Here Now & Just Back - A Place To Share Your Recent Experiences

[summerlvr]

We are at DHS and we were the first family in the park! We could’ve walked on MMRR but the kids insisted we do MFSR first so we are second in line for it to start at 9:30.

We walked over from Dolphin and arrived at the “holding area” around 8:00 am. There were already about 5 or 6 families waiting. There are 2 lines, you def want to be in the LEFT and stay to the far left when they walk you to temp screening. They led us to temp screening around 8:45 and then held us there until about 9:00. When they started temp screening, cars were yet arriving and I don’t think people were arriving by Skyliner yet even.

How long did it take you to walk from Dolphin if you don't mind me asking? Will be there next month. Thanks!

 

[armerida]

How long did it take you to walk from Dolphin if you don't mind me asking? Will be there next month. Thanks!

Should take you around 20 minutes. Took us just over 15 from Swan, and Dolphin is just a little bit further.

 

[summerlvr]

Should take you around 20 minutes. Took us just over 15 from Swan, and Dolphin is just a little bit further.

Should take you around 20 minutes. Took us just over 15 from Swan, and Dolphin is just a little bit further.

Thank you!

 

[teach22180]

I have a few thoughts from today at AK. 1st I wanted to mention that they are handling strollers different at the safari because I have not seen that mentioned here. There's a stroller parking area in the main part of Africa so the cast members don't have to touch them. At rope drop they were loading the cars only every other row But at 3 o'clock in the afternoon they were loading every row.
The waits were incorrect. Everest said 45 and was 15. Dino said 30 and was also 15. FOP said 45 and was every minute of it. That queue is tight and I almost left in the middle because no one was distancing and the group in front had poor mask wearing. But we started moving again and I stuck it out. I always fp, so enjoyed seeing the queue.

 

[djmeredith]

How long did it take you to walk from Dolphin if you don't mind me asking? Will be there next month. Thanks!

Glad to answer! I am very thankful for all the tips I got here so I’m happy to pay it forward. I forgot to time it but I would estimate It took about 15ish minutes at a quick pace.

 

[Alpengeist04]

A quick rundown from today at DHS...
I arrived at 1:10pm, left 7:55pm. I was able to get BP 122 at 2:00pm.

Star Tours- Posted 30 mins/waited 20 mins
Alien Swirl- Posted 30 mins/waited 25 mins with cleaning
Toy Story- Posted 35 mins/waited 20 mins
Tower of Terror-Posted 45 mins/waited 35 mins
R n’ RC-Posted 55 mins/waited 45 mins with cleaning
Millennium Falcon-Posted 55 mins/waited 35 mins
Slinky Dog- Posted 60 mins/waited 45 mins with cleaning
RotR- boarding pass 122/ BP called at 6:58pm, headed out of the park at 7:55pm.

Micky&Minnie- Posted 60-90 mins all afternoon/ did not ride, not enough time.

I have been to DHS 4 times since Sept 1st. All 4 times arriving in the PM, twice on a Tuesday and twice on a Wednesday. I have been able to get a BP and ride 3 out of 4 times. The magic number for me seems to be 40. Every time the boarding number was above 40 by 2pm, I have gotten a BP. The one time I didn’t was when they were only on BP 26 at 2pm.

Edit:While I’m not thrilled about some of the increased wait times on the popular rides over at DHS, I do have to give major props to the cast members there. Especially at RotR, where they really kicked butt tonight making sure everyone with a boarding pass was able to ride even after 7pm. I can’t thank them enough.

 

[Elle23]

You will need a reservation but you can get the Uber to drop you at the Speedway next door

Thanks!

 

[lmbcdb]

We had a very successful day at Hollywood Studios. The only reason for this is this thread and the Disboards.

Park opening time - 10:00.

We called a Lyft at 8:15, it arrived at 8:30 and took us to the Speedway near the Boardwalk. I went in and got a Coke and we walked over to the park. Got in line at 9:00, probably 100 people back

Line started moving at 9:05 for temp screening. Moved VERY quickly, no line at a far right turnstile, tapped in and went straight to MMRR. We were in line at 9:15. Already snaking around the plaza. 25 minute wait, constantly moving.

We then headed to Galaxy’s Edge, all the way back to the Falcon. It was 9:55, so we stood outside the entrance to MFSR. Turned off location settings, we both tried for a group and got group 40. (Got called at 12:30.)

Literally walked on MFSR. When we got off the wait was 60 minutes.

