Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[Ricguz]

Just returned from a 6 day trip at Yacht Club (mother/daughter trip)!! Our room was great, housekeeping showed up every other day so we always had a huge supply of towels. I took notes of posted wait times vs. actual wait times... we never waited to the posted time. For example: Haunted Mansion on Labor Day Saturday was 60 min; we waited 20. Basically every ride was like this. Longest we waited was 45 min for Flight of Passage around 10am on a Monday.

Mask compliant is about 50/50 outdoors, and 90/10 indoors. I wore my medical mask outdoors minus when there were not crowds, and it was very do-able. Just bring a napkin or something to dab your face if you get a sweaty lip (like me!). You will get called out if you can't handle chin/nose/mouth protocol, which I was happy to see. I wore an N95 and medical during Happily Ever After because it was super-packed and felt safe. My tip is to bring a portable hand sanitizer clip so you can clip it to a belt loop -- the park sanitizer is kinda slimy.

Park hopping is a breeze! Cast Members are very sweet if you are sweet to them and comply with the rules; we had no crabby CMs at all. Not a lot of older guests, and not as much younger children for obvious reasons, but weirdly a ton of newborns/under 1 year olds however were there? I found that to be the most surprising factor of all. Very sad to have our possible last Magical Express trip We had no wait for both to and from the airport! I was dreading that the most given I'd seen so many posts about 2 hour waits, but we were pleasantly surprised. Mobile ordering is the BEST.

Overall this was one of our best trips, and I understand now why everyone wants no more fastpasses -- I'm a believer of it! I go back end of October with my SO for a week (planned eons ago before 50th announcements and Genie+ travesties) so I am worried that trip will be stressful, but at least this trip was great and relatively easy-going in every single way.

My favorite resort! We have plans for December 2022.

 

[cellomom]

I’m not going to try and get all the rides done again

After becoming a DVC member we learned to relax more too, there will be a next time

 

[MrWreckless]

Anyone know why crowd levels have jumped up to summer levels again? Did everyone book these weeks trying to avoid the 50th and ended up making them more crowded than usual. Two weeks ago you could get a BG to RotR all day, now they are back to going in 5 seconds.


Ughhhhh I'm due to arrive Monday and thought we picked out a stress free week.

 

[hereforthechurros]

Anyone know why crowd levels have jumped up to summer levels again? Did everyone book these weeks trying to avoid the 50th and ended up making them more crowded than usual. Two weeks ago you could get a BG to RotR all day, now they are back to going in 5 seconds.


Ughhhhh I'm due to arrive Monday and thought we picked out a stress free week.

Wait times do not match summer levels looking at them today. FOP is 60 when it was regularly 120 in July when we went. MK looks reasonable. Higher than the week before Labor Day but still very manageable. Those ROTR days were fluke not the norm. Also rumors they may be running less capacity depending on demand.

With APs on sales again I expect weekends to be busier with locals coming in again.

Also, people see low crowds and book trips. By the time they get there so many others have done the same that crowds aren’t as low anymore.

 

[MrWreckless]

Wait times do not match summer levels looking at them today. FOP is 60 when it was regularly 120 in July when we went. MK looks reasonable. Higher than the week before Labor Day but still very manageable. Those ROTR days were fluke not the norm. Also rumors they may be running less capacity depending on demand.

With APs on sales again I expect weekends to be busier with locals coming in again.

Also, people see low crowds and book trips. By the time they get there so many others have done the same that crowds aren’t as low anymore.

That must be it because they shouldn't be going in 5 seconds judging by the lines elsewhere in the park.

 

[hereforthechurros]

That must be it because they shouldn't be going in 5 seconds judging by the lines elsewhere in the park.

Also they fixed the BG group system to make it more streamlined which may be helping groups go quicker. And again not to blame locals but now that they have APs again, and you don’t have the be on property to book, many try to get a ROTR BG and just don’t go if they don’t get one.

 

[VAtink]

Just got back from a morning in MK. It was a productive morning, but not as productive as my April trip. Still most rides were walk on for the first hour or so. After that the waits weren't horrible, mostly 10-15ish minutes. Was able to ride Splash x2, thunder, pirates, HM, Buzz, and people mover by 11:30. Missed 7DMT and Space that I got on in April in roughly the same time it took to ride the rides today, but back then parks were only at 35% capacity and the opening was easier with being able to head straight to a ride once you entered the park instead of being held on Main Street for the first hour.

As we were leaving the park a bit after noon it was starting to get pretty crowded, seemed a bit worse crowd-wise than we've seen in past Septembers around that time of day, but then again the rope drop overall seems more crowded than in the past this time of year.

Decided to grab some food at the Grand Floridian, then hopped over to Epcot to check another of the fromage montage items off our list. Epcot was typical Saturday afternoon Food and Wine crowded as expected. Didn't stay long, just grabbed our cheese then headed out. So far a good start to the trip! Hoping after tomorrow the crowds go back down to the pre-labor day levels!

