Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[SouthFayetteFan]

This might be old news around here, but I follow this blog and they have a pretty good explanation about why its been crazy.

https://www.disneytouristblog.com/mardi-gras-crowds-disney-world/

I know a guy who figured this one out around these parts

Seems like this 11 day span (2/11 - 2/21) is going to help revenue tremendously in what will otherwise be a very soft Q2 of Disney's fiscal year. This year was always going to include the February trifecta: Valentine's Day + President's Day + Mardi Gras in a 4 day span. (For reference, the last time this happened was in 2015). Nothing I saw out of the wait times today surprised me - if anything there were encouraging signs with lower waits than are typical for this holiday.

I think it's easy to confuse what it looks like and feels like, vs. what the actual data shows. Here are wait times from President's Day 2020 vs. President's Day 2021 (the blue line is today). The major factors that are different are socially distant lines which take up more space, and lack of FastPass to ensure 3 short waits.

View attachment 556721

As some have said, people hear 35% capacity and think - "oh man, Disney will be dead, I want to be there!" not realizing what 35% really means. What those people really want is Disney at 15-20% of capacity which is what it seems like we're getting on weekdays through much of Jan/Feb (outside of the major holidays).

All these reports of shock at crowds last week... one word my friends: TRIFECTA

This week (and then corresponding crowds) has been coming for 6 years. None of the wait times I’ve seen recently have surprised me.

EDIT:
Here's a quick graph of the wait times from the Wednesday we spent at MK in late Jan, vs. today, vs. last Wednesday ("Trifecta" week). I'd say this is about what we'd expect to see from one of the slowest weeks of the year vs. a normal week vs. one of the busiest.

You can read my report of Wednesday 1/27 at the MK (to get a sense of what those crowd levels were like) HERE.

View attachment 558753

 

[winterwhite]

That explains last week - jury is out on why this week is so busy. There are no holidays, it’s before the spring break period, and by all historical accounts the week after a very busy week is usually a much deeper lull but this week it is not.

 

[disneygirlsng]

I see a lot of posts on the boards about the CDC limiting capacity to certain numbers like 50 percent. It seems to me that somewhere a while back those restrictions were lifted and the capacity numbers were essentially left to the discretion of Disney. The reason I ask is because my wife and I were in the Magic Kingdom this past Saturday, Feb 20th and Epcot Sunday Feb 21st, and the crowds were amazingly large. Saturday, walking through Adventureland and Fantasyland, was essentially people shoulder to shoulder. The crowds in the world showcase on Sunday for the last week of the festival of the arts were even worse. Both of us commented that the amount of people seemed to far exceed what we have experienced in previous years going in June and July. My wife actually commented that around Mexico, it seemed like the most crowded she had ever seen the world showcase. If these numbers were truly anywhere around 50 percent, I think it would be truly scary to experience 75 percent or more during this pandemic.

Disney is at 35%. But you have to remember that there are still many things that are closed that typically eat a lot of people. The number has nothing to do with CDC at all, Disney decided on the number.

 

[loswest]

1st half of our trip (staying off-site; Feb. 23-27; staying on-site at Pop Century Feb. 28-Mar. 4)

My thoughts/observations (more detailed reports to follow):

• Using the MDE app and the Lines app are helpful in getting an idea about when lines will be long but times can change quickly. When a ride posts lower than usual wait times on popular rides, people flock to those rides and the numbers quickly change. In general, posted times tend to be inflated but don’t count on that.
• Both of the parks (HS & AK) felt crowded in certain areas at different times of the day. Social distancing just isn’t possible 100% of the time. Even with lines on the ground, it is difficult when lines are constantly moving to maintain 6+ from every person at all times, especially for children who struggle who just can’t be expected to pay attention to spacing 100% of the time. We tried to be very conscious of others around us but frequently found ourselves within 6 ft of other people multiple times an hour. If this makes you uncomfortable this may not be the best time to visit WDW.
• Mask compliance was pretty good from what I was seeing but there were definitely people around not wearing masks properly. CMs did talk to people about this but cannot be everywhere at once. For my family, we weren’t bothered by it but if you are you will definitely feel uncomfortable at some point during your visit (likely multiple times) during your visit.
• We would usually create mobile orders first thing in the morning after arriving at the park and even changed the time of one order within 15 minutes of when it would have started and never waited very long to get our food.
• "Go with the flow" is becoming our mantra for this trip. We can have a plan but there is so much that is unknown or changing from day to day. If we keep our expectations low and focus on staying positive and thinking the best about the people around us, we are a lot happier and enjoy the parks more. Long lines can be great times to make friends (at a distance) and if it's hot at least we're not shivering in the cold at home. We're so glad the parks are open and we are able to take this trip. It's the first time in 13 years that we've taken our family to WDW. We have two teens graduating in 2021 & 2022 and my husband and I are celebrating our 20th anniversary this year and we felt strongly we needed to take this family vacation. It has been a great escape from all of the stress covid has created.

