Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[Carolyn Louise]

How long was your wait for Frozen after Remy? I'm debating if we should go to Remy 1st or make our way over to Frozen 1st at RD. We have 2 little girls that really want to ride Frozen but I'm thinking it makes more sense to do Remy first. What was your experience like?

It said 40 minutes when we arrived but ended up being more like 15-20. I would definitely do Remy first. If you’re at the front of the line you can get on and off very quickly. Even with our delay we breezed through it.

 

[leeniewdw]

Anyone have recent experience when EP doesn't open until 10am? We'll be there on Marathon Sunday and they just moved EP opening from 11 to 10am. Trying to decide if we should just RD Remy at the IG, or go ahead and burn a LL. Was thinking the RD crowd would be much larger for a 10am opening vs 9am.

 

[Jennasis]

Epcot wicked packed today (a festival weekend with Whoopi narrating CP). We still had a good day.

Yesterday at MK it was busy and we arrived around 10am. Checked LL return times and decided to buy it and got 7 rides in before leaving at 5pm. We also did a bunch stuff without LL. Productive say.

 

[chris1212]

We were at Epcot today too, had an amazing day and rode pretty much everything! Got virtual bg 47 for guardians and g+ for remy at 10.10am, was shocked we got so early!

Rope dropped Frozen (without early entry) and waited only 20 minutes, then rode Remy and Guardians… all 3 done before lunch! Since Remy was early, next G+ was Test Track late afternoon. Also bought ILL for Guardians at park opening for just before 3pm.

Rest of the day was booking G+ with an immediate return time for the rest of the rides. Was surprised we did so good on a Saturday!

 

[alisaocean1213]

We just got back last week from our first week-long trip in 8 years with a four year old!
We had a great time! Used genie plus every day and got to ride everything with no problem. Even during a Thanksgiving week we did not have to get up at 7 am to book our first LL. All I did is refresh for 2-15 min (15 min took for Remy and Slinky) to get the time we wanted during the day and was always able to book it despite big crowds. I tried 7 am once but I’m not morning person and I just can’t imagine doing it for 7 days straight!
Highlights: our toddler cleared (barely) all 40” rides and loved all of them! Loved AK (went three times and hoped to Epcot later). Loved Holiday food festival at Epcot. Flight of Passage is my new favorite ride now! MK was good but enough for one day for us. We also did the party on another day and it was not worth it to us at all.
Cons: a big disappointment with HS. It’s just not worth the stress. We were able to get all LL but most everything was broken at the time we were in line ( MMRR, Rise, Tower, RR) We gave it another day and same thing! Basically lost paid LL for Rise. And the pass they gave for other rides couldn’t be used at Slinky, tower, or Rise so what a waste! We are from CA and given this park has same rides we just skipped it for rest of the trip.
And on our departure day we were having cold symptoms and upon return all tested positive for Covid again! My toddler got the worst of it but is recovering.
Overall great trip! We will back maybe in 3-5 years!

 

[pixiedust2u]

Saturday was our Epcot day 2. Since we had such a productive day at Epcot Thursday we decided to skip early entry and get a little extra sleep. Grabbed a LL for Test Track around 7:45am for a 10:30-11:30 return. Arrived at park around 8:45 just before general guests rush. Went to frozen, posted time was 30 minutes and we were on the ride in less than 20. Then took a leisurely stroll through World Showcase. Took photos, went into shops that were open, stumbled upon Snow White, grabbed coffees… it was lovely….. until about 10:30ish. Then the crowds. We went to our Test Track LL, Soarin LL, met Venolope. Then decided around noon that we just didn’t feel like dealing with crowds and opted for a resort break. We hopped on monorail and spent a couple ours back at Poly having lunch and by the pool.

At 1:47 grabbed a LL for Remy. Genie pulled a trick and switched time from 3:30 to 2! Since weren’t in the park this wasn’t going to work…. I kept the LL and planned to ask guest services to help me out once getting to the park. We got back to Epcot about 3pm, I went to guest services and explained situation. CM was so pleasant and helpful and changed to anytime LL for Remy.

We had 4pm dinner reservation in Japan, did Remy after dinner ( was a posted 110 minute wait!!!) was so grateful to have a LL.

World Showcase was too crowded to enjoy. Lines at festivals booths were crazy long. Could barely move and too crowded to take in atmosphere of countries. We headed back to front of park to shop, hit a few attractions with no wait.

Harmonious- got our spot at about 8:50, had no interest in returning to WS so watched just to left of Christmas tree and it was a great spot. Show was meh for me. All technology and fireworks. ZERO emotion.

