Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[bsmcneil]

I teach first grade and use “friends” all day long. I bet it won’t phase me, lol!

It's become important in my house with a 3rd grader and pre-schooler.

 

[erinch]

my daughter is a Montessori teacher and is required to call her charges Friends, not students.
It is one of the few gender neutral terms available for Disney CMs.

I teach first grade and use “friends” all day long. I bet it won’t phase me, lol!

 

[scrappinginontario]

Once again, let's please get back on topic of people sharing what they are experiencing in the parks or have recently experienced.

The 'friends' topic has run it's course in this thread. If anyone wishes to discuss it further, please open a new thread in the Community sub-forum.

Thanks.

 

[Farro]

I'm here and it's hot baby!!! Having a blast!

 

[aeasterling]

We just finished the first day of our trip. I decided to add Genie Plus to our entire trip (7 days). Ultimately I decided that I would rather not have to deal with buying it individually each day. This trip is me, my husband and our 15 year old here for the week (fall break) and our 18 year old who is in college and here for today and tomorrow. He's on a separate two day ticket and this came into play in a way I didn't expect. We are staying at the Swan.

Today's reservation was Hollywood studios, with a dinner ADR at EPCOT. At 7am, I went on MDE to get our ILL for ROTR, but found I couldn't select our son because he's not on our room reservation so not eligible for the early ILL res. I went ahead and got it for the 3 of us at 11:25 and hoped we could work it out. Got our first Genie+ for MFSR at 10:45 (SDD was already at 2pm by then 7:05).

Got to HS at 8. They scanned my ticket and asked to see my room key to get in. Went to Guest Services about the Rise pass. They couldn't sort it out but gave us a recovery pass - score, free! She did say tomorrow we will need to wait until park open.

Here's how the rest of the day went:
In queue for SDD at 8:15, line started moving at exactly 8:30, off 8:45.
Standby TSM - Walk on, off 9
Standby MMRR, 20 min wait, off 9:37
Standby Star Tours, walk on, off 10:10
Bought ILL for Remy at 6:35pm
Tapped into MFSR 10:43 (standby was an hour) got next LL for Saucers
11:10 Kids noped out of Saucers (too spinny) so cancelled that and got LL for TSM 12:55
11:20 tapped into ROTR 5 minutes early, done at 11:50
Mobile ordered ABC Commissary - food was ready in 10 minutes
At lunch we decided we were done, so I cancelled TSM LL and got a 2:50 for TT (EPCOT) instead. This was at 12:05.
Took boat back to hotel to rest for a bit.
At 2:05 (still at hotel) I got a LL for Soarin at 3:30 since my cooling off period was over. So now I had two at the same time.
Headed over to EPCOT at 3ish - World Showcase was PACKED!! Tapped into TT at 3:30 (standby was 45 minutes). Got another LL for SE at 3:30. Now we have two again ( Soarin and SE - Both 3:30-4:30).
Here's where we ran into something interesting. We were off Soarin at 4:40 and so I figured we missed our SE window but I didn't cancel it.
Instead got LL for LWTL (10 min standby but whatever).
When I went to try for another SE after that it wouldn't let me - since it looked like I had already rode it. Note - make sure you cancel a LL if you aren't going to use it.
No big deal, did the 5 min standby for SE and then MS with 5 min standby.
By now it was 6, so we headed back to France and were on Remy at 6:30 - cute but I wouldn't pay for it again.
We were seated at Via Napoli early at 7:05 and had a great dinner.
I had originally planned to stay for fireworks, but it was so crowded that we decided that do it another night.

All in all a successful day - 11 total rides. 2 ILL, 4 LL and 5 standby. Early Entry was great - we had 3 rides done in the first 45 minutes. While I'm not thrilled about paying for Genie+, it was nice that we could use it in multiple parks.

Oh also, wow it was hot today!!!

 

[Datfan1]

We just finished the first day of our trip. I decided to add Genie Plus to our entire trip (7 days). Ultimately I decided that I would rather not have to deal with buying it individually each day. This trip is me, my husband and our 15 year old here for the week (fall break) and our 18 year old who is in college and here for today and tomorrow. He's on a separate two day ticket and this came into play in a way I didn't expect. We are staying at the Swan.

