Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[yulilin3]

Brown Derby does not have their outdoor dining available for eating, it is only for those getting drinks at the outside bar (not currently serving food out there, which makes me sad)

Thanks for that clarification

 

[Sarahslay]

With all of the discussions on uber/lyft and early morning bus issues I guess I'm confused as to how we should approach rope drop for our trip starting Friday. We are old pros at WDW and have never had an issue getting to rd on time with the bus system, so is it just that the bus can't hold as many people now with the restrictions?

We normally RD, take a break and then return in the evening. Since hours have been added we will be trying this strategy for this trip as well, but only if we can make it there on time in the mornings.

We had to ride the bus to AK & MK from YC and never had any issues being there before park open. Never did feel the need to get an Uber or Lyft, and never killed ourselves to get there early. We just woke up as we always did and took our time getting ready (mind you, kids weren't on this trip). We did the RD, break, return at night and it was easy. We got everything done, and this especially held true at AK where we actually had time to kill before our ADR. We ended up just finding a bench and chilling for an hour before dinner because we had already ridden every ride (some multiple times), seen all the animals, watched the bird show, and were just like "well.....what to do until 6?" . There were always more than one bus full (covid full) when going to MK, and another bus always came quickly and we were on our way, both times being in the park by 8:20 for a 9 open.

 

[sullivan.kscott]

Flew home 11/29. Our layover in DFW was the first time in these past 8 months I've truly felt uncomfortable with a crowd, and I'm in a hospital every day.

A few quick thoughts, as we aren't the "win Disney" types to rope drop and try to do it all anymore.

-Some idea of a plan is still important. In August we could just wing it and still have a successful day. At least for the holiday season, those days are over. We tried to hand over the reigns to our DS 12&10 for our first two park days, but that devolved quickly into finding the worst possible lines. DW and I had enough by the end of our MK day around 2pm. We took a quick pool break and recovered expectations and some light planning for the rest of the week. Even a general idea of what land to be in for which hours helped immensely for our style.
-With the extended hours from the original reopening period, take advantage of a few hours for an afternoon break. We were scared that the shorter hours would make it impossible to do much in the parks and have pool time, but we were oh so wrong. We tended to arrive a little before posted opening time (except our AK day where we didn't show up to the park until 3pm), leave after lunch for a few hours, then close or come close to closing the park. It was heavenly.
-Mobile order has improved greatly with time. I love the arrival window functionality, and the improved item editing functions. Our family really hopes it expands to even the smaller offerings like Gaston's or Friar's Nook by the time we come back.
-Please, can we have the bus loading system stick around? Even after we get back to standing room only bus loading, the few extra minutes it takes was so much more orderly. Skyliner was heavenly. Didn't use boats or monorail.
-Entertainment is missed, for sure. The holiday offerings were nice, but street entertainers and stage shows should come back soon after those are gone, imo. There was a little girl playing with a drum outside of Dawa Bar while we were in line for KS, and a little tear of excitement formed until I remembered they (performers) were gone.
-If there was anything outside of entertainment that we missed, it would be resort package delivery. Carrying shopping bags around gets a little tiring after a while. ME luggage yellow tags can come a little later (but please God come back for airline check-in at a minimum), but please Disney brass, recall whatever staffing you need to make package delivery happen ASAP. I'd even accept a time window for when to return a la mobile ordering if that's what we need to maintain distancing.

Overall, the trip was amazing. It was nice to have the parks feel alive again, even if a little different.

 

[Mom2Stitch]

We had to ride the bus to AK & MK from YC and never had any issues being there before park open. Never did feel the need to get an Uber or Lyft, and never killed ourselves to get there early. We just woke up as we always did and took our time getting ready (mind you, kids weren't on this trip). We did the RD, break, return at night and it was easy. We got everything done, and this especially held true at AK where we actually had time to kill before our ADR. We ended up just finding a bench and chilling for an hour before dinner because we had already ridden every ride (some multiple times), seen all the animals, watched the bird show, and were just like "well.....what to do until 6?" . There were always more than one bus full (covid full) when going to MK, and another bus always came quickly and we were on our way, both times being in the park by 8:20 for a 9 open.

Thank you for easing my mind. We will do what we've always done and not worry about it, lol

 

[Eeyore daily]

Well, I am having a banner day so far. Now SDd went down. Am in line and pretty close to front so not getting out. That’s 2 rides down for me this am. Hopefully it won’t be a third

That happened to us. We rope dropped SDD and it went down right as we were about to board. Now we’re in line for Rise but that’s down too! Not a great day for rides but oh well.

 

[ejdmomma]

I just wanted to share our experience with the queues and maintaining our distance. We were at the parks last week over Thanksgiving and experienced "at capacity" parks. For the most part, we didn't have any issues maintaining appropriate spacing except for in the lines. We are a party of 5 - two adults, two teens that are adult sized and our 10 year old. The 5 of us did not fit on one line...obviously. If we had two on the line and rest behind those two, we were almost to the line marker behind us. After a couple of rides with the party behind us on the line immediate behind, we started to spread out and take up two lines. This worked well for us for the rest of the trip. I don't know if anyone has any better suggestions, just wanted to share!

