Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[Dentam]

MK was pretty busy today. Definitely a different experience than Wednesday, that's for sure.

Took the Magical Express to the airport. They weren't spacing people on the bus but luckily it wasn't too full. I wasn't super comfortable with it though given two people coughing throughout the half hour drive to the airport, one of whom had his nose out of his mask. Also, they still schedule your ME to leave at least 3 hours before your flight (3.5 in my case), so there's a lot of downtime at the airport. Mask compliance isn't as good here and I've had to move in the waiting area twice now to get away from a woman coughing without a mask on the first time and then a guy that sat back to back with my seat despite plenty of other open seats. I would probably arrange alternate transportation to the airport if I had it to do over and arrive here closer to my flight time.

All in all though, we had a great trip and felt pretty safe other than today at MK which was more crowded and here at the airport. Will get tested a few days after arriving home and then wait for the results before returning to work. Fingers crossed all goes well. We won't be returning until next fall at the earliest. Hope everyone with trips coming up has a great time!

 

[chicagoshannon]

Sea world was fantastic day. I think Friday is the best day to go because everything is open and it's still very low crowds.

We move to BCV tomorrow and Epcot is the park of the day. I hope they still have the macaron ears as my daughter really wants them and they weren't there last Saturday.

 

[IluvMGM]

Did you get to DHS an hour before opening or what time to get on M&M pretty fast?

They opened at 10 when we went. They let us in to the park by 9:15, we were one of the first ones waiting to enter. We went right to M&M and got into line. They didn't start running the ride until around 9:30, we got on and off quickly. By the time we get off the ride the line is crazy long since most people seem to go there first.

 

[NashvilleMama]

Arrived at MK today straight from the airport, around 11am. Short walk into the park from the parking lot, temp check and security took about 2 minutes start to finish. (Umbrellas set off the scanners, FYI.)

I wasn’t sure what exactly to expect based on recent reports, but was pleasantly surprised at the low crowd levels. We always come during 9-10 crowd level days due to school breaks, so this was CRAZY low to us.

Even with a few rain stoppages of rides, we got everything done we wanted to do by park close at 6. e.g. Space was 25 mins mostly walking the whole time, Peter Pan 15 (I realized I have NEVER seen the standby queue and it was so cool to do so), Splash was longer because of a storm stoppage but we were thankful to be in the inside queue portion to wait it out!

Very high mask adherence overall. And it was HUMID and HOT. One group of young teenagers didn’t have theirs on at all during BTMRR line and we were highly annoyed with them, so it was a little satisfying to watch them board the train then immediately get kicked off before it started by the multiple CMs who handled it beautifully amidst lots of loud protesting. Wearing them all day in this heat was kind of hard, I won’t lie. And we’re pretty used to them

I almost had a small anxiety attack on the plane, but at the park I felt fine. Ate lunch at Cosmic Rays and felt perfectly ok inside (really needed a heat break.)

CBR is relatively empty but the pool is utterly packed to the brim right now at 8pm.

Also, mobile ordering for Dole Whips need to stay forEVER.

Tomorrow: DHS day! So far so good, definitely a one time thing for us but glad we pulled the trigger on this trip after so much debate. We all needed this.

 

[lelew]

This is our last night after two weeks here in Orlando we have spent a few nights by the pool here at Pop. Tonight (Friday) is the first night since we checked in on Labor Day that we have seen them shut the pool down due to reaching capacity. People are forming lines to get in. Also pool bar line is super long. The cafeteria line is really long. So something to keep in mind if your planning on weekend trips.

 

[Brett Wyman]

Arrived at MK today straight from the airport, around 11am. Short walk into the park from the parking lot, temp check and security took about 2 minutes start to finish. (Umbrellas set off the scanners, FYI.)

I wasn’t sure what exactly to expect based on recent reports, but was pleasantly surprised at the low crowd levels. We always come during 9-10 crowd level days due to school breaks, so this was CRAZY low to us.

Even with a few rain stoppages of rides, we got everything done we wanted to do by park close at 6. e.g. Space was 25 mins mostly walking the whole time, Peter Pan 15 (I realized I have NEVER seen the standby queue and it was so cool to do so), Splash was longer because of a storm stoppage but we were thankful to be in the inside queue portion to wait it out!

