Our Masks Match our Ears! A 10/13-17 Mom Daughter Trip

kimberwee

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jun 12, 2011
Hi everyone! I am back again with another (this time, unexpected) Trip Report! Last time I was here, we were planning our Holiday @ "Home" with our best friend family. The trip was a blast and filled with a million "new things" for us.

Just to recap, I am Kimberwee and love all things Disney. I am happily married to my DH, who is happy to placate my love for Disney. We have one DD who is 13 and loves Disney, but not quite as much as me. We are DVC Members and love our home resort, The Polynesian.

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So how did this trip get started?

This year, DH, DD and I were excited to go to Aulani in November with his extended family, but then...COVID. 😭
Aulani still isn't open...
Pre-testing is mandatory for Oahu...
Flying on a plane with a mask for 11 hours sounds terrible...
we cancelled our trip.

The caveat to this is that we were using our DVC points for the Aulani trip and some of them are banked...which means we need to use them. The bad news is that once DH found out that a DW trip would require mask wearing and no fast-passes, he was out. The good news is that he already had plans, without us, for DD's school fall break.

SO, DD and I talked and decided to go for it. There was a studio open at the Grand Floridian for the 3 nights we were interested in. Park Passes were wide open. Round-trip flight prices are ridiculously low. I don't have to stress about missing out on FP Windows, plans and dining reservations.

We double checked that DH wouldn't be too devastated about missing the trip...he gave a green light, so we're good to go!

This was definitely a trip like no other we'd experienced before....filled with laughter and tears.

Thanks for following along.

 
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Day 1: Travel Day & Disney Springs

I am sure that some might have thought that I was crazy for traveling to Disney World during a pandemic, but traveling to “our happiest place on earth” seemed to be exactly what we needed...most of the time.

Travel Day was totally different than trips past and a little overwhelming, simply because we haven’t been around large confined groups of people since quarantine started. I knew that it would be. It was also strange not traveling with DH
😞
, who was heading to a classic car auction this week in Dallas to sell one of our classic trucks. This was also the longest period of time that either Kiersten or myself have had to keep a mask on. Before we knew it, we were boarded and ready for takeoff, connecting in Houston and on our way to MCO...
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When we arrived in Orlando, the airport was not crowded and the mini monorail was fairly empty. ME was a completely different story. The line was long and the wait for our bus to take us to The Grand Floridian felt like it would never arrive. I would say from entry to the ME area to bus departure, we were there for 45 minutes.

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When we arrived at the resort, we were the only ones in the lobby. It’s so different from the wall-to-wall people we have seen in the past.
I loved our room view...we were in a standard view studio...room 1415.
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After unpacking our bags in the room, we headed to the buses to catch our ride to Disney Springs. After being the only ones on our Disney Transportation Bus, we were met with overhead mask mandate announcements and no line for temp check. We had a fantastic late lunch at The Polite Pig, where we split a pulled pork sandwich, fries, mac & cheese and the watermelon salad. SOOO GOOOD!
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Next, we walked and shopped until we got to Wine Bar George, where I'd been wanting to pick up a stemless corkcicle. I picked out the hot pink version and got to sip on a Dole Whip Moscato concoction that stayed frozen throughout the entire evening.

We took fun pics (because that's what teen girls want to do) and shopped....
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There were no waits for stores and we toured the entire Springs, which lead us to finish our day soaking in the resort hot tub, before calling it a night
❤️
 
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Day 2: Animal Kingdom

We woke up pretty early to make our way to Animal Kingdom for our first “park day” of the trip. I'd heard that in order to make it to rope drop you needed to be at your transportation 45 minutes before park opening, at the LATEST. Animal Kingdom was set to open at 9, and we were waiting in line for our bus at 7:45. After a quick walk through temp and bag checks, we were in the park at 8:40. The crowd was low and we knew that everyone would be headed for Pandora, so we took our time and headed to Expedition Everest.
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The fog made the “Disney Himalayas” look pretty amazing...and it was even more amazing that we were able to walk right onto the ride, through a fairly empty park. DD was not as thrilled to have the front row of that coaster as I was.
🤣
This was also our first experience with seats being empty between parties, to help reduce COVID risk. Riders were required to keep masks on during the ride...this is not fun on a coaster
😕


