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
 

meggo819

Well-Known Member
First here!? I always enjoy your reports so I look forward to following along.

I can’t even imagine the stress of the medical field over the last year. I’m so glad you and your mom were able to get the vaccine and finally get away for a bit!
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 1 continued
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We boarded the plane on time. I was a bit bummed it was a full flight as the flying part was the most worrisome thing to me (being in a small space with so many people).
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Seemingly things were going well in terms of being on time but then the Buffalo airport being the Buffalo airport only had one de-icing truck working so we waited 40 minutes to de-ice :banghead:
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I would like to say our flight was uneventful but that would be a lie. Things seemed to be going smoothly as we entertained ourselves with the Animal Kingdom show on Disney Plus. However, I noticed the flight tracker was not moving. Turns out there was some holding pattern in Orlando so we could not land. They said it was due to weather. The guy next to me was SO annoying and kept asking me what the issue was as if I had some knowledge he did not have :hilarious:. He also proceeded to change his clothes right next to me too which was interesting....
At one point the pilot said we were running low on fuel. Great...add that to my anxiety about flying on a plane jam packed with other people. He said we may have to land in Tampa but thankfully we were able to fly into Orlando in the nick of time. There was at least a rainbow while we were holding in the air.
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P.S. does anyone know what an airplane does when it's waiting to land? We were obviously moving but where the heck were we going?!
After over FIVE hours (of a 2.5 hour flight) we finally made it to Florida! I was never so happy to get off a plane in my life.
Fonorail selfie!
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Honesty the worst COVID change is the lack of luggage service with Magical Express (which RIP soon anyway I guess). We headed to baggage claim with every other flight that was held in air and landed at the same time so it was packed. I was a bit panicky so I grabbed our bags as fast as I could and booked it out of that area. We considered taking a taxi since we were way behind schedule at this point, but the taxi stand was closed and I was worried we had too much luggage for an Uber so we hauled it over to DME.
Thankfully we had a short wait and we got in our assigned seats (to physical distance) on the Magical Express!
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We had dinner reservations at 6 pm which I was not thinking would be an issue when I booked it, but seeing as how delayed we were we actually were quite pressed for time.
I took no photos for a lot of this part apparently. When we got to Yacht Club our room was ready so we headed right there. It was AS FAR AWAY FROM THE LOBBY AS POSSIBLE. I mean...literally SO FAR! This would have been fine if not for our 4 suitcases plus carry-ons that we were dragging along the carpet. In hindsight should have used Bell Services but truly did not think it would be that bad. Oh also none of our Magic Bands opened the door and my phone did not either. Thankfully my Mom's did. Anyway, we quickly changed into warm weather clothes and headed to the bus stop. In the day of slow slow slow mo we waited over 35 minutes for a bus. I was really nervous we would miss our dinner reservation by this point because we still had to activate our annual passes. Thankfully guest services did not have a huge line. When we went to active our Annual Pass there was a problem with mine. I canceled my other pass so my DVC re-cert was not valid. They are obviously not selling Annual Passes so I freaked out but thankfully she let it slide and I just owed more money since it was a new AP. For some reason my Mom did not have the same issue despite also canceling her old one. Probably because it was not DVC related. Honestly we were a little discouraged at this point - anything and everything that could have gone wrong did! However, things started to look up....FINALLY we were in the park!
Seeing everything when we walked in was the best thing that happened to me in months. Disney truly is escapism and I don’t think I realized just how much I needed it. I cried for a solid 5 minutes :)
We actually had about 20 minutes of time before dinner (miraculously) so we stopped for a PP picture. We LOVED the new castle color
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Next up: Day 1 continued
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
First here!? I always enjoy your reports so I look forward to following along.

I can’t even imagine the stress of the medical field over the last year. I’m so glad you and your mom were able to get the vaccine and finally get away for a bit!

Thanks for joining !! We were so happy to get away :)
 

krause

Well-Known Member
I followed along on insta and have been looking forward to the full report! I said to my family when watching your videos “I can actually imagine being there I can see it and smell it and feel the early morning air waiting to get into the park”. I’m happy for you that you got to go back! We still would have to quarantine for 14 days for any out-of-province travel but I got my first vaccine dose yesterday so it’s feeling more and more like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel 😊
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I followed along on insta and have been looking forward to the full report! I said to my family when watching your videos “I can actually imagine being there I can see it and smell it and feel the early morning air waiting to get into the park”. I’m happy for you that you got to go back! We still would have to quarantine for 14 days for any out-of-province travel but I got my first vaccine dose yesterday so it’s feeling more and more like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel 😊

I hoped my videos helped the Disney blues a little :)
I am so happy you got your vaccine!!! There is definitely a light at the end of the tunnel !
 

Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Glad you were finally able to go! I know the last year has been extra hard for those in the medical field, thanks to all of you for the sacrifices you’ve made!

Also when your plane is waiting to land it basically just flies in a circle most the time. Multiple planes will circle in stacks while waiting to land.
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shooting star GIF
 

DisneyMorgan

Well-Known Member
Followed along on Instagram so I’m super excited to read your report!
I tested positive for COVID 3 days before Christmas so I feel your pain on a depressing holiday 😭
I don’t know how health care workers have handled this past year! Thank you (& your mom too) for all that you do!!
 

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