We just returned from a week at DLR. It was good to be back and so many cast members were glad to be back to work.
Hotel
We stayed at DLH. We arrived on Sunday. We completed the precheck-in option and they asked when we were arriving and they would try to have the room ready. We hung out by the pool, had dole whips and drinks. It was fine, but our room was not ready until after 4pm. (Official check in is 3pm.) Housekeeping is short-staffed and it took longer than expected to have the rooms ready. Also, rooms are only serviced every other day, but they were helpful when we had a lot of trash from take out or needed more towels.
Dining
Tangora Terrace / Trader Sams were open. At TS we had sit down for lunch. (We went back to the room for a break) It was nice and they kept more of my favorite foods on the menu. There were times when TS had a long wait, so we at at TT and just picked up our drinks from the take out window. I like the set up better now.
As was posted on another thread, some of the restaurants in DD were providing delivery to the hotels. This was great! We had some dinners delivered and the service was great. We mostly got food from Naples, which was surprisingly good. The delivery is not to your room, but they will meet you in the lobby. One note, the delivery person mentioned that people don’t leave their phone number with their order and they sometimes have trouble contacting people. If you leave your number they will call and text you with updates on your delivery and it is usually much quicker than expected.
Other places in DD had reduced menus, which was disappointing because many dishes we liked were not available.
Rancho del Zocalo was disappointing. They used to have amazing fish tacos and now they are not very good. The piece of fish was average, the tortillas and chips were stale. It was not what we were used to.
Our routines changed, as we mostly had breakfast at the room, with food we brought and ate snacks at the park. We had lunch sit down and dinner was room service.
Rides
We were able to get VQ for ROTR or WS each time we wanted it. These were easier to get, but I noticed that it was harder as the week went on and more people were at the parks.
The lines were average. It is interesting to see the lines now that FPs are not a factor. We were able to get on the rides we wanted.
Middle of July is definitely too late in the summer for us to go. We normally go in May, but it was delayed until our whole family could be vaccinated.