIL and FIL opted to sleep in, so our family headed to MK bright and early. DS5 asked to go on BTMR first, so we went that direction and walked right on + rider swap, followed by Pirates with no wait. From there we went to Fantasyland and got through most of the rides with minimal waits. DS2 rode his first ever rollercoaster with the Barnstormer. After Dumbo, we went to the Little Mermaid. 7DMT was wrapped completely around the ride, so we skipped it. I was hoping that DS2 might be tall enough to ride this year but couldn't justify the wait. By then it was time to meet the grandparents at Tony's Town Square for an ADR at 12:50pm. Lunch was wonderful and we got a few drinks which was a bonus for MK. After lunch we did Buzz Lightyear and then grandparents, DH, and DS5 went to do Space Mountain. We had time for one last ride and the kids chose Tomorrowland Speedway. We went back to the room to relax again before a last ADR at City Works.

Dec. 4 - Departure Day
The guys had a farewell tee time at the Palm. MIL, the kids and I slept in and played in the morning. At 11am, we drove to the Carriage House to do a little last minute shopping and wait for the guys to finish golfing before heading out for home.

We had a lovely trip and I'm so glad we decided to take this time together as a family.

 

[Marc A.]

We did HS today. Got boarding group 71 from hotel room (data).....Speedtested the entire room and stood in the best spot lol. Left Kidani village around 8:00. Nobody on bus to HS. Got right through temp check and easily into HS at around 8:22. Walked straight to Slinky Dog and once the ride started waited about 15 mins. Had a great day.....rode MFSR, MMRR, Rise of the Resistance, TT, RR, TSM (twice), Saucers, Muppets, Slinky (twice), Star Tours and ended the day at Sci-Fi. There were plenty of people there for sure but didn’t seem terrible. Lines looked long but moved quickly. We rode everything we wanted and I even did Savvis Lightsaber Experience. Mobile order works perfectly! Used that for a Morning Ronto Wrap and some frozen hot chocolate at ABC. Awesome day!

park opened at 9 I am guessing?

 

[iupui1299]

park opened at 9 I am guessing?

Yep!

 

[shu24]

earning your ears ribbons are being work now by CM that have been with the company but had to relocate to other areas to continue working not brand new CMs
Training has to be done on the job to get the actual experience, they can't train with no guests around

They were not interacting with guests at all. It was clearly the first day orientation where she was showing them locations of items. DHS opened at 10am that day, surely orientation could have happened before opening. From what we saw, the new CMs will be working across all of the StarWars gift shops because she took them into each one, they wandered around while she pointed items out and then moved on to the next gift shop.

 

[shu24]

I would have hoped that by reading these boards that people would understand that CM's are facing a really hard time right now. Most have been transferred to different roles they never even thought about performing, some are working 10-12 hour shifts 6 days a week and almost all of the part-time CM's in merchandise have been laid off to make room for the full-time CM's that needed to be transferred into those roles. As stated before, there are no FT CM's going to PT positions, and again those FT people never imagined themselves in many of the roles so please be patient with them. I am a PT CM that was laid off but it makes me sad and angry to hear that people are not being kind and compassionate to the CM's. They need all the support we can give them right now.

I work in customer service and some of the behavior that I saw from CMs was pretty terrible. When someone thanks you, you respond. When someone greets you, you respond. There is no excuse to not be polite. The CM in the bakery yelled at a group of 3 older people which were in scooters. He told them that only one person could approach the bakery case and that the others should 'wait outside'. I was behind them and his exact wording to me was that I was "to wait on that line until I tell you that you can move from it". I had not attempted to move when he barked this order to me. Layoffs are not an excuse for rudeness. Giving someone support is one thing, using Covid/layoffs as an excuse to permit rudeness is another. Most people are facing a really hard time right now, I lost hours at work but I don't take that out on my customers. As a customer service manager, I don't permit my employees to either.

 

[yulilin3]

They were not interacting with guests at all. It was clearly the first day orientation where she was showing them locations of items. DHS opened at 10am that day, surely orientation could have happened before opening. From what we saw, the new CMs will be working across all of the StarWars gift shops because she took them into each one, they wandered around while she pointed items out and then moved on to the next gift shop.

