She's masking up and taking on the World

[GrandCalifornian]

Hi friends! We're going back to Disneyworld!


Hi everybody, it feels like it's been a long time since we posted. If you're wondering who we are, feel free to check out any of our prior reports in our signature, but I'm Paul, a 40 year old Mechanical Engineer and Disney Dad, and I'll be writing in blue.


I'm Melissa, a year older than our last trip report, and mom to our two crazy munchkins. I absolutely cannot wait until our next Disneyworld trip and am really looking forward to a little slice of magic, and my comments are in Orange.


When we left off, we finished our trip report for our February trip, which was a great opportunity to visit WDW before the world totally changed.

We have had a super busy spring and summer and are ready to go back to Disney. We remodeled our only bathroom, spent a week camping in Utah, and have been working. Paul is working from home, I'm still going into the office which we moved in September. Allie is now officially being fully homeschooled and Marshall is eating us out of house and home!

I have been doing a lot of work around the house now that I'm working from home, and besides the bathroom remodel we have new siding in the front, a new garage door, and are getting ready to do flooring. I am ready for a Disney trip!

I have quite the Honey Do list.

We made our reservation for January 20 - February 6 at the 11 month mark and have been looking forward to that trip ever since. Now it is getting surprisingly close, so we figured it would be a good time to write a PTR to share what it's like planning for a WDW trip in the era of COVID.

My parents, Grandpa Jim and Grandma Nancy, had been planning on joining us for this trip. They had been waiting eagerly for reservations at WL to open up, but they never did! Finally in June we saw availability for a cash Copper Creek studio reservation. When I showed it to them, they decided to go for it. They booked a studio with a tub in hopes of being on the ground floor like we were last time.

Grandma Nancy is hoping to not have to deal with her scooter on the elevators and the ground floor request makes sense for them. It's nice that they offer cash reservations for Copper Creek.

We had been planning to do a split stay between Beach Club Villas and Copper Creek, but with the COVID related DVC points borrowing rules changes we didn't want to risk messing with our reservation. Technically we should have been able to do it since the points were the same, but we decided to play it safe and stay in the 2 bedroom at Copper Creek for the entire time. This also worked out well with Grandma and Grandpa being there the whole trip too.



Once we all had room reservations, we started watching the chaos that was airfare. Finally in late August we saw that we could get round trip tickets from LAX for half of our usual target budget of $1000, making it $125 a person round trip. This was too good to pass up, so we went ahead and booked it.

We were talking about starting to check on airfare while we were on the way out to the river and I checked rates on my phone. I thought it was some kind of glitch or something because the price was so low. We ended up just buying the airfare while we were at the rest stop at 11 at night in the middle of the desert because I was afraid the price would double in the morning.

It was our best price yet, and we'll still have to deal with LAX but the flights are nonstop and at good times.

One nagging issue has been park tickets for the next trip. Even with all the extensions our old passes wouldn't cover the trip, so we have been eagerly waiting for the chance to renew them. Once the park pass reservation system came out, we couldn't book our park days because we didn't yet have valid admission. We considered buying 10 day park tickets, but that gets really close to the cost of the pass renewal, so we decided to wait it out for a bit.

I was getting anxious about not being able to book park reservation after watching them fill up over some of the weekends recently.

Finally we saw last Thursday that DVC is doing renewals for APs if you have a trip booked after they expire, so we called and did exactly that. Jon and Brandy called too, and were able to extend theirs as well. Since Grandma and Grandpa bought tickets with their room they were good to go, and once we had the renewals linked in our online accounts we were able to successfully make our park pass reservations today.


It feels weird to be this close (relatively) to the trip and not have ADRs booked yet, but now that will happen 60 days out. We do have our plan made for which parks will be on which days, and that will decide where we wind up eating. With not having park hopping and the parks closing fairly early, I expect to have quite a few dinners at Disney Springs.

We have a great list of restaurants lined up and I'm excited to try some new places.

