Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[dez1978]

They started running right at 7:30 (maybe a few minutes before). There were about 8 groups in front of us and we were in the sky by 7:35 and they had not started running the CBR station when we got there. We were off and at the park by 8.

9 am opening right?

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

How to Have a Successful Day at DHS

Tuesday March 2
DHS 9-7

First of all, this was my birthday. I was super excited to wear my birthday pin.

6: up and at 'em. Headed for the parks around 6:30ish

6:55: pulled over at Fantastia Mini Golf parking lot so we could both try for a Rise boarding group. We had a friend joining us for the day and he was also trying. I didn't have any fancy countdown clocks, I just started refreshing the page at 6:59.

And, as Kuzco would say: Boom baby.

What can I say? It was my special day.



7:10: breakfast ADR at Ale & Compass at Yacht Club. Had the eggs benedict special and it was soooo good. We asked for our check when the food arrived and we were out of there at 7:45

7:45: walked to DHS. It was a beautiful morning.

8:05: arrived at DHS and were in line for the temp checks. Maybe about 15 groups back?

8:15: temp checks started, the line moved quickly past the temp checks, through security and into the gates.

8:22: into line for MMRR. I believe we were on the second train of the day.

8:32: off the ride and onto Toy Story Land

8:39: line for Slinky Dog Dash

8:52: rode SDD

8:57: walked onto Swirling Saucers

9:09: into line for TSMM

9:25: off the ride

We had until 9:50 to make it to Rise. We decided it was a more valuable use of our time to knock out a few rides with short waits and show up to Rise at the end of our boarding time.

9:37: met up with our friend and got in line for ROTR. It was our first time riding.

10:02: off the ride, loved it. Won't say more since we managed to stay mostly spoiler free and I don't want to ruin it for anyone else.

Felt like we had already had a super successful morning. Had a delicious breakfast, already did MMRR, TSMM, SDD, Saucers and ROTR. And the park had only officially been open for an hour.

10:08: mobile ordered a drink from Ronto Roasters so we could sit with our friend who had breakfast there. Watched Chewie interact with the crowd from on top of a building.

10:26: we weren't going to stop into Dok Ondar's because we had just been there the previous night, but our friend wanted to go in. The force was with us because they'd just got Ahsoka's lightsabers in stock overnight! Talk about lucky. I

10:40: expensive birthday gift to myself in hand, we watched some Stormtroopers and Vi Moradi on top of the same building Chewie had just been on.

We also watched Rey have a very serious conversation from up high with a little girl.




11:10: in line for Rockin Rollercoaster. Fun fact: you have to check your lightsaber blades on that ride. They send you through to the gift shop then back in line. We did get front of the coaster though, so maybe it was worth it.

11:34: rode RR

I wanted to ride TT but it was listed as an 85 minute wait. It was getting very hot at this point so we mobile ordered some drinks at the Backlot Express and had a nice sit down break.

I also have a gap in my pictures here, I think my phone died and I was charging it. All my time stamps are based off pictures I took. After we finished relaxing in Backlot Express we rode Star Tours. I think we had a 15-20 minute wait. We got all the new scenes from Last Skywalker which I was excited about as we'd never seen them.

1:20ish?: got in line for Muppets and had to wait a decently long time.

1:50: in the Muppets theater. They must have got a new digital projector since the last time I saw this show (probably several years). The picture looked super crisp.

2:08: we headed to Sci Fi Dine In. I had a reservation for 2:20. We also had 3 other friends join us at this point (they hopped over). This is my absolute favorite restaurant at Disney. The food isn't bad but I love the ambience. It started to pour right before 2:20, we asked if we could wait inside but were told no. So we huddled under 3 umbrellas and waited it out. I think the rain only lasted 5-10 minutes.

2:32: seated in Sci Fi.



Two of us had birthdays on March 2, and a third had a birthday on March 4. We all 3 got cupcakes at the end of the meal.



4:04: decided to ride MMRR and got pulled out of line the second we entered due to the birthday buttons. Got backdoored onto the ride.

4:30: into line for Smuggler's Run. We had a full 6 person crew and we were going to live it up.



4:54: first ride. We did ok but didn't achieve our objective.

4:56: back in line for Smuggler's.

I don't have time stamps for this ride, but we were definitely off the ride by 5:45.

On our second ride we achieved great success: we got Chewie mode and we finally kept all 3 lights on! Which basically means you scored very highly.

We shopped around in Droid Depot for a bit.

5:56: in line for TSMM

6:32: my time stamps failed again, but we had obviously ridden TSMM at this point and were just boarding SDD.

The sun was setting and we made our way out of Toy Story Land.



We shopped around a bit and took some photopass pictures. Earlier in the day (like 7:15 am), our friend had snagged us all an Oga's for 7 pm for 6 people.



Nothing better than a park reservation right at close on an early closing hour.



6:59: Oga's reservation.

Also, miracle of miracles: we got a booth!!! Getting a booth at Oga's is like finding the Holy Grail. It was interesting seeing the place so empty. This was our first post COVID visit. Looked like the filled all the booths and had a few couples scattered around the bar and only a few standing tables occupied.



7:54: Oga's was not enforcing a two drink minimum. We definitely didn't feel rushed but ended up leaving right before 8 anyway. There were still other groups left when we headed out.

We made our way slowly out of the park and were at the exit at 8:06. Love this pic I took of Sci Fi on the way out.



We took the Skyliner back to Yacht club and had no wait.

All in all, was a pretty spectacular day. I know some of it was luck, but we'd managed to do:

MMRR x2
SDD x 2
Saucers
TSMM x 2
ROTR Boarding Group 1
ST
Muppets
RR
Smugglers x 2

Really the only thing we missed that I wanted to do was TT. It had a very long wait all day. We probably could have done it instead of our second evening visit to Toy Story Land, but those rides were fun anyway and a lot closer to our park close Oga's than TT would have been.

