Help me plan

[DawnM]

I was going to shoot for Dec, but I think we will go Jan 1-9 now instead as things are more open and is cheaper than Dec.

We haven't been to WDW for 5 years. And add Covid in, and I don't know what I am doing anymore.

Questions:

1. Do we need magic bands or is that not relevant with Covid stuff? And no fast passes, correct? What about special rides like RoTG? Does that ride still require reservations?

2. Is there still a reason one park would be less crowded than another certain days like there used to be or is it pretty much an equal shot with no performances, etc.....????

3. If I buy tickets now are they fully refundable with the world the way it is right now?

I am sure I have more questions and I know these are prob. answered in other threads, but I have been trying to get answers and weeding through the threads is getting cumbersome.

THANK YOU!

 

[Sarahslay]

1. You never need them, but I prefer them to keeping up with a card. While you don't use them for FP right now, since there are none at the moment, you can still use them to pay and for park entry. I like not having to take a bunch of stuff with me, and keeping up with the card is a pain I'm happy not to deal with right now. I also like that it's a good form of contactless payment (aside from typing my pin). They do scan it when you go for your boarding group at RotR, which does still require a boarding group (which can now be booked at 7am the day of your reservation from anywhere, if you don't get one you can try again at 2 from inside the park).
2. Most parks, for the most part, are less crowded on weekdays and have far less chance of reaching capacity and running out of reservations than weekends when more locals go (aside from holiday weeks, obviously). HS is an exception and often runs out of reservations, so if you really want to try all those new rides I'd go ahead and get tickets so you can reserve that park day there.
3. I can't really answer this, sorry, I do know that if you have a package with room and tickets you can cancel much closer to your trip and get your money back, but I don't know about tickets purchased alone (I am an AP and do room only, my family gets tickets but so far we haven't had to deal with issues with that). If the parks close for some reason and aren't open during your trip I'm sure they would extend the use by date like they did for tickets during the last closure.

 

[Fangorn]

1) you have never needed Magic Bands. But they are the simplest way to do stuff. They are still relevant with covid.
A) correct. No FP currently
B) Rise of the Resistance is the only ride that requires a boarding group. No standby.

2) all parks tend to be busier on weekends, but there doesn't appear to be any particular reason to select one park over another on any given day. You do have to have a Park Reservation (which you can only get if you have a valid ticket for that day) in order to actually enter a Park. There is currently no park hopping. DHS is the only park that has consistently reached capacity so far.

3) officially, tickets are not refundable unless they are purchased as part of a package. Tickets are date-based now, so they have a shelf life. If you need to postpone the trip, you can change the dates the tickets are valid. If you cancel the trip, the tickets will eventually "expire", but the full amount you paid for them will remain as a credit for you to use to purchase new tickets in the future. You will never lose the value of those tickets. Under some situations, Disney has been known to refund ticket costs. You can always call and ask. Don't expect it, but they do do it sometimes.

Steve

 

[kwdw]

1) If you are staying on-property - I think you want a magic band. The ease of using that as your ticket, a quick pay option, room key, and if/when you have a boarding group for ROTR. If you are off-property - two of those things are out - and now I'm not sure how much you need one. If I were planning an on-property resort stay, I'd be wearing my MB all day. If off property, and not headed to HS, to be honest, I probably wouldn't wear one right now. (Laughing in my head because I think I'd feel naked at Disney without a MB!)

2) You should really review the thread on ROTR and its virtual queue system if you book a HS day. You need to know what to do.

3) Jan 1-3 are still part of a "holiday" weekend - and locals are likely going to be bumping up capacity for park reservations those days. So I would expect the parks to be more crowded those days than 4-9. As a PP noted, so far, only DHS has hit capacity. But nobody really knows what the Christmas-New Year's crowd will be this year. I also think that EPCOT is likely to be more crowded on the Jan 8-9 because that's when the Festival of Arts starts. If this were my trip - I'd be putting an EPCOT day on the 4th-7th. If I really wanted to SEE all the festival stuff open, then I'd try for the 8th as it's still a Friday vs. a Saturday.

4) Read the refund/rescheduling policies on the Disney website for policies on packages and tickets and realize those are the policies. Yes, we are still in a pandemic, but everyone knows that now and Disney isn't likely to change those policies. There was some stuff happening in spring to make folks happy because of the parks unexpected closure - but that time is over. While I really hope it doesn't have to happen again, closing the parks again like happened in spring isn't going to be as unexpected as it was then.

Good luck planning!

 

[Disneyfan754321]

1) If you are staying on-property - I think you want a magic band. The ease of using that as your ticket, a quick pay option, room key, and if/when you have a boarding group for ROTR. If you are off-property - two of those things are out - and now I'm not sure how much you need one. If I were planning an on-property resort stay, I'd be wearing my MB all day. If off property, and not headed to HS, to be honest, I probably wouldn't wear one right now. (Laughing in my head because I think I'd feel naked at Disney without a MB!)

2) You should really review the thread on ROTR and its virtual queue system if you book a HS day. You need to know what to do.

3) Jan 1-3 are still part of a "holiday" weekend - and locals are likely going to be bumping up capacity for park reservations those days. So I would expect the parks to be more crowded those days than 4-9. As a PP noted, so far, only DHS has hit capacity. But nobody really knows what the Christmas-New Year's crowd will be this year. I also think that EPCOT is likely to be more crowded on the Jan 8-9 because that's when the Festival of Arts starts. If this were my trip - I'd be putting an EPCOT day on the 4th-7th. If I really wanted to SEE all the festival stuff open, then I'd try for the 8th as it's still a Friday vs. a Saturday.

