Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[tofubeast]

For those who’ve eaten inside at Disney table service the last few days, are people masking before and after eating their meals while seated? Thx

 

[cakebaker]

I’m not pp, but based on our experience this past week it seems pretty doable. The WDW posted waits were not accurate for us at all. If they did FOP at rope drop or end of night, the rest of AK would be very doable. We never saw Everest above 25-30 (often closer to 20) and single rider was a walk on (literally). Dinosaur was about 15, triceratop had no wait. Safari was 30 in the middle of the afternoon-I’m sure much less at start of the day.

You can't do FOP at rope drop and end of day 6 times. That leaves 4 times that had to be done at other times of the day. It will be interesting to hear their touring plan. I'd love to be able to get that much done in such a short period of time. I wanna know their secret!

 

[mrd7896]

don't like being that person that is like "oh my friend said" but similarly, my friend that was at AK recently told me that within the first half hour or so of the park officially OPENING they already did FOP (due to RD), Safari and were making their way to Everest which had a nonexistent wait since everyone was on the other side of the park. She then rode single rider for everest two more times back to back. she had expressed that in roughly 75 minutes of 'park time' she had accomplished 3 rides, having ridden EE 3 times already. by that point she was working her way over to dinoland while the rest of the park was in africa and pandora.

she didn't do triceratop or navi (2 adults and a teen that didn't care for those) but was able to do the trails and a sitdown reservation and two times on dinosaur. by 2 pm she had accomplished everything she wanted and still had hours of park time left.

now, the PP had more EE (which i'm sure was single rider) and the 2 other FOP is really impressive. but that doesn't seem nearly impossible

 

[cdurham1]

I will be making a long trip report for my just completed 8 day trip soon. But let me just say something controversial first based on my first post shutdown trip - people saying that somehow their experience was better without fastpasses were just never doing fastpasses right in the first place. Don't believe them. The lack of fastpasses sucked all the way around.

 

[stiirfry]

For those who’ve eaten inside at Disney table service the last few days, are people masking before and after eating their meals while seated? Thx

Yes indoor dining and indoor queues I've seen masks be pretty consistent same with inside hotels. Outdoor queues not so much.

 

[e_yerger]

I'm definitely interested to hear trip reports from people there this week & next week. I'm hoping things are slowing down. I know FL schools are set to go back next week too. We're heading down 8/13, so I'll try to bring my experience back here.

 

[bbn1122]

I think if they were just there in the last few days that they were able to get a ton more done than those were there from last week and earlier, the crowds have really eased up since you left. With schools going back, cases rising, and masks it's calmed down so much so that it's like a different park from last week to this week. I have had several friends getting in those last minute trips, and the last one came back yesterday (i laugh saying they're pulling in on two wheels as school started today) and they were there from last wednesday and said it was like two different worlds with lines. She didn't go to AK so I don't know about those lines, but I know she said the other parks were night and day for them.

I will be there with my family and friends in 2 weeks. I am hoping for just what you said, between school start, cases up and masks that the crowds will ease.

I was there in November when it was mask on all the time, social distancing and way less opened. Also, cases in Florida back then were pretty bad too.

Our whole crew is fully vaccinated, all adults and two work at hospitals so are very used to masking up.

We are also planning to take it easy, 3 days parks and 3 resort days. Get to parks when the open or before, break in afternoon and Epcot in the evenings.



Thanks to everyone for sharing there experiences.

 

[Sarahslay]

We were there until Monday of this week, last time in the parks was Sunday and it was packed at HS. It's still an amazing amount to get done even with very low crowd levels. It would be nice to know exactly when they made the trip- doesn't sound like it was in the last couple of days. On the best days, FOP will always be an hour or more as will many of the other rides they listed as having done multiple times. So I'm curious as to how they managed to get that much done.