A lot of the lines looked really long, or were marked as long on MDE, but they really weren't that bad. I highly recommend paying for the Touring Lines app, those wait times were much, much more accurate than the ones on MDE.

Hope this helped!

 

[Naomeri]

How to Have a Successful Day at DHS

Tuesday March 2
DHS 9-7

First of all, this was my birthday. I was super excited to wear my birthday pin.

6: up and at 'em. Headed for the parks around 6:30ish

6:55: pulled over at Fantastia Mini Golf parking lot so we could both try for a Rise boarding group. We had a friend joining us for the day and he was also trying. I didn't have any fancy countdown clocks, I just started refreshing the page at 6:59.

And, as Kuzco would say: Boom baby.

What can I say? It was my special day.

View attachment 560579

7:10: breakfast ADR at Ale & Compass at Yacht Club. Had the eggs benedict special and it was soooo good. We asked for our check when the food arrived and we were out of there at 7:45

7:45: walked to DHS. It was a beautiful morning.

8:05: arrived at DHS and were in line for the temp checks. Maybe about 15 groups back?

8:15: temp checks started, the line moved quickly past the temp checks, through security and into the gates.

8:22: into line for MMRR. I believe we were on the second train of the day.

8:32: off the ride and onto Toy Story Land

8:39: line for Slinky Dog Dash

8:52: rode SDD

8:57: walked onto Swirling Saucers

9:09: into line for TSMM

9:25: off the ride

We had until 9:50 to make it to Rise. We decided it was a more valuable use of our time to knock out a few rides with short waits and show up to Rise at the end of our boarding time.

9:37: met up with our friend and got in line for ROTR. It was our first time riding.

10:02: off the ride, loved it. Won't say more since we managed to stay mostly spoiler free and I don't want to ruin it for anyone else.

Felt like we had already had a super successful morning. Had a delicious breakfast, already did MMRR, TSMM, SDD, Saucers and ROTR. And the park had only officially been open for an hour.

10:08: mobile ordered a drink from Ronto Roasters so we could sit with our friend who had breakfast there. Watched Chewie interact with the crowd from on top of a building.

10:26: we weren't going to stop into Dok Ondar's because we had just been there the previous night, but our friend wanted to go in. The force was with us because they'd just got Ahsoka's lightsabers in stock overnight! Talk about lucky. I

10:40: expensive birthday gift to myself in hand, we watched some Stormtroopers and Vi Moradi on top of the same building Chewie had just been on.

We also watched Rey have a very serious conversation from up high with a little girl.

View attachment 560583


11:10: in line for Rockin Rollercoaster. Fun fact: you have to check your lightsaber blades on that ride. They send you through to the gift shop then back in line. We did get front of the coaster though, so maybe it was worth it.

11:34: rode RR

I wanted to ride TT but it was listed as an 85 minute wait. It was getting very hot at this point so we mobile ordered some drinks at the Backlot Express and had a nice sit down break.

I also have a gap in my pictures here, I think my phone died and I was charging it. All my time stamps are based off pictures I took. After we finished relaxing in Backlot Express we rode Star Tours. I think we had a 15-20 minute wait. We got all the new scenes from Last Skywalker which I was excited about as we'd never seen them.

1:20ish?: got in line for Muppets and had to wait a decently long time.

1:50: in the Muppets theater. They must have got a new digital projector since the last time I saw this show (probably several years). The picture looked super crisp.

2:08: we headed to Sci Fi Dine In. I had a reservation for 2:20. We also had 3 other friends join us at this point (they hopped over). This is my absolute favorite restaurant at Disney. The food isn't bad but I love the ambience. It started to pour right before 2:20, we asked if we could wait inside but were told no. So we huddled under 3 umbrellas and waited it out. I think the rain only lasted 5-10 minutes.

2:32: seated in Sci Fi.

View attachment 560585

Two of us had birthdays on March 2, and a third had a birthday on March 4. We all 3 got cupcakes at the end of the meal.

View attachment 560586

4:04: decided to ride MMRR and got pulled out of line the second we entered due to the birthday buttons. Got backdoored onto the ride.

4:30: into line for Smuggler's Run. We had a full 6 person crew and we were going to live it up.

View attachment 560587

4:54: first ride. We did ok but didn't achieve our objective.

4:56: back in line for Smuggler's.

I don't have time stamps for this ride, but we were definitely off the ride by 5:45.

On our second ride we achieved great success: we got Chewie mode and we finally kept all 3 lights on! Which basically means you scored very highly.

We shopped around in Droid Depot for a bit.

5:56: in line for TSMM

6:32: my time stamps failed again, but we had obviously ridden TSMM at this point and were just boarding SDD.

The sun was setting and we made our way out of Toy Story Land.

View attachment 560588

We shopped around a bit and took some photopass pictures. Earlier in the day (like 7:15 am), our friend had snagged us all an Oga's for 7 pm for 6 people.

View attachment 560589

Nothing better than a park reservation right at close on an early closing hour.

View attachment 560590

6:59: Oga's reservation.

Also, miracle of miracles: we got a booth!!! Getting a booth at Oga's is like finding the Holy Grail. It was interesting seeing the place so empty. This was our first post COVID visit. Looked like the filled all the booths and had a few couples scattered around the bar and only a few standing tables occupied.

View attachment 560591

7:54: Oga's was not enforcing a two drink minimum. We definitely didn't feel rushed but ended up leaving right before 8 anyway. There were still other groups left when we headed out.

We made our way slowly out of the park and were at the exit at 8:06. Love this pic I took of Sci Fi on the way out.

