January 2021 last minute trip in times of covid

[bearette]

Through crowded Germany, though there were some spots that weren’t as crowded as you can see here:


The train wasn’t working here so we quickly moved on. The beer and pretzel stand was doing a booming business.
Into China we went, and so was the line for Frozen. It was at 50 minutes which was the smallest wait we had seen so my husband jumped in while I took my kids to the shop to find their passport item. The joke was on us because it wa actually in the show building.


The passport was in here:

We sat my kids and on mom on a rock near the entrance while My husband and I finished up the line. Before not too long we were in the ride - it only took 40 minutes.

 

[bearette]

We checked out some of the Vikings displays, but coffee was calling my husband. My mom and I had heard about a coffee in China we wanted to try, after my husband googled best coffees in the park. So he grabbed an alcohol free special version, I’d have to ask him as I remember the flavor didn’t appeal to me so it must have had carmel in it, I only like carmel on my popcorn. But before we left Norway my daughter talked my mom into a “water horsey”. One happy and entertained girl later we were sipping our beverages near the water and enjoying the sunset. I won’t bore you with the 50 pictures we took here, but it was gorgeous over the water. Try to give yourself some time near sunset to enjoy the views as this was one of the prettiest spots I remember from the trip.
New water horsey and sunset views:


It was called the lovers something from the water area cart:


We hadn’t checked out the China vision 360 so we headed in there, while we waited we looked at the Shanghai Disney display. Video watched, which was like another ad for China tourism similar to Canada, we made it to the shop. My son found a dragon that was reasonably priced so nana caved and bought him “fireball”.

Since Fireball and Water ( yes we are creative with our stuffed animal names) hadn’t yet ridden Frozen so we jumped in a shorter line, about 25 - 30 minutes, to ride Frozen again. My daughter is too cool for Frozen, but she is obsessed with horses as well as African animals so she was willing to ride so Water could appreciate it- I miss my three year older singing Let It Go!

We headed toward test track as it had been down and up off and on all day long- but it was down again. We settled for popcorn and ambience pictures as we headed toward Soaring.

 

[Ellester]

Oohhh! Was your drink in China “Tipsy Ducks in Love”? I love that one!

 

[bearette]

Oohhh! Was your drink in China “Tipsy Ducks in Love”? I love that one!

Yes that was it!

 

[bearette]

When we got to Soarin’ we got side tracked by Figment, oh so thrilling... but the kids liked it and the Earth video. As we walked out my son said “ that was like school” to the hilarity of everyone in earshot. We tried to catch the shorts cartoons but hit a bad time and it wasn’t on again for an hour so headed toward soarin again, but the other boat ride was shorter- a walk on--so we settled into learn about the produce and other edibles of Epcot. It smelled delicious in here by the way. This was a surprisingly cute boat ride and we liked the surprise holiday decorations.




It was about 40 minutes until closing and the line said 40 minutes so we did Soarin’. It only took 35 so we had just enough time to jump in line again-we me detouring to the neighboring bathroom to take my son. We were literally the last people on the ride as you can see in the pic below.

We closed down another park and got some photos and looked at the shops on the way out.

nothing too exciting in the front shops so we left with only the stuffed animals and a coffee my husband was excited to find that was still open at the ticket entrance.






By the time we got done messing around we were one of the last people and the only people on our bus to Kidani. Here is an empty bus pic for those who want to see what it looks like with the social distancing.


Coming or going we always had to see which animals were out:Zebra today courtesy of my daughter.
A
A quick dinner of Ramen- look I made a Mickey out of pepper -my daughter said it was a hidden Mickey and we were off to bed- around midnight!

 

[DLo]

Following along. Looking forward to reading more about your adventures.

 

[Paulaparm]

 

[bearette]

day 3: Hollywood studios. We were already linked in the app and ready to go- button pushed right as it changed to 7:00an and we had boarding group 14 for Rise of the Resistance!
We had planned this day for Monday thinking it would be less busy and if we didn’t get the boarding group we could try to switch our AK day and try again. We got lucky and so once we knew we were an early boarding group we roused the rest and started to get ready. We were done with breakfast in the room- cereal and muffins-and at the bus by 8am for the 9am opening. We even stopped to see the animals again as we did every morning and night.
Giraffes having breakfast

We still made the first bus, but it didn’t get us their until close to 40minutes after 8. That was with my mom getting stopped and searched-FYI - it is her eyeglass case that set it off. They must have just opened up though because it was very congested- uncomfortably so- as we made our way straight to
They hadn’t even opened the ride yet when we got in line- we had a 20ish minute wait- within minutes of our arrival it had a 50 minute wait posted as did the new Mickey train ride - since that one is in the front it gets and stays busy all day. Inside the ride with no show to keep social distance- we pulled it up on our phone to show the kids.




