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

[DisneyJColeMom]

HS closes restaurants and food carts by 5 so there was no place to grab dinner.

Wow!! 5:00 sounds so early!! Arent they open normally til 8? What was closing time?

 

[EPCOT-O.G.]

Wow!! 5:00 sounds so early!! Arent they open normally til 8? What was closing time?

I'm not sure how accurate this is. I've been looking for reservations for weeks at DHS and with the expanded hours they've had in place (as recently as last week) most restaurants show times until at least 7pm, and most of them 8pm (park closes at 8). I can't speak to the food carts.

 

[Elle23]

Sorry you missed riding with your family! As a former attractions CM (at Soarin, actually), hopefully I can shed some light as to why this happens. The CM opening the ride has a long checklist that they need to do before the ride can open. If any little thing is wrong on that checklist, the ride can't open. Since the park is technically open at 11, that's what the other CM's will tell people when asked when the ride is opening. The CM's up at the front (at the standby entrance) have no idea what is going on with the ride. Unless it's an outdoor ride, they can't even see if the ride is operating. Even if the ride is operating, they don't know if something is wrong. Once the CM opening the ride finishes his/her checklist and everything is good to go, the ride can officially open, and that's when the standby CM's are alerted to open the line.

For the most part it's not that the CM's up at the front are being dishonest, it's that they genuinely don't know when the ride will be opening. There are so many things that can go wrong when opening up a ride. Imagine CM's telling people, "oh yeah, the ride will be open in 5 minutes!" then something going wrong & the ride not opening. It's probably just safest to say the ride will be open when the park officially opens.

Thanks for the explanation! It does help to have some perspective on what’s going on with the CMs and ride operations.

 

[lovethattink]

@LCoulte
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.

The main qs stop taking mobile orders around 5, but there are still several places taking orders til 8. Woody’s Lunchbox, Docking Bay 7, and Rosies All American cafe show Mobil ordering til 8pm.

 

[Elle23]

Covid regulations at MK are laughable...not ONE time today did we see guests following the social distancing markers in line...not one CM said a word to anyone. The line for POTC was hilarious how packed in it was, why even go through the trouble of pretending to care, Disney clearly has no plans on currently enforcing their distancing rules

At MK today and I agree with this. However, it doesn’t bother me at all. It’s time for things to start getting back to normal. The whole vibe this trip is so much better than in November where everyone seemed to be on edge and suspicious of each other. People seem much happier and relaxed this trip.

 

[EPCOT-O.G.]

Sorry you missed riding with your family! As a former attractions CM (at Soarin, actually), hopefully I can shed some light as to why this happens. The CM opening the ride has a long checklist that they need to do before the ride can open. If any little thing is wrong on that checklist, the ride can't open. Since the park is technically open at 11, that's what the other CM's will tell people when asked when the ride is opening. The CM's up at the front (at the standby entrance) have no idea what is going on with the ride. Unless it's an outdoor ride, they can't even see if the ride is operating. Even if the ride is operating, they don't know if something is wrong. Once the CM opening the ride finishes his/her checklist and everything is good to go, the ride can officially open, and that's when the standby CM's are alerted to open the line.

For the most part it's not that the CM's up at the front are being dishonest, it's that they genuinely don't know when the ride will be opening. There are so many things that can go wrong when opening up a ride. Imagine CM's telling people, "oh yeah, the ride will be open in 5 minutes!" then something going wrong & the ride not opening. It's probably just safest to say the ride will be open when the park officially opens.

I really appreciate this perspective and insight. Thank you.

 

[GBRforWDW]

Forgot to mention, saw them testing the people mover yesterday.... empty cars going around. I wish it would have a soft open this week sometime vs the 5/1 date. Definitely miss that ride!

Lol, I saw them testing the people mover in January. Who knows how close they really are to actually allowing people on the ride.

 

[Nikki1013]

We experienced a really long line for ME when our flight landed around 12:30pm in February. But when we take an earlier flight which lands around 9:30am, the line is short. The social distancing is what makes the line so long. Once you get into the bus waiting area, it isn't crowded.

This is great to hear! My flight lands at 9:10 Saturday morning so hopefully my stay at MCO will be short. It being Saturday may add to that though.

I haven't seen MCO's baggage claim area since before ME existed. How much time will that add to the whole process? I never pay attention to how long it takes to claim my luggage when I get back home!

 

[scrappinginontario]

This is great to hear! My flight lands at 9:10 Saturday morning so hopefully my stay at MCO will be short. It being Saturday may add to that though.

I haven't seen MCO's baggage claim area since before ME existed. How much time will that add to the whole process? I never pay attention to how long it takes to claim my luggage when I get back home!

Luggage normally arrives pretty quickly. My experience has often been by the time we disembark, stop at the restroom, take the tram and arrive at luggage, it's either already there or arrives quickly.

