Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[Ngwira]

Hi! My dd and I went 11/21 and returned on 11/26. We went in knowing lines would be long. Outside of the lines, mask compliance was almost 100%. Inside the lines was another story. In almost every line that we were in that was over 30 minutes, we got stuck behind people that didn’t think masks were necessary. I’m not sure how this could be improved but will send in feedback so Disney is aware.
Sadly, despite being super careful before and during our trip, I did test positive today but dd is negative.

Did you dine indoors at WDW?

 

[yulilin3]

Lara please stay focused on just back reports of WDW, thank you

 

[scjm222]

I hope you feel better! We are flying the same trip as you next week. We’ve been distancing so we don’t catch it beforehand. You might have caught it beforehand though. It takes 4-5 days before symptoms start. DH was like maybe we should cancel.

Thanks! It’s hard to say as I was also distancing before our trip, but you never know.

 

[scjm222]

I live in a Houston Suburb, and did you test before you left? I’m fairly sure that half the people in my town are running around positive and just not testing. Too many maskless house parties. Houston is a huge Petri dish right now. You easily could have been positive before you left.

Agreed! We are in Pearland and I see the same thing happening. I didn’t test prior to our trip but I purposefully didn’t do anything the week before.

 

[scjm222]

Did you dine indoors at WDW?

Just once, we either ate outside or got food to take to our room.

 

[michellej47]

Returned last night from our 6 days at Disney World. Part 1!

11/21 - Arrival and HS
Flew into MCO, grabbed luggage, and waited about 20 minutes for Magical Express. We were the first stop. Dropped our luggage at bell services at OKW and immediately hopped a bus to Hollywood Studios. We got in the park around 1:15pm. Waited about 40 minutes for MMRR. I will say, we didn't love it. It was cute, but we didn't do it again on our return visit. After we got off, it was 2pm and I was able to snag boarding group 84 for ROTR. Had a decent lunch at Backlot Express and got a little Pixie Dust in the form of a free dessert. Rode tons of rides (I was amazed by how un-crowded I thought the park was considering it was a Saturday). Longest wait was SDD which was about 45 minutes. Got on ROTR just before 6pm. By then we had ridden everything except ToT and RnR, but we were exhausted as we had to be up at 4am for our early flight. We could have stayed in the park until 7 and finished it all, but we knew we were coming back a second day so we headed back to the resort (room ready text came around 5:30pm). Had dinner at Goods Foods to Go at OKW. Kids swam for a very short time. Loved our room at OKW (Deluxe Studio).

11/22 - Animal Kingdom
We had intended to be in the park prior to opening to get on FOP, but that didn't happen. We were in by about 8:30am, though, and FOP was already a 90 minute wait, so we decided to hold off and went straight to Everest, which was a walk on. Also walked on to Safari and Dinosaur. Had lunch at Flame Tree BBQ (my favorite). Our cashier (we have a food allergy in our party and ordered inside and not mobile) recommended we sit by the water, which we did, and it was awesome. Sitting here let us see all of the boat "parades" while we ate. After, we just enjoyed the rest of the park. Was able to ride FOP later in the day for about a 50 minute wait, but well worth it. It was my first ride, as the last time we went, FOP had just opened a month prior and I couldn't snag a FP (and I wasn't about to wait 3 hours for a ride). By about 4:30, we had done everything in the park, but we had a 6:30 reservation at Rainforest Cafe, so we rode a couple of rides again. Had a good dinner and the chef was awesome with my son's allergies. We didn't go back into the park after dinner since we were tired and just headed back to the resort.

Part 2 coming next!

 

[michellej47]

Part 2

11/23 - Magic Kingdom
Again, intended to be at the park at opening, but we just couldn't make it. We got in about 30 minutes after opening. Waited for 7DMT for about 45 minutes. Splash about 40 minutes. Everything else was 30 minutes or less. Today was also our first day dealing with someone who just would not obey the distancing markers. My husband finally had to say something to him because he was right on top of us. We had lunch at Pecos Bill and had no trouble finding a table. Wait times were not bad at all with the exception of Jingle Cruise. We waited over an hour and cannot figure out why. And then our driver wasn't as good as what I'm used to, so it turned out not to be worth it. Dinner was at the Plaza. It was amazing and they did such an amazing job with my son's allergies. It was his favorite meal the entire trip! We were able to ride everything except for 3 small rides, which we could have done but again, decided to leave the park about an hour before it closed.

11/24 - Back to Hollywood
Since we only had two rides that we had to do, we weren't in such a hurry to get in the park at opening. I got up at 6:55 and was able to snag boarding group 24. We to to the park about 10:30. The boys did RnR while my daughter and I did the Frozen Singalong. By then, our Boarding Group was called, so we rode Rise again. This time, however, the ride broke down while we were in the transport. We were stuck in there only for a few minutes before we were "rescued". It was cool because we got to see the "backstage" of the ride (and it was funny that they told us NOT to use our phones while we were being moved. We were able to continue on with the ride. I was glad we had ridden it on our first day because if not, I would have been a bit irked that we missed out on most of the transport part. None of us was offered another ride or anything, which kind of surprised me. Rode every single ride again a 2nd time except for MMRR as we just didn't feel waiting in a 40 minute line was worth it. We had lunch at PizzaRizzo and then a 7:30 after park reservation at Sci Fi. My husband and I enjoyed it. The kids (11 and 14) liked sitting in the car but they thought the movies were cheesy. After dinner, we decided to head to Disney Springs. Kids wanted to to the Skyliner, so we took that to CBR and then a bus to DS. We went to World of Disney and then left as there were way too many people. We aren't overly scared about the virus and even we were a bit uncomfortable with the crowds.

