Moving a DLR Trip to Walt Disney World- Let’s Talk!

[Minnie84]

Pulled the plug for the third time on our Disneyland vacation and flex passes we were never able to use So now we are making our first trip to WDW in November!! Staying at AOA ( hopefully, if it opens on time). We are coming from Canada and will have to quarantine for 14 days after our trip, but at this point, we just need our Disney fix! Homeschooling the kids this year, so no big deal to quarantine. Sooooo many questions though. We have taken many, many trips to DL, but planning for WDW seems so foreign! Anyone figure out how to best get around? I've been keeping up to date on how they are loading busses, the Skyliner, etc. What time do you think one should line up for the busses to get to the parks early? We are rope droppers! DL has always seemed easy for us to navigate, but the transportation aspect of planning is sure making me nervous. Especially for our Hollywood Studios day. Anyone else thinking of ubering? I have to say, I finally feel excited again getting to plan!

 

[Jaina]

I’m really hoping they extend hours- I love the parks at night but we’ll see...

I was excited when they extended them for our trip. Magic Kingdom will be open until 8, I think, and Animal Kingdom 6 instead of 5. That messed up my Beaches and Cream reservation at 6:05, but I'm still excited. Any advice, experts, on that one, other than either leaving AK at 5:40-ish and driving to the Beach Club Resort (where do we go for parking?) or watching for an alert from that one site which shall not be named to try to get closer to 8 instead of 6?

 

[crystal1313]

Pulled the plug for the third time on our Disneyland vacation and flex passes we were never able to use So now we are making our first trip to WDW in November!! Staying at AOA ( hopefully, if it opens on time). We are coming from Canada and will have to quarantine for 14 days after our trip, but at this point, we just need our Disney fix! Homeschooling the kids this year, so no big deal to quarantine. Sooooo many questions though. We have taken many, many trips to DL, but planning for WDW seems so foreign! Anyone figure out how to best get around? I've been keeping up to date on how they are loading busses, the Skyliner, etc. What time do you think one should line up for the busses to get to the parks early? We are rope droppers! DL has always seemed easy for us to navigate, but the transportation aspect of planning is sure making me nervous. Especially for our Hollywood Studios day. Anyone else thinking of ubering? I have to say, I finally feel excited again getting to plan!

We are nervous about transportation too! Also, our first WDW trip. We are thinking of ubering in the mornings, especially on our HS days.

So, I totally dropped the ball and thought today was the first day for ADRs (today is 60 days out for us), but when we looked, the entire week was open! It was slim pickings, but we got ADRs for each day. I feel like an idiot! Some places we randomly picked just to have an ADR and will decide later if we will keep them or not. Total D'uh moment!

Ok, so I have been to DL many, many times in the rain and generally feel prepared for the SoCal showers. I see the rain at WDW and it's flat out pouring!! Any recomendations for keeping shoes dry? I really don't want to lug around extra shoes every day. I was thinking buying rain covers for them, or treating with something that will waterproof them? We will have ponchos. Any recommendations for socks that will dry faster? Will take any and all advice!

 

[midnight star]

We are nervous about transportation too! Also, our first WDW trip. We are thinking of ubering in the mornings, especially on our HS days.

So, I totally dropped the ball and thought today was the first day for ADRs (today is 60 days out for us), but when we looked, the entire week was open! It was slim pickings, but we got ADRs for each day. I feel like an idiot! Some places we randomly picked just to have an ADR and will decide later if we will keep them or not. Total D'uh moment!

Ok, so I have been to DL many, many times in the rain and generally feel prepared for the SoCal showers. I see the rain at WDW and it's flat out pouring!! Any recomendations for keeping shoes dry? I really don't want to lug around extra shoes every day. I was thinking buying rain covers for them, or treating with something that will waterproof them? We will have ponchos. Any recommendations for socks that will dry faster? Will take any and all advice!

Bring extra socks.

 

[midnight star]

I was looking at some resort threads. Someone mentioned that the skyliner doesn't run if there is a storm within 10 miles of Disney. So keep that in mind if the skyliner is your main mode of transportation.

