Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[bbn1122]

If you could bring yourself to get there early there are so many advantages. It’s cooler (slightly!). Getting there early gets you off the ride by 8:20, Navi is a walk on if you’re interested and it’s still a short wait on Everest because the majority streaming in head for FOP. We did a majority of the attractions with lower wait times and still had a coffee break and lunch before 2:00.

Thanks for sharing this. My family is planning to do the same. We are heading AK on a Monday. FOP, Navi (skipped last time), EE, Dino, etc.

 

[sunnyshari]

Hi all, I thought I would do a quick report here since all of the posts I read helped me before our trip. My family of 4 (myself, DH 49, son 20 and daughter 16) drove from VA and stayed at CSR from 7/27-8/4. We ended up in Ranchos 7A with a nice view of the courtyard even though I had requested a room in Casitas5 through the touringplans app. We visited all of the parks at least once and made it to WinterSummerland golf course. He's a short review of what we did.

Tuesday, 7/27-Checked into CSR. Decided to head to Disney Springs for dinner and some shopping. We ate at Earl of Sandwich which was good. Both kids wanted to look for legacy lightsabers which we had heard were at Disney Springs but the cast member we asked said they had just shipped them all to Galaxy's Edge in the past week or so. My daughter was able to get Loki ears at Super Hero Headquarters in Disney Springs. If you want these ears this is the ONLY place we saw that had them. My daughter was stopped around 10 times this trip but people asking where she got them. At the time there were probably about 30 or so in the store.

Wednesday, 7/28-We had our first park day at HS. All 4 of us tried for a ROTR boarding pass using the tips we had learned on here. My husband was able to score one (I believe it was BG 10). He was standing outside the door of our hotel room while the rest of us were inside. We rope dropped Smuggler's Run which was a disappointment to us. We are all Star Wars fans but were put with a group of 2 that seemed like that had never seen Star Wars before. They were pilots. My kids were gunners and my husband and I were engineers. I thought it was odd that the screen was in front of you but for the gunners and engineers the buttons we had to watch to push were on the side meaning you couldn't see the action in front of you at the same time. We all said we'd rate it below Star Tours. I believe we did ROTR next which was AWESOME!!! We were also able to ride TSM and Alien Swirling Saucers before lunch I believe. We had lunch at ABC Commissary using mobile order. We loved mobile ordering and hope it never goes away!! At some point we went back to CSR for a nap/relax break. That evening we headed back to the park and had dinner at Docking Bay 7 which we thought was good. I believe we did TOT that night. We also went to Dok Ondar's. There were only 4 legacy lightsabers to choose from. Let me know if you want to know what was there as I'll ask the family. My son got the one he wanted but they didn't have any of the ones my daughter wanted. She was pretty disappointed as she has been saving her $ and watching videos to decide what to get for quite awhile. The cast members said they do get new shipments but are never sure what they are going to get.

Thursday, 7/29-This was an early day as we were going to AK and we love FOP. We got there probably around 7:20 and were held until about 7:30. From there we did the controlled rope drop and went straight to FOP. That was a huge line but we were probably off the ride a little after 8. We decided to skip Navi for then and went to Safari. We had a great guide named AJ who did a great job pointing out some things we had never heard on the ride before. After that we went to EE and then to the Tiger trail (can't remember the name). We went over to Rafiki's planet watch to pet the goats and look at the inside exhibits. The Animation class was already going. I believe they were drawing Bambi. It was then time for our lunch TS at Rain Forest Cafe. That was very good and we had a really nice waitress. After lunch we took a break to nap/relax at CSR. I believe this day it also was pouring heavily at this point. My husband could probably keep going without a break but it's just too much for the rest of us. I have to have a break to recharge or I will be grumpy. Also it was super hot. We always go in the summer as I work in a school and this summer just felt even hotter with the long lines due to the lack of fast pass. After our break we were able to ride EE again and Navi. We did the chicken fried rice at the Yak and Yeti counter service place. We love that rice! We got in line before park close and were able to ride FOP again. I feel like we were in line for about 40 minutes. When we came out the park was not lit up as it used to be. I don't know if this was because the park was officially closed or not but that was something I loved about Pandora...seeing it lit up at night so this was a little disappointing. Edited to add: We also kept trying to ride Dinosaur but it was closed most of the day. I also really miss Primeval Whirl. That was always one of our favorites.

