Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[kylenne]

Such a sweet family photo!

Our trip starts a week from today- do you think wait times will be similar to what you had (minus the hurricane days)?

I’ve been watching wait times periodically this past week and they looked pretty good.

If anything they should be better when you go, NYC schools go back after Labor Day

 

[scrappinginontario]

Just remembered one more tip - if your group can do single riders for a Test Track, I highly recommend this!! We did it 3 different days. All 3 times the line was 60+ mins and we walked on each time!!

As Disney has created new attractions and queues they have figured out how to need less single riders and their strategy works well! As you get close to the attraction (Slinky, is an example) the CM puts groups with even numbers in one line and odd number in another. The CM at the front quickly loads each ‘dog’ alternating between 1 dog filling with groups from the even number line and then the next dog from the odd number line. Works very well as the odd number line match up, not needing single riders.

 

[kwwdw]

Hi All! We're just a few weeks from our trip and I am wondering how early they are letting people into parks these days? We're staying on property so trying to plan when to arrive for rope drop. Generally speaking we usually do half an hour before early magic hours are supposed to start, but I'm curious if it should sooner. Thanks for any advice!

 

[SkyGuy]

Hi All! We're just a few weeks from our trip and I am wondering how early they are letting people into parks these days? We're staying on property so trying to plan when to arrive for rope drop. Generally speaking we usually do half an hour before early magic hours are supposed to start, but I'm curious if it should sooner. Thanks for any advice!

You should be at the bus stop 90 minutes before early entry if you really want to be toward the front of the rope drop crowd.

 

[kylenne]

Hi All! We're just a few weeks from our trip and I am wondering how early they are letting people into parks these days? We're staying on property so trying to plan when to arrive for rope drop. Generally speaking we usually do half an hour before early magic hours are supposed to start, but I'm curious if it should sooner. Thanks for any advice!

They are pretty strict on early entry times. Even if they let you through the tapstiles they generally hold you at whatever attraction. Rise and FoP are most likely to start earlier than official EE start if they’re up and ready. But you still want to be there 1 hr before EE even for the other attractions to set yourself up for ride 2 and 3. It’s extra important for HS because today for instance was very challenging with rides going down at EE but because I was done with Tower so fast being held up at RNRR really didn’t throw me off too badly. Though admittedly I have G+ today.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Hi All! We're just a few weeks from our trip and I am wondering how early they are letting people into parks these days? We're staying on property so trying to plan when to arrive for rope drop. Generally speaking we usually do half an hour before early magic hours are supposed to start, but I'm curious if it should sooner. Thanks for any advice!

You should be at the bus stop 90 minutes before early entry if you really want to be toward the front of the rope drop crowd.

You are correct @SkyGuy that it’s recommended guests be at their resort transportation 90 mins before ETPE to be towards the front of the crowds.

Yesterday we were leaving our resort to head to the airport. At 6:10 we walked past the MK line and there were about 25 people in line and 2 MK buses were pulling in.

 

[The Iron Giant]

We did early entry last week at Epcot and Hollywood Studios. We drove our own car and arrived in the parking lot about an hour and 15 minutes before regular park opening. Both times we were early enough to be parked in the first row of cars in the lot. On a side note… we used Apple Maps to navigate from the hotel to the parks and the day we went to HS it directed us through an entrance that didn’t have the booth for paying parking fees. I think it must have been an employee or service entrance. Weird.

 

[kylenne]

Yesterday we were leaving our resort to head to the airport. At 6:10 we walked past the MK line and there were about 25 people in line and 2 MK buses were pulling in.

I was in that little group!

 

[scrappinginontario]

I was in that little group!

Fun! Too bad we didn’t both know as we could have said a quick hello!!

Hope you have a great trip!!

 

[TeamSy]

One of the things that surprised me with EE at Epcot was that they would not let anyone through until 8:30 regardless of dining reservations. We got there early (about 8:10) figuring we still had a 10/15 minute walk or so to garden grill. Our reservation was for 8:30. Multiple cast members said they allow a 15 minute grace period and no one is allowed through until 8:30 regardless of dining reservation or not. They just showed us where to wait. This was different for us from years ago where early reservations got to go in early by showing the reservation. We were a little upset because would have liked to sleep later had we known lol. We were so concerned about the long walk/being on time. Wish we had known in advance that it doesn’t matter!

 

[mickey916]

One of the things that surprised me with EE at Epcot was that they would not let anyone through until 8:30 regardless of dining reservations. We got there early (about 8:10) figuring we still had a 10/15 minute walk or so to garden grill. Our reservation was for 8:30. Multiple cast members said they allow a 15 minute grace period and no one is allowed through until 8:30 regardless of dining reservation or not. They just showed us where to wait. This was different for us from years ago where early reservations got to go in early by showing the reservation. We were a little upset because would have liked to sleep later had we known lol. We were so concerned about the long walk/being on time. Wish we had known in advance that it doesn’t matter!