Tues. Feb. 23rd (outlet shopping, grocery shopping & prep for the rest of the week)
We arrived late Monday night (10:30pm), got our rental car & got to our airbnb ~11:30pm. We got a minivan from Avis and the lady who helped us was great. Super helpful and friendly.

10:10am Outlet shopping (Disney Character Warehouse)

• Tuesday morning we slept in and then headed to the Disney Character Warehouse on Vineland. We arrived ~10:10am and were called back about an hour later. We LOVED the Disney Character Warehouse and all of my kids found great souvenirs to take home.

12:15pm Target souvenir shopping & grocery pickup

• We also stopped at Target so they could see the Disney stuff there. We picked up a grocery order I had created late Monday night. We also had a Costco order delivered to my husband (working remotely on our non-park day) while we were gone so we could stock up on our favorite Costco stuff to use for snacks (granola bars, applesauce pouches, fruit snacks, hard boiled eggs) and a couple other grocery items for meals during the week.

5:10pm Sanaa ADR

• That night my husband and I had a 5:10pm ADR for Sanaa to celebrate our 20th anniversary this year. The bread service really is as good as people have said! And the butter chicken was the best we have ever tasted. We asked to be seated where we could watch the animals and said we were willing to wait if needed. It was so fun watching the animals during our meal and our waitress was fantastic! She was great answering the many questions we had and gave great recommendations. Partway through the meal she brought out a new miniature apple turnover, a new recipe the chef had created and at the end of the meal she gave us a complimentary mousse cake with “Happy Anniversary” written on a piece of white chocolate. It was a magical evening!

 

[loswest]

Wed. Feb. 24th, Hollywood Studios (Day 1)
7am - ROTR boarding group

• We left our airbnb at 7am( right after getting BG 1 for ROTR by clicking the join button at 6:59:59 exactly).

7:15am - parked at the Swan Hotel

• Staying offsite, we decided to pay to park at the Swan and walked to Hollywood Studios. Got to the Swan ~7:15 and we were 3rd or 4th in line when we got to HS. I can’t remember what time they took us up to put us in line for temp check but I believe it was ~8:10am. With the reshuffling of lines for temp check we were first in line at one of the temp checks but we had issues with our tickets so it took at least 5-10 minutes to work it out. The CM at the ticket terminals called over another CM to help us and they pulled us aside and manually went through all 7 of our tickets to figure it out.

Rides:
MSFM (walk on)
ROTR (slow walk on)

• When we entered Galaxy’s Edge we asked a CM if we would have time to ride before going to ROTR and they said we should be fine. We were so excited to get a BG for ROTR but having such an early number meant that we missed out on some of the early short lines for other rides.

MMRR

• Probably posted 50-70 min (can’t remember) but probably took ~30-40 min.

TOT
Lunch & Blue/Green Milk (Galaxy’s Edge)

• We got back together again for lunch and blue & green milk at Galaxy’s Edge. The Ronto Roaster’s were better than we expected and my daughter got another the next day (Wednesday). The milk was good and worth trying once but not worth paying so much to get it again.

1:30pm Droid appointment (my son)

• We were tired and didn’t have a lot of time until my son had a droid appointment (1:30) and my husband and daughter had lightsaber appointments (2:15pm) so we sat down outside of the Droid Depot and rested during the droid appointment.

