princessbelle2015
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2015
Following! I am so happy you went. I read your pre trip and enjoyed it.
Will we stay or will we go? We went! And had the most magical time! Hijacked 5-29-21 with a quick TR from New York City!
- Thread starter tundra1
- Start date
disneyseniors
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2014
Hi Caroline,
I am so sorry you canceled your trip.I know you were on the fence, but we really had a great time and felt VERY safe. The numbers of positive cases in WI were higher than the numbers down in Florida. and being outdoors so much, I never felt in danger.
My workplace stopped telling the staff that they could not travel, so that was no longer an issue.
I was very pleased with our Walmart delivery.I will definitely use them the next time we travel.
We rented from DVCstore.com. They had a sale going on if you rented prior to December 15th, so I did get the points at a discount. But, even at the normal rate, I still would have saved at least 50% over rack rates for the same rooms. I had a choice of several locations, and had my selection made the same day I contacted them! They were very easy to work with.
I learned so much from reading other trip reports, that I thought I would pay back the favor. Thanks for reading!
disneyseniors
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2014
Thanks, OP, for responding that you rented from DVC Rental. I have been looking at David's and DVC Rental, and have been impressed with both , but DVC Rental seemed to offer more. I will try them, and maybe my dream of staying at BLT will come true
Isabelle12345
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2019
Following!
tundra1
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2019
Thank you so much for following along!
tundra1
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2019
Thank you! It was worth all the pre-trip hassles. Everyone had an amazing time!
Yay you had a great time, so happy to hear (and I'm here 
). We just returned last night from our Thanksgiving trip and enjoyed that as well. But ugh about having to get out of the ME line lol! Overall not a big deal in the grand scheme of things but annoying at the time. Look forward to reading all about it!
). We just returned last night from our Thanksgiving trip and enjoyed that as well. But ugh about having to get out of the ME line lol! Overall not a big deal in the grand scheme of things but annoying at the time. Look forward to reading all about it!
tundra1
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2019
Off to Epcot!
When I last left off, we were headed to Epcot for the evening. Epcot's posted hours for this Tuesday was 11a-9p, so we still had lots of time to enjoy the park. Since the Epcot monorail was not operating, we needed to walk over to the Contemporary Resort and catch the bus there. I was pleased to learn that the bus stop was actually between the Contemporary and Bay Lake Tower, so the walk to catch the bus took our entire motley crew less than 2 minutes. A bus for Epcot pulled up shortly after we got there, and the 9 of us hopped on board. Once we left the resort, it took about 15 minutes to arrive at Epcot. The seats in the buses are numbered, and the driver assigns each group of passengers to a numbered section. There are dividers between the sections to assist with social distancing. You can see a sample divider on the bus in the picture below, and they make a great place to play "Peek-a-boo"! No one is allowed to stand on the bus while it is moving, so capacity is lower, but we never had a real issue waiting too long for a bus to arrive.
Once we got off the bus, we made our way to the tent to have our temperatures checked, then we headed down the sidewalk and through security. Electronics, umbrellas, and battery chargers need to be removed from your bag and held in front of you while you walk through the screener, but there are no more bag checks unless you set off an alarm as you are walking through. The stroller had to go through a separate screening line. Once we made it through screening, we then walked to the next section to scan our magic bands and we were inside the park!
Our goal was to ride Spaceship Earth first, but the ride was down when walked up there, so we headed for the Living Seas Pavilion.
The kids loved this building, and we spent a good amount of time here. That worked out well, because we missed a fairly heavy rainstorm while we were inside! The CM's had a scavenger hunt book for the boys to complete, and they were great at teaching them all about the fish, their habitats, and the names of some of their favorites!
After that we headed to the Land Pavilion and rode Living with the Land. Once we got off that ride, it was time for our reservation at Garden Grill. I was excited for the kids to meet Chip and Dale, Mickey, and Pluto and they did not disappoint! The cost of the meal is pretty high. but the food was excellent, served family style. and was "all you care to enjoy". After dining in several restaurants around WDW, all three of the grandkids still say that Garden Grill was their favorite! I don't know if it was the Macaroni and Cheese with the Goldfish crackers sprinkled on top, the steak with Chimichurri sauce, or the berry shortcake that won them over, but for me, the salad and the green beans were the biggest hit of the meal! Everything we ate was fantastic! We saw the characters four times while we were dining. The way it is set up, the guests are seated at the lower level overlooking the Land attraction, and the characters come behind your booth, standing on the upper level. The kids are encouraged to stand up on the booth seats to interact with the characters, and they never seemed rushed. The 7 year old loved playing rock/paper/scissors with them, and they each joined in the fun!