 

[kc51570]

Hi all, I thought I would do a quick report here since all of the posts I read helped me before our trip. My family of 4 (myself, DH 49, son 20 and daughter 16) drove from VA and stayed at CSR from 7/27-8/4. We ended up in Ranchos 7A with a nice view of the courtyard even though I had requested a room in Casitas5 through the touringplans app. We visited all of the parks at least once and made it to WinterSummerland golf course. He's a short review of what we did.

Tuesday, 7/27-Checked into CSR. Decided to head to Disney Springs for dinner and some shopping. We ate at Earl of Sandwich which was good. Both kids wanted to look for legacy lightsabers which we had heard were at Disney Springs but the cast member we asked said they had just shipped them all to Galaxy's Edge in the past week or so. My daughter was able to get Loki ears at Super Hero Headquarters in Disney Springs. If you want these ears this is the ONLY place we saw that had them. My daughter was stopped around 10 times this trip but people asking where she got them. At the time there were probably about 30 or so in the store.

Wednesday, 7/28-We had our first park day at HS. All 4 of us tried for a ROTR boarding pass using the tips we had learned on here. My husband was able to score one (I believe it was BG 10). He was standing outside the door of our hotel room while the rest of us were inside. We rope dropped Smuggler's Run which was a disappointment to us. We are all Star Wars fans but were put with a group of 2 that seemed like that had never seen Star Wars before. They were pilots. My kids were gunners and my husband and I were engineers. I thought it was odd that the screen was in front of you but for the gunners and engineers the buttons we had to watch to push were on the side meaning you couldn't see the action in front of you at the same time. We all said we'd rate it below Star Tours. I believe we did ROTR next which was AWESOME!!! We were also able to ride TSM and Alien Swirling Saucers before lunch I believe. We had lunch at ABC Commissary using mobile order. We loved mobile ordering and hope it never goes away!! At some point we went back to CSR for a nap/relax break. That evening we headed back to the park and had dinner at Docking Bay 7 which we thought was good. I believe we did TOT that night. We also went to Dok Ondar's. There were only 4 legacy lightsabers to choose from. Let me know if you want to know what was there as I'll ask the family. My son got the one he wanted but they didn't have any of the ones my daughter wanted. She was pretty disappointed as she has been saving her $ and watching videos to decide what to get for quite awhile. The cast members said they do get new shipments but are never sure what they are going to get.

Thursday, 7/29-This was an early day as we were going to AK and we love FOP. We got there probably around 7:20 and were held until about 7:30. From there we did the controlled rope drop and went straight to FOP. That was a huge line but we were probably off the ride a little after 8. We decided to skip Navi for then and went to Safari. We had a great guide named AJ who did a great job pointing out some things we had never heard on the ride before. After that we went to EE and then to the Tiger trail (can't remember the name). We went over to Rafiki's planet watch to pet the goats and look at the inside exhibits. The Animation class was already going. I believe they were drawing Bambi. It was then time for our lunch TS at Rain Forest Cafe. That was very good and we had a really nice waitress. After lunch we took a break to nap/relax at CSR. I believe this day it also was pouring heavily at this point. My husband could probably keep going without a break but it's just too much for the rest of us. I have to have a break to recharge or I will be grumpy. Also it was super hot. We always go in the summer as I work in a school and this summer just felt even hotter with the long lines due to the lack of fast pass. After our break we were able to ride EE again and Navi. We did the chicken fried rice at the Yak and Yeti counter service place. We love that rice! We got in line before park close and were able to ride FOP again. I feel like we were in line for about 40 minutes. When we came out the park was not lit up as it used to be. I don't know if this was because the park was officially closed or not but that was something I loved about Pandora...seeing it lit up at night so this was a little disappointing. Edited to add: We also kept trying to ride Dinosaur but it was closed most of the day. I also really miss Primeval Whirl. That was always one of our favorites.