Very high mask adherence overall. And it was HUMID and HOT. One group of young teenagers didn’t have theirs on at all during BTMRR line and we were highly annoyed with them, so it was a little satisfying to watch them board the train then immediately get kicked off before it started by the multiple CMs who handled it beautifully amidst lots of loud protesting. Wearing them all day in this heat was kind of hard, I won’t lie. And we’re pretty used to them

I almost had a small anxiety attack on the plane, but at the park I felt fine. Ate lunch at Cosmic Rays and felt perfectly ok inside (really needed a heat break.)

CBR is relatively empty but the pool is utterly packed to the brim right now at 8pm.

Also, mobile ordering for Dole Whips need to stay forEVER.

Tomorrow: DHS day! So far so good, definitely a one time thing for us but glad we pulled the trigger on this trip after so much debate. We all needed this.

At MK? It’s been there awhile and is permanent!

 

[WEDWDW]

Seething i forgot to mention yesterday, the plastic dividers that put on some ride vehicles. They are awful. If there was one thing that bothered me most I this it would be those. They are on the Land boat ride and on Kong at universal (I think other rides that we haven't gone on yet). The Land was so awful i wouldn't even ride again. Could hardly see anything I that ride. We were in the last row so had to look through 5 of them to try to see anything straight ahead.

We have started calling it Plexiglass World!lol

I sure wish I had a TON of Stock in whoever Disney is buying their Plexiglass from!lol

 

[NoraRose]

Arrived at MK today straight from the airport, around 11am. Short walk into the park from the parking lot, temp check and security took about 2 minutes start to finish. (Umbrellas set off the scanners, FYI.)

I wasn’t sure what exactly to expect based on recent reports, but was pleasantly surprised at the low crowd levels. We always come during 9-10 crowd level days due to school breaks, so this was CRAZY low to us.

Even with a few rain stoppages of rides, we got everything done we wanted to do by park close at 6. e.g. Space was 25 mins mostly walking the whole time, Peter Pan 15 (I realized I have NEVER seen the standby queue and it was so cool to do so), Splash was longer because of a storm stoppage but we were thankful to be in the inside queue portion to wait it out!

Very high mask adherence overall. And it was HUMID and HOT. One group of young teenagers didn’t have theirs on at all during BTMRR line and we were highly annoyed with them, so it was a little satisfying to watch them board the train then immediately get kicked off before it started by the multiple CMs who handled it beautifully amidst lots of loud protesting. Wearing them all day in this heat was kind of hard, I won’t lie. And we’re pretty used to them

I almost had a small anxiety attack on the plane, but at the park I felt fine. Ate lunch at Cosmic Rays and felt perfectly ok inside (really needed a heat break.)

CBR is relatively empty but the pool is utterly packed to the brim right now at 8pm.

Also, mobile ordering for Dole Whips need to stay forEVER.

Tomorrow: DHS day! So far so good, definitely a one time thing for us but glad we pulled the trigger on this trip after so much debate. We all needed this.

Please post about your day tomorrow! We are headed to HS next Friday and I’m so nervous about MMRR and RotT.

 

[hereforthechurros]

Has anyone that is here now seen the Together Again tee anywhere in the parks?
I would love to get one but I think they may be sold out. Haven’t seen them at HS,EP, or MK yet.

Sorry if this was already answered but the Marketplace Co-Op at Disney Springs had a good amount of Together Again Merch when we were there last month.

 

[cmp1976]

We are leaving tomorrow. Been a great week overall. The only attraction that we did that I feel Disney needs to do a better job with is It's Tough to Be a Bug! When the doors to the theater open they really need some CMs to control the flow of people and direct you to a row and where to sit. It seemed a disorganized mess. Zero social distancing at that point.

 

[GusGusTheMouse]

Has anyone that is here now seen the Together Again tee anywhere in the parks?
I would love to get one but I think they may be sold out. Haven’t seen them at HS,EP, or MK yet.

I was desperately looking for this as well at the beginning of August. I could not find the tshirts but found a few of the masks. But those were going quickly as well. Disappointed...

 

[emmabelle]

I hope they still have the macaron ears as my daughter really wants them and they weren't there last Saturday.

They still had them last night at 6pm when we went to get food at Les Halles. I bought them earlier in the day and they are a little heavy but still super cute!

 

[butterscotchcollins]

My three biggest takeaways from our trip:
1. Parks as stated are consistently opening and running earlier than the posted park time - get there an hour earlier.
2. In the rainy season (i.e. now) get all the outdoor attractions you want to do out of the way in the morning so that you’re not cranky and stressed when they shut for weather in the afternoon - the shorter park hours make it hard to wait out the rain and circle back
3. Buses don’t go to Disney Springs from the parks Oops.

