Caribbean Beach 2-11 - 2-15

Hey Everyone,

I do not post much on Intercot but I have been fan and have posted now and then over the many years. The family, that includes myself, the Mrs, two girls, 18 and 17, just came back from a trip to the house that the mouse built and I thought I would give people some info in the world of Covid.

We stayed at Caribbean Beach mostly because of the Skyliner. We have stayed there with it before Covid, and enjoy the use of it. It is still a good way to get to Epcot and Hollywood. Capacity is limited, and the lines were longer than normal, but it is expected.

Masks are mandatory, this is not a commentary on them, they are mandatory everywhere. When you are alone on the skyliner with your family, you can take the masks off for the few minutes. You are not allowed to take them off if you are posing for pictures, even if nobody is around you. Again, I am not complaining, I just want people to understand, they are taking this extremely serious. Some may wonder, if they are or aren't, everyone has their thoughts. While we were there, it was in the mid 80's during the day, encountered rain now and then, and found different masks worked better for us during different times. Bring multiple styles to find what works best for you.

The parks are limiting attendance to the parks, and I talked with a cast member who has been with Disney for 20 plus years in many different roles and this person said, it is a little misleading. For instance, MK can have 140,000 people in the park, and it only sees that during holiday's and a few other days, most of the time the park is at 30-40% naturally. So when they say they are limiting, it is a little play on the numbers.

Not having Fast Pass was great. I am being serious. We were able to get on many rides that during the era of Fast Pass, if you just showed up you would have a long wait. The crowds figured it out, and people made choices on what's worth standing in line, and lines would change during the day. Avatar went from 110 minutes plus, to 50 minutes later in the day. While Expedition Everest was walk-on until people figured out, nobody was in line. I know families that want to schedule everything out, this makes life a little difficult, but with our family, it worked well not having a strict schedule for Fast Pass.

Food, we did sit down, two of the days, and used the app to order food the other times. Getting to know how to best use the Ap for ordering food took a little bit, but once we figured it out, and planned where we would be, and what we wanted, it was great.

In talking with another cast member, the only cast you will see in the park at this time is full time, the temps have not been called back yet. We found some of the best service and attitudes in years. Again, Disney has some of the best Cast Members, but people went out of their way EVEN more for us and others.

We did the park hoper while we were there, glad we did. It was very smooth, and allowed us to watch the ap, and see where people weren't or if we wanted to double back to something we may have missed. You were eligible to park hop after 2pm.

Downers during the trip, and again, I only post this for people who have questions. The lack of fireworks was a little bit of a downer. There are many restaurants still not open. There are many shops not open. I understand why, but I wanted people to know before they went. Most of the pre-shows are gone due to the inability to social distance in those enclosed areas. Again, I understand, I just want people to know what is coming when they get there.

Transportation with the busses seemed a little better. They do limit the amount of people on the busses, but with less hotels open, there appeared to be more flexibility for them to throw a bus or two to a different hotel stop when there was a line. We also had a rental car and used that one of the days, they do not charge you if you are staying on property to park in the basic lots.

I honestly do not know what it would be like in the parks, in the middle of July with the masks. It does get hot, and you can get a little uncomfortable. I feel for the parents of little kids, and getting them to keep their masks on at times.

While you are onsite, check the hours of operation during your stay. Sunday, the week before we were to go had all the parks closing at or around 6pm. That changed Saturday morning, they kept all the parks, except AK, open much later. MK was open until ten. I am sure they saw the crowds were staying and hotels were full.

Would I go again with the world of Covid and how everyone is still figuring it all out? Yes. Be patient, be flexible, and take time for yourself while down there. We all know that people can be so focused on getting everything done, but it usually isn't possible, and it is less during the trying times.

Lastly, if you are traveling with anyone who expects to get on Rise of the Resistance, be honest with yourself, and figure you will NOT get on. There is limited capacity for an extremely popular ride. We attempted twice at 7 to get passes, and even at 1, and within 10 seconds they were all gone for the day. It was busy over President's day weekend.

If anyone has questions, please ask, and I will do my best to respond.

Iowamouse