"Can We Un-Birthday Yet?" A He, SMEE, & They Sept. 2020 Trip Report *Update 11/21 COMPLETE!*

[vamassey1]

Welcome Back! And thanks for sharing this report.

 

[CruellaNY]

OMG I've been wondering where you were, Ariane! I guess I missed the name change--whoops! I'll blame it on 2020, like I blame everything else these days... Here now, and happy to play catch up!

YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW HAPPY I AM YOU FINALLY FOUND ME TRACY I gave you hints in Jenny's TR's - well I tried to at least lol! And then I wondered why you didn't get them I know the name change threw some people but unfortunately I had no choice if I wanted to remain here I hope you are well, I know from your comments on her report that the whole travel situation for us is a pain for you and I'm sorry. I hope work is going ok and you do get to travel soon and I'm so glad you're here! I'll be starting a TR for our just finished Thanksgiving trip soon too!

Finally caught up and you've had a whole trip and almost another one! Lol I can't wait to hear about both of them!

LOL yes but at least you're here and caught up How are you feeling? And yes I leave tomorrow for the "work" trip and then when I'm back I'll definitely start Thanksgiving one!

Welcome Back! And thanks for sharing this report.

Thank you for reading! Have you started a TR for your recent trip yet? I've looked a few times and didn't see one but since I've been back I've rarely had time for the DIS unfortunately.

 

[Tracy161]

YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW HAPPY I AM YOU FINALLY FOUND ME TRACY I gave you hints in Jenny's TR's - well I tried to at least lol! And then I wondered why you didn't get them

OMG I feel like such a moron! If it hadn't been for your appearances in Jenny's TR, I would have been seriously worried. But so many of us have taken a break from TRing because of lack of trips, etc. that I thought maybe you had too. Silly me! I saw a couple times on Jenny's TR this Cruella person, but apparently I just failed to make the connection

I know the name change threw some people but unfortunately I had no choice if I wanted to remain here

Oh dear. Well I'm SO glad to FINALLY have caught up to you. I won't let this happen again!

 

[vamassey1]

Have you started a TR for your recent trip yet? I've looked a few times and didn't see one but since I've been back I've rarely had time for the DIS unfortunately.

We have not started. I'm having a hard time getting my daughter to help. We usually do them together and she had not had computer time to help yet. She's a much better writer than I am. She just started back at a desk job and I'm hoping she'll have more time to help once she finishes training.

 

[CruellaNY]

f it hadn't been for your appearances in Jenny's TR, I would have been seriously worried. But so many of us have taken a break from TRing because of lack of trips, etc. that I thought maybe you had too. Silly me! I saw a couple times on Jenny's TR this Cruella person, but apparently I just failed to make the connection

Ha! But yes it's true, there are a few "regulars" who went missing or are still missing and I'm sure it's because they haven't travelled and/or it isn't currently fun for them to be here

Oh dear. Well I'm SO glad to FINALLY have caught up to you. I won't let this happen again!

And now that you caught up I stop posting! LOL things have been crazy since we got back from our Thanksgiving trip and even worse since Steve and I got back from my work trip! Which is good because a large part of it is work but I haven't been able to start our Thanksgiving TR and I really want to! I will hopefully in the near future

We have not started. I'm having a hard time getting my daughter to help. We usually do them together and she had not had computer time to help yet. She's a much better writer than I am. She just started back at a desk job and I'm hoping she'll have more time to help once she finishes training.

I get it; work has kept me away too and I wanted to start our Thanksgiving TR while everything was fresh in my mind! But I'm sure she'll start with you when she has time and now we both have something to look forward to!

 

[Tracy161]

Ha! But yes it's true, there are a few "regulars" who went missing or are still missing and I'm sure it's because they haven't travelled and/or it isn't currently fun for them to be here

Yes I went through a small period where it was just too depressing to be on the Dis, but then I realized it was far more depressing to be off, and this way I could also live vicariously through the ones of us who are traveling right now

And now that you caught up I stop posting!

My timing is always impeccable! I'm going to go back and read from the beginning, so that'll tide me over until the Thanksgiving TR!

 

[buzzrelly]

Hello I'm back and trying to make friends with the DIS TR page again! I may even head back to my own TR that I've been long neglecting…but we'll see. Gonna start here by trying to catch myself back up!

