Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[kittylady1972]

Since I so enjoy reading these updates, here is mine from today (Sat 10/31) at AK.

Arrived around 10:30am...met up wtih the rest of our party who had arrived around 9:30am and went to EE where they waiting about 20 minutes for that.

Our party of 7 headed to FoP, got in line around 10:45am showed a 50 minute wait...line move continuously (we were not lined up even to the bridge on the way to Lion King) and were were on in close to 45 minutes. After that, grabbed lunch at Satuli around noon. From there to EE, showed I think 30 minutes and I believe we waited about 20. Next we headed to the Safari (after a short break for ice cream bars) and at about 2pm it was a walk-on. Left that and walked the Gorilla Trail, then hopped the train over to Rafiki to do the 4pm Animation Experience there...so great. Left there for dinner at 5:30pm at Tiffins, leaving he restaurant around 7pm to an empty park that closed at 6pm.

 

[bad91922]

Saturday Halloween at MK
745, Chef Mickey’s. Walked in to MK at park opening (9am)
Big Thunder Mt. (twice with Rider Swap)
while waiting, I realized we were about half an hour ahead of “the crowd”. The crowd seemed to chase us all day and by chance, we mostly stayed ahead of them or worked around them. Again, 3 small kids, I’m surprised our day went so well. But I’ve been reading here and have touring plans membership.
Splash Mt. (got RS, didn’t use)
Walked to Fantasyland, saw Goofy parade on way
Took about 12 minutes to go through Little Mermaid cue
Walk on Dumbo
Husband got in line for snack with baby
10 minute wait Barnstormer (found out to ride solo kid must be 7 yo, 6y +10.75 months doesnt cut it.
Had to get out of line to return a kid to husband.
we all snacked.
barnstormer with kid 1, then kid 2.
1200 lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern.Watched Mickey parade on walk to table since we were in the next door area.
Swiss Family Tree House
Walked to Tomorrowland, saw Princess parade on way
Buzz, wait said 30 minutes, walked through a long cue and was about 15 minutes
Met Buzz
Astro Orbiter (about 10 minute wait)
Tomorrowland Speedway x 2 (you don’t have to rider swap, they out a flag on your car and when you come back around, they let the kids switch so the other can drive)
Snack, ice creams, floats
Space Mountain (45 posted, waited every bit of it, if not +5, It was a good long wait)
Pooh (posted 20, actual 10)
Mad Tea party
Break (we had rented a locker and went back to change kids into Halloween costumes, took about an hour to get back to business again)
(I missed the villain parade, husband and son dressed as Capt Hook got to see it while in costume so he was happy!)
Headed back to Fantasyland
Saw Jack and Sally float (their parade is a little lame, not much to it) when we reached the castle
Carousel, then dinner at Beast castle
Dinner took a while but worth it because it put the kids in great moods
In the last hour, finished up Peter Pans Flight and Seven Dwarfs Mine Trainx 2 (I believe posted was 40/45, we were off with 3 minutes to spare and clocked in our bands for the second ride right at 858.
Took the ferry to WL, nice not ha big to fold stroller
a full day. We stayed busy. I just finished switching the clothes over and going tobed at 1157. Ready for my home bed tomorrow evening. Such fun, but busy.
We never got a full family photo. We don’t like the masks and can’t remove for photo pass and never could ask anyone to take, with or without masks, it feels weird to ask someone to hold your property. We needed a volunteer and never came across one.

 

[mcomber7]

Since I so enjoy reading these updates, here is mine from today (Sat 10/31) at AK.

Arrived around 10:30am...met up wtih the rest of our party who had arrived around 9:30am and went to EE where they waiting about 20 minutes for that.

Our party of 7 headed to FoP, got in line around 10:45am showed a 50 minute wait...line move continuously (we were not lined up even to the bridge on the way to Lion King) and were were on in close to 45 minutes. After that, grabbed lunch at Satuli around noon. From there to EE, showed I think 30 minutes and I believe we waited about 20. Next we headed to the Safari (after a short break for ice cream bars) and at about 2pm it was a walk-on. Left that and walked the Gorilla Trail, then hopped the train over to Rafiki to do the 4pm Animation Experience there...so great. Left there for dinner at 5:30pm at Tiffins, leaving he restaurant around 7pm to an empty park that closed at 6pm.

