Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[oceanmarina]

We've rope dropped 3 Caballeros twice this trip because my son LOVES it and it keeps going up to a 40 min wait later in the day. Definitely the weirdest trip yet but many memories are being made!

WOW!! 40 minutes - have never seen that ride with more than a 5-10 minute wait in all of our trips.

We love that ride tooI

 

[oceanmarina]

Just got back yesterday from nine days at Boulder Ridge villas.

Some of the most relevant takeaways:
1. Crowd levels may be down but are still substantial. HS very crowded.
2. 99% of people are not wearing mask, so if this is a concern for you, maybe not the best time to go.
3. Social distancing is absolutely gone.
4. Several shops still closed, particularly around the world showcase.
5. As you would probably expect, the most crowded park is Hollywood studios, followed by animal kingdom, Magic Kingdom and finally Epcot.
6. I found transportation wait times to be typical of what I would expect on a normal Disney vacation. Very good overall.
7. Rise of the resistance boarding passes are literally gone in two seconds every morning. We had better luck at the 1 pm pass issuance time, but keep in mind you have to physically be in the park for the 1 PM time.
8. Almost universally the best time to go to the parks is the last three hours each day.
9. Maybe we are weird, but my family was underwhelmed by rise of the resistance and Smugglers run. Maybe we overhyped it in our minds.
10. We were able to do all the rides on our trip with the only exception being test track, which was constantly down for weather. No big deal.
11. Mickey and Minnie’s runaway train was really cute, but seems to break down several times a day. If you are far enough in line when this happens you will get a fast pass to any ride (except ROTR) in Hollywood studios that day.
12. Just like many service industries within our economy, Disney is doing their best when it comes to staffing issues. This may however mean that some of your experiences are not what you have enjoyed in the past. For example 50s prime time was staffed with regular waiters as opposed to the wait staff that comically interacts with you throughout the meal. This is not a deal killer of course, and Disney is doing the best that they can in a difficult time. It’s just something to be aware of.

We walked an average of 8.5 miles per day, so that should tell you that we got a lot of things done. Overall it was a very good trip.

We go to Disney annually, so I am a bit apprehensive of what next year will look like if fast passes do not come back and crowds are at normal seasonal levels; factor in the 50th anniversary crowds, the new guardians of the galaxy coaster and the new tron coaster and you are looking at some tremendous wait times.

At this point if you try to make a reservation for next year, you are invited to check to make sure that park passes are available, so at this point anyway they are still planning to require advanced park reservations into the distant future.

I hope this helps and will be glad to answer any questions. Thanks to all those who have come before me and been so helpful with their input!

Hi thanks for the info,

We love Boulder Ridge and usually stay there every August. Were the pools packed there?

I'm debating booking for next month - just how long are the waits for lines (we are usually not rope drop people as my daughter always sleep in)

My husband is heat sensitive so I would be worried about long waits for rides in the heat (we have always used fastpass in the past).

Thanks for any feedback, Marina

 

[capegirl]

We've been here for the past 10 days and here's some initial thoughts as folks that are primarily Disneyland people:

• Holy ride breakdowns! I don't know if this is normal for WDW but every single day at each park we've seen multiple rides not open at rope drop or breakdown over and over throughout the day. Yesterday Space, Splash, Haunted Mansion, and Pirates were all down when the park opened which created a wild wait for Big Thunder!
• Wait times are much, much shorter in the evening in MK. We walked on to many rides after 6PM that had 40+ minute waits all day.
• HS is stressful. The crowds and the lines for rides are just intense. We ended up skipping our last evening there and spending it at MK which is a bummer bc we normally love it there.
• No issues with mobile ordering! Everything was easily available when we wanted it.
• Uber/Lyft drivers were always in the area and never has to wait. So that issue has seemed to improve.
• The Skyliner can't be relied on much with the rain in the summer- we've only gotten to use it in the mornings. I'd recommend taking an uber if it's down when returning at park close to avoid longer than usual bus waits.
• Bus waits altogether have been minimal- it's been so easy!

I'll have more later- today is our last day and we're so excited to see the fireworks!!

