Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[mickeyfanachey1999]

Did they have the steamers at Cape May?

Clams, mussels shrimp and mahi mahi in the seafood "bucket" Chicken, steak corn potatoes and veggies in the other bucket.

 

[goodeats]

Animal Kingdom was pretty easy today if you were willing to wake up early and walk fast. We got picked up at CBR at 6:52 and were in line by 7:10ish. I’d say we were 20 people back. Let in around 7:20 and booked it toward FoP. We are pretty fast and just missed the cycle before ours and were off by 7:50. It’s a long walk and we passed a lot of slower groups. If you are slower you might consider coming just before closing. There’s not much point to being at the end of rope drop. The line was over an hour when we left Pandora.

We then did EE (under 10 min) and Dinosaur (walk-on) and got coffee before getting in line for Kali (5min) which was opening at 9:00. Did that, saw the tigers and went to Rafiki’s PW to do first animation class (Dumbo - so cute).We got in line for safari- posted at 45, but really 25. Had lunch at YY then did the Gorilla Trail. Stopped at EE (25) and Dinosaur (posted at 35, but really 15-20) on the way out.

In general I prefer no FP+ because the lines constantly move and you can be more flexible.

 

[ILoveMyDVC]

Clams, mussels shrimp and mahi mahi in the seafood "bucket" Chicken, steak corn potatoes and veggies in the other bucket.

"Bucket" sounds scary...is it all swimming together?

 

[Anne Scaffo]

Day 1 trip report. Fifth day into our trip, and first chance to update. So things are going well! Including pics of DS, and food and drink from Enchanted Rose.
Our travels began around 4:30 am on Sunday 6/20. We traveled to The Parking Spot, and shuttled to the airport. Our Southwest flight was trouble free and arrived early. We scooted on over to baggage claim, and then a quick trip to DME. There was a line. We waited about 25 minutes. Our resort, GF, was the last drop off.

Arrived at GF, and got some pixie dust. Our room was upgraded from garden to lagoon view (pic included). It wasn't ready yet, so we left our bags with bell services, I got my bday pin, and off to MK we went via the walkway.
We were shocked by how low the crowds were- especially for Father's Day. If at all possible, I am always going to begin at MK with Peter Pan. We had a 25 minute wait, and off we went. We followed that up with Small World, then Big Thunder Mountain, and Splash Mountain. Then into our Liberty Tree reservation. We ended MK with Pirates. Pretty good for a partial day.

Our room was ready. So we quickly changed and visited The Enchanted Rose for dinner. It was a great first day! And, we were feeling the magic.

 

[Carol_]

There has been a report that the toaster and microwaves in the Pop food court have been returned. Those staying at other resorts may want to see if it is the same at your resort if you don't have these appliances in your room.

NOW I KNOW IT’S FINALLY OVER.

 

[mickeymom22]

We spent the day yesterday at WDW. We woke up early enough to be at Magic Kingdom right at rope drop at 8:00 am. The trams aren't running so you have to walk to the TTC and either take the monorail or a ferry over. We opted for the ferry as it was there waiting. Only waited about 5 minutes and we were off. When we got to MK went through the turnstiles and made a beeline to 7DMT and there was already a 70 minute wait so we decided against it. We headed to BTM and Splash. Each had a wait time of 40 minutes, but it was more like 20 minutes. By noon, we had ridden BTM, Splash, HM, Pirates, stopped for egg rolls, Philharmagic and Small World. We ate lunch at Pinocchio's and then headed to Space Mountain. After Space we got a Lafou's Brew and then walked through the shops on Main Street and exited to take a bus to Epcot. We hopped at 2:00 pm. MK seemed more crowded than I thought it would be. The only character we saw out was Buzz Lightyear on the stage in Tomorrowland. We missed fast passes.

Once at Epcot, we walked on Spaceship Earth and then made our way to TT. We got lucky and got there right when they were starting the line back up after it went down. The wait was posted as 40 minutes, but it was more like 25 minutes. They are offering single rider here. Its wait time was 15 minutes. Throughout the rest of the day we ate at some of the booths. We did the Garden Graze and received the free souvenir cup and frozen lemonade from the Pineapple Promenade. Attractions we enjoyed were Soarin, Gran Fiesta, Nemo, Disney and Pixar shorts, and another ride on Spaceship Earth.There also seemed to be a lot of people there, but not a lot eating at the booths. Biggest crowd was in the Mexico pavilion. Right when you entered there were CMs directly traffic. There were ropes marking off lines for the Tequila Cave, Gran Fiesta, and just shopping. The line for Gran Fiesta snaked all around and the plexiglass was up between lines. That was a little claustrophobic. I didn't like being in that line. There were about 30 people in line for the Tequila Cave. It was a little crazy in there. I also didn't like all the walls up in Epcot. It was like a maze to get anywhere. We closed Epcot down.