2:15pm Lightsaber appointments (husband & daughter)
Midway Mania

• We split up again during the lightsaber appointments and I took the younger kids to ride Midway Mania and Alien Swirling Saucers.

Alien Swirling Sauces
Snack break

Split group:
Rock ‘n Roller Coaster (2x)/ Star Tours & MFSR

• We regrouped and sat down to eat a snack near Alien Swirling Saucers then split up to ride Rock n Roller Coaster (2 times) while the others rode Star Tours and then MFSR.

SDD (2x)

• We got back together again to ride SDD. After riding once it was almost 7pm and there was just enough time to ride once more before close. Riding SDD in the dark was fantastic! Much better than during the day.

 

[loswest]

Thurs. Feb. 25th, Hollywood Studios (Day 2)
7am ROTR BG

• We got BG 57 (clicking just barely after 6:59:59 but still before 7am). We used a countdown clock on our computer and my teenage daughter was the quickest to get the BG both days.

7:30am parked at the Swan Hotel

• We were running a little later this day so we left our airbnb at 7:15am and probably got to the Swan ~7:30am. My husband and son took off running for the park while I walked with the rest. We were ~7-8th in line this morning before they moved us up to the temp check tents. I’m pretty sure they opened up temps and ticketing at ~8:10am again on this day. Our tickets worked great this time so we were probably in the first 20 groups to enter the park.

Rides:
SDD

• We did SDD first. It was fun but not as much fun as riding at night with it all lit up.

MFSM
Rock ‘n Roller Coaster (9am)
TOT

• My daughter and I headed off to ride TOT. We got to the front of the park at 9am and it was getting pretty busy. We hurried over to TOT but the line was at 70 min and Rock ‘n Roller Coaster wasn’t looking very long so we went there instead. When we got off TOT was at 50 min so jumped in line for TOT.

Midway Mania

• We met back at Midway Mania. The line was long and stretched all the way back past the bathrooms behind MMRR so they opened up the backlot gate by the bathrooms but it moved pretty quickly. My daughter was pretty excited they opened this area up because it meant she could take a photo with the Incredibles backdrop while we were in line.

11:20am Lunch Mobile orders & stuff from home (Woody’s Lunchbox & Ronto Roasters)

• We got done just in time to pick up mobile orders from Woody’s Lunchbox and Ronto Roasters. We found a shady area sitting on the ground at the part of Galaxy’s Edge closest to the Toy Story area to rest and eat our lunch.

12:20pm ROTR (return window for BG 57 11:46-12:46)

• Next up was ROTR. Our boarding time for BG 57 was 11:46-12:46 (~15 min earlier than the expected return time they estimated). We used the bathroom after lunch and got in line at 12:20pm. The line moved pretty quickly. It took longer than our first morning but I think it was only about 20-30 min. from entering the line to getting on the ride.

Micky & Minnie’s Vacation Fun (animated film)
Frozen Sing along

• Next we tried to get into Frozen but we got there just a little too late. We arrived at 1:15 for the 1:30 show but it was already full. They said to come back at 2pm. We went and watched Micky and Minnie’s Vacation Fun animated film, which was cute and a nice place to rest our feet. We went back to get in line for Frozen at 1:45pm and they said they wouldn’t open the line until 2pm but then opened it at 1:50pm instead. It was probably full again by just after 2pm. So, if you want to do Frozen during the middle of the day, I suggest arrive 5-10 minutes before the hour and hanging out near the gate. When you see people heading over to entry, you’ll know it’s time. If you’re part of the group that makes it into the shaded area inside the building, this is a great place to rest and take a nap. The floor is slanted so it’s pretty easy to lay down and rest your eyes while you wait.

Star Tours (3x; 1x with entire group & 2x split group)/ Shopping @ Galaxy’s Edge

• After Frozen, we went to Star Tours and then split up so part of our family could shop at Galaxy’s Edge. The lines for the shops at Galaxy’s Edge look long but move pretty quickly. The Market can be a little challenging because they only allow one party into each store at a time and they don’t enforce any kind of time limits so if someone wants to browse for a while your wait could be longer. The Tshirt shop in the market tends to be the longest wait.

