We're here now and are leaving tomorrow, so I thought I'd give my report. It's going to be super long, and I hope it helps some of you! We arrived last Saturday and spent 3 days off-site, just to decompress before hitting the parks. We went to Disney Springs on Sunday for a couple hours at around noon, but other than that didn't venture within the bubble at all. We moved to the Contemporary on Tuesday for 5 days in the parks. We rented a car and were really glad we didn't turn it in when we moved to our onsite portion of our trip like we usually do. I was impressed with mask compliance, and most people did their best to stay distanced and obey the rules. Those that didn't were really obvious and obnoxious. As some background, we're out of state former annual passholders who let our passes expire during the closure. We typically would visit 2ish times a year for a week or more, so not much is new for us. We've been super cautious with COVID concerns, but not too terribly worried about outdoor, limited contact. The current iteration of the
MDE app is awful. Just awful. It crashes and doesn't load properly most of the time, and with QS restaurants requiring mobile ordering, it's not a fun experience.
Tuesday: We dropped our luggage off at Contemporary and drove over to Epcot at about 9:50 for an 11:00 open. We arrived at the parking gates a little after 10 and had to wait about 5 minutes for them to start letting cars through. We were 5 or 6 cars back in line. Once we parked, we headed straight to Test Track. Waited about 10 minutes for them to start the ride up, but once they did, it was a walk on. After we were done, the line was posted as a 70 minute wait. We then wandered around World Showcase snacking and exploring for most of the day. My 7 year old did the Remy's Hide and Squeak, which was so so fun. We hit Soarin, Living with the Land, and Nemo on our way back out, and all 3 were a walk on as well. This was definitely our best day of the week and we had a blast.
Wednesday: Hollywood Studios. I mobile ordered breakfast for us at Boardwalk Bakery, and we had no issues parking there and picking that up at around 8:15. HS was at at 10:00 opening, and we walked over from Boardwalk at around 8:35. The walkway the whole way there was filled with people also walking. We arrived at around 8:50, and there were a couple hundred people there already. Once they let us all go, they split us all into multiple temperature tent lines. We headed to the far left and ended up being the 7th or so group in line at our tent. While we were walking up to our tent, we did hear a CM tell a couple 20something women that they couldn't wear lace masks. They tried to argue but were denied entry even into the tents. We were held until a bit after 9, then we went straight to MMRR. We were at the first marker right outside the entry door, and were on and off the ride by 9:35. We went straight to Slinky after that, and ended up having to wait about 50 minutes. I was able to snag boarding group 8 for Rise (no one around me in line got a boarding group. I felt awful for them.), and we headed that way after. Rode that, and my husband had to head back to grab the car and go to the hotel for conference calls. My daughter and I took at break at that point and rode the skyliner to Riviera for lunch. So good! After, we headed back for our reservation to build a droid, then went back to the hotel for a mid-day break. It was hot Hot HOT this week, with temps in the 90s, high humidity, and most lines in the sun. We returned in the evening and rode Smuggler's Run, Midway Mania, and Saucers with 25ish minute waits. Not too bad at all. Posted times were correct all day.
Thursday: Magic Kingdom. This was when we first began to feel how rough things are with all of the closures, spacing in lines and limited capacity on rides, no fastpasses, and lack of food options. We walked over from Contemporary at around 8, and once we were through all the checkpoints, we walked right on to Mine Train. After that we headed to Peter Pan, also a walk on, then to Big Thunder Mountain, which was about a 10 minute wait. Our plan was to go to Splash next, but it was down for the first couple hours of the morning. Instead we did Jungle Cruise and waited for 20 minutes or so, then Pirates, with a 15 minute wait. After that, our day went off the rails. My daughter's favorite ride has always been small world, so we got in line for that in the blazing sun. The line wrapped back and forth all the way through the area where stroller parking was in front of the Rapunzel bathrooms before it entered the building. 35 minutes of that, about 25 of which was in the sun. It was SO hot and miserable and it was so crowded. People were shoulder to shoulder walking through the chokepoints between Peter Pan and small world, etc. It felt like Christmas week. Just looking at the app, everything had a minimum wait of 30 minutes, including things like the carousel. Splash was at 90, which we really had wanted to do. We decided to try the "quick" rides like Dumbo, Barnstormer, and Teacups, but by the time we got there, they had all soared to 20-30 minutes as well and we just couldn't tolerate standing in the sun any longer. We're used to grabbing mid-day fastpasses for those types of rides, so waiting at all for them isn't going to happen. After scouring half the park to find an open cart that actually had Mickey pretzels, we were frustrated and annoyed and went back to the hotel to spend the rest of the day at the pool.