Completely agree on Smugglers Run. We waited at least 70 minutes for it and when we got off we said we thought Star Tours was better. I think the long wait contributed to the disappointment. We will try it again some day but only if the wait is low or they bring back FP.

 

[sunnyshari]

Continued...

Friday, 7/30- I forgot to add on our AK day that our sneakers were soaked so we took them to the laundry to try to dry them out. We all had backup sneakers except for my daughter but please remember to bring backups for the rain. This was our MK day. I believe this was the first day the indoor mask mandate came back. My family and I are all vaccinated so we weren't too early either way. However, as the week went on I'm sort of glad the indoor mask mandate came back. The place was packed and they were having us fill all available space. We had brought masks from home for transportation so we were ready. We also bought some disposable masks at Target in Orlando. Wearing the masks inside was not hard. It was difficult however for lines that were outside. Mask compliance was pretty good although some people were just rude to the CMs asking them to mask up. Also you had some of the people that put their masks on by the CM and then take it off further in the line. This was one of our best days. We rope dropped the park and went straight to Splash, then to Thunder Mountain, Pirates and Haunted Mansion. We mobile ordered Pecos Bill for lunch and then headed back to the resort for a break. In the evening we came back and did dinner at Cosmic Ray's, did People Mover (stopped 3 times when we were on it after waiting about 40 minutes to ride it), Aladdin, Jungle Cruise and were the last people to ride Astro Orbiter. Jungle Cruise was fun but we couldn't really understand most of the CM's jokes because of his mask. He also had plexiglass between himself and us. Riding Astro Orbiter at the end of the night was really a cool experience. This day almost felt like the days of fast pass and was very enjoyable.

Saturday, 7/31- Break day!! We slept in until around 10, got ready, had lunch at El Mercado (just OK) and went swimming. The main pool was super busy so we just went to the quiet pool. After that we changed and left the bubble. We had plans to go to Winter Summerland mini golf that night. The busses for Blizzard Beach were done at 6 so we decided to drive. We went to Olive Garden for dinner and then to Winter Summerland. We had the free passes from our Disney package. This was something I'd always wanted to do and we had a blast! We did the winter side. I do recommend making a reservation. I had forgotten about it and when I called the number that morning was told there was a 2 hour wait (generic Disney number). We ended up getting there around 8 and started golfing a little before 9 I believe. The employees were friendly and we had a really good time.

Sunday, 8/1- This was Epcot day. We left a little later and were a few minutes after rope drop. TT was already backed up so we headed to Frozen. I believe our wait was 20 minutes or so. I really loved Maelstrom (I love Norway) but I can appreciate the technology behind this and know that little kids would enjoy this ride more. People were not kidding about the boarded up nature of the place. I had told my family but my husband especially couldn't get over how different it looked. I wanted to take a picture when I saw a PP photographer but he was like of what...we would be just standing in front of construction/boarded up areas. After that I believe we did Soarin and Living on the Land. We went to Nemo, rode that and looked at the aquariums. We had a TS meal at 1:40 at Teppan Edo. The service and food were great! We were seated with a party of 2 with a divider between us. I can't remember the exact order but we also shopped in the Japan store (it closes at 7), did Spaceship Earth, and Mission Space Green. We were able to ride Test track and the Gran Fiesta Tour as well. We are not big eaters so we didn't do the food and wine festival. For dinner my son and husband mobile ordered Regal Eagle and liked it. My daughter and I got funnel cake and were able to bring it in the restaurant. This was another day that felt like a pre-Covid day.