 

[WEDWDW]

At MK today and I agree with this. However, it doesn’t bother me at all. It’s time for things to start getting back to normal. The whole vibe this trip is so much better than in November where everyone seemed to be on edge and suspicious of each other. People seem much happier and relaxed this trip.

One word explains the difference-
VACCINATIONS

 

[Dakota731]

[QUOTE="Oh, have they stopped cleaning rides every 2 hrs? Never encountered it this trip so far. (We went July/August 2020 and had lots of cleaning stops and saw much better social distancing and mask compliance then as well).
Sorry for the long post today... people just really annoyed us today!!!
[/QUOTE]

The CDC said it’s extremely rare to get covid from surfaces so no need for Disney to clean rides every two hours. And shorter lines will result, so I’m glad!

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

I'm not sure how accurate this is. I've been looking for reservations for weeks at DHS and with the expanded hours they've had in place (as recently as last week) most restaurants show times until at least 7pm, and most of them 8pm (park closes at 8). I can't speak to the food carts.

I definitely saw carts open later than 5. We were able to get popcorn and churros around 7pm.

 

[ColoradoMill]

Just back yesterday, stayed at Coronado Springs 4/14 - 4/19. Multigenerational trip: myself, 4 year old twin boys, our au pair, and my parents. Overall amazing trip and we all had a great time! A few experiences and opinions below:

1. Airports were busy. Both of our flights from DEN were 100% full. We had good crowd strategy and didn't do many long ride lines, but the parks felt crowded midday. I would advise anyone that is uncomfortable being in crowds that this is still not the right time for a Disney trip. We were fine with it, but just sharing that in case someone is on the fence.

2. I was extremely diligent about trying to keep my 4 year olds on the queue markers, but yes, they still bumped into people sometimes....I've seen many complains about that on this board, and just want to throw it out there that it's not necessarily careless parents, it may just be that managing small children in a queue is difficult. Admittedly, the line markers sometimes feel senseless when you have people directly beside you on the other queue rows. It's a theme park and you will be in close proximity. I found mask compliance to be excellent, even outside around the resort.....far better than at home, even though I live in a high-compliance area. We were thrilled that we could un-mask for pictures and wished we could have done so when far away from other groups outside at our resort (i.e. lounging in hammocks with no one nearby).

3. Finding decent food was hard and required lots of advance planning. ADRs were extremely rare to find. We had a horrible experience in MK our first day, getting a mobile order from Pinnochio Village Haus. It was noon and total chaos, with lots of angry and stressed people who could not figure out where to go, there was no room to accommodate the line, and then when you finally get your (now cold) order, there was nowhere to sit. We vowed then and there that we would avoid peak times and put in mobile orders hours in advance after that.....and that turned out to be a great strategy. I felt bad for the multiple people I saw having horrible experiences at peak times later in the trip. Many restaurants had "walk up lists" that you could join from the app, and we did this several times, but again, you need to be on your A-game and join the list immediately when the restaurant opens because they filled to capacity very quickly. We found a workaround, but honestly they need to open more dining options for the number of people they have there now. We had a couple of great meals at Three Bridges at CSR and a nice dinner at Grand Floridian Cafe. Also highly recommend the brisket sandwich at Woody's Lunch Box!

4. CSR was somewhat of a disappointment, and I doubt we will stay here again. Last two trips, we stayed at AoA and loved the kid-friendly theming and simple layout with just one bus stop. I chose CSR because I thought we would do a lot of pool time and seemed like a pretty resort. It was nicely landscaped, but I found the rooms to be quite drab.....I guess brown is not my favorite color scheme. There was no tub...not ideal for kids but not a big deal for us. The pool area was nice and my kids loved the slide, but I was disappointed to learn that there's no zero entry area......which means my 4 year olds could not practice swimming or dive for toys (something they would have spent hours doing if we'd had a zero entry situation with a shallower area). I will pay more attention to this feature next time.

5. CSR transportation - Overall, we had very good experiences with the buses. We only waited 15-20 mins a couple of times, and had many times where we were on a bus within 5 mins. We did not like how spread out CSR was....big hikes to the bus stop. I also missed the busstop queue system at AoA where there are ropes for each park and it's very clear and orderly who arrived first and is first on the bus. At CSR, there's no queue system.....so a couple of times we were there at 6:30 am, and while waiting, other parties arrived and kind of crowded us out and we had to jockey for position to make sure we got on the next bus. I don't really like having to do that, while corraling children....I missed the queues.

6. CSR housekeeping - We were told upon arrival that housekeeping would be every other day, and would only include taking out trash and refreshing towels. In 6 days there, they came and did this one time. I had to make multiple calls about needing towels, overflowing trash, running out of TP, running out of coffee pods. I understand this reduction in service was initially attributed to COVID, but I question how long people will find it acceptable. I did not. This, along with the end of Magical Express, solidifies my onsite/offsite decision for our future trips. I would love to know what kinds of experiences people are having in the offsite hotels...maybe it's comparable?

