We decided to take advantage of our our credits and perks that were piling up unused in 2020 and headed off to Disney World the first week of December. We got 4 day passes and attended Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Disney Hollywood and Magic Kingdom. Here is what we learned:
Reservations
You must reserve your time in each park prior to entering the park. This is easy to do using the Disney World park app. The number of people allowed to attend each park is limited, so it is important you make your reservations early to be sure you can enter. When you enter parking they will ask you if you have a reservation so you don’t purchase parking then learn the park is not accepting any more entries.
Park Schedules
Park times are shorter than normal. 7-9 hours in all parks except magic kingdom which was open for 12 hours.
Masks
Disney World requires masks at all times in the park. The only exception is when you are not in line, eating and stationary. Of course there were a lot of people sneaking food in the line and pushing the boundaries. The cast members were consistent with polite, but firm reminders. In my mind masks are a small price to pay to help businesses stay open. Here are a couple tips:
- Masks get humid and gross after a while. Bring a few masks and rotate through them, or just use disposable masks and bring extras to swap out during the day. I had a lot of success with two reusable masks, I would put the extra on my wrist so it could dry out, and swap with the one I was wearing when it got too humid.
- Black masks warm up when the sun is out. We mainly have black masks because they are required by Jeri Sue’s work. Fortunately it was mostly overcast, but when the sun came out my mask would get noticeably warmer.
Attractions
Anything that attracts a crowd was either closed or limited in nature. Shows were not open, parades were very small (a vehicle with a band on it for example), no fireworks and the castle display was fairly static. This takes away a bit of the Disney magic, but makes sense given the times.
Lines
Fast passes were not available, rides were physically distanced and would go through a periodic cleaning phase. The cleaning basically meant they ran through and cleaned each car empty until all cars were cleaned. Between this and the lack of attractions lines were typically long through the day. Average wait was about 40 minutes for us. Waits for popular rides were up to 95 minutes.
Most people have access to the Disney apps, so they all know where the short lines are. When you see a line is short you need to move quickly. We actually had 25 minute lines become 75 minute waits by the time we got to them. We gave up trying to optimize for short lines and just enjoyed the rides where we were.
Virtual Lines
The only ride with a virtual line was Rise of the Resistance in Disney Hollywood. You have to have a reservation at the park and register for the virtual line. Registration starts at 7:00 am. The very instant my phone showed 7am I clicked on the link in the Disney World app to sign up for the virtual line. It instantly responded to me that we were in boarding group 72. Great, not sure if that was a good thing or not. When we entered the park we made a bee line to Galaxy’s Edge to see what we could learn. The Millennium Falcon was a 15 minute wait, so we jumped on board. After we got off I checked the virtual line again, but it didn’t seem to have any useful information. I checked wait times in the Disney World app and learned that rise of the Resistance was not operating. We went by the ride to see what we could learn. An attendant said they were working on getting it up and going, but did not have an estimated time. He also informed me that we would have a one hour window when our boarding group was called, so we could feel free to enjoy the park in the mean time.
It was 2 1/2 hours after park opening that the ride finally started showing boarding groups. It gave us an estimated 4 1/2 hours before our boarding group would be able to board. That would have us boarding about an hour before park closing. As they day progressed, that estimate did not shrink as quickly as the hours of the day went by. By about 3pm the Disney World application informed us we would not get to board that day. Watching the boarding calls, it looks like they got up to boarding group 64 before the park closed, and I don’t think everyone in that boarding group was able to make it on.
Food
If you want to go to one of the premier restaurants, make sure to make reservations. They are social distancing so attendance is limited. We grabbed an early lunch at the restaurant at the Mexican pavilion in the Epcot center on the first day. There was hardly anyone there, so we thought that would be a typical experience. It wasn’t. When I went to make reservations for the other parks, Liberty Square was the only place that had reservations available. That was OK, I like Liberty Square, the only downside is we don’t take very good advantage of all you can eat these days.
