Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[SarahC97]

I can't provide any negative experiences... how about some positive ones??

We placed our mobile order for lunch each morning while waiting at the bus stop or for the park to open. When our window came, I pressed the I'm Here, Prepare My Order” button about 15 minutes before arriving at the restaurant. Sometimes our order was ready before we even got to the restaurant, or if anything a short 5 minute wait. One time we had to sit for 15 minutes even after we got there (Cosmic Ray's) but we just grabbed a bench and enjoyed the sunshine.

We used this strategy at Tomorrowland Terrace, Pizzerizzo, Cosmic Ray's. and Satuli Canteen. We had table service meals for dinner each night so no experience using mobile order for dinner BUT I will say that the table service arrival procedure is also better because you can check-in before you get there and our table was always ready right as we arrived at the restaurant.

I agree. I think mobile order is great. We started over our last couple of trips ordering lunch in the morning like you and have had a really easy experience with that strategy. The only complaint I have is that sometimes in some locations, finding a table can be difficult once you've got your food, but I've found eating lunch right when the restaurants open at 11 helps to solve this problem, or eating at other non-peak times. I really like being able to check-in at table service locations online too. Much easier.

 

[DisneyJColeMom]

Omgosh thanks to the people that responded so quickly with positive experiences! I was getting nervous there lol

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

RE: Mobile Order

It's possible that on busier days, you might want to hit "here now" even 20-30 minutes before arriving at the restaurant. The day we experienced the wait at Cosmic Ray's was a Friday at MK which was probably the busiest we saw the parks. And our meal seemed to take a full 30 minutes to be prepared that day.

I think planning and flexibility is key. Ordering early should guarantee you the arrival window you want. And then hitting "I'm Here" early alleviates the frustrating wait outside the restaurant. We would always hit "Here Now" when getting off (or even boarding) the last attraction before lunch. Then we'd take our time getting over the restaurant, maybe hit a shop or grab a quick bathroom stop too.

Just mentally be prepared to wait outside the restaurant for 5-15 minutes - if you just accept that it might be part of the process, it eases frustrations. Also - I reminded myself that sitting outside waiting for my meal was better than standing inside in a line of people waiting to order like the old days!

 

[Shellyred8]

So to understand this correctly, its very difficult to just get a snack or shop for souvenirs? Im not Disney experienced, and I have a young kid I was hoping to give him a gift card at the beginning of the trip and tell him he could buy any special fun treat/snack he wants, or if he sees something he loves he can choose for himself. So this will be not easy to do? Is that everyone’s experience?

In regards to shopping for souvenirs, I would recommend doing your shopping in the morning or afternoon. Don't wait until the end of the day to try to do your shopping, as that is when you will almost always encounter extra wait times. You might occasionally encounter extra wait times at other times during the day, but in my experience those were usually rare. The end of the day lines were almost guaranteed though.

 

[Jen75]

RE: Mobile Order

It's possible that on busier days, you might want to hit "here now" even 20-30 minutes before arriving at the restaurant. The day we experienced the wait at Cosmic Ray's was a Friday at MK which was probably the busiest we saw the parks. And our meal seemed to take a full 30 minutes to be prepared that day.

I think planning and flexibility is key. Ordering early should guarantee you the arrival window you want. And then hitting "I'm Here" early alleviates the frustrating wait outside the restaurant. We would always hit "Here Now" when getting off (or even boarding) the last attraction before lunch. Then we'd take our time getting over the restaurant, maybe hit a shop or grab a quick bathroom stop too.

Just mentally be prepared to wait outside the restaurant for 5-15 minutes - if you just accept that it might be part of the process, it eases frustrations. Also - I reminded myself that sitting outside waiting for my meal was better than standing inside in a line of people waiting to order like the old days!

Yes this!! Definitely hit here now and then hope on another ride and you’ll be good to go! The table service restaurants we’ve had ADR’s at we’ve been able to check in online and walk over with no wait.

 

[Shellyred8]

Also - I reminded myself that sitting outside waiting for my meal was better than standing inside in a line of people waiting to order like the old days!

I also reminded myself that waiting outside in the FL sunshine was better than being home in the sub-zero temps!

 

[HiStitch626]

In regards to shopping for souvenirs, I would recommend doing your shopping in the morning or afternoon. Don't wait until the end of the day to try to do your shopping, as that is when you will almost always encounter extra wait times. You might occasionally encounter extra wait times at other times during the day, but in my experience those were usually rare. The end of the day lines were almost guaranteed though.

