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On 2/22/2021 at 5:25 AM, kmac30 said:

Got here yesterday. Up early to try and book Rise of the Resistance. Wife is stressed. Trip will be smooth sailing as long as this works out.

We are going in a month.  Spring Break.  I had the fast pass thing down, but how do things work now?  Do you book rides/attractions the morning of?

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The only one I believe that has anything close to a Fastpass is Rise of the Resistance but that's more for you to get a board group and a time window to return to stand in line. 

So you're going to WDW and standing in lines again like it's the pre-FP+ days.

FP might return in the summer but not till the capacity is increased. 

Edited by mdmost
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No fast pass and it’s glorious. No stressing about getting to any ride by a certain time. The rise of the resistance is a pain in the ass, but if you wake up and do it right you should land a time. We didn’t have a problem (it’s also not spring break). Lines have been super short. We rode Everest in Animal Kingdom 8 times before 9 this morning (kids favorite). We did the Avatar ride in 20 min, space mountain line is as long as it takes to walk the length, Big Thunder Is 20 min, millennium falcon was 20 min at one point 2 days ago. Rock and roll rollercoaster got long, but not real bad. 7 dwarfs was long all 3 days.

If you’re going to make a light saber, book it for after the park closes if you can. We had a 7:25 appt and got to hit some rides right at 7 with zero lines. It was an awesome experience for my 7 yr old son.

The only thing that got me were these cards some ppl had. They were bypassing lines and we couldn’t figure out why. Not sure if it was ride switching or handicap, but it was weird.

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Went to WDW yesterday. We've been watching the wait times for the past few weeks and it's starting to increase each week. 

With the park reservation system and the Rise of the Resistance ride in Hollywood Studios, most of the crowds go to Hollywood Studios in the morning. Tower of Terror, Slinky Dog Dash, Mickey/Minnie Railway all had 60 minute waits. The other parks are a lot emptier than Hollywood Studios.

If you want to do the Rise of the Resistance, read up on the strategy to get a place in line. We didn't get a place during the 7am queue but did get a place during the 1pm queue. The ride was the highlight of the day.

 

1 hour ago, kmac30 said:

If you’re going to make a light saber, book it for after the park closes if you can. We had a 7:25 appt and got to hit some rides right at 7 with zero lines. It was an awesome experience for my 7 yr old son.

This is excellent advice - lots of families start to leave around dinner, so if you can make it past 6pm, the wait times decrease substantially.

 

1 hour ago, kmac30 said:

The only thing that got me were these cards some ppl had. They were bypassing lines and we couldn’t figure out why. Not sure if it was ride switching or handicap, but it was weird.

 

We asked an employee - they said they were disabled or similar access. 

 

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zman, probably passed you at some point.

If anyone wants some solid advice on the ROTR queue, let me know. We had a girl who was there 2 weeks ago give us very detailed instructions and they worked great.

We started our week Monday at Hollywood Studios, then Magic Kingdom Tuesday (light saber building 7:25 HS) and Animal Kingdom/Magic Kingdom Wednesday.

I also think the bus system sucks. We stayed at Bay Lakes and got caught on a bus Sunday night coming back from Disney Springs. Ubered the rest of the trip. Drivers knew exactly where to go for drop offs and pick ups. Definitely made life easier.

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15 hours ago, kmac30 said:

zman, probably passed you at some point.

If anyone wants some solid advice on the ROTR queue, let me know. We had a girl who was there 2 weeks ago give us very detailed instructions and they worked great.

We started our week Monday at Hollywood Studios, then Magic Kingdom Tuesday (light saber building 7:25 HS) and Animal Kingdom/Magic Kingdom Wednesday.

I also think the bus system sucks. We stayed at Bay Lakes and got caught on a bus Sunday night coming back from Disney Springs. Ubered the rest of the trip. Drivers knew exactly where to go for drop offs and pick ups. Definitely made life easier.

Definitely would like advice on ROTR.  We are going 4 days over SB.  My park reservations as of now are..

