I'm going to Disney World? - A May 2021 Trip Report

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I think it's safe to say 2020 sucked.

I was supposed to Disney World in May of 2020, but with COVID, plans changed. I was still able to go in July and September, but they were far from normal trips. I suspect that May 2021 won't be very normal, but hey, it's a trip to Disney World, so I'm happy. On my July 2020 trip I found out that I really don't mind driving the 1000 miles to Disney World and in some ways I prefer it because I have my car and because I don't have to worry about catching a plane or anything like that. So I know I'm going in May. I already have my pet sitter lined up and everything is cleared with work. When I get closer I'll have to get the car checked just to make sure it's all ready for the long trek.

Who's going?

• Just me.

When?

• May 14 - May 25th-ish
  • I don't know, I'm flexible. The only thing I know for certain is that I have to be back at work on May 27th.

Where?

• Disney's Rivera Resort... Maybe?
  • I'm currently scheduled to stay at the Rivera, but I've been thinking about maybe switching to Saratoga Springs if it becomes available. I really want to finally visit my home resort, but I'm also still nervous about the whole elevator thing even though I'm fully vaccinated.

Past Trip Report:
What’s a plan? - A July Trip Report

 

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Table of Contents

Pre-Trip Report

• ADR Fail
• Magic Band
• 18 Days Left

Trip Report

• Day 1: Work / Travel
• Day 2: Travel / Epcot
• Day 3: From Off-Site to Animal Kingdom to Riveria
• Day 3-2: Animal Kingdom / Riviera
• Day 4: Magic Kingdom
• Day 5: Disney’s Hollywood Studios
• Day 5-2: Disney’s Hollywood Studios
• Day 6: Magic Kingdom / Epcot
• Day 7: DHS 2 / Riviera Resort Day / Epcot
• Day 7-2: Epcot Part 2
• Day 8: Magic Kingdom / Chefs de France
• Day 9: From Riviera, to Animal Kingdom, to Off-Site
• Day 10: Epcot
• Day 11: Disney's Hollywood Studios
• Day 11-2: Disney’s Hollywood Studios
• Day 12: Magic Kingdom
• Day 13: The Drive Home
• Post-Trip
• Conclusions, Park Rankings

Dining Reviews

• Sunshine Seasons
• Dark Chocolate Raspberry Tart - Epcot Flower and Garden Festival
• Flavor Full Kitchen - Epcot Flower and Garden Festival

Reviews

• Disney's Riviera Resort Review
• Disney World Summer 2021 Review

 

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ADR Fail

I did not realize how difficult it was going to get advanced dining reservations. So if there's someplace you want to go, don't make my mistake and just not do it at the 60 day mark.

It's not like there's any place that I need to go or else my whole vacation is ruined, but I just didn't expect it to be so difficult. The only place that I really wanted to go to was Oga's, but I've been twice before, so it's not that big a big deal. If I'm able to get it, great. If not, then I'll survive. I'll get my Blue Milk outside and I'll be fine.

I was able to get two advanced dining reservations. I was able to get into the Crystal Palace for lunch and I think this will be a fun one. Now I love Pooh and friends, but it will be fun to see what it's like with the new menu. The buffet was fine, nothing special, so I'm really looking forward to trying out their new offerings. The other ADR I was able to get was at Oliva's for breakfast. I love the Old Key West Resort, I love breakfast, so it makes sense. Every time I stay at Old Key West I say I'm going to Olivia's for breakfast and don't. So now I'm staying somewhere else and going to Olivia's for breakfast.

So yeah, that was my experience with ADRs. If they're pretty much booked up at the 60 day mark by now, hopefully that means that they'll start thinking about opening up more restaurants soon.

 

[DL1WDW2]

You should keep your reservation at Riviera... I expect it won’t be as easy to book in the future. Stay at SSR next trip .

 

[DLo]

Following along. I am going solo around the same time - May 16 - 22 . Staying at BWV . Looking forward to reading more.

