Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[Lsdolphin]

Yes...the Dolphin has Double/Double rooms @$249 for Disney APs, including resort fee & taxes. As a Dolphin guest, you would have access to the extra a.m. & p.m. park hours. EP, DHS, and the Boardwalk are short walks, and the Friendship boats stop at the Swan & Dolphin. I believe that the Dolphin will transfer your bags to any Disney resort, at no cost (just a tip to bell services). The only extra would be parking, if you have a vehicle. Though not official Disney buses, there is free motor coach transportation to AK and MK.View attachment 617227

Did you make reservation directly thru the Dolphin?

 

[Gitelfor]

Did you make reservation directly thru the Dolphin?

The rate quoted was for the night in question, Nov 19. I found the rate on Marriott’s site, using corporate code QWH, which is the AP rate. Rates vary by date & occupancy rate, but you can do a flexible search, which brings up a calendar with room rates.

 

[nerdboyrockstar]

Yes...the Dolphin has Double/Double rooms @$249 for Disney APs, including resort fee & taxes. As a Dolphin guest, you would have access to the extra a.m. & p.m. park hours. EP, DHS, and the Boardwalk are short walks, and the Friendship boats stop at the Swan & Dolphin. I believe that the Dolphin will transfer your bags to any Disney resort, at no cost (just a tip to bell services). The only extra would be parking, if you have a vehicle. Though not official Disney buses, there is free motor coach transportation to AK and MK.

Even the official Disney on-site hotels are using motor coaches too. Anyone know the reason for the uptick in those? Noticed it at both Disney and Universal when they always used their own buses on trips prior.

 

[VFL]

So I know that you can’t book one night stays online for Disney right now. Has anyone tried over the phone and had any luck? We are renting DVC points and now we need to take on a night at the beginning, and getting in so late, just wanted a value. Just wondering if any one has tried?

Honestly, if it were me and getting in late I would book something offsite and save my money. Grab some food, sleep and then up early and leave Bags at DVC RESORT and start my day. Not sure if that is an option for you transportation wise or not.

 

[ElizaDoesDisney]

Note that because Swan/Dolphin aren’t using “Disney” transportation their buses drop off at TTC for MK instead of by the park.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Please take the where to stay discussion to the resorts board.

Just another reminder that this thread is intended for guests to share their Here Now and Just Back experiences, rather than future trip planning.

Thanks.

 

[jmparry]

Has anyone done a character "sighting"? From what I have read, there are no Photopass Photographers there. Is someone available to take a photo of your group (with the character in the background) with your phone? If selfies are the only option, I will need to practice before our trip!

 

[DisVet2032]

Note that because Swan/Dolphin aren’t using “Disney” transportation their buses drop off at TTC for MK instead of by the park.

Could walk to one of the nearby Disney resorts and grab a bus from there for MK days

 

[gottalovepluto]

Has anyone done a character "sighting"? From what I have read, there are no Photopass Photographers there. Is someone available to take a photo of your group (with the character in the background) with your phone? If selfies are the only option, I will need to practice before our trip!

You can always ask other guests. I’ve had people ask me and visa versa no issues.

 

[jmparry]

Perfect! Thank you!

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Has anyone done a character "sighting"? From what I have read, there are no Photopass Photographers there. Is someone available to take a photo of your group (with the character in the background) with your phone? If selfies are the only option, I will need to practice before our trip!

I did see one with Alice in UK pavilion and with Pluto at front of EPCOT but unsure anywhere else.

 

[Kazi7]

On our way back now from a short 4 day trip. I ended up using genie + against my better judgment. While it was annoying to have to pay for it, I think it was much more efficient than fast pass plus was towards the end. Rides were literally walk on for us with it. However, we are ap holders & I think it’s a bad idea for wdw to not let AP holders book it til the day of. I definitely analyzed the money much more than I would have if I had added it to my hotel stay somehow. Also, deluxe extra hours were awesome in MK last night. Walked on everything including mine train. It wasn’t so great at Epcot Monday. Not worth the effort there IMO. I wouldn’t stay in a deluxe just for that, but it was nice to have it. I know ppl complained about it just being for deluxe, but I think it has to stay limited to be valuable. I remember extra magic had become worthless pre-Covid. With no fast pass available, lines were worse than during the day for some things.

@LSUmiss I'm curious. Why did you think the deluxe extra hours at Epcot were not worth the effort?

 

[gharter]

@LSUmiss I'm curious. Why did you think the deluxe extra hours at Epcot were not worth the effort?

EPCOT doesn't have that many attractions. Other than Frozen and TT, the others rarely have much of a line during the day. Most of the food kiosks are also closed during extra hours. We also didn't find it helpful as we did everything we wanted to during the day.