Monday - MK

Tuesday - Hollywood Studios

Wednesday - MK

We have park hopper, so figured we'd hit Animal Kingdom either Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon.  Epcot may or may not be a part of this trip.  Good advice on the Uber

Thursday we are meeting friends at Universal.

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6 hours ago, Don Johnson said:

 

We have park hopper, so figured we'd hit Animal Kingdom either Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon.  Epcot may or may not be a part of this trip.  Good advice on the Uber

Thursday we are meeting friends at Universal.

There is no park hopping allowed presently(park hopping may never return as the park reservation policy has been extended into 2022) You also have to make a reservation in your My Disney Experience portal for the park you'll be going to that day. It appears Disney has found a way to get people like me to buy tickets months in advance instead making room only reservations and buying tickets a few days before arrival as you can't make park reservations without valid tickets for all members of your party.

Things are always easier mixing in some uber/Minnie Van rides.

Edited by ShaggyBevo RIP
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zman, probably passed you at some point.

If anyone wants some solid advice on the ROTR queue, let me know. We had a girl who was there 2 weeks ago give us very detailed instructions and they worked great.

We started our week Monday at Hollywood Studios, then Magic Kingdom Tuesday (light saber building 7:25 HS) and Animal Kingdom/Magic Kingdom Wednesday.

I also think the bus system sucks. We stayed at Bay Lakes and got caught on a bus Sunday night coming back from Disney Springs. Ubered the rest of the trip. Drivers knew exactly where to go for drop offs and pick ups. Definitely made life easier.

I’ll take em. We’ll be there in 3 weeks. Wife’s doing basically everything but wouldn’t hurt to read it
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On 2/26/2021 at 4:16 PM, ShaggyBevo RIP said:

Never mind I see they reinstated park hoppers 3 months ago.

A little more details. You are allowed to park hop to any park at 2pm.

So if you want to do the new Star Wars ride, you need a park reservation for Hollywood Studios for that day. Because they only open the virtual queue for the ride at 7am and 1pm...which is conveniently before the 2pm park hopper time.

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On 2/27/2021 at 8:38 PM, MNLonghornFUKM said:


I’ll take em. We’ll be there in 3 weeks. Wife’s doing basically everything but wouldn’t hurt to read it

Here's what I learned/was told:

- Stay on cellular, not wifi

- Use the fastest phone in your group

- have one person watch the time while another person tries to join

- when it gets close to the time, start doing page refreshes (on an iphone, pull down) to refresh the page

- be ready to go fast when the join button pop-ups - you need to move very quickly. You will have seconds to do it. All the reservations will be gone in under 10 seconds

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Bob Chopak said Disneyland reopens on April 30th. They need the extra time to train cast members on protocols and get the rides back up to OSHA standards as they've all been dark for over a year now. They're slated to open at 15% and only to California residents. There's some thought that with vaccine distribution going well in CA that they may be able to open at 25%. So out of staters are probably looking at 2022. They're going to take a lot of the practices from WDW including a park reservation system. No Maxpass, no Fastpass, no parades, no fireworks, no park hopping. I can only imagine how slammed that site will be when it goes live. Lots of Disney blue balls from the lifers out there in Southern California. 

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Just got back from Spring Break. 

1. Regarding Covid, masks everywhere, all the time unless you’re stationary and eating/drinking.  Employees are constantly monitoring  

2. Roughly 8 foot distanced markers are set up in every line. 90% of the folks in line don’t distance. Employees DGAF. I tried my best to get my boys (12,10,8) to stop at the lines but when you’re in the Splash Mtn line for 60 minutes it’s just not going to happen.  I did chuckle at an older couple that got onto one of my kids for getting too close to them.  They weren’t necessarily wrong as my son certainly crossed the marked line, but if you’re that wound up (they were constantly checking out everyone’s distancing) maybe Disney World at Spring Break isn’t the best place for you  

3. Dining sucks. Maybe it was just Spring Break, but with a bunch of places shut down, and capacity limited, the options just weren’t great. 

