Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[brightlined]

That is the dumbest rule imo. I get the 2pm deal is the new way to hop, but not tapping in to park 1 makes absolutely no difference in how the park operates, how the crowd is, etc. Maybe someone can explain how that requirement helps the parks or other guests when enforced. WDW literally LOST money by enforcing this by refunding the money (let alone any money spent once in MK).

The fix here is to drop the tap-in requirement after 2pm. (There's absolutely no effecting difference after 2pm - park capacity after that would be identical, whether or not the person made it to their original park before that.) The same rules could still apply - eg, if the MK hits capacity and "closes" to hopping, only those with actual MK reservations can get in.

 

[MomOTwins]

The fix here is to drop the tap-in requirement after 2pm. (There's absolutely no effecting difference after 2pm - park capacity after that would be identical, whether or not the person made it to their original park before that.) The same rules could still apply - eg, if the MK hits capacity and "closes" to hopping, only those with actual MK reservations can get in.

Because local APs would use hopping as a backdoor solution to get into sold out parks after work/school, and guests from out of town would book epcot for a week and go to MK and HS every day exactly at 2pm, and parks would close to hopping much more often. That creates an incentive for everyone hopping “normally” to arrive right at 2pm so as not to miss out because of increased competition for hopping, and necessitates refunds for people who get shut out to hopping. Is it so crazy that disney would set up a park reservation system and enforce that people actually go to the park they reserve?

 

[emmabelle]

I just hope at some point we're able to go back to being able to go where we want when we want.


We were there for a week and only spent 2 hours in MK the whole week. The park was slammed the Monday before Christmas. I couldn't believe how many people were in there at 9am and they were still streaming in by the thousands. We left thinking we would go back some night. Well that didn't happen.

 

[leeniewdw]

Because local APs would use hopping as a backdoor solution to get into sold out parks after work/school, and guests from out of town would book epcot for a week and go to MK and HS every day exactly at 2pm, and parks would close to hopping much more often. That creates an incentive for everyone hopping “normally” to arrive right at 2pm so as not to miss out because of increased competition for hopping, and necessitates refunds for people who get shut out to hopping. Is it so crazy that disney would set up a park reservation system and enforce that people actually go to the park they reserve?

So you are suggesting that there is a way for locals to get into non EP parks and the first tap-in prevents them from doing so? I guess I hadn't thought of that. The suggestion is they want to circumvent the reservation system but won't if they have to tap in somewhere else first?

As far as "out of town" people doing this, how many people could this possibly apply to. People are going to buy Park Hoppers and then purposely not do ANY park visiting until 2pm as a strategy?

To me, yes it's a little crazy to force someone in the position of the original poster to jump thru those hoops after the park hopping time has been met. At minimum, I would think they should have some sort of recourse prior to 2pm to get this straightened out.

Disney has ALL of these stats. Who has APs, how may tap in/out within 5 minutes, who has a trip park hopper, how many people are hopping each day, etc. To pay that much money for a week at disney, and have to jump thru this hoop on a single day just sounds...insane. Guest services could see it's their last day and they aren't habitual abusers. So dumb.

 

[princesswahooey]

Experience using a rolling G+ at MK on 12/26

We were tired after a week of the parks. This was our check-out day.

At 7am I booked 2:40pm 7DMT and 11:20 Space Mtn. (I did both since everyone else slept in). We took our time getting to MK around 10am. Surprisingly, it felt a little like rope drop, even though the park had been open for an hour already. We were just in time to snag one ride without waiting, and as soon as we were off, crowds had started to swell.

We had already been to MK on another day during our stay, so were filling in some rides we hadn't done before.

People Mover was walk-on, as it should be. (We had seen a 45 minute wait for it on a previous day , so had not done it at that time).

When we got off, Buzz was at 40 minutes, Speedway at 30, Space at 30. We walked onto Carousel of Progress, which we hadn't done in a long time. 15yo didn't even remember it, so it was fun. We got off that at 11am and were able to pick a new LL for Buzz at 11:25. Rode that and were able to get Speedway LL as soon as we tapped in for 12:30.

Rode Space Mtn (from 7am LL), then had a little time to kill before our Speedway return, so we popped over and watched Philharmagic at 12:15. Headed over to Speedway after and tapped in and immediately got LL for Splash Mtn at 3:45.

That was the end of our "rolling" G+.

We then headed to Cinderella's for 1:10 lunch ressie. They were a bit behind, but we were out just in time to go on our 2:40 7DMT reservation. It was also 2 hours from when I had picked my last LL, so I refreshed for about 3 minutes and got a LL for BTMRR at 3:30. (It had pushed out to 5:30, but I just kept refreshing and got the 3:30 time).