Happy to hear that the Uber/Lift situation has improved, as well as the bus waits.
Sad to hear about the ride breakdowns.
My biggest concern is DHS. Most reports coming in say it is 'stressful'. My grandson is on the spectrum, so if we get a later ROTR boarding group I was considering skipping rope drop at DHS. We will request a DAS for him, and hopefully we can try for his favorite rides later in the day. Not sure if this strategy will work for us, but I guess it's worth a try.

 

[Lsdolphin]

We've been here for the past 10 days and here's some initial thoughts as folks that are primarily Disneyland people:

• Holy ride breakdowns! I don't know if this is normal for WDW but every single day at each park we've seen multiple rides not open at rope drop or breakdown over and over throughout the day. Yesterday Space, Splash, Haunted Mansion, and Pirates were all down when the park opened which created a wild wait for Big Thunder!
• Wait times are much, much shorter in the evening in MK. We walked on to many rides after 6PM that had 40+ minute waits all day.
• HS is stressful. The crowds and the lines for rides are just intense. We ended up skipping our last evening there and spending it at MK which is a bummer bc we normally love it there.
• No issues with mobile ordering! Everything was easily available when we wanted it.
• Uber/Lyft drivers were always in the area and never has to wait. So that issue has seemed to improve.
• The Skyliner can't be relied on much with the rain in the summer- we've only gotten to use it in the mornings. I'd recommend taking an uber if it's down when returning at park close to avoid longer than usual bus waits.
• Bus waits altogether have been minimal- it's been so easy!

I'll have more later- today is our last day and we're so excited to see the fireworks!!

Now that fireworks have returned to MK I would certainly expect the evening ride lines to increase significantly at least before fireworks as there will way larger crowds.

 

[MomOTwins]

Happy to hear that the Uber/Lift situation has improved, as well as the bus waits.
Sad to hear about the ride breakdowns.
My biggest concern is DHS. Most reports coming in say it is 'stressful'. My grandson is on the spectrum, so if we get a later ROTR boarding group I was considering skipping rope drop at DHS. We will request a DAS for him, and hopefully we can try for his favorite rides later in the day. Not sure if this strategy will work for us, but I guess it's worth a try.

We used DAS in spring break for our son on the spectrum and it was definitely challenging at HS because the ride waits are so long on EVERYTHING, and there are so few shows happening now, we struggled to find things to do while waiting for return times. And this was for rides like AS2, TSMM, and Star Tours that rarely had crazy waits before but on our trip they were all 45+ minutes. Some things we did to keep him entertained while waiting for return times (1) watched that mickey/minnie vacation short movie; (2) did lightning mcqueen and frozen shows (although both did have a bit of a wait, but only about 15 mins); (3) found a shaded near where the old Olaf M&G used to be to sit and watch the character cavalcades; (4) bought him a bunch of ice cream/popcorn to snack on; and (5) bought a bubble wand and let him play in the bubbles.

Waits were definitely better in the evening around 6pm--he was able to ride AS2 about 5 times in a row with no wait.

By the way, shout out to everyone in MK or EP tonight--enjoy the fireworks!!! SO excited they are back.

 

[kylenne]

Hi thanks for the info,

We love Boulder Ridge and usually stay there every August. Were the pools packed there?

I'm debating booking for next month - just how long are the waits for lines (we are usually not rope drop people as my daughter always sleep in)

My husband is heat sensitive so I would be worried about long waits for rides in the heat (we have always used fastpass in the past).

Thanks for any feedback, Marina

AllEars.net posts a daily list of wait times at the parks so you can get an idea of what the patterns are. I am curious to see how the return of fireworks will impact them, especially in the evening hours. Historically wait times plummet during fireworks.

As far as surviving heat with someone sensitive to it, the best advice imo continues to be rope drop, leave at midday at the hottest, most crowded part of the day, then come back in the evening preferably after the afternoon thunderstorms. UV umbrellas with fans help a lot in outdoor queues with very little shade. Get familiar with the various shortcuts so you’re minimizing time spent in the sun and heat just walking around.

