GrandCalifornian
Can't Wait To Go Back
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2012
Howdy friends! What a crazy year it's been since our last Disneyworld trip!
It really is amazing to look back on everything that happened since February 2020 and now, but one of the very best thing is that we got to go to Disney World again!
We just got back from a great trip and we think it could be the best one yet. I do think we say that every trip though. It was a fabulous trip with great dining, perfect room, and plenty of relaxing time.
After all the updates and changes, the worry and anticipation, and despite the fact that Disneyland here on the West Coast has still not opened, we were able to go to Disney World and have an amazing time. Join in as we re-live our 10 day trip home to what is still our favorite place on earth.
So lets get on to the who, what, where of the trip.
Let's get started with introductions. I am Paul, a now 41 year old Dad, Mechanical Engineer, and car guy who has a strange obsession with Wilderness Lodge. It is not only my favorite Disney Resort, it is my favorite place anywhere. My favorite park is Epcot, my favorite Disney Movie is Cars, my favorite character is Tow Mater, and my favorite ride is Test Track. (There's the "car guy" part coming through). I also like boats and trains and anything that moves, so WDW is a ton of fun for me. I'll be writing my portions of the report in blue.
I'm Melissa, mom to our two crazy kiddos. My family owns an elevator company and I do lots of officey things. My favorite character is Stitch and my favorite ride is Living with the Land. I really enjoy Epcot, especially World Showcase and the festivals. I'll make my comments here in Orange.
This is Allison, our now 11 year old daughter.
She is the "She" in our trip reports, and has grown in to a huge Disney fan. She never really had a choice, but as she gets older she seems to appreciate and enjoy getting to go to Disney even more. She is more reserved and a less adventurous rider, but she did ride Rockin Rollercoaster for the first time this trip and loved it. Outside of Disney, she loves to dance and play Roblox on her phone.
We decided to homeschool Allie this year with schools being closed in California. We both really enjoyed being able to do Disney without having to worry about homework. We also were able to weave little lessons into our Disney day for a great big field trip.
This is Marshall, he's now 5 and a ball of energy.
He is incredibly precocious and really enjoyed getting to interact with cast members on this trip. He is fearless and will ride anything that he's tall enough for.
Marshall is insanely outgoing. I truly don't know where he got it, but he continually amazes me with it. From inviting college program girls to see his room when he was 3 to chatting with random cast members, he loves the personal interaction at Disney, and has missed that a lot in the last year with social distancing and relative isolation.
Jon and Brandy once again joined us on this trip. They are some of our favorite people on the planet and we love traveling with them.
They love Disney and our crazy kids, which makes it a fun combination for all of us.
My parents (Grandpa Jim and Grandma Nancy) also once again joined us on this trip, making it a party of 8.
For the When and Where, our trip was January 28 to February 6th, 2021 at the Copper Creek Villas at Wilderness Lodge.
We booked this trip 11 months in advance, soon after returning home from our 2020 trip. At the time we were planning to spend part of the trip at Beach Club and do our first split stay, but by the time the 7 month window opened up COVID was in full swing and DVC borrowing restrictions were in place and we decided not to risk messing with our reservation. We got to spend the entire trip in a dedicated 2 bedroom villa, which is our favorite room we've had yet.
We were on the 6th floor not too far from the lobby and with a fantastic view of the upper courtyard. It was beautiful.
With my WL obsession, I have mapped out the locations of every room type, and am convinced this is the best 2 bedroom in the resort for us.
He is really a nut when it comes to this. He bought wifi for the plane so that he would be able to know our room assignment before we landed.
That is absolutely true. With our flight schedules, Jon and Brandy were arriving a few hours ahead of us, so I HAD to know what room we got. When they said the info that the front desk gave them, even before the room was ready, I knew it was going to be good. As we were over Texas, I got the following picture from a very happy Brandy.
Thanks to the AP extensions while the park was closed, our APs were still valid for the first few days of the trip, and we were able to purchase renewals ahead of time. This was a big concern in our trip planning, since we were not sure they would open up for sale before our trip, but they did and we took advantage of it.
