January 2021 last minute trip in times of covid

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Who were are:me (wife), my husband, my boy/ girl twins (both 8) , and my mom. We live in California the land of nothing is open. We love to vacation and go on two-three big trips a year so quarantine has been rough. (Though everyone could say that). Without getting into our personal business we have had a hard 2020 with cancer, family deaths, and just a lot of crap happening this past year. I have entertained and distracted myself by planning trips we may take one day during isolation, so when I got an email about cheap flights to Orlando on December 22, 2020, I took a second look. Then I sent it to my husband, then I called my mom and then I started to look at the Disboard for people renting points. Then I saw the distressed points ( for people not in the know, people who need to use their DVC points quickly because they will expire, so they let them go cheaply.) That was it. I had priced a trip in May to go the first week of January 2021 and the room costs and airfare were about 40% less now. My husband got the vacation time and by December 23 we had our airfare and one bedroom- villa booked at Kidana Village for nine nights! We were nervous but excited!

We have annual passes here at Disneyland and have done three previous trips to Disneyworld (prekids), two Disney cruises (also prekids), and a trip to Paris with several days spent at Disneyland Paris (when my kids were toddlers) so we know Disney, but not well on the East coast.

I make these for myself so I can remember, but you will benefit. I'll take some time to finish, but I will answer questions and give you my opinion and views, which are mine alone.

So let's get started!

 

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We are going to Disneyworld!

Christmas morning we surprised my kids by telling them we were going, but they were confused because Disneyland is closed. I hadn't helped matters by watching YouTube videos on Disneyworld and telling them Disneyworld was too expensive ! It finally sunk in and we got hugs and thank yous.

My daughter is obsessed with African animals and animals in general, she wants to be a vet so we kept the fact we were staying at Animal Kingdom a surprise. My son loves cars and anything with wheels or transportation related so he would be happy anywhere. That second bathroom in the one bedroom sealed Kidani as the place we would stay, because it really does make things so much easier.

We made our park reservations and ticket purchases as soon as the airfare was booked with two days in each park for 8 ticket days with only our late arrival not having a park day. (We won't be doing that again!) We booked our tickets using a website my husband has access to through his job which were about $20 per ticket cheaper than any of the sites I found on Disney and Disney information sights.

Departure day 1:
We left the afternoon of January 1, which was cheaper then the Saturday I had originally looked at with a better flight time. We settled on United which had non-stop from LAX to MCO with a departure around noon and return leaving around 7pm. There were cheaper flights, but we went for convenience and even with last minute upgrades to premium economy our tickets were less than $100 per person. Low demand meant low prices. Several people I talked to booked last minute, but others I spoke to had their vacations planned pre-covid and the flight area was filled with families, with children all going to see the mouse or Harry Potter.

The airport itself was deserted as it was a holiday and Southern California has quarantine orders. We made it to the airport, in record time as we saw only a handful of cars. (Very unCalifornia). Similiarly, the screening area, there wasn't any line and as we.have TSA precheck We were through in five minutes. Almost nothing was open in the airport so we were glad we stopped for breakfast at McDonald's.

We had a pretty full flight so we allowed them to check our carry ons, only my mom paid the $35 each way to check a bag. We got lucky and my.mom and I had a row to ourselves.and my husband shared a row with only our two kids.

The flight was a.flight, but I will say I was impressed with the cleaning as I wiped down my.own tray table and it wasn't dirty like it is when I cleaned it precovid. The bathroom however was a disaster two hours into the flight. Gross.

We used our own devices and the live tv to entertain ourselves and arrived in Orlando on time by 7:30pm. By 8 we had used the facilities in the airport,gotten our bags and made it aboard the Magical Express bus. We were the last family to board so we took off within minutes and were at hotel by 8:30pm. As we rode the bus, we got our room number and headed straight there.

 

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empty mco



magical express - no line!


Boarding the bus

 

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Realizing we are staying at Animal Kingdom

Christmas is still in the lobby

 

[DHare]

Following

 

[hmsTigger]

Following Too! ☀

 

[MamaBelle4]

Following!!

 

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I tried, but I couldn't get the pictures to turn. Turn your device!

Day one continued:
I have no pictures of the room I'll share, as we destroyed it pretty quickly. We were in room 7921 on the 5th floor. We had a view of the bus stop, front entrance, and a tail view of the pool. I'll add them here, but I took them later in the trip. Last minute we could only get a standard view. It was fine, but nothing to write home about.





