Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[HikingFam]

How was the transportation from Riviera to the parks? We are staying there in November for the first time. Did you wait long for buses or the sky liner? Did you have to get in line early? Anything you specifically did or was it easy to get to from there.....Thanks!

Today, the Skyliner to Epcot began at 9:50 or so (despite the posted opening time of 10:30). There were maybe 15 parties in line when it opened.

 

[HikingFam]

We spent the last week here, with 2 kids and a DAS. The DAS made the trip manageable, but we spent less time in the parks than we normally do, due to the wait times. We have APs, so it’s not a big deal to hit the park for 2-3 hours and then head back for a swim.

We felt safer than expected- we commented that we wished the general public at home would be as tolerant of masks as people are here. We saw almost no one trying to skirt the rules.

Things I loved and hope to stick around post-pandemic: mobile ordering, online restaurant check in, orderliness of lines and assigned seats on transport. There is usually a cast member asking how many in your party and telling you exactly where to sit.

I missed park hopping more than expected. With shorter days in the parks, it would have been nice to hop to dinner in Epcot. I also really miss FP. I’m the target audience who will pay an up charge for FP, EMH, whatever they decide to offer. Our family just doesn’t do lines over 20 min, and it has never been a problem in the past with FP and rope dropping.

The park opening times are annoying, since they all “really” open 45 minutes or so prior to the posted time. We mostly drove to the parks, and the opening time for parking was a crapshoot. Like how are you supposed to know that HS opens at 10, but they will let you line up at maybe 9:00 or 9:15, depending on the day (it was actually 8:51 on Thursday). Or that the Epcot Skyliner starts at 9:50, even though the sign says it starts at 10:30. I just wish they would communicate this stuff more accurately. It took a lot more strategy to get to the parks than usual, but that’s because we like to rope drop.

Overall, we had a lot more fun than expected and are planning to return soon. I just hope they find a way to address the wait times, because that is the biggest deterrent right now for our family. It feels like they’ve reached a tipping point.

 

[only hope]

We spent the last week here, with 2 kids and a DAS. The DAS made the trip manageable, but we spent less time in the parks than we normally do, due to the wait times. We have APs, so it’s not a big deal to hit the park for 2-3 hours and then head back for a swim.

We felt safer than expected- we commented that we wished the general public at home would be as tolerant of masks as people are here. We saw almost no one trying to skirt the rules.

Things I loved and hope to stick around post-pandemic: mobile ordering, online restaurant check in, orderliness of lines and assigned seats on transport. There is usually a cast member asking how many in your party and telling you exactly where to sit.

I missed park hopping more than expected. With shorter days in the parks, it would have been nice to hop to dinner in Epcot. I also really miss FP. I’m the target audience who will pay an up charge for FP, EMH, whatever they decide to offer. Our family just doesn’t do lines over 20 min, and it has never been a problem in the past with FP and rope dropping.

The park opening times are annoying, since they all “really” open 45 minutes or so prior to the posted time. We mostly drove to the parks, and the opening time for parking was a crapshoot. Like how are you supposed to know that HS opens at 10, but they will let you line up at maybe 9:00 or 9:15, depending on the day (it was actually 8:51 on Thursday). Or that the Epcot Skyliner starts at 9:50, even though the sign says it starts at 10:30. I just wish they would communicate this stuff more accurately. It took a lot more strategy to get to the parks than usual, but that’s because we like to rope drop.

Overall, we had a lot more fun than expected and are planning to return soon. I just hope they find a way to address the wait times, because that is the biggest deterrent right now for our family. It feels like they’ve reached a tipping point.

I suspect the slightly different, unadvertised early opening times for parking lots/parks and starting times for transportation day to day are an effort to minimize crowds.

