Where's The Crowds? March 20-21, 2026

My spouse and I planned a quick getaway to DW about 2 weeks ago to meet up with a relative.  Plans changed from a 1 night stay at All Stars Movies, to a 2 night stay with the first night beging at the Dolphin as All Stars Movies didn't have a room for the second night.  Thursday drive to Orlando from southwest Florida was uneventful.  About 2 traffic slowdowns within 30 miles of DW which has been typical coming from the Tampa area.  Got to Dolphin around 1 pm and room was ready.  Balcony resort view looking towards HS and Swan.  Nice room with 2 double beds.  I think we have stayed at the Dolphin at least 4 prior times.  I wanted to stay here the first night as I planned to do a day at HS while spouse spent time with friends and relatives.  After checking in spouse met relative and I departed to give them quality time alone.  I walked over to Beaches and Cream and got a seat at the counter with only a 5 minute  wait.  The regular tables were 95% full around 2 when I got there.  My first time in the renovated Beaches and Cream.  Much larger counter and much larger seating. A positive improvement!  Food still good.  Angus Cheeseburger, tots, and root beer float were my choices.  A little later I saw my spouse and relative sitting at a 2 person table across from me.  They had made the loop around the boardwalk but found nothing to their liking.  After my lunch/dinner, I walked down to Hollywood Studios to see what the walk in walk out crowd  was like during Spring Break.  But, I guess it must be pre Spring Break crowd as the crowd coming in and out did not seem large to me at all. Spent a quiet evening at Dolphin as guest visited HS and came back to our room to take a break before they closed out HS themselves.

The next day I got an early start, packed up our car, and walked over to HS for the early hour.  I beat the boat to HS by at least 10 minutes.  When I started walking their was a long line waiting to board the boat which had just arrived.  No real delay getting into the park. I walked over to Rise of the Resistance and saw it said 30 minute wait.  It was around 8:30 when I got there.  Even though I had a lightning lane pass at 8 pm that night, I decided to get on the attraction then since I have heard the ride sometimes breaks down during the day.  Good decision as later on I saw the ride did break down just before my scheduled 8pm lightning time.  It was my first time on Resistance after a 6 year wait.  It was worth the wait.  A well done attraction. The jerking of the attraction did cause me to have some neck soreness later.  So older riders beware and maybe pass on this one.  I couldn't wear my lumbar back pad as I wanted to for some reason as CAST member instructed me to take it off from around my waist.  After Resistance it wasn't quite 9 am yet so I was able to get into the Single Riders line for Smugglers Run another attraction I had not done before.  This one was okay and I thought it would be more than it was.  Next was my lightning pass to Indiana Jones.  The rolling ball scene was omitted from the show, I assume a fallout from the ball that got away!  Also, I noticed that there were no volunteers taken from the crowd to be part of the market scene.  Instead they had people who were tumblers doing that scene.  The changes did not distract too much from the original show.  But, the rolling ball had been a staple of the show for years.  I haven't checked to see how the ball got away during that one show?   Anybody know the details??  I used another Lightning lane to do Minnie's Runaway Train.  The train ride was okay.  I do miss the old movie ride though that had been there for years.  I really did not experience a large crowd at HS.  I have seen worse there.  The crowd I saw during out stay was no where near what I call a large crowd which would be a large close out park crowd I have experienced several times at MK, especially Christmas Day.  After that I walked back to the Dolphin to move our car over to the All Star Movies parking lot.  Our room wasn't ready and would not be ready until 4:30 pm.  I should have taken the boat back to the Dolphin, but I decided to see if I could beat the boat back from HS.  I lost the race by at least 5 minutes.  Lesson learned!  I drove our car over to Disney Springs where my spouse was with her relative and parked in the surface lot for the first time in 20 years!   I might park there more often during non busy seasons. I had a sundae from Ghirradeli as my lunch.  I then decided to drive over to All Stars Movie and leave the car near the entrance to building 1.  It was around 2 pm and I had a 4pm at Brown Derby Inn for dinner.  The plan worked out well and I was back at HS after 3 to just look around and sit prior to my dinner reservation.  I had the Cobb Salad and an cocktail at Brown Derby.  Very good!  I decided that I really didn't want to wait around until 9 pm for my Toy Mania lightning lane time and my neck was still sore from Resistance (before I even knew the ride would break down later). I thought about asking if I could trade in my time for a quicker time but lost motivation.  Then I got the notice that our room was ready so I took the bus back to All Stars and moved the car over to Building 6 where we were staying.  I had asked for a first floor room and the request was accommodated.  Decent value room.  But, later that night we discovered that the walls and door adjoining the room was not sound proof.  Around 11:30 pm the guest in the next room decided to have a conversation.  Must have been parents and teens. The conversation woke us up and kept us up.  I finally called Guest Services around midnight to report them.  We left DW early this morning and were back in southwest Florida by 9 am.  A good semi spontaneous trip!