Just arrived home midnight last night. I will give my ”trip report“ but I do know we do Disney a little differently than most. We do not rope drop and we most always have a rental car. We usually get PH but did not for this trip.
Friday 4/23: Arrival at MCO. Based on what I had read I was expecting bare faces and noses everywhere with no regard to Covid, and had prep my family for such. I saw a total of 2 noses from getting off the plane to getting into our rental car - mask compliance was great in my opinion. It was crowded, especially at baggage claim, but I feel people were trying to be as mindful as possible in a crowded situation. Car rental lines were crazy long and we were so glad my husband had Avis Preferred where he could walk directly to the car without going to the desk. Highly recommend getting a service like this if you are renting - the lines to the desk looked to be easily 1 hour waits.
Friday 4/23-Monday 4/26: Visiting family in The Villages
Mon 4/26: Checked into our hotel at Gran Destino at 3:30. The app didn’t show a room number so we went to the desk and were given a room right away. Unpacked and then headed to Disney Springs. Disney Springs 4:30-7:00pm. Again, I was expecting to see a lot of naked faces/noses but most everyone I saw was complying (a nose here and there and a few pull downs to sip a drink while walking, but nothing blatantly horrible. Yes, it’s busy, but being a Monday evening not terrible. Ate dinner at Homecoming and then headed to Magic Kingdom. We had 90 minutes at MK and knocked out Space Mountain, 7D Mine Train, BTM, and PoC. We felt successful.
Tue 4/27: Epcot day. Had breakfast a Whispering Canyon and entered Epcot just about 11am. This was a long day with a lot of steps! We did Soarin, Living with the Land, Seas with Nemo and Test Track then headed to World Showcase - walked around the circle starting in Mexico. We stopped for a bunch of snacks on this route (my daughter had a long list If ones to try!). The ride lines were too long so we skipped them in the afternoon in hopes they’d be less in the evening. Back to Future World and did Spaceship Earth, Mission Space and Figment. We used Touring Plans lines times which were all accurate within a couple minutes (and all under the listed times. Sorry, I did not specifically record the posted vs actual). Headed to Germany for our Biergarten ADR, then let our teens shop in Japan. Our plan was to try and get on Frozen and Gran Fiesta on our way out, Frozen was offline so we stood there trying to decide whether to wait or leave and while trying to decide it opened up and we were within the first 5 families to get in line. Gran Fiesta was a long line with a 20 minute TP wait listed, it was 9pm and we were exhausted so called the day a success and headed back to the hotel. We once again felt made compliance was perfectly acceptable. Did some people pull them down to wipe their sweaty face? Yes. Did some people take a drink while walking and put it back up? Yes. But we saw very little to none of people just disregarding the mask policy and doing whatever they wanted. As for social distancing - there’s very little of it.
Wed 4/28: Magic Kingdom Day (sort of). This ended up being our most frustrating and least productive day. My daughter had a college final exam presentation so we did not get to the park until 2:15pm. It was very hot and very crowded. All lines seemed to be long all day into the evening so we got little done. Hit SM, CoP, Buzz Lightyear Spin, JC, BTM, SM. I was hoping to get on Peoplemover, Small World, Haunted Mansion (went offline while we were in line and never got back to it) and Mickeys Philharmagic (waited 20 minutes and was last family to get cut off for the next show, we had an ADR and couldn’t wait for next show). This felt the most crowded/busiest day for us - social distancing was non existent even if you wanted to try. Masks seemed fine.
Thu 4/29: Animal Kingdom Day. Arrived at the park around 10:45. Other than the heat (mid 90s) and our River Rapids experience it was a perfect day. We did all the rides, some twice (and in the situation of EE, 6 times). FoP was our first time and it was amazing- our favorite of the trip (son and husband are both Big and Tall so it was a little worrisome they wouldn’t fit, but they did - barely- phew!) We have never done the rapid ride and it was so hot we decided a little wet would feel good - we had been told it wasn’t too bad as far as wetness since the water guns weren’t in use...that was not true. We got drenched. I mean, soaking wet hair, clothes completely dripping wet - my Daughter’s dress was damp 3 hours later. Not at all what we expected and looking at others getting off, I do not know why we were one of the only ones that this happened to. (Maybe it was because of our 2 Big & Tall guys?). We did the safari at 6:45 and animals were everywhere eating, it was great. Our Yak & Yeti ADR was at 7:30 and this ended the day.
Fri 4/30: Hollywood Studios Day. Got up early and secured BG 19, but we still didn’t get to the park until 10:30. Headed straight to RoR. We enjoyed the ride very much but later found out there was an entire pre show piece that they cut out from our ride. Oh well, next time. This was the hottest day so far and it was hard to find shade anywhere. We thought mask compliance was good despite the heat. There was more lifting of masks to get air than past days, but no big deal. Overall, people were decently respectful of policy in my opinion. We hit all the rides we wanted, some twice. We wanted ToT a second time but it was too long a line and too hot for a second run.
Sat 5/1: Departure Day. Checked out of hotel, had late breakfast and then went to a place called Amazing Animals (private animal sanctuary preserve 30 minutes away). Our flight wasn’t until 7:45pm so went to Disney Springs at 2:30pm to spend some time...however it was nearly 100 degrees and we weren’t enjoying anything. Too many lines to get into stores. We ducked into City Works for cold drinks and snack then headed to the airport early. Still found MCO mask compliance to be good, but social distancing doesn’t exist. Crazy crowded, and even getting there 3 hours early, by the time we returned our car, got into the airport, checked our bags, got through security and got to our gate, we weren’t really waiting very long to board (50 minutes maybe...perfect for using bathroom, having snack and relaxing).