 

[TikiTikiFan]

The transportation definitely wigs me out but trying to be zen about it. We plan on being extra cautious and lining up at the bus stop or Skyliner stop 90 minutes before park opening- likely earlier for Hollywood Studios. Uber will be our backup plan I think. From reading on the WDW boards this seemed to work well for many people to get there by rope drop... which isn’t really a thing anymore since they don’t want people in big groups by the ropes so you just go to whatever area of the park you want!

 

[TikiTikiFan]

I was excited when they extended them for our trip. Magic Kingdom will be open until 8, I think, and Animal Kingdom 6 instead of 5. That messed up my Beaches and Cream reservation at 6:05, but I'm still excited. Any advice, experts, on that one, other than either leaving AK at 5:40-ish and driving to the Beach Club Resort (where do we go for parking?) or watching for an alert from that one site which shall not be named to try to get closer to 8 instead of 6?

I would try the touring plans reservation finder and then if that doesn’t work or just driving there? I’m not so sure about parking- I’d ask in the resort area of the wdw boards on that.

Any recomendations for keeping shoes dry? I really don't want to lug around extra shoes every day. I was thinking buying rain covers for them, or treating with something that will waterproof them? We will have ponchos. Any recommendations for socks that will dry faster? Will take any and all advice!

I’m with ya- that rain has me spooked! I keep reading November gets the least rain out of the year but my luck with the way this year is going it will rain everyday haha! I feel like wrapping bags around your feet along with extra socks? Is that insane? Do people do that? lol! I have very few shoes that work for me for walking so I typically rely on the same 1-2 pairs on our trips.

 

[midnight star]

I would try the touring plans reservation finder and then if that doesn’t work or just driving there? I’m not so sure about parking- I’d ask in the resort area of the wdw boards on that.



I’m with ya- that rain has me spooked! I keep reading November gets the least rain out of the year but my luck with the way this year is going it will rain everyday haha! I feel like wrapping bags around your feet along with extra socks? Is that insane? Do people do that? lol! I have very few shoes that work for me for walking so I typically rely on the same 1-2 pairs on our trips.

During the rainy months at DL, I saw tons of people wear shoe covers. You can get them off Amazon. They can easily fold up into a bag or purse. Maybe you can buy some of those?

 

[TikiTikiFan]

https://blogmickey.com/2020/10/disn...ze9yQoDyBUq0Ah8Z1B195EnnOGbuWP2wVBlqWhQnQqzhQ
Yay!! Hours extended for rest of the year!

 

[amyg1975]

What is the weather like there in early January?

 

[Bigmace]

So excited for our trip the Second week of November! Were hoping to DL but just gave up and booked WDW. Staying the 11th to the 16th at POP. Keep checking on those ADR's. Was able to get Oga's, Be our Guest, HW & Vine, Via Napoli, Yak & Yeti. I think I am going to a couple of those but doesn't hurt to hold them for now.

 

[midnight star]

What is the weather like there in early January?

January is the coldest month from what I've read, but still mild and warm. I'd check the weather leading up to your trip. It doesn't rain a ton, but it will still rain because, Florida lol.

I went the second to last week in January and froze, but the week before we came was in the 80's.

 

[ten6mom]

The transportation definitely wigs me out but trying to be zen about it. We plan on being extra cautious and lining up at the bus stop or Skyliner stop 90 minutes before park opening- likely earlier for Hollywood Studios. Uber will be our backup plan I think. From reading on the WDW boards this seemed to work well for many people to get there by rope drop... which isn’t really a thing anymore since they don’t want people in big groups by the ropes so you just go to whatever area of the park you want!

I posted this elsewhere BUT...

My sister and family (including a stroller) are there now, at CBR. The first DHS day waiting for the Skyliner they didn't get there as early as they wanted to and were far back enough in the Skyliner line to get pushed back when the guests from POP arrived to merge.

Yesterday her husband got in line at 7:15 (Skyliner started running at 9) and they were about the 5th group back and therefore got loaded ahead of the people merging from POP.

For me, that is a LONG time to wait!

BUT for the record, they were able to get BGs for ROTR both days.

Personally, we are going to try walking even though there is technically no walking path leaving CBR.

 

[TikiTikiFan]

I posted this elsewhere BUT...

My sister and family (including a stroller) are there now, at CBR. The first DHS day waiting for the Skyliner they didn't get there as early as they wanted to and were far back enough in the Skyliner line to get pushed back when the guests from POP arrived to merge.

