Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[Gitelfor]

Mask policy change starting Feb 17. No longer required for x, but encouraged for unvaccinated. Masks are still required on all Disney Transportation.

The new policy statement kind of reminds me of what happens when vehicles greatly exceed the speed limit, when there is no traffic enforcement in place, clocking them.

 

[Sarahslay]

Just got back from a week 1/29-2/5. Expecting low crowds based on previous years and Touring Plans prediction. Agree that the crowds were over the top. Biggest rides easily 50 - 60 minutes all times of day. (I stayed for extended hours one night and that didn't help)

Talking to DD who is super fan about all this and she says that's because Disney has started to offer promotions to international visitors for times when it has been low for US visitors.

Sure enough just looked at a Canada promo that offers $100 off a room per night for 5 nights. This promo started 1/2.
US same promo, starts March. And this was just Canada, have no idea about other countries promos.

Also heard bellhops discussing this very same thing. "January and February have never been this busy" "Guess it's good to get any price for the rooms as opposed to leaving them empty"

Makes sense for Disney revenue. Just not fun for us. It looks like there will never be a "low time" again.
Have decided to take a break on visiting every year for 15 years, and won't return for a few years after this unenjoyable trip.

I actually met up with two different friends from the UK while I was there just the week before you arrived, we went home 1/28, which was the middle of both of their trips since they both were there for 2 weeks. So you have all these folks with longs holidays coming in droves, plus the regular US folks (many of who aren’t traveling abroad yet so WDW is perfect), and it’s just a recipe for high crowds.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Please keep this thread on topic of, 'Here Now and Just Back.' A thread to discuss masking changes is being discussed here.

 

[dizneegirl]

Anybody there or just back - do they have the Figment Festival of the Arts baseball caps back at Epcot?

 

[anne60]

Some quick feedback about park hopping. We arrived at the international gateway of Epcot in the pouring rain at 1:49 PM. Our trip on the skyliner went more quickly than we anticipated and this is how we were treated. We went thru security and then were told we could not enter the park and also could not wait under cover at guest relations. We were told we needed to go back out on the other side of security and wait by the bathrooms. We turned to see about a dozen other poor souls gathered there. I heard one cast member say "What part of 2 O'Clock don't they understand?". At 1:57 a cast member walked over to where we were all huddled and told us we could now go thru security (again). Of all the nonsense I put up with during our last trip, this was the straw that broke the camel's back. Not going back for a long long time.

 

[CarolynFH]

Some quick feedback about park hopping. We arrived at the international gateway of Epcot in the pouring rain at 1:49 PM. Our trip on the skyliner went more quickly than we anticipated and this is how we were treated. We went thru security and then were told we could not enter the park and also could not wait under cover at guest relations. We were told we needed to go back out on the other side of security and wait by the bathrooms. We turned to see about a dozen other poor souls gathered there. I heard one cast member say "What part of 2 O'Clock don't they understand?". At 1:57 a cast member walked over to where we were all huddled and told us we could now go thru security (again). Of all the nonsense I put up with during our last trip, this was the straw that broke the camel's back. Not going back for a long long time.

You could send an email to wdw.guest.communications@disneyworld.com to report this - that was terrible.

 

[BillFromCT]

Some quick feedback about park hopping. We arrived at the international gateway of Epcot in the pouring rain at 1:49 PM. Our trip on the skyliner went more quickly than we anticipated and this is how we were treated. We went thru security and then were told we could not enter the park and also could not wait under cover at guest relations. We were told we needed to go back out on the other side of security and wait by the bathrooms. We turned to see about a dozen other poor souls gathered there. I heard one cast member say "What part of 2 O'Clock don't they understand?". At 1:57 a cast member walked over to where we were all huddled and told us we could now go thru security (again). Of all the nonsense I put up with during our last trip, this was the straw that broke the camel's back. Not going back for a long long time.

You actually tried to scan in? We've scanned in multiple times at HS and MK at exactly 1:48pm. The HS cast members even had a countdown to when we could start scanning. They had us form 2 lines on the far right touch points. That CM sounds like they were having a bad day.

