Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[lovethattink]

Thank you for sharing. This is very disturbing. We are scheduled to be there the week after Christmas. Right now, no park is sold out and it is during a blockout period for AP's. But I am nervous. There is no way to predict what the crowds will be like.

To those saying, "It's the holidays, it's going to be busy, don't go if you are uncomfortable." Yes, It's the holidays, I am planning to go assuming that it will be busy. But I think most of us are hoping for some sort of control over the crowds. After all, isn't that the point of things they are putting in place like capacity limits and blockout dates? Is it wrong to hope that I won’t be shoulder to shoulder with people while there?

Disney has done a great job with social distancing in queue and attractions.

On walkways, you’re on your own to social distance. It’s possible to social distance on the walkways. Avoid areas that typically bottleneck. Eat at off times. But you have to do the work, zigging instead of zagging, speeding up or slowing down, etc.

 

[bare necessities]

Yesterday was our first day of trip. MK was wayy too full and heard more than one person comment that there was no way this was only 35% capacity. Almost impossible to social distance until the last 1 1/2 hours of the night. Way more people flagrantly disobeying the rules about masks and no cast member doing a thing about it. Even when pointed out had cast member just shrug shoulders. Sad to see. Had such a great time in August and almost everyone knew how to follow the rules.

 

[WEDWDW]

Yesterday was our first day of trip. MK was wayy too full and heard more than one person comment that there was no way this was only 35% capacity. Almost impossible to social distance until the last 1 1/2 hours of the night. Way more people flagrantly disobeying the rules about masks and no cast member doing a thing about it. Even when pointed out had cast member just shrug shoulders. Sad to see. Had such a great time in August and almost everyone knew how to follow the rules.

I think this will become more and more the "norm" unfortunately as the Vaccine news has really got people prematurely ready to call "game over".

 

[Victoria3]

Hello! We check in to Poly today!!!! Our first park day is MK tomorrow and it will definitely be our most crowded day. What is the best plan to get into the park as early as possible? Would we be able to get in earlier if we Uber to Contemporary and walk or should we just plan on using the monorail at TTC?

I would walk from the Poly to MK.

 

[LiteBrite]

Aloha,

DHS was a train wreck for my family on Wednesday (25 Nov) despite our best attempt and effort.
Departed CR via Uber at 8 AM for Boardwalk Bakery. Started hiking towards DHS and arrived at 8:30 AM. There were SIX health screening sites. Two to the far right and four to the far left. We were first line at number six to the far left. Health Screening, Security and the park all opened at 9:15 AM. Official park opening was 10 AM. Went straight to MMRR and walked on as the second family in line. Really enjoyed the ride. Walked past TSM which as a walk on and got in line for SDD at 9:40. Line for SDD was 30'.
IT son had previously snagged a ROTR BG 10 which window closed at 10:40. We were afraid of missing our window so we walked on ROTR. Got in line at SR which lasted 35'. By 11:30 AM all of the remaining waiting times were north of 50'. We surrendered and went to lunch at DS (House of Blues) and back to CR for rest. Returned to DHS at 5 PM with a park closing of 8 PM. Watched Walt Disney's bio movie, TSM twice, SR and closed out with TOT. TSM was about 10' wait each, SR 30' and TOT about 20'.
IMHO, DHS is too much concrete and not enough shade or water. Hotter than AK. Due to C19, too few rides to soak up the crowds. We were blessed to enjoy ROTR. Don't know what we could have done differently to improve our touring plan. Just not enough rides to soak up the crowd resulting in long waits for everyone by 10:30 AM.
Good luck!

Thanks for your report!

I'm a little confused though, why this day was a train wreck for you. If I'm reading it correctly, you experienced 6 attractions, repeated two of them, and never waited more than 35 minutes. You had a nice lunch at Disney Springs and a rest at your resort - that sounds like a really successful day to me, especially during a holiday week!

 

[glocon]

Thanks for your report!

I'm a little confused though, why this day was a train wreck for you. If I'm reading it correctly, you experienced 6 attractions, repeated two of them, and never waited more than 35 minutes. You had a nice lunch at Disney Springs and a rest at your resort - that sounds like a really successful day to me, especially during a holiday week!

I was wondering also, read it a couple of times to see if I missed something. The only other things I would have wanted to do is RNR and SDD at night. But everyone has different ideas of what is ideal for them, maybe he thought he could get more done? Sounds like a fun day to me .

 

[Sophie's Mom]

I'm ready for FP+ to return. We have been to Disney so many times we find ourselves not wanting to wait in any lines longer than 20 minutes. FP+ spoiled us in that regard!

 

[mlggator22]

Yesterday was our first day of trip. MK was wayy too full and heard more than one person comment that there was no way this was only 35% capacity. Almost impossible to social distance until the last 1 1/2 hours of the night. Way more people flagrantly disobeying the rules about masks and no cast member doing a thing about it. Even when pointed out had cast member just shrug shoulders. Sad to see. Had such a great time in August and almost everyone knew how to follow the rules.