Also, did you ever end up getting Chris the PS5? We tried and tried for Nicholas with no luck, but we'll keep looking for it.

 

[Tracy161]

I just finished your TR! What another great trip. Looking forward to the Thanksgiving one! Hope you and your family had a lovely Christmas!

 

[CruellaNY]

My timing is always impeccable! I'm going to go back and read from the beginning, so that'll tide me over until the Thanksgiving TR!

HA! I hope you're still tided over since I haven't gotten around to starting that TR yet! This is seriously like my 2nd time on the DIS since getting back from Florida earlier this month, between the holidays and work I've been nuts! I miss it though so I really really want to start it soon....

Hello I'm back and trying to make friends with the DIS TR page again! I may even head back to my own TR that I've been long neglecting…but we'll see. Gonna start here by trying to catch myself back up!

Yay! Hope you're enjoying it! Miss seeing you around here even though I haven't been on much this month lol. Did you start a TR yet for your October trip?

Also, did you ever end up getting Chris the PS5? We tried and tried for Nicholas with no luck, but we'll keep looking for it.

Yes! A couple days before Christmas Steve managed to get one when Walmart did a release! It's not in until January 13th and if we don't get another one the boys are going to have to share it which isn't going over well with Ricky who thinks he should be able to take it up to college. Did you manage to get one yet? I really though it would be easier after the holidays!

I just finished your TR! What another great trip. Looking forward to the Thanksgiving one! Hope you and your family had a lovely Christmas!

I'm so glad you read it and enjoyed it ❤ We did enjoy Christmas and I hope you did too! Hope you and your family are well, Happy New Year and I will have that TR started soon!

 

[CruellaNY]

My timing is always impeccable! I'm going to go back and read from the beginning, so that'll tide me over until the Thanksgiving TR!

HA! I hope you're still tided over since I haven't gotten around to starting that TR yet! This is seriously like my 2nd time on the DIS since getting back from Florida earlier this month, between the holidays and work I've been nuts! I miss it though so I really really want to start it soon....

Hello I'm back and trying to make friends with the DIS TR page again! I may even head back to my own TR that I've been long neglecting…but we'll see. Gonna start here by trying to catch myself back up!

Yay! Hope you're enjoying it! Miss seeing you around here even though I haven't been on much this month lol. Did you start a TR yet for your October trip?

Also, did you ever end up getting Chris the PS5? We tried and tried for Nicholas with no luck, but we'll keep looking for it.

Yes! A couple days before Christmas Steve managed to get one when Walmart did a release! It's not in until January 13th and if we don't get another one the boys are going to have to share it which isn't going over well with Ricky who thinks he should be able to take it up to college. Did you manage to get one yet? I really though it would be easier after the holidays!

I just finished your TR! What another great trip. Looking forward to the Thanksgiving one! Hope you and your family had a lovely Christmas!

I'm so glad you read it and enjoyed it ❤ We did enjoy Christmas and I hope you did too! Hope you and your family are well, Happy New Year and I will have that TR started soon!

 

[buzzrelly]

Did you start a TR yet for your October trip?

Not yet…and I haven't decided if I'm going to.

Yes! A couple days before Christmas Steve managed to get one when Walmart did a release! It's not in until January 13th and if we don't get another one the boys are going to have to share it which isn't going over well with Ricky who thinks he should be able to take it up to college. Did you manage to get one yet? I really though it would be easier after the holidays!

That's awesome! We tried one of those last releases too with no luck…poor Nicholas Honestly, he's been so happy to just be home and play on his PS4 after five months away. I'm sure they'll be around soon. Ugh, I forgot you needed two! Good luck with that! Maybe they'll be around before Ricky goes back.

 

[Tracy161]

I'm so glad you read it and enjoyed it ❤ We did enjoy Christmas and I hope you did too! Hope you and your family are well, Happy New Year and I will have that TR started soon!

I'm so glad to hear you had a nice Christmas We're doing well up here, and I hope you and yours stay well too! Happy New Year!!! May we both see lots of Disney time in 2021!!!

 

[kastoney]

Hey Smuu it's Smee your trusty (and busty) DISer who, thanks to milk cartons everywhere, is no longer missing and slowly dipping her tipsy toes into the DIS pond.


