Just got back from a 3 days Contemporary 8/4 -8/7 and wanted to contribute since you guys helped me finally take the plunge during this weird time. Warning: Long review, my takeaways are near the end. I did our check in through
MDE app as soon as I made the reservations. This was a last minute trip and planned a week in advance. We only live 2 hours away so its not as arduous as living out of state. On our drive there around 10am I got the text our room was ready and got the room number. That was pretty awesome.
We parked, unloaded our stuff ourselves and went to our room. Pretty seamless. We went to the main pool soon after we unpacked and there were probably 10 people total there. They want you to wear a mask in all the common areas but once you are through the gate for the pool you can take them off. I saw the chairs, rails and other surfaces being wiped down. Someone came over to us and let us know the rules as soon as we grabbed chairs. Even though I have been studying how things work at Disney now and was familiar she was very friendly and just wanted to inform us.
That night we had dinner planned at San Angel Inn in Epcot around 5. We decided to drive since the monorail is not operating to Epcot. I did not see any parking attendants directing people on how or where to park so there was no social distancing in between cars like I've read others report. We were able to get a close spot and the walk was easy. Epcot was pretty empty near the front of the park and then got busier as you got back towards World Showcase. I say busy but it still wasn't. San Angel Inn was a ghost town in the restaurant area and there were many open tables. Service was great, food was great. I always love the atmosphere inside.
A family near us brought a small dog inside. It looked like a pomeranian mix. It was a little odd and the dog barked more than a few times which was very annoying and kind of weird. I'm sure it was a companion dog loophole type situation but it was strange. The girl at the table had it on her lap and when he would bark she would shush him and then get down on the floor with him to quiet him. That said, I love dogs and my 4 year old was entertained by it. We rode the boat ride after dinner. It was a walk on essentially. We got in line for Frozen which had a 30 minute wait and literally as we were at the que to board our boat the ride broke down. The escorted everyone out of the line que and told us it would be back later hopefully. I did ask for FP to get on later and they obliged. We ended up riding Nemo and then going to the aquarium and heading home afterwards as Frozen was still down.
The next day we did Chef Mickey breakfast and Magic Kingdom afterwards. Chef Mickeys was great, tons of food family style. We got to MK around 9:45 and the park entrance was empty. We were able to ride Dumbo twice, Carousel twice, tried to ride Small World but it broke down after waiting 20 minutes in line. This was something that seemed to be occurring more frequently than I've ever seen in the parks and I've been going for 35+ years as a Florida native (I'm 40 >_<) It seems like when I would check MDE lots of rides would be randomly down for longer than normal periods. I have some theories as to whats going on but its not definitely normal. We did a mobile order for Cosmic Rays and sat inside. Its SO hot right now and we needed the AC. We walked to AL to get Dole Whips and then headed back to Contemporary.
We came back around 5 for and had dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern. We were able to walk on Small World even though the MDE and wait time outside the ride both said it was 25 minute wait. So you may want to actually physically look at a ride que before writing it off based on MDE and posted wait times. We also rode Jungle Cruise with a 10 minute wait. This was the only time I was uncomfortable at Disney. They were crowding people on the boats and I don't understand why? They were loading the boats with 5 or 6 families per boat and leaving a person sized space between each group. There were some plexiglass dividers up but I was still not comfortable.
This morning we had breakfast at Floridian Cafe at GF. The NBA blue tarp and chainlink really takes away from the beauty of the resort. I would honestly not want to stay at those Villas right now as lots of the common areas outside are completely blocked off. We are now back home and I'm in that annoying limbo of vacation mode and reality of unpacking suitcases and cleaning out my fridge.
Some takeaways and thoughts...mask compliance everywhere we went was excellent. I'd say along the lines of the 98% or better that I keep seeing posted here. The resort monorails were never crowded and they are doing a good job of spacing people out. I never saw anyone cleaning inside the cars so I recommend bringing wipes if your kids like to touch the poles. Hand sanitizer dispensers were generously dispersed throughout the Contemporary and the parks we went to. It is HOT folks and wearing a mask in this weather magnifies that. I highly recommend neck fans, cooling towels (Chil pal brand specifically) and disposable masks. The disposable ones are much more breathable. They even sell kids disposable masks on
Amazon.
My 4 year old who has mild sensory issues (she wears headphones in the rides as they are too loud for her) did amazing with this type of mask. Meanwhile she has a cloth one that she hates wearing in the AC as it makes her mouth hot lol. We did take lots of mini breaks, mostly for me to sip water off to the side. The CMs we encountered are polite about correcting mask wearing when they did it. My daughter had her nose out at one point and I didn't notice and the CM told her "Cover your nose! Your nose knows to be covered dear" I got a laugh out of that one!
Lots of rides breaking down for extended amounts of time to the point they escort the entire line out. This happened to us twice in 3 days. I've never experienced that more than a few times in all the times I've gone to Disney. Normally they can get rides back up and running within 15 minutes or so.
I saw someone else post about the security being crabby everywhere and that was our experience too. It felt weird since they don't have the stress of long lines. They are usually very friendly, even during busy times so it felt off. For example, monorail security at Contemporary had totally different procedures each time we walked through. Sometimes I would have to make my daughter get out of the stroller and walk through with me, other times she had to remain in the stroller and I was told to park it to the side and walk through alone. You walk up and they look at you with blank stares then get mad when you do something wrong. My husband was yelled at for not knowing to take out a stainless steel water cup out of the backpack but he wasn't told to take anything out and just to walk through. They sure did seem CRANKY, I can concur with the other poster. Overall we had a great time and all the CMs seemed really appreciative that we were there. We were thanked multiple times for being there. I welcome any questions!