The result? My daughter hated it. She hates large drops so was afraid before we got on since she has ridden guardians of the galaxy and hates it. She was shaking before it started and crying silently the moment the ride took off. My son put on a brave face and was all proud of himself, but when asked if he wanted to ride it again- he said no. I thought it was tamer then GOTG as the dips were not as severe, but not when you are 8. As we were almost to the front our boarding group was called for ROTR so we headed there with a short bathroom stop.

 

[bearette]

We pulled up to ROTR and my face fell. I went to present my band to scan and my magic band was missing. Insert four letter word here. They let me ride without it, and gave me directions to guest services where I could resolve my problem. I wanted to go right away,but our whole party had to stay together and we rent have alot of time left for.our boarding call, plus, I figured it was probably already either found or stolen, it had been about 15 minutes.

I won't spoil the ride, but it was the best ride ever according to my husband and "soooo cool" according to my kids. It took the sting out of missing my band. Once we rode, I had to get my ticket resolved so I went to guest services and they left for smugglers run.

They didn't have my band and I will save you the anticipation that despite a lost and found report it never turned up . I was pissed since I had bought it and even more annoyed because there went the $$$ as they would not replace it, even with a plane band. The bands do make everything so much easier, but I spent the remainder of the day complaining about it and hoping it would turn up later. When I returned with a paper ticket to my family my kids have me a hug and told me they were sorry I lost it. Me too. Moral of the story don't put your own band on like I did because it won't be right enough to stay.

They had made it about half way through the line by the time I joined up. We have ridden this ride at DL and it is no different there, even the line is the same. Finished it was about 11:40 and we had something important to do-zoom school.

I was still off this week as a teacher, but my kids are in a different district and they were back this week. In CA, almost all the schools are still doing virtual learning and while I knew it wouldn't be the same as having school at home,I figure I can catch them up myself when we return. So we logged them in and put up some virtual backgrounds, because I thought it was mean to the other kids to show we were on vacation. I carried in two earphones, an easy one to.plus I to My daughter's phone and noise canceling ones we used on the plane, because he is the one that needs to not be distracted or have a cord he could tie something up into it!

We used the rest area where we were allowed to de-mask and set them up a little apart. I won't post it, but I have a great video of how kids do virtual learning...My son used his pen as a lightsaber and did a great battle before "stabbing" himself in the stomach with it, during instruction. . He does similiar antics at home, but we thought it really shows how well virtual learning works...

We adults ate some snacks and after a good 30 minutes, when the teacher had them do some activities we didn't have the materials for, I had the kids log off and sent the teacher a message that we were not home and I didn't have the materials with me, so we would catch up later. The kids did some school, the school, got their money for the kids attending, and the adults got a much needed break to sit, everyone wins. We also used this time to eat lunch and feed the kids snacks and food we had brought with us before we left.

 

[bearette]

Some school Shots, but then you can see the rest area set up.



Now on to Toy Story land! We gave up on the Star wars area because it was such a zoo it wasn’t worth trying to do anything else here. We have this area that is nearly identical at home, and at the time we had an annual pass, they since cancelled all annual passes in California , so we headed to ride Slinky but stopped for some Alien action first.
On my soap box for a second- we saw them several times and while the dog was well behaved this is why people are cracking down. If it is a work dog, please don’t do this. It gives work dogs a bad name for the people who need them. My husband does some work with work dogs, so I know some of what I speak... my opinion is in a few years there will be certifications and licenses because people abuse the work dog rules as an excuse to take their pets places. While you can’t know people’s needs by seeing them , I don’t know anyone with a legit dog that dresses them up...though for Halloween this is a Cute set up. I covered their faces for privacy...


This line was really strict about not eating and I heard them call out a few people- even me I’ll admit for feeding my son a peanut butter cracker. They have rules for a reason so we put them away, but these 45 min lines without eating or drinking are killer. Keep this in mind if these rules are still in place by summer.




At this point is was grid locked back here so we decided the long slinky line could wait and we headed toward the front. We made a stop at Walts Dream. There was a lot of cool stuff to look at and not too busy compared to the rest of the park. We checked out the memorabilia while we waited the about 10 min for the show.

Costumes from Mulan- my mom said she wants to be the bad sorceress for Halloween next year- the new movie was on the plane so she watched it on the way over.


