Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[Yoshi]

I spent Wednesday and part of Thursday at the parks.

Wednesday we went to Blizzard Beach. It wasn't as crowded as when I tried to visit last month where the parking lot was full and people were parking at Coronado Springs (I gave up on that plan and went to Magic Kingdom instead). Most slides were around a 10 minute wait. The chairlift looked like it was at least a 15 minute wait and the only slide with a longer line was Downhill Double Dipper that I waited until near closing to go to.

We then went to Magic Kingdom for a few hours. It was crowded but not as bad as the wait times looked on Monday. I took advantage of everyone watching the fireworks to get some more rides in. It was interesting seeing so many people rushing to Peter Pan's Flight when it was still posting a 20 minute wait as the fireworks were ending but the line was outside past the entrance, it didn't take long for the wait time to go back to the 90 minute wait it was before the fireworks started.

Yesterday we also went to Epcot for a few hours. We only stayed in Future World and rode the lower wait rides except using single rider for Test Track that took about 35 minutes with about 15 minutes of that from a "delay in the design process." Standby was 105 minutes when I got in the single rider line and saw it increased to 175 minutes from that delay. Rides like Nemo and Living With The Land were 10 - 15 minutes.

I finished the day at SeaWorld. With how packed the Disney parks are, I was surprised at the low crowds at SeaWorld. Pass holders got free Quick Queue Unlimited after 4 which let me skip the 30 minute line at Journey To Atlantis. Mako had no wait even without Quick Queue. They also had a free food item at the food and wine festival, I wish Disney offered passholders something like that. They also had a free keychain for passholders.

 

[Ratpack]

If you are looking at the discounted bands you can purchase for having a resort reservation booked, these are a fraction of the bands that are available in the parks. There is far more selection in the parks although you will pay full price, not the discounted price.

The best way to get an idea which bands may be available in the parks is to view the Disney Store. That being said, the selection at each location in the parks is different from other locations. Not all locations carry all bands and, there can be more than are available on the Disney Store.

Not concerned with the price, just the selection. I have looked at Disney Store and they have only a few more than what is in the preorder selection of MDE.

 

[NotTheBatesMotel]

We arrived at Pop yesterday. I had to work so we only spent around 4 hours at Hollywood Studios but I spent my day starting at 7AM stacking LL’s so we got quite a bit knocked out in 4 hours. I usually don’t opt for LL’s because we’re a neurodivergent family that uses the DAS, but by looking at wait times and hearing crowd reports I figured it’d be worth it for HS.

I had LL’s for Tower, Runaway Railway, Midway Mania, and Star Tours booked by the time we got there. When we arrived we added a DAS for Rise. We went right to Tower. The LL line was quite a bit backed up but moved fast. We then hopped on Runaway Railway and started heading to Rise. There was a huge crowd in front of Rise & we heard that it was down (surprise ). We pivoted and grabbed Ronto Wraps at Docking Bay 7. Even though Rise was down in the app it wasn’t switching the DAS to an alternate experience-is this a new thing? It eventually let us book a different DAS ~an hour later.

We moseyed through Batuu and made our way to Toy Story Land. Slinky had been down for hours at this point and we never saw it come back up. Rise + Slinky being down + RNR down for refurb over spring break makes for an interesting night. We had a LL for saucers but my son wasn’t feeling it so we went to Midway Mania. I booked a DAS for Tower. We grabbed a snack then hopped on Star Tours and ended the night with 1 more ride on Tower. Lines are definitely long this trip but the walkways (while crowded) aren’t completely stopped like we’ve seen them before.

 

[NotTheBatesMotel]

Day 2: We slept in a bit and hopped on the Skyliner to Epcot around 10:30. Our focus this morning was more on hitting a few festival booths Vs the rides. We went to Swirled Showcase where my son got the float. He said it was a “7 out of 10.” I went across the lane to the Honey Bee-Stro for the chicken and waffles. This was…not good. The chicken had a bunch of weird texture spots and the waffle was somehow both burnt and raw in parts. We went to Pineapple Promenade where I got the frozen violet lemonade-one of my favorites. Next up was Brunchcot. This was our favorite. I had the avocado toast (delicious but a little too much avocado) and my son got the fruit loops shake and cinnamon bites which he loved.

