Get out of the pool!! - Nine Nights, Three Resorts, and a Surprise Upgrade, July 2019 TR - Final Update 1/22

Hoop-Dee-Doo has been on our Disney bucket list for a while now, so we were excited to get to check it off. The line to be seated for the show was long, but I knew the seating was pre-assigned, so I wasn’t worried about it. As we waited we watched what we thought was a hummingbird checking out the flowers near us. I snapped this picture.

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Yeah, that’s not a bird. It was still cool to watch, though. I had booked Category 1 and when we got to the front the cast member looked at our table assignment and said “oh, you’ve got a great table!” I thought that meant we’d be right down front, but we were actually escorted to a table in the center of the room. We settled in and the food started coming pretty quickly, since we’d been toward the back of the check-in line.

Loving your trip report! Just as an fyi, that's a humming moth :) They are really neat creatures to watch
 
If it’s any consolation, I feel like I, too, am all over the place with our resorts this trip. Right now we have a YC/Poly split. We’re locked into Poly because we rented DVC points. We keep on going back and forth between YC and BC. Plus, DH would like to add a night or two to our trip and stay at either WL, GDT at CSR or Riviera. So, we will probably also be moving three times, but I guess over a 13-night stay, that isn’t too bad.

Over 13 nights I don't think I'd be able to stop myself from moving 3 times! But I am addicted to splits. And it does make me feel better to hear that you're doing the resort shuffle as well! All of your possible add-ons are places we also considered. :)

I love HDDR! Sadly, I haven’t been since I was a teen with my parents. I want to take my family, but I don’t think my boys will eat much. They don’t like fried chicken or ribs. I hate to pay the price and they leave hungry.

I heard that you can ask for mac and cheese! I'm going to check that out if we do end up back there this year, as neither I or Alex are big meat-eaters. I took exactly one bite of the chicken just to try it. I still felt it was worth it, as we basically ate our weight in sides and the show was great, but I'd love the option of a non-meat entree to fill it out.

I wish this was an option for DVC members 🙁

Yes, it seems like it could be really helpful in the coming months/years as they open this new slate of attractions. Don't know that we would have ever considered it prior to this time, as we could pretty much get on everything we wanted multiple times across our trips with FP and rope drop. Four brand new superheadliners at Hollywood Studios + Ratatouille changes that a bit.


Great shot! And just looking at this gets me more excited for BLT :love:

I love this view! We've been on the inside of the C every time. I know that people tend to prefer and request the outside, but this Bay Lake view makes me so happy.


That is a great feeling. I remember when I first let my kids go alone to Disney Quest and walked around shopping with my mom at DTD…it was pure heaven :cloud9:

Each time we have one of those moments it's like a little victory in parenting. I miss the baby years, but this is pretty great.


Oh no. It's going to take a miracle product for mine too…I need to figure this out before our July trip!

I ended up just having to use my training as a psychologist on myself and practice strategies for acceptance rather than change lol. Nothing worked for me!


Loving your trip report! Just as an fyi, that's a humming moth :) They are really neat creatures to watch

Thank you! And also thank you for the info! So we were kind of right (sort of? a little?). I don't think I had ever seen one before, but it was definitely cool to watch.
 