Afterwards, we saw a low line on the popcorn cart so got some more snacks on a bench by the Brown Derby while the hubby refilled. At this point we were done with this place. No social distancing was possible and we had done most of the rides so we decided to take another ride -on the Skyliner and check out the new hotel. Some pictures on the way


As you can see the shopping area is nearly dead in the afternoon- this was about 2pm. If you aren’t trying to fill every second with a park this was a good time to shop. I checked on my magic band on the way out, but no dice. They had others of the same type, just not mine . My mom offered to buy me a new one, so I said if he hasn’t appeared by tomorrow I’ll taker her up on it. I was surprisingly devastated about losing it.

 

[bearette]

We haven’t been here since the skyliner was built so the adults wanted to see it. I told my daughter we were staying at pop so they had seen some videos on line about the Skyliner so they were interested as well. No line at this time and some cute themed cars.

I hadn’t researched the skyliner that much so I didn’t realize you had to get off and on a lot at each resort area. Not too bad now, but at the end of the night the line was Ginormous so we thought it wasn’t that at much of a perk for the hotels as entry and exits would be long lines. As it went to Epcot though it was great for park hoping between the two parks- all the regulars are like of course, but remember we can count on one hand how many times we have been to the Florida parks ...
We enjoyed some mask free time in our Skyliners as we made our way to Epcot. We weren’t park hoping, but decided to take a detour to look at the skyline and then the boardwalk area.

 

[bearette]

We took the skyliner to Epcot and walked around the deserted area-

Yacht club area:


We took maybe 20 min to walk this area, swing on the swing, make a mess of themselves in the sand and check out the pools. We saw the boat coming so we decided it would be fun to go for a ride on the lake and take it from the yacht to the boardwalk.

only two allowed per seat

this shows all the dividers used for social distancing though it isn’t the best shot.
Selfie


This area was dead- I mean we saw a few people in the pools but I think one couple was on the boat and one family at the board walk. We checked and none of the restaurants were open at this time... wow. We stayed on the boat and headed back to the skyliner to check out the Riviera.

Boat view

Skyliner leads to this side entrance area to the resort with some pretty decorations


We ended up at the lounge area next to the coffee place and we settled in for some snacks ( we brought), coffee , and gingerbread cookies ( we bought).
The menu - I had the Noel Blanc which was yummy my husband the Carmel and my mom a special Pistacio one that I thought was disgusting, but my mom and husband thought was the best coffee on the entire trip- I don’t really like nuts so ...



Those cookies were fancy gingerbread cookies and my husband and mom finished them as they were “gross” to quote myself after I took a bite from my daughter. Not like the DL version I was expecting.
I didn’t take any other photos in here but the books and other items were fun if you were into Disney memorabilia.
We got to talking about the artifacts inside and the kids did this

We were on day four of opening and closing the parks so they enjoyed their power nap and Nutella sandwhich.

 

[bearette]

Refreshed from their nap we utilized the restroom and headed back to the park - hoping most of the people would have left.
Some random shots on the way out
coffee shop


Christmas is still here



View of the pool area- the adult pool area is to the right of the above picture



scene over the waterfront



skyliner view


Back on the skyliner


Overall, we were not that impressed with the Rivera. The pictures make it look so big, but we found it small. We didn’t like the short ceilings in the lobby. It was a bit stuffy in my opinion. Now don’t get me wrong it was still nice, but I would put it on the long list of places to stay. We all agreed it was more adult friendly and if we were going as a romantic couples trip, then it would be perfect. I didn’t take any pictures of the outside building so I didn’t care for it.

 

[dez1978]

Refreshed from their nap we utilized the restroom and headed back to the park - hoping most of the people would have left.
Some random shots on the way out
coffee shop
View attachment 551268

Christmas is still here

View attachment 551269

View of the pool area- the adult pool area is to the right of the above picture

View attachment 551270

scene over the waterfront

View attachment 551272

skyliner view
View attachment 551273

Back on the skyliner
View attachment 551274

Overall, we were not that impressed with the Rivera. The pictures make it look so big, but we found it small. We didn’t like the short ceilings in the lobby. It was a bit stuffy in my opinion. Now don’t get me wrong it was still nice, but I would put it on the long list of places to stay. We all agreed it was more adult friendly and if we were going as a romantic couples trip, then it would be perfect. I didn’t take any pictures of the outside building so I didn’t care for it.