What is the Animation experience?

 

[Grumpy by Birth]

What is the Animation experience?

Drawing class... animator teaches you how to draw a Disney character.

 

[GC&S]

We just got back from a 4 - 1/2 day trip (10/27 - 10/31). We stayed at CB. Tues was Epcot (arrival day so half day), Wed was HS, Thurs was AK and Fri and Sat were MK days. We were only at MK until noon on Sat due to Magical Express time .

I will say if you are freaked out about not social distancing then don't go to Disney. There isn't any. Definitely don't go to Disney Springs . Mask compliance was pretty good but we seldom saw CM's telling people to put their mask over their nose. Doesn't mean they weren't, we just rarely saw it. Many people walking around eating and drinking. Several people in line not wearing masks. At Thunder Mountain 3 people had masks under their chin, walked past the CM and she said nothing. We did see a CM tell a mom in front of us at HS to pull up her mask while she was on her cell phone but the minute the CM walked away, she pulled it back down. Also saw a lot of shields which we thought weren't allowed. But for the most park people wore their masks correctly. We did our best to stay out of the way of big crowds and for the most part felt very safe.

I was concerned about wearing masks in the heat (it was in the 90s 2 days we were there). But it was fine. I wear a mask at work most of the day but not in the heat.

I REALLY hope they keep the line markers. It was sooooo nice not having people breathing down your neck in line. I have always hated when people crowd you in line - like that will make the line move faster. The lines seemed much more calmer and orderly.

I will write more about our park days - HS day (awesome) AK day (not so awesome but still fun).

I had many reservations about going on this trip but we had a great time. I felt safer at Disney then I do in my community. We are planning to go back in January.

 

[NC State]

remember at MK if you drive you will still have to take transportation to the gate you can not walk there. from what I have read you can bus, monorail or ferry and that includes Uber, if you use CR plan on making order at CS to pick up as you might not be let in without from what I have read

Also, we had a 6:10 pm reservations at Be Our Guest when we left it was 7:25 pm. No monorail or ferry. We had to go the buses and wait for them to take us to the Transportation & Ticket area for our car. What a surprise.

 

[ColoradoMom12]

I REALLY hope they keep the line markers. It was sooooo nice not having people breathing down your neck in line. I have always hated when people crowd you in line - like that will make the line move faster. The lines seemed much more calmer and orderly.

“Please fill in all of the available space.” It was SO nice when we were there last month to not hear that line at all! I hate being elbow-to-elbow with a bunch of strangers. Some of the lines used to give me claustrophobia. I really like the distancing markers!

 

[Sarahslay]

Trying to plan for our Thanksgiving week Cali Grill ADR and transportation. We don't do Uber, especially right now (being in the car with a stranger is a no go for us), we will have a car but want to have drinks at dinner since we're sans kids this trip. Now that park hours have been extended to 9pm, and we have a 7:40 ADR, so you think we can still get back over to MK and catch a bus back to YC? Will they close the walk way going back at park close so more people can't come back? I feel like I'm making myself more anxious than I need to about this lol, just really don't want to get stuck at CR even if there are buses still running at MK. (or do we just hop on the monorail? decisions decisions)

 

[JoelB]

Just back from our 10/24-10/31 trip. My girlfriend and I stayed at Jambo House, which you can read about in my post in the AKL thread. We had a wonderful time, but I think anyone's experience will be highly dependent on both things you can control (expectations, pandemic concerns/comfort level, touring style, preparation) and things you cannot (crowd levels, weather, bus timing, luck).

