Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[wonderchica]

I’m here now. And why does it seem like every attraction, shop, restaurant etc has like no A/C on. Is that typical for this time of year? I mean they definitely has some air on but I’m use to it like punching me in the face when I walk inside. It just seems a heck of a lot warmer indoors then I remember them being.

I’ve also noticed some indoor queues and rides seemed stuffy (looking at you, Space Mountain!). Some of it is the mask but I also commented the a/c couldn’t have been running full blast.

 

[wonderchica]

I’ve seen an unreal amount of cast members in training this week. Help is on the way!

 

[TLSnell1981]

Now where is the Epcot monorail?? I hope it is soon to follow.

Heard that route was undergoing refurbishment. It was supposed to reopen during Spring Break but is still down.

 

[CampbellzSoup]

I noticed that too this week it was blazing hot and the AC sucked on most venues.

7 dwarfs mine train cue by far had the best AC

 

[boop0524]

Question for those there with the new capacity. We are scheduled for MK on Sunday 6/6. Hours are 8-9 and we have an ADR for 6:30 at LTT. I’m thinking about taking it slower and showing up to the parks a bit later vs rope dropping. But I’m afraid if we do that we’ll miss the early morning window and be stuck in lines most of the day. Thoughts or recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

 

[scrappinginontario]

Question for those there with the new capacity. We are scheduled for MK on Sunday 6/6. Hours are 8-9 and we have an ADR for 6:30 at LTT. I’m thinking about taking it slower and showing up to the parks a bit later vs rope dropping. But I’m afraid if we do that we’ll miss the early morning window and be stuck in lines most of the day. Thoughts or recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

Historically, both pre-Covid and now, rope drop offers your lower crowds.

Depending on where you are staying, is it an option to do rope drop, take a break at your resort around 11 or 12 and then return to the park around 4 or 5? This is how we would handle this to enjoy the lower crowds plus take a break during the peak line hours.

 

[tigger2002]

Touring Plans/Lines was very good for us. They nailed everything to within 10%, I'd say. I'm very glad I got the subscription.

.
Did you just use the Lines part of Touring Plans or did you use an actual plan? Or another part of Touring Plans?
.

 

[rangerxenos]

Drove home today, but we arrived at MK around 415 for our last park day. We saw 2 character sets (princesses and Mickey and Friends). We rode Big Thunder x2, HM, Little Mermaid, Carousel x2, Dumbo, Barnstormer x2, SDMT, Peoplemover, Buzz, Speedway, and Small World. The evenings have worked well for us.

One woman at dumbo was losing her mind and did not feel that the mask rule on rides should apply to her. She was screaming at the poor CM who remained very calm. I don’t know what happened but I hope they escorted her out.

Final Thoughts: Missed character meets and fireworks quite a bit.

Even though I missed FP, it was not as bad as I thought it would be. We would hardly ride anything without a FP previously, but waits were manageable. Our longest wait was 30-35 min for Slinky Dog. Lines moved fast. We rode MMRR 3 times in an hour one day, and I don’t think we could have done that with trying to get FP.

Aside from the woman going crazy at Dumbo, people weren’t rude but are pretty oblivious to the distancing markers. Mask compliance in lines ranged from 25-90% in our experiences, but people are definitely not following rules. What would get frustrating is big groups going to a queue entrance and then standing there rummaging for their masks when told to put them on—come on, this should not be a surprise after the first 1-2 rides. Get lanyards! So convenient. There are people walking around with masks. We wore them in crowded areas because of DD—while we were the minority there were still people wearing them. It does make a huge difference being able to take them off and drink while walking or just walking in some less crowded areas for us.

We really like skipping rope drop.

If fireworks and character M&Gs aren't back by December, I think I'm rescheduling. We only go twice a year, and haven't been since the pandemic started, and I know I would miss both.

 

[starryagain]

Been here all week. MK "felt" busier than the rest of the week (I've been part of the day Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday). Wait times up a little, maybe five minutes more. I'm guessing because of the holiday weekend.

Philharmagic seemed to be filling up as much as people wanted. I went around 10:30. My dad said at 9:00 they were saying distance two seats between parties. Who knows. They are filling every row.

Small World they are still spacing a row between parties as of 11am. Wish they would stop that to free up capacity.

We walked on BTMRR twice at 8:30 but by 9:00 it was 25 minutes posted. Vs yesterday I think it was 5 posted thorough 10am.

We have not had any experiences with openly stressed cast members but it would certainly be understandable. It's so hot and they are always masked.

 

[jmedrew]

Still here and having a great time! I agree with the AC, we said the same thing. You walk in to cool down, yet have to put on the mask and the AC didn’t seem cold at all. To us it was cooler in the shade outside with no mask.
We had a fabulous day at HS yesterday. To me it was not busy at all. January was worse. We got a boarding group and everything we wanted to ride was 45 mins or less.
I feel for the cast members working outside in the sun though with masks on. But all seemed cheery and happy except one working in The Toy Story line. We commented she was definitely having a bad day, she was quite rude to a few people. We enjoyed the Frozen show sooo much, man are they funny!! So glad to see it back!
Oh also, we saw The Lion King Show the day before. I admit, I cried a bit. I’m so happy for the performers being back to work. I wish it would just go back to the original show, this one definitely isn’t as good but I think they will get back there. Also our party of 5 had to sit all over the theatre. They put us in these random spots at the end of every row. I think we would have enjoyed it much more if we were together. I still love this show though and can’t wait til it’s fully operating!

