Pre-Trip They made me an offer I couldn’t refuse....A 2020 Disney Trip Try #3 🤞🏻

That’s right...I’m back! And still kind of in shock! It’s been one HE🏒🏒 of year right?? Our original trip was for April 2020 but then the Rona happened. So we moved it to the beginning of July thinking “it’ll have to be done by then right??” Wrong! The Rona decided we didn’t need a trip then either. So we gave up and decided to just cancel. 😩 But then a few months later Disney sends you an email...

Let’s go over the intros and details!

Who: Me (Megan), my husband (George), and our daughter Ryleigh
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(Photo from our last minute “since we can’t go to Disney” beach trip which consisted of eating at our condo and staying away from people on the beach)

When: November 5-8

Where: Art of Animation - Little Mermaid section (I know it’s the furthest away but we’re only 3 people and Ryleigh has become quite the Disney movie fanatic during quarantine so I think she’ll love seeing the different sections)

Why: Does being tired of 2020 count????
Our lives got crazy around May this year. My husband was laid off for 6 weeks during quarantine. (Stinks but also nice when he has worked 6/7 days a week during our whole relationship). During this time, he helped his parents do some work around their house and clean out 30 years of “memories” that they have accumulated. (2.5 dumpsters full 😒) This lead them to decide that they were ready to downsize to a smaller home or apartment. Before my husband got laid off, we had been looking at new homes because we were ready for some more room. (God always has a plan!) So we decided to purchase their house once they found somewhere to move to. They built it when my husband was around Ryleigh’s age and I love sentimental stuff like that. We figured if everything happened within the year that would be perfect. But it was more like a couple weeks 😨 They were just browsing at options and within 3 weeks found somewhere that they couldn’t pass up. By the end of June, they purchased it. We put our home on the market and within 4 days we had 7 showings and 3 offers. We signed contingency papers 5 days after the house went on the market. Our original closing was the beginning of August so that gave us one month and a few days to get them into their new home, clean out whatever they left behind, and get our stuff moved into our new/their old house. And that included one week being blocked out because we booked our last minute beach trip before we knew all of this would happen and we couldn’t get out of our reservation. (My in-laws went too) Holy whirlwind!

Mixed in with all of this, life kept throwing us some good ones....we celebrated our 10 year anniversary, had to say goodbye to one of our dogs 😭, and our home kept giving us little surprises like a freak accident breaking our new air conditioning unit! But we managed to make our deadline to close and.....our closing got delayed! 🤬 Our buyers decided they wanted to start making some demands that needed to be met before we closed. We complied and were set to close the end of August and....it got delayed AGAIN! 🤬🤬 More demands. We complied AGAIN (and also informed them that if they pulled that again, they would be finding a new house to buy). Naturally, our household was quite stressed. I had been reading trip reports and seeing posts of low crowds and the itch started. I mentioned to George if we closed by my birthday, we should book a celebratory trip to Disney. He humored the idea and then the signs started....
*I get an email the next day from Disney with a discount code and it was a price that we couldn‘t pass up but we weren’t for sure yet 😨
*During our closing last week (it FINALLY happened!!!), our buyers realtor started talking Disney with me because she remembered seeing all of our Disney decor when she showed our home 😨😨
*The check we got at the closing was a tiny bit more than we expected...almost EXACTLY what my hypothetical trip would cost 😨😨😨
*The cost of the flights is EXACTLY the amount of credits we had from our canceled trip 😨😨😨😨
*Disney Jr recently started showing WDW’s Christmas commercial and Ryleigh gasps every time and proclaims ”I want to go there and ride Bumbo” 😢😨😢😨😢

So to finish out my birthday yesterday, WE BOOKED OUR TRIP! We may be crazy for doing this during a global pandemic but we need some magic! I’m not doing too much broadcasting of our trip because everyone’s got an opinion (entitled to them but it’s to each their own). But I figured my fellow magicians were a good company to share the news with!
 

Darstarr

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
So I‘ve been looking at what weather is typically like in November in Orlando. It’s the least rainy month out of the year and maybe rains all of 4 days the entire month. My only theory is @Darstarr is planning a secret trip on my exact dates.
Well, I was...
 

LeighM

Well-Known Member
Looking forward to reading your trip report! My husband and I were scheduled to go to WDW in April after a horrible and stressful 6 months but then covid. So we rescheduled to August but had to schedule because of you guessed it. So we moved that trip with the steep recovery package discount to November and we were supposed to be checking in the 28th of this month. We were still going to go but then my dog got bad pancreatitis and now I don't want to leave him with a new to us pet sitter in case it happens again so we just cancelled it for 2020. I have one on the books for May 2021. Fingers crossed we can take THAT trip LOL. Because I need to live some Disney time :)
 

MegRuss626

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Countdown calendars are the best!

