And I would walk 75,000 Steps and I Would Walk 75,000 More- A Mom and Dad's Adults Only Return to Disney! Completed 8/14!!

[tbholc81]

Welcome: Arrival; 20,329
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Welcome everybody to my fourth trip report and first one in 2 years!

You have to sing the title of this report along to the Proclaimers 500 miles!

The backstory for this trip goes back to April in 2020 when we were forced to move our April family vacation till August, and then cancel altogether not wanting to deal with August heat in masks, with a lot of attractions closed. Over the year I've also postponed a golf trip to Ireland twice (was supposed to be July 0f 2020 then 2021, and is now scheduled for 2022), and cancelled another trip to Nova Scotia and Cabot Cliffs. After Deb (DW) and I were vaccinated and travel restrictions loosened in VT (where they were very strict) we decided to get a quick trip in over my April vacation. Deb had been back to Disney a couple times over the winter with her TA group and some friends, but I hadn't been in 2 years. Good news is our full family vacation to Disney and Universal is set for later this summer with the kids.

Here are the details to our short getaway:

Dates- April 17 to April 20
Resort- Wilderness Lodge, Copper Creek
Ticket- 3 Day Park Hopper

Who went (and who did not)

Me- Tim

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I'm a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and working in public school so I get to vacation when the rest of the country does, on school breaks. I have been to Disney a lot of times but this is only the second time in 9 years without my kids.

DW- Deb

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Deb's a Travel Agent and would live at Disney if she was allowed. This is her third trip since October without the kids, so you see my vacation envy in Grumpy.

Here's who stayed with their Grandparents for three days, and were probably more spoiled than they would have been in Disney:

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Both have been to Disney plenty of times and as you can see in the pictures on a Disney Cruise. They wanted to come along on the trip until we told them they were staying with their Grandparents. That solved all of the problems.......

Also staying behind at the kennel (which is his Disney World) was Walter:

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He's full lab and 4 years old but you would think he's still a puppy. He'll sleep for a full day when he gets back from his dog vacation. I think he has more fun with the other dogs than the rest of us who are away combined.

I'll keep the Table of Contents here and update as we go.

Arrival- 20,329:
- Part 2
- Part 3
- Part 4
- Part 5
- Part 6
Sunday- 23,284
- Part 2
- Part 3 (warning spoilers for ROTR)
- Part 4
- Part 5
- Part 6
- Part 7
- Part 8
Monday-32,150
- Part 1
- Part 2
- Part 3
- Part 4
Departure

One thing we did on this trip was walk...... alot, hence the title and the numbers next to each day. Couldn't have done this with our kids and one of the things that made this trip really unique for us. Also there were no fastpasses, we only made 1 ADR (which we moved about 5 times), and we tried to do things we typically can't with the kids.

So here we go! After working on Friday and the kids going to school we left Vermont fairly late in the evening. We drove to my parents house in CT because our flight was out of Laguardia early Saturday morning. Arriving at my parents house about 10:30 we were quick to bed and left the house at around 4:00am to get down to Queens. With no traffic it was a quick drive and we checked in to the car parking lot just before 5am.

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This place was perfectly located, literally right next to the entrance to Laguardia (which is a mess by the way, because of major construction which has been going on FOREVER!) and it was a quick 1 minute drive to our terminal. Also, they had their parking thing down to a science. There was not one foot of spare space in this lot and cars were literally inches apart 10 rows deep. With plenty of time (actually we were super early) we got through security and onto our 7:30ish flight to MCO.

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We had a major tailwind on the way down and the flight was only about 2 hours. The first part of the flight was relatively smooth but we hit this storm coming into Orlando.

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There was no choice but to fly right through it to land, so it was pretty bumpy; like the pilot told flight attendants they had to sit and buckle up type of bumpy. Once we were through it with our white knuckles we landed and were on our way. We don't check our bags anymore so we walked right down to DME, saw the line, and decided Uber was the better option.

