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

[Gentry2004]

While feelings of crowdedness may be subjective, wait times are NOT subjective. Without the option of FP+, people are objectively waiting more during a day at Disney than they would have pre-pandemic. That is not a matter of opinion.

 

[TexanInTheMidwest]

Yea, I'm not quite sure why it's hard to understand why 35% now feels like a normal crowded day pre-Covid.

Maybe expectations is why it's so hard to understand ?

35% sounds like so "few" people that folks imagine something akin to an after hours event - rather than 35% of CAPACITY (imagine "Christmas or New Years" crowds).

Then, without taking into account that when the parks are at capacity there are lots places for people to go: shows, dining, character meets, etc.

AND without taking into account that with socially distanced lines - they spill into the walkway PLUS the FP que is not absorbing people. So, in "normal" times the line density is basically "doubled up" with people waiting in both the FP and Standby ques.

THEN you combine the expectations of an empty park and low wait times (like it was in the Summer when it first opened) WITH all the worries around exposure to people you don't live with that the crowd feels even MORE crowded that we would have felt it back before COVID.

I'm not trying to be argumentative at all nor diminish anyone's experiences. It's just a lot of how we experience life in general is a combination of our expectations and own personal comfort zone.

I've been twice post COVID and am happily going again this next week. I still believe that Disney is being true to their word of 35%.

Does that mean that I don't think areas feel crowded to ME? Not at all - the areas near Small World, Aloha Isle, Galaxy's Edge, Pandora, Epcot World Showcase on a weekend evening, and around the entrance of every single QS place at popular meal times does feel crowded. And I try to avoid those areas as much as possible.

I just go into the trip with the expectation that at times when /if I will feel uncomfortable I have an escape plan. I make ADRs, am happy to leave the parks mid-day for a break even if it's to hop over to a nearby resort, or go back to my own resort for the day - which is something I did on my last trip returning to my resort at 4 PM in the afternoon (I am staying off site).

I live a very quiet life - just DH and I in our home, none of our family lives in our state, I've worked from home for 10 years, and DH hasn't been into the office more than 3 times since March 2020. So, being around people is not my norm at all.

It's going to have to be all risk assessment for each family.

I know a lot of people are "decision fatigued out" these days because we've been in survival mode for almost a year now. A lot of people that never experienced anxiety or stress with crowds before now have been conditioned that crowds are dangerous. So, a previous comfort in crowds may not exist for every family member.

We hope that a Disney trip helps us feel "normal" and I certainly had moments every single day of each trip that made me feel hopeful or normal when I was at Disney in October and January.

But I wouldn't tell you that I was 100% comfortable every moment. Then again, life is never 100% comfortable every day in daily life no matter who we are or what we do.

Forgive me on my soap box. I've spent the last decade working as a life coach and many of my clients are dealing with anxiety and PTSD they haven't experienced before.... for some, a getaway to somewhere familiar, even with the COVID changes, is a life line. But not, of course, everyone.

 

[Toad_Passenger]

While feelings of crowdedness may be subjective, wait times are NOT subjective. Without the option of FP+, people are objectively waiting more during a day at Disney than they would have pre-pandemic. That is not a matter of opinion.

Certainly an argument that can be made when crowds are heavy, but during slow weeks the wait times were really manageable. The week of 1/31-2/7 (when we were down) this was not the case as we waited no more than 19 minutes (yes, we timed them) for any ride, including Mine Train. We rode every ride at least once and rode the headliners multiple times. It was just as efficient as having FP+.

 

[Gentry2004]

Certainly an argument that can be made when crowds are heavy, but during slow weeks the wait times were really manageable. The week of 1/31-2/7 (when we were down) this was not the case as we waited no more than 19 minutes (yes, we timed them) for any ride, including Mine Train. We rode every ride at least once and rode the headliners multiple times. It was just as efficient as having FP+.

That is a good point and I do not disagree. I wish I could change my trip to a slow week.

 

[maryj11]

That is a good point and I do not disagree. I wish I could change my trip to a slow week.

I wish we could change our trip to a slower week also. I’m guessing this summer crowds will be similar to Presidents Day week. Hopefully more attractions and restaurants will be open to absorb some of the crowds.

