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

[Miffy]

Today--September 15, 2024--was our last full day here this trip. My plane is so early tomorrow that I can't do even a little park touring. So I made up for it today.

Started at DAK: KS, NRJ, FoP (used MP and SP)

Bus to MK: TBA (got a late-morning MP for it after some obsessive refreshing while I was still at DAK); lunch at Tony's; then Laugh Floor, Barnstormer, Little Mermaid, Pooh (LL booked earlier), PFF (another LL).

Bus to DHS followed by Skyliner to Epcot (the monorail wasn't working): used LL for Soarin'.

Bus to DHS: LL for MMRR. It was pouring rain at that point so I didn't do RotR, which had been my plan. Instead, I came back to AKL.

All in all, a great day. Unfortunately my traveling companion couldn't deal with the heat, so I was solo most of the day except for lunch.

DAK was crowded. I was happy to have the LLs for all 3 attractions I did. MK was not all that crowded (party day today), which probably explains how I was able to snag an LL for TBA around 10 a.m. Epcot also seemed not too overpopulated. And DHS was empty because of the downpour.

We've been here a week. ADRs were all but unnecessary. We were making them 10 minutes ahead of arriving at the restaurant or just walking up.

As for the new LL system, there are still things about it that weren't clear to me and I'd done a lot of reading.

For example: If you have MPs booked at what you'd intended to be your first park of the day and you never go to that park but instead hop somewhere else, you have to purchase LLMPs for the park you hop to since you never went to park #1. I did not know that.

Also, be careful when booking your LLs. My traveling companion thought she'd made LLMPs for both of us for today but in fact she'd made them only for herself (an honest mistake and a CM was able to fix things for me although of course I had to pay for my MPs).

The old-school refresh system can bring rewards . . . or not. Don't depend on it, but it's definitely worth a try, and it worked for me today since I was able to ride TBA, which I fell in love with earlier in the trip, so I was thrilled to be able to do it again today.

Many thanks to fellow DISers for great info.

 

[M SH]

I am thinking about a quick trip this October, and i had a question about VQ and Park Hopping. this will be a date based ticket with PH, so no reservation required.
Say i want to start my day at AK, but PH to MK (or EP) later in the day. if i get a VQ at 7am for Tiana (or Guardians) and it's an early one, in your experience, do they let you board your VQ later in the day way after the boarding group was called? If not, is my only option to buy a LL given that i would likely park hop after 1pm (more like 4pm) and won't make the second window?
Please answer if you have had this experience and not just what you think is the rule (i know the rule says you have to be in the time window, but im wondering, given my experience with guardians a few years ago, if they still let you board even after your group is called).

 

[scrappinginontario]

I am thinking about a quick trip this October, and i had a question about VQ and Park Hopping. this will be a date based ticket with PH, so no reservation required.
Say i want to start my day at AK, but PH to MK (or EP) later in the day. if i get a VQ at 7am for Tiana (or Guardians) and it's an early one, in your experience, do they let you board your VQ later in the day way after the boarding group was called? If not, is my only option to buy a LL given that i would likely park hop after 1pm (more like 4pm) and won't make the second window?
Please answer if you have had this experience and not just what you think is the rule (i know the rule says you have to be in the time window, but im wondering, given my experience with guardians a few years ago, if they still let you board even after your group is called).

I was there 2 weeks ago. Your scenario is good but may not work for Tiana.

A Guardians VQ is good from the time it is called until park close. You will have no trouble riding GotG at any point after your group is called so you will be fine.

Tiana could be the problem. We do have reports of guests being allowed to ride when they arrive late but, due to this being a newer VQ attraction, experiences are limited. We arrived 30 mins late for our Tiana VQ and the light still turned green. The man in front of us turned blue so was also outside his window (not sure by how much) but the CM still changed it so he could ride.

If you get a VQ for Tiana and arrive outside your return window, you could always try and see what happens and then share your experience in the Everything VQ thread. At this point I don't think anyone can give you a true answer as to whether you will be allowed to ride or not, it's best to try.

The thing with Tiana is that it is either VQ or getting a LL via LLMP. Probably the best chance of riding Tiana would be to try to purchase LLMP for MK and trying to pre-book a LL for Tiana for a time you plan to be in the MK.

Hope this helps. I would recommend reading the Everything VQ thread for suggestions and experiences there.

 

[M SH]

I was there 2 weeks ago. Your scenario is good but may not work for Tiana.

A Guardians VQ is good from the time it is called until park close. You will have no trouble riding GotG at any point after your group is called so you will be fine.