Today's reservation was Hollywood studios, with a dinner ADR at EPCOT. At 7am, I went on MDE to get our ILL for ROTR, but found I couldn't select our son because he's not on our room reservation so not eligible for the early ILL res. I went ahead and got it for the 3 of us at 11:25 and hoped we could work it out. Got our first Genie+ for MFSR at 10:45 (SDD was already at 2pm by then 7:05).

Got to HS at 8. They scanned my ticket and asked to see my room key to get in. Went to Guest Services about the Rise pass. They couldn't sort it out but gave us a recovery pass - score, free! She did say tomorrow we will need to wait until park open.

Here's how the rest of the day went:
In queue for SDD at 8:15, line started moving at exactly 8:30, off 8:45.
Standby TSM - Walk on, off 9
Standby MMRR, 20 min wait, off 9:37
Standby Star Tours, walk on, off 10:10
Bought ILL for Remy at 6:35pm
Tapped into MFSR 10:43 (standby was an hour) got next LL for Saucers
11:10 Kids noped out of Saucers (too spinny) so cancelled that and got LL for TSM 12:55
11:20 tapped into ROTR 5 minutes early, done at 11:50
Mobile ordered ABC Commissary - food was ready in 10 minutes
At lunch we decided we were done, so I cancelled TSM LL and got a 2:50 for TT (EPCOT) instead. This was at 12:05.
Took boat back to hotel to rest for a bit.
At 2:05 (still at hotel) I got a LL for Soarin at 3:30 since my cooling off period was over. So now I had two at the same time.
Headed over to EPCOT at 3ish - World Showcase was PACKED!! Tapped into TT at 3:30 (standby was 45 minutes). Got another LL for SE at 3:30. Now we have two again ( Soarin and SE - Both 3:30-4:30).
Here's where we ran into something interesting. We were off Soarin at 4:40 and so I figured we missed our SE window but I didn't cancel it.
Instead got LL for LWTL (10 min standby but whatever).
When I went to try for another SE after that it wouldn't let me - since it looked like I had already rode it. Note - make sure you cancel a LL if you aren't going to use it.
No big deal, did the 5 min standby for SE and then MS with 5 min standby.
By now it was 6, so we headed back to France and were on Remy at 6:30 - cute but I wouldn't pay for it again.
We were seated at Via Napoli early at 7:05 and had a great dinner.
I had originally planned to stay for fireworks, but it was so crowded that we decided that do it another night.

All in all a successful day - 11 total rides. 2 ILL, 4 LL and 5 standby. Early Entry was great - we had 3 rides done in the first 45 minutes. While I'm not thrilled about paying for Genie+, it was nice that we could use it in multiple parks.

Oh also, wow it was hot today!!!

I would call that a Good Day. Well done.

 

[ElizaDoesDisney]

I also just finished Day 1 of my trip. Plan was AK morning to ride Safari and see Kite Tails and then hopping to MK. Bought G+ to get LL for MK after 2PM. Couldn't go back to sleep after getting up at 7 to make LL selection so ended up at AK at 8:10.

Did all standby at AK:
Dinosaur, walk on at 8:07
Triceratops Spin, walk on at 8:39
Everest Single Rider, walk on at 8:47
Safari - posted 20 minutes, actually 10, on at 9:10
Grabbed a snack at Sat'uli at opening (10)
Feathered Friends in Flight at 10:30
Kite Tails at 11:15
Lucked into a seat at bar at Nomad Lounge for drink/snack