Monday, 8/2- This was our second HS day. We were able to get a ROTR pass. My son got boarding group 1!! My phone wouldn't even refresh. We rope dropped SDD. I wasn't excited to rope drop this as to me it's not worth that long of a wait. I'd say we were in line 30-40 minutes and we did have a good time on it. That is a hot line to have to wear masks. You are not supposed to eat or drink in line now but no one seemed to say anything if you took a sip of water, especially in the outside part. I had bought some neck fans from Target and one of those water hand held fans. Neither of them did much to be honest. We had also brought some small frog togg neck towels which felt good for a few minutes and then dried out. I would second the recommendation to get a UV umbrella. I didn't as I thought it would be a pain but wished I'd had it. We also bought ponchos at Target for $4.99 each which were well worth the money. After SDD we went to ROTR. We then had a lunch reservation at Sci-Fi Dinner theater which was great, especially the donut with fried apples and ice cream. We had a break that afternoon. That evening we rode RNRC, Star Tours, Toy Story Mania and got in line before closing for MMRR. That was a pretty cute ride. We mobile ordered Backlot Express for dinner.

Tuesday, 8/3- This turned out to be a mostly crappy day. We got up early around 6 to do rope drop. At this point we were pretty exhausted and it was starting to rain. It was also 68 degrees. We rope dropped 7 Dwarves which was pretty fun. After that we rode everything in Fantasyland, Peter Pan, IASM, Teacups, Barnstormer, Dumbo. Winnie the Pooh was offline a lot of the day so we never got to that. At this point we were cold and wet so after lunch we went back to the resort for a break and to nap. That evening we mobile ordered Cosmic Ray's which was pretty dry this time. We wanted to ride Space Mountain (we did ride it the other day on this trip..forgot to add it) but the line was very long. We did go to the Hall of Presidents which opened up while we were there, Haunted Mansion, COP. At this point we were getting tired and it was almost time for HEA. All my daughter wanted was a churro. Trying to get through to the cart where they were while people were getting ready to watch the fireworks was a nightmare. CMs kept yelling to move, move, move. It wasn't overly magical although I get that they have to get the area clear. It kind of put a damper on the night. AFter asking someone else we were able to maneuver to the cart and get churros. At this point we were tired and stressed out. My husband wanted to watch HEA. The rest of us just wanted to get out before the mass of humanity.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Overall we had a fun trip. Side note...we are all vaccinated and masked up when required but my son started feeling sick last night. Today he has a low fever of 100.4. He made an appointment for tomorrow to get a rapid Covid test. We are hoping he just has a virus.

We had a fun trip. I don't feel like I got my money's worth though. We go every other year or so. We were supposed to go last year but Covid happened. We stayed at CSR and the rooms were great. However, our room was not cleaned even once. When housekeeping came by for room checks we asked for towels or toilet paper. I had brought my own trash bags. The trash cans are so small they can barely hold anything. I don't blame the housekeepers. I blame Disney for raising capacity before they have the staffing. I feel like I should have been charged less for my room since I was going to be doing my own housekeeping.

We missed Fast passes. We generally do rope drop, take an afternoon break, and go back in the evenings. If they don't have FP I wish they park would stay open later. It is so much prettier and the temps are so much better in the evening. Lines did move and touring plans line app was more accurate that MDE. However, a line outside in July with masks even when moving is HOT. The heat is what drained me...not the walking.

We will be back I think but not until things are better. If I have to stay deluxe to get extra evening hours I will probably do that. I will NOT however be paying for something similar to what they are doing in Disney in Paris. That is a ripoff. I am planning to send an email to Disney as well to let them know about our experience.

The magic was still there but I feel we had to work a little harder to find it. CMs aren't rude but some were more similar to what you would find at a regular theme park. Some were also your typical magical CM. The busses worked well for us. Please let me know if you have any questions and if this should be moved to the trip reports thread or somewhere else please feel free to move it.

Thanks!

