Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[LSUfan4444]

Just curious for people who have gone down to Disney World - do any of you regret going? If so why? Did you get sick after? Lack of activities in the parks?

We have a trip scheduled in early December. We have read a lot about the safety of flying and how good Disney is being about COVID in the parks. Still with the increase in cases across the country we are debating canceling our trip. We have been cautious during the pandemic - not gathering with others and wearing masks. We know that going to the parks is risker than what we have been doing. We are fairly comfortable taking the risk as we are healthy and will self isolate upon our return so not to spread to others should we get sick. We are just curious what people who have gone - particularly if you are traveling from out of state - feel about having made the decision to go.

Not one bit. Right now, the "safety measures" being taken at a Disney theme park are more strict than your average grocery store or gas station. There have been no real reports of super spreader events being traced back to WDW but I do understand that this is a virus, it's going to spread and any situation I am in with people who potentially has the virus puts me at risk to get it myself but I have chosen to go before, havent regretted it and leave again on Thursday for a ten day trip.

 

[pluto377]

We are staying at Animal Kingdom Kidani for first half of Thanksgiving week. We will have a car. I’m trying to figure out which parks we should drive to, which to Uber to, and which to take the bus. We will be doing rope drop each morning. Any advice??

Personally I would drive to all of them. That's what we did this past few days. I like to get to parks for rope drop, but I'm not a fanatic if I miss by a few minutes. We had no issues getting there on time driving this week.

Just curious for people who have gone down to Disney World - do any of you regret going? If so why? Did you get sick after? Lack of activities in the parks?

We have a trip scheduled in early December. We have read a lot about the safety of flying and how good Disney is being about COVID in the parks. Still with the increase in cases across the country we are debating canceling our trip. We have been cautious during the pandemic - not gathering with others and wearing masks. We know that going to the parks is risker than what we have been doing. We are fairly comfortable taking the risk as we are healthy and will self isolate upon our return so not to spread to others should we get sick. We are just curious what people who have gone - particularly if you are traveling from out of state - feel about having made the decision to go.

I just got back so I can't answer about getting sick yet, but I absolutely do not regret going. I had an amazing trip and really like some of the new changes. I thought there was plenty to do and see and I liked being able to go a little slower and see some of the queues that I rarely, if ever, walk through. My only "complaint" is the lack of food options. Even that was just a minor inconvenience at times. We are from NY and flew down. We've been fairly cautious since March, but my kids are back in school full-time and I'm back at work in the office. So I felt like, yes, it's a bit of a risk, but it was one I felt comfortable taking.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Just curious for people who have gone down to Disney World - do any of you regret going? If so why? Did you get sick after? Lack of activities in the parks?

I live within driving distance so can't speak to weighing potential risk of air travel. But, like you, have been extremely cautious at home in "real" life. Recently spent a week on property (11/2-8) and have no regrets. Overall, as mentioned above, I felt like Disney is more controlled an environment than the average store. But there will be some in non-compliance - due to innocent forgetfulness, ignorance, or being a jerk. I was encouraged that Cast Members were enforcing the mask rules (saw it several times) and felt like, in general, I was able to steer clear of such folks. There were some areas that were bottlenecks and difficult to distance but they were brief. There were only 3 situations where I was very uncomfortable. Saturday night in EPCOT (specifically World Showcase) was far too crowded for my comfort level. There seemed to be a lot of large groups drinking around the world and it was just hard in general to distance. Disney Springs I will not be hurrying back to - seemed to me like much lower mask compliance and I didn't see any enforcement. And Teppan Edo (also EPCOT) with just a small, thin plastic divider between parties at the same table (seating 8) was out of my comfort zone - despite what I'm sure is enhanced ventilation given the cook tops. Definitely not a lot to do at night but I am an early to bed / early rise kind of person. Loved the cavalcades and distanced character appearances - the spontaneous nature of these really added some magic.

 

[Disney's Fan]

Just curious for people who have gone down to Disney World - do any of you regret going? If so why? Did you get sick after? Lack of activities in the parks?

We have a trip scheduled in early December. We have read a lot about the safety of flying and how good Disney is being about COVID in the parks. Still with the increase in cases across the country we are debating canceling our trip. We have been cautious during the pandemic - not gathering with others and wearing masks. We know that going to the parks is risker than what we have been doing. We are fairly comfortable taking the risk as we are healthy and will self isolate upon our return so not to spread to others should we get sick. We are just curious what people who have gone - particularly if you are traveling from out of state - feel about having made the decision to go.

