Eek…I’m all of the sudden feeling super stressed out about our trip. We are staying at BW Villas October 10-18. We have ZERO concerns as far as traveling during COVID but I’m starting to feel like my perception of what it’s like there is not very accurate.
We had debated on not going at all but after watching the Lines app for a few weeks, we decided that it looked like a great time to go. Now that I have been seeing social media posts and reading trip reviews, I’m getting nervous. For example, when looking at the wait time for Gran Fiesta Tour and seeing it to be 5 min, I never considered the fact that we could be standing in line for 30 min just to get in the building. How much time will we be spending in lines that don’t really count as lines on the app?? Does that make sense?
What about transportation?? Where are we going to see issues there? Example…if we have reservations for dinner at Kona at 8pm, will we need to Uber back to Boardwalk?
Dining?? How much time will we spend waiting for food at quick service or at Food & Wine??
If anything, Disney is trying to draw bigger crowds - discounts just released and more restaurants opening up. On Disney Dish podcast, Len even mentioned that they were seeing indications of higher crowds in next few months.
I think the 30 minutes wait to get in the building was a Labor Day weekend thing. When we were there, there was no wait. We did wait 10-15 minutes the first time we rode Gran Fiesta. I think they stopped to clean. I don’t know what it will be like in October if crowds are increasing, but we had a great time in August in spite of the heat. We rode everything we wanted with very little waiting.
We have a November trip booked and are carefully watching as well. I was somewhat excited to go without the pressure of FP’s and higher crowds but now I’m concerned about the logistic more than our previous trip. We’re fine to take Lyfts but with the shorter park hours and inconsistencies of when a park opens vs. when they let guests in, I’m already feeling a little bit of pressure.
I am going next week and will post a trip report – I hope that may help you, although I am going solo so likely won’t be attempting the usual family trip, instead doing a lot of making it up as I go along.
I do think the buildings thing is more of an impact when parks are at capacity. Our past Monday at Epcot was not near as busy as the sold out Satuday prior. And AK was easy peasy the day before Labor Day. HS is another story since they are always sold out, but if you temper your expectations, you will be fine. Don’t watch Lines ( like we did for weeks prior) and get your hopes up that it will be like an After Hours event or walk ons everywhere.
Food and wine was easy to get around and get food. The lines pick up around meal times. But it was easy any other time to get food.
We have a trip planned in October. We’re just going to avoid the parks on the weekend, or just do one park like EP or AK which doesn’t have a lot to do that involves waiting in lines. It seems to me that the waits during the week are reasonable but that it’s the weekends that are drawing the crowds.
I chuckled when I read your post ISUamanda. My wife and I did the opposite of what you did for sorta the same reasons. We talked about scheduling a mid-October trip but decided not to. So nothing to cancel. And our concern was about higher crowds levels as well … only after the parks closed, not while in the parks. What will we do in the evenings with early park closures is the question we asked ourselves. Vegetate in the room? Swim? Bar hop? Resort hop? Go to DS? Sit on the beach enjoying the view? Then my wife reminded me of what it was like a couple of years ago when did a December trip specifically to attend MVMCP. The question then was what do we do before the park opens for MVMCP? The obvious answer was to resort hop and look at the Christmas decorations. Unfortunately everyone else there had the same idea. Resort lobbies in the middle of the afternoon were packed! Now with Disney promoting resort stays this fall with big discounts, evening crowds inside the bubble looking for something to do after the parks close became our concern. I’m sure those who master this aspect of their visit will have a wonderful time. Like gganske, we were seriously considering the BW Villas because of all the offerings in the area after hours.