 

[lovethattink]

Let’s get back on topic, please. This thread is about here now and just back. I think we’ve established that 35% is of max capacity and how it feels from person to person may vary. Please continue posting your here now and just back experiences.

 

[MomOTwins]

Let me correct myself. They were wearing masks, but not properly. Mostly those not wearing it properly had it under their nose. Though some had in under their chins. Several in queue outdoor had it hanging off an ear. It was about 85 degrees that day. Saw a couple people in queue with no mask at all, and again this was an outdoor queue.

Actually, I don't think you need to correct yourself. Dangling a mask below your nose or chin is not wearing a mask, just like standing buck naked at a pool with a swimsuit pulled down around your ankles is not "wearing" a swimsuit at the pool. People who have a mask in rough proximity to their face but who are not actually wearing it securely over their mouth and nose are releasing as many potentially Covid-infected droplets in the air as someone with no mask at all.

Annnnnd that's my soapbox over. Still think 75% percent actual mask wearing is just outright atrocious when you consider how many people are in the park at a given time and the Covid infection rates we have in the U.S. at present.

 

[disneycasey2020]

Has anyone tried to park hop and not been able to? I know they say if the park is at capacity you can’t, but has that happened? Like today, there is no capacity initially, so I wonder if people are park hopping today. I called the number and it said all parks open at 2? It didn’t say anything about capacity.

 

[MomOTwins]

Has anyone tried to park hop and not been able to? I know they say if the park is at capacity you can’t, but has that happened? Like today, there is no capacity initially, so I wonder if people are park hopping today. I called the number and it said all parks open at 2? It didn’t say anything about capacity.

To date, none of the parks have been closed to hopping.

 

[Leigh L]

MK 2/18 thurs

Got to bus stop at POP about 7:20. Line fairly long. First bus was about 7:45. We were on the 4th bus (8:15ish), one of the buses before ours was a double. Huge line behind us. (As a comparison we were in the lobby about 8:30 a.m. on 2/19 and the line for MK was still extremely long at this time too.) If staying at Pop, I recommend planning early if to get one of the earlier busses. (It may be because this was a holiday week though.) CMs directing lines wrapping around and boarding buses - super organized!

No waits for temps, security, and scanning. Arrived maybe 8:30ish? Went to Pirates and it was a walk-on. After that, Frontierland. Splash line was fairly long and didn't appear to be running yet so onto BTMR. About a 20-minute wait. Next was HM - walk on. Wandered into Fantasyland. DD wanted to skip IASW and PP, and when we got to 7DMT, hadn't been running (not sure if it did at park opening, it was probably about 9:45 by now, maybe 10 a.m.) and a long line. CMs said no estimated time it would be running and it was up to you if you wanted to wait. Lots of people did, we moved on. (Side note, so many people eating in this line, didn't appear to be enforced like all other areas we saw all day across 3 parks)

Moved into Tomorrowland. Speedway was posted 20 minutes, waited under 10. Buzz was listed at 40 minutes I think? About a 25-minute wait. Mobil ordered food at Peco Bills after that. Park was starting to get busy, but expected that for President's week. DD didn't feel like waiting in any lines, so we got something to drink and watched some cavalcades for a bit.

Left at 1:15 to get to the bus stop to DHS. Bus left at 1:28. Got to DHS and scanned in about 1:50. Wait times high. Posted 70-minute wait at slinky, previous experience led me to believe that was wrong (lol) and would be approx 40 min. from where we started. I was the wrong one though, it was just over 60 minutes . Not sure Slinky was running full capacity. DD14 was watching and she was convinced only 3 of the 4 trains were running. (she found a site that said there are 4 total?)

Over to Galaxy's Edge with no plans to ride, DD wanted to play the Datapad game. Did that for an hour and she had a blast with the game and Stormtroopers talking to her. My phone's Bluetooth got wonky after an hour, so went and grabbed some food. Wait times were still fairly high.

Hopped to Epcot (which was our plan, we just left DHS little earlier. Arrived just before 6 p.m., took some photos as we walked around WS. Frozen was backed all through China. We did some photopass photos. Rode SSE.