We rode BTMRR LL (70 min posted wait) and them immediately headed to our Splash LL (120 min posted wait). That felt like a total win.

After tapping into BTMRR I could have snagged another LL to Haunted Mansion in the near future, but it was our check-out day and everyone was ready to go after Splash.

So we got 5 LL on a very busy day, and could have gotten more, but we left the park at 4pm. Super glad to have LL that day.

I think if you are in DHS or MK (or will be hopping to one if them) G+ is a good investment. All day at Epcot, not needed. All day at AK, not needed. If arriving late to Epcot or AK, it can still be useful. I can also see using a rolling G+ at Epcot for less popular rides and picking return times that are close to current time to keep the G+ going, but as soon as you choose a popular ride that makes you wait 2 hours, you're stuck for a while.

Also, don't underestimate the power of refreshing. It still works to get a closer time if you are patient. (Especially good in morning and afternoon, less success in evenings, I'd say.)

 

[MomOTwins]

The suggestion is they want to circumvent the reservation system but won't if they have to tap in somewhere else first?

Yep. Since the previous poster acknowledged they could have solved the problem by heading to AK, tapping in, and returning to MK, but didn’t because it wasn’t worth the bother, I’d say that it is a pretty good deterrent.

As far as "out of town" people doing this, how many people could this possibly apply to. People are going to buy Park Hoppers and then purposely not do ANY park visiting until 2pm as a strategy?

We went last year at spring break when the parks were all “grey” or “yellow”, and you wouldn’t believe the number of people we met—at the airport, at the hotel, at the park gates—who showed up without park reservations or had Epcot every day of their trip. You can bet that there would be some people who would swim at the resort in the morning and go to parks at 2pm every day if they could.

 

[leeniewdw]

Yep. Since the previous poster acknowledged they could have solved the problem by heading to AK, tapping in, and returning to MK, but didn’t because it wasn’t worth the bother, I’d say that it is a pretty good deterrent.

Oh sure. The poster is saying her spouse was so annoyed he's changed his opinion of Disney. They literally denied them entry for a park that they'd not only paid for, but paid a premium for to "hop".

We went last year at spring break when the parks were all “grey” or “yellow”, and you wouldn’t believe the number of people we met—at the airport, at the hotel, at the park gates—who showed up without park reservations or had Epcot every day of their trip. You can bet that there would be some people who would swim at the resort in the morning and go to parks at 2pm every day if they could.

I'm not sure I understand the issue with them having park hoppers and EP as their reservation. That's what they paid for.

I'm sure people are confused about park reservations, that's no surprise. But if people are buying park hoppers so they have flexibility to visit a park in the afternoon, it's just dumb that Disney wouldn't allow them to. It's literally like "sorry you had a bad morning, now go sit in the corner for an hour and then come back, thanks for your premium park admission though!".

Again, I get there are people that would abuse any system, but they KNOW who those people are now that everything is electronic.

 

[emmabelle]

They need a pop up that says “now don’t forget to go to your reserved park first!!!” I’m surprised it’s the first time we’ve done that in the 5 trips we’ve taken since reopening I wish we had done it in September when the parks were dead then we would’ve been able to rebook our park.

 

[kalista]

Can we also get a pop up that says something like…”Hey-you know that mobile order for your party of 8 that you placed two hours ago and checked in for an hour ago and have been getting the ‘prepping your order’ screen for an hour now?? It didn’t actually get placed so please come to the counter and re-order. And please be patient with the staff that will drop your tray of beverages at the last minute. Rise is about to go down, so you won’t have to worry about missing your paid LL. Have a magical day!”

 

[GBRforWDW]

Can we also get a pop up that says something like…”Hey-you know that mobile order for your party of 8 that you placed two hours ago and checked in for an hour ago and have been getting the ‘prepping your order’ screen for an hour now?? It didn’t actually get placed so please come to the counter and re-order. And please be patient with the staff that will drop your tray of beverages at the last minute. Rise is about to go down, so you won’t have to worry about missing your paid LL. Have a magical day!”

This sounds oddly specific...

 

[PamNC]

personally I long for the days of 5 day super duper passes that allowed you to do whatever you want, when you want, hop for free when you want and use anytime in your lifetime and/or affordable AP's. There are too many hoops to jump through and it's totally time consuming. I don't enjoy staring down at my phone while I'm on vacay. JMHO.

