We were in the parks for 10 days plus the Boo Bash between 8/2-8/13. I've been hesitant to post our experiences, because I'm not exactly sure how I feel about all of it. 10 days in the park is a lot. We walked over 120 miles in those 2 weeks. I would say overall the trip was good and positive. We had a lot of AMAZING moments- but also some less than amazing. We experienced the huge drop in crowds during our 2nd week there- the first week was very crowded with many long lines. Longer than we have ever stood in- and not just one, but one after another after another, it gets exhausting. But that being said, we also had moments of complete walk ons- like Soarin'- I've seen the line short before but have never been able to walk on directly into the loading line multiple times in a row. We had a 15 minute wait for FoP (on our last AK day we had done every ride by 10:30am!) We were a group of 5 for one our Star Tours rides and there were the only ones plus 2 others on the ship! We had an almost walk on to Smuggler's Run one late afternoon. But all of that was in the 2nd week. We also waited almost 80 minutes in the hot hot sun for Space Mountain. They were loading the entire queue into the left side, one train at a time. Our group of 4 had the train to ourselves- why? They didn't even attempt to find another party of 1 or 2. We did Space another day and while the right was also being used for the FP/RS/
DAS line- as it emptied out they sent some of the regular queue to the right as well and the line literally moved what felt like twice as fast! This probably comes down to who is working at any given time but some CM's are so much more efficient at getting people on the ride. We only had one evacuation, Splash Mountain and we were stuck right after the last room- we were escorted out the back and given a pass to use at any ride other than Mine Train or Peter Pan. We used it on Haunted Mansion.
We were able to get everything done in all the parks, yet there were days we felt we accomplished less than we normally would. But the walk on experiences we had at AK, Epcot and HS were all great and I'm not sure those situations would have ever happened with FP+.
MK was by far the hardest park, which surprised me since it has the most rides. By our last day at MK, I wasn't even sad to leave. I just wanted to be out of there.
Mobile ordering was good for the most part. There is inconsistency with the restaurants that most let you in to find a table when it shows your order being ready, but others (ABC Commissary and Satu'li Canteen) would not let you in until it showed the order was ready for pick up. At Satu'li Canteen we were not allowed in and we sat at one of the outdoor tables for 35 minutes while the icon on our phone only showed it was being prepared. My husband asked the girl at the door at about the 20 minute mark and she still insisted that when notified we could come in- it wasn't ready yet. We refreshed a couple times, no change. Then at the 35 minute mark we refreshed again and got a notification that we had been notified twice that our order was ready and since we didn't pick it up we were being charged for the full meal. We took that notice to the girl at the door and she finally let us in so we could find out what was going on. The girl we spoke to there said they had called for us twice and they threw our order away. But, she was very apologetic and they remade the order and we had the food in about 10 minutes. Obviously a glitch of some sort but I know we would not have had to wait 35 minutes, or had our food thrown away, had we been allowed in the building to wait. (It was not crowded inside at all- there were empty tables all over)
Mask compliance was pretty good overall. There were plenty that pulled masks down below their nose. I think some of the inconsistency in the outdoor queues again depended on the CM working. Everywhere pretty much required the mask once you went under the FP/Standby wait time sign. But on the safari for instance, sometimes the minute we entered the outdoor queue we were asked to mask up, but sometimes they allowed you to be unmasked in that outdoor queue and didn't require the mask up until you entered the actual little building that you load onto the truck. There were a few instances of these inconsistencies.
On our last Tower of Terror ride there was a group of people that would not put their mask up. They were asked a ton of times and one second later they were down. One woman was asked by the CM to put her mask up as he was turning to close the elevator doors- she literally pulled it up and then down in a one second swoop. So of course we didn't get that photo. And my ride was kind of ruined because I was so annoyed. But we also saw a family pulled out of the Dinosaur line for wearing masks with filters- couldn't get back in until they had different masks, which the CM's offered them. And on RnRC a woman was not allowed on with her sparkly single layer mask- also offered a disposable from the CM.
There is no social distancing. On Rock N Roller Coaster they were encouraging us to not be able to see any carpet on the floor. That we were a big family and there should be absolutely no space between us. This is the norm.
Overall it was a positive trip and we had fun. But I also don't have the desire to book another trip right now. Usually when we leave I'm excited about our bounce back, or already planning the next one. Not this time. We missed some of the things that were still closed- shows, shops and restaurants. I didn't love all the long lines. Also- I keep reading that the Touring Plans times are so much more accurate. While that was also true our 2nd week, that was not true the first week. On many occasions I would say-"Oh Toy Story is 55 minutes but expected 35 on the TP app" We'd get in line and 52 minutes later would be getting on the ride. Space Mountain was posted 80, Touring Plans said 58- it actually took 72. This happened the most in Hollywood Studios, but also at Magic Kingdom. Many times are greatly inflated though and it makes no sense to me. Pirates is a prime example- often the ride would be listed at 45 minutes and actually be 10, or 35 minutes and be an almost walk on. But others are much closer to the actual posted times. We waited 35 minutes for Laugh Floor when Touring Plans said 15 and Disney said 25.
We did get on Rise of Resistance all 3 HS days. We hit join right as our phones turned to 7am and got boarding groups 25, 32 and 39. Very cool ride.
This is getting long- so much more I could say. We loved Boo Bash and felt like it was our best time at Magic Kingdom. So glad we were able to do that. I am still not sure how I feel about it overall though- thankful to have had that time with my family- and that is the most important part!
So we walked all the way up near the rope lol