We had ordered groceries to the room and they were at the bell desk, but seeing mixed reviews of things getting refrigerated we opted for non-refrigerated items. We need not have worried as they actually refrigerated some of my drinks! We didn't want to pay the $6 delivery fee and we needed to get food started right away as we were all starving, so we started to gather the items, but the bell person already had them on the cart, so he let us take them on the cart to the room, and my husband just took it right back down.

We had also gone downstairs to pick up the magic bands we had ordered. We arrived on the first day you had to pay for them so we bite the bullet and bought them, as this was the first time we had been since they had them. We loved having them and they were fun to buy stuff with, wow we bought a lot of popcorn, and the kids loved being responsible for scanning themselves into the parks and room.

We got easy groceries like mac n cheese, top ramen, cup of noodles, sandwich stuff and breakfast items. Dinner tonight was gourmet cup of noodles! We showered, ate, and collapsed into bed, excited for our first park early the next day: Magic Kingdom.

 

[tundra1]

Oh, I am so excited to read your report! We were there in November, and I fell in love with Kidani Village!

 

[Paulaparm]

Following along!

 

[suse66]

Loving reports from those who are lucky enough to travel right now.

 

[Isabelle12345]

Following!

 

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Day 1: MK

Bus and Crowds:
I had read before leaving that the parks were opening 30min before the posted time so we aimed for leaving 1hr and 15min before park opening. If we got to the bus closer to the hour mark there was already a huge line. We got lucky and always got on the first bus even if we didn't make the hour, but just barely, often the last party on the bus. If you want to be there first one of the bus drivers told us they weren't allowed to be there until 30 min before park opening. Not sure if that was for that one park (Epcot) or all of them, but while we weren't the first in line being at the bus an hour before worked for us and kept the lines shorter. We are NOT morning people so this was a feat for us.

The first and last hours were golden for short lines with crowds developing around 11am-12pm and lasting until 4-5pm. If you are looking to avoid crowds the first few hours of the morning and the last of the evening are great.

Now onto the park:
We made use of our groceries for a quick breakfast of chocolate donuts and coffee or juice and we made it out to the bus by 7:15am, a miracle for us. We made the first bus we saw and were in the park by 7:40am. My mom discovered her glass case would set off the alarm and only the second to the last day did she leave the case in the room so she didn't have to be searched. I always carried a backpack with snacks and drinks, but new to the magic band, I have a small purse I usually carry that was in the backpack. This bag inside the backpack also set off the alarm so I left it after that first day and just used my phone to apple pay or the magic band (depending on which card I wanted to use, the table service usually didn't take Apple pay.) We love the magic band! I hope DL does this. It was so simple and it gave the kids freedom and kept our hands free. Well until I lost mine... More on that later.

We were too late for the 7DMR, which had an hour and climbing wait alreay, so we got on Dumbo,Goofy coaster (which we rode twice without having to get off and could have done a third, but no thanks said the adults). We hit up Autotopia (we thought ours in CA was better) and then Space Mountain which now has a 40 minute line around 8:30am. We sat my mom and kids on a bench in the line as we weaved our way through to give them a rest, something we did often. Most lines were outside and once you enterted the inside they did enforce all the party needing to be together.
Waiting for lunch:

Lines: my little PSA on lines. They were serious on being stationary to eat or drink. They had signs everywhere and annoucements on a loop in addition to cast member announcements. No excuses for taking your mask off. This enforcement was especially true in lines where they were quick to remind people that "guests who do not comply will be asked to leave". I found this rule the hardest because my son eats ten times a day so snacking in lines is how he survives. Setting him up on a seat with my mom and joining us closer to the front was how we followed the rules, (sitting near but not in the line to keep social distance) but when lines were an hour as they were this day, this was the most difficult rule. It was necessary because people will always play fast and lose with rules and we even saw one person later at our Hollywood day getting the boot for not wearing the mask and a child in Animal Kingdom walking around mask-less because they "lost it" ( The cast member got the kid a new disposable one real quick). While it was annoying it was a necessary rule and I appreciated the strict enforement.

On the subject of masks:Two other times I came across maskless people, wearing it under their nose, but cast members once they saw it were quick to remedy it. Once on a bus into the park and another in front of us in line on pirates, the second day not today. I didn't say anything directly to them but I made it obvious, telling my kids to stay away from said person and giving them a wide berth because they were not wearing their mask correctly, passive aggressivly reminding them to put it on. It didn't work. Next time I will just say put your mask on because the subtle approach doesn't work.