 

[TikiTikiFan]

For those who bus to AK. What time do you need to be at bus pick up to make the early RD?
We will be at YC, and depending on how our BG goes for HS Tuesday, we may change our park day Wed to AK. AK opens at 8am. I am thinking 1st bus is 7am then-? Does that mean 6 am line up?

We had a 7AM AK opening and we lined up right at 6AM. The bus picked us up at at 6:15AM and there was only three groups on the bus on the way there! Walked into the park by 6:40AM and we were done with both Pandora rides by 7:15AM.

I’d say if you’re not in that first herd going to FOP to do it later. When we left Pandora to head to Expedition, the wait was at 90 mins. We rode Expedition three times in a row with hardly a wait. Same with Dinosaur, rode twice- the CMs even let us stay in the car because no one else was in line. So many people all go right to Pandora every other area is empty in the morning!

 

[TISHLOVESDISNEY]

We had a 7AM AK opening and we lined up right at 6AM. The bus picked us up at at 6:15AM and there was only three groups on the bus on the way there! Walked into the park by 6:40AM and we were done with both Pandora rides by 7:15AM.

I’d say if you’re not in that first herd going to FOP to do it later. When we left Pandora to head to Expedition, the wait was at 90 mins. We rode Expedition three times in a row with hardly a wait. Same with Dinosaur, rode twice- the CMs even let us stay in the car because no one else was in line. So many people all go right to Pandora every other area is empty in the morning!

EE is really DS8's priority.
Thank you for your response. Gives me a bit more hope.

 

[ryanpatricksmom]

On MMRR and it just shut down. We are right at exit so I did get to see it. But I have a question. Does it pause for a bit at Daisy before you start dancing? It was a really long pause

It must be a "sticking point", pun intended. It's gone down at that exact moment a few times for us.

 

[Mrspeaks]

Thank you everyone for their tips and experiences! I’ve been following along and today was our first day in the parks - Magic Kingdom.

We got in line at Pop for the bus at 7 AM and were on the first bus around 8:10 AM.

We were in the park by 8:30 and took a few pictures in the hub and rode Mine Train with less than a five minute wait!

We rode 15 rides between rope drop and 3:15 PM with very minimal waits. The most we waited all day was 35 minutes for Space Mountain and got lucky with a 5 minute wait for Splash Mountain (caught it right after its delayed open).

We’re back at Pop resting and onto Animal Kingdom tomorrow!

I have not been following the bus situation until recently because we are considering a last minute trip.
Knowing people are needing to line up an hour early for buses, what is the Uber/Lyft utilization like now? I’m sure it depends on your comfort level of being in a car with someone else.

 

[CLE2WDW07]

For those who bus to AK. What time do you need to be at bus pick up to make the early RD?
We will be at YC, and depending on how our BG goes for HS Tuesday, we may change our park day Wed to AK. AK opens at 8am. I am thinking 1st bus is 7am then-? Does that mean 6 am line up?

We went to AK today and were lined up for the first bus at Pop at 7:15 AM and picked up around 8:20 (park officially opened at 9). We were one of the first groups in and walked onto FOP and were off by 9 AM. Rode River Journey with about a five minute wait right after that.

We rode all of the major attractions today and were done around 1!

 

[MEC004]

Currently, everyone goes through the same lines, leaving backpacks on, only holding out umbrellas at arms length. If you set off the detector, you go to another line for bag inspection. Strollers, wheelchairs, etc., bypass the detector and get visually inspected.

Today going through Epcot my backpack went off. The security guard said that eyeglass cases set them off every time. Who knew?!

 

[yulilin3]

Today going through Epcot my backpack went off. The security guard said that eyeglass cases set them off every time. Who knew?!

I believe @soniam had the same issue

 

[wdwrule]

Today going through Epcot my backpack went off. The security guard said that eyeglass cases set them off every time. Who knew?!

Same thing happened to me last week. I thought I was so prepared with phone, battery pack and umbrella held out at arm’s length. So surprised too to find out it was sunglasses case which they said was covered in metal.

 

[cp1116]

I just wanted to share our experience with the queues and maintaining our distance. We were at the parks last week over Thanksgiving and experienced "at capacity" parks. For the most part, we didn't have any issues maintaining appropriate spacing except for in the lines. We are a party of 5 - two adults, two teens that are adult sized and our 10 year old. The 5 of us did not fit on one line...obviously. If we had two on the line and rest behind those two, we were almost to the line marker behind us. After a couple of rides with the party behind us on the line immediate behind, we started to spread out and take up two lines. This worked well for us for the rest of the trip. I don't know if anyone has any better suggestions, just wanted to share!

This technique worked really well for our party of 6— 3 to a line.

 

[DisneyNDecember]

Flew home 11/29. Our layover in DFW was the first time in these past 8 months I've truly felt uncomfortable with a crowd, and I'm in a hospital every day.

A few quick thoughts, as we aren't the "win Disney" types to rope drop and try to do it all anymore.