Hopped back to MK. Did Buzz and went to Splash. That was a full hour's wait so we got out about 8 p.m. (was hoping to maybe jump to Big Thunder just prior to park close but missed it). Got on bus back to Pop at 8:45.

Hung out at Pop on Friday (2/19) until my family arrived from NY to pick us up to go to the home we'd rented.

I think we're going to do 3 more park days this week. My nieces have never been to WDW, so want to plan around what they might want to do. It'll be interesting to compare the wait times between holiday week and next week. We're in FL until next Saturday.

 

[Dug720]

and when we got to 7DMT, hadn't been running (not sure if it did at park opening, it was probably about 9:45 by now, maybe 10 a.m.) and a long line. CMs said no estimated time it would be running and it was up to you if you wanted to wait. Lots of people did, we moved on.

Interesting. It was late opening on the 17th as well. It's not a must-do for me - more like an "Oh, ok, the wait isn't bad" thing. I was in the park before 9 and figured I'd walk over and see what the wait was. By the time I got halfway around I knew it was a no-go for me, but I was curious to see how long it really went. It was already wrapping into the Enchanted Tales line, and the CMs were saying there was no estimated time of opening. I headed to the carousel, and by the time I was off of that, the ride still was not going and the line was well past Gaston's. By the time I saw a time pop up on MDE, it was 120 minutes.

Curious what's happening at the beginning of the day that it is down for so long without estimated start times.

 

[Ohiostatefan606]

Has anyone tried to park hop and not been able to? I know they say if the park is at capacity you can’t, but has that happened? Like today, there is no capacity initially, so I wonder if people are park hopping today. I called the number and it said all parks open at 2? It didn’t say anything about capacity.

Had no trouble on President's Day weekend .

 

[aokeefe]

Back from my 2/13-2/20 trip. Stayed at Grand Floridian Villas.
We are rope droppers so I really can't stress enough the importance of getting to parks at least 45- hr early to maximize your time for the big rides. We love rope dropping; back to the resort for pool time and then back to another park that night. We went over Thanksgiving and definitely thought it was more crowded this time- which we were prepared for. Some highlights of our mornings:

MK (Sun)- took monorail over and was in park by 8:15ish (open at 9) Went straight to SDMT; waited about 20 minutes. Only did a few rides then had brunch at Homecomin in DS

AK (Mon)- took 7'ish bus and was in the park by 7:30 (8 am opening). Went straight to FOP- posted 40 minutes but was more like 20. Constantly moving. We had gone to AK the previous night so we could see Pandora at night and did brave the line which was a posted 60 minute and was pretty accurate. Safari was a walk on and then we headed to EE- that is the most deceiving line. It was all the way to Dinoland but it was constantly moving so again about 20 minutes (with a posted 45 min wait). We rode it twice. The longest line was actually to walk thru Gorilla Falls- they only let a few families in at a time. We had lunch at Yak n Yeti and then headed back for pool time.

HS (Tues)- Someone on here recommended taking an Uber to Swan/Dolphin (I can't remember who but thank you! Best advice) We got boarding group 63 (always let the teenager try- must faster fingers than the parents!). We figured we would be called around 12:30. We took an Uber at 7:15 to Swan/Dolphin. Luck was on us bc there was a long line at the temp checks to the left but then as we we were walking they opened up the temp check lines closest to the skyliner so we were one of the first groups in line. Opened up screening at 8:15. We went right to Slinky and TSM- both walk ons. MMR was about a 15 minute wait. Headed to RNRC- probably about 30 minutes. Rise of the Resistance was down so we knew our boarding group was going to get delayed. We did Frozen and Star Tours. By now it was about 11:30. We decided to head back to our villa for lunch/rest (we had sandwiches in our room)and we would head back when groups started to get called. We headed back around 1:30 and went to ToT. Posted wait time was 50 minutes. We decided to brave the line. While waiting the wait time did increase to 80 and I think we did end up waiting that long. It was a lonnnnngggg wait. Our bg was called about 3:30. It took a long time to get through- probably close to an hour. We then headed over to Epcot to enjoy the food booths.

MK (Wed)- Arrived via monorail by 8:15- went to BTM- was able to ride twice with no wait. Did a few more rides like Space/POC/Winnie the Pooh then headed to brunch at Topolinos.