4. Lines weren’t that bad. They usually overstated the wait. Most popular rides were 45 minutes max  

5. Rise of the Resistance was gone in about 2 seconds at 7:00am. Luckily got in at the 1:00 queue. 

6. Went to Universal one day. Disney at least tried on Covid precautions. You can tell they lead the way on coming up with protocols to open and even if the crowd there doesn’t care about the masks etc, they at least give it the old college try. Universal crowd truly doesn’t give a damn and no one monitors anything. That said, my youngest lost his mask on Hulk, and the lady working the ride had a disposable one for him.  I imagine it happens a lot  

7. If you don’t have Express passes at Universal, don’t even go. We let my oldest get it as he was meeting a bunch of buddies. But me and my younger two didn’t shell out the $350/ head extra and the lines were brutal. 

Edited by Don Johnson
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They're not even expanding beyond their footprint. They would just be knocking down existing Disney buildings, parking lots, and cast backlot areas to do this. A lot of this would replace parking for their hotels and parks. Seems like a no-brainer to me but I'd imagine someone, somewhere will have a problem with it. I'd imagine this past year without Disneyland has shown the area just how intertwined they are with the ecosystem. I can't imagine any of those hotels around Disneyland are doing well. 

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I never considered once going back to Disney world the 15+ times Ive been back to Fla since the first time I went to DW/Fla back in 1995. But holy shit this a well oiled machine. I wish the damn meals weren’t 120+/meal..that gets old but after the belle castle and Cinderella castle experience...we can maybe cut back on those expensive ass meals next time

Never been to Hollywood studios before today...the resistance ride lived up to the hype but I’m sure i would be fine never riding it again in my life...very cool tho. I’m not a Star Wars nerd but fucking A..Star Wars world was absolutely amazing. I mean holy shit the $$$$ stuck into it must be in the billions.

I actually had more fun on the toy story mania ride and Hollywood hotel rides compared to the resistance . Also thought the Mickey/Minnie train ride for my little kids was cool that we went twice on it. I’d do HS again next year. Shout out to [mention]kmac30 [/mention] for the resistance for newbs tips...worked for the 7am shift on our first try.

We’ll be back to DW while the kids are younger...5 year old daughter is loving every second of it but damn this 5 parks in 5 days is for the birds. Pro tip...use kingdom strollers if you’re bringing little kids. They’re slick and you don’t need to bring your own.

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9 hours ago, MNLonghornFUKM said:

 Pro tip...use kingdom strollers if you’re bringing little kids. They’re slick and you don’t need to bring your own.

We brought our BOB stroller well past the point when our youngest needed it. Mainly to use as storage and a drink holder. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just got back from a quick trip.

  • Parks all opened prior to posted park times, usually 30-45 minutes early
  • Masks everywhere, people compliant only saw 2 mask police
  • Magic Kingdom was empty early then got busier as the day went on
  • Got rise of the resistance boarding group, but the ride broke while we were in line and we ejected - will do it next time
  • Food was not an issue, had reservations for most meals but the mobile ordering worked well when we used it
  • Park hopper worked after 2 o'clock no issues getting into other parks
  • Ride lines weren't too bad
  • Most restaurants seem to be opened - only a few closed
  • Epcot was interesting as the let go a lot of the international workers due to COVID, our waiter at Rose and Crown was normally at Narcosis in Grand Floridian, he was not thrilled about being in the UK pavilion. Seems China,  Mexico and Japan had their normal workers.
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On 3/20/2021 at 5:24 PM, Don Johnson said:

 

7. If you don’t have Express passes at Universal, don’t even go. We let my oldest get it as he was meeting a bunch of buddies. But me and my younger two didn’t shell out the $350/ head extra and the lines were brutal. 

I refuse to go to Universal without it and I've felt that way for years. I did go once with it when it probably wasn't necessary, but slow periods are becoming increasingly difficult to find.