My son loved space mountain and declared it his favorite for most of the trip. We hopped on the rockets and then intervention for some much needed rest. We didn't even mind when it broke and had to restart the first scene again because it meant more sitting. We skipped Buzz as we have it at home and it is exactly the same and headed for Fantasyland.

Now around 11:15am it was packed! We waited 35 min for Philharmonic and while waiting to see it, we decided to mobile order food for Pinocchio. The show finished we arrived for lunch, but the crush of people standing in front and around made it difficult to find out where to go and to distinguish the line for Small World from where to wait. You weren't allowed inside until you showed your phone with your ready order so you had to wait in a line until it came up and then you could head inside. We saw a table getting cleaned so we made a beeline for it to have a fresh table.

The food was fine, nothing special, but Disney does do a great chicken tender. We enjoyed the rest and stomachs full we headed out of the busy section and gave up on riding anything in this area and went to HM, one of my favorites. It took about 30 min though it was posted as 40 min and wrapped around the front of the waterfront.

It was hot and crowded at this point we tried to find the line for Country Bear, but as the cavalclade came by it bunched up the people more so we headed for Splash Mountain. About now we were thinking about a break, but we pushed on and went to Thunder Mountain as my daughter hates big drops and was traumatized by Splash and wanted to ride TM, a home favoite. Nearly sunset we decided a snack was in order and mobile ordered some Dole whips.

It was crazy over here too with people in line, waiting for their order or eating at every available area, including spaces not socially distanced apart. We gathered our treats and headed over to the stage by pirates to sit along the wall where it was less busy. I tried the special coconut one which was delicious and we all thought it would be great with some rum. Refreshed we hit up the Adventureland rides and by 6:00pm we had done pirates, Aladdin and the jungle cruise, while waiting for JC the kids also did the treehouse with daddy while my mom and I held our spot in line.

I am called bearette so of course we had to do country bear and it was just starting as we passed by so perfect! I miss ours! It was silly, but I still love it and we even caught my son singing it later, though my daughter took a power nap during most of it.

Now 6:20pm and the park closing soon, we needed to refuel so we mobile ordered food in Tomorrowland. I was impressed with my spicy chicken sandwich. We were droping, but we had one more ride. 7DMR was still 50 min, it had been over an hour all day. I took the kids on Dumbo and Goofy again while my husband waited, and we still had time for daddy to get his popcorn bucket before we hit the front of the line. Though he couldn't eat any of it until the room.
7DMR was worth the wait. We all decided it was the best or one of the best rides and a great way to end the night.

 

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I figured it out! Here is the line for TM- you can see others 6 ft behind and one of the style of barriers used in the lines


On the way out- still busy 30 minutes after closing time

I forgot to mention we did get to sneak in Ariel between Country Bears and dinner- two rides for my husband and daughter as the ret of us hit up the restroom. The outside is a lot more impressive then the one here in DCAbut the ride is exactly the same. It was very empty back here and I was able to get this shoot easily without doing the wait for someone to walk by quick shot.

finishing up day 1:
We didn’t want to wait in the deep line to get into the stores that went all the way to the end of Main Street so we headed out for the bus- the lines the last hour were longish to get into the front entrance stores, especially at MK. When we exited Philharmonic we did a little shopping and in pirates too as they had Christmas hats, ears, masks, and the 2020 blue ears my daughter is sporting at 70% off. We didn’t buy as much as we would have if we didn’t have to carry it, but I confirmed they wouldn’t do any merchandise holding even in the park itself. Probably saved us a bunch of money because we were strategic with our purchases as we knew we would have to carry them.
We strolled into our room around 10pm and quickly got ready for bed. The laundry inside the room was great because I was able to throw some things in and then right into the dryer to finish folding up, as we prepared for bed. The settings were really quick too, washing the clothes in 15 minutes or less depending on the setting you choose. Perfect for vacation- clean but not taking hours. Drying though still took an hour or more depending on the amount of clothes and what you were drying. Our masks that I washed daily were usually dry by morning. ( I just hung them up to keep them from getting destroyed in the dryer). They left me two laundry soaps, but when I asked for more they left me two more which was plenty for the week- I did laundry every -almost every night because we had only packed 3 days worth of clothes and it wasn’t the largest washer.

 

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My Mom tried the pull out couch, but as others have reported - it is uncomfortable. She was ready to sleep on the floor for a week, but we ended up making up the chair with some of the couch cushions to make a make shift mattress. The day they cleaned we had a good laugh as they had changed the sheets on her makeshift bed. I took this on the way out, but here you can see her chair bed. She said it wasn’t as good as her bed at home, but made all the difference in the world for her comfort.