I'm glad to say catching up on this trip brought back more Disney feels than pangs from the green eyed monster. But sad to have not only missed Steve's birthday but someones upcoming milestone as well. It's been way too long but I know 2021 is in our cards somewhere.

 

[CruellaNY]

That's awesome! We tried one of those last releases too with no luck…poor Nicholas Honestly, he's been so happy to just be home and play on his PS4 after five months away. I'm sure they'll be around soon. Ugh, I forgot you needed two! Good luck with that! Maybe they'll be around before Ricky goes back.

I can only imagine how happy he is to be bac and more importantly how happy YOU are to have him back! How long is he home for?
No luck yet on a 2nd PS5 but since you can still play with people who have the PS4 I don't think it's a big deal. Ricky probably wouldn't agree lol

We're doing well up here, and I hope you and yours stay well too! Happy New Year!!! May we both see lots of Disney time in 2021!!!

YES to that and HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope you get down there sooner rather than later xoxoxoxoxo

Hey Smuu it's Smee your trusty (and busty) DISer who, thanks to milk cartons everywhere, is no longer missing and slowly dipping her tipsy toes into the DIS pond.

Well hello there Smuu, it's good to see you 'round these parts again You were missed! In fact I've been pretty MIA since early December myself and haven't even gotten to start our Thanksgiving TR. Maybe your return will inspire me

I'm glad to say catching up on this trip brought back more Disney feels than pangs from the green eyed monster. But sad to have not only missed Steve's birthday but someones upcoming milestone as well. It's been way too long but I know 2021 is in our cards somewhere.

I'm also glad you're getting those fuzzies from me It has DEFINITELY been way too long and I wish so much you could be there next month! But I will wait a little longer- we got lots of 2021 to get there!

 

[MeghanEmily]

Ooh I didn't know why this Cruella lady was, but I saw her name pop up on Jenny's report, so I figured she must be aight and I should check her out. I showed up here and to my surprise, I KNOW CRUELLA! She IS aight! I have some catching up to do here obviously, but I'll work away. Glad to be back to another one of your reports after my long DIS absence.

 

[MeghanEmily]

All the doctor can really say is it may possibly be the result of a virus Chris had recently? If he did indeed have a virus recently, to our knowledge he did not. It's mild enough and early enough that a reversal of the damage is possible but he'll be happy to just be rid of the ringing.

What a bummer! Poor Chris! He's such a young guy, and any kind of hearing loss can be scary. I saw a few comments throughout about the medication seeming to help some, but did this ever get resolved?

*Edit: I just saw later in your report that his hearing loss was resolved! Great news!*

I do not complain often about resort rooms and have not asked to move since the great 2015-BWV-sewage-through-the-floor debacle.

Oh yes, I had forgotten about this! I read that report years ago. Absolutely horrendous.

Being who he is and knowing me like he does, Steve was on board with my asking at the desk to be switched to Copper Creek. Which, I'm happy to say, we were at no charge!

Awesome! Sounds like it was a very good switch.

Taste of Epcot eats. In the heat. Like no concerts this year so it's just "Eat in the Heat" rather than "Eat to the Beat'. Yup it just came to me, I'm THAT good!

Disney should hire you in the marketing department for sure!

and the first time in forever that I've felt we "wasted" a park day. It's partially because we don't care to ride any SW rides and of course because we didn't get a BG; also since we go so often we do not stand in those lines. It just finally for the first time stunk that we couldn't go to a different park.

That's so unfortunate! One of the downsides of the lack of park hopping for sure. What a waste. But you made the best of it with good friends

waited for an internal bus to take us to the main building because it's a far walk and it was 125 degrees out - and after 7 minutes of no bus Steve declared it's way too big and he's not staying here and doesn't need to see more.

Haha! But yeah, he has a point. I actually like CBR for the most part, though I've had bad luck there since both times I've stayed there I've ended up sick. But it IS really big and spread out. And if the buses aren't frequent enough or are full when they get to your stop, it's a huge pain. Even just the time it takes the bus to circle the resort before leaving for a park is a pain. Steve probably made a good choice.

our first visit to the Boulder Ridge pool:

Not looking too crowded from our room....

Looks beautiful!

Any guesses what I got at Roarking Fork?

Obviously.

