Planning your next trip always makes leaving a bit easier!It was a gloomy grey chilly morning and you could tell a storm was coming in. It didn't help the going home day mood.
We ate breakfast in the room and finished packing and cleaning up. Grandpa came by about 9:45 as Grandma dropped off her scooter in the lobby. We called Bell Services to come pick up our bags, then sat in the room for a bit and talked about the great trip. We started our meal planning for next year...
So nice you had park time before leaving.Check back in our next update as we said goodbye to MK, WL, and WDW before heading to MCO. Whew...
Sweet!We almost bought Allie a phone case there, but decided not to and then went outside and watched the Rainy Day Cavalcade.
I feel the same way. I think I will mask up flying from now on.After un-nesting the bags we took with us it was a snug fit. Nothing wound up on the roof though so we were good. We had a nice trip home, and made it home before too late that night, or at least before midnight...
It was a great trip even with all of the new COVID modifications. None of us got sick which was my biggest worry, we didn't even come home with a sniffle. I might make mask wearing on planes mandatory from now until eternity.
It was the first trip I can recall without some post-trip sickness, so all of the hand washing and masks did their job. Best of all it still felt like Disney, and left us waiting to go back as soon as possible.
Stay tuned for our trip wrap up.
The wall looks great! I am sure it will be even better in your new place.The next weekend we saw another one, closer to our current house and were able to put an offer in on it that was accepted, contingent upon the sale of our current house. That kicked off a whirlwind of cleaning, moving furniture, and staging the house that just came to a close with the house being shown this weekend.
Unfortunately, one of the first parts of the staging process was removing the pictures from the Disney Wall. So, here is how it looked for the few months since we got the art before putting it all into storage:
Best of luck with your move!This weekend is the first weekend of showings for our current house so fingers crossed everything goes smoothly and we'll be moving in a little over a month.
We should be able to get this report finished just in time to pack the rest of our stuff...
Thanks, us too. It is very strange having people in our house, but we went away for the weekend and it helped.Hoping your showing goes great and you sell your house quickly.
Thanks That was one of the big issues we mentioned to the realtor, and she assured us it would only take one weekend. SO far it is looking like she was right.I hope your house sells right away. It is such an inconvenience to keep the house clean, especially when you have kids.
Your Disney wall looks great. It will probably look even better in the new house.![]()
Thanks! We review offers tomorrow, and so far multiple offers over asking have come in.Congrats on your new house!!! And love your Disney wall!!!! Good luck this weekend!!! Fingers crossed you get an offer or two!!!
Thanks, and congratulations on making it back to Disney, this time as retirees! Yeah, we love our little house, but as the kids get older it will be really nice to have more space and a second bathroom.What a great Disney trip - it really sounded almost perfect. We were there in March after a 3 year absence. Plan on going again next year now that we're both retiredIt was so great spending a couple weeks out of the Midwest winter. Wow, a new house! Hope your showing goes well and you get some interested buyers!
Thanks so much. We were afraid of the market right now too, but it is a great time to be a seller. We were fortunate to have our buying offer accepted, so now it is just a matter of keeping the deals rolling to the end. It is crazy.Wow! Congratulations! I do not envy you dealing with the housing market! Here in Nashville it is absolutely bonkers. I would not want to buy a house here right now (unless I won a lottery jackpot and had lots of cash laying around).
Good luck with the showing.
Thanks so much.Congratulations! Sending you lots of pixie dust!
The new house is 2088 sq ft, so over double the size of our current one. Having a full acre of land will be nice too.How big is your new house?
We LOVE looking forward to the next trip. It gets us through everything, and is our favorite part of owning DVC since we know there will be a next trip on a regular basis. We also really liked having the later flight home so we got that last little bit of park time. It rounded out the trip perfectly.Planning your next trip always makes leaving a bit easier!
So nice you had park time before leaving.![]()
I sure wouldn't have thought it just over a year ago, but now I am on board (literally) with a mask on the plane. We'll see how it does next time.I feel the same way. I think I will mask up flying from now on.
Thanks! It is nice to have some pretty things to put up in the new ploace once all the craziness is over with. We still aren't sure if they will be all together again or spread out somewhat, but they'll be in our house, which is neat.The wall looks great! I am sure it will be even better in your new place.