It looks really good for the places we want being open, and things should improve over the next few months, although we did see that Wolfgang Puck Express closed this week. That was an old favorite, but not one we were specifically planning on this trip.

Yeah, it's sad to see it go for sure but we really did find better places to eat more recently. Please don't hate me for saying that.

I do agree, but sadly I think it is one of many ways the World will be a little different now than in the past.

I like to think of it as making way for better and brighter.

And I just can't wait to be there again... So, I think that's about all to kick off the PTR, but we will be popping back in with various random updates as we get ready for the trip.

Are you ready for it?

 

[DaisyDuck001]

Yay!

 

[QueenJen]

Beautiful pictures. Yay for a new trip and for plans to be falling into place. Great deal on the airfare!

 

[eliseisawkward]

Tagging along!

 

[rdkeim]

A new trip - yay! Even with the limitations, being back in the World will be worth it. We're booked for the 1st of March (after 2 postponements) and I'm adjusting my expectations. I think my DH will welcome a slower paced vacation. Looking forward to hearing more about your plans!

 

[Wood Nymph]

It is great to hear from you again.
I thought the airfare that you had last year was a bargain, but $125 round trip tops that! It is cheaper than our round trip from Midway-Chicago in January. We are currently booked Jan 3-9th in a CCV studio with walk in shower. I'm waiting for discounts to be released to see if we keep those dates or not.

I was sad to hear that Wolfgang Puck express was closed because it was our favorite place to eat lunch at Disney Springs. It will be a different kind of trip without park hoppers, fast passes, and park hours. I was hoping that things would open up a little by January, but now it looks like it might be the same as it is now. We are going to WDW on Sunday, which will give us a good idea of what it like with the pandemic restrictions.

 

[Isabelle12345]

Following! We all need a little something to hold on to in these weird times... I can’t wait to start planning my next Disney vacation!
I loved reading your previous trip reports so I am looking forward to this one too!

 

[DLo]

Hopping over from your last TR . Looking forward to reading more about your upcoming trip.

 

[suse66]

Joining in! I always love following along on your adventures!

 

[shairpdrh]

Just the thing to get me excited to plan for 2021! We aren't going until March, so it will be fun to follow along and see how your trip goes.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Yay!

We're excited too! It is always fun to be going back.

Beautiful pictures. Yay for a new trip and for plans to be falling into place. Great deal on the airfare!

Thanks, we absolutely love taking pictures at WL. We are pretty excited at how it is coming together.

Tagging along!

Welcome! We are glad you're here.

A new trip - yay! Even with the limitations, being back in the World will be worth it. We're booked for the 1st of March (after 2 postponements) and I'm adjusting my expectations. I think my DH will welcome a slower paced vacation. Looking forward to hearing more about your plans!

We are all excited about the trip, and nobody is too worried about running out of things to do. Not having the option to park hop was an adjustment, but when we look at what we actually do I don't think it will have that big of an effect on the trip.

It is great to hear from you again.

And you too!

I thought the airfare that you had last year was a bargain, but $125 round trip tops that! It is cheaper than our round trip from Midway-Chicago in January. We are currently booked Jan 3-9th in a CCV studio with walk in shower. I'm waiting for discounts to be released to see if we keep those dates or not.

My parents just called today to see about discounts on their January Copper Creek reservation, but unfortunately they only applied to 2 bedrooms and not their studio. Oh well. Starting the year off at Copper Creek would be really nice.

I was sad to hear that Wolfgang Puck express was closed because it was our favorite place to eat lunch at Disney Springs. It will be a different kind of trip without park hoppers, fast passes, and park hours. I was hoping that things would open up a little by January, but now it looks like it might be the same as it is now. We are going to WDW on Sunday, which will give us a good idea of what it like with the pandemic restrictions.