7. We were really happy with our park touring strategy. We rope dropped every day (tough for people on mountain time), and had a fabulous couple of hours each morning of low crowds, low waits, and beautiful weather. We got most of our must-do rides done this way. Parks started feeling REALLY busy by 10 am, with waits starting to exceed our tolerance. We went back to the hotel for a 2-3 hour rest/nap time each afternoon and returned to the parks by 5 pm. By 6 pm we found that lines were REALLY dropping, weather improved, and had lovely evenings in the parks. We loved the late closure times and being able to be there after dark. We all noticed that we didn't feel that tired, and that those midday breaks made a huge difference in feeling refreshed and enjoying the evenings. We were on the fence about whether to take those breaks, and all felt it was hands down the right approach.

8. The only thing I stressed about before the trip was a ROTR boarding group. Ended up getting group 1! Every member of our party, ages 4 to 67, LOVED this ride, and it was the highlight of our trip. My kids loved all of star wars land and the other rides as well. We also loved the new Mickey and Minnie ride. HS was an awesome day. While Docking Bay 7 had a cool ambiance, we were underwhelmed with the food, especially considering the high price and small portion.....we all wished we had repeated the brisket sandwiches from Woody's.

9. We tried to add a park day for AK, and were not able to.....all park passes were sold out. In the past, we would start out buying minimal park days and just add on spontaneously. Those days are over. I wished I had included the extra day in our initial plans.

10. Had a great experience with Magical Express. Yes, the line looks long running through the terminal, but moved very quickly. We are sad about this ending and probably will not stay onsite anymore once it's gone.

11. Character experiences in the parks were extremely minimal. We were looking for them all day at both MK and HS and only saw a couple of characters all day. The cavalcades were cute but minimal and we didn't see them often enough. I missed the full parades and nighttime shows, and hope this comes back soon. Right now, it's definitely a ride-centric experience with dining and entertainment not even close to firing on all cylinders. Despite this, we had an awesome time, loved seeing what my 4 years olds were into, and are so glad we went!

 

[TikiTikiFan]

At MK today and I agree with this. However, it doesn’t bother me at all. It’s time for things to start getting back to normal. The whole vibe this trip is so much better than in November where everyone seemed to be on edge and suspicious of each other. People seem much happier and relaxed this trip.

One word explains the difference-
VACCINATIONS

Love hearing this! I'm excited to be back too and feel more relaxed about it when we come in June. I was much more edgy when we were there in Nov. but now being vaccinated it really doesn't bother me if people get too close to me or aren't wearing their masks properly. Definitely a different vibe for many of us! Even flying will be much less stressful being vaccinated.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Please keep posts to actual experiences, not mask and vaccination thoughts and opinions. I understand it's tempting but can too easily take this great thread of track.

Thanks.

 

[Adian80]

We have brunch reservations at The Wave at 10:45. If we wanted to rope drop MK and wanted to drive and park at Contemporary before the park opened would we be allowed? My original plan was to sleep in before heading to brunch then to MK, but now I'm thinking rope drop at MK, then brunch at The Wave, rest for a few hours before heading back to the park. We're staying at Pop, so I thought it might be easier and quicker to drive.

 

[brockash]

I'm not sure how accurate this is. I've been looking for reservations for weeks at DHS and with the expanded hours they've had in place (as recently as last week) most restaurants show times until at least 7pm, and most of them 8pm (park closes at 8). I can't speak to the food carts.

They mean counter service and yes many of the counter service places at dhs close hrs before the park closes...it's annoying.

 

[LSUmiss]

At MK today and I agree with this. However, it doesn’t bother me at all. It’s time for things to start getting back to normal. The whole vibe this trip is so much better than in November where everyone seemed to be on edge and suspicious of each other. People seem much happier and relaxed this trip.

This is how I feel. I am happy to hear those kinds of reports.

 

[Akck]

This is great to hear! My flight lands at 9:10 Saturday morning so hopefully my stay at MCO will be short. It being Saturday may add to that though.

I haven't seen MCO's baggage claim area since before ME existed. How much time will that add to the whole process? I never pay attention to how long it takes to claim my luggage when I get back home!

Just arrived and Alaska Air missed their 20 minute baggage guarantee by about 5 minutes. I’d figure anywhere from 15-30 minutes after arrival at the gate.

 

[Kelly014]

We landed a little after 1 pm today and there was no line at all for the Magical Express. We waited maybe 5 minutes for the bus to come.

Granted, it was the most unmagical ride ever on some ugly generic charter bus. But we at least we didn’t wait long for it.

Hang on, is this a thing? Like you went through the ME line but it was just a regular old bus? We love ME and I was really hoping our kids would get one last ride on the Magical Express this summer!