We were at EPCOT on Friday, DHS on Saturday. We are taking a no-park relaxation day today (have a Homecomin' brunch in a little while), and our bodies are happy to rest!
EPCOT on Friday, Dec 18:
We were in the first twenty or so people let in at around 10:15, and we walked on Frozen. The water-splattered plexiglass dividers were not good on this ride. It was hard to see sometimes, and ride photos showed the top of the plexiglass right at eye level. Because of masks, that meant that you really couldn't see our faces at all in the photo. Just mask and hair. Then we went to Test Track, which was down. But we got on after a short wait, and we had both rides done by 11:15.
No line to get into Mexico, so we walked on Gran Fiesta. We started the cookie stroll and enjoyed other treats around the World Showcase. We arrived in Italy at 1:00, but our Via Napoli reservation wasn't until 2:00. They happily got us a table (indoors-- didn't see anyone eating outside) right away. We had a great lunch. After a chilly morning, it was finally starting to warm up a bit. We saw a couple of cavalcades while we were walking along, and we saw Mariachi Cobre and Voices of Liberty. Walkways were frequently empty-- no lines for anything.
We rode Skyliner for fun to Hollywood Studios and back (we had never been on it). It took almost an hour from about 4:00-5:00. No lines. Then we finished the cookie stroll and headed into Future World as it was getting dark.
I'm glad we didn't spend daylight hours here, because it's just a mess of construction walls. It was starting to get very cold, and we all had winter coats and gloves on. We are from Utah, and it was snowing when we left, so we are used to cold, and this was cold. We walked on Figment and Living with the Land (loved the addition of the Christmas lights-- plastic curtain dividers weren't as bad as I expected). Then we had to wait about 10-15 minutes for Soarin. We were sad that we couldn't request the middle, and we ended up on the far right, so the buildings were extremely curved.
We had a nice dinner at Sunshine Seasons, but it was so empty that it was creepy. As we walked toward The Seas, we noticed how unlit the pathways are. Then we walked on to Nemo, and probably 90% of the clam shells were empty. We looked at the aquariums for a while. Very few people anywhere. We got to Spaceship Earth around 8:00, walked on, of course. There was no need to stay until closing time, so we headed out to get some sleep.
Overall, lots of photo pass photographers, and we got our ride photos from both rides. We ended up with over fifty photos for the day. Wait times were extremely overinflated, as we didn't have to wait for almost anything. Our favorite cookies in the cookie stroll were the crinkle and linger cookies. The pre-packaged completer cookie was the worst one.
Hollywood Studios on Saturday, Dec 19:
Woke up early, four of us tried for boarding groups, and I was fastest. I got group 8. We walked from Speedway to DHS, and we were about the fifth group back. When it was time to move to line up at the temperature tents, people started arriving from the Skyliner, and they were allowed to go ahead of us, which I had heard was common, but it was still annoying. As soon we we got our temperature checked, we were allowed to go through the security and the tapstiles and straight inside. My daughter and I were each stopped to have our bags checked, which was weird because we had the same items in them as we did in Epcot, and they didn't stop us there. Anyway, we walked quickly to Slinky, arrived at 8:20, and we were on the ride by 8:25 (wait time said 10 mins). They were loading people in every row.
We walked to Tower of Terror, walked on (wait time said 13 mins), and then Rock n Rollercoaster, which took about five minutes (wait time said 20 mins). By now it was opening time, 9:00. We were supposed to board Rise of the Resistance by 9:40, so we headed to Galaxy's Edge. Crowds were pouring in, and this was the first time we saw people unable to distance. We walked right on to RotR. My daughter and I have ridden a few times at
Disneyland, but my husband and two other kids were riding for the first time, so we let them take the front and enjoy it without plexiglass. I definitely liked it better without the plexiglass, but it wasn't as distracting as I thought be behind it. The ride was firing on all cylinders, and it was fabulous.
We were done with Slinky, ToT, RnR, and RotR by 9:40. We decided to check out the marketplace before there were long lines to enter. Then we got some blue milk and got our photos taken at Millennium Falcon.
By now it was getting quite crowded, so we went to Muppets and had to wait about ten minutes to get in the theater. We always love to see this show (we come to WDW every four years or so) because we miss it at Disneyland. We got in line for Star Tours at 11:15, and it took twenty minutes to get on (wait time said 50 mins).
We showed up on time for our 11:55 reservation at Sci Fi, and they brought us right in. We loved having empty cars around us. It was our third time eating there, and it was the best experience and food we have had so far.
We decided to check out Lightning McQueen Racing Academy next, since it had a short wait time, and we had never seen it before. I don't recommend it for families without young children. My youngest is eleven, and we all felt like it was geared at younger kids. But it was nice to sit and rest.
MMRR had a 40 min wait time, so we decided to do it. It actually took about thirty minutes. We enjoyed the ride, but my kids said they wished there were fewer screens. I thought it was a good mix of screens/practical stuff.
My husband and son decided to leave to the hotel for a nap. My daughters and I sat at a table near MMRR, watched cavalcades go by, and ate some holiday treats. I like cavalcades better than parades. I love that no one has to camp out or dodge huge crowds for parades This park was very fun and full of Christmas cheer, music, decorations, lights.
We decided to rest even more, so we went to watch Vacation Fun, and we almost fell asleep in the soft seats. It was a nice mashup of the new(ish) Mickey shorts. Then we decided that we were going to brave a huge line because we wanted to ride ToT again, and the boys wouldn't be back to join us for almost an hour and a half. Well, the wait time said 75 mins, and it took every minute of that time. It was pretty painful. But the ride is always worth it. We miss it so much since it became Guardians at DCA (although we also love Guardians). ToT in Florida is just one of the best rides there is.
We met up with my husband and son, and we headed to Toy Story Land, which looked beautiful all lit up. The wait time for Midway Mania said 20 mins, and we waited 10. Then we got in line for AS2, but the ride was down, so we left. We made an order for Docking Bay 7, ate inside (the outside tables are very few because of distancing), and noticed that the music/sound in there is extremely loud. We had to yell to each other all through dinner. We didn't think the Ronto Wraps were as good as Disneyland's, but that could have been a weird fluke. They were pretty dry. The other food (tip yip, garden spread) was all good.
We walked on AS2, and then we decided to ride Slinky one more time before closing. Wait time said 50 mins, but it took 20. The park was closed, but we had 7:30 reservations at Oga's, so we started to walk in that direction. Cast members were blocking the path to Galaxy's Edge. I had to show them my reservation, and they agreed to let us through, but a CM had to escort us, which was interesting. She was very nice. We got right into Oga's, and we had a great time finishing the night. I think we were getting a bit giddy from exhaustion.
Overall, a great but crowded day at DHS. Much warmer than Friday at EPCOT. We wore light jackets, but we had them off in the afternoon when it felt very warm. We saw lots of photo pass photographers, and we ended up with just under fifty photos. We got our RnR and ToT ride photos from the morning, but we still don't have the ToT photos from afternoon or either of our Slinky photos.
I hope some of this info helps! We are doing MK tomorrow.