 

[emi6891]

I've gotten very behind on my trip report and have had such busy days at work, that I haven't had time to type it up. Last Sunday at MK was noticeably more crowded than Saturday at HS. Lots of crowding in the area between Peter Pan and Small World and somewhat crowded around Splash and Thunder throughout the day. Got in line for 7 dwarves at 8:58 (official park open 9am) and was all the way around the back towards the circus area. The wait was listed as 50 minutes and got off the ride by 9:40. Headed to tomorrowland for space which was listed as 10 minutes when getting in line but the sign changed to 25 just before getting to the inside part of the line and ended up being a little less than 20 minutes. Buzz was a 10 minute wait for us. It was listed as 15 when we were going in but 25 coming out. Peter Pan was listed as a 35 minute wait and was probably around 25. Next we went to Thunder which was listed as a 45 minute wait but was really less than 15. Splash had been down for the most of the morning and was not open when walking to Thunder, but as we were getting off Thunder, it was open with a 70 minute wait. I have no idea where all those people came from all of a sudden to fill up that line. I think it ended up being about a 40 minute wait. Next was lunch as Pecos Bill which was mobbed. We really should have known not to eat lunch around 12, but we were hungry and didn't want to walk back to Cosmic Ray's where we had originally intended to get lunch. Had to wait outside to be let in when the order was ready for pickup and then spent time wandering around the whole restaurant looking for tables, finally having to grab one as someone else was leaving. After lunch, got in line for pirates that was listed as 75 minutes but took just over 30. Jungle cruise was listed as 55 but was actually only 25. Next we did tiki birds with a 10 minute wait. Ordered a dole whip float while waiting for tiki birds and hit the I'm here when the show ended to pick it up right away. It was quite hot by that time and our feet were starting to hurt so we considered leaving to go to the hotel pool. I wanted the poison apple cupcake from Pinocchio's so I mobile ordered and picked that up then met up at tomorrowland terrace where I knew we could take off masks and relax a little before leaving. After the rest, we decided to stay a little longer. Went next on Carousel of Progress to try to cool off some more and was maybe only a 10 minute wait. Did Winnie the Pooh with a 10 minute wait listed as 25 and Mansion with a 20 minute wait that was listed as 50. It was a bit after 5pm by this time and we decided to call it a day and go back to the hotel. The park was definitely emptying out by this time so staying late can definitely benefit you with shorter lines.

Finished out our trip on Monday with Animal Kingdom. Official park open 9:00 and we were in line to park at 8. Started moving at 8:15 and paid, but were then held again until 8:23. Through temp check, security and tapstiles by 8:38. Headed straight to FOP and ended up in line at 8:43 down the path towards Lion King adjacent with the sign that says Valley of Moara. We were in the 2nd preshow at 9:19 (first preshow is skipped). Next got in line for Navi river which was originally listed as 20 minutes but increased to 35 while in line and we waited 30. Enjoyed the pineapple lumpia and night blossom from Pongu Pongu before heading to Africa. By this time, the line for FOP extended all the way to the Lion King theater even though it was only listed as 75 minutes. Got in line for the safari at 10:30 and it was listed as 40 minutes and took about 30. Afterwards, did the gorilla trail and saw the baby gorilla nursing. Then headed to Asia for Kali which was listed at 20 minutes, but was probably about 10. Did Kali twice, getting right back in line at the fastpass merge point I think. Then did the tiger trail and Everest twice. Decided to go to Disney Springs for lunch prior to heading home for work Tuesday morning and Disney Springs was not crowded at all, at least at that time of day.

 

[oceanmarina]

