It's been 2 years! Post-covid travel....

[chucklhd]

We are typically a once a year family, but our last trip was Feb 2020 and then the world shut down. So after many trips rescheduled and postponed we're heading down this February. Our usual extended family grandparents to kids is going to be down to just myself and my 8 year old daughter so I'm trying to balance this while making sure she's having fun being stuck with just me for a week (and her favorite disney characters!)

What are your best tips for a safe visit - restaurant experiences better than others - genie + thoughts etc.
We're staying at POFQ - how has bussing been? have people been using Lyft or Uber instead of WDW transportation etc etc etc.

For information sake I have reservations so far at:
Raglan Road - but I'm not tied to that unless it's fab we haven't done it before
Topolino Breakfast
Steakhouse 71 dinner
Hollywood and Vine lunch
Ohana dinner around fireworks timing
a private fireworks cruise


She of course just as she was falling asleep last night as always talking about disney said - mama I miss going to Chef Mickeys and the restaurant that spins (Garden Grill) hahahaha UGH So I guess I'll be finding those too.

Last week I thought we'd be postponing yet again with cases on the rise but we've decided to test drive our vaccines and keep the reservations. Having said this - I didn't tell my daughter so as far as she's concerned we're on hold yet again. Any suggestions for a surprise is welcomed as well. I am going to wait until the day before just in case things get crazy again and we are forced to postpone.

thanks in advance!

 

[HappyFairydust]

Hi! I was at WDW (last trip was 2018) last week.
We were also nervous about the COVID situation (and my husband is a health are worker) but at the end we said “we’ll get it no matter where we are so let’s just go”
And eventhough it was CROWDED we had a blast! And my daughter (5yo) really really enjoyed it and is begging to go back already

So we had masks on indoors and outdoors. Sanitized our hands each time after rides, before eating, after usinf bathrooms. We did eat indoors (garden grill lunch was so good, if you can get it, highly recommend! Character interaction was awesome too!) also and tried to put on a mask when a waiter came to ask for our order.
definitely bring your own sanitizer.. there are a lot of sanitizer stations but most of them were empty.. i saw people trying to fill up their little hand sanitizer bottles at those stations whenever it was filled (at the gift shop of test truck, a lady was there for 10min to fill her hand sanitizer bottle up lol)

regarding the Genie plus and ILL$:
For us the ILL$ (FoP, Remy, Frozen, MMRR, SDMT) were beneficial. If you can rope drop i don’t think it’s necessary for epcot, AK. The only place i found it was worth was hollywood studio. MK, I have mixed feelings. We unfortunately could not get good use out of it.

we had our own car so i cannot talk much about transportation but dang, we waited 1hour for the monorail to MK at 8AM

 

[Her Dotness]

You may want to reconsider Steakhouse 71.

Despite all the hype it's gotten, we ate there in November and thought the steaks mediocre at best. Cooked to order very well but not even as good cuts as Outback's. The only salads are a boring lettuce wedge and a Caesar, fine if you like those, but prices on everything are ridiculous for no better than it is. DH said I'm being too hard on the Caesar which he thought very good.

If you do keep the reservation, ask for Jack's section if he's working then. He's formerly a Chef's Table server at Victoria & Albert's and will give stellar service.

That said, I suggest Narcoosees, The Boathouse or Yachtsman instead.

Breakfast at Stk71 was excellent, on the other hand. Switch your ressie to that, and I think you'll be pleased.

 

[chucklhd]

thank you both that's helpful

 

[notatallmagic]

Our family has been to Disney five times since Covid; also headed down in February for our last hurrah with expiring Annual Passes.

I have two teenagers; one who always touches EVERYTHING!

I remember pre-Covid, always seeming to come home from vacations (flying) with a cold or something flu-ish, but we have not come home from any of our Covid era trips with any illness at all, thank heavens.

I would highly recommend lots of hand washing and bringing your own sanitizer (sometimes the dispensers are empty). We have eaten at all sorts of places, and found them to be clean and well-spaced (if indoors). We like the Skyliner, so enjoy using that; but buses are definitely back to "packed on" - but I never enjoyed that pre-Covid.

I am a big nutrition, water, lots of sleep, and fresh air kind of mom, so that's always been a focus for us before, during, and after our trips. Please do you best to enjoy your trip and make great memories!

 

[Mrs.AMC]

We've been to Disney since it reopened 8 times. We did nothing different. We followed whatever rule Disney had in place for masks, distancing, etc. Otherwise, we took Disney transportation, ate indoors, flew, whatever. We've gotten vaxed/booster when approved to do so. I do not use hand sanitizer (except when Universal forced it on us) We've been perfectly fine, nary a sniffle. We've proceeded to do everything we always do, exactly like we've always done it. I can't explain why some take every precaution there is and get sick and others throw caution to the wind and don't get sick. And no, I do not have antibodies, been checked. Just don't get it despite several direct exposures at work and such. I just think that's proof that there little you can do to control it. It is what it is and you'll either get sick or you won't. I've always been under the theory that germs make us stronger and being too clean weakens you, though I have no medical knowledge to support that, just personal experience. Granted, we have no underlying conditions to add to the concern.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

You may want to reconsider Steakhouse 71.

Despite all the hype it's gotten, we ate there in November and thought the steaks mediocre at best. Cooked to order very well but not even as good cuts as Outback's. The only salads are a boring lettuce wedge and a Caesar, fine if you like those, but prices on everything are ridiculous for no better than it is. DH said I'm being too hard on the Caesar which he thought very good.

If you do keep the reservation, ask for Jack's section if he's working then. He's formerly a Chef's Table server at Victoria & Albert's and will give stellar service.

That said, I suggest Narcoosees, The Boathouse or Yachtsman instead.

Breakfast at Stk71 was excellent, on the other hand. Switch your ressie to that, and I think you'll be pleased.

we enjoyed our Steakhouse 71 meal very, very much (lunch)
That said, I honestly felt it was very, very similar to The Wave.
That may just be a boring Caesar but one of the best I've had.
You must live around better Outbacks, LOL