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

[elgerber]

Does it come from socks? We always wear flip flops so maybe that’s why our family has never had it

Nope, I don't take socks to Florida and I get a horrible case every time, and mine does itch. And swells. And sometimes hurts.

 

[lovethattink]

I live in Florida and none of my family has had this rash. Could it be prickly heat or “no see um” bites?

 

[redboat45]

The rash comes from the heat that reflects off the pavement onto sensitive skin. My mom gets it all the time when we go.

 

[finedice]

The rash comes from the heat that reflects off the pavement onto sensitive skin.

Agreed - the first time I got it, it was all I could think of. Get it bad at DHS! Socks actually help prevent it!

 

[redboat45]

Agreed - the first time I got it, it was all I could think of. Get it bad at DHS! Socks actually help prevent it!

yes and my mom always tries to wear capris now. That helps a bit. It's absolutely worse when it's very hot.

 

[Raisincain]

Just got back yesterday from nine days at Boulder Ridge villas.

Some of the most relevant takeaways:
1. Crowd levels may be down but are still substantial. HS very crowded.
2. 99% of people are not wearing mask, so if this is a concern for you, maybe not the best time to go.
3. Social distancing is absolutely gone.
4. Several shops still closed, particularly around the world showcase.
5. As you would probably expect, the most crowded park is Hollywood studios, followed by animal kingdom, Magic Kingdom and finally Epcot.
6. I found transportation wait times to be typical of what I would expect on a normal Disney vacation. Very good overall.
7. Rise of the resistance boarding passes are literally gone in two seconds every morning. We had better luck at the 1 pm pass issuance time, but keep in mind you have to physically be in the park for the 1 PM time.
8. Almost universally the best time to go to the parks is the last three hours each day.
9. Maybe we are weird, but my family was underwhelmed by rise of the resistance and Smugglers run. Maybe we overhyped it in our minds.
10. We were able to do all the rides on our trip with the only exception being test track, which was constantly down for weather. No big deal.
11. Mickey and Minnie’s runaway train was really cute, but seems to break down several times a day. If you are far enough in line when this happens you will get a fast pass to any ride (except ROTR) in Hollywood studios that day.
12. Just like many service industries within our economy, Disney is doing their best when it comes to staffing issues. This may however mean that some of your experiences are not what you have enjoyed in the past. For example 50s prime time was staffed with regular waiters as opposed to the wait staff that comically interacts with you throughout the meal. This is not a deal killer of course, and Disney is doing the best that they can in a difficult time. It’s just something to be aware of.

We walked an average of 8.5 miles per day, so that should tell you that we got a lot of things done. Overall it was a very good trip.

We go to Disney annually, so I am a bit apprehensive of what next year will look like if fast passes do not come back and crowds are at normal seasonal levels; factor in the 50th anniversary crowds, the new guardians of the galaxy coaster and the new tron coaster and you are looking at some tremendous wait times.

At this point if you try to make a reservation for next year, you are invited to check to make sure that park passes are available, so at this point anyway they are still planning to require advanced park reservations into the distant future.

I hope this helps and will be glad to answer any questions. Thanks to all those who have come before me and been so helpful with their input!

 

[LSUfan4444]

What times are the first busses generally picking up from the resorts at? 90 minutes before posted park opening or closer to an hour?

 

[Raisincain]

What times are the first busses generally picking up from the resorts at? 90 minutes before posted park opening or closer to an hour?

Our experience was 45 minutes

 

[scrappinginontario]

What times are the first busses generally picking up from the resorts at? 90 minutes before posted park opening or closer to an hour?

Our experience was 45 minutes

Just a note of clarification, buses have not been picking up at resorts 90 mins before park opening since before March 2020.

90 mins is the recommended time you want to be at the bus stop if you want to be on one of the first buses to the park.

 

[SwanVT2]

OK - another question which I assume is pertinent for this forum -

I am seeing on my app some crazy sounding wait times. For example - 45 minutes for the boat ride in the Mexico pavilion. In all the times we've been there we literally NEVER had to wait in line; we walked through the "snake" line and by the time we got to the front we were being loaded. It was always a great "one more ride" when my kids were small and it was last time with two of my grandkids as well.

Is that indicative of how things are all over? I recall one Unofficial Guide comment saying "if there is a long wait for Small World, it's going to be a rough day". I think that applies MORE so for the boat ride in Mexico.

Sounds like maybe it's a rough day every day now that capacity is increased?

EDIT - I love the title of this thread; reminds me Bilbo Baggins "There and Back Again".

Funny..for our last 3 trips to MK in February by mid day there were always long lines at small world. I don't know if walk on rides exist anymore!? Will be interested to see what it is like this February!

 

[Southernmiss]

Funny..for our last 3 trips to MK in February by mid day there were always long lines at small world. I don't know if walk on rides exist anymore!? Will be interested to see what it is like this February!

