Good Afternoon from Walt Disney World!
We’re reporting live from Walt Disney World, where it has already been a busy morning (although it’s basically midnight to us given how long we’ve been awake…assuming time still has any meaning). We started today with the modified character breakfast at Topolino’s Terrace, bookended by Jedi Training Academy: Trials of the Tourist—err, attempting to book Disney Park Pass reservations.
That was followed by a morning stroll around Disney’s Riviera Resort before heading over to Disney’s BoardWalk Villas and checking into our room. As you can imagine, things are a bit different from when we were last here a few months ago. We can’t take the Skyliner to Epcot to stroll around World Showcase or Disney’s Hollywood Studios for the Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance Boarding Pass Dash.
We’ve already been back to Disney Springs a few times since that shopping and dining district reopened, so a lot of what we’ve experienced thus far here is familiar territory. At the same time, it just feels different. I’ve made clear that I’m not a huge fan of Disney’s Riviera Resort, but the atmosphere thus far is, in a word, better.
Disney Springs has become our local mall, where we went to see movies (back in the “normal times” when that was a thing) and where I’d go to buy socks. By mall standards, Disney Springs is very nice–but it still doesn’t exude the same charm and atmosphere as the resorts, especially the Crescent Lake ones.
To be sure, a lot is still very surreal about being at Walt Disney World right now. As with Disney Springs, there are visual reminders everywhere that we’re still in the midst of a global pandemic. Warning and liability disclaimer sandwich boards, ‘what to wear & how to wash’ signs, enter/exit info, and where to stand markers.
After seeing all of that several times, it’s mostly just white noise that our brains filter out at this point. (I’ve compared it elsewhere to California’s Proposition 65 warnings. That pretty much everything in the state may cause cancer freaks out visitors, but locals don’t even notice the signs anymore.
The bigger thing is seeing everyone in masks, which will take more getting used to.
Right now, Cast Members outnumber guests by around a 20 to 1 ratio (that’s not even remotely an exaggeration–maybe it’ll pick up more later today). All of them are wearing masks, many are waving giant Mickey Mouse gloves, and everyone is eager to welcome guests home.
Already today, I’ve had more in-person interactions with people not named “Sarah” than I have in total over the course of the last three-plus months. I’m normally fairly introverted, but talking to Cast Members has honestly been pretty great.
There is a palpable energy, and a lot of Cast Members are clearly happy to be back. I wasn’t quite sure whether that’d be the case, but it is with everyone we’ve encountered. Cast Members are incredibly high-energy, and their enthusiasm is contagio–uh, their joy rubs off on you.
As for other guests…we can’t really speak to that. Between Disney’s Riviera Resort and BoardWalk Inn, we’ve seen a totally of maybe one dozen other parties. Probably fewer than that. Disney’s Magical Express buses are out and about, and it’s still early, so I’m assuming more guests are en route.
I’m cognizant of the fact that this is a very optimistic tone to strike on the same day that Disney Park Pass went live to predictably catastrophic results. However, that was easily foreseeable by pretty much everyone who has any experience with Walt Disney World release day. My bar is so low with Disney IT that I was pleasantly surprised it didn’t eat away our entire day.
This isn’t to diminish your frustrations if you haven’t gotten through to make Disney Park Pass reservations. We feel for you. (Seriously–we’ve been in your shoes many times and it remains mind-boggling that Walt Disney World’s IT infrastructure still is this bad.) Take solace in knowing that the vast majority of dates are not going to run out of availability any time soon (if ever) and things will probably/hopefully be much smoother by tonight.
With that said, as cheesy as it might sound, there is a certain magic about being back at Walt Disney World, even if it’s just the resorts.
We’ve been grinning ear to ear all morning (not that anyone can tell!), and this has already been way more fun and satisfying than I anticipated.
It’s probably fair to say that pretty much everyone is in need of a vacation. After the last few months of only leaving the house for groceries and a handful of other occasions, this has already been fantastic.
Walt Disney World offers something uniquely reassuring and nostalgic. Even with some of the “illusion” blemished, it has already done us wonders to be back. This is the most relaxed and decompressed we’ve felt in months–like a weight has been lifted.
