Just got back last night. We stayed from Saturday April 17 until Tuesday April 20 and visited every park except AK. No park hoppers (we typically get them but this time we wanted to soak up park time from opening to closing and it was a ‘short’ trip). Our typical day consisted of rope dropping headliner rides, then late morning we would slow down and have an early lunch. We’d then shop (shops get busy in evenings anyways) stroll, and hit up rides which had lower waits like Nemo, Little Mermaid, CoP, etc. Then early dinner and try for more headliner rides. This strategy worked really well for us especially since we’ve always been fastpass fans. Without park hoppers it was surprisingly nice to just stay in one park all day/evening and it felt like we got tons done! So many things we noticed this time around such as those little details throughout that we otherwise rush by. I highly recommend as others have said here, to hit up popular rides early morning and/or evening. For example, MMRR was consistently busy with a crazy long line from mid morning until late afternoon. We got in line for it around 5:30 or so and only waited 20-25 minutes.
I also recommend which others have, to eat early mealtimes and start mobile ordering way earlier than when you normally would. For example, on the bus to MK opening around 8:00am (would’ve been earlier but had to stow luggage for departure), I ordered lunch for an 11:00 window. 1) the food was so fresh, 2) no crowding to fight through to pick up the order, 3) plentiful seating. It’s also beneficial to click on ‘I’m Here’ at least 10 minutes before you plan on actually picking it up.
On both of our MK days, we had a meal at a nearby resort. Geyser point at WL... boat ride from MK and joined walk up list while on the boat. Not very busy though. Fabulous food and great atmosphere! Nice change of scenery from park without being away from the park long. Plus we’ve stayed at WL few times before and it’s my fave so it was awesome to visit. I really like the convenience of joining a walk up list and also the convenience of mobile ordering. I could see pros and cons but for our family (who likes to plan ahead) it was fantastic. Other time was Gasparilla Grill at GF. Also great food and lovely atmosphere... love the shops at the GF too! We were going to use the walkway there from MK but torrential rain and thunder... love the monorail anyways. In general, in all of the restaurants we visited, table spacing was wonderful and felt comfortable/safe.
A pleasant surprise was, this was first of many trips we didn’t order memory maker but... low and behold the memory maker we had purchased and used this past November still worked for this trip! I had called prior to trip if my previous MM was still attached to this trip and CM told me no but I noticed ride pics showing up in my
MDE. So I was so excited that I was able to get pics after all!! We ended up getting so many pictures. Just throwing that out there if anyone has a similar scenario.
Magical Express: arrival no issues waiting and no long lines. We always arrive early as we always book crack of dawn flights and have never had long waits pre- and post- covid. Headed to Pop, we had an official ME bus with movie playing. Departure was a charter bus... driver made announcement and apologized and said dvd wasn’t set up at that moment or he would’ve played the movie. November we had an official ME but no movie playing so I think it’s just the luck of the draw for the whole experience.
Transportation: love, love, love the ease of the skyliner. Also, it’s great having your own gondola during this era. Buses were good and efficient too. November we ubered to Speedway for HS rope drop (very long line at skyliner that morning). We attempted this once this trip, however Uber doubled its fare for this location and nearby locations since then (at least in our situation) so we waited in the skyliner line which actually didn’t take that long at all. I’ve heard Lyft is cheaper but we’ve never used them yet. We love Disney transportation though and use it 98% of the time we’re there.
It wasn’t as easy finding cups of water in the parks as in the past so we bought a case of water for $7.50 or so at our resort’s gift shop... Had to specifically ask for it. I think there’s about 24 kid sized bottles in the case and they all fit in the fridge. Nice size to carry off to the parks. We did this in November too and highly recommend it. We used some to run through the coffee maker (also ran it through for oatmeal).
We enjoyed spontaneous cavalcades at the parks and character caravans at resorts but missed live entertainment such as Citizens of Hollywood and the orchestra at the GF to name a few.
Even in these trying different times, the magic was definitely there and I do miss being there already. It will always be my happy place no matter what and I think it’s just all of what you make of it.
My husband will think I am nuts. I just love starting our vacation this way. I have fond memories of the DME - my toddler son falling asleep on me after an early flight, trivia with my daughter, photos in front of the bus in their mickey shades, shutting said toddler son's finger in the door to the tiny bathroom he had to use while potty training...I am a sucker so I will gladly pay for for DME service in the future if they offer the Disney themed buses for an upcharge. Okay, done with my off-topic nostalgic rant!
