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

[Castlequeen5]

You can eat and drink while not in line, pulled off to the side and stationary. There is no walking and eating/drinking. You may also take quick sips of a beverage in the outdoor portion of queues before you pass the official entrance to the ride queue.

Thank you! This is good to know. It didn’t even occur to me to consider that even being an issue. But it makes sense. I’ll plan accordingly, since we plan to pack snacks and such.

 

[Ohiostatefan606]

Do you mean is not allowed anymore? I’m assuming this is because of the mask policy. Are there only designated places where you can eat/drink? Where would those places be?

You may remove your face covering while eating or drinking but you must be stationary. Link to Disney's page

Basically you are not allowed to eat or drink while in line for rides. People do, and there were Cast Members that would tell them to stop. (Not always, but often).

 

[Castlequeen5]

You may remove your face covering while eating or drinking but you must be stationary. Link to Disney's page

Basically you are not allowed to eat or drink while in line for rides. People do, and there were Cast Members that would tell them to stop. (Not always, but often).

Thank you! You’re posts were SUPER helpful!

 

[DisneyMama811]

sent you a message

 

[HokieRaven5]

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

Yeah it was right around November that change happened.

 

[Orion Nebula]

Yeah it was right around November that change happened.

I heard from many here that CMs are doing a much better job in regards to enforcement now. Which is somewhat a relief.

 

[TestingH2O]

I couldn't believe that this thread had fallen to page 2, so I'm posting on it to say that I have been reading it daily as we plan for our March trip. I hope it stays active in the next few weeks. I promise to contribute after our trip too.

 

[Gentry2004]

Hard to believe, but a week ago we were walking into CBR to change into shorts!
Wanted to share a couple of thoughts on surprises / things we missed during our visit.
We visited 2/11 - 2/15 - President's Day / Valentine's Day / Mardi Gras
Transportation recap is here
Early park visits and ride summary here

1. Shopping - I was not prepared to have to stand in line to get into the shops. I'm sure I read about it, but didn't remember. We like to pop in and out and just look. We weren't able to do this without standing in line. We came home with just a couple of items from the gift shop at Riviera. Not that I really "needed" anything, it is just an activity we enjoyed.
2. Character Meet & Greets - I knew this wasn't happening. I just flat out miss this part. It wouldn't stop me from going, but the character visits were always part of our day.
3. Dining reservations - We had lunch reservations Fri / Sat / Sun. As our trip got closer, I added dinner reservations for Sat and Sun. WOW, so glad I did. The menus at all the restaurants have reduced options. The QS mobile ordering options at MK on Friday night were just okay and the food at Cosmic Rays was a step below okay. As much as I have always liked just "winging" it for dinner. I think during future trips, dinner reservations will be must.
4. The lines to get snacks / water / ice cream / popcorn. It did not seem to matter the time of day, there were always lines to just grab a snack.
5. Not being able to walk and eat/drink. I guess I didn't realize how much we stood in line and snacked! We pack granola bars for breakfast and usually stop at Starbucks for coffee. But we wanted to ride, ride, ride as the wait times were low, but then we had to stop, find some place to sit to eat our breakfast. Definitely threw our timing off.
6. I'm sure everyone has their list of items they miss, or think my list is crazy. But these are items that impacted our trip. Not in huge horrible ways, but just things I noticed.

This part jumped out at me as good news! I haven't heard many people saying they thought wait times were low.

 

[Ohiostatefan606]

This part jumped out at me as good news! I haven't heard many people saying they thought wait times were low.

That is in the morning! We accomplished a lot by getting up and to the parks prior to the stated opening time.

 

[dancergirlsmom]

Has anyone taken a bus from POP to MK for rope drop recently? What time should we plan to be at the bus stop?

My DD was just there the end of January and was at the bus stop around 7:30. They were at the park before the official opening and got on 7DMT with a short wait.

 

[boop0524]

We did Epcot today from 10-2 with intentions of mostly enjoying the festival treats. Rope dropped Soarin’ and rode Spaceship Earth just for fun. We remarked how calm and relaxing it was at the park. Hardly anyone was there! It was wonderful. Came back at 6 but left shortly after when the rain wouldn’t let up. Definitely looked like the park hopper crowds had arrived as well. Glad we got to enjoy the morning!

Has anyone had luck getting into Disney Springs before posted opening?

 

[conandrob240]

I had 3 places that were concerns in our trip:

1) Fantasyland around Small World/Peter Pan - it is a traffic jam always - so much so that I purposely walked around the castle from Mine Train a couple of times
2) Hollywood Studios - heading into Galaxy's Edge by Star Tours - it was really crowded when we went this way - Galaxy's Edge is just crowded period at times.
3) AKL - Pandora - not horrible but not great.

Frankly number 1 was the ONLY time I felt like social distancing was impossible. But at the same time masks were never an issue. Disney Springs was far worse than any park for social distancing

Add area in front of Tiki room/flying carpets/jungle cruise to your list. With all the strollers parked there and the lines for various things stretching into that already narrow walkway, that area was a nightmare.
I’ll add, there us NO WAY parks are only at 30-35%. We’ve been during many Feb break weeks, 4th of July and NYE and this week felt the most crowded to me- ever! Overall, very unenjoyable.