 

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Magic Band



One of my Magic Bands arrived today! I decided to keep my Riviera reservation, so I got a Riviera band. I couldn't exactly change it with such sort notice anyway without doing a split stay, so we'll see how I do on those elevators.

So I have about six weeks left and my goal is to lose another 5 pounds before then. It's doable and not out of the realm of possibility, so we'll see how I do.

 

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I got my other Magic Band in the mail today

 

[kclark9830]

Cute MB's! I would love to stay at Riviera someday...

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

I got my other Magic Band in the mail today

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I got one of my Magic Bands in the mail yesterday too! I have a 3-resort split stay coming up in summer, and I've only ordered one so far. I got the pink sparkly one. I think my other two will be the silver sparkly one and this blue DVC one.

I went to WDW in August 2020 and the elevators had signs saying limit 4 or one party, and people seemed to be following them. It was less crowded at the time, but it wasn't a huge issue. I thought it'd be a big problem at BLT, but I never saw another person by the elevators. I think if you're wearing a mask in the elevator (which you, and others, should be per rules anyway) + being fully vaccinated, you should be okay.

I've heard they've been recalling some cast members back from furlough. I'm hoping some of them are restaurant cast members and that more dining spots open up. I'm still a bit out from my 60-day mark, but the reports I'm hearing about how hard it is to get an ADR are making me a touch nervous. I didn't do any TS restaurants at WDW last summer, so it wasn't an issue for me then.

 

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18 Days Left

There's only 18 days left until I begin my journey to Orlando. I was able to snag an ADR for Oga's for my second DHS day and along with a Friday Night ADR for Chefs de France. The Oga's reservation is for 9:15 am, so I'd like to move it since that's only 15 minutes after rope drop. I guess we'll see as we get closer. It's not exactly a must do since I've been there before, but it's still a really neat experience.

I also may cancel my Oliva's reservation since I'm not really sure that I want to go out of my way to get there first thing in the morning.

I haven't exactly planned this thing out very well, but I think it's fine. I still have plenty of things that I still have to get done before I leave. Normally I'd have everything planned out, but this time around I just want to go and see what happens.

 

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Day 1: Work / Travel

Well, work went a bit longer than I was expecting. I was hoping to get done early, but unlikely for me there was lots and lots of work to be done.

Once I finished up, I went to get the last few things I needed from Walmart. My plan was to leave the house by 2pm, but I ended up getting out of there by 4pm, which wasn’t too bad.

The drive was fairy pleasant. I was trying to get to Atlanta, but that didn’t really work out either. At some point I hit the Eastern Time Zone and noticed that it suddenly became 12:30 am. Honestly, I wasn’t really tired, but I figured it would be better to find a place to sleep for the night.

I found a room on the app and it turned out to be one of the smallest hotel rooms ever, but I didn’t really care.

Tomorrow I finish the drive and get a few hours in at Epcot.

 

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Day 2: Travel / Epcot

I got an ok night sleep. Not only was the room small, but the pillows were tiny too.

I’ve been a bit worried about the gas shortage due to the pipeline getting shut down, but I really didn’t have much of a problem so far. I’ve been stopping a little more than usual to make sure that I never have less than half a tank.

However, I did find one station that was out of gas.




I just went across the street and that gas station had gas. The we’re out of diesel, mid-grade, premium and E85, but standard works fine for me. One thing I noticed is that the smaller stations closer to the highway were often charging 20-50 cents more than the bigger stations. This was the only problem I had finding gas.

The rest of the drive wasn’t too bad. I had plenty of podcasts to listen to.



I got to Epcot at 5pm. Spaceship Earth was a walk-on and I went to Sunshine Seasons for dinner.




The chicken was good, but not exceptional. The rice was cold and underseasoned, but it was fine. I was just so happy to be back at Epcot.





The mask rules also changed overnight so this was the first day with relaxed mask rules outdoors. Most people opted not to wear them and it was really nice. It really felt like a normal Saturday at Epcot.





