It runs until 3pm.
The Magic is Back - Share your Experience! Superthread
- Thread starter Kender
- Start date
It runs until 3pm.
So, after doing the death march to and from the parking structure twice yesterday, I am wondering...
Can we get back to the structure via Downtown Disney and the pedestrian bridge that had opened prior to the pandemic? That walk seems much faster and more pleasant than walking the tram route, but we didn't want to go all the way to the end of DtD only to find out they closed off that pathway back.
Anyone know for sure?
Can we get back to the structure via Downtown Disney and the pedestrian bridge that had opened prior to the pandemic? That walk seems much faster and more pleasant than walking the tram route, but we didn't want to go all the way to the end of DtD only to find out they closed off that pathway back.
Anyone know for sure?
So, we went yesterday and my takeaways are not all pixie dust and rainbows, unfortunately. I went in with very much lowered expectations, but still ended up disappointed with a lot of things and can't shake the feeling that the magic is most definitely NOT back just yet. We had a good time overall, and my kids had fun, but I'm having a hard time accepting how much money we have already shelled out for two sets of park hopper tickets at this point. I can only hope that as time goes on, things change for the better, because this is NOT the Disneyland we are used to, and it extends way beyond not having shows and parades and fireworks (none of those had any impact on my feelings about the park experience we had yesterday). I wish I could say that I feel like Disney is doing the best they can under the circumstances, but I don't feel like they are. They could ne doing a lot more and a lot better and it is kind of disappointing to see what they think passes as "good enough."
I will go into more detail if anyone is interested, but I don't necessarily want to be a debbie downer.
I will go into more detail if anyone is interested, but I don't necessarily want to be a debbie downer.
Matthew D.
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2019
Let’s hear it.
TikiTikiFan
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 1, 2018
I keep reading similar reports about the parks being a bit lackluster when it comes to that Disney magic. Makes me feel like I should hold off on our visit until more things open... or at the very least hours are extended... Hopefully once the tiers are gone and they can run things without state interference it will get better. 
But man, looking at how WDW still has limitations on hours/closed dining all these months later... it's not encouraging.
Anyone use ART yet? Still curious on those reports when we have them. Trying to decide if we should stay within walking distance or not... I don't mind ART in normal times but wondering how they'll fare with reduced bus capacity?
The Indy Virtual Queue approach looks pretty similar to what Universal Orlando does for some of the rides that don't have a lot of line space. Physical line gets long, they switch to the virtual queue and switch back to standby if it mellows out.
But man, looking at how WDW still has limitations on hours/closed dining all these months later... it's not encouraging.
Anyone use ART yet? Still curious on those reports when we have them. Trying to decide if we should stay within walking distance or not... I don't mind ART in normal times but wondering how they'll fare with reduced bus capacity?
The Indy Virtual Queue approach looks pretty similar to what Universal Orlando does for some of the rides that don't have a lot of line space. Physical line gets long, they switch to the virtual queue and switch back to standby if it mellows out.
thanks for the report. Am wanting to leave home between 7:30-8 am but my mom is not a morning person so always a struggle getting her out the door. Will aim for as early as possible.
Skyegirl1999
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 11, 2016
I’m curious.
I have a friend there today, with two young kids, who just posted that today was “the most magical Disney day” they’ve ever had. Certainly we felt a lot of magic on April 30, but that was opening day, so it’s hard to know how much of that is sustainable...
I definitely don’t get the impression that they think the experience sucks, based on both guests and CMs I know. So I’m curious what happened, and I’m sorry to hear you guys had a disappointing day.
midnight star
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2017
My thoughts from my 3 day trip at DLR for reopening. I went on May 1, 7 and 8. I had a park hopper ticket. Overall I really loved being back. Is it weird to say I felt at peace to be at DL? Lol I forgot how much I missed hearing the music, watching the Main Street vehicles, and hearing the rides running. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood. Just walking and wandering around the park made me happy. I do think it was worth going the 3 days I did. I was in desperate need of Disney 
Though I probably won’t be back for a while given how expensive the tickets are.
Best parts
Though I probably won’t be back for a while given how expensive the tickets are. Best parts
- CM’s and guests were all in good moods. I didn’t see anyone being snippy or rude. Guests were pretty good at adhering to the rules (though I saw one questionable mask).
- Characters: Saw a few rare ones and I liked that you could just walk by and snap a picture.
- Short ride lines: The longest I waited for a ride was 30 minutes for Snow White. Everything else ranged from walk on-25ish minutes. Even on Saturday (5/8) when I was there, the times in the app seemed longer than the actual wait time.
