Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[sdeut]

Headed home after a week. We have been five times since reopening and yesterday at AK was the most crowded day we have experienced. Even with a giant line at the Lion King there was a two hour wait for FoP and 60 minutes for safari and dinosaur. The vibe was very different since our most recent trip in January with many people being much more casual about safety protocols. One of the most noticeable things was that some CM are still strictly enforcing policy to the point of chasing people down while many others say nothing. This inconsistency is causing issues where individuals perceive the CM that enforces as being too strict or picking on them. We saw many instances of chin strap masks and noses out while talking to CM and even security and nothing was said. I include this so others that may not be comfortable will be prepared. Also, we saw a very sad and worrying situation at ToT right before boarding on Thursday near park close. One of the CM threw her face shield to the ground, ripped off her mask put both hands over her face and slid down the wall to a squatting position and began to cry. Very quickly she was whisked away but I thought it was important to share because others have complained that the CM are not as cheery as in normal times and I feel like this moment we witnessed is a testament to the stress level they are dealing with right now. All in all we had fun but we will wait to go again until things change a bit.
Edited because typos on a very bumpy bus!

That is so sad. I am sure they are getting yelled at by a few people that think rules don't apply. The inconsistencies make it really hard. I am a teacher and the same things happen at our schools. Lucky no kids have yelled at anyone but if everyone enforced the rules the way they were supposed to then it would be much less of a problem. We are going in a couple of weeks and have friends that have gone a few times in the last month. They said compliance is pretty good. 95% or so... which would mean about 5 people for every 100 not complying.

 

[Sarahslay]

I mean I know they don't really care, but good lord how many more indicators do they need that it's well beyond time to open more/all entertainment...wow is all I can say.

Thx for the report...it's good to know...no matter how crazy of a wait it is

People waited in line forever before the closure, this is no different.

 

[PrincessV]

Spent 3 days at WDW last week: May 4, 5 and 6. For reference, I live 100 miles form WDW and have been visiting regularly for 30 years. This was my 5th visit during COVID times: previous visits were in late Aug. 2020, late Oct. 2020, early Dec. 2020, and late Jan. 2021. This was my first visit after being fully vaccinated 3ish weeks prior.

Overall: absolutely more people everywhere than my previous pandemic trips, in parks and at resorts. Mask compliance was still exceedingly good. (ETA: one thing I did notice was few people bothering to wear a mask while walking through parking lots, nowhere near other parties. That's different from previous trips. I had no issue at all with that.) Social distancing not so much: not at all while walking around in unmarked areas, and iffy, at best, in ride queues. Being vaccinated, I felt comfortable - I don't think I would have without that vaccine. I felt more okay with eating indoors than I expected - which was great because it was sooo hot out lol! Never had any problem finding a spot to pull over to eat or drink. I didn't do any RDs; not my thing.

May 4th, DHS: Star Wars Day! Park sold out. HOT: high of 95, Feels Like of 102 (note: NOT normal for this time of year!) Park open 9a-8p
- didn't get a BG at 7am, but got BG 170 at 1pm; return time at 7pm
- arrived at DHS 11:30am, MO lunch at DB7 for 12:30 while walking from parking lot. Took 10 mins from when I hit "I am here"
- busy and crowded all day, but at reduced capacity totally manageable - especially in comparison the SW Weekends of old.
- actual (not posted) wait times:
RnR 18 mins (around 2pm)
MF:SR 25 mins (around 3pm)
MMRR 20 mins (around 5pm)
ROTR 30+ mins (7:15pm)
- they had a virtual queue for SW Day merch
- 7:15p ADR for Oga's - wasn't called until after 8p. Which was fine, since I was on ROTR. In my 45 mins there, they continued to seat new parties, so they were running waaay behind. Felt very comfortable in there with parties spaced apart.
- got to experience the after-hours light saber meet-up with Ashley Eckstein - very cool!