 

[NotTheBatesMotel]

We used DAS in spring break for our son on the spectrum and it was definitely challenging at HS because the ride waits are so long on EVERYTHING, and there are so few shows happening now, we struggled to find things to do while waiting for return times. And this was for rides like AS2, TSMM, and Star Tours that rarely had crazy waits before but on our trip they were all 45+ minutes. Some things we did to keep him entertained while waiting for return times (1) watched that mickey/minnie vacation short movie; (2) did lightning mcqueen and frozen shows (although both did have a bit of a wait, but only about 15 mins); (3) found a shaded near where the old Olaf M&G used to be to sit and watch the character cavalcades; (4) bought him a bunch of ice cream/popcorn to snack on; and (5) bought a bubble wand and let him play in the bubbles.

Waits were definitely better in the evening around 6pm--he was able to ride AS2 about 5 times in a row with no wait.

By the way, shout out to everyone in MK or EP tonight--enjoy the fireworks!!! SO excited they are back.

All of this! My son is also on the spectrum and we found “filler” activities while we waited difficult at HS since we used to go on Star Tours or Alien swirling saucers but now the waits are too long for him. We had the same exact approach: watching the vacation shorts, snacking, Frozen singalong, Lightning McQueen (first for us!) etc. I was so glad we rope dropped this AM because we immediately knocked out Runaway Railway and Midway Mania without long waits.

 

[DMLAINI]

We're not using magic bands or our phones to get into the parks. Can I pick up key to the world cards at check in? I wasn't sure how that worked

 

[CarolynFH]

We're not using magic bands or our phones to get into the parks. Can I pick up key to the world cards at check in? I wasn't sure how that worked

Yes, you can get cards at your hotel that will function like MBs for all functions that require tapping. I don’t think they’ll pick up long range photos like at Seven Dwarfs, where there isn’t a tap point, but I could be wrong about that.

 

[capegirl]

We used DAS in spring break for our son on the spectrum and it was definitely challenging at HS because the ride waits are so long on EVERYTHING, and there are so few shows happening now, we struggled to find things to do while waiting for return times. And this was for rides like AS2, TSMM, and Star Tours that rarely had crazy waits before but on our trip they were all 45+ minutes. Some things we did to keep him entertained while waiting for return times (1) watched that mickey/minnie vacation short movie; (2) did lightning mcqueen and frozen shows (although both did have a bit of a wait, but only about 15 mins); (3) found a shaded near where the old Olaf M&G used to be to sit and watch the character cavalcades; (4) bought him a bunch of ice cream/popcorn to snack on; and (5) bought a bubble wand and let him play in the bubbles.

Waits were definitely better in the evening around 6pm--he was able to ride AS2 about 5 times in a row with no wait.

By the way, shout out to everyone in MK or EP tonight--enjoy the fireworks!!! SO excited they are back.

Thanks for all the great tips!

 

[TikiTikiFan]

I'm so happy I extended our trip by one day to catch the fireworks return. It was so emotional and the energy in the crowd was just pure joy. Everyone around me was singing, crying, hugging... just one of those Disney moments you'll never forget.

It was also nonstop rain so we were drenched, Grabbed a spot in the hub about one hour prior and ended up with a dead center view. The rain also threw off what likely will be crowd level/pattern for seating- if it weren't raining I think we would have needed to get spot sooner. I was happy to have an umbrella so while we waited I didn't have rain just running down my arms/face. Ponchos are great but don't underestimate the comfort that umbrella can give you!

 

[Chernabob]

WOW!! 40 minutes - have never seen that ride with more than a 5-10 minute wait in all of our trips.

We love that ride tooI

*THIS* was the one experience that shocked us the most mid-June when we were there. Both MDE and the Lines app reported a 5 (maybe 10) minute wait midday. It was definitely close to 40 for us. Talk about buyer's remorse!

 

[Sarahslay]

All of this! My son is also on the spectrum and we found “filler” activities while we waited difficult at HS since we used to go on Star Tours or Alien swirling saucers but now the waits are too long for him. We had the same exact approach: watching the vacation shorts, snacking, Frozen singalong, Lightning McQueen (first for us!) etc. I was so glad we rope dropped this AM because we immediately knocked out Runaway Railway and Midway Mania without long waits.