- Outdoor queues: On May 1, the lines were all basically walk ons so none of the outdoor queues spilled into walkways. The Indy line was a big maze through the Jungle cruise queue. However on May 7 &8, the outdoor queues spilled over into walkways. I noticed this a lot more on Saturday. NOS, Adventureland, and Fantasyland seemed “packed” when they really weren’t. It was just people all in lines.
- Lack of entertainment: I was sort of missing the Dapper Dans, Band, and shows that the parks had in the before times. Since wait times were short and there wasn’t much entertainment, I sort of ran out of things to do, which was weird.
- Short Hours: Coincides with the lack of entertainment. Since the only thing really open is the rides, there really isn’t a need to have the parks close super late. Though I do think closing at 9pm this coming weekend will be nice for those going. 7pm closure made the day seem a little short.
Kender
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2015
midnight star
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2017
Forgot to add about the operations. Things seemed to go smooth overall. CM's are good at reminding people to social distance and to properly wear masks. One thing to keep in mind is if you haven't been around a lot of people, some of the bottlenecks of "crowds" can be worrisome. Like I mentioned in my previous response, the lines spilled into walkways. Between people trying to walk and lines, it's basically impossible to social distance. I wasn't bothered by it, as that comes with the territory of going to a theme park. I was close enough to hear a few remarks like "wow no one is 6 feet" and "there's no distancing whatsoever". I got 2 surveys out of my 3 days. On the survey for my last day, I mentioned the congestion in walkways. Now a few days later there is a virtual queue for Indy. I wonder if other people mentioned the same thing, and they are taking the responses seriously?
I parked in the structure all 3 days:
Mobile ordering worked fine for me. I HIGHLY suggest you put in your main food orders (i.e. lunch, dinner) in the morning when there are many times to choose from. I had a backup at Cozy Cone on Saturday to get the chili con queso. The line for pickup extended onto Route 66, which was confusing because it was next to the RSR line that was also on Route 66. Took about 20 minutes to get my food. Everything else was fine.
Side note: typing all of this makes me want to go back now LOL
I parked in the structure all 3 days:
- May 1: No line to get in or park. Waited on the tram route until they opened the gates and was inside by 8:30am.
- May 7 &8: I got to the structure at 8:30, was through by 9, and was in the gates by abut 9:30. So an hour total.
Mobile ordering worked fine for me. I HIGHLY suggest you put in your main food orders (i.e. lunch, dinner) in the morning when there are many times to choose from. I had a backup at Cozy Cone on Saturday to get the chili con queso. The line for pickup extended onto Route 66, which was confusing because it was next to the RSR line that was also on Route 66. Took about 20 minutes to get my food. Everything else was fine.
Side note: typing all of this makes me want to go back now LOL
evilmommie
Disneyland CM Alumna 80's-90's
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2016
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midnight star
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2017
Some character pics
evilmommie
Disneyland CM Alumna 80's-90's
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2016
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evilmommie
Disneyland CM Alumna 80's-90's
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2016
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DisneylandFreak2013
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2013
We went this past Thursday and Friday. I cannot tell you how incredible it was to be back in the parks. The magic was absolutely back. Disneyland is exceptionally organized in directing people where to go and forming lines. We were impressed by the mask compliance and pleasantness of everyone.
Thursday:
Line to get into park wasn't bad at all. We were let in at 8:45am, but not all the rides were open until 9am. In total, we hit 18 rides: Teacups, Alice, Dumbo, Mr. Toad's, Peter Pan, Snow White, Casey Jr., Rise of the Resistance, Millennium Falcon x 2, Big Thunder x 2, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Indy, Splash, Star Tours, Space Mountain, and Mark Twain. This was over the course of 9am-5pm. We also took a couple of lunch/snack breaks. Mobile ordered at Stage Door Cafe and had a 1 hour lunch. We also stopped for ice cream and that lasted about 30 or so minutes. We practically went on 3 rides an hour between 9am-5pm! No waits exceeding 20 minutes, the vast majority were walk on. At around 6pm, we left and went to DTD to shop in World of Disney. Line was long but moved very quickly. We utilized the new phone checkout feature, which was pretty awesome. Exceedingly friendly CMs the entire day.
Friday:
Definitely felt like more people. We ended up back in the bus driveway area off Harbor while waiting for park opening. The line moved quick, though. Because there were more people and we went commando (11 miles!) the previous day, we decided to take things slower. We went into a few shops and spent a pretty penny on clothes and souvenirs, which was really fun. Mobile ordered to everyones tastes at Stage Door Cafe, Bengal Barbecue, and the Mint Julep Bar for lunch. Park hopped to California Adventure and went on Soarin', Mater's, and Radiator Springs Racers. No line was more than 25 minutes. Park hopped back to Disneyland. We stopped for more Gibson Girl ice cream - haha! Finished up with Big Thunder Mountain and Pirates. Also went into the candy store to stock up before our next visit.