~5pm Boat back to Swan

• We left the park ~5pm and took the boat back to the Swan rather than walk. I think everyone really enjoyed not having to walk and thought it was just fun to ride the boat. There was still a bit of a walk back to the parking lot but we were glad we had taken the boat.

 

[loswest]

Fri. Feb. 26 Animal Kingdom (Day 1)
7:15/7:20am Arrive at parking lot entrance

• The original plan was to leave at 6:45am but we all struggled to get out the door that early. We left at 7am and they had just started to let cars pay to get into the parks as we drove up to the lines ~7:15/7:20am. There were two lanes on the left side that were not showing green above the guard station but there seemed to be a CM accepting payment and letting cars through so we drove into one of those lanes. This put us two cars back rather than 7-8 cars back in the other lanes. Cars were allowed to drive until they were closer to the parking lots but were kept in two lanes again at the point where the standar & handicapped lanes diverged. They allowed cars through to park at 7:30.

Rides:
Pandora FOP

• We went right through temp checks and ticketing without a line and headed straight to Pandora. It was basically a slow walk on with very little wait.

Everest (2x)

• After Pandora we headed to Everest and rode it two times walking on both times.

Dinosaur

• Then we rode Dinosaur with a minimal wait. Stopped outside Dinosaur in the shade with seating for a short snack/water break then headed to Everest again.

Everest

• The wait was longer this time but moved pretty quickly and we were only in line ~15-20 minutes.

Kilimanjaro Safaris

• We strolled over to Kilimanjaro Safaris looking at the shops along the way. The safari line was pretty long. The posted time was 45 min. but probably only took 20-25 min. Within ~10 min. It was even longer (~60 min, but probably taking 30-35 min. I think)

Gorilla Falls

• Then we did the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail and my younger girls got excited to do the Wilderness Explorer Guide. We made sure to do those whenever we saw a guide for the rest of the day.

Lunch - Harambe Market & food from home

• We ate lunch at Harambe Market ~11:15am. We got a seat in the shade and felt like this area wasn’t nearly as busy as what we had experienced in HS or what we saw at the area outside Pandora FOP. We were able to eat without feeling rushed to let someone else have a seat.

Pandora FOP

• After lunch we headed back over to Pandora FOP. The end of the line was on the wooden bridge between Africa & Pandora. It was 50 min when we got in line but quickly grew to 70 within a few minutes. We were lucky we arrived when we did.

Tough to be a Bug

• Posted 30 min and probably took close to this

~2:30pm Headed home


We will be in the airbnb until Sunday morning when we’ll be switching to PoP Century. We were originally going to Animal Kingdom tomorrow with Monday & Tuesday at Magic Kingdom and Wednesday at Epcot but decided to mix it up and go to Magic Kingdom on Sunday and Animal Kingdom on Monday. Tomorrow we’re going to take the day to relax and do some more shopping, resting and repacking before transferring to on-site on Sunday. I’ll try to post more in the next few days. I really appreciated the trip reports I read before I arrived and hope our experience can help someone else.

 

[MomOTwins]

That explains last week - jury is out on why this week is so busy. There are no holidays, it’s before the spring break period, and by all historical accounts the week after a very busy week is usually a much deeper lull but this week it is not.

Three reasons I think:

1. The Grandma and Grandpa effect. Lots of people age 65 and up just got vaccines and after being cooped up all year, want to GO somewhere, and see their grandkids too. International travel is still tricky due to testing requirements, and cruises aren't happening, so WDW with the grandkids is the perfect post-vaccine getaway.
2. "Best Time of Year" Blogs. Remember how bad January/February 2020 was, and everyone on here was posting long angry rants about how everyone "misled" them by saying February was the "off-season"? Every blog I've read has been declaring late February/early March to the best time to visit in 2021 because it is before the spring break crowds arrive, and typically has better weather.
3. Word of mouth. January and early February were ghost towns. People who went then chatted to all their friends about how wonderful it was. Two families in my kids' class are going in March and they both say it's because they talked to so-and-so who went in January and heard it is amazing now with zero crowds.