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On 3/25/2021 at 10:49 PM, MNLonghornFUKM said:

I never considered once going back to Disney world the 15+ times Ive been back to Fla since the first time I went to DW/Fla back in 1995. But holy shit this a well oiled machine. I wish the damn meals weren’t 120+/meal..that gets old but after the belle castle and Cinderella castle experience...we can maybe cut back on those expensive ass meals next time

Never been to Hollywood studios before today...the resistance ride lived up to the hype but I’m sure i would be fine never riding it again in my life...very cool tho. I’m not a Star Wars nerd but fucking A..Star Wars world was absolutely amazing. I mean holy shit the $$$$ stuck into it must be in the billions.

I actually had more fun on the toy story mania ride and Hollywood hotel rides compared to the resistance . Also thought the Mickey/Minnie train ride for my little kids was cool that we went twice on it. I’d do HS again next year. Shout out to [mention]kmac30 [/mention] for the resistance for newbs tips...worked for the 7am shift on our first try.

We’ll be back to DW while the kids are younger...5 year old daughter is loving every second of it but damn this 5 parks in 5 days is for the birds. Pro tip...use kingdom strollers if you’re bringing little kids. They’re slick and you don’t need to bring your own.

No doubt, Tower of Terror is probably the best attraction they've come up with since Horizons opened.

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Which park? World will be a lot closer to normalcy than Anaheim. That's just simply Florida vs. California and their restrictions. Also, Florida being open longer and already going through it. They've already gone at World to phone based Magic bands and away from the physical ones. I'd imagine Fastpasses will be added to that app and connectable through your device but I would imagine park reservations are here to stay until at least Summer 2022. I think we're going to try for early Summer 2022 for Land. It will be a ways behind but I'm fine with a more restricted Disneyland. It was way too crowded and Disney was happy to jettison the passholders since they thwarted outsiders from coming in. The new system will allow them to restrict the passholders even more. I don't think Fastpass comes back until Summer 2022 as well. 

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34 minutes ago, mdmost said:

Which park? World will be a lot closer to normalcy than Anaheim. That's just simply Florida vs. California and their restrictions. Also, Florida being open longer and already going through it. They've already gone at World to phone based Magic bands and away from the physical ones. I'd imagine Fastpasses will be added to that app and connectable through your device but I would imagine park reservations are here to stay until at least Summer 2022. I think we're going to try for early Summer 2022 for Land. It will be a ways behind but I'm fine with a more restricted Disneyland. It was way too crowded and Disney was happy to jettison the passholders since they thwarted outsiders from coming in. The new system will allow them to restrict the passholders even more. I don't think Fastpass comes back until Summer 2022 as well. 

World. I think park reservations will be fine for us...just hope fastpass is back when the crowds come back. I could see very heavy crowds due to pent up demand next year.

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I think a good measure of when things will be considered back by Disney is when the Disney cruise lines start opening back up. So far Summer 2021 isn't open. Think about it. What's more cramped than a Disney cruise ship. So when they set the date for cruises to resume, that's when Disney thinks WDW will be back to full strength. 

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[mention=140]mdmost[/mention]  [mention=35]MrPhlegm[/mention] 
Any takes on if 2022 sees more normalcy? I’m planning a trip and catching up on how much is shut down/different. I’d imagine crowds will be back a year from now so wonder how much of the changes will stick (park reservation, no fast pass, etc).
they are shutting it down completely. everwhere.
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[mention=140]mdmost[/mention]  [mention=35]MrPhlegm[/mention] 
Any takes on if 2022 sees more normalcy? I’m planning a trip and catching up on how much is shut down/different. I’d imagine crowds will be back a year from now so wonder how much of the changes will stick (park reservation, no fast pass, etc).

Not addressed to me but in the last week or 2 they’ve allowed maskless pictures. We missed that by a week but still snuck some in. I’d say it’s trending towards normal with more vaccine available than before. Hopefully ditching the masks when not in line is next followed by in lines.

