She's masking up and taking on the World

[kclark9830]

Joining in!

 

[Jaina]

Following along! I can't believe the great deal you got on flights!!

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Cute

Thanks, it was memorable at least.

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!

Ahh, we're sorry for your missed trip, but totally understand your decision. Looking forward to upcoming trips we are going to just have to focus on what's still great and what's new and enjoyable vs thinking about the things we used to be able to do. It will be different, but it is still Disney... Two trips could be good, but so could renting points to pay for some nice extras on one trip. Ahh, decisions.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Hi everybody, we are still eagerly waiting for our trip, but we did have a little story to include from our last trip.

For those that were following along with our last Trip Report may recall that the ornament that we had personalized was broken en route back to the resort via the resort delivery service.


Since it was fairly late in the trip, and we hadn't planned on another trip to Disney Springs to have another one made, they offered to have one shipped to our home.

So we started that process before we even left for home. The person on the phone assured me that we would receive the ornament about 10 days after we returned home which would have been perfect.

As with many things in 2020, that didn't work out as planned, so we had to contact them to follow up.

In order to ship a new ornament they basically have to send a shopper to the store where the item was originally purchased to pickup another one and then have it packed for shipping.

After not hearing anything for about a week after we got home I decided to follow up with Disney. They said they were waiting for me to let them know I was home before they would ship another ornament but that they would make sure it went out in the next 10 days.

Since we were already a few weeks after our trip when we started the process, the delays stacked up far enough that we got into the timeframe where they shut down for COVID.

So I emailed again inquiring about what would happen because of the shutdown and the reply was that I could wait until the parks reopened or I could receive a refund. I decided to wait because at that point we all assumed that the parks would only be closed a couple weeks tops. Well weeks turned into months and I moved the receipt paperwork several times around the house. Finally when Disney Springs reopened I emailed again excited to finally get our ornament.

The reply at that time was that they couldn't process anything until the parks reopened and so I continued to wait.

I think there were a couple of times where they offered a refund, but we decided to stick it out and hold out hope for a 2020 ornament that we didn't have to get made on our 2021 trip

Finally about a month after the parks reopened I contacted them again. They finally were able to process the replacement.

We were quite anxious when a package finally arrived in the mail from Disney. Would this one have survived? Would it be the same ornament? Would it even be personalized?

We opened it and it was perfect! All in one piece and with the exact personalization.


With all the things that could have gone wrong, this really was some Disney Magic to have it finally home in one piece.

We are really excited to have this ornament on our tree this year.

It will be a more special one than we realized. We are all ready to start decorating for Christmas now, and than once it is over our trip will be super close!

Our ADR date is coming up over Thanksgiving week!

I am excited. The trouble people have been having booking ADRs in early January is slightly concerning, but I am hoping that the crowds will drop by the time we get there and it won't be as bad. Also having a few more weeks for DIsney to fix and prevent glitches should be a good thing.

Whatever we're able to get will be wonderful. We are just thankful to be able to go.

Yep, being there eating at Roaring Fork sounds pretty darn great. I think that's about all for now, but we'll post another update if anything else comes up.

 

[Wood Nymph]

Your ornament is beautiful and it looks very delicate. I'm glad that it arrived unbroken. They must have done a great job of packing it.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Joining in!

Great! Srry I missed your message in the earlier multi-quote, but we're glad you are here.

Following along! I can't believe the great deal you got on flights!!

Hello! We couldn't believe the flight deal either. It was good enough to get us to jump on it, and so far we haven't seen anything better. Our concern is that flight times will change, but so far the times are great. We are really looking forward to being there.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Your ornament is beautiful and it looks very delicate. I'm glad that it arrived unbroken. They must have done a great job of packing it.

Yeah, we were more than a little concerned after it didn't make it to the resort successfully then it had to go on much more of a voyage. It made it though, and we are all glad we didn't give up on it.

 

[KPeterso]

I'm following along. Jealous on the airfare front. I am still looking for airfare for March (LAX to MCO or SNA to somewhere to MCO). I would prefer flying Delta since they are leaving middle seats open and I get a free bag when I use my Delta AMEX card. Those tickets are still kind of high, but are fluctuating a lot. I expect them to come down a bit soon. I could get under $250 roundtrip with others right now.

