- where did you go?
Due to interstate travel / quarantine restrictions in the Northeast we couldn't do our normal holiday jaunt to Vermont and had to stay in New York State.
We skied at Gore, it's one of the State owned ski areas that is run through ORDA. (I'd never been before. My spouse was last there in the 80's) We've been to Whiteface and Belleayre, the other ORDA areas.
Weather was not cooperative. There was rain later on our first day. Our second day, it was warm and poured. We took the day off. It then froze overnight. Today: Lots of snowmaking, lots of ice, fewer trails open; Typical Northeast Christmas conditions.

- rental process/queue
N/A own our gear

- lift queue
Ski on. A couple of times there was one or two groups ahead of us.
Staff at lines enforcing masks.
The state severely limited day lift ticket sales. I bought ours in mid November during the 5 days they were available. Theoretically season pass holders can show up any time. There were few this weekend.

- bathroom situation
Limited capacity. Capacity (25%) posted. In and out doors where practical. Blow dryers turned off, paper towels only. There were port o' johns added, but the crowd size didn't warrant their use.

- cafeteria
Very spaced out tables. It felt sparser than 25% Also a lot of added outdoor seating. Food service unchanged except for no fountain drinks.
Water fountains turned off.
Waffle Hut was outside doing it's thing. (Probably a Northeast thing)
Some new outdoor take away food service.

- did you take lunch break, or avoid cafeteria?
Took a lunch break. First indoor dining for me since Mid March. It felt very comfortable. Mid mountain and base lodge were almost empty, maybe 5% of capacity. Summit lodge open for warming and bathrooms only. Easy to social distance.
If you bring your own food you are supposedly forced to sit outside. Not practical with rain or really cold weather.

- shuttle bus to resort
N/A could park close enough. Car drop off / pick up area expanded.

- were people compliant with masks / social distance?
Very, and there was a lot of staff on duty reinforcing the regulations. (One of the reasons we chose a state /ORDA area)

- anything else that was different from a normal year?
Rental properties (AirBnB, VRBO) VERY hard to find)
While they encourage you to boot up in your car, there was an added tent for booting up; thankfully heated.
Crowds were very limited due to the weather and the limited sales. ORDA has it's own season pass for it's 3 areas. IKON and EPIC are not honored.
Lots of air filtering / circulating machines in key areas. They did some homework on air circulation.
They quickly installed RFID passes at all of the ORDA areas. Lift tickets can only be purchased in advance online. Weekend / Holiday day sales have been discontinued until further notice.
Ain't nobody discounting tickets.
Ski patrol had to shave their beards. (Mask fitting issues)

This early in the season in the Northeast is mostly about snowmaking. In a normal season an area would usually concentrate making snow on a majority of trails around one or two trail / lift pods and only run a few lifts until they get more snow down. This year they are blowing snow on a couple of trails in more pods to get more lifts running to spread out the crowds.

Killington is controlling crowds via a car parking reservation system.

As to your concern on gondolas. My feeling is that if the gondola is one way (no downhill riders a la Canyons or Whistler), has all of the windows open, and they only allow your "pod" on, then I'm ok with it and have ridden one multiple times today.

So far, so good. Looking to book another ski trip over MLK.