Not here now, but that was our experience in December. The only merchandise location where we had to wait in line during the day was World of Disney, and they offered a virtual queue. There were lines at Emporium, MouseGear, etc in the last hour before the parks closed.

 

[CarolinaGator]

My guess is with so many vacation destination still closed or limited such as Disneyland DC, NY ect there is not many places for people to go so most people looking for a getaway are going to Disney Florida and Universal. I have been keeping my eye on crowd levels because I was hoping to come back since my August trip but I am going wait

I think this is exactly right, at least for us. One of my friends went in October and talked about what a great job Disney was doing with masks and distancing. I kept watching all the blogs etc. and thought it looked like a vacation we could have in a more controlled environment than most other places. Looks like I caught on a little too late and am getting nervous about the building crowds. I might still bail on our planned trip in May. There are no rooms left at our resort for those dates, which makes me wonder if it's going to be slammed. We even purposefully planned it to be a midweek trip with no weekends involved and picked the dates that had the lowest parks ticket prices between then and the summer, hoping that was an indication of expected crowd levels.

 

[Gearbm95]

Really debating canceling my trip for early June. If the crowds are bad now during a historically slow week, then how atrocious are they going to be in June when it's 95 degrees?! I stupidly bought tickets for Orlando Informer Meetup at Univ on 6/4 and there's no refunds, so if I cancel the trip I'll lose my $370 for those tickets.

Why are Disney dragging their fit on getting dining places back open, there's zero reason behind this except cost cutting.

 

[DL1WDW2]

I arrived at AK 10 a.m. only to walk to pick up the AP magnet Orange Bird in Dinoland , of course only Donald Duck available with no idea of the arrival of the other one. Entry was packed and had to squeeze between groups of people the entire walk. No Trams in parking lot and by 11 a.m. sun was pretty hot walking back to car Total 2 miles from parking lot which was crowded parked in Dinosaur row 33 Only because they are filling up the empty car slots from early this morn, I guess.
As I exited I noticed lots of families in line to purchase their park tickets and AK sidewalks are packed. How can guests buy a ticket at the AK Park and have a park entry pass ? I think it is very crowded and imagine MK is worse.
In summary, nobody knows what your experience will be on a daily basis, including Disney apparently.But purchasing tickets at the entry seems like nobody is really counting accurately. So why do they specifically verify at the parking lot toll gate that I have made a daily reservation for park entry ?
Anyway I am still aggravated with Disney that the Orange Bird was not available. But not surprised. And still no Tinkerbell in mail .

 

[Wosmama6]

I arrived at AK 10 a.m. only to walk to pick up the AP magnet Orange Bird in Dinoland , of course only Donald Duck available with no idea of the arrival of the other one. Entry was packed and had to squeeze between groups of people the entire walk. No Trams in parking lot and by 11 a.m. sun was pretty hot walking back to car Total 2 miles from parking lot which was crowded parked in Dinosaur row 33 Only because they are filling up the empty car slots from early this morn, I guess.
As I exited I noticed lots of families in line to purchase their park tickets and AK sidewalks are packed. How can guests buy a ticket at the AK Park and have a park entry pass ? I think it is very crowded and imagine MK is worse.
In summary, nobody knows what your experience will be on a daily basis, including Disney apparently.But purchasing tickets at the entry seems like nobody is really counting accurately. So why do they specifically verify at the parking lot toll gate that I have made a daily reservation for park entry ?
Anyway I am still aggravated with Disney that the Orange Bird was not available. But not surprised. And still no Tinkerbell in mail .

Is this today?

 

[Orion Nebula]

All these reports are crushing... I will be at the parks this Sunday through Thursday... toss in upper 80s and my regret meter is skyrocketing. We kind of got stuck due to our airfare, but if we weren't so close I might've taken the loss already. Nothing like assuring everyone that A. the weather is nice this time of year and B. the crowds should be manageable due to capacity limits... which is obviously completely false.

This is going to feel like a typical summer now.

