jlovesee
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2005
Just got home from a 2 night stay at Bay Lake Tower, which was a very last minute trip! We originally were booked at Caribbean Beach Resort so I could get into Magic Kingdom for Halloween, but when I decided to cancel my Aulani trip for January 2021 I had a bunch more points, and decided to change the reservation, booking Bay Lake Tower about a month prior.
We actually live only about 20 minutes from WDW, so I worked Friday and got off around 5pm, I was a bit surprised it took until about 5pm to receive the room ready text, but it wasn't really a problem since we didn't actually get there until 6 or so. I had read a few people who had booked studios at BLT had been upgraded to 1 bedrooms, but as I had never received the coveted free upgrade in the 20+ years I had been going to Disney I wasn't expecting it myself. I was surprised when I opened the door to our room and found we had indeed been upgraded! And yes I checked no additional points were taken out of my account for it. Trust no one, right.
We had a friend of ours who has stayed with us tons of times prior who arrived about the same time so the upgrade was a helpful upgrade (I had actually considered upgrading with points a week before, glad I didn't!). For those interested they had a board up in the BLT lobby with activities for Halloween, which included tie die mickey shirts, scavenger hunt etc, and the Community Hall was open with DVD rental but only from 10 am until 7 pm.
We ordered Flippers Pizza that evening, took about an hour for delivery, they had a BOGO going on for October which was awesome,
Saturday Morning I woke up around 7 am, to attempt to get to MK between 30 mins to 1 hour prior to actual posted opening since I had heard the park was actually opening prior to the posted time. I had brought frozen breakfast sandwiches so we had that for breakfast and headed to the park. I cannot express how awesome it was to just simply walk to MK after all the problems I have read about transportation recently. Was painless to get through temp check and security, and we were in the park around 8:30 for a 9 am opening. We headed immediately to 7 dwarfs, which already had a posted 50 min line with the physical line stretching all the way to the Big Top section of the park. We had already ridden it multiple times even since re-opening post COVID so we bypassed it and went through Fantasyland stopping at Peter Pan which had a 15 min posted wait, but was about 5 minutes or so. Over the next few hours we rode Big Thunder (posted 20 mins, wait time about 10 mins), Spash Mountain (posted 20, approx 15), Haunted Mansion (posted 35, approximately 20), and Pirates and Caribbean (posted 55, wait approx 40), with a stop in the middle for ice cream and a couple mini parades. We had a 12:45 pm reservation at Liberty Tree Tavern, I had been using TouringPlans dining reservation finder that found that for us about a week prior! They actually seated us at Diamond Horseshoe Theater which I was kind of surprised with but ok.
Afterwards we went out and did Jungle Cruise and Space Mountain without any problem and decided to go back to the room to relax since it was warm, and we were tired around 4 pm. We ended up heading back around 7 pm, got some photos in front of the castle, and ended up riding Haunted Mansion (again) and Little Mermaid prior to park closing at 9 pm.
Looking back we had a great time, yes it wasn't your normal Disney Halloween, but I had never gone to the Halloween Party at Disney on Halloween (I actually only did the party once and really didn't find it worth the cost). I LOVED seeing all the different costumes, there were tons of people dressed up and some were very creative. I did also dress up as Rey and thought I would feel self conscious, but not at all, lots of fun, and got some great photos!
Lines at MK were physically long, but we found most wait times were inflated, and the lines themselves were quick moving, I know a lot of people want FP back but personally until they get capacity back to near or at 100% I can't and don't want to imagine the stand by lines WITH FP, plus FP would be extremely limited too.
Again it was incredibly awesome to just be able to walk back to our room with no difficulties or to deal with transportation. I ate some left over pizza for dinner and went to sleep quickly.
Sunday
Got up this morning around 8 to get to Hollywood Studios, got packed up and left the room around 9, got to the toll plaza around 9:25, and into the park about 9:40. Found a quiet spot to try to get a spot for Rise of Resistance, and was able to get Boarding Group 21 for our group of 3. I have heard since they added plexiglass to the ride vehicles it has become easier to get a Boarding Pass. We checked the wait times and Smuggler's Run posted a 15 min wait so we headed there immediately, by the time we got in line it was a 35 min posted wait, but was really only about 10-15 mins. It was our third time riding it but the first time as anything besides Engineer, it is definitely a ride to be experienced as the pilot, everything else seems like a waste. Next we went to Star Tours, posted time was 30 mins, but again only about a 15 min wait (if that), had a lot of scenes I hadn't seen in years. Headed back over to Black Spire, and got our Boarding Group called, we had a little bit of a wait maybe 20-30 mins, but got on around 11:30 or so. This was also my third time on Rise, a very good ride.
After Rise, as mentioned we are locals and we both work Monday we decided to head out, our friend I believe headed out not long after as he is also somewhat local (3 hours away). Overall it was a great experience, it was our first time staying on property since COVID but certainly far from our first time back in the parks (we are Platinum Passholders and have been to all four of the parks at least 3-4 times each). We have found most are complaint with mask wearing, Disney is stringent in keeping guests adhering to the mask wearing rules. I do think that ride capacity should be increased, I find it unnecessary to have both social distancing AND mask wearing, that's both from a medical background AND amusement park operations background. We shall see. I do still continue to believe the park's are incredibly safe, and will continue to visit, we have an upcoming reservation at Grand Floridian in January!