Then hopped over to MK, where I did pretty much everything via LL. I was able to get three reservations prior to entering (7AM, 11AM, 1PM) and kept rolling those while doing some shopping and general sightseeing in between (note - time stamps are for when I got on ride vehicle - LL lines ranged from walk on to 15ish minutes, I didn't track that so relying on memory)
2:17 - Haunted Mansion
2:40 - Jungle Cruise
3:17 - Pooh
3:47 - Peter Pan
4:04 - Small World
Then had dinner at Jungle Skipper Canteen - had a 4:45 reservation, but checked in a bit early and was seated at 4:30
5:37 Pirates
Then I was supposed to do splash but it went down right as my return time started - my LL reservation was converted to an any LL pass (exceptions of ILL$ and Peter Pan)
6:12 Big Thunder
6:45 Under the Sea
7:10 Tomorrowland Speedway
7:21 Buzz
Fireworks
8:36 Splash
9:07 Splash
9:35 Peoplemover via Standby - walk on
10:01 Space Mountain - posted 20, waited 10

All in all a great, magical, but exhausting day. I'm sleeping in tomorrow.

 

[coolbrook]

I also just finished Day 1 of my trip. Plan was AK morning to ride Safari and see Kite Tails and then hopping to MK. Bought G+ to get LL for MK after 2PM. Couldn't go back to sleep after getting up at 7 to make LL selection so ended up at AK at 8:10.

Did all standby at AK:
Dinosaur, walk on at 8:07
Triceratops Spin, walk on at 8:39
Everest Single Rider, walk on at 8:47
Safari - posted 20 minutes, actually 10, on at 9:10
Grabbed a snack at Sat'uli at opening (10)
Feathered Friends in Flight at 10:30
Kite Tails at 11:15
Lucked into a seat at bar at Nomad Lounge for drink/snack

Then hopped over to MK, where I did pretty much everything via LL. I was able to get three reservations prior to entering (7AM, 11AM, 1PM) and kept rolling those while doing some shopping and general sightseeing in between (note - time stamps are for when I got on ride vehicle - LL lines ranged from walk on to 15ish minutes, I didn't track that so relying on memory)
2:17 - Haunted Mansion
2:40 - Jungle Cruise
3:17 - Pooh
3:47 - Peter Pan
4:04 - Small World
Then had dinner at Jungle Skipper Canteen - had a 4:45 reservation, but checked in a bit early and was seated at 4:30
5:37 Pirates
Then I was supposed to do splash but it went down right as my return time started - my LL reservation was converted to an any LL pass (exceptions of ILL$ and Peter Pan)
6:12 Big Thunder
6:45 Under the Sea
7:10 Tomorrowland Speedway
7:21 Buzz
Fireworks
8:36 Splash
9:07 Splash
9:35 Peoplemover via Standby - walk on
10:01 Space Mountain - posted 20, waited 10

All in all a great, magical, but exhausting day. I'm sleeping in tomorrow.

Great info! Could you share which G+ reservations you made at 7, 11, and 1. Trying to figure out what order to make them in. Thank you

 

[canyoncam]

I also just finished Day 1 of my trip. Plan was AK morning to ride Safari and see Kite Tails and then hopping to MK. Bought G+ to get LL for MK after 2PM. Couldn't go back to sleep after getting up at 7 to make LL selection so ended up at AK at 8:10.

Did all standby at AK:
Dinosaur, walk on at 8:07
Triceratops Spin, walk on at 8:39
Everest Single Rider, walk on at 8:47
Safari - posted 20 minutes, actually 10, on at 9:10
Grabbed a snack at Sat'uli at opening (10)
Feathered Friends in Flight at 10:30
Kite Tails at 11:15
Lucked into a seat at bar at Nomad Lounge for drink/snack

Then hopped over to MK, where I did pretty much everything via LL. I was able to get three reservations prior to entering (7AM, 11AM, 1PM) and kept rolling those while doing some shopping and general sightseeing in between (note - time stamps are for when I got on ride vehicle - LL lines ranged from walk on to 15ish minutes, I didn't track that so relying on memory)
2:17 - Haunted Mansion
2:40 - Jungle Cruise
3:17 - Pooh
3:47 - Peter Pan
4:04 - Small World
Then had dinner at Jungle Skipper Canteen - had a 4:45 reservation, but checked in a bit early and was seated at 4:30
5:37 Pirates
Then I was supposed to do splash but it went down right as my return time started - my LL reservation was converted to an any LL pass (exceptions of ILL$ and Peter Pan)
6:12 Big Thunder
6:45 Under the Sea
7:10 Tomorrowland Speedway
7:21 Buzz
Fireworks
8:36 Splash
9:07 Splash
9:35 Peoplemover via Standby - walk on
10:01 Space Mountain - posted 20, waited 10

All in all a great, magical, but exhausting day. I'm sleeping in tomorrow.

