Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[lovethattink]

Just want to add that there are still plenty of magnets, I got mine on Monday.

The “lounge” is a joke though, it‘s a fairly small area and was packed every time we went by it. We only stopped in once very briefly. They did allow me to bring gf with me even though she’s not an AP. Still baffled that they didn’t utilize Restaurant Marrakesh.

Where exactly is the lounge?

 

[Leigh L]

June 4-6 2023 trip report... Husband and I did a quick 2 day trip for my Birthday. We're AP's and thought we'd hop on the monorail while staying at the Poly to get to MK. I knew there wouldn't be too many rides we could get on because it was towards evening (around 5pm) and we did not pay for Genie +. Well..... all we could ride on is the train that goes around the park and even that was a 30-40 minute wait to get on the train! Aladdins Magic Carpets were nearly 50 minutes! Pirates was around 40 minutes and the queue was nearly all the way to where you scan in! It was a very busy time at MK on June 5. I woke up the next day and checked wait times by 8pm Genie + times to come back were almost to 4pm and then by 1/2 hour later popular rides for Genie + were sold out for the day. We ended up dropping our park reservation and heading home. Not sure what they have park capacity at? Even the wait times for simple rides that used to be 10 maybe 20 minutes are now 40-60 minutes 90-120 or more for popular rides depending on the ride! I highly recommend buying Genie + for sure. We felt bad for those visiting from other states (or countries for that matter) and weren't getting on very many rides. The positives about the trip: is that we were pixie dusted at both our resorts! Port Orleans Riverside (exceptional staff by the way). While waiting in line they gave me a Happy Birthday button. At the quick service they sang Happy Birthday to me in line! We bought a Standard room and were giving King bed preferred location. At Poly we bought standard and just asked "no dirt/construction view" and they gave us a King Bed preferred section right next to the lobby with lush greenery and a peek of the monorail passing by! Ohana for Breakfast was so disappointing. Husband thought it was terrible. Powdered eggs, he asked for cheese and the waitress said no. The ham portion was super small and full of fat, the biscuits were hard and stale. Never got to take pictures with Mickey and we were there quite awhile. Poly pool was insanely crowded. We had a much better time at POR pool. By the way, the Dark Chocolate Mickey Mouse Birthday cake is fantastic!

Sorry for the rough parts, but glad to hear you had some great stuff at the resorts!

 

[summerlvr]

Where exactly is the lounge?

In The Land Pavilion in a portion of Sunshine Seasons.

 

[TexasJedi]

I agree the change from Friday to yesterday was crazy! So much busier as the weekend went on!

I hope you had a fabulous trip!

Just got back last night from a week-long trip with my family. We still had an amazing time on our trip overall--but we were totally shocked in the shift that happened with crowds over a couple of days toward the end. The weather was cooler than what we've come to expect even from mid-June trips, and that was great, but this Monday/Tuesday were the busiest we remember seeing the parks during a non-holiday period.

We started Monday at HS, but ROTR and Slinky Dog were both down for a while, causing everything in the park to balloon wait times. You know you're in trouble when the Olaf meet-and-greet is published at 55 minutes wait time. (Man, does that park need some other attractions--even bringing back Voyage of the Little Mermaid and the Jedi training for kids would help.) We had Genie+ but had reserved Slinky Dog at 7 a.m., so we weren't able to use it for anything else the first couple of hours the park was opened. We tried to meet the new Little Mermaid, but she was "running late" according to the CM, and once the line did open about two hours after published time, it didn't move at all, so we left after sitting still for 30 minutes.

We went back to the resort (Riviera) mid-afternoon and park hopped to Epcot and had to wait about 10-15 minutes to get on the Skyliner, which we'd never experienced in the late afternoon, because all of the Skyliners were already full of people from the Caribbean Beach transfer. We stayed for the Deluxe Extra Magic Hours, got in line Test Track around 9:10, then went straight to Guardians, and it was already after 11 by the time we got done there. So that was all we got to do with the extra time. The Wednesday before, we were able to do several rides at MK right after the fireworks and into the early part of the extra hours.

