The Force was with us...Boarding Group 7 (twice!) at Christmastime

[aggieamp]

Howdy all! Let me introduce myself, as this is my first trip report on Disboards. I'm Alison. I'm a mom of two (DS 10, DD 7) and wife to Zeb, my husband of 12.5 years, and a full-time, in-person Kindergarten teacher to 12 sweet kiddos this year at a private school. My family lives on a 85-acre farm with 18 cows, 24 chickens, and our 3 year-old German Shepherd, Luna. Way back in Spring 2020, I created a pre-trip report for our July trip that didn't happen. That trip was rescheduled from a March 2020 trip that didn't happen either. So, I am so happy that despite how terrible 2020 has been for everyone, we could end the year on a high note with an adults-only trip to WDW.


Before I get into my December 2020 trip report, let me share all of the ways I tried to bring Disney magic into a very non-magical 2020. With 2 failed attempts at a WDW trip this year, I was feeling real "homesick" for my happy place. Over the year, I have done several things to feel closer to WDW without actually being there. Last spring I began watching Disney Animators on YouTube and brushed up on my art skills by drawing several of my favorite Disney characters. While quarantined at home with my kids, we tried out lots of Disney recipes and ordered the pineapple and lime Dole Whip mixes on Amazon to make our own at home. I ordered the top 10 scents in oils from Magic Candle Company to make my house and my classroom smell like some of my favorite Disney places. I often kept the Disney Resort Loop on my TV as I did chores around the house. When preparing for the new school year, I decided to redecorate my classroom into the lands of the Magic Kingdom. Play centers are a huge part of Kindergarten, so I have Main Street USA, Liberty Square, Tomorrowland, Adventureland, Frontierland, and Fantasyland that my students rotate around throughout the week. I use the MCC Bakery scent in my classroom each day and get compliments all the time about how yummy my classroom smells. I also started using the H2O+ brand shampoo and body wash (found on Amazon) because I had used up all of the bottles we'd brought home for our WDW trip in 2018. Of course, I also watched hours and hours of my favorite Disney vloggers, to live vicariously through them and use their experiences to help plan out our trip.

I'm glad I can admit all of the crazy things listed above to an understanding audience of Disney fans, hopefully without judgment. Most of my family thinks I'm crazy for always wanting to take Disney vacations instead of trying something different. I've always been the kind of person who wants to share my excitement with others, so it's been hard since returning from our trip and not having anyone to talk to about it. Luckily I got my husband hooked on Disney this trip and he's 100% all-in to plan more frequent future trips. I hope this trip report is an enjoyable read! Stay tuned to hear how the Force was with us (spoiler in the title), touring 8 DVC resorts, trying caviar for the first time, and all the fun details in between!

 

[aggieamp]

Let's start with the details leading up to our trip:

After our second attempt at a 2020 Disney trip failed in July, I originally decided we would wait until all of the COVID protocols (mainly masks) went away before planning again. But, as the school year approached, I knew I would need a Disney getaway this year, regardless of if masks were required. I have gotten fairly used to wearing a mask at school, even though I am not required to have it on at all times in my classroom. The one thing that made mask wearing so difficult is that I wear glasses and I would have anxiety over my glasses fogging up regularly and not being able to see clearly. I decided that I would switch back to contacts (after 5 years without them) before our trip because I didn't want to deal with the constant fogging while wearing a mask everywhere at WDW. I think that simple-ish change made all the difference in my feelings about wearing a mask at WDW.

When my husband and I decided we wanted to schedule a trip for December, we did so for a few reasons. The main reason being that, after returning from WDW it would be easy for me to quarantine for 14+ days prior to school starting again in January. I didn't want to put my colleagues or students at risk by returning to school immediately after a vacation.

In September, we used our flight credits from Southwest to book $45 tickets to Orlando. We also began watching for dedicated reservations on David's that fit the dates of our trip. We knew we wanted to stay in a deluxe resort this time around and felt renting DVC points was the best way to achieve this. We ended up needing to piece our reservation together by combining 3 different reservations: BWV, preferred view 12/15-12/19, BWV, preferred view 12/19-12/20, and BLT, theme park view 12/20-12/21. This was the first time we've ever rented DVC, but I would definitely do it again (more on that later...).

*Disney Day at school*

At 60 days out, I booked some ADRs, most notably an Oga's reservation, dinner at Topolino's, and Homecomin'. Those were the "must-do" restaurants for our trip, so I was thankful to get them. I added several more over the weeks leading up to our trip and I'll detail each one in this report.