We went over Halloween weekend flying from Texas. None of us became sick, and we felt like the procedures in place at Disney World were very thorough. We chose Table service meals so we wouldn’t be in crowds at meal times or having to fight for a table. We did quick service at our hotel where we could take it back to our room to eat. On our last day, we did eat a very early lunch at cosmic rays, and felt safe doing that. The amount of hand sanitizing stations around, masks and social distancing all were well done. We are cautious at home but not overly concerned about Covid, so we felt fine going and safer than some places in our large city. (One of our sons chose not to go because he felt uncomfortable going during a pandemic.) The airports were crowded and not as well-managed as Disney World, but I still felt like we could minimize our chances of being exposed by hand washing, masks and social distancing on our part. On the plane, we felt like they did a good job of managing risks as best they could. I am actually very glad that we were able to go and experience the park during this time. After hearing about our experience, our son who chose not to go in October decided that he would go with us in December. I hope that helps you some!

 

[Naomeri]

Just curious for people who have gone down to Disney World - do any of you regret going? If so why? Did you get sick after? Lack of activities in the parks?

We have a trip scheduled in early December. We have read a lot about the safety of flying and how good Disney is being about COVID in the parks. Still with the increase in cases across the country we are debating canceling our trip. We have been cautious during the pandemic - not gathering with others and wearing masks. We know that going to the parks is risker than what we have been doing. We are fairly comfortable taking the risk as we are healthy and will self isolate upon our return so not to spread to others should we get sick. We are just curious what people who have gone - particularly if you are traveling from out of state - feel about having made the decision to go.

I travelled solo from Minneapolis to WDW October 26-30 and I had a wonderful time, even with a little less to do in the parks. I was able to isolate from my family when I got home, since we live on different floors of the same house, and I work from home. It’s now been more than 2 weeks and I’m perfectly healthy, and I’d go back in a heartbeat if I had money and PTO. I felt safer in WDW than I did in my local craft store the other day.

 

[soniam]

Just curious for people who have gone down to Disney World - do any of you regret going? If so why? Did you get sick after? Lack of activities in the parks?

We have a trip scheduled in early December. We have read a lot about the safety of flying and how good Disney is being about COVID in the parks. Still with the increase in cases across the country we are debating canceling our trip. We have been cautious during the pandemic - not gathering with others and wearing masks. We know that going to the parks is risker than what we have been doing. We are fairly comfortable taking the risk as we are healthy and will self isolate upon our return so not to spread to others should we get sick. We are just curious what people who have gone - particularly if you are traveling from out of state - feel about having made the decision to go.

We drove from Texas in July and didn't regret the trip. We are going again the end of this week/Thanksgiving week. We have to fly this time, which isn't ideal. We ate in TS restaurants at least once a day in July and were glad due to the break it provided. So, we didn't regret the first trip, and I don't think we will regret this trip. We did not get covid during the first trip, nor have we had it otherwise. We didn't feel stuff was reduced that much, but we aren't big M&G or show people, except night time shows. We drove to the parks on the first trip and will mostly do this again. Both of these trips though are for non-refundable DVC rentals, so that does play into it a bit. I would have probably canceled otherwise. We are all working/schooling from home and don't have contact with high risk individuals. We haven't been eating in restaurants at home and have been doing mostly curbside shopping. We have gotten hair cuts and been to the movies twice. We will self-quarantine for 14 days when we return. It's a tough choice. I definitely had doubts in July, and with cases even worse now and crowds even higher at WDW, I have more concerns about this trip. However, I am currently packing and don't see us cancelling.

 

[peteykirch]

I just got back from a week down at WDW, and it was a mixed bag, but still enjoyable.

Disney needs to do a better job explaining how the queue markers work, and they need to limit it to 2 people per marker. There weren't enough CMs throughout the lines, one at the beginning and one at the end, with bedlam running wild in between.

Parties of 4+ using the queue markers made things a mess. People were standing in between markers instead of standing on the markers. A group of 4 adults would pretty much take up all the space between 2 markers. We would routinely have to stay 1 marker behind in lines because we aren't going to stand 6 inches behind someone.

The queue for Flight of Passage was a mess because there were 2 parts where the line intersected with a pathway. There was no CM at that intersection so people were jumping in line after everyone else was in the line that went back out of the land to the one bridge you enter the land through. Luckily I was able to find one CM and get a family of 4 kicked out of the line.

