Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[Kitty & Covs Covs]

I bought mine at the gift shop at International Gateway. I couldn't use a MagicBand, I had to use the physical credit card that's linked on it. No word about paying for a gift card with a gift card. Minimum amount is $15.

How does this actually work? Despite having been to Epcot during Flower and Garden before I’ve never tried any of the food. Do you need a wrist gift card to buy anything? What are the advantages if you don’t? (I think though you can’t charge to a Magic Band, right?)

 

[butterscotchcollins]

I went last week and my top day was at MK which clocked in at 18k steps... what are you guys doing to hit 30k?

We walk really fast and did a lot of back and forth around the park, and park hopped! We also took the walking path to MK since we were staying at GF. We like walking!

I'd love to hear more about transportation and timing--especially at RD and at close. That's our biggest unknown right now--we leave Friday and will be in the parks Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

I was a little nervous about this before our trip as well because the buses can be notoriously slow but we had a surprisingly great experience.

Sat/Sun: At the bus stop at 7:45am to catch the bus to DHS (9am park open). Sat bus came at 8:05am, Sun it came at 7:50am. We did not have any issues getting into the park and right in line for a walk-on ride either day (Sat we did SDD with like a 5-minute wait but it was nice to not have to wait in line for temp check or security; Sun SDD was down so we walked all the way around to MFSR and the ride hadn't even started running yet.)
For hopping to other parks we waited max 8 minutes before a bus came.
For close we only took the bus once and waited about 15 mins for a bus back to GF from Epcot - we must've just missed one.
We did use Lyft a few times and it honestly was not any faster than the bus because for whatever reason we had to wait up to 15 mins for our driver to arrive. Save the money unless you have to go from Resort-to-Resort.

Note on the Skyliner: We did not take during peak times but did take to hop from DHS to Epcot on Sunday - total transportation time from park to park with walking and transfers was about 20 mins. Just something to keep in mind if you're planning to use it to hop, I thought it would be a shorter trip.

My record day is just over 60K steps. I started with the Princess Half Marathon and then did all four parks after. Lol! My DD insisted that we walk from DHS to EP that day. I think that she was trying to kill me.

HOW??? Lol after I run a Half I want to lay down and not move for the rest of the day x.x

 

[scrappinginontario]

How does this actually work? Despite having been to Epcot during Flower and Garden before I’ve never tried any of the food. Do you need a wrist gift card to buy anything? What are the advantages if you don’t? (I think though you can’t charge to a Magic Band, right?)

If you have a MagicBand, yes you may pay with that if it's set up for charging. Guests may also pay with cash or a credit card.

Some like to put money on a small gift card that attaches to their wrist.



It saves pulling out a credit card/cash each time and some also use it to keep themselves accountable to their food and drink budget.

 

[happilyeverfirstgrade]

They are trying to close the Epcot loophole, where Epcot is the last to sell out so people who have no intention of spending time at Epcot book every day there, tap in, and go to MK or HS and cause overcrowding. That will still happen to some degree, but it would happen a lot more if hoppers can be added once parks are full.


It makes sense, actually, because Disney does not sell an option to add a specific day to a multi-day ticket. You can upgrade a 3 day to a 4 day but you are not adding a day so much as changing you ticket with different terms and usage windows. A 3 day ticket has a 5 day window. A 4 day ticket has a 7 day window. To sell a 4 day ticket, they would need 4 days with park pass reservations in a 7-day window in order for the contract to not be illusory (invalid) which isn’t possible next week.

You could always buy a 1day ticket for the extra day!that does have park passes, but that would not be very cost effective.

Now explained that way it does make much more sense. Thank you

 

[Kitty & Covs Covs]

If you have a MagicBand, yes you may pay with that if it's set up for charging. Guests may also pay with cash or a credit card.

Some like to put money on a small gift card that attaches to their wrist.

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It saves pulling out a credit card/cash each time and some also use it to keep themselves accountable to their food and drink budget.

Ohhh okay. For some reason I thought you couldn’t pay with a Magic Band and that’s why people got the wrist gift card. Thanks!

 

[DMLAINI]

I thought Na'vi River Journey got plexiglass & was loading every row. Am I wrong? I've been seeing super long waits for it this week.