I think it really depends on what park you were in on what day really, they didn’t do AK at all (no clue why). I know FOP is always a long wait unless you RD, but if you stay all day sometimes you can RD and then hit it up twice at night if it’s not crowded. I know she wasn’t at HS on Sunday (I think they did Epcot all day). I know from being there many times over the last year one park can be mayhem and another can be great, like today HS is crazy nuts but MK didn’t look bad in the same amount of time after opening. I know one part of the park can be crazy and another can be empty so two people can be in the same park and one can be like “omg it’s so crowded!” And I’m over somewhere else going “what a lovely day (experienced this Memorial Day week). All I know is she was ready to leave her trip halfway through on Friday night due to crowds, and then on Saturday she was like “ok, this is fine”. I have zero clue what parks she went to Monday and Tuesday, but we talked for a long time while they drove home yesterday and she was just super happy they stuck it out because she said last week was hell and this week was great. We didn’t go in to great detail because a friend of ours passed away on Tuesday so that was the main purpose of the conversation and we spent just a portion of it talking about crowds.

 

[luv2cheer92]

You can't do FOP at rope drop and end of day 6 times. That leaves 4 times that had to be done at other times of the day. It will be interesting to hear their touring plan. I'd love to be able to get that much done in such a short period of time. I wanna know their secret!

They said 3x on FOP, which is definitely doable IMO. All of what they said sounds doable to me, and not terribly far off from what we accomplished a couple weeks ago on a couple of our days. Most of our days we left the parks from about 1-3 or 4 and were able to get close to that.

 

[cakebaker]

They said 3x on FOP, which is definitely doable IMO. All of what they said sounds doable to me, and not terribly far off from what we accomplished a couple weeks ago on a couple of our days. Most of our days we left the parks from about 1-3 or 4 and were able to get close to that.

My mistake- I was talking about 2 hr waits for 3 rides equally 6 hrs and just confused the 2 numbers. I look forward to more specifics on their accomplishments from them.

 

[luv2cheer92]

My mistake- I was talking about 2 hr waits for 3 rides equally 6 hrs and just confused the 2 numbers. I look forward to more specifics on their accomplishments from them.

Getting there for rope drop ahead of the pack was by far the best thing to do. Then getting in a line right before close. Not really any secrets and allowed us to get a lot done.

 

[preemiemama]

don't like being that person that is like "oh my friend said" but similarly, my friend that was at AK recently told me that within the first half hour or so of the park officially OPENING they already did FOP (due to RD), Safari and were making their way to Everest which had a nonexistent wait since everyone was on the other side of the park. She then rode single rider for everest two more times back to back. she had expressed that in roughly 75 minutes of 'park time' she had accomplished 3 rides, having ridden EE 3 times already. by that point she was working her way over to dinoland while the rest of the park was in africa and pandora.

she didn't do triceratop or navi (2 adults and a teen that didn't care for those) but was able to do the trails and a sitdown reservation and two times on dinosaur. by 2 pm she had accomplished everything she wanted and still had hours of park time left.

now, the PP had more EE (which i'm sure was single rider) and the 2 other FOP is really impressive. but that doesn't seem nearly impossible

AK with RD is definitely do-able to get a lot done. We did FOP at RD and were off by 8:15-8:20 I think, then Navi with about a 10 min wait, then EE (x2) and took some pictures before heading to our 10:15 breakfast at Tusker House. We left after that because we were tired and had accomplished all we really wanted to that day. We could have done more, I'm sure, without the ADR and if we had wanted to wait in some lines. Or if we did the Safari after Navi. But even with being one of the first through the gates at 7 am, it still took us until 10 to accomplish all 4 rides that day.

Epcot, if you hit it right, can be easier to fit in rides as well. Aside from Frozen and TT, you can re-ride most anything at night pretty easily. We had Soarin x3, Nemo and SE in about 90 minutes one evening in Epcot after dinner.

Similarly, it took us 45 minutes to do TSMM and then get in line for SDD in the last hour of operation at DHS one night. I'm not saying what the PP said is impossible, but I agree with Cakebaker that I'd like to see their plan! That's impressive compared to what we experienced, especially if taking an afternoon break.

