Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[OhBother1984]

Disney Springs was a mad house last night. Since it’s outside, there weren’t many masks, so it really felt like a pre-Covid visit to DS. That was my first time since early 2020 in a true shoulder to shoulder crowd. Pretty wild to see!

we were there last night too! Got there about 5 and it wasn’t bad but got busy quick!

 

[Haley R]

How bad has Epcot been on sundays? We’re going in September with a then 17 month old. We have two other parks days which will be Epcot and AK. We’d like to drive there and get dinner but not if it’s crazy. Otherwise we’ll just hang out at AoA

 

[OhBother1984]

We spent the last two days at Blizzard Beach and it was amazing! Low crowds. Masks are only required for the store and half the time in the bathrooms. Half the time they said nothing and other times they handed you one. So if not near your stuff and need to use one at least they give them out . The main qs lottawa lodge didn’t require them either when in line and ordering and waiting.

There are no tubes in the wave pool now and I did miss that some but no big deal either . Lazy river is a pain waiting for enough tubes for your family then to all get in.

now hoping Typhopn lagoons Before our water park passes expire end of July!

 

[brockash]

We spent the last two days at Blizzard Beach and it was amazing! Low crowds. Masks are only required for the store and half the time in the bathrooms. Half the time they said nothing and other times they handed you one. So if not near your stuff and need to use one at least they give them out . The main qs lottawa lodge didn’t require them either when in line and ordering and waiting.

There are no tubes in the wave pool now and I did miss that some but no big deal either . Lazy river is a pain waiting for enough tubes for your family then to all get in.

now hoping Typhopn lagoons Before our water park passes expire end of July!

Thx for the details...I was wondering how the bathroom stuff would work.

 

[hereforthechurros]

How bad has Epcot been on sundays? We’re going in September with a then 17 month old. We have two other parks days which will be Epcot and AK. We’d like to drive there and get dinner but not if it’s crazy. Otherwise we’ll just hang out at AoA

Epcot on Sunday feels just as busy as Friday/Saturday in my opinion, especially when there’s a festival. If you have an ADR though you’d be fine to cruise in, have dinner, then head out without issue.

 

[JFox]

Even with relaxed physical distancing I don't want other guests right up on top of me in lines. There is a such thing as too close Covid or not. Respect my personal space.

 

[hereforthechurros]

Even with relaxed physical distancing I don't want other guests right up on top of me in lines. There is a such thing as too close Covid or not. Respect my personal space.

Fill in all the available space is coming back eventually :-/

 

[lovethattink]

How bad has Epcot been on sundays? We’re going in September with a then 17 month old. We have two other parks days which will be Epcot and AK. We’d like to drive there and get dinner but not if it’s crazy. Otherwise we’ll just hang out at AoA

I’ve been to Epcot twice recently on Sundays. I found future world busy. And world show case was busy, except from Morocco to Germany. We enjoyed watching Voices of Liberty and Mariachi Cobre.

 

[Haley R]

Epcot on Sunday feels just as busy as Friday/Saturday in my opinion, especially when there’s a festival. If you have an ADR though you’d be fine to cruise in, have dinner, then head out without issue.

Thanks! I’m not sure if we’ll do an ADR or not because he doesn’t sit still long. I’d hate to book something and have to leave. Maybe we’ll hang out at the resort or take the skyliner somewhere instead

 

[Grumpy by Birth]

Fill in all the available space is coming back eventually :-/

Probably. But perhaps we, as a society, can interpret that to mean "fill in most available space" instead of being within inches of each other.

 

[mousegear]

I’ve been to Epcot twice recently on Sundays. I found future world busy. And world show case was busy, except from Morocco to Germany. We enjoyed watching Voices of Liberty and Mariachi Cobre.

We also enjoyed watching Voices of Liberty and Mariachi Cobre. Epcot is pretty packed on all the rides and WS also full of drunk people on weekend nights but we had ADR and enjoyed stroll around WS and watched them perform. We all got goose bumps from such an amazing show by Voices of Liberty.

