Trip Report – COVID-19 or the Zombie Apocalypse comes to WDW

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DH – me 52 – realized with this trip I enter my 5th decade going to WDW
DD – her trip originally for her last college spring break, a senior nursing student at Kentucky graduating next December we hope
DW – the wife a school teacher in the inner city
DS – my 16 year old non-Disney son

The plan – the original plan

I had taken a solo dad – kid trip with my 2 of the 3 kids. My oldest 2 years ago to celebrate her getting into grad school and last year my son went as I ran the Disney half. My two daughters and I had just gone to Disneyland in January which was simply an amazing trip. Of the scale incredible.

The plan was my middle daughter would fly in from Kentucky, and I would fly in from Charlotte, for 6 nights at the World. We originally had 4 different DVC resorts which while fun was a lot of moving. A month before my request for Beach Club came through some ow which I was very excited for. Close to Epcot and Hollywood Studios. Good fast passes booked, tickets to After hours at MK, and some really fantastic meal plans.

Then COVID starts to really kick in. I had been watching this thing for a while. I had an employee who flew home to China for Chinese New Year, so I had been living with it since January. My wife approached me about the two them coming down, as she could really use a few days away from school. We got cheap flights for them, and moved into a 1 bedroom at Beach Club on Wednesday before we left.

Then the bottom dropped out when WDW announced they were closing on Sunday March 15th. We called my daughter and she was devastated. But we cancelled everything – the flights, the rental car, all the reservations on DVC, all fast passes, all ADRs – on Thursday evening.

An hour later, we took a step back. Two realities set in – the future was not bright – we could see that our lives could very hard and the next few weeks would be potentially pretty challenging. So we rebooked everything. And flights were stupid cheap. We ended up with a 1 bedroom theme park at BLT. And got decent fastpasses. It was kind of crazy and that day was long.

Friday I woke up and reviewed all that had happened – and wouldn’t you know it I had to rebook my flights again with no penalty. But all was set as my daughter drove home from school with her cat. She was likely going to be here for a while.

 

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Day 1 – Dad pushes the pace so hard

Saturday morning the alarm went off at 5:30 – as we had a 8am light time. Charlotte as an American hub is pretty busy. Chic-Fil-A for breakfast and we were at the airport by 7. We walked into an empty airport. I had TSA-Pre and we breezed through. We started very carefully washing our hands and using hand sanitizer all the time.

The flight was maybe a 1/3rd full. I moved up and had a whole row to lay down for some sort of sleep. I was very stressed about travel. But it came off ok. Landed at MCO with no problems, and having no checked bags we hit Hertz and before we knew it we had come to Publix for groceries. We also hit 5 guys for an early lunch.

Our room was not ready as we hit WDW. My daughter has a really bad ankle so we need a wheel chair. We went with ScooterBug as it can leave a chair at the bell services.

Oh, ScooterBug. The good – our original wheelchair was horrible, and we took a wheelchair from the Magic Kingdom just laying around at BLT back to the MK. ScooterBug actually met me in MK by Splash Mountain to change it out. Incredible service. But the second was barely better and we had to get another one – a bigger size. I have rented from other companies and Never had a problem. I went to the Contemporary and it was littered with ScooterBug products. The convenience factor while high did not out weigh the product was not good.

My daughters and I are known as Team A, with my wife and son part of team BC. Team BC likes to take things slower while Team A hits the parks just hard. Well my son signed up for Team A.
My wife had the best day ever at Disney (her quotes) as she spent the entire day on the beach at BLT behind the pool. We however hit MK hard, arriving at noon to a pretty nice crowd. As part of my daughter’s trip, I had gotten a mat for a picture frame with markers for characters to sign. Through out the trip we managed to get most characters we wanted. We di not get Anna and Elsa nor Minnie.

We first went to Splash – approaching the regular return time for a handicapped return time. She told us we needed to get a DAS?? And pointed us to the Experience booth in Frontierland. So our wheelchair stinks, we are not able to get a return time – so far this vacation is horrible. Off we go to to the Experience team which tells me I do not need a DAS (shock). So back we go and we get the greenlight to go to hit Splash. But first we need to meet Scooter Bug. It was hot and well we needed to get wet. It took a while to get on, as we needed to wait for a while on the back entrance. And the young CM who told me in error to get a DAS – yeah she is the one who we ultimately met and got us on the ride. Thanks to COVID-19 WDW turned many elements on Splash off. We still got wet but not as wet as usual.

Off to Big Thunder which was so much better of an experience. We had our first Fastpass for Haunted Mansion which was closed – so we got an all experience one which we used for Space Mountain. We wandered over to Space Mountain, which my son did with us. Then we hit Buzz – man does this ride need some serious TLC. After riding the same ride in DisneyLand, this one blows.

