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

[SkyGuy]

Here right now. At 7:35 a.m., as I'm typing this, there are still ILL$ available for RotR.

And early spots for FoP.

 

[glocon]

And now there are still available spots for SDD and RotR!

 

[Miffy]

There were still openings for RotR at 9:10, although I don't see any right now (9:30).

Update: 9:32 a.m.: RotR ILL$ AT 3:15 available . . . and gone in seconds.

 

[GBRforWDW]

Definitely an interesting availability map for Rise over the last week. Kinda all over the place. This may need updated as it doesn't show the availability Miffy referred to at 910 though.

 

[Miffy]

I just checked FoP and ILL$ is available at 7:30 pm. It's 9:43 a.m. here.

 

[Miffy]

9:44 a.m.: RotR ILL$ for 3:50 p.m. appeared and disappeared in moments.

9:45 a.m.: RotR ILL$ for 12:30 p.m. also appeared and disappeared.

If you're still looking for this, keep refreshing. There still seem to be spots available.

ETA: We're just hanging out in the room right now, since we're having a late day today. In case you think I have nothing better to do--I don't!

2nd edit: At 10:11 a.m. an afternoon ILL$ for RotR appeared very briefly.

 

[lynzi2004]

We are here now and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by crowds and by Genie+ availability. For record, I was here the week before Christmas so I know what crowds and availability were then. Todays crowds and weather were fabulous considering all circumstances of the last couple months crowds!

 

[momz]

Today’s the day for magic kingdom! I just added Genie + and have my alarm set for the 7 am starting bell.

we spent the day at Epcot yesterday. We tapped in at the international gateway and went directly to Remy. We were on the ride by 8:15. We had a fantastic day and rode the following rides: Remy, Frozen, Test Track, Soarin, Land, and Remy again during Harmonious. We did not use Genie + at Epcot. In addition, we wandered world showcase sampling many festival foods, did some shopping and took a long mid-day break in our room at Pop. I will add that the sky liner is fantastic! Wish it went to all the parks.

Yesterday was such a good day for the start of our trip, I’m hoping today can match it.

 

[Westerner]

.

 

[MaxsDad]

Today’s the day for magic kingdom! I just added Genie + and have my alarm set for the 7 am starting bell.

we spent the day at Epcot yesterday. We tapped in at the international gateway and went directly to Remy. We were on the ride by 8:15. We had a fantastic day and rode the following rides: Remy, Frozen, Test Track, Soarin, Land, and Remy again during Harmonious. We did not use Genie + at Epcot. In addition, we wandered world showcase sampling many festival foods, did some shopping and took a long mid-day break in our room at Pop. I will add that the sky liner is fantastic! Wish it went to all the parks.

Yesterday was such a good day for the start of our trip, I’m hoping today can match it.

Good luck. Took the app 5 minutes to load my tip board this morning.
This system is terrible.

I was pleasantly surprised at how low the crowds were in Epcot yesterday, we even managed to grab a LL for soarin after hoping there. We were in DHS in the morning and the crowds were definitely not low. We were still able to do everything we wanted though.

 

[leeniewdw]

We were in the parks (EP and DHS) on Fri and Sat, flew home yesterday. I agree the parks were not as packed as I expected. I checked TP last night and both Fri/Sat had lower than predicted crowds. We were in EP the first Saturday in December and the food booth lines were long everywhere. Not at ALL the case on Friday.

On Saturday, we did DHS. We rope dropped ToT and RRNC and used a 7am LL grab for MFSR at 9:25. After we tapped into MFSR we were shocked to see SDD available for 7:25pm, so grabbed that! We also decided (after originally thinking we'd pass on ROTR since we've done it twice already) to grab RotR while waiting in the (long) standby line for ToT and grabbed a 7:15pm ILL. Just checked my confirmation email and it was 8:57am. So were WAY more successful with G+/ILL than we expected.

 

[Aimeedyan]

We had an amazing day at Epcot yesterday after church and the crowds were some of the lowest I've seen in a couple months. I looked back and we did the same schedule (a Sunday after church) at Epcot the end of January and the crowds were intense and booth lines very very long. This time, we waited - at most - behind 2-3 people at every booth and most were walk-ups.

Walked on SE, Figment, Land, Nemo, Mickey meet and greet. Creations was easy to navigate through, found plenty of tables and seating near booths, and the weather was just perfect (we had a low humidity day - makes ALL the difference). There were very few pinchpoints in the crowds, too.

Rick Springfield concert was probably the biggest crowd I've seen lately - I was blown away at the standby line. But if you avoided that area during concert let-out, you were fine! Maybe most people at Epcot yesterday were just there for the concert?

So all that to say, I go all the time and I can't even begin to predict the crowds! I expected insanity yesterday due to spring break crowds (I live in a tourist town and it's insanity here already!) and it was a breeze.

 

[Wood Nymph]

We went into Epcot through the International Gateway around 8:30pm last night and I was surprised to find that in wasn't too crowded in the World Showcase. We really enjoyed Harmonious.

We went to Hollywood Studios this morning and it was packed. I have never seen that many people in Galaxy's Edge before.

