Here now - arrived on 11/4 and staying until 11/11. First time back in 10 years - lots have changed. Party of 6 (parents, adult kids and SO's). Staying at a Margaritaville bungalow ($400 per night) since there are no 3 bedrooms on property that I could see.
11/4 - Disney Springs travel day. It wasn't crowded, we were able to order and find seating at Polite Pig at noon, great food. Walked around for 2 hours, but it's a tough first day activity since it's really just shopping and we wanted to tour.
11/5 - MK, steady, heavy rain all day. I posted another thread asking about rain and touring, lots of great responses. We picked up ponchos at target for $5 and headed in. Two in our party had croc-like sneakers and I really wish I wore my Adidas Slides with no socks. Walked on Jungle Cruise, Pirates, and Big Thunder. Splash was about a 10-minute wait. Haunted Mansion about 10 minutes. FutureWorld was a little busier, Buzz was a 30-minute wait because TTA, Carousel, and Space were down temporarily. Space came back up and we rode it twice, completely walk-on. Did TTA and, since it was around 3pm, decided to hop to Epcot. Mine Train never rose above 45 minutes - but we will be back. Walking into Epcot and the wind tunnel at Spaceship Earth with steady heavy rain was a little discouraging, but SE was a walk-on, as was Soarin, Living with the Land and Figment (surprise - we were the only one in the building and the cast members were just standing around.)
11/6 - Holywood Studios (a Saturday, race weekend, end of Jersey week, cold but NO rain) - OK today is busy!!!! We managed to start on ToT with a 30 minute wait, did not to RRC since only 4 of our 6 people in the group are thrill riders and we already made them wait for 30 minutes and RRC had a posted 60 minute wait. Walked to Mickey and Minnie's, waited 40 minutes in a posted 50 - what a great ride! Then walked to Toy Story Land and waited 60 minutes for Midway Mania (that would have been a score 10 years ago.) Crowds were very very heavy at this point, Woody's lunch box was at least a 30 minute wait to order. All other rides (except for Muppets) were 60+ minutes. We ate and jumped to Epcot, thinking things would be a bit better. Nope - Epcot was crazy. I know, I know, I expected crowds but not really hour+ lines for most food booths. It was very cold - real feel 37 and wind was coming off of the lake. We rode test track and walked the countries, but it was not enjoyable or leisurely.
One thing, Epcot has always been my favorite, but it is really a shadow of its former self without the International Cast Members. Mitsukoshi was a disorganized mess, no pick a pearl and no fun interaction asking about their homes. But, College Program is back and we had a fun conversation at MK with a CP Cast member.
11/7 - Heading to AK soon....
But otherwise it was great. Genie+ was a surprise and I only regretted not getting it on the last day, MK was nuts. We did purchase RoR, FOP & 7DMT which was an unplanned expense, but meant we got to do the rides without long waits. I talked kiddo into RnR at the end of our last HS day and he loved it so we did that a couple times at the end of the night. I've been home almost a week and it feels like we never went away, it was such a rush of a trip and so much fun in the moment. We didn't mind wearing masks that much, and were glad we didn't have to wait too long to ride. We normally go end of August so I wasn't expecting it to be as hot as it was a few of the days we were there, but it was nice at the same time. Kiddo ate a lot of chicken nuggets and pizza (hey, it's vacation!). We had fun, and can't wait to go back.