I just got back on Wednesday from our trip. We were at MK on Monday. I would agree that MK was very crowded. In the pinch areas, it was difficult to socially distance. We definitely tried to eat a little off the normal times to avoid the lunch crowds which were really awful. That said, mask compliance was really, really good on the day we were there. I would agree that it doesn't feel like 35%. It seemed a little closer to 50%, but I don't know the numbers that is considered capacity nor the numbers of people that were let in.
I did feel from my trip that Disney is pushing the boundaries of safety with the spikes that are going on. But still, I enjoyed my vacation and felt overall that I was safe. So far I am symptom free since returning.

 

[jenmcc21]

I have been reading this post in preparation for our upcoming trip and it has been so helpful. We planned on taking an Uber to the Contemporary about 7:15 to pick up a mobile order at Contempo Cafe on our MK day. Park hours have been extended and we now have an 8:00am opening instead of 9:00am. Would this strategy still be beneficial since Contempo Cafe doesn't open until 7:00am?

 

[YayforMickey]

I have been reading this post in preparation for our upcoming trip and it has been so helpful. We planned on taking an Uber to the Contemporary about 7:15 to pick up a mobile order at Contempo Cafe on our MK day. Park hours have been extended and we now have an 8:00am opening instead of 9:00am. Would this strategy still be beneficial since Contempo Cafe doesn't open until 7:00am?

I also really want to hear advice about this. We were planning the same thing.

 

[Erzengel]

I was very interested in your thoughts on the 100 years of magic lighted pins! We have a set of 4 that we will bring to the parks in January 2021. Did you bring yours to Animal Kingdom or Hollywood Studios? Anything else you can tell me about your experience with the pins in the parks? We really know very little about them... cause we got ours on Ebay as well. We got new batteries for them so we're ready!! Thanks

I really feel that Magic Kingdom is the best place for them. Pirates, Haunted Mansion and It's a Small World.

I didn't try it in Hollywood Studios as almost all the rides are either new or refurbished since 2001. You might want to try it on Tower of Terror and Aerosmith.

Epcot, you can try it on Test Track, Frozen (maybe some of the stuff was held over from Malestrom).

Animal Kingdom we were going to try it on Dinosaur but we didn't get a chance to go on the attraction.

 

[scjm222]

Hi! My dd and I went 11/21 and returned on 11/26. We went in knowing lines would be long. Outside of the lines, mask compliance was almost 100%. Inside the lines was another story. In almost every line that we were in that was over 30 minutes, we got stuck behind people that didn’t think masks were necessary. I’m not sure how this could be improved but will send in feedback so Disney is aware.
Sadly, despite being super careful before and during our trip, I did test positive today but dd is negative.

 

[HikingFam]

Hi! My dd and I went 11/21 and returned on 11/26. We went in knowing lines would be long. Outside of the lines, mask compliance was almost 100%. Inside the lines was another story. In almost every line that we were in that was over 30 minutes, we got stuck behind people that didn’t think masks were necessary. I’m not sure how this could be improved but will send in feedback so Disney is aware.
Sadly, despite being super careful before and during our trip, I did test positive today but dd is negative.

I’m so sorry you tested positive. May I ask if you have symptoms or tested out of caution? We just got back today and feel fine, but now I’m wondering if we should test.

 

[scjm222]

I’m so sorry you tested positive. May I ask if you have symptoms or tested out of caution? We just got back today and feel fine, but now I’m wondering if we should test.

We tested out of caution...no symptoms other than being a little tired, which I thought was from the 100k steps we did!

 

[vital]

Just out of curiosity, did you fly or drive to WDW?

 

[scjm222]

Just out of curiosity, did you fly or drive to WDW?

We flew from Houston via Southwest on a direct flight.

 

[vital]

We flew from Houston via Southwest on a direct flight.

I hope you feel better soon!!

 

[MEC004]

We flew from Houston via Southwest on a direct flight.

I hope you feel better! We are flying the same trip as you next week. We’ve been distancing so we don’t catch it beforehand. You might have caught it beforehand though. It takes 4-5 days before symptoms start. DH was like maybe we should cancel.

 

[Aimeedyan]

We just returned from another staycation over Thanksgiving (Wednesday-today), staying at SSR.

I expected the worse but felt like the parks were a normal weekend, just with masks. Didn't feel like a Thanksgiving crowd but was definitely not low like a pre-COVID September day.

You have to duck and weave through nearly all of MK, World Showcase, and Disney Springs and there are times when it's impossible to be 6 feet away from another party. We just moved through the pack of people as quickly as possible. Masks were pretty good.

I thought Epcot, especially, felt normal with the added entertainment, booths, holiday decor. The booth lines were the longest I've ever seen them for the holiday festival. I think that's also where they sent all the photopass people; they seemed to be everywhere!

The new walkway from GF is AWESOME and such a great addition. I would walk that 1000x over before dealing with ferrys, buses, and monorails to TTC.

SSR was very busy; we stayed there last month and that felt like a ghost town in comparison. The pool was uncomfortably crowded mid-day and I was a tad surprised they didn't close to capacity.

 

[Aela]

We flew from Houston via Southwest on a direct flight.

I live in a Houston Suburb, and did you test before you left? I’m fairly sure that half the people in my town are running around positive and just not testing. Too many maskless house parties. Houston is a huge Petri dish right now. You easily could have been positive before you left.