Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[cakebaker]

Housekeeping experience at Fort Wilderness It’s virtually non existent.

When we arrived on Monday the first thing we did was call for extra towels and washcloths. They arrived promptly. We saw no signs of housekeeping until Wednesday. That consisted of emptying the trash cans and nothing else. That was the only service we got the entire stay of 5 days. We called yesterday for more towels and asked if we were due for room service and were told yes. When we got in last night there was a pile of towels in a chair in the kitchen. That was it- trash cans were not emptied and the huge pile of used towels we left in the bathroom were still there.

We’ve all taken to wearing socks in the room because the floor is so dirty. There’s no vacuum or broom in the room so no way to even do it ourselves. This should not happen at a motel 6 let alone at a resort charging over $450 a night. And yes I know they’re short staffed- so adjust the pricing to reflect the downgrade in service. After all, if you can’t hire people that means you aren’t paying them. Pass that savings on to the guest.

 

[KSR0330]

What exactly is the expectation regarding masks at the restaurants? Do they need to be worn unless actively eating or drinking or just when not seated? Also, are masks also required indoors throughout Disney Springs? Thanks!

 

[Marionnette]

What exactly is the expectation regarding masks at the restaurants? Do they need to be worn unless actively eating or drinking or just when not seated? Also, are masks also required indoors throughout Disney Springs? Thanks!

When I went to Disney in April, it was shortly after "unless actively eating or drinking" was first added to the language already being used. That was at a time when you still had to wear masks everywhere. You were supposed to have your mask up when traveling to/from your table and until your food or beverage arrived. After that, the mask could be removed and stay off until the meal was finished. If you got up from your seat, you had to put the mask back on.

The rule applied across all of Disney property including DS restaurants but enforcement at DS was kind of lax. Many people removed their mask as soon as they were seated and no one said a word.

The language is now the same as it was in April. I would expect current experiences to be similar to what we saw back then.

 

[rlk]

What exactly is the expectation regarding masks at the restaurants? Do they need to be worn unless actively eating or drinking or just when not seated? Also, are masks also required indoors throughout Disney Springs? Thanks!

We picked up lunch from Contempo Cafe and saw a mix. Some people were waiting for their tables unmasked and some had masks on. We have a an early lunch at The Plaza today and will report back.

 

[Eastern]

At HM, they still had everyone cram into all available spaces I. The stretching room.

I didn't even like this prepandemic. I never moved all the way in. I'm a Disney criminal.

 

[cdurham1]

What exactly is the expectation regarding masks at the restaurants? Do they need to be worn unless actively eating or drinking or just when not seated? Also, are masks also required indoors throughout Disney Springs? Thanks!

We had lunch at Tusker House yesterday. Had to wear mask when not sitting at table, ie taking pics when standing, walking to bathroom, walking to and from table, etc.

 

[DisneyFive]

What exactly is the expectation regarding masks at the restaurants? Do they need to be worn unless actively eating or drinking or just when not seated? Also, are masks also required indoors throughout Disney Springs? Thanks!

We had lunch at Tusker House yesterday. Had to wear mask when not sitting at table, ie taking pics when standing, walking to bathroom, walking to and from table, etc.

You wear a mask until you get your drinks or food. Then you can remove them for the duration of your meal unless you get up and leave the table.

Dan

 

[DisneyFive]

Magic Kingdom day 2. Beautiful morning

Immediately got on a bus at 8 AM. (because we saw the bus and ran ) We will see how MK is implementing their mask policy versus Hollywood studios. Hopefully it is implemented as straightforward as it was at HS, which was very easy to understand.

Thru tapstiles at 8:17am.
Family overruled me and we are doing 7DMT at rope drop. . Maybe 100 people in front of us waiting for 7DMT. They did an initial movement around 8:55am to move the crowd forward, then one minute before 9 AM they let everyone in, guided by CM’s. OK make that 300 people, my initial estimate was way off. . It was fairly orderly but a brisk walk. We are circled back around 7DMT about 100 feet past the tea cups. 9:10 AM and through the official Marquee. Masks must start past that point. On 7DMT at 9:30 AM

If these gems were real I would say that this might possibly, just about, cover the cost of this trip, maybe:


Heading towards Ariel, and then maybe HM and Pirates . Don’t want to get stuck in a long line for a headliner at this point.

9:38 AM. Ariel. Posted five minutes. Walked on.

9:58 AM. Haunted Mansion. Posted 15 minutes. On in 14 minutes . Line is way shorter than the other day when it took us a long 48 minutes. Nothing was said about putting your mask on as we went under the marquee. I would say about half of the people are masked up in this outdoor Part of the queue. Officially told to put masks on just before entering the indoors for HM

10:33 AM. Pirates. Posted 45 minutes. On in 15. Masks are required as soon as you enter the marquee.