 

[anne60]

You actually tried to scan in? We've scanned in multiple times at HS and MK at exactly 1:48pm. The HS cast members even had a countdown to when we could start scanning. They had us form 2 lines on the far right touch points. That CM sounds like they were having a bad day.

No, I asked the CM if It was Okay to do so first. Then I asked if we could wait undercover by guest relations so we would not have to go thru security, but was told, no, we could go wait by the bathrooms. As we walked away that is when another CM made the snarky comment. I don’t know when the others that were over by the bathrooms had arrived.

 

[brockash]

You actually tried to scan in? We've scanned in multiple times at HS and MK at exactly 1:48pm. The HS cast members even had a countdown to when we could start scanning. They had us form 2 lines on the far right touch points. That CM sounds like they were having a bad day.

The CM sounds like a jerk. You can stick by the book rules, even though Disney has consistently NOT practiced this, without being rude and a jerk.

 

[dd316]

Anybody there or just back - do they have the Figment Festival of the Arts baseball caps back at Epcot?

When I was there last week I struggled to find ANY Festival gear. I found shirts at a stand near the front of Italy, but that was all I saw. I don't recall if they had hats as I wasn't in the market for them.

 

[heathsf]

Does anyone have reports of how the parks have been these past few days? It's looking to be quite busy...

 

[brockash]

Does anyone have reports of how the parks have been these past few days? It's looking to be quite busy...

Definitely busy....lots of ppl. However we are at Epcot today and have been able to ride everything with lil wait using early entry and fpass and ll. Except Frozen as it was down for a while this morning.

 

[SaraSpringsIsHome]

We just got back from a week at Disney and holy cow it was crowded!!!

That said, we had an amazing time!

We used ILL once on Flight of Passage so we could take it easy one morning. Every other morning we arrived at rope drop by 7:30 (for 8:30 early entry) to make sure we could get at least one big ride in (7dmt, RotR, Remy’s, etc) and thankfully it worked out for us.

We are a party of 2 adults in our 30’s. We only tried out Genie+ on our last day; started at MK and park hopped to DHS. We got 5 lightening lanes- it took a lot of refreshing for our last one but managed to snag Smugglers Run “late@ in the day. This is what we accomplished yesterday (Saturday 2-19):

Space mountain
Buzz Lightyear
Big thunder mountain
Haunted mansion LL (made at 7:05)
Peter Pan
Country bears
Pirates LL (made after we tapped into HM)
Aloha Isle for a dole whip
12:00 left MK and took the boat to Wilderness Lodge for lunch
Star Tours
Indiana Jones show
Lightening McQueen racing academy
Rock n Rollercoaster LL (made after we tapped into pirates)
Dinner @ ABC Commissary
Toy Story Mania LL (set alarm for 2 hours after we booked RnRC)
Mickey and Minnie’s Railway
Smuggler’s Run LL (set alarm for 2 hours after we booked TSMM)
Rise of the Resistance

Also, thank goodness for mobile order (worked great for us and we never had to wait more than 3-7 minutes from the time we hit “I’m on my way” until it was ready).

 

[bsmcneil]

Some quick feedback about park hopping. We arrived at the international gateway of Epcot in the pouring rain at 1:49 PM. Our trip on the skyliner went more quickly than we anticipated and this is how we were treated. We went thru security and then were told we could not enter the park and also could not wait under cover at guest relations. We were told we needed to go back out on the other side of security and wait by the bathrooms. We turned to see about a dozen other poor souls gathered there. I heard one cast member say "What part of 2 O'Clock don't they understand?". At 1:57 a cast member walked over to where we were all huddled and told us we could now go thru security (again). Of all the nonsense I put up with during our last trip, this was the straw that broke the camel's back. Not going back for a long long time.

