Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[loves to dive]

You don't have to take out your phone. That's the most frequently asked question I heard the security folks answer! I never did and never had to be searched.

Good to know. I'm probably going back in Sept. so I'll try not taking it out. I seem to recall a sign at one of the parks right before security that did say to take out your phone but I might be remembering wrong.

 

[nolawave]

How far is the walk from Southwest baggage claim to DME? We will have a 3 year old, 9 month old, double stroller and a few bags. Not really interested in walking a mile then waiting a long time with all that. Seems like I can get a private driver with car seats for around $100. Thoughts?

 

[KGolf31]

Consensus of posted wait times vs actual still are trending 10-15 mins less than what is shown on MDE? I know a couple months ago this was the case but since park passes and spring break seem to load the park more consistently I don't know if this changed.

 

[subtchr]

I always had my phone and lipstick charger in my hand (separate hands) and just slightly in front of me down by my side. Never had any problems.

That's because neither of those will trigger the detector.

 

[subtchr]

How far is the walk from Southwest baggage claim to DME? We will have a 3 year old, 9 month old, double stroller and a few bags. Not really interested in walking a mile then waiting a long time with all that. Seems like I can get a private driver with car seats for around $100. Thoughts?

It's not short, but not long enough in my opinion to be worth spending $100 to avoid it.

When we have kids with us and need to get luggage from SW, we take the monorail to the main concourse, and have the kids and a couple adults hang out there. Let the kids wiggle a bit of energy out, maybe poke into the Magic of Disney store if it's open. Send however many adults are needed to retrieve the checked items down one level on the escalator on the A side to SW baggage claim. Collect the items, then come up, gather everyone, cross the concourse, and head down via elevator to the lowest level on the B side for DME.

We love DME, and will miss it after this year. The kids adore it: no car seats, and Mickey movies! Easy, convenient, fun, comfortable, and free.

 

[auntyjenn]

Yes, this seemed to make a huge difference for us this last trip as opposed to the 2 before with these new procedures. This trip we made sure to hold our bags out as far as possible from our body and were never stopped. The last two trips we just held them in front of us and were stopped every time. Same contents in the bag.

So, are we holding our bags and 'bad' items out in front of us? but not in the same hand? Good thing moms get extra arms... What if you're pushing a stroller?

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

So, are we holding our bags and 'bad' items out in front of us? but not in the same hand? Good thing moms get extra arms... What if you're pushing a stroller?

You really don't have to hold anything out in front of you. You can leave everything in your bag and on the off chance the metal detector goes off, you get a very quick bag check by security.

 

[jlundeen]

Strollers and ECVs/Wheelchairs use a separate entrance. You "drive" into the designated area, and leave the vehicle behind (if possible - if you cannot walk through the metal detector, they will wand you.) I left my phone, battery charger and glasses case in the basket of my ECV. in full view of the security folks. Once they asked me to open the battery charger case, but usually, they were fine just being able to see the items. I have a metal carabiner with hand sanitizer bottle hanging from my purse, so I simply pulled that out and away from the bag as I walked through the detector. No issues. Then got back on the ECV and drove away. Imagine it's the same for strollers.

 

[Akck]

I will report that social distancing is slowly working it’s way out. I don’t know how many times I saw people looking at their phones and not paying attention to the markers. I pulled the trick of hanging back a couple of feet from the marker while my wife stood on it. It got the people behind us to pay attention, but it didn’t last. As son as the line moved over several markers, they were back to their old habits. I will say that people afraid of getting too close to others should wait until they are fully vaccinated.

 

[VeronicaZS]

I'm just curious if the finger scanners are back in use?

 

[scrappinginontario]

I'm just curious if the finger scanners are back in use?

Not yet.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

I'm just curious if the finger scanners are back in use?

Nope, but they were actually testing out face scanners a few weeks ago.

 

[mickeymom629]

Consensus of posted wait times vs actual still are trending 10-15 mins less than what is shown on MDE? I know a couple months ago this was the case but since park passes and spring break seem to load the park more consistently I don't know if this changed.

Yesterday at MK, we found wait times to be more acurate with MDE than Touring Plans. TP was showing very little waits when they were actually quite longer. I kept refreshing, too.
Tuesday at AK, we found MDE to be a little longer than actual and TP actually more acurate.