It was really hard to wait to purchase tickets until they offered AP renewals. I was afraid park reservations were going to fill up before we had park admission. We didn't end up having any problems booking the park we wanted for the day we planned.
Another aspect of the timing of the trip was that it occurred in the middle of a global pandemic. Disneyland in California still has not reopened, and we have not been eaten in a restaurant since March. This is a big contrast with our usual Disney trips, and naturally we were concerned about whether this trip was a good idea. All along our approach had been that we would go as long as the resort was open and we could get there. Flying was the worst part, but we wore our masks, took our precautions, and bathed in hand sanitizer to make sure that we were able to make it to Disney.
My biggest concern with traveling was getting sick while we were on vacation, not that it would ruin the vacation but that it would be difficult or impossible to travel home. We went into essential lockdown 2 weeks before the trip to help ensure everyone stayed healthy. While school is closed out here the kids are still doing swim class every week and Allie still has her dance classes in person.
We stopped doing the in person classes 2 weeks before the trip and got really careful about what we did. I hadn't really thought about getting stuck there if we got sick, but once I did it was a huge concern.
We ended up taking wayy more sanitizing items then we needed. It felt like hand sanitizer was everywhere and tables were mostly sanitized before we sat down. I only felt the need to wipe down a couple tables on our trip as opposed to many more in previous trips.
The airplane was full and definitely our biggest risk, but we did our best and the flight attendants did a good job of making sure people wore their masks properly. I was surprised that people still weren't covering their noses at this point, but some people are jut a little slower... Disney also did a great job of making sure masks were worn properly and people were distanced, and like Melissa mentioned things were very clean. She's always a bit of a germaphobe anyway, and it was more comfortable now than ever before.
I really hope this level of cleanliness continues.
Spoiler alert, we made it through the trip just fine and so far so good on the home end. We didn't even come home with a sniffle.
With that issue cleared up, let's move on to show how this was quite possibly our best trip yet!
Woo Hoo! Let's go!
It really is amazing to look back on everything that happened since February 2020 and now, but one of the very best thing is that we got to go to Disney World again!
We just got back from a great trip and we think it could be the best one yet. I do think we say that every trip though. It was a fabulous trip with great dining, perfect room, and plenty of relaxing time.
After all the updates and changes, the worry and anticipation, and despite the fact that Disneyland here on the West Coast has still not opened, we were able to go to Disney World and have an amazing time. Join in as we re-live our 10 day trip home to what is still our favorite place on earth.
So lets get on to the who, what, where of the trip.
Let's get started with introductions. I am Paul, a now 41 year old Dad, Mechanical Engineer, and car guy who has a strange obsession with Wilderness Lodge. It is not only my favorite Disney Resort, it is my favorite place anywhere. My favorite park is Epcot, my favorite Disney Movie is Cars, my favorite character is Tow Mater, and my favorite ride is Test Track. (There's the "car guy" part coming through). I also like boats and trains and anything that moves, so WDW is a ton of fun for me. I'll be writing my portions of the report in blue.
I'm Melissa, mom to our two crazy kiddos. My family owns an elevator company and I do lots of officey things. My favorite character is Stitch and my favorite ride is Living with the Land. I really enjoy Epcot, especially World Showcase and the festivals. I'll make my comments here in Orange.
This is Allison, our now 11 year old daughter.
She is the "She" in our trip reports, and has grown in to a huge Disney fan. She never really had a choice, but as she gets older she seems to appreciate and enjoy getting to go to Disney even more. She is more reserved and a less adventurous rider, but she did ride Rockin Rollercoaster for the first time this trip and loved it. Outside of Disney, she loves to dance and play Roblox on her phone.
We decided to homeschool Allie this year with schools being closed in California. We both really enjoyed being able to do Disney without having to worry about homework. We also were able to weave little lessons into our Disney day for a great big field trip.
This is Marshall, he's now 5 and a ball of energy.
