“Rise” to the Challenge, FREAK!! Done and new trip report started 5/2/21

[disneyAndi14]

I never get alerts, I am behind on this! You are almost done trying all the resorts, that is amazing! We stayed at OKW many years ago with some family friends who are DVC members, and all I remember were the thin walls and hearing a lot snoring from our friends

We really have been trying all the resorts and checking them off our list. I did miss FW cabins we have never stayed there, maybe someday. My top 3 all time resorts from all categories are YC, GF, and Poly. With POFQ and Destino close behind So true about the thin walls at OKW, you really have to hope you have nice quiet neighbors!

would like to try the all stars some time with the new renovations, it seems like a good choice for a quick budget trip or for a trip at all if Disney stops offering room discounts to keep capacity low! Fingers crossed you can stay in the tower in November! If things aren't more back to normal by the

I agree, the themes at the All Stars are so Disney and the refurbished rooms makes it a good choice now. The bus transportation is the only big negative for us. We do like using Lyft now so that would be a choice while staying there. I would love to stay at the Towers in November I just don’t know yet! The unknown is such a huge factor right now for traveling.

loved the HEA dessert party so much. I think we will have to try the seated version at some point, it sure would be nice to have somewhere to sit and eat while waiting around! I hate when it is cold in WDW. We go there to escape the cold! You had so many good eats this trip, I know I added a few places to my list.

I loved the terrace seating option party, we will do this again someday!!
I hate the cold at Disney! This makes January a tough one since we have had 2 years now of cold weather there. Andi has all of January off at her college so it works to go then.

Love all the Uniqlo shirts. I have started ordering online from there to get my Disney fix. You and Andi take such good pictures, you really are twins!

Ahh Thank you, you are so kind! I have worn a couple of these shirts to work and I swear they bring me good luck and patients love them!

What a fun report, I really enjoyed following along!

Love having you join in and comment! It makes reviewing our trips so much fun!

I loved the trip report, Caroline! And I knew before the wrap-up that OKW was going on your not-so-good list

Thank you Kelly! I love visiting with you on the Dis and especially in person since we had that wonderful time on the Epic trip. Hopefully we can meet up again and have a drink. We need it!!

Ours was the same. A few hiccups that all trips seem to have, but more good than bad. Always grateful for that.

Very true! So much more fun the not! The memories from all these trips is so important right now!

THat's why I love to do the split stays... knocks twice as many off each trip.

I agree! I use to think split stays would be a pain, and this is just not the case. Very easy and fun to change and try a different place mid trip!

I just read about @chunkymonkey 's After Hours Party (yours too) and that one sure sounded amazing! The wait times were beyond amazing!!

These events are really worth the AP price! It was really fun to enjoy it with some of our epic friends. We will definitely do another after hours in the future. Hoping they have these again next year!

 

[schumigirl]

The new Disney is got me full of questions?? I’m not sure what to think I am undecided on keeping our August trip. Time will tell.
Andi and I decided several years ago to start staying at all the resorts and rating all of them. It is hard to choose just one, so many good things about all of them. Now that the AS resorts are getting remodeled they are more enticing!
Thanks again for following along, stay tuned for our up in the air plans!

I was checking in on you Caroline to see if you had any updates on the August trip......

Hoping you do get to keep the August trip, there is so much uncertainty around right now, no one seems quite sure what to do for the best.

Good luck though.....I`ll keep popping back for updates......and hope you`re all doing well..….

 

[disneyAndi14]

I was checking in on you Caroline to see if you had any updates on the August trip......

Hoping you do get to keep the August trip, there is so much uncertainty around right now, no one seems quite sure what to do for the best.

Good luck though.....I`ll keep popping back for updates......and hope you`re all doing well..….

Thank you Carole!! I have a few updates coming up. Of course, nothing is solid, always fluid in this current situation.
We are enjoying some nice weather here. I have been doing a lot of walking in between working. .

 

[disneyAndi14]

Disney took away my free dining and all my ADR’s!

Hello Everyone,

I hope this post finds everyone doing well! Disney has sure been a fluid situation wow! Things changing everyday.

I originally had booked the FD promotion since my March and April trips had been canceled and Disney announced it was removing this. I had my dining reservations removed and my cost of the trip adjusted. It still is way more than the AP rate I originally had, ugh!