 

[winterwhite]

We gave up today and went to go have lunch in Winter Garden. Disney Springs was an absolute madhouse when we arrived at 9:30 to try to get a spot for Gideon’s. Virtual wait was an hour and 20 at that time. We decided to leave and as we were leaving people were absolutely pouring out of the parking garage into the Springs.

we could only get Epcot for today and did it with the hopes to hop to Animal Kingdom but it’s not looking promising.

 

[wilkydelts]

We gave up today and went to go have lunch in Winter Garden. Disney Springs was an absolute madhouse when we arrived at 9:30 to try to get a spot for Gideon’s. Virtual wait was an hour and 20 at that time. We decided to leave and as we were leaving people were absolutely pouring out of the parking garage into the Springs.

we could only get Epcot for today and did it with the hopes to hop to Animal Kingdom but it’s not looking promising.

Yes Disney Springs is not being treated the same way as other Disney Properties. As many have said it is the wild west over there.

 

[rasclautmangos]

I'm at Animal Kingdom now. Idk if it's true or not, but the park at least feels more crowded than it usually does when I go in the early summer. Definitely more crowded than it was in August when I visited last.

You can barely even walk down many of the paths without being super close to anyone on all sides.

 

[winterwhite]

Yes Disney Springs is not being treated the same way as other Disney Properties. As many have said it is the wild west over there.

It’s super busy everywhere - but I assume more super busy at Springs today versus other days because parks are unavailable for reservation.

Certainly 10:30 this morning at Springs had the volume of people who were in HS yesterday at the same time. We aren’t even going to attempt a park. Pandemic or no, it’s too many people.

 

[Mr. X]

TP just lowered the crowd levels for the entire week we are visiting in May

 

[Grumpy by Birth]

TP just lowered the crowd levels for the entire week we are visiting in May

... and (as I expected) raised them for the entire week we are visiting in March.

 

[lovethattink]

I'm at Animal Kingdom now. Idk if it's true or not, but the park at least feels more crowded than it usually does when I go in the early summer. Definitely more crowded than it was in August when I visited last.

You can barely even walk down many of the paths without being super close to anyone on all sides.

Current crowds cannot be compared to last summer’s crowds. Consumer confidence is much, much higher now.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

I bought some 4-day resident tickets for my birthday. We got the park hoppers and went to Disney Springs on a weekday last week to give proof of our FL residence so we wouldn't waste time when we went to the parks.

We went yesterday, and will go again on Tue/Wed this upcoming week. We will save our 4th day for some point in the future. I hope people liked my daily timed reports from before and I can post them again.

Feb 26 Friday
AK 8-5
MK 9-10

We were awake around 6 and were leaving the house around 6:45 am. Saw a hot air balloon in the distance with the sun rise so took that for a good omen.

7:10: arrived at the AK parking gates

7:15: through the gates

We were then held up in a long line of cars and made to wait until around 7:30 to actually park

7:39: in line for Navi River Journey. It's such a slow loader (one party per boat) that we chose to wait for this before FOP. The attraction took a while to open, I believe they started letting us through right before 8.

8:04: on Navi River Journey. I kept calling it Rivers of Light. It fits.

We were going to do FOP next, but the line doubled all the way to the Festival of the Lion King theater. Decided to wait and headed to Safaris, since we were almost there anyway.

8:37: on Safari. Had maybe a 10 minute wait.

This safari was fantastic, we got to see Baby Ranger (rhinoceros) frolicking and running around. Sorry everyone, sometimes you have to look up some giant mother rhino butts if you wanna see the babies.





8:59: off the Safari and walked onto the Gorilla Falls trail. We'd done this trail a few weeks earlier. The bird house was not open then but is now.



9:15: done with the Gorilla Falls trail and headed to Asia

9:31: got a breakfast bowl from Yak and Yeti counter service and some ice chai lattes and sat in a nice Pagoda seating area. Got to see a couple character boats float past. Amazing how hungry you get when you eat breakfast at 6 am.



10:02: walking onto Maharajah Jungle Trek.

10:27: the monkeys in the temple on the water were putting on a good gymnastics show so we watched them for a bit.



The line for Everest was a bit long so we decided to come back later. We never did get on it.