At this point we walked around taking pictures ang going in shops. There was a 20 min wait for the marketplace, and only 1 person could go in a shop at a time.

We had lunch and dinner at Docking Bay 7. The atmosphere was great - food was so-so. (My husband ordered better at dinner - said the pot roast was good)

Our boarding group was called for ROTR at 12:30. I had not read/watched anything about the ride (on purpose) and I was absolutely floored. We could’ve gone back to the room at that point and I would’ve been happy.

We then went to Star Tours - posted 30, waited 15. We hadn’t seen the scenes with the new characters from the recent movies, so that was nice.

Went back to Galaxy’s Edge for our 2:00 Oga’s reservation. Nice break, good drinks and food.

We then went down to RnR and ToT.
ToT - posted 50, waited 25.
RnR - posted 50, waited 34.
Two of my favorite rides, so I didn’t mind waiting. However, the sun was definitely a beat down out in the street. I took an umbrella like someone suggested, and it helped immensely. (Temp was 87, feels like 93)

We went back to Docking Bay 7 for dinner because we wanted a/c. Few choices for dinner.

We then went to the relaxation station in GE and collapsed for 30 minutes.

I had scheduled us a 6:50 droid appointment on purpose so we could see GE at night and get some pictures without people.

So totally worth it - check out the awesome pictures I got.





Skyliner was only a 15 min wait back to Pop..for all the great advice, everyone!

 

[bigrooster81]

Incredible Photos! ^^^

 

[emily nicole]

We called a Lyft at 8:15, it arrived at 8:30 and took us to the Speedway near the Boardwalk. I went in and got a Coke and we walked over to the park. Got in line at 9:00, probably 100 people back

Thanks for sharing your strategy! We're booked at Pop for this December and think we'll try this on our DHS day. Is it pretty easy to figure out where to go from the Speedway? No crossing busy roads or anything like that?

 

[emsstacey]

We had our Lyft scheduled days before and had to cancel due to 3 different drivers missing the turn to Pop. I ended up using Uber. I would be prepared and have both. It was a mess but we still got to Boardwalk in plenty of time for breakfast. Also, FYI, the guard did not ask anything about a reservation, the uber driver simply showed his credentials and we were let through.

 

[Befferk]

Thanks for sharing your strategy! We're booked at Pop for this December and think we'll try this on our DHS day. Is it pretty easy to figure out where to go from the Speedway? No crossing busy roads or anything like that?

If you zoom in on Google maps, you can actually see the trail. It goes under the bridge..

 

[AmishGuy91]

If you zoom in on Google maps, you can actually see the trail. It goes under the bridge..

I had Uber drop me off right at the intersection where "Blvd" is in Epcot Resorts Blvd. Saves a couple of minutes from being dropped off at Speedway

 

[crazy_for_the_dis]

Waiting at MCO for my flight home. Good trip, but I think I will wait for FP to come back before returning. We were thinking March, but that will be the deciding factor. The heat was bad. Some key points:

HS day was great. Took an Uber from Riviera to Speedway at 7:45. Walked from there, and there were maybe 50 -75 people in front of us, I. Two lines. They let us up to the temp gates around 8:45. Since the 2 lines broke up to the various tents, we were the 3rd group by our tent. We were all the way to the right, which worked out for us. They started the temps around 9:14. We went straight to MMRT which they had running, and we were the second or third train of the day! We could have gone to slinky dog which would have been the right choice, but we were too scared to miss the 10 am boarding group try, so we walked on Toy Story mania, got off at 9:53, and got boarding group 7 in the outdoor exit area for that ride on a bench. Could not have scripted a better morning. Had 2 reservations for Oga’s. One in the morning one in the afternoon and both times were great reprieves from the heat. Drinks were great. Would 100% plan it this way again. Built a droid and did Savi’s. In the afternoon, RnR was long, longer than posted, and TOT was brutal in the heat. Saw (and heard groups sitting next to me) plan abuses of the DAS. This is another reason we won’t be going back until FP are back. Without having FP as an option, let’s just say people are getting creative in ways to make their days manageable. Overall our day here was great though.

Lunch at BOG at MK was great. Hope they keep it this way. Reservations were completely full as we tried moving ours up and couldn’t so the price and choices aren’t deterring anyone. With tip and wine, was close to a $300 lunch for 3 people but very worth it.