I was thoroughly impressed by Disneyland's ability to handle guests efficiently and safely. The lines spilled out into the walkways, but it was not difficult to figure out how to reroute to get around. The plexiglass dividers were nice and did not distract from the view of any of the rides. The only issue we had was difficulty hearing some of the CMs with masks. Most have microphones inside their masks so that we can hear and understand better, but for ones that were behind both plexiglass and had a mask on without a microphone it was difficult to hear. But that is the only downside we faced, which is extremely minimal in the grand scheme of things.
Thursday:
Line to get into park wasn't bad at all. We were let in at 8:45am, but not all the rides were open until 9am. In total, we hit 18 rides: Teacups, Alice, Dumbo, Mr. Toad's, Peter Pan, Snow White, Casey Jr., Rise of the Resistance, Millennium Falcon x 2, Big Thunder x 2, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Indy, Splash, Star Tours, Space Mountain, and Mark Twain. This was over the course of 9am-5pm. We also took a couple of lunch/snack breaks. Mobile ordered at Stage Door Cafe and had a 1 hour lunch. We also stopped for ice cream and that lasted about 30 or so minutes. We practically went on 3 rides an hour between 9am-5pm! No waits exceeding 20 minutes, the vast majority were walk on. At around 6pm, we left and went to DTD to shop in World of Disney. Line was long but moved very quickly. We utilized the new phone checkout feature, which was pretty awesome. Exceedingly friendly CMs the entire day.
Friday:
Definitely felt like more people. We ended up back in the bus driveway area off Harbor while waiting for park opening. The line moved quick, though. Because there were more people and we went commando (11 miles!) the previous day, we decided to take things slower. We went into a few shops and spent a pretty penny on clothes and souvenirs, which was really fun. Mobile ordered to everyones tastes at Stage Door Cafe, Bengal Barbecue, and the Mint Julep Bar for lunch. Park hopped to California Adventure and went on Soarin', Mater's, and Radiator Springs Racers. No line was more than 25 minutes. Park hopped back to Disneyland. We stopped for more Gibson Girl ice cream - haha! Finished up with Big Thunder Mountain and Pirates. Also went into the candy store to stock up before our next visit.
I was thoroughly impressed by Disneyland's ability to handle guests efficiently and safely. The lines spilled out into the walkways, but it was not difficult to figure out how to reroute to get around. The plexiglass dividers were nice and did not distract from the view of any of the rides. The only issue we had was difficulty hearing some of the CMs with masks. Most have microphones inside their masks so that we can hear and understand better, but for ones that were behind both plexiglass and had a mask on without a microphone it was difficult to hear. But that is the only downside we faced, which is extremely minimal in the grand scheme of things.
TikiTikiFan
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 1, 2018
We're not nearby (out of state) so it's a bit of a different decision for us- more money, time, commitment. If we were local I would have been there opening day, no problem!
But I think by the time us folks can come much more will be open. I love New Orleans Square at night, something about that atmosphere is just magical to me so longer hours is important. Glad to see DL is open later coming up though anyways- means good things for the future.
evilmommie
Disneyland CM Alumna 80's-90's
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2016
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Okay, I'm going to try to condense my thoughts some and give a review. It wasn't all bad, so I don't want anyone to get that impression. My kids had a blast, and it was a very enjoyable way to spend Mother's day. It just left me feeling like things could be a LOT better.
So, I'll break it down into the main parts:
Arrival/Departure via Mickey and Friends Structure: No way to sugar coat this. The parking/lack of tram situation is AWFUL. We arrived just after 8:30am and the line of cars waiting to enter extended well into the flyover ramp. By the time we got to the booth, they were just waving cars through by handing them "no charge" parking receipts. I think they were probably trying to get a hold of the backup on the surface streets. I was happy to get free parking, because there is no nice way to talk about having to go through the maze of health screening/security check only to come back out the other side to walk the tram route. At least we didn't pay $25 (this time) for that kind of treatment. We clocked it at a mile walk, from the time we stepped off the escalators until we arrived at the entry gate. Having to do that twice was a real buzzkill. There was nothing nice to say about it. It felt like a death march. I would MUCH prefer walking through DtD via the pedestrian bridge connected to the structure, as I used to do that walk in the past and it felt nowhere near as punishing. Maybe because it's a more interesting/scenic walk? I don't know, but it was kind of messed up to see people in wheelchairs, one little girl using a push walker, while her parents pushed the sister in a wheelchair, etc. I could not stop thinking "there is no good reason to make people do this." It honestly felt like a punishment.
