Trip Report An attempt to live in the moment

Hello everyone!
Our last trip was in December 2019 before the World shut down. Since then both my husband and I have changed jobs to completely different careers and have never been happier. I was super nervous about this trip because of all the changes that happened at Disney World and also because I kept hearing about issues with flights. My anxiety was on high alert while trying to plan the trip and navigate through all of the new information. The one thing I promised myself and my husband was that I was going to try my best to live in the moment and not focus on what we were going to do next. But would my anxiety let me?

Who: My husband and I

When: November 12-20
Where: Pop Century/Cabana Bay Universal
Why: My 49th Birthday

Some sad news first. I had planned on starting this trip report a few weeks ago but our beautiful boy cat, Loki, passed away. It was completely unexpected and we were devastated. We rushed him to the vet thinking he had a urinary tract infection but the test results showed stage 4 renal failure. He did not show signs until a few days before other than sleeping more and eating a bit less but he was also almost 16 years old. We miss him so much .

 

[Tuvalu]

Please accept my sympathy for the loss of Loki.

I look forward to reading about your trip!

 

[Swissmiss]

So sorry to hear about your cat . Looking forward to your TR.

 

[Wicked Sisters]

So sorry to hear the heartbreaking news of your beautiful Loki. Looking forward to reading your trip report.

 

[cassidy]

So very sorry to hear about the loss of Loki, pets are our family!!

 

[Beastly74]

Please accept my sympathy for the loss of Loki.

I look forward to reading about your trip!

So sorry to hear about your cat . Looking forward to your TR.

So sorry to hear the heartbreaking news of your beautiful Loki. Looking forward to reading your trip report.

So very sorry to hear about the loss of Loki, pets are our family!!

Thanks everyone for the kind words. 100% pets are family.

Loki was an amazing cat ♥.

 

[MinnieM123]

Sad to hear that Loki passed away. Pets are family members, and their loss is a hard void to fill. Thanks for sharing his photo. He was an attractive cat.

 

[Beastly74]

Travel Day - Sunday, November 12

Our only option to fly out of our small city was Air Canada and they are known for overbooking so I was afraid that would happen to us but luckily the flight to Montreal was uneventful. However I noticed on the ticket from Montreal to Orlando there was a strange code and no seat assigned. I asked Brian about it and was told not to worry and I believed him because he used to work for an airline back in 2019. We managed to get on the plane but we did not get to sit together. As we were getting on the plane he admitted that they had put us on standby but he had talked to someone and gotten it fixed! He did not want me to panic so the poor guy did all the worrying for the both of us.




We arrived at MCO just after 1pm and grabbed our luggage. I had booked a ride with Mears to Pop Century and I think we waited about 30 minutes for a bus.

This was the best picture we could get on the way into the bubble.

We arrived just before 3pm and were happy to hear that our room was ready. I did not tell Brian about the room renovations and he was quite impressed.






Our only plans for arrival day were to have dinner and do some shopping in Disney Springs.

This trip we did not bring a camera so all of the pictures were taken with either Brian's new phone or my old one. I had to keep reminding my husband to take pictures because he has a better phone so there are days we did not get as many photos as I would like.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Sorry to hear of the passing of your cat. Looking forward to your report.

 

[rshell68]

he admitted that they had put us on standby but he had talked to someone and gotten it fixed! He did not want me to panic so the poor guy did all the worrying for the both of us.

That was so sweet of him!!! Sorry for your loss

Looking forward to reading more of your trip!

 

[Beastly74]

Sad to hear that Loki passed away. Pets are family members, and their loss is a hard void to fill. Thanks for sharing his photo. He was an attractive cat.

Thank you. He was a big beautiful boy and so soft. My husband always called him his little buddy ♥. We still have his sister and she will be turning 16 next month.

Sorry to hear of the passing of your cat. Looking forward to your report.

Thank you. Glad you are following .

That was so sweet of him!!! Sorry for your loss

Looking forward to reading more of your trip!

Thank you. I think my husband was more worried that my anxiety about the flight issue would drive him crazy lol.

 

[Beastly74]

We unpacked a little, freshened up and then took the bus to Disney Springs. I forgot to mention-our room was located close to the lobby so that was convenient.