Overall we enjoyed Epcot. New attractions are great. Guardians was an absolute blast!!!! Felt slightly dizzy briefly after. We took bonine a couple hours before. I won’t return to this park until construction is done, and would probably avoid at Christmas. LL worked well with use of drops. But we couldn’t take in the full atmosphere of WS which I was bummed about, but there’s always next time!

 

[scrappinginontario]

Saturday was our Epcot day 2. Since we had such a productive day at Epcot Thursday we decided to skip early entry and get a little extra sleep. Grabbed a LL for Remy around 7:45am for a 10:30-11:30 return. Arrived at park around 8:45 just before general guests rush. Went to frozen, posted time was 30 minutes and we were on the ride in less than 20. Then took a leisurely stroll through World Showcase. Took photos, went into shops that were open, stumbled upon Snow White, grabbed coffees… it was lovely….. until about 10:30ish. Then the crowds. We went to our Test Track LL, Soarin LL, met Venolope. Then decided around noon that we just didn’t feel like dealing with crowds and opted for a resort break. We hopped on monorail and spent a couple ours back at Poly having lunch and by the pool.

At 1:47 grabbed a LL for Remy. Genie pulled a trick and switched time from 3:30 to 2! Since weren’t in the park this wasn’t going to work…. I kept the LL and planned to ask guest services to help me out once getting to the park. We got back to Epcot about 3pm, I went to guest services and explained situation. CM was so pleasant and helpful and changed to anytime LL for Remy.

We had 4pm dinner reservation in Japan, did Remy after dinner ( was a posted 110 minute wait!!!) was so grateful to have a LL.

World Showcase was too crowded to enjoy. Lines at festivals booths were crazy long. Could barely move and too crowded to take in atmosphere of countries. We headed back to front of park to shop, hit a few attractions with no wait.

Harmonious- got our spot at about 8:50, had no interest in returning to WS so watched just to left of Christmas tree and it was a great spot. Show was meh for me. All technology and fireworks. ZERO emotion.

Overall we enjoyed Epcot. New attractions are great. Guardians was an absolute blast!!!! Felt slightly dizzy briefly after. We took bonine a couple hours before. I won’t return to this park until construction is done, and would probably avoid at Christmas. LL worked well with use of drops. But we couldn’t take in the full atmosphere of WS which I was bummed about, but there’s always next time!

Sounds like a great day!

Just a note of clarification. At 7:45 you grabbed a regular, Genie+ LL for Remy then at 1:47 you purchased an ILL$ for Remy, correct?

Want to clarify as a guest is only eligible for 1 LL per attraction, per day.

Also, just a help for you if you purchase other ILL$ during your trip. The return time for purchased ILL$ (or GotG VQ) is not enforced. You can return anytime that day after your ILL$ or VQ is called.

The only return times being enforced for late returns is Genie+ LL's. Those you must use within the 1 hour return time. They grant access 5 mins early and 15 mins late but that is all.

Hope this helps you and others.

 

[pixiedust2u]

Sounds like a great day!

Just a note of clarification. At 7:45 you grabbed a regular, Genie+ LL for Remy then at 1:47 you purchased an ILL$ for Remy, correct?

Want to clarify as a guest is only eligible for 1 LL per attraction, per day.

Also, just a help for you if you purchase other ILL$ during your trip. The return time for purchased ILL$ (or GotG VQ) is not enforced. You can return anytime that day after your ILL$ or VQ is called

The only return times being enforced for late returns is Genie+ LL's. Those you must use within the 1 hour return time. They grant access 5 mins early and 15 mins late but that is all.

Hope this helps you and others.

oh gosh! Sorry I meant to write LL for Test Track at 7:45!!! I was so confused by your response and then realized my error. My apologies. I fixed it so I wouldn’t confuse others. It was a late night at MVMCP last night

 

[pixiedust2u]

The only attraction right now at Epcot that offers ILLs is GOTG.
Remy is part of genie + and this you can get a regular LL. There are no restrictions on how many LL you can book in a day.

I booked Remy as a genie + at 1:47 pm as the :47 past the hour drop that I referenced in a previous post. The return time on the screen showed 3:30-4:30, when I clicked back into my My Day it switched my time to 2:05-3:05 which was impossible given we were at the resort and not Epcot. I went to guest services upon rentering park and explained what happened and they kindly changed my Remy to an anytime LL.