AK had the worst mask compliance. In line for EE, one family had a teen that did not wear a mask the entire time. She pretended to be drinking the whole 40 minutes. She was reminded once by CM which she put it up they took it down and complaining what I can’t have a drink? They were not stationary, and at one point she backtracked in line without her mask to try to get other members of their party to cut in line but they didn’t. We were on the same ride, and she wore it to get on the ride as soon as it started, she took off her mask the entire ride, actually had it on her hand up in the air. Girl was roughly 13 or 14. The rest of the family also snacked, actually eating and drinking, the entire line, but attempted to raise their masks at least halfway up when done. Was the worst experience we saw with masks the whole trip. Was our first time since Pandora opened, which was ok, but I could take-or leave AK, not my favorite park. But lunch at Yak and Yeti was amazing, and would come to this park just for that alone.

Again, had a great time and never felt unsafe, and am not scared of covid in any way. But like to see people complying with rule.

 

[Grumpy by Birth]

I've been doing a lot of thinking about RD on our first DHS day (two scheduled). Galaxy's Edge is the biggest reason for our visit. Even though it might mean having to wait longer for MMRR and/or SDD if we wait until later to do those, I've been thinking about taking an approach I've often used in other parks in the past, "zig when they zag."

By that I mean: let the hoards head to MMRR and SDD and we go directly to SWGE. If feasible, I'd like to work our way through SWGE at a relatively leisurely pace (even if that means some others are moving ahead of us) to enjoy the scenery on our way to MF:SR and then shop, etc. there while waiting for a BG.

So my question is: are lots of people going directly to MF:SR in the morning (I keep reading reports of walk-on or less than 30 minute waits)?

I'm hoping by prioritizing SWGE on our first day there, we can then do MMRR and SDD at RD when we go back on our second DHS day (still trying for another ROTR BG of course). Even if we skip MMRR and SDD altogether on the first day, we have another opportunity to ride them.

From most accounts, the majority of the crowd seems to be going to MMRR and SDD first because of how long those lines get later in the day. So I'm hopeful that means fewer people in SWGE at RD? Anyone done this recently who can report if it's a good strategy?

Thanks!

ETA: Perhaps a less enjoyable approach, but we could also move expeditiously to MF:SR and ride that and THEN take our time looking around SWGE. I was just hoping to "experience" the journey and be able to take in the sights a bit on the way there, instead of just hurrying past everything.

 

[kdonnel]

I've been doing a lot of thinking about RD on our first DHS day (two scheduled). Galaxy's Edge is the biggest reason for our visit. Even though it might mean having to wait longer for MMRR and/or SDD if we wait until later to do those, I've been thinking about taking an approach I've often used in other parks in the past, "zig when they zag."

By that I mean: let the hoards head to MMRR and SDD and we go directly to SWGE. If feasible, I'd like to work our way through SWGE at a relatively leisurely pace (even if that means some others are moving ahead of us) to enjoy the scenery on our way to MF:SR and then shop, etc. there while waiting for a BG.

So my question is: are lots of people going directly to MF:SR in the morning (I keep reading reports of walk-on or less than 30 minute waits)?

I'm hoping by prioritizing SWGE on our first day there, we can then do MMRR and SDD at RD when we go back on our second DHS day (still trying for another ROTR BG of course). Even if we skip MMRR and SDD altogether on the first day, we have another opportunity to ride them.

From most accounts, the majority of the crowd seems to be going to MMRR and SDD first because of how long those lines get later in the day. So I'm hopeful that means fewer people in SWGE at RD? Anyone done this recently who can report if it's a good strategy?

Thanks!

ETA: Perhaps a less enjoyable approach, but we could also move expeditiously to MF:SR and ride that and THEN take our time looking around SWGE. I was just hoping to "experience" the journey and be able to take in the sights a bit on the way there, instead of just hurrying past everything.

Unless things have changed dramatically since I was there Labor Day weekend, and I don't think they have, you should feel free do do the park in what ever order you want.

We went straight to SWGE at RD. We also didn't manage to get a boarding group until the 2pm give away. Had we managed to get one at the 10am slot we would have ridden every ride at HS once before 2:30pm. Instead we had to stick around to 6pm ish when our boarding group was called. During that time we rode many rides again and again and also took a 1 hour break to ride the skyliner.

 

[Befferk]

Had we managed to get one at the 10am slot we would have ridden every ride at HS once before 2:30pm.