 

[WEDWDW]

I’ve seen an unreal amount of cast members in training this week. Help is on the way!

And the first wave of CPers arrive in June-exciting times!

Earning My Ears ribbons everywhere!

 

[flowergleam1211]

General observations from the week so far (been here since Saturday at Beach Club). We stayed during the same week in May 2016 and May 2017:

- Line waits are down vs our 2017 experience with the exception of show type rides. I *think* they are still doing some distancing for those but I imagine that situation is rapidly changing. But for instance, there are two show waits for Country Bears and Tiki Room. Never seen that before. On the other hand, we've been able to walk on a lot of rides we have had to wait for in FP+.
- Rope drop has been miserable for us. We started aiming for the official opening time and it's gone much better. We have kids in our group so that experience may vary. I suggest just doing Epcot at night. Rope drop is miserable and already so hot. Lines are very busy at epcot rope drop.
- In general evenings are treating us the best. Very low waits.
- MK and Epcot "feel" emptier to me. AK any HS "feel" more crowded. I think AK and especially HS lean their capacity a lot more on character meets and shows and those being reduced spills everyone onto the walkways, etc.
- Masking seems reasonable to me. Almost no one wears them outside. Cast members ALWAYS wear them. If you are particular about masking DO NOT COME RIGHT NOW.
- This is the first time I've felt normal since March 2020. I'm so happy I could cry.

**Edit per mod request

Thanks for sharing your experience! I was planning on doing rope drop at EPCOT once or twice next week. What time did you arrive? Other than the hot temperature, what about the experience felt negative?

 

[flowergleam1211]

I’ve noticed this week that on the day of, some park passes have become available. Yesterday there were passes for all but Epcot, but today was sold out. Today there are passes for all but Epcot, etc. (So don’t give up hope late bookers!)

I’m interested in adding a day to our tickets for the day we arrive but only if passes become available. If I wait till we get there, what is the best way to do this? Front desk? Go to the park I want to enter if there are passes and go to guest relations?

I'm in the same boat: I hope to obtain tickets and passes to HS next week as I have noticed that passes become available by the early afternoon this week. I'm thinking of just doing it online or with the app and then heading to the park as soon as possible?

 

[starryagain]

(edit: this is a response to the post directly above. My quote feature didn't work)

We arrived at 9:55 at the International Gateway (staying at Beach Club). We were some of the earliest people in at 10:10 when they opened the gates. We went to Test Track. It didn't start running until 10:45. So we didn't get off until 11 and by then it was very hot and posted waits were high at all the headliners except Mission Space we were able to get in a ride. After that everything big was posting waits over 50 minutes vs after 5pm everything is posting much lower waits.

 

[flowergleam1211]

(edit: this is a response to the post directly above. My quote feature didn't work)

We arrived at 9:55 at the International Gateway (staying at Beach Club). We were some of the earliest people in at 10:10 when they opened the gates. We went to Test Track. It didn't start running until 10:45. So we didn't get off until 11 and by then it was very hot and posted waits were high at all the headliners except Mission Space we were able to get in a ride. After that everything big was posting waits over 50 minutes vs after 5pm everything is posting much lower waits.

Very helpful! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Miffy]

Just back from 8 days at WDW.

Someone upthread asked what about Epcot felt negative. There are walls everywhere. I mean, big, high walls that you can't see over or around. They block one's view and even for a WDW veteran like myself, it was disorienting, not to mention ugly. We did only 1 day at Epcot and that was enough. I never want to see those walls again.

I'm going to skip around a bit here, so bear with me.

MMRR: Get to DHS an hour before opening. You'll get in about 45 minutes before the official opening time. If you want to do MMRR (we did--we'd never done it before), go straight there. No need to run. In fact, we went to the restroom first. Walked onto MMRR, then walked back around and did it a second time with a 5- or 10-minute wait. Love love love this ride.

We RD'd Epcot and had maybe a 10-minute wait for Soarin'. We were going to do it again, but the wait was already over 40 minutes when we emerged. So we rode just that once. Also, we always request B1 and say we'll wait as long as necessary, but because of covid, etc., they weren't taking requests like these. Yeah, our seats really made me appreciate B1 even more!

SE doesn't open until the official park opening time. Just a heads-up on that. We were disappointed and never made it back there, as we left from the Int'l Gateway, since we wanted to ride the Skyliner.

Skyliner: Very enjoyable. We rode it on our last trip, in December 2019, and it's quite fun.

We RD'd MK and got to do everything we wanted--several things twice--by 10:45 a.m. Pretty great. Also, we ate at Skipper Canteen for the first time and loved it there.

