Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[TikiTikiFan]

Based on reading everyone’s experiences with the bus, the earliest it will arrive at the resorts is an hour before park opening? But you should be in line an hour before that to be on the first few busses?

So for example, if Animal Kingdom opens at 8AM, we should line up at 6AM at the bus stop?

 

[maryj11]

We are going mid November this year. I know we want to be at HS early to ride MMRR and get a boarding group. Is it necessary to get to the other parks before rope drop? Do lines stay high until closing at Epcot, AK, and MK? Just wanted to know what everyone thinks who has already been there.

 

[HikingFam]

We are going mid November this year. I know we want to be at HS early to ride MMRR and get a boarding group. Is it necessary to get to the other parks before rope drop? Do lines stay high until closing at Epcot, AK, and MK? Just wanted to know what everyone thinks who has already been there.

We found lines got shorter in the last hour or so that parks were open, but the absolute best time crowd-wise was pre-opening and the first hour or so. If you don't want to wait 60+ for a headliner like FOP or 7DMT, then you need to be in the front of the line first thing in the morning. At least that was our experience.

 

[katyringo]

We are going mid November this year. I know we want to be at HS early to ride MMRR and get a boarding group. Is it necessary to get to the other parks before rope drop? Do lines stay high until closing at Epcot, AK, and MK? Just wanted to know what everyone thinks who has already been there.

i don’t think it’s necessary at Epcot if going on a weekday. We didn’t arrive until 3pm and did everything.
For AK- flight of passage and Navi river get long waits they never died down. By rope dropping them before offical park opening we knocked them out without long waits.
For MK- if mine train is a priority. It never dropped below a 60min wait while we were there. We did it both mornings before official park opening.

so it depends on what rides you want to do and if you mind longer waits. We rode mine train again later in the day and did the wait. The lines do move and we played a game on our phone.

 

[maryj11]

We found lines got shorter in the last hour or so that parks were open, but the absolute best time crowd-wise was pre-opening and the first hour or so. If you don't want to wait 60+ for a headliner like FOP or 7DMT, then you need to be in the front of the line first thing in the morning. At least that was our experience.

Thank you. We can do without 7DMT, but FOP is a must.

 

[erinch]

This is exactly what I did. Dumped the family, and arrived at about 7:15, when they opened parking. With drop off I beat the parking lot crows. Walked in to FoP, then rode Navi, and then walked in to FoP again. I then went to Everest and rode as walk-ion 3 times. Could have been more. Fabulous.

From what I've read, I think we are going to Uber with goal to arrive at AK an hour before park opening - so 7 am for 8 am park opening. Unless the winds shift and they are no longer letting people in the park early.

 

[brockash]

Based on reading everyone’s experiences with the bus, the earliest it will arrive at the resorts is an hour before park opening? But you should be in line an hour before that to be on the first few busses?

So for example, if Animal Kingdom opens at 8AM, we should line up at 6AM at the bus stop?

I'd say you should be out there 1.75 hrs before official park open...now I also feel that if it's the weekend or Disney feels like it lol...they sometimes start buses earlier than hr prior and then there's times that it's more like 45-50 mins earlier than park open...it really is pretty inconsistent.

 

[lasob]

Just spent 2 days at WDW over the weekend,staying at Old Key West. We stopped for a couple of nights on a car trip from our home in Texas to our place in South Florida.

This was our second car trip since March so we have seen quite a bit of different protocols for Covid. We visited family outside Chicago in late August.

I think the compliance of safety practices at WDW is astonishing. Granted we were only there for 2 days, but we saw few noses, many people safe distances away, etc. We spent Sat at Epcot and even with sizable crowds in the World Showcase for food and wine, we really felt that everyone seemed to take the situation seriously. Posted times were high for all the rides we went on( SE posted 25 on the ride in 12, Soarin posted 45 on in 22). Ate at Boat House, Wolfgang Pucks and Olivia's at OLW and again almost everyone was following the rules.

In many of the states we have driven through, we found hardly any compliance in gas stations and restaurants. Signs on doors about requiring masks, and then literally no one, not even employees were masked.

Needless to say WDW was a nice haven where we felt very safe.

 

[Minnie84]

Just wondering what the most current situation is.......if we are at MK and want to go to Poly or GF for a quick service lunch, what is the best way to get there? Does the ferry run from MK to TTC and then we can walk to Capt. Cooks at Poly? Is this even allowed now if we have a mobile order? Are the boats running from MK directly to GF Dock? Or would it be best to take the monorail to GF? Trying to finalize plans.....18 more days until we escape "winter" that has already arrived in Canada.

 

[TikiTikiFan]

I'd say you should be out there 1.75 hrs before official park open...now I also feel that if it's the weekend or Disney feels like it lol...they sometimes start buses earlier than hr prior and then there's times that it's more like 45-50 mins earlier than park open...it really is pretty inconsistent.