Can you share your strategy for being able to do all the rides by 2:30pm on a holiday weekend? We're going between Christmas and New Years and am looking for a good holiday strategy

 

[kdonnel]

Can you share your strategy for being able to do all the rides by 2:30pm on a holiday weekend? We're going between Christmas and New Years and am looking for a good holiday strategy

On our Hollywood Studios day we went to ride Smugglers Run first. Then from that point just went to the next physically closest ride. No strategy required. If there was a line we stood there. We paid no attention to trying to pick the next ride based on shortest posted wait time.

We did the same for Magic Kingdom that same weekend. We went to Pirates of the Caribbean first and then worked our way around the park from left to right just going to the next physically closest ride.

In both days we walked so much less then we have ever walked on a Disney trip. We typically push 30k to 40k steps a day. Both days were in the 16k step range. In the past our next ride was always dictated by our fast pass. So we were always walking from one side of the park to the other side and back and forth. With no fast passes dictating what was next we just went to what was closest and saved a ton of steps.

 

[tinkattitude!]

I've been doing a lot of thinking about RD on our first DHS day (two scheduled). Galaxy's Edge is the biggest reason for our visit. Even though it might mean having to wait longer for MMRR and/or SDD if we wait until later to do those, I've been thinking about taking an approach I've often used in other parks in the past, "zig when they zag."

By that I mean: let the hoards head to MMRR and SDD and we go directly to SWGE. If feasible, I'd like to work our way through SWGE at a relatively leisurely pace (even if that means some others are moving ahead of us) to enjoy the scenery on our way to MF:SR and then shop, etc. there while waiting for a BG.

So my question is: are lots of people going directly to MF:SR in the morning (I keep reading reports of walk-on or less than 30 minute waits)?

I'm hoping by prioritizing SWGE on our first day there, we can then do MMRR and SDD at RD when we go back on our second DHS day (still trying for another ROTR BG of course). Even if we skip MMRR and SDD altogether on the first day, we have another opportunity to ride them.

From most accounts, the majority of the crowd seems to be going to MMRR and SDD first because of how long those lines get later in the day. So I'm hopeful that means fewer people in SWGE at RD? Anyone done this recently who can report if it's a good strategy?

Thanks!

ETA: Perhaps a less enjoyable approach, but we could also move expeditiously to MF:SR and ride that and THEN take our time looking around SWGE. I was just hoping to "experience" the journey and be able to take in the sights a bit on the way there, instead of just hurrying past everything.

We were at WDW 9/28 - 10/2 - we did HS the first day we were there (a Monday) - we went right to GE. We walked at a pretty brisk pace, but then once there took our time, there were very few people there, we walked around took a bunch of photos with no body in them (yay!) and then went to Smuggler's Run. We walked right on. We got out in time to try for a boarding group for ROTR and failed LOL! So we walked around a bit and were able to do the shops with a minimal wait. Then we did the rest of the things. SDD we had about an hour wait, that was with a cleaning stop in it. We got a 2 PM boarding group that we were able to ride at about 4 PM. We didn't do MMRR the first day because we ended up getting rained out. It was already pouring buckets when we did ROTR, but we didn't want to miss that so we got soaked.

We went back later in the week (Thursday). And for that we hit MMRR first, maybe waited 15 minutes. Got off did Virtual Queue and ended up with boarding group 6 that day. So headed right to GE. Did Rise and then Smuggler's Run and at that point still it was only a 20 minute queue. We had an Oga's ressie at 1 PM so we stuck around Toy Story Land, and did Mania and Saucers and then went back for our ressies. After Oga's we went back to SDD, and waited only about 45 minutes. But when we left Oga's the line for Smuggler's Run was about 75 minutes.

So essentially what we noticed the week we were there, in all the parks, but especially HS - is that the line queues really ebb & flow. If it's a really long line and you don't want to wait, chances are it will be shorter at a later time in the day. Just kind of keep your eyes on it and you can make decisions that way.

 

[Shinrai]

On our Hollywood Studios day we went to ride Smugglers Run first. Then from that point just went to the next physically closest ride. No strategy required. If there was a line we stood there. We paid no attention to trying to pick the next ride based on shortest posted wait time.

We did the same for Magic Kingdom that same weekend. We went to Pirates of the Caribbean first and then worked our way around the park from left to right just going to the next physically closest ride.

In both days we walked so much less then we have ever walked on a Disney trip. We typically push 30k to 40k steps a day. Both days were in the 16k step range. In the past our next ride was always dictated by our fast pass. So we were always walking from one side of the park to the other side and back and forth. With no fast passes dictating what was next we just went to what was closest and saved a ton of steps.

This is just... so simple and so brilliant.