 

[chris1212]

Today at Animal Kingdom was so busy! Packed everywhere we went, but with G+ and ILL were able to ride pretty much everything. Only downer was our Flights of Passage ILL wait time was an hour! Apparently half the ride was down so wait times were ridiculous. All the other ILL’s this week have been super quick, paying to still wait an hour in line today was not ideal.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Today at Animal Kingdom was so busy! Packed everywhere we went, but with G+ and ILL were able to ride pretty much everything. Only downer was our Flights of Passage ILL wait time was an hour! Apparently half the ride was down so wait times were ridiculous. All the other ILL’s this week have been super quick, paying to still wait an hour in line today was not ideal.

I’ve done FoP via ILL a couple times this year with the one theater announcement running and never waited more than 25 mins. If that happened to me I’d be at the next blue umbrella or hitting up guest services requesting a refund. An hour for an ILL isn’t right.

 

[Justrose]

We are going to Epcot on 12/18, which I expect to be very busy. We have breakfast reservations at 'Ohana at 7:30, so we will miss the EE. We will be taking the monorail from Poly. Have CP dining package for the 8:30 show.

GotG and Remy are must dos as is TT for my daughter, and we want to do all the rides in the front of the park. Frozen is not a priority. Can someone help me figure out the best way to structure our day? We have Genie+ and I don't mind paying for GotG. Can I buy a ILL for GotG and still try to get the virtual queue?

 

[Mango7100]

We are going to Epcot on 12/18, which I expect to be very busy. We have breakfast reservations at 'Ohana at 7:30, so we will miss the EE. We will be taking the monorail from Poly. Have CP dining package for the 8:30 show.

GotG and Remy are must dos as is TT for my daughter, and we want to do all the rides in the front of the park. Frozen is not a priority. Can someone help me figure out the best way to structure our day? We have Genie+ and I don't mind paying for GotG. Can I buy a ILL for GotG and still try to get the virtual queue?

Yes you can get an ILL and a VQ for Guardians…we did this in October to ride twice in one day. Try for the VQ first because those go faster, and then get your ILL. Remy seems to go faster than TT as far as Genie, so I would try to get that one as your first regular LL.

 

[subtchr]

We are going to Epcot on 12/18, which I expect to be very busy. We have breakfast reservations at 'Ohana at 7:30, so we will miss the EE. We will be taking the monorail from Poly. Have CP dining package for the 8:30 show.

GotG and Remy are must dos as is TT for my daughter, and we want to do all the rides in the front of the park. Frozen is not a priority. Can someone help me figure out the best way to structure our day? We have Genie+ and I don't mind paying for GotG. Can I buy a ILL for GotG and still try to get the virtual queue?

Yes, you can do both VQ and ILL for Guardians. I do both every time, so that I can ride it twice!
Are you staying on property? If so, I'd follow this order for booking:

Before 7:00 - Buy Genie+ for the day
7:00:00 - Guardians VQ
7:00:10 (or whenever you finish getting VQ -- or have someone else do this) - Book Remy LL
7:01 (or whenever; no huge rush on this) - Buy Guardians ILL for whatever time works for you. Unless you are not staying at a Disney resort, in which case you can buy it at 9:00 (or park opening time, if it shifts earlier).

Try to book TT after you scan in for Remy, or 2 hours after opening time, if you get a later Remy time. Or use single rider, if that works for your family.

 

[Justrose]

Thank you both! Super helpful.

 

[chris1212]

Today we were at Hollywood Studios, it seemed crazy busy. So much so that we left at lunch and went back to the hotel for 4 hours and stacked lightning lanes while there.

Doing this we were able to ride every ride, with a lot of refreshing the app and a little luck of rides showing up.

We “rope dropped” (without early access) Tower of Terror, then had a LL at 9.20 for Slinky Dog. We had some time to kill before our next LL so rode Aliens stand by, about a half hour wait. Then a LL at 11 for Rock n Roller coaster. At this point we jumped ship since it was so crazy packed and long lines.

ILL this morning for Rise sold out right at park opening, we got 8.30pm, but didn’t take it since we didn’t want to be there that late. We managed to pick one up for 5pm with a lot of refreshing throughout the day.

We went back to the park about 4.30 and rode all our stacked LL’s…. Star Tours, Smugglers Run, Rise of the Resistance, Mickey and Minnie’s runaway railway, and Toy Story. And were done by about 7pm!

 

[vleeth]

Today we were at Hollywood Studios, it seemed crazy busy. So much so that we left at lunch and went back to the hotel for 4 hours and stacked lightning lanes while there.

Doing this we were able to ride every ride, with a lot of refreshing the app and a little luck of rides showing up.

