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

[SwanVT2]

Minnie, Mickey & gang were there for Christmas and I believe Halloween. Our granddaughter just loved the socially distant character interactions.

Did "gang" include Chip n Dale?

 

[SwanVT2]

Minnie, Mickey & gang were there for Christmas and I believe Halloween. Our granddaughter just loved the socially distant character interactions.

Did "gang" include Chip n Dale?

 

[Akck]

Did "gang" include Chip n Dale?

No, it was Goofy and Pluto.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Is there a certain time of year or something that changes? I could swear i saw pics of mickey & minnie in seasonal outfits like halloween costumes? This makes me rethink our reservation, we dont watch Disney Jr stuff. Thought we’d see mickey & minnie

I updated my response after realizing other characters were there at lunch and supper that I was not aware of. Minnie and friends.

 

[DisneyJColeMom]

Did "gang" include Chip n Dale?

I know Chip & Dale are at Garden Grill in Epcot.

 

[DCLMP]

Absolutely correct, there is not a hint of social distancing at any airport Ive been to.

Social distancing aside MCO is a nightmare leaving. I love arriving it means I’m going to WDW or on a cruise, but leaving no thank you. I got TSA pre check just for MCO. I understand why Disney wants to drop you off 3 hours before your flight.

 

[DMLAINI]

Has anyone done Animal Kingdom later in the day instead of rope dropping & if so, how were the wait times?

 

[DCLMP]

Has anyone done Animal Kingdom later in the day instead of rope dropping & if so, how were the wait times?

You can check the wait times on the app from anywhere. You can check them now for instance.

 

[disneyfan150]

You can do either, but if you just show up there could be a wait.

How do you reserve a time? tia

 

[HiStitch626]

How do you reserve a time? tia

Call the Play line - (407) WDW-PLAY

 

[Geomom]

Here now. (2 adults and DD16)

Staying at Boardwalk. Arrived at mco on Saturday, 4/17, 4pm. Once we picked up luggage and got to magical express, only a few people in front of us to check in and got on a bus in 15 minutes. Mobile ordered pizza and then got dessert from bakery and screen door shop.

Today (Sunday)
Hollywood studios. I was the only one awake at 7am and did not get a boarding group. Got to park after 10 am. (Walked) Went on toy story midway mania, alien saucers, star tours, mickey movie, lunch at backlot express and tried to get boarding group at 1pm. DD16 was successful!!!! Group 108. Did Muppets, mickey minnie railway, shopped, boarding group called around 4pm. First time on ride!! It was awesome. We had mostly avoided spoilers, so didn't know exactly what to expect. Ride times went down after 4:30. Went on alien saucers again (5 min), saw the line for Slinky looked a lot shorter than the posted 50 minutes...took 20! Toy story midway mania again (10 min), star tours again (10 min). 6:35 dinner at Hollywood brown derby. Got a bunch of appetizers and dessert. Had the margarita flight. Everything was delicious!

Got so much more done than we expected (11 rides/attractions), didn't wait more than 35 minutes for anything we went on.

 

[DCLMP]

Here now. (2 adults and DD16)

Staying at Boardwalk. Arrived at mco on Saturday, 4/17, 4pm. Once we picked up luggage and got to magical express, only a few people in front of us to check in and got on a bus in 15 minutes. Mobile ordered pizza and then got dessert from bakery and screen door shop.

Today (Sunday)
Hollywood studios. I was the only one awake at 7am and did not get a boarding group. Got to park after 10 am. (Walked) Went on toy story midway mania, alien saucers, star tours, mickey movie, lunch at backlot express and tried to get boarding group at 1pm. DD16 was successful!!!! Group 108. Did Muppets, mickey minnie railway, shopped, boarding group called around 4pm. First time on ride!! It was awesome. We had mostly avoided spoilers, so didn't know exactly what to expect. Ride times went down after 4:30. Went on alien saucers again (5 min), saw the line for Slinky looked a lot shorter than the posted 50 minutes...took 20! Toy story midway mania again (10 min), star tours again (10 min). 6:35 dinner at Hollywood brown derby. Got a bunch of appetizers and dessert. Had the margarita flight. Everything was delicious!

Got so much more done than we expected (11 rides/attractions), didn't wait more than 35 minutes for anything we went on.

It sounds like you had an awesome day. We get so much more done without fast passes. Waiting in line for 30-45 minutes when the line is constantly moving feels like nothing. I'm not sure how this is going to work out if they increase capacity, but I've really enjoyed our trips this year. I did not enjoy WDW with fast pass plus. I felt like I waited around all day between fast passes because everything had a two-hour standby line. I know in the future they will probably need some kind of fast pass system, but I hope the great minds at Dinsey come up with something better than what they had in the past. I did like the original fast pass system.