I did get a few snacks. The chocolate raspberry tart was very disappointing. It looked beautiful, but it wasn’t very flavorful. The non-alcoholic “cookie butter worms and dirt” drink I had was good, but it was literally the same s’mores drink that I had at the food and wine festival with different toppings. This one had Oreo sprinkles and gummy worms while the s’mores had marshmallows on top.





Attractions wise, I got to ride pretty much everything I wanted to with the exception of visiting the Seas pavilion.



Overall, I had a pretty good day and it’s hard to complain. Tomorrow I check into Riveria and start at Animal K

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

It looks like you're off to a great start! Your evening in Epcot looks like it had fantastic weather and low crowds, which is the best.

The gas issue would have made me nervous too. We didn't have shortages in my area (Washington State), but the prices are creeping up. I'm hoping they go down a bit now that the pipeline is flowing again. They went up about 20c, so not awful, but they were already over $3/gallon.

 

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It looks like you're off to a great start! Your evening in Epcot looks like it had fantastic weather and low crowds, which is the best.

The gas issue would have made me nervous too. We didn't have shortages in my area (Washington State), but the prices are creeping up. I'm hoping they go down a bit now that the pipeline is flowing again. They went up about 20c, so not awful, but they were already over $3/gallon.

I think I should clarify, they crowds were pretty high for May, but it was a Saturday night at Epcot. It was still really nice. None of the rides were too bad, but that was only because there’s no fast pass.

 

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Day 3: From Off-Site to Animal Kingdom to Riveria



I stayed offsite last night. Which was perfectly fine. It was a pretty old hotel, but the rooms were nice and clean and it was very close to the parks. Not bad for $84. (Riveria is much more expensive, obviously)

I wasn’t able to get up for rope drop, but I really needed to rest.



Animal Kingdom felt really normal. The weather is beautiful and the animals were all pretty active. I went on Dinosaur and Expedition Everest before I got an early lunch. For whatever reason I was really hungry.



I got the chicken and ribs combo with fries and an orange. It was really good. Maybe it’s not the greatest bbq in the world, but I felt that it was pretty good and the portions were generous.





I went for a walk through one of the trails and the birds were really active today on account that they were taking care of their babies.



It was mid-day, so it was starting to get busy. My room was already ready, so I decided to head to Riveria.



The resort is really nice and all of the cast members are really nice.

When I was in the elevator, there was a famous person. I don’t actually know what she does, but the other person on the elevator seemed pretty excited. I heard the name and I have no idea who she is or what she does.

She just seemed like a nice young lady on vacation with her significant other.

Overall, the first half of the day was really good and I have no major complaints. The bathroom fan won’t turn off, but someone is going to come up to fix it.

 

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Day 3-2: Animal Kingdom / Riviera



The second half of my day at Animal Kingdom went fairly well.



I got to ride everything I wanted to ride and got to see the animals at the petting zoo. The animals were actually out to pet this time (it wasn’t like that in July or September).



For dinner I went to Restaurantasaurus. I know it gets a bad wrap, so I wanted to experience it for myself. It wasn’t exactly bad, but it’s nothing exceptional. I think it’s a great place for families with kids who are picky eaters, but there’s better places to eat in Animal Kingdom.

I went back to the resort and decided to hook up my HDMI device to the tv, which should be a simple task.

They really locked down the smart TVs, so there wasn’t any way that I could figure out how to change the inputs or change the volume on the tv itself. So by bypassing the onboard computer the tv is set at 100%.

After talking to the front desk and having someone come up, the tv uses a connected computer for everything, so I had to connect my device to the computer. It works, but it introduces some pretty noticeable input lag. Which is fine for Disney Plus, but it’s pretty annoying for anything else.

Tomorrow I go to the Magic Kingdom!

 

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Day 4: Magic Kingdom



I love Magic Kingdom. I’ve been pretty much avoiding resort transportation, but I decided to give it a go. The busses ran pretty well at Riviera. I probably should have got there earlier to get in early, but I still made it before the park officially opened.