Disney, stop being cheap. Open the trams. Run them half full if you must, run them back to back so there are never backups of people. Just do it! (The survey specifically asked about the arrival/departure experience and they wanted specific feedback, so I let them have it)
Entry/Park Hopping: Initial entry was quick and pretty easy. No ID check, no need to scan QR code. However, when park hopping, we had a kind of grouchy CM who barked at my autistic son "take off your glasses" (he wears prescription glasses, as does his brother). He was kind of taken aback and turned away to check with me and she literally yelled at him "Hold on! I need to take your photo, take off your hat and glasses." So, that was not the greatest. My son felt like he did something wrong. The rest of us just automatically took off our glasses. I guess with the masks, they need to see people's eyes for the photos, but she could have been nicer about it. He is just a kid.
*To add, I witnessed a CM absolutely flip out and scream at a teenage girl in Frontierland. She had her back to the fence post and had one foot propped up on the bottom log of the fence, and this CM literally ran over from the entrance to Big Thunder to yell "you need to keep both feet on the ground at all times!" I mean, it was excessive and completely unnecessary. She was just looking at her phone and just sort of lifted up her foot behind her to rest it on the bottom of the fence. It's not like she was scaling it. She was probably like 17 or so, not a kid. That guy needed to chill. Goodness.
DAS: So, our youngest uses a DAS, so we figured we should probably get one, not knowing how everything would go with ride waits. We headed straight to Guest Relations, to find shuttered doors and a sign with a QR code to scan for an appointment "later in the day." Um, we needed help at the beginning of the day. "Later" for a DAS doesn't exactly work. There was ONE CM standing outside, so I asked her how we can get a DAS and she wordlessly pointed to the sign. I said, "yeah, I saw that, what does it mean." She said "we are helping guests in the tour garden outdoors and you can scan to make an appointment to come back later when it's your turn." So, I asked, "well, how long from now is later?" She said, "Probably a couple hours. You will get a notification when it's your turn. So, I said, "that's not really going to work for us, so I guess we will just skip it." She THEN said, "well, you can also stop at any of our GR kiosks throughout the park and they can set you up with a DAS there." REALLY? She couldn't have said that first? If they can do that at the kiosks (they usually don't set up an initial DAS at those), why didn't she just direct me straight there? And if setting up a DAS can be done so easily, why are there not a few GR CMs standing outside with their iPhones ready to help people? We got the DAS at the kiosk on Main Street, and got a return time for Millenium Falcon, which already had a posted 45 min wait.
Rides/Wait times: NOT ONE ride had an overinflated wait time. Every single ride we got in line for was easily double the posted wait. My kids had chosen Big Thunder as their first ride. Nope. Broken down. Option 2 was Autopia. 5 minute wait posted. Actual, 18 minutes. They had one lane open (this was already 10:30am) and had literally 14 cars on the track. We had to wait through like 4 cycles to get on and then our family got separated when we got to the end and they stopped our car and held us while 2 CMs drove 7 more cars onto the track. The same 2 CMs would drive a car up to the loading area, run back, jump in another car, drive back, and repeat. I texted my husband to go ahead to Star Tours with our youngest, since we were held up on that track for almost 10 minutes.
We waited almost 40 minutes to ride Small World (posted time was 15). We waited 20 for Big Thunder (posted 10). We got in a line for the Silly Swings that said 10 minutes and then the CM told us it would be "at least 30 minutes." So, we got out of that line as it was almost 5:30 by that point and we still wanted to do Soarin. When we got to Soarin (with our DAS return, thank goodness), the posted wait time was 50 minutes. Just before we went in, they made an announcement that "due to technical difficulties, the wait time would now be 100 minutes." This was 6pm at this point. About half the people in line walked out. We got to head in and ride. I suppose either one theater went down or they purposely took it offline to knock down the line. It seemed like suspect timing and by the time we walked in, they had blocked off the left side path with garbage cans. There was no CM there to direct us to the right side, but it was clear which way to go. Basically, we used the DAS for Millenium Falcon, Snow White (which had a posted 45 min wait as well), Toy Story Midway Mania, RSR, and Soarin. The last three rides had posted waits of 80 min (RSR), 50 min (TSMM) and 100 min (Soarin). We did standby for Autopia, Small World, Teacups, Mater's, Luigi's, Pixar Pal Around, and Goofy's Sky School. We ran out of time and missed Peter Pan, Splash Mountain, Little Mermaid, and the Silly Symphony Swings. Those had been the "must dos." But, we ran out of time because of...