Best of luck with your move!
Congratulations! Getting a house in this market is great. We were fortunate and only had to make two offers, but we got really lucky getting the second one accepted. Waiting for a house is worse than waiting for a Disney trip!Congrats on having an offer accepted. Fingers crossed you get a good offer on your current home.
We finally had an offer accepted after 6 weeks of intense house hunting and it was our 5th offer. We close end of the month! It’s just an insane market right now.
Thank you so much. We are really excited, although it is going to be a busy month. In about 30 days, we should be in the new place.Congratulations on the new place and sending pixie dust for a great offer to come your way! I love the Disney wall and can't wait to see it in your new home!
Thanks! We really do enjoy sharing our adventures, and having the written report to look back on later.Wow! I sure enjoyed reading your trip report. You guys have an engaging writing style, and of course, spectacular pictures. This has been so much fun, and I look forward to your next pre-trip report.
Thank you so much. We love hearing that people enjoy the reports, and we did have a wonderful time.Excellent TR! Really enjoyed tagging along on your adventure. You had some really wonderful moments. And made some great purchases! Love the WL photos - I think it's the most photogenic resort by far. I'll be watching for your next trip!
Thanks, we both felt like we had more to say, but got busy with the house stuff. It is always nice to look back and sum things up.Loved the wrap up at the end! What a great TR, thank you for sharing!
Now you have me wanted to buy some Disney art![]()
Our first WDW trip after reopening felt like that. It was great to be able to do so many normal things again, even with the masks. Our October and January trips were during times of high Covid cases, but we felt safe at Disney.It was one of the more memorable trips we have had, largely due to the apprehension and uncertainty that filled almost the entire year leading up to it. While we were really concerned about being able to go, and what it would be like, it turned out to be an incredible trip that really could have been one of our very best.
We found that wearing the masks when the weather was cold in January to be a good thing. But it was really hard to wear them during our trip last week, when the temps were in the 90's.Another obvious adjustment was wearing masks, but for us it really wasn't that bad.
We have had great luck with transportation during the Covid restrictions everywhere except the Grand Floridian. Many of our bus rides had only a few people on the bus.Another memorable aspect of this trip was our great luck with transportation. Some of it had to just be great luck, like walking up to the stop as the bus arrived or having a bus to ourselves, but I think this was made more likely by the fact that half of the resort was still closed for refurbishment during the trip. Compared to the long lines we saw for other resorts, we did great, probably our best transportation trip ever.
The restaurants were a little scary for us before we had been vaccinated. But it was great to have a place to sit and take off the masks.The extra table service meals were key to guaranteeing a spot to sit and eat for the whole group. The few times we ate at a quick service with everyone it was very difficult or impossible to find a table together.
It was nice not to have to plan a day day around fastpasses. It will be interesting to see what they do about fastpasses in the future. There are pluses and minuses to them.I’m gonna say something and it might not be popular opinion but not having fastpass was actually freeing.
One of our favorite things about staying at Wilderness Lodge was how easy it was to go to Fort Wilderness. I can't wait until the resort boats start running again and Trail's End reopens. I hope they reopen the walking path, too.I am really glad that we took the time out to make our way over to Fort Wilderness
Love the TR so far and absolutely appreciate your honesty when it becomes difficult to keep everyone happy, it is definitely always happy go lucky,,,unfortunately we all know this too well. LOLOn Tuesday I again woke up early, but convinced myself to stay in bed until 6:50. As I was going out, Marshall woke up. I tried tucking him in and heading out, but Melissa texted me that he was up just as I got to the lobby.
I was not ready to get up and if Paul was up he might as well take Marshall with him.
I came back to the room and got Marshall ready to go with me, so that everyone else could sleep. He really enjoys going out with me, and was patient enough to wait while we took some pictures. We took some pictures in the lobby, got my mug refill, and went down to Geyser Point at 7:37.
These pictures weren't that great in the camera, but Melissa worked her magic in Lightroom to bring out the colors.
We had some time before the 8:00 Geyser, so I took him to the train room to check it out.
We then went down to see the 8:00 Geyser, which Marshall was excited about (like father, like son).
He took so many pictures of the geyser this morning. It still looks like it hadn't been fixed though.