Just got back from a 5 day trip. 1 night BWV, and three nights Poly. Arrived Friday at noon. That was our Epcot day. Would have been awesome if it weren't for me renting from Budget rental car for the last time. Even still, got on everything except frozen (not a big deal for us) three Cabeleros (there was always a line to get into the pavillion), and Test track (broke down when we were on the loading platform and it never went back up), ate everything from F/W we wanted. I did realize how much I rely on the Epcot shops to stop in and cool down on the hot days. So many of them are still closed.
Day 2 was a Saturday at HS. Day went really, really well. We had the advantage of staying at the boardwalk so we were one of the first ones in the park. Rode MMRR and MFSR before the park even opened. Got BG 42 (Bit of a scare when it went down on group 40-but it came back up and we got on). Rode everything at least once, including multiples on MFSR, RNRC, TSMM. Park was crowded in the afternoon so we spent the high point snacking waiting for the times to go down.
Day 3 (Sunday) was at AK. Drove over from the Poly. We hit the headliners early doing FOP, RJ, EE (2) before the crowd built. Spent the afternoon during the high crowds doing the trails, checking out all the small details and exhibits that we always skip, got a quick run Kali, and when the waits went down hit everything else including two more rides on FOP (almost got a fourth but missed it by 4 minutes).
Day 4 (yesterday) was at MK. We've been watching the wait times for a few weeks for weekdays at MK. They reflected NOTHING like what we saw yesterday. It was hell. We got there right away and got on Pirates, BTMR, and Splash and Haunted Mansion. By the time we got off of Splash the wait times across the park had exploded and the walkways were packed. At one point we even saw a wait time of 45 minutes for the carousel of progress!!! We hit a few short waits that would pop up, and actually went back to the room to re-shower and get fresh masks because it was extremely hot and humid. Got back and did a posted 45 minute wait for Space Mountain because it was the lowest posted all day (actually ended up being 60). The thunderstorm actually helped us out. We got in line for IASW right before the lightning (we were watching out weather app) so we missed the onslaught of the rain. We both had waterproof sandals and raincoats with us so we hiked over the Little Mermaid and got on that. Luckily the rain cleared a lot of people out so we managed to get on quite a few on our list but not all. We were so tired this morning we decided to just hang in the room before heading to the airport. Not sure what the anomaly was at MK on Monday because the posted wait times today were a fraction of what they were yesterday.

My takeaways:
Masks make it feel 10 degrees warmer
The cast members are always incredible and were on our trip
Disney needs to get shows open. It is my honest opinion they are not taking these closures into account in what their "capacity" is. There were just too many people in MK yesterday. I'm actually wondering if it was a computer glitch somewhere.
Seeing the musicians and dancers last night at Raglan Road made our trip.
If this is your first trip to WDW, do NOT go. It's fun but so much is missing.

We had a great time. Going to re-evaluate when we are going back and see how this progresses.

My sister just left today after a 4 day stay and said exactly the same things. The waits were nothing like the posted wait times. They were soooo much longer. And she’s a rope drop person. She said the lines were AWFUL. 90 minute waits for most rides at Hollywood Studios. And she would be next to load the line and then they had to stop for another 20 minutes to clean it. She hated the process for ordering food, missed the characters, the restaurants. She felt it was void of all the magic. Plus crazy long waits for the rides (not just at HS)

 

[Disneyforus]

Here now at Ft Wilderness....just saw Fireworks in the sky...maybe Epcot or HS?
It’s 8pm

 

[TandDandE]

Today, the Skyliner to Epcot began at 9:50 or so (despite the posted opening time of 10:30). There were maybe 15 parties in line when it opened.

Thanks for your posts!

Did you RD MK? If so, what was your strategy/experience?

 

[HikingFam]

Here now at Ft Wilderness....just saw Fireworks in the sky...maybe Epcot or HS?
It’s 8pm

I was at Epcot tonight- no fireworks here.

 

[HikingFam]

Thanks for your posts!

Did you RD MK? If so, what was your strategy/experience?

We did! We were staying at the Fort for that portion of the trip (moved to Riviera later). So, we took the boat to MK on Sunday and again on Tuesday. The posted time for the first boat is 8:30 (30 min prior to park opening). On Sunday, we were on the first boat at 7:59 and went straight into the park. Rode 7DMT, Peter Pan and Big Thunder by 9:00. From there, we started using the DAS but found everything to be pretty manageable until our lunch reservation at 11:30. At that point, lines were getting longer and it was getting hotter, so we called it a day after lunch.
We basically replicated the entire experience on Tuesday, except the first boat didn’t come until the advertised time of 8:30 (I‘m telling you all of this about the boats, in case there is some kind of consistency across all modes of transportation— it seems they start running transportation and letting people into the parks earlier on weekends).