If it matters, we have 2 boys 6&9, and they LOVED Rivera. Of course the only other resort theyve been to at WDW is Port Orleans. They liked the pool and the building and that everything was in one place, vs many separate buildings. Esp at the end of the day lol. I thought it felt too fancy when we first walked in but after a day or so it was great! So great in fact, that my non Disney loving husband decided to buy DVC there lol

 

[bearette]

Dez1978
To each their own, we just were not fans. We love our Disney but we don’t do WDW yearly or anything even close to that so DVC is something we will never buy into- we will just rent others as we did fort his trip. Since Riveria has so many restrictions to stay here with the new policy on ownership, I thought it would be better. It is not in your face Disney so that may be why your nonDisney hubby was a fan.
In a similar but off topic comment- when we did a trip in 2001 we did a DVC meeting and we came close to buying but decided it was too much $$ for our early 20s. My husband worked for Disney at the time so we always regretted it because we could have sold the points for a profit because they went up so much after that! It was like $8000 for I think 80 or so points... it was enough for a studio in the summer at the time. he really wanted to do it but I was the voice of reason because my mom always said no time shares. Though Disney would have been a good buy.

 

[bearette]

Still on park day 3...
We arrived back around 4:305pm to Hollywood. I think they were open until 7pm so not much time left. It was a lot less busy so we were able to do some shopping with few crowds and then headed over to finally get in the line for MMRR. We got some popcorn for the hubby but he couldn’t eat most because of the line rules so he joined us after a few minutes to eat some popcorn. He is popcorn obsessed.

you can kind of see the social distance markings the floor


We loved this ride but due to the long line we never made it back to it. Very cute.
We exited and then noticed a frozen was about to start so we got in the line- she warned us we may not make it in but we took the chance and entered the line. As we waited, a cavalcade came by... my son loved the themed cars like this buzz one in the distance.



we got lucky but it was down to the wire and we made it in but Iap sat my daughter so the party of five behind us could still get in but the family group with six kids behind them didn’t make it in.

We mostly wanted to sit and though we got a water horse , the kids were not a fan and only I sang along off key. I love to do this in the car so I thought o trained my kids for this but no... they mostly rested and I got a cuddle form my lap girl who was annoyed at my singing attempts. Frozen two is cool but not frozen one- that was so when she was three...at home now I will say she has the Frozen 2 soundtrack playing all day long... but I digress.

The production was cute with seats in fours, hints the lap child, and spread out, but since we were the last in we were too far from the snow, the only cool part according to my kids. I would get in line a little earlier to get a seat with snow. There were a few funny mask and covid jokes but otherwise it was a typical quick retelling of the story with the opportunity to sing along. Ok but unless you have a child that likes the movie I would skip it. It reminds me of the retelling of Frozen on the Storytellers stage in DL if you have ever seen that version. Since I had a lap sitter I didn’t take any photos, and my familiars didn’t care enough to take a photo either.

I never mentioned it, but RRC was off line all day. The day before it had been off and on all day, my hubby monitored the waits for the other lands, while we were hanging around in line. It never opened all day and the next day either. Because we were in Frozen, we misssd the last Cars show. Dang it. We joked with my son he had bad luck because he never made it to test track or RRC either of our first days.

We made it to Slinky and it had the shortest wait of 45 minutes which was it’s posted wait. Another fun ride, but not enough to wait for it again. We did get a nice night shot though with the car passing though


In line we thought we would have time to hit the star tours ride, not sure what they called it here, but it was about ten minutes to closing so we decided to just hit up Woodys. It was like at home, but the line was so much better. No photos though because we were tired and I didn’t even think to take one. It was a walk on and by the time we finished there wasn’t anyone left waiting to ride and the park was closed.

We checked to see if my magic band turned up, , but since it wasn’t there I let them know it was my kids first trip, so they got a button.

We had been snacking all day so we wanted real food. We thought today would be a good day to hit DS. There wasn’t a direct bus so we looked for an open bus- though a worker told us the best way was through SS it had a line and the bus for it had just left. GF had a bus just arrive so we got on it thinking we could also look at the decorations.

We got there quickly and did a quick walk around the lobby. I’m glad we did as the bus had a lot of people waiting for DS which was a lot less after our walk around.

They just took down a gingerbread house I heard someone say so the Christmas decorations weee coming down January 4. I told my husband we should eat at the cafe here, but he was determined to go to DS. After some photos we headed out to the bus to DS to find dinner.

 

[bearette]

Some pictures my husband took of the decorations in the Grand Floridian- he is the photographer in the family and he has the newer phone which takes better pictures. We really like the vibe of this hotel as you will notice because we come back again later in the trip.


We literally booked a reservation for dinner while on the bus ride over.Options were limited because it was already 8pm and they closed at 10pm, plus we were a party of five. We ended up at Paradiso 37 with an 8:50pm reservation.

On the way in. We didn’t have time to look around and we went straight to the restaurant with some quick photo stops.

I loved the look of this place but not the dinner prices...
Paradiso is in the far background.