Thank you! This helps gives me an ide of how to prepare. I think we might rely mainly on uber. What’s the earliest they’ll let uber drop you off at the parks- an hour before? I don’t want to be awkwardly stuck in the uber waiting. I know about the drop off and walk ideas but some days I might just want to save my energy.

 

[Future_WorldPhonencian]

Thanks everyone for these awesome reports! Correct me if im wrong but I am getting the sense that if you are committed to lining up extra early 1hr ppo at the bus stops that is the way to go if you are trying to beat crowds... what about midday and end of day transport? We will have our car with us in november and are morning folks but our kids are little and will need afternoon breaks, we might drive in the afternoon/ evening if waiting for a bus is a super long proposition.

 

[yulilin3]

Thank you! This helps gives me an ide of how to prepare. I think we might rely mainly on uber. What’s the earliest they’ll let uber drop you off at the parks- an hour before? I don’t want to be awkwardly stuck in the uber waiting. I know about the drop off and walk ideas but some days I might just want to save my energy.

With uber they have to line up with all the cars at epcot, ak and dhs. Dhs parking lot opens about an hour prior to parks, the other 2 about 45 befor. Mk has a completely separate location to drop off at ttc so no need to line up with the parking cars, you will have to wait at the temp check tent

 

[nkereina]

We were at DHS yesterday. Stepped off the Skyliner around 9:20, no line whatsoever to enter the park, got in the queue at MMRR right away and it had a 45 minute posted time. It was 10am exactly as we were stepping into the ride car (I know because I was getting a boarding group while stepping into the ride vehicle lol). They must have started operating the ride fairly early, contrary to some of the 10am reports I’ve seen.

 

[Skippyboo]

We were at DHS yesterday. Stepped off the Skyliner around 9:20, no line whatsoever to enter the park, got in the queue at MMRR right away and it had a 45 minute posted time. It was 10am exactly as we were stepping into the ride car (I know because I was getting a boarding group while stepping into the ride vehicle lol). They must have started operating the ride fairly early, contrary to some of the 10am reports I’ve seen.

. I was in line for SDD preopening. It started running with people at 940.

 

[nkereina]

Is it better to take an Uber or the bus to AK? We will be coming from CBR. I’m leaning towards Uber, but will we get stuck in traffic for the parking lot? And is it correct that the parking lot opens about 45 mins before the states park opening time?

 

[KM82]

We arrived yesterday a little before 3:30. Our room was ready and we unpacked our stuff and went to our dinner reservation (Beaches & Cream @ 4:50). From there, we walked to Epcot, which was open for another 1.5 hrs. We walked to TT and waited maybe 15 minutes to ride. Then we walked toward Norway and saw that the line for FEA was just to the edge of Akershus. We were on and off in about 20 minutes with time to spare to head to Germany for some Karamell-Küche treats to take back to the room. We are headed to Epcot again today, but now we don't feel the need to rush to TT or FEA like we thought we would.

For the most part, in that short time span, we saw really good mask compliance. There was a lady behind us in line for FEA that kept getting way too close, but she decided to leave before the line went into the building, so it wasn't an issue for long. Other than that, most people seemed to really be respecting space and masks were above noses (that we saw, at least).

 

[dachsie]

There is a gremlin in me that is thinking if someone starts crowding me in line I might just have to stretch my arms behind me and "accidentally" bump them.

 

[Elle23]

There is a gremlin in me that is thinking if someone starts crowding me in line I might just have to stretch my arms behind me and "accidentally" bump them.

Just start coughing violently. That will make them scatter!

 

[LizzyDragon]

I am asking if I read your post correctly? It took you 25 minutes to get from the parking toll booths, to park your car, walk to the gates, go through security, enter the park and walk to Pandora? That seems incredibly fast to me so I either am misunderstanding or I was curious how you did it so fast. A 15-20 minute difference in arrival at DAK could be the difference between starting our day with FoP or saving it until park close.

Like the other poster, I've also been able to get from the parking booth to Pandora in about 25 minutes (give or take 5 depending on where in the lot I park). The parking lot is the smallest of the four parks, and I haven't encountered any waits yet at temp check/security at various times of day. Pandora is also not all the way to the back of the park. It's doable if you walk quickly.

I've also had similar experiences with Epcot- from booth to inside the park in 20-25 minutes. DHS is like this if you're going in after park open (so the Rise crowd is cleared out). MK is more like 35-45 minutes due to transfer times at TTC (and I can't speak to park opening crowds as I usually don't go that early).

 

[tstein12]

Is it better to take an Uber or the bus to AK? We will be coming from CBR. I’m leaning towards Uber, but will we get stuck in traffic for the parking lot? And is it correct that the parking lot opens about 45 mins before the states park opening time?

Uber will have to wait in line with rest of cars to get into park - no special car lines for Uber/Lyft