We REALLY missed Maxpass. It was a real bummer not to be able to plan an efficient way of hitting our favorite rides. We did so much less than we usually do in an 8 hour day. I couldn't believe how quickly the day passed by and most of it was spent waiting for things.
Mobile Order/Eating: Fail. All around fail. I used to LOVE mobile ordering. I would tell everyone to use it. It used to be great. Now, it's ridiculous that it is the ONLY way to get food everywhere. We had to place 3 mobile orders early in the morning to get return windows before 2pm. We did a Ronto Wrap, a Pizza from Red Rose Tavern, and a Fried Chicken meal and kid's meal from Plaza Inn. All in, we spent more time waiting for our food to be ready than what was reasonable. The Ronto Wrap was the longest wait, ironically. You would think a stand that makes 2 items can be efficient. Nope. Hit that button and proceeded to wait 25 minutes for one ronto wrap. Waited almost that long for the pizza. Waited only 15 min for the chicken, but then the order came out wrong and I had to speak to 3 different CMs before I found one who knew what to do to help me. It was an easy fix, they forgot one side of mashed potatoes and gravy (I literally got a chicken leg by itself in a box for the kid's meal). I just needed that side. It was a process. They have no system in place to help people with order issues. The one CM basically admitted to me "sometimes they get so backed up that they don't really pay attention when filling the orders." Yikes.
My husband was looking forward to a beer in DCA. He tried to mobile order one from Sonoma Terrace while we were still in DL (had to get a head start if he actually wanted the beer anytime soon---as it was, the return window was an hour and a half later). He got a message TWICE that said he could only order the beer with an "adult meal." I was like, that's not right. So, I said try the Karl Strauss beer truck...it was "temporarily unable to take mobile orders." Okay, Flo's...."next return window 5:30-6:30 (it was 2pm). Went back into the Sonoma Terrace menu and it let him order 2 beers. Sigh. So, when it was finally time for him to pick it up, he decided he would also like a pretzel to go with his beer. So, when he went to pick up the beers, he asked if he could buy a pretzel. "Sorry, you have to mobile order it." There was literally no one else around. The pretzels were right there, and the CM had no way (NOT blaming him for this) to sell my husband a pretzel. So, my husband opened the app and tried to order the pretzel....and the return window was over and hour away. He was like "forget it, I guess." The CM obviously felt bad, and told him "go ahead and place the order, and I'll just fill it now." So, DH orders the pretzel, and then the app doesn't give him his discount. His AP and Legacy discount barcode are linked in his app, but it wouldn't work (it also didn't work at Red Rose Tavern, so I just placed that order for him and he picked it up). So, now we have to call and find out what is going on there. He did end up with the pretzel, and he said it was cold and dry. So, all that effort and the pretzel wasn't even good.
So, to sum up, it absolutely stinks that you cannot just get food spur of the moment, or just walk up and order a drink somewhere. It's problematic and they need to do something to fix that. A lot of the enjoyment for us at a day at the parks is just grabbing a snack or drink when the mood strikes. All that is out the window now. It felt like eating was a chore and something ELSE we had to actively plan ahead of time. I felt like the whole day we were operating around our mobile order pickup windows. I did not like that at all.
Safety measures/Impact:
Right off the bat, I am going to say the the Rise of the Resistance experience is absolutely ruined by the plexiglass panel. We were sat in the back row (for DH's first ride, as a huge Star Wars nut) and the only saving grace was he sat on the end so he could see to the side and kind of peer around the panel. Pretty much all I saw were the reflections of the various lights and effects. It was hideous and those panels need to GO. Now. They serve absolutely no purpose on a ride like that that moves all around a space.
<edited: Off topic>
Atmosphere:
This is the big thing that is different. There is a distinct lack of atmosphere in the parks. They are too quiet. People aren't talking to each other (masks make that kind of hard). People aren't laughing and shouting. Lots of the rides that provide noise and kinetic movement are not operational- submarines, monorail, train (only one train running, so the whistles are sporadic). There is no live music (this is something they COULD be doing). I'm used to hearing the marching band, the Pearly band, the jazz band, and live bands playing at DCA. It was just so silent. The park music was on, but that was it. The character sightings were limited mostly to the train station and near Small World. Tomorrowland was literally dead. It looked closed. I felt almost like a Run Disney event, where you get to run through the park after hours but it's not really open all the way. So, you get to see the sights, but the park isn't "alive." That's the feeling I got. The cast members were fine, for the most part, but I wouldn't say that any of them seemed thrilled to be there. It was odd to see some with masks AND face shields. It was kind of off putting, to be honest. I didn't feel like it was uncrowded. To the contrary, I found it literally impossible to maintain 6ft of distance, as numerous signs remind you to all day. The charade needs to stop. Outside of designated queues with floor markers, people are not (and honestly CANNOT adequately distance). It is what it is, and it didn't bother me, but I can imagine some people are going to go to the parks expecting them to be empty and be in for a rude awakening when they are brushing arms with people passing by them all day long, every time they enter or exit a bathroom, at the exits of rides, etc. People will be in your space just like they were before.
