Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[MinneTinK]

Went to 10:30 FOLK yesterday, no distancing, walked up at 10:25 & went right in

 

[ILoveMyDVC]

We just got back home Saturday after a week at OKW. The waits were long but not unmanageable. DHS waits were shorter than they were in October during our times there. The only ride we didn't ride that we normally would have was Splash Mountain. 65 minute waits and the mask required part of the line started at the very beginning, not where you enter the building. It's my 10 year old's second favorite and we were in line for about 5 minutes before he said "I can't do this for 65 minutes" Other than that and some iffy quick service from Goods to Go it was a great trip. And finally after 7 tries we got a boarding group for Rise! Cape May dinner was really good also.

Did they have the steamers at Cape May?

 

[NotTheBatesMotel]

I don't know about any pics of parks that are packed, I got back 2 weeks ago and it definitely wasn't packed at any park (even on Memorial day), nothing like pre-covid, and actually some of the lowest crowds we've had on any of our trips since reopening and that was my 6th trip. I have a friend who just got back from a long weekend, and a friend who arrived yesterday morning, both posting tons of pics and none of them are super crowded. Remember, news articles can post really old pictures to grab readers, and point of view pictures can be misleading (like, I can take a picture and it can look like the park is packed, but my husband who is a foot taller can take a picture looking over the crowd and you can see that everyone is really spaced out). I feel like it's no more packed than it was when I was there over President's day weekend, which was the most crowded time I had been there yet, and now the social distancing is gone and it feels even better in the parks since the lines aren't going on forever. I know it might not mean much, but I still think it's not that horrible, and you will still go and have an amazing time.

Obviously this is crowded because of rope drop, but this looks pretty comparable to pre-pandemic rope drop levels to me. Full disclosure: not my picture-found on another group from the 6/18 rope drop.

 

[gasman61]

MK today: Got off the mask-requiring monorail with DS6 and asked a cast member, “Do we still need to wear these masks?”
“No”
“Not even in the queues?”
“Not even in the queues.”
“God bless you.”

Thank you for sharing that encouraging comment! Did anyone give your DS6 any hassle at all that day? Can anyone else comment on mask requirements for young children?

 

[dropzone9]

We arrived last night and today was our first day in the parks - MK. First of all, want to say how surreal it felt to actually be here after 15 months since our canceled 2020 spring break trip. So happy to be here! Won’t do the full ride by rude rundown as I’m two cocktails in sitting by the pool.

First, DME: we landed at 8 p.m. Saturday evening. Got right on a bus but of course we were the last of five stops. Clearly combined two routes, so that was not fun as we were starving but just barely made it to pick up my mobile order for food. Mobile order definitely has its advantages!

MK this morning. RD was great. Walked right in at 7:20ish, heading to space mountain. Walked right on. By 8, was also able to get in pirates before going to jungle cruise, which opened with the park.

Overall, I’d say the waits were rather pleasant. We were a FP family. My kids were dismayed with a 20-25 minute wait. But to be able to ride PP in the middle of the day in the summer with a <30 minute wait pre-FP would have been unheard of. And quite honestly, the waits were mostly under cover, which really helped us endure the heat. PP was our longest wait of the day. I honestly think no FP is better. The lines were just always moving unless the ride was paused for some reason

We hopped to AK, wanting to see how the closing hours really are, arriving at 5 p.m. knowing we wouldn’t get a ton done. We did EE, KS, KRR, back to Everest for two more rides. The kids would have done a third but wanted soft serve more. lol We also contemplated jumping into the FOP line, but we were beat. Closing time is great.

My one source of disappointment, so far, has been food. Limited options. My Skipper Canteen ADR was for 2:40. Didn’t get seated until closer to 3:00. Everything was slow. Also there are few late dining options available, so I’m currently waiting for my Uber eats driver to arrive with our late dinner.

Tomorrow is HS day! 18 months of practicing better pay off!!

We arrived last night and today was our first day in the parks - MK. First of all, want to say how surreal it felt to actually be here after 15 months since our canceled 2020 spring break trip. So happy to be here! Won’t do the full ride by rude rundown as I’m two cocktails in sitting by the pool.

First, DME: we landed at 8 p.m. Saturday evening. Got right on a bus but of course we were the last of five stops. Clearly combined two routes, so that was not fun as we were starving but just barely made it to pick up my mobile order for food. Mobile order definitely has its advantages!

MK this morning. RD was great. Walked right in at 7:20ish, heading to space mountain. Walked right on. By 8, was also able to get in pirates before going to jungle cruise, which opened with the park.

