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

[EPCOT-O.G.]

Just returned from a 5 day trip. We really lowered our expectations coming in because it was our first post-pandemic trip but honestly had a fantastic time.

The parks were pretty crowded but the staff handled everything great. Every CM we interacted with was wonderful. Everything was clean and nice like in the past except one MK bathroom close to midnight on an extra hours evening.

.

how crowded were the extended evening hours? We have a trip planned in early August with the hopes our MK park day (Wednesday) gets those extended evening hours.

 

[NavyDad]

how crowded were the extended evening hours? We have a trip planned in early August with the hopes our MK park day (Wednesday) gets those extended evening hours.

Unfortunately, MK was very crowded that night.

IIRC - the other parks all closed by 9PM that night. MK was open until 11 PM and then had the extra late hours until 1 AM. After 9 PM people were just streaming into MK the next 2-3 hours. It looked like lots of non resort guests were staying in the park to eat/shop as well so just overall felt very crowded that night. We left at midnight and were a little disappointed with the experience. The following day we stayed at MK until park close time of 11 PM. It was much nicer that night with smaller crowds after the 9 PM fireworks.

That's probably not what you wanted to hear but I wanted to give you a straight answer. In the future we will probably avoid the late extended hours. Right now the 30 minute early entry seems to be more of an advantage.

 

[Lsdolphin]

Returned on Saturday from a 1 week trip. Random thoughts that might be helpful for others:

We stayed at the Boardwalk Villas. I could not have asked for a better location for our trip and our needs. We had space to spread out and have some down time. I know it is not possible for everyone but for my family's needs it was perfect. I loved the room we requested too - they gave us the floor above our requested room which actually was better as we had a Boardwalk view and it can get noisy at night but being on the 5th floor helped keep the noise down. We got to see the fireworks each night at both MK and Epcot - so cool.

I found the bus situation to be great - the only time we waited for a bus for longer than a few mins was going to AK on our last day - we hopped there and must have just missed a bus because it was almost 25 mins until another came by. But that was the only time. I loved being able to take the boat or walk to HS and EP.

We used Genie + each day and overall were happy with it. My parents were with us for a few days and they are not the quickest on their feet so I liked being able to avoid waiting in long lines with them. It is very true that we did not need it at Animal Kingdom. We arrived right at 7am with Early Entry and walked on to Navi then Expedition Everest. We could have then waited for Safari to open but we had purchased Genie so we made a 9:30 res for that and walked on Kali River Rapids around 8:30. Did the Safari and then walked onto It's Tough to be a Bug. Ate lunch then used our ILL for FOP and were done for the day about 12:15. It was ideal and truly didn't need Genie + but it allowed my kids to ride Everest one more time at the end of our time there and we hopped to MK after dinner to ride Splash in the dark so we tried to get our money's worth that day.

I found the CMs to be very pleasant. We went to Universal in 2018 and had a negative interaction with a cashier there and it made me realize how Disney is truly the leader in hospitality and everyone is so nice. My daughter overheard a CM on the phone on the Boardwalk venting to a friend about how she is not enjoying her job in food service at the moment but we did not experience any one as outwardly unhappy as she seemed to be.
It has been said a million times but getting to the park early is a great way to get a lot done in little time. It helps that I'm a morning person but I love how peaceful (relatively) the parks are at that hour. We liked getting in and out early and gearing up to pop back into the park of our choosing for one or two rides at night. My kids are 12 and almost 15 so had some stamina to go the distance.

We had so many rides break down either while we were on them or as we were about to ride them. I'm sure I'm forgetting some but in no particular order: ROTR (once while we were in the preshow and one time when we were about to ride it), Haunted Mansion, Toy Story Mania, RNRC, Frozen, Remy, Spaceship Earth, SDD. It was comical after a while. But we didn't let it ruin our time - just laughed at how we got stuck on Mansion as we were going backwards and were tipped back like we were in a dentist chair.

