So this is our last day at the parks. We went to MK for rope drop and one of the first at the turnstile. We briskly walked to Space Mt while the rest of the crowd went to the Seven Dwarves. The CM at Space Mt said that the ride will start running 5~10 minutes so we waited. Soon we had many crowds lining up on Space Mt saying that Seven Dwarves is down and don't know how long it will be before running again. After Space, we were headed for Thunder and Splash, saw Buzz start running so quickly hopped on. When we got to Thunder Mt. they just started to run it so it was a quick 10-minute walk of the lines before we were loaded on the train. After Thunder Mt, our goal was to ride Splash, which has been running yet. This is around 8:30. We decided to sit around and wait for it. We were really lucky and it started to run within 5 minutes. We were the first 5~6th group that was on Splash. Our observation this week on MK is that both Thunder and Splash do not run at the rope drop. Thunder will start operating at 8 am and Splash little afterward. Other minor rides also do not open at the rope drop either other than Pirates of Caribbean. So at the rope drop, you have a choice between Seven Dwarves Mine Train or Space Mt. Other than headliners, we went back to MK on other nights to do Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, Buzz, People Mover, Pirate, Little Mermaid, Barnstormer, and Haunted Mansion. All were less than 15-minute wait or less. We saw some of the worst behavior at MK, especially the people with little kids. The mask compliance on the line was really bad and at some point, we were really uncomfortable b/c the people behind us were so close to us that they were breathing down on our necks. They were a huge family group and one of them was coughing and on our personal space in the excuse of their children. I do understand the kids get excited at Disney but that does not excuse the behavior of the adults feed the bad behavior of the children and do not have regard to other people's personal space.
At Epcot, we did Soarin and Test Track at rope drop and decided to stroll around the WS while most of the crowd are still at Future World lining up for the rides. We had ADR at Via Napoli at 12:10 and after lunch, we came back to the resort. We went back to Epcot on other nights to do minor rides like Figment, Spaceship Earth, Mission Space, Living with the Land, and Nemo. They were all walk-on and at times, we were the only ones on the rides. We definitely enjoy a drink or two but there seem to be too many drunk people at Epcot due to the Festival.
AK, we drove to the park, and the security guards set up cones on the fork to AK toll booths. So we followed several other cars, with our emergency light on, parked at the sides of the road until they cleared the cones and let the cars go to the toll booths. Like everyone else, we went to FOP and Navi River. We were one of the first people to be loaded on FOP so when we were getting out of Pandora, we felt like we were swimming against the current as most people were still coming into Pandora. We then went to Safari which had a 20-minute wait but it was constantly moving and we were loaded right away. Next was EE which had a 15 minute wait time which was less than 5 minutes before we were loaded. We did the trails and animal watching and had 11 am ADR and Yak and Yeti. After lunch, we rode Kali and exited from the park.
For HS, we had two park days dedicated b/c of Rise of Resistance. On our first day DS got us Boarding Group 78 at 7 am and on our second day, DS also got us Boarding group 82 at 1 pm. On our first Rise of Resistance, there was no preshow and it was our first time on it which was still awesome. However, on our second ride on it had a full preshow, and the ride made much sense. However, on our second ride, while we were waiting to be loaded, it broke down and took more than 40 minutes before it was back in operation. On our first day we went straight to SDD, Toy Story Mania, Millenium Falcon, ToT, and RnR. On our second day, we went to ToT first but it wasn't running yet to went to RnR then ToT, MMRR, then Star Tour, and Muffet's. We were finished by 10~10:30 both days.
We also went to Vineland Premium Outlets for a couple of days. The parking is much easier to find in the back of the outlets. As for the mask compliance and the social distancing, we found it better than the outlets than the parks. Many of the shops had the lines to get into the store b/c of max numbers but most were pretty short wait.
Disney Store at the outlets has a virtual wait. They text you when it's your turn.
We came here knowing that there are not many shows and no FP nor nighttime fireworks thanks to the board. However, we miss FP as well as all the shows. Although we love to ride, the shows break up constant running and standing. On each trip, we do maybe one or two fireworks shows and definitely miss that. We are staying at Dolphin and have a spectacular view of Epcot from our room and if there were fireworks at night, we probably have a really good view of it.
As for the masks, despite we were fully vaccinated, we were our masks even outside. There are just too many people bumping their shoulders. We only removed in the remote spots or while we were eating at the restaurants. We had almost every lunch ADR except for a MK day, and definitely regretted our choice. We felt that the tables were rather closer at QS than TS restaurants.
I was really worried about wearing the masks in the heat but this week, we got lucky and the weather is so very nice. I hope this is helpful to those who have trips ahead. Thank you to everyone who contributed. It was really helpful in preparing for our trip.
Great choice!