The Geyser was noticeably weaker than it was during past visits, and there was evidence of them digging in the area. I suspect they were working on it, but it is neat that even so it still worked so that there was an eruption every hour.
We then made our way through the inner courtyard and back up to the room.
At the room, we found that Jon and Brandy were already up since they had to work on payroll.
We texted Grandma and Grandpa at 8:30 to let them know we were on track, and finished getting everyone ready. I saw the 9:00 Geyser from the balcony before we headed down to the buses.
This was another particularly cold day. We were all freezing waiting for the bus. Even the Mickey topiary was bundled up because of the freeze warning.
We did have great luck with the bus timing though, and basically walked right on a bus that pulled up at 9:10. It was a short ride as usual, and we arrived at MK at 9:17.
We got into the park quickly, and walked through the castle to take some pictures. Allie's Nuimos got in on the fun too.
Small World wasn't open yet so we decided to try Peter Pan first.
We then got in line for Peter Pan at 9:40. It showed a 10 minute wait, and we were on it in 7 minutes.
We'd never waited in the inside queue before, it's so cute!
Yeah, that's one of those things you just don't see with Fastpasses. After Peter Pan, we got in line for Small World at 9:52.
It took a but longer in line, but we got on at 10:19 after the guy in the group ahead of us held up the boat departure so he could stand up and take pictures.
It was crazy, this family asked the guy from a different family behind him to use his phone to take a picture of all of them and because they guy wasn't sitting who was taking the picture they couldn't move the boats. It was the most insanely inconsiderate thing I've ever seen at Disney.
I was surprised that the ride operators were not more abrupt with him, but I guess they have seen it all before.
Once we got on a boat our ride around the world was quite enjoyable. One fun thing is that Allie recognized Don Quixote in Spain from our Language Arts unit. So could we call the whole trip a field trip?
Small world was nice, and then we met back up with Grandma and Grandpa who had not left the hotel when we did since they were eating breakfast.
We headed for 7 Dwarves Mine Train and the line estimate was 45 minutes but it only took us about 25. While we were in line we placed mobile orders for Pecos Bill's for lunch.
The kids love mine train and our photopass picture came out so good.
After Mine Train, we still had 30 minutes till our lunch, so Melissa and Marshall rode the carousel. It showed 20 min, and took it all. Meanwhile Jon, Brandy, and Grandpa went to ride Haunted Mansion again, while Allie and I waited with Grandma and snacked on popcorn.
The carousel line moved so slow, because of reduced capacity it took a couple of rotations before we were able to get on.
But Marshall really enjoyed riding it. He tries to be big like his sister and loves the thrill rides but he's still only 5 and enjoys the simple stuff too.
Allie loved the carousel at that age, and it was her favorite MK ride. It was worth the time for Marshall to ride it this time.
We all met up outside Pecos Bills and told them we were ready for our food.
Once they called us at 12:10 we could go inside, but it was super crowded and there was nowhere for us to all sit. I got a couple of tables together outside on the Patio, which was the best I could do. Jon and Brandy didn't want to eat outside, and found a spot for two inside. This was just a tough task trying to keep everyone together, happy, and fed, and it just wasn't possible to do all three at that point.
It was so busy and just hard to navigate. We ended up eating our nachos outside. Overall I wasn't super impressed. It wasn't just the seating arrangements the food wasn't great. It was ok but there are better things to eat. This is strike two on this restaurant for us. It'll probably be a while before we try it again.
Yeah, it was my low point for the trip as I was frustrated and hungry and couldn't get everyone what they wanted, and just wanted to sit down for a meal. It did support our decisions to have more sit down ADRs in parks, because that guarantees a nice relaxing break, which this definitely was not.
I think it's important to be honest when the trip isn't all sunshine and roses and this was one of those times. I think we handled it ok though and got some lunch and were able to rest and get on with the rest of the day.
Join us in the next update as we turn things around and go from our least favorite dining experience to our best, as we have an exceptional dinner with a view...
Yes, there is something very comforting about seeing how much is still magical at Disney, even with masks and other precautions.Our first WDW trip after reopening felt like that. It was great to be able to do so many normal things again, even with the masks. Our October and January trips were during times of high Covid cases, but we felt safe at Disney.