We don't go to Disney very often so for us we wanted to ride as much as we could ride and enjoy ourselves which I think we accomplished. I got lots of good tips from this board. I was nervous about Genie + but we typically followed the advice of which headliner to go for first as early as possible and it worked out pretty well. I also got Slinky and ROTR on the same day without using a second phone. Not sure when we'll be back - maybe with grandkids but it was a nice trip that was worth waiting for!

Sometimes the rides stop not due to a break down but to load someone with disabilities who needs to transfer from a wheel chair...glad you had an enjoyable trip!

 

[EPCOT-O.G.]

Unfortunately, MK was very crowded that night.

IIRC - the other parks all closed by 9PM that night. MK was open until 11 PM and then had the extra late hours until 1 AM. After 9 PM people were just streaming into MK the next 2-3 hours. It looked like lots of non resort guests were staying in the park to eat/shop as well so just overall felt very crowded that night. We left at midnight and were a little disappointed with the experience. The following day we stayed at MK until park close time of 11 PM. It was much nicer that night with smaller crowds after the 9 PM fireworks.

That's probably not what you wanted to hear but I wanted to give you a straight answer. In the future we will probably avoid the late extended hours. Right now the 30 minute early entry seems to be more of an advantage.

No I appreciate this. We had some friends that went in mid March. They said that they got more done during EEH than during the day. It seems that some YouTube vids I've watched recently suggested the same, so I appreciate your actual experiences giving me a better idea of what to expect.

 

[twasbrilig]

No I appreciate this. We had some friends that went in mid March. They said that they got more done during EEH than during the day. It seems that some YouTube vids I've watched recently suggested the same, so I appreciate your actual experiences giving me a better idea of what to expect.

Just to add my experience, I was at MK for the 4/6 EEH and it seemed much less crowded than during the day. In fact, it made a such a difference that I plan on going specicially for the evening hours and skipping rope drop at that park on my next visit. I went on SDMT at 12:20 and it was a walk-on. I could have done it more times but I was so tired after two that I left around 12:45.

 

[pens4821]

how crowded were the extended evening hours? We have a trip planned in early August with the hopes our MK park day (Wednesday) gets those extended evening hours.

When we were there mid March it wasn’t crowded at MK for them. We got in line for hm a couple minutes before 11 regular park closing and didn’t wait long at all. Maybe 5 minutes from entering until getting on the ride. We then walked right on Peter Pan. 7d was maybe a 20 minute wait. Took a restroom break and got a drink, couple pictures in front of the empty castle. Then went to buzz which was walk-in, space which wasn’t quite walk on but only a couple people ahead of us, then btmrr which was the same as space. We would’ve had time for one more ride but figured we would just head out. It was around 1245 at that point.

Epcot was different. Got in line for tt probably about 915. It took a little bit to get through them scanning bands. Ride must’ve broke down because we stood outside the design room maybe 10-15 minutes. By the time we got off around 10 both frozen and remy were posted as around 45 minutes. We wanted to do both but decided against frozen as remy was the must do. We walked over and by the time we got off it was a couple minutes until 11. Without the tt break down we probably would have been able to do all three, but even then it would have been close to get to the other side of the park after frozen in time if the wait time was accurate like it was for remy.

 

[kc51570]

Unfortunately, MK was very crowded that night.

IIRC - the other parks all closed by 9PM that night. MK was open until 11 PM and then had the extra late hours until 1 AM. After 9 PM people were just streaming into MK the next 2-3 hours. It looked like lots of non resort guests were staying in the park to eat/shop as well so just overall felt very crowded that night. We left at midnight and were a little disappointed with the experience. The following day we stayed at MK until park close time of 11 PM. It was much nicer that night with smaller crowds after the 9 PM fireworks.

That's probably not what you wanted to hear but I wanted to give you a straight answer. In the future we will probably avoid the late extended hours. Right now the 30 minute early entry seems to be more of an advantage.

We were there for extra hours the same night and I agree it was crowded. 7DMT still had a very long line around midnight/12:15. I left around that time but my son stayed and it was 20 minutes closer to close. We went back another normal night after fireworks and it did seem emptier from 9:30 to 11 vs. the extra hours.