Overall, the meal was so much fun! We were there a little over an hour, start to finish. After Garden Grill, we headed out of the Land Pavilion, and my husband and son headed back to the resort with the kids, while my daughter, DIL, and I stayed to explore the World Showcase at night.
Being a Tuesday night, every ride was a walk-on, and there were not many people in the park. We were worried about it raining again, but the forecast indicated that we would have clouds but no precipitation until after 10pm, so we still had a couple of hours to enjoy Epcot!
Next. we travel around the world!
When I last left off, we were headed to Epcot for the evening. Epcot's posted hours for this Tuesday was 11a-9p, so we still had lots of time to enjoy the park. Since the Epcot monorail was not operating, we needed to walk over to the Contemporary Resort and catch the bus there. I was pleased to learn that the bus stop was actually between the Contemporary and Bay Lake Tower, so the walk to catch the bus took our entire motley crew less than 2 minutes. A bus for Epcot pulled up shortly after we got there, and the 9 of us hopped on board. Once we left the resort, it took about 15 minutes to arrive at Epcot. The seats in the buses are numbered, and the driver assigns each group of passengers to a numbered section. There are dividers between the sections to assist with social distancing. You can see a sample divider on the bus in the picture below, and they make a great place to play "Peek-a-boo"! No one is allowed to stand on the bus while it is moving, so capacity is lower, but we never had a real issue waiting too long for a bus to arrive.
Once we got off the bus, we made our way to the tent to have our temperatures checked, then we headed down the sidewalk and through security. Electronics, umbrellas, and battery chargers need to be removed from your bag and held in front of you while you walk through the screener, but there are no more bag checks unless you set off an alarm as you are walking through. The stroller had to go through a separate screening line. Once we made it through screening, we then walked to the next section to scan our magic bands and we were inside the park!
Our goal was to ride Spaceship Earth first, but the ride was down when walked up there, so we headed for the Living Seas Pavilion.
The kids loved this building, and we spent a good amount of time here. That worked out well, because we missed a fairly heavy rainstorm while we were inside! The CM's had a scavenger hunt book for the boys to complete, and they were great at teaching them all about the fish, their habitats, and the names of some of their favorites! After that we headed to the Land Pavilion and rode Living with the Land. Once we got off that ride, it was time for our reservation at Garden Grill. I was excited for the kids to meet Chip and Dale, Mickey, and Pluto and they did not disappoint! The cost of the meal is pretty high. but the food was excellent, served family style. and was "all you care to enjoy". After dining in several restaurants around WDW, all three of the grandkids still say that Garden Grill was their favorite! I don't know if it was the Macaroni and Cheese with the Goldfish crackers sprinkled on top, the steak with Chimichurri sauce, or the berry shortcake that won them over, but for me, the salad and the green beans were the biggest hit of the meal! Everything we ate was fantastic! We saw the characters four times while we were dining. The way it is set up, the guests are seated at the lower level overlooking the Land attraction, and the characters come behind your booth, standing on the upper level. The kids are encouraged to stand up on the booth seats to interact with the characters, and they never seemed rushed. The 7 year old loved playing rock/paper/scissors with them, and they each joined in the fun!
Overall, the meal was so much fun! We were there a little over an hour, start to finish. After Garden Grill, we headed out of the Land Pavilion, and my husband and son headed back to the resort with the kids, while my daughter, DIL, and I stayed to explore the World Showcase at night.
Being a Tuesday night, every ride was a walk-on, and there were not many people in the park. We were worried about it raining again, but the forecast indicated that we would have clouds but no precipitation until after 10pm, so we still had a couple of hours to enjoy Epcot!
Next. we travel around the world!
Attachments
tundra1
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2019
I was thinking about you on Thanksgiving Day, and wondering how the crowds were. I saw some pictures that looked like various areas were crowded in spots, but it still had to be less people than previous years. It looks like the weather has been beautiful down there!Yay you had a great time, so happy to hear (and I'm here
suse66
When you wish upon a star, your dreams come true!