Part 3 next.

 

[michellej47]

Part 3

11/25 - Back to Magic Kingdom
Nothing super eventful happened this day. We rode every ride except for Jingle Cruise (my kids weren't having it after the previous experience) and 7DMT (it's just too short to be worth the 75 minute wait it stayed at all day). We had lunch at Pinocchio's and found a table pretty easily. Wait times were a bit shorter today than Monday. By around 6pm, we were physically done and headed back to the resort. Grabbed dinner again at Goods and the kids swam while I did some laundry (we needed some clean masks).

11/26 - Thanksgiving and Epcot
I did make sure we were in the park before opening. Bus actually was running early and we were picked up and at the gate before 10am. We were in the park shortly after 10 and went straight to Frozen. Waited about 25 minutes. Then headed to TT. Should have been about a 20 minute wait, but the ride "temporarily stopped loading" for about 20 minutes. They kept saying "we aren't closed and you are welcome to wait in line" so we did. Then headed over to the Land and had lunch at Sunshine. No trouble finding a table. Rode Living with the Land as a walk on then did Soarin for a 45 minute wait. Walked the countries a bit until about 5:30. Left to head to Whispering Canyon Cafe for our Thanksgiving dinner. Food was good, service was not. We barely saw our waiter. We had hoped to be out of there by 8pm so that we could head back to Epcot and finish up what we had not done yet. But by the time were were done, we didn't get back to the park until 9pm and only had an hour. Luckily, the few things we hadn't done yet were walk ons, so we were able to get it all done.

11/27 - Return home
Had an 8am reservation at Olivia's. Again, the food was excellent but the service wasn't great. I will say they had the best grits I have ever had. ME picked us up at 11am for a 2:25 return flight. Got home a bit after 7pm last night.

Part 4 - overall thoughts up next

 

[michellej47]

Part 4 - Overall thoughts

We had an excellent trip. I definitely would recommend first timers waiting until things are a bit more normal. The one thing I learned is that crowd size is in the eye of the beholder. There were people in a FB planning group I belong to that were in the same park as I was complaining about how crowded it was. I really didn't find it overly crowded the entire week, especially considering that it was a holiday week. We usually go in the Summer or during a long President's or MLK weekend, so to me, the crowds were not terrible at all. The weather was perfect until the last two days when it got hot. Wearing masks 12+ hours a day was tough but doable, though the backs of my ears still hurt!

Photopass was not worth it for me, sadly. It wasn't the masks that bothered me, but the lack of pictures I got. I didn't expect to get the 300-400 pics I normally get, but I am still disappointed in what I did get. Several of our ride photos never showed up, and we were in boats/cars by ourselves in all of the ones I am missing and I know we were all compliant with masks. I did report them so hopefully they will find them. But my biggest disappointment was the lack of photographers. It was tough to find them. We had a very rude guy in Animal Kingdom at Pandora, and the pictures are terrible. He cut our heads off in half of them. But we did get some good pictures, so at least there is that!

The cavalcades were great and we enjoyed the opportunity to see the characters. With the exception of rude photographer I mentioned above, all CMs were so nice and you could tell they are trying their best to make things magical.

Mask compliance was excellent with a few exceptions. Distancing was also good for the most part. All in all, we really enjoyed our trip and I'm glad we went!

 

[chilly2336]

We just returned from a trip that went from 11/22-11/27. It was a last minute trip that we started planning on 11/17 and I must say it was one of the best and most relaxing trips to WDW that we have ever experienced. We were able to get park reservations for all four parks and it was great not having to worry about FP+. It made the days in the parks completely spontaneous and we were able to ride everything that we wanted. Completely agree with michellej47 that if you decide to visit, do not let the length of the lines deter you from riding. Almost without exception every posted wait time was shorter than wait time that was posted and some by significant amounts. The lines do extend quite a way out of the normal queue but do not be discouraged...they move rapidly. We were able to ride attractions multiple times in the same day that in the pre-COVID world we never would have been able to do.

If you are contemplating a trip to WDW and you are not overly fearful of being close to people for short periods of time then I would encourage you to go. You will be near people on walkways, queue lines, etc...there is no getting around that and that is why I think if you prefer to be overly cautious this is not the time for a visit. We felt completely safe and Disney is doing everything they can do to operate their theme parks and hotels in a safe manner.

Being in the Disney bubble and away from "real world issues" did my entire family a world of good and the lack of required planning to visit all major attractions was a definite plus. We haven't had this much fun in many months and to hear my family laugh and enjoy themselves was worth every penny. So thankful that we were able to go.

