Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[jlstwinmommy]

Experienced same thing at AOA/Pop. Always take back up payment first day

Same thing for us at SSR. I found we could not do a room charge until our room number was assigned. I never had to go to the desk, it just worked once the room number was assigned.

 

[preemiemama]

Also good to have some back up in case the credit card machines are down. That’s happened to us a handful of times.

And now at breakfast all room charges are being declined. Front desk can’t even fix- seems to be systemwide.

 

[preemiemama]

Same thing for us at SSR. I found we could not do a room charge until our room number was assigned. I never had to go to the desk, it just worked once the room number was assigned.

It was assigned- it’s just been a glitch in their system apparently.

 

[preemiemama]

Also noticed today that while a lot of CMs at Epcot and DHS were friendly and helpful, many of the ones we encountered today at MK have not been. POTC was the worst- CMs were all bunched up talking about their plans for the evening at the entrance and at the loading area.

 

[asuburbanman]

And now at breakfast all room charges are being declined. Front desk can’t even fix- seems to be systemwide.

Yup tried to buy some diaper rash cream and it got declined. Lady said it was our bands but I could tell from the error on her screen it wasn’t that.

I’ve noticed that CM are trained in a very NARROW role. Almost assembly line like. I am not sure I’d like to be that pigeon holed. However I see why it results in effective operations. Lots of CMs earning their ears.

 

[asuburbanman]

MK today. Crowd levels increased this week over late last week.

ILL SDMT for 9-10 and G+ Jungle Cruise 9:30-10:30
8:45 arrival
ILL for wife and 6 year old; carousel x2 with 3 year old
SB Mickey Phillarmagic (daughters stomach hurt due to SDMT but she loved it)
G+ Jungle Cruise…got Skipper Nicole who I saw in a Tik Tok video. She killed it.
G+ Carpets
G+ Dumbo
G + Little Mermaid
Watched the parade in liberty square

Resort Break

5:15 Chef Mickeys…they need to demolish this whole thing. It looks just like it did in 96 when I was a kid. Food was lukewarm but tasted ok. Characters were so quick and no unique interaction. This is a hard pass. The contemporary as a whole is just not my style. Kids enjoyed the characters at least.

Stacked Pirates, Splash, Haunted Mansion, and Speedway.

Left before fireworks.

Only three days left. Time goes quick in the bubble.

 

[SaintLouie]

We just wrapped up a 7-Night DCL cruise this weekend and spent a single day at Epcot before returning home. Just some notes from our Early Entry in case this information is useful to anyone...

We stayed at Beach Club and took advantage of the quick walk over to the International Gateway and Early Entry into the park. Left the room around 7:20am. By the time we got over to the entrance, there was a crowd of maybe 50-75 people being held back by the Skyliner. At 7:30, we were allowed up to the tapstiles and at 7:35 they started letting people through. We headed toward Ratatouille, and were held briefly in France before being taken back to the ride at 7:40. We were off the ride by 8:00am and made a leisurely stroll toward Norway, stopping for pictures, water and bathroom. Frozen was about a 10 minute wait when we arrived at 8:15, and we were able to complete our ride before 8:30am. By the time we exited, I think the wait was up to 45 minutes.

We didn't really need Genie+ but I purchased it anyway because it was my first chance to use it and I wanted to see how it all worked before using it on a bigger trip later this year. I did use it for shorter waits on Test Track and Soarin, but it wasn't much help on anything else we did since we rope dropped the other big rides earlier in the day.

We got group 63 in the virtual queue for Guardians at the 7am drop and also purchased ILL ($17 each) so that we could have a second ride. With the way the timing worked out, we got to ride it back to back. We all enjoyed the ride and were glad that we had the chance to go on it twice. I am prone to motion sickness and did have to look away from the screens at some points as we whipped through, but didn't have any lingering issues with the ride. My 5yo daughter said that it was "crazy" but that she would do it again sometime. (Note: Ratatouille was way worse for me than Guardians.)

Overall it was a great day. I'm looking forward to the day when all the construction will be completed but am really enjoying all the new spaces that have opened up so far.

 

[Pyotr]

Here now and having a great time, but the maintenance issues and ride down times are very noticeable.

 

[preemiemama]

Here now and having a great time, but the maintenance issues and ride down times are very noticeable.

