"Pandemic Vacation" Positivity Thread!

We have only been to Disney Springs, but seeing the Storm Troopers waving along the crowd totally made my day!
 
Here's a future experience I'm weirdly looking forward too for our trip, getting to see the full queues for those rides that I would only ride via FP+ in the past. Always hard to justify a longer wait just to see certain ride queues but now I'll get to see them in their entirety.
 
We enjoyed everything about our Labor Day weekend plus a few days trip. I loved not having to get close to anyone - no DAS pass needed because people were pretty spread out. I loved the food and wine booths. I loved riding the skyliner with just my daughter to the parks. I loved always having a seat on busses. The best was leaving BOG an hour after park close in the dark rain and seeing no one at all. My daughter overlooked an empty main street from the castle and then we literally walked right down the middle of Main Street all alone. While we didn’t expect it to be raining - that emptied the park for us and it was magical!E30F77E1-4001-467B-8FD5-C671F461580E.jpeg1F7F58D7-119C-4007-9336-9F23E36A1DAF.jpeg
 
Enjoyed my August trip with grandgirls, cause we could ride anything as many times as we wanted. Might be crazy but taking them on Star Tours 5 times in an hour, MF 2 times in hour and getting ROR...was something we’ll never forget!

Just got back lastnight and yesterday in MK was magical...DW and I rode all Splash, BTRR, SDMT, Space & Buzz all our faves plus caught all the calvacades DW wanted to see in 3 hours. Couldn’t ask for a better way to end a trip!

44 days till December trip!!!
 


Upgraded from 2 bedroom to 3 bedroom grand villa at Rivera!
Rode FOP 3 times in a Row with 10 minutes wait
Rode all rides in Toy story land with no more than 20 minutes wait without having to deal with fast past tiers
Character cavalcades were great
Topolino’s character breakfast loved the character interaction
Pool time every day after parks closed

Bottom line is it was Different but we still had a great vacation!!
 
Magical highlights of our mid-October trip:
Piloting the Millennium Falcon - "I've been waiting my whole life for this." (or at least since I was 11 years old in 1977)
Rise of the Resistance!
Seeing full FOP queue without having to wait 3 hours (only rode FP prior to this and always missed the lab, etc.)
Seeing the entire gorilla family (including baby) sitting next to the window on the Gorilla Falls trail.
Riding Splash Mountain at least once more before it closes (who knows... maybe we'll still have another chance, but at least we got this one in)
Having the Jambo House pool to ourselves for an evening swim.
"Meeting" Casanova (but not realizing it until we got home and caught up on the "Magic of AK" show)
Visiting Hilton Head Island on the trip home.

Memorable meals:
Liberty Tree Tavern
Docking Bay 7
Satuli Canteen (good as always)
Chef Art Smith's Homecomin'
Sanaa
Great eats at Food and Wine (even though it was only billed as a "taste of" F&W, we were really pleased with the choices) and short lines since we were there on a Wednesday.
 
My trip was pre pandemic and it was amazing 2/24/20 to 3/3/20 ish it seems so long ago. Things went downhill so fast I never had time to relive how great it was. So I will now. It was amazing, hope to do it again.🤩
 


Yesterday was amazing for the MK Halloween because I saw some great Families themed costumes. One family of 4 Characters from UP including the house of ballooons!
And the one I will never ever forget and still blows my mind ... a person totally dressed as the ghostly bride from Haunted Mansion walking the entire way in traditional slow way a bride walks down the aisle! Only she was walking down Main Street and step by step making her way throughout the entire park. I figured it took all day to make it one time around. The more I think about it the more amazed I am and wish I had applauded the costume and creativity.
At the end of the night I was standing in line for 7Dwarfs Mine Train and knew the group in front of me were all in costumes but their little girl got all my attention because she was so cute.It wasn’t until the full moon shined on the scary silhouette of the mother as Maleficient from the back that all of a sudden scared me cause I thought I was seeing the real evil spirit. And then the little girl kept pulling on her cape and the final exasperated threat To STOP or else was really pretty mean so I suspect she truly is evil ... at night, but sweet mommy in the daylight.
 
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Empty castle hub at night after a late dinner ADR at BOG. So beautiful being alone in the park.
 
Great thread idea! We were there two weeks ago.

Entering MK to the Jack & Sally cavalcade heading towards us on Main Street
Sitting in the hub with a Mickey pretzel and a Kakamora Float - yum + saw a couple get engaged in front of the castle! 💍
Horseback riding with DS14 at the Fort, even in the rain, was so fun
Riding the Skyliner back to Pop at night, in the dark – just magical
 
Arriving a half hour before park open to the Magic Kingdom. Almost nothing was open, but just being in the park with hardly anyone there while the music plays in each land was awesome. It was like they opened just for my family. That night we ate at Cinderella's Royal Table. Although the kids that went on the trip are older now, 13 and 19, they loved it as much as mom and dad. Magical.
 
I'm planning our mid-December trip, and it's so fun watching DS19's gf18 get psyched - she's never been to FL, much less WDW and Uni. My BIL is coming too, and he hasn't been in over 10 years. It's so fun to watch a 50ish guy get so excited about a long car trip to see the parks.
 