I made one more change because I have a serious problem with decision-making. We’re still at BWV with free dining for the first 5 nights, but I made a little change to the last 5 nights at BC. We now have 2 nights YC club level followed by 3 nights BC non-club. I don’t like the idea of moving around that much, but with the announcement of FP+ coming to MMRR we wanted the option of booking the extra CL FP+. Still waiting to see what happens with Ratatouille, but at least now we can add that on if we want to. We picked YC for the CL nights because we’ve never stayed there before and Alex really wanted to, so now we can try it, but we still have access to Stormalong Bay and making the move to BC will be super easy. I think the resorts are finally settled for us at this point (though never say never…). Now just need to finalize dining and park plans. The more info that comes out about the state of rides over the summer (RotR, Rat, Spaceship Earth), the easier that will be.
Sounds perfect! It's fun to try CL and see if it is a fit for you. I love the whole Epcot resort area and think you'll be happy.
After the pool the kids wanted to go back to the community hall. This was in part because they enjoy the community hall, but mostly because they were looking for a specific cast member: Miss Brittany, as the kids call her. They first met her back in 2015 when we stayed at BLT for the first time. We went to the community hall to kill time until our room was ready on our check-in day and they had so much fun making crafts with her. She also hosted pool games while we were there and the kids thought she was the best thing ever. She was a primary reason they listed for wanting to return to BLT and they saw her again when we stayed there on our trip in 2016. By this trip it had been 3 years since we’d been at BLT and I warned the kids that Miss Brittany may no longer be in the same role. However, they were determined to look. Lo and behold…
I love it!!
We had allowed a generous amount of time to get there, so arrived with plenty of time to spare. We used it to check out the trading post and walk around to explore a bit. However, we couldn’t do too much exploring, as it promptly started raining after we arrived. The kids found a (not so) hidden Mickey on the sidewalk.
The Fort is a fun place to explore, too bad you got rain.
And after a little bit I realized why the cast member said we had such a good table. I hadn’t realized how much movement there was to the show, but there were multiple moments when it came right to us. The most pronounced was this number, for which we actually had to move our chairs back.
You had a fabulous table!
We thoroughly enjoyed this show from start to finish. We laughed so hard and Alex is now still in the habit of running up to us, lifting up his shirt and screaming “Hoop-Dee-Doo!!!” For those who haven’t seen it, I promise that makes sense in context. The rest of my family are all begging to see it again this year. Me as the planner is struggling a little bit since our entire trip is in the Epcot resort area and Fort Wilderness is hard to get to from there, but I’m probably going to try to make it work.
We went for the first time last summer and loved it as well. Such a fun show!!
 


I did! But I've already changed it slightly. :rotfl: And congrats on getting the water view!!! We're in garden view. The views from water view look absolutely amazing, but I couldn't reconcile the price difference for the view when garden view was available and I don't even know if we'll have a balcony.
Well, I would have rathered a garden view but all I could find forever was Club Level and suites, so Water View was cheaper than those.

We now have 2 nights YC club level followed by 3 nights BC non-club. I don’t like the idea of moving around that much, but with the announcement of FP+ coming to MMRR we wanted the option of booking the extra CL FP+.
That is smart. Club Level is fun and for 2 nights will be fun. Moving 3 times isn't ideal but we did it and it was ok. I tried to pack certain bags so we didn't open all of them each time, It kind of worked. Kind of.

DH and the kids headed out to the pool shortly after we got back. The little dots in the bottom left corner are them.

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This pool looks just meh to me. Especially for a deluxe. And honestly keeps me from booking at the Contemporary.

We headed back to the boat dock, this time feeling like old pros (haha) to catch a ride to our destination.

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This is def the easiest way to get there and back.

Me as the planner is struggling a little bit since our entire trip is in the Epcot resort area and Fort Wilderness is hard to get to from there, but I’m probably going to try to make it work.
Maybe do it on a MK day? That way you can just take the boat from MK to dinner. And then back to MK after. Possibly hit one more ride or two, or just head out from there. Or take the boat to Wilderness Lodge after and grab an uber back to the hotel?

We do not watch those shows at all at home and the kids actually call them our Disney shows. Is that weird? Probably.
It's not weird at all. We watch kiddie cartoons mostly, since the choices are slim sometimes.
 
Sounds perfect! It's fun to try CL and see if it is a fit for you. I love the whole Epcot resort area and think you'll be happy.

Thanks to the runner of the BC/YC thread we've started calling it our Epcot Resorts Extravaganza. I smell the title of the next trip report lol

The Fort is a fun place to explore, too bad you got rain.