I had a similar experience with something completely different at Epcot (first week of Feb). We had just gone through security at the front of the park but my oldest desperately needed to find a bathroom. They ran ahead to one past the ticket booths (to the right) and past security. I (and my 5 year old) were just a little bit behind and yelled to get them to stop because the bathroom was just beyond the security gate. I asked if we could stay on the side of security and get my kid back in (vs. walking back around to the entrance, going through security again) - the kid was in and out of the bathroom before we got there. But, following the rules, the kid couldn't come back in. I completely understand ... and it was super frustrating to deal with. And the security CM said something like, "Well, they should've known better" and I wanted to remark that there weren't clear signs that a 8/9 year old might understand saying if you passed X point, you are out of the park. It was just one of those times when a "Yeah, that really does stink but thanks for adhering to our policies" would go over better than their honest internal monologue (and I recognize we can't all filter those things all the time).

 

[T'Lynn]

We just got back from a week at Disney and holy cow it was crowded!!!

That said, we had an amazing time!

We used ILL once on Flight of Passage so we could take it easy one morning. Every other morning we arrived at rope drop by 7:30 (for 8:30 early entry) to make sure we could get at least one big ride in (7dmt, RotR, Remy’s, etc) and thankfully it worked out for us.

We are a party of 2 adults in our 30’s. We only tried out Genie+ on our last day; started at MK and park hopped to DHS. We got 5 lightening lanes- it took a lot of refreshing for our last one but managed to snag Smugglers Run “late@ in the day. This is what we accomplished yesterday (Saturday 2-19):

Space mountain
Buzz Lightyear
Big thunder mountain
Haunted mansion LL (made at 7:05)
Peter Pan
Country bears
Pirates LL (made after we tapped into HM)
Aloha Isle for a dole whip
12:00 left MK and took the boat to Wilderness Lodge for lunch
Star Tours
Indiana Jones show
Lightening McQueen racing academy
Rock n Rollercoaster LL (made after we tapped into pirates)
Dinner @ ABC Commissary
Toy Story Mania LL (set alarm for 2 hours after we booked RnRC)
Mickey and Minnie’s Railway
Smuggler’s Run LL (set alarm for 2 hours after we booked TSMM)
Rise of the Resistance

Also, thank goodness for mobile order (worked great for us and we never had to wait more than 3-7 minutes from the time we hit “I’m on my way” until it was ready).

Sounds like an awesome day! Looks like you accomplished a lot without being glued to the phone! Makes me optimistic for my trip!

 

[Ohiostatefan606]

This might take multiple posts! We were scheduled for January but moved to February due to positive Covid tests. We just returned from 4 Days at Disney, had a great time and I think we did pretty good with our Genie strategy and even a few hiccups
Party of 3, 2 adults and a 13 year boy
Stayed at CBR - Aruba Bldg 53
Bought Genie+ for all 4 days.

Day 1: Up at 3:00 am to head to airport for a 6:00 am flight. Little bit delayed. Landed in Orlando about 8:45. This is our EPCOT day. While we are taxiing, I am on my phone, grabbed Remy's for 7:15pm and then Test Track, which was 7:55 pm. Picked up our rental car. Stopped for coffee and then headed to CBR. Went to front desk, I needed to pick up our magic bands and my birthday button!

We knew we would be in Aruba or Jamaica so we parked the car and walked to the Skyliner and headed EPCOT. It was probably 11:10 am. We were hungry. Mobile Ordered food from Regal Eagle. Enjoyed out lunch, a little people watching and then at Noon, because of available return times, I picked up a LL for Spaceship Earth. We walked through the countries. Mexico was super crowded. Headed to Spaceship Earth and walked on in about 5 minutes. Posted wait time was 25 minutes. I then picked up Mission Space for later in the afternoon. After Spaceship Earth we walked over to Soarin', Standby said 35, it was closer to 20. We then rode Living in the Land, waited about 10 minutes. It was time for Mission Space - ORANGE LINE. We had only ever ridden green, I liked it, but I also like the Tea Cups! My son saw the Festival of the Arts Donuts, stopped for one of those. Back across the park to go to Canada. We watch Canada Far and Wide. It was at this point I told my family, no more simulator rides today. It was too much. I think if I could have sat down during Canada Far and Wide I would have been okay.