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2008
Hi! It looks as though you had so much fun on your trip! We are south of Wisconsin by quite a bit (just north of Toronto) and it has been a gorgeous fall. Sunday it was 10 C (50F) and sunny. Yesterday though we got walloped by a Texas low and had 15cm of snow with blustery conditions. Still mild though with temps between 0 to -2 (32-28F). I don't mind snow in December as it feels more Christmassy to me but I am done with it by January!
Your Garden Grill meal looks amazing! We love breakfast there but have never done lunch or dinner. What a fun way to interact with the characters! And is there anything better than Epcot at night????
tundra1
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2019
Your Garden Grill meal looks amazing! We love breakfast there but have never done lunch or dinner. What a fun way to interact with the characters! And is there anything better than Epcot at night????
Garden Grill was the perfect place for the grandkids! Very open, the booths are naturally separated, and the food was great! Epcot at night was truly special. And there were very few people there, so it felt like we had the whole place to ourselves!
tundra1
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2019
After we left Garden Grill, the girls stayed at Epcot to tour around the world. Our original intent was to enjoy some of the tasty treats along the way, but honestly we were so stuffed after our delicious meal that we didn't stop to buy very much. The Epcot Food and Wine Festival was still going strong, so we checked out the booths and started planning our meals for our return trip on Thursday.
Epcot is beautiful at night. We headed counter clockwise around the world, starting in Canada. I could not believe how peaceful it was, although I am sure the crowds were down because it was a Tuesday night. We walked around Canada, and headed to Great Britain. I felt like we had been transported to an entirely different world! We loved the Twinings Tea Shop, and could not resist getting an assortment of teas to enjoy back in the villa. Had they still offered the tea tasting, we would have definitely signed up for it for our next day in Epcot. We saw no cavalcades, and there was not any live music anywhere, which I missed from our last trip, but perhaps none of that is available in the evening.
We loved walking through France and Morocco. The music is so specific to each country and seems to transition so seamlessly!
We bought some caramel corn in Germany and had fun dancing in the plaza. We came across our first and only Photopass photographer in Italy.
Honestly, he was the only one we saw the entire day. If I could change one thing about our trip, I would not have wasted the money on the Photopass. There were very few photographers around, and they all did the same poses...stand in a row, hands on our hips, and hands up in the air. There were no props we could add and some of the magic shots were cute, but I felt the lighting was off on many of them. I also felt that they did not take time with the kids to engage them in the shot, so none of our shots have the children all looking forward at the same time. We received very few ride photos, especially if I was not on the ride with everyone else. I had all of our magic bands connected to my Photopass account, but for some reason the rides that the family was on without me never had photos show up in our account. Plus, wearing face masks in the photos made every picture look alike. It is amazing how many emotions are portrayed under those masks. My son made it a game to frown, 
stick out his tongue 
, or do some other silly expression under his mask, not that any of the pictures showed it! LOL! 
Anyway, I learned my lesson. Here we are in a few more places around the world... You can tell the difference in picture quality between the one Photopass shot I included up above from Italy vs. the rest of the pictures taken on my I-phone.
It was warm and humid this evening, and as we were passing Mexico, it started to sprinkle. We were commenting how nice that felt when all of a sudden the wind picked up and it started to rain a bit harder. By the time we were past Test Track, the rain was coming down in sheets and the wind was pushing it sideways! I guess tropical storm Eta was rearing her head, and the Accuweather forecast was off by 48 minutes! Our umbrella was no match for the wind, and the ponchos were being blown everywhere. We were completely soaked by the time we got on the bus, but we had a good laugh on the way home!
Next up: Hollywood Studios Day! Would we get in the virtual queue for Rise of the Resistance????? Would the kids like Slinky Dog Dash? How terrifying IS the Tower of Terror????
Epcot is beautiful at night. We headed counter clockwise around the world, starting in Canada. I could not believe how peaceful it was, although I am sure the crowds were down because it was a Tuesday night. We walked around Canada, and headed to Great Britain. I felt like we had been transported to an entirely different world! We loved the Twinings Tea Shop, and could not resist getting an assortment of teas to enjoy back in the villa. Had they still offered the tea tasting, we would have definitely signed up for it for our next day in Epcot. We saw no cavalcades, and there was not any live music anywhere, which I missed from our last trip, but perhaps none of that is available in the evening.