Yeah, the rain wasn't great, but we really liked the little taste we got. Hoping for better weather luck next time, though I'm not counting on it since it will still be summer.

following...I too love Hoop De Doo...

Welcome! We've got Hoop-dee-doo booked again for this year now. Such a great show.

That is smart. Club Level is fun and for 2 nights will be fun. Moving 3 times isn't ideal but we did it and it was ok. I tried to pack certain bags so we didn't open all of them each time, It kind of worked. Kind of.

We have been at 3 different resorts for our past 2 trips - CSR/BCV/AKL, then the one from this trip report - BWI/BLT/BC, so we're getting used to it. I've started each one planning on it being a 2 resort split, but something always happens to get me to change it to 3. At this point we should probably just accept our fate. It definitely takes some packing planning!


This pool looks just meh to me. Especially for a deluxe. And honestly keeps me from booking at the Contemporary.

It's definitely not the best themed pool, but my kiddos seem to love it. I think it probably has more to do with nostalgia rather than the pool being amazing. This was the first Disney resort pool they ever visited and, of course, it also comes with Ms. Brittany.

Maybe do it on a MK day? That way you can just take the boat from MK to dinner. And then back to MK after. Possibly hit one more ride or two, or just head out from there. Or take the boat to Wilderness Lodge after and grab an uber back to the hotel?

That's exactly what I've ended up doing! I booked the 4:00pm show rather than 6:15 for one of our MK days. We'll just stay at the park into the afternoon, then boat over. Rather than taking a mid-day break, we'll just make it an early night.

It's not weird at all. We watch kiddie cartoons mostly, since the choices are slim sometimes.

I appreciate that reassurance
 
What a difference a few weeks makes! We're still planning our summer trip as if it will go forward, but also know in the back of my mind that it may end up getting cancelled. I hope everyone is stating as safe as you can and, for those who have had trips impacted, hope you're able to come up with a satisfactory plan B!

Day 7: July 25, Part 1 – Soggy AK

I love FP+. I am one of those people who really gets into the planning and enjoy being able to map out my days months in advance and have confidence we’ll be able to get onto the rides most important to us. Also, I served as the FP runner in the olden days of legacy FP, so my feet love FP+ as well. However, there is one big drawback to FP+ - you can’t change your plans when the weather doesn’t cooperate.

This looked to be a pretty rainy day. Everyone knows you can likely expect some rain most days during the summer at WDW, but it’s usually in the afternoon and passes pretty quickly. I actually do structure my plans to account for that. But this was one of those days where it was going to start early and keep going all day and our plans had us in the worst possible park for rain (IMHO)– Animal Kingdom. But we had a FP for Flight of Passage, so you can bet we were still going.

We showed up at the bus stop (not-so)bright and early and watched 2 DHS buses come and leave empty before an AK bus showed up. There was still only one other family waiting for the bus by the time it did come, so we got to spread out.

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We were having an UP themed day. We got to the park a little after 8:00 for a 9:00am opening and they started scanning people in almost immediately. We walked in the direction of Flight of Passage expecting to be held at the bridge for a little while longer, but to our surprise the CMs just kept on walking and led people into Pandora. This was the first time we had rope dropped this attraction on a non-EMH day and it was a mad house. People were pushing and jostling for position and I’m just not willing to do that, so we ended up a lot further back in the line than we started out, but we were okay with that. The wound the line all the way through the queue, out across the bridge to Africa, then wound it back down toward Pandora the other way on the bridge. They started loading people onto the ride immediately, though, so it moved quickly and our total wait ended up being around 35 minutes.

We were fine to have the line take a little longer, as that meant by the time we got off the ride it was official park open time. We came out the exit and immediately circled back to the entrance of the ride and hopped in line again through the fastpass line, since we had a 9:00am FP+. This time we walked right in. Riding this one back to back was pretty awesome.

