2020: The Year of the Ever-Changing Trip

[Tigger's ally]

Keep that picture with Natalia in front of Ariel. One for the ages. I agree it was another fantastic trip. Much needed after the year from Hello!

My favorites of this trip

1. Seeing my three favorite ladies smiling and laughing! Yes you all had your masks on because of the times, but that just allowed me to plaster your best, cutest, remembered smiles in my mind!
2. Loved the Riviera (found a new bar to sit and enjoy the banter with the tender)
3. Natalia braving the 7DMT, Splash and Slinky dog for the first time! Brave little girl.
4. Having all the CM's comment on your mothers Jungle Book Dooney! She's spoiled a little!
5. Finally, figuring out as we came home that we will be going back same time in 2021 and with the plan to bring Natalia's twin uncles along for a full family trip! Been awhile since we were all there together! Hope it works out!

 

[Hubie]

So, what did we think of Riviera? As you can probably tell by some of my descriptors used in my room tour, we really enjoyed it! Below is a breakdown of our likes and dislikes.......of course the likes far outweighed the dislikes!
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Things we liked about Riviera
1. The resort and grounds were beautiful.
2. Even though it had been open for a year, it still seemed brand new.
3. DD really enjoyed the splash pad. She probably enjoyed it more than she enjoyed the one at Art of Animation on our last trip. That is saying a lot!
4. Great dining options! We really enjoyed Primo Piatto and Topolino's as well as the coffee shop.
5. The one-bedroom villa here felt larger than the one at Old Key West. Square footage-wise there isn't much of a difference, Riviera just makes better use of the space.
6. Easy access to the Skyliner. We used it more than we had really planned on using it.
7. This may go along with my first point, but the artwork here is stunning. My favorite pieces were the mosaics in the area leading to the sky liner.
8. Bar Riva was beautiful, had a great selection, and was both open-aired but also had heaters for when the temps dropped.
9. The soundproofing has to be top of the line. We knew the resort was fairly full and we knew we had neighbors on both sides of us but we never heard anyone when we were in our villa.
10. Bus service as great for the most part. My parents experienced one difficulty that I will discuss later on in the trip report. This was an obvious anomaly.
11. Bell Services is at the top of their game. When I called to have our luggage brought up, they were there in less than 10 minutes. They also transferred our luggage to other resorts without error.
12. The staff was always friendly and had smiles on their faces. I know this is common amongst all resorts on Disney property but I notice it more at the DVC resorts.
13. The split bathroom was great when everyone needed to get ready at once.
14. DD really enjoyed the deep, jetted bathtub.
15. The rainfall shower head was amazing. The other shower head was good too.
16. The multiple murphy beds made the one-bedroom villa a perfect fit for our family. It's always a plus when I don't have to share a bed with my DD. She tosses and turns a lot and always ends up on top of me.
17. We will always love having a full kitchen, even if we never cook on vacation. It's just nice to have the full-sized refrigerator and have the option to cook or reheat things if we want.
18. The little alcove that lead to the neighboring unit was a great place to store the stroller without having to fold it up.
19. Storage in our villa was far from lacking
20. Our "standard view" was definitely NOT standard! It was more than that!
21. The lobby, although small, was beautiful and welcoming.
22. We enjoyed having a washer and dryer in our unit. This is one of the main reasons we enjoy the DVC resorts. This trip we had each brought just a couple pairs of pants and it ended up being cooler than predicted so it was nice to be able to do laundry. It was also helpful to wash our masks. Even though housekeeping would gladly bring us additional towels, it was nice to have the ability to wash our own when needed
23. The resort did a great job of promoting social distancing and enforcing the mask policy.
24. Our room was ready by the 4pm check in time.
25. The elevators, although lacking in number, were quite speedy.
26. Bus stops were close to the building and well sheltered from the elements.


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Things we disliked about Riviera
1. The gift shop was much smaller than what we were used to even for a DVC resort
2. Being that the gift shop was much smaller, it had a smaller selection of food/drinks. We had previously ordered groceries in advance through Garden Grocer but being that we weren't staying in this resort for the entire week and that you now have to be available to meet the delivery person yourself, Garden Grocer just wasn't going to work for us on this trip. Instead, we were hoping that the gift shop at Riviera would have the large selection of grocery items that the gift shop at Old Key West had. Unfortunately it did not. We were able to get a few things but had to compromise on a couple of things.
3. One of the things we enjoy about Old Key West is that the villas are split up into different buildings and even different neighborhoods. This gives you a greater sense of peace and seclusion. Riviera has all of the villas in the same building, very similar to a large hotel. We kind of missed the secluded feeling at Old Key West but understood that the vibes were definitely meant to be different.
4. This is just a minor thing and it really is more of my mother bear coming out but as you are walking up to the sky liner there is a pond quite close to the walkway. There are signs advertising the presence of snakes and alligators but no fence surrounding the pond. I noticed that the other bodies of water on Riviera property are properly surrounded by either fencing or dense shrubbery so as to keep those snakes and alligators in their habitats and away from guests. This pond did not have the fencing or shrubbery. I could very easily see how snakes and alligators could make their way onto the walkway and was surprised that it was setup that way, especially since there was a larger body of water on the other side of the pathway that those animals may want to make their way to.
5. There were only two banks of elevators in the entire resort. One for each "wing" or "tower" whichever you want to call it. It made for some lengthy walks to/from the elevator. Making it more difficult was the fact that, due to social distancing, only one party was allowed on the elevator at a time so you often times had to wait awhile.

We stayed 10 nights @ the RR in 1/20 and loved it, but I agree about the small gift shop. We also stayed in a 1 Br. Villa and my DD and DSIL stayed with us. We did see the EC fireworks from our balcony most nights when we were there. We're trying out a preferred room @ SSR this coming November for 9 nights. I'm a little concerned about the bus service to the different parks but looking forward to be able to walk/boat over to DS.