Same thing happened to us last year at MK when we had an 8:00 keys tour. We were told to check in fifteen minutes early but the CMs wouldn’t let us through the tapstiles until 8:00. It is very stressful and we had actually arrived at 7:30 to be sure to be on time. I too wished we could’ve slept in a little longer.

 

[georgina]

Rough day at HS today. Rise seemed to be down all afternoon and evening. I had planned to get in line before closing but no luck. RnRC down all day also. At one point in the afternoon MMRR and TSMM were down at the same time too. Was going to try for ToT during Fantasmic but half of it went down and the line kept getting slower so I bailed on that.

I did manage to get on Star Tours, MMRR, TSMM, AS, Slinky, MFSR, ToT twice (got a multi experience pass when TSMM was down and used it on a 2nd ToT ride), saw Muppet 3D and B&tB show. Will have to try for Rise at rope drop Tues, I am not paying for it!

 

[djmeredith]

We stayed at Swan Reserve and spent Saturday through Tuesday afternoon in the parks with Genie+ every day and purchasing GOTG and Tron ILLs. Labor Day weekend was a great time to visit. We are WDW vets, but our last visit was 3 yrs ago so it was our first time using Genie+.

DHS Sat - We were able to do everything we wanted with very little wait. ROTR was the longest. It said 35 minutes, but it was more like 25 max.

AK Sun - Probably the most crowded day. We got there about 7:20 for a 7:30 opening. There were a lot more people already waiting than I expected, but we were still able to do FOP as basically a walk on then Navi River with a 10-15 min wait. Our plan was to do a few hrs and leave and do another park, but it was so busy we were there until about 2:00 in order to do everything we wanted.

MK Mon (party day) - All the predictions about MK being light on party days held true. We had Genie+ and did everything we wanted before 6:00. That even included a 1+ hr trip over to Epcot at 2:00 to try to get a GOTG VQ. At 6:00, we headed over to Epcot for the evening and Deluxe EEH.

Epcot Tues - We headed over about 9:30 and there were very light crowds. I had purchased Genie+, but we didn't need it. We showed up to Space 220 around 10:45 and were second in line for the 10 bar seats. I had read that kids were not allowed at the bar, but they let my 15 and 17 year old sit there no problem. Probably because it was lunch (like most bars), but not sure because I didn't ask.

If you stay at Swan/Dolphin/Swan Reserve be sure your res doesn't get unlinked in My Disney Experience. That happened to us on Monday, and we weren't able to book anything at 7:00. I had read about the problem before we went, but it didn't dawn on me that was the problem. We didn't figure it out until we ran into a problem with our GOTG VQ and had to go to Guest Services. Thankfully, it all worked out, but only because the crowds had been so light that day at MK.

 

[Yoshi]

I went to Hollywood Studios later in the afternoon yesterday and couldn’t believe how low the wait times were.

Rise was only 20 minutes (posted 35) and was posting a 10 minute wait during Fantasmic. Aliens did get a bit of a longer wait when 1 side closed but reopened and was less than a 5 minute wait.

The last 30 minutes was the best part of the day. ToT was a walk on to the pre-show and I thought I would have time for a 1 ride on Rock N Rollercoaster. Not only was it a walk on, they were not running the pre-show so I was able to board the ride almost instantly and had time to walk around to get another ride in right before closing.

 

[Leigh L]

Apologies for fragmented thoughts, typing from my phone

Wait times for wed, thurs and Friday amazing!! Rope dropped EE on Thurs (Epcot) and Friday ((DHS).

Yesterday, not so much low wait times. We did MNSSHP Friday night, so didn’t make it to any parks before noon ohana reservation yesterday but wait times looked high. I made it to Epcot and did Mexico boat ride and watched the UK band. Crowded mess lol. Went to AK did Everest single rider, circled the park and left. Went to DHS and got in Star Tours, MFSR, and Rise (was 90 minutes, but dropped to 20 so I jumped on, when I got off it was 70 min again). Decided to pass on fantastic because I wanted to go grab dinner at resort and get to bed early so to be ready to go full on commando today lol

Getting that first bus, skyliner, or driving in early for DHS early entry totally worth it on Friday!

I was on 2nd Slinky dog train (820 start), then hit mania, ruse, star tours, lunch and frozen show before noon.

Also, yesterday was the first day the 1 pm VQ sold out before 2. All the other days they were available most of the afternoon at both parks.

 

[DisneyFive]

We just returned yesterday from an amazing 11 day trip!! 8 park days, hopping 6/8 of those days. Used Disney transportation exclusively. Rides varied from walk-ons to 110 minute wait for ToT one evening.

