The Magic is Back - Share your Experience! Superthread

[GBRforWDW]

Looks like the first 100 have expired, now groups 101 to 225. Hopefully the group sizes are very small to prevent the overflow they're trying to avoid with the VQ

Uggh, app switched it back to group 1.

 

[CO2CA]

Looks like the first 100 have expired, now groups 101 to 225. Hopefully the group sizes are very small to prevent the overflow they're trying to avoid with the VQ

Interesting! I just saw that change. So maybe they give you a couple of hours instead of being called back within the hour like RotR. Still takes some planning, but at least it's not as bad as having to return within the hour of being called.

 

[CO2CA]

Uggh, app switched it back to group 1.

There goes my theory. What are you doing, Disney?! lol

 

[GBRforWDW]

Yeah, no idea how this is keeping track. Opened the app back up at 2pm and the groups are 226-267.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

Folks,

I see some posts that are bringing up your opinions and discussions of the Disneyland Resort rules. This thread is to discuss your experiences at the resort, not to discuss what you think about the rules. Any posts that are off topic will be deleted. We have a Disneyland Community Board to discuss opinions and non-planning topics. Please keep to the topic at hand on this thread, and either join an already existing thread to share your opinions, or if you have a new one not being discussed already feel free to create a new thread.

Thanks for your understanding.

 

[avalon451]

I really appreciate all the pictures and information! Keep it coming!

My daughter and son-in-law recently decided to move to LA (from Seattle area, where we are) in June, and I thought, well, now's the time to get an AP! Except APs are no more, and the opening up again seems kinda good news/bad news. I guess we'll hang on and see how it goes, after nonresidents are allowed back. I sure enjoy reading all about the magic, though! I've missed it!

 

[Mathmagicland]

Aside from the railroad, are they cutting off any lines before posted closing time? Or is it working like before that if you’re in line by closing they will allow those in line to ride? Thx.

 

[TikiTikiFan]

I remember reading reports that Mickey pretzels are available but when I look at the app all the pretzel carts are listed as unavailable... Where do you find the pretzels then?

My son lives off those so I usually plan our day so we end up nearby one by lunchtime. But hopefully by August more carts will open up anyways..

 

[MamaKC]

Aside from the railroad, are they cutting off any lines before posted closing time? Or is it working like before that if you’re in line by closing they will allow those in line to ride? Thx.

I don’t believe so. We were always able to get in a line as long as it was before 7:00

 

[MamaKC]

I remember reading reports that Mickey pretzels are available but when I look at the app all the pretzel carts are listed as unavailable... Where do you find the pretzels then?

My son lives off those so I usually plan our day so we end up nearby one by lunchtime. But hopefully by August more carts will open up anyways..

I know for sure they are selling pretzels across from Big Thunder.

 

[TikiTikiFan]

I know for sure they are selling pretzels across from Big Thunder.

Phew! On the app it has all the pretzel carts listed as closed so I had a momentary panic. Are they around in California Adventure too?

 

[MamaKC]

Phew! On the app it has all the pretzel carts listed as closed so I had a momentary panic. Are they around in California Adventure too?

I didn’t see any at California Adventure. I was looking for the cart that sold hot dogs and it was closed. I did see churro and popcorn carts open there. We didn’t stay in California Adventure later than 12:45 so maybe the pretzels and hot dogs just weren’t open yet

 

[KPeterso]

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.

Our day yesterday was pretty similar. We rent a wheelchair and have a DAS and it seemed for some things that we waited a lot longer. Pirates, Haunted, and TSMM were 3 rides for sure.

For Pirates, we got a return time and when we came back, it was seriously backed up and I think we waited close to 30 minutes to ride from that time. We should have left and done something else and come back a little later. I will say the CM at Pirates who scanned us back in was delightful and was chatting with parties. But she was only chatting with the first party in line and not walking the line to check that groups were in the right place.

And I agree about the food being an issue. I placed a mobile order and from the time I checked in that I was there, it was over 20 minutes to prepare. That was for 1 order of chicken tenders (not even a drink). I was chatting with other guests and we were starting to wonder if they were out catching the fish and plucking the feathers on the chicken.

We did have some nice surprises in Fantasyland. We went to both Alice and Peter Pan and was able to ride them with no return time needed. Alice, the line was short enough to ride. Peter Pan I was going to get a return time and the cast member said that it was our lucky day and sent us right in. So definitely some magic too!

And to the tram ---- my Mom walked part of the tram route pushing the wheelchair to give me a break part of the time. But it was just no fun pushing the wheelchair the whole way!

 

[KPeterso]

OK, that makes up my mind, I'm definitely going to use alternative parking arrangements. I can't believe they won't open up the structure earlier and spread it out a bit. It is mind boggling!

I arrived at the garage at 8 AM yesterday morning. I was able to pull just into the garage before it stopped. One of my biggest gripes has always been that they have 1 CM working both sides of the parking booth at opening and that was the case yesterday too. Took about 30 minutes to get parked and to the wheelchair rental. We got in the park a little after 9.

 

[DLgal]

Phew! On the app it has all the pretzel carts listed as closed so I had a momentary panic. Are they around in California Adventure too?

The Big Thunder cart is literally the ONLY place selling Mickey pretzels. Nowhere in DCA. The only pretzel you can get there is a Bavarian pretzel at Sonoma Terrace. And you have to mobile order it.

The Big Thunder cart runs out of pretzels frequently, so if you want one, get there early! 11am is when it opens.

 

[TikiTikiFan]

I didn’t see any at California Adventure. I was looking for the cart that sold hot dogs and it was closed. I did see churro and popcorn carts open there. We didn’t stay in California Adventure later than 12:45 so maybe the pretzels and hot dogs just weren’t open yet

The Big Thunder cart is literally the ONLY place selling Mickey pretzels. Nowhere in DCA. The only pretzel you can get there is a Bavarian pretzel at Sonoma Terrace. And you have to mobile order it.

The Big Thunder cart runs out of pretzels frequently, so if you want one, get there early! 11am is when it opens.

Thanks for the info!!

Hoping they'll open more as summer really kicks off! I'll make a note to hit the Big Thunder one early though. Maybe buy a few and put them in my bag for my kiddo to munch on all day.

 

[JoeSwanson]

What’s up with all the long wait times now???

 

[Matthew D.]

Also Splash and Indy have been temporarily closed for hours now.

 

[DLgal]

What’s up with all the long wait times now???

It's called "the new normal."

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

The wait times have me so nervous for our visit next week. I didn’t mind paying full price for a lesser experience (meaning no shows, no in-park entertainment, no fireworks, limited food options, no Tom Sawyer’s island, train closed after 1pm, have to wear masks all day) but I thought the trade off would be low wait times for the rides. At the moment (a Wednesday) almost nothing in DL is under 20 minutes and many rides are in the 30-45 minute range. It’s so disappointing to see especially after the low wait times of the first few weeks after reopening. I am honestly considered canceling our visit and holding the tickets for next year or some time after new APs are offered.