Like everyone else, we became increasingly concerned as crowds seemed to steadily increase starting with Labor Day weekend. To make matters worse, the weather forecast gradually changed from almost ideal (upper 70s/low 80s feels-like temps) to "we should have just gone in July" (upper 90s feels-like). Thankfully, wait times ended up being lower than anticipated, and the heat and humidity was manageable with a combination of rope dropping, afternoon breaks, and some smart (but basic) touring.

As someone who became pretty good at working the FP+ system, but also experienced WDW before paper FPs even existed, I absolutely loved the retro standby-only system. Waits feel half as long and one-tenth as annoying as FP+ standby lines of "walk five steps and then stand around for a few minutes while a hundred people walk past in the FP line." Yes, you really need to rope drop to get the most out of your day, but we did that before anyway. If you can't/won't RD, I would highly recommend against going.

The distanced queues were great (particularly in the heat) but occasionally confusing. Sometimes people (including you) will mess up and go past the marker they should have stopped at. People are generally understanding about little "mistakes" as long as you're respectful about it and not just following right behind the party in front of you constantly. Just think of it as a bizarre little game we all get to play while waiting for the ride.

We had fairly good luck at avoiding ride-cleaning cycles, but on Friday evening we had a bizarre experience in the Splash queue with two cleaning stoppages roughly 30 minutes apart. No idea what the deal was with that.

Masks were not as much of an issue as I expected. I personally found the masks to be less annoying in the borderline oppressive heat than in an air-conditioned building. Outdoors, the air all around you is hot. Indoors, your hot breath is an aggravating contrast to the cool air blowing on you.

The current, shorter park hours make things challenging when it comes to taking an afternoon break. In the olden times, you could comfortably take a four hour afternoon break and then head back in the evening for five hours or more at the park (or even a different park!). Obviously this isn't possible right now, so you just have to choose the best set of trade-offs for your family. We gutted it out on our only Epcot day and first MK day, but took breaks of various lengths every other day depending on crowds, heat, and what else we still wanted to accomplish.

The biggest negative for me was the missing live entertainment, shows, and fireworks. You really could feel that some of the magic was missing, and I fear that it'll be a long time until much of it returns.

Disney Springs in the evening (even on a Wednesday) summed up in two words: just don't. I don't even think COVID is real (kidding!) but even I felt uncomfortable there.

We won't be going back until the world (and the World) returns to something vaguely resembling real life, but I'm glad we went this time for what was (I hope) a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

 

[dachsie]

Trying to plan for our Thanksgiving week Cali Grill ADR and transportation. We don't do Uber, especially right now (being in the car with a stranger is a no go for us), we will have a car but want to have drinks at dinner since we're sans kids this trip. Now that park hours have been extended to 9pm, and we have a 7:40 ADR, so you think we can still get back over to MK and catch a bus back to YC? Will they close the walk way going back at park close so more people can't come back? I feel like I'm making myself more anxious than I need to about this lol, just really don't want to get stuck at CR even if there are buses still running at MK. (or do we just hop on the monorail? decisions decisions)

Depends on what time the park closes but I wouldn't count on it. Its either Uber or bus to DS and bus to YC

 

[Sarahslay]

Depends on what time the park closes but I wouldn't count on it. Its either Uber or bus to DS and bus to YC

Well, official park close is 9 which I'm sure is about the time we'll be done eating. Then it will take a while to empty the park so I would expect buses for at least an hour after park close to account for folks in line and at late ADRs. I just always feel going to DS and then back to a resort is not a fun or time efficient way to get around in the best of times (which this time is not, I'm not going to DS Thanksgiving week for anything, you can't pay me)

 

[disneyseniors]

Yikes! Thank you. I wasn’t aware that lots of others on here have problems with them too.

I think you misread my comment. There are many others on here who have had NO problems with them and support them. I think we might be in the minority.

 

[nkereina]

So since we don’t really know what AK will do with an early 7AM opening (is this a normal time? seems like a magic hour time to me) does getting an uber around 6AM sound like a good plan if we want to make rope drop?