In between the booths we went on Figment twice and 3 Caballeros. We tried to go on Frozen using the DAS but the LL was so far backed up my son was too overwhelmed to handle it. It’s a bummer when you wait your turn outside of the line then encounter another line that’s snaking out of the building. I know it’s spring break but the entire premise of the DAS is waiting in an alternate area so you don’t encounter the overstimulating, long line. Unpopular opinion I’ll likely be trolled for: they either need to stop selling so many LL’s or come up with an alternate process for the DAS.

The crowds are definitely intense today too. Figment line was out of the door and 3 Caballeros line was also out of the door. We’ve never seen 3 caballeros like that but the line for that 1 moves quickly.

We’re having a good time overall and just going into it knowing this isn’t the kind of trip we’ll be able to “do all the things.”

 

[lovethattink]

Day 2: We slept in a bit and hopped on the Skyliner to Epcot around 10:30. Our focus this morning was more on hitting a few festival booths Vs the rides. We went to Swirled Showcase where my son got the float. He said it was a “7 out of 10.” I went across the lane to the Honey Bee-Stro for the chicken and waffles. This was…not good. The chicken had a bunch of weird texture spots and the waffle was somehow both burnt and raw in parts. We went to Pineapple Promenade where I got the frozen violet lemonade-one of my favorites. Next up was Brunchcot. This was our favorite. I had the avocado toast (delicious but a little too much avocado) and my son got the fruit loops shake and cinnamon bites which he loved.

In between the booths we went on Figment twice and 3 Caballeros. We tried to go on Frozen using the DAS but the LL was so far backed up my son was too overwhelmed to handle it. It’s a bummer when you wait your turn outside of the line then encounter another line that’s snaking out of the building. I know it’s spring break but the entire premise of the DAS is waiting in an alternate area so you don’t encounter the overstimulating, long line. Unpopular opinion I’ll likely be trolled for: they either need to stop selling so many LL’s or come up with an alternate process for the DAS.

The crowds are definitely intense today too. Figment line was out of the door and 3 Caballeros line was also out of the door. We’ve never seen 3 caballeros like that but the line for that 1 moves quickly.

We’re having a good time overall and just going into it knowing this isn’t the kind of trip we’ll be able to “do all the things.”

Did you try back later with Frozen? With DAS you’re allowed to return back at any time the ride is operating after your return time.

 

[Lady Hiss]

Staying at Yacht Club for a quick WDW trip. Our plan was to take it easy this trip and not stress about getting on rides. Given the heat & the crowds, that was a good goal to have. We’ve just got to adjust our attitudes from what we used to do and what we can do now, especially during spring break.

We got Genie+ @ midnight but weren’t thrilled with how it worked for us. I really wish they’d show two or three available LL times for a ride and let you choose. We got MMRR LL and Toy Story LL for late morning & early afternoon but ran into difficulties with the safari. I had to keep checking the app hoping to modify Kilimanjaro Safari to later than our 2:25 time. It took hours before a 4:00 time was available. And no, it wasn’t due to it not running later - it was operational until 6:45 tonight.

No luck at 7 AM for GoG VQ or iLL, no iLL for Rise. By the time I tried for a Remy LL (7:02AM) only late times were available & that didn’t work for us.

We made the best of things doing Frozen Singalong; One Man’s Dream (no movie - theater was being ‘renovated’); Muppets. Then ate & went to AK for the Safari, and iLL for FoP. After that, the heat won and we came back to YC for a quiet night on our awesome balcony.

A different kind of trip for us. I think we’re gettin’ old and don’t have the Disney stamina we had in our younger days.

 

[NotTheBatesMotel]

Did you try back later with Frozen? With DAS you’re allowed to return back at any time the ride is operating after your return time.

We were on our way out of the park so we didn't manage to go on it today. Luckily my son cares more about Figment and 3 Caballeros!