View attachment 560592

We took the Skyliner back to Yacht club and had no wait.

All in all, was a pretty spectacular day. I know some of it was luck, but we'd managed to do:

MMRR x2
SDD x 2
Saucers
TSMM x 2
ROTR Boarding Group 1
ST
Muppets
RR
Smugglers x 2

Really the only thing we missed that I wanted to do was TT. It had a very long wait all day. We probably could have done it instead of our second evening visit to Toy Story Land, but those rides were fun anyway and a lot closer to our park close Oga's than TT would have been.

A lot of the lines looked really long, or were marked as long on MDE, but they really weren't that bad. I highly recommend paying for the Touring Lines app, those wait times were much, much more accurate than the ones on MDE.

Hope this helped!

Happy birthday, fellow child of March! Heading down for my birthday trip on Wednesday, I hope you left some b-day pixie dust behind

 

[MinnieMSue]

How to Have a Successful Day at DHS

Tuesday March 2
DHS 9-7

First of all, this was my birthday. I was super excited to wear my birthday pin.

6: up and at 'em. Headed for the parks around 6:30ish

6:55: pulled over at Fantastia Mini Golf parking lot so we could both try for a Rise boarding group. We had a friend joining us for the day and he was also trying. I didn't have any fancy countdown clocks, I just started refreshing the page at 6:59.

And, as Kuzco would say: Boom baby.

What can I say? It was my special day.

View attachment 560579

7:10: breakfast ADR at Ale & Compass at Yacht Club. Had the eggs benedict special and it was soooo good. We asked for our check when the food arrived and we were out of there at 7:45

7:45: walked to DHS. It was a beautiful morning.

8:05: arrived at DHS and were in line for the temp checks. Maybe about 15 groups back?

8:15: temp checks started, the line moved quickly past the temp checks, through security and into the gates.

8:22: into line for MMRR. I believe we were on the second train of the day.

8:32: off the ride and onto Toy Story Land

8:39: line for Slinky Dog Dash

8:52: rode SDD

8:57: walked onto Swirling Saucers

9:09: into line for TSMM

9:25: off the ride

We had until 9:50 to make it to Rise. We decided it was a more valuable use of our time to knock out a few rides with short waits and show up to Rise at the end of our boarding time.

9:37: met up with our friend and got in line for ROTR. It was our first time riding.

10:02: off the ride, loved it. Won't say more since we managed to stay mostly spoiler free and I don't want to ruin it for anyone else.

Felt like we had already had a super successful morning. Had a delicious breakfast, already did MMRR, TSMM, SDD, Saucers and ROTR. And the park had only officially been open for an hour.

10:08: mobile ordered a drink from Ronto Roasters so we could sit with our friend who had breakfast there. Watched Chewie interact with the crowd from on top of a building.

10:26: we weren't going to stop into Dok Ondar's because we had just been there the previous night, but our friend wanted to go in. The force was with us because they'd just got Ahsoka's lightsabers in stock overnight! Talk about lucky. I

10:40: expensive birthday gift to myself in hand, we watched some Stormtroopers and Vi Moradi on top of the same building Chewie had just been on.

We also watched Rey have a very serious conversation from up high with a little girl.

View attachment 560583


11:10: in line for Rockin Rollercoaster. Fun fact: you have to check your lightsaber blades on that ride. They send you through to the gift shop then back in line. We did get front of the coaster though, so maybe it was worth it.

11:34: rode RR

I wanted to ride TT but it was listed as an 85 minute wait. It was getting very hot at this point so we mobile ordered some drinks at the Backlot Express and had a nice sit down break.

I also have a gap in my pictures here, I think my phone died and I was charging it. All my time stamps are based off pictures I took. After we finished relaxing in Backlot Express we rode Star Tours. I think we had a 15-20 minute wait. We got all the new scenes from Last Skywalker which I was excited about as we'd never seen them.

1:20ish?: got in line for Muppets and had to wait a decently long time.

1:50: in the Muppets theater. They must have got a new digital projector since the last time I saw this show (probably several years). The picture looked super crisp.

2:08: we headed to Sci Fi Dine In. I had a reservation for 2:20. We also had 3 other friends join us at this point (they hopped over). This is my absolute favorite restaurant at Disney. The food isn't bad but I love the ambience. It started to pour right before 2:20, we asked if we could wait inside but were told no. So we huddled under 3 umbrellas and waited it out. I think the rain only lasted 5-10 minutes.

2:32: seated in Sci Fi.

View attachment 560585

Two of us had birthdays on March 2, and a third had a birthday on March 4. We all 3 got cupcakes at the end of the meal.

View attachment 560586

4:04: decided to ride MMRR and got pulled out of line the second we entered due to the birthday buttons. Got backdoored onto the ride.

4:30: into line for Smuggler's Run. We had a full 6 person crew and we were going to live it up.

View attachment 560587

4:54: first ride. We did ok but didn't achieve our objective.

4:56: back in line for Smuggler's.

I don't have time stamps for this ride, but we were definitely off the ride by 5:45.

On our second ride we achieved great success: we got Chewie mode and we finally kept all 3 lights on! Which basically means you scored very highly.

We shopped around in Droid Depot for a bit.

5:56: in line for TSMM

6:32: my time stamps failed again, but we had obviously ridden TSMM at this point and were just boarding SDD.

The sun was setting and we made our way out of Toy Story Land.

View attachment 560588

We shopped around a bit and took some photopass pictures. Earlier in the day (like 7:15 am), our friend had snagged us all an Oga's for 7 pm for 6 people.

View attachment 560589

Nothing better than a park reservation right at close on an early closing hour.

View attachment 560590

6:59: Oga's reservation.