 

[Jennasis]

We just wrapped up a day in DHS and we did NOT use Genie+ (on principle and because we hated it with the white hot intensity if 10,000 sun's when we used it in December). Instead, we did Early Entry for resort guests and arrived AT the tapstiles a hair after 7am and were maybe the 10th family back in line. We did MINIMAL waiting for all but one ride and we did everything we wanted and were out if there by 1pm. Here's what we did:

While waiting for them to let us in, we grabbed a iLL$ for Rise at 10:20am.

Then When they opened the flood gates, We zigged while the crowds zagged. IOW we went down sunset and rope dropped ToT while everyone else did Rise and Slinky. We walked on ToT and then walked on RnRC. Were done with both by 7:45.

Walked over to Slinky dog and it was a 15 minute wait. Boom. DONE.

Then we went on TSMM and it was a 10 minute wait. BOOM. Done.

Then got on line for MMRR for a 20 minute wait and the morning crowds began to grow a but.

After we got off we mobile ordered breakfast from Ronto's. Got seats outside. Watched a dude try to steal a table from a mom with a baby. It wasn't pretty when he husband showed up.

Then we rode Rise with our iLL$.

Then our ONE long wait for Smugglers Run. Tried to get the family to activate Chewie mode but someone messed up the sequence. Wait was an hour. Blech.

On our way out we walked on Star Tours.


No Genie+ needed. Great morning. Off to DS for dinner!

 

[BellaBaby]

We just wrapped up a day in DHS and we did NOT use Genie+ (on principle and because we hated it with the white hot intensity if 10,000 sun's when we used it in December). Instead, we did Early Entry for resort guests and arrived AT the tapstiles a hair after 7am and were maybe the 10th family back in line. We did MINIMAL waiting for all but one ride and we did everything we wanted and were out if there by 1pm. Here's what we did:

While waiting for them to let us in, we grabbed a iLL$ for Rise at 10:20am.

Then When they opened the flood gates, We zigged while the crowds zagged. IOW we went down sunset and rope dropped ToT while everyone else did Rise and Slinky. We walked on ToT and then walked on RnRC. Were done with both by 7:45.

Walked over to Slinky dog and it was a 15 minute wait. Boom. DONE.

Then we went on TSMM and it was a 10 minute wait. BOOM. Done.

Then got on line for MMRR for a 20 minute wait and the morning crowds began to grow a but.

After we got off we mobile ordered breakfast from Ronto's. Got seats outside. Watched a dude try to steal a table from a mom with a baby. It wasn't pretty when he husband showed up.

Then we rode Rise with our iLL$.

Then our ONE long wait for Smugglers Run. Tried to get the family to activate Chewie mode but someone messed up the sequence. Wait was an hour. Blech.

On our way out we walked on Star Tours.


No Genie+ needed. Great morning. Off to DS for dinner!

That's really great! Although, those of us that have been checking wait times on the app, have noticed that this week seems to have shorter waits for some reason. I would hope for that to be the case when we go (arriving 5/30 8 day PHs) but I'm afraid it won't be that easy then. Have a wonderful trip!!

 

[abbyandangel]

We just wrapped up a day in DHS and we did NOT use Genie+ (on principle and because we hated it with the white hot intensity if 10,000 sun's when we used it in December). Instead, we did Early Entry for resort guests and arrived AT the tapstiles a hair after 7am and were maybe the 10th family back in line. We did MINIMAL waiting for all but one ride and we did everything we wanted and were out if there by 1pm. Here's what we did:

While waiting for them to let us in, we grabbed a iLL$ for Rise at 10:20am.

Then When they opened the flood gates, We zigged while the crowds zagged. IOW we went down sunset and rope dropped ToT while everyone else did Rise and Slinky. We walked on ToT and then walked on RnRC. Were done with both by 7:45.

Walked over to Slinky dog and it was a 15 minute wait. Boom. DONE.

Then we went on TSMM and it was a 10 minute wait. BOOM. Done.

