Hopefully we'll get some first hand reports.
Just returned from 8 nights. Wanted to share a firsthand experience of what it was like on this day. We had a great time. Very much reminded me of summertime in the 70's, everything was open and working to capacity...a rarity these days. We were at the MK on Tuesday during the closures and I really didn't think it was that horrible. We were a party of 9 ranging in age from 12 to 70. It was actually an enjoyable day still.
Were at the park from 11:00 till 12:30am. Rode TTA, Carousel of Progress, Haunted Mansion, Philharmagic, Small World, Pirates, Jungle Cruise, Space Mountain, Big Thunder, Splash Mountain, Stitch, Buzz Lightyear, and finished with a second ride on Space Mountain. Enjoyed a sit down dinner at Liberty Tree, and took time out for a monorail ride including transfer through EPCOT after dinner.
We slept in a bit and did not leave resort (All Star Music) until 10:15. Was a 45 minute bus ride due to traffic on World Drive. Bus followed Buena Vista to Bonnet Creek, past Fort Wilderness to World Drive to avoid the back up on World Drive Heading into TTC. We entered the park at 11:00, Headed for Tomorrowland picked up Space Mountain FP with a return time of 5:05.
Hopped on TTA (through a temp roped off queue below and then full queue open once up on platform!) Then across to CoP, got in on next show but was running full theaters.
Next up was Haunted Mansion; queue was past riverboat using both the old fastpass area as well as old Keel boat dock and all switchbacks in main queue including a loop around the planter and past the "hearse" out front.
Columbia Harbour House was lined up outside by this time (1:15) spilling over in frt of mansion line. We split into groups to collect food and Jungle Cruise Fastpasses (4:30-5:30 return time) including Pretzels and Churros in Frontierland, Dole Whips in Adventerland (no line!!), and snacks and sandwiches from Sleepy Hollow, finding a nice table behind Sleepy Hollow to relax and eat. Sleepy Hollow had temp queue out front with switchbacks roped out and was also serving hot Pulled BBQ pork sandwiches.
From there it was over to Philharmagic - both queues open and fastpass turned off, got in after 2 show cycles. Across to Small World again with queue stretched out to old skyway station using temp ropes.
Then squeezed through crowd...
to collect Big Thunder Fastpasses meeting the rest of our group in front of Pirates. Pirates was the longest line we waited in. Posted time was 60 min and it took it all. Complete exterior queue was in use included two additional temp switchbacks roped off in front of entrance. The only other time I had personally seen full exterior queue on this was July 4th 1983!
After Pirates it was over to Jungle Cruise to use our Fastpasses (standby at this time (4:30) was 80 minutes)
Then to Space Mountain to use fastpass there (standby still 90 min and using all switchbacks) and back across park to Liberty Tree for family Dinner to celebrate my Dad's 70th Birthday. ADR's were for 6:00, we checked in at 5:30 and were seated at 5:35!
After that Dad wanted to ride Monorail so we walked out and rode to TTC, transferred to EPCOT line, rode though EPCOT, transferred to resort line and then back to MK.
At this point it was 8:30, we rode Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain (very cold), Buzz Lightyear, picked up Hot Chocolate at Auntie Gravity's (Still Cold!!), Stitch, and then finished with late night ride on Space Mountain through standby line (posted 60 min-took 40 min) leaving the park at 12:30.
All in all not a bad day considering crowds, lines were all moving pretty quickly due to everything operating at peak. 60 Minutes was our longest wait all day.