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I realize there was social distancing going on here but that line was waaaaaay too long when we had another option. Gotta get used to life without DME soon anyway. It was about $40 to Wilderness Lodge which wasn't too bad. The Uber driver told us Friday night rates from the airport were outrageous, about $175 to any of the Disney Resorts.

Come back for my next update as the fun part of our trip starts!

 

[suse66]

Joining in! Love the awesome trip report title!

The backstory for this trip goes back to April in 2020 when we were forced to move our April family vacation till August, and then cancel altogether not wanting to deal with August heat in masks, with a lot of attractions closed. Over the year I've also postponed a golf trip to Ireland twice (was supposed to be July 0f 2020 then 2021, and is now scheduled for 2022), and cancelled another trip to Nova Scotia and Cabot Cliffs. After Deb (DW) and I were vaccinated and travel restrictions loosened in VT (where they were very strict) we decided to get a quick trip in over my April vacation. Deb had been back to Disney a couple times over the winter with her TA group and some friends, but I hadn't been in 2 years. Good news is our full family vacation to Disney and Universal is set for later this summer with the kids.

I bet you were so happy to finally get back!

Deb's a Travel Agent and would live at Disney if she was allowed. This is her third trip since October without the kids, so you see my vacation envy in Grumpy.

I am a kindergarten educator and feel the same way!

Both have been to Disney plenty of times and as you can see in the pictures on a Disney Cruise. They wanted to come along on the trip until we told them they were staying with their Grandparents. That solved all of the problems.......

So cute!

This place was perfectly located, literally right next to the entrance to Laguardia (which is a mess by the way, because of major construction which has been going on FOREVER!) and it was a quick 1 minute drive to our terminal. Also, they had their parking thing down to a science. There was not one foot of spare space in this lot and cars were literally inches apart 10 rows deep. With plenty of time (actually we were super early) we got through security and onto our 7:30ish flight to MCO.

LaGuardia is insane! I got stuck there overnight on the way back from Disney in March of 2019 and that is an experience I would never want to repeat!

There was no choice but to fly right through it to land, so it was pretty bumpy; like the pilot told flight attendants they had to sit and buckle up type of bumpy. Once we were through it with our white knuckles we landed and were on our way. We don't check our bags anymore so we walked right down to DME, saw the line, and decided Uber was the better option.

I hate those bumpy flights, so nerve wracking!

I realize there was social distancing going on here but that line was waaaaaay too long when we had another option. Gotta get used to life without DME soon anyway. It was about $40 to Wilderness Lodge which wasn't too bad. The Uber driver told us Friday night rates from the airport were outrageous, about $175 to any of the Disney Resorts.

$175????? I've paid $28 for an Uber or Lyft. $40 seems pretty good these days.

 

[Isabelle12345]

Following!
We have gone on a short adults-only trip in 2019 and had a blast!
Can’t wait to read more!

 

[rdkeim]

Following!

 

[BigBlueWho]

sounds fun! Following!

 

[GDubDIS]

Following along! And I (unfortunately) can attest to the high Uber rates at MCO. We arrived not too long before you, Sunday April 11th, on a day where there were a ton of storms. All the delayed flights arrived at once and Ubers to WDW were between $125 and $180 with a 20-25 minute wait. We ended up jumping in the taxi line (staying at the Swan so no DME) and still took foreverrrr. Glad you had a smooth arrival (at least, once you landed!)

 

[tbholc81]

Joining in! Love the awesome trip report title!


$175????? I've paid $28 for an Uber or Lyft. $40 seems pretty good these days.

Thanks for following! It's the first time we've done an Uber there, but probably not our last. Pretty sure I won't fork out $175 for it thought!

Following!
We have gone on a short adults-only trip in 2019 and had a blast!
Can’t wait to read more!

Thanks for following! It's only our second adults only trip, but it made us want to do it again!