 

[momz]

We spent the day at MK. So many people! But we got a lot done. The hardest part of the day was the commute to and from Pop to MK. And the rain…it poured down rain for several hours this evening. We were drenched, I’m afraid we will be wearing soggy shoes tomorrow. Despite the crowds, we rode the following rides (not in this order as there was a ton of back tracking across the park): Jungle cruise, Pirates, Splash, Thunder, Haunted Mansion, Seven Dwarves, Space, Buzz, Laugh Floor and Hall of Presidents. Also had dinner at Skipper Canteen.
The rain dropped the crowd level considerably, but it also closed some rides. We are tired and, wet, and happy.

 

[lynzi2004]

Spent the day in Epcot. Mostly coming here to say that it came a downpour this evening around 8pm and didn’t let up. Torrential rains, flooded all of Epcot. We made it into The Land and rode Soarin 2x, Land 1x and ate a cupcake. Finally around 9:30 decided to just call it a night but on our way out it had lightened up a bit and we were staying deluxe. We still haven’t rode Frozen so decided to make our way over there. As we hit WS, we realized people were standing around and the torches were all lit. Harmonious started around 9:45 and we had a prime front row view. There was maybe 150-200 people there. I was blown away by the show…it reminded me more of “old Disney”, the kind that makes you sing along and cry and forget that you are soaked clear to the bone and have been walking for 12 hours!

Anyway, just wanted to mention the delayed start. There’s rain in the forecast the next several days so don’t give up on Harmonious. There wasn’t much announcement either, in fact the app said unavailable. We just lucked into it!

 

[ScarletFire]

1) We stayed at the lovely Fort Wilderness campground last week.

2) It's way crowded. Lines for everything! Long, long posted wait times. Lots of kids skipping school for Disney.

3) No Genie+ for us. We are retirees with APs and attractions are not a priority. It's a good thing because lines are crazy long. We managed two attractions. We entered the line for MMRR at 8:10pm and were out at 8:55 pm. We entered the line for Rise at 8:20pm and were out at 9:30pm. The posted wait time for Rise was 130 minutes and we were in and out in 70 minutes!

4) Food was outstanding! Highly recommend Cape May breakfast Buffet. Other standouts were Trials End, Sunshine Griddle and Northern Bloom at EPCOT Flower festival, Earl of Sandwich, P and J's fried chicken and Be our Guest.

5) Despite the crowds, everyone was happy!

6) We enjoyed a night at Disney Springs. The bar at City Works is comfortable with good burgers. Disney Springs has lots of live music in the evenings. It was very nice and parking is easy.

7) Epcot Flower festival is as always amazing and beautiful. I loved the Spike scavenger hunt.

8) I saw vloggers Tim Tracker w/ Jenn and Nate (paging Mr. Morrow.)

9) Disney needs to extend park hours! 9pm is too early considering the crowds. I remember the days of 11pm or midnight. There is a noticeable staffing shortage.

10) We had a good time and we'll be back.

 

[socaldisney]

These boards were SO helpful, that I wanted to share my experience. My DS27 and I just returned from a week at the world Feb 28- March 6. Don't despair - we had a marvelous time! The weather was prefect and it was super crowded - most we'd ever seen. Four of the seven days the parks ran out of reservations. However, we mastered Genie Plus and did everything we wanted. Did not stand in a lot of long lines. Bought Genie Plus for MK and HS. Did all of the big rides with the Lightening Lanes, looked for short wait times, used single rider and got in line right before closing.. We stayed offsite and still managed to buy FOP and ROTR (OMG - LOVED THAT!!). The key was pick a super popular ride at 7am for 9am. MK - Jungle Cruise one day, Peter Pan the other two days. HS was TOT one day and RNR the other. Then, we snagged the next super popular ride, usually before 9:25am. At HS both days is was for Slinky around 7pm. MK we were able to grab one after the other. HS we managed to stack for the afternoon. The last day we rode Space Mounting three times - one Lighting Lane in the afternoon and twice during the fireworks. REFRESH is your friend. My son would get stubborn in the afternoon when we wanted a specific ride and certain time. 9/10 he managed to refresh to get what we wanted. Yes, it is a goofy (no pun inteded) system, but, we got it to work. There was lots of magic among the masses - even some pixie dust. I got a free Num Num cookie because the cast member said "Mickey knew you were coming!" For those nervous about upcoming trip, a great time can be had.

 

[DisTXMom]

So glad to read about your great trip! There are a lot of stories of disappointment, so it’s encouraging to hear of people having great trips, despite the crowds and changes. We head there this weekend for a super busy week- hope we can find some pixie dust

 

[Jules123]

On our trip last week, we were able to get 4 LL each at HS and AK and 7 at MK. We loved Genie+!

 

[MaxsDad]

The key was pick a super popular ride at 7am for 9am. MK - Jungle Cruise one day, Peter Pan the other two days.

That is key, but everytime I tried to do that right at 7am last week they were already at mid-day thirty seconds in, or if it did show early availability by the time I clicked through it moved it an hour ahead. I wanted to give it a chance, but after using it last week, I'm not a fan.