 

[scrappinginontario]

I arrived at AK 10 a.m. only to walk to pick up the AP magnet Orange Bird in Dinoland , of course only Donald Duck available with no idea of the arrival of the other one. Entry was packed and had to squeeze between groups of people the entire walk. No Trams in parking lot and by 11 a.m. sun was pretty hot walking back to car Total 2 miles from parking lot which was crowded parked in Dinosaur row 33 Only because they are filling up the empty car slots from early this morn, I guess.
As I exited I noticed lots of families in line to purchase their park tickets and AK sidewalks are packed. How can guests buy a ticket at the AK Park and have a park entry pass ? I think it is very crowded and imagine MK is worse.
In summary, nobody knows what your experience will be on a daily basis, including Disney apparently.But purchasing tickets at the entry seems like nobody is really counting accurately. So why do they specifically verify at the parking lot toll gate that I have made a daily reservation for park entry ?
Anyway I am still aggravated with Disney that the Orange Bird was not available. But not surprised. And still no Tinkerbell in mail .

As long as the park is not at capacity, people will purchase tickets at the gate and secure a reservation at that time. As of right now, the only park showing capacity for today is DHS.

 

[wilkydelts]

Nothing like assuring everyone that A. the weather is nice this time of year and B. the crowds should be manageable due to capacity limits... which is obviously completely false.

What is false, is your claim. Disney has a 35% capacity limit. It just may not be what you WANT it to be.

 

[mm824]

I think travelers need to be aware that hopes of truly social distancing isn't a reality right now. Or maybe it is ok for the first hour in the park a day. This may be true of all travel right now. Our plane down was a completely full flight and I have a feeling our flight home will be the same.

This. After the first hour or two it was impossible to stay away from other people. When we were there this past weekend/week there were just too many people for not enough space and places to go. At MCO maybe half the guests in our terminal were wearing masks? On our Magical Express ride back to the airport, there were half a dozen people who took off their masks for the duration of the ride ...

Just don't get caught up in the negativity and complaints. There is a lot of positive experiences but the negative ones seems to be ones reposted over and over because they want to be "heard". Which is causing many to panic and over react. I went in October it was outstanding, if beginning of April is even close then it will be fine.

Eh, I think it's useful to hear everyone thoughts. "Complaints" help shape expectations. There were a lot of positives from our trip and I'm a pretty positive person, but I do think the sudden shift in crowd levels is something to be noted.

IMO, It would be useful for those who are unsure of how they feel about the risk/reward to know ahead of time if this is something you are trying to avoid in some capacity. You cannot control other people, even with the best 'guidelines' in place ...

 

[DCLMP]

All these reports are crushing... I will be at the parks this Sunday through Thursday... toss in upper 80s and my regret meter is skyrocketing. We kind of got stuck due to our airfare, but if we weren't so close I might've taken the loss already. Nothing like assuring everyone that A. the weather is nice this time of year and B. the crowds should be manageable due to capacity limits... which is obviously completely false.

This is going to feel like a typical summer now.

80’s in March will be a lot nicer than 80’s in August...the nights should be amazing.

 

[Wosmama6]

All these reports are crushing... I will be at the parks this Sunday through Thursday... toss in upper 80s and my regret meter is skyrocketing. We kind of got stuck due to our airfare, but if we weren't so close I might've taken the loss already. Nothing like assuring everyone that A. the weather is nice this time of year and B. the crowds should be manageable due to capacity limits... which is obviously completely false.

This is going to feel like a typical summer now.

Same. We arrive on the 4th. I think we will hit rope drop and first 2 hours and then get the heck out of the parks. Check evening wait times for a return, maybe.

 

[Firestarlife]

Anyone's perfectly pleasant experience from October or December or even January has lost its relevance, I'm afraid. We all know things were limited but the crowds were great then. The situation is now clearly changing in respect to the crowd levels and wait times for everything you'd want to do, rides, food, and shopping. I'm really nervous about our upcoming trip in April and that's why I'm watching this thread like a hawk.

 

[kathi]

All these reports are crushing... I will be at the parks this Sunday through Thursday... toss in upper 80s and my regret meter is skyrocketing. We kind of got stuck due to our airfare, but if we weren't so close I might've taken the loss already. Nothing like assuring everyone that A. the weather is nice this time of year and B. the crowds should be manageable due to capacity limits... which is obviously completely false.

This is going to feel like a typical summer now.

Please report back - the pros and the cons! Good luck and I hope you have a good trip.

 

[wilkydelts]

Anyone's perfectly pleasant experience from October or December or even January has lost its relevance, I'm afraid. We all know things were limited but the crowds were great then. The situation is now clearly changing in respect to the crowd levels and wait times for everything you'd want to do, rides, food, and shopping. I'm really nervous about our upcoming trip in April and that's why I'm watching this thread like a hawk.

I watch the Touring Plans Line App regularly everyday and except holidays and certain weekends the times have not changed much from October when I went. What you are saying is not true.