 

[LSUmiss]

How far is the walk from Southwest baggage claim to DME? We will have a 3 year old, 9 month old, double stroller and a few bags. Not really interested in walking a mile then waiting a long time with all that. Seems like I can get a private driver with car seats for around $100. Thoughts?

I remember it being a bit of walk which wasn’t bad when it was just DH & I. But was bags & DS (3) we are getting a private car this trip. It was $160 round trip to & from MCO. Includes car seat & grocery stop if you want. Do you catch the private cars by the baggage claim? I’ve never done that at mco.

 

[Sara W]

I know this has been posted before but couldn't find it in my search. How early does parking open for MK (8am open)? Trying to decide which is worse- dealing with TTC or getting to the bus at 6:30am. And does the BWV bus still hit YC and BC? TIA!

 

[hereforthechurros]

imho that’s just about par to every other busy time I’ve been there. After having a 5 hour snow delay, arriving after MCO monorail closure at 1am (for construction) being hoarded like cattle into shuttles to get to the main terminal, picking up our luggage we had not planned on doing, and then waiting for more shuttles (not busses as it was after hours) to get to our hotel and finally arriving at our hotel at 3am a few years ago (and making a 7am rope drop the next morning) - I will never complain about DME again, it will truly be missed!

I’ve been 17 times in four years, twice over Christmas, and have never even waited close to that. People were walking up and down and documenting the line because it was that long. And to be fair I was trying to wrangle luggage and my son so it could have been longer than 65 minutes, that was my best guess. But whatever, not trying to get into a who had it worse match. It was impressively long and not a fun start, but everyone lived.

 

[hereforthechurros]

Consensus of posted wait times vs actual still are trending 10-15 mins less than what is shown on MDE? I know a couple months ago this was the case but since park passes and spring break seem to load the park more consistently I don't know if this changed.

In our experience this past week Big Thunder was the only wait that seemed consistently less than what was posted, everything else was pretty spot on or longer than posted.

 

[Lsdolphin]

I had trouble with my eyeglasses case (metal hinge on back) and battery charger. When I left these in the basket of my ECV, I was able to walk through with my other bag, but held my little sanitizer bottle out since it was connected with a metal ring. Never had to dig through again, although they did sometimes want to see inside my battery charger case.

They told me if you have something inside the bag that might set it off, to take it out and hold it away from the bag, and then they can see it and it's not an issue. It is SOOOO much faster than the old bag check....

I had same experience with my sunglasses case...I was told to hold it out in front of me when walking through.

 

[hereforthechurros]

It’s Spring break currently for New England and boy they flocked to WDW. Boston and Patriots gear as far as the eye could see. But for the most part I noticed a lot of large extended family groups with younger children this past week. Not as many school aged kids as normal. Crowds felt like any normal busy time. Some moments were manageable, plenty were not. For us ADRs were harder to come by this trip than any other. Lines (save for MK on Sunday which was dead in the AM) grew quickly and stayed long all day.

As reported many times, Cast member joy just isn’t there right now. Between trying to manage what’s expected of them to keep themselves and the public safe, and dealing with the public, many of whom flout the rules on purpose, how could there be much room for joy? Service was pretty abysmal across the board. At least three different CMs remarked that they didn’t expect things to be so busy which seems impossible since WDW has exact numbers of everyone in the parks and resorts for each day.

This is our 5th trip since reopening and our last until the fall when things have hopefully improved. Gotta get a little more use out of those APs.

 

[Linkura]

Consensus of posted wait times vs actual still are trending 10-15 mins less than what is shown on MDE? I know a couple months ago this was the case but since park passes and spring break seem to load the park more consistently I don't know if this changed.

Depends on the ride. Seems like Splash and TOT especially are fairly accurate to MDE, for example. Most are usually less than MDE/posted.

I remember it being a bit of walk which wasn’t bad when it was just DH & I. But was bags & DS (3) we are getting a private car this trip. It was $160 round trip to & from MCO. Includes car seat & grocery stop if you want. Do you catch the private cars by the baggage claim? I’ve never done that at mco.

Yes, the private car driver will meet you inside at baggage claim.