They are getting smart on our tips. I’m glad you got in. Love the ears!
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We returned to AKL, this time with a MO for zebra domes. The guard was a little confused that my MO was for Mara, but he also didn’t really care. 
The Mara is the only restaurant open at breakfast, and he seemed to assume I was there for Sanaa. I assumed he would know the restaurants better than that, but they probably rotate the guards around different resorts or from gate to patrolling security or whatever. Regardless, we got amazing views of the giraffes at 9. We could see a few things at the overlook by the flamingos but they aren’t encouraging the animals to be around the Jambo savannah so we walked over to Kidani and they were front and center!
It may also be worth noting that the guards at AKL and WL have been the most chill, not looking at my phone or anything. No monorail or skyliner there, so it makes sense.
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Update from the last few days:
Saturday we were back at the Poly and took DH with us this time. He is allergic to pineapple so he had the lime Dole Whip, which I actually hated. It’s more tart than I expected and had more of an artificial candy taste. Same story at the gate, they let us in just to get dole whip.
Tiny castle!
Monday we went to Beach Club. Showed the guard our MO and he asked if we were getting it and leaving right away. I told him we were planning to walk around a bit and eat here and he said ok. We were picking up a mickey bar and I told DS4 we were doing our walk first and that whiners don’t get ice cream. 
We walked the loop of the lake and then ate our ice cream bar. It was a really beautiful and quiet morning.
Today we MO from Riviera and then took the skyliner to Pop. Wandered around Pop and AoA a bit. Kinda curious to see if our experience at the AoA gate would have been repeated, but wanted to ride each segment of the skyliner more. Going over CBR is very pretty, but the Epcot line is my favorite I think. It’s longer and more relaxing.
Heads up to anyone who doesn’t already know, the skyliner line at CBR can get a little insane. They don’t have space to separate the lines, so everybody is funneled into the same line and if you’re changing lines there, you’re sent down the exit ramp to the back of the line. The line at 9 for HS opening was very long. The line at 10:20 was not quite as bad and moved very quickly (but people were going to both HS and EP at that point, so in theory it could have been moving twice as fast) and we waited 15 minutes to board.
There wasn’t a line at all for EP at Riviera, and we had seen a few gondolas at CBR go past empty (maybe one out of 8). My guess is that those are for people ready to board at RR since most people would not be getting off there (although we were).
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I had a reservation this morning at Trattoria al Forna (sp?). BW guard looked at my phone res and asked for a picture ID. Then told me where to park.
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I felt like a real Liner today: I did the ADR bump and dump to get into Coronado. They have one section of the resort blocked off for some sort of group, so you can’t walk around the whole lake. You have to cross the bridge instead. I also wanted to note that the dig site playground no longer has any sand. It is all playground surface now, which was a plus for us.
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We’re wrapping up our trip here in the next couple of days. The forecast is very rainy so I think our only remaining Disney magic will be one last trip to Poly to try the Dole whip float.
It was a bit of a bummer to be this close to the castle and not go into the parks. DH mentioned the other day that he almost got me a 1 day ticket to MK for Valentine’s, but we will see our family as soon as we get home and I knew I’d spend more time indoors that we’re currently comfortable with. That said, I’m really glad we were able to spend so much time at the resorts. On our previous (and only other) trip we were able to see AoA and AKL, but it would take a lot of trips (staying offsite) to enjoy the rest of the resorts.
I hope our MO experience will be helpful to others, although busier weeks like spring break might not have the same results.
We hope to be back this November with some of our extended family, but I’m finding it hard to plan anything with the parks as they currently are. How would I even make a TP when I’m hoping things will have changed by then? We loved this ‘work-cation’ trip so much that we plan to do it again next February. I am of course advocating for another Orlando house and AP, but DH has some other ideas. We’ll see. Either way, I’ll probably be spending the next few months planning outfits/ears and looking at Airbnb.
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I wanted to thank you again for doing this report and for it’s unique concept. It prompted me to give it a go as a local, w/ success, and I’ll be doing more. I got to try the Thai Coconut meatballs at Poly/Capt Hook yesterday; 
yum! In many ways I prefer QS over TS due to cost and ease of cancellation. I am also enjoying the MO in general instead of standing in a line but love that I can hop into a resort too. I was thinking that I might miss this when it’s gone (MO been around in parks for awhile), but then thought we would be able to once again drive up and tell them, “I’m here for the brownies”; we’ve done that before 
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That’s great!
I’m hoping they’ll keep the MO system going since they already have it set up. Keep one register open but keep the rest of it streamlined.
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Thanks for reporting! Such a fun idea!
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I agree! We’ve used MO for a few years in the parks (and love it) but this is a new way to get into the magic during C~19 w/o ADR or resort reservations. I think it could ease food court congestion at resorts when access is increased.
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It was such a nice bit of magic for us! Hopefully we’ll be coming back for the parks soon!
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