 

[VAtink]

Also, this is the best 50th statue.

 

[CarolynFH]

Also, this is the best 50th statue. View attachment 604090

Where is it?! I want my photo taken there too!

 

[VAtink]

Where is it?! I want my photo taken there too!

It's on the walkway from Tomorrowland Terrace to Tomorrowland. It was a hard one to find, just happened to notice it while crossing the bridge to Tomorrowland.

 

[Leigh L]

Also, this is the best 50th statue. View attachment 604090

This is so totally on my must do list! lol

 

[CarolynFH]

It's on the walkway from Tomorrowland Terrace to Tomorrowland. It was a hard one to find, just happened to notice it while crossing the bridge to Tomorrowland.

Thanks - I thought it might be "that" purple wall! I've made a note for my November trip!

 

[Caboosey]

Anyone who has been recently - is the Christmas Shop in Magic Kingdom personalizing things now?

 

[GoofEeyore26]

Got in yesterday around 11am. This was the magical express line. People near the front half said they'd been waiting 45min (not checked in yet). I was glad we rented a car. https://photos.app.goo.gl/3RQKRusyVk1U35un7

 

[VAtink]

Well we tried to get a boarding group this morning but failed. So annoyed, I verified my phone's clock was accurate at 6:55, and then watched the seconds counting down and right when it hit 7 hit join... and they were already gone. This is our only HS day this trip, figured after how easy it was to get a BG in April it'd be easy today too, oops! Lesson learned. At least I've already seen it, but I feel bad for my mom who hasn't and was looking forward to it.

 

[mfly]

Got in yesterday around 11am. This was the magical express line. People near the front half said they'd been waiting 45min (not checked in yet). I was glad we rented a car. https://photos.app.goo.gl/3RQKRusyVk1U35un7

Just to provide people with an alternate experience: we got into the Magical Express “line” at 7 PM this past Friday night.

There was literally ZERO other people waiting - we were immediately put on a bus, and we left within 5 minutes!

 

[MDIME]

Well we tried to get a boarding group this morning but failed. So annoyed, I verified my phone's clock was accurate at 6:55, and then watched the seconds counting down and right when it hit 7 hit join... and they were already gone. This is our only HS day this trip, figured after how easy it was to get a BG in April it'd be easy today too, oops! Lesson learned. At least I've already seen it, but I feel bad for my mom who hasn't and was looking forward to it.

This happened to my daughter and I in late March. We got aBG at the 1:00 drop though. So all was not lost, good luck!

 

[mfly]

Well we tried to get a boarding group this morning but failed. So annoyed, I verified my phone's clock was accurate at 6:55, and then watched the seconds counting down and right when it hit 7 hit join... and they were already gone. This is our only HS day this trip, figured after how easy it was to get a BG in April it'd be easy today too, oops! Lesson learned. At least I've already seen it, but I feel bad for my mom who hasn't and was looking forward to it.

Can you swap HS for another day later this trip and grab a different park pass for another park this morning?

We were able to get a BG, but I’m glad two of us were trying because the app on my phone decided it was going to act up right at 7:00:00.

Overall, the app has felt especially finicky this weekend.

 

[VAtink]

Can you swap HS for another day later this trip and grab a different park pass for another park this morning?

We were able to get a BG, but I’m glad two of us were trying because the app on my phone decided it was going to act up right at 7:00:00.

Overall, the app has felt especially finicky this weekend.

We may just use our second MK morning as a HS morning, but we'll try again at 1, thankfully we have a super late dinner tonight so our afternoon is open.

And I agree, the app has been really buggy the last few days. Yesterday on the way to MK it completely deleted our entire trip from the system!

 

[TMichele]

Anyone who has been recently - is the Christmas Shop in Magic Kingdom personalizing things now?

We were there yesterday and saw a CM at a small desk near the register working on something, so I would say yes!

our trip has been incredibly smooth. Flew in day before yesterday. Did not wait more than 10 mins for magical express to wilderness, no crowd. Wilderness Lodge has been amazing, it is so quiet here. Never waited more than a couple minutes for bus or boat transportation. We RD MK yesterday. We did almost everything by early afternoon. Carousel and Buzz down so we missed those. Longest wait was Pooh for 20 mins. It did start “feeling” crowded though lines weren’t bad. Hopped to HS at 4pm and it had been raining and that was really amazing. ToT twice in 25 mins. Walk on star tours, like we never saw anyone else. RNR waited like 25 mins. MMRR I’d say 20 and that ride was amazing! We caught the projection show coming out and the crowd to leave wasn’t even bad. Got right on a comfy motorcoach back to wilderness.

We go to Epcot today and transfer over to Boardwalk for the rest of the trip. We hope we love it as much as wilderness and that the crowds stay low!