 

[TISHLOVESDISNEY]

Does anyone know if BTMRR is opening early with the earlier openings? In December when we went, it was not. We'll be there next week, trying to make a plan.

 

[TestingH2O]

So, I hear that no one can add park days on the phone, has anyone tried adding park hopper or days from inside the park?

 

[butterscotchcollins]

I thought Na'vi River Journey got plexiglass & was loading every row. Am I wrong? I've been seeing super long waits for it this week.

Nope, one party per boat and no plexi. It was, in a word, torture - the longest wait we had the entire time we were there.

 

[Thomasboys]

For the longer lines, was it difficult to figure out where they started? Or do CM make it obvious with signs?

Nope, one party per boat and no plexi. It was, in a word, torture - the longest wait we had the entire time we were there.

I've noticed Navi has crazy wait times lately...it didn't occur to me they were only doing one party per boat. No wonder the times have been so high!

 

[Leigh L]

Does anyone know if BTMRR is opening early with the earlier openings? In December when we went, it was not. We'll be there next week, trying to make a plan.

It was in both January and February. We rope dropped it twice in Feb. Splash has been closer to 9 for us, but we jumped down to Pirates (also iffy day by day) and then backtracked to Splash at 9.

 

[Disney and the Dude]

We got back Monday night from our 3 day trip at Poly!

Our trip actually started Friday night (3/5). We decided to add on an extra "night" and head up after we got off of work on Friday. We stayed at the Homewood Suites (Hilton) near Lake Buena Vista. It wasn't bad at all. They had breakfast included in the price for $127 a night (that's total after taxes and fees). The hotel was newer and the breakfast had some staff set up at different areas to help you get pancakes, eggs, proteins, and grits or oatmeal. It was all you care to eat too so that was nice. I have only 2 small complaints. We used expedia to buy the hotel night and when we checked in - we went up to the room and it was a 2 Queen bed instead of the King we reserved. This was an easy fix - we called down to the desk and they had us come back down and rekeyed to a new room that was what we wanted. The other complaint was the bathroom was very "90s" and for a newer hotel I was surprised by this. The shower was older and looked like dingy fiberglass. Overall, small issues and it was just a "burner" room so we didn't have to get up so early and drive. We are only a couple hours away after all.

Saturday was check-in day at Poly. We used our points to reserve a Lake view room. I made sure to add 3rd floor requests when I originally made the reservations 6 months ago and put that it's our anniversary. We've only gone to Disney kid-free once before so we were really excited to enjoy a slower-paced and relaxing trip. Unfortunately, the weather was against us for our plans to lay around the pool all day (the high was 63 and post of the weekend stayed around that!! colder at night even. Great weather for the parks though!) so we changed plans and decided to go to the parks instead. We drove up to Poly, dropped our bags off at Bell Services and they told us our room would be ready in a while - just to wait for the update on MDE. We decided to go to EPCOT for lunch at Via Napoli first. We had just missed the EPCOT bus though - as it pulled away when we walked up. Luckily the DHS bus was behind that - so we jumped on in. From DHS, we took the Skyliner to EPCOT and in through IG. Crowds were VERY heavy at EPCOT on Sunday. We were only able to ride Spaceship Earth and Figment. Soarin was a 80 min wait and Frozen was 90. We did notice this trip, compared to recent others, that wait times posted are definitely WAY more accurate now.

 

[auntlynne]

I have 3 days of tickets next week starting the 16th. I am going the 16, 18, and 19th. There is no availability at any park for those days anymore. I tried to add the park hopper to my tickets and they said no. Then I tried to add another day to my ticket, making it a 4 day ticket, and adding the 20th, which has availability. They cannot work the system to add that day because they are at capacity on my other three days. I do not understand that at all either!

Here’s what I see as their logic:

They would sell you a single day ticket for the 20th.

The problem with making it a four day is that it would include use for the 17th, too. Which is sold out. They will not sell you a ticket that includes usage on sold out days.

 

[loves to dive]

We got back Monday night from our 3 day trip at Poly!