Agreed. We’ve had several things go down when we were trying to get on them. Plus both Kylo Ren and Big Toe the Shaman were in B-mode when we ride this week.

 

[disneyfan150]

We just wrapped up a 7-Night DCL cruise this weekend and spent a single day at Epcot before returning home. Just some notes from our Early Entry in case this information is useful to anyone...

We stayed at Beach Club and took advantage of the quick walk over to the International Gateway and Early Entry into the park. Left the room around 7:20am. By the time we got over to the entrance, there was a crowd of maybe 50-75 people being held back by the Skyliner. At 7:30, we were allowed up to the tapstiles and at 7:35 they started letting people through. We headed toward Ratatouille, and were held briefly in France before being taken back to the ride at 7:40. We were off the ride by 8:00am and made a leisurely stroll toward Norway, stopping for pictures, water and bathroom. Frozen was about a 10 minute wait when we arrived at 8:15, and we were able to complete our ride before 8:30am. By the time we exited, I think the wait was up to 45 minutes.

We didn't really need Genie+ but I purchased it anyway because it was my first chance to use it and I wanted to see how it all worked before using it on a bigger trip later this year. I did use it for shorter waits on Test Track and Soarin, but it wasn't much help on anything else we did since we rope dropped the other big rides earlier in the day.

We got group 63 in the virtual queue for Guardians at the 7am drop and also purchased ILL ($17 each) so that we could have a second ride. With the way the timing worked out, we got to ride it back to back. We all enjoyed the ride and were glad that we had the chance to go on it twice. I am prone to motion sickness and did have to look away from the screens at some points as we whipped through, but didn't have any lingering issues with the ride. My 5yo daughter said that it was "crazy" but that she would do it again sometime. (Note: Ratatouille was way worse for me than Guardians.)

Overall it was a great day. I'm looking forward to the day when all the construction will be completed but am really enjoying all the new spaces that have opened up so far.

Thank you! Will be staying at YC soon and this was helpful. What time was EE supposed to begin that day?

 

[asuburbanman]

My goodness Animal Kingdom is a hot mess right now. This used to be my favorite park. It’s impossible to plan this park because you have a few decent shows that have overlapping times. The issue is they are so far away from each other. So unless you want to basically try to do back to back shows you are just walking all over creation.

My kids are 3 and 6. By 3pm my options were basically ride triceratops spin over and over or wait 80 minutes to meet the only two characters that meet there.

Granted it was a weird day bc we had to wait until my parents arrived to do a few G+ rides

We managed G+ for Everest, Safari, Navi, and Nemo show. My wife ILL for FOP. Did the Tiger trail. Played in Boneyard. Won some toys at Dino Land. Man that place needs some love. At least fill the Triceratops Spin with water. It looks awful. We literally kept being too far away for the Lion King or Bird Show.

You are basically buying G+ to do Safari and River Journey. Dinosaur and Everest have minimal waits throughout the day.

After my kids got bored of shoving gravel into buckets, we did walk up to Nomad Lounge and got churros and drinks.

The highlight was our Capture the Magic session. We went to 4 locations and got 75 pictures! Amazing deal.

For anyone with kids under 10, this is a half day park right now. All the spontaneous entertainment and additional characters (Donald and friends, Pocahontas and friends, etc) are long gone.

Joe Rhode created a beautiful space but Disney has no idea what to do with it. They shove some characters down the river and fly some kites.

 

[SLThomas318]

Not sure if this is just an AKL thing or property-wide, but found out the hard way that there is an issue with room charging privileges if you have done online checkin and you bypass the desk. Thought I’d pass along the warning to stop and check before you get to the park!

Def property-wide, although no one gave us an explanation. We did a split stay (always do split stays and never had an issue before) and the night before we switched resorts I tried buying a bottle of water and they said I didn’t have charging privileges. Went to front desk and he checked everything and said it should work fine… said sometimes things get wonky when you are moving to another resort. Next day we switched resorts and magic band worked fine all day… the next day, denied. We were in Epcot with no wallet. Fortunately, guest services was able to turn my charging privileges back on, but only because one of the CM’s use to work on the hotel side so she still had access to fix it… other wise I would have had to head back to the resort to have it fixed. I assumed it was a fluke, but it sounds like this is an issue! Lesson learned to start bringing my wallet, but with the magic band it was nice to have one less thing to worry about.

