Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[scrappinginontario]

Since the Epcot monorail line is not running, are there buses running directly from MK to Epcot? Or do you have to monorail/ferry back to TTC and take a bus from there? Looking at hopping for a bit around mid day to see the topiaries and then return to MK for the evening on an upcoming trip, so just trying to figure out how that can be done these days.

I'm not sure about the transportation question (I would recommend asking that on the transportation board) but I noticed you wanting to hop 'mid-day' from MK to Epcot. Just a note that park hopping is not open until 2pm.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

What a great run down of your day! Thanks for sharing, and I'm so glad you had a great birthday! We will be there tomorrow; I'm hoping the rain will wait until late morning so we can rideshare and walk in, but I'm honestly debating if we should just sleep an extra 20 minutes (2 hour time difference) and Lyft to the entrance. If I was going to do that, does anyone know what time we should get TO Hollywood Studios so we'll be allowed to stay and wait in the line? Is Rideshare the same line as parking at that point? Our other two options are Lyft to the Speedway and walk in (which I did in October) or Lyft to the Swan/Dolphin and take the Friendship boats in. Opinions on which might be our best bet? (We're staying across from Universal)

So it seems like you are usually allowed to park at 45 minutes before the park officially opens. So for DHS I believe most cars would be turned away at the parking booth if you arrive much before 8 am. We've arrived at parking booths an hour before park official open and have been allowed to line up and wait.

Around an hour until open, sometimes they will let you pay for parking and then line you up inside the lot and make you wait to park for a bit until about 45 minutes until opening. Sometimes you are held at the paying area until 45 minutes til opening.

If you were dropped off at the Swan/Dolphin I'd probably just walk at that point.

 

[NC State]

Since the Epcot monorail line is not running, are there buses running directly from MK to Epcot? Or do you have to monorail/ferry back to TTC and take a bus from there? Looking at hopping for a bit around mid day to see the topiaries and then return to MK for the evening on an upcoming trip, so just trying to figure out how that can be done these days.

We were at MK last week. While we were waiting for our bus back to CSR (this was after 4:00 pm); I did see a bus pull in with Epcot at the top. I thought that was weird but I understand why now.

 

[WawaCoffee]

Lots of great info in this thread.

For those who have visited, how comfortable were you dining indoors? There are only 1 or 2 indoor restaurants that are a "must" for me, Garden Grill being one of them. Here in the northeast USA, several restaraunts are ignoring social-distancing/capacity guidelines, and dining indoors comfortably has been a challenge.

 

[Leigh L]

Thank you for a different perspective. After reading many of the more troubling posts about crowds, I've been reconsidering going this fall. On another thread a poster talked about doing a shorter Disney stay and then doing Universal and Bush gardens to balance out the lack of night EMH's, no shows and no fireworks for the same or higher cost to stay there. With all the reports of crowding and with fewer places to spread out the guests, it has certainly thinking for sure.

About crowds - I highly recommend avoiding Universal on weekends, unless you have Express Pass. We found UO on 2 different occasions (August and mid-January) to be far more crowded than WDW with extended wait times on weekends.

 

[CapnJacksGirl]

Lots of great info in this thread.

For those who have visited, how comfortable were you dining indoors? There are only 1 or 2 indoor restaurants that are a "must" for me, Garden Grill being one of them. Here in the northeast USA, several restaraunts are ignoring social-distancing/capacity guidelines, and dining indoors comfortably has been a challenge.

We had no issues with indoor dining anywhere that we went. Tables were blocked off to allow space in between parties. CMs seemed to be conscious of keeping everyone distanced throughout the restaurants. Restrooms however That was my big indoor issue throughout our visit.

 

[angryduck71]

How to Have a Successful Day at DHS

Tuesday March 2
DHS 9-7

First of all, this was my birthday. I was super excited to wear my birthday pin.

6: up and at 'em. Headed for the parks around 6:30ish

6:55: pulled over at Fantastia Mini Golf parking lot so we could both try for a Rise boarding group. We had a friend joining us for the day and he was also trying. I didn't have any fancy countdown clocks, I just started refreshing the page at 6:59.

And, as Kuzco would say: Boom baby.

What can I say? It was my special day.

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7:10: breakfast ADR at Ale & Compass at Yacht Club. Had the eggs benedict special and it was soooo good. We asked for our check when the food arrived and we were out of there at 7:45

7:45: walked to DHS. It was a beautiful morning.

8:05: arrived at DHS and were in line for the temp checks. Maybe about 15 groups back?

8:15: temp checks started, the line moved quickly past the temp checks, through security and into the gates.

8:22: into line for MMRR. I believe we were on the second train of the day.

8:32: off the ride and onto Toy Story Land

8:39: line for Slinky Dog Dash

8:52: rode SDD

8:57: walked onto Swirling Saucers

9:09: into line for TSMM

9:25: off the ride

We had until 9:50 to make it to Rise. We decided it was a more valuable use of our time to knock out a few rides with short waits and show up to Rise at the end of our boarding time.

