I was in Disney 12/4-12/11 and it breaks my heart to write this. I grew up going to Disney and have probably been there 50+ times over my lifetime, including just before the pandemic shutdown and in May of this year.
The crowds were insane. My family goes this week every year (for the past 15+ years) and we've always enjoyed the low crowds and holiday feel. As someone further upthread mentioned - things were filthy. I've been in bar bathrooms cleaner than many of the Epcot and MK bathrooms. Anyone else remember years ago never seeing so much as a wrapper on the ground before it was snatched up? Those days are gone...
People were cranky, many were sniffly or cough-y, and were literally on top of each other. I've been paranoid for years about getting rammed in the achilles by a stroller or
scooter and this is the year it finally happened (because of course it did) - leaving the insane crowd cluster **** of Enchantment, which I found very underwhelming. You can't use "pandemic" as an excuse for degradation of service, but then also not limit capacity in the parks and orchestrate a show like Enchantment which NEEDS to be viewed in one concentrated area. I wore my mask during the entire show and really regretted not just riding the PeopleMover instead.
Sat 12/4 - arrival mid afternoon (staying off site) and made the rookie mistake of going to Disney Springs on a Saturday night. Honestly, I know better. Was looking forward to the Christmas tree stroll but the trees are now dispersed throughout and I never found all of them. I assume to manage crowds...but really? I doubt. We actually got a walkup table at Wine Bar George which was lovely as always but left quickly after as the crowds were insane, but again it was Saturday night.
Sun 12/5 - Epcot. No Genie +. Awfully crowded for a live construction site with a $100+ cost of entry...but I did LOVE the holiday theming on Living with the Land (best ride about vegetables ever) and love the lights on Spaceship Earth. They really, really need to fix the Soarin' footage - everyone just snickers when they see the Eiffel Tower at a 45 degree angle. The food lines for the booths were crazy long and I was devastated to see the Vin de France kiosk closed for refurbishment as I dream about that orange drink. I felt there were fewer actual "food" options at the booths this year and more desserts and sweets. Boo. Candlelight Processional was enjoyable as always - we were able to sit down 5 min after it started without having to wait in line standby at all. Harmonius was...nice. Fine. I actually liked Epcot Forever and I also agree that the barges in the lagoon are an eyesore. Remy is darling, and I lucked out with a boarding group for the second round of virtual queue.
Mon 12/6 - MK. Sucked it up and bought Genie + for myself and my parents for the day even though the concept infuriates me. This was our only day in the park so it was an efficiency call. We used to go to the Christmas Party every year as our only MK park day and once upon a time the value was there for the ticket and what amounted to 8 hours in the park, but the price is now double and the time is now halved so we just bought a regular park ticket. We rope dropped Jungle Cruise which immediately broke down but came back online quickly enough that the wait was only about 25 minutes. When we got off the ride it was up to 70 and never saw it go down the rest of the day. Had to use
Genie+ just to get on old standbys like Pirates and Haunted Mansion, both of which had 50+ minute waits. We actually left before the park officially closed which I NEVER do.
The parking at MK is a mess. We parked...somewhere...very far away, by a mountain of some sort, and it was a pretty scary walk back to the car at night since there were no walking paths and we were forced to walk on the same road as cars leaving for the day. I saw quite a few near misses with pedestrians and honestly can't believe the safety issue. Same day just hours earlier we went into the theater for Mickey's Philharmagic and almost got caught in the automatic closing theater doors on the way in. The cast members inside weren't paying any attention to the people still filtering in and we probably should have been held for the next show but no one was supervising the line entry. Two safety issues in one day left a pretty bad taste in my mouth.
Tuesday 12/7 - pool day. Breakfast at Boma (where did my goat cheese scrambled eggs go???) and dinner at Narcoossee's which was EXCELLENT. Service was lovely also.
Weds 12/8 - AK in the morning - I don't have much interest in this park but we did do Dinosaur and the Safari, which I always enjoy. Really didn't appreciate having to wait until 2pm to park hop since I was ready to leave by around noon. HS in the afternoon - didn't have Genie+ here, so we didn't do a lot of the big rides. My days of Aerosmith are behind me, and I'm not a Star Wars person so I didn't bother with the 105 min wait for RotR, but we did do Toy Story Mania, Smuggler's Run, Muppets, the Railway, and had some cocktails at the Brown Derby Lounge. We also rode the Skyliner around just because, and wound up grabbing some dessert in Epcot.
Thursday 12/9 - another chill day. Disney Springs in the afternoon - much more pleasant. Good dinner at the Boathouse and dessert at Ghiradelli. Dockside Margaritas is always a great time too.
Friday 12/10 - Epcot again. Probably didn't need to have a second day in Epcot but we've done it for years and usually it's my favorite park. It still is but it's definitely in a rough patch right now. Still crowded, still long lines for kiosks, but a nice day nonetheless. Didn't see CP or Harmonius again when usually we would go a second round. The orange drink booth had re-opened and I considered that our pixie dust for the week. I'll take it.
Overall - a bad day in Disney is usually better than no Disney, but this time around when I really wanted to feel the Disney magic I couldn't quite find it anywhere. I saw lots of cast members playing on their phones and generally checked out, lots of dirty bathrooms and garbage, a disappointing lack of merch (I echo the person who noted the dearth of Christmas ornaments - my parents have an ornament from every year going back to the early 90s - THIS is the year they don't produce those???). Everything felt like a money grab - even the parking attendants who kept asking if we were purchasing "preferred parking" as the standard. I felt like I was in the Hunger Games trying to get dinner reservations and Genie+ times, and was glued to my phone the whole week.
All in all, the bloom is off the rose for me right now. I'm normally a complete Disney stan but I think this week did me in for awhile. I just can't pay premium prices for this sub-par experience, as much as I hate to say it. I don't see myself going over to Universal either - I'm not a theme park person, I'm a DISNEY person. So hopefully they sort themselves out and this isn't the new normal. But it was a disappointing week where a bunch of small things added up to an overall negative experience.
I kept turning back every 2 seconds because I could almost feel him on my heels . 
). Food was solid, not gourmet by any means but still tasty and filled us up for a day in the parks. Plus the manager Sean was super-sweet as well and helped with our dietary needs.