10:40: Decided to get in line for Dinosaur even though it looked long. Ended up waiting close to half an hour.

11:30: got in line for It's Tough to be a Bug. Had to wait almost 20 minutes and got called rude for asking people behind us to stay back on our markers.

Watched the trainers working with the lemurs for a bit.



12:30: picked up our Satuli food right at 12:30, we had put in a mobile order when we entered the parks. It was good but I was sad that the only Bao buns they had were the cheeseburger ones.

1:02: joined the back of the line for FOP. It was right at the 'entering mo'ara valley' sign. So still long, but nowhere near as long as that morning. We were on the ride around 1:45.

This is the second time we'd been to AK since the pandemic and both times it has been the worst park for having people up in your butts in line. Just stay on your markers, people. Breathing down my neck is not going to get you on the ride any faster. We didn't say anything after getting called out in the Tough to be a Bug queue for our rudeness. Sometimes the struggle is not worth it.

2:15: got seated for the 2:30 bird show. I like it better with the tour guide (never saw it with the Up characters). It's still a fun show and a nice way to have a seated break.



3:08: in line for the Safari again, waited roughly 10 minutes. Was not as good as the first Safari earlier, but we did get to see a bunch of giraffes headed quickly for snack time. Baby Ranger was not out, so he might only come out in the mornings (not sure, just a guess).





3:45: walked up to the Wildlife Express. I really enjoy the animation classes so I wanted to do that. Didn't have to wait long for a train, we were hoping to make the 4 drawing class. We ended up just making it with a few minutes to spare. We got to draw Baby Tuk Tuk from the upcoming Raya and the Last Dragon. Apparently the classes rotate between Baby Tuk Tuk and the 3 monkeys from the movie.

4:30: the drawing class takes about a half hour. The park closed at 5 so we decided to just hang around the petting zoo for a while. Ended up headed to the train at 4:55. Did not have to wait long.

Not our drawing, this was the animator's:



We slowly made our way out and were at the front of the park at 5:20. MK was open until 10 pm so we were going to hop over there. Ended up getting on an almost empty Contemporary bus that was pulling up as we walked by.

5:33: on a Contemporary bus.

5:58: walking onto Main Street.

Summary: Not sure why AK is always the worst park for having people not obey the markers in line. I think everything worked out for us even with some longer waits. We got to do everything we wanted excep Everest. In all, we did: KS 2x, RJ, FOP, Dinosaur, Bird Show, both animal trails, TTBAB, saw most of the animals and did the drawing at Rafiki's. We also had two counter service meals.

I'll finish our MK write up in another post. Hope this post is helpful for some. If nothing else, it forces me to go through my pictures and I pull the time stamps from those.

 

[Twitterpaited]

For those that are just back from Disney, how often did you get to see characters around the parks in those cavalcades? Will my 7 year old be pretty much guaranteed at some point in the day to see characters? Maybe even more than once? Particularly curious about Galaxys Edge, are there Star Wars guys around? Storm troopers saying anything fun or Kylo?

If you go earlier in the day, they have calvacades pretty often at MK and Epcot.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Feb 26

MK 9-10
Hopping from AK at 5

5:58: walking onto Main Street



First stop was the Emporium to pick up my magnetic shoulder sitting Orange Bird. Love the Orange Bird.

6:30: mobile order for Cosmic Ray's. Hit the 'we are here' as we were walking over and still had to wait a few minutes.


When we were done eating and went outside it was dark. I don't think anyone can overstate the excitement of being in MK after dark with all the lights on. Very magical.

Our strategy was to do a circle of the parks and ride whatever we wanted/or had a short wait.

7:08: in line for Dumbo. Only a 4 minute wait.

7:21: walk on to Little Mermaid.



Cinderella's carriage is beautifully lit up for pictures.



7:40: Haunted Mansion, near walk on.

8:07: in line for Country Bears. Was kind of odd, as we walked up a CM was holding the door open and let us in. They let in very few parties for each showing and when a showing is full they shut the doors. We saw a few people peering into the windows trying to see what's going on, and a few came in a back exit.

Was an odd way of letting people in, but maybe someone should have given them some wine to chase their tears?