We are starting to be able to gauge wait times by the length of the lines.

stopped for some candied almonds.

11:15 AM Aladdin Carpets. Posted 25 minutes. On in 20 minutes. It’s hot out here. This was my son‘s favorite ride the first time we came to Disney when he was 3 years old. Reason why? We scared the poo out of him with Splash Mountain earlier in the day, our first full day. He definitely did not like the unexpected drop. Lesson learned. After that experience he liked that he could see the whole ride at once, i.e. no surprises.


11:42 AM. Swiss family treehouse… because we like climbing trees when it’s a bazillion degrees out, but hey, no line.


11:55 AM. Checking in for our Jungle skipper canteen lunch. First time eating here and we all loved it. We will do this again on our final MK day.


VERY happy with how things went this morning. We learned that at Magic Kingdom we cannot do two major headliners in a row at rope drop and be very efficient. By the time you get on your second headliner the line is already long and it works so much better for us to do secondary attractions instead. (If you consider pirates and HM secondary. It’s almost sacrilege to state it that way.). Happy with six attractions in three hours though.

1:15 PM and heading back to the boardwalk to rest/swim. Did I say it’s hot today? Feeling the sun more today than others for some reason.

4:38 I’m up. Nobody else is. One of the side effects of having to get up so dang early every day to make things work.

Heading back to MK for a 6 pm ADR at the Plaza. I feel like we ate, came back to the resort, and now right back to eating. I guess that’s pretty accurate though. It might seem like we are eating a ton but we really can’t eat high volumes of food. We split meals at lunch today for instance. It’s great trying so many new locations though.

5:55 PM. At The Plaza, solid diner food.

7:05 PM. Winnie the Pooh. Posted 35 minutes. Waited 22 minutes

7:47. People mover. Posted 30 minutes. On in 17 minutes

8:18 PM. Buzz light year. Posted 20 minutes. On in 24 minutes. My son and I rocked this one, but I confess, only because the cars got stopped for a while so we got to keep shooting targets.

9:00 PM. It’s a small world. Posted.20 minutes. Walked on

Since we watched HEA our first day here, our goal is to ride buzz, , BTMR and Splash before close.

9:26 PM BTMR posted 25 minutes. Walked on. HEA fireworks going off while on the ride. Magical!

9:35 PM Splash. Posted 50 minutes. On in 8 minutes


Mobile ordered some Dole whips. Rushed over and barely made it in time to get some dole whips. In other words we got there late at 10:01pm, 1 minute after closing. I was ready to head over to the Plaza Ice cream parlor instead but an awesome CM and the other CM’s gave us some pixie dust and still made all 5 Dole Whips for us. Unexpected, and we were grateful. (Thanks CM Justin!!!) Finished off the night.

Tiring but successful day

Tomorrow: Epcot, and transfer to the Polynesian!

-Dan

 

[Marvin1968]

You wear a mask until you get your drinks or food. Then you can remove them for the duration of your meal unless you get up and leave the table.

Dan

I thought it was as soon as you sit you can take your masks off? No?

 

[sjrec]

I thought it was as soon as you sit you can take your masks off? No?

We had a frozen drink in the ABC Commissary and lunch at SciFi and took our masks off as soon as we sat down. We purposefully sat away from people at the Commissary. They also gave us ice water with our drinks.

 

[MomOTwins]

I thought it was as soon as you sit you can take your masks off? No?

We've had mixed experiences, some restaurants they will tell you you may have your masks off once seated, other restaurants they will tell you need to keep your mask on until after you have ordered with your server and received your drinks. The official policy on the website is the latter, but when it doubt you just have to go with the flow at the restaurant for what they want you to do. It never hurts to (politely) ask.

 

[Marvin1968]

We've had mixed experiences, some restaurants they will tell you you may have your masks off once seated, other restaurants they will tell you need to keep your mask on until after you have ordered with your server and received your drinks. The official policy on the website is the latter, but when it doubt you just have to go with the flow at the restaurant for what they want you to do. It never hurts to (politely) ask.

Thank you.

 

[Marvin1968]

We had a frozen drink in the ABC Commissary and lunch at SciFi and took our masks off as soon as we sat down. We purposefully sat away from people at the Commissary. They also gave us ice water with our drinks.

Thank you

 

[EPCOT-O.G.]

General observations this morning. Passed on our AK reservation so decided to walk along the lake from Poly to GF to Contemporary. Was held up at the security checkpoint outside of MK until around 8. Seemed they let in built up walk up, Monorail, bus, and boat arrivals until right about the same time. Had I been going to MK probably could have been one of the first 50 or so in the park.

