We also went yesterday (Saturday) and started in DCA and then hopped to DL around 2:15. DCA was CRAZY busy. DL, but comparison, was much more chill. I didn't expect that. Overall, yesterday was MUCH more enjoyable than Mother's Day. We all had a great day and spent 10 hours in the parks. We did some things differently after our first park experience, and those things made a huge difference in our enjoyment of the day, so I will share some of what we did.
We arrived at the parking structure almost at the same exact time as Mother's Day, at 8:35. This time, though, we were paying for our parking by 8:45 and parked by 8:50. We had been planning to walk through the DtD way, using the pedestrian bridge, but DH needed to use the restroom, and once you go down there it's a pain to go back up via elevator and walk over to the other end of the structure, so we just went the standard way. The walk along the tram route still sucks, by the way.
We had a bit of a wait to get into DCA as we picked the ONE line that only had one turnstile open, rather than 2. We got in finally around 9:30. Wait times werr already ballooned up and the park felt very crowded in the entry plaza area. We grabbed a
DAS return time for Toy Story and headed straight to Pixar Pier to do the rides we missed last time. Little Mermaid first, posted wait time was 45 (!) but was actually only like 5 min. That was weirdly overexaggerated. Kids wanted swings next but they broke down. So, we headed to Inside Out, where we waited about 10 minutes (posted 20). Did Toy Story next, and it broke down just as we were about to board. We decided to wait and it was back up and running less than 10 minutes later. By then, the swings w were back up so we headed there next and found a 45 min posted wait. I glanced at the line and figured it would be more like 15 (ended up being 20). By this point it was 11:05am and we had a reservation at the Alfresco Terrace for 11:30. I knew it would be close but we made it. DH sat out the swings so I had him go pick up a mobile ordered pretzel for the kids from Sonoma Terrace so they would have a snack, since the food at Alfresco is a bit fancy for them. He waited like 15 minutes for this stupid pretzel. My gosh. He said they weren't even fulfilling orders and telling you they were ready. There was a line and people would go up and say what they ordered and they would get it for them. So, he had to stand in a long line since the place just opened at 11:30 and there were already a lot of people waiting for mobile orders.
We were seated around 11:45 for our reservation. When I tell you that this reservation was the best decision I made for today, I am not exaggeting. DH was starting to get squirrelly by this point. The park was more crowded than we expected and he was starting to get anxious and then the pretzel situation annoyed him (again with the pretzels at Sonoma,
). Our experience at the Terrace was PHENOMENAL. We did have to prove our Legacy Passholder status to be seated. The drinks and food were amazing, it was so calm up there and we sat for about 90 minutes just relaxing, drinking and snacking. My son even ordered the CUTEST drink...A Bug's Drink. He loved it! I loved the nods to old DCA in the food and drink names. We had the Mulholland Meatballs and the Slider Invasion. Both were SO good! The sauce on the meatballs was incredibly spicy, though, so beware! For drinks, I had the Drop In...If You Dare. Excellent and STRONG. I also tried the Ultra Flight, a trip of gin drinks inspired by Soarin over CA. I could not stomach the "sea" inspired one. Literally tasted like bad cologne, but it was pretty! Husband just had boring beers.
While here we scored BG 90 for RotR with no effort. We then headed to RSR using our DAS. Immediately after the ride we quickly checked in for our Flo's mobile order pickup time (1 minute before our window expired). They said immediately that the food was ready for pickup, but we still had quite a wait after arrival. They put us in another numbered line to wait and they didn't actually prepare our order until we got to the counter. We had customized a burger and they made it after the rest of our order was already on the tray. DH had a bit of a time finding a table. NONE of the tables inside Flo's are available, which I don't understand. I noticed a standby order line at Flo's.
So, our Boarding Group ended up being called an hour before the estimated time, at 1:01. At 1:01, we were still sitting at the Terrace and needed to still ride RSR and get our lunch at Flo's, and I knew we wouldn't make it by 2:01. Since we needed a DAS return time, I spoke to a GR CM at the kiosk and asked if we could show up late if we got the return time before our BG time expired. He had me take a screen shot of the BG number just in case, but it ended up not being an issue. We got the front row this time for RotR and my husband (and the rest of us) liked the ride MUCH better than being behind the plexiglass. It really makes all the difference being in the front row. For those wondering, the boarding colors blue and grey are front row. Red and Orange are the back row.
