There is a gremlin in me that is thinking if someone starts crowding me in line I might just have to stretch my arms behind me and "accidentally" bump them. :rolleyes1
When we were in a store last weekend a lady was on her phone and was getting too close for our comfort. The next time the line moved I stepped but left my second leg behind me so that she saw it looking down at her phone. She quickly looked up and apologized saying she wasn't meaning to crowd us. that was all and it worked perfectly.
 
If you want my just facts break down of each park for Thursday-Sunday park trip with two adults and children ages 8, 7, 4, 1, you can look in my profile for previous posts about each park.

Overall thoughts:

Masks are hard. I wear a mask almost all day everyday weekday for work but that did not prepare me for wearing a mask in heat and humidity while walking that much. The Disney speed walk almost suffocated me.

Drive drive drive!!! If you can afford both the rental and parking it was comforting to control as much as I could. Many people have posted getting in line for buses/skylines 60-90 minutes early. Doing that with four kids under 8 one of the which was an infant was just not an option for me.

I highly recommend Touring Plans line app it is crowd sourced in real time and was almost spot on all week it really let us know if we should stop in a line.

Almost every line wait was shorter than listed. Only a handful were within a couple minutes. Only Space Mountain at the end of this the night was longer than expected and it was way off.

Even with shorter hours you can accomplish almost everything. (Standby only is not that bad but if you knew how to play the FP+ game I understand your views.) But the following exceptions apply:
1. Doing headliners more than once is not realistic unless you are dedicating a lot of time to them.
2. You have to super early rope drop. It is essentially unadvertised extra hours.
3. You can’t leave for midday breaks and must stay to till close.
4. Child swap is much more tedious than before since everything is standby only. It adds about 15-20 minutes each swap for the other to go through.

If shows (like Muppets, Frozen) are a priority you need to go earlier with limited seating they can build long waits for something you used to just wing

Lower capacity and no FP+ actually helps the shorter trip people because you would of been hard pressed to get a headliner at Hollywood Studios or FOP at Animal Kingdom. Now you can do it if you want to wait for it.

I have never taken an umbrella to Disney before mainly to carry less and generally large crowds. Glad we did it this time. I recommend it to shelter from the sun when needed.

If you can afford it, I highly recommend at least one table service meal a day some from 12-4 depending park hours. It gets you a break during high times and it helps avoid some of the chaos of quick service right now.

Read up on Boarding Groups, security screening, morning procedures. Every step cuts time and helps you in the morning.

Mask compliance is not something I cared about or really intentionally looked for. There will be people who cheat, don’t comply, fight over it, eat and walk, eat in line. Disney does their best to make it safe but they can’t police everything. If someone not complying bothers you than Disney is not the place for you because you will experience it.

It appears they are finally opening more snack carts because I did not have the issues others were having locating snacks. Many food vendors still closed.

Not having people climbing on you in queues is amazing. I know that can’t last but it is liberating.

My park experience may not be yours Disney is changing rapidly and crowd levels are unpredictable. I would go back soon if I wanted. If things remain status quo or only increase 5-10% Thanksgiving and Christmas people should be fine but no one knows exactly how things will progress.
 
I am asking if I read your post correctly? It took you 25 minutes to get from the parking toll booths, to park your car, walk to the gates, go through security, enter the park and walk to Pandora? That seems incredibly fast to me so I either am misunderstanding or I was curious how you did it so fast. A 15-20 minute difference in arrival at DAK could be the difference between starting our day with FoP or saving it until park close.

Yes that is what it took to roll through the tolls and get to the bridge between Pandora and Africa where the line started. We were 3rd row from the front and towards the park side so saved some extra steps there. We had all our bags organized and ready to breeze through security. One kid on back, one in stroller, two walking. Since it was open there were no lines at temp, security, or ticketing. Just were ready and walked quickly.
 


This is exactly what I did. Dumped the family, and arrived at about 7:15, when they opened parking. With drop off I beat the parking lot crows. Walked in to FoP, then rode Navi, and then walked in to FoP again. I then went to Everest and rode as walk-ion 3 times. Could have been more. Fabulous.

Thanks! We only have until 12 at AK before we eat at Yak & Yeti and head home... our hope is to hit FOP, Navi, Everest, Dinosaur and Kali. We can always do one after lunch if the waits aren't too long.
 
Would you suggest taking the bus? Is the car line pretty long?
Ive read conflicting reports. One popular blogger (last week) said Disney busses are better than driving to DAK but it's better to drive to MK (which I thought surprising because of the TTC transfer).

I think ultimately, luck is a big part of it and you just can't control it. If you drive you need to be there early but no so early they turn you around. If you take the bus you likely need to be at the bus stop 90 minutes before advertised park opening to ensure you're on the first bus of the day but then you just need to hope a bus arrives as scheduled and your driver isn't caught in the bathroom for ten minutes rather than coming to get you.

Driving gives you more "control" and should save you time but you need to get lucky when planning your arrival so be patient but deliberate with your plans. DAK opens at 8am the parking tolls should open sometime around 7/7:15 am so you can be risky and shoot to get there early but rick you'll be turned around OR wake up and get to the bus stop super early.
 