Given all the warnings about a "softer summer" for Disney parks this year, I'm thinking the increases are likely simply due to the unofficial start of summer with so many schools getting out in the last week or two.

 

[brockash]

DD qualifies for the DAS. I'm trying to decide if we need G+ on top of that.

The issue is, she gets sensory overload so we can't do full park days. Half days are what we shoot for. I can't decide if G+ is worth it for a family of 4 for a half a day. Plus over 10 park days and potentially $35/per person per day... G+ costs could add up to $1400 in G+ costs if we did it every day. We won't do it every day, but if and how to best use it are my big questions...

No, you definitely don't need g+ on top of das and really not worth it even if you're doing a full day and certainly not a half day.

We did both last year (had already bought tix with genie included) and we all felt it wasn't needed and half the time we didn't even use them since das was so much more user friendly (not confined to a specific time). We ate, did shows, and a cpl. smaller rides that had very lil wait in between the das passes. We did not get genie plus earlier this year and just das was perfect.

 

[CeCe0906]

No, you definitely don't need g+ on top of das and really not worth it even if you're doing a full day and certainly not a half day.

The only time you would use DAS in conjunction with Genie +, is when the standby line is long, like an hour, so your return time would be 50 minutes. If you have Genie +, you could potentially grab a Genie return time during that wait to maximize the rides you do during your half day. We often use those longer waits for a snack, lunch,show or sensory break, but we are usually doing full days.

For example get a DAS for Peter Pan, and a Genie + for a close by Fantasyland ride. Do the Genie ride, schedule another later in the morning, then go do your DAS res.
Works well until Genie + times get too far out in the day for you.

Since the DAS recipient has to ride to utilize the pass, if there are other members of your party that want to ride something that they can't or won't ride, they could use Genie to shorten their wait times during your half days.You also don't have to buy it for everyone in your group. Just the people who would use it.

You wouldn't need it everyday. Animal Kingdom, I wouldn't buy it. ILL for FOP, is a better buy there in my opinion.

If part of your party intends to return to the park and part stay back at resort with your DAS user, then they could also stack Genie return times for later in the evening.

 

[100AcreWood]

I'm really surprised by all the crowds. We visited Disney twice during this time in June, and didn't find the crowds to be all that bad. With rising ticket costs, I would think that would reduce the number of people visiting but apparently not.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

I'm really surprised by all the crowds. We visited Disney twice during this time in June, and didn't find the crowds to be all that bad. With rising ticket costs, I would think that would reduce the number of people visiting but apparently not.

It sometimes seems to be self-fulfilling for Disney. All the reports of deals and special offers leads to people speculating lower crowds and demand. So some decide, 'hey, lower crowds, we should go to Disney!'.... And there are no longer lower crowds!

 

[NotTheBatesMotel]

DD qualifies for the DAS. I'm trying to decide if we need G+ on top of that.

The issue is, she gets sensory overload so we can't do full park days. Half days are what we shoot for. I can't decide if G+ is worth it for a family of 4 for a half a day. Plus over 10 park days and potentially $35/per person per day... G+ costs could add up to $1400 in G+ costs if we did it every day. We won't do it every day, but if and how to best use it are my big questions...

DD sounds very similar to my son! We usually do half days, spend a bunch of time at the resort (he’s miserable if we push it) and sometimes he’s up for going back at night. We’ve found Genie+ to be very helpful on busy days.

Yes you’re waiting outside the line, but when you’re waiting an hour for pirates and you’re struggling to find a place that doesn’t have immense sensory overload, it helps to have a G+ ride booked to break up the wait. It’s not necessary at all but it really does help knock out more when your time in the parks is limited.

 

[Mermaidtails1323]

Finally getting around to writing our trip review. Went from 5/30-6/4 with my daughters and mom. We left the boys at home (1YO) so we could focus on rides!

