We are midway thru our trip. Here’s observations to pay it forward for the many tips I’ve seen.
the parks have low crowds, but are not empty anymore. DHS is the main one that feels more crowded than the others.
it’s raining almost everyday. if you can stick it out after the rain, it’s cooler and less crowded. Make dining ressies for around 2 or 3pm. because of the rain, do the outside rides in the morning. We messed that up on our first MK day.
rides will say they have a wait, but the longer times seem like a fake out with a couple of exceptions. RNRC said 55, it was 25. FoP said 25, it was walkon. Smugglers, after 5pm, you can try as many times as you want to get the coaxium.
mobile order, worked fairly well. For cooked food, account for a 10-15 min wait once you hit the “I’m here”.
getting into the park, temp checks are pretty fast, but some are faster than others. In the morning each line has two checkers. Pick the line thats moving faster. Means one of the temp checker is located a little differently (usu outside the tent) and processing people faster. Security lines - short! But people still seem to prefer to queue up when there are lanes with no one there...
my kids really wanted to ride the gondolas, so we took them to riviera to visit our home resort. We were able to walk around the resort and took the open house tour. We have tried visiting the other resorts yet (on the monorail line).
on the resort thread, I know there’s discussion of long elevator waits at the contemporary. Not the case at BLT. Only 2 times have we not been able to get in the elevator.
mask compliance. So far, pretty good. Cases where you see noses, we dont confront, we move away from them. CMs have been remind people to cover up and most comply. Did seem quite a few though that have a mask just for show and have gaps around the nose and cheeks. All three of my boys are wearing and complying. The 6yo needs a reminder after drinking or eating. we also brought a water bottle, that’s helped immensely (we’ve never done that, always used to just stop by a counter) and we order a couple of extra water cups when we eat to fill up the bottle.
Lines— In the lines, we’re a family of 5, we would often take the full space between two markers to give more distance. Also, the line marking are not all 6ft apart from the next one. Some are marked so they’re 6ft from the ones on the other side, which means the ramps may have only 1 marking or none at all. And because we’re all going through standby, its a nice time to enjoy the detail they put in the queue that normally we would miss in the fast pass line.
I was hoping it would be slightly less crowded, but can’t complain too much...