JD, here's a quick trip report.
Posted by
David (aka David)
Nov 4 '20, 08:05
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We arrived too late the first night to enter the parks. Disney's limiting hours, and it varies by park. Animal Kingdom can close as early as 5 PM. Even EPCOT, usually the latest one, generally closes by 8 on weekdays.
Our first park day was a weekday, and that matters. The parks are much less crowded on those days. We accomplished a great deal that day. We also randomly ran into my brother's family two or three times that day.
It was really hard scheduling with Mrs. PFM and PFM Jr. plus my brother. You need Park Passes, and everyone has different things they want to do. So, we would see them some and then go off on our own for a while.
EPCOT is in flux as it undergoes the permanent change from Future World to World Celebration et al. There were walls up in the damnedest places, leaving us confused much of the time. However, I had the best park day here because the lines are so short. Floridians aren't visiting the front of EPCOT much due to the construction. Most of its rides were walk-on, and even Soarin' was 20 minutes or less.
We did Animal Kingdom on Halloween, which turned out to be crazy but brilliant. They opened the park at 7 am for the holiday. We had ridden everything at the park by 11:30, and Kim and I left for good at 1.
We went back to the hotel, where I did the only writing I needed for the week. After knocking out 3,000 words, Kim and I went to Disney Springs on our own. There, we ate at The Edison, which was a wonderful experience. They had a singer there who reminded me that live music can be terrific in the right setting. Some of his covers were better than the originals.
On Sunday, we went to Hollywood Studios. It was an up and down experience, as that's the most crowded park. However, we got to ride Rise of the Resistance, as Mrs. PFM nailed a Boarding Group within 10 seconds of the system activating. We also did Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway for the first time. Both are sublime.
Kim and PFM Jr. also did Savi's Workshop, which all of us agreed that, as an experience, it exceeded our expectations. The wait for this one wiped me out, though. It was a humid day, and there was no shade. So, we just stood/sat there for most of an hour, sweating and being miserable. After it ended, Kim and I punted and went to Disney's Riviera Resort for snacks and to roam around. We love resort hopping at Disney.
Afterward, we returned to a much emptier Hollywood Studios. Kim gets the credit there, as she did her homework and discovered that the park emptied about 150 minutes before closing. At that point, we knocked out Slinky Dog Dash and Toy Story Mania!, meaning that we did everything at the park but Star Wars...which was an intentional choice.
Monday, we went back to Magic Kingdom, and that's the time when the pandemic got to us a bit. Disney's safety measures are terrific. I have no complaints in that regard. However, the park was mobbed and led to some lines exceeding the ground markings. When that happened, people would get sloppy about social distancing.
We ultimately punted and did a resort hopping day. We would have rather switched to EPCOT, but Park Hopping isn't allowed right now. EPCOT's lines were minimal. That was a frustration. However, we had a lovely afternoon on our own terms.
Afterward, we finished up our trip with a fancy meal, as has become our tendency. The PFMs joined us at California Grill, and we got one of the best tables. It was a lovely experience.
A few random notes:
Children of apathetic parents are Disney's trouble spot. They just don't understand social distancing. So, if their parents don't care, they stay right behind you the whole time. And some of them touch everything.
I counted 9 Trump masks and 2 Biden masks while I was there. I had expected a lot more of the former and none of the latter.
Rise of the Resistance is a bit muted during the pandemic. You walk quickly through the showpiece scene with dozens of audio-animatronic Stormtroopers. Even allowing for that, it's a work of art as an engineering feat. I was in awe of it.
But I liked Runaway Railway better. The Kawaii nature of this ride is off the charts.
The funniest thing that happened is something you had to be see in person.
We rode Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin, a ride-game wherein Kim always kills me.
This time was different. I have no idea what she did, but after 10 seconds the score was 255,000 to 200. I'm not joking. She maxed at 999,999 within a minute and got annoyed when she realized the score wouldn't go any higher. Meanwhile, I finished with 44,000.
I'm going to hear about that beating for a while.
Disney Mobile Ordering is better than ever during the pandemic. Similarly, Table Service dining is great because you never have to talk to a host (i.e. human being). You check-in on the app and can pull up the menu via a QR code. It's brilliant.
Also, the transportation situation was better than ever. Disney's got buses at the hotels seemingly all the time. We only had to wait more than five minutes twice in a week. Usually, we're swearing about buses and boats by the end of day one.
Finally, we got to spend more time on the Disney Skyliner than ever before. I love it. Fittingly, we were also the last monorail out at Disney's Polynesian Village Resort, my favorite hotel. We didn't even plan for it or realize it until the next day. Disney is renovating it until next May. It closed on November 2nd. We had dinner at Capt. Cook's and did some shopping until 8:50 that night. When we got on the monorail, the dude informed us we were the last ones. I think there were only four people total on the entire monorail.
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