***Official March 2021 Thread***

[dez1978]

The yellow days around Easter have all turned back to green
Either they moved availability between categories or increased capacity. Interesting...

All of March is green again.

 

[kathi]

Idk if anyone uses Touringplans for the crowd calendar. But I've been watching and comparing last years Presidents day with this year. So last year, every park was a 10 with 164 min wait for 7DMT and 91 mins for BTM (just using these as a comparison). This year the parks were 4-5's. 7dmt had an avg wait of around 90 min and BTM was about 70. I think if more shows were open, the waits would have been less. my days in march are all predicted as 2-4's so I'm optimistic it won't be too bad.

I've been following the WDW App wait times and they were significant most of the time over the past 5 days. The one thing to keep in mind is that this time last year we had FastPass - so with some planning, you didn't stand in lines (we are those people). So it's a very different experience for folks who were expecting 30 minute or less lines and seeing 100 minutes for some attractions.

 

[dez1978]

I've been following the WDW App wait times and they were significant most of the time over the past 5 days. The one thing to keep in mind is that this time last year we had FastPass - so with some planning, you didn't stand in lines (we are those people). So it's a very different experience for folks who were expecting 30 minute or less lines and seeing 100 minutes for some attractions.

They were still significantly less than standby times last year. I'm just saying in terms of crowds, it IS a lot less people than normal. Even with FP, there were times we had to wait in some lines. We were lucky to get the big ones early, and kept getting more thru the days but sometimes we just had to wait. But the FP line does make the standby line longer. Honestly though, anyone who thought lines were going to be less than 30 mins this weekend were crazy.

 

[skeettafic]

I've been looking at the app as well and I don't think wait times are truly awful. Yes, they're long but for a holiday they seem better than typical. I need to remember to check them out tomorrow morning to see what they look like earlier in the day.

 

[TexanInTheMidwest]

Thank you for sharing! Indoor dining is a big hesitation of mine as well. We have a few reservations made but I might back those down some and just deal with what QS we can get.

I felt safer with indoor dining than I did QS to be honest. Because with indoor dining, you have an assigned time, an assigned table, and they do a good job at distancing. With QS - at least in the parks - it isn't always easy to find a table. Plus you have all the people hovering waiting for their food to be ready so they can pick it up (both HS and MK - didn't do QS in AK or Epcot)

I did QS at Grand Floridian in October and it was OK as far as distancing - and QS for Breakfast at Riviera in Jan - and they had opened up breakfast seating Bar Riva since it wasn't opened yet.

 

[KdKyA]

Hello! We are going from Mar 26-Apr 4, staying at Fort Wilderness (in a cabin). Glad to see we aren't the only one's about to experience Easter/Spring Break crowds. We are from NY and have pretty much been in lockdown for almost a year. So being around huge groups of people will definitely feel a lot different than in the past!

 

[skeettafic]

I felt safer with indoor dining than I did QS to be honest. Because with indoor dining, you have an assigned time, an assigned table, and they do a good job at distancing. With QS - at least in the parks - it isn't always easy to find a table. Plus you have all the people hovering waiting for their food to be ready so they can pick it up (both HS and MK - didn't do QS in AK or Epcot)

I did QS at Grand Floridian in October and it was OK as far as distancing - and QS for Breakfast at Riviera in Jan - and they had opened up breakfast seating Bar Riva since it wasn't opened yet.

Definitely something to consider as well....

And this is why my head is spinning in circles with this trip!

 

[TexanInTheMidwest]

Definitely something to consider as well....

And this is why my head is spinning in circles with this trip!

If I were you, I would make some sit down dining reservations, especially for the 1st day of your trip. And then if you are uncomfortable, you can cancel any other TS reservations.

And if you find you're comfortable, you'll have a nice spot in the parks to rest with your family, take off masks, and eat.

I know it's a lot of work to make all the ADRs, but I like the "better safe than sorry" approach. Because I DID kinda kick myself for not having any ADRs the afternoon that I hopped over to HS, didn't have any dining reservations, and the QS areas were just uncomfortably PACKED.

 

[MomOTwins]

What were the park hours for March prior to the times listed now? It looks like there has been a one hour extension to both MK & EP. MK now closes at 7, and Ep closes at 8. I know the dining reservation times just got bumped up and we had to modify them. Am I missing something?

A short while ago they extended the hours for the first week of March for about an hour--think that is what you are seeing. Those should now be final or near-final hours. The rest of March (starting on the 7th) has not been updated and is still showing the standard hours of MK 9-6, EP 11-7, HS 10-7 and AK 9-5.

Definitely something to consider as well....

And this is why my head is spinning in circles with this trip!

I know what you mean--I hear so many people saying how much easier it is to go to WDW now that you don't have to do any planning, but it feels like I need more planning now because so much of what we used to do on a typical trip is no longer available (closed shows/dining), you need more of a touring plan now that same day FPs are not a thing, and park hours (both "official" and the "unofficial" rope drop hours) keep changing!