We needed a break, found some shade in Canada and sat down for bit. Then walked through Great Britain and decided we needed a drink and more chill time. Keep in mind, we've been up since 3:00 am! We had 5:15 dinner reservations at San Angel Inn. Love this place! We had time before our LL times so we rode Gran Fiesta Tour on the most uncomfortable boat seats ever!

IT'S TIME - time to ride Remy's ... we get there, it's down. AND Test Track is down. Both our highlight rides for the day. We walk up to Remy's CM tells us, no way of knowing when it will be up. Tell them we have a paid LL, they tell us to go to Guest Services.

I wish I had paid better attention to the CM that helped us. I should have gotten his name. He moved our Remy's reservation to Saturday. To an OPEN time. We told him we had Park Hoppers and that was our only day to come back to EPCOT. Then he switched our Test Track to an OPEN LL for MK, which was our park for Day 2. Not how our EPCOT day was supposed to go, but you can't control those things, and they did make it right.

It is now close to 7:30 pm, we decide to call it day, get to our room. Our son has different plans, he wants to go swimming. I mean, can you really go to bed at 7:30 pm at Disney? I guess not. We get to the room, unpack, chill out for minute, and walk over to the pool. Now, it is 73 degrees, which if you are from Ohio, that is a heat wave. Our son swims, we get a drink and discuss MK for the next day! I'll make a separate post for Day 2.
One paid LL - Remy's
Genie+: Test Track / Spaceship Earth / Soarin'
Food: Regal Eagle / The Donut Box / San Angel Inn

 

[MsVanderquack]

Definitely busy....lots of ppl. However we are at Epcot today and have been able to ride everything with lil wait using early entry and fpass and ll. Except Frozen as it was down for a while this morning.

Park hopped to Epcot today in the evening when we would have changed plans and gone back to the hotel because we were exhausted and one of our kids had been motion sick after FoP. But we had ILLs for Frozen that can’t be refunded, and the kids had been talking about it all day even though at that point they wanted to go back to the hotel.

So onward to Epcot… and of course Frozen broke down and stayed down the rest of the night.

That right there is the magic of ILLs: you can’t cancel and get a refund if your kid gets motion sick earlier in the day, but Disney has a ride malfunction and it’s just “ok here’s a refund thanks for planning your vacation day around our systems.”

 

[Aimeedyan]

We go a lot, but just returned from a 2 night quick trip with family who flew in and paid full price for tickets so we toured like a tourist! Because of that, we did 2 things we'd never normally do: travel on a busy holiday weekend & buy Genie+/LL. We had a fantastic whirlwind trip, and had a lot of success, so I thought I'd share some of what we did.

First, this was a trip for 2 two year olds. We had no interest in anything they couldn't do or find interesting. This alone made our touring on a busy weekend so much easier. We skipped things that one of the toddlers was scared of (HM, pirates) and avoided lines like the plague. We tried a show and it did not go well. There was a lot of excitement in the transportation options, checking out animals at the hotel and AK, wandering, finding every set of steps possible to walk up and down, and jumping in puddles in front of the castle.

Friday:
Check in at AKL (room was ready at 11am)
Tried to swim (both Kidani and Jambo pool closed)
Picked up family at MCO
Drove to T&TC
Rode tram (toddler's dream!)
Walked to Captain Cooks for dinner
Watched fireworks on beach (toddler noise friendly - both are scared of fireworks close up)
Watched boats and monorails
Tram back to car (yay!)

