OhioStateBuckeye
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2007
Wanted to do a little 'just back' report. If you want just the quick points scroll to the end.
We are moving to Orlando (as everyone here knows because I won't shut up about it). Our move in date is Dec 7 but our apartment lease in KC ran out on Nov 14, so we went ahead and drove our stuff down to put into storage.
The packing and driving of the rental truck with a trailer pulling a car was pretty brutal. We got to Orlando late Tuesday Nov 17.
We were staying at Caribbean Beach because we found the Pirate rooms on Orbitz for $150 a night, which was cheaper than Pop at the time.
The resort was actually eerily empty. I like my parks empty so the attraction waits are down, but this was just sadly empty. A lot of the Pirate rooms around us had the curtains open and we could easily tell they were empty. We barely saw anyone else walking around. We ate at the food court on Thursday and only saw about maybe 10 other groups.
The only place we saw a decent amount of people was at the Skyliner line.
We unpacked our truck all day Wednesday, then we wanted to have a late dinner at Disney. There weren't many reservations left for places that weren't at Springs, and we did not have the energy to deal with Springs. We ended up at Rix at Coronado with an ADR at 8:05 pm. I thought it was pretty annoying our own hotel didn't have a sit down open, but it is what it is.
Rix had tables spread out and only about half were full. I thought the food was pretty good, we'd never ate there before. Nothing special and a bit overpriced (a bit overpriced is actually not bad by Disney standards), but it was good for what it was.
Thursday we had to return our rental truck and then we hung around the resort and ate at the food court, which was mobile order only. I got the Cuban sandwich and thought it was really good, if a bit small. The mac and cheese was also tasty.
We sat outside and watched a family on a fishing excursion.
We then took the Skyliner (no wait at noonish) and rode it to Epcot. We checked out the Epcot resorts and had an ADR at Beaches and Cream for 2 pm with a friend. We were disappointed that Beach Club and Yacht Club had no Christmas decorations up yet. Boardwalk did, and so did Caribbean Beach, Grand Destino and Coronado.
At Beaches and Cream we just ordered some sides and ice cream, which was really good.
We then went into Epcot for a few hours. We saw Mary Poppins socially distance meeting.
Figment: had about a 5 minute wait. We just wanted to see him with his Christmas sweater on. They should sell those, btw, I would probably buy one.
Living with the Land: just a few minute wait. The plexiglass did kind of suck and hindered me from being able to see the opposite side very well. They still didn't seat anyone in front of or behind us. But Living with the Land had Christmas decorations and lights all throughout the ride!!! I loved it, and was frankly shocked they would make the effort this year.
Spaceship Earth: just a couple minutes wait.
We wanted to do 3 Caballeros but the line to get into Mexico looked really long so we skipped it. We went to American Adventure and it was half an hour to the next show so instead we looked around the pavilion and watched Mariachi Cobre instead.
After American Adventure we went back to the Mexico pavilion and were able to enter with only a few minutes wait. The wait for the ride was about 10 minutes, we had a very rowdy group behind us and I was feeling nervous about going on the ride with them.
I didn't even say anything and the CM who was loading the ride came up to me and asked quietly if they'd been that way the whole wait, I said yes, then she put us in our own boat. She is definitely getting a compliment sent in. I have never had a CM who picked up on that type of situation without me ever even saying a word. She then put that rowdy group of 5 in their own boat. I'm sure it might mess up some load metrics (not even sure if they have those right now), but she deftly defused a potential unhappy guest situation which I was super impressed by.
I thought Future World was very empty, World Showcase was a good bit busier especially as it got closer to dark. According to the app, the only attractions over a 15 minute wait were Test Track at 25 and Frozen at 65.
After that we headed back to the Skyliner to get our car and head to Homecomin' for dinner.
Springs was pretty crowded and we ended up having to wait about 25 minutes for our Homecomin' ADR. This was an ADR booked during the great ADR abundance fiasco a week or so ago. We were seated outside but didn't think the restaurant was overcrowded, though we did have that 25 minute wait to get seated.
That was pretty much it. In summation:
-resorts are eerily quiet unless you're waiting for the Skyliner
-Springs is still packed at nights
-Epcot wait times were very low except Frozen
-I was shocked Living with the Land seemed to have new Christmas decorations (at least I've never seen/heard of them before).
-Of all the resorts we went to, the ones that were already decorated were: Coronado, Caribbean Beach, Boardwalk, Grand Destino and Contemporary. Not decorated as of Thursday: Beach and Yacht.