Yeah, WPE used to be our favorite, but has gotten surpassed for me by D-Luxe burger, and we all really enjoy Boathouse too. We are trying Morimoto Asia for the first time, and returning to Homecomin this trip. We are always sad to see a good unique place go.

We will see how things change by January, but I do expect the crowds to be better than people experience over Thanksgiving and Christmas. Hopefully it is relatively calm, even with the reduced capacity.

Following! We all need a little something to hold on to in these weird times... I can’t wait to start planning my next Disney vacation!
I loved reading your previous trip reports so I am looking forward to this one too!

Yes, that is so true. We're glad you enjoyed our past reports and hopefully this trip results in a good one too.

Hopping over from your last TR . Looking forward to reading more about your upcoming trip.

Welcome! We're glad that you made it over and are interested in seeing what we'll be up to.

Joining in! I always love following along on your adventures!

Thanks! We're always excited that people enjoy following along.

Just the thing to get me excited to plan for 2021! We aren't going until March, so it will be fun to follow along and see how your trip goes.

Aww, thank you! We are really excited to get to be there, and the wait until we get to go is relatively short now. Hopefully we get enough info posted for you by March to get you even more excited about your trip.

 

[Wood Nymph]

My parents just called today to see about discounts on their January Copper Creek reservation, but unfortunately they only applied to 2 bedrooms and not their studio. Oh well. Starting the year off at Copper Creek would be really nice.

Unfortunately, there weren't any discounts for a CCV studio for our dates. They did have a 1br available, but that would have been an extra $100 per night. So we switched to YC, where we saved $520 over our CCV studio. It seems like the only time we can get a good discount for WL/CCV is in August, when no one goes to WDW.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Unfortunately, there weren't any discounts for a CCV studio for our dates. They did have a 1br available, but that would have been an extra $100 per night. So we switched to YC, where we saved $520 over our CCV studio. It seems like the only time we can get a good discount for WL/CCV is in August, when no one goes to WDW.

Oh well, so much for winter at the Lodge. YC should be great. We were looking forward to splitting with Beach Club Villas this time, but it will have to wait for another trip.

 

[thumper*]

Hi Paul and Melissa good to see you getting back again.

we did see that Wolfgang Puck Express closed this week.

I heard somewhere the closure might be temporary, keep your fingers crossed.

PS. Mark was asking me tonight at dinner if I would make your Disney recipe cinnamon rolls for Christmas again this year. again for the recipe.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Hi Paul and Melissa good to see you getting back again.

I heard somewhere the closure might be temporary, keep your fingers crossed.

PS. Mark was asking me tonight at dinner if I would make your Disney recipe cinnamon rolls for Christmas again this year. again for the recipe.

Hello, yes we are excited. Having a trip to look forward to is great fun.

We will hope for the return of WPE, and all other great things that are not currently available at WDW. With time things will return to normal.

That's neat about the Cinnamon Rolls. We are looking forward to having them at Christmas again too. You're welcome, we are glad you enjoy them.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Hi everybody, we are still here, and planning our return to WDW. In the last week we have learned about the layoffs of many performing cast members, including the Hoop De Doo Revue at WDW and Mickey and The Magical Map at Disneyland. It is always disappointing to see things go the wrong direction, but unfortunately we realize that with decreased visitation and limits on what can be done, some favorites won't be a part of Disney for a while

We feel for those who have lost their jobs and will for sure miss that type of entertainment at Disney.

We are still amazed at the restrictions being placed on Disney and other theme parks here in California. It is frustrating to be held to a different standard than other businesses or than those in other places, but that is the current situation. We sure hope for the sake of Disney, Cast Members, and so many businesses here in Southern California that they can open up soon.

All politics aside, we still have a trip to look forward to, and are always happy to brighten our lives with a bit of Disney. One little example is this cool clock that we picked up from Amazon on Prime Day...


Omg, I love this clock.

