Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[burberryplaid]

Line for Magical Express right now

 

[brightlined]

We’re doing a quick long weekend trip over Labor Day weekend. I have/had possibly foolish expectations for low crowds given the feedback over the past couple weeks. Part reservations were wide open until I checked today where I see Saturday and Sunday are now sold out for most tickets type for….Epcot? This is the first I’ve seen Epcot sold out since July 4 and I assume that was due to a combination of the holiday and fireworks just coming back. Any idea why Epcot would be sold out this weekend? Hoping the other parks have smaller crowds!

In years past, the September weekends of Food & Wine would usually be slammed. (A few of those days are specifically blocked out on the lowest AP.)

 

[arizonacolbys]

Curious to hear from someone just back - how much are masks required at the theme parks currently? Are they now required for all rides again if the ride does indoors? We were at US/IOA in March and they were required everywhere, including outdoors and it was unseasonably hot. Curious what the current protocol is - I just see they are required indoors on the WDW website. Thanks!!

 

[5Tulips]

Curious to hear from someone just back - how much are masks required at the theme parks currently? Are they now required for all rides again if the ride does indoors? We were at US/IOA in March and they were required everywhere, including outdoors and it was unseasonably hot. Curious what the current protocol is - I just see they are required indoors on the WDW website. Thanks!!

Yes just indoors. If you can feel AC, masks are required.

 

[manicstreet]

We just arrived back home yesterday. We had a wonderful time. Having used Magical express for the last time this trip I dont mind it going away. It does stink that they are taking away another perk but I think in the future I would rather just pay the $50 each way to Uber/Lyft to be at the resort 45 minutes after landing. It took almost 2 hours from waiting in the line to finally arriving at our resort. There were 5 stops. Thankfully we were the 3rd stop or else we would have missed our Sanaa reservation. The parks were not busy at all. Rode Rise of the Resistance 3 times. Longest we waited in line for any attraction was an hour (slinky dog). Out of our group 2 adults fully vaccinated, 1 child 1/2 vaccinated & 1 child not vaccinated. No one felt unwell during the trip. No sniffles or anything. Fingers crossed it stays that way. I have 9 more days to go until we are in the clear. However, the children start school September 8th and in my opinion are in the same boat as if we were in Disney. It is what it is. My wife and I were talking on the flight home and we both felt this was our favorite Disney World trip we have ever taken as a family. We slept in every day, parked hopped & generally just toured the parks at a leisurely pace. There was absolutely no reason to rope drop. I was worried about Stand By only but it was fantastic. Lines moved quick. That is it for now. I will update post if I need to concerning Covid. Hopefully I do not have to.

 

[Haley R]

Had a great morning at MK! Rode splash, btmr, magic carpets, and pirates as walk ons. There have been moments where the walkways were completely empty in those areas. We left around 11 so Ds could have a nap. Can’t wait for AK tomorrow!

 

[SmittS]

We just arrived back home yesterday. We had a wonderful time. Having used Magical express for the last time this trip I dont mind it going away. It does stink that they are taking away another perk but I think in the future I would rather just pay the $50 each way to Uber/Lyft to be at the resort 45 minutes after landing. It took almost 2 hours from waiting in the line to finally arriving at our resort. There were 5 stops. Thankfully we were the 3rd stop or else we would have missed our Sanaa reservation. The parks were not busy at all. Rode Rise of the Resistance 3 times. Longest we waited in line for any attraction was an hour (slinky dog). Out of our group 2 adults fully vaccinated, 1 child 1/2 vaccinated & 1 child not vaccinated. No one felt unwell during the trip. No sniffles or anything. Fingers crossed it stays that way. I have 9 more days to go until we are in the clear. However, the children start school September 8th and in my opinion are in the same boat as if we were in Disney. It is what it is. My wife and I were talking on the flight home and we both felt this was our favorite Disney World trip we have ever taken as a family. We slept in every day, parked hopped & generally just toured the parks at a leisurely pace. There was absolutely no reason to rope drop. I was worried about Stand By only but it was fantastic. Lines moved quick. That is it for now. I will update post if I need to concerning Covid. Hopefully I do not have to.

I was curious with the BG availability for Rise being wide open through the day, if there were opportunities for multiple rides. Typically it’s one boarding group per person, per day. How were you able to ride 3 times in a day? We’re there this weekend and would love to ride it more than once if possible.

 

[SCDisneyfanatic]

For anyone there now, are there a lot of small children or are most folks coming with older children that can be vaccinated? I guess that's 12 years old or older.

 

[SCDisneyfanatic]

Our plan is to limit time in or near crowds, but curious about the current state of affairs. Our Granddaughters are 4 and 2 years old and have no issue wearing a mask inside...especially if we get a few nice Princess masks.

 

[Disneyland1084]

compared to the pre-pandemic days? I'm a DL vet and have only been to WDW once, back in 2017. Have parades and shows returned? I want to go back, but am willing to wait a couple of years until it "gets back to normal" if it ever does. Any tips or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Brett Wyman]

 

[Palaura]

For anyone there now, are there a lot of small children or are most folks coming with older children that can be vaccinated? I guess that's 12 years old or older.

