Just got home so final update from my trip. Yesterday was my HS day, I managed to get BG 34, which was pretty surprising since I've been failing at my practice attempts! I decided to walk over from the YC since boats weren't running yet. Left YC at 7:25 and got to HS at 7:40. Not a bad walk, although the weather was really nice this week so it was actually pretty cool in the morning.
They held us back behind the skyliner until just before 7:50 when they walked us slooowly to line up for temp screening. It was kind of a mess trying to get into lines there, they didn't do a great job clarifying the lines at first so people who had been at the back of the line ended up in the front. People started offloading from the skyliner about 5 minutes after the walkers got into the temp screening line.
The park opened at 8:17 and it seemed like half the crowd headed towards MMRR and the other half to SDD. I headed to SDD. It wasn't open when I got there, but did a few minutes later at 8:36. Was on the second train of the day. I asked the CM for the back row and he happily obliged.
Next I headed to MF:SM and there was no one there. I actually thought it was closed at first, but it was just shockingly empty. Walked right on and had the ride to myself. It was awesome, but my co-pilot sucked.
Rode TSMM next with maybe a 10 minute wait, would have been shorter but lots of people were holding up the line so they could get pictures with Mr. Potato Head.
After TSMM I decided to go check out the line for MMRR. It looked bad, and was posted as 45min, but it constantly moved and the total wait only ended up being about 25 minutes. I did ask a CM in line there what the rules were about eating and drinking in lines that are outside, and he said that as long as I was stationary it was no problem, but as soon as the line started moving again my mask had to be back on. Actually saw him call out a few guests for trying to walk and eat in line.
Stopped for a Mickey bar after MMRR, and while eating my BG was called! Great ride, and glad they were doing the whole thing, I heard some people complaining that earlier in the week they weren't doing the preshow.
I was going to head out at that point, but as I was walking by Baseline I saw there were only 3 groups waiting to order and there was no one sitting in the seating area, so decided to stop. Probably a mistake because even with only 3 groups in front of me it still was a 25 minute wait, and by then all the tables had been taken, a bunch from people coming just to sit and rest, not eat or drink anything. That was a bit annoying. They really shouldn't let people sit there if they aren't ordering from Baseline.
It was a great morning in the park, and it was the best distancing in line that I saw all trip. Granted one line there was no one else there, but for the rest of the rides everyone I could see was distancing.
Took a midday break before heading back for my Oga's reservation. It was SO nice being in there not squished in with people.
Decided to take the skyliner back once I wrapped up at Oga's. As it was coming into Epcot I saw that Epcot looked empty, so changed my plans to head in there instead. It was so much calmer in Epcot yesterday afternoon than it had been the previous three days. It was a really nice evening in the park, got to try a lot (too much) of the F&G food.
Overall it was a really great trip, I'm really glad I went. I was really worried about how the mask would be in the heat , but it wasn't bad at all. Granted, the first 15 minutes of wearing I had serious doubts I would be able to do the whole trip in it, but I did get used to it after a bit and it was fine after that.
As I mentioned before, getting to parks early is key for low waits. It was definitely a lot more running around and a lot less relaxed without FP+ than I'm used to. To avoid long waits there was a lot of rushing between rides in the first few hours of park opening, whereas when we had FP+ we could knock out all the non-headliners we wanted to do in the morning with little to no wait and have time for pictures before our hair became a frizzy mess (priorities right?). Still not awful, just different from how I'm used to touring.
I unfortunately didn't have good luck with waits in the evening before the parks closed. I was hoping the wait times were inflated during the last 30-45 minutes of the park being open, but the ones I attempted ended up being pretty much the posted wait. So mornings definitely worked out better for me.
Ok, this is turning out longer than expected so I'll stop now. If anyone has any questions let me know!
Have fun!