Friday: Animal Kingdom, my daughter's favorite park. She requested we spend 2 days here. She loves Wilderness Explorers and FoP, so those are our focus. We got a bit of a late start, and pulled into the parking lot at about 7:35 for an 8:00 opening. We went right to FoP, and although the line looked daunting, it moved constantly and only took us about a half hour. Our starting point was all the way down by Festival of the Lion King. We grabbed breakfast and coffee next, and watched a few of the cavalcades as they went by. Next we did the Safari: with a 25 minute posted time, we only waited about 10 minutes. We saw tons of animals and had a great guide. My husband had to head out again at this point for work, so my daughter and I grabbed lunch at Satuli and went through all of the Wilderness Explorer points in Africa, Pandora, Discovery Island, and Dinoland. We rode Triceratops Spin and did some shopping while hanging out in Dino, then hopped on a bus back to the hotel at around 3.
Saturday, today: Animal Kingdom again, total nightmare. This was by far our hardest day with the crowds. AVOID WEEKENDS. We got up much earlier this morning and made it through the AK parking gates at about 7:10. We were parked in the second row filled. Even still, by the time we got to FoP this morning, we were way way farther back in line, and they clearly didn't start loading people until closer to 8. We sat and sat and didn't move until almost 8, and had to wait over an hour in line. By the time we were done, the wait was at 135 minutes, barely a half hour after official opening time. We had planned to hit Navi after because the wait was only about 25 minutes yesterday after we rode FoP, but it had already hit an hour at that point today. Instead we repeated our breakfast and coffee from yesterday, then finished off the Wilderness Explorer book in Asia and Rafiki's Planet Watch. Everest was down all day, which made Asia a ghost town. We had a really enjoyable morning exploring there. Rafiki's wasn't as fun. They're only seating 3 parties per car on the train, which means if you have 3 parties of 1 person, they'll only load 3 people on a car that should fit probably 30 or so. We had to wait for 5 trains. 5. Even at Christmas it wasn't that bad. My daughter really wanted to try the animated experience, and I thought that by getting in line for the train at 11:45, that would give us plenty of time for the 12:15 show. Nope. We explored and got the WE badges, then headed out. Wait times were crazy for everything at this point. I tried to mobile order lunch for the 3 of us at Satuli again, and the app crashed on me twice in the middle of ordering. Every time it did that I'd lose my time slot, so I went from "Now", to a half hour later, to 45 minutes later. I finally got our order placed, and we headed to Pandora with about 15 minutes to wait. We had planned on finding a spot in the shade to kick back and rest before we could hit the "we are here" button, but once there, there literally was no place anywhere in Pandora to go, whether in the sun or the shade. The area not taken by the ride queues were just absolutely filled with people. The CM at Satuli was telling people to "step aside" to wait for their orders, but there was no place to step aside to. It was totally overwhelming and not an even remotely fun experience, so I canceled my order, we left the park, got McDonalds on our way back, and went back to the hotel.
I hate that our last day had to end on such a sour note. The beginning of our trip mid-week was really nice. I couldn't wait to get back here, but now that the itch is scratched, we likely won't come back again until things change drastically. There are too many things still closed, not having Fastpasses is miserable, and there's nowhere for people to go other than to stand in line the entire day. For first timers, this isn't going to be an experience that they'll want to return to, and for those of us that have been here oodles of times, we can feel what's missing. I'll be interested to see what changes Disney makes.
DD and I actually left MK mid-day to go swimming at the resort, because waits were so long and a lot of the lines were out in the sun. With the masks, it makes for a pretty miserable day