9:37: met up with our friend and got in line for ROTR. It was our first time riding.

10:02: off the ride, loved it. Won't say more since we managed to stay mostly spoiler free and I don't want to ruin it for anyone else.

Felt like we had already had a super successful morning. Had a delicious breakfast, already did MMRR, TSMM, SDD, Saucers and ROTR. And the park had only officially been open for an hour.

10:08: mobile ordered a drink from Ronto Roasters so we could sit with our friend who had breakfast there. Watched Chewie interact with the crowd from on top of a building.

10:26: we weren't going to stop into Dok Ondar's because we had just been there the previous night, but our friend wanted to go in. The force was with us because they'd just got Ahsoka's lightsabers in stock overnight! Talk about lucky. I

10:40: expensive birthday gift to myself in hand, we watched some Stormtroopers and Vi Moradi on top of the same building Chewie had just been on.

We also watched Rey have a very serious conversation from up high with a little girl.

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11:10: in line for Rockin Rollercoaster. Fun fact: you have to check your lightsaber blades on that ride. They send you through to the gift shop then back in line. We did get front of the coaster though, so maybe it was worth it.

11:34: rode RR

I wanted to ride TT but it was listed as an 85 minute wait. It was getting very hot at this point so we mobile ordered some drinks at the Backlot Express and had a nice sit down break.

I also have a gap in my pictures here, I think my phone died and I was charging it. All my time stamps are based off pictures I took. After we finished relaxing in Backlot Express we rode Star Tours. I think we had a 15-20 minute wait. We got all the new scenes from Last Skywalker which I was excited about as we'd never seen them.

1:20ish?: got in line for Muppets and had to wait a decently long time.

1:50: in the Muppets theater. They must have got a new digital projector since the last time I saw this show (probably several years). The picture looked super crisp.

2:08: we headed to Sci Fi Dine In. I had a reservation for 2:20. We also had 3 other friends join us at this point (they hopped over). This is my absolute favorite restaurant at Disney. The food isn't bad but I love the ambience. It started to pour right before 2:20, we asked if we could wait inside but were told no. So we huddled under 3 umbrellas and waited it out. I think the rain only lasted 5-10 minutes.

2:32: seated in Sci Fi.

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Two of us had birthdays on March 2, and a third had a birthday on March 4. We all 3 got cupcakes at the end of the meal.

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4:04: decided to ride MMRR and got pulled out of line the second we entered due to the birthday buttons. Got backdoored onto the ride.

4:30: into line for Smuggler's Run. We had a full 6 person crew and we were going to live it up.

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4:54: first ride. We did ok but didn't achieve our objective.

4:56: back in line for Smuggler's.

I don't have time stamps for this ride, but we were definitely off the ride by 5:45.

On our second ride we achieved great success: we got Chewie mode and we finally kept all 3 lights on! Which basically means you scored very highly.

We shopped around in Droid Depot for a bit.

5:56: in line for TSMM

6:32: my time stamps failed again, but we had obviously ridden TSMM at this point and were just boarding SDD.

The sun was setting and we made our way out of Toy Story Land.

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We shopped around a bit and took some photopass pictures. Earlier in the day (like 7:15 am), our friend had snagged us all an Oga's for 7 pm for 6 people.

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Nothing better than a park reservation right at close on an early closing hour.

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6:59: Oga's reservation.

Also, miracle of miracles: we got a booth!!! Getting a booth at Oga's is like finding the Holy Grail. It was interesting seeing the place so empty. This was our first post COVID visit. Looked like the filled all the booths and had a few couples scattered around the bar and only a few standing tables occupied.

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7:54: Oga's was not enforcing a two drink minimum. We definitely didn't feel rushed but ended up leaving right before 8 anyway. There were still other groups left when we headed out.

We made our way slowly out of the park and were at the exit at 8:06. Love this pic I took of Sci Fi on the way out.

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We took the Skyliner back to Yacht club and had no wait.

All in all, was a pretty spectacular day. I know some of it was luck, but we'd managed to do:

MMRR x2
SDD x 2
Saucers
TSMM x 2
ROTR Boarding Group 1
ST
Muppets
RR
Smugglers x 2

Really the only thing we missed that I wanted to do was TT. It had a very long wait all day. We probably could have done it instead of our second evening visit to Toy Story Land, but those rides were fun anyway and a lot closer to our park close Oga's than TT would have been.

A lot of the lines looked really long, or were marked as long on MDE, but they really weren't that bad. I highly recommend paying for the Touring Lines app, those wait times were much, much more accurate than the ones on MDE.

Hope this helped!

This was a fantastic birthday! I'm celebrating my 50th in a few months. Hope I have your luck -- the Force was certainly with you!

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Lots of great info in this thread.