Overall, I am glad we got a WDW day. I miss fast passes. I didn't like having to wait until 2:00 pm to park hop. I liked almost all the food we tried from the booths in Epcot. We thought the cheeseburger and buffalo chicken egg rolls were super yummy. We also tried the grey stuff this time, and it was yummy as well!

 

[mickeymom22]

I forgot to mention that Columbia Harbour House is not open, but they are serving the food from there at the Tomorrowland Terrace.

 

[NotTheBatesMotel]

HS report: We entered the park around 3:45 or so. I grabbed a Tower of Terror DAS while my son and husband went on Star Tours. They said it was a walk-on! After they were off Star Tours we headed to Runaway Railway. We waited 33 min in line-the posted wait was 40 min. After Runaway we went on Tower with the DAS. After ToT they headed to pick up our mobile order from Woodys Lunchbox while I grabbed a DAS for Slinky. I wasn’t a huge fan of the food here-the brisket sandwich was okay but I thought the tots were inedible. The skies started to look really ominous so we ate our dinner pretty quickly and made our way over to Midway Mania. Apparently this was everyone else’s idea too because we were in that queue what felt like forever.

We finally exited TSM and went to use the Slinky DAS just to discover that it was down. We hopped over to Alien Swirling Saucers instead. While we were about to line up I saw Slinky running so we exited the queue and BOOKED it over to Slinky (the skies were still super dark and I didn’t know how long Slinky would be running). We walked right on! After Slinky we caught one more ride on ToT. All in all a successful night but the waits were more intense than they were at rope drop. We plan to hit the Galaxy’s Edge side of the park on our next HS day.

 

[disneyworldsk]

just returned 6/18 to 6/24 at yc. great week. had to get used to all the new things i haven't done yet, in particular using mde app for the new things i'm not used to. mobile order, etc. There's a learning curve but i got the hang of it quickly. Did RD every morning. had to get used to not being in the parks at night and going to bed early to get up early for RD and parks close early so we just hit the hay. parks are clean, cm's are friendly, there were barely any children or adults in masks if that is a concern for anyone wanting to know. i had to get used to being in crowds again, amongst people really! that was new for me as it has been awhile. worth going, hot and humid, rained as usual. good times, good memories, we all returned happy and healthy.

 

[blbrodger1]

Like someone mentioned above, AK was relatively easy to accomplish a lot in a very short period of time. We were let into the park at around 7:15 and finished FOP and River Journey before the park officially opened at 8. Headed over to EE, which we did two times in a row, and then Dinosaur was a walk on. Then we did the Safari and animation experience. Shopped a bit before getting the tiny world picture taken by the exit of Bug's Life. We did a mobile order for lunch at Satuli Canteen. It was very nice to actually be able to find a table with a tray of food in hand.

We park hopped to HS, which was completely unsuccessful. We headed to Minnie's railway and were in line for about 40 minutes (posted wait time was an hour) when the ride had technical difficulties. We were about 3 feet from getting into the AC. I watched family after family try to negotiate a FP or something, but no one got any satisfaction from the CM outside of the building. We waited for about half an hour and the ride started up again...we snaked through the line in the building and got to the final room where you board the ride. Then it went DOWN. I saw a CM start talking to families already in the cue to board, but couldn't hear because of the plexiglass and distance. They headed out to the left, so my daughters and I left the line and followed them. We ended up getting a FP to use at any ride. It was pretty bad that they didn't offer that to other people.

We used our FP for RNR which was amazing as always.

Slinky, TSM, TOT, etc...all had posted waits of an hour or more and all of the lines were in direct sun with tiny little umbrellas providing a scrap of shade. We left after one ride and had been in the park after almost 3 hours. A complete waste of time.

 

[SuJo]

Was at MK yesterday and there were a lot of people there. We tried rooe dropping the Mine ride but buses at CS tower were bad. Had to wait for the third bus before we got to the park (they came pretty close together but took time to figure out how many people they would allow on) Got to MK and We were held at the spokes and by the time we got close to the Mine ride it was already 70 mins so we bailed and did Space and big thunder. Was surprised in the afternoon there was a huge line to get in the emporium. Checked back at 9pm and an even bigger line to get in was formed. You can see the park capacity has increased.

 

[robinstrip]

At HS today- Had a breakfast ADR at Ale & Compass at 7 and then we walked over. They held us until about 8 before we went through security. Then held us in front of Mickey and Minnie until the opening announcement at 8:30. They announced that SDD had a delayed opening. I waited in line and we started moving forward by 8:45.

 

[robinstrip]

We are staying at Beach Club and it is super super nice. We booked a standard 2 Queens because my 13 year old is man sized, but they gave us a king with a pullout sofa bed. The room is very big. We got to MK parking lot yesterday around 2:30ish. The TTC smells very strongly of garbage. I feel sorry for the few CM working the ticket window. The smell is intense. Also saw a little more trash than normal in places like on the walk to the monorail etc. The CMs are working very hard. Not sure why people can't just use the trashcan. Loving our short trip!!