Also, miracle of miracles: we got a booth!!! Getting a booth at Oga's is like finding the Holy Grail. It was interesting seeing the place so empty. This was our first post COVID visit. Looked like the filled all the booths and had a few couples scattered around the bar and only a few standing tables occupied.

View attachment 560591

7:54: Oga's was not enforcing a two drink minimum. We definitely didn't feel rushed but ended up leaving right before 8 anyway. There were still other groups left when we headed out.

We made our way slowly out of the park and were at the exit at 8:06. Love this pic I took of Sci Fi on the way out.

View attachment 560592

We took the Skyliner back to Yacht club and had no wait.

All in all, was a pretty spectacular day. I know some of it was luck, but we'd managed to do:

MMRR x2
SDD x 2
Saucers
TSMM x 2
ROTR Boarding Group 1
ST
Muppets
RR
Smugglers x 2

Really the only thing we missed that I wanted to do was TT. It had a very long wait all day. We probably could have done it instead of our second evening visit to Toy Story Land, but those rides were fun anyway and a lot closer to our park close Oga's than TT would have been.

A lot of the lines looked really long, or were marked as long on MDE, but they really weren't that bad. I highly recommend paying for the Touring Lines app, those wait times were much, much more accurate than the ones on MDE.

Hope this helped!

From another Ohio State Buckeye (employee) -Happy belated birthday! Also sounds like a wonderful day. In all my disboards reading you are the first to say what you do with the lightsaber on RnR. I haven’t purchased one but I wondered what you did with them. Hope we have almost as good of a day in March when we go!

 

[KBL3782]

9 am opening right?

Yep!

 

[trstno1]

I’m mostly a lurker on this board, but since I found recent trip reports helpful before our trip, I figure I should share our experience.

After reading some reports here, I was concerned about the crowds and wait times but overall am pleasantly surprised with how manageable they were.

We stayed at Rivera, which was wonderful. The service is amazing and it truly is a beautiful resort. Transportation was very easy - Skyliner is of course efficient but we also never encountered a long wait for busses or felt over-crowded on them.

I’m I could go through our trip day, by day, but will say generally that by arriving early to the parks each day (only rope dropped DHS), we were able to accomplish all the headliners as well as everything else we wanted to. I thought we would greatly miss Fast Pass, but truly do not think they are necessary at this point.

Can you tell me what time they start running the Skyliner to Epcot. Also, are the cabins already occupied by those coming from CBR? Thanks!

 

[trstno1]

How to Have a Successful Day at DHS

Tuesday March 2
DHS 9-7

First of all, this was my birthday. I was super excited to wear my birthday pin.

6: up and at 'em. Headed for the parks around 6:30ish

6:55: pulled over at Fantastia Mini Golf parking lot so we could both try for a Rise boarding group. We had a friend joining us for the day and he was also trying. I didn't have any fancy countdown clocks, I just started refreshing the page at 6:59.

And, as Kuzco would say: Boom baby.

What can I say? It was my special day.

View attachment 560579

7:10: breakfast ADR at Ale & Compass at Yacht Club. Had the eggs benedict special and it was soooo good. We asked for our check when the food arrived and we were out of there at 7:45

7:45: walked to DHS. It was a beautiful morning.

8:05: arrived at DHS and were in line for the temp checks. Maybe about 15 groups back?

8:15: temp checks started, the line moved quickly past the temp checks, through security and into the gates.

8:22: into line for MMRR. I believe we were on the second train of the day.

8:32: off the ride and onto Toy Story Land

8:39: line for Slinky Dog Dash

8:52: rode SDD

8:57: walked onto Swirling Saucers

9:09: into line for TSMM

9:25: off the ride

We had until 9:50 to make it to Rise. We decided it was a more valuable use of our time to knock out a few rides with short waits and show up to Rise at the end of our boarding time.

9:37: met up with our friend and got in line for ROTR. It was our first time riding.

10:02: off the ride, loved it. Won't say more since we managed to stay mostly spoiler free and I don't want to ruin it for anyone else.

Felt like we had already had a super successful morning. Had a delicious breakfast, already did MMRR, TSMM, SDD, Saucers and ROTR. And the park had only officially been open for an hour.

10:08: mobile ordered a drink from Ronto Roasters so we could sit with our friend who had breakfast there. Watched Chewie interact with the crowd from on top of a building.

10:26: we weren't going to stop into Dok Ondar's because we had just been there the previous night, but our friend wanted to go in. The force was with us because they'd just got Ahsoka's lightsabers in stock overnight! Talk about lucky. I

10:40: expensive birthday gift to myself in hand, we watched some Stormtroopers and Vi Moradi on top of the same building Chewie had just been on.

We also watched Rey have a very serious conversation from up high with a little girl.

View attachment 560583


11:10: in line for Rockin Rollercoaster. Fun fact: you have to check your lightsaber blades on that ride. They send you through to the gift shop then back in line. We did get front of the coaster though, so maybe it was worth it.

11:34: rode RR

I wanted to ride TT but it was listed as an 85 minute wait. It was getting very hot at this point so we mobile ordered some drinks at the Backlot Express and had a nice sit down break.

I also have a gap in my pictures here, I think my phone died and I was charging it. All my time stamps are based off pictures I took. After we finished relaxing in Backlot Express we rode Star Tours. I think we had a 15-20 minute wait. We got all the new scenes from Last Skywalker which I was excited about as we'd never seen them.

1:20ish?: got in line for Muppets and had to wait a decently long time.

1:50: in the Muppets theater. They must have got a new digital projector since the last time I saw this show (probably several years). The picture looked super crisp.