Since I was just on a leisurely walk it was a fascinating social observation. Tons and tons of people just kept walking towards (and getting into) the growing lines on the GF/Poly/monorail side of the entrance. One bright young woman bucked the flow of the crowds and just slowly started walking to the dozen or so yellow-garbed CMs who were waiting at the entrances at the other side of things. She was first in line, and waved for her friends/group to join her. Within seconds everyone else - many who had just walked past those same entrances - realized their folly and joined her on that side.

Moral of the story: do not blindly get in a line - keep your head on a swivel!

 

[cakebaker]

I didn't even like this prepandemic. I never moved all the way in. I'm a Disney criminal.

We certainly don’t now. Half the time it’s not even needed. And I honestly don’t care what anyone thinks about it. I’ve noticed a lot of times very few move. Now that they’re requiring masks a few might move just a little.

 

[Gary Stocker]

General observations this morning. Passed on our AK reservation so decided to walk along the lake from Poly to GF to Contemporary. Was held up at the security checkpoint outside of MK until around 8. Seemed they let in built up walk up, Monorail, bus, and boat arrivals until right about the same time. Had I been going to MK probably could have been one of the first 50 or so in the park.

Since I was just on a leisurely walk it was a fascinating social observation. Tons and tons of people just kept walking towards (and getting into) the growing lines on the GF/Poly/monorail side of the entrance. One bright young woman bucked the flow of the crowds and just slowly started walking to the dozen or so yellow-garbed CMs who were waiting at the entrances at the other side of things. She was first in line, and waved for her friends/group to join her. Within seconds everyone else - many who had just walked past those same entrances - realized their folly and joined her on that side.

Moral of the story: do not blindly get in a line - keep your head on a swivel!

"Go to the left" is a cliche but more often than not this will lead to success when entering the parks. Perhaps a result of which side we drive in this country but everyone seems to always veer to the right instinctually when approaching the gates.

 

[lovethattink]

Is there a standard rule for which rides you can have drink/snack in line with, or does it differ depending on the attraction, or whether its an inside queue, we havent ever found a rule either way. With the current long waits Id like to plan for some drink/snack times in lines where allowed?

Generally no snack or drinks after the marquee.

Couple of questions for you - how does DAS give you permission to eat/drink in the queue when it is only a pass that gives you a return time? And how does it keep you out of heat and sun when it just gives you a return time? Are you able to find shady areas nearby, or do you have to walk pretty far in the heat/sun? How does she handle the heat/sun just walking through the park? I've got heat/sun issues, and find walking through the park to be much harder than being in a queue, but that was when FP+ was active. Going in a week myself and am concerned about the outside queues. Are there a lot of them?

DAS keeps you out of the sun by reducing your time in line. With more people getting DAS, it increases the wait time. Child swap, vip, and a couple other reasons adds more people to that queue

The Disboard policy has been updated to allow discussions related to theme park policy and managing it well.

for example:
Allowed: tips and discussions related to mask policy in the theme parks, eg. remember to pack extra masks, masks are being worn in the outside of X queue, adjusting your theme park plans
Disallowed: the efficacy of masks, whether you support masks and why, statistics, science, and non-Disney COVID news.

Add no arguing to the not allowed

Just back to BLT from watching a jam-packed HEA at MK. There's no social distancing for the fireworks.

There hasn’t been social distancing for weeks. Ever since the tape was removed from the queues. That’s the same time they added more parties to Skyliner cars, took down plexiglass on rides, and started seating each seat of attractions such as RotR, Slinky, etc.

 

[brockash]

What exactly is the expectation regarding masks at the restaurants? Do they need to be worn unless actively eating or drinking or just when not seated? Also, are masks also required indoors throughout Disney Springs? Thanks!

When we were there in March, which was AFTER they changed the verbiage to the "must be actively eating/drinking;" we found that change in verbiage meant absolutely nothing. Just as our previous post-Covid trips; all of the hostess/seaters; told us we could take our masks off as soon as they seated us...they remained off until you left the table.

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

Hi all! This thread was so helpful before we left and while we were at WDW this past week, thanks to all who post. Wanted to share a bit of our experience - we did 5 park days (2 DHS, 2 EPCOT, 1 MK - edited, 1 MK day not 2!).