I also had to book tickets with the FD promo and I did 8 day park hoppers. I thought we would use these tickets to upgrade to AP.

My AP ended on 5/2 and disappeared from my Disney account.

I am now seeing our AP’s back with an expiration date of 8/29.

This is great except I now have these 8 day tickets attached to my reservation. I am hoping I can move these to another trip? Here are some questions I have. Do I even go in August? Do I use our AP’s? Do I get a refund for the AP’s? Can I even do that now since the expiration date changed? Do I try to move everything to November? HELP, I am so confused

As you all can see, I just don’t know what to think. I really want to go down in August, however, do I want to spend more than I usually do for a trip with so many restrictions? It is tough. Normally we love escaping to Florida winter and summer, now I’m not looking forward to it.

Here are my plans so far.

I booked 3 nights at Royal Pacific Resort at USO from 8/15-8/18. I got a terrific rate. I am actually considering just doing a Universal trip if Disney becomes to difficult. The reservation system scares me. Andi and I are park hoppers and it will be difficult to stick to 1 park a day, if this is the case.






We would move over to BWI on 8/18 and stay until 8/24. I am excited to be staying at a resort that has walk ability to 2 parks and I just heard F&W will be going on at Epcot. This will be nice, except we won’t be able to just walk over to Epcot any old time, bummer!

I love walking into France for breakfast, probably not an option now.

So for now my AP has a new expiration date, I have 8 day hopper tickets, and BWI reservation at Disney. I do not have any dining or extras because we can’t ugh!

Disney is still the most magical place on earth for Andi and I! We love it and hope to be there in August.

Here is a throwback picture of my two precious little ones. This was in Epcot on both of the kids first trip. Ahh so sweet!

See ya all real soon! When I know more I will post here!

Have a wonderful and safe weekend!

 

[Jenny Sanders]

This is great except I now have these 8 day tickets attached to my reservation. I am hoping I can move these to another trip? Here are some questions I have. Do I even go in August? Do I use our AP’s? Do I get a refund for the AP’s? Can I even do that now since the expiration date changed? Do I try to move everything to November? HELP, I am so confused

Hi lady!
We have a 2 day park tix and AP's that now expire August 27th attached to our July reservation. Monday morning I have to wake up bright and early to make park reservations for not only July but for September too. Sigh. I am going in with VERY low expectations...I am really struggling with all the Disney no's. I think I'm at peace if I don't get any park time ONLY because we have been to the parks so many times and I don't feel like I will be missing out. I am totally ok with spending time at the pool, eating in DS and drinking...If this was my once in a lifetime trip, or a trip that I only got to take every few years, I would DEFINITELY stay home.

 

[disneyAndi14]

Hi lady!
We have a 2 day park tix and AP's that now expire August 27th attached to our July reservation. Monday morning I have to wake up bright and early to make park reservations for not only July but for September too. Sigh. I am going in with VERY low expectations...I am really struggling with all the Disney no's. I think I'm at peace if I don't get any park time ONLY because we have been to the parks so many times and I don't feel like I will be missing out. I am totally ok with spending time at the pool, eating in DS and drinking...If this was my once in a lifetime trip, or a trip that I only got to take every few years, I would DEFINITELY stay home.

Hi Jenny! Wow what a whirlwind of news yesterday! I get to make my reservation Monday at 6am. I am really bummed about the no park hopping. We love to do at least 2 parks a day. The evenings are going to be boring for Andi and I. I guess we will check out Disney Springs more on the trip. August is a time to cool down in the afternoon and hit the parks in the evening. The park hours are short and end early. I still am not convinced we will be going. Time will tell. Take care!

 

[Jenny Sanders]

Hi Jenny! Wow what a whirlwind of news yesterday! I get to make my reservation Monday at 6am. I am really bummed about the no park hopping. We love to do at least 2 parks a day. The evenings are going to be boring for Andi and I. I guess we will check out Disney Springs more on the trip. August is a time to cool down in the afternoon and hit the parks in the evening. The park hours are short and end early. I still am not convinced we will be going. Time will tell. Take care!

