Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[TioAdis78]

For what it’s worth, we have been at the Kidani bus stop since 6 am for early entry at 7:30. Still not a single bus has come

Did it come finally?

 

[mickeymom629]

For what it’s worth, we have been at the Kidani bus stop since 6 am for early entry at 7:30. Still not a single bus has come

We will be there in Jan with a vehicle. I wonder if it's better to drive to the parks (even the MK and take monorail/ferry) than to rely on the bus.

 

[KM82]

Did it come finally?

It did…at 7:27. I have no idea what happened. I was concerned that we missed our early entry benefit for FOP. But, it all worked out ok. The line flows that early since there isn’t really any paid lighting Lane yet. We were off and Safari still had a 5 minute wait at that point. So it all worked out!

 

[bjcaed]

Coming in on Thursday for a mother/son weekend trip. Weather looks like it ranges from 52-79 over the course fo the day. Son is 14 so we will be at the parks opening till closing. What are people wearing right now? Do we need a jacket in the morning or will a hoodie work? Will we be too hot if we wear jeans all day? But think we will freeze if we wear shorts. I know layers are key but trying to pack light for the parks, I hate carrying around a ton of stuff.

 

[bjcaed]

Coming in on Thursday for a mother/son weekend trip. Weather looks like it ranges from 52-79 over the course fo the day. Son is 14 so we will be at the parks opening till closing. What are people wearing right now? Do we need a jacket in the morning or will a hoodie work? Will we be too hot if we wear jeans all day? But think we will freeze if we wear shorts. I know layers are key but trying to pack light for the parks, I hate carrying around a ton of stuff.

It is so hard to predict this time of year. We usually start the morning in shorts and a sweatshirt. We rent a locker at guest services and put sweatshirts and any packages in there, since they no longer deliver to the resort, then retrieve them when it gets colder in the evening.

 

[KM82]

We will be there in Jan with a vehicle. I wonder if it's better to drive to the parks (even the MK and take monorail/ferry) than to rely on the bus.

The buses have been great this trip…except for this morning. We’ve been here since last Friday. We have a car and used to always drive, but we haven’t driven once this trip. Make sure to factor in the lack of parking lot trams too

 

[Dakota731]

It did…at 7:27. I have no idea what happened. I was concerned that we missed our early entry benefit for FOP. But, it all worked out ok. The line flows that early since there isn’t really any paid lighting Lane yet. We were off and Safari still had a 5 minute wait at that point. So it all worked out!

Question for you about Kidani - is there a convenience store where we can get fruit, milk, cereal, parfaits etc for breakfast? We have always stayed at Jambo before and would get breakfast supplies the night before to make mornings easier.

 

[PortieOwner]

Question for you about Kidani - is there a convenience store where we can get fruit, milk, cereal, parfaits etc for breakfast? We have always stayed at Jambo before and would get breakfast supplies the night before to make mornings easier.

There is definitely a well-stocked convenience store just off the main lobby.

 

[EPCOT-O.G.]

We will be there in Jan with a vehicle. I wonder if it's better to drive to the parks (even the MK and take monorail/ferry) than to rely on the bus.

After our recent trips where we waited 45+ mins for a bus I have sworn them off. It’s much better IMO to structure your stay - if possible - to be within walking/Monorail/Skyliner distance to your park of choice, and then Uber/Lyft to/from where you need to be, or bring your own car, then to rely on the buses. They were too infrequent and capricious. We saw dozens at the MK going to and from every other destination, and dozens more just looping around. Never again.

 

[jrsharp21]

We will be there in Jan with a vehicle. I wonder if it's better to drive to the parks (even the MK and take monorail/ferry) than to rely on the bus.