The first week in November, we had the first case of COVID in my school. It was a secondary student, but it soon began spreading among a few other secondary students. Teaching at a PreK-12 private school has lots of advantages, but with how small our school is, it could have gotten bad real fast. The elementary students stay separated from the older kids, so we still have not had any cases of an elementary student or elementary teacher testing positive. However, my niece is a freshman at the school, and soon she had it, along with my sister, BIL, and both of my parents. Two weeks before Thanksgiving, I missed a few days of school awaiting my COVID test results, but was relieved to have two negative tests and be able to return to school. My family of 4 spent Thanksgiving away from the rest of my family (who live in different houses on our farm) while they recovered from COVID. Thankfully, even my high-risk dad recovered easily, even though his sense of taste and smell have not fully returned.

*Fuzzy calf baby saying “bye” before we left*

Leading in to December, I took all precautions to keep my household safe and healthy. I selfishly did not want to get sick right before our trip since I knew we would be unable to get refunded on our DVC-rented rooms. The week before our trip, 3 administrators at school tested positive, along with a few teachers (still none in my building). Our trip began on the last full day of school before Christmas break, however, there were 3 half-days of school that I would be missing a need a sub for. I had all of my sub plans prepped and ready to go before I left school the day of our flight, but that day the decision was made to cancel school for the remainder of the week. On the bright side, it means that I won't be docked any of my vacation days since school was not held while I was on our trip.

I consider it a miracle that I have never felt healthier than I did this fall semester. Usually I take several sick days throughout the school year because of sinus infections, stomach bugs, etc. But I had not missed a single day of school this fall, except for the days when waiting for my test results because of possible COVID exposure from my mom. Negative COVID tests, constant mask wearing, and monitoring for symptoms (and temp checking) made Zeb and I feel confident about continuing on with our trip. When we boarded our flight on December 15, it was like a weight was lifted off my shoulders and I finally felt like I could soak up the magic of Disney.

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Following along! Glad all worked out and you got to take your trip!

 

[aggieamp]

December 15th had finally arrived. I had originally planned to leave work at around 1:00 that day, with sub plans made for the remainder of the week. However, the decision was made that morning to cancel school for the rest of the week due to the increasing COVID numbers among secondary students. The good news for me is that, because school was cancelled while we'd be at Disney, I would not have to use any of my vacation days.

My dad gave us a ride to Love Field and we arrived around 3:00 for a 5:40 flight. We checked our bags and made it through security quickly. We were at our gate with ~2 hours until the flight. After about 15 minutes, our flight status changed to "Delayed". We had already been discussing where we should get dinner once we were in Orlando, because we knew it'd be late. Now, we realized we'd be arriving at MCO close to 10:00pm and most restaurants would not be open, especially ones on WDW property. We decided to have an early dinner and split a Chick-Fil-A meal at Love Field. Our flight was delayed once more, but we were finally able to board the plane by 6:15 (about an hour later than the original boarding time). I know I'm not the only one who gets super antsy when your flight is delayed, especially on a Disney vacation. I was soooo ready to be on WDW property after over a year of planning and rescheduling our trip. While waiting for our delayed flight, I got the text that our room was ready; Room 4064 at the Boardwalk Villas. I quickly looked it up on Touring Plans and was a little bummed that it was across the hall from the Village Green view rooms that I had requested. We had paid for a preferred view room, but I could see by the pictures that our view was mostly a tree on the pool side. Oh well; I knew we'd be so busy that we probably wouldn't sit on our balcony much anyway.


We landed in Orlando and were off the plane around 9:50. After grabbing our bags, we took the trek down to the ME line (I'm so sad to think we may never get to use ME again!). Walking to ME, I felt myself tearing up. I am not typically an overly-emotional person, but Disney has made me cry so many times of the past year. I think with the craziness of a global pandemic, I just felt such relief that our vacation was finally beginning and I was so thankful that we had stayed healthy. We boarded our bus, with Mears driver Randy as our captain. When he asked us where we were going and we told him to the Boardwalk, he said "Ohhhh, fancy! The Boardwalk is one of my favorite resorts!" Randy was so friendly and fun and I could tell it would be a fun ride to our resort. We had stops at Pop Century and Caribbean Beach first, with Randy hosting Disney Trivia along the way. It was fun to play the trivia game, but I was the annoying one who kept answering all the questions (I've always been a trivia fan).

We arrived at the Boardwalk Villas at about 11:15. The lobby was beautifully decorated for Christmas and we were able to walk right through to the elevators and straight up to our room thanks to Mobile Check-in. I really enjoyed the ease of this- not having to wait in line at check-in. We dropped our bags off in our room, gave it a quick look, and decided to head down to walk around on the boardwalk for a bit.



We did stop by the front desk to ask what the best way to get late-night food was. The CM told us there were several area restaurants that may still deliver, or we could purchase from the vending machines. When we inquired about the vending machines, the CM didn't know specifically what types were on each floor, so we went floor-to-floor in search of food vending machines. In the end, we were only able to find drink machines, so after buying a $4 bottle of Coke, we gave up on food for the night. I was ok with that, but Zeb went to bed feeling pretty hungry. I promised him that breakfast tomorrow would be worth it. With my alarm set for 6:50 the next morning, we were in bed by midnight for a very comfortable sleep before our 1st day at Hollywood Studios. Stay tuned to find out how the force was with us the next morning as I made my first attempt at scoring a RotR boarding group at 7:00am.