May 5th, EP: Park sold out for Resort Guests, but not AP (I was both.) HOT: high of 96, Feels Like of 103. Park open 11a-10p.
- I had a DHS reservation but wanted to switch to EP: I couldn't do it online because the system prioritizes Resort Guest status over AP status. Took 35 mins on the phone, but was able to get it switched that way. (started with VIPassholder line but was transferred to IT)
- arrived at EP about 1:30p
- WS felt like a normal early May crowd level: busy, but not completely packed.
- Skylinered to Riviera for dinner around 5:30p - no wait. MO'd on Skyliner & hit "I'm here" upon arrival - took about 15 mins to be ready
- WS remained busy until closing, so I think the return of PH is helping EP a lot
- actual (not posted) wait times:
Nemo, walk-on - a couple mins to walk the queue (around 8p)
SSE, 5 mins (around 8:30p)

May 6th, MK: Park not sold out for anyone. HOT but better than the previous two days. Park open 9a-??
- arrived at TTC parking about 10:30a; no wait for monorail (my first time on it in COVID times! I LIKE the social distancing on it )
- felt busier, more crowded than other two parks
- TONS of strollers in stroller parking spots, very like "normal" times - something I haven't see on previous pandemic trips
- impossible to social distance in most walkways
- actual (not posted) wait times:
HM, 15 mins (about 11:15a)
Peoplemover, 20+ mins (!!) (about 1;15p)
- MO'd lunch at Pecos: placed order for 11:50-12:20 while on monorail, hit "I'm here" about 12p - took 5 mins to be ready. Tough to find a table at Pecos - finally found one outside.
- shopped in Emporium and was told as an AP, they want us to use MDE to get AP discounts, not the card. First time I've heard that.
- headed out at 1:40p

 

[Makmak]

We went to mk this morning and they started letting people in around 7:10 am. We took some pictures in front of the castle then headed to the carousel but it wasn’t open so we did Peter Pan instead. It was actually the only ride we were allowed to get on before 8. I was surprised because I thought others reported getting on before that. The rides that didn’t open until exactly 8 (that we attempted) were: carousel, small world, Winnie the Pooh, tea cups, little mermaid, and dumbo. So quite a few things we couldn’t get on. After 8 we did dumbo, little mermaid, carousel, and tea cups with no wait. Crowds were good and people were great with masks this morning. We went to mk last night around 5:30 and masks and distancing were not great. Dh and I are fully vaccinated so it’s just Ds we have to worry about. I never felt too bad. We were able to get around people pretty well. The emporium last night wasn’t fun. We ended up leaving.

This past Friday we got into the park early and straight to mine train.....they didn’t start running it until 7:50....we were bummed as they were running it right away on Tuesday. I really think it depends on a lot of behind the scenes goings-on and is therefore hard to predict.

 

[Haley R]

This past Friday we got into the park early and straight to mine train.....they didn’t start running it until 7:50....we were bummed as they were running it right away on Tuesday. I really think it depends on a lot of behind the scenes goings-on and is therefore hard to predict.

We’re going back tomorrow but we’ll sleep in instead of waking Ds at 6.

 

[Sarahslay]

I have been talking with a friend who is a CM at WDW (in the offices, but she knows stuff so I chat with her about concerns sometimes and see what her personal insight is even though she's not in the parks), and since we're meeting for brunch on my next trip coming up I thought I'd run it by her what people were saying about their expriences this weekend with mask compliance and the like. So this is coming from the text she just sent me after what I relayed to her (not my point of view, just her talking as a Florida resident and employee of WDW): "I'm not surprised in the slightest bit. Sadly, I hate saying that, but it's the weekend and the anti-mask locals love to come out on the weekends. Especially holidays. Some are getting especially aggressives towards the poor CMs in the parks because the CDC said they don't have to wear masks outside if they have had their vaccines, even though Disney still requires it. They aren't having it. No one is going to tell them otherwise, and it gets to be a little too much for those guys on the ground in the parks who deal with it day in and day out. First thing in the morning they're great. Fine. Catching all the offenders. Lunch time rolls around and they've been told out by some angry dude, yelled at by a mom, shoved and who knows what else. They get threatened all the time so they give up after a while. I don't blame them. If I were anyone going I'd just stay away from the parks on weekends."