From there, we headed to Dino-land to ride Dinosaur, which was also walk- on...but probably only because it’s one of the jerkiest/worst rides of the entire park system. Our “empty park” got full fast and wait times of 50+ minutes were starting to set in ...so, we skipped Kilimanjaro Safari and went to Kali River Rapids, because it was still only a 5 minute wait. We’ve gotten drenched on that ride during past trips, but found that they dialed it back...our only guess is that they didn’t want to contaminate water
🤷🏼‍♀️
Next, we headed to Pandora and jumped in a 35 minute wait for Navi River Journey. At that point, it was only 11am and the wait for my all-time favorite ride, Flight of Passage, was at 70 minutes.
😞
So, we used mobile ordering to get lunch from Satuli’i Canteen.

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Lunch was great...for me. I got the grilled chicken bowl with a salad base and it was delicious. DD got the Hamburger Pods and wasn’t impressed. I reordered a hot dog for her and then we finished our lunch with an amazing chocolate mousse, before heading to the Flight of Passage line. We waited an hour in that line and I would do it over and over again...
❤️
❤️
❤️
Flight of Passage

It was about 1:30, when we got off that ride and decided that we’d done what we wanted and that we’d head back to the resort to rest before our 5:30 dinner reservation at Narcoosee’s.

Side Note: I loved the calvacades! I thought it was pretty genius that Disney used pontoon boats that would drive through every 15 min or so. We saw Timon and Rafiki, Goofy and Pocahontas
😍
...
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I also loved a cast member near the canteen, wearing a headset and broadcasting how proud he was of everyone’s social distancing skills...”look at you guys, I’m so proud of you...remember, 6 ft...you can do it...it’s new and scary, but look at how great you are doing” etc...
🥰
I didn’t know whether to cry at the reminder of what a crazy time this pandemic is or laugh at his very oddly encouraging demeanor. I started thinking that he missed his calling and should have been a life coach. 😆

Anyway, on with the show...DD found an adorable pink dress at Disney Springs the night before, that she was excited to wear and we got some cute pics around the Grand Floridian, before heading to dinner. We sat at a table overlooking the water, with a picture perfect view of Cinderella’s Castle at Sunset, and split the Filet and Scallops (which I didn’t get a pic of). Next we walked a bit and headed to The Enchanted Rose, which is a nice quiet lounge, themed after Beauty and the Beast.

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Then we were off to Basin to get some salts to soak our feet/legs (yeah, I’m old), before our next big park day. DD loved building our own bath salt tubes and picking out scents. I fell in love with their scent “wishes” and bought some solid perfume.

At that point, we headed back to the room. We got ready for bed and watched the movie Coco, which I’d never seen.
We were totally excited about our big upcoming day at Hollywood Studios!
 
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Day 3: Hollywood Studios

Off to Hollywood Studios we went!
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I knew that today would be a little bit insane, as this is an extremely popular park these days. We got to the park right as they opened and after a quick temp check, we braved the crowd and headed down a nearly empty Sunset Boulevard to ride Rock N Rollercoaster. It’s a Family Favorite
😁
.

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Due to Covid, they’ve cut a lot of the ride intros, so Aerosmith wasn’t in the studio to send us on our way
😞
But, just like the day before, we were in the front row and it was amazing.

Afterwards, we walked and shopped a bit, while trying to grab a virtual queue position felt the new Star Wars attraction, Rise of the Resistance. We didn’t get a spot, so we would try again at 2.

Because our lunch at The Hollywood Brown Derby wasn’t until 11:30, we went to the only AC ride with a short wait...Muppets 3D. Not a Family Favorite...but desperate times...
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Lunch was amazing. We split the famous Cobb Salad and I also had a Lychee Mojito.

After lunch, we battled it out on Toy Story Mania (I barely won), before snapping the obligatory Instagram shot by the TSM fence and headed over to Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run.
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Our 2pm chance for the Rise of the Resistance virtual queue came right before our turn on the ride and we were lucky enough to get a group number!! Our number was 100 and I said a quick prayer that they would get to us before the park closed at 8. They were only calling 56-65 when we got our number.