Following along! And I (unfortunately) can attest to the high Uber rates at MCO. We arrived not too long before you, Sunday April 11th, on a day where there were a ton of storms. All the delayed flights arrived at once and Ubers to WDW were between $125 and $180 with a 20-25 minute wait. We ended up jumping in the taxi line (staying at the Swan so no DME) and still took foreverrrr. Glad you had a smooth arrival (at least, once you landed!)

We've never done the taxis, but might be forced to one day. Let's hope not though!

 

[footballmouse]

$175

 

[tbholc81]

Arrival: Part 2
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Welcome back to everybody. Leaving off we had decided to grab and Uber to Wilderness lodge rather than wait in the line for DME. Uber was there and waiting; the driver was super chatty all the way to the resort. Sometimes that's amusing, this time was a little too much info for us, but whatever....

We landed about 10:00am when my watch went into vacation mode,

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and were in the lobby of Wilderness Lodge by 11:00am.

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Welcome home indeed!

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Wilderness Lodge is becoming one of our favorite places to stay. We (Deb and I) stayed here on a trip in 2018, but have visited with the kids a few other times for dining. We find the proximity to MK a bonus plus the food is good, the theming is awesome, and we like the rooms.

We quickly dropped off our bags and were starving so we went to eat. Since it was still early we weren't expecting the room to be ready for a few hours. We also knew that inevitably as soon as we left for our afternoon we'd get a text for the room. We mobile ordered our lunch; Deb got the Chicken and Waffles, and I got the Pulled Pork Sandwich. Deb also got a S'mores Latte. We were so hungry everything tasted great!

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We walked around the resort for a few minutes to see if our room would be ready and snagged some pictures. Deb thinks the effects on her phone make the pictures look awesome, I'm not convinced.... you can be the judge.

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I told Deb that's not "really" what the waterfall looks like, but she thinks otherwise, and took many of these during the trip.

We left the resort a little for AK and after a short wait for the bus,

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we got to AK at 12:40ish. The bus on the way there was completely empty except for us, and of course on the bus we got our text about the room being ready. I also somehow lost some sort of contest and had to carry around the backpack with our two full 40oz water bottles, oh well.....

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Crowds weren't too bad but we did forget to pack sunscreen, so that was a big mistake.

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We stopped at the first store on the left once in the park ro grab like $15 bottle of Coppertone to get all sunscreened up. Knowing we didn't check bags we'd be leaving whatever we didn't use behind.

Masks up we were on our way to our first ride of the trip! (coming up next!)

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[clara115]

Following! We’re going on an adults-only trip soon so I need all the tips!

 

[suse66]

Wilderness Lodge is becoming one of our favorite places to stay. We (Deb and I) stayed here on a trip in 2018, but have visited with the kids a few other times for dining. We find the proximity to MK a bonus plus the food is good, the theming is awesome, and we like the rooms.

I love Wilderness Lodge so much that I bought into DVC there! Such a great spot!

We left the resort a little for AK and after a short wait for the bus,

Room notifications always come in as soon as you leave the resort!

 

[tbholc81]

Following! We’re going on an adults-only trip soon so I need all the tips!

Thanks for reading! Hopefully you can grab a few here!

 

[footballmouse]

$15! Not sure I would have sprung for this

 

[GreatBiscuit]

and were in the lobby of Wilderness Lodge by 11:00am.

The best moment of any trip - checking into the resort. ESPECIALLY when that resort is the Wilderness Lodge!

 

[tbholc81]

$15! Not sure I would have sprung for this

We thought about skipping it but sunburn would have been just as bad.....

The best moment of any trip - checking into the resort. ESPECIALLY when that resort is the Wilderness Lodge!

We love it there, and have another trip planned for August with a few days at WL!

 

[tbholc81]

Happy weekend to everybody! Gonna be hot up here the next few days so it seems like a good time to write about Florida.

Leaving off we arrived at AK and grabbed sunscreen. Then our masks were on, we were sweating, and ready to go!