Next on the plan had been to ride Dinosaur in the stand-by line, then use our other fastpasses at the Nemo show and Expedition Everest. I know Nemo is a bad use of a FP+, but the kids wanted to sit in the front row for the show and FP+ is the only way to do that.

We got soaked on our walk over, but were surprised to find the characters still out. We had to stop for a photo with Launchpad.

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Normally Dinosaur would be fine as a standby ride in the first hour of park opening. However, on a rainy day it becomes one of the few indoor options for people at AK, so the ride was mobbed. If I had been smart I would have changed my Nemo FP to Dinosaur at this time so we could just get into the FP line. Sadly, my brain didn’t work that well this morning, so we got into the super long regular line. It was still moving ok until all of a sudden it wasn’t. The ride broke down.

This is where we were in line when the ride stopped.

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That’s the loading area right there. So close. We ended up being stuck in this place for quite a long time, but we were too far in to just ditch, so we stayed there. It was so long that we missed our window for using the Nemo fastpass. But we finally made it on.

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We got off Dinosaur with about 5 minutes to go before the start of the first Nemo show. We decided to book it and try to make it in time to still see the show despite not getting to use the FP. The hardest part was getting out of the Dinosaur gift shop, as people had congregated in there to get out of the rain.

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We made it. Nowhere close to front row, but we made it. And we all love this show, so once it got going the stress and rain were forgotten. I’m sure the family next to me thought I was nuts with how into “Go with the Flow (oh-oh-oh oh-oh-oh oh-oh)” I got. But I care not.

We were supposed to ride Everest after Nemo, but of course it was still raining so it was still closed. We decided we were ready for lunch. For those keeping score the park had been open for almost 3 hours and we had accomplished 2 rides on FoP, 1 character greeting, Dinosaur, and the Nemo show. Not great, but also not bad with the weather.

Having a Landry’s card means we can just walk into Yak and Yeti whenever it’s convenient, so that’s what we did. DH and I decided that we needed drinks.

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I don’t even remember what my drink was, but I liked DH’s a lot better than mine. I do know what his was because it’s become a joke in the family. I kept calling it a Bahama Mama. Apparently it’s actually called a Big Bamboo. That name just will not encode for me, so I continued to call it Bahama Mama, much to DH’s annoyance. The kids thought this was hilarious. They last asked me to recall the name of Daddy’s Yak and Yeti drink 2 days ago. I still struggle to come up with the right name. Oh well.

Blurry food pics!

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Alex’s looked so bland, but he liked it. Cora was in meat heaven again. DH and I loved ours, as usual.

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We finished it off by splitting two orders of one of our favorite desserts on property.

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Fried wontons with cream cheese, pineapple, ice cream, and that delicious vanilla sauce. I’m practically salivating now.

After lunch we knew we needed to hit one more character meet. We could not miss out on Russell and Dug in our UP shirts.

“Bark like this” “Bark like this” “Bark like this”

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If you don’t know what I’m talking about consider yourself lucky. Those words echo in my head after we go anywhere near this meet. But the kids love it.

Hooray!

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We decided to be done after this. The rain had cleared up a little, but we were still wet. We had a multiple experience FP because of Everest having been down and we decided to not even use it. We did want to get pictures in front of the Tree of Life, but didn’t even want to wait for a photpass photographer, so just took a couple of shots ourselves before heading out.

DH can’t find the camera and my hair is so busted from the rain.

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We had fun, but we were done.
 


When is your summer vacation? Are you staying at Beach Club or Boardwalk. It looks like your trip is close to ours, 7/12-18 @ Boardwalk, cruise, and 7/25-26 @ Boardwalk.
 
Like you, I'm trying hard to stay positive about July. I guess we can't really do anything but wait and see.


this was one of those days where it was going to start early and keep going all day and our plans had us in the worst possible park for rain (IMHO)– Animal Kingdom. But we had a FP for Flight of Passage, so you can bet we were still going.