Day one in the parks complete! Stay tuned for day two.

 

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Park day 2: Epcot
According to my phone we walked around 23,000 steps yesterday. I had two blisters to prove it, too!
Thankfully, Sundays the park didn’t open until 11am. As you may have noticed, we were there just in time for park hoppers,however, we didn’t partake because of the expense and limited park hours, the extra $350 didn’t make sense to us. Judging by the amount of walking we already did, we didn’t need to be switching parks.

We slept in and if it wasn’t for me making coffee at 9:15am no one else would have gotten up. We ordered more groceries last night to be delivered this morning from Instacart between 8-10am, they arrived about 9:30am. They were delivered straight downstairs to the bell desk and I only found out because we got the notification on the app that they were delivered. Again I went down to get the groceries with my mom and since we hadn’t ordered very much we are able to bring up the four bags easily. It was perfectly timed because the natives were starting to stir and we had breakfast in our arms.

Coffee ( with creamer!) and cerealed up we were ready to go by 10am. We weren’t in any hurry because it was dribbling and rainy outside. We got in line for the bus and again made the first one, barley, that we saw. I think the rain had kept some people in their rooms or home as it was supposed to let up by the afternoon.

We arrived at the gates a little after 10:30.

 

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Day three, park day two: Epcot

We headed straight for the space station as we had a mission to Mars. It was my last mission because it just makes you sick! Our mission complete we headed toward test track, it was testing,but not opened yet. We decided not to wait and headed for Mexcio where we had a 15 minute wait to get inside. While waiting we checked dinning ability on the app and we were able to jump on a waitlist to Rose and Crown, estimated wait was 55 minutes and it was around noon now so it would be perfect. We rode the Three Caballeros, and I was aghast to learn my kids only recognized Donald. We must remedy this right away!

As we were about to step inside we got a notification that our table was ready so after the ride we made a bee line for the rstaurant. I sent my husband up ahead and he had to put our name back in as they have away our table. By the time us slow pokes made it over, they had found us another table. This table one was outside by the water so we were happy.

We ordered some drinks, and a coffee for my husband who lives off the stuff at home or on vacation. Here is a little food port for you.


I had the bangers and mash, yummy, my husband the fish n chips, it was tasty and a large portion, and my mom the Shepard's pie, also delicious.

The kids got Mac n cheese and it came with two sides so they got one as the trifle. My aunt from England used to make these all the time before she passed away, they were always my favorite.

As you can see, she barely made it through lunch and took a power nap between courses. She rallied long enough to take a few bites, and my son was full from eating all his fries and noodles so the adults devoured them. I don’t know if the adult portion is the same, but it hit the spot and was perfect. I’m drooling remembering it.

 

[footballmouse]

 

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Some more pictures of lunch and our drinks
welsh dragon- green which was mine and refreshing and the cider and fireball- my moms- too gingery for me- they came with the cups as souvenirs but he told us for $5 less you could skip the cup

You can see our nice view from this shot

 

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Well feed, we headed back to Canada to get a kid kit we had seen advertised for the kids passports. With covid they did it a bit different with a table set up and kids would help themselves to the bag and sticker with the little insert from each page. Normally they follow the clue to each land, but in this case they just had to find the table- which could be set up inside or outside of a store, or area within each of the themed lands.

We watched the Canada video- basically an add for travel to Canada and through Englands shop to find the kids passport. We caught a view of Mary Poppin’s from afar and headed back to Paris. This area was a little crowded so we took some pictures, got the passports, and got out of there.

Paris but it doesn’t really show how crowded it was

Through Morocco, only a pause to get passport stickers. This area had really crowded restrooms along with Germany.

Finally to USA- we took a mini break with a coke we had brought from the room - it was still cool- and snacks for the kids. Whilehere a parade came by so my daughter and husband ran over to watch and get pictures- these pictures are from her- we gifted her my husband’s old phone and it came in handy to let them play games and let them take pictures







Within 10 minutes the show at USA was about to start so we decided to take a nap, I mean watch the show. Let’s be honest we were tired and wanted a place to sit. I think the kids were asleep before Benjamin was finished with his introduction and I slept through the Revolution- and the rest of us made it through varrying sections. A full 30 minutes of sitting was heaven and we left refreshed and impressed with the parts we did see. I noticed the ending had different people then a few years ago when I saw it.

preshow picture