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We checked the wait for FOP and it was "only" 60 minutes. Thinking we'd never see it any lower and we had read that many of the wait times were actually shorter than the posted times, we headed straight for Pandora. The line was less than halfway back on the path to FOTLK, not bad.

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We had never waited in the actual que for this ride. It was either FP or not riding it, and luckily we usually had luck with our FPs "back in the day" when that sort of thing existed.

The line moved fairly quickly and we were able to snag a few photos through the queue. Especially this one where I was making fun of my wife for wearing a fanny pack.

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I guess it's the new "in" thing. The shirt is accurate though!

Here are a few more as we got closer to boarding...

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The inside of the lab was awesome! It made me almost want to wait in the 3 hour plus line to see some of the stuff again (almost). The line here was moving so quickly that we really couldn't stop and look at much of the stuff.

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In less than an hour we were getting ready to board. Really the line never stopped moving till we got here.

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Then we were in the pre show are in about 50-55 minutes. I did like the abbreviated pre-show. They separated people in this room, but then loaded us full up on the ride.

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We started in line at 12:57 and got off the ride at 2:11, so the posted wait time was about right. Now we decided to head over to Africa for our next adventure. There were some characters coming down the river.

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See what we were up to in my next post!

 

[tbholc81]

I've got time for one more post today!

As we were making our way to Africa we noticed that they were getting the line ready for FOTLK.

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One of our favorite shows to do with the kids, but at this point in time Deb was wanting her favorite ever Disney treat;

The Dole Whip!

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I skipped my own for now, and just drank a ton of water, I may have had a few bites of hers. After the craving was satisfied we were off to the Safari. The wait time was posted as 35 minutes. This que was crazy, and went behind the normal queue to a backstageish area, but kept moving. We were on the safari vehicle in about 30 minutes or so.

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It wasn't the most interesting safari we have been on. We usually try to get on one early in the morning, or towards the evening. Since this was the middle of the afternoon, and it was hot, the animals were pretty inactive.

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The giraffes were all hiding back off the road in the shade. Deb said the one in the back was poor at playing hide and seek.....

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Some flamingos and whatever is next. The lions were nowhere to be seen on this trip.

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The most interesting animal was the white rhino and her new baby. She was up away from the road nursing, and we were able to get a picture of that.

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The mom was totally over it!

Next up was a big decision. We were off the Safari at 3:30 and thinking it as time to park hop. Deb had been annoying me about riding Everest with her. Problem being that I hate roller coasters. My limit in general is BTMRR or Space Mountain. The wait was non existent and I guess I was feeling brave to I agreed and forced myself on.

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Actually it wasn't that bad, worst part was the going backwards when it shoots you right back up the hill. I made it off in one piece thankfully.

Now it was time to park hop! Come on back to find out where we went!

 

[suse66]

I guess it's the new "in" thing. The shirt is accurate though!

I think they call them waist pouches now but the same thing really. Also, I need that shirt!!

The inside of the lab was awesome! It made me almost want to wait in the 3 hour plus line to see some of the stuff again (almost). The line here was moving so quickly that we really couldn't stop and look at much of the stuff.

I can't wait to see the lab for myself...I've only ever done FP.

I skipped my own for now, and just drank a ton of water, I may have had a few bites of hers. After the craving was satisfied we were off to the Safari. The wait time was posted as 35 minutes. This que was crazy, and went behind the normal que to a backstagish area, but kept moving. We were on the safari vehicle in about 30 minutes or so.

Love a good Dole Whip!

Now it was time to park hop! Come on back to find out where we went!

My prediction is Epcot!

 

[Chief Powhatan]

Thanks for sharing another trip report. I look forward to reading the rest of it!

 

[Hubie]

Joining in! Looking at the cost of flights and Uber to WDW, we will probably drive down from WI when we go in late November. We'll be staying at SSR so a car will be an advantage for transport to the parks anyway.