This is not to “pitch” you on booking a return trip to Walt Disney World as soon as possible. (It’s not like you can right now, anyway.) Our circumstances as locals and regulars are very different from once in a lifetime or infrequent visitors, and that’s worth reiterating. As we’ve said before, if this were our first/only trip to Walt Disney World, we would not be visiting in 2020.
It’s basically just to share how things are going thus far. We’ll have plenty more measured planning advice and commentary–this more more stream of conscious, heat of the moment excitement we wanted to share while we’re here.
To that end, let us know if you have any questions or want to see anything in particular from the Barefoot Bay Boarding Bailiwick (the “cool” name we gave the Riviera and Caribbean Beach Resort area that, shockingly, never caught on) or Crescent Lake Resort Area. Don’t expect real-time responses (same goes for the posts about Disney Park Pass–sorry!) but we’ll catch up later and incorporate answers into upcoming posts.
We plan on spending most of the day savoring our stay, making laps around Crescent Lake, eating sugary snacks, doing more laps to burn off said snacks, and taking photos. Our goal is 20,000 steps and 3,000 photos today to make up for lost time, so hopefully we can see and document quite a bit and return with a more thorough report in the next few days. If you’re at Walt Disney World today and happen to see us wandering, don’t be afraid to say hello–from a safe distance of more than six feet away, of course!
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Do you have any questions about the resort experience at Walt Disney World right now? Anything you’d specifically like to see or know about Disney’s Riviera Resort or the Crescent Lake Resorts? Will you be attempting to visit Walt Disney World this summer or fall, or are you waiting until 2021 or beyond? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
We have been on hold with Disney world trying to get our park passes. We are guests at a Disney hotel. Going on 12 hours on hold
No problem making our reservations this morning once it went live. Just needed to be patient.
We will be there in August sporting our custom made Disney masks.
Can’t wait… watch out Mickey, here we come !
Made me so happy to read this. Excited to hear about your time at the resorts. Any chance you will be checking out Enchanted Rose?
So happy to see so many bloggers and YouTubers back with live Disney action!! Love your site and can’t wait to see more park opening content .
I just finished booking park admission for a 4 day trip in October 2020. We’re using DVC points for our resort. Thanks for your informative blog. I enjoy reading all of your tips!
Very jealous of you right now!!
But I just returned from 8 nights of Universal & Disney Springs, and will be back to the World this December.
HAVE FUN!!!!
And keep sharing your adventure!
We are booked at Ft Wilderness Cabins next week July 1-9 while some of our family is at the Polynesian. We’re wondering if they can visit us at the cabins and if we can visit them at the Poly.
Hey Tom is Ample Hills open at the Boardwalk? Thanks
I have two resort reservations, one in August and the other one in December. I am also a Passholder. I was only able to make park reservations for three days in August when I have a seven day resort stay. I’ve tried many times to add additional park reservations but nothing works. Does anyone have any ideas?
Are you sure you are in the right month?
Yes Matt, I had the correct months. I finally was able to make my park reservations at 9pm last night. I hope everyone else who was having difficulty was as successful.
Hi Tom,
Question for you regarding 2021 ticket release. I rented DVC points from https://dvcrentalstore.com/ and got a 2 night stay in January 2021. I was going to start the trip off with a cruise, but with the pandemic, don’t think that’s a good Idea. I saw they’re opening up tickets for people with a 2021 reservation on Wednesday. Do you know if I’d be able to add an additional resort stay, not dvc, while adding on the tickets? Or is that something I’m going to have to be patient and wait for the full room release on Sunday?
From https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/experience-updates/park-reservations/ – “If you have a room-only reservation at a Disney Resort or other select hotel for a stay in 2021, please call the Disney Reservation Center or call your travel professional beginning on June 24 to upgrade to a vacation package with tickets” I know to add tickets to the dvc plan, I’d have to go through the rental place, but since i’d be adding a room before the dvc, so I don’t think i’d be able to use tickets until my dvc stay if I went that route.
Thanks! Also, good to see you back at WDW. Exciting that it’s close to reopening. Wish our May trip hadn’t been cancelled.