Arrived around 11:30pm and didn't get to AOA until about 1/1:30am. We used Mears Connect. It was convenient, but they made us wait a full 30 minutes before leaving, as they were expecting other booked passengers (who never came). That was the only annoying part, as we were exhausted. I had checked in for the first time using the app, so we went straight to our room. We were in the Little Mermaid section, so a bit of a walk. We got to bed as quickly as possible, as we had every intention of rope dropping AK the next morning (my girls' request).

We got to the bus stop at 6am for 730 EE and were the first people there. Bus left around 618 and we were towards the front of the crowds. Of course, I found out that my cameras set off the metal detectors, so I had to wait to have my bag screened. We still managed to make our way towards the front of the crowd. In the past, we've always rope dropped EE. My girls decided to chance FOP so we could ride it twice. We were one of the first groups on and then made our way to EE where we rode 4 times in a row, followed by Dinosaur twice. At that point, we were starving, so we stopped for pretzels (pixie dusted an extra one!). We then made our way over to It's a Bug's Life and the Feathered Friends in Flight show before heading back to the hotel to get my mom and take a pool break. We returned around 2:30pm, as we had a reservation at TH. I had stacked our FP for the evening so we could easily hit rides after our meal. We did NRJ, FOP, KS, EE, and IABL one more time before calling it for the day.

Wednesday we woke up for EE at DHS. We got up for 6:30am and were not the first ones at the skyliner. Despite this, we still had decent positioning at DHS, as our priority was to head for TOT (in hopes of also riding RnRC). We rode TOT 3 times in a row, as RnRC was down. After the 3rd ride, I checked the app, and it had just opened, so we ran that way. We did wait longer there (maybe 20-30 minutes), as all the LL people were joining. My 8yo has been dying to ride this, so I'm glad we could make it happen! From there, we went to SDD for LL, followed by AS2 (pulled a LL after tapping in). Next we did Muppets before our ILL for RoTR. We had mobile ordered for lunch, and pulled one more FP for TOT before we decided to leave for the day. We wanted to do a few more rides, but already had planned on doing DAH at Epcot that night. We got back to the hotel, took a nap, and then woke up to head to Epcot. I pulled a LL for Remy's to happen about 30 minutes before our dinner reservation at Via Napoli. The food there was AMAZING and I can't wait to go back. After that, I pulled a FP for Soarin, Spaceship Earth, GOTG, and then Frozen. We did 3 Caballeros right as the park closed (per my youngest's request) before heading to DAH. I wrote in the other forum regarding our experience that evening, but definitely wouldn't repeat.

The next day was our "rest" day. We slept in til about 9/10am and then decided to head to TL. We got there around 12:30 and stayed for a few hours. The lines weren't horrible, and my kids had a great time. The wave pool is CRAZY! Definitely a nice break day. We headed to DS, as my oldest really wanted to try Gideon's. First we had a late lunch at Terralina's, which wasn't bad, but not as good as Via Napoli. About the time we got in line for Gideon's was the time it started raining, but it was pretty light. We did a little shopping and then headed back to the hotel to rest up.

Our final day was at MK. We had the BEST day! We tried to rope drop Space, but it was down. We decided to divert and headed to Tomorrowland Speedway. My mom REALLY wanted to do IASW, so we did that (despite the better part of me wanting to save it for later). From there, we did HM, BTMRR, POTC, and then our FP for JC. Once tapped in, I was able to get a FP for Space to start 20 minutes later. We did that, followed by Buzz and Carousel of Progress. By that time, it was our lunch reservation for Crystal Palace (moved up, as we had a BG for Tron that looked like it was going to be called during our initial reservation). During lunch, we decided to buy ILL for GOTG one more time, as we wanted to ride it again. By the time we finished lunch, they called our BG and we headed to Tron. Afterwards, we did LL for Barnstomer (youngest's request), PP, Tiana M&G, and then it was time for our ILL at Tron. I pulled a LL for BTMRR, but by the time we got there, it was closed for lightning. We decided to watch Country Bear Jamboree to see if it passed, but was still closed when we finished. At that point, we diverted and went to PoTC one more time. By that time, we needed to hop the monorail over to Epcot for GOTG. My youngest asked to do Spaceship Earth again first, so we stopped there before GOTG. We finished by grabbing a beer and walking to the skyliner to come back to AOA. We had an early flight to catch the next day, and by that time it was already 8:30pm.