This is going to be so different for us regulars going forward...There's so much that's going to be missing.
Keep me updated on your plans and if you keep them...

 

[Steppesister]

Very true! So much more fun the not! The memories from all these trips is so important right now!

For reals!!

I agree! I use to think split stays would be a pain, and this is just not the case. Very easy and fun to change and try a different place mid trip!

Not at all. I actually enjoy them as they almost feel like 2 vacays in one.

These events are really worth the AP price! It was really fun to enjoy it with some of our epic friends. We will definitely do another after hours in the future. Hoping they have these again next year!

It's on my list then!

I originally had booked the FD promotion since my March and April trips had been canceled and Disney announced it was removing this. I had my dining reservations removed and my cost of the trip adjusted. It still is way more than the AP rate I originally had, ugh!

Grrr!

I am now seeing our AP’s back with an expiration date of 8/29.

Well, there's at least that.

I booked 3 nights at Royal Pacific Resort at USO from 8/15-8/18. I got a terrific rate. I am actually considering just doing a Universal trip if Disney becomes to difficult.

I would consider a UNI-only trip with all the limitations they've announced at Disney. Seems like Uni is really taking advantage of this to lure more to them and it just may work.

 

[missjackiemcg]

Oh, my goodness, that picture of your 2 cuties!!!!! Adorable. I love that everyone is sharing their throwbacks lately. Giving us reasons to smile while our Disney trips are falling apart left and right!!

 

[pkondz]

Disney has sure been a fluid situation wow! Things changing everyday.

Yup.

I had my dining reservations removed and my cost of the trip adjusted. It still is way more than the AP rate I originally had, ugh!

I am now seeing our AP’s back with an expiration date of 8/29.

This is great except I now have these 8 day tickets attached to my reservation.

Whoopsie! Well... good news/bad news???

Do I even go in August?

Yes

Do I use our AP’s?

Yes

Do I get a refund for the AP’s?

No.
But I think if you approach guest services and tell them about your suddenly extended AP, they might either refund the cost of the tickets, or apply it to extending your AP another year past the new expiry date.

Here is a throwback picture of my two precious little ones. This was in Epcot on both of the kids first trip. Ahh so sweet!

Awwww.

 

[missangelalexis]

So many tough decisions to make! It's good that your AP was extended. Hopefully you'd be able to move your 8 day tickets to another trip.

It does stink that no park hopping is allowed

 

[Tracy161]

HELP, I am so confused

There is so much to be confused about! I just got a partial refund for my AP since I don't anticipate going back even with the extension of mine into November before it expires It was a tough call for sure!

Andi and I are park hoppers and it will be difficult to stick to 1 park a day, if this is the case.

Same! Hopping to "only" two parks in one day is a light day for me!

Disney is still the most magical place on earth for Andi and I! We love it and hope to be there in August.

Agreed.

How sweet!

I hope you had some good luck yesterday and got everything sorted out!

 

[MeghanEmily]

Currently I have The All Stars, Wilderness Lodge and Saratoga Springs left to try.

You're ahead of me by a bit I think! We love Wilderness Lodge! You should definitely go there next once it opens again and Disney is more like normal!

The DAH at MK was also so worth the cost. This was awesome and I loved everything about it. The cold weather was the only negative.

Totally agree! Glad you had such a good time at DAH, aside from the weather. It's such a treat!

The Topolino breakfast at The Riviera was new and we loved it!

I wish we'd been able to do this! We had it on our itinerary last trip and then cancelled it. I was glad to hear your review!

Doing a DVC tour was new this trip and worth it. We got to see the new Riviera rooms. We also got 4 FP each and $150.00 gift card.

Such good incentives to do the tour!

I get tearful thinking about it and how so much has changed since this trip.

You and Andi really do travel so well together, and you have such magical trips. Hard to think about how things have changed so much recently.

This is so cute!

Here are some questions I have. Do I even go in August? Do I use our AP’s? Do I get a refund for the AP’s? Can I even do that now since the expiration date changed? Do I try to move everything to November? HELP, I am so confused

All excellent questions. Everything is so confusing and up in the air right now

I love walking into France for breakfast, probably not an option now.

Here is a throwback picture of my two precious little ones. This was in Epcot on both of the kids first trip. Ahh so sweet!