2:08: we headed to Sci Fi Dine In. I had a reservation for 2:20. We also had 3 other friends join us at this point (they hopped over). This is my absolute favorite restaurant at Disney. The food isn't bad but I love the ambience. It started to pour right before 2:20, we asked if we could wait inside but were told no. So we huddled under 3 umbrellas and waited it out. I think the rain only lasted 5-10 minutes.

2:32: seated in Sci Fi.

View attachment 560585

Two of us had birthdays on March 2, and a third had a birthday on March 4. We all 3 got cupcakes at the end of the meal.

View attachment 560586

4:04: decided to ride MMRR and got pulled out of line the second we entered due to the birthday buttons. Got backdoored onto the ride.

4:30: into line for Smuggler's Run. We had a full 6 person crew and we were going to live it up.

View attachment 560587

4:54: first ride. We did ok but didn't achieve our objective.

4:56: back in line for Smuggler's.

I don't have time stamps for this ride, but we were definitely off the ride by 5:45.

On our second ride we achieved great success: we got Chewie mode and we finally kept all 3 lights on! Which basically means you scored very highly.

We shopped around in Droid Depot for a bit.

5:56: in line for TSMM

6:32: my time stamps failed again, but we had obviously ridden TSMM at this point and were just boarding SDD.

The sun was setting and we made our way out of Toy Story Land.

View attachment 560588

We shopped around a bit and took some photopass pictures. Earlier in the day (like 7:15 am), our friend had snagged us all an Oga's for 7 pm for 6 people.

View attachment 560589

Nothing better than a park reservation right at close on an early closing hour.

View attachment 560590

6:59: Oga's reservation.

Also, miracle of miracles: we got a booth!!! Getting a booth at Oga's is like finding the Holy Grail. It was interesting seeing the place so empty. This was our first post COVID visit. Looked like the filled all the booths and had a few couples scattered around the bar and only a few standing tables occupied.

View attachment 560591

7:54: Oga's was not enforcing a two drink minimum. We definitely didn't feel rushed but ended up leaving right before 8 anyway. There were still other groups left when we headed out.

We made our way slowly out of the park and were at the exit at 8:06. Love this pic I took of Sci Fi on the way out.

View attachment 560592

We took the Skyliner back to Yacht club and had no wait.

All in all, was a pretty spectacular day. I know some of it was luck, but we'd managed to do:

MMRR x2
SDD x 2
Saucers
TSMM x 2
ROTR Boarding Group 1
ST
Muppets
RR
Smugglers x 2

Really the only thing we missed that I wanted to do was TT. It had a very long wait all day. We probably could have done it instead of our second evening visit to Toy Story Land, but those rides were fun anyway and a lot closer to our park close Oga's than TT would have been.

A lot of the lines looked really long, or were marked as long on MDE, but they really weren't that bad. I highly recommend paying for the Touring Lines app, those wait times were much, much more accurate than the ones on MDE.

Hope this helped!

Did they have the color changing Clone Wars blades or the white Rebels blades? I'm kinda hoping for the white kyber crystals, and I will be there on 3/14.

 

[Akck]

Can you tell me what time they start running the Skyliner to Epcot. Also, are the cabins already occupied by those coming from CBR? Thanks!

From our experience, they start loading about 30-45 minutes before opening. The loading goes fast for about the first 20 gondolas, then about every 3rd gondola when CBR starts loading.

 

[TheFloatingBear]

How to Have a Successful Day at DHS

Tuesday March 2
DHS 9-7

First of all, this was my birthday. I was super excited to wear my birthday pin.

6: up and at 'em. Headed for the parks around 6:30ish

6:55: pulled over at Fantastia Mini Golf parking lot so we could both try for a Rise boarding group. We had a friend joining us for the day and he was also trying. I didn't have any fancy countdown clocks, I just started refreshing the page at 6:59.

And, as Kuzco would say: Boom baby.

What can I say? It was my special day.

View attachment 560579

7:10: breakfast ADR at Ale & Compass at Yacht Club. Had the eggs benedict special and it was soooo good. We asked for our check when the food arrived and we were out of there at 7:45

7:45: walked to DHS. It was a beautiful morning.

8:05: arrived at DHS and were in line for the temp checks. Maybe about 15 groups back?

8:15: temp checks started, the line moved quickly past the temp checks, through security and into the gates.

8:22: into line for MMRR. I believe we were on the second train of the day.

8:32: off the ride and onto Toy Story Land

8:39: line for Slinky Dog Dash

8:52: rode SDD

8:57: walked onto Swirling Saucers

9:09: into line for TSMM

9:25: off the ride

We had until 9:50 to make it to Rise. We decided it was a more valuable use of our time to knock out a few rides with short waits and show up to Rise at the end of our boarding time.

9:37: met up with our friend and got in line for ROTR. It was our first time riding.

10:02: off the ride, loved it. Won't say more since we managed to stay mostly spoiler free and I don't want to ruin it for anyone else.

Felt like we had already had a super successful morning. Had a delicious breakfast, already did MMRR, TSMM, SDD, Saucers and ROTR. And the park had only officially been open for an hour.

10:08: mobile ordered a drink from Ronto Roasters so we could sit with our friend who had breakfast there. Watched Chewie interact with the crowd from on top of a building.

10:26: we weren't going to stop into Dok Ondar's because we had just been there the previous night, but our friend wanted to go in. The force was with us because they'd just got Ahsoka's lightsabers in stock overnight! Talk about lucky. I

10:40: expensive birthday gift to myself in hand, we watched some Stormtroopers and Vi Moradi on top of the same building Chewie had just been on.

We also watched Rey have a very serious conversation from up high with a little girl.

View attachment 560583


11:10: in line for Rockin Rollercoaster. Fun fact: you have to check your lightsaber blades on that ride. They send you through to the gift shop then back in line. We did get front of the coaster though, so maybe it was worth it.