 

[Pyotr]

Def property-wide, although no one gave us an explanation. We did a split stay (always do split stays and never had an issue before) and the night before we switched resorts I tried buying a bottle of water and they said I didn’t have charging privileges. Went to front desk and he checked everything and said it should work fine… said sometimes things get wonky when you are moving to another resort. Next day we switched resorts and magic band worked fine all day… the next day, denied. We were in Epcot with no wallet. Fortunately, guest services was able to turn my charging privileges back on, but only because one of the CM’s use to work on the hotel side so she still had access to fix it… other wise I would have had to head back to the resort to have it fixed. I assumed it was a fluke, but it sounds like this is an issue! Lesson learned to start bringing my wallet, but with the magic band it was nice to have one less thing to worry about.

This happened to me today. I’ve used my magic bands multiple times to buy things on past trips. Today I tried to purchase some snacks after the pool. I didn’t feel like walking to my room to get my wallet or phone, so I planned on using my magic band. When I tried to use it the CM said I didn’t have privileges. I had to walk back to my room and get my stuff to finish the purchase.

Guest services was able to turn my buying privileges back on.

It’s just bizarre and I’m not sure what the problem is.

 

[preemiemama]

Def property-wide, although no one gave us an explanation. We did a split stay (always do split stays and never had an issue before) and the night before we switched resorts I tried buying a bottle of water and they said I didn’t have charging privileges. Went to front desk and he checked everything and said it should work fine… said sometimes things get wonky when you are moving to another resort. Next day we switched resorts and magic band worked fine all day… the next day, denied. We were in Epcot with no wallet. Fortunately, guest services was able to turn my charging privileges back on, but only because one of the CM’s use to work on the hotel side so she still had access to fix it… other wise I would have had to head back to the resort to have it fixed. I assumed it was a fluke, but it sounds like this is an issue! Lesson learned to start bringing my wallet, but with the magic band it was nice to have one less thing to worry about.

This happened to me today. I’ve used my magic bands multiple times to buy things on past trips. Today I tried to purchase some snacks after the pool. I didn’t feel like walking to my room to get my wallet or phone, so I planned on using my magic band. When I tried to use it the CM said I didn’t have privileges. I had to walk back to my room and get my stuff to finish the purchase.

Guest services was able to turn my buying privileges back on.

It’s just bizarre and I’m not sure what the problem is.

It was definitely everyone property wide 2 days ago when we were affected. Seems to be ok for us today. But yes it’s frustrating!!

 

[SaintLouie]

Thank you! Will be staying at YC soon and this was helpful. What time was EE supposed to begin that day?

@disneyfan150 - EE was supposed to begin at 8:00am and regular park opening was 8:30am.

 

[SmileEar2Ear]

During Spring Break/Easter I know they were letting people into EE 30-45 min sooner than even the EE time. For example - reg park hours were 9, 8:30 for EE, but people were getting in around 7:45/8:00. Then that sort of seemed to die down and EE started close to the EE time. However I have seen more reports of people getting in sooner than the EE time and just wanted to see if people could let me know their most recent experiences. What time was EE supposed to start and when did you get in? Thanks!

 

[DMLAINI]

Wondering this as well

 

[CanucksRock]

I went third week of May. MK - let into park early, but not let into Fantasyland until 8:30 on the dot. AK - not let into the park until right at ETPE opening, slow walked to FOP. Epcot, I think it was about 10 mins early. DHS - I can’t remember, I believe we were let in about least 10 mins early.

 

[sethschroeder]

Always have gotten in the parks earlier but you can't get in to the rides until the early period starts (or get held at a choke point not next to the rides).

 

[asuburbanman]

Had a decent day at Epcot. I will say when crowds are heavy there is little chance to get a G+ for the big three (Frozen, Rat, Test Track). So you will need to rope drop something. Turtle Talk was a highlight for my girls. As was meeting Elsa and Anna. However that is one slow moving line. Dinner in Germany was fun and plenty of food.

My oldest watched Harmonious with me, while my youngest hung in the plaza of Germany with my wife. She doesn’t like firework noise. A cast member brought them out chocolate milks after seeing them there. Disney Magic at its finest. This was her first big night show and she enjoyed it. I like that it’s not too pyro heavy. Was surprised by some of the pyro bc I hadn’t watched it online. I thought it was a great show but needed a bit more narration.

Last day tomorrow! Flew by!