Soo cute!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Not at all. I actually enjoy them as they almost feel like 2 vacays in one.

I agree, split stays are actually really nice and easy at Disney!

It's on my list then!

DAH is a great extra, maybe in a couple years it will be back! Never know with this Pandemic

I would consider a UNI-only trip with all the limitations they've announced at Disney. Seems like Uni is really taking advantage of this to lure more to them and it just may work

This is still a possibility but less and less.......

Oh, my goodness, that picture of your 2 cuties!!!!! Adorable. I love that everyone is sharing their throwbacks lately. Giving us reasons to smile while our Disney trips are falling apart left and right!!

Thank you Jackie! Cherish the time with Jimmy, they grow up quickly!
Disney World in 2020 is starting to be more work than the worth for me right now!

No.
But I think if you approach guest services and tell them about your suddenly extended AP, they might either refund the cost of the tickets, or apply it to extending your AP another year past the new expiry date.

Do you know a secret in with Disney? Haha You can’t get through if your life depended on it right now, crazy!!

Whoopsie! Well... good news/bad news???

Right now it is bad news because we most likely wont be going at all this year!

So many tough decisions to make! It's good that your AP was extended. Hopefully you'd be able to move your 8 day tickets to another trip.

It does stink that no park hopping is allowed

This has been a rough week trying to figure out what to do. We love park hopping, huge bummer!

There is so much to be confused about! I just got a partial refund for my AP since I don't anticipate going back even with the extension of mine into November before it expires It was a tough call for sure!

Good call! I will do this at some point if I can ever get through to a CM, blows my mind how poor the call system is right now, crazy

Same! Hopping to "only" two parks in one day is a light day for me!

I know, we use to consistently do 3 now we stay at 2 since we have been so many times!

How sweet!

I hope you had some good luck yesterday and got everything sorted out!

Thank you Tracy, as you read on in my next post, it was challenging to say the least!

You're ahead of me by a bit I think! We love Wilderness Lodge! You should definitely go there next once it opens again and Disney is more like normal!

I didn’t tell the whole truth, haha! I got to thinking and we haven’t stayed at FW, DVC at WL and DVC at GF. I think that covers it!

Totally agree! Glad you had such a good time at DAH, aside from the weather. It's such a treat

It was really fun despite the cold weather!

I wish we'd been able to do this! We had it on our itinerary last trip and then cancelled it. I was glad to hear your review!

The characters at Topolino’s are so good! Loved it!

Such good incentives to do the tour!

It really was and interesting!

You and Andi really do travel so well together, and you have such magical trips. Hard to think about how things have changed so much recently.

We do and it is hard right now! I miss Disney, however, I am so thankful for health and well being right now!!

All excellent questions. Everything is so confusing and up in the air right now

Very true! I had a rough Disney week and I am glad I made some decisions and I feel good about it now!

Soo cute!

Thank you! We were Disney novices this trip and we had a wonderful time! I didn’t even know about Character meets, and autographs, to name a few!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Hello Everyone!

I hope this post finds everyone healthy and happy!

My week has been a rollercoaster as far as Disney planning goes.


I tried to make park reservations right at 6am central time and that was awful! I was met with the pink castle for hours and finally about 6-7 hours later I got in. Yay! No not really, it wouldn’t work for me. I was able to make 1 reservation for Epcot and that was it. The system quit working for me. It said all the parks were full through September 2021!


I knew this wasn’t true because I could look at the availability calendar and every day was still open. I gave up for the day. I would check back every couple hours with the same results ugh!

I tried every so often for the next several days, well I would still get the same results, no parks for you!!

I did have everything linked and knew it was an IT glitch at WDW.

I tried a few times to call IT, oh my goodness, that was useless. I got so use to the saying “all circuits are busy now try again later”. Well, I work and this was not an option for me. I gave up.

The planner in me wasn’t going to be defeated! I randomly tried Wednesday and boom I was in. I was able to make all my park reservations for August.

Yay! Well not really. I had decided by this time 2020 wasn’t going to work for us. One main reason is COVID-19 cases are high and this virus isn’t going anywhere for awhile and I need to do my part.

I can’t be responsible for possibly spreading this virus by traveling for leisure. WDW will always be there and we have been many times and will be many more! My work has also implemented 14 day quarantines for travel to Florida.