11:34: rode RR

I wanted to ride TT but it was listed as an 85 minute wait. It was getting very hot at this point so we mobile ordered some drinks at the Backlot Express and had a nice sit down break.

I also have a gap in my pictures here, I think my phone died and I was charging it. All my time stamps are based off pictures I took. After we finished relaxing in Backlot Express we rode Star Tours. I think we had a 15-20 minute wait. We got all the new scenes from Last Skywalker which I was excited about as we'd never seen them.

1:20ish?: got in line for Muppets and had to wait a decently long time.

1:50: in the Muppets theater. They must have got a new digital projector since the last time I saw this show (probably several years). The picture looked super crisp.

2:08: we headed to Sci Fi Dine In. I had a reservation for 2:20. We also had 3 other friends join us at this point (they hopped over). This is my absolute favorite restaurant at Disney. The food isn't bad but I love the ambience. It started to pour right before 2:20, we asked if we could wait inside but were told no. So we huddled under 3 umbrellas and waited it out. I think the rain only lasted 5-10 minutes.

2:32: seated in Sci Fi.

View attachment 560585

Two of us had birthdays on March 2, and a third had a birthday on March 4. We all 3 got cupcakes at the end of the meal.

View attachment 560586

4:04: decided to ride MMRR and got pulled out of line the second we entered due to the birthday buttons. Got backdoored onto the ride.

4:30: into line for Smuggler's Run. We had a full 6 person crew and we were going to live it up.

View attachment 560587

4:54: first ride. We did ok but didn't achieve our objective.

4:56: back in line for Smuggler's.

I don't have time stamps for this ride, but we were definitely off the ride by 5:45.

On our second ride we achieved great success: we got Chewie mode and we finally kept all 3 lights on! Which basically means you scored very highly.

We shopped around in Droid Depot for a bit.

5:56: in line for TSMM

6:32: my time stamps failed again, but we had obviously ridden TSMM at this point and were just boarding SDD.

The sun was setting and we made our way out of Toy Story Land.

View attachment 560588

We shopped around a bit and took some photopass pictures. Earlier in the day (like 7:15 am), our friend had snagged us all an Oga's for 7 pm for 6 people.

View attachment 560589

Nothing better than a park reservation right at close on an early closing hour.

View attachment 560590

6:59: Oga's reservation.

Also, miracle of miracles: we got a booth!!! Getting a booth at Oga's is like finding the Holy Grail. It was interesting seeing the place so empty. This was our first post COVID visit. Looked like the filled all the booths and had a few couples scattered around the bar and only a few standing tables occupied.

View attachment 560591

7:54: Oga's was not enforcing a two drink minimum. We definitely didn't feel rushed but ended up leaving right before 8 anyway. There were still other groups left when we headed out.

We made our way slowly out of the park and were at the exit at 8:06. Love this pic I took of Sci Fi on the way out.

View attachment 560592

We took the Skyliner back to Yacht club and had no wait.

All in all, was a pretty spectacular day. I know some of it was luck, but we'd managed to do:

MMRR x2
SDD x 2
Saucers
TSMM x 2
ROTR Boarding Group 1
ST
Muppets
RR
Smugglers x 2

Really the only thing we missed that I wanted to do was TT. It had a very long wait all day. We probably could have done it instead of our second evening visit to Toy Story Land, but those rides were fun anyway and a lot closer to our park close Oga's than TT would have been.

A lot of the lines looked really long, or were marked as long on MDE, but they really weren't that bad. I highly recommend paying for the Touring Lines app, those wait times were much, much more accurate than the ones on MDE.

Hope this helped!

Wow! That was so fun to read! What a truly amazing birthday - birthday cheers to you!

 

[ThistleMae]

I’m mostly a lurker on this board, but since I found recent trip reports helpful before our trip, I figure I should share our experience.

After reading some reports here, I was concerned about the crowds and wait times but overall am pleasantly surprised with how manageable they were.

We stayed at Rivera, which was wonderful. The service is amazing and it truly is a beautiful resort. Transportation was very easy - Skyliner is of course efficient but we also never encountered a long wait for busses or felt over-crowded on them.

I’m I could go through our trip day, by day, but will say generally that by arriving early to the parks each day (only rope dropped DHS), we were able to accomplish all the headliners as well as everything else we wanted to. I thought we would greatly miss Fast Pass, but truly do not think they are necessary at this point.

Thank you for a different perspective. After reading many of the more troubling posts about crowds, I've been reconsidering going this fall. On another thread a poster talked about doing a shorter Disney stay and then doing Universal and Bush gardens to balance out the lack of night EMH's, no shows and no fireworks for the same or higher cost to stay there. With all the reports of crowding and with fewer places to spread out the guests, it has certainly thinking for sure.

 

[trstno1]

From our experience, they start loading about 30-45 minutes before opening. The loading goes fast for about the first 20 gondolas, then about every 3rd gondola when CBR starts loading.

Sorry to keep pestering you, but is that 30-45 minutes before 11am or before unofficial opening around 10:15? Thank you!

 

[KBL3782]

Can you tell me what time they start running the Skyliner to Epcot. Also, are the cabins already occupied by those coming from CBR? Thanks!

I am not certain about the Epcot line. We just hopped to Epcot on a couple occasions, so never did try to rope drop. They were up and running by 10:30 yesterday, but I don't know exactly when they opened. Some cabins are occupied, but they just keep them moving along & do not ask them to get out and re-board if coming from CBR.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Happy birthday, fellow child of March! Heading down for my birthday trip on Wednesday, I hope you left some b-day pixie dust behind

Happy future Birthday!

Honestly, this was the first time in the parks on my actual birthday and I was surprised how nice it was just having everyone say Happy Birthday to me. Tons of CMs and a few guests told me Happy Birthday.