This is pretty much how I felt on my last two trips too which happened on busy weekends, and I have vowed to not go on weekends again until things improve with the pandemic. That goes for this coming trip and for the other two I have booked after, I arrive on a weekend and either leave on a weekend or have my pool days scheduled over it, but I won't go in the parks. There are a lot of locals who are perfectly fine, but there are just enough who aren't that it makes it just a little too uncomfortable for everyone.

 

[hereforthechurros]

We have many times. Obviously, they're not rude about it, but yes most times that we've been seated at a table the host who seats us tells us we can take off our masks now and just to have it back on if we get up fron the table. We've eaten at about 20 ts restaurants since reopening and I'd say this was our experience before and after Disney's weird verbiage change 95% of the time. We've never had a host or waiter say anything about keeping them on until we order etc.

Ahh yes I misunderstood. I thought OP was saying Disney was asking people to purposely remove them. Yes most places make it clear when it's acceptable to take them off.

 

[Blondie58]

Moderator Note - All Off Topic Posts Will be Deleted. Stick to Here Now /Just Back content and relavent questions or your post may be removed from this thread. The Community Board is a great place to discuss the virus. Thank you.

Looking for a thread to check out for the first day back at WDW. The pros, cons, pics, etc.

First Day Back: Folks wearing masks. Folks trying to social distance. No full parades. No fireworks. Shows limited. No EPCOT monorail. No luggage service on MDE. No concierge floor services. No foreign workers at World Showcase. Spacing and plexi on rides and in some areas/places. No character meet and greets. No buffets. No park hopping before 2:00. NO FAST PASSES. Some eateries not open - Casey's a fav of ours.

 

[hereforthechurros]

I wonder why Disney is not supporting their employees by immediately removing the people who would challenge a CM. They have the ability to do this, but they choose not to, which says a lot about how much they value their employees.

Considering there are signs saying you will be asked to leave if you don't wear one, it is contradictory that it's not actually happening. Not sure how that's funny but there's a troll in here who loves to laugh at everything.

 

[brockash]

People waited in line forever before the closure, this is no different.

Many ppl. (probably most) did not. I can tell you; in all the years of seeing shows, we never got in line more than a 20-30 mins. before Lion King etc. and we never didn't make the next available show. I can't imagine many others waited hours to watch FOTLK either. That seems a little crazy and it's not like right now is a traditionally busy time for crowds.

 

[limace]

We were in line near a woman at Splash last week who didn’t wear her mask for a good 20 minutes. New cast member arrived and waded in to tell her to put it on-she was pissed off. My very outspoken 24 year old daughter shouted thank you at him and clapped-when we got to his point in lime he said we “seemed like a fun group” and sent us into the fast pass line to board . I decided then to make sure to positively reinforce anyone enforcing mask compliance to try and balance the crap they must get all day.

 

[mindeola]

Fourth trip for me since they re-opened. Hubby's first trip in a couple of years. He doesn't love Disney , so I do not get him here very often!

May 4th Disney Springs/ Checked in to Coronado. We were upgraded to a preferred in casitas three. I had asked for Cabanas, just because I had not had stayed in that section before. I think they tried to keep the cheer/dance groups there. I was bummed our room did not have a bathtub , but we were too hot and tired to call and ask for a different room. Finally tried Gideon's Bakehouse and it lived up to the hype! I have left two other times before my place in line came up. Glad we stuck it our for this one!

May 5th Hubby golfed and then we met at Epcot. Love hitting the festival at opening. There were no lines at most booths. Had a Passionfruit Margarita and a steak taco that were excellent. It was crazy crowded that night, of course.

May 6th Magic Kingdom, park hopped to HS. MK waits were very low on this day for most rides. I always use the Lines app and rides were consistently lower waits all week. I tries to submit as many wait times as I could all week, too.

May 7th Hollywood Studios , park hopped to Epcot . This day was much better heat wise. What a relief! Got RoR Group 60. We were late to our Beaches and Cream Ressie by about thirty minutes because of our RoR slot. I did not expect them to be able to accommodate us, but I was so glad they could!

