This was my 7th trip along with my wife & 22 yr old son (graduation present and her birthday while there) Also girlfriend’s 1st visit which made it much more special seeing the world for the first time through her eyes. Our last trip was 4 years ago so there was so much new to see. Stayed at Art of Animation (Little Mermaid) for the first time. I will say this is the best theming of any resort on property. Add in the gondola and it was a total win for us, but lots of walking. A few observations, lines for rides were long, I don’t agree with the 5s & 6s posted on the historical calendar. There were 50 minute + waits on just about everything at HS & MK while down there, EP & AK at least 30 on everything. We made use of of Genie + for HS & MK afternoons(we park hopped) and rode the LL attractions without paying first thing in the morning (Flights, Ratatouie, & 7 Dwarves-had to still wait 50 mins) We paid the $15 for Rise. All of our restaurant experiences were excellent(50s Prime, Be Our Guest, Sci-Fi, Crystal Palace, Cape May & Boathouse at DS) There did not seem to be any shortages of staff, service was excellent and fast at all places. Busses even on time every time. The only thing lacking was character meet & greets, there were hardly any to attend or find, so I guess that is where Disney is still catching up. Being there for 7 days allowed us to relax a little more than in the past because we were not consumed with missing anything, but being on that phone every day did not make the experience better(ARE YOU HEARING US, DISNEY executives? Find a better way! It was less stressful being able to reserve 3 rides a few years ago, not to mention cheaper, but it is what it is) But that being said, everything else was awesome, being in the Disney bubble, not knowing what is going on in the outside world is truly magical. Personal highlights for me, waitress at 50s in full character, incredible steak at Boathouse, riding Flight of Passage and Big Thunder while watching the finale of the fireworks show. I’m sure I’m missing some stuff, but I’m not that great of storyteller. Feel free to ask me anything about the trip.
Great recap of your trip! How was Crystal Palace? I’ve heard some mixed reviews recently. Characters are not back there, correct?
Correct, characters not back yet, but food was really good. Carved prime rib was excellent, as was the mahi mahi and roasted chicken, I could not ask for better for a buffet.(and we had it at lunch time)
I keep seeing that the predictions were accurate or close enough… , but at the same time, it’s been reported that attendance has been higher than previous years. Doesn’t make sense to me.
And I was mainly basing it off the touring plans I created for each day in the parks - all of the rides were 15 minutes longer than what they were supposed to be according to the plan created on the site. For instance, my HS plan on evening day of arrival had a CL4 and I should have been able to get on Mickeys Runaway, Toy Story, or Rock N Roller in 30 mins or less, but they were all 45-50. One other thing to take into consideration if you are there in the next couple of months, Tower Of Tower is only at half capacity, you are looking at a 75 minute wait minimum unless you hit at rope drop - it becomes the #2 priority after Slinky at HS in my opinion right now. I am not complaining by any means, I love this site, the info, and people on here. As Disney freaks, we know how to adapt.
We were just talking about that. Things change! Thank you for the report
This made me smile 
Same experience here-we were there 9-16 May and I did go back and check the “what we predicted vs what we saw” on the crowd calendar. Every park we visited was two levels above the original prediction and it definitely felt busier to me. When Small World has a 25 minute standby wait at 8:40 am…busy! We visited the same week in 2018 and that would have been like 5 minutes.
The only exception was Magic Kingdom on 5/15 which was lower than predicted because of the early closure for a cast member event. It was lovely to be there that day. Those were the lighter early May crowds I remembered!