Now, we were blessed with perfect park weather yesterday. It was overcast and in the mid 60s. The sun came out for only a few hours in the late afternoon. Maybe some of my perception is that it was so "blah" and gray all day. Disneyland just felt sad and gloomy to me. It wasn't all bright and shiny and colorful.
I just want the parks back to how they were, and I know that's never happening. I would settle for just the dining to return fully (it was tough finding food for everyone to eat due to said limited dining options, which is why we ended up with 3 separate mobile orders), the trams to run again, Maxpass to come back, and for the mask rules to be relaxed enough that we can take a sip of water while walking without breaking a rule. I would also like to see the return of rides and live entertainment that add some energy to the parks. There is no "safety" reason to not have live entertainment outdoors.
I feel like I spent so much time thinking about and making sure we were doing the right thing all day and that wasn't enjoyable. I hate how much time we spend waiting. Waiting for food orders. Waiting to park. Waiting in standby lines. Waiting to enter stores. Just waiting all day. We probably spent 1/2 of our day just waiting.
So, to sum up, it was a mixed bag, but I'm remembering more of the things that annoyed me than the things that were fun, and that's a hard pill to swallow. I've been to the parks SO many times and just wanted to get back, and it just felt like one big headache created from lots of little headaches. I didn't really have high expectations. I thought I was prepared. I suppose in hindsight, my expectations were too high.
So, I'll break it down into the main parts:
Arrival/Departure via Mickey and Friends Structure: No way to sugar coat this. The parking/lack of tram situation is AWFUL. We arrived just after 8:30am and the line of cars waiting to enter extended well into the flyover ramp. By the time we got to the booth, they were just waving cars through by handing them "no charge" parking receipts. I think they were probably trying to get a hold of the backup on the surface streets. I was happy to get free parking, because there is no nice way to talk about having to go through the maze of health screening/security check only to come back out the other side to walk the tram route. At least we didn't pay $25 (this time) for that kind of treatment. We clocked it at a mile walk, from the time we stepped off the escalators until we arrived at the entry gate. Having to do that twice was a real buzzkill. There was nothing nice to say about it. It felt like a death march. I would MUCH prefer walking through DtD via the pedestrian bridge connected to the structure, as I used to do that walk in the past and it felt nowhere near as punishing. Maybe because it's a more interesting/scenic walk? I don't know, but it was kind of messed up to see people in wheelchairs, one little girl using a push walker, while her parents pushed the sister in a wheelchair, etc. I could not stop thinking "there is no good reason to make people do this." It honestly felt like a punishment.
Disney, stop being cheap. Open the trams. Run them half full if you must, run them back to back so there are never backups of people. Just do it! (The survey specifically asked about the arrival/departure experience and they wanted specific feedback, so I let them have it)
Entry/Park Hopping: Initial entry was quick and pretty easy. No ID check, no need to scan QR code. However, when park hopping, we had a kind of grouchy CM who barked at my autistic son "take off your glasses" (he wears prescription glasses, as does his brother). He was kind of taken aback and turned away to check with me and she literally yelled at him "Hold on! I need to take your photo, take off your hat and glasses." So, that was not the greatest. My son felt like he did something wrong. The rest of us just automatically took off our glasses. I guess with the masks, they need to see people's eyes for the photos, but she could have been nicer about it. He is just a kid.
*To add, I witnessed a CM absolutely flip out and scream at a teenage girl in Frontierland. She had her back to the fence post and had one foot propped up on the bottom log of the fence, and this CM literally ran over from the entrance to Big Thunder to yell "you need to keep both feet on the ground at all times!" I mean, it was excessive and completely unnecessary. She was just looking at her phone and just sort of lifted up her foot behind her to rest it on the bottom of the fence. It's not like she was scaling it. She was probably like 17 or so, not a kid. That guy needed to chill. Goodness.