Yeah, they are less pleasant the hotter it gets. We don't like wearing them in the summer here either.We found that wearing the masks when the weather was cold in January to be a good thing. But it was really hard to wear them during our trip last week, when the temps were in the 90's.
The worst we saw was at the Contemporary, but we did see some pretty crowded bus stops at the parks. Oversll though the lower visitation seemed to help with the buses. We will see how it is next time, now that more people are back.We have had great luck with transportation during the Covid restrictions everywhere except the Grand Floridian. Many of our bus rides had only a few people on the bus.![]()
Yeah, we are vaccinated now, but weren't for the trip. We still felt pretty comfortable in the restaurants since we had our space, and nobody else was close to us with the exception of the servers. It was a pleasant comfortable break from the masks and the crowds. Some of the "relaxation areas" were too crowded for us to relax with masks off though.The restaurants were a little scary for us before we had been vaccinated. But it was great to have a place to sit and take off the masks.![]()
Yeah, it is tough because we often won't ride a ride unless we have a fastpss for it, since we just don't tend to spend time waiting in line. Not having the schedule and watching the clock as much was really pleasant though.It was nice not to have to plan a day day around fastpasses. It will be interesting to see what they do about fastpasses in the future. There are pluses and minuses to them.
The bus wasn't too bad, especially now that they were taking the more direct route by the former Reflections construction site. We are optimistic about the jogging path reopening, because there just doesn't seem to be much preventing it from opening. It will be wonderful to be able to walk to FW once again.One of our favorite things about staying at Wilderness Lodge was how easy it was to go to Fort Wilderness. I can't wait until the resort boats start running again and Trail's End reopens. I hope they reopen the walking path, too.![]()
Thanks, we always love sharing them with you. The next trip is a little different but should be super memorable. We will share details shortly, but we are also all still really looking forward to the BC/ WL split in January 2022.I've enjoyed your trip report and can't wait to hear what you have planned next.
Thanks so much. This week should be big for it as far as getting the details of the sale wrapped up for our old house. If that goes well, we should be well on our way to the new one.Good luck with the new house. It sounds like it will be wonderful.![]()
Thanks so much. We will have another update this week, with more fun to come as always.I enjoyed following along another one of your TR's and excited that it looks like we will have another one soon![]()
We totally understand it. Overall, we were just so happy to be there that we would have been happy with anything, but having things turn out to be better than how they used to be was really an unexpected treat. As crowds increase back to normal levels things will probably return to normal and fastpasses will be a necessary thing as well, but we did quite well without them this time.Your final thoughts were so very might in line with mine from our trip in November. So many of the Covid adjustments ended up making life better. I actually hope they keep some of them around. I am torn on fast passes. I am sure I will pay for them if it turns to that. But for now, I really hope they stay away, despite what popular opinion may be.
Exactly. We didn't want to be focusing on what we didn't get to do or what wasn't the same. We were very appreciative to get to be there, and vacationing at WDW is still so awesom and we are incredibly fortunate to get to do it year after year. The details are always interesting though, too.And PERSPECTIVE is so important and I think you guys definitely saw everything as a blessing. Going into the trip with expectations of good food, quality family time, and beautiful sights means some of the annoying things can easily be overlooked!
We are glad that you enjoyed it, and our honest opinions and perspectives. We each have our meltdown moments every trip, no matter how old we are, but this time overall we were all even happier than normal to just get to be there, and we all had a great time.Love the TR so far and absolutely appreciate your honesty when it becomes difficult to keep everyone happy, it is definitely always happy go lucky,,,unfortunately we all know this too well. LOL
What a wonderful surprise for Allie and a great treat for Melissa! They will get to see what a trip to the YC/BC is like.After we got home in January, Melissa started looking at options for a stay to celebrate the end of the school year. She wound up getting a great deal on a room at Yacht Club. They snuck it in by having a “layover” at MCO on their way back from a weekend trip to visit Melissa’s sister in Virginia. They landed at MCO this morning, and we told Allie that their layover was longer than we had said, and they would be staying for five days. She cried, but is super excited.
We aren’t sure how trip reporting will go for this one, but we wanted to share the start of it with everyone now. We will keep you posted as their trip progresses.