8:34: in line for Jungle Cruise. This was a very long line but it moved continuously. On at 8:50. I have never been in a boat that went so fast on Jungle Cruise. My theory is that our skipper was off work at 9 and wanted to be sure he didn't stay a single minute over that.

9:06: tried to watch the Tiki Room but it was down. POTC was also down the entire time we were there.





It was at this point the park majorly cleared out. We walked onto the Carpets.



9:25: in line for Peter Pan, waited 10 minutes.



9:40: Philharmagic, was ushered on by the CM and got in the theater right as the doors were closing.

When we got out it was a few minutes to 10 (close) instead of rushing to another line we made our slow way out. The inside of the castle was open so we were able to walk through.



I was going to grab a cookie at the bakery but the line was out the door so I skipped it. We were at the AK bus line at 10:10. We did have to wait a while, annoyingly enough. It was us about 6 other parties. The Epcot bus had 2 people in line and none of the other stops near us had anyone. Two Epcot buses came right behind the other. Finally the security guard/CM attendant ran out into the street to flag down a Mushu bus to come and get us. We had waited about 15-20 minutes.

We arrived back at AK and were able to pretty easily find out car (it was just our car and the others from the bus we were on). And we were back home right at 11 pm. Good thing we have today and tomorrow to recover before our next park day. Getting a bit old to do the parks 7 am-10 pm.

Summary: Was a pretty successful park hop. After we ate, we had about 3 park hours left. We did: Dumbo, LM, HM, CB, JC, Carpets, PP and Philharmagic. We did check out the Splash and BTTR area a few times but it looked like a mess with a lot of people and long lines.

People were also much more respectful of line markers at MK.

I hope these play by plays help some people. Next up we have an Epcot day with maybe a park hop to DHS. Then a DHS day and Epcot for the first day of Flower and Garden.

I was so happy MK extended it's hours and stayed open until 10. There is really nothing, nothing like being at the MK after dark.

 

[Firestarlife]

Feb 26

MK 9-10
Hopping from AK at 5

5:58: walking onto Main Street

View attachment 559459

First stop was the Emporium to pick up my magnetic shoulder sitting Orange Bird. Love the Orange Bird.

6:30: mobile order for Cosmic Ray's. Hit the 'we are here' as we were walking over and still had to wait a few minutes.


When we were done eating and went outside it was dark. I don't think anyone can overstate the excitement of being in MK after dark with all the lights on. Very magical.

Our strategy was to do a circle of the parks and ride whatever we wanted/or had a short wait.

7:08: in line for Dumbo. Only a 4 minute wait.

7:21: walk on to Little Mermaid.

View attachment 559462

Cinderella's carriage is beautifully lit up for pictures.

View attachment 559463

7:40: Haunted Mansion, near walk on.

8:07: in line for Country Bears. Was kind of odd, as we walked up a CM was holding the door open and let us in. They let in very few parties for each showing and when a showing is full they shut the doors. We saw a few people peering into the windows trying to see what's going on, and a few came in a back exit.

Was an odd way of letting people in, but maybe someone should have given them some wine to chase their tears?

View attachment 559464

8:34: in line for Jungle Cruise. This was a very long line but it moved continuously. On at 8:50. I have never been in a boat that went so fast on Jungle Cruise. My theory is that our skipper was off work at 9 and wanted to be sure he didn't stay a single minute over that.

9:06: tried to watch the Tiki Room but it was down. POTC was also down the entire time we were there.

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It was at this point the park majorly cleared out. We walked onto the Carpets.

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9:25: in line for Peter Pan, waited 10 minutes.

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9:40: Philharmagic, was ushered on by the CM and got in the theater right as the doors were closing.

When we got out it was a few minutes to 10 (close) instead of rushing to another line we made our slow way out. The inside of the castle was open so we were able to walk through.

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I was going to grab a cookie at the bakery but the line was out the door so I skipped it. We were at the AK bus line at 10:10. We did have to wait a while, annoyingly enough. It was us about 6 other parties. The Epcot bus had 2 people in line and none of the other stops near us had anyone. Two Epcot buses came right behind the other. Finally the security guard/CM attendant ran out into the street to flag down a Mushu bus to come and get us. We had waited about 15-20 minutes.

