Pre-Trip We just couldn't resist the crowds (or lack there of!) - *Live-ish*

We are planners, I swear we are. I remember one time pre-kids, pre-marriage we got up and thought "let's be crazy and go to a basketball game", and that was spontaneous for us.

But this is going to take the cake:

More details to come (as we figure them out!)

 

[Spash007]

We have some plans!

August 19th
Flight lands around 1 pm
Magic Kingdom for a few hours that night

August 20th
Hollywood Studios
Brown Derby @ 1:30 pm

August 21st
Magic Kingdom
No ADRs planned, but maybe Liberty Tree

August 22nd
No park day - Disney Springs, visiting some friends in the area
Homecoming @ 12 noon

August 23rd
Animal Kingdom
Kona Cafe @ 5 pm

August 24th
Epcot
Via Napoli @ 5 pm
We'll probably change this around, but the Epcot hours are killer!

August 25th
Magic Kingdom
Flight to head home later that night


It seems like there's a lot of availability still with ADRs so we're not that pressured, and are trying to see how the whole two kid trip and nap times are going to go. And baby L has all of a sudden gotten these super fussy fits right around dinner time, so we're going to have to see what happens. But, it seems like this a good trip to work in flexibility!

 

[Nala06]

Oh I wish it was a bungalow - we're getting one of the studios (which will still be great with 2 bathrooms haha - especially since the baby may sleep in one )

From experience, the pack n play fits perfectly in the second bathroom, and is a great place for baby to sleep!

 

[KevinPage]

With crowd levels currently and no FP tying you down, the only planning you should do is when to feed the little one and booking your Park Pass days, that’s it. Oh and getting to DHS no later than 9:30am to get setup and ready for Rise boarding group time

You’ll get on every ride you want (multiple times if you choose to). No real need to rope drop but if you do you’ll be able to probably walk onto FOP 2x. I did Space Mountain 4x at opening this week by 10am 9am park opening). Only wait was speed of my legs walking the queue back and forth

The current environment is a blessing and a curse. No crowds, no parades, no meet n greets, no nighttime stuff. But with a little one in tow, in many ways this significantly makes your life easier

 

[Spash007]

From experience, the pack n play fits perfectly in the second bathroom, and is a great place for baby to sleep!

Awesome! Thats great to know going in. Thank you!

With crowd levels currently and no FP tying you down, the only planning you should do is when to feed the little one and booking your Park Pass days, that’s it. Oh and getting to DHS no later than 9:30am to get setup and ready for Rise boarding group time

You’ll get on every ride you want (multiple times if you choose to). No real need to rope drop but if you do you’ll be able to probably walk onto FOP 2x. I did Space Mountain 4x at opening this week by 10am 9am park opening). Only wait was speed of my legs walking the queue back and forth

The current environment is a blessing and a curse. No crowds, no parades, no meet n greets, no nighttime stuff. But with a little one in tow, in many ways this significantly makes your life easier

Exactly what we were thinking! All the things that aren't happening actually do make this trip easier for us - and we probably couldn't stay late anyway. We're planners at heart and will still have a rough idea of where we'll start, but we'll take it from there.

It's going to very interesting because our daughter was the type that could sleep anywhere - stroller, car, shoulder - she would just pass out. Our son has slept in the stroller a few times, but refuses to sleep in the car. He's much more of a bed sleeper, so we may need to take quite a few breaks back at the room. But, given the low wait times and less entertainment, that works in our favor.

We're thinking we may skip rope drop most days just to avoid the crowds, but we'll see what happens. It seems like most wait times fall even later in the afternoon, so we're thinking a lot of days we'll be hitting the park 30 mins or so after opening, stay for a few hours, take a break, and then head back for the afternoon/evening. But, we'll see what happens when we first get there!

 

[slipperalwaysfits]

I've been listening to a lot of podcasts, and they all seem to fly SWA. What I've been hearing is they also only load 10 people at a time, which helps a lot. The de-boarding is the same with everyone rushing, but if you try to load the back of the plane, you can just sit and wait out the mobs, which is our plan.

I've also been tracking the same-day availability for ADRs, because we're not sure about certain ones. But it seems like even then, there's a lot of choices same day (including BoG!)

Wow! I didn't realize SWA was only boarding 10 people at a time---we are happy to wait to get off the plan, even when it's Disney time!