Tiana could be the problem. We do have reports of guests being allowed to ride when they arrive late but, due to this being a newer VQ attraction, experiences are limited. We arrived 30 mins late for our Tiana VQ and the light still turned green. The man in front of us turned blue so was also outside his window (not sure by how much) but the CM still changed it so he could ride.

If you get a VQ for Tiana and arrive outside your return window, you could always try and see what happens and then share your experience in the Everything VQ thread. At this point I don't think anyone can give you a true answer as to whether you will be allowed to ride or not, it's best to try.

The thing with Tiana is that it is either VQ or getting a LL via LLMP. Probably the best chance of riding Tiana would be to try to purchase LLMP for MK and trying to pre-book a LL for Tiana for a time you plan to be in the MK.

Hope this helps. I would recommend reading the Everything VQ thread for suggestions and experiences there.

thank you! yes i will have to try this. im glad at least with Guardians they let you in anytime after the group is called.

 

[DisneyFan32WI]

I’m here now and I’ve found crowds to be extremely high for this time of year. EPCOT had Spaceship Earth at 30 minutes all day on 9/16. Same with Figment.
Why is everyone here?!!

 

[cindianne320]

How is the TRON standby line going?

 

[scrappinginontario]

How is the TRON standby line going?

Thrill-Data tracks the stats.

 

[kylenne]

Literally here now and was in a mild panic about not being able to set up our group for the 6pm Tiana VQ despite our staying at the GF and it being a good to go day (we flew down today and tapped into Epcot earlier ). It looks like Tiana was quietly removed from EEH, according to the list of attractions.

As this is the final MK EEH for the next bit of party season I’m not sure how relevant it will be for others, but it’s super disappointing. We have a LL for Friday but we really wanted to ride it tonight, as this is our first time down since it’s been open.

 

[jlstwinmommy]

How is the TRON standby line going?

We rode TRON standby on this last Saturday evening. My son had never been on it so we waited in the line. It was about an hour wait. We thought about doing it yesterday before we flew out, but we had other things we wanted to do and the line was still coming out of the cover by a bit and it was HOT so we chose to skip it.

We will be back next month for our big family trip and will likely try to rope drop that one day.

 

[AttheParks]

I’m here now and I’ve found crowds to be extremely high for this time of year. EPCOT had Spaceship Earth at 30 minutes all day on 9/16. Same with Figment.
Why is everyone here?!!

You can thank LLMP for that! Not why everyone is there, but for the longer waits at many tier 2. We experienced the same.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Literally here now and was in a mild panic about not being able to set up our group for the 6pm Tiana VQ despite our staying at the GF and it being a good to go day (we flew down today and tapped into Epcot earlier ). It looks like Tiana was quietly removed from EEH, according to the list of attractions.

As this is the final MK EEH for the next bit of party season I’m not sure how relevant it will be for others, but it’s super disappointing. We have a LL for Friday but we really wanted to ride it tonight, as this is our first time down since it’s been open.

It was reported here shortly after it opened that Tiana’s would not be open for EEH. It follows the same operating hours that Splash Mtn did.

 

[Aimeedyan]

Literally here now and was in a mild panic about not being able to set up our group for the 6pm Tiana VQ despite our staying at the GF and it being a good to go day (we flew down today and tapped into Epcot earlier ). It looks like Tiana was quietly removed from EEH, according to the list of attractions.

As this is the final MK EEH for the next bit of party season I’m not sure how relevant it will be for others, but it’s super disappointing. We have a LL for Friday but we really wanted to ride it tonight, as this is our first time down since it’s been open.

Unfortunately, it was removed back in July (or maybe never actually included? Just briefly mentioned as planned to be included?).

It was reported a few places when it happened but I think many missed it - myself included. When we went last month, I planned to ride it during EEH but when I didn't see the option to join the queue, googled and found all the articles noting it was not included after all.

We had to rearrange things to ride it, too, after that. Thankfully, we easily got a VQ spot for it and it was worth it! I hope you enjoy it when you ride it on Friday!

 

[kylenne]

MK EEH last night was a success despite the disappointment of no Tiana. We opted to watch HEA and the EWP from our room at the GF to beat the rush of fireworks crowds exiting and walked over after the water pageant, around 9ish. The plan was to start in Adventureland and wait for lines to thin out elsewhere. Since waits were still a little uncomfortably high for our taste in the last hour of official park open, we opted to start with watching the Tiki birds to let things clear up a bit. We walked onto Pirates after that and by the time we got off it was official EEH time. We got done, in order:

Pirates
Big Thunder
Haunted Mansion
Pooh
Buzz
7DMT
Tron

None of these were more than a 10 min wait, including Mine Train and Tron. I could have very easily done Space too as it was 5 min posted most of the night but my body could not have handled it with as tired as we were after being up early to fly down, even with a long nap midday. Still I feel like we got a ton done.

