Trip Report **COMPLETED** 364 Days and 8 Canceled Trips Later !

HI EVERYONE!!! I AM BACK AFTER A VERY LONG ABSENCE FROM THE BOARDS!!! WOOHOO! (sorry to all the trip reports I missed)

There were many days when I did not feel like this day would ever come. I am very good at compartmentalizing my life and hiding my emotions - it’s a bad coping mechanism I learned in residency. However, COVID got to me. Every single day was exhausting. For months and months and months. I think there were periods of time I worked more than I even worked in residency. I could not even feel that sad about not being on vacation because I was so burnt out. AND, I don’t even work in a hospital so I can’t even imagine what those healthcare workers were feeling. For weeks (really months) I did not sleep. I constantly worried about my patients who were sick and after treating/testing my own COVID patients I was terrified I would give it to my family.
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The few times I would go somewhere that felt fun I stressed for weeks after that it was a mistake. I obviously did not plan on going into medicine and having to deal with a pandemic. There was no outlet and we talked about it at work over and over again how none of us could leave or escape because of all the travel restrictions. Even when we were “off” there was no true mental break. I tried to make my YouTube videos and work on my Instagram, but I just wasn’t really into it. I was angry at people who got to go to Disney. I was jealous but I also felt like it was so irresponsible to travel during the big surges. I had way too many patients who got sick after travel so it just made me anxious to see it more than anything. My Mom would constantly tell me she was depressed that she could not be in Disney and I just did not feel the same way. I knew I would be anxious the whole time being there. But…then a ray of light hit in the form of a vaccine. I was so happy to receive my first dose right before Christmas. It was truly the best Christmas gift.
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Then - my Mom was able to get hers too because she works in the dental field. A few weeks after my first shot (and a very depressing holiday season because I was quarantined after a work exposure) one of my co-workers who runs all our COVID stuff told me we could go to Florida since we were both vaccinated (and fully vaccinated before we leave). It was a shock, but we were both so excited! I still was not 100 percent ready to go without doing my research. The UK strain made me super anxious so I studied the numbers, the data, the vaccine efficacy against it etc and I felt like it was OK to go. I also asked all my co-workers and did as much due diligence as I could. Everyone told me go!!

WHO?: The usual....my Mom (Mary) and myself (Megan)
Photo from our last trip before COVID
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When?
February 19 - February 27, 2021 (took me a bit to get this TR started)

Where?
Yacht Club :) Nice AP deal!

February 19, 2021 - Day 1
Our flight was not until a little bit later in the morning, but one of the few things that kept me sane this last year was working out so I kept on my regular schedule and got up at 5 am to work out.
Airport ready!
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Then I had a work meeting at 7 am so I listened to that while waiting for my parents to pick me up!
My meeting went extra long so it lasted the whole drive to the airport, but at least I did not have time to get nervous along the way!
Guys...we were so out of practice for travel. I do not travel lightly and usually my Mom takes some of my stuff but this time she did not since we really did not decide we were officially going until right before the trip. So, both of my suitcases weighed 53 pounds :hilarious:. I was honesty going to pay the fee because I was so embarrassed, but my Mom was like absolutely not so we shuffled some things around. Then I thought TSA pre-check was closed so I took out all my electronics but I actually just missed the sign pointing us to the new location. Lastly, I forgot to take my backpack off when going through security. My Mom and I often said to each other this trip "what are you new?!" which we ended up abbreviating to "WAYN." :happy::joyfull:
Anyway....we eventually made it through security. A lot of stuff at the Buffalo Airport is still closed, but thankfully our usual go to bagel place was still open.
I made us drink emergen-c (and I packed us full of vitamins this whole trip).
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Look how cute this bagel individualized packet is! I am a germaphobe by nature (before it was cool to be one) so this made me giddy :p
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Side note...I took a lot of phone pictures this trip because I got lazy.
Apparently I forgot to take a photo of the actual bagel but a bagel is a bagel!
After our breakfast we headed to the gate. Our plane was already there!
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Squished face from the N95 under my surgical mask :)
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Next up: more travel
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So glad for you and your Mom to be able to go!!! Can’t wait until my family and I go down in September. Coming from New York I feel the same way about the 14 days.

Thankfully that drops on April 1 :) September will be here before you know it !