 

[bizeemom4]

All of March is green again.

THANK YOU!! I wanted MK on 3/15 but it was blocked. Just got it. Thanks for the heads up!!

 

[skeettafic]

If I were you, I would make some sit down dining reservations, especially for the 1st day of your trip. And then if you are uncomfortable, you can cancel any other TS reservations.

And if you find you're comfortable, you'll have a nice spot in the parks to rest with your family, take off masks, and eat.

I know it's a lot of work to make all the ADRs, but I like the "better safe than sorry" approach. Because I DID kinda kick myself for not having any ADRs the afternoon that I hopped over to HS, didn't have any dining reservations, and the QS areas were just uncomfortably PACKED.

We do have some made though I'm guessing at least a couple of them we will modify or drop. I'm waiting to see what happens with park hours in a couple of weeks before I make any final decisions.

 

[TexanInTheMidwest]

What were the park hours for March prior to the times listed now? It looks like there has been a one hour extension to both MK & EP. MK now closes at 7, and Ep closes at 8. I know the dining reservation times just got bumped up and we had to modify them. Am I missing something?

If your family is good with a later dinner, I'd take the latest park reservations you're comfortable with taking. Even if they haven't extended the park hours (yet), it puts you leaving the park after a majority of the other folks which gives you the bonus for some nice photos with your family AND hopefully the lines for transportation will have thinned out.

 

[Bama Mom]

Bama Mom, which days are you doing what parks? Just curious since we are there the same days.

we are actually doing the one thing we shouldn’t do but starting at MK on Monday as well as ending the first part of Friday at MK.

Monday: Magic Kingdom
Tuesday: Hollywood Studios then possibly Hopping to Epcot
Wednesday: Animal Kingdom
Thursday Hollywood studios if we decide we need this second day here. If not we will change this to another park to start at then hop somewhere else
Friday: Magic Kingdom the. Possibly hop to Epcot again or a different park. We have a late 9:00 pm ADR at Beaches and Cream to end our trip on the kitchen sink

for our ADRs we have a 5:45 pm liberty tree tavern on Monday but hoping to change that to later if they extend hours we have Sci-fi lunch or supper on Tuesday. Just need to decide which we want to keep. We have lunch at Yak and Yeti on Wednesday. Just need to decide which time to keep (we have an 11 something and 1 something). We also have a sci fi on Thursday in case we want it instead but we will probably cancel it. Friday we have lunch at skipper canteen and then the late beaches and cream.
I am hoping that even though we are doing MK on Monday, we still get a lot done that day while we are fresh.

 

[Bama Mom]

I’ll come back and add all the new people to
The list later or in the morning when I am
On my laptop and not my phone.

 

[dez1978]

we are actually doing the one thing we shouldn’t do but starting at MK on Monday as well as ending the first part of Friday at MK.

Monday: Magic Kingdom
Tuesday: Hollywood Studios then possibly Hopping to Epcot
Wednesday: Animal Kingdom
Thursday Hollywood studios if we decide we need this second day here. If not we will change this to another park to start at then hop somewhere else
Friday: Magic Kingdom the. Possibly hop to Epcot again or a different park. We have a late 9:00 pm ADR at Beaches and Cream to end our trip on the kitchen sink

for our ADRs we have a 5:45 pm liberty tree tavern on Monday but hoping to change that to later if they extend hours we have Sci-fi lunch or supper on Tuesday. Just need to decide which we want to keep. We have lunch at Yak and Yeti on Wednesday. Just need to decide which time to keep (we have an 11 something and 1 something). We also have a sci fi on Thursday in case we want it instead but we will probably cancel it. Friday we have lunch at skipper canteen and then the late beaches and cream.
I am hoping that even though we are doing MK on Monday, we still get a lot done that day while we are fresh.

I think the only day we have the same is Tuesday lol. I’ve planned MK on Sunday, Epcot Monday, HS Tuesday, mk Wednesday, ak Thursday and HS Friday if we need to for ROTR

 

[debedo]

I was hoping EP would be open even more so with the start of Flower and Garden....we will see I guess!!

 

[Bama Mom]

Well in 3 1/2 hours we have gotten 4” of snow. I know for many of y’all that isn’t a big deal. However in Alabama it shuts us down! My hubby, 19 year old son and I have already went out in it to “play”. We went and put our handprints in the snow (mine is the baby looking one between theirs) and within 30 minutes they were recovered.

 

[Trap]

day 1 ds
day 2 hs
day 3mk
day 4 epcot
day 5 epcot
day 6 mk
home
to all going just stay safe and have fun

 

[a_ashbiez]

we are actually doing the one thing we shouldn’t do but starting at MK on Monday as well as ending the first part of Friday at MK.

Why is that the one thing you shouldn't do?? Only asking because that's exactly what we are doing

 

[skeettafic]

Why is that the one thing you shouldn't do?? Only asking because that's exactly what we are doing

MK is generally busier on Monday because people who come in over the weekend want to start their trip there.