Because we were out so late last night (got back to GF at approx. 1a), I had planned on today being much more leisurely at Epcot. We’d bought LLMP to be able to do Frozen without fighting EE rope drop crowds and then having to criss cross back to the front for Guardians. We prebooked Remy, Spaceship Earth and a throwaway for the Pixar film fest at 9am specifically just to book Frozen for later. So today we arrived just shy of 8:30a and headed to Soarin first, for about a 10 minute wait, then walked over and tapped into our throwaway. Nabbed a 6pm Frozen LL which was perfect for our evening return following our midday break. I cannot emphasize enough how much more relaxed our morning was from doing this. It allowed us to be much more leisurely about our morning, enjoying attractions in the front of the park without crisscrossing at all. After we did our Remy LL at around 11 we just strolled around WS snacking and watching live entertainment.

I get LLMP can be pricey especially for larger groups but this is absolutely how I intend to rope drop Epcot from the front of the park from now on, at least until TT returns. We especially appreciated the slower pace given the heat--we left around 2pm after the Encanto show, far later than our usual midday pause, but didn’t feel awful at all.

 

[kylenne]

Sorry to double post but interesting change this morning for EE at MK: we were first to the rope at Tomorrowland and CMs announced Space was on a delayed opening…and Tron would be opening early. Not sure if this is a permanent operational change or if it’s a one off because Space is having issues this morning, but we opted to head to Tron first given our position. At 7:40 they let us inside the building and we skipped the digitizing room. Obviously need more data points but this is something to keep in mind for MK.

 

[Leigh L]

Sorry to double post but interesting change this morning for EE at MK: we were first to the rope at Tomorrowland and CMs announced Space was on a delayed opening…and Tron would be opening early. Not sure if this is a permanent operational change or if it’s a one off because Space is having issues this morning, but we opted to head to Tron first given our position. At 7:40 they let us inside the building and we skipped the digitizing room. Obviously need more data points but this is something to keep in mind for MK.

That's interesting!
I wonder if it's a "soft" type of thing as a test to see how it goes?

Have a great day at MK!

 

[kylenne]

That's interesting!
I wonder if it's a "soft" type of thing as a test to see how it goes?

Have a great day at MK!

On the bus hopping to HS now and it was a great morning. I was off Tron by 7:53 and we made our way over to Mad Tea Party to tap into our throwaway LL and start “stacking” for HS. It took maybe 5 min of fiddle faddling(tm) but I got Slinky Dog no problem for 7pm, a later Tower I was able to push back to 12:50 and RNRC for 1:50. Got a ton of standby stuff done. Tiana came up finally around 9:30 and we rode back to back, BG 10 and then our LL. Crowds very typical party day crowds.

After these two rides we’re doing our midday break but I’m very pleased with how hopping has worked with LLMP. The throwaway LL is key.

 

[M SH]

On the bus hopping to HS now and it was a great morning. I was off Tron by 7:53 and we made our way over to Mad Tea Party to tap into our throwaway LL and start “stacking” for HS. It took maybe 5 min of fiddle faddling(tm) but I got Slinky Dog no problem for 7pm, a later Tower I was able to push back to 12:50 and RNRC for 1:50. Got a ton of standby stuff done. Tiana came up finally around 9:30 and we rode back to back, BG 10 and then our LL. Crowds very typical party day crowds.

After these two rides we’re doing our midday break but I’m very pleased with how hopping has worked with LLMP. The throwaway LL is key.

just to be clear, you are able to stack only 2 rides not more for the park you are hopping to later, correct? and you keep 1 of the 3 that you keep refreshing in the current park you are in until you PH?

 

[5DisneyNuts]

On the bus hopping to HS now and it was a great morning. I was off Tron by 7:53 and we made our way over to Mad Tea Party to tap into our throwaway LL and start “stacking” for HS. It took maybe 5 min of fiddle faddling(tm) but I got Slinky Dog no problem for 7pm, a later Tower I was able to push back to 12:50 and RNRC for 1:50. Got a ton of standby stuff done. Tiana came up finally around 9:30 and we rode back to back, BG 10 and then our LL. Crowds very typical party day crowds.

After these two rides we’re doing our midday break but I’m very pleased with how hopping has worked with LLMP. The throwaway LL is key.

Thank you for posting your experiences! Glad you are having a great time. I am going to try to follow this but for our trip with a big group I'm concerned about getting to the parks in time for our first LLMP. Do you know if the first LLMP expires, is it the same as tapping in case we miss it?

