Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

Had a perfect day at MK today! Rope dropped at 8am and stayed till 1pm and had NO waits. Literally walked on every ride except Peter Pan which was a 10 min wait. Here is the list:


Big thunder (walk on)
Splash (walk on)
Haunted mansion (walk on)
Peter pan’s flight (10 min)
It’s a small world (walk on)
Space mountain x 2 (walk on)
Buzz light year (walk on)
People mover (walk on)
Carousel of progress (walk on)
Little mermaid (walk on)
Swiss family treehouse
Pirates of the Caribbean (walk on)

Ate an early lunch at Columbia Harbor House and got a dole whip, both of which took less than 5 min after mobile ordering. Left at 1pm and am now showered and ready for a nap back at the YC before animal kingdom tonight :) wonderful day!!
 
We’ve been here since the 8th and leaving on the 18th. Some random thoughts.

- Haven't seen any overflowing trash at the parks.
- Not having the trams is really tough unless you’re rope dropping and arriving early. Having to hike out to Simba 125 after Boo Bash was a long walk!
- Navi River Journey is a major letdown. It’s like the Rainforest Cafe on steroids. They should just retheme it to Rainforest Cafe and connect it to the restaurant.
- We were blown away by Rise and Smugglers Run. So happy we avoid all spoilers and previews. MMRR was also a lot of fun. It was great to have new rides to experience since we were last here in 2019.
- Crowds have been very manageable. Parks aren’t empty but it’s not the doomsday scenario I was reading about in the trip reports leading up to our vacation. The longest wait we’ve had was for Flight of Passage - 42 minutes at 9:40am.
- The Touring Plan app has been HUGE! So many Disney line waits have been overinflated that we would have skipped them if we didn’t know better. We’ve found that the app has been pretty spot with its estimates. We’re very happy with it.
- Us and the kids were happy to meet TJ while waiting on line for Tower of Terror. We immediately recognized him from the Disney+ series. He took photos with all the kids.
- Blizzard Beach was a lot of fun and fairly empty. Kids exhausted themselves getting to the top for the Slusher Gusher over and over again.
- We are staying at Wyndham Bonnet Creek and used instacart to place an order for pickup at Publix in Celebration. They had the groceries at the curb waiting when we pulled up and they put them right in the back of the minivan for us. We had to practically insist that the employee accept a tip before she finally did. Great service.
- It’s been a great trip so far despite our reservations regarding COVID. We’ve been as careful as possible. We’ve found the mask compliance to be pretty good and only a few willful violators spotted. And the CM’s have all been great.
 
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Has anyone been to SciFi diner lately? I have a reservation for next week but I’m thinking of cancelling because I’m going solo and I am assuming they are putting more than 1 party in a car. Back in May they were doing the 1 party per car, so does anyone know if it’s still that way? It might be too close for comfort for me. Thanks!
 
123SA said:
I was on splash on aug 8 and august 12 and 10am, with many people riding before me so I don’t think opening at 1030 am is a normal thing

I have had terrible
Luck with ride photos. They just are not being consistently captured. I spoke with guest services and photopass, both pleasant experiences, but nothing was fixed. I now write down the time of every ride with a photo in case I feel like tracking them down. And… please celebrate with me… I got all the washers I needed to get my laundry dry done. Wooohoo. This won’t take me the whole afternoon
Click to expand...
I was there last week and I never received
most of the automatic ride photos. I think I got 1 haunted mansion photo.
 
123SA said:
AK today. Bus from AOA at 758. Through security very quickly. Held at tapstiles for a few minutes. Held at bridge until 730. Kids are at the front again. Again no seems to care about readjusting groups after moving. We waved hello and the parties near the kids made space for us. Nice people. We were held outside the ride until 756. Walked Into the first ride of the day at FOP. 3x Everest with no wait. Safari was posted as 20, but it was a slow paced moving line all the way to the boarding room. We waited fir 3 trucks to load. Walk on dinosaur 2x, finished by 1030. Zoom photo, no wait. 1100 Everest slow paced walk to the ride maybe 10 minutes Stopped for another photo and to watch the monkeys who were loud and putting on a show. Walked through the tiger thing. Lunch at flame tree. Mobile order works great!
I’m headed back to the resort to do laundry and the kids plan to do a few rounds on Kali River rapids.
Very easy day, very low crowd
Click to expand...

I notice the wait time today at all the parks low, maybe weather?

My family arrives tomorrow, AK on Monday, can’t wait! 😎👍🏻

Enjoy your stay!
 
dclDream2018 said:
Not sure if this is relevant, but I just got us a rental car for upcoming next trip to avoid Disney transport!
Click to expand...
Do you (or anyone else on here) happen to know what time Disney allows cars to enter the parking lot in the morning? I'm actually planning to book a car service ahead of time, but I don't know what time to book the car. Are cars allowed to enter before the park opens? I saw something earlier in this thread that said something around 15 minutes early, but I just wondered if this varies or if there is a set amount of time before the posted park open time?
 
123SA said:
AK today. Bus from AOA at 758. Through security very quickly. Held at tapstiles for a few minutes. Held at bridge until 730. Kids are at the front again. Again no seems to care about readjusting groups after moving. We waved hello and the parties near the kids made space for us. Nice people. We were held outside the ride until 756. Walked Into the first ride of the day at FOP. 3x Everest with no wait. Safari was posted as 20, but it was a slow paced moving line all the way to the boarding room. We waited fir 3 trucks to load. Walk on dinosaur 2x, finished by 1030. Zoom photo, no wait. 1100 Everest slow paced walk to the ride maybe 10 minutes Stopped for another photo and to watch the monkeys who were loud and putting on a show. Walked through the tiger thing. Lunch at flame tree. Mobile order works great!
I’m headed back to the resort to do laundry and the kids plan to do a few rounds on Kali River rapids.
Very easy day, very low crowd
Click to expand...

