Just wanted to pop in and share our experience, June 21st. All in all, it was a good day. We were there for early entry (must do for onsite guests) and stayed until about 1:30. We had premium seating, which was nice, even though our view was mostly of lifejackets (#16), so not the most scenic. In the process of obtaining our premium seating, which I had reserved on April 21st when they started taking reservations, it seems as if the process has changed a bit. I'm not sure when it started, as I stopped reading VB updates a few days prior to our trip. I was told over the phone, and on our confirmation, to proceed to the concierge desk. Once there, they asked for my ticket, and I showed them my confirmation paperowrk. They told me I needed to go to guest services (to the right of the entrance, RIGHT after they scan your ticket) to get the "ticket" to submit to them in order to actually get assigned our seating. Seems a bit silly, but since we were #s 7,8, and 9 in our line to get into the parks, it didn't take too long. Probably not even 10 minutes concierge to guest services back to concierge. A very nice worker opened up the top side of the EE line (rope partition) so I could cross back down to guest services. I had explained to him the situation, so when I returned with my magic ticket, he let me back in through the rope, so I didn't have to stand in the EE line 2x.
As far as the parks/rides themselves, we did Krakatau 2x right off the bat. Then we headed over to the turtle and the whale in River village. Did both of those. We did the other big family slide behind Krakatau, and 1 of the 4 twisty slides, and then another 2 person raft slide. So, 8 slides?? Maybe a few more that I'm forgetting? Everything was ride now, and lines were taking about a half hour, maybe a little less. Hard to tell when you don't have a watch on. DS had ridden all of the slides he wanted, so we broke for lunch at around 11:00 or so. The servers at the premium seating (bless their hearts) were trying real hard. There were 2 assigned to our area. One was obviously newer than the other. As the newer server was taking our order, she was repeating back what we had ordered, but naming it wrong, so we repeated it again to be sure she understood what we wanted. After the 2nd person ordered, she exclaimed "I'm sorry, but I don't know this menu at all!"...good grief. I tried to order a frozen drink (just a pina colada) and there was some sort of complication. Our server couldn't tell us what was available that was frozen, and I felt like this poor girl was running around the park trying to find an answer...honestly, if she took the time to learn the menu and drinks, it would probably make her job a bit easier (coming from and ex-server/bartender of about 11 years). I settled for a different adult beverage in the end. Not a big deal in the end, but being in a serving position and not familiar with what you're selling is a bit of a peevy thing for me. The food was good (DH said the jerk wings were greasy). DS had the longboard pizza, and ate about 3/4 of it (it's huge). DH also had the conch fritters. I had the coconut chicken sliders, and we all shared the fruit salad. With the exception of DH's wings, it was all tasty. The servers were very attentive too, and we never felt like we had to chase anyone down. The one strange thing that happened was our food delivery person...brought everything with cloches over it, and in an insulated carrier. No silverware or ketchup, so as he was distributing the food, I was asking him if the servers tipped him out (NO) He said that food running isn't a tipped position, but we gave him $5 anyway when he brought back the silverware and ketchup for us. Maybe that's the ex-server in me, but the area attendants basically only take your orders and run drinks...I had a hard time with not tipping the person who actually brought around our food.
Also, I found it odd that we couldn't run a tab for our premium lounger. We had to close out every time we ordered something. We were told that it was because if the weather changed, and they couldn't come out, they couldn't close out our check, or we might leave if the weather got really bad. I don't see why they can't run it like they do at the resorts and just charge a flat 18% gratuity and be done with it. It just struck me as odd, since we've had great experiences at the pools with their servers.
Oh, and even though we went in with tempered expectations due to how crazy everything's been, the one big disappointment was the pretty soft serve ice cream...It was a big letdown. It's a machine that injects flavor/color into the vanilla soft serve, but for DH and I, it basically tasted like vanilla ice cream. I had the pineapple (and honestly, I was expecting dole whip pineapple, my assumption, my bad). DH had to coconut, and he said it barely tasted like coconut. So, if you're expecting heavily flavored ice cream, that may not happen. It was just a bit of a damper, as we got the ice cream to eat while walking to and waiting for the bus...you know, last impressions and all. Overall, it was a good day, and the hiccups were on the relatively minor side, and overall didn't impact our day in an overly negative way.