On our first DHS day we got into the park around 8:30 and immediately got in line for Slinky Dog, which was posted as a 90 minute wait (CM with "end of line" sign was back to about One Man's Dream) but ended up being 45. We next attempted the line for Smuggler's Run, which I think said 70 minutes but after baking in the sun for a bit I gently encouraged my fam to try single rider and they agreed. We were on the ride within 10 minutes, waiting in aircon. Tradeoff was we knew we'd be engineers but they were ok with that. Our boarding group for Rise was called around 11:30 so we did that, some shops then lunch at Brown Derby. Took a long afternoon break at the hotel then came back in the evening and rode MM Runaway twice with shortish waits (30 the first time, maybe 15 the second) and had dinner at Woody's Lunchbox. Edited to add: got on TSMM as a walk on right before park close.

Our first EPCOT day we rode Soarin' right at 11 and it was a walk on, then went to Living with the Land and it was also a walk-on. Then we spent the majority of our time doing F&WF booths. Didn't find the booth lines to be too bad and generally had luck finding shady spots to eat. Wanted to ride Three Caballeros but the line was incredible - outside the building at one point, so we skipped that. Again took an afternoon break then in the evening we were able to walk on Spaceship Earth and Nemo and try more food booths. It was definitely busy at the park but except for a couple of congested areas, we didn't feel like we were shoulder to shoulder all the time.

Our Magic Kingdom day was a bust, and I will preface it by saying I understand part of that was due to our choices. I'd seen pics of the hub at rope drop and didn't want to be in a crowd like that so we purposely arrived a little after 9. I was not prepared for just how crowded it would be everywhere in the park. We went directly to Thunder and the wait was posted as 15 min when we got in the line on the bridge but by the time we got up to the actual entrance it had gone up to 35. After riding, DD was quite hot so we headed over the Chesire Cafe for a snack and water. After taking a bit of a break we checked wait times and they were up over 60+ mins for most of what we wanted (Space, HM, Pirates, Jungle Cruise). Went on Carousel of Progress (my fave and no wait, lol!) and WEDway Peoplemover. By that point it was closing in on lunch time and we were hot and not feeling being shoulder to shoulder with people so went back to Main St. to shop. At that point, we decided to take the monorail to TTC and walk over to Poly for lunch, which was quite enjoyable. Did some shopping and pin trading then walked to GF for dessert and more shopping and to wait out the rain. Attempted to go back to MK thinking the crowds may have thinned, no such luck and we got caught in one of those flooding downpours you may have seen pictures of last week so we decided to make it a wrap for the day!

Our second DHS day we went to ToT first thing and only waited about 15 minutes and then went to Smuggler's and did single rider again. DH and DD had a reservation to make a droid then we had lunch at Sci-Fi. Our boarding group for Rise was called in the middle of these reservations but we had no problem going late (we checked with a CM beforehand and they said no problem, we had our receipts just in case but they didn't check). There were pretty severe thunderstorms that afternoon so we took a long break then came back and rode MMRR and had dinner at Docking Bay 7. Got in line for ToT about ten minutes before park closing. Was supposed to be a 30 minute wait but it was much longer and hardly moving so we bailed on that.

Second day at EPCOT we got in the park around 10:30 and DD and DH headed straight to Test Track but the CM's were telling people it was on an extended closure so they bailed. Kept checking back but it seemed to be down all day. We were able to get on Three Caballeros with a 5 minute waited, then more food booths while the weather held out. Also had fun doing Remy's Hide and Squeak. Took a break during the afternoon storms then came back and rode Soarin' (20 minute wait around 6 pm), dinner at Regal Eagle and more food booths.

We had a great trip, although never having been in summer I didn't fully understand how hot and crowded it would be! We went in with the attitude that it's okay if we have to skip some things. I'd say I'm bummed at how our MK day turned out but we did what we were comfortable with so it is what it is! Really enjoyed mobile ordering and I wish all rides had boarding groups like Rise!!! We stayed at BWI and the ability to walk to EPCOT and DHS was awesome. If I had to do it over again I probably would've done a four day ticket with a hopper instead of a five day non-hopper. We only did one non-park day (not including arrival day) but I could've used another break day.

 

[harleyquinn]

Magic Kingdom day 2. Beautiful morning

Immediately got on a bus at 8 AM. (because we saw the bus and ran ) We will see how MK is implementing their mask policy versus Hollywood studios. Hopefully it is implemented as straightforward as it was at HS, which was very easy to understand.

Thru tapstiles at 8:17am.
Family overruled me and we are doing 7DMT at rope drop. . Maybe 100 people in front of us. OK make that 300. . They did an initial movement around 8:55am to move the crowd forward, then one minute before 9 AM they let everyone back. It was fairly orderly but a brisk walk. We are circled back around 7DMT about 100 feet past the tea cups.

Looking forward to today’s report! I cant tell you how much I’ve enjoyed following along with your family!