Our trip actually started Friday night (3/5). We decided to add on an extra "night" and head up after we got off of work on Friday. We stayed at the Homewood Suites (Hilton) near Lake Buena Vista. It wasn't bad at all. They had breakfast included in the price for $127 a night (that's total after taxes and fees). The hotel was newer and the breakfast had some staff set up at different areas to help you get pancakes, eggs, proteins, and grits or oatmeal. It was all you care to eat too so that was nice. I have only 2 small complaints. We used expedia to buy the hotel night and when we checked in - we went up to the room and it was a 2 Queen bed instead of the King we reserved. This was an easy fix - we called down to the desk and they had us come back down and rekeyed to a new room that was what we wanted. The other complaint was the bathroom was very "90s" and for a newer hotel I was surprised by this. The shower was older and looked like dingy fiberglass. Overall, small issues and it was just a "burner" room so we didn't have to get up so early and drive. We are only a couple hours away after all.

Saturday was check-in day at Poly. We used our points to reserve a Lake view room. I made sure to add 3rd floor requests when I originally made the reservations 6 months ago and put that it's our anniversary. We've only gone to Disney kid-free once before so we were really excited to enjoy a slower-paced and relaxing trip. Unfortunately, the weather was against us for our plans to lay around the pool all day (the high was 63 and post of the weekend stayed around that!! colder at night even. Great weather for the parks though!) so we changed plans and decided to go to the parks instead. We drove up to Poly, dropped our bags off at Bell Services and they told us our room would be ready in a while - just to wait for the update on MDE. We decided to go to EPCOT for lunch at Via Napoli first. We had just missed the EPCOT bus though - as it pulled away when we walked up. Luckily the DHS bus was behind that - so we jumped on in. From DHS, we took the Skyliner to EPCOT and in through IG. Crowds were VERY heavy at EPCOT on Sunday. We were only able to ride Spaceship Earth and Figment. Soarin was a 80 min wait and Frozen was 90. We did notice this trip, compared to recent others, that wait times posted are definitely WAY more accurate now.

Did you have park reservations in advance or did you make them when you got there?

 

[aljack34]

Here’s what I see as their logic:

They would sell you a single day ticket for the 20th.

The problem with making it a four day is that it would include use for the 17th, too. Which is sold out. They will not sell you a ticket that includes usage on sold out days.

It was a very exhausting transaction but after 8 CM's and 1 manager, they were able to add the park hoppers. The CM's are not really trained as of yet for the capacity situations so we had to wait for a call from a manager who was able to override the system. So adding days and park hoppers are still doable but if the parks are at capacity, be prepared for a lot of jumping threw hoops to get it added. At least for now. Maybe disney will fix this glitch in the system due to this.

 

[auntlynne]

It was a very exhausting transaction but after 8 CM's and 1 manager, they were able to add the park hoppers. The CM's are not really trained as of yet for the capacity situations so we had to wait for a call from a manager who was able to override the system. So adding days and park hoppers are still doable but if the parks are at capacity, be pretended for a lot jumping threw hoops to get it added. At least for now. Maybe disney will fix this glitch in the system due to this.

Did they just upgrade to PHs or did they also add that 4th day?

 

[aljack34]

Did they just upgrade to PHs or did they also add that 4th day?

We just upgraded to PHs. I didn't want to push my luck but I think while talking to the manager, he would have been able to do it.

 

[auntlynne]

For the longer lines, was it difficult to figure out where they started? Or do CM make it obvious with signs?...

To me, it’s a challenge. I head to the normal entrance and then walk the length of the queue to find the “end” or “start” or the line. Sometimes it would be a shorter trip if approached from a different direction. I’m looking at you, SDMT. The only CM with the sign is where you jump into the line.

 

[ckb_nc]

It will look short, but take an hour.

Or longer - yep. Oh that can't too long remember COVID?

 

[Jen309]

Yikes! Keep posting current experiences please. DS and I are going in 2 weeks, and watching the current posted wait times is scaring me! We are FP people, we haven’t waited more than 20 minutes in years! Fortunately the kid I’m taking is a watch TV at the resort type, so that’ll be ok, but I’m gonna feel frustrated and like I blew a lot of $$ on a giant cluster. Trying to keep positive, though!