When we first started going to WDW we were all about the buses. It felt so cool to be able to just leave your car and have Disney take care of you for all things. But after constantly waiting for a bus to arrive or waiting at the end of the night to get back to the resort, we have changed plans and now we always drive to the parks. Usually Epcot, DHS, and AK are pretty easy walks to the front gate. Parking at the TTC kind of sucks, but even with the walk it is quicker most of the times than waiting around for a bus. When we really made the switch was a few years ago. We were waiting on a bus to get back to our resort and after waiting an hour we gave up and hopped on a bus to a resort near ours and we ended up walking from that hotel to our hotel. Not a huge deal because it wasn't that far, but it was annoying we had to do that.

 

[EPCOT-O.G.]

By the way - I fully appreciate these are unusual times and they have bus and driver shortages and the like. I get that, I truly do. That said, this was not what we saw. In multiple instances, there were dozens of buses coming and going to numerous stops, a few dozen idling, and a few dozen more "Filling Up with Pixie Dust" or whatever they say on them. When you see the 60th bus in an hour just do a loop around your spot, it gets tiresome.

 

[bsmcneil]

By the way - I fully appreciate these are unusual times and they have bus and driver shortages and the like. I get that, I truly do. That said, this was not what we saw. In multiple instances, there were dozens of buses coming and going to numerous stops, a few dozen idling, and a few dozen more "Filling Up with Pixie Dust" or whatever they say on them. When you see the 60th bus in an hour just do a loop around your spot, it gets tiresome.

Boy, do I know that feeling (and with your username, it was at Epcot in particular). I had a rough day when I first got there in Sept and I waited for 53 long and painful (literally) minutes while so many buses came and went for every resort except AKL. And then while many people had kindly lined up behind me, as the bus approached, a family literally just walked up and walked in front of me to get on and I felt so less than magical in that moment ...

 

[SkyGuy]

By the way - I fully appreciate these are unusual times and they have bus and driver shortages and the like. I get that, I truly do. That said, this was not what we saw. In multiple instances, there were dozens of buses coming and going to numerous stops, a few dozen idling, and a few dozen more "Filling Up with Pixie Dust" or whatever they say on them. When you see the 60th bus in an hour just do a loop around your spot, it gets tiresome.

This was our experience about three weeks ago. We waited over 40 minutes for a bus from MK to BW, and there were dozens of “Refilling My Pixie Dust” buses in view of our stop. It was infuriating. We finally hopped a bus to BC and walked from there. Same thing happened to us at DS, but there was no alternate bus to grab. An attendant called a bus for us, but we still waited about 45 minutes at 11:30pm even though there were at least 10 buses in the waiting areas.

 

[KM82]

Question for you about Kidani - is there a convenience store where we can get fruit, milk, cereal, parfaits etc for breakfast? We have always stayed at Jambo before and would get breakfast supplies the night before to make mornings easier.

There is, but I do have to warn you, it’s smaller than the Jambo shop. It’s a small store with some gift shop stuff and some food. I’d imagine it would have what you need food wise. But, we kept going to it to try to shop, forgetting it’s not anything close to what they have at Jambo (gift wise). It’s not a good time-killer, in other words.

 

[buckeyegirl1]

Boy, do I know that feeling (and with your username, it was at Epcot in particular). I had a rough day when I first got there in Sept and I waited for 53 long and painful (literally) minutes while so many buses came and went for every resort except AKL. And then while many people had kindly lined up behind me, as the bus approached, a family literally just walked up and walked in front of me to get on and I felt so less than magical in that moment ...

We waited an hour and ten minutes for a bus to magic kingdom on Tuesday.

By the way - I fully appreciate these are unusual times and they have bus and driver shortages and the like. I get that, I truly do. That said, this was not what we saw. In multiple instances, there were dozens of buses coming and going to numerous stops, a few dozen idling, and a few dozen more "Filling Up with Pixie Dust" or whatever they say on them. When you see the 60th bus in an hour just do a loop around your spot, it gets tiresome.