We “rope dropped” (without early access) Tower of Terror, then had a LL at 9.20 for Slinky Dog. We had some time to kill before our next LL so rode Aliens stand by, about a half hour wait. Then a LL at 11 for Rock n Roller coaster. At this point we jumped ship since it was so crazy packed and long lines.

ILL this morning for Rise sold out right at park opening, we got 8.30pm, but didn’t take it since we didn’t want to be there that late. We managed to pick one up for 5pm with a lot of refreshing throughout the day.

We went back to the park about 4.30 and rode all our stacked LL’s…. Star Tours, Smugglers Run, Rise of the Resistance, Mickey and Minnie’s runaway railway, and Toy Story. And were done by about 7pm!

How long did you wait for Tower at regular rope drop?

 

[M SH]

2 day solo visit this week, to be followed next week by an 8 day with the family. My flight landed wed mid afternoon and my all star movies room was already ready. I had rented a car and drove there, dropped off my luggage and went to Disney springs. It was crazy busy. Three hour virtual queue for Gideons!!! What is going on with those cookies?? Signed up for that and went to grab a bite at deluxe B. Walked around after a little and then decided to head back and cancel my virtual queue spot at gideons after 2 hours.

Day 2, MK. Thursday dec 8 EE was 7:30 am, closing at 6pm. No genie+. Arrived at bus stop for all star music (was closer to my room than the all star movies one) at 6 am, 90 mins before EE as recommended here. First bus arrived 6:10 am, and there was me and 2 others on there. Not going into details about RD here, but did SDD as a walk on. I do have to say that the mad dash at the tea cups rope drop is crazy. I was towards the front and still was dangerous. People in the middle probably have it worse. Some families are not joking around and will mow you down if you get in their way. After SDD did Peter Pan, Winnie, 5min wait, then Space Mountain with a short wait. Day guests were already in, but wait times all over were low till about midday when it started to pick up more. Had breakfast at sleepy hollow. Did all the other mountains, pirates, HM, then went to room for a break. Came back and did jingle cruise, people mover, buzz, speedway, under the sea, and iasw. At this time it was after 4 and party guests were in. The hub was crazy busy unlike earlier in the day where it was mostly empty. Left around 5:30 and went to AKL joined the walk up list for Boma and was notified right away to come and be seated. Boma used to be my favorite buffet at DW. Unfortunately I left disappointed. The quality of the food is noticeably worse than before. I did not enjoy anything there but the dessert. Th hazelnut brownies are my favorites, but I’m not coming back just for those.

Day 3 HS Friday dec 9. EE 8am. Was at bus stop at 6:30. Waited for 15 mins and no bus. Called an audible and drove myself. Several cars were parked before the parking toll plaza since I the road there was blocked at 6:55. Opened after 5 mins at 7 am on the dot. Was in quickly. Best parking spot I had ever at any theme park. There were already a lot of guests lined up but not too deep. As I was lining up at the tapstiles, was lucky that more were opening and got in at the left side with a couple of people ahead. In at 7:30 and headed over to rise. In all the way to the queue but it never started on time. Waiting till 8:15 till it started and was in the first group, and was off at 8:35. Ran over to SDD and got in line with about 40 min wait, was around 30. Did MMRR, ToT, Rock, TSMM, MFSR. Saw Indiana jones in between with a midday resort break. Waits were in double and triple digits most of the day. Had lunch at woodys and dinner at DB7. Walked around the park at night just doing nothing and people watching.


I have to say that after all the time that rise has opened, the frequency of issues with that ride still is unacceptable and embarrassing to Disney. It went down later in the day around 7pm, and the amount of people waiting at the end of the day hoping it opens before park closing to get in is just heart breaking.

Overall i enjoyed my first solo trip. Never get to rope drop usually because my family are not interested in being up that early and we usually stay offsite. So with new EE at all parks all days, rd for offsite guests is not a big deal, but getting early is still much better then getting there midday where crowds start picking up.

 

[mwmom]

Just arrived home last night after a 7 day stay in Orlando. We went to Sea World Saturday because my Godson is managing the ice show. Had a great time there! Ending the night with the Orca show and ice skating show was energizing way to end the night. Stayed at the Renaissance Sea World that night.