May 8th Animal Kingdom , park hopped to HS


This trip was completely different in terms of compliance in social distancing and mask wearing. I am completely vaxed and have no real fear about contracting COVID, but I found it so frustrating to be doing what is required when so many did not. Especially in this heat! It was unusually hot and humid this week. The masks were pretty unbearable most of the time. I think in the previous six months it was a lot of the die hard fans and visitors We were all willing to do anything and everything to be back in our happy place! Now that competitions groups are back and people in general want to travel, I think there is a wider variety of people. I do not like to paint large groups of people as all the same, but huge offenders of these rules were dance/cheer groups. Most especially the Moms, to be honest. There were a lot saying at Coronado and they never had masks on around the resorts. Again, I don't feel it is even necessary to do so outdoors anymore, but it is still Disney's rule. There were no staff outside walking around enforcing any of this. It definitely carried over to the bus rides and parks as well. They were easy to spot with matching t shirts and lanyards. You'd see a group of ten moms and only two had their mask on. ( I know there were many of these groups doing the right thing. I'm really not trying to hate on dance/cheer groups! Just sharing my observations. )

I witnessed a couple of CM's tell people to pull up their mask in the parks, but for the most part it went unchecked. I noticed some real sneaky guests this trip , too. They would pull their mask down as soon as the picture was taken and then back up before we pulled in when the ride was over. Lots of walking around while eating drinking. Lots of people not following the six foot distance in lines. Forget COVID, just stay back from other people as long as you can in this heat! LOL The Parks were not near as bad as the resorts though.

We still had a great trip. I don't think we waited more than thirty minutes for anything. Tried to get to parks at least 30 minutes before opening each day. We had excellent transportation luck all week as well. We were the first pick up at Coronado, so there were no issues there. Even then, I only saw people left behind twice. Both times the driver called for another bus to come.

 

[Raisincain]

Spent 3 days at WDW last week: May 4, 5 and 6.

This was an excellent report, full of very useful information; thank you!

 

[skullsplitter]

Headed home after a week. We have been five times since reopening and yesterday at AK was the most crowded day we have experienced. Even with a giant line at the Lion King there was a two hour wait for FoP and 60 minutes for safari and dinosaur. The vibe was very different since our most recent trip in January with many people being much more casual about safety protocols. One of the most noticeable things was that some CM are still strictly enforcing policy to the point of chasing people down while many others say nothing. This inconsistency is causing issues where individuals perceive the CM that enforces as being too strict or picking on them. We saw many instances of chin strap masks and noses out while talking to CM and even security and nothing was said. I include this so others that may not be comfortable will be prepared. Also, we saw a very sad and worrying situation at ToT right before boarding on Thursday near park close. One of the CM threw her face shield to the ground, ripped off her mask put both hands over her face and slid down the wall to a squatting position and began to cry. Very quickly she was whisked away but I thought it was important to share because others have complained that the CM are not as cheery as in normal times and I feel like this moment we witnessed is a testament to the stress level they are dealing with right now. All in all we had fun but we will wait to go again until things change a bit.
Edited because typos on a very bumpy bus!

Maybe for a different thread, but other than being polite and not causing trouble what are things we can do to let the CMs know that we appreciate them or maybe some way to cheer their day up?

 

[jlundeen]

Maybe for a different thread, but other than being polite and not causing trouble what are things we can do to let the CMs know that we appreciate them or maybe some way to cheer their day up?

Saying "thank you" to as many as you can, and showing appreciation for what they are trying to do goes a really long way for these folks.

 

[JenniBarra]

Since our trip to FL was actually 12 days and only the beginning was spent in WDW, I am somewhat late in posting about my experience. We were visiting between April 27 and May 1.

COVID Protocols and Adherence: As others have said, if you are at all concerned about exposure risk it's better to stay away for now. It was not uncommon to witness people with masks below their noses and pulling their masks off at times they were not supposed to as well as people ignoring the distancing markers. I can't recall if I ever ask noticed a cast member addressing non-compliance with a guest. (If you fly, like we did, people also don't distance and masks are regularly worn incorrectly or pulled down.) We purposely planned this trip to take place after both my husband and myself were fully vaccinated.