We played mini golf tonight at Fantasia Fairways! It was tons of fun, free due to coupons, and something we never made time for pre-covid. If it wasn’t for covid, we would’ve missed out (again) on the hardest mini golf we’ve ever played!
 
We were there last week and at MK on Sunday 10/25 we rode 12 rides, had breakfast (Sleepy Hollow? Waffle with nutella and fruit) at a late lunch at Pecos Bills, shopped saw several character floats go by, got tons of photopass pictures and were back at the room by 8:00. Went to Studios on Tuesday and Thursday and rode Runaway Train and RotR both days. Ate at Rose and Crown, Trattoria, Yak and Yeti and Be Our Guest and overall had our best trip in a while.
 
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We were at OKW (1st DVC stay) Oct 17-24 and I'm ready to book another trip and rent a car. The OKW busses were awful but we figured out our best bet was to catch the bus from the 1st bus stop for our rope drop days. Anywoo, DH and I had a blast, it was exactly what we needed. It was his first time staying on site and I think he has falling in love with Disney all over again. This was our belated holiday because Maui was shut down June 2020. Thanks C19. But when they throw you limes you make margaritas.

We booked this trip 35 days before departure because we found an awesome deal renting DVC points. We so enjoyed OKW. We will definitely stay there again. We RELAXED this trip. No kitchen, so no cooking nor cleaning. We doubled the food budget and ate and drank what we wanted, when we wanted. We had reservations at Ragland Roads, Tiffins, Whispering Canyon, The Edison, Liberty Tree Tavern, Chef Mickey's and Chef Art Smith's Homecoming. All were delicious and I was so glad I followed everyone's advice to book at least one reservation a day. It worked for us. I actually cancelled about 5 reservations because by the 2nd day we realized we couldn't eat that much food every day.

We rope dropped Sunday - Wednesday and went to each park. Walked on FOP, Safari and had about a 30 minute wait for EE but posted time was 50 min. - check; Secured margaritas, caramel popcorn and walked on Soaring - check; walked on BTMR, thanks to the rain 30 minute wait on SDMT and secured a dole whip - check; DH got us a BG and we walked on MF and Star Tours, road skyliner to Riviera (we love this resort, can't wait for it to be the new old so we can afford it), returned to park to ride RotR, it was OK but we enjoyed MF and ST more, we didn't understand all the hype with RotR - check. On our extra 2 park days we goofed around and went to a TS breakfast and a TS lunch. We arrived at the parks (AK, MK) in the afternoon and shut them down. On Friday, we just wanted to see the castle lit up since it was open until 8pm. We snacked around MK, did some shopping and took PhotoPass pics while the castle was lit up. I had on my FITBIT and we walked 46 miles that week. YIKES!!

I've been probably looking every other day for another deal for the holidays - Thanksgiving or Christmas. One thing I must admit, regardless of the C19 protocols that are in place when I returned home I still had that same feeling I always have when I return from Disney, WHEN can I book our next trip. :love::tink:
 
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We were there last week and even though it was a different kind of trip, it was so enjoyable that we're considering going again in January or February. It was nice not to be glued to my phone checking for fast pass availability. It was also nice having late afternoons/evenings free, giving us more time to spend in the pool, or at Disney Springs, or just do whatever we wanted. I intentionally left some evenings open so we could play it by ear and go where the wind would take us. One night, I checked TS availability to see what was open for dinner, which resulted in us going to Wolfgang Puck at DS, a place I wouldn't normally think to go. Ended up having a great meal there, and really loved the atmosphere and aesthetic inside. We'd definitely return!

One day at DHS, DH and I were eating a carrot cake cookie (YUM, by the way) sitting at a table in front of the old Starring Rolls. It must have been shift change, because there was a steady stream of CMs walking out with their bags. An older couple sitting near us took the opportunity to say Hi and Thank You to each of the CMs that walked by them. Some CMs were caught off guard and loved the acknowledgment. It was really sweet, and reminded me to be grateful we were all there!

During one of the character cavalcades at MK, the Fairy Godmother looked at an older gentleman on an ECV next to me with a Marines hat on. She saluted him and yelled "Semper Fi!" and I could see his family really taken aback and elated at the personal acknowledgment. A true Fairy Godmother type of moment :)
 
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One of the highlights of our early September trip was my husband and I were the very last 2 people left in the MK one evening. We had a late LTT dining after the park closed (park closed at 6; our res was for 6:50) and when we left we were the only guests left. CM's were so kind asking us how our dinner was and said to take as many photos as we wanted as we were it! It was SO beautiful to walk down an empty Main Street w/ my wonderful husband & he took the most gorgeous photo of me that I will FOREVER treasure. (Mask was always worn-just took it off for the photo & immediately put it back on!) We had a great week and count it as one of our best ever.
 

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During one of the character cavalcades at MK, the Fairy Godmother looked at an older gentleman on an ECV next to me with a Marines hat on. She saluted him and yelled "Semper Fi!" and I could see his family really taken aback and elated at the personal acknowledgment. A true Fairy Godmother type of moment :)

That hit me right in the feels!

Been here since Sunday, leaving today. Having the Millennium Falcon all to myself was pretty amazing!

Got some sweet Tower of Terror queue photos that I've never been able to snag before.
 

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