Overall, I’d say the waits were rather pleasant. We were a FP family. My kids were dismayed with a 20-25 minute wait. But to be able to ride PP in the middle of the day in the summer with a <30 minute wait pre-FP would have been unheard of. And quite honestly, the waits were mostly under cover, which really helped us endure the heat. PP was our longest wait of the day. I honestly think no FP is better. The lines were just always moving unless the ride was paused for some reason

We hopped to AK, wanting to see how the closing hours really are, arriving at 5 p.m. knowing we wouldn’t get a ton done. We did EE, KS, KRR, back to Everest for two more rides. The kids would have done a third but wanted soft serve more. lol We also contemplated jumping into the FOP line, but we were beat. Closing time is great.

My one source of disappointment, so far, has been food. Limited options. My Skipper Canteen ADR was for 2:40. Didn’t get seated until closer to 3:00. Everything was slow. Also there are few late dining options available, so I’m currently waiting for my Uber eats driver to arrive with our late dinner.

Tomorrow is HS day! 18 months of practicing better pay off!!

Agrred about the food, slim pickings!

 

[Carol_]

Thank you for sharing that encouraging comment! Did anyone give your DS6 any hassle at all that day? Can anyone else comment on mask requirements for young children?

Nobody gave us any hassle at all.

 

[MEC004]

That just looks miserable! Those crowds!! We went in December and it was so nice. Our first trip. Ha!

We are booked for 1.5 weeks next October/November. I really hope it’s not that crowded. Lol!

 

[notatallmagic]

Just returned from a wonderful 8 day trip - a few observations -

We stayed three days/two nights at Pop because we love it ( ) and for the Skyliner. We had originally booked the whole trip at Coronado (our first stay there) but had heard nightmare stories about the Coronado buses, so decided to use the first days to Skyliner to Epcot and Hollywood.

Pop is still fun for us; pools were busy but not crowded. We love the Skyliner, and only once was our party of 3 boarded with another group - which was fine - they were super nice. I find Pop to be very guest-focused - we called down for towels and garbage removal twice, and they came right away and were very pleasant. The only glitch we had was a MESS with Amazon Now delivering only about 20% of our order; and delivering the wrong things (instead of 5 Nutella To Go snacks, we got five JARS of Nutella). The folks at Bell Services at Pop were amazing. The quick service there is still Grab and Go, so we never ate there.

Our transfer to Coronado was pretty painless - we also did a split stay so we could get a clean room partway through our visit. Eight days without cleaning is too yucky for me. And that was a good thing, because there was NO cleaning at Coronado. That was my only negative observation; when we called down for towels and garbage, we were told that "they were coming to clean tomorrow"; but most people were just leaving garbage outside their doors, which is not particularly magical-looking. And we even got a text saying that a baby BEAR was spotted in the area (leaving garbage outside will get you that). Ugh. Other than our last day, there was NO pickup of garbage or towels during our stay, unless we called to request it.

Coronado itself was lovely; food at the Rix table service was good, and the buses worked well - but we did walk to the Casitas bus stop to be sure. There was some sort of large group, so we heard the Transporation Cast Member mention 2800 guests, so they were watching pretty closely. The hot tub was also closed for maintenance all but our last day, so that was a bummer, but the pool was beautiful; busy but not over-crowded.

LOTS and LOTS of training of new cast members going on - from wait staff in restaurants, to Skippers and Safari drivers; everywhere seemed to have new folks in training (a good sign I think). The crowds were manageable, and it was SO wonderful to see little kids and Cast Members smiling faces again!

I would caution that food service availabiltiy is still VERY sketchy, especially at Magic Kingdom. We carried lots of water and snacks with us. I didn't notice the issue at AK (Satuli and Flame Tree did a great job - we Mobile Ordered on our way to the parks in the morning) or Hollywood (we LOVE the new menu at ABC). Epcot is fine with the Flower and Garden booths; Sunshine Seasons menu is still kinda sad, so we skipped that. Magic Kingdom though was having some real problems. We had reservations at Jungle Skipper both days to avoid the problem, but options are very slim there.

We also had our first every LATE Magic Transport back to the airport, arriving only 50 minutes before our flight left. He was 25 minutes late arriving; made four stops...it was very nerve-wracking. If we didn't have TSA pre-check and a short line to check our bag, we would have missed our flight.

There are still lots of ongoing issues to iron out, but they are moving in the right direction. We always had A to A+ Disney trips; this was a solid B, but very pleasant and worthwhile.

 

[jbish]

Agree with @notatallmagic, we have seen lots of CMs in training. Safari driver, wait staff at the BWV pool, etc. A great sign for those coming soon. Hope they start increasing menu options, though. We are not picky eaters by any stretch. In fact I’d say we are quite adventurous. Was hoping to get the full skippers canteen experience, but only a handful of options. Still good food.
Also, as has already been reported, we have seen all of the pre-shows for our rides so far. Think I saw someone post that they’re even allowing car design at TT? My son will be so happy about that. I just don’t want to wait for 70-115 minutes for that ride.

