The Magic is Back - Share your Experience! Superthread

[TikiTikiFan]

Jungle Cruise and Matterhorn open for our August trip? And now it's all official for us folks out of state? I'm just happy as pie. I'm still placing my bets on no outdoor masks by the time we visit. I'll bet one churro!

But also I just can't wait to get my chiropractor appointment in on the Matterhorn, it's been awhile.

 

[DisSurfer878]

Jungle Cruise and Matterhorn open for our August trip? And now it's all official for us folks out of state? I'm just happy as pie. I'm still placing my bets on no outdoor masks by the time we visit. I'll bet one churro!

But also I just can't wait to get my chiropractor appointment in on the Matterhorn, it's been awhile.

I haven't checked, but is Pooh still closed in August? I saw it will be closing in July but curious for how long. That ride seriously needs a refurb

 

[GBRforWDW]

Jungle Cruise and Matterhorn open for our August trip? And now it's all official for us folks out of state? I'm just happy as pie. I'm still placing my bets on no outdoor masks by the time we visit. I'll bet one churro!

But also I just can't wait to get my chiropractor appointment in on the Matterhorn, it's been awhile.

Buzz lightyear is supposed to be back at the end of next month as well.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

Just read the DL Railroad is now running all day and boarding at all stations. Is anybody there able to confirm?

 

[avalon451]

I’m really interested to see how things change on the 15th. I’m doing a last minute solo trip for 2 days after moving my daughter to LA, June 23-24th. I have zero expectations, and am just going to enjoy what there is to enjoy, even if it’s just the atmosphere. (Not that I won’t be trying the ROTR boarding pass manic 15 second signup) But it sure would be nice if dining opened up a bit! Holy churros, there’s nothing available inside the parks right now! (And I keep checking several times a day!)

 

[MrsD.Duck]

Jungle Cruise and Matterhorn open for our August trip? And now it's all official for us folks out of state? I'm just happy as pie. I'm still placing my bets on no outdoor masks by the time we visit. I'll bet one churro!

But also I just can't wait to get my chiropractor appointment in on the Matterhorn, it's been awhile.

My chiropractor appointment is always goofys sky school.

 

[TikiTikiFan]

Just read the DL Railroad is now running all day and boarding at all stations. Is anybody there able to confirm?

Gothic Rosie on Instagram reported it was.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

Gothic Rosie on Instagram reported it was.

That’s where I originally saw it But somebody here confirmed it for me.

 

[taaren]

Gothic Rosie on Instagram reported it was.

It ran for less than half the day Saturday (thought it would be a nice way to leave the park at 2p) but it did run all day on Sunday, and the conductors said it would be when we got on around 1100.

 

[taaren]

Got back yesterday. Had a great time last weekend in spite of a few things being less than ideal. Here's our timeline.

Saturday 5/29

• 810 Get to the VGC, waited 20 minutes to store bags/talk to registration
• 830 Check in at VGC (took awhile, had points from multiple contracts for this 2 night stay since need to use all the 2019 ones, the CM was also kind enough to give us a higher floor room since we’d originally been slated for a first floor which my party doesn’t like for privacy reasons)
• 850 Walk to Esplanade through new morning security area at the Grand, very efficient
• 903 In the park! Line only took about 5 minutes even though it looked long. Walked straight to Space Mtn, supposed to be a 40 minute wait.
• 935 On Space! Walk to Mint Julep where our window starts at 945
• 945 Eating our beignets
• 1015 Big Thunder, “40 minute” line that took about 30
• 1045 Alice in Wonderland “25 minute” line that took 40
• 1130 Plaza Inn scheduled - getting food took about 20 minutes. Jolly Holiday was also scheduled, took under 5 minutes
• 1200 Got our ROTR boarding group for ~190 minutes from noon, Indy virtual queue we’d signed up for on the way to beignets said 65
• 1245 Smugglers “35 minute” line takes 27. Indy queue comes available sooner than anticipated.
• 1:20 Waited 20+ minutes in Indy line walking through Jungle Cruise line, it was long!
• 1:45 Tropical Hideaway - hard to nab a table but food came within 5 minutes!
• 2:15 RoTR queue was available
• 2:40 Room text says its ready as we exit RoTR, back to the Grand
• 3:00 Called for bags, get ready for pool
• 3:15 Pool staff tells us its a 40 minute wait, we’ll get a text. Head back to room.
• 4:00 Waiting by pool gate, 4:45 lifeguard finally lets in everyone sitting by the gate and tells us get on the slide if we want to since it is closing. Pool is pretty crowded, we only ended up staying a short time since we want to shower before dinner at 7 in the park.
• 5:30 Get a text that we can go to the pool when leaving.
• 6:30 Head into the park, food at Ronto Roasters is ready in just a few minutes, scheduled for 7p.
• 7:30 Smugglers again says 35, probably around 30 this time
• 8:10 Big Thunder line says 40, takes about 30
• 8:45 Run to Space to get into 45 minute line that takes 30

