Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[scrappinginontario]

Thanks, that was my next question because it seems like ropedropping may be a bit more popular than when we used to do it (March 2015-2020).

If near the front of the frontierland drop (again, offsite and driving), is it still possible to get in BTMRR, SPLASH, and HM or POTC in with less than 20-25 minute waits? (e.g, 3 decent rides)

I ask because with younger ones we would always ropedrop frontierland (I'm talking front of the line ropedrop) and get in 4 quick rides in with very little wait. We would go back to our resort around 1:00 and come back for the evening...which is a pain at MK given how long it takes.

If ropedrop is not what it used to be then we may just stack a few rides and show up around 1:00 and stay until close (11:00 close on the days I am looking at).

Thanks!

What will slow things down is Splash as it takes time to go through the queue then the ride itself is 13 minutes long which means people are gathering in other lines while you're on Splash. You may want to consider making that the last one of your group above in order to ride the other 3 with shorter waits.

 

[Juventus]

Thanks. Ya I've done this at least a dozen times and we definitely want to do thunder first and while splash takes time, I feel that going to, say, HM and back eats up time walking. We were always able to do BTMRR-SPLASH-POTC-HM in that order with maybe a 25-30min wait at HM. Again, we'd be on one of the very first trains on BTMRR.

Going to keep an eye on the lines app leading up to the trip I guess.

 

[jsmla]

I usually go like this:
Mine Train (Early Entry)
Peter Pan (Early Entry)
Haunted Mansion
Big Thunder
Splash Mt.
Pirates

I think I may wait slightly longer in the queues but I save the time and effort it takes to crisscross the park.

 

[CookieandOatmeal]

How do you fight through the ETPE crowds when trying to get to CRT for a pre-park ADR? Is there a pretty clear path to that part of the castle? My April ADR is at 8am with MK officially opening at 9 that day.

 

[Lsdolphin]

How do you fight through the ETPE crowds when trying to get to CRT for a pre-park ADR? Is there a pretty clear path to that part of the castle? My April ADR is at 8am with MK officially opening at 9 that day.

Don’t really have to “fight” thru crowds...just walk straight up to castle and you will see 1or 2 CMs holding iPads they will scan your magic band to confirm your CRT reservation and than direct you to continue past them up into castle. As you enter into the castle you will see check in podium up to your right. onsite guests are directed to right for early entry before they get closer to castle.

 

[Donaldsfans]

Quick question, we are heading down on Sat. for a few days. Was planning to skip DHS this time, but now thinking about hopping there one day. Is it worth it just to be able to be there one day from 2-9? 2 adults, 2 kids (3&5).

When we're you there last? They do have new rides

We did MK today booking as soon as park opening and then grabbing next available throughout the day, so hopefully this helps. Now keep in mind this meant that we missed out on PPF since it was always super far out and we lucked out with a JC at the end of the day. We also opted out of ETPE and decided to sleep in and take it easy this morning. We arrived in time for our first LL. Here’s our schedule, times approx:

9:30 BTMR — 7 am LL
10:30 7DMT — 7 am ILL
Standby SM, waited the full posted 35 mins
1:20 Pirates
2:10 Buzz
3:30 lunch at CRT
Hall of Presidents
People Mover
6:10 Small World
6:20 Haunted Mansion
7:45 JC

You seemed to get your money's worth, but that's a lot of crisscrossing the park.

 

[UpstateMick]