We will be canceling our August and November trip this year. Andi will have to drink around the world next year! I was still proud of myself for getting those darn reservations

2021 will be the year for us!! I was also done with trying to do this myself. I decided to use the services of an excellent TA, many of you know her, she is awesome I told her my dates and she got us booked.

January 20-27 at Copper Creek Villa 7 day PH tickets which will be converted to an AP on the trip. I get to check a new resort off our list and the WL area is a plus!

March 20-27 at CSR Tower room, excited to stay here again.

August 28- September 5 at Beach Club and we still have one more in late November for Andi’s 22nd Birthday

I was able to get park reservations for all 3 of these trips because each one right now is a package.

If Disney doesn’t come out with some discounts in the future, we won’t be able to do all these trips! Expensive!!



I still need to try and get the partial refund for our AP’s this year. This may take some time since you can’t really call right now unless you have endless time to redial, a million times, and then wait on hold for hours. No thanks!



Okay that is it for now!! Happy trip planning to all of you!

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

Sorry you had to cancel this years trip. The park reservation system sounds horrendous!
You have a wonderful year of Disney trips coming up in 2021. I’m more than a wee bit jealous

 

[Disneyhanna]

It is such a mess to do any Disney planning right now! It’s somewhat freeing to just accept that 2020 will not go as planned. I am not excited about anything I have planned this year anymore, so it isn’t as disappointing when things get cancelled. Wow, that sounds so sad when I say it like that .

I’m glad Disney opened up 2021 bookings, it gives us something to look forward to! This AP stuff is a fiasco, this is my first time having an AP and what a time to have one lol! I’m not sure which route I will go yet, hopefully they give us some good options when they send more info! We thought we were such Disney experts, and now everything is changing so much. I know that once we can safely go back, it will feel even more special than ever!!!

 

[schumigirl]

Caroline, I`m so sorry to hear of your decision to cancel this years trips. I think you are doing the right thing, but of course that doesn`t make it any easier......I know how much you and Andi enjoy all those trips together...it really shows in your reports.

It`s sad to read of so many cancelling all their well laid plans for this year. Completely understand your decision, especially with the worry of your job and the implications of that for you. I wasn`t really worried up till this last week, numbers are scary.

But, exciting to read about your new plans for next year!!!! And it means we get brand new TR`s from you....

Sending many good wishes to you and the lovely Andi.......

 

[suse66]

2021 will be the year for us!! I was also done with trying to do this myself. I decided to use the services of an excellent TA, many of you know her, she is awesome I told her my dates and she got us booked.

I am on the same page as you, Caroline. Our border remains closed and the government asks all Canadians to avoid all non essential travel. So until that advisory lifts, I won't be going anywhere. Jack and I were supposed to leave next Tuesday for our first ever mother/son trip and I cancelled my Christmas trip with Bill. Right now I am tentatively looking at Hilton Head Island for March Break and Disney next August with Jack to celebrate his 21st! Maybe our dates will overlap! Hope you are doing well and staying safe. Thanks for all you do.

 

[dorospin]

“Is it snowing again?”

As many of you know, we have had a snowy winter. We have already received the amount of snow we normally receive during an entire winter season. Yay! We are so lucky, right? Record breakers and all. Some may think so, I am not impressed and would much rather break records the other way, like least amount of snow ever on record, that is more my type of record.

I had been watching the weather because “surprise” we were suppose to get snow the day we had to travel. I was hopeful it would only be a couple inches and we would be fine.

Monday was a regular work day for me. I had packed over the weekend and was ready except for a few last minute essentials.

Andi arrived home Monday and was mostly packed and ready to go. We had Qdoba for dinner and we all went to bed early. Our wake up time was 3am, ugh! I always think the early morning flights are the best at the time of booking, however, when the time arrives, not so much.

I did sleep some during the night and was up before the alarm. I looked outside and it wasn’t snowing, except I noticed a fair amount of new snow on the deck, ugh! I didn’t have any alerts on my phone so we got ready and headed out. My goal was to be at the airport at 4am. Our flight was to depart at 5:10am. One good thing about flying out of our small airport, you really don’t need more than 1 hour of time before your flight.