We had to pick up a different strategy for my DD on this trip, instead of finding fillers we had to be like "ok, we know we're going to eat now so we'll grab a SDD before our ADR and then we can ride after", or if we were going to get in line for TSMM (which she's fine waiting in line for because there is stuff to look at and it's not super loud in there, plus a/c) we'll grab a pass before hopping in line for that. RD ended up being our best friend with her at HS, more so than at any other park, we could knock out most of her must do rides early and then save the wait for the DAS pass for later when we knew we were doing something. It worked out our memorial day trip that we got a DAS and then our boarding group was called, by the time we got off of ROTR we were able to grab a blue milk by her request, and then head over to ride SDD. This is when lunch ADRs come in handy though, if the BG situation hadn't worked out we would have just waited until after lunch since we had ridden everything she wanted to ride at that point and we could leave right after. That park is just tricky, you'd think DAS would be super helpful but it's just not at that park.

 

[BK2014]

For Magic Kingdom, what time have they been opening parking at the Ticket and Transportation Center for rope drop? And for those staying at the Contemporary, how early is the walkway to the Magic Kingdom open?

 

[kylenne]

Got into MCO at 8pm last night after some awful delays at JFK, walked straight onto DME. They are still assigning seats but filling every row now. Got to Coronado at just after 9, dropped my stuff off in my room at the tower, then immediately got a Lyft to Epcot in order to catch the fireworks in my favorite spot (Japan). I made it with a bit of time to spare. Definitely more pyro than I remember in Epcot Forever. The taco fountains were actually turned on following the show, and didn’t look too bad at all…not sure during the day though. And there was a push notification apology in the app as soon as I got in for Frozen being down all day.

Buses were not a problem afterwards, which I had been a bit worried about. But they are running a ton of the charter buses and we got one. GDT was first stop going back.

One thing I noticed that was definitely different than my stay last month, and I’m not sure if this is just at GDT, but there seems to be a replacement for Stacey on the resort tv now. Not nearly as fun tbh but it’s the same brief guide around the parks/DS concept. I mention this here though because if anyone is still avoiding Rise of the Resistance spoilers there are some major ones…it gives away whole chunks of that ride. I would have been upset if I hadn’t ridden it yet.

At the bus stop for MK now for 9am open, which is probably excessive lol but it’s pouring. Hoping (probably in vain) this keeps crowds down some today. I’m the only one waiting out here aside from a couple of families waiting for the AK bus…I will say the bus board lied. First AK bus just pulled up at 7:05 while the board said it would come at 7:11. Some more people just came down clearly thinking to get on the first and are now getting on the second. So yeah…I would not rely on times posted.

 

[MDIME]

Got into MCO at 8pm last night after some awful delays at JFK, walked straight onto DME. They are still assigning seats but filling every row now. Got to Coronado at just after 9, dropped my stuff off in my room at the tower, then immediately got a Lyft to Epcot in order to catch the fireworks in my favorite spot (Japan). I made it with a bit of time to spare. Definitely more pyro than I remember in Epcot Forever. The taco fountains were actually turned on following the show, and didn’t look too bad at all…not sure during the day though. And there was a push notification apology in the app as soon as I got in for Frozen being down all day.

Buses were not a problem afterwards, which I had been a bit worried about. But they are running a ton of the charter buses and we got one. GDT was first stop going back.

One thing I noticed that was definitely different than my stay last month, and I’m not sure if this is just at GDT, but there seems to be a replacement for Stacey on the resort tv now. Not nearly as fun tbh but it’s the same brief guide around the parks/DS concept. I mention this here though because if anyone is still avoiding Rise of the Resistance spoilers there are some major ones…it gives away whole chunks of that ride. I would have been upset if I hadn’t ridden it yet.

At the bus stop for MK now for 9am open, which is probably excessive lol but it’s pouring. Hoping (probably in vain) this keeps crowds down some today. I’m the only one waiting out here aside from a couple of families waiting for the AK bus…I will say the bus board lied. First AK bus just pulled up at 7:05 while the board said it would come at 7:11. Some more people just came down clearly thinking to get on the first and are now getting on the second. So yeah…I would not rely on times posted.