Then got on line for MMRR for a 20 minute wait and the morning crowds began to grow a but.

After we got off we mobile ordered breakfast from Ronto's. Got seats outside. Watched a dude try to steal a table from a mom with a baby. It wasn't pretty when he husband showed up.

Then we rode Rise with our iLL$.

Then our ONE long wait for Smugglers Run. Tried to get the family to activate Chewie mode but someone messed up the sequence. Wait was an hour. Blech.

On our way out we walked on Star Tours.


No Genie+ needed. Great morning. Off to DS for dinner!

What is Chewie mode?

 

[Akck]

What is Chewie mode?

 

[SkyGuy]

That's really great! Although, those of us that have been checking wait times on the app, have noticed that this week seems to have shorter waits for some reason. I would hope for that to be the case when we go (arriving 5/30 8 day PHs) but I'm afraid it won't be that easy then. Have a wonderful trip!!

Definitely. We’re not at Disney but decided to head to Universal for a few days before our GotG preview on Sunday. We did US today. We have Express Pass, which obviously helps, but we didn’t get to the park until after 10am, and we’re done with all the main rides (we didn’t do things like Kang and Kodos) by 2:00. We were going to jump over to IoA and do Velocicoaster with a 20 minutes wait and Hagrid’s with a 35 minute wait, but it was 94° at that point, so we decided to head back to the hotel to cool off before dinner. Hopefully waits are similar tomorrow, and we’re not kicking ourselves for skipping those today.

 

[Jennasis]

That's really great! Although, those of us that have been checking wait times on the app, have noticed that this week seems to have shorter waits for some reason. I would hope for that to be the case when we go (arriving 5/30 8 day PHs) but I'm afraid it won't be that easy then. Have a wonderful trip!!

Yes...sort of. Our arrival day on the 4th was only a "3" at Epcot (and crowds were ok) but DHS was listed so a 10 and waits were stupid.

Today, DHS was a 4.

 

[ScarletFire]

Just back and Park Hopping is the way!

Must use Genie+, $LL and resort early entry.

Leave your resort at least 45 minutes before early entry begins. You still won't be the first in line....

Park Hopping is better for the budget minded people. Prices fluctuate and these prices are from July:

4-Day Ticket with Admission to 1 Park Per Day: $484.15 + 4($15) + 4($LL) + 3 or 4 or 5 night resort stay.
2-Day Ticket with Park Hopper Option: $347.50 + 2($15) + 4($LL) +1 or 2 or 3 night resort stay.
3-Day Ticket with Park Hopper Option: $466.07 + 3($15) + 4($LL) + 2 or 3 or 4 night resort stay.

We hit all the highlights in two park days but had four park days. Three park days are optimal. We found that lots of LL's still available for MK and EPCOT in the evening for stacking. Rope dropping DHS is a must!!

This is a commando plan! We are a group of 5 adults who ride everything. We still had time for food, shows and character meets.

Fiddle coined by Molly from allearsnet and means refresh your screen.

This is what we did but you can mix it up:

Day 1: RD DHS with early entry. Start with ToT. Use $LL for RISE and Mine Train at MK on the same day. Fiddle for an early $LL for Rise and a late $LL for Mine Train. Get AM LL's for MMRR, RnRC, Smuggler's, TSM; fiddle for early return time. You may not get them all. Once LLs become too late at DHS, get evening LL's for MK. The 120 minute rule is in play, set a timer. We stacked LL's for MK attractions and used our $LL for Mine Train.

Day 2: RD AK with early entry. Fiddle for an early $LL for Avatar. Fiddle for a late $LL for Remy at EPCOT. Fiddle for an early LL for the Safari. RD Everest and Dinosaur. After the safari LL, start stacking EPCOT LL's. We were able to stack Frozen, TT and Soarin'. Plus, we had a Remy $LL.

Day 3: RD MK for Peter Pan or whatever was unavailable on the Day 1. You won't need LL's for RD at MK. Get a Slinky LL for the evening at DHS. My group stacked DHS LL's for the evening while touring MK in the morning.

