Hi! I'm a long time lurker of these boards, but just got back and thought I'd share our recent experience. We (Me, husband, 2 sons 9 and 11) are all pretty sad that the trip is over! We had a wonderful time and the unexpected cool weather was amazing!
Friday 4/2: Arrived at Disney Springs around noon. Immediately put our name on the virtual line for Gideon's. Estimated wait was 4.5 hours. We ate at Art Smith Homecomin' (SO GOOD!) and did some shopping at WOD. The estimated wait to get into WOD was 1 hour, but we were in within 20 mins. We had hoped to take a ride on the amphicars, but wait was over an hour and we didn't want to miss our Gideon's time. We were called about 15 mins early at 4:15 and waited in line 15 mins to get into Gideons. The cookies are worth the hype!! Checked in at the Dolphin...quick and easy check in!
Sat 4/3: MK all day! Arrived at 7:30, walked on to Space Mtn. Overall, wait times for the coasters all hovered around 40 mins despite longer wait times sometimes listed. BTMR wait times was the one we found to be most inflated. We were able to ride everything that we wanted, except for SDMT. We love that ride, but wait times were consistently about an hour. The ride is so short, it was hard to justify the hour wait. We left in the middle of the day to give our feet a rest, but waited at the TTC for the bus back to the Dolphin for 30 minutes with no luck. Thankfully the weather outside was gorgeous! Decided to cut our losses and head to the Polynesian for a dole whip. My oldest son had the specialty Easter marshmallow flavored dole whip. it was beautiful (edible glitter!), but not our favorite. The rest of us got the classic pineapple, lime, and vanilla. Then we went back to MK and enjoyed the rest of the day until our 8:45 BOG reservation. We requested to sit in the west wing (Rose room) and they accommodated. What I loved is that by the time dinner was over, the park was closed and the castle and Main St. looked beautiful! We were able to get some pictures without the crowds. My kids really enjoyed being there after hours and the way the park transformed after dark.
Sun 4/4: We arrived at Animal Kingdom at by 7:30 and headed to FOP. The estimated wait time was already at 45 mins and we waited 45 minutes. Went to Everest next and rode it twice with wait times at approx 15 mins. Hit up the Safari,
Gorillas, and Dinosaur before heading out. We then took a bus to HS for a late lunch at Sci Fi Drive in. We stayed at HS until park close and were able to do every ride we wanted except SDD (it was down for a while). We got in line for TOT right at park close and once again, it was really cool to walk out to a very empty HS. We got in line for skyliner (it was VERY long line), but only actually waited about 20 minutes to get on. We rode it to Epcot and then went to Beaches and Cream for late night KITCHEN SINK. The kiddos were a little disappointed that they didn't do the sirens and announcement (A WHOLE CAN!?) like they usually do.
Mon 4/5 Blizzard Beach! This was our first time visiting a Disney waterpark and we loved it! The longest wait was 15 minutes, but most were less than 5 mins. We rented a polar patio and it was worth it in our opinion! We had a blast and most of the slides were really long! We went to Rix Sports Bar at Coronado for dinner that night and all found it to be just ok..I don't think we'll be back to that one.
Tues 4/6: Started the morning with breakfast at The Wave and then arrived at Epcot at 10:15. They were already letting people in. Score!...or so we thought. We headed to TT, but it was down. Then we went to Soarin' and waited about 30 mins to ride. After that, rode Spaceship Earth and then a trip around the world for snacks. The boys were really disappointed that TT remained down for the whole morning and therefore didn't get to ride this trip. We then took a bus to MK for the rest of the afternoon. Had a blast riding the rides and then dinner at Liberty Tree. We hit Splash Mtn right before park close to experience the ride in the dark.
Tues 4/6: Hit up Disney Springs one last time before heading home. Arrived at 10:15 and line for Gideons looked to be about 45-60 mins. Thought we'd have luck riding an amphicar, but the wait was already over an hour. We had to get on the road, so we stopped one more time at WOD and walked right in. Then we decided to stop by Everglazed on our way out. The donuts were really good! Then we all said one last goodbye and sulked our way back to the car for the ride home.
Overall our stay at the Dolphin was great...very clean room, mostly quiet, good service. We always stay at the Contemporary, but we only started planning this vacation a month prior to stay, so Contemporary wasn't an option. My only complaint was that the bus system was inconsistent for The Dolphin and we started just using Uber to get places. We all missed the convenience of walking to MK from The Contemporary (and the view of the castle!), so we'll plan to stay there next time if possible.
Our last visit to Disney was in August, and we did notice a few things: 1) The crowds are definitely back! We knew this going in, but it was a stark difference to August when we were able to pretty much walk on every ride. I remember we rode FOB back to back 4 TIMES in August. Despite the crowds, the weather was SO much more pleasant for this trip. 2) Back in August, people were much more compliant with standing on the marked spaces and very aware of spacing. This trip people were much closer together and didn't really seem to be paying as much attention. They still gave some space, but very few families were hyper aware like they were in Aug (prior to vaccines). It didn't bother us one bit, but I know it will affect some. 3) I hate to even say this, but there were several cast members that were having side conversations with each other. I heard "today is my last day, I can't wait to get out of here", along with conversations about family issues with each other as they were loading rides. I have never experienced that at Disney in all of my trips, but I know this has been a trying year. There was one particularly snippy cast member at the popcorn stand outside of the castle. Of course there were so many others who were wonderful so it didn't affect us in the slightest, but it was different than our usual experience. 4) The ride photos that previously populated in the mydisney app either automatically or when we scanned our magic band don't seem to work well anymore. This happened in August as well. This trip we only seemed to get photos from SM and Buzz Space Ranger....and a lot of photos from people not in our family. Strange! None of our photos from Splash, TOT, Everest, etc saved to our account. Bummer!
Now we are looking to plan our next trip in the Fall and also a
Disney cruise in 2021. I am currently having sticker shock for park dates in Oct/Nov. For the price of 4/5 days at the Contemporary, we could pay for the whole European Cruise! Yowza!
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