DAS: So, our youngest uses a DAS, so we figured we should probably get one, not knowing how everything would go with ride waits. We headed straight to Guest Relations, to find shuttered doors and a sign with a QR code to scan for an appointment "later in the day." Um, we needed help at the beginning of the day. "Later" for a DAS doesn't exactly work. There was ONE CM standing outside, so I asked her how we can get a DAS and she wordlessly pointed to the sign. I said, "yeah, I saw that, what does it mean." She said "we are helping guests in the tour garden outdoors and you can scan to make an appointment to come back later when it's your turn." So, I asked, "well, how long from now is later?" She said, "Probably a couple hours. You will get a notification when it's your turn. So, I said, "that's not really going to work for us, so I guess we will just skip it." She THEN said, "well, you can also stop at any of our GR kiosks throughout the park and they can set you up with a DAS there." REALLY? She couldn't have said that first? If they can do that at the kiosks (they usually don't set up an initial DAS at those), why didn't she just direct me straight there? And if setting up a DAS can be done so easily, why are there not a few GR CMs standing outside with their iPhones ready to help people? We got the DAS at the kiosk on Main Street, and got a return time for Millenium Falcon, which already had a posted 45 min wait.
Rides/Wait times: NOT ONE ride had an overinflated wait time. Every single ride we got in line for was easily double the posted wait. My kids had chosen Big Thunder as their first ride. Nope. Broken down. Option 2 was Autopia. 5 minute wait posted. Actual, 18 minutes. They had one lane open (this was already 10:30am) and had literally 14 cars on the track. We had to wait through like 4 cycles to get on and then our family got separated when we got to the end and they stopped our car and held us while 2 CMs drove 7 more cars onto the track. The same 2 CMs would drive a car up to the loading area, run back, jump in another car, drive back, and repeat. I texted my husband to go ahead to Star Tours with our youngest, since we were held up on that track for almost 10 minutes.
We waited almost 40 minutes to ride Small World (posted time was 15). We waited 20 for Big Thunder (posted 10). We got in a line for the Silly Swings that said 10 minutes and then the CM told us it would be "at least 30 minutes." So, we got out of that line as it was almost 5:30 by that point and we still wanted to do Soarin. When we got to Soarin (with our DAS return, thank goodness), the posted wait time was 50 minutes. Just before we went in, they made an announcement that "due to technical difficulties, the wait time would now be 100 minutes." This was 6pm at this point. About half the people in line walked out. We got to head in and ride. I suppose either one theater went down or they purposely took it offline to knock down the line. It seemed like suspect timing and by the time we walked in, they had blocked off the left side path with garbage cans. There was no CM there to direct us to the right side, but it was clear which way to go. Basically, we used the DAS for Millenium Falcon, Snow White (which had a posted 45 min wait as well), Toy Story Midway Mania, RSR, and Soarin. The last three rides had posted waits of 80 min (RSR), 50 min (TSMM) and 100 min (Soarin). We did standby for Autopia, Small World, Teacups, Mater's, Luigi's, Pixar Pal Around, and Goofy's Sky School. We ran out of time and missed Peter Pan, Splash Mountain, Little Mermaid, and the Silly Symphony Swings. Those had been the "must dos." But, we ran out of time because of...
We REALLY missed Maxpass. It was a real bummer not to be able to plan an efficient way of hitting our favorite rides. We did so much less than we usually do in an 8 hour day. I couldn't believe how quickly the day passed by and most of it was spent waiting for things.
Mobile Order/Eating: Fail. All around fail. I used to LOVE mobile ordering. I would tell everyone to use it. It used to be great. Now, it's ridiculous that it is the ONLY way to get food everywhere. We had to place 3 mobile orders early in the morning to get return windows before 2pm. We did a Ronto Wrap, a Pizza from Red Rose Tavern, and a Fried Chicken meal and kid's meal from Plaza Inn. All in, we spent more time waiting for our food to be ready than what was reasonable. The Ronto Wrap was the longest wait, ironically. You would think a stand that makes 2 items can be efficient. Nope. Hit that button and proceeded to wait 25 minutes for one ronto wrap. Waited almost that long for the pizza. Waited only 15 min for the chicken, but then the order came out wrong and I had to speak to 3 different CMs before I found one who knew what to do to help me. It was an easy fix, they forgot one side of mashed potatoes and gravy (I literally got a chicken leg by itself in a box for the kid's meal). I just needed that side. It was a process. They have no system in place to help people with order issues. The one CM basically admitted to me "sometimes they get so backed up that they don't really pay attention when filling the orders." Yikes.