 

[princessbelle2015]

Joining in! I love reading all of your pretrial and trip reports.

 

[eliseisawkward]

So glad to see the ornament arrived, especially after what seems like an endless saga of delays! Hope ADRs went well!!

 

[DaisyDuck001]

Yes, how did your ADRs turn out?

 

[GrandCalifornian]

I'm following along. Jealous on the airfare front. I am still looking for airfare for March (LAX to MCO or SNA to somewhere to MCO). I would prefer flying Delta since they are leaving middle seats open and I get a free bag when I use my Delta AMEX card. Those tickets are still kind of high, but are fluctuating a lot. I expect them to come down a bit soon. I could get under $250 roundtrip with others right now.

We would always prefer Delta, but for the savings we are going with United this time, and so far so good. We did have one flight time change, but it was nothing significant, so we are still good.

Joining in! I love reading all of your pretrial and trip reports.

Thanks, we are glad you are here. We have been too busy to get an update together, but we should have one very soon.

So glad to see the ornament arrived, especially after what seems like an endless saga of delays! Hope ADRs went well!!

Thanks, it will definitely be an appropriate ornament for 2020. Quite a struggle, but it made it through. ADRs did go well, and we have the update in progress and should get it up very soon.

Yes, how did your ADRs turn out?

We did well, and will share the bookings shortly. We had some issues with party size at some locations, but overall we were very happy given our adjusted expectations. We should have the next update posted very soon.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Hi everybody, we have been crazy busy getting ready for Christmas and rounding out the year, but we wanted to post an update here because the trip is rapidly approaching.

We are really excited. Paul is ready to bring in the luggage but I convinced him to wait until after Christmas.

We were able to make our ADRs, and did very well getting what we wanted, even with the party of 8. We had a few exceptions, including Tiffins and Yak and Yeti, but we were able to get those by making reservations for smaller groups.

We'll have to split between two tables for a couple of restaurants but just getting in at all is nice.

My parents aren’t going to go to all of the meals, especially some of the fancier Signatures, but we can eat together for most meals.

I feel like anything we get to do this trip besides hang out in the room will be bonus.

Yeah, it is a different perspective for sure. We are excited to get to go, and getting most of our favorite restaurants is a plus.

I'm really excited about Morimoto Asia. We've heard good things and I've wanted to try it for the last couple of trips.

I think California Grill is going to be a hit, and we are all going to that one so it could be the meal of the trip for everyone.

Yes! Looking forward to that for sure even without the fireworks view.

We also have Teppan Edo for 8, which we are all are really looking forward to.

We'll have the entire table to ourselves.

As far as new meals, we are also looking forward to Tiffin’s which we have never done before.

That’s it for new stuff, but we get to go back to some of our favorites including 50’s prime time, Liberty Tree Tavern, Whispering Canyon, and Homecomin.

We haven't been to Liberty Tree in a while and I think I might just order the ooey gooey toffey cake just for me.

You should probably plan on it, since I might not want to share.

Fair. We still need to place our Garden Grocer order, or figure out groceries for the room. We normally have that done by now but alas somehow we are slammed. We also never got around to doing a countdown chain this year.

At 37 days now it probably is past time to do a chain, even a short one. It will be interesting not being able to randomly resort hop, and we haven’t made any resort ADRs outside of WL, so we may not get to visit as many resorts as usual this time.

Yes, popping over to the Contemporary or the Poly this trip probably isn't gonna happen. Also our tour of the Monorail resorts might have to wait until next trip.

The only reservation we want but don’t have yet is Boathouse, where we can’t get in with a party of 8 but will likely do two tables of four since we all want to eat there, and we will have quite a few nights at Disney Springs.

I'm looking forward to the food booths at Epcot too for the Festival of the arts.

Yes! And the art displays. That was a big hit last year, and should still be great this time.

We still have room for some new art on our Disney wall.

Yes we do, and there’s some specific over we are excitedly looking forward to.

In non trip related news we just redid our bedroom, new floors, furniture and paint. While cleaning up we found a map we had bought in 2005 for Disneyland's 50th anniversary. I can't believe we kept it in such nice shape.

We put it in a frame and it looks really neat.


So next up is Christmas. We hope you all have wonderful holidays and stay healthy and happy.

We will be back with updates in January as we finish our trip prep and finally start packing!