 

[DisneyFive]

I feel really lucky because we have a way different experience than much of what I'm reading here on our recent trip. In two 1/2 days at HS we did MMRR (2x), RotR (2x), Star Tours (5x), TSM (3x), SDD (3x), ToT (3x), RnRC, Swirling Saucers, Smugglers Run plus one ADR, Muppet Vision, that movie short, and lots of shopping. In two partial days at MK (one of which was about 6 hours long and the other which was only about 3 hours long), we were able to do BTMR (2x), Splash (2x), PP, 7DMT, Space (2x), HM (2x), IASW, Pirates, Buzz, PhilharMagic, Mad Tea Party plus 2 ADRs and lots of shopping. In 1.5 days at Epcot we did Soarin (3x), Living with the Land, Spaceship Earth, FEA (2x), Figment (3x), Nemo, TT (2x), Mission Space, and hit every WS pavilion. And in about 8 hours total at AK, we did Safaris, FoP (3x), Expedition Everest (6x??? ~ I lost count), Navi, TriceraTop Spin, DINOSAUR, both walking trails, Nomad Lounge, and one ADR. It was definitely crowded, but the trick for us was to get there well before RD, hit 3-4 attractions first thing, take a break (either shopping/seeing a show/having an ADR in the park or back at the resort), then hitting attractions again from 4pm(ish) to close. We found MDE waits to be very inflated and even the long lines moved quickly. My point is that, yes things are different, but it's still definitely possible to get a lot done right now .

I'd be very interested to learn how you got all this done using only standby. FOP 3x's and Everest 6 with all the other things in between in only 8 hours? Even with Fp+ we never got close to accomplishing that much in that short of a time. If FOP was only a 1 hr wait and Everest was only a 30 minute wait (both those estimates are well below what anyone is reporting in real wait times) it would take 6 hrs of wait time leaving only 2 for Safari, Navi, TTS, Dino, Walking trails, Nomad lounge and an adr. The other parks seem incredible as well with the amount of time you were in the park. So what's your secret?

My question is, how much time was spent standing in lines each day, and how many hours did they need to stay in the parks each day. THAT was the big difference for us this year. Having to get up EARLY... every. single. day... if we wanted to be remotely as productive as we used to be with FP. Even getting up early only helped get ONE headliner in before waits became long for all the others. Then is was... standing in lines.

Dan

 

[luv2cheer92]

My question is, how much time was spent standing in lines each day, and how many hours did they need to stay in the parks each day. THAT was the big difference for us this year. Having to get up EARLY... every. single. day... if we wanted to be remotely as productive as we used to be with FP. Even getting up early only helped get ONE headliner in before waits became long for all the others. Then is was... standing in lines.

Dan

I didn't get up any earlier than I used to. And most days we were able to get at least 2-3 rides in before the lines started to build some, then we just headed for the mid-tier rides and had little waits there. We really didn't feel like we were waiting in lines all day.

 

[luv2cheer92]

AK with RD is definitely do-able to get a lot done. We did FOP at RD and were off by 8:15-8:20 I think, then Navi with about a 10 min wait, then EE (x2) and took some pictures before heading to our 10:15 breakfast at Tusker House. We left after that because we were tired and had accomplished all we really wanted to that day. We could have done more, I'm sure, without the ADR and if we had wanted to wait in some lines. Or if we did the Safari after Navi. But even with being one of the first through the gates at 7 am, it still took us until 10 to accomplish all 4 rides that day.

Epcot, if you hit it right, can be easier to fit in rides as well. Aside from Frozen and TT, you can re-ride most anything at night pretty easily. We had Soarin x3, Nemo and SE in about 90 minutes one evening in Epcot after dinner.

Similarly, it took us 45 minutes to do TSMM and then get in line for SDD in the last hour of operation at DHS one night. I'm not saying what the PP said is impossible, but I agree with Cakebaker that I'd like to see their plan! That's impressive compared to what we experienced, especially if taking an afternoon break.