We found any ride with a reported time of 15 minutes or less were pretty much walk ons.

The only line that had a pretty accurate time was Flight of Passage we got in line with a 45 minute wait, we ended up waiting 40, it would've been less had people paid attention in line and people didn't stop walking to have an Instagram photoshoot.

I'm still trying to figure out how Pirates was routinely having a 50+ minute wait, meanwhile Peter Pan was 25-30 minutes, hell the Speedway didn't have a wait longer than 15 minutes for the days we spent at MK.

Way too many people eating and drinking while not stationary in the park. Way too many people eating and drinking in the queues. I would understand this if it was 100 degrees with 80% humidity, but last week topped out at like 80 with nice breezes and low to average humidity so you can't blame the weather.

Honestly I feel bad for the CMs because they are fighting a losing battle. For what they make it's not worth it for them to confront guests who will berate them even though it is the guests who aren't following rules/guidelines. I didn't see a single guest get removed from the park, however I did see one guest have a complete melt down trying to get into Epcot via IG because they had a dining reservation but not a park reservation. We also saw a family of 3 get turned away at TTC for wearing neck gaiters which was a nice sight.

We got 2 boarding groups for Rise on our 2 Studios days BG 3 and 8. I can't complain about the process, it seemed easy enough, we made both reservations from our bed at the Boardwalk.

I really hope don't they bring back Fireworks any time soon, on our last MK night the hub was a petri dish of people on top of each other to view the Projections.

We would go back, but would change up our touring a bit. We would only do 1 Studios day since we have no interest in ToT or Rockin Roller Coaster, so that just leaves Star Tours, Muppets, ***, Midway Mania, Slinky Dog, and Smugglers. We waited 35 minutes for MMRR at the end of our 2nd Studios day, it was alright, but it wasn't something we'd dedicate more than 15 minutes to. It's an absolute joke they got rid of the Great Movie Ride and replace it with MMRR. They easily could've kept GMR and put MMRR at a different location in the park. It's a mockery that they can add new rides to Disneyland without removing something, but at WDW with our blessing of size we have to swap 1 ride for another. Smugglers is decent but honestly I'd rather just ride Star Tours because that ride at least has the potential to be different every time.

I think we only stumbled upon maybe 2 hand sanitizer stations that were empty, but we always had hand sanitizer and wipes on our person so it wasn't something major to worry about.

Overall it was a good trip. If you got to the parks early, left in the midday and came back at night you could get a lot done in a very short time.

I do wish they could figure out park hopping. Would be nice if you could go to Studios in the morning, and then pick say Epcot in the evening if there was an available reservation, then your Studios reservation would become available for someone else.

 

[nurseberta]

Personally I would drive to all of them. That's what we did this past few days. I like to get to parks for rope drop, but I'm not a fanatic if I miss by a few minutes. We had no issues getting there on time driving this week.

is there any benefit to rope dropping now that the park is secured with reservations?

 

[pluto377]

it’s still much less crowded in the morning with shorter lines. But it really depends on your group. If I was solo I would have slept in. My ds is always up early though and gets tired quickly so rope drop was best for us.

 

[Debbie Jean]

Family groups present a real problem waiting in the queues, keeping to anything resembling the space markers. I had one bunch just having a hoot of a time lost in their own world behind me at dumbo. Honestly, I kept moving as far away as I could and turning around until one idiot actually bumped into me. Grown woman, actually was giggling saying “oops, sorry, I’m used to crowding up in the line”. I was furious, pointed and almost shouted “your line’s back there!” Have to say she didn’t get near me after that.

Honestly if little kids can do it, what’s wrong with the adults... all it takes is a little mindfulness and consideration!

 

[Bmlors]

Quick post for anyone interested in timings at AK with a 7am opening. We got on a bus this morning from Riviera at 6:15am. Quick ride to AK and walked through temp and security at 6:30ish. Park was open so we walked to FOP and literally walked on. Was off the ride by 7:05 and immediately got back in line to ride it again. Line by then was posted at 40 min, but actually was closer to 20. Was off by 8am. Great day when you can ride FOP twice before 8am!

We leisured around our favorites from there as crowds swelled at Pandora. Got coffee, did Everest twice, Safari, Gorilla trail, shopping, 10:30 ‘lunch’ at Sa’tuii and drinks/churros at Nomad lounge (5 min walk-up wait as we put our name in at 11 when it opened). Today was hot for us and we hit everything we wanted, so after a bit more shopping we left for the day. Six hours of park time and back to the Riviera by 1pm.

