Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[billysmommy]

We (DS15 and I) just got back from a 9/15-9/19 stay at the Beach Club. We had a slight delay on our flight down and landed at 8:00pm instead of 7:30. Only 2 families ahead of us for ME but we waited on the bus a bit before leaving. BC was the 3rd stop and we were a little late for our 9:10 Beaches & Cream reservation but they were able to seat us.

We loved mobile ordering! We'd place an order while in line, press I'm here while walking to the restaurant and only waited more than 2-3 minutes once and that was ordering lunch @ ABC commissary at 12:00.

Thursday 9/16 was all about Galaxy's Edge. We got BG 42 (used wifi in our room). It was down a lot of the morning and we didn't get called until about 1:45. We left the BC @ 7:45, stopped at the Boardwalk Bakery for Mickey muffins and walked over for an 8:45 Savi's reservation. This was amazing and totally worth it! I mobile ordered the Rising Moon overnight oats from Ronto Roasters while DS explored and then we headed to Oga's for 9:45. Loved it there! He had the Carbon Freeze and I had the Jabba juice. Both were excellent!! We took lots of pictures on our own and with photopass before heading over to ToT (20 min wait, posted 40). RnR was down so we went over for TSMM (15 min wait, posted 25). We headed back to GE and got in line for MFSR (40 min wait, posted 70). Got some blue and green milks (DS liked the blue and I liked the green) then our BG was called. We had lunch at Sci-Fi @2:35. Checked in @2:20 and were seated by 2:30. After lunch we headed back for some time @ Stormalong Bay and then went back to the DHS around 6:00 to see GE at night and do some lightsaber pictures. We jumped on MMRR (15 min wait, posted 25) then mostly just explored - DS did some of the Disney Play missions. We ordered dinner @ Docking Bay 7 and then it was dark so did a bunch of nighttime photos with his lightsaber. Jumped in line for MFSR @ 8:58 and mostly just walked on. There was almost no one left in GE when we got off and I got this shot



(to be cont)

 

[stink]

They were all over the place at AoA, especially at the Cozy Cone pool, so it just depends on where you are.


Back to the topic,

Returned yesterday from a 7 day trip 9.13-9.20 and overall things were great. The Skyliner is amazing and i actually prefer it over the monorail, the air circulation feels wonderful on a hot day. The kids looked at is as an actual ride, which was another benefit.

First a couple things that i didnt like.........my wife. LOL. Its impossible to get her committed to a plan without letting her fall on her face a couple times. We agree to wake up a little later to let the rope drop crew pass and take advantage of shorter lines later in the day, yet im woken up at 7am to a fully dressed wife ready to leave for the parks. We got to MK on our first park day at 9:15 and she immediately wants to hit every photopass spot she sees, and in my mind im thinking "I know i didnt get up early to get to the parks just to stand in long photopass lines while the queues fill up for the popular rides". Luckily the longest wait we had was 32 minutes for Jungle Cruise, everything else was under 20 minutes or walk on. We were able to let the kids re-ride anything they liked. Now was definitely the time to go for us because the kids got their fill of Dumbo, Flying Carpets, Carousel, Barnstormer, etc...with the only limiting factor being how fast you race around and re-enter the queue. I will say that it seems that more people were booking mid-September hoping everyone else would push their trip into October for the 50th, leaving late August to actually be the absolute best time to go.

We didnt partake in Boo Bash but both of our MK days fell on Boo Bash nights. For Non-Boo Bashers there is a good and a bad here, the good is that Boo Bashers are not coming in at 7 to ride attractions so they wont affect your queue times. The bad is that if you are there to see fireworks, id say 90% of the Boo Bashers entering the turnstiles at 7pm are there to stake out a fireworks spot, so the hub is going to fill QUICKLY. Luckily our kids fell asleep and we were able to get a good spot at 7:15.

Second thing i did not like is that the food seems to have dipped in quality once again. My sister joined us on the trip and we were excited to show her some of the great treats/snacks WDW has to offer and i must say we left disappointed. Many of our favorites have either had the recipe changed (Carrot Cake Cookie) or the quality of ingredients has taken a nose dive. Then some of the things we wanted to try were not in stock, and i dont mean sold out for that day, i mean they never even had them that day at all, (Im looking at you Caramel Apple Tart in ABC Commissary). The highlights of our trip ended up being the cherry beer at the Germany booth, Topolinos, and the Yorkshire County Fish Shop. I know they recently changed POG vendors but they need some quality control on the preparation because the batch we had at Tuskers House was outright bad, while at Topolinos it was amazing. We actually requested they take away the POG at Tuskers House and bring over the Minute Maid apple juice it was so bad.