 

[notatallmagic]

Agree with @notatallmagic, we have seen lots of CMs in training. Safari driver, wait staff at the BWV pool, etc. A great sign for those coming soon. Hope they start increasing menu options, though. We are not picky eaters by any stretch. In fact I’d say we are quite adventurous. Was hoping to get the full skippers canteen experience, but only a handful of options. Still good food.
Also, as has already been reported, we have seen all of the pre-shows for our rides so far. Think I saw someone post that they’re even allowing car design at TT? My son will be so happy about that. I just don’t want to wait for 70-115 minutes for that ride.

We were ready to board TT on Saturday when it broke down. It was our last ride before leaving for the airport, so we had to leave, but they were letting your design your vehicle again!!! Yay!

 

[Eeyore1220]

Ok, how long did that line for RnRC take from that point once they opened the ride?

It actually wasn’t bad at all - DH and DS texted that they were off the ride at 8:55. They did TOT with virtually no wait after that. I think rope dropping helps with crowds and temperature, but doesn’t give you a walk on. I found HS was the hardest because basically all the rides are headliners. Also SDD was down this morning so that blocked up the other rides. HS felt more crowded to me today than on Saturday.

 

[Eeyore1220]

Today was long and kind of exhausting. We felt kind of trapped in HS today because our boarding group didn’t get called until 2 and we had done the headliners between Saturday and this morning’s rope drop and didn’t feel like waiting so long for them again. We shopped and strolled and got overheated and a bit cranky. Rise was just as awesome the second time though so it was worth it. We also got to eat at woody’s and really liked it. I felt so bad for the people just showing up and expecting to walk in and eat. Gotta do your Disney research! We also tried blue and green milk and they were both surprisingly good. After Rise we took the skyliner to Epcot where everything except test track and frozen were under 30 minutes, most of them walk ons. We wandered a bit and then the skies opened up so we booked it out of the park. Tomorrow is our last day (sob). MK and then the sad drive to the airport.

 

[preschoolmom]

I felt so bad for the people just showing up and expecting to walk in and eat. Gotta do your Disney research!

Are you just referring to mobile ordering? Or is there something else we should know? LOL. Thanks

 

[yaywatermelons]

Here now: rope dropped Epcot Sunday and sat in a huge crowd until 10:45ish before they let us walk to Test Track but glad we did. Our entire wait was walking the queue (which is a long one!). That wait never dropped below 90 min after. Frozen posted 75 min time but only took 30 and everything else was 15 min or less (even the food booths). I loved the potato pancake and strawberry Prosecco drink in Italy, but the creme brûlée beignet was large - it felt like a cream filled donut. (My sister’s frosé was amazing though.) Long line for Les Halles but it moved quickly!

The heat was a bit brutal so we saw more of the world showcase movies than we have before looking for AC. I loved the Beauty and the Beast sing a long, but it was definitely weird to be crammed into a theater with maskless singing!

Tomorrow DHS - please wish me luck for RotR!

 

[Southernmiss]

Are you just referring to mobile ordering? Or is there something else we should know? LOL. Thanks

Reservations for Table Service

Mobile Ordering for quick service.

We did mobile Ordering for the first time last week. Could not have been easier. Our group of 7 picked a restaurant while in line for our 1st ride of the day, selected our time, chose our food, done, easy.

We would do mobile check in about 10 or 20 minutes before we got to the restaurant and picked up our food.

Once, we had an order for PizzeRizzo's. Son checked in as the Muppet ride started, but our food was ready before ride let out. I got an you were late, your account will be charged, you must order again message. But after an initial panic, we showed our phones to the castmembers who waved us into PizzeRizzios with a smile and said go to counter x to pick up your food.

Because of the limited menu, which was fine for our group, we got fresh food and were on our way.

 

[leannak]

Just rode Winnie the Pooh. Interactive queue features still blocked off.

 

[Eeyore1220]

Are you just referring to mobile ordering? Or is there something else we should know? LOL. Thanks

Yes, people walking up to woody’s at 12 assuming they could just order and being told the next order window was two hours later. We put in our order for 12 at 9:30am

 

[luv2cheer92]

Yes, people walking up to woody’s at 12 assuming they could just order and being told the next order window was two hours later. We put in our order for 12 at 9:30am

There are people that need to order in person for various reasons. I wouldn't assume everyone just didn't do their research.

 

[Eeyore1220]

There are people that need to order in person for various reasons. I wouldn't assume everyone just didn't do their research.

I wasn’t trying to be rude, and I apologize. Everyone I observed today had never heard of mobile ordering and seemed confused. So just offering my observation.

 

[Robertfam08]

I wasn’t trying to be rude, and I apologize. Everyone I observed today had never heard of mobile ordering and seemed confused. So just offering my observation.

I totally get what you're saying. Most people planning trips to Disney aren't on these boards or even trip planning websites and honestly don't know what they're doing. I personally know people who have taken their first trips to Disney thinking it was just going to be like a glorified Six Flags. Boy were they wrong.