Make sure to read the instructions in the Rise thread about the best strategies for obtaining a boarding group. They're gone in about 3 seconds (no exaggeration there--in fact it might be more like 2 seconds), so read up before you go. RotR is excellent. I will say no more. Don't want to spoil it if you haven't done it yet. And, if you haven't, stay away from spoilers. The surprises are fantastic.

Mask compliance was spotty. Great at times and terrible at other times. Be prepared.

Social distancing? What's that? If you feel uncomfortable in a crowd, WDW is not the place for you right now.

Mousekeeping? Just trash and towels every other day. And the trash cans in the room are small. Very very small. There were only 2 of us. I cannot imagine how 4 people in a WDW resort room would deal with the trash situation. I guess there are places to dump your trash yourself, but I never saw any. I like mousekeeping, and I missed having it every day.

It was great to be back. We usually go 2x/year and we hadn't been since December 2019.

 

[kjs1976]

I noticed that too this week it was blazing hot and the AC sucked on most venues.

7 dwarfs mine train cue by far had the best AC

YES! Just back yesterday. AC sucked!!!!! Felt so warm EVERYWHERE; inside queues, attractions, shops, and counter service. YUCK

 

[PanchoX1]

They must have it all turned down. that's disappointing.

 

[kjs1976]

Just back from 8 days at WDW.

Someone upthread asked what about Epcot felt negative. There are walls everywhere. I mean, big, high walls that you can't see over or around. They block one's view and even for a WDW veteran like myself, it was disorienting, not to mention ugly. We did only 1 day at Epcot and that was enough. I never want to see those walls again.

I'm going to skip around a bit here, so bear with me.

MMRR: Get to DHS an hour before opening. You'll get in about 45 minutes before the official opening time. If you want to do MMRR (we did--we'd never done it before), go straight there. No need to run. In fact, we went to the restroom first. Walked onto MMRR, then walked back around and did it a second time with a 5- or 10-minute wait. Love love love this ride.

We RD'd Epcot and had maybe a 10-minute wait for Soarin'. We were going to do it again, but the wait was already over 40 minutes when we emerged. So we rode just that once. Also, we always request B1 and say we'll wait as long as necessary, but because of covid, etc., they weren't taking requests like these. Yeah, our seats really made me appreciate B1 even more!

SE doesn't open until the official park opening time. Just a heads-up on that. We were disappointed and never made it back there, as we left from the Int'l Gateway, since we wanted to ride the Skyliner.

Skyliner: Very enjoyable. We rode it on our last trip, in December 2019, and it's quite fun.

We RD'd MK and got to do everything we wanted--several things twice--by 10:45 a.m. Pretty great. Also, we ate at Skipper Canteen for the first time and loved it there.

Make sure to read the instructions in the Rise thread about the best strategies for obtaining a boarding group. They're gone in about 3 seconds (no exaggeration there--in fact it might be more like 2 seconds), so read up before you go. RotR is excellent. I will say no more. Don't want to spoil it if you haven't done it yet. And, if you haven't, stay away from spoilers. The surprises are fantastic.

Mask compliance was spotty. Great at times and terrible at other times. Be prepared.

Social distancing? What's that? If you feel uncomfortable in a crowd, WDW is not the place for you right now.

Mousekeeping? Just trash and towels every other day. And the trash cans in the room are small. Very very small. There were only 2 of us. I cannot imagine how 4 people in a WDW resort room would deal with the trash situation. I guess there are places to dump your trash yourself, but I never saw any. I like mousekeeping, and I missed having it every day.

It was great to be back. We usually go 2x/year and we hadn't been since December 2019.

We are just back, as well. EPCOT Future World felt as described. We did a lot of running back and forth in there and it was particularly annoying not to be able to cut through. We saw great mask compliance. Agree with the social distancing comment. Although, I did feel like people at least gave a foot or two between groups so it wasn't like the old sardine days, but still not 3-6 feet. We missed daily mousekeeping, as well.

 

[kjs1976]

We spent Tues 5/25 at MK. Got on the first bus at AS-M at 6:45. They let us in the park at 7:11. We went over to Adventureland and nothing was open. This was frustrating. We decided to hang out by Pirates, but after 10 min, the CMs told us they weren't sure if it would open at 8, so to leave to try other attractions. Splash didn't open until around 11, and Pirates didn't open until close to 9. BTMRR opened around 7:30 so we were able to ride it twice in a row. However, this brought us to around 8:05 and the lines were now super long at the attractions we had planned to start with that were finally open. Space and People Movers went down for a spell in the afternoon, also. This was pretty frustrating to have so many rides up and down on the one day we had for that park.

I really want to WDWCP kids back. I felt like they brought more magic. I felt like a good amount of CMs we encountered were just meh. The one who told us Pirates wasn't opening kept telling people she had no idea if any other rides in any other area were open, when asked many times what attractions were open. I was like, what???? I was a CM on the CP once upon a time and that would have never been ok to say. If you're going to open a park early, why wouldn't you know what was going on or have areas/attractions open for guests to experience??? Felt like a total waste of 2 hrs.