Here now and a brief report on our first few days. We're staying at CSR (a new-to-us resort), in Casitas, 11/28-12/9.
Background: We're from the Bay Area, California. We've been on more-or-less lockdown since March, religious maskwearers, and haven't eaten indoors since sometime in January. My partner is a full-time college student with all classes online, and I've been about 95% remote-work for months. My partner in particular has been very nervous about this trip and the risk of virus transmission. Oh, and I use an electric wheelchair and have a
DAS pass.
11/27: Flying SFO to MSP to MCO
-We flew Delta, which has left all middle seats empty through next spring. The flights were much emptier than that - I'd say about 1/4 full and 1/3 full, respectively.
-SFO was practically a ghost town, which was lovely but kind of eerie. Everyone spread out in the gate area which was nice.
-MSP was a disaster as far as precautions go. No distancing whatsoever - and no
place to distance. 4 flights all sharing one cramped gate area, a lot of chin-guards and nose-peekers instead of properly-worn masks, and a whole bunch of people had to wolf down dinners onboard while people were boarding because there wasn't enough time during any layovers.
-On both flights, people were awful at distancing when it came time to get off the plane.
-We stayed overnight at the MCO Hyatt (inside the airport) which was very convenient and comfortable.
11/28: Arrival
-We got right on DME and waited about 5-10 minutes to depart. Everyone was spaced out/staggered, CMs were helpful, etc.
-Deboarding at CSR was a mess. The driver supervised everyone getting off the bus. We all had to stand around, and no one was 6 feet apart. Then he began pulling suitcases from the bottom, one by one, so each person left their cluster, got one bag, and went back to the cluster. The clusters inched further and further forward so there was no distancing at all, and when people had all their bags they had to walk through the folks waiting.
-Our room wasn't ready until 4, which was a bummer. We explored the resort in the meantime. Got lunch over by the main pool, which was at capacity and well-monitored. I was pleasantly surprised by the level of mask etiquette - no one forgetting as they left the pool area, etc.
11/29: EPCOT
-The bus situation at CSR, like a lot of resorts, could really use some help. There are no lines for separate destinations, no signs, nothing, so everyone just kind of meanders and then rushes when their bus arrives. We've previously stayed at Pop, so this is new to us.
-Arrived at 10:30 for 11:00 opening. The crowds were extremely light and easy to get around. This was a day in which all parks were sold out for APs and most parks were sold out for non-APs, so I was a little worried.
-It's the first weekend of Festival of Holidays, so obviously there were a lot of locals coming to drink around the world. Most people weren't a problem, and the tipsy morons were mostly easy to avoid.
-That said, I was surprised based on what I had read that there weren't any CMs around to help with mask enforcement. I don't think I saw a single CM in World Showcase except those working stands. It felt like they had given up on trying to patrol/enforce distance and mask-wearing at all, or like they had gotten rid of everyone whose job that would be. It was never for long enough that I felt
unsafe, but only because we could move away from them.
-Still a good day overall. Not as horrible as I feared the crowds might be. We ate way too many desserts. The beef bourguignon at Yukon was amazing.
11/30: DHS
-I had no intention to rope-drop and planned to go whenever our BG was likely to be called. We got BG5, so we went over fairly early but not nearly the first ones in the park. We arrived at 9:30 for 10:00 official opening. MMRR was already full, SDD was 70 minutes.
-This park has more choke-points than most and is really just designed in a way that would make any level of crowd feel more oppressive.
-I think I only saw one person having a mask issue all day; otherwise, everyone seemed to be wearing it properly, parents were encouraging their kids, etc. No one seemed to be trying to sneak it off on rides, even ones like Star Tours which was a concern of mine.
-I really wish they'd made the stand-here markers more like 10 feet apart, because no party larger than 2 fits right on the line. It means we're not 6 feet apart, but more like 3 when all is said and done.
-They started running/boarding ROTR at about 10:45. In the first 2 hours in the park, we rode TSM (posted 30, actual about 10), AS2 (posted 20, actual 15), and SDD (posted 70 with a DAS), then ROTR. We'd only been on TSM before, so it was a whole morning of new experiences!
-Stopped for lunch at Backlot, saw a Pixar cavalcade, and rode Star Tours a couple times. It was unfortunately exactly the same even though I had read that it was back to being randomized.
-Then some shopping and back to the hotel for school work and work-work.
Anyway, then I went to The Bug show and then went to Navi. Then went again to FoP which was about 20 mins. Did a little shopping and headed back to resort. I wanted to change clothes for Topolinos. Great dinner there - get the ricotta! Then went to Publix for a few things and am back chilling in room.