I didn’t realize you were headed back to WDW again so soon after your last trip (followed vicariously here lol). Have a great time! Happy 4th!

 

[kylenne]

I didn’t realize you were headed back to WDW again so soon after your last trip (followed vicariously here lol). Have a great time! Happy 4th!

Super last minute trip booked when they announced fireworks lol! Gran Destino shockingly had AP discount availability for this weekend so I jumped on it. It’s raining so bad these folks really ought to be going to AK on an ark.

 

[Poohbear538]

Got into MCO at 8pm last night after some awful delays at JFK, walked straight onto DME. They are still assigning seats but filling every row now. Got to Coronado at just after 9, dropped my stuff off in my room at the tower, then immediately got a Lyft to Epcot in order to catch the fireworks in my favorite spot (Japan). I made it with a bit of time to spare. Definitely more pyro than I remember in Epcot Forever. The taco fountains were actually turned on following the show, and didn’t look too bad at all…not sure during the day though. And there was a push notification apology in the app as soon as I got in for Frozen being down all day.

Buses were not a problem afterwards, which I had been a bit worried about. But they are running a ton of the charter buses and we got one. GDT was first stop going back.

One thing I noticed that was definitely different than my stay last month, and I’m not sure if this is just at GDT, but there seems to be a replacement for Stacey on the resort tv now. Not nearly as fun tbh but it’s the same brief guide around the parks/DS concept. I mention this here though because if anyone is still avoiding Rise of the Resistance spoilers there are some major ones…it gives away whole chunks of that ride. I would have been upset if I hadn’t ridden it yet.

At the bus stop for MK now for 9am open, which is probably excessive lol but it’s pouring. Hoping (probably in vain) this keeps crowds down some today. I’m the only one waiting out here aside from a couple of families waiting for the AK bus…I will say the bus board lied. First AK bus just pulled up at 7:05 while the board said it would come at 7:11. Some more people just came down clearly thinking to get on the first and are now getting on the second. So yeah…I would not rely on times posted.

So glad you got to see the fireworks. Hope you have an awesome rest of your time

 

[Leigh L]

Super last minute trip booked when they announced fireworks lol! Gran Destino shockingly had AP discount availability for this weekend so I jumped on it. It’s raining so bad these folks really ought to be going to AK on an ark.

Have a great trip! Enjoy the fireworks!!

 

[JoJoGirl]

Got into MCO at 8pm last night after some awful delays at JFK, walked straight onto DME. They are still assigning seats but filling every row now. Got to Coronado at just after 9, dropped my stuff off in my room at the tower, then immediately got a Lyft to Epcot in order to catch the fireworks in my favorite spot (Japan). I made it with a bit of time to spare. Definitely more pyro than I remember in Epcot Forever. The taco fountains were actually turned on following the show, and didn’t look too bad at all…not sure during the day though. And there was a push notification apology in the app as soon as I got in for Frozen being down all day.

Buses were not a problem afterwards, which I had been a bit worried about. But they are running a ton of the charter buses and we got one. GDT was first stop going back.

One thing I noticed that was definitely different than my stay last month, and I’m not sure if this is just at GDT, but there seems to be a replacement for Stacey on the resort tv now. Not nearly as fun tbh but it’s the same brief guide around the parks/DS concept. I mention this here though because if anyone is still avoiding Rise of the Resistance spoilers there are some major ones…it gives away whole chunks of that ride. I would have been upset if I hadn’t ridden it yet.

At the bus stop for MK now for 9am open, which is probably excessive lol but it’s pouring. Hoping (probably in vain) this keeps crowds down some today. I’m the only one waiting out here aside from a couple of families waiting for the AK bus…I will say the bus board lied. First AK bus just pulled up at 7:05 while the board said it would come at 7:11. Some more people just came down clearly thinking to get on the first and are now getting on the second. So yeah…I would not rely on times posted.

Thanks for the report! Looking forward to hearing what you think of GDT. Have a wonderful trip!