We just got back from a great 8 night trip to Universal Studios and WDW last night. This was a long trip for us as we are usually long weekenders that go around our daughter's school schedule several times a year. We have gone to WDW for the past three years just after New Years so we are familiar with that time frame, but we have never been for NYE. We started the first three days at Universal Studios. We haven't been there in quite some time, but we had tickets from a cancelled trip earlier this year that we needed to use. We stayed at the Portofino and it was very nice. Our first park day was Sunday, Dec 27 and it was so good. We rode Hagrid's four times using the virtual line and could have done more, but we wanted to do other things. The next two days got increasingly busier and even though we were able to obtain virtual line spots for Hagrid's on Monday, Dec 28 we opted not to ride and gave them up because it was so backed up due to being down in the morning. We did ride it one more time on Tuesday before we went to WDW. Overall we had a great time at Universal, but were VERY happy that we had express passes as the lines were quite long. The mask compliance there was much better than I had heard it was and I appreciated that they had TM giving you hand sanitizer at each ride and that they had TM abundantly scattered throughout the park reminding people to wear their mask properly. We ate at Jake's, Mythos, and twice at Cowfish. All were great. On Dec 29 we headed to WDW. We did a weird split of three different resorts at WDW as this trip was kind of pieced together. We did the first night at Contemporary, then two at Villa Grand Floridian, and two at Beach Club Villas. We have been to WDW twice since the re-opening so we were familiar with the changes. All the resorts were great and we were happy to get early room assignments for all of them so the split stay was not at all difficult. We even got a call on our BCV check in day to make sure that we were willing to give up our room request for an earlier room assignment which was a very nice touch. We ate dinner at Narcoossee's, Cali Grill, lunch at Yak & Yeti and Sci-Fi, and breakfast at Ale & Compass and Topolino's. They were all great! Spacing at the tables was good, online check in for ADRs is easy and WONDERFUL. We also went to a few lounges: Enchanted Rose, Nomad, Baseline, Tambu, Oga's and Ale & Compass--really can't beat those lounges for great food and drinks without an ADR. The lounges were also well spaced. We had one park day at each park and rope dropped each day. AK was first and was seamless. We drove our own car and arrived about an hour and 15 mins early. We had to make a couple of loops, but were allowed into the parking lot around an hour early. We were then allowed to line up for parking and were let in about 15 mins later. Walked right on to FOP. They put us on right next to other parties as has been recently reported. The people we were placed with were great and kept their masks on so we were ok with the experience, but in past trips we have had people take them off on that ride when there was spacing so we said we would not be riding that again as it felt like Russian Roulette. We rode Navi, EE, Dinosaur, and the Safari (so many animals out!!!) and were pretty much done by our Y&Y ADR at 11:40 am. On our MK day (NYE), we walked to MK along the GF walkway. We left about 1 hr and 15 mins before park opening and there was no one else on the path. We saw a family of deer. It was great! When we got to the end of the walkway there was one other couple there. Others started to arrive after that. We were held for a few minutes and then let through. We went directly to 7DMT and walked on. Crowds did not seem bad and we rode a lot of rides before going back to the resort for a rest. We had dinner at Cali Grill that night where they gave us party hats. Dinner was great! Went back to MK after and the crowds were now a bit heavier than I would like but far lighter than our typical post NYE trips and mostly just thick in the choke points. We rode a few more rides and then went back to our resort about an hour and a half before park close. We walked back along the GF walkway and saw more deer! The next day we went to HS. We woke up early, took our stuff to our car so we could move to BCV. Scored boarding group 3 for Rise from our car in the VGF parking lot. We parked our car at BCV and walked to HS. We arrived a little over an hour before park opening and lined up for security. They were already running the skyliner when we arrived. We rope dropped MMRR as my son had not yet rode it. Less people appeared to be rope dropping it than our previous trips and instead heading to TSL, MFSR, and TOT/RnR. The plexiglass on this ride was not that bad. We rode twice and experienced it once with and once without. We would obviously prefer without, but it really wasn't too bad. We rode everything we wanted except SDD and RnR. RnR broke the day we went and did not re open on the rest of our trip. We were bummed about it as it's our favorite WDW coaster. We took an mid day break and headed back to HS that evening for our Oga's ADR. It was great as usual. The CM we had (Fam) was amazing--one of the best we encountered. The next day we did Epcot and it was terrible. We have not done Epcot since the re-opening and I really don't think we will do it again until things are more back to normal. We lined up at the IG entrance a little over an hour before park opening. The line was not long but steadily grew. We were let in probably 45 mins before park opening and headed toward TT. Got in line for TT and were told it was going to be a slight delay and would open closer to park opening (about 30 mins). Stayed in line. They were testing vehicles. We made it into the building and were told it would be a 5 min wait. This was now after park opening and we had been in line for around 45-50 mins. After we waited about an hour and 10 mins we noticed that the ride was marked as offline on the app (had previously been online) and they made an announcement a few mins later that it would be a prolonged closure. We were pretty upset because we wasted our rope drop and we felt they could have better informed the people in line and let them have the chance to get out without giving the people who just arrived a further advantage by letting them know the ride was down first. Plus we were pretty much trapped in the queue since we were so far in the building. We had to excuse our way out. We headed to Frozen and the line was long. Waited in it anyway and were appalled by all the eating and drinking in line. I know they are allowed to do that (according to a customer experience CM we spoke to) in outdoor queues but it really was excessive. We also overhead some people behind us that were saying that they got a fastpass for TT (same line we just left and were only ahead of them by a little bit in the Frozen queue) but we were not offered one which made us a little salty. When we finally got to the loading area of Frozen we got the third row on the ride vehicle and it was HORRIBLE. I will absolutely not go on that ride again until the plexiglass is removed. Looking through two layers of plexiglass with dried water all over it was miserable but the worst part was that there is absolutely no airflow with the plexiglass in front of and behind you. We sat four adult sized people in a the row, tightly packed with stagnant air and poor visibility. Our spirits were pretty low at that point. We gave up for lunch/dinner ADR and called it a day at Epcot pretty early and decided to park hop. All parks were way more crowded that day so we changed our plan from riding a ride at every park to riding a ride or getting a snack. At HS the lines were all long and after chasing them around a bit and finding them all to be longer than indicated on the
MDE app we just got a drink and a pretzel from Baseline. Next we went to AK and rode KS and split cheeseburger pods at Satuli and had a drink at Nomad. We got on the Nomad waitlist on the bus over from HS. AK was less crowded than HS but still more crowded than the first day we had gone. Next we took the bus to MK. We rode Haunted Mansion and caught the eggroll cart right before they closed then walked around trying to find something to do as well as searching for a Big Al wishable for my daughter. We couldn't find a ride that had a short enough line for us or Big Al so we took a bus and hopped back to Epcot for the last 30 mins and managed to get on Soarin. Park hopping with the bus to bus transportation was super easy and really saved the day for us! We loved the trip other than our bad morning in Epcot. Rope drop and flexibility as always are your friend. The only other thing I would mention is that hand sanitizer machines were not as plentiful and sometimes empty compared to previous trips, so it was helpful to bring your own. Sorry for the book! Happy to answer questions.
. We did a few other attractions with shorter lines, but by 4:00 the kids were getting cranky and hungry so we called it a day. We are planning a couple more days at MK this trip, so hopefully the crowds will be more manageable on a weekday and we can figure out a better plan. We are fairly good refreshers for FPs typically, so waiting in line for rides that we typically walk on to was a new experience & we really missed FP at MK.