You could do two days without a mid-day break and you might miss a couple of rides. Three days will allow you to LL just about everything! No lines!! We did it and took mid-day breaks at the resort.

DD25 and her friends did four park days and got bonus rides. DH and myself took a day off at the resort.

We saved time by not using the Disney bus system, except for MK. We had our truck at the campground. Resorts with walking and skyliner access are the BEST!

My family got in SB lines minutes before park closing. Got in line for Rise at 8:59 and off the ride at 9:35.

60 minutes SB for the Haunted Mansion seemed crazy. I asked a CM if it was really 60 minutes and she said it was more like 20 minutes. She was correct.

It's a must to splurge on Genie+. It's already an expensive trip and stand by lines are long. Pay the extra $15!

Disney is an intense and expensive vacation. We witnessed lots of meltdowns in the parks; not just kids. Have a plan!

My DD25 traveled with her two BFF's who are not Disney aficionados. They had a blast!!!!!

Don't pay rack rate for a resort stay. Find a discount!

Genie+ is not intuitive. We know the parks! My DD25 used Genie+ during a race weekend with my help from home. Watch Molly videos!!

We had one of our best Disney vacations ever!!

 

[orangecuse]

Epcot day today - going to try to track our LLs as we go because I found these reports really helpful while preparing.

7am- booked Frozen for 2:55pm. Had fo wait to 7:15 for it to drop to this time. (We were not arriving until around then).

8:30- purchased Remy for 3:55- time did not change for us when clicking.

10:30- booked test track for 5:45. I had a 4:30 and it jumped on me when I clicked.

12:30- didnt book anything as everything was too soon compared to our arrival time.

1:30- booked 1:45 spaceship earth.

1:46- arrived at Epcot, rode spaceship earth. Ate lunch.

Could have booked another LL here but again, everything was available immediately and we were headed to frozen.

Rode Frozen and then Remy x2. A cast member gave us a free second LL for Remy because of an issue during our first ride. Very cute ride! Our kids loved it!

Walking back from Remy booked LwtL for immediately (4pm). Then booked seas immediately after tapping into LwtL. Walked over to test track and rode our previously booked LL. Left the park for the day to go eat dessert and rest!

So Genie at Epcot really isnt needed but if you bought it for your whole trip anyway itd be a great park to start at and stack for an evening elsewhere, or if you are in epcot all day you can go for frozen and test track first and then have your pick of every other ride (even soarin) all day.

 

[orangecuse]

MK morning-

7am- Peter Pan for 9:40

Got to the park at about 8:40 and rode the carousel. Then lined up for Haunted Mansion. Line took maybe 5 minutes once they let us move at 8:55.

Tapped into PP at 9:35 and booked Barnstormer for 9:45.

Rode Barnstormer once with Genie+ and once standby. After Barnstormer booked Buzz for 10:30.

Buzz went down so our 10:30 Genie+ converted to an any attraction LL. Immediately booked buzz again for 11. Stayed in the area and ate snacks waiting to see if buzz would come back. It did not so we got a second anything LL.

Used our anything LLs to have parent 1/kid1 do splash and BTMRR and parent 2/kid2 do aladdin and pirates.

Left MK at 12 and booked Navi for 4:30. At 2 booked Kali for 4:40. At 4 everything in AK was available immediately so waited and rode Navi and Kali. At 5:50 booked Safari for 6. Watch this closely if doing AK at night because Safari stops early which means genie+ also stops early for it. After tapping into Safari booked dinosaur. Rode dinosaur and triceratops spin and left. We could have gotten FoP at several points in the afternoon so if you miss it in the morning just refresh.

 

[DisneyCare]

We just got back from a week-long trip. Sorry in advance - my thoughts are all over the place! I wanted to post our experience because in the weeks prior to our trip, I was reading these boards and they really helped me game plan our park days!

I really enjoyed Genie+ and felt it was worth the price! We did 1.5 days at Epcot, 2 days at Hollywood Studios, 2 days at Magic Kingdom and 1 day at Animal Kingdom. No park hopper. We were traveling with 2 under 5 so we did midday breaks for lunch/nap/swim (usually 11:30-3:30). I definitely felt like crowds got heavy come lunchtime so it was nice to get out of the parks then.