We are sitting in the airport and waiting for our flight back to Upstate NY. We have been here all week. Stayed at Swan and I have to say the boats and walk to HS and EPCOT was well worth what we paid. Since we have a 17DD, it was great when she wanted to sleep in and stay at the pool and the wife and I wanted to rope drop or just stroll. Overall, after 14 years of WDW we are done, with DD graduating and just not a big fan of the parks like she was when she was younger it’s a good time for us exit. We had a great run of old style Fastpasses and rope drop strategies for the past 14 years that you cannot do today. I spoke to so many families who were getting the crap kicked out of them by LL and ILL and scheduling and paying and being on their phones and rides being down and so on and so forth. I don’t want to be one of those “Im never going back” people, but man, for the money spent and what you get, it’s a hard pill to swallow. The “still” good: Disney Springs is great. Garden Grill is great! Tusker House is great! Kona Cafe is great! Beaches and Crème was great! All still exceed expectations. ROTR is still unbelievable and worth the ILL price! The “meh”: Sci-Fi dine in food really went downhill. Disney friendliness (cast, managers, etc.) really blah…it’s like night and day. The cleanliness of parks and bathrooms…yikes! For those of us who remember it was difficult to find a straw rapper on the ground before a cast member swooped in and scooped it up, no more. Remy? Um, it was nice, but short and not our bag of fun. EPCOTS's Harmonious...Jeesh!? What was that mess? Saw Illuminations over 30x and 1x Harmonious was TOO many for us...and had two surveys during my stay asking me how we liked Harmonious...Disney must be nervous about this one, with good reason! Same thing goes for Enchantment at MK, my gosh, are they TRYING to make any connections to anything? another mess that we were "one and done" with. You follow Wishes with Happily Ever After..ok, tough , but I get that, but you follow Happily Ever After with this train wreck...another Disney mistake. The “bad”: ride break down…everywhere, everyday, often, and brings incredible frustration. It was absolutely ridiculous. At rope drop, at our Deluxe Resort 2 hour late night, rides being down really had an effect on our touring and experiences. And speaking of the “perk” of being a deluxe guest with 2 extra hours…it truly ends up being about 45 minutes…absolutely not worth the extra to stay at a deluxe in our opinion. Overall, we had a beautiful weather week, some great meals, a great time at Disney Springs and the Swan Resort, but our park experiences were something we are happy to say we have no need to experience again.

 

[scrappinginontario]

I can relate. We are huge WDW fans and had visited the parks more than 20 times in 10 years. I remember for years I would tell people that it is a 'reasonably priced' vacation but I can no longer say that. Prices have increased exponentially and there are more up-charges which is leading us to explore other options.

I'll be honest and say, we're not leaving the Disney brand, just opening up to what else they might offer.

We booked a trip for Aug but I'm pretty confident we're going to cancel it and try a trip to DL instead. We won't go for as long but we've talked about going to DL for years but I continually went back to my comfort zone of WDW. Since WDW is no longer as comfortable as it was, I'm encouraged to try something new in DL.

Also, something Pete said on a recent podcast resonated with me so I looked into it. For years I said we'd been 'priced out of Disney Cruises' but, he shared a comparison of DCL vs WDW and he's quite right. Our 9 night WDW trip (Pop Century so still value resort) is less than $500 difference of a 7 night (inside stateroom) cruise on the Fantasy and, the cruise includes food and drinks!!! WOW! I understand there are upcharges on a cruise (tipping and shore excursions but, we tip at WDW too and normally don't book too many shore excursions although that may change a bit this time.)

For years our 8 night Disney trips including dining and 8 day PH tickets were less than $2000. That same trip without food is now over $3000!

So, while we love WDW and will be back for sure, in the meantime we spreading our wings and trying other Disney products.

Update: I will say, we had an amazing time on our recent trip (Jan/Feb 2022), we're just going to branch out a bit before returning to WDW.

 

[czmom]

We are sitting in the airport and waiting for our flight back to Upstate NY. We have been here all week. Stayed at Swan and I have to say the boats and walk to HS and EPCOT was well worth what we paid. Since we have a 17DD, it was great when she wanted to sleep in and stay at the pool and the wife and I wanted to rope drop or just stroll. Overall, after 14 years of WDW we are done, with DD graduating and just not a big fan of the parks like she was when she was younger it’s a good time for us exit. We had a great run of old style Fastpasses and rope drop strategies for the past 14 years that you cannot do today. I spoke to so many families who were getting the crap kicked out of them by LL and ILL and scheduling and paying and being on their phones and rides being down and so on and so forth. I don’t want to be one of those “Im never going back” people, but man, for the money spent and what you get, it’s a hard pill to swallow. The “still” good: Disney Springs is great. Garden Grill is great! Tusker House is great! Kona Cafe is great! Beaches and Crème was great! All still exceed expectations. ROTR is still unbelievable and worth the ILL price! The “meh”: Sci-Fi dine in food really went downhill. Disney friendliness (cast, managers, etc.) really blah…it’s like night and day. The cleanliness of parks and bathrooms…yikes! For those of us who remember it was difficult to find a straw rapper on the ground before a cast member swooped in and scooped it up, no more. Remy? Um, it was nice, but short and not our bag of fun. The “bad”: ride break down…everywhere, everyday, often, and brings incredible frustration. It was absolutely ridiculous. At rope drop, at our Deluxe Resort 2 hour late night, rides being down really had an effect on our touring and experiences. And speaking of the “perk” of being a deluxe guest with 2 extra hours…it truly ends up being about 45 minutes…absolutely not worth the extra to stay at a deluxe in our opinion. Overall, we had a beautiful weather week, some great meals, a great time at Disney Springs and the Swan Resort, but our park experiences were something we are happy to say we have no need to experience again.