We actually live only about 20 minutes from WDW, so I worked Friday and got off around 5pm, I was a bit surprised it took until about 5pm to receive the room ready text, but it wasn't really a problem since we didn't actually get there until 6 or so. I had read a few people who had booked studios at BLT had been upgraded to 1 bedrooms, but as I had never received the coveted free upgrade in the 20+ years I had been going to Disney I wasn't expecting it myself. I was surprised when I opened the door to our room and found we had indeed been upgraded! And yes I checked no additional points were taken out of my account for it. Trust no one, right.
We had a friend of ours who has stayed with us tons of times prior who arrived about the same time so the upgrade was a helpful upgrade (I had actually considered upgrading with points a week before, glad I didn't!). For those interested they had a board up in the BLT lobby with activities for Halloween, which included tie die mickey shirts, scavenger hunt etc, and the Community Hall was open with DVD rental but only from 10 am until 7 pm.
We ordered Flippers Pizza that evening, took about an hour for delivery, they had a BOGO going on for October which was awesome,
Saturday Morning I woke up around 7 am, to attempt to get to MK between 30 mins to 1 hour prior to actual posted opening since I had heard the park was actually opening prior to the posted time. I had brought frozen breakfast sandwiches so we had that for breakfast and headed to the park. I cannot express how awesome it was to just simply walk to MK after all the problems I have read about transportation recently. Was painless to get through temp check and security, and we were in the park around 8:30 for a 9 am opening. We headed immediately to 7 dwarfs, which already had a posted 50 min line with the physical line stretching all the way to the Big Top section of the park. We had already ridden it multiple times even since re-opening post COVID so we bypassed it and went through Fantasyland stopping at Peter Pan which had a 15 min posted wait, but was about 5 minutes or so. Over the next few hours we rode Big Thunder (posted 20 mins, wait time about 10 mins), Spash Mountain (posted 20, approx 15), Haunted Mansion (posted 35, approximately 20), and Pirates and Caribbean (posted 55, wait approx 40), with a stop in the middle for ice cream and a couple mini parades. We had a 12:45 pm reservation at Liberty Tree Tavern, I had been using TouringPlans dining reservation finder that found that for us about a week prior! They actually seated us at Diamond Horseshoe Theater which I was kind of surprised with but ok.
Afterwards we went out and did Jungle Cruise and Space Mountain without any problem and decided to go back to the room to relax since it was warm, and we were tired around 4 pm. We ended up heading back around 7 pm, got some photos in front of the castle, and ended up riding Haunted Mansion (again) and Little Mermaid prior to park closing at 9 pm.
Looking back we had a great time, yes it wasn't your normal Disney Halloween, but I had never gone to the Halloween Party at Disney on Halloween (I actually only did the party once and really didn't find it worth the cost). I LOVED seeing all the different costumes, there were tons of people dressed up and some were very creative. I did also dress up as Rey and thought I would feel self conscious, but not at all, lots of fun, and got some great photos!
Lines at MK were physically long, but we found most wait times were inflated, and the lines themselves were quick moving, I know a lot of people want FP back but personally until they get capacity back to near or at 100% I can't and don't want to imagine the stand by lines WITH FP, plus FP would be extremely limited too.
Again it was incredibly awesome to just be able to walk back to our room with no difficulties or to deal with transportation. I ate some left over pizza for dinner and went to sleep quickly.
Sunday
Got up this morning around 8 to get to Hollywood Studios, got packed up and left the room around 9, got to the toll plaza around 9:25, and into the park about 9:40. Found a quiet spot to try to get a spot for Rise of Resistance, and was able to get Boarding Group 21 for our group of 3. I have heard since they added plexiglass to the ride vehicles it has become easier to get a Boarding Pass. We checked the wait times and Smuggler's Run posted a 15 min wait so we headed there immediately, by the time we got in line it was a 35 min posted wait, but was really only about 10-15 mins. It was our third time riding it but the first time as anything besides Engineer, it is definitely a ride to be experienced as the pilot, everything else seems like a waste. Next we went to Star Tours, posted time was 30 mins, but again only about a 15 min wait (if that), had a lot of scenes I hadn't seen in years. Headed back over to Black Spire, and got our Boarding Group called, we had a little bit of a wait maybe 20-30 mins, but got on around 11:30 or so. This was also my third time on Rise, a very good ride.
After Rise, as mentioned we are locals and we both work Monday we decided to head out, our friend I believe headed out not long after as he is also somewhat local (3 hours away). Overall it was a great experience, it was our first time staying on property since COVID but certainly far from our first time back in the parks (we are Platinum Passholders and have been to all four of the parks at least 3-4 times each). We have found most are complaint with mask wearing, Disney is stringent in keeping guests adhering to the mask wearing rules. I do think that ride capacity should be increased, I find it unnecessary to have both social distancing AND mask wearing, that's both from a medical background AND amusement park operations background. We shall see. I do still continue to believe the park's are incredibly safe, and will continue to visit, we have an upcoming reservation at Grand Floridian in January!