All of the counter service required ordering over the Disney World mobile app. I really like this service, so it isn’t a downside, but just be warned, you can’t just show up and stand in line. We would set up an order window while waiting in line for a ride, then when we exited a ride indicate we were ready, then walk to the food service area. Usually our food would be ready 5-10 minutes after our arrival.
Tragedy Averted
On day two we went to Animal Kingdom. We decided to go on the Dinosaur ride as it only had a 5 minute wait. As the ride started Jeri Sue realized she had not put her phone in her back. She was trying to do so as the ride got dark and a bump caused her to drop her phone. We fished around with our feet trying to find it. It was still knocking around on the floor for most of the ride, but towards the end we couldn’t find it any more. When we got to the ride I turned on my phone light and did a quick search (the cast members were urging us off, but I wasn’t leaving until I gave it a once over). The floor of the card had no lip, so there was nothing preventing the phone from sliding off.
We talked to a cast member at the ride exit who directed us to an app to register our lost device. They comforted us that most lost devices are found, and the track is designed in a way that it is unlikely the phone would be run over. I was able to see that the phone was still in the ride area using the device tracking app. We did the best we could to enjoy the day.
At the end of the day the phone was still showing up in tracking inside the ride area. We went back to the ride right before closing and asked at the front. We weren’t the only ones there asking about lost items. The cast member called to the ride operators who said they didn’t have anything. They instructed us to go to Guest Services and wait there. Everything found would be brought there about 1/2 an hour after park closing. So we went there and let an agent know we were there. About 45 minutes after park closing the agent informed us that the cast had left the ride and did not find any cell phones. I checked the tracking app and saw the phone was still there. The agent told us the cleaning crews came through at night and would likely find it.
It was at this time I set the phone as lost and set it to call us if recovered. We went to Delmonico’s Italian Steakhouse. We love the food and the ambiance, it’s become a bit of a tradition for us when we are in town. “All is well that ends in a good meal”, I always say.
That evening when we were settling down to sleep I received a call on my phone from Jeri Sue’s phone. I answered and it was a Disney cast member telling me they had recovered her phone and would leave it at Guest Services.
The next morning, about the time Guest Services opened we headed over to Animal Kingdom. I told the parking agent that we lost a phone and were headed to Guest Services to retrieve it. He waived us through. I took the VIP lane to get closer to the entry. I repeated what we were doing to the cast member guiding traffic in, he waived us through. Jeri Sue was able to run over to Guest Services, they have an entry outside the park entry and recover her phone.
I mild inconvenience, the only real consequence was we got fewer pictures of Animal Kingdom than we would normally get.
Summary
The shorter days and longer waits meant our trip wasn’t the ride fest we thought it would be. But we did go on every ride we wanted and all of the other major rides. The only exception was the Rise of the Resistance 🙁 We would have made it, I think, had it not been shut down for so long. We got to go on all of the other new rides:
Frozen at Epcot was a lot of fun, if you are a fan it is a must see.
Mexico’s ride with finding Donald is a huge improvement over their previous ride. We had lunch at their formal Mexican restaurant. The food was unique and good and the ambiance pure Disney magic.
We rode the Navi River ride and Flight of the Avatar at Animal Kingdom (Pandora). The lines were long enough that we only got one ride in each. Navi River is relaxing, but not worth a long wait. Flight of the Avatar was technically amazing and a lot of fun. One I’d want to do again.
Slinky’s rollercoaster at Disney Hollywood is a surprising treat. It is a long coaster ride and fast enough to be exhilarating, but not too fast for younger riders. Micky and Minnies run away train is a trackless ride and is a lot of fund.
The Millennium Falcon is a lot of fun to ride. Galaxy’s edge is hurt by the COVID19 restrictions. Not as much interaction with cast members, not shows and limited access to the Bazaar. But you can still get a custom light saber and droid if you want.
My best description of the overall experience is it was chill. There wasn’t a need to hurry around. We had a lot of time to visit. The lines were spaced out so you were able to enjoy the park ambiance while waiting outside the line. The crowds were very well behaved, so all and all it was a very enjoyable experience and we would go again if the opportunity presented itself.