We were looking forward to eating dinner at Polite Pig again and it did not disappoint.


I got the salmon and Brian got the turkey and we both got the mac and cheese for a side. Yum!

After our delicious meal we wandered around and did some shopping and just enjoyed being there.







We loved looking at the different Christmas trees but I think I prefer when they were all in the same area.

 

[Beastly74]

We were tired because we had been up since 3am (our flight left at 6am) so we decided to head back to the resort shortly after 8pm.
A few pictures on the way to the bus.





When we got back to the resort we noticed that we could see fireworks. Funny/embarrassing story - When I noticed the fireworks I was in a hurry to put my bags in our room so I could get pictures and I didn't pay attention to the room number. Well I tried a few times to get into someone else's room and I was getting frustrated because my card would not work . I hope there was no one in the room! Brian was busy taking pictures and when he realized what I was doing (after the 3rd try) I had already clued in that our door was next to the one I was trying to break into.


This was around 9:10pm. Can someone tell me what park these fireworks were from?

This was our 6th trip to Disney World since 2011 and each time we go I pick up some Christmas ornaments. Since we had not been able to go since 2019 I bought 4 new ones this trip.

 

[rshell68]

Can someone tell me what park these fireworks were from?

I'm going to assume Epcot...

 

[Beastly74]

Monday, November 13- Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom

I woke up at 6:30am to get ready and I wanted to book a ILL for ROTR and try for a virtual queue. Well by the time I figured out what I was doing the virtual one was no longer available but I did manage to get a ILL. Hollywood Studios had early entry at 8:30 so we left the room shortly before 7:30. I knew the wait for the skyliner would be long but I heard that it moved fast. Thankfully that was true.



I think we only waited about 15 minutes in that huge line.



Love the skyliner! The last 3 trips we had stayed at Sports and Brian thought that it was not worth it to pay a little extra to stay at Pop. By the end of this trip he agreed with my decision .

It did not take long to make it to Hollywood Studios to stand in another line. Luckily this one moved quickly too and before we knew it we were on our way to enjoy the first official park ride of this trip.




I bet you can guess where we were headed from this picture .

We did not bother purchasing Genie+ during our stay but we did buy individual LL each day.

 

[Beastly74]

Our first ride for the day was MMRR.

We loved it and bonus it was less than a 15 minute wait.

Next we rode Slinky and it was already up to a 45 minute wait. I think next time I would do Slinky first and then MMRR.


I wanted to do TOT but the wait was 50 minutes so we decided to try our luck at the single rider line for RNRC and it paid off. We were on in less than 20 minutes.




When we excited RNRC the Tower of Terror was a 35 minutes wait but I think we only waited 25 minutes.




Our picture got blocked .

After four fabulous rides we were getting a bit hungry so we did a little shopping until 11am and then went to ABC Commissary for an early lunch.

I think Brian got a chicken burger and I got fish tacos. I was pleasantly surprised how good they were and Brian enjoyed his meal too.

 

[Beastly74]

After lunch we headed to Galaxy's to explore and wait for our LL time (1pm).



We decided to jump in the single rider line for Millennium Falcon.




Brian got to be one of the pilots because no one else wanted the position.

After that we wandered for a bit longer and then it was finally time for ROTR. I really have to say I hated paying for a ride that we have done in the past with a virtual queue. However if I remember correctly the experience of trying to get a virtual queue for ROTR in 2019 was quite stressful and you could not do it from the comfort of your resort.




We took a few more pictures on the way out of the park and headed to Animal Kingdom for the late afternoon/evening.

 

[Go.Nijntje]

My condolences for the loss of Loki, he looked like a wonderful cat.
I'm enjoying your trip report so far.

 

[Beastly74]

My condolences for the loss of Loki, he looked like a wonderful cat.
I'm enjoying your trip report so far.

Thank you ♥.
And thanks for following. I appreciate it .

 

[Beastly74]

We took the skyliner to Pop and stopped by our room to grab some light jackets and I put my hair in a braid because it had been raining a little on and off all day. Then we caught the bus to Animal Kingdom.



Not sure what Brian is looking at in this picture .



So beautiful ♥




We headed towards EE to visit the Yeti and it was less than a 15 minute wait .