We had an AK day just like yours last year and despite the deluge of pouring rain, there was no way we were missing our FOP FP. It ended up being a fun morning for us, but we definitely didn't get as much done as we usually do.


We were having an UP themed day.

You guys look great! love all of your shirts :love:


We came out the exit and immediately circled back to the entrance of the ride and hopped in line again through the fastpass line, since we had a 9:00am FP+. This time we walked right in. Riding this one back to back was pretty awesome.

:thumbsup2


We got soaked on our walk over, but were surprised to find the characters still out. We had to stop for a photo with Launchpad.

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So cute ::yes::


This is where we were in line when the ride stopped.

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Oh, no! So close!



great pics, I love Russell and Dug!
 
I really hope your July trip is a-go and our August trip is, too. Right now, I can’t imagine Disney not open in the summer, but I lot of things I didn’t think would happen are happening now, so who knows.

Tell me more about the Landry’s card. You don’t actually need a reservation and can get a table with this card? How do I get one?

It looks like a fun, productive day despite the rain.
 
I love FP+. I am one of those people who really gets into the planning and enjoy being able to map out my days months in advance and have confidence we’ll be able to get onto the rides most important to us.

Same!

But this was one of those days where it was going to start early and keep going all day and our plans had us in the worst possible park for rain (IMHO)– Animal Kingdom.

Definitely. Everything's outdoors and so far apart.

For those keeping score the park had been open for almost 3 hours and we had accomplished 2 rides on FoP, 1 character greeting, Dinosaur, and the Nemo show. Not great, but also not bad with the weather.

That's pretty good!

Apparently it’s actually called a Big Bamboo. That name just will not encode for me, so I continued to call it Bahama Mama, much to DH’s annoyance

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Fried wontons with cream cheese, pineapple, ice cream, and that delicious vanilla sauce. I’m practically salivating now.

Yum! I so wish I had this right now.
 
Like you, I'm trying hard to stay positive about July. I guess we can't really do anything but wait and see.

Yeah, I'm hoping we'll have a little more clarity as to how long this looks like it may go within the next few weeks. We told the kids that if we have to cancel this summer we'll shoot for a Thanksgiving trip, but that would probably be to Disneyland rather than WDW, as that's our Thanksgiving place.


We had an AK day just like yours last year and despite the deluge of pouring rain, there was no way we were missing our FOP FP. It ended up being a fun morning for us, but we definitely didn't get as much done as we usually do.

It's rough, but it definitely can be fun.




You guys look great! love all of your shirts :love:

Thank you!


[/QUOTE]Oh, no! So close[/QUOTE]

Right?? That makes it all the more frustrating.


great pics, I love Russell and Dug!

They are always such a fun meet.

I really hope your July trip is a-go and our August trip is, too. Right now, I can’t imagine Disney not open in the summer, but I lot of things I didn’t think would happen are happening now, so who knows.

Yeah, it's really hard to imagine them being closed, but I wouldn't rule anything out these days. Right now they have the "cancel without penalty and final payment not due until 7 days out" thing going for trips with arrival dates through June 30. We arrive June 27, so fall within the time frame. We'll see what happens!

Tell me more about the Landry’s card. You don’t actually need a reservation and can get a table with this card? How do I get one?

The Landry's card has been great! Google Landry's Select Club and you'll get the site to sign up. The card costs $25, but then you immediately get a $25 credit on it, so if you have any intention of using it in the near future it's basically free. You get another $25 credit added to it each year to use during your birthday month and then another $25 credit for each $250 you spend. The best perk IMHO though is the no reservation thing. You can just walk up to the podium at any Landry's restaurant, flash your card, and you get the next available table with no reservation needed. A manager also visits your table during your meal to check in. We got it to use at Yak and Yeti at WDW, but also use it at Landry's restaurants at home. We've had it for about 4 years now.

