I was told Animal Kingdom was closed when I tried to book.

I believe I read that the bus company wasn't owned by Disney anyway, so they will probably continue to offer the service for a fee independent of Disney.

We just rebooked a trip for April that was cancelled last April. I'm definitely disappointed in the lack of Fast Pass and Extra Magic Hours. These both played a large part in my planning to avoid long ride lines. I considered waiting to see if things get back to normal, but who knows what the Fall, or next year will bring. It could be worse so I'm rolling the dice. My refund was in credit because I used gift cards to pay for the vacation in the first place so I need to use it up, it has no value otherwise.

The last couple times we went to Orlando we just rented a car at the airport. I really enjoyed not waiting for public transportation, being able to leave the resort for breakfast food and beer and visiting family. The $25 a day fee is a real kick in the ass. There are probably days I won't touch the car. I know there were one or 2 parks that it made sense to drive to from the hotel rather than wait for the bus. I'm still on the fence. Last time we went the kids were much smaller. They will be 14 when we go, no more compact cheap cars.

How close are the posted weight times vs reality? We are going in April. We typically plan our ride schedule with Fast Passes and never had to weight too long. I'm a bit concerned I'll be spending the entire trip in line now that Fast Passes are gone.

I didn't realize EZ Pass worked in Florida. I'll have to remember to pack it.

Boardwalk Villa has a Star Wars Pro in the rec room. All the games are on free play. The game looked like it has never been cleaned and was out of order. I asked the attendant when it would be fixed, she said it's been broken for a couple weeks, no idea when it would be fixed. My wife made a comment about not fixing pinball machines while we are on vacation. Ha!

We just returned from Disney World. Overall it was a positive experience.

Rides:

Wait times: The lines look massive. Every massive line we got in we figured there is no way it's actually the posted time. During the week the wait times were 50% of the posted time on average. The weekend most rides were pretty close to the posted time, but never over. I don't think we waited more than 45 minutes for anything. I actually prefer the spaced out lines. It was a constant slow walk for most rides, I prefer that over waiting in one spot and moving 10 steps every so often.
Avatar: Holy cow this ride is awesome. People described it as Soarin' on steroids and that is accurate. Soarin was garbage. I remember liking it last time, maybe we had bad seats. Anything tall and thin was warped and curved.
Rise of the Resistance: This far exceeded my expectations. It was amazing. We had 2 days booked at Hollywood. We set the alarm both days and tried the queue at exactly 7AM. We got in both times no problem. We actually had a 3rd day booked but we were theme-parked out and needed a break. We tried the queue at 7:30AM out of curiosity and it was full.

Food:

I recommend reading some food reviews. We had a few real duds for meals. At an average of about $75 for the 4 of us quick service (without liquor) it's a tough pill to swallow when you get a food court burger that is worse than McDonalds (ABC Commissary).

Woody's Lunch Box was great, the BBQ place in Animal Kingdom was great as well. Epcot was pretty disappointing for food. I remember really enjoying the food snack stands, not so much this time.

We had dinner at Lotus Blossom and I think I've gotten better food at a late night gas station. It was close to closing, maybe that was a factor. The phone app ordering is slick. They also require you have your food before you sit, so we always had a place to sit.

The Boathouse probably wasn't a good choice for us. It's New England style seafood, but we are actually from New England. The lobster was way overcooked, as was the calamari. It's about the quality I would expect from the 99 at triple the price.

We splurged on Shula's just outside Epcot and all 4 of us agreed it was one of the best meals and service we've ever had. It was the most expensive meal I've ever had and wasn't mad about it at all.

Hotel:

We stayed at the Boardwalk Inn. The Boardwalk is really nice, unfortunately not everything is open. It was a short walk to Epcot and a little longer walk to Hollywood Studios. This is a huge plus for me. I can't stand those busses. Gorgeous hotel, awesome pool.

The service in the hotels is nothing like I remember. Our first day we asked a worker about the location of the pool. She said it was her first day and offered no help beyond that. We had an issue with laundry and the "front desk" told me to go to a laundry room that was in a portion of the hotel that wasn't even open. I went to the physical front desk and they non apologetically informed me that calling the front desk is a call center miles away. We had an issue with the toilet, actually all of the drains were slow to drain the whole trip. An angry maintenance worker came in with a plunger, splashed some toilet water on the floor and left the mess.

Overall we had a great time. We were able to get on every ride we wanted to in a reasonable amount of time. Some rides several times. A lot of the "magic" was replaced with people policing lines and masks. My kids are 14, I didn't want to wait another year (we were cancelled in 2020) in hope that it goes back to the Disney I remember. I fear it may never go back.

That makes sense. What a shame.

I thought we were saving money every time we did the meal plan in the past. After some research I don't think we did. Not being tied to Disney Property was nice on our April trip. We tried some things around Orlando and it was a welcomed change of pace. Also, I almost never order a dessert at dinner. With the meal plan it's included, and I'm the type of person that gets it because I paid for it, every meal. This leads to way overeating for me.

As far as the hotels are concerned, I'm not sure I'd bother staying on property again. I was always a big fan of being close, fast pass, extra hours, etc. With all of that gone I don't know that it's worth the premium.

Has anyone been to Disney Tokyo? My twin boys will be 15 next year, I don't mind splurging a little on the next annual vacation, there aren't many left that they will be kids. One of my boys is really into the Japanese culture. Disney wouldn't be the only focus of the trip, but it would be a good starting point. We priced it briefly and it didn't seem like a whole lot more than a Disney World trip.