Overall, this was an EXCELLENT trip and helped us accomplish so much. Crowds felt manageable, especially Thursday-Saturday. Then again, we splurged for Genie+ and ILL, so that helped us feel like we didn't have to wait in line. I did refresh up to 3 minutes and got all the LL we wanted except MMRR, which we decided to just skip. Besides DAH, this trip was spectacular.

Now trying to convince my husband that we need to go back sooner...

 

[asuburbanman]

Quick 4 day stay at Pop Century. Got in last night after delayed flight. Mears Connect was waiting for another passenger who never came (like above poster) so that put us back a bit. Was hoping to get to the hotel by 5 and got there around 8:30. Picked up groceries and went to our room. We are preferred and realize now that with the skyliner this can be hit or miss. Preferred pool view is the way to go but none were available.

We had booked 3 days and 5 nights but switched our ticket to 4 day magic and saved some money. We were debating on a 4th day and that would have been another $400 for the four of us. So this worked out.

Did AK today. Was on the fence about Genie +. Decided to go for it and glad I did. We got there about 8:00. Went to Triceratops Spin for a few rides (we have a 4 and 7 year old that aren’t thrill seekers). Probably the only people who rope drop that ride. Booked Safari for 9:45.

Got in line for Moana meet at 8:40 and we’re first in line. Published start time of 9:30. She started meeting at 9:15. Moana walked out and held my daughters hand and walked her into meet and greet area. Well worth it! This was the priority when you have a 7 year oldz

Got some Shakin Jamaicans and a donut before heading to the Safari. Booked the 10:30 Festival of Lion King and went right over there. We adopted some baby lions prior to the show which made it a ton of fun. Got a Pumba popcorn bucket afterwards.

We then headed over to Sa’naa for lunch. $11 for a kids meal and they honestly could have split it. The pizza is edible unlike elsewhere and the grub they give you is fancy worms and dirt. We did bread service and two appetizers. $72 lunch before tip. Can’t really beat that. Saw some animals from our seat including a crazy crane named Edward that loved our window.

Booked a Nemo show LL for our return. They really give you priority seating at this show. We were 4th row and it was great. We then pulled Expedition Everest and took turns riding while the girls had ice pops. Girls enjoyed hanging in theater and greeting characters in the floats.

Then headed to Pandora to do River Journey. We were back at Pop by 5:30.

The only thing I couldn’t pull due to lunch timing was the Mickey and Minnie meet.

Dinosaur was down most of the day. However I think my girls would lose their mind if I pulled them on that.

It’s time for Dinosaur land to be converted to Moana. It’s an easy retheme for Boneyard, shops and the spinner. Just not sure how they handle Dinosaur without razing it and replacing it with the flume E ticket.

So I’m the end that $400 went to four days of Genie + for four days but we were gonna spend it any way on that 4th park day.

Epcot tomorrow and priority is Elsa and Anna meet. Waited for a long time there last year. Not making that mistake again.

 

[NileNellie]

