This was the sense I was getting, and thanks for being clear about it. I have a decent amount of regret about cancelling our July trip that would have had short lines everywhere. Right or wrong, too many factors in the other direction forced our hand. I have to accept that going back when more things are normal also means more normal crowds. I can’t have it both ways.
I loved following along with your trip. It really does help get through the reality of not being there myself.
I completely agree. The appearance was nice but the usefulness less so. I’m glad I am not the only one who could not figure out how to time a wait. I would start the timer, and then when I went back to the app to stop it would find the timer wasn’t running
i didn’t note this in my report – I also agree. I know this is perhaps selfish, but I hope FPs come back, even if you have to pay extra.
But Shhh!!! Don’t tell anyone!!!
Thanks for sharing your trip with us!
Agree! It seems like if I didn’t keep the Lines app open and active, the ability to submit was gone. Which meant it only worked if it was 5 min or less. So frustrating.
This is my concern.
When we were there in August, our first MK day actually had worse crowds than I ever remember experiencing (aside from the ONE day we went during the Christmas/New Years period). We are used to low crowds, and have chosen dates in September, October, and February for our Florida trips to avoid the crowds. We are used to 5 minute waits and walk ons.
Now, until Disney starts to open back up more attraction capacity (without really raising park capacity), it appears the chances we’ll see low crowds ever again is over. Fortunately, the days we were there NOT during weekends were much more what we’ve been used to in past trips.
It will be interesting to see what our December trip will be like. We aren’t ride focused, so that’s good…but then, seeing that the lines for getting into the shops and such are getting much worse, it seems like even avoiding the rides won’t mean we’ll avoid the crowds. And I guess we’ll have to expect longer waits on the fewer rides we do want to do.
I recognize these large crowds are good for Disney, and good for their employees. But I think the window of opportunity has come and gone for the low crowds as you stated.
I think there’s still a window of opportunity for waits to drop a little, if they can open up more shows, meet & greets, etc. Right now we’re in the worst of both worlds where the crowds are picking up but capacity is at an all-time low. I was hoping with the agreement being reached with Equity Actors union that they would re-start shows like Indiana Jones, Finding Nemo, and FotLK, but so far, nothing.
Great summation! Thanks so much for taking the time to share - it really helps! Any final thoughts on the Swan? Your pictures of the resort made it look great! 
Good point.
As far as I know, the only “act” to open involving Equity Actors so far are the Dapper Dans. (Err…Cadaver Dans.) There are probably others I’m not aware of. But yes…let’s see more of those shows open up, please! I’d love it is FOTLK or Nemo were open by December. Then again, shows are only really operating at 1/4 capacity, so I wonder how much they will ultimately help.
thanks for taking us along! 
What I’m worried about here is that by opening the shows, they will also be increasing the available capacity. So they can still be at 40 or 50% capacity or whatever their target is, but still I crease the overal number of people in the parks. I’ve read that they’ve done that when they open additional shops and restaurants (although is still ultimately speculation). So I’d be concerned we wouldn’t see any significant change to wait times.
I will say that the largest crowds were on Saturday. We were at Epcot and very much not ride focused. And there were some lines for festival booths, but we noticed it all much less than on Friday when trying to wait for rides. Not sure how much that will translate for y’all.
Oh yes! I meant to include a recap of the Swan.
We LOVED it. We all mentioned it multiple times. The location was perfect. I loved being able to walk to two parks (~15 min to each). Even when we left HS for a little bit during the day it was super convenient. If our trip was longer and it hadn’t been raining it would have been easy to do some pool time instead of a nap as well. Big advantage for RD with parking lots not opening extra early.
I took a walk to the Boardwalk Bakery for breakfast one morning and it was so quiet and lovely. It would also be convenient to hop on the Skyliner at the IG and go over to one of those resorts for a meal or to explore. Or just for a ride!
As more stuff reopens at the Boardwalk, it will only improve. The biggest challenge was that all of the dining in the Swan and Dolphin has not reopened. Once it does I would have no hesitations to recommend. Even as it is now, there’s still a good amount, just have to be more intentional. It was harder to get home later from a park with no plan and quickly find food.
We are also Marriott Bonvoy Platinum, so appreciated earning points for the stay. It’s not a great value for paying with points, in my opinion, but an option if you don’t want to pay cash. We used some suite night awards to get a balcony/resort view rooms since they will expire soon, but may have been upgraded with out them.
I will say…for our 4 nights, they wanted to charge an extra $200 for having 4 adults in the room. To me this is absurd since the capacity of the room is 4, especially on top of the resort fee. We just said there were only two adults when we booked. This wasn’t a problem for this trip since we didn’t need to have everyone linked to a reservation to get FP. When we booked, park reservations were available for ticket and resort guests. But depending on what things look like post-covid, if you’re traveling with more than 2 adults in a room, be aware that they add on that fee.
I didn’t see this elsewhere in the forum, but we also had two vehicles but only had to pay for self parking for one.
You don’t get magic bands, so can’t charge to the room or open the door with them, but that’s super minor to me, especially since I can use Apple Pay on my watch just as easily.
We never used the Disney transportation this trip, so can’t speak to that. I wanted to avoid buses at the moment if we could.
Think those are the main things, but if you have any other questions let me know!
Oh! Another thing I wanted to mention for sports fans is how difficult it is right now to find a place to watch the game. We did go to DS for the hockey game one night, but it closed at 10, so we had to hurry back to the hotel to watch the rest from the room.
ESPN club and a lot of the other similar places aren’t open, and there just didn’t seem to be anywhere with several TVs in the Swan/Dolphin. For Saturday nights game we just watched in the room, but would have been nice to have somewhere to watch a Florida team in the Stanley Cup with other fans without having to drive!
For sports fans traveling this fall who hope to catch a game, just something to be aware of and keep an eye on as things reopen!
How did you feel being in “the crowd” waiting to get in, as far as social distancing? During “normal” times my husband HATES the rope drop crowd constantly creeping up on you, strollers pushing up against you, everyone so excited to get in that they forget manners 
… how did it feel during COVID times?
This was actually the least “crowded” or rushed I’ve ever felt at RD. You have your markers to wait on that are spaced out 6ft at the temp screening and because of that there is a pretty natural spacing of people into security (which is a BREEZE now with the new screeners) and the tapstiles. Then, since they aren’t holding people anywhere in the park until you get into a line, there isn’t that bottleneck of people like there was in the hub at MK or the bridge to Pandora.
It also helps that the different transportation options slow for different waves of people arriving. So they really just don’t ever allow super large lines to form at RD before they open the gates.
We’re booked for December so I am hopeful that some more places to eat are open by then.
Thanks so much for the re-cap! The ability to walk to HS is why I looked into the Swan. We haven’t done any of the new SWGE stuff so I am hoping we get to ride everything. 
What about Splitsville? We’ve had success watching games there before. But I guess the early closing hours could affect them too.
That would definitely work for a daytime game. We did CityWorks right next to it and it was great too. Just for a night game the earlier closing time isn’t ideal.