-Some idea of a plan is still important. In August we could just wing it and still have a successful day. At least for the holiday season, those days are over. We tried to hand over the reigns to our DS 12&10 for our first two park days, but that devolved quickly into finding the worst possible lines. DW and I had enough by the end of our MK day around 2pm. We took a quick pool break and recovered expectations and some light planning for the rest of the week. Even a general idea of what land to be in for which hours helped immensely for our style.
-With the extended hours from the original reopening period, take advantage of a few hours for an afternoon break. We were scared that the shorter hours would make it impossible to do much in the parks and have pool time, but we were oh so wrong. We tended to arrive a little before posted opening time (except our AK day where we didn't show up to the park until 3pm), leave after lunch for a few hours, then close or come close to closing the park. It was heavenly.
-Mobile order has improved greatly with time. I love the arrival window functionality, and the improved item editing functions. Our family really hopes it expands to even the smaller offerings like Gaston's or Friar's Nook by the time we come back.
-Please, can we have the bus loading system stick around? Even after we get back to standing room only bus loading, the few extra minutes it takes was so much more orderly. Skyliner was heavenly. Didn't use boats or monorail.
-Entertainment is missed, for sure. The holiday offerings were nice, but street entertainers and stage shows should come back soon after those are gone, imo. There was a little girl playing with a drum outside of Dawa Bar while we were in line for KS, and a little tear of excitement formed until I remembered they (performers) were gone.
-If there was anything outside of entertainment that we missed, it would be resort package delivery. Carrying shopping bags around gets a little tiring after a while. ME luggage yellow tags can come a little later (but please God come back for airline check-in at a minimum), but please Disney brass, recall whatever staffing you need to make package delivery happen ASAP. I'd even accept a time window for when to return a la mobile ordering if that's what we need to maintain distancing.

Overall, the trip was amazing. It was nice to have the parks feel alive again, even if a little different.

Don’t they still have lockers in the parks?
You could put your purchases in a locker and get them out before you leave the park , so you don’t have to carry all your bags during the day.

 

[Befferk]

Don’t they still have lockers in the parks?
You could put your purchases in a locker and get them out before you leave the park , so you don’t have to carry all your bags during the day.

I know they aren't doing resort package delivery, but are they also not doing it where you can send purchases to the front of the park either?

 

[yulilin3]

I know they aren't doing resort package delivery, but are they also not doing it where you can send purchases to the front of the park either?

They're not, only thing available is shipping home

 

[Befferk]

They're not, only thing available is shipping home

Good to know, thanks!

 

[dachsie]

Had a good time today at HS despite the ride issues. Started out my morning with breakfast at A&C and walked to HS. Got there about 8:20 with about 5 families ahead of me. Waited for quite a while and the CM said 10 more mins so ran to restroom. Well, as I was coming back they started moving so ran quickly to get back in line. Then they lined us up at the screening tents at about 8:45. 2 mins later people started off loading from Skyliner. They held us there for quite a while - they started filling the second tent line which was all the way to the buses before they started letting us back. I felt like we lost the advantage of arriving early.

Headed straight to MMRR. Walked all the way in and didn’t stop until I was at gate 6 to board so I guess it worked out. Was really cute and was all the way thru and almost to the platform and it went down. They gave us a multiple experience FP that I planned to use for SDD at night. Then headed to SDD and it went down but was in the last turn before the split lines so stayed put and they got it running shortly thereafter. SDD had lots of problems today - went down multiple times.

Next I headed to Batuu to look around. Lines were really long for everything so though it was a good time to look around. Then went to Muppets with a 10 min wait. When I got out it was at 30 so that worked out. Then went to pick up my Ronto wrap for lunch. After that I went to the Mickey short film and then headed to Hollywood blvd for snack and to wait for the Mickey cavalcade. After that headed back to TSL for TSMM and AS2.

Then I got in line for MFSR which was posted at 50 min. I got right up to the entrance and they called my boarding group. The CM recommended I go to Rise so I bailed. That was a long line. Finally got off that at 5:05. It was really cool tho and I enjoyed it. I needed to check in for my ADR so didn’t have time for anything so decided to go find a bench over by Backlot to see if any cavalcades would show up. Lucked out and the Pixar one came by. Then checked in for MM and went over there. By this time I was convinced SDD would not be running as it had been down for almost 2 hours. But I asked my server to rush my food so I could get back out there to ride MFSR.

Finished about 6:10 and SDD was still down. So I went to MFSR and used my FP and went straight in. That was fun. I only did 53% damage flying by myself. LOL. CM said that was pretty good. Decided to walk to TSL to take some night pics. App still said SDD was down but when I got there it had started running so got in line. At 6:45 it went down again. Gave it 5 mins and decided to bail. Took some pics and headed out. Just as I got to the Market, I heard it running again but I was ok with it. Considered jumping inline for MMRR again but decided to go take more pics and look at the projections on the Hollywood Tower and headed to the bus.

I got to do everything I wanted today with the exception of SDD at night but apparently that ride doesn’t like the cold. Tomorrow I have CM for breakfast and then MK.