It looks like a fun, productive day despite the rain.

It was! I think rain at AK is really bad if you're on your once-in-a-lifetime trip and on your one and only AK day, but it's easy to make the best of it if you've done it before and will do it again.

That's pretty good!

We were satisfied.




I live to annoy :rotfl:



Yum! I so wish I had this right now.
Me toooooooooo. So so good!
 
What a difference a month makes. I haven't had much desire to look at this report or much of anything on the DIS beyond the news section because it's just been depressing. We have moved our planned late June/early July trip that I put so much effort into planning due to COVID-19 concerns. I work in a hospital and our time off has been significantly restricted. I wanted to give us our best chance to still be able to go this year so I moved it to the last week in July. Not much extra time, but hoping that month will be enough and it's the latest we can push things before DH has to go back to work in the school system. We are now booked for 7/25-8/3 in a Boardwalk Inn/Beach Club split. Had to say goodbye to our free dining, which had been upgraded to the new DDP+ option. But we're making the best of it and will plan to go if at all possible regardless of what modifications to the experience may be in place. I decided to get back to this and am realizing that remembering good times at WDW can be therapeutic. I hope all of you are making it through this ordeal okay and are staying safe and well!

@Jfsag123, hope you and your family are doing well. Hope everyone on the thread is doing well too.

Thank you! I hope you and yours are well too!
 
Day 7: July 25, Part 2 – Epcot/Desperate for a Meal

We went back to BLT for a little break. I walked over to Contempo Café to fill up our mugs and, of course, had to snap a picture of the mural again.

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Our break on this day was actually not supposed to be so little. We had planned on spending this evening just swimming and hanging around the resort. But there was something else I wanted to do with this time…some place I wanted to eat. I had discussed it with the family the day before and they agreed we would all get ourselves back out to do this one dining reservation if I could find one the day before. Well I found one, so back out we went.

We hopped on the monorail, first to the TTC, then transferred to the other line because our reservation was located here.

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That doesn’t narrow it down much, does it? Many worthy dining choices in this park. But we had one in particular in mind.

This is my favorite place to be in the whole world:

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Alex felt as though he needed to hug the side of Spaceship Earth, as we all knew this trip would be the last time we would see it in its current form. Now with the current situation who knows if the redo will even happen.

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Our purpose was dinner, but there was no way we could just walk through Future World and not do a single ride, so I had gotten us a FP while on our break.

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Cora and my car:

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DH and Alex’s car:

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I don’t remember what our scores look like so I’m just gonna go ahead and say Cora and I took it with our pink dream of a car.

Dinner time!

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That’s right – it’s Via Napoli! We had decided to skip Via Napoli this trip, but then I realized I couldn’t deal with the idea of not eating there because I am pathetic and I love pizza. Fortunately the others agreed with me so everyone was up for trekking all the way to the back of Epcot just to eat here.

Started with drinks for DH and me.

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And bread for all of us

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Then we ordered two giant pizzas for the four of us to split. Via Napoli always ends up being a great deal for us because, while it’s more expensive than a pizza outside of WDW, the two pizzas feed all of us and end up costing way less than any other Disney meal for the whole family. And we always end up with enough leftovers to have as another meal later in the trip. Now of course we jack up the cost a bit with drinks and desserts, but it’s still always one of the most inexpensive meals we have on a trip. And it’s delicious!

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Dessert was zeppole for DH and me…

[
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…and coppa di brutti ma buoni (ugly but good) for the kids.

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We had to stop for a picture in the Italy pavilion on the way out.

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Cora likes to pose in this spot with her arms out. Here she is in 2016.

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And 2018

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And yep, I got her the same shirt twice for different trips.

We briefly considered walking all the way back to the front of the park then getting on the monorail to go back to BLT, but dropped that idea almost immediately in favor of being lazy. Instead, we walked out the International Gateway to Beach Club and called ourselves yet another Minnie Van to take us back. Of course we snapped another couple of pictures while we were waiting for our car.

