Just returned from a 12-day trip to the World, our first in 5 years. I posted in a bit more detail about our first couple days many pages back, but I'll sum up here. For context, we're 2 healthy-ish 30-somethings from California. We haven't eaten indoors since before March, we wear masks religiously, we cancelled our family vacation back in August because it wouldn't be safe, and while we were gone they announced a second lockdown of our area.
The Good
-Festival of Holidays and all the seasonal snacks were a big hit with us. Even in its reduced form, there are still plenty of things to try.
-Wait times were pretty reasonable (see below for a caveat)
-People did seem to be trying their best to abide by the rules. There were certainly people who didn't seem to be able to pay attention to anything outside of themselves/their party, but for the most part people were genuinely trying.
-We didn't have problems with mobile ordering, though outside the restaurants became a gauntlet of trying to get through everyone else who was waiting for their food.
-We missed park-hopping a little, but instead we did 2 days at each park and just went slower, which was kind of nice. And the lack of planning/racing around made for a much more relaxing vacation.
-Overall we had a really good time.
The Bad
-Drunk people cannot socially-distance. This was a big issue at EPCOT.
-Airports are very much a reflection of the state in which they are located. SFO was great - empty, distanced, quiet. MSP was a nightmare of epic proportions.
-The "stand here" lines are too close together. No party of more than 2 can fit on the line, so the group winds up filling most of the six-feet section. At Universal, the lines were closer to 10 feet apart, which helped account for the space that people took up.
-I did not see CMs correcting people who were wearing masks incorrectly. My partner said he saw one do it once. There were a lot of nose-peekers and a handful of forgetful folks, and no one was addressing it. I was surprised because people on here had reported that CMs were doing that - I'm not sure if they're just burned out or afraid of starting a fight or there are just too few of them now to add that job duty.
-The parks are not built for the kind of distance that is required. The number of choke-points are really ridiculous, especially for how recently many sections were built and therefore how large of crowds they should have expected. DHS was the worst - not only SWGE, which we expected, but TSL as well. Even without a pandemic, the walkways are just too narrow for the crowds.
-People still instinctively crowd together when there's any kind of 'spectacle.' Cavalcades - people hear the music and cram together at the front of the sidewalk. Lit-up castle - people stand in crowds to watch it...not change for 15 minutes. Why, people?!
The Unexpected
-Rise BG. I was thrilled to not need to race over into the throng and expected we would get something mid-afternoon and wander over when crowds were lower. Instead we got BG5 and BG6 on our two days! Whoops?
-I love the cavalcades. Except that you can't predict when they'll be so you can easily get stuck behind them. Like 4 times in one afternoon at MK.
-The number of lines that are inaccessible really shocked me. I use a tiny electric wheelchair and am used to some accessibility issues at DL because it was built in the 50s. Plenty of rides at DL make you enter through the exit or come back at a different time because it predates the ADA by some 30-40 years. But at WDW, which is much newer, and in particular parks/areas that postdate the ADA, it's really ridiculous. We couldn't take advantage of inflated line times because we were given return-times at almost every ride. On one hand, it was nice to wait outside the line; on the other, waiting 60 minutes for something you know is only a 30-minute wait is annoying - and mostly infuriating because it shouldn't be inaccessible after all this time. And don't even get me started on Pirates.
-I had seen people talking about how the mask makes them tired faster; in the heat I can see that, but it was pleasantly cool when we went. However, we were wiped out much faster than usual. I don't think it was the mask itself, I think it was the energy being expended to try to figure out how to avoid people and being constantly vigilant. The mental energy it took to try to be as careful as possible and worrying all the time left us more drained than we expected.
Overall, I'm glad we went. I desperately needed to get out of the house, and within the Disney Bubble I felt relatively safe. However, we won't be going back until after the pandemic - not because of Disney itself, not because of what was "missing," but because the journey to get to Florida was so exhausting and stress-inducing. When/if DL reopens, we'll almost certainly go there because we can drive.