 

[pens4821]

Day 6 last day. Didn't really have a morning plan, but knew we wanted to end in HS using LL. Decided on trying for a bg for gog and got 7. We were 7/7 with boarding groups for the week (4 gog/1tron at 7,1 tron/gog each at 6). World clock idea works great. When it hits 6:59:59 and a half second I just staring hitting where refresh was and got it every try.

I forgot to get genie before trying for the bg. I remembered at 6:58 and wasn’t missing the bg. Knowing I wanted sdd and a rise ILL I knew was going to be tough. Right when I was done with the bg I bought genie and went for sdd. None. Picked the ill time I wanted for rise then refreshed for about 15 minutes before getting a 830 pm sdd. Was a bit of a pain refreshing but worked out as I wanted to get on it at night for the first time anyway.

We had a long tiring week and weren’t sure whether to go to Epcot or not. Decided to and got in line for our bg at 930 and were on the ride at 949. Two of our party didn’t want to go to Epcot so we used their card to scan in right again so we rode it twice in a row. We were off the second time at 1020. It was already getting hot, we were tired, and we really did everything there we wanted. So we headed back to the resort, had lunch, a little nap/relax.

Left for HS at about 4. We had LL stacked so we went to tot, st, rise, dinner at abc commissary, watched the projection show on the theater, mmrr, tsm, sdd, and finally mfsm. We got off that about 920, and decided to jump in the line for rise at 926. We were the last group of people to ride for the evening. It was posted 45 and we sat down on the actual ride at just around 10. It was a great way to end the night. I had our ll stacked perfectly so we only did a little backtracking going back through Star Wars. Even though we rode alot it wasn’t a rushed evening since we had all those rides stacked.

Today I was glancing at wait times and they didn’t seem as bad as the rest of the week. However I did find the walkways just as crowded at epcot and hs.

Final thoughts
Crowds- our second spring break trip and I don’t know if we will do it again or not. It works out the best with school schedules, but it’s just too much. I don’t even mind the waits all that much, but as I said before I just don’t like not being able to walk around. There are certain spots that just become huge masses of people not moving too much.

Boarding groups-this is my first experience with them (not sure if rise had it last time or not but I didn’t try). I was hesitant at first but I liked it. However I could see how you wouldn’t if you didn’t get them. It was a little bit of a pain to get them, but I wouldn’t be standing in 3/4 hour lines just to ride things.

Getting it all done- with a good plan you can do anything you want and multiple times. We had early mornings three days (I get up at 530 at home so just kept the alarm the same the first three days) and late nights 3 days. Tried to get atleast a few hour break every day. A lot of walking, hurrying to rides, hopping parks, but in the end it was worth it. A lot of people probably wouldn’t like our touring style (sometimes just a couple rides in one park then moving elsewhere and don’t see many shows/nighttime fireworks) but it works for us.

Gog/tron- guardians is amazing. One of my favorite rides ever probably. Tron was ok, but after the initial burst and the outdoor part it’s not that great. It’s over before you know it, and it’s not that comfortable for something with longer legs and bigger feet. Speaking of which my first ride on fop I felt the same. Just too scrunched to ride it again. Although I will do Tron but won’t make it a top priority.

We had a great week, albeit very tiring. Now I’ll be ready for a relaxing vacation when I get home.

 

[NotTheBatesMotel]

We had an amazing morning at Magic Kingdom today! I booked a Space LL when I woke up for 9:45. We hopped right on a bus at Pop and scanned in around 9:15. There was no line to scan in. I snagged a DAS for 7DMT and we alternated LL’s and DAS during the morning.

We stopped at a photopass station to grab some castle pics. We had a little time to kill so we hopped on the Peoplemover which was a walk on. We then went on Space, grabbed some popcorn, and hopped on Buzz. We made our way to Liberty Square for a voyage on a Doom Buggy & grabbed more photopass pics outside of HM before heading over to 7DMT. I am 99% sure I spotted Cillian Murphy walking with a plaid over near 7DMT-my husband is a watch nerd and only spotted the $50,000 watch. If my eyes weren’t deceiving me, that’s the first Disney celebrity sighting I’ve had in our many trips.

