BellesLibrary
With a dreamy, far-off look, and her nose stuck in
- Joined
- Sep 16, 2013
- Messages
- 114
Hello, everyone!
It's gloomy and rainy here today in Charleston, SC, so I'm attempting to brighten up my day by starting our March 2021 PTR! I hope you'll come along as I wade through the minutia of Disney planning...which, honestly, I adore.
I'm Natalie, and I am counting down the days until our next Disney trip, which (fingers crossed) should take place in March 2021. Now, to load up on vitamin C and stay away from everyone so we can feel great when it's time for the trip!
(Awww! This picture is from my son's first trip ever to WDW! He's the bundle in the baby carrier, and the cutie to the left is my daughter, who was almost 4 here, and is now 7.5!)
Background for the Trip
I don't know if y'all have noticed, but there's been a little thing called a global pandemic going on for a hot minute. (Yeah, you've probably noticed.)
Like all of you, the intensity and suddenness of the pandemic's onset threw my family into a tailspin. We went from a normal family of 4 doing all of the normal family things in early March 2020 to a homeschooling-work-from-home-we-have-no-clue-what's-happening kind of family around mid-March of last year.
I work as a college professor, so I was just a week into my second spring quarter when I was abruptly sent home and told to move all of my classes online within 48 hours (you know, as one does at a drop of a hat).
I have two kids in school (we'll meet them in a second!), and their school went fully online at the same time. My husband is a banker, so he was busy with the PPP loans that were being requested right and left around that same time.
Oh, and did I mention that we were in the middle of selling our house?!
So, we had two adults trying to do virtual meetings while two kids (a 1st grader and a preschooler) were attempting to do virtual school, and while painters, realtors, and handymen were scheduled to roam through the house.
It was a mess. Thankfully, we were able to stay safe and healthy, and the move happened later that summer.
Yet, because of the pandemic, all 3 of our summer trips were canceled, including one to Disney World and another to the Bahamas for our 10 year wedding anniversary.
So began a very long series of months of hanging out inside, social distancing, more virtual teaching, and general sadness.
You can see in my old (never finished...oops!) Trip Report that I used to work as a travel writer. I went back to college teaching about 2 years ago, but I didn't lose my love of travel in the process. I had so many trips planned for my first summer off from teaching because I wanted to go around to all of those trips we'd had planned since I'd switched careers, but you know how that turned out.
In the post-Christmas haze and dreary January weather, I've been particularly glum about sitting at the house for hours on end while I grade alone. I genuinely love teaching and getting to know my students: while online teaching is super flexible, it lacks that personal interaction space that I like best about being a college professor. Emails and messages just aren't the same.
Plus, it's so stressful to live in the everyday world of the pandemic. My dad is high risk due to an illness he's since recovered from (but his health is still delicate because of it), and my sister is currently pregnant. My family lives really close to one another, so we've had to be really, really careful about my dad and sister during this entire process. I love them, and I don't want to get them sick!
After multiple weeks of this moping about, I looked at my husband and told him, "I've gotta get out of town!" I'd imagined going to a well cleaned hotel in Savannah or something--nothing big, but something to get me out of this pandemic funk.
He suggested, "What about Disney World?" and my first reaction was "NO WAY." We've been super careful during this entire situation, and rebooking the WDW trip from last summer had only crossed my mind in my wildest dreams.
Yet, I still had the tickets from last year sitting in my Disney account, lonely and unused. I talked to a few friends who'd been to Walt Disney World during the pandemic--one went in November, and the other in late December--and both separately told me that their families had felt safer at Disney than going out to Target or Walmart on a typical day.
Those conversations made me feel better, so I have now booked our park reservations, hotel stay, and a few ADRs!! I'll share more specifics about those in later posts since I tend to be wordy (blame the English professor that I am!). My parents, sister, brother-in-law, and niece can't go on this trip because of the previously mentioned health concerns, so my nuclear family will be allowing them to live vicariously through our pictures and videos!
I'll also do a full intro post later on as well, so stay tuned!
P.S. If you've been to WDW in the pandemic, share your tips and tricks! I've been to WDW so many times that I've lost count, but I have never been during a global health crisis!