I notice the wait time today at all the parks low, maybe weather?

My family arrives tomorrow, AK on Monday, can’t wait! 😎👍🏻

Enjoy your stay!
 
does anyone know if the f&w food booths are open during thunderstorms? looks like it’s gonna be a wet evening.
 
Wanted to give an update on our time at Epcot this afternoon.
We got to international gateway around 2pm, and we were able to do the following things between 2 & 3:45:
- stopped at world traveler for the scavenger hunt map & food and wine book.
- got a drink from rose & crown pub
- rode journey into imagination (5 min wait)
- rode soarin (went right into the seat queues w/ pre-show)
- rode living with the land (walk on)
- rode finding Nemo (5 min wait)

then we walked out the front of the park and caught a bus back to CBR. The bus pulled right up and we were the only ones on the bus. We were back to our room by 4.
 
We had a fun arrival day so far. Got into MCO shortly after 11am, no line at all for DME—walked right on the bus. We however walked by the line for Southwest departures and it was scary long—we made a mental note to give ourselves an extra hour at the airport when we leave in a week.

Had a delicious and quick lunch at primi piatto. Noticed in the app it said you must be a riviera resort guest to mobile order at primi piatto today. We are (it’s our welcome home trip as new DVC owners!) but I was a little surprised. They must be getting too much traffic from Caribbean beach I think. Good thing too as the restaurant was packed.

Went to HS. Skyliner was down but no surprise as it was pouring but buses were reasonably efficient (they were “filling all available space on each bus). Was nice to see buses were resort specific unlike our last trip when they ran a circuit and stopped at all skyliner resorts.

HS was awesome despite (maybe because of) all the rain. We had ponchos and enjoyed the cooler weather the rain brought, but did get pretty soggy. No crowds, 10 minutes for TOT (posted wait of 30), 15 for TSMM (posted 35), 20 for MFSR (posted 35). Only one ride the Lines app totally failed us on was AS2. Lines app said 9 mins. Actual wait 35 (ended up wishing we had used DAS as our youngest is autistic and doesn’t handle long waits well, but once we were in the line, he would have had a meltdown if we tried to leave). We also rode slinky but used DAS as the posted wait was 60 mins so I can’t speak to actual wait time.

It is DH’s bday so we headed back to the resort and are relaxing before a special dinner at Topolino’s.

I was scared about coming with kids too young for the vax, but have been so happy here all day. Mask compliance was VERY good on buses, in lines and on rides—I think people tolerate the masks better when the get to have a break outside. They do pack you in but we created a bit of distance in the line queues by having DH and I stand 6 ft apart with the kids in the middle.

So glad we came… this is still most definitely my happiest place.
 
Dispro1 said:
Do you (or anyone else on here) happen to know what time Disney allows cars to enter the parking lot in the morning? I'm actually planning to book a car service ahead of time, but I don't know what time to book the car. Are cars allowed to enter before the park opens? I saw something earlier in this thread that said something around 15 minutes early, but I just wondered if this varies or if there is a set amount of time before the posted park open time?
Click to expand...
Hi! We drove to HS and Epcot this week and we were allowed into the lots around 7:50 am or so.
 
MomOTwins said:
We had a fun arrival day so far. Got into MCO shortly after 11am, no line at all for DME—walked right on the bus. We however walked by the line for Southwest departures and it was scary long—we made a mental note to give ourselves an extra hour at the airport when we leave in a week.

Had a delicious and quick lunch at primi piatto. Noticed in the app it said you must be a riviera resort guest to mobile order at primi piatto today. We are (it’s our welcome home trip as new DVC owners!) but I was a little surprised. They must be getting too much traffic from Caribbean beach I think. Good thing too as the restaurant was packed.

Went to HS. Skyliner was down but no surprise as it was pouring but buses were reasonably efficient (they were “filling all available space on each bus). Was nice to see buses were resort specific unlike our last trip when they ran a circuit and stopped at all skyliner resorts.

HS was awesome despite (maybe because of) all the rain. We had ponchos and enjoyed the cooler weather the rain brought, but did get pretty soggy. No crowds, 10 minutes for TOT (posted wait of 30), 15 for TSMM (posted 35), 20 for MFSR (posted 35). Only one ride the Lines app totally failed us on was AS2. Lines app said 9 mins. Actual wait 35 (ended up wishing we had used DAS as our youngest is autistic and doesn’t handle long waits well, but once we were in the line, he would have had a meltdown if we tried to leave). We also rode slinky but used DAS as the posted wait was 60 mins so I can’t speak to actual wait time.

It is DH’s bday so we headed back to the resort and are relaxing before a special dinner at Topolino’s.

I was scared about coming with kids too young for the vax, but have been so happy here all day. Mask compliance was VERY good on buses, in lines and on rides—I think people tolerate the masks better when the get to have a break outside. They do pack you in but we created a bit of distance in the line queues by having DH and I stand 6 ft apart with the kids in the middle.

So glad we came… this is still most definitely my happiest place.
Click to expand...

You probably passed us in the Southwest line. Good news is it moves really fast.
 
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