The current environment is a blessing and a curse. No crowds, no parades, no meet n greets, no nighttime stuff. But with a little one in tow, in many ways this significantly makes your life easier

I agree, there's still magic, it just takes a different kind of appreciation. And/or appreciating different stuff!

It seems like most wait times fall even later in the afternoon, so we're thinking a lot of days we'll be hitting the park 30 mins or so after opening, stay for a few hours, take a break, and then head back for the afternoon/evening. But, we'll see what happens when we first get there!

Seems like a good idea but don't forget, there's not much "Evening" at the parks these days....I know your kids are little anyway, but would just hate for you to be surprised when they ask you to leave at 7 pm.

 

[Spash007]

Wow! I didn't realize SWA was only boarding 10 people at a time---we are happy to wait to get off the plan, even when it's Disney time!



I agree, there's still magic, it just takes a different kind of appreciation. And/or appreciating different stuff!



Seems like a good idea but don't forget, there's not much "Evening" at the parks these days....I know your kids are little anyway, but would just hate for you to be surprised when they ask you to leave at 7 pm.

It's funny, when I told my parents we were going, they were very focused on no real character meets. Our daughter loves them, and I think our son would like them too, but I think the new ones look like a lot of fun.

The hours honestly work for us because of the earlier bed times, except for Epcot. No matter how we cut it, we'll probably be there for the heat of the day. But since that's towards the end of trip, we'll see how we're all doing and plan from there.

 

[Spash007]

Quick update as we finish up our first day here. As many people have said, this was probably one of the best first days we’ve had. For now, photos are just limited to the ones from my phone.

The airports being less crowded made it less stressful, and our flight went really well. We flew Southwest and while we boarded 50th, we got the back row like we wanted with no one in the row next to us or for the 5 rows ahead of us. Baby L even had a chance to fall asleep laying across the row in front of us!
DME was deserted, and we ended up having about 12 people on our bus. We were the last stop and the only people to get off at the Poly. All the CMs we’ve seen (and even the staff at the airport) have been super helpful and friendly.

We got into our room a bit after 3 after eating a bit at Captain Cooks. We hoped to leave by 4, but wrangling the two kids who were sitting most of the day while unpacking took longer than planned and we didn’t leave til closer to 4:30.

Still, with only 2 hours in MK we had a great time there. We walked in to Gaston leading the Pooh and friends float, and C and I were able to literally run under the train station while as laughing the whole way. Baby L was able to walk down Main Street, and we got a ton of photos done.

As for rides, we did Dumbo, Barnstormer 2x, Little Mermaid, Tea Cups, Pooh 2x, the Carousel, and Small World. The low crowds are really unbelievable until you see them!

We also each got some sweet treats from Friars Nook in there.

We ended up leaving a bit after 7, and decided to go to the Grand Floridian to get dinner at Gasparilla’s. The kids were exhausted after such a long day, but they at least ate a somewhat healthy dinner and then we walked back to the Poly.

That walk back was something I never thought I would consider a Disney vacation - peaceful. It was the perfect ending to the day, and now we’re resting up for the pool in the morning followed by Hollywood Studios!

 

[fractal]

Wow! Sounds like a great first day.

Enjoy DHS!

 

[Loco_driver]

I’m late to the party, but I’m here! Looks like a great first day!

 

[Katiekitten]

It looks like you had a great first day! Enjoy DHS tomorrow.

 

[Darstarr]

So amazing!
And baby L is too cute!!!

 

[cgersic]

Looks like everyone is having a great time! Enjoy yourselves!!

 

[k8einwdw]

Hope you have a fantastic trip!

 

[Swissmiss]

So amazing!
And baby L is too cute!!!

I’ll add that it seems to me that baby L looks a lot like his dad does when his dad isn’t wearing a mask

 

[arich35]

I can sort of relate to your situation! My wife and I planned a trip for the first week of May (our anniversary), we were going to bring my brother as well as our 13 month old daughter for her first experience. We were so excited for all of her reactions to the people and rides and characters. About a month after we planned the trip we found out my wife was pregnant (surprise) then of course the pandemic and trip being cancelled. If it wasn't for my wife being pregnant we would take advantage of the crowds.
Hope you have fun!