 

[swelch1976]

Day 2 at the parks... Sunday, 11/8 at MK

But first... A few details I want to expound upon from my last post:
- at the new security scanners, they tell you to keep umbrellas held out in front of you as you walk through with your other bags, but at MK they told us to also take out all large electronics. My DD had a camera in the backpack, and we thought that was the issue as we kept getting pulled aside for bag inspections, but then realized the third time this happened that it was the battery pack, as I mentioned. On the fourth try we held umbrellas, camera, AND battery pack out and we were through without issue!
- I should mention that it was my DD on the old iPad Air that scored our BG for RotR. We started from the "Check Status" / "My Queues" screen as the clock hit 7:00.

MK is where we started to experience greatly exaggerated wait times. As someone above mentioned, 10mins posted times were essentially walk-ons. And it seemed like the super-headliners were inflated by 20-50%.

We took a Lyft to the Contemporary Resort, and again had a mobile order at Contempo Cafe ready. The person at the security booth asked to scan my magic band, told me that I did not have a Dining Reservation, and then after showing her our mobile order, she reluctantly let us through. We arrived at 7:10, and left the Contemporary at 7:37.

We arrived at the temperature / security tent, which is located a couple-hundred feet past the intersection with World Drive, at 7:42. There were about 7 groups ahead of us.

At 7:56AM, they began to let us through - it took us three minutes (in part because of my battery pack in the backpack...).

They held us again until 8:01AM right where the security lines from the buses are located. Not sure exactly why. We entered the park at 8:04AM.

- We started at 7DMT 8:10AM (7 min. wait) - 8:20 done
Nothing else in Fantasyland was open until almost 9am, nor Haunted Mansion, nor Splash Mountain. So we went to the only thing we knew was operating - BTMR
- BTMR 8:28 (5 min wait) - 8:38 done
- BTMR 8:38 (8 min wait) - 8:51 done
- Peter Pan 8:58 (5 min. wait) - 9:07 done
- Buzz 9:13 (3 min wait) - 9:21 done
- Winnie the Pooh 9:25 (4 min wait) - 9:33 done
- it's a small world 9:37 (7 min wait) 10 min posted - 10:00 done
- Haunted Mansion 10:04 (9 min wait) 10 min posted - 10:22 done
- Mickey's Philharmagic 10:26 (21 min wait) - 11:00 done
- LUNCH at Pecos Bill along with a couple Cavalcades - 11:07 - 11:52. (Chicken Rice bowls were really good actually!)
- Splash Mountain 11:54 (16 min wait) 35 min posted - 12:26PM done
- Splash Mountain 12:27 (27 min wait) 55 min posted - 1:09 done
- PotC 1:17 (40 min wait) 50 min posted - 2:05 done
- Magic Carpets 2:26 (12 min wait) 10 min posted - 2:41 done
- Jingle Cruise 2:42 (39 min wait) 50 min posted - 3:32 done
- Swiss Family Treehouse 3:34 (no wait) - 3:40 done
- Hall of Pres 3:46 (14 min wait) - 4:25 done
- Dinner and shopping 4:26 - 5:20
- Space Mountain 5:20 (22 min wait) 30 min posted - 5:51 done
- Shopping and cavalcades and castle projection 5:51 - 6:36
- Barnstormer 6:36 (3 min wait) 5 min posted - 6:42 done
- Dumbo 6:43 (2 min wait) 5 min posted - 6:48 done
- Space Mountain 6:55 (13 min wait) 20 min posted - 7:15 done
- Splash Mountain 7:43 (3 min wait) 10 min posted - 8:04 done
- BTMR 8:05 (7 min wait) 10 min posted - 8:18 done
- 7DMT 8:31 (20 min wait) 25 min posted - 8:55 done

Exited the park at 9:07 and walked right on a bus to Pop Century. Back in our room at 9:35. We got an INCREDIBLE amount done on this Sunday. Again, the threat of a tropical storm may have affected attendance, but just a little wind and clouds today.

Next is our Epcot day - the weather was not as good...

 

[ColoradoMom12]

Disney needs to do a better job explaining how the queue markers work, and they need to limit it to 2 people per marker. There weren't enough CMs throughout the lines, one at the beginning and one at the end, with bedlam running wild in between.