Epcot (Thurs) Took the monorail around 9:15 to MK and grabbed a bus to the Boardwalk and walked too Epcot. Was in line at International Gate by 10. They let us in about 10:15. Went right to Frozen- walked right on. Then headed to Test Track- that line was long but was moving. Did take about 45 minutes.

HS (Fri). Teenager was able to get BG 12- . Had our same routine, Uber to Swan/Dolphin. They were holding the walk in people before the skyliner. Nobody else in line anywhere. Moved us up to temp checks and let us in at 8:15. Headed right to Slinky, it was down so did TSM. Headed to MMR- that was down too. Headed to ToT and that line was almost as long as Tues afternoon. We waited a bit and then our bg was called; we ditched the line and headed to RoR. RoR moved must faster this time. We headed to RNRC, line was moving pretty quickly but then that went down. 3 major rides down did not make for a fun morning. When TSM is now at a 60 minute wait, we knew we were done for the morning so headed to Disney Springs for cookies at Gideons! Kids headed back to HS and MK later on while we had a nice dinner at Narcossee.

Like other said, the lines look very long because of spacing but most are moving constantly- particularly Space Mountain- seemed to move the fastest out of all the rides.

Another great trip in the books. Looking forward to returning hopefully without masks in April 2022

 

[Leigh L]

Interesting. It was late opening on the 17th as well. It's not a must-do for me - more like an "Oh, ok, the wait isn't bad" thing. I was in the park before 9 and figured I'd walk over and see what the wait was. By the time I got halfway around I knew it was a no-go for me, but I was curious to see how long it really went. It was already wrapping into the Enchanted Tales line, and the CMs were saying there was no estimated time of opening. I headed to the carousel, and by the time I was off of that, the ride still was not going and the line was well past Gaston's. By the time I saw a time pop up on MDE, it was 120 minutes.

Curious what's happening at the beginning of the day that it is down for so long without estimated start times.

That is weird. Wonder what's up with that one? Usually, that's the first one going.

It came online probably in the 10 a.m. hour (I wasn't tracking carefully though, I love the ride but not THAT much!) I remember seeing wait time at 95 minutes whatever time it was I looked.

 

[Dug720]

That is weird. Wonder what's up with that one? Usually, that's the first one going.

It came online probably in the 10 a.m. hour (I wasn't tracking carefully though, I love the ride but not THAT much!) I remember seeing wait time at 95 minutes whatever time it was I looked.

Yeah. Definitely weird the same thing (or two different things) happened two mornings in a row.

 

[RunWI1265]

Yeah. Definitely weird the same thing (or two different things) happened two mornings in a row.

It was down two mornings in a row when we were there a couple weeks ago. Hated having to make the decision whether to wait or not.

 

[WhitneyMB]

It was down two mornings in a row when we were there a couple weeks ago. Hated having to make the decision whether to wait or not.

We got in line at Seven Dwarfs at 8:30 on Monday 2/15 and they told us it “would be opened later”. We and most other people left after the second announcement. I believe it opened at 9:05/10am.

 

[boop0524]

Hollywood Studios 2/20. It was busy, but we were prepared for it since it’s a Saturday. Drove in at 8, they held cars until 8:15. We made a mad dash to Slinky but it was down. They didn’t get it running until 9 so immediately the line went to 70 mins and stayed long all day. We rope dropped Smugglers Run instead then shopped most of the morning. Rise mid day (boarding group 52). Lunch at Brown Derby. Did MMRRR when it dropped to 35 (accurate) and Toy Story Mania at 20 (maybe 15). End of the evening dinner at Mama Melrose and an awesome CM let us walk back through GE after close. Great day! I can’t stress enough that it’s all about managing expectations right now. We knew what to expect and because of that were able to totally enjoy the day

 

[ILoveMyDVC]

They now stop people from eating in line? When I was there in October CMs did not say anything.

FINALLY!

 

[disneygirlsng]

FINALLY!

If you're in the extended/outside portion of the queue, you can eat or drink, you can't once you get to the main/indoor portion of queues. But if you're stationary and distanced, a quick bite or sip shouldn't be a problem.