Inside the waiting area


We were seated along the back with views of the water, but it was on the chilly side so the windows they could open were closed. I didn’t take any pictures, but the food was good. A little more $$& then it should be but I am on Disney property so ... it was around $17 a plate as I recall. The kids split a nachos and took a table nap. The portion was an appetizer and it was so big we took leftovers from it.
They were not quite ready to seat us when we sat down so my mom and I got a drink from the bar. She was pretty short with us and I got the impression since we were doing happy hour margaritas we were not worthy since we didn’t but my the more expensive drinks. We barley tipped her and took our drinks in the plastic cup to the table, which I thought looked a bit cheap. They were serving glasses for the regular drinks so I think this is only because we got the happy hour drinks.

Overall I would eat here again, but I would investigate other options and not get the happy hour margaritas which we lousy. While the bar staff was rude we had an excellent waitress. So service was mixed, but we all liked our food so it was overall a nice stop. My husband got the fish tacos, me the po boy sandwich, and my mom the pineapple sandwich, but without picture I couldn’t tell you more specifics.

we tried to hitthe left store but my son wanted to use the restroom right before we left so we ended up not making it in time. My daughter is still mad at him for this as she is Lego obsessed.

Some more photos on the way out and back on the bus to the room.



We showered and went straight to bed- park and day three done!

 

[bearette]

Park day 4: Animal Kingdom

I will start out by saying this is our favorite park. My daughter wants one of these in CA. My son is the only one who doesn’t list this park as his favorite. We like the ride, the ambience, plants and of course the animals. If we could only go to one, this is the one we would pick.

So even though we were up in the dark, we were all excited to go and see the new Pandora land. We are not big fans of the movie and I had my kids watch it just so they would know a little about it. The flight ride here had the longest wait- always over an hour and a lot of the time two hours- so we knew we had to hit the park super early.

We were at the bus by 7:15am with a stop to see the animals. The ten minute ride went quickly and the convenience to this park is great and the only convenient area.

it was foggy as you can see.

 

[bearette]

We were entering the park just after 8:30am. We followed the stream of people into Pandora to do Flight first. We speed walked with the crowd so barley took pictures until we entered the line. By 7:40am we had entered the line and it took about 20 minutes. For the rest of the day it hovered around an hour wait. It was worth doing first, but my mom was huffing and puffing and had to catch up a little to us. That was a big hill to climb including the ride line.

My daughter was ecstatic we were finally here.

Walking quickly into Pandora


the line area and atmosphere is amazing here.



more line


Pretty


verdict: We really loved this ride! We had managed not to see any spoilers (I had watched some videos with the kids but always fast through this part so we wouldn’t know what happened-same thing with Everest.) My mom said it was amazing, but once was enough, it kind of hurt her back and she didn’t like the thing on her legs, however, everyone enjoyed it and we agreed it was worth getting up early for so we didn’t have to wait in the huge line that it seem to always have.

We are headed toward the other river ride, which we all decided was very much small world like. We all agreed that I would not wait hours for this ride, but at this point they only had a 15 minute wait so we jumped in. It was actually closer to 25 min and by the time we exited, an hour. No way is it worth an hour wait!

I was so unimpressed and tired that I didn’t take any pictures the river ride.

 

[bearette]

Pandora was getting busy so we decided to head in the opposite direction as the Safari had some long lines. We ended up here.

He still has his Christmas cheer.


There was no line for Dinosaur so we literally walked right on. The kids loved it so we did it again- again it was almost a walk on. (Nana sat out the second ride, too bumpy. She doesn’t ride Indiana Jones at home either.)

The spin ride was closed so we headed to the only other available option.


Again we had no wait. The parents didn’t enjoy it enough to par-take again. The restaurants here were all closed and the adults had a one track mind. We wanted coffee. We got some atmosphere on the way toward the Everest area.



But we got sidetracked by some money’s making a lot of noise-


We were meandering and we ended up by the tigers and my kids discovered little badges. I’m not sure how this worked pre- covid, but some tables were set up and a marker on the ground to keep the kids six feet away, were all over the park. They listened to some information on animals or had to do some sort of task and they received a badge- a sticker to put in a book. The kids liked these and happily carried their books around.

The tiger area. It wasn’t busy back here.


I didn’t get any tiger pictures but we ended up in the bird area- my son loved this entertaining one. I kept pulling him back- he loves his birds.




-and then what I really wanted. The Lion coffee and the only surviving picture of the bear claw.


We had to take a seat to enjoy the food and drinks, while there some friends floated by.


It was about 11am and we had done a lot. We enjoyed just sitting and watching some other characters float by.