Sunday we checked into WL, our favorite hotel! We had a 12:30 reservation for Whispering Canyon, and by the time we finished eating our room was ready. I followed advice I got on here to put in an earlier check-in time and it worked for us. We were settled in the room and heading to MK by 2:45. Because I didn’t know when we would get into our room, I did not purchase G+ this day and had no regrets as we were able to ride POTC, BTMR, HM and Small World all before 6:00. This was a party day and we did go to the party that night. Again, rode all the rides on our list with no problem. The only hiccups were Space went down for about 20 minutes and we were literally the next to get on, so we had to waste time there. Then we walked through the long Splash que only to find out it was down and we had to walk on through and leave. Got 3 of the cookies since they were individually packaged for you with the thought we would eat them throughout the week. I recommend taking some type of hard container in your backpack like a Ziplock container so they don’t get broken. Some were quite broken after carting them around in the backpack, so we had to throw them out. We skipped the parade and fireworks since we were coming back on Tuesday night, so we got a lot in this night. I found crowds to be very manageable. I should add that TP predicted a 4 crowd for the daytime and it was actually a 2, so that made a huge difference in us getting on lots of rides with little wait between 3-6.

Monday we slept in and then went to AK about noon. At 7:00 I bought $ILL for FOP and G+ for Navi. 2 hours after park opening I got G+ for Everest. Once we tapped into Everest, I got a G+ for It’s Tough to be a Bug. Everything went very smoothly. After. that we went back and rested for a little while and then on to Epcot. I got G+ for Soarin, after tapping in got Land of the living, and then tapped in there to get Nemo, and next was G+ for Spaceship Earth. This to me is the best way to use G+. Get the big rides first and then tap, tap, tap and keep getting low hanging fruit that way.

Tuesday we slept in again and enjoyed the hotel. Ate at Geyser point for the first time and I highly recommend it! The spicy edamame and bison burger were both wonderful. DD got a sandwich and mousse for dessert and she loved it. Then we were off to MK. This day we did buy G+ so we had stacked some more popular rides for the afternoon. We shopped on the way out so we could take merch back to the hotel. Then we took the boat back to WL and rested for a few hours. After we were rested, headed back to MK for the party about 6:30. We were tired by now so we felt this was the best plan to prevent meltdowns from both of us! Party was great. On this night, we did watch the parade and fireworks. This was the first time my eyes welled up with tears during the fireworks since Wishes was taken away. It was a wonderful night!

Wednesday we followed the plans of previous days and slept in. We changed hotels, so we had about a 4 hour gap, so we decided to drive to the beach. This was something we’ve always wanted to do. We chose Cocoa Beach since it was closest. It was an easy hour drive over and we thoroughly enjoyed it! Tip: There was a short side street at 1st Street where we were able to park and use a mobile app to pay for parking. There was a straight pathway to the beach from there. We walked left and a ways down found this one spot where there were 100s of shells. My DD found the most beautiful conch shells. You can’t remove anything from the beach that is a live specimen, but these were dead so she brought them home. That night, we returned to Epcot after checking in the Swan. This was our first time staying at an Epcot resort and we loved it. The proximity to Epcot and DHS made it so easy to get there. My feet were hurting so badly, so the use of the Friendship boats were life savers. I did buy G+ this day and an $ILL for Guardians to limit standing in line. We also made our way around the world shopping. We ate at the quick service in France.

Thursday was DHS day. Followed our same plan and went later in the day. Used G+ for ToT, RRC, TSM, and bought $ILL for Rise. Because we didn’t ride any other rides, one might ask if G+ was worth it. Since the standby lines were SO long (60+ min), to me it was absolutely worth it. I had foot surgery a while back and have tendinitis in my ankle, so it is definitely worth it to me to not stand in long lines given the incredible amount of walking you do over the course of a week. Expensive, yes, but fortunately there are only 2 of us and I had budgeted for it. We were lucky that we never paid over $18 per day, and most days it was only $15. I don’t know that I would have been able to swing more.

Friday, we checked out of the Swan and went to Epcot again. Used the exact same strategy above and rode all we wanted to. After that we ate at Connections before leaving. Food was okay, just your normal burger and chicken strips. Then it was time to head to the airport. We had TSA pre-check which was very helpful as the lines were long to get through security.

This was a long post, but I wanted to share how we managed our 7 day vacation. All the reports before ours were so helpful in planning our time. I will make another post about some of my thoughts and opinions regarding this trip. I will end with how much we enjoyed it. My DD, who is 17, kept saying how much fun she was having being back at Disney!

 

[teawar]

Anyone have recent experience when EP doesn't open until 10am? We'll be there on Marathon Sunday and they just moved EP opening from 11 to 10am. Trying to decide if we should just RD Remy at the IG, or go ahead and burn a LL. Was thinking the RD crowd would be much larger for a 10am opening vs 9am.

The marathon ends just outside of Epcot on Sunday and the runners go through the world showcase. It may impact your touring plans.