Really happy with this day overall, other than the pool situation

• 7:00 Discovered no RoTR today
• 8:45 Line to get out of the Grand takes 15 minutes
• 9:15 Longer esplanade lines, takes about 15 minutes to get into Disney
• 9:30 Wanted to go on Pirates but that line is wayyyy too long, says 50 minutes, so we go to Big Thunder which quotes 40, takes about 35
• 10:05 Got our beignets at Mint Julep. All the lines around the park are upwards of 45 so we settle on Space since its worth it to us to spend that much time in a line.
• 10:35 About 15 minutes waiting for the railroad from NOS.
• 11:00 Space Mtn line takes 50 minutes, quoted 50
• 11:50 Tropical Hideaway for more snacks, mobile order came right away
• 12:15 Grabbed a birthday cake churro from the cart near the castle, about 10 minute line
• 12:45 Autopia quotes 10 minute line, was not that long. All other lines are quoting above an hour
• 1:10 Grab our corn dogs and go back to hotel to get new keys and go to the room to eat
• 1:45 Go to Grand pool, doesn’t look like there’s a line when we’re heading up to the room so we sunscreen up only to be told the wait is 40 minutes again. After yesterday’s experience the teens were not amused so we gave up on the pool idea. I write a letter to the manager of the hotel while they nap.
• 4:00 Some quick World of Disney shopping + sandwiches acquired from Earl of Sandwich to enjoy in the room
• 5:00 Back into the park, Star Tours says 25, actual wait is 20. Most other waits still appear to be over an hour.
• 5:30 Grab a Green Apple Churro from the cart near Star Tours, pick up Blue & Green Milks + drinks from Ronto, on the way check for Grey Stuff Gateaux at Red Rose, they are out. Sad panda. It is weird not being able to walk and eat our snacks, settle at Ronto which is pretty empty.
• 6:15 Smugglers quote down to 45, takes 35
• 7:15 Big Thunder says 40, takes 35
• 8:00 Adults quit for the day, teens get another run at Space and Star Tours. Most rides say more than an hour.

We’d really wanted to do Pirates and Snow White this trip, we just never saw them have a line time we were willing to wait in (we said if we saw Pirates under 45 or Snow under 30 we’d go, never happened when we didn’t have another ride or food scheduled). The beignet cocktail from Ralph Brennan’s we had was amazing, made up for the fact that we were never able to find a Cafe Orleans reservation. Saturday was soooooooo much better than Sunday for crowds, lines, ability to get stuff in at the parks, the resort, and DtD. I suspect that RoTR boarding group not happening Sunday was a part of the problem. Placing our orders early made the Mobile Order process smooth. Very impressed with quickness of getting into the parks. But given the staff, I think they let too high a number of guests reserve Sunday at DL, while we had a great time it wasn't ideal for the amount spent on a ticket. Glad we're skipping July, will be back in September to see if things have improved by then.

 

[downinit]

Just read the DL Railroad is now running all day and boarding at all stations. Is anybody there able to confirm?

Train was running normally during the weekend, but the wait times were always 40+ minutes whenever I checked. Definitely not a good use of my limited time, but YMMV. Even Snow White had a shorter wait time than the DLRR. I was quite content with Casey Jr & Big Thunder for my train fix.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

Train was running normally during the weekend, but the wait times were always 40+ minutes whenever I checked. Definitely not a good use of my limited time, but YMMV. Even Snow White had a shorter wait time than the DLRR. I was quite content with Casey Jr & Big Thunder for my train fix.

Thanks. Mine would be more for a quieter place to take a rest if needed, since shaded places may be hard to come by with so many indoor things still closed. We'll just see what it's like we get there.

 

[downinit]

Thanks. Mine would be more for a quieter place to take a rest if needed, since shaded places may be hard to come by with so many indoor things still closed. We'll just see what it's like we get there.