He is incredibly precocious and really enjoyed getting to interact with cast members on this trip. He is fearless and will ride anything that he's tall enough for.
Marshall is insanely outgoing. I truly don't know where he got it, but he continually amazes me with it. From inviting college program girls to see his room when he was 3 to chatting with random cast members, he loves the personal interaction at Disney, and has missed that a lot in the last year with social distancing and relative isolation.
Jon and Brandy once again joined us on this trip. They are some of our favorite people on the planet and we love traveling with them.
They love Disney and our crazy kids, which makes it a fun combination for all of us.
My parents (Grandpa Jim and Grandma Nancy) also once again joined us on this trip, making it a party of 8.
For the When and Where, our trip was January 28 to February 6th, 2021 at the Copper Creek Villas at Wilderness Lodge.
We booked this trip 11 months in advance, soon after returning home from our 2020 trip. At the time we were planning to spend part of the trip at Beach Club and do our first split stay, but by the time the 7 month window opened up COVID was in full swing and DVC borrowing restrictions were in place and we decided not to risk messing with our reservation. We got to spend the entire trip in a dedicated 2 bedroom villa, which is our favorite room we've had yet.
We were on the 6th floor not too far from the lobby and with a fantastic view of the upper courtyard. It was beautiful.
With my WL obsession, I have mapped out the locations of every room type, and am convinced this is the best 2 bedroom in the resort for us.
He is really a nut when it comes to this. He bought wifi for the plane so that he would be able to know our room assignment before we landed.
That is absolutely true. With our flight schedules, Jon and Brandy were arriving a few hours ahead of us, so I HAD to know what room we got. When they said the info that the front desk gave them, even before the room was ready, I knew it was going to be good. As we were over Texas, I got the following picture from a very happy Brandy.
Thanks to the AP extensions while the park was closed, our APs were still valid for the first few days of the trip, and we were able to purchase renewals ahead of time. This was a big concern in our trip planning, since we were not sure they would open up for sale before our trip, but they did and we took advantage of it.
It was really hard to wait to purchase tickets until they offered AP renewals. I was afraid park reservations were going to fill up before we had park admission. We didn't end up having any problems booking the park we wanted for the day we planned.
Another aspect of the timing of the trip was that it occurred in the middle of a global pandemic. Disneyland in California still has not reopened, and we have not been eaten in a restaurant since March. This is a big contrast with our usual Disney trips, and naturally we were concerned about whether this trip was a good idea. All along our approach had been that we would go as long as the resort was open and we could get there. Flying was the worst part, but we wore our masks, took our precautions, and bathed in hand sanitizer to make sure that we were able to make it to Disney.
My biggest concern with traveling was getting sick while we were on vacation, not that it would ruin the vacation but that it would be difficult or impossible to travel home. We went into essential lockdown 2 weeks before the trip to help ensure everyone stayed healthy. While school is closed out here the kids are still doing swim class every week and Allie still has her dance classes in person.
We stopped doing the in person classes 2 weeks before the trip and got really careful about what we did. I hadn't really thought about getting stuck there if we got sick, but once I did it was a huge concern.
We ended up taking wayy more sanitizing items then we needed. It felt like hand sanitizer was everywhere and tables were mostly sanitized before we sat down. I only felt the need to wipe down a couple tables on our trip as opposed to many more in previous trips.
The airplane was full and definitely our biggest risk, but we did our best and the flight attendants did a good job of making sure people wore their masks properly. I was surprised that people still weren't covering their noses at this point, but some people are jut a little slower... Disney also did a great job of making sure masks were worn properly and people were distanced, and like Melissa mentioned things were very clean. She's always a bit of a germaphobe anyway, and it was more comfortable now than ever before.
I really hope this level of cleanliness continues.
Spoiler alert, we made it through the trip just fine and so far so good on the home end. We didn't even come home with a sniffle.
With that issue cleared up, let's move on to show how this was quite possibly our best trip yet!
Woo Hoo! Let's go!
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