Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[Kyhome]

You guys totally sound like us. Glad to hear it's been amazing! I am not sure what we'll do with ourselves the rest of the days, but hopefully just more rides!

Yes! Are y’all still here? We have one more day! It’s been one of the best trips ever! My kids just said it has been “epic”.

 

[Cliz155]

Was the wait for a bus long going either way in the mornings vs. at night? Thanks!

We waited about 20 minutes for a bus to DS at night and more like 5 minutes when we went in the morning, but I think it's just a matter of lucky timing. We've seen DS buses every day when we go to get on other buses, so I would say they are running just as often as any other bus. Overall, bus waits haven't been bad at all -- just a few longer waits, but that's normal.

 

[Cliz155]

OMG. I am so dreading these moments - it's going to stress me out for sure. It's why we have basically gone nowhere in WI since March other than work. I don't have a problem changing direction or plans in DS or the parks, but stuck on a bus with someone that ignorant is going to make me a bit insane. I appreciate the insight on the timing!

I will say that this moment was the exception, not the rule. Overall bus rides have been mostly empty. The few times we have had to board a more "full" bus I felt pretty safe because of all the distancing (blocked off seats) and barriers up inside of the bus. They also leave the emergency hatch open in the back so you get a constant flow of fresh air. That being said, Disney needs to be more consistent about the "eating and drinking" (no masks) rule on the bus... we don't hear that message being played consistently. Just this evening we rode home on a bus where a girl nearby was sipping on a drink all the way home. I wasn't in the mood to correct her, and she was 6+ feet away. Still, I think it wouldn't be hard to add in a reminder message on buses like they play on rides.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

So for those of you who feel like there's not much to do... We love the rides and probably can do them a million times and be happy, but I am a little concerned about filling our evenings. We're there 8 full days. And it sounds like DS isn't amazing for safety and the pools aren't ideal either. We'll do both, but I'm not thinking we'll spend all our free time at either of those. Thoughts on what else to do? With kids ages 9, 12, and 15, plus my 21yo bro pair from South Africa? Is Winter Summerland open yet?

With the caveat that I’m the kind of person that can just “be there” and be pretty content, we found we were in bed earlier and slept later than normal trips... but at the end of the day perhaps that wasn’t such a bad thing. Not to glamorize a WDW vacation during a pandemic because there are all sorts of things that make it not so glamorous, but for us the experience was great as it was one of the first times we’ve returned from WDW without the proverbial “I need a vacation from that vacation” feeling.

Did I miss fireworks and late nights in the parks? You bet. But I still felt content with what was available on the whole.

 

[koquinn]

Yes! Are y’all still here? We have one more day! It’s been one of the best trips ever! My kids just said it has been “epic”.

Nope, we arrive Friday night! We are counting the minutes!!!!

 

[Alice Sr.]

I have eaten at both places with 4 under 6 at the time. I prefer Cali Grill because the food there is more kid friendly for my kids because they like sushi and sashimi, etc. I always found my kids were great as long as they were eating. I honestly think you'll be fine at both. Bring some snack for them while you are waiting for food. Sometimes I would keep a small bag of oyster crackers in my purse from another restaurant and/or a squirty tube of baby food because as long as I had that to keep them occupied we were all set.

I'm sorry to say that we ran into some issues with Tiffins over the years. They were never as friendly as ALL the other signature dining restaurants we went to and we are from a restaurant family and the last time we were there I was given old shrimp. My husband used to go to the South Street Seaport market with his Dad when he was a little boy to pick out the fish and he knows fresh fish and my shrimp were inedible and they actually argued with him and were so nasty...and we NEVER complain in restaurants. We will try it again, but not for a bit. It is probably our only negative memory of eating at a Disney restaurant and we have eaten at all the Signatures with all the kids

Thanks for the feedback it is reassuring. We did go ahead and book CG thanks to @MomOTwins. comments. We also booked Tiffins, I was planning on getting the shrimp but I might have to rethink that .

 

[JFox]

I pretty much felt my boys were licking the entire place when we were there last week. Just hands all over. At one point, I was like, "why must you touch everything!?!". The people all around us looked and laughed but for real, they literally had to touch it all. Thank God for hand sanitizer everywhere.

January 2020 my husband and I visited for our anniversary trip. The first few days of the trip I made several videos of my hands on various surfaces to make a video about the sense of touch. Well we both picked up something BAD and ended up sick as dogs for almost a week. We were holed up in our room surviving on room service. 2 trips to urgent care. By the end of our trip we were well enough to travel. Never again will I willingly put my hands on anything.