It sounds like, according to pro Disney moms, they’re going to keep this capacity thing for a while. Long are the days that you can just decide to up and go to whatever Disney park you feel like going to. Don’t take my word for it... but the further out you schedule dates, the Better the chances you’ll have to lock down the parks you want to go to in the order you want... so don’t procrastinate
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  • 3 weeks later...

Just completed a trip to WDW for a cheer competition...second trip there in six months so was interested to see what had changed. Some observations

  • Parks are definitely busier...believe Disney said they are at 35% capacity, but that is relative to max capacity. The reality is that the parks are probably 50-60% of what you would see on a typical summer weekday. Definitely felt more crowded than in October as no park was close to Disney's 25% restriction back then.
  • Park hopper option is a must. Reservations for every park (except Epcot and some days with Animal Kingdom) are gone through the end of June (though spots can open up) and July will be gone within a week or two would be my guess. However, park hopping is working great right now. I think what Disney is doing is setting a max total parks capacity for any given day, then actually allowing fewer reservations for the busier parks (MK, HS, and to some extent, AK) and then flowing the excess to Epcot, which can be spread out more due to the World Showcase. At 2pm, park hopping begins and folks can flow to other parks. Disney says they will not allow park hopping to parks at capacity, but with the way they are managing it now, that has rarely happened. With longer hours (certainly longer than they were in October), it is pretty easy to get all you want in. We had a 3 day park hopper through the cheer comp and we easily did everything we wanted in all 4 parks with the hopper. What that means for planning purposes is that you can do fewer days with the park hopper option than buying single park tickets. 4 day single park option has similar costs to the 3 day hopper and with the reservations filling up fast, park hopper is the best way to hit everything. The only drawback is that if you can't score a reservation to Hollywood Studios, you won't be able to ride Rise of the Resistance as you can't get into the virtual queue without a HS reservation.
  • The line situation has improved somewhat. In October, we were outside a lot (due to distancing) and early October is still summer in Central Florida so there were times it was oppressive and of course Disney was way more worried about you getting COVID than heat exhaustion or skin cancer. They've gotten smarter and made better use of space, including using closed restaurants and routing lines differently to take advantage of more shade when they can. Not every ride in every park is set up for that, but it was a lot better and it was certainly summer conditions (95 on Tuesday!) early this week, but I didn't feel as whipped from sun and heat like in October.
  • As someone mentioned above, maskless pictures are now happening. We didn't buy any pictures in October because of the masks, but did buy some this trip.
  • Dining is still a pain in the ass. Though the mobile ordering system isn't as glitchy as it was in October, they really didn't add any dining capacity since then either (or at least it appears that way-same places were closed as last time). During peak meal times, you are likely waiting 20-30 mins before you can order (either the queue time on the mobile ordering or waiting in a long line). Reservations are absolutely necessary at any of the full service restaurants and better be booked well in advance. There are virtual walk up waiting lists, but those disappear within seconds of them opening the lists and you have to be in range of the restaurant to get on the list. Epcot is the exception of course on the food front as there is always a festival going on plus more restaurants than say MK though you still need to reserve for the full service restaurants and not all of the full service ones in the World Showcase are operating. Basically, if you are a planner, it will be OK, but if you have kids accompanying you on the trip (or adults who act like kids 🤣), it can be tough to have a day fully planned out.
  • While we were there, Ron DeSantis issued his edict regarding removal of all restrictions at the county/city level which sent Disney into a tizzy (based on the constant reminders on the app along with increased hypervigilance of protocols) because they no longer have the cover of government edicts standing behind their COVID protocols. They've already announced that temperature checks will be phased out (which were useless anyway), but it will be interesting to see what they do next. I think Disney will hold on to masks like a security blanket and it wouldn't surprise to see that extend in 2022, but they could use this as an opportunity to further fine tune their operations primarily by dropping the 6 ft distancing rule to 3ft (in line with WHO guidance anyway). Folks in line are already ignoring this for the most part anyway, but it would certainly help intra-park transportation as it takes longer to shuttle people in and out of parks at peak times as well as speed up ride loading. It might also help with the dining issues as you might now be able to get more tables in a restaurant and/or shuttle people through more quickly. I don't think Disney really intends to expand park capacity anytime soon as they are running the parks optimally and perhaps slightly profitably right now and don't want to add too many more workers to dilute said profitability. However, updating to a smaller distancing protocol now during reduced park capacity could ease the transition to more open parks down the road. My guess is that by September, Disney will increase to 50% park capacity as they think about full on open for 2022.
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It's all about to go back to wide open. California thinks it will be on June 15th. Florida will be any minute now. Disney CEO Bob Chapek said they'll drop the mask mandate by the summer. He also said the annual passholder program is done. They will replace it with a frequent visitor program but the days of show up whenever you want as many times as you want seem to be over. I'd imagine they were losing a big chunk of money by letting passholders be the majority of guests. 