 

[tsme]

I have a little gossip from a bellman. He told me even though Disney has increased crowds levels a lot, they haven’t hired back enough CMs & they are stressed, overworked, & tired. Also told me that there is concern about the pipes at BC, since they are old & they’ve just been randomly flushing every so often. The fear is once it fully opens they will be plumbing issues. And that Disney hired a company to deal with it but took lowest bid & in the past that’s caused more issues. Anyway, take that as you will, just thought I’d share.

 

[mousegear]

So this is our last day at the parks. We went to MK for rope drop and one of the first at the turnstile. We briskly walked to Space Mt while the rest of the crowd went to the Seven Dwarves. The CM at Space Mt said that the ride will start running 5~10 minutes so we waited. Soon we had many crowds lining up on Space Mt saying that Seven Dwarves is down and don't know how long it will be before running again. After Space, we were headed for Thunder and Splash, saw Buzz start running so quickly hopped on. When we got to Thunder Mt. they just started to run it so it was a quick 10-minute walk of the lines before we were loaded on the train. After Thunder Mt, our goal was to ride Splash, which has been running yet. This is around 8:30. We decided to sit around and wait for it. We were really lucky and it started to run within 5 minutes. We were the first 5~6th group that was on Splash. Our observation this week on MK is that both Thunder and Splash do not run at the rope drop. Thunder will start operating at 8 am and Splash little afterward. Other minor rides also do not open at the rope drop either other than Pirates of Caribbean. So at the rope drop, you have a choice between Seven Dwarves Mine Train or Space Mt. Other than headliners, we went back to MK on other nights to do Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, Buzz, People Mover, Pirate, Little Mermaid, Barnstormer, and Haunted Mansion. All were less than 15-minute wait or less. We saw some of the worst behavior at MK, especially the people with little kids. The mask compliance on the line was really bad and at some point, we were really uncomfortable b/c the people behind us were so close to us that they were breathing down on our necks. They were a huge family group and one of them was coughing and on our personal space in the excuse of their children. I do understand the kids get excited at Disney but that does not excuse the behavior of the adults feed the bad behavior of the children and do not have regard to other people's personal space.


At Epcot, we did Soarin and Test Track at rope drop and decided to stroll around the WS while most of the crowd are still at Future World lining up for the rides. We had ADR at Via Napoli at 12:10 and after lunch, we came back to the resort. We went back to Epcot on other nights to do minor rides like Figment, Spaceship Earth, Mission Space, Living with the Land, and Nemo. They were all walk-on and at times, we were the only ones on the rides. We definitely enjoy a drink or two but there seem to be too many drunk people at Epcot due to the Festival.

AK, we drove to the park, and the security guards set up cones on the fork to AK toll booths. So we followed several other cars, with our emergency light on, parked at the sides of the road until they cleared the cones and let the cars go to the toll booths. Like everyone else, we went to FOP and Navi River. We were one of the first people to be loaded on FOP so when we were getting out of Pandora, we felt like we were swimming against the current as most people were still coming into Pandora. We then went to Safari which had a 20-minute wait but it was constantly moving and we were loaded right away. Next was EE which had a 15 minute wait time which was less than 5 minutes before we were loaded. We did the trails and animal watching and had 11 am ADR and Yak and Yeti. After lunch, we rode Kali and exited from the park.

For HS, we had two park days dedicated b/c of Rise of Resistance. On our first day DS got us Boarding Group 78 at 7 am and on our second day, DS also got us Boarding group 82 at 1 pm. On our first Rise of Resistance, there was no preshow and it was our first time on it which was still awesome. However, on our second ride on it had a full preshow, and the ride made much sense. However, on our second ride, while we were waiting to be loaded, it broke down and took more than 40 minutes before it was back in operation. On our first day we went straight to SDD, Toy Story Mania, Millenium Falcon, ToT, and RnR. On our second day, we went to ToT first but it wasn't running yet to went to RnR then ToT, MMRR, then Star Tour, and Muffet's. We were finished by 10~10:30 both days.