 

[Alice Sr.]

I have two days of parks to report thus far.

Huge Disney vets and OCD planners (me). I always get the fast passes 60 days out, we always stay on property, always get hoppers, etc. Have been to Disney at least once a year each year in last 10 years.

We wanted to take advantage of lower lines and less crowds. My kids are older now-8 and 13 years old. We have never cared about parades or fireworks (sorry but we do rides during those times) but are all about maximizing rides.

First two days have been great, split stay with Universal, which is new to us. We are staying off disney property for the first time in forever bc there are no extra hours and no early fast passes with staying at Disney.

At AK, we were there from 8-12:30, did FOP twice, EE four times, dinosaur twice, tricero spin, safari, and Navi once, rapids twice. Minimal or no waits for each.

Hollywood studios, we got there at 930 (drove), got a boarding pass number 8 for Rise. Did Rock and Roller x5, Tower terror x4, Mickey and Minnie x2, TSM x2, SDD x2, Smugglers run x2, Rise around 10:30, Star Tours x1 (not all in that order)! Took a two hour break in middle of day to leave park and go eat during a rainstorm.

I do miss the character greetings but my kids aren’t into that anymore (sad).
If you are into rides, now is the time to go because of low waits.

We also don’t really stop to eat (like I said, we go off parks to eat usually) so can’t comment on that.
Entry to parks was easy, including temp checks and bag walk through. I do like that universal now puts hand sanitizer on each persons hands where Disney just had it available. Mask compliance at parks close to 100 percent. Maybe 95? But I saw a few corrected. Yes it’s hot with a mask but we are from the south so we are used to it and did not bother us.
Feel free to ask any questions!

What was your strategy for getting that great BP? Thanks!

 

[DogDoc94]

I am just back! 8/1 Epcot 8/2 HS & DS 8/3 MK 8/4 AK.


Stayed at CBR - very very few food options
In fact, very very few food options anywhere but F&W


I welcome questions!

We will be staying for the first time in a preferred room at CBR next month. Can you confirm the buses only run for MK & AK unless Skyliner is down for weather? Is also sounds like the buses do not start their pickup as early in the morning as before COVID? Any other thoughts on the resort would be welcome.
Thanks!

 

[Kyhome]

What was your strategy for getting that great BP? Thanks!

I read these boards endlessly for the month leading up to our trip and then I “practiced” at home for the first few steps.

I used cell phone data (not WiFi) and stood off to the side at 9:50-near the Disney Jr theater because no one else was there. I have no idea if it matters if no one else is around or not but I felt it helped with better reception. Then I sent my kids to ride tower of terror so they did not stress me out (ha)!

I practiced with opening the app at 9:59 on my iPhone and then would click “join” on the VQ about 30 seconds later. It was never there at that time- 9:59 and 30 seconds). But then I hit “back”, waited until exactly 10:00 am and then I Hit join again and could actually click my party and join. Again, no idea if this would work for all but I literally practiced at 10 and 2 for a week leading up to being in the park! Also I had other friends and-family linked to my account but deleted them prior to this trip bc you need to select your party so I only wanted the four of us that were on this trip.

 

[Alice Sr.]

I am in the same boat. We are going in early October. We had 1 day planned at Epcot and were going to go to Universal one day but since they cancelled Halloween Horror nights we decided there was no reason to go. Right now we replaced that day with a 2nd Epcot day but I am considering swapping it with DHS because I really want to make sure I get on RotR and right now we only have one DHS day planned. Sounds like one day at Epcot is enough and two at DHS might be the way to go. Really hate not being able to hop.

We'll be there the same time, I also rented a car, a van actually. I do not love the buses so for me it was not optional. I was hoping for a better deal but oh well with all the stores closed and the self imposed DS PM restriction I'm sure we will save some money there.

 

[Alice Sr.]

I read these boards endlessly for the month leading up to our trip and then I “practiced” at home for the first few steps.

I used cell phone data (not WiFi) and stood off to the side at 9:50-near the Disney Jr theater because no one else was there. I have no idea if it matters if no one else is around or not but I felt it helped with better reception. Then I sent my kids to ride tower of terror so they did not stress me out (ha)!

I practiced with opening the app at 9:59 on my iPhone and then would click “join” on the VQ about 30 seconds later. It was never there at that time- 9:59 and 30 seconds). But then I hit “back”, waited until exactly 10:00 am and then I Hit join again and could actually click my party and join. Again, no idea if this would work for all but I literally practiced at 10 and 2 for a week leading up to being in the park! Also I had other friends and-family linked to my account but deleted them prior to this trip bc you need to select your party so I only wanted the four of us that were on this trip.