Are the metal detectors set to maximum sensitivity at MK and set to low everywhere else? I entered the parks with the exact same items every day and i was only sent to bag search on the 2 MK days.

Disney is flat out lying with ride wait times. Stood directly in front of the CM holding the 60 minute wait sign at 7DMT and it only took us 32 minutes to hit the ride. Lines app was right on top of it. I still think there is something illegal about telling people the ride wait times are almost double what they actually are when you are also selling a service to skip the wait times. This is screaming class action.

Disney needs an IN HOUSE hit on Disney Jr. in the worst way. The most popular characters on the network are not Disney owned and therefore are not in the dance party or dont have areas set up for pictures. Vampirina and Doc McStuffins got almost no response at all from the kids, which makes sense because those shows are just about off the network. Bluey, Puppy Dog Pals, PJ Masks, T.O.T.S, and the new Spiderman (which i know cant happen) is what the kids know now.

On the positive side, the charter buses ARE THE BEST THING EVER. I understand that may be a sore spot for the scooter crowd, but wow is it so much better for people with strollers and nights with heavy bus lines. You could hear people in line get overjoyed when they saw the next bus pulling in was a charter bus and not one of the standard Disney buses. I tell you nothing ends your night on a high note like riding a standing room only Disney bus while trying to wrangle two toddlers and strollers. We noped right out of that and waited 3 minutes for a charter bus to arrive. Please Disney keep the charter buses going!

What is the charter buses ? How do they work / how are they different from regular bus to and from the park.

 

[MrWreckless]

What is the charter buses ? How do they work / how are they different from regular bus to and from the park.

Think of the DME buses with the storage compartments underneath and the forward facing seats. Disney has contracted a fleet of those to support their normal busses with the scooter positions.

The charter buses are great because you can place your strollers underneath them, freeing you from that hassle. They also have more seats so more people can ride comfortably.

 

[WEDWDW]

Think of the MDE buses with the storage compartments underneath and the forward facing seats. Disney has contracted a fleet of those to support their normal busses with the scooter positions.

The charter buses are great because you can place your strollers underneath them, freeing you from that hassle. They also have more seats so more people can ride comfortably.

And no "standing in the aisles" allowed as opposed to the Disney buses.

 

[Naomeri]

We (DS15 and I) just got back from a 9/15-9/19 stay at the Beach Club. We had a slight delay on our flight down and landed at 8:00pm instead of 7:30. Only 2 families ahead of us for ME but we waited on the bus a bit before leaving. BC was the 3rd stop and we were a little late for our 9:10 Beaches & Cream reservation but they were able to seat us.

We loved mobile ordering! We'd place an order while in line, press I'm here while walking to the restaurant and only waited more than 2-3 minutes once and that was ordering lunch @ ABC commissary at 12:00.

Thursday 9/16 was all about Galaxy's Edge. We got BG 42 (used wifi in our room). It was down a lot of the morning and we didn't get called until about 1:45. We left the BC @ 7:45, stopped at the Boardwalk Bakery for Mickey muffins and walked over for an 8:45 Savi's reservation. This was amazing and totally worth it! I mobile ordered the Rising Moon overnight oats from Ronto Roasters while DS explored and then we headed to Oga's for 9:45. Loved it there! He had the Carbon Freeze and I had the Jabba juice. Both were excellent!! We took lots of pictures on our own and with photopass before heading over to ToT (20 min wait, posted 40). RnR was down so we went over for TSMM (15 min wait, posted 25). We headed back to GE and got in line for MFSR (40 min wait, posted 70). Got some blue and green milks (DS liked the blue and I liked the green) then our BG was called. We had lunch at Sci-Fi @2:35. Checked in @2:20 and were seated by 2:30. After lunch we headed back for some time @ Stormalong Bay and then went back to the DHS around 6:00 to see GE at night and do some lightsaber pictures. We mostly just explored - DS did some of the Disney Play missions. We ordered dinner @ Docking Bay 7 and then it was dark so did a bunch of nighttime photos with his lightsaber. Jumped in line for MFSR @ 8:58 and mostly just walked on. There was almost no one left in GE when we got off and I got this shot



(to be cont)View attachment 606197

That’s a great shot

 

[Chavaleh]

Just back from our trip Sept 11 - 19th.