There are no new cm just new to that position. This is how they train

 

[yulilin3]

I work in customer service and some of the behavior that I saw from CMs was pretty terrible. When someone thanks you, you respond. When someone greets you, you respond. There is no excuse to not be polite. The CM in the bakery yelled at a group of 3 older people which were in scooters. He told them that only one person could approach the bakery case and that the others should 'wait outside'. I was behind them and his exact wording to me was that I was "to wait on that line until I tell you that you can move from it". I had not attempted to move when he barked this order to me. Layoffs are not an excuse for rudeness. Giving someone support is one thing, using Covid/layoffs as an excuse to permit rudeness is another. Most people are facing a really hard time right now, I lost hours at work but I don't take that out on my customers. As a customer service manager, I don't permit my employees to either.

Ok let's move along and to on topic for this thread

 

[shu24]

Ok let's move along and to on topic for this thread

If the topic is recent trips, I think that is on topic. WDW lost some magic in the parks, that was my experience from my trip from last week. Don't expect CMs to be very magical.

 

[yulilin3]

If the topic is recent trips, I think that is on topic. WDW lost some magic in the parks, that was my experience from my trip from last week. Don't expect CMs to be very magical.

If you read back you'll see most people reporting the cm are more magical than ever. If you had a bad experience it's truly not the norm from what's been reported

 

[Tormania]

We just got back from a long visit, did Universal 11/25-11/27 and then switched to Kidani Village that Friday night for our 8 night stay at WDW, coming home on 12/5. We are a two family party, 3 in our family, 7 in our friends’ family spanning 3 generations, for a grand total of 10 people.

Rather than a day by day breakdown I’ll just give a quick overview of our trip. I didn’t think crowds were all that bad honestly. Lines looks long due to all the physical distancing orders but they moved pretty well and didn’t feel too burdensome for us. Mobile ordering for CS was OK. In some ways it was nice, but I would have been fine just walking up and ordering at those places. The CS places that did not have mobile ordering were my preferred method to get food over mobile ordering. Using the app to check-in for table service was also used, but since we were a large group with split ADRs we had to speak with CMs at each and every ADR in order to explain our situation and they were all able to accommodate our large group to be able to sit together. That was very nice, but not something that could have been done without actually talking to a CM rather than doing it all mobile.

Got a little chilly a couple days but the 2020 dated merch was 70% off so we scored some 2020 WDW zip-up hoodies for less than $20/each. WOOHOO!!

Was unable to get a ROTR BG on our first day at HS (11/30) and were panicked that we weren’t gonna be able to do it on our 2nd day (12/2). Had to read all sorts of tricks to try again and luckily our friends scored BG 66 at 7am on our 2nd day and despite a couple breakdowns we were able to ride around 6pm that day! PHEW!!! There HAS to be a better way to manage allowing folks to ride ROTR, the BGs were gone within just a couple seconds both days we tried at 7am, that is just ridiculous. Luckily for us we won’t be back for another 3-4 years or longer so hopefully by then things will be different.

A few comparisons between UO and WDW for our trip. UO manages groups at theater shows MUCH better than WDW. At WDW you are forced into 4 person groups with benches taped off as off limits. At UO they dynamically adjust based on your group size which I think is a much smarter way to do it. Was very happy with Express Passes at UO, made most of our rides less than 15 min waits and many times almost walk-ons. Still not sure why WDW won’t use FP+ again. Obviously could go back and forth park-to-park at UO, no problem. I know that PH is coming back to WDW in Jan but again, another plus for UO and a negative for WDW IMHO. UO also had a full fireworks and water fountain show at Studios, again why can’t WDW do this? Some of the thickest crowds at MK were in the HUB at night, people just standing around starring at the projections on the Castle, waiting for it to change over and over again. Not sure a crowd for fireworks would have been any better so start to shows back up already. But the projections on the Castle were very nice, we really liked them!!

All in all we had a great trip. I never felt unsafe, but I’m the kind of person that hasn’t felt unsafe since the whole pandemic started so take that for what it’s worth. Wearing a mask all day for 11+ days was no fun, but it was manageable, sure glad the majority of our trip was temps in the 70s and lower, can’t fathom doing that in 90+ degree heat.

 

[Epcot242]

We rider swapped for ROTR, got out of the park by 6:15 and caught an Uber to Disney Springs

We haven't done an Uber from the parks ever (only from our resort). Is it complicated/difficult to navigate? We'll likely use it for the same reason you did: to get to DS.

 

[meclark3]

Not at all! There are signs for the ride share areas outside of the gates and that is where the Uber/Lyft will meet you. We put in our end location (paddlefish) and they dropped us off at the side entrance for Disney springs (near Rainforest Cafe side). As far as I know this is the only ride share drop off location currently due to temp checks.