It's gloomy and rainy here today in Charleston, SC, so I'm attempting to brighten up my day by starting our March 2021 PTR! I hope you'll come along as I wade through the minutia of Disney planning...which, honestly, I adore.
I'm Natalie, and I am counting down the days until our next Disney trip, which (fingers crossed) should take place in March 2021. Now, to load up on vitamin C and stay away from everyone so we can feel great when it's time for the trip!
(Awww! This picture is from my son's first trip ever to WDW! He's the bundle in the baby carrier, and the cutie to the left is my daughter, who was almost 4 here, and is now 7.5!)
Background for the Trip
I don't know if y'all have noticed, but there's been a little thing called a global pandemic going on for a hot minute. (Yeah, you've probably noticed.)
Like all of you, the intensity and suddenness of the pandemic's onset threw my family into a tailspin. We went from a normal family of 4 doing all of the normal family things in early March 2020 to a homeschooling-work-from-home-we-have-no-clue-what's-happening kind of family around mid-March of last year.
I work as a college professor, so I was just a week into my second spring quarter when I was abruptly sent home and told to move all of my classes online within 48 hours (you know, as one does at a drop of a hat).
I have two kids in school (we'll meet them in a second!), and their school went fully online at the same time. My husband is a banker, so he was busy with the PPP loans that were being requested right and left around that same time.
Oh, and did I mention that we were in the middle of selling our house?!
So, we had two adults trying to do virtual meetings while two kids (a 1st grader and a preschooler) were attempting to do virtual school, and while painters, realtors, and handymen were scheduled to roam through the house.
It was a mess. Thankfully, we were able to stay safe and healthy, and the move happened later that summer.
Yet, because of the pandemic, all 3 of our summer trips were canceled, including one to Disney World and another to the Bahamas for our 10 year wedding anniversary.
So began a very long series of months of hanging out inside, social distancing, more virtual teaching, and general sadness.
You can see in my old (never finished...oops!) Trip Report that I used to work as a travel writer. I went back to college teaching about 2 years ago, but I didn't lose my love of travel in the process. I had so many trips planned for my first summer off from teaching because I wanted to go around to all of those trips we'd had planned since I'd switched careers, but you know how that turned out.
In the post-Christmas haze and dreary January weather, I've been particularly glum about sitting at the house for hours on end while I grade alone. I genuinely love teaching and getting to know my students: while online teaching is super flexible, it lacks that personal interaction space that I like best about being a college professor. Emails and messages just aren't the same.
Plus, it's so stressful to live in the everyday world of the pandemic. My dad is high risk due to an illness he's since recovered from (but his health is still delicate because of it), and my sister is currently pregnant. My family lives really close to one another, so we've had to be really, really careful about my dad and sister during this entire process. I love them, and I don't want to get them sick!
After multiple weeks of this moping about, I looked at my husband and told him, "I've gotta get out of town!" I'd imagined going to a well cleaned hotel in Savannah or something--nothing big, but something to get me out of this pandemic funk.
He suggested, "What about Disney World?" and my first reaction was "NO WAY." We've been super careful during this entire situation, and rebooking the WDW trip from last summer had only crossed my mind in my wildest dreams.
Yet, I still had the tickets from last year sitting in my Disney account, lonely and unused. I talked to a few friends who'd been to Walt Disney World during the pandemic--one went in November, and the other in late December--and both separately told me that their families had felt safer at Disney than going out to Target or Walmart on a typical day.
Those conversations made me feel better, so I have now booked our park reservations, hotel stay, and a few ADRs!! I'll share more specifics about those in later posts since I tend to be wordy (blame the English professor that I am!). My parents, sister, brother-in-law, and niece can't go on this trip because of the previously mentioned health concerns, so my nuclear family will be allowing them to live vicariously through our pictures and videos!
I'll also do a full intro post later on as well, so stay tuned!
P.S. If you've been to WDW in the pandemic, share your tips and tricks! I've been to WDW so many times that I've lost count, but I have never been during a global health crisis!
Other than Rainforest Cafe and T-Rex Cafe (which have been big hits with our little travelers), I don't know what's even there right now. Do you have suggestions on places to eat that aren't too fancy?
Our day will look something like this: 