Heat and humidity was intense most days though we expected that. Crowds were not what I would consider light and were pretty seriously heavy on our Epcot days (especially this Sat). We rode a lot less than we normally would, my husband knew how to really use the previous FP system and we rarely waited in lines but with that gone plus the heat, covid and crowds we just didn't really want to stand and wait too much. Ended up masking more than I expected to outside because of the crowd levels. Not many other people were masked outdoors, maaaaaybe 10%. People did pretty well inside apart from the occasional nose out. There were a ton of toddlers and quite a few of them were clearly sick, coughing continuously, runny noses etc.

We had a lyft driver who was a retired Disney employee who was incredibly enthused about Genie. He'd been in the test group since April and is either in love with it or getting some promo $$$ to hype it I guess we'll see. He did mention that the initial rollout is more for information gathering and not the 'end product' and that after the new year is when we'll get to see what they are really planning. The things he mentioned sounded intriguing but yeah... we'll see.

 

[NavyDad]

I introduced my daughter when she was a toddler. I’d say go for it!

Our daughter was 3 when she tried it and she loved it!

A few years later and she didn't like it anymore. LOL

 

[Corinne]

Would you mind, even if it unfortunately didn’t work out, telling us more details about your technique? (Where were you, if you used wifi or cellular, that kind of thing) because it might be helpful for others, even if just for a few days

We’re staying @ BCV, cellular. Was able to get a BG @ 1:00, however, the callback will likely coincide with our Remy preview.

 

[SCDisneyfanatic]

Did the Lyft driver say when he thought it would be implemented??

 

[Mambo Junkie]

Here now. First day of touring arrived 7:00 am at AK and pretty much walked on FOP with maybe a 5 minute wait max. Of course that was after a good 15 minute walk to get to the actual ride. Got off, went over to Na’vi with a posted 11 minute wait. Not very crowded, overall excellent masking. I guess the early risers are serious lol as the day went on I saw more noses but still not bad. I actually only saw a couple of unmasked indoor guests. As it got more crowded I wore my mask in and outdoors. Physical distancing is not happening, for the better part. Luckily we had a scooter so I was in the front keeping space between us and the party in front of us while the scooter took care of the back. Anyway we next went to Lion king and they cancelled the 9:30 show so we went over to the safari ride then back to lion king. After that we ended up taking the path which used to lead to Pocahontas and did tough to be a bug. Went to EE then Dinosaur and that was pretty much what we wanted to do. Moved our dining reservation up to 1:15 (thank you, Landry’s) and done with everything we had planned. Lounged bu the pool for a while at the resort. We did catch a little of the bird show and it was good as always. So far so good. We will see about tomorrow. Still have the ROTR BG hurdle to get over but we have the backup plan of doing a walk on the next day. We also thought about going to Animation but we will wait for the kids to come with us for that. As for the social distancing and mask compliance I’m fairly comfortable.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Did the Lyft driver say when he thought it would be implemented??

If it follows the DLR test of MaxPass all it will be is a price hike

 

[Dentam]

My rapid test came back negative today so it seems that I'm just dealing with a bad cold. I definitely noticed a lot of coughing toddlers on this trip as a previous poster mentioned as well as some adults with bad coughs, including one in the restroom stall next to me on the last day hacking away and blowing her nose like crazy. Sigh. Why do people go to the parks sick? And during a pandemic to boot.

 

[loves to dive]

My rapid test came back negative today so it seems that I'm just dealing with a bad cold. I definitely noticed a lot of coughing toddlers on this trip as a previous poster mentioned as well as some adults with bad coughs, including one in the restroom stall next to me on the last day hacking away and blowing her nose like crazy. Sigh. Why do people go to the parks sick? And during a pandemic to boot.