The DeVizio's from NY, the @Jenny Sanders and Joe's from near the Windy City and Mr. & Mrs. @pepperandchips from down below but still in the good ol' US of A .

Oh my goodness you're all so adorable and exuding Disney magic and friendship love!

Such a fun group picture!

I don't mind not going to MK first but I do prefer to end there

Me too

Big Thunder was listed at 70; 70 guys! We were on in 22

Holy cow...

When we got off the wait was listed at 45 so we jumped in line again and were on in 8!

Holy cow!!

How beautiful is that Not So Poison Apple Cupcake? It was huge and delicious and my tongue looked like this after

This looks delish! And your red tongue picture made me laugh

 

[MeghanEmily]

This was by far my favorite cavalcade, and they played "It's Good to Be Bad" as it went by. The only one we missed was Jack Skellington. I hope the holiday ones are as awesome!

The villains cavalcade looked epic! I think that would be my favourite, too.

Here's a shot of how they socially distanced the seats:

Interesting! I guess it does the job.

we were going to the Wave over at the Contemporary where we'd previously only had breakfast.

It was super good! Good enough that I have it booked for us and the kids for our Thanksgiving trip.

Yum! We've been there for breakfast and for lunch but never for dinner. Not sure how different the lunch menu is, but maybe we'll have to try dinner sometime.

Chris went back to the ENT and his hearing has been restored, it's an election year miracle!

Such great news! Really glad to hear this. When we did our speech-language degrees we also got a minor in audiology so I dipped my toes a little in the hearing loss stuff, and it can be so frustrating and scary for people, even just a mild loss. So glad Chris's hearing was restored and he's feeling better!

Ugh and now for the crap news: Ricky came home from Quinnipiac today, 2 weeks early He's fine! The school was doing great with only 39 positive COVID cases before 10/30 and only 18 of those were on campus, but then on the 30th there was a HUGE party at a local catering venue. About 200 QU students and 250 Southern CT U. students went despite the pleas by colleges all this time not to go to big parties on or off campus and the consequences they put forth if you did. Long story short it led to a big increase in positive cases and on Wednesday the college when "orange"; classes fully remote, dining halls only grab n go, all social/sport/facilities like the gym shut down. Ricky and his friends were PISSED and I don't blame them! Like his awesome mom Ricky likes to party and he would have loved to be going to parties on and off campus all along, especially for Halloween. However he, his roommates, his girlfriend who lives next door, her roommates and some other kids he's become friends with all decided that their desire to remain healthy and ON campus was greater than their desire to party and possibly become sick and risk getting kicked out, even though it meant less fun and some boring days/nights for now. So angry that others disregarded that.

That SUCKS. There are always a few people who ruin it for everyone! So sorry that Ricky had to come home so soon and a few goons kept him from being able to do school on location with his friends. We've been really lucky here overall with covid, but there was a similar situation in my small province where our numbers were super low, and then all of a sudden one family had a big ol' party with people who came from bigger provinces without following the isolation guidelines and left them all with covid as a parting gift, and then our whole province was plunged into a nasty wave and everything shut down again. All it takes is a couple of losers who don't follow the rules.

I am so proud of him and so happy he's met like-minded kids there who realize that while it stinks and isn't ideal, these rules are there for a reason and they respect that.

You guys are so lucky with your awesome boys, and you've done a great job to raise them well. Ricky is a great kid, and it's so good that he's got the smarts to understand the rules and respect them, even if he'd much rather just go out and party with his friends. He's one of the good ones! Such a shame that the others aren't all like him.

But you know what they eventually did to get these beautiful creatures out of the road after about 20 minutes? They sprayed them with hoses I did NOT like that.

Ugh! As a self-professed giraffe lover, I also do NOT like that. You wanna keep large animals? You gotta respect that sometimes they don't just wanna do what you want them to! I'm sure it doesn't hurt them or anything, but it still makes me a little annoyed.

When we did this last time we drew Simba. This time we drew

Too bad it was the same character yet again. Ironically, I've done it a few times and never gotten Simba! I've done Bruce, and we've had Scar a couple of times now.

We weren't heading to Pandora for FOP believe it or not, we just wanted some Satuli!

Satuli is absolutely a good enough reason on its own. Yum!

We found a workaround by getting in to SSR and parking there which made Mr. P & C super nervous because we may have told a slight fib about looking for a specific set of ears in their gift shop..................