Here is my bad mirror selfie, I take this before each trip. Andi thinks it is hilarious.
View attachment 469790

The ride to the airport was not fun. The roads were not plowed and we did get about 4-5 inches of new snow. My husband drove us in his truck and of course he didn’t think he needed the 4 wheel drive until we almost went in the ditch! Needless to say it was a stressful ride in the middle of the night.

We did make it fine and were all checked in and ready to board by 4:30am. Thank goodness our city is use to snow and this did not delay our flight at all! We took off on time and were in Minneapolis getting Dunkin Donuts by 6:30am. Our 7:10am flight from Minneapolis also took off right on time. If any of you have paid attention to the times, that was stressful in itself. I gambled and booked the 2 flights so close together in time and if any hiccup had occurred in Duluth, we would never had made the 7:10am flight!

Thank goodness the gambling gods were looking out for us!

Goodbye nasty cold snowy weather, Hello beautiful sun and 83 degree weather, I love you!!

We landed in sunny Orlando by 11:30am! We did have to pick up Andi’s suitcase. We noticed in the Duluth airport her OKW tag was already missing. I am so glad we noticed before we checked her bag.

We got on the Magical Express pretty fast and worked our way to OKW. We did not have a ready room yet, we did get the text that they were working on our room.

I should have went to the lobby and asked about our room location but I didn’t. Dumb mistake on my part. A little foreshadowing.......

We gave our luggage to bell service and headed to DS via the boat at OKW. It was glorious to be outside in warm weather and the sun on my face.
View attachment 469794

We were hungry and decided on Blaze Pizza for our lunch. We shared a pizza. Andi’s side had mushrooms and olives and my side had pepperoni, meatballs, and mushrooms. This was yummy.
View attachment 469791

We walked around and went to Basin to wash our hands and walked around WOD.
View attachment 469793
We wanted to try the crepe for dessert with the bubble waffle but it was closed. I’m not sure if it is only open on weekends or evenings, no way to tell at the stand.

We decided to go to Sprinkles. I tried the cupcake sundae dessert, this was so good. I had a strawberry cupcake with the Captain crunch ice cream. This was an odd combination but very satisfying and so good. Andi didn’t have anything, she tried this and thought it was okay. I loved it.
View attachment 469792
We did get our room text and it was no where near what I had requested from Touring Plans. It was Miller Crossing, building 18, room 1822. I had requested near hospitality house, building 64. I did ask if anything was available in building 64, however I was told no. We walked over and the walk wasn’t to bad. We were on the 2nd floor. Our room was nice. A few negatives, very small TV with a remote from the 90’s,
View attachment 469799
the balcony overlooked a bunch of air conditioners.
View attachment 469795
Thank goodness we couldn’t hear them with the door closed. The bathroom had a loud ineffective fan otherwise the bathroom was nice with a rain fall shower head.
View attachment 469798
Very little storage for a DVC. Positives were 2 queen size beds, balcony with chairs and a fountain out in the lake behind us. Unfortunately, those were the only positives of the room.
View attachment 469796
View attachment 469800

The resort itself was very nice, didn’t seem crowded at all, bus stop was close to our building, and relatively quiet until the end of our stay. More foreshadowing!!

The resort is huge, the bus takes almost 30 minutes to go around the resort coming back from the parks. We started getting off at the Pennisular bus stop and walking, it saved us over 15 minutes of bus time.

The ice machine was by the quiet pool between buildings 19&20, not a fun walk at the end of the night. I love to have ice available all the time so this was a negative for me.

We also found toenail clippings on the floor in the little kitchen area and a lot of hair in the bathroom. This was gross, we could tell the floors had not been cleaned at all before our arrival. I did call and the manager was very helpful and nice. He agreed this was not acceptable. He sent housekeeping back, gave us each 3 anytime FP and a $200.00 resort credit. I certainly didn’t expect that, I just wanted to have the floors cleaned. I was impressed with the manager at OKW.

After all that, this resort is a one and done for us, you will hear more of why in upcoming posts.

Okayafter all that, it was time for us to head to MK. Stay tuned for that post coming up soon.

I have been considering this resort for a large family stay / haven’t seen many reviews so thank you for this!!