Never mind, I found my answer. Looks like 2021 reservations go on sale tomorrow
I was happy to have been able to successfully reserve our park days for our November trip exactly as we had planned and hoped for. After 2+ hours of wait time it was a relief for something to go our way! We are going to wait things out to see where life stands come this fall. We would not be offended for way less people and potentially a room upgrade from the All Stars. In the meantime we will keep our eyes peeled to this blog and your updates!
Has anyone had issues booking their park reservations. I made one for first day and when it prompts me to go back and book another, all the days are suddenly booked. Cancel the one reservation I made and suddenly all days are open again. Maybe it’s just a first day hiccup, but wanted to see if anyone else came across this issue.
Made all Park reservations without any problems at all early this afternoon. Maybe it was less traffic on the system or luck. Hoping it is luck and it holds for the rest of our plans for our vacation. I appreciate all the specific info that has come out in the last week and hopeful more will follow.
Yes I am having same problem and have been working on it for 6 hours. Does anyone have a fix?
Looking forward to hearing how your stay goes and if there is really much to see and do with so many Disney closures of restaurants and the parks. We were scheduled at the Riviera beginning July 1-9, but changed the beginning of our stay to Grand Floridian Villas on the front end and Riviera on the back half of the week just to have a change of scenery.
Based on Jim McPhee’s May comments regarding “soft opening preview days” for affinity groups or “select guests”. I read many articles in the media stating this soft opening would be available to D33, annual pass holders and DVC members. Are annual pass holders the only select guests who are being offered the preview days? Any updates for DVC members? Feeling quite deceived by and beat up by Disney!
Can you access Caribbean‘S promenade from Riviera? Can you walk a lap around Crescent Lake? Do the Resort Lobbies have fresh flowers?
Thank you for your post. I feel so much better knowing people are returning to a place I enjoy so much.
I have the same questions about whether access is blocked off to the resorts not open. I’m not intending to take a dip in a closed pool but am curious if the running route around riviera/CBR is available, as an example.
Also can you ask about DVC pool hopping and report on whether an ADR is required to visit other resorts while you are a Disney resort guest?
Melinda, I just checked the DVC member website and looked where the pool hopping information usually was. It is currently gone from the website. So my guess is that there is no pool hopping during this time.
Awesome Tom thank you for the update. We have a July 9th to 16th reservation and have yet to be contacted by Disney? I’d thought for sure they’d reach out to me by now… Any ideas?
Great news. Not for me walking in that heat in a mask. Take care as the virus is spreading in Florida.
Looking forward to more posts.
Spreading may not be an accurate statement. Positives are up but testing sites continue to be increased. Deaths and hospital admissions are still down and that is what we all want.
Has anyone had issues booking their park reservations. I made one for first day and when it prompts me to go back and book another, all the days are suddenly booked. Cancel the one reservation I made and suddenly all days are open again. Maybe it’s just a first day hiccup, but wanted to see if anyone else came across this issue.
We saw you at Boardwalk, but didn’t want to bother you! Im said we can’t “take laps” around the lake….but i’ll take my back and forth 3/4 lap…..even in 95 degrees. Our kids were the first on the creepy clown slide (i was the 4th), but just being back feels so good.
Only 20,000 steps! Step it up Tom. You’ve missed like a 500,000 steps these last 3 months. Looking forward to more updates. I am especially interested as to how the cast members are doing and feeling toward being back to work. They are the ones that ultimately make that place so wonderful.
I tried a few hours this morning to get on and “just a moment” and “you are getting closer” takes on new meaning. At 3:30 I tried again and got right on. I saw that my Wilderness Lodge reservation for December was changed to the Polynesian. I guess that is an upgrade, but the photos of you, Tom, at the lodge for Christmas is the scene I wanted! I am still in wait and see, but hearing you are back and getting this far makes me want to go soooooo badly!
When were your dates in Dec? I booked WL specifically for Xmas feel there. I know it’s not announced when WL would open but that’s kinda aways to already change.
I was so happy to hear about you and Sarah were going to Disney on the first day it opened. My family and I are equally excited to get back to the magic, no matter what modifications we have to make. We definately need a vacation. Enjoy and keep us posted on how your stay is going. Thanks for always keeping us updated!