Can you explain the extra hours being shortened? We go in a couple weeks, and was planning on getting a lot done in those 2 hours.

 

[DisneyFive]

We are sitting in the airport and waiting for our flight back to Upstate NY. We have been here all week. Stayed at Swan and I have to say the boats and walk to HS and EPCOT was well worth what we paid. Since we have a 17DD, it was great when she wanted to sleep in and stay at the pool and the wife and I wanted to rope drop or just stroll. Overall, after 14 years of WDW we are done, with DD graduating and just not a big fan of the parks like she was when she was younger it’s a good time for us exit. We had a great run of old style Fastpasses and rope drop strategies for the past 14 years that you cannot do today. I spoke to so many families who were getting the crap kicked out of them by LL and ILL and scheduling and paying and being on their phones and rides being down and so on and so forth. I don’t want to be one of those “Im never going back” people, but man, for the money spent and what you get, it’s a hard pill to swallow. The “still” good: Disney Springs is great. Garden Grill is great! Tusker House is great! Kona Cafe is great! Beaches and Crème was great! All still exceed expectations. ROTR is still unbelievable and worth the ILL price! The “meh”: Sci-Fi dine in food really went downhill. Disney friendliness (cast, managers, etc.) really blah…it’s like night and day. The cleanliness of parks and bathrooms…yikes! For those of us who remember it was difficult to find a straw rapper on the ground before a cast member swooped in and scooped it up, no more. Remy? Um, it was nice, but short and not our bag of fun. The “bad”: ride break down…everywhere, everyday, often, and brings incredible frustration. It was absolutely ridiculous. At rope drop, at our Deluxe Resort 2 hour late night, rides being down really had an effect on our touring and experiences. And speaking of the “perk” of being a deluxe guest with 2 extra hours…it truly ends up being about 45 minutes…absolutely not worth the extra to stay at a deluxe in our opinion. Overall, we had a beautiful weather week, some great meals, a great time at Disney Springs and the Swan Resort, but our park experiences were something we are happy to say we have no need to experience again.

Really well thought out post. Sad to think of the "end of the run". I'm not sure if we are there or not. I don't want to be done. Too many memories, nostalgia, and holding out hope that we can still have magical vacations there.

Part of it is the kids growing up, and possibly out, of Disney. I truly don't see our kids ever growing out of it, but I do see the possibility that the park experience just isn't what they remember from the previous decade+. Sadly, that could cause the end of it for them.

Like you said, we had a GREAT run with both the paper and FP+ systems that really allowed the premium cost of a Disney vacation to be worth it. We'll give it another go this summer. We'll see...

Dan

 

[UpstateMick]

Can you explain the extra hours being shortened? We go in a couple weeks, and was planning on getting a lot done in those 2 hours.

So you get two hours, but many people have figured out the “trick” of getting in line for attractions a minute before park closing (say 9:59 for this past Mondays MK) so the EMH start at 10:00, and now as a deluxe resort guest, you go to get in a line, and immediately see there are still 30-40 minute waits on POTC, BTMRR, SM, and HM and JC and PP, and a 70 minute wait on 7DMT, so you go choose one of those and by the time you wait in line, ride one ride, and get out of line, almost an hour has past, not to mention regular guests trying to line jump (we saw this on 3 rides and it really bottlenecks things and caused a chaos) you really only end up with about 40 minutes of lower waits and even then, 7DMT never went below 40 minutes. And, eat before, because food is VERY scarce after 9:00 PM

 

[UpstateMick]

Really well thought out post. Sad to think of the "end of the run". I'm not sure if we are there or not. I don't want to be done. Too many memories, nostalgia, and holding out hope that we can still have magical vacations there.