We waited an hour and ten minutes for a bus to MK from CBR on Tuesday evening. We counted 6 HS, and 2 Epcot buses stop in that time frame and they weren’t even scheduled to be running because the skyliner was running to those resorts, they were all empty. Also had at least 4 AK buses too and it closed in an hour. It doesn’t take any sense

 

[BFSEsq]

I posted a ton on the genie+ strategy thread so I won't post here about that. You can go there to read that. I used it for every park. I'll focus on some other things as I wait for my flight:

1. crowds. It's time to get back in the pre Covid mindset. I used to say to folks that Disney is always crowded.Make a plan and set priorities. We need to go back to thinking like that because the crowds are back.
2. Busses. They were frustrating at times from movies. And contrary to what I read about in October- movies and music were sharing busses. Not all the time but sometimes. There was also a lot of inconsistencies in busses leaving a big gap between bus times sometimes. Especially after the Christmas party. Luckily got a good and early bus for DHS but on MK day first bus came, filled up and there wasn't another behind it... long gap.
3. festival of the holidays- food was great and even on a busy Epcot day those lines moved fast.
4. Mobile ordering is a must. And to use it best think ahead to your meals. I would put in an order for later and then when I knew I would start walking that way I would click the prepare button. I hardly ever waited for food.
5. mobile shopping- many stores now including creations shop, emporium, and world of Disney allow you to use the app to scan the items and pay. You then just take a QR code it gives you to a stand in the store and they quickly verify and you are good to go. This saved me a huge wait in world of Disney and creations shop.
6. the projections show at night in each park were awesome and worth just hanging out for 30 minutes or so to catch them all- the Christmas and regular versions.
7. The my day section on the free genie is a bit annoying with its recommendations but I did like being able to see entertainment/calvacades/show times and being able to add them to my day. It kept them on my brain that I wanted to do them.
8. This was my first stay at movies and had previously stayed at POP. POP is 100% worth the extra cost.
9. cast members were very nice and I had a few extra magical moments. I did find that cast members were very direct sometimes in their instructions to guests regarding masks or lines. I actually appreciated this.
10. I did all 4 parks plus the Christmas party (my experience there is posted on that thread). No hopper. I felt like this really allowed me to take in each park.
11. Enchantment and harmonious are awesome and moving. I don't understand the negativity around them.
12. I did a dessert party. I posted about it on that thread but it was meh and I do not recommend.
13. As a solo traveler I did all the things but the pace I went at I could not do with the family. Hollywood studios is a "hard" park.. I actually think it could be done better in two days.

It was a magical trip and there is still lots of magic at DisneyWorld and I felt it.

Great post. A lot of really useful info and views in there. I am staying at Pop right now, and after a few days here I pretty much agree with this. Crowds. Are. Back. People do need to be ready for it.

Mobile ordering of food: it's kind of a must now. Things are set up for a lot of mobile orders. A lot of places have half of the stations that used to be for walk-up orders reserved instead for mobile pickup. A lot of people are taking advantage, so it's good to put in orders pretty far in advance. You need to make sure they have your time slot.

I love the Skyliner. It's my first time using it. So convenient from Pop, and I'm able to avoid taking buses.

 

[sloth2021]

Many years ago we waited over an hour for a bus to the Boardwalk. My dh was growing more impatient as the time passed and when he counted the 4th bus to the All stars he was livid. He kept repeating that he paid $700 a night(we needed 2 rooms)and we should have saved thousands and stayed at the All stars. After that vacation he decided driving was the way to go. We've never looked back.

 

[Lsdolphin]

Here now and resort room is freezing! Have thermo turned up to 76 but doesn’t seem to make a difference...anyone have same issue or know way to adjust heat?

 

[scrappinginontario]

Here now and resort room is freezing! Have thermo turned up to 76 but doesn’t seem to make a difference...anyone have same issue or know way to adjust heat?

I would recommend going to the resorts board and posting on the thread linked to your resort. Possibly there is something unique to their system? Or, report it to guest relations at your resort. Sounds like something might not be working properly.

 

[lovethattink]

Here now and resort room is freezing! Have thermo turned up to 76 but doesn’t seem to make a difference...anyone have same issue or know way to adjust heat?

It’s Florida, built to let heat escape and keep things cooler from the hot sun. Did it warm up in time? If not contact maintenance to check it out.