 

[canyoncam]

Social distancing aside MCO is a nightmare leaving. I love arriving it means I’m going to WDW or on a cruise, but leaving no thank you. I got TSA pre check just for MCO. I understand why Disney wants to drop you off 3 hours before your flight.

Way back in the day, even pre pre-covid, times it used to be 2 hours and the DME bus video always showed you getting back in plenty of time to last minute shop. That never happened for me and after one near missed flight I started giving DME a flight scheduled an hour earlier than mine about 5 years ago. I should go in and do that right now!!!

 

[Disneymomma18]

How have the waits been for DME & how is mask compliance & social distancing at the Orlando International Airport?

We arrived yesterday to the magical express line around 2:40. The line stretched back for what seemed forever. It moved quickly but ended up being 20-30 minutes just to make it to the check in. Once we got to the check in they told us it could be 45-60 minutes before we got on a bus. Luckily it was only 20. Total wait time was just about an hour from the time we got in line to the time we got on a bus. There was no social distancing until we got assigned our resort specific line. Mask compliance was overall really good. Some children without masks but that didn’t bother me as I have a 14 month old and 2 year old.

 

[Gonflipin]

Arrived yesterday, got to the ME check in desk around 4:40pm, no line to check in. Was told could be 45-60 minute wait (it was hot in there, no AC? Even the CM’s were fanning themselves). Bus came in 15 minutes. Yaaay! Dragging all that luggage is a big downer, those yellow luggage tags were very missed!!!!

 

[slyster]

I read here and there that DS is really crowded in the evenings. I was thinking of getting reservations to Homecoming or Raglan Road for dinner one night. I'm thinking of skipping any shopping as it seems it will be a nightmare. Are folks still getting dinner reservations or skipping it due to the massive crowds? This would be for first week of September. Thanks!

 

[fly girl]

We are going on May 13th for 5 nights. When were here back in 2019, we avoided the bus by taking mini vans or lyfts. Is this something you can still do?

As previously stated, yes you can Uber/Lyft.

When we were there over spring break, Lyft was significantly cheaper than Uber. (Swan to AK on Lyft was $11 versus Uber for $40. I kid you not. And it was regular Uber X, not XL or Black, insanity!!)

Also, order your ride share early. To say they are very busy in the mornings is an understatement. If you don’t order early, you’ll wait. 20 minutes was the typical wait for pick up. I read on here some tried ordering it the night prior, and they waited even longer. So be proactive and order your ride at least 20 minutes before you want to go.

 

[zeferjen]

I read here and there that DS is really crowded in the evenings. I was thinking of getting reservations to Homecoming or Raglan Road for dinner one night. I'm thinking of skipping any shopping as it seems it will be a nightmare. Are folks still getting dinner reservations or skipping it due to the massive crowds? This would be for first week of September. Thanks!

I'm thinking to try to go on a week night instead of weekend, hoping it is less crowded.

 

[LCoulter]

We were at WDW 4/10-4/17. The masks were uncomfortable in the heat. The wait times were longer than what we are used too. A lot is closed or not running. I thought there were supposed to be a few fireworks set off here and there at night but there were none. We only saw a couple cavalcade. They pushed most of the que into the hot sun. The heat wasn’t anywhere near as bad as it could have been since there was a breeze and the worst humidity of the week was the day we checked out. We did still have a great time but I really don’t want to go again until things are more normal.

We had no problem with hopping. Mobile ordering is so sloooow with many people waiting around for their orders. I really don’t think there are enough restaurants open for the number of people. HS closes restaurants and food carts by 5 so there was no place to grab dinner.

Most people were good about wearing masks and social distancing when they could. Some areas were so crowded that it was impossible to social distance. It seemed very crowded. In lines there were a few times when we had to tell people to back off because they were right up on top of us. And a few times where DH or I would hang way back from our group to keep people off our backs.

We went to Universal two days and they were better with sanitizer. At Disney sometimes it was hard to find the sanitizers or they ran out. I think there must be a delay on the sanitizers because DH will get some and it won’t dispense for me or will take a while before it will finally dispense.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

I read here and there that DS is really crowded in the evenings. I was thinking of getting reservations to Homecoming or Raglan Road for dinner one night. I'm thinking of skipping any shopping as it seems it will be a nightmare. Are folks still getting dinner reservations or skipping it due to the massive crowds? This would be for first week of September. Thanks!

We did a dinner reservation and then just left after, which was fine. If you want to do shops or just walk around I would suggest going early in the day.