Get Excited: Downtown Disney Has Now Reopened Superthread!

[midnight star]

I definitely won't be arriving at 6 AM! I think I'm going to shoot for a 9 AM arrival at Simba, and then just see how it goes. Thanks for the feedback everyone! I will report back tomorrow night!

Yeah no need to get there that early. lol I got there around 8:30, and that was pushing it in my mind haha. Only went early since I was walking over. If you arrive right at 9am for Simba you should be ok.

 

[Aurora0427]

You are saying what I’ve been too nice to say. I’ve tried not to be too hard on Disney since their offering is free (minus $10 parking) but you are right. Knott’s planning and organization and handling of their events has blown Disney away all summer.

It’s actually kind of surprising because Disney is supposed to be the masters of crowd control. All the employees at Knotts seem confident and clear in their duties and things run like clockwork. At Disney, even today at BV Street, there seem to be a lot of frazzled CMs, and a ton of what I assume are some kind of management or supervisor CMs wandering around talking and looking at stuff. It definitely seems way less planned, organized, and executed.

Maybe it’s the fact that Knott’s has had several events (that started smaller and have grown larger each time) to continue to work on their plan, while it seems like Disney’s just trying to understand how crowds will work once they return to the actual parks.

Again though, maybe it’s not fair to compare something free with something that is a paid ticket event. Either way, it seems like Disney has way too many people coming in for far too few offerings to handle them all.

Disney has hoards of people coming in and virtually nothing to do! My husband kept asking “So what exactly are we doing here again?”
Don’t get me wrong.... I’d pay money and stand in a long line for a socially distanced meet and greet with Mickey Mouse. Heck open up Disneyland Park so at least I can go to the Pandora Store in New Orleans Square and get a Mickey pretzel and walk through Galaxy’s Edge.
Anyway. Maybe others love it. I’m over it! Not worth the lines and the effort.

 

[dieumeye]

Disney has hoards of people coming in and virtually nothing to do! My husband kept asking “So what exactly are we doing here again?”
Don’t get me wrong.... I’d pay money and stand in a long line for a socially distanced meet and greet with Mickey Mouse. Heck open up Disneyland Park so at least I can go to the Pandora Store in New Orleans Square and get a Mickey pretzel and walk through Galaxy’s Edge.
Anyway. Maybe others love it. I’m over it! Not worth the lines and the effort.

I agree. I guess what it comes down to for me is: in light of what is going on at Knott’s at this point (basically fully functional park minus rides) I don’t get why Disney has decided against doing something similar, at least with DCA.

That idea has been rehashed over and over, but DCA has big walkways, big seating areas, and plenty of room for social distanced queues. They could literally open everything but the rides. And we all know they could charge more than Knott’s and people would still pay - including me as well!

It’ll just never make sense to me that Knott’s found a way to open and have a complete experience with things like a big ol’ tree in the middle of the park with a social distanced queue and photographers taking pictures as carolers sing from a nearby balcony... while Disney seems to be struggling to do the bare minimum on Buena Vista Street. Kudos to the folks at Knott’s I guess!

 

[Aurora0427]

I agree. I guess what it comes down to for me is: in light of what is going on at Knott’s at this point (basically fully functional park minus rides) I don’t get why Disney has decided against doing something similar, at least with DCA.

That idea has been rehashed over and over, but DCA has big walkways, big seating areas, and plenty of room for social distanced queues. They could literally open everything but the rides. And we all know they could charge more than Knott’s and people would still pay - including me as well!

It’ll just never make sense to me that Knott’s found a way to open and have a complete experience with things like a big ol’ tree in the middle of the park with a social distanced queue and photographers taking pictures as carolers sing from a nearby balcony... while Disney seems to be struggling to do the bare minimum on Buena Vista Street. Kudos to the folks at Knott’s I guess!

I agree with everything you’ve said.

I’m so grateful to Knott’s.... we really needed this after 2020.

 

[midnight star]

Upcoming shopping event !
https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/b...sneyland-resort/?CMP=SOC-FBPAGE20201123180952

 

[midnight star]

At Award Wieners

 

[Skyegirl1999]

It’ll just never make sense to me that Knott’s found a way to open and have a complete experience with things like a big ol’ tree in the middle of the park with a social distanced queue and photographers taking pictures as carolers sing from a nearby balcony... while Disney seems to be struggling to do the bare minimum on Buena Vista Street. Kudos to the folks at Knott’s I guess!

I imagine that if “the powers that be” had had a crystal ball, they would have proceeded differently at DL. I think Disney gambled on being able to reopen this year (which didn’t really seem like a “gamble” for much of the time?), and by the time it became clear that wasn’t happening, it’s harder to mobilize.

As you mentioned, Knott’s started small and built up their events - also, considering the people arriving at 5:30am JUST to stand in line and shop and grab some mediocre food items... it’s hard to envision what chaos Disney would be courting if they offered a full event like Knott’s is all of a sudden.

