Got back from a 9-night trip, 8/28-9/6. We have been spoiled by lines shorter than I remember in my lifetime, which includes the days of the paper A-B-C-D-E tickets. We went two other times earlier in the pandemic when masks were required indoors and out. I almost canceled this trip because our kids are under 12, but I'm so glad we didn't. Here are some highlights:
1.
Masks/mask compliance, distancing: as others have said, pretty good in queues and on indoor rides, except - we had several instances of people taking off their masks once the ride left, or for ride photos. This happened 2x on RnRC, 2x on ToT, at least once on Space. We have photopass, and so we didn't get our photos from those rides. If that happens to you because it's someone not in your group, go to the photopass counter after the ride. One time we got a printed photo, most other times we were offered a re-ride. I did have a few people bump into me from behind, in line, but they apologized and backed up as soon as I looked back at them. About 50% or so of people also wore masks in crowds outdoors; in line, there are still plexiglas panels up in the switchbacks (even outside) and I felt ok keeping some distance.
2.
Crowds/Lines: Touring plans had most days at a 1, and I think that was accurate. The TP Lines app was also more accurate than
MDE. Virtually everything was a walk on, and we did not rope drop a single day (and we are usually rope droppers). The largest crowds I saw were in the evenings at EP during Labor Day weekend, and those were lines at the food booths, which sadly we didn't try. Even so, most rides were still short/no waits and it was very easy to distance while outside and not in a line. We rode
FOP 2x in a row: first time was a slow walk that took maybe 10 minutes in the late morning, then as we were exiting a CM offered everyone getting off a "re-ride" to go directly to the room right before they send you to the pre-show. We only did one weekday at AK because we rode everything we wanted to (except Safari), multiple times, in about a 3-hour period between 10-3 (we also had a 2 hour lunch at Nomad Lounge).
Everest was a walk on,
Navi was a 20-min wait.
ROTR: 7am BGs filled up within minutes rather than milliseconds, and the 1pm BGs stayed open until close, *except* for Labor Day weekend, when 7am filled in seconds and 1pm filled in minutes.
ToT, RnRC, TSMM, MFSR - were walk-ons at all times of day *except* Labor Day weekend, when they were ~20-30 min waits.
MMRR, SDD were about a 20-30 minute wait at all times. At Epcot, we didn't get to FEA because we were squeezing in rides around ADRs -
TT was a 20-min wait during Labor Day weekend, everything else, including
Soarin, was a walk on.
MK: we didn't do Jungle Cruise because we haven't seen the movie yet and it always seemed to be 20-30 minutes of a wait. We did
7DMT multiple times, not at rope drop or close, with a 10-20 minute wait. Peter Pan was about 10 min, everything else (including
BTMRR, Splash, Space, Buzz, Small World ... ) We didn't do HM or PotC because .... (oy) ... my kids are scared of them.
3.
Indoor dining: IT WAS HOT WHILE WE WERE THERE. REALLY REALLY HOT. HOT HOT HOT!!! We were touring with another family that was much more covid-risk-averse than we were, and they decided before our trip not to do any indoor dining. We kept 1-2 ADRs a day to get a break from the heat and also because we really love some of the restaurants at WDW. No one stated this specifically, but many of the restaurants appear to be running at slightly reduced capacity (and thus more spaced) but because of staffing issues.
California Grill still had partitions up between booths near the kitchens, and we were probably 10 feet away from the nearest table; same at
Topolino's.
Skipper Canteen. Garden Grill also seemed pretty spaced.
Chef Mickey's was generally pretty good, too, we were 6-8' from the next table, but we ended up being seated in the lower-ceilinged area, which was fine with us but might not feel comfortable for others.
Teppan Edo - we were seated with another group but there was a partition between us, and I sat on that end (vaxed), so we felt comfortable there as well. We originally planned to have the whole table with the other family, but unfortunately it didn't work out that way. We also did
Sci Fi and
Brown Derby, and
Tutto Italia. We were a little closer to neighboring tables than I would have liked at Brown Derby and Tutto Italia, but they staggered seating a little so there weren't people next to us for our whole meal.
4.
Covid risk assessments: I thought we were pretty risk averse, but the family we ended up traveling with was far more careful/anxious. We ended up going with the flow with them, building in more pool time midday for a heat break and not always doing everything together. Our lunch at Nomad Lounge was another accommodation; we had a Tiffins lunch planned that the CMs were very kind in allowing us to cancel when it became clear that our friends wouldn't feel comfortable. (I peeked, the tables were well-spaced, but we also ate there on all of our previous trips... oh well. Next time...). We go often, so we were okay with adjusting our plans on the fly to let our friends feel more comfortable. I think that was a point well-taken for this trip overall - we adjusted plans on the fly and didn't get too invested in having to do something and it all went really well. We rode things multiple times if the line was short, and didn't feel like we *had* to do everything. Because crowds were so low, it was overall a very low stress, relaxed trip.
(ETA: we wore disposable KN95s; our friends sometimes wore N95s and N95+cloth.)
5.
Fireworks: we watched HEA from the hub and while it wasn't quite as packed as days past, we kept our masks on and if I could do it over again I would have watched from farther back on Main St. or staked out a better space more time in advance. But, we enjoyed it nonetheless and I'll miss that show. Epcot Forever was easy to space. We had an amazing view almost right up at the lagoon, and the nearest groups were 20+ feet away.