 

[Greta]

We went to EPCOT today

Our longest wait of the day was about 25-30 min at Frozen ride. We went on TT (15 min), mission space (15 min), Soarin(10 min), Living with the Land (walk on), Nemo (walk on)

Mexico boat ride was down when we were there so we will catch it on Monday.
We really enjoyed the Mariachi Cobre and the Beauty & the Beast Sing along.
We snacked here and there. Our favorite of the day was the Lobster Mac and cheese at the Festival center.

We took a side trip on the Skyliner as the was the first time we ever rode it. Our 14 year old loved it and it was a highlight of her day!

We had a 6:45 dinner reservation at Coral Reef and the shrimp and grits were delicious. It was like a mixture of Shrimp and grits along with a nod to jambalaya.

There were definitely people around anywhere we went but there was always room for us to still feel comfortable. We never had a problem finding a table or spot to sit and eat our snacks.

I am sad I missed The Alps today because I think it may be closed when we visit on Monday but we walked by that and the outpost quickly since my daughter wanted to get to a restroom

the CM’s we encountered were happy to be there and many of them thanked us genuinely for visiting. We had some nice conversations with both CM’s and fellow visitors.
The weather was perfect today too!

 

[tussking]

My sister just left today after a 4 day stay and said exactly the same things. The waits were nothing like the posted wait times. They were soooo much longer. And she’s a rope drop person. She said the lines were AWFUL. 90 minute waits for most rides at Hollywood Studios. And she would be next to load the line and then they had to stop for another 20 minutes to clean it. She hated the process for ordering food, missed the characters, the restaurants. She felt it was void of all the magic. Plus crazy long waits for the rides (not just at HS)

AGREE!

 

[tussking]

Respectfully, I think you may have misinterpreted the comments people made. They weren't saying you're lying or just trying to slam anything for sake of being negative, they were saying that you and another person are at the same park at the same time and reporting wildly different experiences. That means one of two things - either:
1. Crowds are huge in one place and low in another at all points in time, and you happen to be in the Charlie Brown Cloud of people (which is entirely possible based on other posts in this thread and watching wait times ebb and flow throughout the day); OR
2. You and the other poster have very different perceptions of crowd sizes. What feels fine to her feels oppressive and scary to you. There's nothing wrong with that AT ALL, but saying "Sorry but the truth hurts. I'm a realistic not someone who pretends things are okay when they're NOT" - as though you're honourably telling the truth while the other poster is purposefully lying to paint a rosy picture where there isn't one - comes across as disproportionately defensive.

I'm sorry that your day at MK wasn't nearly as good as your day at EPCOT.

Appreciate the response. I live in Florida been coming for 25 years. I've been inside MK during New Year's Eve many times. I've also been to MK many times in the winter when it's dead. Considering we are in a pandemic it was busy. Much busier than I expected. I spoke with many employees throughout the day that were very surprised how busy it was compared to 1 and 2 weeks ago. My point was and still is PEOPLE DIDN'T BEHAVE LIKE WE ARE IN A PANDEMIC. That was un-nerving. I'm home and done debating this topic. I hope my posts helped some people. That was my only goal. It's very expensive to go to Disney even for a few days.

 

[becks59]

Went to Magic Kingdom again yesterday and had a very great day! A few lines were longer, like SDMT was about 30min. But posted at about 45min. We got in a few rides on Splash. It’s my husbands favorite ride and we most likely won’t be back to parks before they close it down for retheming. It was our last ride of the day and we booked it from Astro to Splash in 7minutes! We made it with 1min to spare before closing. We got some excellent pictures of it after closing too. The lighting was perfect! Most rides seemed to be listing wait times about 15min longer than what was posted. Probably to cover for any cleaning down times. We didn’t seem to hit cleaning times really though. Today is our last day at WDW and we will be visiting Hollywood Studios! I’m a little curious to see how the crowds compare to when we went on Wednesday. I just checked the reservation calendar and it is full in all three buckets. I’ll report back how I think it compared.