 

[robinstrip]

They opened at 10 when we went. They let us in to the park by 9:15, we were one of the first ones waiting to enter. We went right to M&M and got into line. They didn't start running the ride until around 9:30, we got on and off quickly. By the time we get off the ride the line is crazy long since most people seem to go there first.

Thanks. We will be staying at CBR for the first time. Debating the Skyliner vs driving in order to get there early. I appreciate your answer!

 

[MomOTwins]

Thanks. We will be staying at CBR for the first time. Debating the Skyliner vs driving in order to get there early. I appreciate your answer!

We rode the skyliner twice on our trip and found it was very quick and efficient. No trouble getting in the park well in advance of 10am both times

 

[SugarSweetLee]

We are back from an 11 day trip at Pop Century. We had some crowded days with the holiday and some slower days. I think the crowded days wouldn't have seemed so bad had we had fastpasses and if shows were open to spread out the crowd. It was super hot most of the time. We loved the cavalcades and hope they stay. We didn't miss parades since we don't usually watch those. We probably would have done fireworks if they had them, but it was not a huge deal for us. I was most worried about transportation from what I read here, but I thought it was pretty good. We were always one of the first in line for the buses or skyliner, and were one of the first inside the parks (beating the cars, so glad we didn't Uber). We felt like getting in early was definitely an advantage everywhere, especially DHS, where we could get right on Minnie & Mickey with plenty of time to spare to get a boarding group. I was stressed about that before the trip, but ended up getting group 19 our 1st and 2nd times there and somehow managed to get group 1 on the last day. I also noticed it looked like buses came one right after the other, so I was pleasantly surprised with that. Sometimes they did board more people than they should have. Which brings me to the mask compliance and social distancing, which we thought was not very good. Whether in line for a ride, bus, etc.. you could always look around and see people with masks off or down, eating wherever they wanted, even while walking around. Cast members would usually ignore them, but when they did say something about the masks, the people where rude about it and often needed to be told more than once. A family in the log behind on Splash Mountain all had their masks off while riding and they still got their picture, not sure how that worked. I don't really understand it, it's not that hard and you know it's what you have to do to be at Disney and be safe. There wasn't social distancing at all when leaving rides and when walking through the park. Magical Express going to the airport was also odd, there were no assigned seats and no social distancing. The driver then announced he had 3 too many people on the bus and need 3 people to get off. I think there was still magic, although I did miss a lot of the smells of Disney.

What smells did you miss and why weren't they there ?

 

[IluvMGM]

What smells did you miss and why weren't they there ?

Wearing a mask made it difficult to smell things that weren't super strong. I could still smell the fall of Rome in SSE, I couldn't smell what ride buildings smelled like. Tower of Terror for example, the musty boiler room smell. Just little Disney smells I had no clue meant so much to me.

 

[mouselovenfamily]

Have the parks seen there post Labor day drop off in numbers? Seem like today is busy although it's a weekend, wondering if numbers will be going lower?

 

[maryj11]

MK was pretty busy today. Definitely a different experience than Wednesday, that's for sure.

Took the Magical Express to the airport. They weren't spacing people on the bus but luckily it wasn't too full. I wasn't super comfortable with it though given two people coughing throughout the half hour drive to the airport, one of whom had his nose out of his mask. Also, they still schedule your ME to leave at least 3 hours before your flight (3.5 in my case), so there's a lot of downtime at the airport. Mask compliance isn't as good here and I've had to move in the waiting area twice now to get away from a woman coughing without a mask on the first time and then a guy that sat back to back with my seat despite plenty of other open seats. I would probably arrange alternate transportation to the airport if I had it to do over and arrive here closer to my flight time.

All in all though, we had a great trip and felt pretty safe other than today at MK which was more crowded and here at the airport. Will get tested a few days after arriving home and then wait for the results before returning to work. Fingers crossed all goes well. We won't be returning until next fall at the earliest. Hope everyone with trips coming up has a great time!

Oh gee I don’t like that about the coughing. We will be flying in using the magic express too. They need to enforce some rules !

 

[NashvilleMama]

Thanks. We will be staying at CBR for the first time. Debating the Skyliner vs driving in order to get there early. I appreciate your answer!

We took Lyft this morning instead of Skyliner from CBR and glad we did. We could have probably made it but eliminating the stress of it was worth it to us. Will just skyliner “home.”