 

[DLo]

Just found your TR. Looking forward to reading more about your adventures. Glad you finally got a trip in after the cancellations. I canceled sept but ended up going the first week of Dec. like you , I couldn’t wait until next year to go.

 

[Paulaparm]

Following along!!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Plane delays are the worst but you made it!

 

[footballmouse]

 

[aggieamp]

Finally getting back to my report. It's been a busy past few weeks in Kindergarten, but this week we were able to celebrate our 100th day of in-person school! This is a big deal in Kindergarten each year, but especially in this crazy year. Also this week, I decided to start planning our next WDW trip. Even though I have said that we wouldn't take our kids to WDW with the mask mandate, I realized they are less bothered by the masks than I am. They've had a hard enough year with sports seasons being cancelled, not spending time with friends outside of school, etc. So, right after school is out in May we are taking our first Disney trip with just our family of 4. All I've done so far is book $49 flights to MCO, but I'm looking into renting DVC again. I REALLY wish I could purchase an AP instead of paying full-price for 4 tickets again. But, I'm not sure that will change between now and May...

But back to our adults-only trip in December...

After a restful first night at the Boardwalk, my 6:50 alarm woke me up and I was ready to try for a RotR Boarding Group. I spent the next 9 minutes internally freaking out that I wouldn't do something right and we'd miss our chance, all while Zeb is snoring peacefully next to me. At 6:59, I made sure to be on the MDE homepage and as soon as my phone switched to 7:00, I clicked "Join" which took me to the next page that I honestly don't remember what it said (I know it's where you select your party) and I clicked through that without even looking. We made it-BG 7! I almost burst into tears of joy right there. Riding RotR was one of the main reasons I couldn't push our trip back any further. I had been waiting to ride this ride since I first followed its construction progress back in 2016. We reserved 2 days at DHS just so we'd have 4 chances to get a BG, so I was just so relieved to get an almost-guaranteed ride on my first attempt. I texted my Disney-fanatic MIL, who is the only one who understands my Disney obsession. Because my SIL is a CM at Magic Kingdom, my MIL has been to WDW over 30 times in the past 8 years. She always tells me that I'm her favorite person to go to WDW with because I appreciate every bit of it and I'm a "sun up to sun down" park person like she is.

With our BG secured, getting ready for the park that morning was much more relaxing. We headed down from our room and we're walking to DHS by 8:15. Can I just say how much I love being able to walk to a park!? Along the way, I mobile ordered breakfast for us at Ronto Roasters. I knew Zeb would love the breakfast wrap and I had really enjoyed it at DLR back in 2019. We made it quickly through the first temperature screening of our trip and were walking down Hollywood BLVD by 8:35. We headed straight back to Galaxy's Edge, to Ronto Roasters, to pick up our MO. We had 2 Ronto Morning Wraps and a Coruscant Cooler (because alcohol for breakfast is acceptable on vacation) and found an outside table to eat. As we sat to enjoy our breakfast, everything hit me emotionally and I just started crying. I was so relieved to have finally made it, after almost a year of failed trip planning. I'd like to say that I got it together, but after we finished our delicious breakfast and headed to the RotR queue, I still had tears streaming down my face.


By 9:10, our BG had been called and we made our way into the Resistance caves. We made it through the pre-shows and when we exited our shuttle into the hangar, I was amazed at the scale of the ride. I had seen it so many times online, but nothing beat actually standing there. Zeb and I hung back a little bit so I could get some pictures, before we were led to the hallway outside of the holding cells. Now, here is where I feel some Disney magic happened. The First Order officers noticed my tears and made comments like "Oh look, she's scared.", "She should be." Instead of putting us into interrogation with anyone else, they led us to our own interrogation room. I understand this may be fairly common in COVID times, but then when we were rescued from interrogation and put in our transport, we were the only people there as well. In fact, we saw no other guests for the remainder of our ride experience. We truly had the whole ride experience to ourselves, from interrogation until we exited at the end.



After exiting, we were trying to take some selfies in front of the X-wing, but a nice gentleman offered to take our picture. I was so thankful to him because I wasn't sure anyone would offer to do this during a pandemic.


Stay tuned for a continuation of our day, where Zeb experiences the Falcon for the first time, and we both try Blue Milk. Also, a fun, rainy night at DHS, and a spontaneous trip to Disney Springs to try something new! Looking back on this day, I would rank it was my favorite day at Disney so far.

 

[Paulaparm]

What a great experience you had!