***Official March 2021 Thread***

[Bama Mom]

The Disney springs location is said to be open. We do pearls for our girls every trip for their wedding also - so we are going to hit up the springs location this trip.

Awesome, thank you. We plan to head to DS after arriving so I'll check there. Hopefully we can still get a pearl.

 

[Kitty & Covs Covs]

Getting close!

 

[skeettafic]

Group Calming Session Time

View attachment 558661

As hard as it may be to do I'd recommend just not looking at the Reservation Calendar unless you are looking to make changes. Any time it goes from yellow to green could be a handful of people cancelling to a shuffling from the AP bucket to the theme park/disney guest. We don't really know how the system works completely but they aren't going above the 35% of max capacity on reservations.

Yep.. at this point, I'm just trying to live in ignorance. lol

 

[dez1978]

I truly believe the total capacity is not changing. What you're seeing is, IMO, shifting of capacity between categories and/or the reflection of cancellations.

I am choosing to believe this

 

[Trap]

i would not worry to much i just checked our flights 2 weeks ago they were all most all booked for the day we go out now they all have open seats just plan for worst and hope for the best

 

[Bama Mom]

Getting close! View attachment 558664

She looks so excited! Won't be long now.

 

[BellesLibrary]

Thank you so much to all of you for your feedback! Planning a trip in the new-normal has been interesting as so much is different than our usual trips.

They haven’t started the early access to the parks yet

Ah, thanks for the clarification. I'd read something about early morning access which I equated to a new version of EMH. Guess I was getting ahead of myself/making things up!

1) Does the Swan and Dolphin count as a Disney resort for the purposes of taking advantage of the early morning access to the parks?
As Naomeri mentioned, there is special morning access for (any) resort guests currently; however, everyone these days has "early access" in the sense that parks are letting people in up to one hour before official opening time. At Swolphin, you can walk to Epcot would recommend leaving your room 75 mins before opening, to be among the first in the park when the gates open. For HS, you can also walk and be the first in, or take the friendship boat or skyliner (transferring at the skyliner hub at Caribbean Beach) which are more scenic routes but will get you in later than most other guests (though still before park open)

2) We're going to Beaches and Cream for the first time! What are some can't-miss dishes?
The ice cream is the real star of the show. The "kitchen sink" is the iconic dessert, but the "no way jose" peanut butter ice cream sunday has a devoted following. For food, it is a soda shop--just your usual burgers and sandwiches. The cheese and bacon tots are probably the most unique thing to try.

4) Talk to me about Satu'li Canteen! I'm trying to branch out of my usual dining options, and this is one I've never tried before.
It's fun and feels like you are eating food from another planet! My DH likes the sweet potato hash base with beef. I am not gonna lie, I think the bowls are a bit weird (the sweet/savory thing has never been my favorite) so I secretly get the kids food for myself. I like the hot dog-in-a-bagel-roll thing and the cheeseburger pods (which are basically bao buns, if you like dim sum).

6) We have early Droid Depot appointments on our HS day. I'm hoping to go on MF:SR this morning, but I'm not sure what to do with the droids while we're riding: take them with us? Put them in a locker? Run back to the hotel? I certainly don't want to leave them in our stroller, so any advice there would be helpful.
Take them with you. You can set them on the floor of the ride simulator--plenty of room. That's where we put our Savi's lightsabers and nothing bad happened to them. But candidly, I don't think you really need to keep those early droid depot appointments. We've done it on two separate trips (got the R unit one time and the BB unit the next) and both times there was plenty of walk up availability--we went in the afternoon and one time it was no wait at all and the other time no more than 15 mins. Would use your morning to ride attractions before the wait gets long and do droid depot when the ride lines are long in the afternoon.


Edited to add: I didn't answer 3 and 5 because I haven't stayed at the Swan and Dolphin.

That's all super, super helpful! I'll make a note in my trip plans about when to leave the hotel--my kids are early risers, so we will definitely be able to leave in plenty of time to be one of the first people in the parks each morning.

I think I will drop the Droid Depot reservations after hearing about your experience there. I'd much rather head over to build our droids when the kids need a break from the hustle and bustle of the park instead of rushing there during a reserved time. That way, we could also time the build to just before we plan on going back to the resort to rest in the early afternoon--and I don't have to haul around a stroller, 2 kids, a backpack, snacks, AND 2 droids (because I'm apparently the only one who can carry anything!).

My kids are obsessed with peanut butter, so we will have to try the No Way, Jose!

1. Already answered so I'll not repeat this one
2. We are ending our trip with the Kitchen sink this trip. I'm just hoping we aren't all yucky feeling from the sugar high afterwards. On our 2019 trip, it was my first time there. My hubby and I split a burger and fries just so we would both have room for the ice cream since that's the real reason I booked it.
3. I have no idea.
4. We ate there in 2019 and I honestly can't even remember what we got. I'm picky so I probably ate the kids food and I can't remember what hubby had either. I'll have to go back and look through our pictures. I do remember not being impressed, but was glad we tried it.
5. I haven't eaten there.
6. I also don't know the answer to this but have heard of people who got the backpack for them just taking them on rides like they would any other normal backpack

Thanks! My DS gets into moods where he is picky about what he eats, so I like having a solid kids' menu to fall back on when that happens.

I just looked up the Kitchen Sink ice cream, and it is IMPRESSIVE that you and your husband ate that! It will just be my 2 kiddos and I, but we might get it just to challenge ourselves!

The onion rings are really good.

Yum! We love onion rings!

 

[BellesLibrary]

I chose not to tell my kids until I pick them up from school next week (so, as we're leaving town), but I kind of wish I hadn't set it up as a surprise--I LOVE a good travel countdown!