The only exception was our first MK day (Wednesday 5/4) when we “slept in”, had pool time in the morning and then hit the park at about 3:15pm. We lucked out because we walked right in to the Festival of Fantasy parade coming down Main Street. We were there that day from 3:15-9pm and did almost every ride except for Buzz, BTMR, Splash, Little Mermaid and Teacups. I used the LL stacking method. We could have done more had we stayed until park close (11pm) or extended hours (1am). That felt like a win to me!

We used early entry for 4 out of our 7 park days, but we usually entered the park 15min before official opening rather than 30min. We never used deluxe evening hours because the kids (and some adults!) just couldn’t hang, haha.

Early entry/rope drop is key in HS. We went right to ToT, did rider switch, and then to RnR where 2 of us did single rider. Waits for ToT later during the day were still crazy (90-105min). I was able to get both SDD and Rise at 7am without using two devices. MMRR LL were still available in the late afternoon. On our second day (Friday 5/6) we were able to get RnR and Smugglers Run LL in the afternoon as well.

Over the course of the week, we only did standby for maybe 5-7 rides? Our longest wait was 35min for Alien Swirling Saucers (posted 40min). This was one of those situations where we had a time gap between LLs and I didn’t want us criscrossing the park so we just stayed put in Toy Story land. Plus it was a ride that our whole group could go on, so it was worth the wait for us.

CMs were happy and pleasant, bathrooms were mostly clean (only one very messy one over by Space Mountain), character meet and greets were great! So happy the kids were able to hug characters and get autographs. The magic is still there! And seeing it through your kids’ eyes is pretty amazing

 

[planplanplan]

For those saying that rope dropping HS is essential, we used an evening stacking strategy there with a good outcome last week. We had rope dropped AK (6 AM bus from the hotel for 7 AM early entry) to MK closing the day before, so we just couldn't manage another RD.

At 7 AM I got a 2 PM ILL for MF and a 6:30 PM LL for Slinky. At 10 AM, I got a 5:30 PM LL for ToT. At noon I got a 6:10 PM LL for Smugglers. At 2 PM I got a 7:45 PM LL for MMRR. At 4 PM I got a 6:50 PM LL for TSMM. At 6 PM I got a 7:10 PM LL for Alien SS.

We got to HS around 9:30 AM and rode RnR standyby with a 30 minute wait. Then we watched Beauty and the Beast, Indiana Jones, met Olaf, and saw Frozen. We rode Star Tours standby (10 minute wait), did the 2 PM MF ILL, and wandered Star Wars land for a bit. Saw Muppets and made it to a 4:30 PM reservation at Prime Time. We then started our stack: ToT, Smugglers, Slinky, TSMM, Alien SS and MMRR.

The walk from ToT to Smugglers wasn't the shortest, but the rest of the stack was really, really efficient. I was especially happy to do Toy Story Land in a single visit. We were done with the park by 8:15 PM. I'm sure this wouldn't work if there were high crowds or ride closures, but we did well. I did very little refreshing, just setting my watch alarm for the next Genie+ window and grabbing whatever was available. Big thumbs up.

 

[orangecuse]

Today we did HS in the am. We got MMRR for 8:35 at 7am. We did TSMM x2 during early entry, then rode MMRR, then got genie+ for TSMM for 9am. Tapped in to that and got Alien Saucer for 9:15. Rode that and then went to Ogas and watched Indiana Jones.

Meanwhile started our MK stack for at night and arrived at 3 with SDMT, Peter Pan, Barnstormer, and HM all stacked. Also got Splash, Pooh, Buzz, and Pirates, and Magic Carpets while there tonight and just left.

Very easy in our experience to grab these night time ones at MK! I had to refresh for a minute to get splash for a close return but everything else was easy.

 

[CampbellzSoup]

My son finally got to hug Mickey Mouse my life is compete