Part of it is the kids growing up, and possibly out, of Disney. I truly don't see our kids ever growing out of it, but I do see the possibility that the park experience just isn't what they remember from the previous decade+. Sadly, that could cause the end of it for them.

Like you said, we had a GREAT run with both the paper and FP+ systems that really allowed the premium cost of a Disney vacation to be worth it. We'll give it another go this summer. We'll see...

Dan

You will enjoy your trip this summer, just as we did, and it is hard with all the memories and every nook and cranny of the park holding some emotional connection (we must have said to our 17DD “oh remember when…” 1000x and her retort was either “please stop” or “no!” Lol) My wife and I realized on this trip that our last two trips (June 2021 and this one) the visits to the parks have been mostly for past memories, not for the new experiences, so we realized we have to stop (or get counseling lol). It’s hard to let go, but my daughter said to us that she’d love to come back with us if we stay at a resort near Disney Springs so she could enjoy the resort during the day and get our Disney fix with Disney Springs at night. We are done with parks. We have seen it all and done it all during the past 14 years and we have a lifetime of memories to cherish. We don’t need to keep doing to do! I’m proud of my daughter she taught us a great lesson on this trip, so our next Orlando adventure will take a new form. Change is good! We are looking forward to Phase 2. And I always have Phase 3 (Grandpa Role) down the road. A chance to do it all over again

 

[UpstateMick]

I can relate. We are huge WDW fans and had visited the parks more than 20 times in 10 years. I remember for years I would tell people that it is a 'reasonably priced' vacation but I can no longer say that. Prices have increased exponentially and there are more up-charges which is leading us to explore other options.

I'll be honest and say, we're not leaving the Disney brand, just opening up to what else they might offer.

We booked a trip for Aug but I'm pretty confident we're going to cancel it and try a trip to DL instead. We won't go for as long but we've talked about going to DL for years but I continually went back to my comfort zone of WDW. Since WDW is no longer as comfortable as it was, I'm encouraged to try something new in DL.

Also, something Pete said on a recent podcast resonated with me so I looked into it. For years I said we'd been 'priced out of Disney Cruises' but, he shared a comparison of DCL vs WDW and he's quite right. Our 9 night WDW trip is less than $500 difference of a 7 night (inside stateroom) cruise on the Fantasy and, the cruise includes food and drinks!!! WOW! I understand there are upcharges on a cruise (tipping and shore excursions but, we tip at WDW too and normally don't book too many shore excursions although that may change a bit this time.)

For years our 8 night Disney trips including dining and 8 day PH tickets were less than $2000. That same trip without food is now over $3000!

So, while we love WDW and will be back for sure, in the meantime we spreading our wings and trying other Disney products.

It is so funny that you say this! With my daughter going to college in the fall after graduating from HS, and NOT being able to vacation next February with us, my wife and I are going to Disneyland for the first time as well!! I think trip planning is half the fun (I am a pro) so as long as I have something to plan, I’ll be good with it all! Our first trip to WDW with my daughter when she was 3 (2008) was 7 days, 2,450 total! This trip, with airfare, for 6 days, with a teacher discount at the Swan, and food, was just over 6,000! Unreal!