It is really cool, and a great mix of a simple analog clock and Amazon Alexa technology. It works with our existing Amazon Echo and show devices to show the time, and also a visual countdown of any timers we have set. The outer ring lights up red to indicate the time remaining, and in the last minute it counts down around the entire dial, like a second hand.


It's super helpful for the kids to see how much time is left on a timer for reading, cooking, or even time out.

It is also neat to have another clock that is automatically set to the right time, and yet another Mickey on the wall. We put it right above my "work from home" desk, where we can see it from the kitchen or living room.

And the retro Mickey design is adorable.

For less than $40 it is a super neat simple little thing that makes us smile.

We were looking out our trip countdown this last weekend and realized we're under 100 days! Officially in double digit range. I guess that means we can start a chain, that really snuck up on me.

It is even more amazing that Thanksgiving and Christmas are in those 90 odd days left, so they will go even quicker.

Last night we carved pumpkins, and I added a little 2020 Disney flare to mine. It was tough to do without a template, but my goal was Mickey wearing a mask. It kind of looks more like Tigger, but that's ok, it was fun.


It came out really cute!


Aww, thanks...

In trip news everyone has finally secured plane tickets. Since Jon and Brandy moved in the last year we're officially flying on our own from LAX so we're packing even lighter this year because we won't have extra hands.

Yes, we will brave LAX on our own, with a smaller car load of suitcases.

It actually works out because we sold our big SUV.

Grandma and Grandpa are flying from Las Vegas and stopping in Texas, but we should all arrive at WDW within a few hours of each other.

We're all really excited. I'm still slightly nervous about flying but I'm always worried about germs on airplanes. Our kiddos are really good about mask wearing, even Marsh so it shouldn't be bad.

Hopefully it is pretty quiet, although my biggest concern right now is flight cancellation, so as long as they get us there we should have a great time.

I think that's about all for now, but we'll be back soon as we make more plans.

Have a Happy Halloween!!

 

[Wood Nymph]

We are still amazed at the restrictions being placed on Disney and other theme parks here in California. It is frustrating to be held to a different standard than other businesses or than those in other places, but that is the current situation.

We are at WDW now, staying at the Yacht Club, and people have been really good about wearing masks and following the social distance guidelines. We feel very safe because the mask compliance has been so good. WDW has done quite a good job of keeping things clean and safe. So I would think that it would show that Disneyland could do it, too. Our governor in Illinois is being very restrictive and seems to be holding some businesses to tougher standards, too, and that is hard.

We had lunch at Geyser Point yesterday and were disappointed that they let the bushes grow tall enough to block some of the view of Bay Lake. But the food was good and we enjoyed visiting one of our favorite resorts.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

We are at WDW now, staying at the Yacht Club, and people have been really good about wearing masks and following the social distance guidelines. We feel very safe because the mask compliance has been so good. WDW has done quite a good job of keeping things clean and safe. So I would think that it would show that Disneyland could do it, too. Our governor in Illinois is being very restrictive and seems to be holding some businesses to tougher standards, too, and that is hard.

We had lunch at Geyser Point yesterday and were disappointed that they let the bushes grow tall enough to block some of the view of Bay Lake. But the food was good and we enjoyed visiting one of our favorite resorts.

That’s great that you are having a good trip. We are glad to hear that it feels comfortable and that people are following the rules. Having lunch at Geyser Point sounds wonderful.
The longer WDW is successfully open the better argument Disney will have for opening more up, which will be great for everyone.
Have a great trip and we are looking forward to hearing more about it.

 

[thumper*]

Cute

 

[storey13]

Following along. I always enjoy your reports! We did not end up going on our October trip due to so many things we wanted our youngest two daughters to experience would not be happening (character greetings, parades, and fireworks). It was supposed to be their first trip. We are eyeing late May/early June or Thanksgiving next year. Thanksgiving is more likely because at this point I doubt WDW will be back to "normal" by late May. I have a bunch of points that will expire at end of July next year, so I'll need to rent those out or go twice next year, which wouldn't be a bad thing!