 

[Afry]

How are crowd levels right now?

 

[Bambi1942]

These are all great suggestions, but when I had a two year old I just wanted to grab something and be able to eat it in my room or somewhere the kid can run around freely without bugging people. To get in the skyliner and/or have to travel to get food is exhausting. (for those without toddlers they can be like insane unpredictable monkeys and so something simple like getting on the skyliner goes like this: start walking to skyliner kid has to go potty, go back to room and take care of that, then start walking to skyliner then kid sees ducks and wants to check them out, then get in skyliner and kid falls asleep/has to go potty/cries that he’s hungry/doesn’t want to wear mask, get to restaurant and he’s tired and won’t eat, all this while lugging a stroller and/or large bag) even if none of this happens, most parents are stressed that it “might” (seeotential insane monkey) so it’s really necessary to have decent easily accessible food options at the resorts. Kudos to those brave parents with toddlers/babies that keep traveling . I look back and can’t believe I did that much work to go to Disney all the time…..and Disney knows people go with small kids and should have options for their needs.

So agree with you. I’ve been going since my boys were a year old. I’ve stayed at many Disney resorts and I always checked the menus at the resort before I would book a room. If they had nothing good to eat for QS then there was no way I would stay there. This was before Uber eats existed lol. Now they are 12 and 7 and a little more daring.

 

[KM82]

Breakdown of day 1:

We entered Epcot around 4pm and went straight to Appleseed Orchard. I got the Apple Blossom Sky and DS went with the frozen apple pie. DH sat this one out. We both really liked our choices.

Next we decided to head to Soarin. 5pm in line for soarin. Off at 5:25

Straight to living with the land, which we had never done. Off at 5:50

Then we headed to Flavors from Fire. DS and I split Whoopie pie and corned beef, and DH had the swine brine. (Pic attached)

6:15, we hopped in line for SE. It was a walk on. The ride stopped fully on the way up to the first scene. Full stop again at the Woolly mammoth.. off at 6:40

Then we walked around world showcase, but a lot of the shops closed at 7, so that didn’t last long. We did get to get some tea (DS’s favorite) at Twinings Tea. We got a quick lesson about the different flavors and the origin of the tea by one of the guys that works there. He was fantastic. Somehow, not one of the three of us caught his name. We will try to stop by there again on Monday to see if he’s working again or to see if anyone can tell us who he is Seriously great CM.

We had a dinner reservation at Rose and Crown at 8:10, and we just kind of kicked around until it was time for it. We got to watch the fireworks from the patio there, which was a great ending to our first day.

We woke up at 3:30 this morning to get an early start on the road, so walking to the other side of Epcot to do some rides while we waiting wasn’t really in the cards. I think all three of us were about toast.

Now we are trying to decide if we want to rope drop MK tomorrow or just head there once we get up and moving and stay until close. In the before times, we would do a pre park open breakfast, head back midday for the pool, then back to the park for dinner. The idea of DS (who is 10) standing in a mass of people at rope drop just doesn’t sound like the best idea. Sleep also sounds amazing…

 

[e_yerger]

question for people who have traveled recently: has anyone done a grocery delivery recently to their resort? If so, which service did you use? and did you have alcohol included in your order?

 

[Bambi1942]

question for people who have traveled recently: has anyone done a grocery delivery recently to their resort? If so, which service did you use? and did you have alcohol included in your order?

Yes here now and I did an order through Amazon Prime. We stayed at CBR. I had perishable items and they stored them in the refrigerator. I placed the order while sitting in the airport in the morning of my arrival. The resort charged me a $6 storage fee. I didn’t mind because it was way cheaper than using garden grocer. We didn’t order alcohol.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Would love to hear about your time in Universal!
Please, and thank you!

For days/trips specific to Universal or other parks, taking those to the Universal board would be helpful.

Thanks.

 

[Bambi1942]

not the person you asked, but we moved over to universal a couple days ago. Pretty much no masking, and to me it feels way more crowded. Food lines are crazy.

