Disneyland is still closed so it's a road trip to WDW! (May-June 2021 PTR)

[Where'sPiglet?]

Southwest Airlines sent me an email this morning. They changed our flight home. Boo! It WAS supposed to be leaving Orlando at 9:40 am...a direct flight! But now the flight leaves at 7:30 am.

That means that we'd have to be getting on the Magical Express at 4:30 am. Which means getting the kids up at probably 3:30 am. No. Forget it. So I changed it to a more reasonable hour.

We are now leaving at 1:35 pm, which means a probable DME pick up around 10:30 am. MUCH better. We can sleep in a little bit, have breakfast, then get on the Tragical Express to the airport.

We'll be changing planes in Dallas. That's ok. The Dallas --> PHX flight lands around 4:30 pm, which is fine.

I added a request on Touring Plans' ADR finder for a Chef Mickey's breakfast reservation. Crossing my fingers for that, but no hopes there. I tried looking at Grand Floridian Cafe, but even that has nothing.

I think that WDW is going to be pretty busy (comparatively speaking) when we are there because there are, like, NO ADRs to be had anywhere now. And if you look at open hotel options for our dates, there's almost nothing available. I'm glad that I was able to get the ADRs that I did!

I like your new flight time!

I have three segments for flights (all with a layover), and I finally got the hat trick last night. I got an email from Delta for the last of the 3 with changes. I now have super long layovers for all three segments - 4.5 hours or so for each.

 

[VandVsmama]

I like your new flight time!

I have three segments for flights (all with a layover), and I finally got the hat trick last night. I got an email from Delta for the last of the 3 with changes. I now have super long layovers for all three segments - 4.5 hours or so for each.

Boo! That's awful!

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

Boo! That's awful!

Yeah, I'm not particularly pleased, but I have such limited options that I can't really adjust anything.

 

[VandVsmama]

We are now 1 week closer to go time! YAY!

I read today that some character meals are reopening this month - Chef Mickey's for dinner, Tusker House, and 1 or 2 other ones that I can't remember right now. We're going to pass on all of those and stick with our current ADRs.

Touring Plans faxed in my room request to Pop Century a couple of days ago. I asked for a 1st floor room near transportation (we have a preferred room).

I also read this morning that The Wave is closing in July for renovations, so I'm glad that we'll be able to go on this trip. DH & I really enjoyed our meal there on our trip in January.

My kids' magic bands arrived in the mail today. Yippee! Here's a blurry picture of them...


And in honor of Disneyland now being finally open once again, I give you a blast from the past from one of our prior trips to Disneyland...


This lovely little card is a prescription card from Shrunken Ned. He's in a machine in Adventureland...the machine WAS in the Adventureland Bazaar shop, but now I think it's in Bengal Barbeque.

Anyway, you put something like $0.75 or $1.00 into the machine in quarters and Ned springs to life, says something hilarious, and then the machine spits out a prescription card. Here's what the back side of the card says:



It's a super fun and inexpensive souvenir! There's a similar machine in New Orleans Square - that one has a pirate in it. And then there's one in the Penny Arcade on Main Street, too.

I also booked our 3 nights' worth of road trip hotels, so that's out of the way, too. Tomorrow I need to call Magical Express to book our sad bus trip to the airport on our departure day. The plan is all coming together! ODD has already had 3 final exams (9th grade). The kids will be all done with final exams by 5/19 and then the last week of school is 'project week,' which is basically a fun week (which they love). We are all looking forward to this vacation!

 

[VandVsmama]

In major news this week, the FDA announced that Pfizer's vaccine can now be used on 12-15 year olds, which is pretty great! I already have an appointment for my kids (ages 12 and 14) to be vaccinated on 5/20. The 2-week-post-1st-vaccination milestone will be during our trip...and it'll be during the WDW part of it.

We are going to be driving through several states that have relaxed the mask wearing requirements in all businesses. And both DH & I are fully vaccinated. But I think that we'll all just wear masks anyway when we go into businesses (like gas stations & such).

It's nice to hear that WDW is eliminating the temperature screening starting this weekend!

It's also a good thing that I reserved our rental car earlier this year. I just looked on the Costco Travel website and all cars are basically sold out for rentals! Wow!

It's hard to believe that we hit the road in 2.5 weeks! Right now it seems so far away, yet so close at the same time.

