Conquered Everest and now waiting to be called back for our Yak & Yeti reservations. They didn’t have the option to check in on the app like the other places so that’s odd.
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Great pics!
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Why did you take a picture of the blue doors? I love 'em. There was that one game thread of take a pic of _____ . I suggested doors and NO responded.
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I’m with you. I love doors. In Charleston it’s definitely a thing and I’ve always appreciated well designed or uniques ones.
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Stuffed from lunch, so another go on Everest didn’t seem like the best idea. Instead jumped in line for NRJ. This is normally something I would NEVER do without a FP. But since we are probably wrapping up our day soon so we can get on the road, decided to go for it. If lines drop some we may try and get one more ride on FOP before heading out.
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So much for not staying all day!
But the time has come. We did a little browsing the shops, I grabbed some Starbucks and now it’s time to admit we have to go home.
It was a great day and a great trip. I’ll post some overall thoughts of today and the trip tomorrow. I don’t think my copilot, Sleepy, will be taking a turn at the wheel.
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^^^^^ This!!! 
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Very late to the party!! Loving all the photos!!!
Still only half-way through. 
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I do like the way you roll!!! That’s the way to Drink Around the World!!!
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No, top photo has a Death Cab at the crossbar, not so on second picture. 
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Great night shots!!
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LOVE the night shots! Thanks for sharing your trip! So fun to come along! Safe travels home!
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Great trip report and pictures! 
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So sad it’s over! (for you mostly, but for us at home too 
) Safe travels home!
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Well I’ve made it home and also slept in. Glad I took an extra day off since even this modified Disney is exhausting.
I would like to pretend that all that’s left of my Disney trip is not just laundry and a few kernels of caramel corn, so I’ll put together my overall thoughts.
From AK:
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Things started a little later, probably because it was a weekday. Arriving a little after 8, we were held at parking gate for a bit and then got into the park at 8:30. Went to FOP and were not far back in line at all but they didn’t start the ride until just before 9.
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If you aren’t there early, do not go to FOP first. That is by farrrr the longest line length of the day. I’d take advantage of the short lines every where else and you can come back to a ep-40 min line later.
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NRJ consistently had the longest line of the day for the most part. Should have done that right after FOP when it was still 5 minutes.
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In general lines weren’t bad. Especially with just 8 attractions, there’s no trouble getting everything done, even if you do a TS meal and take your time. But I didn’t get to ride EE over and over like I had hoped. And again, I missed FP.
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Nomad is awesome. I will never miss it on a trip again.
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Overall thoughts:
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The window for super low crowds is closed. I think anyone with a trip planned really needs to manage those expectations. You won’t have an empty park and all day walk ons. I think the fact that we are seeing crowds like this in September means they will only continue to build throughout the rest of the year as more and more people start to feel comfortable going.
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That being said, you can still get a lot done by being ahead of the crowd. To me, RD was the single biggest factor in us minimizing lines. We were in the very first groups at HS and MK to be in the park and that head start helped, IMO.
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I missed FP. I know not everyone is a fan, and I definitely acknowledge they make the standby lines worse…but as a Liner, I think what I’ve learned about timing FP, refreshing, and SD drops gives me an advantage that makes FP an easy system to take advantage of. It will be tough for me to go again until they have some form of FP again, and I’m likely willing to pay.
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From my own observations, mask compliance was decent. Most people were wearing them correctly, and if not, it was easy to stay distant from them.
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Social distancing, however, was a struggle. People reallllllly didn’t seem to follow the line markers. I really can’t explain why so many people found this difficult. I don’t know if they thought each 6 foot section was a blocked area they just needed to be somewhere in, or what, but it was very rare for us to be in line and the group behind us to be consistently behind the pervious marker. Sometimes it was because it was a group, and instead of erring on the side of taking up two lines for themselves, they’d just spread out. Other times, there were places in line where there were markers much farther than 6 feet apart to help still keep people spread even when the adjacent line markers were close. Most people did not grasp this and just stood around in the no-mans land. There was only twice where it was egregious enough for me to have to actually ask the group behind to please try and stay behind their marker, and then they did do better.
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Similarly to the lines, people are not aware of 6 feet in exits, walkways, shops, etc. normally you aren’t near these people except in passing, but I think it’s important to be aware that in a lot of instances it felt like regular Disney crowds outside, just with masks on.
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I do feel strongly about limiting my exposure at home and following CDC and WHO guidelines. This trip was certainly an unnecessary one in terms of that, but I do live alone and can now quarantine and at least not risk exposing anyone else. However, if being outside or around people causes you anxiety or fear, I would not recommend a trip to Disney right now. They are doing what they can to maximize your safety, but it would not be worth it if you will be constantly anxious about other people’s behavior. (Not making any value statement about if you should be anxious or not, the pandemic is serious…just that if you’re anxious at home…Disney will not feel like a reward or vacation).
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We did a little pin trading, which was pretty easy to find at MK and AK but extremely difficult at EP and HS where it seems they only have a single location in the parks and only at random times.
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You definitely pass some closed shops in the parks, but the closed QS in the parks and resorts was the most noticeable thing to me. Finding a Mickey Bar is usually easy with a cart in eyeline at any given moment. Now you may have to walk past 3-4 to find something open.
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I hope they keep the widespread mobile ordering. It did seem to be pretty inconsistent about how long it would take to get your food once you did mark yourself as there, but usually a simple process.
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With all of that said, it was a great trip. Even with short hours and no FP, I didn’t feel the need to rush around (besides RD). I don’t know if that was the fact that this is trip 5 for me in 2 years or what, but it was nice to take time to do TS and the lounges, and even leave the park while it was still open (have never done that except to park hop). I did both old favorites and some new things and had a ton of fun.
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This may be the first trip I don’t feel a crazy need to go back ASAP. Not sure why, and not sure if that will change, but after doing this modified Disney once, I will probably wait to see what Disney changes in the next 6 months (or if things reopen) before planning any more trips. Maybe DL in the spring instead.
Let me know if anyone has any questions or if there is anything I didn’t cover! Thanks to all for following along!
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Oh and I’ll also add that as a Lines app devotee…I found the new version very difficult to use in the parks. Especially as compared to using the UOR app the first day which is not updated and then trying to use the new version of WDW. I will send this all directly to the admins, but it was basically impossible to record a wait time and I frequently saw that the posted time in the Lines app was very different from the actual posted time on the Disney app, and therefore it was very hard for me to trust any of the TP expected waits.
From an interface standpoint, I accept that any change will take some getting used to and I’m okay with that. But since the TP data is the most important part, and both intaking and displaying that data was a real struggle, I think there are some kinks to work out still.
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