We started really late...middle of January. And they are doing it by risk groups, so first it was residents and staff in care facilities, then 90+ age group, then 80+, then 70+. High risk groups like diabetis or obesity are supposed to get it at the same time as 50+ I think, but Norway and Denmark had a lot of complaints of possible side affects, including trombosis with the Astra Zeneca vaccine, so they've halted that here for now just to be cautious, even though they found no link here. And they were running out of the other brands, so they were talking about skipping my province and using the vaccines for less populated provinces so they wouldn't run out midway through our province and have to wait on more vaccines. So we're behind. First, they said they thought they could start with the Diabetis and obesity in February, but I have diabetis and I'm really overweight, and I still haven't heard anything about my turn yet. And as far as I know, my BIL hasn't gotten his shot yet, and he had a kidney transplant, is morbidly obese, and I believe he also has diabetis...it seems unorganized here.

Oh wow - that does seem a bit unorganized unfortunately! I thought it was disorganized here but its definitely not comparatively
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2 February 20, 2021
We can not sleep in whatsoever so we got up at 7 am despite Epcot not opening until 11 am
:hilarious:

This view though.....
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@Adventure here are the date photos!
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We got ready and headed down to the lobby to check out the gift shop. I picked up a last minute reservation at Ale and Compass for breakfast so I checked in while we were in the gift shop. I got the alert that our table was ready like one minute after so we rushed over there :)
For some reason I did not expect them to take our temperature before sitting down but that was cool!
For breakfast I ordered a tea and this little teapot was so cute :joyfull:
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Food wise my Mom got the Blueberry Bacon Pancakes
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She said these were good but the bacon in the pancakes was a bit much (very large pieces/chewy).
I got the Salted Caramel-Apple French Toast
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This was so good but a little too sweet for my taste. I obviously knew that when I ordered it, but I still wanted to try it! The bacon that came with both of our meals as sides (and as opposed to the bacon in my Mom's pancakes) was so delicious!
After this it was still pretty early so we decided to take our daily stroll around the Boardwalk.
I saw this pin at the Boardwalk gift shop - this is definitely me !
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The sun was out, but it was actually pretty chilly out.
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Next up: Epcot
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2 continued
As we were walking around the Boardwalk we got to the bridge that looks over Epcot and it all of a sudden occurred to me that a podcast I recently listened to said the parks consistently open about an hour/45 minutes early. I have no idea how I forgot about that until I saw Epcot. That put a pep in our step and we booked it back to the room to finish getting ready for the day.
According to the time on my photo we walked up to Epcot just before 10 am.
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We were a little far back in the line, but pretty quickly they started moving us through as small groups. We were held at the temp screen tent for a little bit.
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Ultimately we were in the park by 10:20 am woohoo!
We headed right to Test Track. The wait time was listed as 30 minutes, but we waited less than 10.
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Not going to lie....did not miss having to design the car. It was nice to skip that part.
A light for you...
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We sat apart so we did not have to sit in the middle seat :)
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I heard they are now filling the cars, but it was so weird being the only ones in the car!
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It was SO windy hence what our ride photo looks like :joyfull:
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Next up: more Epcot
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2 continued
We figured we would keep trying to hit as many rides as we could so we headed over towards Soarin' next.
This Festival of the Arts display was so cute.
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I loved that they started setting up for Flower and Garden while we were there!
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I could make a whole photo series of photos my camera accidentally took when it would hit my side as I was carrying it :joyfull: Example:
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Kind of one big light....
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It was listed as a 20 minute wait but we essentially walked right to the loading area.
Que photo.
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Next up: more Epcot
 

Adventure

Active Member
Day 2 February 20, 2021
We can not sleep in whatsoever so we got up at 7 am despite Epcot not opening until 11 am
:hilarious:

This view though.....
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@Adventure here are the date photos!
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We got ready and headed down to the lobby to check out the gift shop. I picked up a last minute reservation at Ale and Compass for breakfast so I checked in while we were in the gift shop. I got the alert that our table was ready like one minute after so we rushed over there :)
For some reason I did not expect them to take our temperature before sitting down but that was cool!
For breakfast I ordered a tea and this little teapot was so cute :joyfull:
View attachment 539904
Food wise my Mom got the Blueberry Bacon Pancakes
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She said these were good but the bacon in the pancakes was a bit much (very large pieces/chewy).
I got the Salted Caramel-Apple French Toast
View attachment 539905
This was so good but a little too sweet for my taste. I obviously knew that when I ordered it, but I still wanted to try it! The bacon that came with both of our meals as sides (and as opposed to the bacon in my Mom's pancakes) was so delicious!
After this it was still pretty early so we decided to take our daily stroll around the Boardwalk.
I saw this pin at the Boardwalk gift shop - this is definitely me !
View attachment 539908
The sun was out, but it was actually pretty chilly out.
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Next up: Epcot
Love the date photos!
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2 continued
Ride photo! Matching masks were unintentional in case anyone was wondering :joyfull:
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Next up was Living with the Land which was also a walk on.
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Front row vibes...
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For some reason I never noticed cotton on this ride before. My Mom said it's always there :joyfull:
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Next up: more Epcot
 

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
Thankfully that drops on April 1 :) September will be here before you know it !