We did MFSR next, after an impromptu Green milk break (only did this for my son because the return window was immediate). Posted wait for MF was 40 minutes (we watched it switch from 50). Actual was like 15, max. We then rode BTMRR using DAS (this line was LONG and was posted at 45), no idea actual, but it stretched almost all the way down the trail to the tables put out as overflow Red Rose Tavern. We did some fantasyland rides next. Tea Cups (5 min wait), Dumbo (posted 30, actual 7). DH and younger DS then headed to Star Tours while older DS and I went to pick up a coffee for DH from the bakery (by this time, it was about 5pm and while the return window was immediate, the options were limited to the raspberry macaron, the toasted cheese and soup, one salad and the turkey sandwich, as well as coffee and soda. So, if you want food from the bakery, get it early.
We headed to Tomorrowland and found a table across from the launch bay under a covering. Sat for a LONG time here and relaxed. The coffee break was much needed by DH. He sat while I took the kids on Autopia (5 min wait posted, 5 min actual). We then sat for a bit more and headed back to Fabtasyland around 6 to ride Peter Pan using DAS. That was my special request for the day, as we missed it last time. Up next was dinner for younger DS at Red Rose Tavern. Had a LONG wait here to pick up food. Same situation as Flo's where food was "ready" immediately, but had to stand in line inside (very controlled by CMs) and then had to wait again for the food to actually be prepared once I got to the counter. Sat inside after not finding any tables outside. When I went in to pick up food, I noticed lots of empty tables inside so texted DH to come in. They almost wouldn't let him in until he told them he was with me and I was waiting on a mobile order. After dinner, rode Casey Jr (posted 25 min, actual 10 or so). Then one more ride on Big Thunder where we asked for the back and were placed in rows 8 and 9. Younger DS expressed some disappointment (he wanted to go FAST and our last 2 rides had been in the front car). I told him "this is as far back as they could put us because the very back already has people in the rows. It's okay." I guess the CM overheard and pulled us out of place and said we could have the back row of the train on the other side. That was very sweet of him. I think he saw DS's ear defenders and realized that the back row was "really important" to him. ❤
We also had some really great interactions with plaids at the kiosks. I am trying to make my son take responsibility and ask for the return times himself, since he's 15 now. He gets very nervous since he has a speech impediment and sometimes has a hard time getting words to come out, but I'm trying to get him used to being his own advocate. He did great and the cast members were so kind and patient with with today. A few joked with him and he loved that. He loves jokes. One asked him which Thunder Mountain he wanted, big or small. That got a laugh out of him. He then said "Lightning Mountain " and the CM replied back, "that's in the other park."
After this we went to DtD, and I posted a bit in another thread about how INSANELY crowded it was here. We planned to get pizzas for DH, older DS, and myself at Napolini. Getting there was like salmon swimming upstream, but we managed to grab the last table outside and I went in to order. We had our pizzas within 5 minutes. Kudos to Napolini for efficiency and fantastic pizzas. We love Naples/Napolini and are SO happy the quick serve is back open! Mobile ordered (via their website) some ice cream for the kids from Salt and Straw and brought it back to the table for them to eat there, which was a good move because there was nowhere else to sit anywhere near there.
After dinner we headed back to the parking structure via DtD. What a difference! Even though it was crowded, there was music playing and stuff to look at and then once we left DtD, the pathway back to the structure was peaceful and nicely lit. DH commented "way more enjoyable walk than that depressing tram route."
We were back in the car around 9pm and back hole by 9:15. Overall, a great day. Having those 2 long breaks to just sit and relax were KEY. I won't go back to the parks again without a reservation somewhere midday or so to sit down and have some food/drinks. I already made Lamplight Lounge reservations for 2 of our July trip days, and will keep trying to add Alfresco Terrace as well. We aren't usually big sit down meal people so this kind of thing works for us. Also, we will be at the Grand and will be able to leave the parks and just have some pool or down time in the room and it will help a lot. Our days of being APs and just hitting the parks for 3-4 hours and leaving when we've had enough are probably over for the foreseeable future. Now that we are paying full price, we have that "need to get our money's worth" mentality and we are not used to 10-12 hour touring days. Having the breaks helps a lot. It's unfortunate that right now, this is hard to schedule in. Hopefully more places will open and capacity will be back to 100% after June 15. Even something like the Railroad isn't a reliable way to just sit and chill for awhile. It's hard to get ON the train right now and my kids were upset upse that it stopped running at 3. We had no chance to ride it yesterday. I promised them when we come back in July we will ride.
As a general statement, I found the parks, especially DCA to be very crowded up until around 6pm, then it seemed to empty out pretty dramatically. Guessing lots of families with little ones are just done by that point, and people left in droves to get dinner in DtD.