 

[VandVsmama]

Give it a couple of days, and there's more WDW news! On Friday evening, Disney announced that starting Saturday (of this past weekend), you don't have to wear masks outdoors anymore! YAY!


You still have to wear masks on:
- transportation
- indoors
- in restaurants
- when you get to the traditional (i.e., not extended) entrance to a ride queue
- while watching shows

I told DH & the kids right away. We are all thrilled with this news. Seriously, so happy!

I bought some more Body Glide, so we're all set in the anti-chafing/anti-foot blister department. I also bought some salt/electrolyte tablets...drinking Powerade/Gatorade helped a lot on our last summer WDW trip 3 years ago, but the kids & I don't care for the taste of that stuff and nowadays, DH is trying to eat really low carb, so he doesn't want to use carbs for drinks at all. I'm just going to bring the bottle with me into the parks each day.

The kids each made their own packing list. I've updated mine and have put together a now growing pile of stuff to put into a suitcase later this month.

We're getting closer! About 2 weeks away! Yippee!!

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

I started packing Nuun electrolyte tablets on my Disney trips a while back. They're so easy to pack and very helpful to have.

My packing list for Disney in the summer is extensive.

 

[VandVsmama]

So far, my WDW pile that I've set aside includes:

• 2 solar umbrellas
• 1 regular travel umbrella (for DH)
• 2 ponchos
• 2 USB-chargeable neck fans
• 1 USB-chargeable handheld fan
• 4 Cost Plus fold-up fans
• 4 small containers of Body Glide - 1 per person
• Magic Bands in a ziplock bag
• 3 instant oatmeal packets in a ziplock bag
• travel pack of Burt's Bees facial cleansing towelettes
• travel sized deoderant
• bottle of vitamin C
• travel sized bottle of shampoo
• travel sized container of sunscreen (the kind we use on our faces)
• container of spray-on sunscreen
• couple of hair ties
• Q-tips
• couple of spare ziplock bags
• compact travel toothbrush
• travel toothpaste
• this amazing insect bite salve made by a Native American company called "Medicine of the People." This stuff works better than any regular bug bite relief stuff you can find in a drug store.
• Ziplock bag with 4 laundry pods in it (we'll do laundry on the trip)
• masks

After every trip, I alter what I bring by a little bit. This time, the different types of fans and the solar umbrellas are new. I'm interested to see if they work out for us.

 

[VandVsmama]

This Saturday is go time! Today is Wednesday and my brain is already in vacation mode. 2 more work days after today before vacation begins! Yahoo!

It's been a busy couple of weeks. Today is the kids' last day of school. They are thrilled that the school year is over. I've stocked up on some odds & ends we need for the trip. Printed out copies of all of our hotel reservations. Printed out our plantation tour tickets. Bought our Kennedy Space Center tickets and printed those out.

Now I'm doing pre-trip laundry, only this time I don't mind doing laundry since it means a Disney trip! Later today, I'm going to get out the suitcases so the kids & I can start packing. Yay!!

We decided to skip doing horseback riding at Fort Wilderness (too hot!). Also nixed the idea of doing the archery experience at Fort Wilderness. I'd really like to do that SOME day, but not this time.

I'm cleaning the fridge today, too. And the bathrooms. And vacuuming...because whenever we go out of town, I like to clean the house before we leave. I always forget while we're ON the trip that I cleaned before we left, so when we return home, I'm always surprised and thrilled at how clean the house is when we walk in the front door.

I saw on Disboards today that the Skyliner is now boarding >1 group per gondola. I'm totally fine with that. It'll mean that hopefully the Skyliner boards more quickly and the lines to get on it for park opening aren't too bad.

Touring Plans faxed in my room request to Pop Century. I hope we get a 1st floor room. I'm debating whether to get the kids hiking sandals before we leave. I'm not a fan of wearing brand new, not broken in, shoes to a theme park...that's a great way to end up with blisters. Still have 2 days to decide that.

Still also need to get the kids some sunglasses. And I need to make a trip to Walmart and Kohl's for a couple of other things. I submitted a request today to have our mail held while we're out of town.

We're stocked up on plenty of cat food. My sister is going to check on the cats while we're away. Everything is coming together!

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

Well, I guess you're currently on your trip! I hope it's going well; it sounds like you were very prepared for it. I'm hoping you do a trip report when you return!