Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[petunia]

Hi all, what time/how much in advance of closing do they allow you to get on, or alternatively not let you get on rides/close the line? Do they take into account if 30 mins before close there is a 30 min line and close it for example, or is it possible that you wait 30 mins to close and then park closes and you will be turned away if youre not on yet?

 

[GBRforWDW]

Hi all, what time/how much in advance of closing do they allow you to get on, or alternatively not let you get on rides/close the line? Do they take into account if 30 mins before close there is a 30 min line and close it for example, or is it possible that you wait 30 mins to close and then park closes and you will be turned away if youre not on yet?

Typically they’ll allow you into a line until park closing time. Everyone in line at that time can stay in line until they’re able to ride.

 

[becauseimnew]

Hi all, what time/how much in advance of closing do they allow you to get on, or alternatively not let you get on rides/close the line? Do they take into account if 30 mins before close there is a 30 min line and close it for example, or is it possible that you wait 30 mins to close and then park closes and you will be turned away if youre not on yet?

As long as you are in line before park close you'll get to ride, if the park closes at 9PM you can jump in any ride line at 8:59.

 

[petunia]

Thanks guys, after many times at WDW I had no idea, and would just rule out that option assuming we'd be wasting our time getting in a line!

 

[davidl81]

I’m here now, and I have been here since Friday. The lines are long, but honestly not too bad. They are always moving with the lack of fast passes and most of the actual wait times are about 75% of the posted wait times. Parks are packed though, I would assume there is no capacity limit right now as this seems packed even for a normal summer. This is our 3rd trip post covid and it’s been fun to see more and more things open up. No issues at all with rude CMs, overfilled trash cans etc. I’m not saying these didn’t happen, but it’s nothing I’ve noticed. For the most part it feels like 90% of a normal July Disney trip but with no fast passes.

 

[tinkerhon]

Can you expand a little on "Disaster" at MK, and HS? Thanks for the words.

Sure---- MK --- the lines are endless, and it seems like every single attraction has a 60 minute wait time listed--- there is a severe lack of CMs around controlling the crowds--- what I mean by that is that people are waking around, and have no idea where the line starts and ends- the way that MK is constituted, between the lack of FPs and the capacity, you are basically forced to RD if you want to do a fair share of the attractions--- you are basically waiting on lines all day.

DHS not much better---- very crowded, and with the exception of a few of the "minor" attractions ("Muppets", for example) , long lines for basically every attraction-

Should also add that mobile ordering at MK is a nightmare--- people waiting for food for 45-60 mins, and huge crowds of people.

 

[100AcreWood]

I have two questions. We have a lot of Disney experience, but this trip feels different with the changes. We have never utilized rope drop or left the parks in the middle of the day, but it seems like the best strategy.

We have two days planned for HS. When should we arrive for RD?
Can we still leave the park, go to the resort for a couple hours and come back? I assume re-entry still works on the same ticket as long as we go the same park?

 

[SCDisneyfanatic]

Sure---- MK --- the lines are endless, and it seems like every single attraction has a 60 minute wait time listed--- there is a severe lack of CMs around controlling the crowds--- what I mean by that is that people are waking around, and have no idea where the line starts and ends- the way that MK is constituted, between the lack of FPs and the capacity, you are basically forced to RD if you want to do a fair share of the attractions--- you are basically waiting on lines all day.

DHS not much better---- very crowded, and with the exception of a few of the "minor" attractions ("Muppets", for example) , long lines for basically every attraction-

Should also add that mobile ordering at MK is a nightmare--- people waiting for food for 45-60 mins, and huge crowds of people.

Thanks for that update. Doesn't sound too fun or promising. I'm glad our plan is to just get the granddaughters a taste of WDW and do a few kids rides each day. It would seriously disrupt our "normal" touring tactics. And I think we will skip DHS all together because not much open for 2 and 4 year olds. Thanks again!!!

 

[ten50]

AK today, staying at poly, rope dropped FOP...At bus stop 644...bus arrived 659...off bus 0715, already letting people in...bridge 0723...FP entry 743...inside 747...in lab 0800...preshow room 811...off 827, wait time says 135 minutes

 

[becauseimnew]

AK today, staying at poly, rope dropped FOP...At bus stop 644...bus arrived 659...off bus 0715, already letting people in...bridge 0723...FP entry 743...inside 747...in lab 0800...preshow room 811...off 827, wait time says 135 minutes

Thanks, the waits at AK are nuts this morning.

 

[becauseimnew]

Did Splash come online yesterday??

 

[MomOTwins]

Thanks, the waits at AK are nuts this morning.

Depends on whether you fork left or right at the tree:

Left
FOP: 155 mins
NRJ: 40 mins
KS: 60 mins

Right
EE: 20 mins
KRR: 5 mins
Dinosaur: 5 mins

 

[Meglen]

AK today, staying at poly, rope dropped FOP...At bus stop 644...bus arrived 659...off bus 0715, already letting people in...bridge 0723...FP entry 743...inside 747...in lab 0800...preshow room 811...off 827, wait time says 135 minutes

If your family is already awake and ready to go I find rope drop amazing. But... And this is prolly controversial if your family is not and you get up and take early bus and than wait in the pre open line than slow walk.. it's usually the same wait time overall.

Wake up at 6am for 6:45 bus = 20-30 min wait
Get to park at 7:15
Hope they let ppl in early but = 15-45 min wait
Slow walk to ride and pray you were in the front of the pack =15 min
Walk through queue =10-30 min

Now sure some folks get lucky and hit all these perfect like op. But in reality you are waiting an hour or more doing rope rope if you have to wait for bus or open. Yes you have to wait for bus either way but.. waiting for the first bus is another level of crazyness.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

I have two questions. We have a lot of Disney experience, but this trip feels different with the changes. We have never utilized rope drop or left the parks in the middle of the day, but it seems like the best strategy.