I was thinking an evening stacking strategy at MK would work best. You proved that. Maybe a bit more difficult for families to accomplish, but looking good for the solo power riders!

 

[ElizaDoesDisney]

Great info! Could you share which G+ reservations you made at 7, 11, and 1. Trying to figure out what order to make them in. Thank you

Sure. I knew I wanted to do Jungle Cruise and Haunted Mansion since I missed those favorites last trip and those times seemed to get pushed out far fast. I'm not sure this was the "optimal strategy" but it worked for me. All times are the start of the return window.

7AM - Book 2PM Jungle Cruise
11AM - Book 2PM Haunted Mansion
1PM - Book 3:45 Peter Pan (one of the few things in Fantasy/Adventure that had pushed past 2 - I didn't think I could do JC/HM and a third ride in the same hour window especially since I couldn't tap into park until 1:55)

Then I rolled some extra Fantasyland rides as I tapped into existing reservations
Pooh - 3:15
it's a small world - 3:55

Then I concentrated on setting up 3 for after my dinner
Pirates - 5:30
Splash - 5:55
Big Thunder - 6:05

And then kept rolling as I worked my way through New Fantasyland and Tomorrowland
Tomorrowland Speedway - 6:20
Under the Sea - 6:45
Buzz - 7:15
Splash Take 2 - 8:50

 

[Gentry2004]

Sure. I knew I wanted to do Jungle Cruise and Haunted Mansion since I missed those favorites last trip and those times seemed to get pushed out far fast. I'm not sure this was the "optimal strategy" but it worked for me. All times are the start of the return window.

7AM - Book 2PM Jungle Cruise
11AM - Book 2PM Haunted Mansion
1PM - Book 3:45 Peter Pan (one of the few things in Fantasy/Adventure that had pushed past 2 - I didn't think I could do JC/HM and a third ride in the same hour window especially since I couldn't tap into park until 1:55)

Then I rolled some extra Fantasyland rides as I tapped into existing reservations
Pooh - 3:15
it's a small world - 3:55

Then I concentrated on setting up 3 for after my dinner
Pirates - 5:30
Splash - 5:55
Big Thunder - 6:05

And then kept rolling as I worked my way through New Fantasyland and Tomorrowland
Tomorrowland Speedway - 6:20
Under the Sea - 6:45
Buzz - 7:15
Splash Take 2 - 8:50

i thought you couldn’t book a LL for the same ride twice.How did you book splash twice?

 

[Lsyves]

Here now. LL lines not moving fast. Not sure it’s worth it honestly. MK.

 

[persnickity]

Here now. LL lines not moving fast. Not sure it’s worth it honestly. MK.

How long are they taking?

 

[leeniewdw]

i thought you couldn’t book a LL for the same ride twice.How did you book splash twice?

In their original post of their day, they said Splash was down at their LL time so they were given an LL to use on any ride.

 

[Farro]

How long are they taking?

Cant speak for their experience at MK today, but for us the lines have been nonexistent when using Genie + at all the parks. In this heat, we were very happy to have it!

 

[Lsyves]

How long are they taking?

The longest was Haunted Mansion, around 30 mins. Maybe I was just overheating but I felt like that was a long time for LL.

 

[pixiedust2u]

Question for those just getting back and who made use of Genie+. Do you think you are on your phone, more, less, or about the same as the old fast pass + system?

 

[Lsyves]

Here now day 1 & 2 recap:

Day 1: After 24 hours of travel (flew in from Europe) we arrived at WL on DME around 9pm. Picked up some packages at front desk and settled into our room. Ordered in person at Roaring Fork and had some issues with missing items and food taking a very long time. Food was cold Went to bed.