 

[tsme]

Here now. It’s busy & hot. Sun. was an early entry for MK, at our resort no bus showed up & when an AK bus showed up we asked the driver if he could give us an eta for a MK bus since there wasn’t an expected time on the board. He told us MK wasn’t early entry (it was) & the line on the board meant the driver hadn’t checked in yet. Needless to say no one was too happy & most pulled out their phones to get a llift/Uber. That’s what we did & arrived on time. For Tron, we bought a LLSP, my DH has a calf injury so we asked for the lap bar seat. There was a huge line for it & it took twice as long to ride. I heard a CM say the ride is 90sec & the lap car comes every 3min. So double pack your patience if you need the lap bar. Oddly Saturday for guardians, when we went to tap in using our LLSP, there was quite few people on the LLSP lane, but not one person on the VQ side (outside). Disney should open it up to standby I think. CMS, hate to say this, no flames plz, most of the cms at MK, with the exception of the cms at restaurants, were the most unhappy, phoning the job in, I’ve ever seen. Literally, a smile was not seen, lots of scowls, no Peter Pan magic sprinkle over the bar to lower it, good mornings & smiles were meant with frowns. I’ll save everyone from listing all the negativity we encountered from them. And we really do try to go out of our way to be kind cause their job is hard. This is with the exception of an older lady working in one of the Main Street shops who obviously loved her job. And a word of caution when eating in Epcot at the festival, they are putting some foods that should be kept in a fridge out in trays in the sun for faster service, making it warm & most likely not too safe to eat, no one wants food poisoning, just saying. I threw an item away because of this. Also I felt so sorry for a cm at one booth. She was an older lady taking the receipts & calling out the orders to the young ladies inside. She was so frustrated because they were playing around & not listening, the line was backing up, she was the one dealing with the back up on the outside. I told her she doing a great job & thanked her after seeing & hearing her frustration as she tried to get them to do their jobs. Poor lady. All together we have been enjoying ourselves. Guardians has taken the spot of my favorite ride.

 

[meremac]

Here now. It’s busy & hot. Sun. was an early entry for MK, at our resort no bus showed up & when an AK bus showed up we asked the driver if he could give us an eta for a MK bus since there wasn’t an expected time on the board. He told us MK wasn’t early entry (it was) & the line on the board meant the driver hadn’t checked in yet. Needless to say no one was too happy & most pulled out their phones to get a llift/Uber. That’s what we did & arrived on time. For Tron, we bought a LLSP, my DH has a calf injury so we asked for the lap bar seat. There was a huge line for it & it took twice as long to ride. I heard a CM say the ride is 90sec & the lap car comes every 3min. So double pack your patience if you need the lap bar. Oddly Saturday for guardians, when we went to tap in using our LLSP, there was quite few people on the LLSP lane, but not one person on the VQ side (outside). Disney should open it up to standby I think. CMS, hate to say this, no flames plz, most of the cms at MK, with the exception of the cms at restaurants, were the most unhappy, phoning the job in, I’ve ever seen. Literally, a smile was not seen, lots of scowls, no Peter Pan magic sprinkle over the bar to lower it, good mornings & smiles were meant with frowns. I’ll save everyone from listing all the negativity we encountered from them. And we really do try to go out of our way to be kind cause their job is hard. This is with the exception of an older lady working in one of the Main Street shops who obviously loved her job. And a word of caution when eating in Epcot at the festival, they are putting some foods that should be kept in a fridge out in trays in the sun for faster service, making it warm & most likely not too safe to eat, no one wants food poisoning, just saying. I threw an item away because of this. Also I felt so sorry for a cm at one booth. She was an older lady taking the receipts & calling out the orders to the young ladies inside. She was so frustrated because they were playing around & not listening, the line was backing up, she was the one dealing with the back up on the outside. I told her she doing a great job & thanked her after seeing & hearing her frustration as she tried to get them to do their jobs. Poor lady. All together we have been enjoying ourselves. Guardians has taken the spot of my favorite ride.

I'm so sorry you had this experience! Prefacing this by saying that I am not trying to downplay your misfortune in any way because I know things like this happen from time to time and it's very frustrating. BUT I will say for others who are reading that we were also at WDW this weekend (Friday-Monday) and our experience was totally different. We found the vast majority of CMs to be super friendly (with maybe one or two exceptions), the buses came regularly and quickly (and were plentiful), and we didn't find the parks to be terribly crowded at all. And while it was definitely hot, we were pleasantly surprised with how comfortable it was on Friday and Saturday especially (then late Sunday into Monday, the humidity definitely started to build lol!).