But we have hotel express passes so haven’t waited in lines, except velocicoaster (45-55 minutes x3 times). The hagrid virtual queue is fine if you keep trying. Velocicoaster and hagrid are both incredible. We are enjoying our universal stay, but to me, it feels more crowded than usual and more than WDW at start of week. But the hotel EPs mean no waits!

eta: I don’t mean to sound negative- we are having a great time!

You don’t sound negative. We just finished with our Disney portion of the trip and checked into Portifino today. Disney and Universal is like night and day when it comes to covid precautions. There is no mask mandate here unlike Disney you had cast members that would not let you get in line without a mask. It also seems very very crowded. There are a lot of people not wearing masks inside lines. We’re still wearing masks. Being from NY my family has been accustomed to it.

 

[123SA]

I've read a few reports of shops closing at 7pm in Epcot. Are the food booths open later than that?

 

[KM82]

I've read a few reports of shops closing at 7pm in Epcot. Are the food booths open later than that?

I think they were. Most had long lines. We didn’t go near them because we wanted to be able to have room for dinner. We have another day there next week. I’ll try to remember to look if no one else confirms by then.

 

[daae3]

There were only 4 legacy lightsabers to choose from. Let me know if you want to know what was there as I'll ask the family. My son got the one he wanted but they didn't have any of the ones my daughter wanted. She was pretty disappointed as she has been saving her $ and watching videos to decide what to get for quite awhile. The cast members said they do get new shipments but are never sure what they are going to get.

I would love to know what legacy sabers were available... also, I too loved primeval whirl… One of my favorites

 

[Chaitali]

I've read a few reports of shops closing at 7pm in Epcot. Are the food booths open later than that?

We got food from the booths around 8:30 so at least that late.

 

[sunnyshari]

How are crowd levels right now?

My first MK day and my Epcot day did not feel crowded. The other days felt more crowded to me…no idea why the difference. HS definitely felt the most congested to me while Epcot felt the least crowded.

 

[sunnyshari]

I would love to know what legacy sabers were available... also, I too loved primeval whirl… One of my favorites

Ok just asked my daughter. The first HS day they had Leia’s, Luke’s, skywalker reforged, and Ben Solo’s lightsabers. The second HS day they had Leia’s, skywalker reforged, Ben Solo’s, Darth Vader’s, and the dark saber. Also I forgot to mention that I was able to score a Savi’s reservation at the last minute for my daughter for our second HS day. I was looking on my phone at the resort at almost 1am and someone must’ve cancelled. Got Savis for 9:25 pm on our second HS day. She was so excited since she wasn’t able to find the legacy lightsaber she wanted. She ended up choosing to make the power and control lightsaber with a purple crystal.

 

[preemiemama]

Ok just asked my daughter. The first HS day they had Leia’s, Luke’s, skywalker reforged, and Ben Solo’s lightsabers. The second HS day they had Leia’s, skywalker reforged, Ben Solo’s, Darth Vader’s, and the dark saber. Also I forgot to mention that I was able to score a Savi’s reservation at the last minute for my daughter for our second HS day. I was looking on my phone at the resort at almost 1am and someone must’ve cancelled. Got Savis for 9:25 pm on our second HS day. She was so excited since she wasn’t able to find the legacy lightsaber she wanted. She ended up choosing to make the power and control lightsaber with a purple crystal.

I know they also can have Count Dooku and Ashoka. My son got Dooku's when he couldn't find Ashoka's a few weeks ago.

 

[sunnyshari]

I know they also can have Count Dooku and Ashoka. My son got Dooku's when he couldn't find Ashoka's a few weeks ago.

Yeah my daughter wanted Ashoka. The cast members told us they never know for sure what they will be getting.

 

[2letterwords]

I haven't seen info on this recently. Can you drive to/park at a resort if you have a mobile order? Just trying to figure out transportation in that case.