We just finished (8/9-8/15) our 6 night, 5 park day trip and found it as magical as always. Wait times and crowds were the lowest we have ever seen. We always travel during school breaks and are used to much higher crowds. Our longest ride wait was for Little Mermaid, of all things (15 minutes.) We walked on to essentially everything, or waited 10 minutes or less. We did rope drop, took a daily break (except for Epcot day) and rode until closing. We generally accomplished everything I had planned for morning and afternoon before we broke for lunch. This allowed for swimming and naps in afternoon. We rode some headliners multiple times, and only skipped minor rides that we were fine with skipping. We didn’t do all the shows, but really enjoyed the few we did.
Transportation was very smooth. More frequent buses than we are used to (we stayed at Pop for the first time), and the Skyliner was glorious. Line for Skyliner at closing was long, but moved fairly quickly. That said, if parks were crowded, I would personally avoid leaving HS right at closing. We did run into getting stuck at CBR Skyliner hub when weather rolled through. CMs took names for buses, and walked guests onto a bus to HS or Pop. We also had to take buses from Pop to HS directly when skyliner was down for daily afternoon lightning. We were hoping to ride Skyliner to Riviera for breakfast at Primo Piatto, but were not allowed on from CBR, so just walked. This was a nice walk.
Mask compliance was fairly good. We did encounter guests in every queue who took masks off immediately after entry. CMs did not address this. Crowds were generally polite, but I did have an irate lady yell at me in line— apparently she mistook me (in a mask) for someone else. Her family apologized, but it was alarming. Guest behavior can always be erratic. Although there was no formal social distancing, we never experienced the crush of people that we have in past trips. Rope drop was more of a spread out walk than running and pushing, people held back a bit more in lines.
This was our first extended stay at a value, and I loved Pop! The rooms are very efficient and peaceful, the Skyliner access is great, and we enjoyed the pools. My teenage son missed the usual extras of the deluxe hotels, but we stayed for 6 nights for the cost of 2 at our usual favorite. We will definitely keep Pop in the mix with future stays. (I would not say the same for All Stars.)
Food was fabulous. I ended up booking 2 dining reservations a day to ensure down time for grandparents and myself with a recent knee injury. I generally don’t like the stress of quick service meals with a largish party. I like to be waited on! We ordered either an appetizer, or an entree (often splitting between 2 people), and enjoyed having a cool break from crowds for lunch and dinner. Most restaurants were only seating at about half their tables. Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom restaurants were the exception. When booking for a party of 7, I had had to split reservations into 2 tables. All restaurants except Skipper Canteen were able to combine our tables. We even added 3 people as a walk up to our table at Mama Melrose when we ran into friends from home with no issue. We ate at Sci Fi, Mama Melrose, Saana, Yak and Yeti, Rose and Crown, Grand Floridian Cafe, Skipper Canteen, Hollywood Brown Derby, and Oga’s. They were all excellent— food and service. We also ate at booths on our Epcot day— China, Japan, Australia, as well as Kabuki Cafe, Les Halles, and the French ice cream store.
Happy travels to all those who are visiting soon! Feel free to ask questions.