Knotts also benefits here from being independent, smaller, and more nimble. They don’t have the intense scrutiny that Disney does. They don’t have nearly the admin/oversight that would have to agree to an event - what offerings? At what price point? Knott’s seems like an absolute steal to me - if Disney tried to do something similar but needed $80 or even more rather than $40 to make it economically feasible, how would that look, and would it make it hard for people to stomach the full admission price again in the future?

Again, in HINDSIGHT, an event like Knott’s probably would have been the way to go, but I can see why they would have been wary of going that route when they didn’t think they had to. And that’s without any question of what’s actually safe to do right now.

 

[tinkertoes]

I have read reports that people are arriving early to be among the first to get in and have access to BVS. What time can I arrive to wait in line to park? I dont mind waiting in my car but don't want to arrive too early? I want to go this Wednesday, so I am anticipating crowds.

 

[MillauFr]

Wouldn't it be better then to take Lyft and Uber so you don't waste time parking?

 

[midnight star]

https://www.disboards.com/threads/get-excited-downtown-disney-has-now-reopened-superthread.3805944/Check out this thread on the community board.

Simba opens at 9am. They have cones and won't let you wait. Many people park off-site at hotels or Anaheim Garden Walk for a fee and walk over since those lots tend to be open earlier than Simba. People also Uber/Lyft.

 

[WonkaKid]

Simba opens at 9am.

In my experience, I’ve only ever seen it open at 9:30.

 

[msteddom]

I definitely won't be arriving at 6 AM! I think I'm going to shoot for a 9 AM arrival at Simba, and then just see how it goes. Thanks for the feedback everyone! I will report back tomorrow night!

I am back from a successful day at DTD! Despite my best efforts to get to Simba at 9, I didn't arrive until about 9:20. When I first arrived, the lot was either closed or had paused parking. So, I drove once around the block, and by the time I made it back around at 9:30 the lot was open. There was a small wait at security, then I headed directly to Buena Vista Street where there was no wait.

I headed straight to the Carthay Circle check in, but they had just cut the line when I got there. I was told to comeback "around 1:30 or 2:00" to try again. Well. the line started forming around 1:00, and luckily I noticed in time to get in. Once I had my name in at Carthay I went back out to Downtown Disney to walk around. I was called back to Carthay in just over an hour, at about 2:30.

I asked one of the managers monitoring the BVS line, how to get in, with a Carthay "reservation" and was directed to "the main gate". Well there was nothing obvious there, so I asked one of the nearby Plaids, who upon confirming that I had received a text to return, escorted me to the front of the line and I went right in. Lunch at Carthay was wonderful as always!

I'm really glad I went, but I won't be rushing out to do it again. There was just too much standing in line in order to do anything. I'm not quite sure what Disney could do differently to make it a better experience, but I don't see myself going back for a long while.

 

[Epicnemesis]

She replied that she believes that management aims to open it soon - perhaps December or January- because she saw them measuring the queue for social-distancing purposes. This is merely her speculation, of course. But hopefully there’s a grain of truth to it.

 

[amyg1975]

I'm really glad I went, but I won't be rushing out to do it again. There was just too much standing in line in order to do anything. I'm not quite sure what Disney could do differently to make it a better experience, but I don't see myself going back for a long while.

That is how we felt. We won’t be rushing back any time soon, but glad we went. So much standing around!

 

[midnight star]

In my experience, I’ve only ever seen it open at 9:30.

Saturday they opened it at 9am, even though the sign said 9:30am. It could vary on certain days though.

 

[midnight star]

That is how we felt. We won’t be rushing back any time soon, but glad we went. So much standing around!

Yeah same. I love going down to DTD for my Disney fix. But I know with the extension in BVS, it's going to be busy for a while. I'm happy I went and enjoyed myself. Very glad I got to eat at Carthay. But once I left out of BVS, I didn't even attempt to go to the regular part of DTD. Didn't feel like waiting anymore lol.

 

[midnight star]

Sad news

 

[WonkaKid]

Saturday they opened it at 9am, even though the sign said 9:30am. It could vary on certain days though.

Maybe they did it on Saturday because of the recent opening of BVS. But in the dozen or so times that I've been to DCA, I've yet to see them open the Simba lot before 9:30. Perhaps that's changed but certainly it wasn't true in the past. I suspect that attendance will be increased for a short time but ultimately it will regress back to around what it was pre-BVS, especially now that Catal has closed. It feels likely that others will follow. As in all of my speculations, though, I could be wrong .

 

[Mathmagicland]

Has anyone gone to DTD since the pay parking started? I’m curious how that process works. Thx!

 

[theluckyrabbit]

Has anyone gone to DTD since the pay parking started? I’m curious how that process works. Thx!

From MousePlanet's article:
https://www.mouseplanet.com/12810/What_to_Expect_as_Buena_Vista_Street_Reopens
The parking area officially open at 9:45 a.m., and Downtown Disney opens 15 minutes later, at 10:00 a.m. each morning. A new $10-per-car parking fee is now in effect, and Disney currently offers no free or reduced parking with purchase. [Update: We previously stated that shoppers would use newly-installed kiosks to pay for parking. Disney is instead collecting the $10 fee at toll booths at the entrance to the parking lot, and the self-pay kiosks are still closed]