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The car came in decent time and we had another pleasant ride back to our resort.

I’ll finish this installment with a BLT (not so) hidden Mickey

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Great update! DH and I ate at Via Napoli on our adults only trip a few years ago and, while we didn’t love it, we didn’t hate it either. We keep saying we should go back and give it another try. We’ll see.

We love SE, too. I can’t believe we won’t ride it again in its future state, at least we don’t think so. At this point, I guess everything is up in the air.

I really hope you can go on your trip this summer. Like you, we are still holding out hope for our trip, my big 4-0 birthday trip. I did make some modifications and instead of a YC/Poly split for 11-nights, we are at the BC the whole trip for 10-nights. We actually arrive on August 3rd.

I am really struggling with this trip. If the modifications I’m reading about actual happen, I can see us postponing. The only problem with that is we can’t travel again until next summer, but I already planned a trip to Yellowstone/Grand Tetons and Arches for June, 2021. If we postpone Disney until 2021, our out west trip will be postponed until 2022, and that makes me sad, too, because we are really excited for that trip. I really don’t know what to do. All I know is I have to go somewhere this summer, even if it’s just the beach for a few days. The unknown is so hard.

Stay well!
 
I'm sorry we won't be seeing you over the 4th at BLT anymore. And honestly, I literally don't know what the heck we're doing. One day I am convinced we are going and the next day we're not. Mike is more on the side of not going if things are weird. He won't be happy just sitting at the resort on a WDW trip…although he doesn't mind doing that when we go to HH, but whatever. Personally, I don't know how safe I would feel traveling at that time anyway. We'll just have to see, but I need to decide by May 11th…or really the 10th…because the way I use these DVC points will impact next April's trip. Hopefully we will know more by then 🙏

Via Napoli is so worth the trek to the back of EPCOT :love: Lucky you for scoring a last minute reservation there!
 
Kelley--somehow I got to thinking about your trip report and had to come find it. I'm wondering if you all were able to go on your summer trip? We just made reservations and have tentative plans to go May 31-June 7 next year. Who knows what the parks will look like then, but I'm excited nonetheless. We haven't been to WDW since June 2018. I hope that you guys have something in the pipeline. I'm so glad we got to go to DL these past 2 Novembers (and I bet you are as well), I'm just so sad about them not being even close to opening up yet. Well, I just wanted to check in. I hope you and your family are doing well. :)
 
UPDATE

I'm so sorry that I've been gone and non-responsive. I haven't really spent much time on the DIS for the past several months outside of the news thread, and have minimally looked at that. I lost my mojo for working on this trip report (and connecting with Disney in general) with all the COVID stuff. It’s been a hell of a year. We had the trip of our dreams planned this past summer and ended up having to cancel it. We went back and forth on going, but ultimately decided that it was not worth the risk.

I work in a hospital setting, so it’s been non-stop tension. Fortunately, I’m on the mental health side of things (psychologist), so I’ve been able to avoid direct patient exposure for the most part, but mental health issues have also skyrocketed and it’s been pretty rough. With all that’s been going on and the uncertainty around it I just haven’t been feeling reliving past Disney trips. However, we now have a future trip tentatively on the horizon and I’m starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel, so I thought I’d come back and wrap this thing up, especially since I was already so close to being done.

There has been one more development this year.

50737109932_33935f0e74_z.jpg


That’s right. New baby expected April 2021! So our future trips will look a little different. I’m thinking of doing a PTR for our next trip, as it will have some significant differences from our trips of the past. We will be dealing with a new baby, the unknowns of post-COVID WDW, and, for the first time, extended family tagalongs. If I end up starting it, I’ll link it here.

How are you all doing??? When are you planning to go back? If you've been back since all this mess started and they reopened, how was it?

Anyway, enough with the update, back to the magic. Several additions to follow.
 

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