It was also kind of amusing for us, once my birthday twin arrived the CM would say happy birthday to whichever of us was first, then in a surprised voice say happy birthday to the next one of us.

Hope your trip is fantastic!

From another Ohio State Buckeye (employee) -Happy belated birthday! Also sounds like a wonderful day. In all my disboards reading you are the first to say what you do with the lightsaber on RnR. I haven’t purchased one but I wondered what you did with them. Hope we have almost as good of a day in March when we go!

O-H! I always thought it would be fun to work for OSU, what do you do if you don't mind me asking?

Yeah it was a surprise to me but it does make sense, the rollercoaster does go upside down. We had the hilts for the lightsabers in a backpack, but were carrying the blade in a box (the box is pretty long). We got pulled aside when we were near the preshow room and told to fill out a little claim check ticket, then go in the FP line, we went to someone at the photopass counter in the gift shop, checked the lightsaber with them and went back the same way.

I also hope your March trip is wonderful!

Did they have the color changing Clone Wars blades or the white Rebels blades? I'm kinda hoping for the white kyber crystals, and I will be there on 3/14.

The Rebels lightsabers were what was there. I think it's tricky to find them in stock. We'd just stopped by the night before and they didn't have them. I've heard the Clone Wars sabers came back when the final season was airing and haven't been seen since (not sure if that's 100% true, read it on the internet). I was happy to have the Rebels sabers, that's what I would have picked had I been given a choice.

I hope they're in stock when you're there! On your DHS day, it might be a good idea to check Dok Ondar's earlier in the morning in case they do have them.

Wow! That was so fun to read! What a truly amazing birthday - birthday cheers to you!

Thank you!

 

[scrappinginontario]

Just as clarification. Guests riding the Skyliner from CBR to Epcot do not need to disembark at Riviera. They may continue through the station. The Riviera station is the only one where guests may stay on-board and not disembark. Guests must disembark at the Epcot, Caribbean Beach, Disney's Hollywood Studios and Pop/AoA stations.

 

[VeronicaZS]

How to Have a Successful Day at DHS

Tuesday March 2
DHS 9-7

First of all, this was my birthday. I was super excited to wear my birthday pin.

6: up and at 'em. Headed for the parks around 6:30ish

6:55: pulled over at Fantastia Mini Golf parking lot so we could both try for a Rise boarding group. We had a friend joining us for the day and he was also trying. I didn't have any fancy countdown clocks, I just started refreshing the page at 6:59.

And, as Kuzco would say: Boom baby.

What can I say? It was my special day.

View attachment 560579

7:10: breakfast ADR at Ale & Compass at Yacht Club. Had the eggs benedict special and it was soooo good. We asked for our check when the food arrived and we were out of there at 7:45

7:45: walked to DHS. It was a beautiful morning.

8:05: arrived at DHS and were in line for the temp checks. Maybe about 15 groups back?

8:15: temp checks started, the line moved quickly past the temp checks, through security and into the gates.

8:22: into line for MMRR. I believe we were on the second train of the day.

8:32: off the ride and onto Toy Story Land

8:39: line for Slinky Dog Dash

8:52: rode SDD

8:57: walked onto Swirling Saucers

9:09: into line for TSMM

9:25: off the ride

We had until 9:50 to make it to Rise. We decided it was a more valuable use of our time to knock out a few rides with short waits and show up to Rise at the end of our boarding time.

9:37: met up with our friend and got in line for ROTR. It was our first time riding.

10:02: off the ride, loved it. Won't say more since we managed to stay mostly spoiler free and I don't want to ruin it for anyone else.

Felt like we had already had a super successful morning. Had a delicious breakfast, already did MMRR, TSMM, SDD, Saucers and ROTR. And the park had only officially been open for an hour.

10:08: mobile ordered a drink from Ronto Roasters so we could sit with our friend who had breakfast there. Watched Chewie interact with the crowd from on top of a building.

10:26: we weren't going to stop into Dok Ondar's because we had just been there the previous night, but our friend wanted to go in. The force was with us because they'd just got Ahsoka's lightsabers in stock overnight! Talk about lucky. I

10:40: expensive birthday gift to myself in hand, we watched some Stormtroopers and Vi Moradi on top of the same building Chewie had just been on.

We also watched Rey have a very serious conversation from up high with a little girl.

View attachment 560583


11:10: in line for Rockin Rollercoaster. Fun fact: you have to check your lightsaber blades on that ride. They send you through to the gift shop then back in line. We did get front of the coaster though, so maybe it was worth it.

11:34: rode RR

I wanted to ride TT but it was listed as an 85 minute wait. It was getting very hot at this point so we mobile ordered some drinks at the Backlot Express and had a nice sit down break.

I also have a gap in my pictures here, I think my phone died and I was charging it. All my time stamps are based off pictures I took. After we finished relaxing in Backlot Express we rode Star Tours. I think we had a 15-20 minute wait. We got all the new scenes from Last Skywalker which I was excited about as we'd never seen them.

1:20ish?: got in line for Muppets and had to wait a decently long time.

1:50: in the Muppets theater. They must have got a new digital projector since the last time I saw this show (probably several years). The picture looked super crisp.

2:08: we headed to Sci Fi Dine In. I had a reservation for 2:20. We also had 3 other friends join us at this point (they hopped over). This is my absolute favorite restaurant at Disney. The food isn't bad but I love the ambience. It started to pour right before 2:20, we asked if we could wait inside but were told no. So we huddled under 3 umbrellas and waited it out. I think the rain only lasted 5-10 minutes.

2:32: seated in Sci Fi.

View attachment 560585

Two of us had birthdays on March 2, and a third had a birthday on March 4. We all 3 got cupcakes at the end of the meal.