With the reduced crowd, we never had much trouble finding a bench, and a few of those are in the shade. They double as 'designated eating areas,' so you can take a mask break and rehydrate while you are lounging around. Plus, there is always the Tiki room, although you need to arrive a few minutes early, as they tend to reach capacity by the time the pre-show kicks off. It's not the quietest part of the park, but the darkness more than makes up for it.

BTW, when checking wait times earlier today, I noticed that the DLRR was the longest wait of anything in DL.

 

[AZMermaid]

Interesting the slide was closing around 5. I very specifically asked on Sunday when getting towels and the CM was sorta snarky with me and said it closed at 8 with the hot tubs. I swore it closed earlier…. Like 5, lol!

 

[kristensideaoffun]

Interesting the slide was closing around 5. I very specifically asked on Sunday when getting towels and the CM was sorta snarky with me and said it closed at 8 with the hot tubs. I swore it closed earlier…. Like 5, lol!

Maybe they didn’t have enough lifeguards to man the slide. I’ve been at the DLH pool (pre-covid) when they had to shut down for a lunch break because they didn’t have enough lifeguards.

 

[crazyventures]

I went over the weekend but needed a day to decompress and organize my thoughts:

Hotel
I'm usually an on-site person but this was a last minute trip. We stayed at the Hotel Indigo in a 1 bedroom suite so we had a separate area to put our son's travel crib. It was my first time staying there I would absolutely recommend it! I was worried about the walk, but it actually seemed pretty short. We grabbed breakfast at Huckleberry's (located in the GardenWalk) each morning since the park food options are limited.

Crowds
Prefacing this to say that we went on a holiday weekend. We got to the parks around 10am each day, so there never was a long line to get through security or into the park. The parks were definitely at 35% capacity. How crowded it felt depended on our location in the park. New Orleans Square was a mess with the Pirates and Haunted Mansion queues. We encountered similar issues at DCA near Inside Out, Incredicoaster, and Midway Mania.

Compliance
Mask compliance was pretty great; we only saw a handful of people who weren't wearing them where they were supposed to or wearing them incorrectly. Social distancing in the ride queues was a complete toss-up. I'm not a confrontational person (despite being an attorney ) but I finally had to ask the couple behind us in the Ariel queue to give us space.

Mobile Order
This was the part I was most worried about. I reserved a slot early for The Tropical Hideaway after reading previous reports and it was 100% the right decision. By 11:30am, the next available time was after 5pm. We also did mobile orders at Ronto Roasters, the Milk Stand, Flo's V-8, Jolly Holiday, and Sonoma Terrace. The only place we waited more than a few minutes to pick up our order was Sonoma Terrace, which ended up taking 20.

Food
Food options are definitely limited, but we never had an issue finding something to eat. We had lunch reservations at Lamplight Lounge and River Belle Terrace, both of which we enjoyed.

Overall Impressions
It was our first trip since Covid and our first trip with a 13 month old, so we took it easy (4 rides over 2 days ... a first for us ) The magic is still there but it is definitely different. I'd hold off on going if you're only planning on going to Disneyland once, or if you only go every few years. I'm a little concerned as to how Disney will handle the lifting of restrictions on June 15th. I don't know if the parks will be able to handle increasing capacity with the limited options and current staffing. We're still scheduled to go in September, but we're playing it by ear.

 

[DisSurfer878]

Maybe they didn’t have enough lifeguards to man the slide. I’ve been at the DLH pool (pre-covid) when they had to shut down for a lunch break because they didn’t have enough lifeguards.

We were there and DH said it likely has to do with light levels. He lifeguarded for years and had his slide certification and said for outdoor slides closing time can vary based on sunset times and light levels (ie how the long the pool is in direct sunlight versus sunsetting over a building)

 

[taaren]

Train was running normally during the weekend, but the wait times were always 40+ minutes whenever I checked. Definitely not a good use of my limited time, but YMMV. Even Snow White had a shorter wait time than the DLRR. I was quite content with Casey Jr & Big Thunder for my train fix.

We wanted to ride it at 2:30p on Saturday and it wasn't running then ... they had characters waving from the various stations. Sunday it was running every time we looked.

 

[DLgal]

We were there and DH said it likely has to do with light levels. He lifeguarded for years and had his slide certification and said for outdoor slides closing time can vary based on sunset times and light levels (ie how the long the pool is in direct sunlight versus sunsetting over a building)

We were there over 4th of July weekend, 2019. The slide was open until the pool closed for the night.