 

[Spash007]

I’ll add that it seems to me that baby L looks a lot like his dad does when his dad isn’t wearing a mask

Haha we get that all the time! Now less because of the masks but you catch my drift

I can sort of relate to your situation! My wife and I planned a trip for the first week of May (our anniversary), we were going to bring my brother as well as our 13 month old daughter for her first experience. We were so excited for all of her reactions to the people and rides and characters. About a month after we planned the trip we found out my wife was pregnant (surprise) then of course the pandemic and trip being cancelled. If it wasn't for my wife being pregnant we would take advantage of the crowds.
Hope you have fun!

Congratulations on the pregnancy! Watching two young kids now enjoy the magic is more than twice the fun, so when you are able to visit, it will be that much more of a blast!

 

[Spash007]

Quick wrap up for yesterday as we start a new day-

We started out with a couple hours at the pool on what was a perfect pool morning. The sun wasn’t too strong, but it was still nice and warm.

We took a quick break in the room before catching a private bus over to DHS.

We were about 45 mins early for our ADR at Brown Derby, so we decided to ride MMRR first. As much as I miss the Great Movie Ride, that was awesome! Around this time we noticed that the mask compliance at DHS was definitely less than at MK. CMs did great trying to enforce it, but we saw a few people just walking around with no masks even visible.

Lunch was good. K had the Cobb Salad and I hadn’t the Wagyu burger. While both were very good, and we ended up splitting each, they weren’t as mind blowing as we were hoping. Maybe we built up the anticipation a bit much.

Afterwards the rain started coming down which put a slight hinder to our plans, but we still rode everything twice (most times because of rider swap: Mania, Saucers, Slinky Dog, ToT (C’s first and second time), Rise, and Falcon. We also stopped in Walt Disney Presents for a bit too.

Rise was of course awesome, even though the main Kylo animatronic was broken. We had the blue milk which me and C enjoyed, I got a Red Ale from Baseline and the Golden Lager from Galaxy’s Edge. We also got some Ronto Wraps right before they closed, meaning we were able to enjoy our walk out in the dark. And on the way home, we even had a private bus!

I do wish we had more time to explore Galaxy’s Edge, but going on pretty much every ride twice when in the park for half a day was still great!

And now a quick breakfast in the room and off to MK!

 

[imallearsgurl]

Great report so far! I couldn't resist the lure of low crowds and DVC rental deals either, so I'm in a Poly studio starting next Wednesday.

My kiddos are all grown so I miss the magic of seeing everything through their young eyes, but this trip I'm going solo as a "post-divorce/2020 has been a crapshow so far" adventure all to myself

I was wondering about your experience in taking the bus from Poly to DHS. I only have one day at Studios, and as a die-hard Star Wars fan I'm determined to get a boarding pass for ROTR. I've been practicing daily on my phone, but have been debating whether to rely on the bus or get an Uber that morning. I've read where busses usually start running around 8:30, but I will be a nervous wreck if I'm still waiting for a bus at 9 or after. It sounds like you were able to catch a bus and be there in time to procure the precious boarding passes.....how did it go?

Your report is definitely getting me excited for next week......the lack of crowds and walk on rides sound amazing!

 

[slipperalwaysfits]

As for rides, we did Dumbo, Barnstormer 2x, Little Mermaid, Tea Cups, Pooh 2x, the Carousel, and Small World. The low crowds are really unbelievable until you see them!

So happy your family was able to go to WDW!!! Sounds like you're having a great trip! I'm impressed with how well your little ones did on their first day! You got a lot done in MK that day!

We were about 45 mins early for our ADR at Brown Derby, so we decided to ride MMRR first. As much as I miss the Great Movie Ride, that was awesome! Around this time we noticed that the mask compliance at DHS was definitely less than at MK. CMs did great trying to enforce it, but we saw a few people just walking around with no masks even visible.

Afterwards the rain started coming down which put a slight hinder to our plans, but we still rode everything twice (most times because of rider swap: Mania, Saucers, Slinky Dog, ToT (C’s first and second time), Rise, and Falcon. We also stopped in Walt Disney Presents for a bit too.

The mask thing is frustrating, but I guess that will happen anywhere. I just plan on keeping my distance from those people. So glad you loved Galaxy's Edge and how'd your daughter like Slinky Dog? Or is she not quite tall enough yet?

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Enjoy your time there! We just got back yesterday, it was great!