Saturday:
@7am buy LL for MMRR, booked TSMM
Early entry for MK
Rode Buzz (5 min)
Rode Dumbo (5 min)
Rode Ariel (10 min)
Rode Teacups (10 min)
Met Cinderella and Elena (20 min)
Watched cavalcade
At 11am, booked Alien SS
Got Mickey D's for lunch on way back to AKL
Lunch, nap
At 1pm, didn't book anything
Arrive at HS at 3pm and race to TSMM (got in during grace period)
Book Disney Jr show (completely unnecessary but we didn't need anything else, and I knew it'd get us front row)
Ride Aliens
Disney Jr show
Meet Disney Jr characters (little to no waits)
Watch Pixar cavalcade
Ride MMRR
Walk in Frozen right as doors were closing (5:30 show - had to leave early because they couldn't sit for it)
6pm dinner at Hollywood & Vine (the beef was AMAZING)
Drive back to AKL

Sunday:
Book safari @ 7am
Breakfast at Sanaa & pack car
Bus to AK (car would have been faster but one toddler is super into buses)
Ride Safari (standby was 120 minutes)
Book Pooh for after 2pm
Walk gorilla trail
Play at Boneyard
Mobile order at Restaurantosaurus
Book Speedway
Bus back to hotel to get car
Car nap at T&TC
Tram!
Book Ariel (it was a favorite the day before)
Ferry boat!
Race to Pooh (we really were cutting things close!)
Ride Speedway
Ride Ariel
Book Mickey (not a long line but we were running out of options)
Watch 2 cavalcades
Lots of castle pics
Shop
Meet Mickey
All lines were ridiculous, and LL bookings were now later than we wanted to stay, so we left for home

Things to note:
- The crowds were intense - have not seen anything like it since pre-Covid
- Restrooms were always clean, and I only had to wait once (behind 1 person)
- Never had to wait for a changing table
- Every LL was at least 10 minute wait, if not more. I saw reports of people walking on and that was not the case for any of the rides this weekend
- Mobile order took 15+ minutes after hitting "I'm here" which we've never experienced. Places were SLAMMED. Captain Cooks was the worst (waited 30 minutes) but thankfully, good outdoor space to run in while waiting. No issues finding tables due to CM's playing door guard.

It was a whirlwind, but we had a wonderful time and more importantly, the toddlers had a blast without any meltdowns

 

[mickey916]

Love the toddler's excitement over riding the transportation! That would have been my younger son's favorite as well! In fact for our May trip he's told me he's planning on just riding the skyliner the whole time lol...he's 23, some things never change!

 

[Ohiostatefan606]

Back for Post 2: Magic Kingdom Day - Friday, Feb 18. Crowded
Day 1 at EPCOT

Party of 3, 2 adults and a 13 year boy
Stayed at CBR - Aruba Bldg 53
Bought Genie+ for all 4 days.

7am: $LL SDMT for 7:35 pm
$LL SM for 2:00 pm
picked LL for Buzz
We were behind a bit on Rope Dropping. Got in line for SM about 8:40. Took about 30 minutes.
Tea Cups - 10 minutes
COFFEE!
Peoplemover - 20 minutes (said 40)
11:00 Selected Pirates for afternoon LL
Rode Buzz with our LL
Small World - 25 minutes (said 45)
Took some pics by the castle
Lunch at the Plaza
Walked through shops on Main Street
1:00 Selected Haunted Mansion for evening LL
$LL SM
Rode Pirates
Used our Test Track LL for Jungle Cruise
SNACKS at Pecos Bills - Churros!
3:00 Selected Dumbo for late afternoon LL
Stopped at the Frontier Land Shooting Gallery
Hall of Presidents - needed some air conditioning
5:00 Selected Speedway for late LL
Headed to Dumbo
Dinner at Skipper Canteen - loved it!
Rode Haunted Mansion
Rode SDMT with our $LL
Walked on to Tea Cups
Used LL for Speedway
One more trip around on the Tea Cups
Stopped for nighttime castle pics
Headed out
**We rode EVERYTHING we wanted and didn't feel like we were standing in line forever. We also stuck to Tomorrowland / Fantasyland until lunch. We didn't cross over the hub until after lunch.

2 paid LL - SDMT / SM
Rope Dropped SpaceMountain
Genie+ Selections: Buzz / Pirates / Haunted Mansion / Speedway / Dumbo
Free Genie+: Jungle Cruise (rescheduled b/c Test Track went down during our EPCOT day)
Standby: Space Mountain / Tea Cups / Peoplemover / Small World
Food: The Plaza / Churros / Skipper Canteen