I would say yes. AK had a 9am opening when we were there last week. We were told the parking lot would open around 8-8:15am. To be safe, we called the Uber around 8:15 to avoid getting stuck in any parking lot traffic if the lot wasn't open yet. There was a tiny bit of traffic waiting to get to the drop off spot, but we were in the line for the temperature check by 8:30. We got into the park with no wait and went straight to FOP and the line was backed up to a bridge in an area of Pandora I didn't even know existed, but it moved continuously and we waited maybe 30 minutes with a 45 minute posted time. Very acceptable to us.

1. Does the parking at AK and MK open at the same time as the drop offs for Uber/ lyft?

At AK, the parking lot has to be open in order for Uber/Lyft to get to the drop off spot, so yes. At TTC, there is a separate drop-off area from the parking lot to MK. I'm not sure whether they open at the same time, but we got to the drop-off spot at TTC about 45 minutes before the posted park opening and had no wait at all. There were maybe 50 people there when we were able to be let in for the temp checks.

3. Is bus or driving quicker for getting to front gate of MK? Or is Uber to CR still the best option ( I would like to avoid this if possible).

If you drive, you will go through temp checks at TTC and then have to take monorail, ferry, or a bus to MK. If you bus, you will be dropped off right at the gate. However, we were told the buses start running at 8:30. We were already at TTC in line by 8:30, and were let in for temp checks by 8:40. We also saw many bus drivers leaving the TTC building to start their shift at 8:30, so I think that time is pretty accurate. So, while the overall travel logistics are easier by taking the bus, you will get into the park earlier by driving or Ubering to TTC.

Currently, you would not be able to enter CR by Uber/car unless you have an ADR or mobile food order there. Some people do mobile orders at Contempo Cafe solely to avoid TTC, but I don't think that's necessary. The TTC process was quick and easy for us. I also noticed a big line on the sidewalk coming from CR while we were on the monorail.

4. Has anyone riding buses felt uncomfortable with the social distancing etc. while on the bus?

We did not feel uncomfortable with social distancing, but we did not attempt to take the bus at park opening when it would have been full. We only rode it on the way back from MK, AK, and Disney Springs and it was not full at those times. There are full length solid dividers between each party on the seats, so depending on how many in your party, you may have empty seats within your assigned section as well - it was just DH and I so if we were sat in a row of 3, we kept the seat open that was adjacent to another party. You will likely have people across from you too, if that's a concern.

 

[TikiTikiFan]

Disney Springs in the evening (even on a Wednesday) summed up in two words: just don't.

I’ve seen lots of reports like this about Disney Springs. i’m debating skipping it at this point. We’re Disneyland folks and have done the Downtown Disney thing a ton of times. So my son has seen the Lego store, we’ve done the big theme restaurants before, been in World of Disney and Disney Home, etc. So would we really be missing much if we skipped it? My main worry is just having to wait in long lines to shop- does that seem to be the usual experience? Or are the crowds more felt in the walkways and the concern is lack of social distancing?

We arrive on a Friday and my thought was to go that evening (I love the Disney home store!) but maybe we’d be better off just enjoying the pool at our resort...

 

[GC&S]

I’ve seen lots of reports like this about Disney Springs. i’m debating skipping it at this point. We’re Disneyland folks and have done the Downtown Disney thing a ton of times. So my son has seen the Lego store, we’ve done the big theme restaurants before, been in World of Disney and Disney Home, etc. So would we really be missing much if we skipped it? My main worry is just having to wait in long lines to shop- does that seem to be the usual experience? Or are the crowds more felt in the walkways and the concern is lack of social distancing?

We arrive on a Friday and my thought was to go that evening (I love the Disney home store!) but maybe we’d be better off just enjoying the pool at our resort...

We made the mistake of going to DS on our AK day since we were back to the resort by 6 and had nothing to do. What a mess. To get into the World of Disney you either had to stand in line or get in their virtual line. We did the latter and waited about 25 min. The in person line was estimate to be an hour. They eventually took down the scanning code as the virtual line was full. Once we got it it was a mad house. The line to check out was about 45 minutes. And people were not pleasant in line. The Christmas store had a huge line to get in. We didn't even try.