Day 2: Kids were up at 3, then made it to 6:30 before they were asking for breakfast. Put in a 7am mobile order for Roaring Fork. Food was cold again Slowly headed to MK for first LL at Pirates at 10am. Sailed right on. Waited standby for JC which was about 25 mins. Had a hilarious CM. Explored Tom Sawyer’s Island and stopped many times for snacks (our bodies are messed up from the jet lag-anything goes the first day!). Had next LL for HM but still waited about 30 mins! Waited in standby for Little Mermaid bc it said 5 min wait time-it ended up being 25 mins. Not sure what was going on there. Walked over to Buzz Lightyear for next LL and waited about 10 mins. Did speedway standby and waited only 7-8 mins. Crowds seemed light and this was around 2:30. Started to fade so we went back to WL and did another mobile order. Food cold again Roaring Fork manager called me to apologize for all the issues. Very nice. And we did notice there are a tons of new CMs training around the lodge. Rested and showered until early dinner at Whispering Canyon. Kids fell asleep at table so they went back to the room without eating and slept hard til 4 am. Husband and I ate dinner and bill was $142 for two entrees and four drinks. A bit of sticker shock there but still foggy from jet lag and have to adjust to Disney pricing.

I have to point out that pretty much every CM we have encountered has been friendly, happy, helpful, and yes, magical. They’re really doing their best to maintain standards which makes me super happy!

Animal Kingdom next, and we will probably be more ourselves today and get on more rides than yesterday. Park hopping tonight is the plan...

 

[elgerber]

Question for those just getting back and who made use of Genie+. Do you think you are on your phone, more, less, or about the same as the old fast pass + system?

I would say the same slightly less. With fast pass I was refreshing constantly to try to move times.

 

[ItsMEH]

I returned yesterday from a 10/13-10/24 trip, so Genie launched in the middle of our vacation. I have never been to WDW this time of year but crowds seemed similar to other times I had been (Jan and Mar). I am not sure if there is a slow season anymore. I really did not think that I would end up buying any ILL passes but caved on that pretty quickly. Our first day in Hollywood Studios, Rise of the Resistance was down every time we were willing to wait in line for it and this was the one ride my husband and BIL wanted to ride, so I bought ILL for our second HS day. We all felt like it was worth it, not to wait in line. For the first half of our trip, ride times were totally inflated, but once Genie+ hit, they seemed to be more accurate. I used to be in the camp of "fastpass does not affect standby" but I could actually tell the difference once Genie+ launched. We enjoyed continuously moving standby lines and could tell the difference, once LL was introduced. I ended up adding Genie+ on our last day, which was Saturday in Magic Kingdom. I didn't fully understand exactly how it could be used, so I think I could have maximized it more, but I ended up using it for 7 rides.

I felt like mask compliance was pretty good, there were always a couple people trying to pull them below their noses, but I generally saw them addressed by a cast member pretty quickly. One bus driver had to harp on a guy pretty good for not wearing his and told the guy that health officials make random checks on his bus and he would get fined for any passengers not wearing a mask. I felt really bad, the passenger was being kind of a jerk.

I LOVE the idea of mobile ordering in general, I use it all the time, but it was tough at DisneyWorld. We had 7 people and trying to decide when to order and get everyone to settle on one place, was a challenge. We started to figure out a cadence for it, but it took some time for sure. I think Hollywood Studios was the worst park for this, because they don't have a ton of food carts to walk up to and we kept ending up in Toy Story Land at lunch time and Woody's Lunchbox would be "sold out" hours in advanced.

We stayed at POP Century for the first time and we all absolutely loved the Skyliner. It is so convenient and makes travelling to the parks so much faster. Skyliner will be a consideration in our future stays at WDW.

We rode more charter busses than Disney busses during this trip and more than once, we saw folks in wheelchairs left behind because of it. One night leaving Disney Springs a family told us they sat through 3 busses coming and going, because none of them were busses that could accommodate their son in his wheelchair. My heart broke for that Mom because there was nothing she could do.

Overall we had a wonderful vacation and as always, I can't wait to go back. I hope some of this info was helpful. If anyone has any questions, let me know!