Watch the wait times app. We were there 6/16 - 6/20. The longest waits were the new rides and to us, with interesting queues, the wait of 20 to 30 minutes is like walk on. We walked on several rides and waited for some. Had a fantastic trip and walked 125,000 steps.

We walked on 3 Caballeros, Small World, Pirates, Soaring, Smugglers Run(single rider) . Waited for Frozen, Test Track, 7 dwarves, RnRC, Tower of Terror and then walk on. Fast passed Slinky Dog(after it went down at rope drop) walked on Buzz Lightyear at MK and Toy Story Mania. Short wait for Space Mtn. Walked on Little Mermaid, short wait for Pooh, walk on once for HauntedMansion, 2nd time short wait.

Just hit or miss. MDE app was pretty accurate for us.

 

[wgeo]

Is it worth getting the lines app at this point or is the MDE getting more accurate with less covid restrictions?

 

[Raisincain]

Is it worth getting the lines app at this point or is the MDE getting more accurate with less covid restrictions?

I have used the lines app for several years, and have even suggested it to many other people. We just got back from our trip yesterday and it performed absolutely miserably. Way off on crowd level predictions. The new user interface is much more user unfriendly than the previous version of the app. I would not purchase at this time. The wait times For the rides that are posted on MDE are much more accurate than the lines app at this point, and usually come in a tad bit shorter than the posted time. I don’t recall any time over the last week getting a wait time on the app that actually turned out to be longer once we got in line.

 

[penel3]

I have used the lines app for several years, and have even suggested it to many other people. We just got back from our trip yesterday and it performed absolutely miserably. Way off on crowd level predictions. The new user interface is much more user unfriendly than the previous version of the app. I would not purchase at this time. The wait times For the rides that are posted on MDE are much more accurate than the lines app at this point, and usually come in a tad bit shorter than the posted time. I don’t recall any time over the last week getting a wait time on the app that actually turned out to be longer once we got in line.

Ugh!!!!

 

[AndreaDM]

Funny, I thought the same thing! “Hey kids let’s fly over Disney it will be just as much fun!” (And annoying to everyone!)

and probably more expensive than a park ticket!

 

[leannak]

I have used the lines app for several years, and have even suggested it to many other people. We just got back from our trip yesterday and it performed absolutely miserably.

I agree about the Lines app. Have used it several times in the past but this last trip it was so off. Our last day at MK they had it at a one for crowd level… but it was the busiest of the three days we had in that park. (The others had been rated five) It was more crowded than HS on a day they had rated at an eight. There were no MK restaurant reservations available, the park reservations were booked up, etc... I had a feeling going in that the crowd prediction was going to be way off!

Line times were off, too, and many evenings there were no today’s times sent in by other users when there had been tons the day before for the same ride.

On a related note, it took me FOREVER during this trip to figure out how to enter personal wait times. That app needs a usability update.

 

[4Ds4Diz]

we were shocked honestly. but thinking about it, test track was over an hour always and everything else could be done quickly and outside of eating and drinking nothing else left to do in future world and WS just frozen and this. sort of made sense. But we had never seen anything like that on any of our many prior visits.

With all the construction and surprising number of places in WS not yet open or closing early, epcot was a mess in our opinion and truly not much to do. We LOVE epcot but barely spent any time there in our 9 day trip staying at an IG hotel.

This is exactly how we felt last week. It has become the boring park!

 

[lovethattink]

Funny..for our last 3 trips to MK in February by mid day there were always long lines at small world. I don't know if walk on rides exist anymore!? Will be interested to see what it is like this February!

We walked on Soarin’ last week one day and the Frozen Singalong another day.

 

[brightlined]

7. Rise of the resistance boarding passes are literally gone in two seconds every morning. We had better luck at the 1 pm pass issuance time, but keep in mind you have to physically be in the park for the 1 PM time.

FYI: this isn't true. You don't have to physically be in DHS at 1pm - you just have to have entered the park sometime before 1pm. You can try for a BG from literally anywhere as long as you've entered DHS before 1pm.

(I scored a BG at 1pm recently while eating a sandwich at the Yacht Club.)

 

[SDKMom]

OK - another question which I assume is pertinent for this forum -

I am seeing on my app some crazy sounding wait times. For example - 45 minutes for the boat ride in the Mexico pavilion. In all the times we've been there we literally NEVER had to wait in line; we walked through the "snake" line and by the time we got to the front we were being loaded. It was always a great "one more ride" when my kids were small and it was last time with two of my grandkids as well.

Is that indicative of how things are all over? I recall one Unofficial Guide comment saying "if there is a long wait for Small World, it's going to be a rough day". I think that applies MORE so for the boat ride in Mexico.

Sounds like maybe it's a rough day every day now that capacity is increased?

EDIT - I love the title of this thread; reminds me Bilbo Baggins "There and Back Again".

I have noticed this as well! I've been checking wait times on Lines pretty frequently this past week because we'll be there next week. This ride has consistently had long wait times, sometimes even more than Soarin and FEA.