 

[tinkychloe]

Have there been any reports of hoppers being denied this week? I'm planning to hop on 12/30 from MK to Epcot for my Candlelight Processional reservation and back to MK for the midnight fireworks.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

so far, the only reports of hoppers being denied was for Magic Kingdom on 10/1 and that was just for a few hours.

I would think maybe 12/31 might be an issue, but not for Epcot. 12/30 probably won't be.

 

[rdaky]

Again, I get there are people that would abuse any system, but they KNOW who those people are now that everything is electronic.

People who break rules (intentionally or unintentionally) aren't always habitual abusers that can be flagged electronically. It's often just the typical vacation family and someone posts about it online, and next thing you know, a few thousand other people are trying to do the same thing and think that they are the exception to the rule because it was a one time thing. Not necessarily with ill intent, but just thinking that since someone else did it, that it must be ok. Things related to park hopping, sharing magic bands for lightning lane, parking at a resort "to eat" to avoid parking fees, not reporting the actual number of guests in a resort room, and so on.

 

[leeniewdw]

I think we have to remember that the person that posted was on their final day of a week vacation. I'm presuming (tho not sure) they aren't local. To have paid for a hoppers for multiple people and have them strong arm the rule seems insane.... to me. Everything I just stated could be verified by guest services. If they had done it 7 days in a row during sold out park days (I'm not familiar if the parks were sold out or not) then SURE, say "I'm sorry". These guests paid for the right to hop parks, if Disney can't figure out a way to accommodate this situation, it's terrible customer service. JMHO.

If 1000 people try to "hop" w/o tapping into the first park, exactly how bad is that for disney (presuming these people don't have a history of getting this exception made as mentioned above). Their absence at park #1 makes the guest experience there better (1000 less people) and they are literally just doing the thing they paid for. Why make a family drag themselves/kids onto a bus and waste an hour to accomplish nothing but their penance for an honest (or maybe not that honest) oversight.

All they have to say is that "we can make this one time exception for you, but now that I've explained the system/rules, we won't be able to do it again". Done.

 

[emmabelle]

I think we have to remember that the person that posted was on their final day of a week vacation. I'm presuming (tho not sure) they aren't local.

All they have to say is that "we can make this one time exception for you, but now that I've explained the system/rules, we won't be able to do it again". Done.

We live in MA but are AP holders. It’s a shame that it was our last night and that it was a night that I finally hadn’t messed up the Genie+. I kept messing up one way or another trying to change things or trying to get night things and ending up with 2 LL’s for the day.

it was also 4pm when we tried to get into MK and we had ressies for Crystal Palace. We tried to get them to budge and let us in but they weren’t having it. At least I’ll be saving mucho bucks on AP renewals!

At least now I see why they do it as a deterrent for people to not make a park reservation for any park just to get into their choice park after 2pm.

 

[tinkerhon]

Here now - waiting for ice skating show at Seaworld - just a couple of thoughts - preface by saying we have been Disney fanatics since 1994 - but ... every single time we come for the holidays , our seaworld day turns out to be the best - I don’t know why Disney can’t do more as far as the holiday feel ?? I don’t know , to me that left with the Osborne lights - but still love ya Disney ! Just missing the old days a bit -

 

[beesly]

Here now. Today is our only Epcot day for this trip. We got BG 56 for Remy and it’s been down all day with our estimated return time pushing further into the afternoon. It finally just changed to say they won’t be able to accommodate us today. No word on why it’s down. Bummer, but we’ll still enjoy being back here for NYE.

 

[CBMom01]

This is late for a "just back" since it's been almost a week, but I have to say that we did not experience any of the issues I've read about on these boards. I had a little trouble navigating G+ at first but got the hang of it pretty fast. We rode everything in 5 days without rope dropping and a couple of those being half days. We slept in, swam (weather was absolutely fantastic), got good last minute dining reservations. We were busy the whole time, but not frantic. The only thing we didn't ride was MMRR because it was down when we tried the first time and none of us felt like making a point to go back to it.

The week before Christmas it felt busy but not unmanageably so. Our experience solidified what I was sensing from the boards: The crowds are only a big issue for a handful of rides and restaurants.

We had a really great time, other than coming down with Covid which we clearly got at the parks. Still (and especially when compared to what we saw in other parts of FL) we thought mask compliance at WDW was really quite good. Just too many people to reasonably avoid the risk I suppose.

 

[CBMom01]

Also, everyone loved Harmonious but found Enchantment merely ok. Though, we watched from near the Christmas tree and the Main Street projections were fun.

Footnote: For one reason or another, I had never ridden Frozen before this trip and I got to ride it with my two stepdaughters and I looooooooooved it.