After riding 7DMT we enjoyed some dole whips at Aloha Aisle with no wait. This is the first time I haven’t had to wait there aside from After Hours. We enjoyed our Dole Whips, rode Pirates, hopped on Big Thunder, snagged more photopass pics, and made our way back out of the parks where a bus was waiting. 3.5 hours in the parks and that many rides/pictures/snacks? Awesome morning. It was wayyy easier to navigate LL’s today than it was at HS the other day. Much less refreshing and readily available times.

 

[becauseimnew]

At MK today and I can’t believe I’m going to say this but the crowds are light. We didn’t get here until 8:45 and so far we’ve managed
Space Mt, Thunder LL, HM LL, Small World, Tea Cups, Speedway, SM LL, lunch, Buzz. Headed out at 1PM.
Have LL for Jungle cruise and PP and BG 95 for Tron which we got at 1PM.

 

[NotTheBatesMotel]

Can’t believe how much more manageable the parks have been the 2nd half of our trip compared to the first.

Yesterday we did our version of the 4 parks in 1 day challenge and had a blast. We started in Animal Kingdom. I booked a LL for Everest when we woke up. We arrived at AK at 9:20, rode Everest, snapped a photo in front of the tree of life, and hopped on a bus to MK.

We arrived at MK around 11AM, snapped a photo in front of the castle, and rode Pirates with a LL. Next up: Epcot!

We took the monorail to Epcot, arriving around 1:15. We rode spaceship earth using a LL, walked right onto Figment using the regular line, grabbed cinnamon bites from the Brunchcot booth, strolled the World Showcase a bit stopping at Morocco for lunch, Japan for shaved ice, tried to grab frushi but they were out, went to the store in Japan, and eventually exited via the international gateway.

We then hopped on the ferry to HS and arrived around 4:25. We rode Tower of Terror using a LL, hopped over to meet Chewbacca, rode Runaway Railway using a LL, and grabbed popcorn on the way out. We took the Skyliner back to Pop and called it a night.

Tonight is After Hours at MK. Very grateful for the memories from this trip!

 

[Misspiggy82]

Day 1 of 4 for us today: AK. I bought Genie+ and ILL for FOP, but likely didn’t even need to as the crowds were extremely manageable.
Left GFL at 7:30 and arrived AK around 8 via Disney transportation.
8:45: Wild Africa Trek. This was our second time doing it and it was a consistent (good) experience. We did get very good views of the baby elephant and the hippos came over to be fed this time (last time they didn’t want to).
12:15: lunch at Rainforest Cafe. My daughter loves this but honestly the service is slow and it’s a bit underwhelming from my perspective.
1:15: Kali River Rapids
1:30: Navi River Journey (LL). The shaman was working!
2: FOP (ILL). The standby line was only 30 minutes, as low as I’ve ever seen it.
3:30: Feathered Friends
After that we were going to do Dinosaur but it was down so my daughter convinced us to do Kali again instead. We could’ve also done Everest with LL but others in my group find it too scary!
5: Festival of the Lion King
5:35 dinner at Tusker House. Again, it was pretty empty so we saw all the characters pretty quickly.
All in all, a great day. WAT really makes AK a full day park and then you can do the other rides and things in the afternoon after many folks have left!

 

[Mermaidtails1323]

Day 1 of 4 for us today: AK. I bought Genie+ and ILL for FOP, but likely didn’t even need to as the crowds were extremely manageable.
Left GFL at 7:30 and arrived AK around 8 via Disney transportation.
8:45: Wild Africa Trek. This was our second time doing it and it was a consistent (good) experience. We did get very good views of the baby elephant and the hippos came over to be fed this time (last time they didn’t want to).
12:15: lunch at Rainforest Cafe. My daughter loves this but honestly the service is slow and it’s a bit underwhelming from my perspective.
1:15: Kali River Rapids
1:30: Navi River Journey (LL). The shaman was working!
2: FOP (ILL). The standby line was only 30 minutes, as low as I’ve ever seen it.
3:30: Feathered Friends
After that we were going to do Dinosaur but it was down so my daughter convinced us to do Kali again instead. We could’ve also done Everest with LL but others in my group find it too scary!
5: Festival of the Lion King
5:35 dinner at Tusker House. Again, it was pretty empty so we saw all the characters pretty quickly.
All in all, a great day. WAT really makes AK a full day park and then you can do the other rides and things in the afternoon after many folks have left!