Oh wow - that does seem a bit unorganized unfortunately! I thought it was disorganized here but its definitely not comparatively
Yeah, it's kind of strange, because we seem to be getting worse and worse instead of better. When Covid19 showed up, they closed schools, stores, theaters, museums, restaurants....pretty much everything. At the first peak, there were about 1500 cases per day, and by july, we were down to 50 per day. With a population of 17 million, that's nothing. So everything opened back up and while we were cautious, we could go to museums and restaurants as long as certain measures were taken to distance, sanitize, etc. Then the second wave came on and we hit 10,000 cases per day and they just wouldn't shut ANYTHING down. They didn't want companies to suffer financially, so everything stayed open while the government said "If our numbers don't go down drastically in two weeks, we'll have to do something." Every two weeks, they said that and continued to do nothing...for 3 months, there was a press conference every two weeks to say they needed to do something, but they were still figuring out what "something" looked like. Then finally in December they couldn't ignore it anymore and put us in lockdown again. We got down to about 5000 cases per day and they opened schools, hair salons, etc, and within 2 weeks, our numbers went right back up to around 7000 per day, and instead of closing things down again, they are reopening more. All the while saying "If our numbers don't go down, we can't open more." They've really bungled it here. And we're so far behind pretty much every other country on our vaccine program. Most countries started already back at the end of November or beginning of December I think. We didn't start until mid-January and they keep changing their minds about who can and can not get priority. So a friend of mine who is overweight already got her letter for vaccination, but as far as I know, my BIL who has a kidney transplant, is morbidly obese, AND I think has athsma and diabetis, has not gotten his. And I haven't gotten one, and I'm also overweight and have diabetis. So some people with huge risk factors haven't been given priority while others who don't have as many risk factors have already gotten their shots. Today is the election, so I guess we'll see if a change in government will speed up the process.
 

meggo819

Well-Known Member
Then the second wave came on and we hit 10,000 cases per day and they just wouldn't shut ANYTHING down.
Were people generally wearing masks or not? I live in Houston and it seems like people have been pretty willing to wear masks in order to keep things open. We’ve had a lot of cases of course, but our hospitals haven’t been completely overwhelmed at any point. Other parts of TX are a completely different story.
 

amjt660

Premium Member
BCDD is in the (mouse)house!!!

Welcome back - thank you for all the hard work you did on the front lines.

I have been going to work since this started - being in a Health and Safety role at an essential business (yes - building new SUVs is essential!) so I feel like my job puts me at risk - but no where close to the risk you are exposed to.

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But where is Chip?


Following along

Max
 

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
Were people generally wearing masks or not? I live in Houston and it seems like people have been pretty willing to wear masks in order to keep things open. We’ve had a lot of cases of course, but our hospitals haven’t been completely overwhelmed at any point. Other parts of TX are a completely different story.
Nope, there was no mandate until....I want to say December 1st, so I was one of the few wearing a mask at the grocery store, and my daughter was the only one at her whole school wearing a mask before the mandate.
 

Brian & Jill

Well-Known Member
OMG.....how did we miss you guys in the parks!!!!!! We were down there pretty much the same time....we flew in on Saturday and left the following Sunday. Cannot wait to read and see the rest of your trip. Thank you for all that you and fellow medical workers did and are continuing to do. My wife and I can somewhat relate to the stress of this past year. I work for the NFTA as a mechanic(we never shut down) and my wife is a teller at our M&T bank in Lockport. We also had a Disneyland trip scheduled and then rescheduled and then we finally gave up on that. That is why we went “home” the same time you guys did. We will be postponing our Alaska Disney Cruiseline trip until next August. We are great full that we were able to go “home” and kinda escape the real world for a bit. I will be interested in where or went to get tested prior to coming back to Buffalo. As for us we went to Maingate it was flawless and total trip took about 1/2 hour. Glad to see you are fully vaccinated and at this time I am now fully vaccinated and my wife goes on Saturday for her first round. Welp enough about my rambling. Glad to Herat that you were also able to get away. Looking forward to the rest of the videos and trip report. Thank you again to all of the frontline workers!!!!!
 

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