We also went to Vineland Premium Outlets for a couple of days. The parking is much easier to find in the back of the outlets. As for the mask compliance and the social distancing, we found it better at the outlets than at the parks. Many of the shops had the lines to get into the store b/c of max numbers but most were pretty short wait. Disney Store at the outlets has a virtual wait. They text you when it's your turn.

We came here knowing that there are not many shows and no FP nor nighttime fireworks thanks to the board. However, we miss FP as well as all the shows. Although we love to ride, the shows break up constant running and standing. On each trip, we do maybe one or two fireworks shows and definitely miss that. We are staying at Dolphin and have a spectacular view of Epcot from our room and if there were fireworks at night, we probably have a really good view of it.

As for the masks, despite we were fully vaccinated, we wore our masks even outside. There are just too many people bumping their shoulders. We only removed in the remote spots or while we were eating at the restaurants. We had almost every lunch ADR except for a MK day, and definitely regretted our choice. We felt that the tables were rather closer at QS than TS restaurants.

I was really worried about wearing the masks in the heat but this week, we got lucky and the weather is so very nice. I hope this is helpful to those who have trips ahead. Thank you to everyone who contributed. It was really helpful in preparing for our trip.

 

[hereforthechurros]

I have a little gossip from a bellman. He told me even though Disney has increased crowds levels a lot, they haven’t hired back enough CMs & they are stressed, overworked, & tired. Also told me that there is concern about the pipes at BC, since they are old & they’ve just been randomly flushing every so often. The fear is once it fully opens they will be plumbing issues. And that Disney hired a company to deal with it but took lowest bid & in the past that’s caused more issues. Anyway, take that as you will, just thought I’d share.

Poly is having issues as well. There were some pictures circulating of yellow water and the guest being informed that it was due to old pipes and to just run it until it was clear, despite it being bathtubs worth of water. Pretty tacky if you ask me for what they charge at Poly.

To your first point, I feel like that’s just confirmation of what most of us already suspect. Hiring is ramping up and CP is coming back but between now and 4th of July I expect growing crowds but not much more being reopened. They can only move so fast. However it does make me sad for overworked CMs and for guests who are being milked during this time.

 

[Jules123]

Here now and I want to thank whoever suggested the mask lanyards. Best purchase I made! Social distancing has not been very common here this week.

 

[Stewa646]

Just had our first day here today and first day at HS. I will say I expected it to be a madhouse of people for being HS and a Saturday based on what people have said here but it was honestly not that bad. Maybe my idea of crowded isn't on the same level as others lol.Plenty of spots to veer off and relax without people around, was able to get a ronto roaster order for 12:50 ordering it at 12:30, and outside of slinky the longest we waited for a ride was 40 minutes. We had an awesome day!

 

[shellbelle]

Has anyone recently Ubered to Boardwalk or Swan and Dolphin in the morning to get to Hollywood? Staying at Pop and worried about long Skyliner lines.

 

[JFox]

Fill in all the available space is coming back eventually :-/

Agreed.

Thing is other than compressing the que line being right on top of each other doesn't mean you get on ride sooner.

 

[SarahC97]

Has anyone recently Ubered to Boardwalk or Swan and Dolphin in the morning to get to Hollywood? Staying at Pop and worried about long Skyliner lines.

I have not been recently, but several people have reported not being able to be dropped off at the Epcot area resorts without an ADR (contemporary too). Your best bet would be to be dropped at the Swan and Dolphin, you can get in there no problem.

 

[shellbelle]

I have not been recently, but several people have reported not being able to be dropped off at the Epcot area resorts without an ADR (contemporary too). Your best bet would be to be dropped at the Swan and Dolphin, you can get in there no problem.

Thanks!