View attachment 560586

4:04: decided to ride MMRR and got pulled out of line the second we entered due to the birthday buttons. Got backdoored onto the ride.

4:30: into line for Smuggler's Run. We had a full 6 person crew and we were going to live it up.

View attachment 560587

4:54: first ride. We did ok but didn't achieve our objective.

4:56: back in line for Smuggler's.

I don't have time stamps for this ride, but we were definitely off the ride by 5:45.

On our second ride we achieved great success: we got Chewie mode and we finally kept all 3 lights on! Which basically means you scored very highly.

We shopped around in Droid Depot for a bit.

5:56: in line for TSMM

6:32: my time stamps failed again, but we had obviously ridden TSMM at this point and were just boarding SDD.

The sun was setting and we made our way out of Toy Story Land.

View attachment 560588

We shopped around a bit and took some photopass pictures. Earlier in the day (like 7:15 am), our friend had snagged us all an Oga's for 7 pm for 6 people.

View attachment 560589

Nothing better than a park reservation right at close on an early closing hour.

View attachment 560590

6:59: Oga's reservation.

Also, miracle of miracles: we got a booth!!! Getting a booth at Oga's is like finding the Holy Grail. It was interesting seeing the place so empty. This was our first post COVID visit. Looked like the filled all the booths and had a few couples scattered around the bar and only a few standing tables occupied.

View attachment 560591

7:54: Oga's was not enforcing a two drink minimum. We definitely didn't feel rushed but ended up leaving right before 8 anyway. There were still other groups left when we headed out.

We made our way slowly out of the park and were at the exit at 8:06. Love this pic I took of Sci Fi on the way out.

View attachment 560592

We took the Skyliner back to Yacht club and had no wait.

All in all, was a pretty spectacular day. I know some of it was luck, but we'd managed to do:

MMRR x2
SDD x 2
Saucers
TSMM x 2
ROTR Boarding Group 1
ST
Muppets
RR
Smugglers x 2

Really the only thing we missed that I wanted to do was TT. It had a very long wait all day. We probably could have done it instead of our second evening visit to Toy Story Land, but those rides were fun anyway and a lot closer to our park close Oga's than TT would have been.

A lot of the lines looked really long, or were marked as long on MDE, but they really weren't that bad. I highly recommend paying for the Touring Lines app, those wait times were much, much more accurate than the ones on MDE.

Hope this helped!

What an amazing day, happy birthday!
PS: That cast member playing Rey is spot on. Amazing casting job Disney!

 

[winterwhite]

Just have to be mindful of don’t sit here labels and don’t sit on a wall that is within six feet of a bench or table.

saw an awful lot of people sitting directly on top of the “for your safety this area is not available” signs...

 

[Wood Nymph]

Has anyone been able to hop prior to 2pm or have they been fairly strict on that?

We got to the main gate of Epcot at 1:40pm and they would not let anyone park hop until 1:52 pm. We weren’t the only ones trying to get in early.

Has anyone been to The Flower & Garden Festival today & can tell me where to get the giftcard you put on your wrist? Also can you use a giftcard to purchase it (we've got a lot of giftcards to use)?

We saw the wrist gift cards at our resort gift shop but they also have them at the festival shops scattered around Epcot.

 

[Jaina]

How to Have a Successful Day at DHS

Tuesday March 2
DHS 9-7

First of all, this was my birthday. I was super excited to wear my birthday pin.

6: up and at 'em. Headed for the parks around 6:30ish

6:55: pulled over at Fantastia Mini Golf parking lot so we could both try for a Rise boarding group. We had a friend joining us for the day and he was also trying. I didn't have any fancy countdown clocks, I just started refreshing the page at 6:59.

And, as Kuzco would say: Boom baby.

What can I say? It was my special day.

View attachment 560579

7:10: breakfast ADR at Ale & Compass at Yacht Club. Had the eggs benedict special and it was soooo good. We asked for our check when the food arrived and we were out of there at 7:45
...

Hope this helped!

What a great run down of your day! Thanks for sharing, and I'm so glad you had a great birthday! We will be there tomorrow; I'm hoping the rain will wait until late morning so we can rideshare and walk in, but I'm honestly debating if we should just sleep an extra 20 minutes (2 hour time difference) and Lyft to the entrance. If I was going to do that, does anyone know what time we should get TO Hollywood Studios so we'll be allowed to stay and wait in the line? Is Rideshare the same line as parking at that point? Our other two options are Lyft to the Speedway and walk in (which I did in October) or Lyft to the Swan/Dolphin and take the Friendship boats in. Opinions on which might be our best bet? (We're staying across from Universal)

 

[Stormtrooper mum]

What a great run down of your day! Thanks for sharing, and I'm so glad you had a great birthday! We will be there tomorrow; I'm hoping the rain will wait until late morning so we can rideshare and walk in, but I'm honestly debating if we should just sleep an extra 20 minutes (2 hour time difference) and Lyft to the entrance. If I was going to do that, does anyone know what time we should get TO Hollywood Studios so we'll be allowed to stay and wait in the line? Is Rideshare the same line as parking at that point? Our other two options are Lyft to the Speedway and walk in (which I did in October) or Lyft to the Swan/Dolphin and take the Friendship boats in. Opinions on which might be our best bet? (We're staying across from Universal)

Interested in answers for this too so please share any thoughts! This would be our first time not going to DHS directly so if anyone can share how the friendship boats work etc would love that

 

[gatorlisa]

Since the Epcot monorail line is not running, are there buses running directly from MK to Epcot? Or do you have to monorail/ferry back to TTC and take a bus from there? Looking at hopping for a bit around mid day to see the topiaries and then return to MK for the evening on an upcoming trip, so just trying to figure out how that can be done these days.