 

[DisneyFive]

So you get two hours, but many people have figured out the “trick” of getting in line for attractions a minute before park closing (say 9:59 for this past Mondays MK) so the EMH start at 10:00, and now as a deluxe resort guest, you go to get in a line, and immediately see there are still 30-40 minute waits on POTC, BTMRR, SM, and HM and JC and PP, and a 70 minute wait on 7DMT, so you go choose one of those and by the time you wait in line, ride one ride, and get out of line, almost an hour has past, not to mention regular guests trying to line jump (we saw this on 3 rides and it really bottlenecks things and caused a chaos) you really only end up with about 40 minutes of lower waits and even then, 7DMT never went below 40 minutes. And, eat before, because food is VERY scarce after 9:00 PM

I'm not sure if our park days this summer will line up the EEH, but if they do... do you think it would be better to just hang back and grab a snack or something for the first 30 minutes of EEH to help the queues empty out from day guests? I know what you're saying about jumping in line right at park closing, because we did it a number of time our last trip July 2021. Most of the time we did that we were through the line in about 30 minutes. FOP was like 65 though, which felt really long but it was awesome leaving Pandora basically by ourselves with no one else around with all the beautiful lighted plants, sounds, etc...

You will enjoy your trip this summer, just as we did, and it is hard with all the memories and every nook and cranny of the park holding some emotional connection (we must have said to our 17DD “oh remember when…” 1000x and her retort was either “please stop” or “no!” Lol) My wife and I realized on this trip that our last two trips (June 2021 and this one) the visits to the parks have been mostly for past memories, not for the new experiences, so we realized we have to stop (or get counseling lol). It’s hard to let go, but my daughter said to us that she’d love to come back with us if we stay at a resort near Disney Springs so she could enjoy the resort during the day and get our Disney fix with Disney Springs at night. We are done with parks. We have seen it all and done it all during the past 14 years and we have a lifetime of memories to cherish. We don’t need to keep doing to do! I’m proud of my daughter she taught us a great lesson on this trip, so our next Orlando adventure will take a new form. Change is good! We are looking forward to Phase 2. And I always have Phase 3 (Grandpa Role) down the road. A chance to do it all over again

Thanks. Love this.

Dan

 

[scrappinginontario]

You will enjoy your trip this summer, just as we did, and it is hard with all the memories and every nook and cranny of the park holding some emotional connection (we must have said to our 17DD “oh remember when…” 1000x and her retort was either “please stop” or “no!” Lol) My wife and I realized on this trip that our last two trips (June 2021 and this one) the visits to the parks have been mostly for past memories, not for the new experiences, so we realized we have to stop (or get counseling lol). It’s hard to let go, but my daughter said to us that she’d love to come back with us if we stay at a resort near Disney Springs so she could enjoy the resort during the day and get our Disney fix with Disney Springs at night. We are done with parks. We have seen it all and done it all during the past 14 years and we have a lifetime of memories to cherish. We don’t need to keep doing to do! I’m proud of my daughter she taught us a great lesson on this trip, so our next Orlando adventure will take a new form. Change is good! We are looking forward to Phase 2. And I always have Phase 3 (Grandpa Role) down the road. A chance to do it all over again

We took a picture for a family this trip that was taking it a step further and recreating their pics from earlier trips! (LOL - I'm sure your daughter will breathe a huge sigh of relief that you didn't ask for that!) I had to say the one they showed us where the now-18yo was sitting on the dad's shoulders in front of RnRC was hilarious!!

My daughter whined the one time we stopped in DS to take our traditional pic with Pooh and Friends near the candy store!

 

[UpstateMick]

Definitely still get in line as soon as you can…don’t hang back. My daughter made a priority list of her “must dos” that night so we prioritized that. We still got on HM, POTC, PP, Buzz and a few times on Big Thunder. Just wouldn’t have been able to do Space Mtn. And 7DMT during that time with the lines.

 

[UpstateMick]

We took a picture for a family this trip that was taking it a step further and recreating their pics from earlier trips! (LOL - I'm sure your daughter will breathe a huge sigh of relief that you didn't ask for that!) I had to say the one they showed us where the now-18yo was sitting on the dad's shoulders in front of RnRC was hilarious!!\

My daughter whined the one time we stopped in DS to take our traditional pic with Pooh and Friends near the candy store!

Um…we did 3 of those for graduation party photos and no, it was not a popular activity! lol!!

 

[pens4821]

HS - I feel like they were pushing onsite to the left turnstiles and offsite to the right. So they were controlling the flow of guests before you got into the park.

Was it clear where you needed to go to get in and use the ETPE? I’d hate to get there early and be in the wrong line then have to get behind others.