You and Steve are such troublemakers! Corrupting the poor P&C duo!

DAY 6 PART 1: MASKING OUR GOOD-BYE SORROW

I see what you did there! ^

unfortunately as we thought we did not get our ride photo because a family of nimrods sitting in front of us had their masks off as soon as we pulled away

Just like at Ricky's school. Always a few nimrods out there to ruin everyone's fun!

ad a helper to hang ornaments with me on our smaller tree! It did tire her out though so she took a cat (or maybe mouse?) nap right in the middle:

This is soo cute! <3 You're going to have such amazing memories to look back on with her. What a sweetie!

We ALWAYS have a TS lunch when we do a park on departure day so we don't end up starving at the airport. And that's what happened on this day and there are fewer food places currently open at MCO. Steve got a sandwich at Starbucks and I stood on line at Burger King for about 45 minutes to get crap food to hold me over until late that night when we got home and picked up good ol' NY pizza.

This is a good call! I hate being hungry at the airport or worse on a plane.

 

[CruellaNY]

Ooh I didn't know why this Cruella lady was, but I saw her name pop up on Jenny's report, so I figured she must be aight and I should check her out. I showed up here and to my surprise, I KNOW CRUELLA! She IS aight!

OMIGOSH Meghan it's so good to see you back on the DIS again! And of course so glad you found me I don't think I put my new persona in "our" FB group just to kind of keep it on the down-low even though I didn't do a real good job keeping that down-low going once I got in to my reports lol!

That's so unfortunate! One of the downsides of the lack of park hopping for sure. What a waste. But you made the best of it with good friends

I really did NOT like not hopping and was happy when it came back, except at this point I'm also tired of the 2pm thing. Often when we're at HS especially we're ready to hop by lunch time so I do hope that changes soon.

Haha! But yeah, he has a point. I actually like CBR for the most part, though I've had bad luck there since both times I've stayed there I've ended up sick.

I think it's so pretty! I stayed 2 nights for work once and other than our room being a loooooooooong walk away I liked it but that won't convince Steve to try it.

Ricky is a great kid, and it's so good that he's got the smarts to understand the rules and respect them, even if he'd much rather just go out and party with his friends. He's one of the good ones! Such a shame that the others aren't all like him.

I was very proud of him last year! Things aren't quite as restrictive this year and they did require all students to be vaccinated unless they had an exemption although they are still going to ask kids not to have huge parties. He's with some of the same roommates this year and the new ones seem like good kids as well so hopefully he'll have a better year and all kids will do the right thang

Too bad it was the same character yet again. Ironically, I've done it a few times and never gotten Simba! I've done Bruce, and we've had Scar a couple of times now.

Now it's been awhile since we did it so we'll probably try next month. Fingers crossed it's not Simba even though I love the little guy

Thank you for asking about Chris's hearing! Other than when I'm asking him to do something it's back to normal but it was scary and he was so uncomfortable with the constant ringing, I felt so bad for him. And thank you for reading my report! I should be doing another after our 50th trip!

 

[MeghanEmily]

OMIGOSH Meghan it's so good to see you back on the DIS again! And of course so glad you found me I don't think I put my new persona in "our" FB group just to kind of keep it on the down-low even though I didn't do a real good job keeping that down-low going once I got in to my reports lol!

I was so glad to see you on here once I realized who it was! I remember the circumstances that led to the change, and I'm glad you've been able to continue to share in the DIS love in whatever way it worked out

I was very proud of him last year! Things aren't quite as restrictive this year and they did require all students to be vaccinated unless they had an exemption although they are still going to ask kids not to have huge parties. He's with some of the same roommates this year and the new ones seem like good kids as well so hopefully he'll have a better year and all kids will do the right thang

Hope Ricky and his friends are having a good start to their year

Thank you for asking about Chris's hearing! Other than when I'm asking him to do something it's back to normal

HAH! Yeah, that's teenage boys for you! But so glad that his hearing is back to normal otherwise.

And thank you for reading my report! I should be doing another after our 50th trip!

Will keep my eye out for the next one!

 

[vleeth]

Tell me about the Gaston Cinnamon Roll. I had a cinnamon roll a few years back from a different place at Disney and I thought it was dry. These are better? It looks so good!