Next was Star Tours, followed by a drink/snack break at Baseline Taphouse, before heading to ride Rock N Rollercoaster one more time before the daunting 60 min wait line for the new Mickey & Minnies Runaway Railway. While in line for the Railway, we got a notification that we had an hour to make it back to Galaxy’s Edge to ride Rise of the Resistance...
🤦🏼‍♀️

No spoilers here, but we loved Runaway Railway. Don’t think we would wait an hour again, but we loved it.
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We were 6 minutes late on our Rise of the Resistance time slot, but it didn’t matter. Cast members let us hop in line and 15 minutes later, the ride broke down.
😬
👎🏻
cast members said we could wait to see if they could get it back online, so we did...and it did...and I now have a new favorite ride of all of Disney World. Again, no spoilers, but it was so good. DD actually cried a little (can't go into detail due to spoiling the ride for others) and might just watch a Star Wars movie now, just to understand what the backstory some more
🤣
🤣
🤣

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After exiting the ride, we were in an empty park and hungry for dinner! We headed back to The Grand Floridian by empty bus and finished the day by ordering room service and doing some laundry. If you ever have the chance to stay at a Vacation Club resort and the laundry is close by, jump at the opportunity to save yourself from the chore of having to do vacation laundry when you get back home.

We fell asleep early...Day 4 would be a big day with our visit to the Magic Kingdom and switching over to the Wilderness Lodge for our last night.
 


Day 4: Magic Kingdom

Our last full day...we bravely packed up our things and left our fabulous room at The Grand Floridian. Bell services is still happy to take luggage between resorts for you, so we took them up on the offer and headed to the Magic Kingdom via monorail.
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After the standard bag check and temp scan, we were inside the gates of the Magic Kingdom and of course I cried. You'd think that DD would be used to that by now, as it happens every time...but she still stared at me like I had 3 heads...Oh well. It caught up to me that this year has been terrible, but the castle still stands...the princesses are still here...and life still goes on.

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Anyway, it was perfect timing to catch a Halloween cavalcade with Mickey & Minnie!

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DD wanted to head to Space Mountain first, but oh man the wait times were terrible and most lines in the Magic Kingdom were out under direct sun. I haven't talked about the oppressive heat and humidity that had been present all week, but it was miserable. So, we opted for lunch at Cosmic Rays and tried their special monster mash burger. Meh. I had also been looking forward to getting a Jack Skellington Sipper, but they were sold out. We did happen to get a bit of pixie dust though, when picking up our mobile order. A cast member gave us an extra tail...we'd never had them before, and DD really liked it.
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We checked wait times after lunch and they were INSANE...so, we walked a bit and took some castle pics. That first Main St pic is deceiving. Everyone was just standing in a ride line.
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Next, we headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean for a 45 minute wait, before deciding that we were over the heat and the crowd. We needed a break, so I called guest services and confirmed our room at Boulder Ridge (DVC at The Wilderness Lodge) was ready. Transportation over to the lodge was a nice and cool 15 minute ferry boat ride...
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...and the resort theming looked really nice when we got there...but when we got to the lobby, there was no one there to tell us what room number we were in. The MDE app wasn't showing it either...So, I called guest services again and was told our room wasn’t ready
🤯
...after explaining that we wouldn’t have even left the Magic Kingdom if our room wasn’t really ready, we were assured that they would have one for us shortly. 20 minutes later, we were in a rundown room that felt 100* and smelled like a nursing home, located a mile from the elevator, waiting for our luggage to be delivered. As soon as it arrived, we threw on bathing suits and headed to the pool. I grabbed a virgin pina colada for K and a frozen strawberry margarita for me to help cool us down.

I was so disappointed. It was 2:30 and we’d only ridden 1 ride before calling it quits...our room was terrible...we were going home soon...this is not how a trip is supposed to end. But, after relaxing at the pool for a bit, we headed back to the Magic Kingdom, grabbed a Mickey Pretzel, watched a princess cavalcade and headed to a 45 minute wait for Haunted Mansion that was backed up past Country Bear Jamboree.

Afterwards, we checked the wait for the Mine Train and decided that we weren’t going to wait 70 minutes. We headed for Space Mountain and were exiting the ride 45 minutes later.