Rope drop is definitely the key. I can see how people who refuse to do that could have a harder time getting stuff done.
HS was the harder park for us for sure, but we were still able to ride everything at least once in one day.
The other 3 parks weren't hard at all.

ETA: forgot we didn't do saucers at HS, but we rode everything else and did Frozen. We did ToT and TSM twice.

 

[preemiemama]

Rope drop is definitely the key. I can see how people who refuse to do that could have a harder time getting stuff done.
HS was the harder park for us for sure, but we were still able to ride everything at least once in one day.
The other 3 parks weren't hard at all.

Did you take an afternoon break?

 

[luv2cheer92]

Did you take an afternoon break?

Most days yes, not all. Which is something we have never done before.

 

[cakebaker]

My question is, how much time was spent standing in lines each day, and how many hours did they need to stay in the parks each day. THAT was the big difference for us this year. Having to get up EARLY... every. single. day... if we wanted to be remotely as productive as we used to be with FP. Even getting up early only helped get ONE headliner in before waits became long for all the others. Then is was... standing in lines.

Dan

Getting out for rope drop was something we weren't willing to do this trip. That's what the recovery passes helped us avoid. We had enough to get the biggest headliners in and just get to the parks right at opening, after the crowds had moved in. We still waited longer for secondary rides than we normally would have- some up to 30 minutes, but even that wait time went away very quickly. So the mornings were a rush of going from ride to ride as quickly as possible. Still, we accomplished much less than we have in previous trips and we skipped quite a few rides entirely. The only thing we rode in Epcot was Frozen for example. We had to carefully pick and choose what we used those passes for to get the most out of them.

We used to do rope drop, but because we did secondary rides, it wasn't neccesary to get there an hour or more before opening. We didn't need to be at the front of the pack- those people were all headed to rides we weren't going to. If we got there at opening, that was plenty good enough to get a couple of hours of short waits on secondary rides. This trip, we were lucky if we got 3 in before they were long waits as well.

Bottom line is, we aren't going back under these conditions again. I do think whatever they come up with is something we'll be able to work with, but until they do, we just aren't going back.

 

[preemiemama]

Did you take an afternoon break?

It's still pretty impressive IMHO. We did RD for AK and DHS. We did at MK, but were not at the front of the pack as we were at the other 2. Epcot we did at park close more often because of F&W or an ADR there. I think we just got mentally exhausted by the crowds- more than even what the posted waits were. It was tough feeling like there were just people everywhere- at least for us. And disheartening that even with being up at 6-6:30 every morning and then still only able to accomplish 2-3 rides before the lines became long and appeared to be everywhere.

 

[kc51570]

My question is, how much time was spent standing in lines each day, and how many hours did they need to stay in the parks each day. THAT was the big difference for us this year. Having to get up EARLY... every. single. day... if we wanted to be remotely as productive as we used to be with FP. Even getting up early only helped get ONE headliner in before waits became long for all the others. Then is was... standing in lines.

Dan

Exactly. We always took advantage of a combination of rope drop, a PPO breakfast, early hours, and FP. But we did not have to do that every.single.day of our previous trips. Some days we slept in a little. This time we rope dropped every day except for 1. I was way too tired to get up at 5:45 again for our second animal kingdom day. We would get on our first ride usually right away unless it was broken down which happened 4x out of 8 park days. Then the lines built up everywhere else.
Even Nomad lounge on our AK day was a 2 hour experience-with one server for all the inside and outside tables. I’m including the 20 minutes we waited in line to check in before open. We were seated for longer than 90 minutes for 1 drink, apps, and churros. That alone made me grumpy enough to leave for the day once we were out of there around 12:40. So our AK day we did FOP arriving before 7:30, off by 8:35, Navi, and Safari by 10:40. 3 rides in 3 hours is not great in my opinion.