June 4-6 2023 trip report... Husband and I did a quick 2 day trip for my Birthday. We're AP's and thought we'd hop on the monorail while staying at the Poly to get to MK. I knew there wouldn't be too many rides we could get on because it was towards evening (around 5pm) and we did not pay for Genie +. Well..... all we could ride on is the train that goes around the park and even that was a 30-40 minute wait to get on the train! Aladdins Magic Carpets were nearly 50 minutes! Pirates was around 40 minutes and the queue was nearly all the way to where you scan in! It was a very busy time at MK on June 5. I woke up the next day and checked wait times by 8pm Genie + times to come back were almost to 4pm and then by 1/2 hour later popular rides for Genie + were sold out for the day. We ended up dropping our park reservation and heading home. Not sure what they have park capacity at? Even the wait times for simple rides that used to be 10 maybe 20 minutes are now 40-60 minutes 90-120 or more for popular rides depending on the ride! I highly recommend buying Genie + for sure. We felt bad for those visiting from other states (or countries for that matter) and weren't getting on very many rides. The positives about the trip: is that we were pixie dusted at both our resorts! Port Orleans Riverside (exceptional staff by the way). While waiting in line they gave me a Happy Birthday button. At the quick service they sang Happy Birthday to me in line! We bought a Standard room and were giving King bed preferred location. At Poly we bought standard and just asked "no dirt/construction view" and they gave us a King Bed preferred section right next to the lobby with lush greenery and a peek of the monorail passing by! Ohana for Breakfast was so disappointing. Husband thought it was terrible. Powdered eggs, he asked for cheese and the waitress said no. The ham portion was super small and full of fat, the biscuits were hard and stale. Never got to take pictures with Mickey and we were there quite awhile. Poly pool was insanely crowded. We had a much better time at POR pool. By the way, the Dark Chocolate Mickey Mouse Birthday cake is fantastic!

This is unreal-we were at MK on June 4 and walked on Thunder three times in a row. What a difference a day makes.

 

[photo_chick]

We just left after 5 days at POR. It was a great trip. Crowds were much larger than we expected. The only dark spot was the number of people ducking in and out of lines. On Tron two guys were sending their kids out of the VQ to go play. They went under the chains at least a dozen times. CM's ignored it. And on Guardians a guy sent his kids to go get their GoPro. The kids left the lightning lane and were allowed to return to it, pushing past probably 60 or 70 people to catch back up with their group. We saw a lot of minor line jumping on other attractions as well. It's getting out of control.

 

[Mermaidtails1323]

We just left after 5 days at POR. It was a great trip. Crowds were much larger than we expected. The only dark spot was the number of people ducking in and out of lines. On Tron two guys were sending their kids out of the VQ to go play. They went under the chains at least a dozen times. CM's ignored it. And on Guardians a guy sent his kids to go get their GoPro. The kids left the lightning lane and were allowed to return to it, pushing past probably 60 or 70 people to catch back up with their group. We saw a lot of minor line jumping on other attractions as well. It's getting out of control.

We had a few rare instances on our trip, but it seemed legit and was only one person. I’ve definitely had worse line skipping on previous trips. Maybe the larger crowds brought out the worst in people?

 

[asuburbanman]

Rough morning at Epcot. Nemo, Test Track, and Frozen down to start the day. Frozen still down. Some went on Soarin and Emmy youngest and I kind of just wound up stuck bc Nemo was closed. Missed meeting Elsa and Anna with a short wait. Not standing in that line again for a long time. We hit up Donald boat ride, met Belle in France, and used our Remy LL. Went to Cape May Cage for breakfast. Have Test Track and Frozen for the PM so car. Also a Guardians ILL.

 

[asuburbanman]

Went back around 2

Met Pluto

Test Track

Visa Character Meet

Living with Land

Nemo

Anna and Elsa Meet with kids while wife did GOG (this line is brutal..I don’t get why it takes so long..3 rooms, about 18 guests total but feels like each group of 6 takes 10 minutes to cycle through the meet)

Frozen Ever After

Dinner at Connections Cafe

Spaceship Earth

Soarin

Left right after fireworks and was back to our room in Pop by 10:15. Skyliner operations are impressive.

Hollywood Studios today. Got a 8:50 Slinky Dog and ROR for later tonight.

 

[asuburbanman]

Hollywood Studios is empty today. Thank goodness.

Pulled Slinky Dog for 8:50-9:50. Coming back solo for Star Wars stuff so booked a 7pm ROR.