I couldn’t agree more. I feel like they need to have a maximum number that can wait on one line and not allow groups of 6 or 10 or whatever into a queue on one “wait here” line. When we were there last month, we paid careful attention to the size of the group getting into line ahead of us. If it was a large group, we stepped to the side and waited for a smaller party before jumping in line. Only once did we have an experience where we thought we were in line behind a party of three only to discover three more family members joined them later. I left extra space between us because there was no way I wanted to “fill in all of the available space” and stand elbow-to-elbow with this family ahead of us.

We started at 7DMT 8:10AM (7 min. wait) - 8:20 done
Nothing else in Fantasyland was open until almost 9am, nor Haunted Mansion, nor Splash Mountain. So we went to the only thing we knew was operating - BTMR

What was the official park opening time on this day??

 

[yulilin3]

Disney, universal, sea world can explain how the markers work until they're blue in the face, some guests are just oblivious, we joke that some guests check their brains at home as soon add the check into property. I have, so many time, respectfully reminded people where their marker is, or if i see a large group in front of me i just leave an extra space between them and myself

 

[peteykirch]

Disney, universal, sea world can explain how the markers work until they're blue in the face, some guests are just oblivious, we joke that some guests check their brains at home as soon add the check into property. I have, so many time, respectfully reminded people where their marker is, or if i see a large group in front of me i just leave an extra space between them and myself

I understand that and have done it myself, but it shouldn't be up to the guests to police other guests.

Honestly they should've just brought back furloughed CMs to police lines like every 30 feet or so.

 

[AndreaA]

I understand that and have done it myself, but it shouldn't be up to the guests to police other guests.

Honestly they should've just brought back furloughed CMs to police lines like every 30 feet or so.

I would assume that it’s up to the person following a larger party to put a space between them. I wouldn’t expect a party of 6 to stretch out over three spots - they want to be together and talk to each other and that’s fine, as long as there’s enough space after the last of them, I don’t see a problem. And again, the person responsible for ensuring that there is enough space after the person in front of you is YOU.

 

[Debbie Jean]

I would assume that it’s up to the person following a larger party to put a space between them. I wouldn’t expect a party of 6 to stretch out over three spots - they want to be together and talk to each other and that’s fine, as long as there’s enough space after the last of them, I don’t see a problem. And again, the person responsible for ensuring that there is enough space after the person in front of you is YOU.

But that doesn’t work if the group is behind you, something you can’t always know ahead of time or avoid

 

[swelch1976]

I couldn’t agree more. I feel like they need to have a maximum number that can wait on one line and not allow groups of 6 or 10 or whatever into a queue on one “wait here” line. When we were there last month, we paid careful attention to the size of the group getting into line ahead of us. If it was a large group, we stepped to the side and waited for a smaller party before jumping in line. Only once did we have an experience where we thought we were in line behind a party of three only to discover three more family members joined them later. I left extra space between us because there was no way I wanted to “fill in all of the available space” and stand elbow-to-elbow with this family ahead of us.



What was the official park opening time on this day??

9am. Should have mentioned that.

 

[WendiDarling]

I appreciate the feedback on large parties. We are a large party of 9 leaving in 4 days. So, what do you suggest I mention to the girls? I'm the mom traveling with my daughters and friends (3 20-year-olds, 2 19-year-olds, a 16, 14, and 12 year old.) I know they will be "oblivious" and very interested in chatting with each other and taking pictures. But I want to sit them down and talk to them in advance about what they should/should not do in line. Please help. Thank you. Should we try and divide up so we only walk 3x3x3 in queues? So our distancing is spread out a bit and we don't impinge on people around us?

 

[peteykirch]

I would assume that it’s up to the person following a larger party to put a space between them. I wouldn’t expect a party of 6 to stretch out over three spots - they want to be together and talk to each other and that’s fine, as long as there’s enough space after the last of them, I don’t see a problem. And again, the person responsible for ensuring that there is enough space after the person in front of you is YOU.

I understand that, but it doesn't work when the party behind you is oblivious to things. We've had our heels run into quite a bit waiting in lines our trip last week. If you get people who over run their marker and then come into your space, and the party ahead of you aren't standing on the proper spots you kind of have nowhere to go.

Fine maybe 2 people per sticker is a bit extreme, but 3 and 3 could work.

Plus you all will get to ride together one you get to the loading part of the ride when the first group says the x number behind me are in my party.

Point is, it's been nearly 4 months since Disney reopened, they should have this down to a tighter operation.

I will say Animal Kingdom is the one park that they need to go through the queues and reapply social distancing markers. A lot were in pretty bad shape through the queues.