Side Note: Construction on Tron seems to be coming along. The size of that building is crazy!

Anyway, 3 rides...that was it. We were done and I was sad. After one more shot of the castle, we were ready to leave the not-so Magic Kingdom for the day.
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We’d decided that we would head back to Disney Springs, but had to figure out how to get there from the Magic Kingdom. The original plan was to hop on a monorail to The Contemporary and catch a bus from there...but the line to even get on a monorail was crazy....so, we took a boat to the main Transportation Center only to find out they aren’t running Disney Springs buses. Planning fail on my part. This left us heading to The Polynesian Resort...and that's when we started crying.

Let me explain... The Polynesian Resort is our Vacation Club Home Resort, but we were avoiding it on this trip and didn't have plans to visit it at all this time. We've stayed there the last two trips with our best friend family, who are now going through a divorce. A painful divorce. One that has totally obliterated most of our social circle and delivered a crazy range of emotions for everyone over the last 8 weeks. DD had been a little sad that her best friends weren't on this trip and that we would probably never have trips like those again. She said that the Magic Kingdom was hard and that going to The Polynesian, was like having memories punch you in the face...That's when I lost it. We pulled ourselves together and reminded each other that new trips would bring new memories. We started talking about coming back to Disney in '21 to celebrate her birthday and surviving Middle School...and that DH would join us for that trip...

Once we exited the monorail and headed into the lobby, we took deep breaths and grabbed a dole whip float. The bus to Disney Springs came quickly and we were off for more souvenir shopping and dinner.

Disney Springs was kind of a mess...it was Friday night and the only place we could get into to eat was Planet Hollywood. Oh well. It was what it was. We went to Lululemon and Francesca's, before heading to the Disney Store. I felt like it was Black Friday, with the lines we saw.

At 11, we headed back to our room and went to bed...it was time to go home.
 

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I'm enjoying your TR! I have a dream of doing a mother/daughter trip someday. 🥰 I also love the picture of your daughter in her pink dress at the GF. So lovely.

Looking forward to reading more!
 
Ok, I just read the MK update...boo. I hate that your trip wasn't ending as magically as it had begun. ❤

And I'm sorry about your friends and their divorce. I can empathize and commiserate. 😔
 


Day 5: The Sad Trek Home

The last day is always the worst. Crankiness sets in and you just aren’t ready to leave.... We were tired...mentally and physically exhausted. The early ME bus ride back to a crowded airport, was already nap time for a grumpy 13 year old.

Before we knew it, mostly because we slept on our flights, we were home...glad to see DH and our fur-babies, who missed us terribly.

So to end here, I thought I’d recap the good/bad/ugly for those of you contemplating/planning a Disney trip in the near future.

1. Would we go back?
Yes, absolutely- already making plans...but, if there is a mask mandate, probably only in months that aren’t so warm. I
am also a huge Disney parks fan though, so that might cloud my viewpoint a bit. If you aren’t into Disney/Star Wars/Pixar, now is not the time to go. Yes, the crowds are lower, but with the lack of fast passes, line spacing and closures, I would strongly suggest you wait if you can.

2. Did we feel “safe”? Absolutely! Cast members were constantly cleaning and both attractions and stores controlled spacing well

3. Are there any tricks or tips learned with this Covid Pandemic trip?
💯
- this time, more than ever, I would use a touring app to compare wait times and plan park days (the waits on the Disney app tend to be longer). The touring app that we use, will let you input rides you’d like to ride, meals and breaks, and put a plan together for you. We use it for every trip and it really came in handy this time. Also, bring snacks and water/drinks in lines with you. It gives you a quick mask break and keeps you hydrated in long waits under the hot sun. Finally, mobile order your food well in advance of the time you think you will want to eat and schedule your pickup time accordingly, so that you aren’t stuck waiting for long when you are ready
😊


Patience, flexibility and a good tentative plan is always key with any DW trip. Just go into it, knowing that you may need to adjust a bit, and you will be just fine.
 
Ok, I just read the MK update...boo. I hate that your trip wasn't ending as magically as it had begun. ❤

And I'm sorry about your friends and their divorce. I can empathize and commiserate. 😔

Thank you! It was still over-all a great trip. We just know now that Boulder Ridge isn't for us...and MK without FP+ is really for a quick half-day nostalgia and 2 or 3 rides, before moving on to something else for the day.