 

[cyndiella]

I really feel that Magic Kingdom is the best place for them. Pirates, Haunted Mansion and It's a Small World.

I didn't try it in Hollywood Studios as almost all the rides are either new or refurbished since 2001. You might want to try it on Tower of Terror and Aerosmith.

Epcot, you can try it on Test Track, Frozen (maybe some of the stuff was held over from Malestrom).

Animal Kingdom we were going to try it on Dinosaur but we didn't get a chance to go on the attraction.

Thanks, we will definently try your suggestions.. One more question: do you HAVE TO be ON the ride? or in the que line? for the lights to blink? can you stand just outside of the ride? (for example if the ride goes down during the day and we cannot ride it) Thanks again.

 

[cyndiella]

Part 4 - Overall thoughts

Photopass was not worth it for me, sadly.... But my biggest disappointment was the lack of photographers. It was tough to find them.

Sadly, we found this to be true in October as well.. There were 6 of the around the hub but hardly any anywhere else. I asked and was led to believe that Photographers were also laid off. Sad. Please correct me if needed but I thought Photopass was sub-contracted (like the Magical Express drivers) and are not Disney employees.... ANYONE????? ??

 

[LSUfan4444]

I'm ready for FP+ to return. We have been to Disney so many times we find ourselves not wanting to wait in any lines longer than 20 minutes. FP+ spoiled us in that regard!

I couldnt disagree more, but I know I am in the minority. This was the best experience we have had in the theme parks in years. I miss park hopping for sure but only twice in a 9 day trip did we wait more than 35 minutes for anything and it was for Mine Train and Flight of Passage and both during peak hours so we didnt mind.

Not having any FP to keep me in a park longer than I wanted to be, not having to know two months out what time I wanted to be in the park and what area of the park, etc...it was so much easier for us knowing the crowds would be spread out more and unless we were truly one of the first people in the park or got in line just before closing, we could truly arrive and tour on what was most convenient on that day.

 

[Lsdolphin]

We tested out of caution...no symptoms other than being a little tired, which I thought was from the 100k steps we did!

Hoping although you tested positive and obviously will need to quarantine that you don’t have any further symptoms!

 

[Aela]

Agreed! We are in Pearland and I see the same thing happening. I didn’t test prior to our trip but I purposefully didn’t do anything the week before.

We’re in Friendswood and it really is full of stupid people doing idiotic things. It’s like the ladies here think the virus dies when it hits our city line

 

[Lsdolphin]

I’m wondering how large a number of guests are testing positive for COVID after returning from Disney...I’m still going and planning to be very cautious...if I’m in a line with people who pull down their masks I will definitely say something Or get out of the line. Re-thinking some our ADRs as well...
...I know it’s unrealistic to think for a minute that COVID is not a danger in the parks as it is everywhere else!

 

[MEC004]

We’re in Friendswood and it really is full of stupid people doing idiotic things. It’s like the ladies here think the virus dies when it hits our city line

Same with Cinco Ranch & Fulshear. I hope we all have safe trips. I am excited though even if a little leery. We leave on Tuesday.

 

[Lsdolphin]

Same with Cinco Ranch & Fulshear. I hope we all have safe trips. I am excited though even if a little leery. We leave on Tuesday.

Yes, we leave on Tues as well 12/2-9 at GDT...wishing everyone safe travels!

 

[Sydnerella]

We tested out of caution...no symptoms other than being a little tired, which I thought was from the 100k steps we did!

I’m so very sorry to hear that! I hope you are feeling well and are a asymptomatic I had a test two days before departure just to confirm I wasn’t positive but asymptomatic and my family was not likely either since we have been distance learning and working from home for months together.

Leaving from MCO now sadly... My post trip test is tomorrow... and the rest of family will test Tuesday and Wednesday. We also planned to do it as a precaution post trip. Twice. And quarantine. I hope you do not get badly ill.

 

[disneyseniors]

I couldnt disagree more, but I know I am in the minority. This was the best experience we have had in the theme parks in years. I miss park hopping for sure but only twice in a 9 day trip did we wait more than 35 minutes for anything and it was for Mine Train and Flight of Passage and both during peak hours so we didnt mind.

Not having any FP to keep me in a park longer than I wanted to be, not having to know two months out what time I wanted to be in the park and what area of the park, etc...it was so much easier for us knowing the crowds would be spread out more and unless we were truly one of the first people in the park or got in line just before closing, we could truly arrive and tour on what was most convenient on that day.

I'm with you, LSUfan! It is so freeing to just go ride what you want when you want. Everyone is on an even playing field without fast pass. Honestly, with fast pass, we usually only rode the 3 we had due to the lack of them and the extra long waits that are caused by the FP. I wish they would do away with FP when this is all over.
Before covid and before FP's, we waited in lines which moved all the time. We got to see the queus and the little things along the way that "make" the ride, and got to talk with others. I personally liked it much better without FP's.
I think you are not alone in this, and I think many others will see this as preferrable after this experience. Fingers crossed!