 

[brockash]

We are sitting in the airport and waiting for our flight back to Upstate NY. We have been here all week. Stayed at Swan and I have to say the boats and walk to HS and EPCOT was well worth what we paid. Since we have a 17DD, it was great when she wanted to sleep in and stay at the pool and the wife and I wanted to rope drop or just stroll. Overall, after 14 years of WDW we are done, with DD graduating and just not a big fan of the parks like she was when she was younger it’s a good time for us exit. We had a great run of old style Fastpasses and rope drop strategies for the past 14 years that you cannot do today. I spoke to so many families who were getting the crap kicked out of them by LL and ILL and scheduling and paying and being on their phones and rides being down and so on and so forth. I don’t want to be one of those “Im never going back” people, but man, for the money spent and what you get, it’s a hard pill to swallow. The “still” good: Disney Springs is great. Garden Grill is great! Tusker House is great! Kona Cafe is great! Beaches and Crème was great! All still exceed expectations. ROTR is still unbelievable and worth the ILL price! The “meh”: Sci-Fi dine in food really went downhill. Disney friendliness (cast, managers, etc.) really blah…it’s like night and day. The cleanliness of parks and bathrooms…yikes! For those of us who remember it was difficult to find a straw rapper on the ground before a cast member swooped in and scooped it up, no more. Remy? Um, it was nice, but short and not our bag of fun. The “bad”: ride break down…everywhere, everyday, often, and brings incredible frustration. It was absolutely ridiculous. At rope drop, at our Deluxe Resort 2 hour late night, rides being down really had an effect on our touring and experiences. And speaking of the “perk” of being a deluxe guest with 2 extra hours…it truly ends up being about 45 minutes…absolutely not worth the extra to stay at a deluxe in our opinion. Overall, we had a beautiful weather week, some great meals, a great time at Disney Springs and the Swan Resort, but our park experiences were something we are happy to say we have no need to experience again.

I have to say we kinda agree as far as the park experience. We too just returned early this morning from a week down there from the tundra that is the north country in NY and honestly for the weather alone the trip was well worth it for us, however for the first time ever we didn't rope drop each day and chose not to do a handful of attractions just because we didn't find it worth it.

The weather was perfect and I HATE being back here. We were sweating our butts off at the pool yesterday at this time and just 12 hrs later in negative degree real feel weathee and snow...blah.

We did end up getting to do a decent amount without huge waits even with the crowds...but it cost us and I don't think we're willing to spend that kind of money again. Also, the constant refreshing, head burried in my phone....literally setting an alarm for every 2 hrs was just not how we want to spend vacation.

We too did deluxe hrs. and originally I thought pretty highly of it for a MK night, however looking back, that night was mainly successful because I had been able to stack and purchase fastpasses for the headliners throughtout the day and by the time it was deluxe hrs.; while we did walk on most everything, we were really only hitting up the less popular rides and then saved Space for last at like 1145pm.

Epcot deluxe hrs was totally different and while we did get to accomplish the big 4, it was only the big 4 and we were really moving to make it to each. Each ride had around a 20-35 min. wait. To us, that wasn't worth it.

We also hated how much criss-crossing the park we had to do for everything. We've been doing Disney for a cpl decades on a regular basis and have never had to criss-cross so much. We had 1 day that we walked 32000 steps!!... That is waayyy more than we ever had in a single day and that was with a break. We all definitely felt all the extra walking as well.

We've just gotten to the point that we really enjoy our rest days much more than the actual park days.

CM's were also just very meh. None that were super rude or anything, but absolutely nothing special or really even friendly about them either.

 

[GBRforWDW]

We booked a trip for Aug but I'm pretty confident we're going to cancel it and try a trip to DL instead. We won't go for as long but we've talked about going to DL for years but I continually went back to my comfort zone of WDW.

You should definitely do Disneyland! We went last August and are planning a return in July. It's such a different experience and a lot easier, in my opinion, to go out and do non Disney related things, such as visit Hollywood, go to the ocean, go to sporting events, etc.

I'm excited for all the nighttime shows retuning in the next few months that we didn't get to see during our first trip.