 

[DonnerB]

Yesterday was my first day of a 2 Day Park Hopper (next trip is June 13th). I was...apprehensive...after reading some of the reports here. I had a great visit to WDW in early May and it just didn't sound like that would be duplicated here. I was pleasantly surprised & had a really enjoyable day.

We snagged BG 12 at 0700 before leaving LA. We sort of spaced once we got on the 5 and ended up at Mickey & Friends out of habit...waited about 20 minutes to pay after getting in line just before 0800. Temp check/security was a breeze and even with a restroom break we were scanned into the park about 0850, only a group or two ahead of us in line. Placed a mobile order for 1330 lunch at Smokejumpers while we were walking the tram path.

We headed to Indy which was already posted at 35 minutes; actual wait was 15. Our BG was called at 0901 while we were in line, but we stopped at Big Thunder on the way over for a ride (posted 5 minutes, actual 13). Wait for RoTR once we got into queue was about 12 minutes. Missed the preshow (tried to remind myself at this point to stop comparing everything to WDW), but was nice to get my friend back on who had only ridden it once previously.

Other waits at DL before hopping:

Pooh: posted 5, accurate.
Splash: posted 30, actual 23.
Space: posted 40, accurate.

Mobile ordered a snack at Red Rose Taverne; this was our best mobile ordering experience of the day. Order was ready almost immediately upon clicking I'm Here. No wait for our food. I actually forgot to ask for ice water before I exited to our table, and the CM checking at the door let my friend back in with no issues to grab a couple.

We hopped right at 1 pm; I expected longer lines at the gates but neither side was too bad (DL to DCA was slightly shorter). Walked over to Midway Mania to wait for our mobile order window to open; posted wait was 30 minutes and actual wait was 14. I was happy to see that the posted wait here rarely went above 35 minutes as it's one of my favorites.

Smokejumpers mobile order was...sort of miserable. Got our order ready alert pretty immediately and then was ushered into the slowest of the four lines inside that were all 4-5 people deep. Took nearly 20 minutes to get our food, so at least it was tasty! Enjoyed a couple of the Impossible menu items we had liked from Touch of Disney.

Grizzly River was down when we hopped and opened up while we ate, so we got in line (posted 50 minutes) and waited about 40. Lucked out and beat the rush. Other ride waits:

Incredicoaster: posted 20, actual 11 (another ride I was happy to see kept a pretty constant low wait).
Mission Breakout: posted 45, actual 34.
Non-swinging Pal-Around: posted 20, accurate.

Had placed a mobile order for Adorable Snowman and this was the low point of the day. Regardless of whether you were paying cash/credit at the window or have a mobile order, you were directed into the same line that was snaking down the boardwalk and back past the window. It was another 20+ minute wait upon getting the order ready alert. The system made absolutely no sense.

Dinner at Lamplight Lounge was tasty as always. I'm a diehard lobster nacho fan but we went for the barbacoa this time and they were super.

We hopped for the final time a little after 7 to try and get Snow White. The wait was posted as 30 minutes and the line looked shorter than the last time we had walked past, so we got in. Actual was 20. I honestly don't remember much about the ride from prior to the refurb, but I found it really lovely now. Glad we waited. Finished the night with a walk on at Mr. Toad's and headed out before the park close rush.

Agree with crazyventures above that mask compliance seemed good (certainly better than at WDW) but the distancing in lines was hit or miss (although...still better than WDW or Universal Hollywood).

I loved MaxPass and do miss it, but was pleased with what we accomplished. I found the lack of it to just be a mild annoyance, since we were/are regulars and know our favorites and what we are ok missing "this time." (The lack of FastPass+ in WDW, by comparison, was considered a vast improvement by our group).

Mobile ordering was hit or miss, and the lines at all the snack carts were long. We were lucky to have a table service reservation to count on. Also lucky that the limited menu at said table service appealed to us. We are not parade or fireworks people, so those weren't really missed by us. I loved seeing all the characters out greeting guests (Edna Mode! Clarabelle Cow!).

I apologize for the long report. Hopefully it comes across as positive, because we had a really nice day. Definitely was expecting much worse haha. I don't know that I'll be rushing to buy day tickets again anytime soon, but it's definitely worth a visit if you need to scratch your Disney itch!