This was our concern. We had 2 under 12 that we put a lot of thought into taking to the mouse. We knew the risks, we knew how to be safe, and we knew we needed the week away as a family. I never felt that we were the isolated group with kids-its Disney! However, I've never seen the stroller parking so empty. It was also the least crowded overall so it could have been an offshoot of the crowds. We noticed that there were a lot of kid in the pools but not a ton at table service restaurants.

 

[SCDisneyfanatic]

This was our concern. We had 2 under 12 that we put a lot of thought into taking to the mouse. We knew the risks, we knew how to be safe, and we knew we needed the week away as a family. I never felt that we were the isolated group with kids-its Disney! However, I've never seen the stroller parking so empty. It was also the least crowded overall so it could have been an offshoot of the crowds. We noticed that there were a lot of kid in the pools but not a ton at table service restaurants.

Thanks for those words. We are going in late October. They've never been so we are hoping just the sounds and sites will check most of the boxes. They can't do any of the larger rides because of their age/size so we will be limited on rides...plan to do pool time each day...and only doing a few sit down meals (Chef Mickey, Rainforest Cafe in AK, and the restaurant in Germany). Most meals will be at the Shades of Green where we can keep a good distance or choose an outside venue. Appreciate the feedback.

 

[Gary Stocker]

We were there earlier in the month and the situations we could control with masks and relative distancing (queues, within restaurants that had good spacing like Ohana) that there was little concern. The pool was a different ball game as my son especially loved the Boardwalk slide and that is a mess of kids bunched up. My wife would cringe.

 

[Palaura]

Thanks for those words. We are going in late October. They've never been so we are hoping just the sounds and sites will check most of the boxes. They can't do any of the larger rides because of their age/size so we will be limited on rides...plan to do pool time each day...and only doing a few sit down meals (Chef Mickey, Rainforest Cafe in AK, and the restaurant in Germany). Most meals will be at the Shades of Green where we can keep a good distance or choose an outside venue. Appreciate the feedback.

A lot can change by them. Heck-in June it was a different story! Enjoy the planning and enjoy seeing those little ones experience the magic.
One super (mental) helpful item I packed were at home covid tests. I saw how hard it was to get tested in FL. Taking rapid tests with me made me feel better.

 

[SCDisneyfanatic]

We were there earlier in the month and the situations we could control with masks and relative distancing (queues, within restaurants that had good spacing like Ohana) that there was little concern. The pool was a different ball game as my son especially loved the Boardwalk slide and that is a mess of kids bunched up. My wife would cringe.

Appreciate the feedback. Yeah, we plan on pool time each day...but at Shades of Green they have 2 pools and I think the number of rooms they are filling will make it likely that the pools aren't too crowded. That being said, I'll have the wife turn away if the slide is filled with children.

 

[Gary Stocker]

Post-mortem on that trip...we had them quarantine for 5 days after we returned and then had them tested at the pediatrician. They were negative so I think we did the best we could under the circumstances and it worked out. Don't forget the mask lanyards..the little ones WILL drop their mask onto the dirty ground without them.

 

[Geomom]

I was curious with the BG availability for Rise being wide open through the day, if there were opportunities for multiple rides. Typically it’s one boarding group per person, per day. How were you able to ride 3 times in a day? We’re there this weekend and would love to ride it more than once if possible.

I assume they rode it multiple days. We were there 8/20, got a boarding group at 1pm. After we rode it at 2:30pm, the app still showed availability, but if you click to join it says that you maxed out your reservations for the day....so it's still limited to 1 ride/day...at least officially...no idea if they were taking any stand by folks end of the night, didn't wander that way and had an Ogas ADR near closing time.

 

[Lsdolphin]

Line for Magical Express right now

Uhoh I arrive next Tuesday...hoping for a smaller crowd

 

[hereforthechurros]

We have done six trips since March 2020, so I’ve really run the gamut of crowd levels coupled with the resulting frustration (or lack thereof). I come down with my mom most years for this week in August, but of course we’ve only ever had low crowds coupled with FP+. I can definitively say that crowds and wait times are lower than they normally would be this week. At AK on Friday, in the middle of the day, we literally walked onto FOP, Navi, Safari and Navi again. The last time I was able to do that was when they had first reopened last summer. I was a bit nervous heading to MK today since it’s a Sunday and the last time we went on a Sunday (this past June) it was so crowded that we did one show of COP and bailed. Today, we arrived at 10am and did Little Mermaid, Space, Buzz x 2, BTMR, Pirates, Peoplemover x 2, Small World and COP as walk-ons. We also waited 20 minutes for Jungle Cruise, 15 minutes for PPF, and 12 minutes for Pooh. We were going to do Splash (walk-on) and/or 7DMT (posted 35 minutes) around 2:30pm but we had sufficiently melted into puddles of hot goo and thought we needed to get back to the resort with the AC, so we called it a day.

It’s definitely making up for the last trip I did, but we are also booked for the 50th next month, so I imagine these lovely quiet days don’t have long to survive before that insanity hits!

Wow how are you traveling from Canada so often? Border being closed and all.