We have two days planned for HS. When should we arrive for RD?
Can we still leave the park, go to the resort for a couple hours and come back? I assume re-entry still works on the same ticket as long as we go the same park?

Hi-as someone whose family is also jolted by this we are also planning rope drop a couple of times. And yes you can still go back to your resort midday for the pool but keep in mind each resort is different-some had reservations required but I haven't seen anything about that since spring break time. I do believe you can park hop but you have to have gone to the park you reserved for that day first.

 

[DestyTiger]

Thanks for that update. Doesn't sound too fun or promising. I'm glad our plan is to just get the granddaughters a taste of WDW and do a few kids rides each day. It would seriously disrupt our "normal" touring tactics. And I think we will skip DHS all together because not much open for 2 and 4 year olds. Thanks again!!!

We just got back from a 4 day trip yesterday and I will agree that it is crowded in all of the parks. But, I found that actual wait times to be significantly less that the posted times in almost all situations. When we were at MK, by 11am lines for most attractions were posted as over 60 minutes. We got in line for HM and IASW when posted times were 60 minutes and each took less than 25 minutes. When we came out they were still posted at 60 minutes. Hit BTMR with 70 minutes posted time, wait was only 50 min. The only two that we found wait times relatively consistent with posted times were Splash and SM. Both were posted at 90 and took about 75-80 minutes.

Found similar at HS as well. In most cases wait times were posted much higher than actual. We hit ToT around 1pm and wait time posted was 65 minutes, but we were on the elevator in 35 minutes. TSM had a posted time of 75 and we were on in 40 min. Even SR was about 75% of posted wait time just before lunch. Now we did find MMR and RR to be close to the actual 75 min posted time.

While waits were long, they were not as bad as posted. We are from Louisiana and still found the heat to be the biggest problem as so many lines still spill out into the sun without much shade or airflow (even without and social distancing at all). Heat indexes were running around 105 during the middle of the day. We didn't notice any real shortage of CMs, but Disney could probably use a few more here and there. I know they are still trying to decide if they need to bring in more students from the College Program, and I am hoping they do as that could provide a few extra CMs to assist with line management (again we didn't real any significant issues with lines) and possibly get the parking lots trams back up and running.

All in all, we had an enjoyable trip. You can definitely see things picking up since last year. We went in Oct '20, Jan '21, May '21, and Jul '21 and each time crowds have been larger.

 

[jimmymc]

Finally, thank god, a positive trip report I can show my kids before we go on Monday. On second thought, I will continue showing them the negative so I don't have any pushback when I am telling them we have to get to the park 1.5 hours early if we want to ride anything.

I think the only negative is that parks are back to pre-Covid crowds. Last summer and fall had much smaller crowds due to reduced capacity, but we're basically back to full.

 

[moesy4]

Thanks guys, after many times at WDW I had no idea, and would just rule out that option assuming we'd be wasting our time getting in a line!

We have found wait times to be seriously inflated at closing bc they are trying to discourage people from doing just that, so don’t be afraid to just hop in line even if it says it is a long wait. We use Tp and one time we hopped over to SDMT right at closing where the wait showed over an hour. The CM was literally shouting out to people that it was an extremely long wait and to consider not getting in line. Tp showed 20 minutes and it was spot on, even with a short break down.

 

[preemiemama]

I have two questions. We have a lot of Disney experience, but this trip feels different with the changes. We have never utilized rope drop or left the parks in the middle of the day, but it seems like the best strategy.

We have two days planned for HS. When should we arrive for RD?
Can we still leave the park, go to the resort for a couple hours and come back? I assume re-entry still works on the same ticket as long as we go the same park?

We did this last week- RD, afternoon break, back to a park (we hopped, but you can certainly re-enter the original park). It definitely helped with crowds and wait times. Plus, waiting in line with the sun going down is a lot more tolerable...

IMHO, being at the bus stop 90 minutes prior to a park opening is best- this is especially important for AK and DHS since they queue you for specific rides/areas 60 minutes prior and then start running 30 minutes prior. AK only typically runs FOP that early, but that seems to be the best shot at doing it if you can make the first bus. Everything after that seems to be lower until about 10-11 am since people get hung up in Pandora as they enter the park.

MK was OK for us heading to the bus stop about an hour before. It is a hard 9:00 open- nothing runs early. You really only need to be at the very front if you're planning on 7DMT first. As long as Spalsh and Space are running, you could get one or the other more easily at park opening.

 

[Gary Stocker]

"but the best thing I ate all day was the fish and chips we got from the window in the UK "...

Love me some Yorkshire.

Outside of Disney I usually stay away from fish in general...there is something about Yorkshire, though. that makes it one of my favorite QS meals...perhaps it's the "non-Disney" fries as well?

 

[PrincessV]

Just a note about Mobile Ordering...

My experience over multiple pandemic trips has been that in the early days, most people understood the system. My last visit a couple weeks ago felt like MANY more Guests had no clue that MO was necessary, nor how it worked. At all. That produced some crowds of people hovering around restaurants, asking for help from CMs, placing their orders because they though you had to be right there to place an order, or hanging around waiting for their return time and/or for orders to be ready. I placed my orders ahead of time, nowhere near whatever restaurant I was ordering from, hit "I'm here..." when I was somewhere else but on my way toward the restaurant (usually after exiting an attraction, stopping at a restroom on the way - figure 10-ish mins), and only approached the restaurant when my order was ready. There, I passed all the groups of people hanging around and went straight to the CM manning the door, showed my "Your order is ready" image, and walked in. I had no issues whatsoever.