 

[armerida]

We did Epcot today from 10-2 with intentions of mostly enjoying the festival treats. Rope dropped Soarin’ and rode Spaceship Earth just for fun. We remarked how calm and relaxing it was at the park. Hardly anyone was there! It was wonderful. Came back at 6 but left shortly after when the rain wouldn’t let up. Definitely looked like the park hopper crowds had arrived as well. Glad we got to enjoy the morning!

Has anyone had luck getting into Disney Springs before posted opening?

So are they opening the Epcot gates a full hour early? What time are rides starting?

 

[boop0524]

So are they opening the Epcot gates a full hour early? What time are rides starting?

We had no problem getting into Epcot at 10 but they did hold us in line at Soarin until close to 10:40. Granted we had to park, get through the gates etc so it’s not like a full 40 mins you’re in line

 

[only hope]

Add area in front of Tiki room/flying carpets/jungle cruise to your list. With all the strollers parked there and the lines for various things stretching into that already narrow walkway, that area was a nightmare.
I’ll add, there us NO WAY parks are only at 30-35%. We’ve been during many Feb break weeks, 4th of July and NYE and this week felt the most crowded to me- ever! Overall, very unenjoyable.View attachment 557756View attachment 557757

They just said on an investor update it is still 35%. But it is 35% with queues stretched out everywhere, reduced restaurant/quick service capacity with many still closed, reduced ride capacity, reduced store capacity with some closed, no meet and greets, and greatly reduced entertainment options. 35% is too high since functional capacity is so reduced. The capacity needs to be low enough for it to be easy to social distance while walking around, aside from a few narrow points (like Small World/Peter Pan) where that just won’t happen. But walking down wide pathways shouldn’t be an issue. People also need to be kept six feet apart on rides and in queues. 25%
seemed to be working.

They need “don’t stand here” markings in queues to block off six feet between groups and clearly identify parts where no one should stand in switcbacks to maintain distance laterally. Distancing was awful the past few days. Few seemed to care about staying right on their marker. We were constantly asking people behind us to keep their distance from us. Walking around was awful too- even in the few areas that weren’t congested, people would walk right behind us! No one tried to distance when exiting rides/shows either. We hung back to let all those people go first as much as we could.

Mask compliance at MK was awful. Tons of people walking and eating/drinking, lots of noses, lots of kids clearly 2-3 years old with no mask, very few CM bothering to say anything.

Mobile order at the pineapple dole whip place took 20mn. They were taking too many orders. People were crowded together waiting for orders. I managed to find a distanced spot to stand in but there wasn’t enough room for everyone to do so. PizzoRizzo was fine; Sautili was crowded waiting for an order. They did at least have a CM with a mic trying to get people to stand to the side distanced.

Well, that’s my last report- pass expires in a few days. Thanks to everyone who has posted here.

 

[lovethattink]

It is at 35% of max capacity. Consumer confidence is up. More people are visiting the parks.

Mask compliance is definitely down. But it’s still pretty high. Everyone is wearing masks, but only about 75% are wearing them correctly. In past months it was easily 90% with proper compliance.

We were at DHS and rode MMRR. A party of 4 was in front of us separated by the plexiglass. They all took their masks off during the ride for selfies. Otherwise, before the ride, one of those had the mask below the nose. No cm said anything to them.

Overall, we had a great experience. Got lots of exercise and sunshine! Heading there again tomorrow!

 

[MomOTwins]

It is at 35% of max capacity. Consumer confidence is up. More people are visiting the parks.

Mask compliance is definitely down, but it’s still pretty high. Maybe 75% instead of 90%.

We were at DHS and rode MMRR. A party of 4 was in front of us separated by the plexiglass. They all took their masks off during the ride for selfies. Otherwise, before the ride, one of those had the mask below the nose. No cm said anything to them.

Overall, we had a great experience. Got lots of exercise and sunshine! Heading there again tomorrow!

Oh my gosh, 75% is not what I would call very high. One in four people not wearing masks??? That's unacceptable.

 

[maryj11]

We are going to hate not being able to just walk into a shop . About how long is the wait to get into most shops?

 

[maryj11]

Add area in front of Tiki room/flying carpets/jungle cruise to your list. With all the strollers parked there and the lines for various things stretching into that already narrow walkway, that area was a nightmare.
I’ll add, there us NO WAY parks are only at 30-35%. We’ve been during many Feb break weeks, 4th of July and NYE and this week felt the most crowded to me- ever! Overall, very unenjoyable.View attachment 557756View attachment 557757

Definitely not 30 or 35% !

 

[MomOTwins]

We are going to hate not being able to just walk into a shop . About how long is the wait to get into most shops?

This varies so much by shop and time of day. Emporium in MK always has a line but it moves quick (10-15 mins) because the store is so huge, except can be longer after park closes and everyone comes back to main street to shop. The longest waits we saw were for the star wars shops since they are so small and can only have a couple of people at a time, and World of Disney in DS on a weekend—both we were quoted over an hour wait so just skipped them. Not much of a wait if any at most other places.