I was able to ride quite a bit in the early part of the day. I avoided the mine train so I was able to get in quite a bit.






For lunch I went to the Crystal Palace. There are no characters at this time and you order off a prix fixe menu, so the quality of the food is a lot better. The desert sampler was a bit of hit and miss for me, but I really liked half of them, so I ate more than I really should.



I took a break after lunch and took a nap. For the second half, I was able to ride quite a bit of stuff and I was able to get in two night-time rides on the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.

Overall, it was a pretty good day.

 

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Day 5: Disney’s Hollywood Studios



DHS was a madhouse today. I’ve never ever seen lines so long as they were today. DHS is a postage stamp park, so it doesn’t really handle crowds nearly as well of the other parks, but I think a major part of that is the lack of entertainment options.

They really need to bring the shows back. They need to put something, anything in the Beauty and the Beast Theater and the Indians Jones Theater. Even if they just got a random band, called them Indy and the Jones and had them play Disney covers it would be a whole lot better than what they have now.

For the first half of the day I was able to ride Mickey and Minnie, Tower of Terror, RnRC, and Star Tours.


For lunch I went to Docking Bay 7. It’s my favorite quick service in the park, but I typically get the ribs. Today I decided to try the chicken and it wasn’t great. The chicken breast was a little dry and the Mac n Cheese wasn’t nearly as good as it usually is. It’s like they skimped out on the cheese or something. I know there are some people who really like the chicken, so maybe I just caught them on a bad day. There are also lots of trainees at the park today, so I’m not sure if a lot of people are just learning the ropes.



I also had my Blue Milk, which I love. I know it’s not everyone’s favorite, but I just think it’s fun.



After that I decided to head back to the resort, but I ran into some problems with the Skyliner. They had me use the Skyliner to CBR, but I had to walk to Riveria. The walk was seriously worse than any of the All-Stars. They really need a better back up plan for these kind of situations.

I don’t mean to sound overly negative. I’m having a good time, but I think it’s important to be honest for any first in a lifetime or first in a longtime visitors. I have an AP and a DVC, so I’ll be back in a couple of months.

Hopefully the second half of the day goes better.

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

Your trip seems like a nice balance between relaxing and park touring.

Sorry there have been some frustrations. Hopefully the number of guests, the cast members, and the attractions finds a better balance soon.

The Beauty and the Beast theater temporarily had a band playing last summer, but that was discontinued, which is a shame.

 

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Day 5-2: Disney’s Hollywood Studios



Things seemed to die down a bit later on in the day. I guess when everyone figured out we weren’t getting on Rise that they decided to go somewhere else.

It was still a little crowded, but I guess things are starting to really go back to normal. I still think that’s going to be a while since entertainment is going to be critical to get that done.



Aside from Rise, I was able to ride everything else and had a pretty good second half. I guess the strategy for DHS right now is to get there an hour before opening, leave before noon and come back around 3-4.

Getting back on the Skyliner took a long time. They’re still loading 1 party per gondola, so next time I think I’ll just take my car.



When I got back to Riviera I decided to try their gelato. I wasn’t expecting an ice cream cup, but it was still pretty good.

When I got to my Mac to check park passes, it looks like I’m locked into my choices for the rest of the week. So I’ll need to start at DHS on Thursday, but I’ll be able to hop someplace else by 2.

I decided to look ahead to see what Six Flags’ policy is regarding masks. I was just seeing if they require masks for indoors, but apparently they require them to be on at all times. I wasn’t really expecting them to be more strict than Disney.

If I have to wear a mask at Six Flags or not wear one at Disney, Disney wins.

So I think I’ll just stay at Disney a little longer and get more use out of my AP. I’ll have to stay offsite since all the on-site places are booked. I have passes booked, so I should be ready to go.

I also hear there are other things in Orlando. Crazy I know, but I’d like to