Lines: The ongoing theme of going to parks without Fastpass is lines. I didn't expect this to have a line. Where does the line begin? Wow, I didn't expect the starting point to be back *there*. Did I walk right past the start of the line? After our first day, we got better with navigating where to go, but it felt like a little bit of a learning curve. Additionally, I was a bit frustrated because I have a Touring Plans subscription and found that Disney's estimates were more often more accurate than TP's "expected" waits. While locals said the weather was mild, with the added humidity making the days often "feel" like the 90s, it does become tiring to do so much standing around outside in lines. I skipped a number of attractions I would have liked to go on, but I just couldn't bear another 45 minute wait in the sun.

Park Hopping: My husband was initially hesitant at my purchasing the park hopper option, but I'm glad I did. Each day, we ended up starting out in the morning at our reserved park, took a hotel break in the afternoon, and then hopped to a different park for the rest of the day. This was helpful both in finding good dining options as well as in managing two DHS days when it wasn't practical to change the second park reservation to another park. (I planned two days in case I didn't get a boarding group for RotR on the first day. While we were successful on our first day, all park reservations were full for Thursday and Friday so I couldn't switch out the second day.)

Dining: I am very glad I followed this topic here in the forums as it does seem like not enough restaurants are open right now. We ate at Woody's Lunch Box on our first DHS day, but I placed the mobile order several hours in advance. (Be forewarned, though, we did not know that the seating there is a combination of standard tables and chairs and high tables with no chairs. We were looking forward to a nice sitting break only to find the only table open to us was one of those tall ones.) We didn't have any table service reservations, but we still managed to eat pretty well. The trick for us was a combination of food carts (spring rolls at MK - yum!) and the outdoor kitchens at Epcot for Flower and Garden. We also did walk-ins late in the day for Spice Road table and Big River Grille at the Boardwalk. I really think you're going to have the best success with good dining if you start thinking about your options well in advance of when you actually want to eat so I suggest familiarizing yourself as much as possible in advance on menus all over the property.

 

[flipflopmom]

Saying "thank you" to as many as you can, and showing appreciation for what they are trying to do goes a really long way for these folks.

I agree with this. These folks have been working many overtime hours and are being treated badly. A conversation goes a long way! Let them know you’re thankful for them and glad to see them, anything to break their monotony of complaints will go a long way!

 

[lovethattink]

Maybe for a different thread, but other than being polite and not causing trouble what are things we can do to let the CMs know that we appreciate them or maybe some way to cheer their day up?

Stop by guest services or email Disney and mention their name, approx time, and where you witnessed the Magic. The cm will get communication that a guest recognized them.

I think it’s called a 4 keys card or a cast recognition card.

 

[Sarahslay]

Many ppl. (probably most) did not. I can tell you; in all the years of seeing shows, we never got in line more than a 20-30 mins. before Lion King etc. and we never didn't make the next available show. I can't imagine many others waited hours to watch FOTLK either. That seems a little crazy and it's not like right now is a traditionally busy time for crowds.

I saw it a lot in the year or so before the closure, in 2018-2019 (especially 2019) it got common for me to see lines. I even stood in a line once because we couldn't get a FP and my mom just had to see it since she had never had the chance. Of course we got it, everyone always did because they were packing everyone in, but they aren't anymore which is why if you are in just a long of a line as before you won't get in. I mean, the line was never there for hours before the show opened, but 30-45 minutes? Yes. I'll have to see when I'm there if I feel like dealing with it in a few weeks, I've seen the show enough that I might not feel like it's worth it to see a scaled down show. I'm happy it's back, but I don't have to watch it. As far as right now not usually being traditionally busy for crowds, I've seen this change in the last few years too. It used to be that early May was a fantastic time to come, I even brought my mom for a week starting Mother's day weekend 2019 thinking it would be lower crowds like I had experienced before. It most definitely wasn't. Was it July 4 or spring break crazy busy? No, but it wasn't the May crowds I was used to either.

 

[Betty Rohrer]

Stop by guest services or email Disney and mention their name, approx time, and where you witnessed the Magic. The cm will get communication that a guest recognized them.

I think it’s called a 4 keys card or a cast recognition card.

if I remember right the CM's manager also sees this