We are moving to Orlando (as everyone here knows because I won't shut up about it). Our move in date is Dec 7 but our apartment lease in KC ran out on Nov 14, so we went ahead and drove our stuff down to put into storage.
The packing and driving of the rental truck with a trailer pulling a car was pretty brutal. We got to Orlando late Tuesday Nov 17.
We were staying at Caribbean Beach because we found the Pirate rooms on Orbitz for $150 a night, which was cheaper than Pop at the time.
The resort was actually eerily empty. I like my parks empty so the attraction waits are down, but this was just sadly empty. A lot of the Pirate rooms around us had the curtains open and we could easily tell they were empty. We barely saw anyone else walking around. We ate at the food court on Thursday and only saw about maybe 10 other groups.
The only place we saw a decent amount of people was at the Skyliner line.
We unpacked our truck all day Wednesday, then we wanted to have a late dinner at Disney. There weren't many reservations left for places that weren't at Springs, and we did not have the energy to deal with Springs. We ended up at Rix at Coronado with an ADR at 8:05 pm. I thought it was pretty annoying our own hotel didn't have a sit down open, but it is what it is.
Rix had tables spread out and only about half were full. I thought the food was pretty good, we'd never ate there before. Nothing special and a bit overpriced (a bit overpriced is actually not bad by Disney standards), but it was good for what it was.
Thursday we had to return our rental truck and then we hung around the resort and ate at the food court, which was mobile order only. I got the Cuban sandwich and thought it was really good, if a bit small. The mac and cheese was also tasty.
We sat outside and watched a family on a fishing excursion.
We then took the Skyliner (no wait at noonish) and rode it to Epcot. We checked out the Epcot resorts and had an ADR at Beaches and Cream for 2 pm with a friend. We were disappointed that Beach Club and Yacht Club had no Christmas decorations up yet. Boardwalk did, and so did Caribbean Beach, Grand Destino and Coronado.
At Beaches and Cream we just ordered some sides and ice cream, which was really good.
We then went into Epcot for a few hours. We saw Mary Poppins socially distance meeting.
Figment: had about a 5 minute wait. We just wanted to see him with his Christmas sweater on. They should sell those, btw, I would probably buy one.
Living with the Land: just a few minute wait. The plexiglass did kind of suck and hindered me from being able to see the opposite side very well. They still didn't seat anyone in front of or behind us. But Living with the Land had Christmas decorations and lights all throughout the ride!!! I loved it, and was frankly shocked they would make the effort this year.
Spaceship Earth: just a couple minutes wait.
We wanted to do 3 Caballeros but the line to get into Mexico looked really long so we skipped it. We went to American Adventure and it was half an hour to the next show so instead we looked around the pavilion and watched Mariachi Cobre instead.
After American Adventure we went back to the Mexico pavilion and were able to enter with only a few minutes wait. The wait for the ride was about 10 minutes, we had a very rowdy group behind us and I was feeling nervous about going on the ride with them.
I didn't even say anything and the CM who was loading the ride came up to me and asked quietly if they'd been that way the whole wait, I said yes, then she put us in our own boat. She is definitely getting a compliment sent in. I have never had a CM who picked up on that type of situation without me ever even saying a word. She then put that rowdy group of 5 in their own boat. I'm sure it might mess up some load metrics (not even sure if they have those right now), but she deftly defused a potential unhappy guest situation which I was super impressed by.
I thought Future World was very empty, World Showcase was a good bit busier especially as it got closer to dark. According to the app, the only attractions over a 15 minute wait were Test Track at 25 and Frozen at 65.
After that we headed back to the Skyliner to get our car and head to Homecomin' for dinner.
Springs was pretty crowded and we ended up having to wait about 25 minutes for our Homecomin' ADR. This was an ADR booked during the great ADR abundance fiasco a week or so ago. We were seated outside but didn't think the restaurant was overcrowded, though we did have that 25 minute wait to get seated.
That was pretty much it. In summation:
-resorts are eerily quiet unless you're waiting for the Skyliner
-Springs is still packed at nights
-Epcot wait times were very low except Frozen
-I was shocked Living with the Land seemed to have new Christmas decorations (at least I've never seen/heard of them before).
-Of all the resorts we went to, the ones that were already decorated were: Coronado, Caribbean Beach, Boardwalk, Grand Destino and Contemporary. Not decorated as of Thursday: Beach and Yacht.