Just walking around was hard. Soooooo many people because there's not much else to do at night. Then of course it started raining which for whatever reason freaks people out and everyone ran for the buses. So there's a huge crowd now trying to get home. I really wished we would have skipped it. But my dd did get her 2020 pins (b1g1f) and two others pins all with 30% off PH discount so she paid $20 for 4 pins. So it was kind of a win.

 

[dachsie]

I’ve seen lots of reports like this about Disney Springs. i’m debating skipping it at this point. We’re Disneyland folks and have done the Downtown Disney thing a ton of times. So my son has seen the Lego store, we’ve done the big theme restaurants before, been in World of Disney and Disney Home, etc. So would we really be missing much if we skipped it? My main worry is just having to wait in long lines to shop- does that seem to be the usual experience? Or are the crowds more felt in the walkways and the concern is lack of social distancing?

We arrive on a Friday and my thought was to go that evening (I love the Disney home store!) but maybe we’d be better off just enjoying the pool at our resort...

Friday would probably be pretty crowded. You would do better on a weeknight

 

[JoelB]

I’ve seen lots of reports like this about Disney Springs. i’m debating skipping it at this point. We’re Disneyland folks and have done the Downtown Disney thing a ton of times. So my son has seen the Lego store, we’ve done the big theme restaurants before, been in World of Disney and Disney Home, etc. So would we really be missing much if we skipped it? My main worry is just having to wait in long lines to shop- does that seem to be the usual experience? Or are the crowds more felt in the walkways and the concern is lack of social distancing?

We arrive on a Friday and my thought was to go that evening (I love the Disney home store!) but maybe we’d be better off just enjoying the pool at our resort...

We primarily went to Springs for a Raglan Road reservation after a day at AK, and dining is the only reason I can justify going there in the evening under the current conditions.

We were going to check out World of Disney, but after walking around almost the entire building to find the single entrance, saw the huge line and decided we didn't need to check it out that bad. We did go into Ghirardelli, where we waited less than a minute, but I didn't pay much attention to the lines for other shops. The crowds of people walking around was enough for us to know we didn't want to be there any longer than necessary, though.

I can only imagine what Friday evenings are like.

 

[TikiTikiFan]

Thanks for the tips everyone, I think we’d have a more enjoyable time hanging out by the pool and resort Friday night instead of Disney Springs.

Can you get most of the Disney merchandise inside the parks that’s sold there?

 

[soniam]

We primarily went to Springs for a Raglan Road reservation after a day at AK, and dining is the only reason I can justify going there in the evening under the current conditions.

We were going to check out World of Disney, but after walking around almost the entire building to find the single entrance, saw the huge line and decided we didn't need to check it out that bad. We did go into Ghirardelli, where we waited less than a minute, but I didn't pay much attention to the lines for other shops. The crowds of people walking around was enough for us to know we didn't want to be there any longer than necessary, though.

I can only imagine what Friday evenings are like.

Did you notice if they were doing the custom mixes of the different flavors of chocolate, the ones where you fill a bag or box? Thanks

 

[WEDWDW]

I’ve seen lots of reports like this about Disney Springs. i’m debating skipping it at this point. We’re Disneyland folks and have done the Downtown Disney thing a ton of times. So my son has seen the Lego store, we’ve done the big theme restaurants before, been in World of Disney and Disney Home, etc. So would we really be missing much if we skipped it? My main worry is just having to wait in long lines to shop- does that seem to be the usual experience? Or are the crowds more felt in the walkways and the concern is lack of social distancing?

We arrive on a Friday and my thought was to go that evening (I love the Disney home store!) but maybe we’d be better off just enjoying the pool at our resort...

We used Disney Springs for our Live Music fix since there isn't much entertainment in the Parks right now.

We went straight from the bus to a socially distanced table outside in the Courtyard at House of Blues and enjoyed a wonderful meal while enjoying a wonderful Band.

So in our particular usage of Disney Springs we felt extremely safe,but probably would not have felt as safe in other areas of the Springs.