Ok thanks, that's pretty much what I am planning. I have been driving my DD and SIL nuts with who has the fastest phone and service. I have an iPhone and Verizon, my SIL has an Android and Sprint and my DD has an Android and AT&T. I'm sure we will get on, one of them will hit it. I'm old and slow so I have no chance lol, I just need to keep the competition between them heated up. Your practice and strategy paid off that was a great number. Thanks

 

[Sydney2977]

The F&W situation was very disappointing to us. But honestly we enjoyed just walking onto the rides. I hate waiting in lines. LOL

We've been to both F&G and F&W multiple times, so I was excited that even though we had to cancel the trip during F&G earlier this year that we would get at least some kind of festival in Sept. Can you share what specifically in your opinion was disappointing? I just want to mentally prepare myself. TIA!

 

[hereforthechurros]

I thought I saw someone ask about magical
Express wait times. This is now posted at the entrance. We only waited about 15 minutes. Sorry it’s sideways, dang mobile.

 

[Dave006]

Hi @hereforthechurros, I fixed it for you.



Dave

 

[Dismrk155]

Not funny. Things are going downhill fast. No excuse for poor service.

 

[NC State]

O my goodness, I'm glad we are driving!

 

[Grumpy by Birth]

Minutes or hours? It doesn't say.

 

[westie55]

Just back! We had an amazing time. My party was me, DH, DS5 and DS3, both who had birthdays.

1) Masks: compliance was near 100% in all parks (we attended MK twice and both Epcot and DHS once. In MK I saw one grown man without a mask and two families who didn't appear to even have masks out for their children who were 3-5 years old. Once we were behind a family in line for the carousel. The CMs didn't say anything to the children. The other time the family was in the square by Tony's on Main St (the man without the mask was presumably the children's father-- he had a shirt that said "Dad"). Besides this, I didn't see anyone without masks and very few noses poking out. My boys tolerated their masks better than I expected. My 5 year old didn't fuss even once and the 3 year old did wane but we would just go back to the resort for a break. He put it back on when I asked. I didn't enjoy wearing a mask in the heat but my husband and I both agreed it wasn't that bad. We both wore the blue disposable masks. My kids wore homemade masks.

2) Wait times for rides were great! In MK waits were very short overall with the exception of 7DMT and Splash. I got in line for 7DMT at closing and waited 20 minutes. For Splash the wait said 30 but we only waited 13 minutes. Pooh said 20 but it was a walk on. Same with Pirates. The only wait longer than anticipated was for Philharmagic. It said 10 but we waited 20 minutes or so. At Epcot FEA had a 35 min wait spilling out of the building in the hot sun so we skipped that. Everything else was a short wait. In HS, we got boarding group 16 for ROTR which was supposed to have us on around 12:00, but it broke down for the majority of the day. Just when I was resigned to the fact that I might miss it, it reopened around 6:30 pm and we got on. It was impressive. MFSR had a 15 min wait. We got in line for MMRR at closing and waited about 20 min. We skipped SDD. The line is too hot lol.

3) Transportation: we did well with buses besides our first day trying to get to MK for rope drop. The bus filled up with only 4 families. There was only one bus running (to Riviera) and we literally waited for that same bus to drop off and return. There should have been multiple buses running because the line to go to MK was long behind us and I imagine some of those families had to wait multiple cycles. I loved the skyliner. The line looked really long from CBR to HS for rope drop but it moved quickly and we got into the park with about 10 min to spare to get our boarding group. We probably got in line for the skyliner at Riviera at 9:20.

4) Pool wasn't too crowded although I wish there had been a lifeguard enforcing proper behavior in the children's splash area. Kids (some of them middle school age) were climbing up the enclosed water slide while others (including several toddlers) were trying to come down. It was super unsafe and their parents were not watching them. I tried to remind kids not to go up and while for the most part the younger ones listened, the middle school age kids ignored me. I don't know if this was a covid cut or if the kids area never has any staff.

5) For us, the magic was definitely still there. We liked the spontaneous character appearances in the parks. We had a fantastic time!

 

[yulilin3]

Not funny. Things are going downhill fast. No excuse for poor service.

other than transportation what else is going downhill fast? Cause I've been to the parks 3 times a week since reopening and that's the only issue I have seen