I saw some of the wait times and thought “I wish I were at Disney”! Talk about a great day!

 

[pens4821]

Not going to lie, I’m jealous seeing how much lower the waits have been the last few days as they were last week while I was there. I also went the same week in 2022, and for some reason that week seems to be the busiest of the next few. Or it least it was in 2022 when I was looking at wait times for the next few weeks.

How have the walkways been? That was worse to me than the actual waits. Couldn’t even move in some spots.

 

[Keladry84]

Not going to lie, I’m jealous seeing how much lower the waits have been the last few days as they were last week while I was there. I also went the same week in 2022, and for some reason that week seems to be the busiest of the next few. Or it least it was in 2022 when I was looking at wait times for the next few weeks.

How have the walkways been? That was worse to me than the actual waits. Couldn’t even move in some spots.

I was also there all of last week. I left Saturday morning. I peeked at wait times around noonish on Saturday and all the waits were about half of what they had been all week…it seems like many people were there last week and then left over the weekend.

 

[Minnie1222]

We've been here since 03/14. Crowds have been great during the day. Rise was a 30 minute standby today around 1P.M. However, there appeared to be a lot of "evening owls", meaning the parks (minus AK) all of the sudden became congested at dusk. MK was very busy tonight with the regular and the AH crowd. We had a hard time maneuvering ourselves.


MK earlier tonight.

 

[lovethattink]

It’s Orange County spring break. Maybe people going after work.

 

[Misspiggy82]

Day 2: EPCOT. We rope dropped early entry and did TT, Soarin and Living with the Land (all walk on) before checking in for Dolphins in Depth at 10:20ish. I highly recommend that experience for anyone who wants to meet and learn about dolphins. You get some unique views of the marine animals in the other tank too.

After that we had to hustle to our Akershus lunch reservation, which I had made for 12:50 on the mistaken impression that Dolphins was 2 hours. It went over and we were seated around 1:15, but they seemed totally fine with that despite the restaurant being fairly busy. We saw all the princesses except neither Mulan nor Cinderella was there at that time.

We had an LL for Remy at 2 (made at about 7:05), which gave us the opportunity to stroll the rest of the way around World Showcase from Norway. The crowds seemed reasonable and we had no issues walking around, but caveat that we are New Yorkers so our crowd navigation skills and standards for what is crowded might differ from others.

Then a little shopping, LL for Mission Space, Spaceship Earth just for nostalgia, and headed back to GFL for an all too brief pool and relaxation time before heading to MK for Seats & Sweets. It was rather chilly today by FL standards but very sunny so coming from the northeast we thought the pool temp was perfectly fine and enjoyed having no line for the water slide!

I booked Seats & Sweets because a member of our party recently had knee surgery and would have had difficulty standing for long periods (but is too proud to use a scooter or other assistive device). It was actually really relaxing and nice. The roof of Tomorrowland Terrace blocks a little of the sky view but our view of the projections was great and we all loved the experience. Now ready to collapse!

 

[pens4821]

I still can’t believe the wait times this week compared to last. Was just looking now. VQ still available for both rides. ILL for them about instant return. Rise 50, FOP 45, Soarin 10. MK big rides are long but others are manageable. Buzz at 30. Last week it was constantly around 60. Too bad our spring break isn’t a week later.

 

[only hope]

I still can’t believe the wait times this week compared to last. Was just looking now. VQ still available for both rides. ILL for them about instant return. Rise 50, FOP 45, Soarin 10. MK big rides are long but others are manageable. Buzz at 30. Last week it was constantly around 60. Too bad our spring break isn’t a week later.

Pirate passes are blocked out starting this past Monday, maybe other levels too. I’m sure that has a lot to do with it.