We arrived back at AK and were able to pretty easily find out car (it was just our car and the others from the bus we were on). And we were back home right at 11 pm. Good thing we have today and tomorrow to recover before our next park day. Getting a bit old to do the parks 7 am-10 pm.

Summary: Was a pretty successful park hop. After we ate, we had about 3 park hours left. We did: Dumbo, LM, HM, CB, JC, Carpets, PP and Philharmagic. We did check out the Splash and BTTR area a few times but it looked like a mess with a lot of people and long lines.

People were also much more respectful of line markers at MK.

I hope these play by plays help some people. Next up we have an Epcot day with maybe a park hop to DHS. Then a DHS day and Epcot for the first day of Flower and Garden.

I was so happy MK extended it's hours and stayed open until 10. There is really nothing, nothing like being at the MK after dark.

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Thank you for the detailed report! These photos are terrific!

 

[Naomeri]

Feb 26

MK 9-10
Hopping from AK at 5

5:58: walking onto Main Street

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First stop was the Emporium to pick up my magnetic shoulder sitting Orange Bird. Love the Orange Bird.

6:30: mobile order for Cosmic Ray's. Hit the 'we are here' as we were walking over and still had to wait a few minutes.


When we were done eating and went outside it was dark. I don't think anyone can overstate the excitement of being in MK after dark with all the lights on. Very magical.

Our strategy was to do a circle of the parks and ride whatever we wanted/or had a short wait.

7:08: in line for Dumbo. Only a 4 minute wait.

7:21: walk on to Little Mermaid.

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Cinderella's carriage is beautifully lit up for pictures.

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7:40: Haunted Mansion, near walk on.

8:07: in line for Country Bears. Was kind of odd, as we walked up a CM was holding the door open and let us in. They let in very few parties for each showing and when a showing is full they shut the doors. We saw a few people peering into the windows trying to see what's going on, and a few came in a back exit.

Was an odd way of letting people in, but maybe someone should have given them some wine to chase their tears?

View attachment 559464

8:34: in line for Jungle Cruise. This was a very long line but it moved continuously. On at 8:50. I have never been in a boat that went so fast on Jungle Cruise. My theory is that our skipper was off work at 9 and wanted to be sure he didn't stay a single minute over that.

9:06: tried to watch the Tiki Room but it was down. POTC was also down the entire time we were there.

View attachment 559465

View attachment 559466

It was at this point the park majorly cleared out. We walked onto the Carpets.

View attachment 559467

9:25: in line for Peter Pan, waited 10 minutes.

View attachment 559468

9:40: Philharmagic, was ushered on by the CM and got in the theater right as the doors were closing.

When we got out it was a few minutes to 10 (close) instead of rushing to another line we made our slow way out. The inside of the castle was open so we were able to walk through.

View attachment 559469

I was going to grab a cookie at the bakery but the line was out the door so I skipped it. We were at the AK bus line at 10:10. We did have to wait a while, annoyingly enough. It was us about 6 other parties. The Epcot bus had 2 people in line and none of the other stops near us had anyone. Two Epcot buses came right behind the other. Finally the security guard/CM attendant ran out into the street to flag down a Mushu bus to come and get us. We had waited about 15-20 minutes.

We arrived back at AK and were able to pretty easily find out car (it was just our car and the others from the bus we were on). And we were back home right at 11 pm. Good thing we have today and tomorrow to recover before our next park day. Getting a bit old to do the parks 7 am-10 pm.

Summary: Was a pretty successful park hop. After we ate, we had about 3 park hours left. We did: Dumbo, LM, HM, CB, JC, Carpets, PP and Philharmagic. We did check out the Splash and BTTR area a few times but it looked like a mess with a lot of people and long lines.

People were also much more respectful of line markers at MK.

I hope these play by plays help some people. Next up we have an Epcot day with maybe a park hop to DHS. Then a DHS day and Epcot for the first day of Flower and Garden.

I was so happy MK extended it's hours and stayed open until 10. There is really nothing, nothing like being at the MK after dark.

View attachment 559471

Happy to hear that you really did quite a lot on a busy day, thanks for the reports!