 

[Kazi7]

Thanks for the response. I was wondering if the lines were long or something. We plan to go in the early evening for the food booths and fireworks then ride during the extra hours so I think that should work.

 

[Isabelle12345]

Thanks for the response. I was wondering if the lines were long or something. We plan to go in the early evening for the food booths and fireworks then ride during the extra hours so I think that should work.

We are planning on doing the exact same thing - hopping from another park and going to Epcot for late evening and extended hours- so I am happy to hear it is potentially a good strategy!

 

[lovethattink]

Please let me know when Christmas decorations go up at MK, thank you!!

 

[AmishGuy91]

Please let me know when Christmas decorations go up at MK, thank you!!

Ok will do.

Christmas decorations are up at MK.

 

[lovethattink]

Instead of trick or treating the neighborhood, we went to Hollywood Studios. DS dressed up as Han Solo, and we packed extra clothes in the car in case that wasn’t allowed. There were a lot of adults in costume, and many more children.

When we arrived, the park was crowded. As time went on, there were less and less people. Around 8pm the pathways were relatively empty as people claimed their spot for the projection show.

 

[lovethattink]

Ok will do.

Christmas decorations are up at MK.

Awesome!! Thank you!

 

[roxymama]

Just back from M-R park days last week. Some observations of our experience.

Short Story: we walked on/very short waits on just about everything and only waited 25min once for Mickey's railway at early entry rope drop. But we paid for the extras. So at least for last week our experience was that paying the premium meant no more lines basically. We only do trips every few years so we splurged.

Boo Bash Sun 10/24 night - we were able to do all 4 "mountains/mines" back to back with minimal waiting starting around 8pm. Mine Train was 15 min actual during fireworks/25 min posted. Maybe because we had some rain that cleared people out (was raining while we were on Splash Mtn.) We didn't do treat lines but they seemed short, and we did get the ice cream & drinks with no wait at a cart near the adventureland/hub entrance. We didn't see any long treat lines. Crowds didn't seem bad - even those staying for fireworks wasn't intense...plenty of room to walk around them. Rain again was probable reason.

We did utilize Genie + and some extra paid IA$ LL's. We did early entry for resort guests every day except our Animal Kingdom day because we had a FOP IA$ and just didn't see a reason to rope drop given the rain and lower crowds that day. We skipped deluxe after hours because we got so much done during normal hours.

I will say MK and HS were definitely the best use of our Genie+, we only ever were waiting in standby lines when they were walk ons/10min or less. There was tons of G+ availability for rides with huge standby waits (like Peter Pan) well into the evening for return times within that hour except maybe Slinky. It seemed Genie+ would recalibrate and release new slots often. If you saw 5pm as next avail...refresh in a little bit and 3pm would show up, etc. I loved doing parks early, eating lunch back at hotel/swimming and booking my early evening LL at hopper park while lounging.
Epcot and AK we probably could have skipped the $15 G+ and just only did a IA$ for Remy/Frozen and FOP and been fine. There were just so many short standby lines at those parks, Soaring for instance was 10min wait even at 10am when we had a LL. Luckily we park hopped those days to MK and HS so were able to grab some value back in the evenings at the parks with more things to do.

I was able on my HS day to get Slinky Dog right at 7am for 9:45am and then it had already bumped past 11am and then into 1pm by 7:02am. I then grabbed a Rise paid for 10:30am with lots of availability left. So grab Slinky first before Rise!!
We got stuck on Rise in the stormtrooper room for 30min and left and got an anytime recovery FP for it. We came back and rode it at 7:30pm at night with no issues. Loved it. Our cousins got stuck on it/evacuated 3 times that day!!!

We experienced often when headliner rides said 20min they were actually walk-ons or only 5-10 min waits. Space Mtn, Millenium Falcon, Mickey railway past dinner time all had this occur. So that was nice!

We bought Remy one afternoon literally an hour before going on it. Glad we did because I pulled a virtual group #68 right at 7am the next day and they were having issues and didn't get to that group until after 5pm when we were already at our dinner in another park.

Steakhouse 71 was a last minute lunch grab and was great food. I'd eat lunch there again in a heartbeat.

Character meets were having soft openings in MK on our last day but only for short windows of time. We didn't get to do them, but heard from people who did.

I don't know if people will catch on to using LL/IA$ and my above experience will be different next time. I probably overpaid as there were times we didn't really need it. But ultimately since this was a once in a long time trip for some of my extended family it made sense for us. If I went more often/was local I'd probably be more ticked off about the extra $.