Here is everything we did before 3pm. We arrived at 8:45

Mickey and Minnie Meet
Ran into Chewy cutting through Galaxy’s Edge
Slinky (LL)
TSM (LL)
Alien Saucers (LL)
Met Frozone and Sully
Disney Junior Dance Party (LL)
Met Darth Vader (Visa) and BB8
Met Disney Junior Characters
Lunch at Mamma Melrose
MMRR (LL)
Olaf Meet (LL)
Frozen Sing a Long (LL)

 

[asuburbanman]

No problem doing everything in the PM for Star Wars. ROR was a walk on at one point

 

[asuburbanman]

Last day at MK yesterday. Was our toughest day by far. The 4 park Magic ticket limits you to one day MK and it’s just tough to make a 1 day game plan when with kids and adults. We focused on things our kids would enjoy (4 & 7 year old girls)

Bought SDMT for everyone and Genie +. Got Peter Pan for 10:30.

Boarded bus by 7:45. Yikes, they were doing something different with security and had one stroller line open only. They also only have a few security lines for buses. They need so much space to accommodate ferry crowds in PM that it tightens things up.

We didn’t wind up getting near the castle until 8:55. We headed to the Princess Meet and this began what seemed like a confusing operating day for MK. It seems like they are rotating staff more often in positions. Almost seemed like no one was sure what they were doing at times. This is first time I remember seeing CM’s walking around with small tickets that must have been their assignments.

Our plan was to head over to meet Ariel at 9:50 bc she starts at 10. Lots of others had the same idea. Enchanted Tales was down, which was our next idea. We then did a few various Fantasyland rides until it was time for our Peter Pan LL. Dumbo said a 10 minute wait and we wound up waiting much longer. After Peter Pan we did our ILL for 7 Dwarves. Headed out for a break and sat towards the end of Main Street for the parade.

Got back around 4:30. Did Carpets and Jungle Cruise. Pirates went down. Skipper Joey was great. His mic broke mid trip and he just shouted the rest of the trip. It was hilarious.

Dinner at Skipper Canteen. Had Larry was our waiter and he was great.

We then swung back to Fantasyland with a LL for Enchanted Tales with Belle. We waited outside for close to 30 minutes bc someone puked in one of the rooms. This was our first time doing this and this is where Disney needs to put their focus. They should have moved forward with these types of experiences for other new meets. My daughter didn’t get a main role but still had a blast. Loved how we just sat there and the CMs facilitated with the kids.

We hit a few more rides before Fireworks using LL. Watched fireworks from near the end of the Tomorrowland bridge. Perfect spot to see Tinkerbell.

Hustled over to Small World as a last ride (weird but we hadn’t done it yet). My youngest fell asleep.

We then slowly headed towards the exit. As we got to the carousel I saw Princess Aurora walking around. Then I recalled someone mentioning on here that the princesses walking around after Royal Table ended.

This is where the magic happened. My daughters went up to Jasmine. She took them by the hand, walked them around for 2 minutes, and moved onto another little girl. My girls were playing with their bubble wands. Snow White came over and started asking them about it.

This was like being transported back in time. I’m wondering who made the call to have them interact this way. It was truly special. I just don’t see how they can do this during high crowds. It would be so unsafe. Was happy to experience this after a somewhat frustrating day with operations and crowds.

We had a great trip. The 4 day magic ticket was perfect, with the exception of maybe trying to cram too much in at MK and as a result making it a somewhat frustrating day.

Pop Century was great as always. Can’t beat the transportation options. Honestly so impressive to see how efficiently the skyliner and bus operates.

 

[bridget]

We just finished 5 days at Disney. We were a group of 5- myself, my husband, two teenagers and my mom! My family loves all the rides!! That was our priority

We loved the early entry. By the time we got into the park, it was only about 5 min before the early entry time started.
We were able to do Rise of the Resistance and Flights of Passage with about 20 min waits.

We needed to get there earlier for Seven Dwarfs!! By the time we got back there, it was 75 min. We did have good luck at 11:15 pm at the extended hours!

By getting there early, we were ready to head back to the resort around noon. Then I started stacking lightening lanes every two hours for the evening when it was cooler!

For our family, this strategy allowed us to ride lots of rides, with little waiting!