Yesterday her husband got in line at 7:15 (Skyliner started running at 9) and they were about the 5th group back and therefore got loaded ahead of the people merging from POP.

For me, that is a LONG time to wait!

BUT for the record, they were able to get BGs for ROTR both days.

Personally, we are going to try walking even though there is technically no walking path leaving CBR.

Good to know!! I didn’t realize that POP guest merged but now looking at the map that makes sense.

Rise of the Resistance is like my biggest priority for this trip so I was planning on lining up at 7:30 for the Skyliner but I’ll adjust to make it 7:15. I bring headphones for stuff like this and my son and I watch movies on my phone.

If you uber, does that put you in the line with all the other cars trying to get in? We could also uber and walk in from the boardwalk too...

 

[runjulesrun]

We have taken the Skyliner from POP to HS and we have driven from POP to HS (both post Covid shutdown) and I will take driving any day. I think Uber would be the same as driving. When we took the Skyliner, we lined up at 8:20am and swiped into the park at 9:58am. That was cutting it too close for comfort with getting a boarding group (we did get one though). This was before Caribbean Beach was open so there was not even any merging of lines at the transfer hub. When we drove, we left POP at 8:45am and were in line at the parking booths by 8:50am. They began letting us in just a couple minutes after 9am and we were in the park by 9:15am. In my mind, there is no contest what we will do when we are there in early November.

 

[YayforMickey]

We canceled our trip to Disneyland, and we are going to be at WDW from Dec 17-23. I'm pretty nervous about it. We have never gone to either WDW or Disneyland at a busy time like this. But with my daughter in college and my other two kids in high school and elementary school, this was all we could do. I didn't want to deal with expired Disneyland tickets, so off we go. We are expecting to spend a lot more time in lines than we ever have before. I hope we can still have fun.

 

[midnight star]

We canceled our trip to Disneyland, and we are going to be at WDW from Dec 17-23. I'm pretty nervous about it. We have never gone to either WDW or Disneyland at a busy time like this. But with my daughter in college and my other two kids in high school and elementary school, this was all we could do. I didn't want to deal with expired Disneyland tickets, so off we go. We are expecting to spend a lot more time in lines than we ever have before. I hope we can still have fun.

You will have fun!

 

[VandVsmama]

We canceled our trip to Disneyland, and we are going to be at WDW from Dec 17-23. I'm pretty nervous about it. We have never gone to either WDW or Disneyland at a busy time like this. But with my daughter in college and my other two kids in high school and elementary school, this was all we could do. I didn't want to deal with expired Disneyland tickets, so off we go. We are expecting to spend a lot more time in lines than we ever have before. I hope we can still have fun.

I hope you have an awesome time!

 

[runjulesrun]

We canceled our trip to Disneyland, and we are going to be at WDW from Dec 17-23. I'm pretty nervous about it. We have never gone to either WDW or Disneyland at a busy time like this. But with my daughter in college and my other two kids in high school and elementary school, this was all we could do. I didn't want to deal with expired Disneyland tickets, so off we go. We are expecting to spend a lot more time in lines than we ever have before. I hope we can still have fun.

It will be different but it will also be what you make of it. Plan for the worst and set your expectations towards long lines, etc. and then have fun despite those things.

 

[YayforMickey]

It will be different but it will also be what you make of it. Plan for the worst and set your expectations towards long lines, etc. and then have fun despite those things.

Yeah, basically, I think a big part of planning will be coming up with fun things we can do in queues. My kids and husband are spoiled because I'm a fastpass/maxpass freak. I know patterns, and I know how to get us on tons of rides per day with hardly any wait. I just have to get us all in the right frame of mind. After the year we've had, anything will probably seem amazing.

My daughter and I went to Disneyland at the end of February and beginning of March to celebrate her college acceptance and graduation, and we had the most wonderful trip ever. We got great boarding group numbers (one time while riding Alice in Wonderland) and loved RotR. My husband, son, and younger daughter haven't experienced it, so a big part our goal on this trip is at least one ride. I have reservations for two HS days, so we have four tries. Hoping for the best.

Our other goals are the Pandora rides (it was almost finished last time we were at WDW-- 4/17), MMRR, and SDD. Yeah, basically everyone else's goals. But one of the most important things to us is getting a couple rides on ToT. We love Guardians, but we miss ToT so much!