4) Read the refund/rescheduling policies on the Disney website for policies on packages and tickets and realize those are the policies. Yes, we are still in a pandemic, but everyone knows that now and Disney isn't likely to change those policies. There was some stuff happening in spring to make folks happy because of the parks unexpected closure - but that time is over. While I really hope it doesn't have to happen again, closing the parks again like happened in spring isn't going to be as unexpected as it was then.

Good luck planning!

Yeah what they said..lol
If you follow the priceline/hotwire thread they will help you get a really good rate on a Disney room.
I just stayed at the coranado for $130 a night.
If you put in your MB order now you will still get them for free.

If at all possible I would try and plan weekdays, but a lot of people are still on breaks and it may not make a difference.

 

[nkereina]

1. Do we need magic bands or is that not relevant with Covid stuff? And no fast passes, correct? What about special rides like RoTG? Does that ride still require reservations?

I agree with PPs that MBs are not needed, but they're still operating the same way they were in the past. If you're staying on property, they unlock your room door and allow you to bypass front desk check-in. They're still scanned as your ticket at the gates. You can charge to it if you link you're card. The only functionality we didn't use was FPs, since they're not using those currently.

I agree with PPs to review the ROTR thread. You can obtain a virtual queue boarding group by joining the queue at 7am exactly on the morning of your DHS day. You have to have a park reservation for DHS that day to join, and they go within seconds. The thread about ROTR discusses technological changes people have encountered, whether its better to use wifi/data when joining, etc.

Also, don't forget that you do need park reservations for each day of your trip that you plan to visit a park. You'll need tickets to book these and you'll want to do this sooner rather than later. DHS books up earlier than the other parks.

2. Is there still a reason one park would be less crowded than another certain days like there used to be or is it pretty much an equal shot with no performances, etc.....????

IMO, weekend days are busiest so I would avoid DHS and MK on weekend days. Epcot seems to be the least busy park, so I would choose that for a Saturday or Sunday. That said, there have been some instances where park hours are extended on weekend days, and we didn't find we needed that extra time at Epcot.

3. If I buy tickets now are they fully refundable with the world the way it is right now?

No they are not, but I believe you retain the value of them. So while you can't get a refund, you still retain the credit to use towards a future ticket purchase. If you're staying on-site, you're better off booking a package since that will be fully refundable.

 

[yulilin3]

RotR planning thread here https://www.disboards.com/threads/r...on-no-spoilers.3782822/page-847#post-62453085

 

[yulilin3]

As far as tickets there is usually no refund but there might be extensions if you don't use them. These talk about specific multi day tickets but there is a phone number to call.

Tickets
Partially used multi-day theme park tickets with a usage window impacted by park closure, or date-specific theme park tickets purchased through June 6, 2020 with a valid use period beginning March 12, 2020 or later, will automatically be extended to use any date through September 26, 2021. If you are unable to visit by September 26, 2021, you may apply the value of a wholly unused ticket toward the purchase of a ticket for a future date.

Florida Resident Discover Disney Tickets were extended for use until September 30, 2020 and are now expired. If you were unable to visit by September 30, 2020, you may apply the value of a wholly unused ticket toward the purchase of a ticket for a future date. If you have any questions or concerns, please call the Disney Reservation Center at (407) 566-4985.

At this time, Guests will only be able to visit one park per day. If you have a ticket that includes the Park Hopper Option or Park Hopper Plus Option, we have several options available to you:

• Ticket Extension: You may use your current date-based ticket by September 26, 2021 with the existing add-on options, should the options return by that date.
• Ticket Modification: Resort Packages with tickets may be modified or cancelled. To discuss your options, please call the Disney Reservation Center at (407) W-DISNEY or (407) 934-7639, or contact your travel professional.
• Ticket Cancellation: If you do not want to use your ticket, you also have the option of cancelling your ticket or package. To discuss your options, please call the Disney Reservation Center at (407) 566-4985, or contact your travel professional.

 

[yulilin3]

I was going to shoot for Dec, but I think we will go Jan 1-9 now instead as things are more open and is cheaper than Dec.

We haven't been to WDW for 5 years. And add Covid in, and I don't know what I am doing anymore.

Questions:

1. Do we need magic bands or is that not relevant with Covid stuff? And no fast passes, correct? What about special rides like RoTG? Does that ride still require reservations?

2. Is there still a reason one park would be less crowded than another certain days like there used to be or is it pretty much an equal shot with no performances, etc.....????

3. If I buy tickets now are they fully refundable with the world the way it is right now?

I am sure I have more questions and I know these are prob. answered in other threads, but I have been trying to get answers and weeding through the threads is getting cumbersome.

THANK YOU!

make sure to use the search option as most of these questions have been answered in several forums already, we also have a ticket sticky that will help with additional ticket questions

 

[DawnM]

make sure to use the search option as most of these questions have been answered in several forums already, we also have a ticket sticky that will help with additional ticket questions

Thanks, yes, I did, however, many of those threads are very long and trying to wade through to find the answers has not always been really simple.

 

[DawnM]

Thank you all. We are limited on actual days we can go as we have varying schedules, so we are trying to coordinate and the first week of Jan seems to work for everyone.