My son was tired and he headed out – it had been a long day. My daughter and I hit up Mickey and Tinker Belle on the way up while our room came available. We skipped the last FP for Pirates.

By this time, we were all tired. Except for my wife. We moved into our room and we rested. The goal for the day changed. Naps were needed from the heat. Two hours later we made a last minute dinner reservation at the Wave.

Background – Kona Café was our family goto sit down restaurant for the first night. But the last couple of times it was just not that great. The Wave has become the new one. The restaurant was very empty – and the food was quite good. Not great but good.
We watched fireworks from our room which was great – so cool to be able to see MK.
Everyone else stayed back while I rushed over to MK to ride Mine Train. Now this were things got interesting.

At 2pm the CP program was cancelled with an email going out. And the CPs were quite understandably very emotional. I for one love Disney but this was handled really poorly. They could have easily cancelled the rest of CP after the parks closed Monday. It was really apparent on Sunday how the CPs leaving affected the mood of the parks. I watched CPs leave StandBy of Mine Train and be given access to the FP line – if I had my family with me I might have said something.

Mine Train was awesome as always; and I proceeded to travel back to BLT. As I left I upgraded to an annual pass, which was actually cheaper than buying the Magic Memory package. Plus Disney will extend my pass by the number of days it remains closed.
Also, the governor closed schools for 2 weeks so my son would not miss school. My wife – it was very chaotic as the local school system kept changing almost everyday while were at WDW.

 

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Day 2- Rope Drop Hollywood Studios, from Epcot to Trader Sam’s and the saying goodbye to the parks
I drug us out of bed at 6:30 to hit Hollywood Studios. For one reason, Rise of the Resistance. We ate breakfast and hit the road a little later than I wanted for the trip over. And then the traffic – so much local traffic. We managed to get into the park at 7:53. Thanks to our experiences at DL, my daughter and I split up the responsibilities – her on Wifi me on Verizon. Right at 8 I loaded up the app, and we got BG 26. WOOHOO. I really wanted to take my son on Rise.
We headed back to Toy Story Land and hit Toy Story Mania, my wife’s absolute all time favorite ride. We rode it once, with me beating my wife. Still down 140K points to her at this point. Here is what I remember from there – we ate a snack then we headed back to Galaxy’s Edge. I purposely took us through the entire land to experience it. I wanted everyone to see and feel it.
We ended up at Rise and it was awesome. Every bit as good as DL, and the ride was flawless. We are 3 for 3 on Rise.

We ended up walking back through Galaxy’s Edge and eating. The food was actually good – a first at Hollywood Studios. Hollywood has the worse food to us by far.

We split up – my son built a droid. My take on the Droid – if I was younger I would have begged my parents for this. Heck I might need t build my own Droid one day myself. My wife and I then went shopping for her – Pandora. Lets just between the Droid and Pandora it was not a cheap day.

From there we left – yeah only 2 attractions but we had fast passes for later. Back to BLT. We had a big debate on what to do next – Epcot? Or not? Anna and Elsa autographs/pics or not. My daughter was pretty wiped out. So we decided that my wife and I would tour Epcot and meet them over at HS, with my daughter driving the car while we took transportation.

My wife and I took the monorails over to Epcot – wow it is torn to shreds. My wife and I literally decided as the monorail was coming into the Epcot to head to Poly for a drink. So we ended at Trader Sam’s – something I had always wanted to do. Wow, it is so not like Disney and I really liked it.

My daughter picked us up and we headed to HS. I had a Fp for 2 for the new Mickey and Minnie ride – which they let all 4 of us on as we were also late. Then off to Tower of Terror which is my son’s favorite ride. And then we saw the Frozen show with EquityBen. Ben and Sally were amazing on every level. The show was simply too funny.

The CPs were in the back singing together. After Frozen we made a true tactical error – we ate the ABC Commissary. Literally this was truly horrible food. Like Disney should pay me back bad. Never ever again.

From there we had Extra Magic hours which included riding Slinky Dog. At night this ride is truly fun but my wife was very green. The fireworks were going off while we rode which added to the fun. We split up, riding Toy Story mania with no wait 2x times through. My wife beat me the first time, while I got her the second time. Still down 120k points but I won the day.
My wife tapped out while my daughter and I went upside down on RocknRoll. Still one of my favorites but keep wondering how this gets re-imagined one day. I am fearful what they might do actually.
My son was off riding Tower of Terror which actually went down to one shaft. My daughter and I tried to ride but gave up. We left HS right as the park was announcing it was closed. We got two mickey bars for free for a CM actually.