 

[mommyburns]

Here now, arrived yesterday around 11 andMagicalExpress (first time) was very smooth. If you are staying at a new resort, the direct to room can be inconvienent trying to find your way around. It was also a little difficult to figure out busses (we have never stayed somewhere that had an internal shuttle) . We went to the pool after checkin and it felt pretty empty around 130. Went to Disney springs for 500 dinner reservation and it seemed a good crowd shopping before dinner but noticed MANY more people after dinner. Went back to the pool where it was much more crowded. We transfer to another resort today so excited to see a new one. My first take away is be prepared for non park activities to pick up in crowds once parks start to close for the night. Overall we are excited to be here and can’t wait to see the parks

 

[silver236]

My sister just left today after a 4 day stay and said exactly the same things. The waits were nothing like the posted wait times. They were soooo much longer. And she’s a rope drop person. She said the lines were AWFUL. 90 minute waits for most rides at Hollywood Studios. And she would be next to load the line and then they had to stop for another 20 minutes to clean it. She hated the process for ordering food, missed the characters, the restaurants. She felt it was void of all the magic. Plus crazy long waits for the rides (not just at HS)

I just read in another thread that schools were off in FL on Monday. Makes total sense now why the crowds were nuts and we saw so many large groups of kids with multiple moms.

 

[itsdisneytime]

I know I am jumping in late in the game but reading all of these posts is making me so glad that I decided to go when I did. I was in Magic Kingdom on August 3rd and Animal Kingdom on August 5th. I was dreading going because I hate... literally HATE the heat. I think the fact that the parks had only been open roughly 2 weeks at that point had something to do with the fact, but.....we felt like it was a ghost town when we were at Animal Kingdom. WE got there at opening and my daughter rode Everest 8 times in a row and it only took a total of maybe 20 minutes. We did have to wait approx 20 minutes for Navi river and maybe 15 minutes for the Safari ride but overall we were shocked at how Magical it was to be there in a virtually empty park. The cavalcades were amazing and the characters really got to interact with you because there were so few people around. In Magic Kindom, we literally got pictures in front of the castle with no need to filter out any other people it was unbelieveable. I was so happy with how safe I felt there that I decided to plan another trip for December... now I am reading that folks are reporting crowds and such -- I am just going to roll with it but I wanted to just put my two cents in that I think Disney is doing a fantastic job at trying to keep things safe for all while still giving us the Magical Feels that we need when we go

 

[yulilin3]

At DHS now, arrived at 1:30pm, grabbed bg 74 at the 2pm drop. Im only here to record the last performance of the Grand Floridian Orchestra.
The park is definitely feeling like a regular day, long lines right now for attractions and food. I'll report end of day feel.
The weather is amazing though

 

[Theactualdisneyprincess]

*Please feel free to move if this is the wrong thread or if this has been answered elsewhere*

What hours does the Magical Express run right now? I am looking at about 7:30pm on a Saturday evening. Flights for that weekend are cheaper at that time, but I would be paying for an extra night at the hotel vs. flying in Sunday morning.

Is it possible to still get a bus from a skyliner resort to Epcot or Hollywood Studios? When I was at one last week it had looked like the area for a bus was roped off with a sign that said that you must use the skyliner. May be going to the parks solo this trip and I am definitely not comfortable going on a skyliner by myself, so trying to see if it may be better costwise to go to a different resort vs getting an Uber or Lyft to get around.

 

[lovethattink]

I’m at MK this afternoon. Huge difference between a Saturday and a Tuesday or Thursday! Almost everything is a 50 minute wait. We arrive just before 3. Saw the princess cavalcade and the end of Cadaver Dans show. Ds is in costume.

 

[lovethattink]

*Please feel free to move if this is the wrong thread or if this has been answered elsewhere*

What hours does the Magical Express run right now? I am looking at about 7:30pm on a Saturday evening. Flights for that weekend are cheaper at that time, but I would be paying for an extra night at the hotel vs. flying in Sunday morning.

Is it possible to still get a bus from a skyliner resort to Epcot or Hollywood Studios? When I was at one last week it had looked like the area for a bus was roped off with a sign that said that you must use the skyliner. May be going to the parks solo this trip and I am definitely not comfortable going on a skyliner by myself, so trying to see if it may be better costwise to go to a different resort vs getting an Uber or Lyft to get around.

It’s only possible when it’s lightening. Then they’ll activate the buses for the Skyliner resorts.