For those who have visited, how comfortable were you dining indoors? There are only 1 or 2 indoor restaurants that are a "must" for me, Garden Grill being one of them. Here in the northeast USA, several restaraunts are ignoring social-distancing/capacity guidelines, and dining indoors comfortably has been a challenge.

Inside the Disney parks I felt extremely comfortable. I just ate ate Sci Fi March 2. They weren't seating people in every car, they made sure you weren't right next to another party. They were also only seating one party per car.

Disney Springs was another matter. I think the restaurants not owned by Disney seemed to be sitting people closer to each other. Specifically I'm thinking of Frontera Cocina.

I think Disney does a really good job.

 

[lovethattink]

Inside the Disney parks I felt extremely comfortable. I just ate ate Sci Fi March 2. They weren't seating people in every car, they made sure you weren't right next to another party. They were also only seating one party per car.

Disney Springs was another matter. I think the restaurants not owned by Disney seemed to be sitting people closer to each other. Specifically I'm thinking of Frontera Cocina.

I think Disney does a really good job.

It’s my understanding the partner restaraunts are to follow Disney’s rules.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

It’s my understanding the partner restaraunts are to follow Disney’s rules.

It might have been personal perception then, but I do remember feeling like the tables were closer at Frontera.

 

[emilymad]

It’s my understanding the partner restaraunts are to follow Disney’s rules.

Last week we didn't think Raglan Road or The Boathouse were following distancing guidelines. Or maybe it is just with every table full it seems like people are closer than they are. Homecomin' was also the same but we got lucky with our particular table.

 

[csmom]

Lots of great info in this thread.

For those who have visited, how comfortable were you dining indoors? There are only 1 or 2 indoor restaurants that are a "must" for me, Garden Grill being one of them. Here in the northeast USA, several restaraunts are ignoring social-distancing/capacity guidelines, and dining indoors comfortably has been a challenge.

We had 8 table service meals when we were there 2 weeks ago. The only one we felt had tables close together was the Boathouse.

 

[Akck]

Sorry to keep pestering you, but is that 30-45 minutes before 11am or before unofficial opening around 10:15? Thank you!

That would be the official opening. We weren’t in the first groups, so we had CBR traffic coming through. Even with that, Epcot wasn’t overly crowded until later that afternoon.

 

[Naomeri]

How long after Epcot close has the skyliner been running? I have an 8 pm Beaches & Cream res. on March 11, and Epcot closes at 8, and I’d like to be prepared if I’m going to have to bus from BC to DS to Pop afterward, instead of just hopping the Skyliner

 

[Raven01]

I noticed bus numbers for parks at AK and MK I think, on the board where you are looking for resort bus numbers. I assumed they were for hopping, as I do not think they were there in September.

 

[scrappinginontario]

How long after Epcot close has the skyliner been running? I have an 8 pm Beaches & Cream res. on March 11, and Epcot closes at 8, and I’d like to be prepared if I’m going to have to bus from BC to DS to Pop afterward, instead of just hopping the Skyliner

My understanding is that the Skyliner stops running 1 hour after park closing.

 

[Naomeri]

My understanding is that the Skyliner stops running 1 hour after park closing.

Thanks. Now if Epcot would just extend one more hour that night, I’d have nothing to worry about.

 

[BillFromCT]

Returned last night from 6 days in the World. Three times I saw cast members going beyond to put safety first, and I really appreciated it.
1. The cast members at Tower of Terror told everyone in line as they crossed the street they would have to be done with their food and beverage when they reached the red umbrella at the main gate. The cast members at the gate told them to step to the side and finish it, or dump it in the trash.
2. The cast members at the entrance of Seven Dwarfs asking every group if their whole party was there. Step to the side if you want to wait for them. They will not be allowed to catch up after this point. I wish a lot more attractions would do this.
3. A supervisor cast member at the hub literally chased after two twenty something “Disney princesses” and told them they had been spoken to about removing their masks by other cast members. If they were seen removing their masks one more time they would be asked to leave. I gave her a small clap.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Thanks. Now if Epcot would just extend one more hour that night, I’d have nothing to worry about.

I was hoping this for you too as Epcot announced extended hours but unfortunately extended the day before and the day after your reservation!

 

[terri33inne]

How long after Epcot close has the skyliner been running? I have an 8 pm Beaches & Cream res. on March 11, and Epcot closes at 8, and I’d like to be prepared if I’m going to have to bus from BC to DS to Pop afterward, instead of just hopping the Skyliner

We made the mistake last night of thinking Epcot closed at 9... took skyliner from Riviera. Arrived and commented on the line waiting for the skyliner... proceeded to IG to find out it closed at 8. We just wanted to go to that first gift shop so they generously let us in. We were there 20 mins max... we came out & the skyliner line was past the BC pool slide... I don’t know how far it went back as we ducked into the BC lobby & took a cab back to Riviera. It has to be at least a 90 minute wait at that point.