I have done a lot of things at Disney, including now opening two attractions, one on each coast. But never have actually closed the parks – literally as HS was the last park opened. MK was open for a private party that night for the cheerleaders.

 

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Day 3- Things get truly strange

The goal was to sleep - then eat. We woke up later; and then road the monorail (the resort one) over to Poly for Ohana. We had a late reservation but it was still maybe 2.3rd full. At 9:45am we were guests 69 on the monorail at the Contemporary. The Monorail was planned to run for 2 days but would stop running after today. It was the right call frankly.

Ohana's breakfast was on point. Very good. the characters came around eventally but we were finsihed eating very quickly as we had food basically as soon as we sat down. Everything was super hot and good.

We spent the day at BLT, mainly at the beach behind the pool. It was incredibly quiet and very relaxing. I cannot recommend more highly this little place to hide out. While there were watercraft on the water, it was incredibly peaceful. It was overcast and a bit breezy but still really enjoyable. This Disney my wife's way

Dinner that night was really a mixed plan - we had reservations over at the BoardWalk area which we cancelled. We did get one for Morimotos.

Disney Springs was a mob scene - but Morimotos was not. Open tables even at 7. This is one of our all time favorites and it did not disappoint. The ribs are amazing and the duck was great. So glad we were able to come and enjoy this meal. It was a clear highlight of the trip.

then we went to the World of Disney -which was a mob house given it was closing too. I survived the 7th layer of hell frankly.

 

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Day 4 - the World is emptying out

Today was well interesting - I went for a run around the Contemporary and BLT of 4 miles. The south wing of the Contemporary appears to be completely empty. I saw a few CPs milling around. The maintenance worker in BLT told me it was maybe 10% full.

Today we went out on the boats, on four individual Sea Rays. It was great to tour around on a pretty day. We tried to ride the monorails over to the Gran Floridian but they were closed so we ended up at Comtempo Cafe. At 2pm we were the only patrons. Food was ok but just strange to be on the concourse of the Contemporary but it be so quiet - absolute no noise.

Rest of he day was spent on the beach and at the pool. By 5pm the pool was empty except for us.
We ended up at Grand Floridian at 8m - at the Cafe. We were the last seated table that night. Food was good but it was just so quiet. And no kids. Told my family to enjoy the experience as it could be well time before we sit down and are served.

As we walked out the musicians were playing, folks were dancing. It felt like the Titianic - last one turn off the lights. We returned to BLT then my wife and I rode out to Poly. Looking for something which we did not find. As we came back, the lobby was empty with a sign to call someone. Now things get really surreal.

The entire day was truly strange - living in a ghost town at WDW. It was a fun day but it was still hard to ignore all that was going on in the world.

 

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Day 5 - we go home

Another run - this time a 5k. Same route with even less people. I saw 6 guests at the Contemporary - that's it. More CMs by far. As I walked back in, it appeared the BLT staff was meeting and being told they were being furloughed.

We packed up and left by 11. As we left, 4 young ladies from Kentucky were checking in - they had been AKL before. The pool as we left was completely empty.

We hit the BurgerFi on the way - we could eat inside but it was essentially take out. Off to the airport - the new 7/11 right by the airport south entrance is awesome addition. The airport was surprisingly crowded and our flight was more full (50%??) than I expected. We landed incredibly early and the airport was more full than I expected.

Got home and we crashed. The stress of the last few days and the trip caught up to me.

 

[TEAMJACOB]

Enjoyed reading about your trip. I had a friend down there last week. He said it was crazy. Employees freaking out... Don't blame them. My heart goes out to all.

My son and I are supposed to go May 5th through the 12th. Keeping my fingers crossed.... We are park commandos too.

 

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I will go down hopefully as the most surreal experience, between the CPs breaking down and then the scarcity of people. Saw a video from yesterday at the Yacht Club - wow

 

[Disneynerdz16]

I just came back on Friday last week from WDW along side with family. Poly was a ghost town on Thursday pretty much.. covivid-19 not expecting WDW to close due to covivid-19 since I took a week off my my job as a Portillo’s cashier and then got temporarily laid off due to the virus while on the second to last night of WDW. But I was glad that I was able to go for 2-3 park days 1 resort day and a universal day.

My family and I Thought that Minnie and Mickey run away railroad train ride at doesn’t really explain the dance scene in the ride but everything else was a blast!

Rise Of Resistance was awesome! My family and I were able to get a boarding pass for a second time around our visit since last Christmas we were able to see it when it opened. It broke down During our second time visiting the ride and had to wait 30 mins!
My brother got a droid at DL last Summer and for a lot of his money it broke quite easily. Make sure your son take great care of that droid..