Also, your DD is too cute! How old is she?

 

[HokieRaven5]

Just think if you have an AK day you could see this guy on a safari.

 

[Bama Mom]

I just looked up the Kitchen Sink ice cream, and it is IMPRESSIVE that you and your husband ate that! It will just be my 2 kiddos and I, but we might get it just to challenge ourselves!

LOL My husband and I didn't eat the kitchen sink. We both got sundaes. But on this upcoming girls trip we are ending our trip with it. there will be 6 of us so there will be plenty of us to eat it.

 

[Orion Nebula]

Is this time of year usually more crowded than March? I keep seeing people reporting in on last week and even this week about crowds being insane. Wait times hitting 70 minutes for Slinky for instance. I will be there next week and others have said that it "should" be a bit calmer the first half of March but now... why are people packing the place at the end of Feb?

 

[ReginaMBK]

I'll be there March 4-8 at the Poly! This is my first time staying there, which is really exciting. We had a DVC point rental credit to use up before our annual passes expire on April 1 (out of state APHs), so the dates weren't ideal...we're getting a tad nervous about crowds after seeing what the end of Feb has been like (nuts). We were just there in early Jan, right after New Years, and even that looked better than it is now. Fingers crossed that it's still enjoyable...if nothing else, it's better than frigid Northern VA!

 

[Orion Nebula]

I'll be there March 4-8 at the Poly! This is my first time staying there, which is really exciting. We had a DVC point rental credit to use up before our annual passes expire on April 1 (out of state APHs), so the dates weren't ideal...we're getting a tad nervous about crowds after seeing what the end of Feb has been like (nuts). We were just there in early Jan, right after New Years, and even that looked better than it is now. Fingers crossed that it's still enjoyable...if nothing else, it's better than frigid Northern VA!

I don't really get it. I guess there were a few holidays that normally raise the crowd levels though, Mardi Gras and Presidents Day. Maybe next week things will be better due to the upcoming Spring Break surge (here's hoping). I arrive on Saturday and besides the heat wave, the new crowd situation is concerning me also.

 

[Wosmama6]

yeah, we picked march 4-10 in particular because it was before the spring break crowds got too big... but it seems like it's already more crowded than i would like... thinking about scaling back our park plans and adding in some more out of park fun

 

[Orion Nebula]

yeah, we picked march 4-10 in particular because it was before the spring break crowds got too big... but it seems like it's already more crowded than i would like... thinking about scaling back our park plans and adding in some more out of park fun

It's frustrating, most of us booked due to "thinking" that crowds would be low and we would feel safer. I mean capacity is only at 35% right? lol

 

[Thomasboys]

You guys.... I'm getting really nervous...

Another WDW website just published an article (on 2/23) that said all the park reservations "buckets" have been replenished for March... AGAIN. I'm looking and all the dates are currently green.

I feel like these buckets have been shifted and filled so many times. I'm getting so nervous about crowds - not so much with COViD (I'm vaccinated and will happily follow all protocols), but more so worried about the level of enjoyment at parks.

We are WDW vets. We have traveled in March before without issue. We rope drop, take a mid-day break, then hop in the evening. I'm hoping that strategy will still work for us since this will be our first time navigating rides vs. crowds without FPs.

Where is the paper bag I can breathe into!?

I don't understand what is happening with the change to all green availability. What does it mean exactly? I could have sworn I read somewhere that in the last quarterly call they wouldn't be increasing capacity until covid vaccinations reached a level that was proportional to allow an increase in capacity.

 

[Thomasboys]

I truly believe the total capacity is not changing. What you're seeing is, IMO, shifting of capacity between categories and/or the reflection of cancellations.

I bet payment is due for a lot of people and there will be cancellations from that likely resulting in calendar changes. I have a friend who had multiple park reservations she cancelled a long time ago but they stayed on her MDE until just recently. It sounds like they don't clean them up right away.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

I don't understand what is happening with the change to all green availability. What does it mean exactly? I could have sworn I read somewhere that in the last quarterly call they wouldn't be increasing capacity until covid vaccinations reached a level that was proportional to allow an increase in capacity.

As I mentioned earlier, I don’t believe they are increasing overall capacity. IMO it’s some combination of shifting capacity between categories, releasing inventory that was previously held back, and cancellations.

 

[Thomasboys]

Is this time of year usually more crowded than March? I keep seeing people reporting in on last week and even this week about crowds being insane. Wait times hitting 70 minutes for Slinky for instance. I will be there next week and others have said that it "should" be a bit calmer the first half of March but now... why are people packing the place at the end of Feb?

I just keep telling myself the wait times are NOWHERE near the wait times of March 2019. We waited 180m for SDMT one afternoon and I'm not seeing those wait times right now at all...

 

[Wosmama6]

I just keep telling myself the wait times are NOWHERE near the wait times of March 2019. We waited 180m for SDMT one afternoon and I'm not seeing those wait times right now at all...

yeah, see, no. I wouldn't wait an hour for SDMT (and I really like the ride), much less 3. We FPed almost every ride thanks to constant same day refreshing. We waited in standby a couple times, maybe 20m tops. This was early March 2020. If we have to wait 70 minutes, we just won't wait. I was hoping we could ride most of what we wanted with 30m or less if we hit RD every day, took a break and then came back a couple hours before close, but now I'm thinking that might not be the case. And if it isn't, we'll enjoy the resort pool
Now, this is mainly because my DH hates lines and will only agree to disney if i work my FP magic or if, ya know, parks are at low capacity and it's a slow time, and because my 2.5 yo DD is not patient. I don't mind lines, but my crew is another story.