 

[DaisyDuck001]

It will be interesting not being able to randomly resort hop, and we haven’t made any resort ADRs outside of WL, so we may not get to visit as many resorts as usual this time.

Yes, popping over to the Contemporary or the Poly this trip probably isn't gonna happen. Also our tour of the Monorail resorts might have to wait until next trip.

While you may not be able to drive a rental car to a resort where you don't have a reservation, resort hopping using Disney transportation is still allowed. So you can if you choose to! Or is there another reason you wouldn't?

 

[GrandCalifornian]

That’s great to hear. We love to resort hop by Disney transportation (or just walking from Epcot) but were concerned that we could not get into resorts without an ADR. That is one more thing that will be closer to normal!

 

[karalecia26]

Joining in on your PTR! It sounds like you are ready to go! We are scheduled for our first DVC visit in June and I can't wait to be able to be back on property. Also amazing prices on your flights! We are in the middle of the country and flights are crazy expensive no matter where we fly out of! ( Our "home" airport is Omaha and that is an hour and a half away and almost never has a direct flight to MCO no matter what airline, so sometimes we look at Kansas City which is 3 hours away and sometimes can get a direct flight) Right now we are are lucky to get flights under $300 RT per person.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Joining in on your PTR! It sounds like you are ready to go! We are scheduled for our first DVC visit in June and I can't wait to be able to be back on property. Also amazing prices on your flights! We are in the middle of the country and flights are crazy expensive no matter where we fly out of! ( Our "home" airport is Omaha and that is an hour and a half away and almost never has a direct flight to MCO no matter what airline, so sometimes we look at Kansas City which is 3 hours away and sometimes can get a direct flight) Right now we are are lucky to get flights under $300 RT per person.

Thanks for joining in. It is crazy how much shorter flights can be way more expensive. We loose some of the savings with parking though, since it is really expensive at LAX.

Congrats on having your first DVC visit! We really love it, although we loved Disney before DVC, but it is neat to know that we will be back and will get to stay at our favorite resort.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Hello everyone! We are at less than 20 days to go now, and we are super excited. Another cool thing is that the Festival of the Arts started today, and we can’t wait to get there for it.

As some of you may recall, we met Greg McCullough during our trip last year, and chatted with him about his upcoming painting to celebrate the 50th, a reflection of the castle. He showed us a pic on his phone and we knew we needed it. We are excited that it will be available at Festival of the Arts. We don’t know what we’ll wind up with, but we will definitely do our best to bring one home.

Here’s a picture of Greg in front of one of his originals of this painting.


We are really excited about this print and are trying to negotiate to figure out how much our budget should be for it.

The prices rise quickly from the $50 ones like we got last time, and we can't justify a big one on canvas, but we will see if we can swing one of the limited editons on paper...

I've also been following Rob Kaz and Tim Rogerson and am really looking forward to seeing their new pieces and maybe bringing something home for my new office.

Ahh yes, you didn't wind up with something for work last time, and now you have a shiny new office to decorate.

I have just the spot too.

In other trip planning news, we completed our online checkin and requested our MDE bus rides. We got another flight time adjustment for the way home, but it is still a great flight leaving at 7 PM Orlando time. We will have a few hours after everyone else heads to the airport.

The trip is getting so close, it's almost time to get suitcases out but I told Paul we can't do that until the Christmas stuff gets put away.

And that’s our plan for this weekend. We do have packing lists going, and told the kids to stop wearing anything they want to take to Disney.

Yes, packing should be fun. Everything has to fit in the back of my car this time so we'll be packing lighter than ever.

Unless we leave my truck at the airport, but we also gotta be able to drag all our stuff around with us, and for the first time use the baggage claim in Orlando.

I don't think your truck would fit in the parking garage. It is a little wild we've never been to baggage claim in Orlando, not really looking forward to that.

It should be ok, it is a short walk from there to the buses, especially since we are on the B side with United.

Now we are just waiting through a few weeks of work, staying careful and hopefully staying healthy.

Yes we are doing our best to stay healthy and sane.

And counting down the days! We’ll be back with another update soon.

 

[QueenJen]

Enjoying all of the pre-planning updates. Looking forward to reading about your trip - but not too quickly, hopefully the time will slow down while you are there and not fly by.

 

[DaisyDuck001]

Baggage claim in Orlando is just fine.