I had the random idea one afternoon! Already had the Disney scrapbooking paper so I figured it would be fun for Ryleigh.
Your little girl is absolutely beautiful, I am so jealous, I have 4 boys.

Thank you!
Well, I was...

Friday is starting look promising so hopefully Mother Nature was your past tense! 🤞🏻🙏🏻

Looking forward to reading your trip report! My husband and I were scheduled to go to WDW in April after a horrible and stressful 6 months but then covid. So we rescheduled to August but had to schedule because of you guessed it. So we moved that trip with the steep recovery package discount to November and we were supposed to be checking in the 28th of this month. We were still going to go but then my dog got bad pancreatitis and now I don't want to leave him with a new to us pet sitter in case it happens again so we just cancelled it for 2020. I have one on the books for May 2021. Fingers crossed we can take THAT trip LOL. Because I need to live some Disney time :)

Those canceled trips really sting! We leave in the morning and I’m still feeling cautious after all the canceled trips from this year! Fingers crossed for you May trip! 🤞🏻
 

MegRuss626

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In less than 24 hours, we’ll be at the airport!! 😨 My nervousness is starting to kick in - not a fan of flying but I like getting there quickly. Nothing is in a suitcase yet. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I checked us in for our flights this morning and my nails are done so I guess it’s officially official right?? 🤞🏻
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Decided to stick with the leopard theme! I showed my girl who does my nails a picture I took of the carpet in our room at AKL in 2016 for inspo! 😍
 

fractal

Well-Known Member
In less than 24 hours, we’ll be at the airport!! 😨 My nervousness is starting to kick in - not a fan of flying but I like getting there quickly. Nothing is in a suitcase yet. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I checked us in for our flights this morning and my nails are done so I guess it’s officially official right?? 🤞🏻
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Decided to stick with the leopard theme! I showed my girl who does my nails a picture I took of the carpet in our room at AKL in 2016 for inspo! 😍
Have a great trip!
 

MegRuss626

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Have a great trip! Please report back how it is at AoA since reopening.

This is the first time I’ve stayed at AoA so I don’t have much to compare it to pre-Rona. It never felt overly crowded. It was kind of sad seeing the food court area all closed off. They had a table set up in front of them that were numbered. They let you into the area once your order was ready and you went to the designated number to pick up your food. We were in the little mermaid section and I will say they’re not kidding when they say it’s a hike! The little mermaid pool area was spaced out and social distancing was totally doable in the water the one evening we swam. The bus area was never overly crowded and they were arriving constantly. We never waited more than 5 minutes if that. It was a very enjoyable stay.
 

Seagull59

Member
Sounds like a nice trip! We are planning on AoA in June. It will be a rescheduled trip with just my children and myself. Also booked for the Little Mermaid rooms. I have visited the resort but never stayed. I wish we could go tomorrow! Were your park days good?
 

MegRuss626

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We finally made it on our 2020 trip! Overall, it was a great trip. It had its hiccups here and there but seeing how much Ryleigh LOVED it made you forget all about them. We only had one issue with eating and it was definitely an “eating in Disney is HARD” moment. I may have lost my cool a bit and it prompted a trip to guest services. (Well, George went because I’m not confrontational and I only feel the need to complain if it’s something I feel was truly wrong. This situation was one of those few instances.) Hopefully I’ll get our trip report started soon!
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MegRuss626

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Sounds like a nice trip! We are planning on AoA in June. It will be a rescheduled trip with just my children and myself. Also booked for the Little Mermaid rooms. I have visited the resort but never stayed. I wish we could go tomorrow! Were your park days good?

The Little Mermaid rooms were well themed. I’m not sure if it was just our shower or if they’re all like that, but they are similar to trying to stand in a hurricane 🌧 We learned to not pull the shower handle thing out all the way and it didn't make it feel like you were drowning. My advice, especially with kids, is eat breakfast in the room. It’s a hike to the lobby and would have taken up a good bit of getting ready time walking there for breakfast. We ordered pop tarts and yogurt to keep in the room and it turned out to be a lifesaver! The little blue circle is where our room was.
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Our MK day on Friday was nice. There were a decent amount of people but it wasn’t uncomfortable crowded. The big rides had longer wait times but with a 3 year old, it didn’t make a difference to us as we weren’t riding them. We did a midday break so we could stay out until 9. Our Epcot day on Saturday was not fun crowd wise. We rode frozen first and upon exiting, WS was nuts. Because of food and wine, the food booth lines started at one booth and stretched clear to the next. With the 3 main rides having over an hour wait, you would think that wouldn’t leave that many people left given the capacity limits. It was difficult to navigate around WS and impossible to remain socially distant. We spent most of our day on the FW side and only ventured into WS to ride frozen.
 

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