We loved walking through France and Morocco. The music is so specific to each country and seems to transition so seamlessly!
We bought some caramel corn in Germany and had fun dancing in the plaza. We came across our first and only Photopass photographer in Italy.
Honestly, he was the only one we saw the entire day. If I could change one thing about our trip, I would not have wasted the money on the Photopass. There were very few photographers around, and they all did the same poses...stand in a row, hands on our hips, and hands up in the air. There were no props we could add and some of the magic shots were cute, but I felt the lighting was off on many of them. I also felt that they did not take time with the kids to engage them in the shot, so none of our shots have the children all looking forward at the same time. We received very few ride photos, especially if I was not on the ride with everyone else. I had all of our magic bands connected to my Photopass account, but for some reason the rides that the family was on without me never had photos show up in our account. Plus, wearing face masks in the photos made every picture look alike. It is amazing how many emotions are portrayed under those masks. My son made it a game to frown, stick out his tongue , or do some other silly expression under his mask, not that any of the pictures showed it! LOL! Anyway, I learned my lesson. Here we are in a few more places around the world... You can tell the difference in picture quality between the one Photopass shot I included up above from Italy vs. the rest of the pictures taken on my I-phone.
It was warm and humid this evening, and as we were passing Mexico, it started to sprinkle. We were commenting how nice that felt when all of a sudden the wind picked up and it started to rain a bit harder. By the time we were past Test Track, the rain was coming down in sheets and the wind was pushing it sideways! I guess tropical storm Eta was rearing her head, and the Accuweather forecast was off by 48 minutes! Our umbrella was no match for the wind, and the ponchos were being blown everywhere. We were completely soaked by the time we got on the bus, but we had a good laugh on the way home!
Next up: Hollywood Studios Day! Would we get in the virtual queue for Rise of the Resistance????? Would the kids like Slinky Dog Dash? How terrifying IS the Tower of Terror????
Looks like a really fun start to your trip! We haven't been to Garden Grill in a few years but glad to see it still looks like a great experience!
It was absolutely the least crowded Thanksgiving we've experienced of our 5 or 6 Thanksgiving trips other than probably 2012! We had no issues with crowds and many ride lines were shorter waits than on our September trip. Spots did get a bit congested but other than July it's just the way it is I think. We were totally fine with all spots though other than DS at night on Thanksgiving day itself but it really wasn't that terrible.
Yeah unfortunately they only do them until about 5pm give or take. Hope you caught some later in the trip!
disneyAndi14
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2014
Looks like a very fun day and evening at Epcot.
I make calendars every year from our PhotoPass pictures. I am definitely not making a mask calendar lol!
I make calendars every year from our PhotoPass pictures. I am definitely not making a mask calendar lol!
tundra1
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2019
And is there anything better than Epcot at night????
I agree. I absolutely loved seeing Epcot at night. We saw so many beautiful little gems tucked away in the different worlds.
Looks like a really fun start to your trip! We haven't been to Garden Grill in a few years but glad to see it still looks like a great experience!
Thank you!
It was absolutely the least crowded Thanksgiving we've experienced of our 5 or 6 Thanksgiving trips other than probably 2012! We had no issues with crowds and many ride lines were shorter waits than on our September trip. Spots did get a bit congested but other than July it's just the way it is I think. We were totally fine with all spots though other than DS at night on Thanksgiving day itself but it really wasn't that terrible.
I saw a couple of videos from Thanksgiving Day. and the crowds did not look too bad. Now that there are few additional places to eat opening up, I think Christmas will be okay. even if they up the capacity again.
Yeah unfortunately they only do them until about 5pm give or take. Hope you caught some later in the trip!
We saw the princesses once, but that was it. I was hoping to see the Frozen one and never came across it. The second day we were at Epcot it was raining off and on. and someone mentioned that may have kept them away.
That is too funny... can you imagine a whole calendar of photos with your family wearing masks? We get enough of them at work to last a lifetime! I don't want a reminder of it every day that I am off!
Look like y’all had a great time!
tundra1
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2019
Here is a sample Calendar cover for grins.... I think I will pass! As you can see, a lot of our photopass pictures were not the best...
Leopardchucks
Riff Raff, Street Rat
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2018
Loving the trip so far! Following
RollTideinMD
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2018
Loving your TR so far! Staying tuned for more!
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