Because DH isn't as patient as we are 😆 , I think that we will treat the MK as an after-lunch/evening park and just swim at the resort during the day...
 
Popped over from your PTR. Thanks for taking the time to report. Sounds like overall a good trip
 
Popped over from your PTR. Thanks for taking the time to report. Sounds like overall a good trip

Thank you, it was! We've completely unpacked and are now pushing through the PDW (Post-Disney World) blues 😆
We've decided to possibly go again, this time with DH, in May.
 
Sorry your trip ended on such a sad note, but the rest sounds like it was great! I don’t think I could handle the heat and humidity of a WDW trip in the summer/early fall. I’ll keep an eye out for your next TR for your May trip!
 
Kimberwee .....

"Next, we walked and shopped until we got to Wine Bar George, where I'd been wanting to pick up a stemless corkcicle. I picked out the hot pink version and got to sip on a Dole Whip Moscato concoction that stayed frozen throughout the entire evening."

There is an alcoholic Dole Whip? Moscato? It's about the only "wine" that doesn't give me a massive headache! And, please share - what is a stemless corkcicle???

We're a tad nervous about taking the kids (11 & 13) to WDW the first time - we're so used to DLR & the ease of getting around QUICKLY & without relying on transportation. That'll be a HUGE change for us. And, we see that DHS is sold out the entire week we're there (Nov 7-14), so we are bracing ourselves for long lines. Oh well - glad we only picked 1 day at DHS. Sounds like a lovely trip! My 13-yr old 8th grader will be 14 on Dec 2. She's 13 going on 40. Very anti-pink, very anti-dresses, so I'm a tad jealous at the pic with your daughter ;-)
 
After the standard bag check and temp scan, we were inside the gates of the Magic Kingdom and of course I cried. You'd think that DD would be used to that by now, as it happens every time...but she still stared at me like I had 3 heads...Oh well. It caught up to me that this year has been terrible, but the castle still stands...the princesses are still here...and life still goes on.
I teared up reading this. I cry every.single.time I see the plaque. And I miss normalcy. But you're so on point: life still goes on. Thank you for your trip report and here's to hoping for many more new and wonderful memories!
 
Kimberwee .....

"Next, we walked and shopped until we got to Wine Bar George, where I'd been wanting to pick up a stemless corkcicle. I picked out the hot pink version and got to sip on a Dole Whip Moscato concoction that stayed frozen throughout the entire evening."

There is an alcoholic Dole Whip? Moscato? It's about the only "wine" that doesn't give me a massive headache! And, please share - what is a stemless corkcicle???

We're a tad nervous about taking the kids (11 & 13) to WDW the first time - we're so used to DLR & the ease of getting around QUICKLY & without relying on transportation. That'll be a HUGE change for us. And, we see that DHS is sold out the entire week we're there (Nov 7-14), so we are bracing ourselves for long lines. Oh well - glad we only picked 1 day at DHS. Sounds like a lovely trip! My 13-yr old 8th grader will be 14 on Dec 2. She's 13 going on 40. Very anti-pink, very anti-dresses, so I'm a tad jealous at the pic with your daughter ;-)

OH YES! There are boozy Dole Whips at Disney Springs and the Corkcicle is amazing for it...If you stop by The Basket in Disney Springs, you can get one of these (they have various colors) and it is filled with a choice of boozy Dole Whips for $35...my selection was the Dole Whip Froscato, which comes with vodka and moscato already mixed in the whip...SO GOOD. It's killing two birds with 1 stone...drink and practical souvenir in one!

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I understand your trepidation. I've heard that DLR fans feel like they are forced to slow down...just make sure you guys are taking breaks and wearing comfy shoes. The crowds are growing now that the "low crowd" secret is out...they aren't so low anymore. It was pretty overwhelming to see the length of the ride lines...but they are honestly moving pretty quickly and really spread out for distancing. Don't let them scare you.

I teared up reading this. I cry every.single.time I see the plaque. And I miss normalcy. But you're so on point: life still goes on. Thank you for your trip report and here's to hoping for many more new and wonderful memories!

Thank you so much!!
 

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