 

[dmband]

Just an FYI.

CM may now make park reservations after 3pm if there’s availability. They’ve been blocked for so long.

And masks are optional for vaccinated cm.

curious, what happens if a CM is working and gets off?
can they stay in the park or do they have to leave?

Built a car at Test Track this morning! Hadn’t seen that definitively reported yet, but maybe I missed it.

been so long since I rode TT that I forgot there is build a car.

sidenote on HM preshow…
does the stretching room have the roof go up or the floor go down?
it always felt to me like the floor went down and you exited ”underground” to board

 

[preemiemama]

curious, what happens if a CM is working and gets off?
can they stay in the park or do they have to leave?
been so long since I rode TT that I forgot there is build a car.

sidenote on HM preshow…
does the stretching room have the roof go up or the floor go down?
it always felt to me like the floor went down and you exited ”underground” to board

WDW the walls/ceiling go up. Disneyland's has the elevator down.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

I forgot to mention that Columbia Harbour House is not open, but they are serving the food from there at the Tomorrowland Terrace.

This is one thing we are hoping changes before we go-love CHH and while we know the food is available elsewhere we just love it there. Never a bad meal and never had any horrible service-as a matter of fact last day of our last trip in 2019 my mom was waiting for my dad and I to get off of HM and a huge thunderstorm hit. I get off the dune buggy saying its pouring and head across the street. She managed to snag a table and have them hold our food until we got there! (Edited for my horrible typing skills this morning)

 

[Princess Katelet]

We are staying at Beach Club and it is super super nice. We booked a standard 2 Queens because my 13 year old is man sized, but they gave us a king with a pullout sofa bed. The room is very big. We got to MK parking lot yesterday around 2:30ish. The TTC smells very strongly of garbage. I feel sorry for the few CM working the ticket window. The smell is intense. Also saw a little more trash than normal in places like on the walk to the monorail etc. The CMs are working very hard. Not sure why people can't just use the trashcan. Loving our short trip!!

Yikes, I wouldn’t have been happy with a pullout vs a real bed. Could you have held out for the two queens if you wanted or was the king and sofa your only choice?

 

[Princess Katelet]

Like someone mentioned above, AK was relatively easy to accomplish a lot in a very short period of time. We were let into the park at around 7:15 and finished FOP and River Journey before the park officially opened at 8. Headed over to EE, which we did two times in a row, and then Dinosaur was a walk on. Then we did the Safari and animation experience. Shopped a bit before getting the tiny world picture taken by the exit of Bug's Life. We did a mobile order for lunch at Satuli Canteen. It was very nice to actually be able to find a table with a tray of food in hand.

We park hopped to HS, which was completely unsuccessful. We headed to Minnie's railway and were in line for about 40 minutes (posted wait time was an hour) when the ride had technical difficulties. We were about 3 feet from getting into the AC. I watched family after family try to negotiate a FP or something, but no one got any satisfaction from the CM outside of the building. We waited for about half an hour and the ride started up again...we snaked through the line in the building and got to the final room where you board the ride. Then it went DOWN. I saw a CM start talking to families already in the cue to board, but couldn't hear because of the plexiglass and distance. They headed out to the left, so my daughters and I left the line and followed them. We ended up getting a FP to use at any ride. It was pretty bad that they didn't offer that to other people.

We used our FP for RNR which was amazing as always.

Slinky, TSM, TOT, etc...all had posted waits of an hour or more and all of the lines were in direct sun with tiny little umbrellas providing a scrap of shade. We left after one ride and had been in the park after almost 3 hours. A complete waste of time.

HS is super frustrating isn’t it?? We waited in two 70+ minute lines for Tower after closing. Not worth it! MMRR was MOST frustrating though. We, too, waited in a line where it broke down and stayed in line thinking it’ll get fixed but nope. We waited MUCH too long before bailing. We had never ridden it so we really wanted to stick it out but after about 45 minutes we realized how stupid we were being (every time someone ahead of us bailed we decided to stay cause we were that much closer to the front). We did finally ride on another day but apparently missed the preshow which I didn’t even know existed until getting back home.
Could you have used your FP on Slinky, or is that ride not included?

 

[TikiTikiFan]

HS at rope drop today was chaos. We at the last minute decided to do RR instead of Mickey/Minnies Runaway Railway. Good thing because it went down at open which caused everyone from that line to jump in Slinky's causing the wait to go to 120 mins. ToT also wasn't operating at opening. Glad we did RR because we were on and off the ride before park officially opened. You really have to go with the flow at this park which I admit, I'm not always great at.

 

[robinstrip]

Yikes, I wouldn’t have been happy with a pullout vs a real bed. Could you have held out for the two queens if you wanted or was the king and sofa your only choice?

We were upgraded to a better view with the king room, so we just kept it. I was afraid if we got a standard view we would be on the back outside part. Our view is really nice so we just kept it and didn't say anything.