That's a bummer. I don't need the darn strawberries. I would be fine with the fruit they have, if any, and Nutella. The spicy chicken and waffles just doesn't look appetizing and doesn't seem breakfasty to me, at least vacation breakfast.

I wonder what part of the country she is at? We don't have a strawberry shortage at all??? Never have had one all summer and fall. I live in Mn., which is not the strawberry capitol of the world, LOL.
 


Would you suggest taking the bus? Is the car line pretty long?
I will tell you I flew over the car toll booths twice last week in the first 20 skyliner gondolas, and they were not letting any cars in. I did have to line up by 715 for that. Only one member of your family needs to be there early, as it is easy to join them in either bus or gondola lines. Since it's one family per gondola or set of seats, you aren't really hurting the people behind. So, if you are on one of the first buses, you will beat the cars. If not, probably better to drive. I think what drives us all crazy is that there is no guarantee whatever you choose.
 
I think what drives us all crazy is that there is no guarantee whatever you choose.


Yeah, no doubt....the decision of getitng up much earlier and standing at a bus or gondola stop isn't really reducing the wait time you're just shifting it from when the park is open to before it opens but in the end you're still waiting the same (if not longer) and you have to wake up earlier.
 
I find it interesting that there is a lot of talk of people lining up at 7am-ish for the Skyliner at Pop but I haven't heard the same for CBR. What time is the Skyliner line starting at CBR for those who wish to obtain a RotR BG?
 
There is a gremlin in me that is thinking if someone starts crowding me in line I might just have to stretch my arms behind me and "accidentally" bump them. :rolleyes1

Part of me secretly wants to stand super duper close to them, like inches from his/her face. Just stand there 4" from the person and not say anything. And then observe how they react.

And then when they say something like "Hey, what are you doing?" I'd get to reply something like, "Oh, you don't like it when people stand too close to you? That's what you've been doing to us the entire time in this line. Keep your cooties to yourself!"
 
On my first ever trip to New York (2000) I was out to dinner with a friend and went to the bathroom. When I came back and they had two strangers at my table...I'm from the south and pretty jovial and was like WTH who are these (two) guys, lets chat it up! One guy was older and although I never asked the other guy looked like his son or nephew...

Anyway, after over an hour of telling stories, laughing, having a great time, doing shots, eating wayyyy too much food the older guy picked up the entire bill. While we asked what they did for a living and they said they were in the film industry, that didnt seem weird because my cousin who we were visiting was also in the film industry and so was almost everyone we met that was friends with her.

Anyway, we enjoyed our dinner with Spider-Man Director Sam Raimi and lead actor Tobey Maguire without even knowing who it was at the time :drinking:
 
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What time do the buses start picking up people for MK? When do you usually arrive with a MK bus? This is leaving from the Boardwalk.

We are also considering taking an Uber to the Contemporary, which we typically do. However, I am not sure of their ability of dropping off guests without a reservation. Or is some form of reservation or mobile order needed.

Also, on a similar note, am I able to uber around from resort to resort. That is what we have done in the past. However, with COVID, I am not sure if they are not allowing that. This is what we do for dining and visiting other resort lounges.

Thanks!
 
What time do the buses start picking up people for MK? When do you usually arrive with a MK bus? This is leaving from the Boardwalk.

We are also considering taking an Uber to the Contemporary, which we typically do. However, I am not sure of their ability of dropping off guests without a reservation. Or is some form of reservation or mobile order needed.

Also, on a similar note, am I able to uber around from resort to resort. That is what we have done in the past. However, with COVID, I am not sure if they are not allowing that. This is what we do for dining and visiting other resort lounges.

Thanks!
Officially, they are only letting people into other resort parking lots if they have a restaurant reservation (or in some cases a mobile order pick up). However, some have reported that enforcement of that policy is spotty.
 
I will tell you I flew over the car toll booths twice last week in the first 20 skyliner gondolas, and they were not letting any cars in. I did have to line up by 715 for that. Only one member of your family needs to be there early, as it is easy to join them in either bus or gondola lines. Since it's one family per gondola or set of seats, you aren't really hurting the people behind. So, if you are on one of the first buses, you will beat the cars. If not, probably better to drive. I think what drives us all crazy is that there is no guarantee whatever you choose.
Thanks for the info, but I’m trying to get to AK! Any thoughts on whether is better to bus or Uber there?

I find it interesting that there is a lot of talk of people lining up at 7am-ish for the Skyliner at Pop but I haven't heard the same for CBR. What time is the Skyliner line starting at CBR for those who wish to obtain a RotR BG?
We did this yesterday from CBR. I got in the Skyliner line at 8:07am and there were maybe 50 families ahead of me. The gates were closed so the line started just past the Joffrey’s stand, and I was in line around the corner right by the bus depot. They brought us up to the platform around 8:45 and started the gondolas maybe a minute or two before 9am. We were exiting the Skyliner at 9:18 and had no wait at all to get into the park. Ended up with boarding group 11!

ETA: People coming from Pop and Riviera were sent to the back of the DHS line at CBR. Not sure what time those lines start running, but I would say they are at a disadvantage because the line at CBR was quite long by the time they started running it.
 

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