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It's all about to go back to wide open. California thinks it will be on June 15th. Florida will be any minute now. Disney CEO Bob Chapek said they'll drop the mask mandate by the summer. He also said the annual passholder program is done. They will replace it with a frequent visitor program but the days of show up whenever you want as many times as you want seem to be over. I'd imagine they were losing a big chunk of money by letting passholders be the majority of guests. 

Off to book hotel and SWA flights with points for July just in case.
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50 minutes ago, mdmost said:

It's all about to go back to wide open. California thinks it will be on June 15th. Florida will be any minute now. Disney CEO Bob Chapek said they'll drop the mask mandate by the summer. He also said the annual passholder program is done. They will replace it with a frequent visitor program but the days of show up whenever you want as many times as you want seem to be over. I'd imagine they were losing a big chunk of money by letting passholders be the majority of guests. 

Are passholders the same as those that have a Disney timeshare?  At least, I think that's what it's called.  Our friends have something like a 10 day block every year Disney.  We stayed with them 2 years ago at one of the Animal Kingdom condos.  We're planning to go again next summer.  

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15 minutes ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

Are passholders the same as those that have a Disney timeshare?  At least, I think that's what it's called.  Our friends have something like a 10 day block every year Disney.  We stayed with them 2 years ago at one of the Animal Kingdom condos.  We're planning to go again next summer.  

Passholders is more of a Disneyland thing. They have them in Orlando but way way less. Disneyland is more of a locals park but it can get ridiculous when people were able to go every day of the week while only paying $1000 for the year. It was a hell of a deal but it caused lots of problems with overcrowding and keeping actual daily paying guest from getting to go. 

Edited by mdmost
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Just now, mdmost said:

Passholders is more of a Disneyland thing. They have them in Orlando but way way less. Disneyland is more of a locals park but it can get ridiculous when people were able to go every day of the week while only pay $1000 for the year. It was a hell of a deal but it caused lots of problems with overcrowding and keeping actual daily paying guest from getting to go. 

Got it.  Thx.  My wife can now go back to watching every DisneyWorld YouTube video ever made.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Son and DIL just got back. They said things weren't totally back to normal but getting there. No fast passes, but fewer people meant wait times weren't too bad. They missed having the dining plan, but got to eat where they wanted. They raved about Sanaa. Did Rise of the Resistance twice. I guess there are multiple storylines and they got a different one the second time. 

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12 hours ago, Mo Horn said:

Son and DIL just got back. They said things weren't totally back to normal but getting there. No fast passes, but fewer people meant wait times weren't too bad. They missed having the dining plan, but got to eat where they wanted. They raved about Sanaa. Did Rise of the Resistance twice. I guess there are multiple storylines and they got a different one the second time. 

I am here now. Had Sanaa tonight and it was really good. The naan bread service was great. 
 

Did rise of the resistance today and we are trying again tomorrow. Did not realize there were multiple stories. Hope we get the other one. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

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