About the coughing. I have a dry cough that I have had for over a year. My son, who is a RT, thinks it's some form of allergies as it does seem to be worse at my office (oldish probably moldy carpets) and at home (hubby used to smoke in the house) than at other places. I have to go to the Dr. every 3 months to get my statin refills so I know it's not some sort of flu or anything contagious. Anyway, sometimes a cough does not mean someone is sick. While mine is a dry cough and sort of sounds like a little kids, there are times when hubby asks if I would like that lung back I just coughed up.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

About the coughing. I have a dry cough that I have had for over a year. My son, who is a RT, thinks it's some form of allergies as it does seem to be worse at my office (oldish probably moldy carpets) and at home (hubby used to smoke in the house) than at other places. I have to go to the Dr. every 3 months to get my statin refills so I know it's not some sort of flu or anything contagious. Anyway, sometimes a cough does not mean someone is sick. While mine is a dry cough and sort of sounds like a little kids, there are times when hubby asks if I would like that lung back I just coughed up.

I start coughing when people I don’t know get too close to me
Edit to add no really I do tend to cough when I get dry from wearing the mask. I have to wear it at work so I always have some sort of lozenge to keep my throat moist. It’s especially noticeable when it’s hot.

 

[Helvetica]

My 10 days at Disney is done. Magic Kingdom was really fun today. It was probably the hottest day of the trip or it could just be that I didn’t take a break.

I didn’t mean to stay for the fireworks, but I did and it was awesome. It’s just going to mean a longer drive tomorrow, but I’m sure it will be fine.

Overall, I had a great trip. I’m also really proud of myself. I didn’t buy anything (except food).

 

[Lsdolphin]

My rapid test came back negative today so it seems that I'm just dealing with a bad cold. I definitely noticed a lot of coughing toddlers on this trip as a previous poster mentioned as well as some adults with bad coughs, including one in the restroom stall next to me on the last day hacking away and blowing her nose like crazy. Sigh. Why do people go to the parks sick? And during a pandemic to boot.

Well I’m fully vaccinated but caught COVID anyway! I had it 2 months ago but I still have a cough that I just can’t get rid of...I’m not sick/contagious but of course no one would know that...the cough is not constant mainly if I’m trying to have a longer conversation or exerting myself.
So glad you just have a cold...feel better soon.

 

[Dentam]

About the coughing. I have a dry cough that I have had for over a year. My son, who is a RT, thinks it's some form of allergies as it does seem to be worse at my office (oldish probably moldy carpets) and at home (hubby used to smoke in the house) than at other places. I have to go to the Dr. every 3 months to get my statin refills so I know it's not some sort of flu or anything contagious. Anyway, sometimes a cough does not mean someone is sick. While mine is a dry cough and sort of sounds like a little kids, there are times when hubby asks if I would like that lung back I just coughed up.

These were not dry coughs. Lots of phlegm being hacked up by the kids and the woman in the restroom. And she was blowing her nose with a lot coming out that way also it sounded like. Definitely some respiratory viruses going around in FL now aside from Covid.

 

[Dentam]

Well I’m fully vaccinated but caught COVID anyway! I had it 2 months ago but I still have a cough that I just can’t get rid of...I’m not sick/contagious but of course no one would know that...the cough is not constant mainly if I’m trying to have a longer conversation or exerting myself.
So glad you just have a cold...feel better soon.

I remember you posting about getting Covid after your July trip. I had hoped that the lower Sept crowds would mean we'd be more likely to get through the trip healthy, and yes, I am very glad that we didn't get Covid. Still, I was a bit disappointed in the higher crowds, especially in Epcot, and the lack of social distancing now. And of course the people who go to the parks sick or bring their kids there while they're sick. People will be people I guess, pandemic or not.

I'm glad you are on the mend and hope your cough goes away soon!

 

[ThereYouSeeHer]

Good day yesterday. Saw Happily Ever After on a non-Boo Bash night and it was packed. Curbs and spots already taken an hour before showtime. Our plan to go to the garden area in front of Casey’s was almost thwarted because one grass plot was roped off as reserved and another was roped off for active filming.

Leaving was crazy, not only because of the crowds, but because they roped off all the left-side exits, so you had to exit to Main Street. However, even though filming had ended, they left the ropes up, so we were also blocked from exiting to the right. It was very confusing, but we eventually made it out and jumped on Jungle Cruise before closing.

 

[Leigh L]

This is my 3rd Studios day, it's the worst out of Mon, Tues, and today. Monday was the best, followed by Tuesday. Today I got on Slinky Dog at rope drop, off the ride in 20 min. Had BG 4. Did the Falcon once and single rider to go again. Midway Mania line currently extending outside the entrance, longest I've seen this week.

Sounds like we probably passed each other, perhaps twice! lol

Hope you had/having a great trip!