We did not use G+ at the beginning of our trip as I wanted to see how it would go. We did that for 5 days and still got a lot done.

For the second half of our trip as we were trying to squeeze in as much as possible (and the cost was $20-$23) so we booked hopping G+ and it was worth it for us.

A few notes:

1. We LOVED Guardians!!!! Rode it 5 different days, sometimes hopping to Epcot at the end of a day, only to ride it! Shortly into our trip I changed all of our park reservations to Epcot. At 7AM I would book Guardians then change our park reservation to the actual park we were going to. Our VQs varied between 6 and 57. Never had a problem arriving late to Guardians, often hours after our VQ was called. (This does not work for Tron where you must return within your 1 hour window.)

2. We were 100% successful at 7AM securing VQs using Disney wifi. We secured a VQ 8/8 days and one day (around Hurricane so quieter parks) I grabbed both Guardians and Tron the same morning by booking Guardians first, changing park reservation to MK and then securing Tron. (This would not normally work as VQs would be gone for Tron but did work Thursday.)

We had an amazing trip!!! Walked over 200,000 steps, 84 miles/135 kms, drank a huge amount of water and had an absolute blast!!! Built memories with my daughter that will last a lifetime!! Cannot wait to go back and will be booking the Bounceback offer this weekend for similar dates in 2024.

Happy to answer any questions people have!

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Great trip report. Glad you had an excellent time!

When are they dropping park reservations for Disney resort guests?

EDIT: Never mind, found it in your other sticky post. Jan 9th 2024. Will be a welcome change!

 

[SkyGuy]

I can’t remember where I saw the post, but today I am experiencing the “When you can book” time changing along with modifications. At AK on Monday, if I modified an LL, my “when you can book” didn’t change (as has been the norm). Today I modified Soarin’ three times already, and all three times my “When you can book” changed accordingly.

 

[scrappinginontario]

I can’t remember where I saw the post, but today I am experiencing the “When you can book” time changing along with modifications. At AK on Monday, if I modified an LL, my “when you can book” didn’t change (as has been the norm). Today I modified Soarin’ three times already, and all three times my “When you can book” changed accordingly.

This still happens, especially early in the morning as people are booking then modifying their initial LL reservation. I experienced this 2 weeks ago when I was there. It seemed to happen a bit less later in the day.

Also, it will happen more often with popular attractions than it will for less popular attractions.

 

[SkyGuy]

This still happens, especially early in the morning as people are booking then modifying their initial LL reservation. I experienced this 2 weeks ago when I was there. It seemed to happen a bit less later in the day.

Also, it will happen more often with popular attractions than it will for less popular attractions.

I also just realized, that I’m not even eligible to book another LL until 11am, so obviously my time to book would move until after my booked LL expired. It’s only going to be a real change if I were to modify it for an after 11am time, and my booking window changes.

 

[scrappinginontario]

I also just realized, that I’m not even eligible to book another LL until 11am, so obviously my time to book would move until after my booked LL expired. It’s only going to be a real change if I were to modify it for an after 11am time, and my booking window changes.

Not quite. If you book your first LL at 7AM, you are eligible to book a second LL 2 hours after park opening regardless of whether your return time has expired or not. This is how people 'stack' for later in the day. E.g. You may book something at 7AM and modify it to 2:30. You are still able to book another LL at 11AM, regardless of the fact that your first LL has not expired.

Your booking window only changes if you use your latest booked LL prior to the 2 hours after park opening/2 hours from booking.

E.g. Building on above. First LL is now valid from 2:30-3:30. At 11AM I book an LL that is valid from 11:30-12:30. As soon as I have tapped into the 11:30 LL booking I'm eligible to book another LL as I have used my most recently booked LL.

We visited at a quieter time and on a MNSSHP day often found LLs that could be booked for less than 30 mins out. This allowed us to use many more LLs that day than we would have if we had had to wait the full 2 hours before booking another LL.

Another tip, if you see that an attraction is offline but LL is still available for a near time, you can book it. If that attraction is still offline when your return window opens it will turn to an 'anytime' LL and you're eligible to immediately book another LL.

When we were there 2 weeks ago there was a big storm. While we were taking shelter our 2 hours window arrived. I booked Dumbo which was offline due to the storm but had a LL return window only 10 mins later. After those 10 mins passed, it was still offline so it flipped to an 'anytime' and I could book something again. I chose another 'offline' attraction with a close return time and sure enough the same thing happened. By the time we'd waited out the storm we had 4 anytime LLs booked that we used that evening fore busier attractions like Buzz, Jungle Cruise, HM and BTMRR! Also, when a LL flips to an 'anytime' LL, you're eligible to book that attraction again.


To learn more about Genie+ I would recommend reading the posts on page 1 of the Everything Genie thread.