My husband was looking forward to a beer in DCA. He tried to mobile order one from Sonoma Terrace while we were still in DL (had to get a head start if he actually wanted the beer anytime soon---as it was, the return window was an hour and a half later). He got a message TWICE that said he could only order the beer with an "adult meal." I was like, that's not right. So, I said try the Karl Strauss beer truck...it was "temporarily unable to take mobile orders." Okay, Flo's...."next return window 5:30-6:30 (it was 2pm). Went back into the Sonoma Terrace menu and it let him order 2 beers. Sigh. So, when it was finally time for him to pick it up, he decided he would also like a pretzel to go with his beer. So, when he went to pick up the beers, he asked if he could buy a pretzel. "Sorry, you have to mobile order it." There was literally no one else around. The pretzels were right there, and the CM had no way (NOT blaming him for this) to sell my husband a pretzel. So, my husband opened the app and tried to order the pretzel....and the return window was over and hour away. He was like "forget it, I guess." The CM obviously felt bad, and told him "go ahead and place the order, and I'll just fill it now." So, DH orders the pretzel, and then the app doesn't give him his discount. His AP and Legacy discount barcode are linked in his app, but it wouldn't work (it also didn't work at Red Rose Tavern, so I just placed that order for him and he picked it up). So, now we have to call and find out what is going on there. He did end up with the pretzel, and he said it was cold and dry. So, all that effort and the pretzel wasn't even good.
So, to sum up, it absolutely stinks that you cannot just get food spur of the moment, or just walk up and order a drink somewhere. It's problematic and they need to do something to fix that. A lot of the enjoyment for us at a day at the parks is just grabbing a snack or drink when the mood strikes. All that is out the window now. It felt like eating was a chore and something ELSE we had to actively plan ahead of time. I felt like the whole day we were operating around our mobile order pickup windows. I did not like that at all.
Safety measures/Impact:
Right off the bat, I am going to say the the Rise of the Resistance experience is absolutely ruined by the plexiglass panel. We were sat in the back row (for DH's first ride, as a huge Star Wars nut) and the only saving grace was he sat on the end so he could see to the side and kind of peer around the panel. Pretty much all I saw were the reflections of the various lights and effects. It was hideous and those panels need to GO. Now. They serve absolutely no purpose on a ride like that that moves all around a space.
<edited: Off topic>
Atmosphere:
This is the big thing that is different. There is a distinct lack of atmosphere in the parks. They are too quiet. People aren't talking to each other (masks make that kind of hard). People aren't laughing and shouting. Lots of the rides that provide noise and kinetic movement are not operational- submarines, monorail, train (only one train running, so the whistles are sporadic). There is no live music (this is something they COULD be doing). I'm used to hearing the marching band, the Pearly band, the jazz band, and live bands playing at DCA. It was just so silent. The park music was on, but that was it. The character sightings were limited mostly to the train station and near Small World. Tomorrowland was literally dead. It looked closed. I felt almost like a Run Disney event, where you get to run through the park after hours but it's not really open all the way. So, you get to see the sights, but the park isn't "alive." That's the feeling I got. The cast members were fine, for the most part, but I wouldn't say that any of them seemed thrilled to be there. It was odd to see some with masks AND face shields. It was kind of off putting, to be honest. I didn't feel like it was uncrowded. To the contrary, I found it literally impossible to maintain 6ft of distance, as numerous signs remind you to all day. The charade needs to stop. Outside of designated queues with floor markers, people are not (and honestly CANNOT adequately distance). It is what it is, and it didn't bother me, but I can imagine some people are going to go to the parks expecting them to be empty and be in for a rude awakening when they are brushing arms with people passing by them all day long, every time they enter or exit a bathroom, at the exits of rides, etc. People will be in your space just like they were before.
Now, we were blessed with perfect park weather yesterday. It was overcast and in the mid 60s. The sun came out for only a few hours in the late afternoon. Maybe some of my perception is that it was so "blah" and gray all day. Disneyland just felt sad and gloomy to me. It wasn't all bright and shiny and colorful.
I just want the parks back to how they were, and I know that's never happening. I would settle for just the dining to return fully (it was tough finding food for everyone to eat due to said limited dining options, which is why we ended up with 3 separate mobile orders), the trams to run again, Maxpass to come back, and for the mask rules to be relaxed enough that we can take a sip of water while walking without breaking a rule. I would also like to see the return of rides and live entertainment that add some energy to the parks. There is no "safety" reason to not have live entertainment outdoors.
I feel like I spent so much time thinking about and making sure we were doing the right thing all day and that wasn't enjoyable. I hate how much time we spend waiting. Waiting for food orders. Waiting to park. Waiting in standby lines. Waiting to enter stores. Just waiting all day. We probably spent 1/2 of our day just waiting.
So, to sum up, it was a mixed bag, but I'm remembering more of the things that annoyed me than the things that were fun, and that's a hard pill to swallow. I've been to the parks SO many times and just wanted to get back, and it just felt like one big headache created from lots of little headaches. I didn't really have high expectations. I thought I was prepared. I suppose in hindsight, my expectations were too high.
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evilmommie
Disneyland CM Alumna 80's-90's
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2016
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