Pre-Trip Confirmations made, so here we go again.....

I just got back from my 'short trip w/ limited Disney' report a few weeks ago. I visited my daughter while my wife stayed back in PA. The wife is conserving some vacation time for one more FL trip. A review of the airfare found that we could pay less than $120 per ticket if I use some reward points. We figured that this will be the last FL trip until August or September since our daughter would be moving back home for the summer (off because she works for a school district). So we're going to fly out on a Friday morning in mid-May, and return home on Tuesday A.M. My daughter already booked our park reservations although she's having trouble landing a Saturday. As it gets closer we'll keep looking given the new Disney policy of releasing tickets 48 hrs prior if the reservation doesn't have a purchased ticket for that day. I'll keep everyone posted and log a bunch of pics.

 

[MinnieM123]

The other picture below is of the Magic Castle motel. It's of interest to me because it was a main location for the 2017 movie The Florida Project. I highly recommend it. Since we've been in Kissimmee countless times, it interests me very much because of all the local places that are in the movie that I'm familiar with. William Dafoe should have received the Oscar for best actor for it in my opinion.

YES! He should have. That was a great movie.

Really enjoying all your photos of your trip so far, by the way!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

This is what happens when you don't have a light breakfast. I ordered my usual flight to sample the different beers. I was at the counter ordering and I pretty much got one of everything that Baseline offered...charcuterie tray, soft pretzel, and the ribeye puff pastry. My daughter had a very tasty Ace Space hard cider. We were lucky enough to get a nice table in the shade and watch the crowds and relax. These are the times that I'm thankful for or maybe those IPA's were just a bit too strong



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Love Baseline! It looks so good. I've never tried the ribeye puff though.

 

[macefamily]

Love Baseline! It looks so good. I've never tried the ribeye puff though.

I hear ya. This was the first time we had it too. I was responsible for placing our order and I was in "hungry mode" so I just started rattling off whatever I saw on the menu.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I can understand being in hungry mode!

 

[wdisney9000]

No doubt I'll be shunned (and reported) by the TR community for saying this, .... but you seriously felt "naughty" not wearing a mask?

And you felt weird actually seeing people's faces when the mask mandate was lifted? The masks didn't (ever) feel weird?

And please know that im not trying to be rude or start a problem (even tho many will take it that way). I'm very happy that you and your family had great trip aside from the mask mandate being lifted. I just have to ask what is so weird about seeing people's faces, their smiles and their expressions? Is seeing a blue piece of cloth with two eyes above it more comforting?

 

[macefamily]

It has become such a staple of our every day life that I had those feelings. Believe me, I'm not a masker. But when you become so used to strapping that "crutch" on your face it becomes commonplace. I am against the masks. I want everyone to be free, and I don't take offense to your comments. We should all be free to discuss our feelings without anger and hate.

 

[wdisney9000]

It has become such a staple of our every day life that I had those feelings. Believe me, I'm not a masker. But when you become so used to strapping that "crutch" on your face it becomes commonplace. I am against the masks. I want everyone to be free, and I don't take offense to your comments. We should all be free to discuss our feelings without anger and hate.

I sincerely appreciate your response and also your understanding of where I was coming from. And your reply is definitely the most reasonable and mature one I have read on these forums in regards to why someone wants or needs to wear a mask.

Thank you again, and pardon my interruption of a great Trip Report.

 

[Songbird76]

No doubt I'll be shunned (and reported) by the TR community for saying this, .... but you seriously felt "naughty" not wearing a mask?

And you felt weird actually seeing people's faces when the mask mandate was lifted? The masks didn't (ever) feel weird?

And please know that im not trying to be rude or start a problem (even tho many will take it that way). I'm very happy that you and your family had great trip aside from the mask mandate being lifted. I just have to ask what is so weird about seeing people's faces, their smiles and their expressions? Is seeing a blue piece of cloth with two eyes above it more comforting?

I think it's more like....habit, I guess? You get used to something and then it becomes second nature. My daughter thinks it's weird watching TV shows and seeing people all hugging, or sitting close together...it's a bit surreal to see that now because we're not supposed to shake hands, etc.

Granted, we do believe in masks and will continue to wear them for a while even if they aren't mandated here anymore, though we've never had to wear them outside and we don't. We only wear them indoors in public places, which makes more sense to me than wearing them outside. And I keep my cart in back of me in the checkout line at the grocery store to prevent the next person from getting too close to me. I'm not comfortable having someone right next to me and I can control how close I get to the person in front. It's just how I cope, but then I have never liked people getting so close, even without a pandemic. I always wonder why someone needs to get that close to me unless they are trying to pick my pocket, you know? So the cart behind me solves that issue. But I can completely understand, after more than a year of wearing masks, distancing, hand sanitizing, etc, that it seems a bit off to not have to do that anymore. And it sounds like it was a pretty sudden change, right? One day you had to wear masks and the next day you don't. Our restrictions are easing more slowly over here. Schools just opened up last week, restuarants opened up on Saturday, and we can have 4 guests at our home now since Saturday, where it was 1 person per day a month or so ago, then 2 people, now 4.

Are masks required at all now? And do you have to prove you've been vaccinated? I'm just curious, because our health department is really behind on registering vaccinated people, and we get no card or anything to show we've had our shots. We're not allowed to travel unless we prove we've been vaccinated, which we can't because we aren't given proof and they are working on an app which would give a QR code to scan to prove you've been vaccinated, but the app isn't running yet and the health department is still behind on registering administered vaccines to hundreds of thousands of people. They are scrambling to get it all in order before summer vacation starts for the kids in July so people can travel.

 

[meggo819]

I think it's more like....habit, I guess? You get used to something and then it becomes second nature. My daughter thinks it's weird watching TV shows and seeing people all hugging, or sitting close together..

Yes! This is what I was thinking. I’ve definitely shared that thought with your daughter when watching older shows/movies.

And I keep my cart in back of me in the checkout line at the grocery store to prevent the next person from getting too close to me.

Ha, I like this strategy. I’ve mostly done curbside pickup since the pandemic started. Kroger waives the fee if you spend more than $35 so I’m more than happy to have someone else do my shopping for me for free!

Are masks required at all now?

I believe at Disney, they’re still required indoors.

 

[Songbird76]

Yes! This is what I was thinking. I’ve definitely shared that thought with your daughter when watching older shows/movies.

Ha, I like this strategy. I’ve mostly done curbside pickup since the pandemic started. Kroger waives the fee if you spend more than $35 so I’m more than happy to have someone else do my shopping for me for free!

I believe at Disney, they’re still required indoors.

Curbside pick up sounds great! We don't have that, and our store was so inundated with orders in the beginning that they disabled the feature to order online and have it delivered at home. When they finally brought that back, they raised the minimum order to 70 euros and you still have to pay an extra fee for the delivery. I live a 2 minute walk from the store. I'm not paying that much for a service that I don't necessarily need. Plus, I inevitably forget something in my order and have to go to the store to get it anyway.

 

[wdisney9000]

Ha, I like this strategy. I’ve mostly done curbside pickup since the pandemic started. Kroger waives the fee if you spend more than $35 so I’m more than happy to have someone else do my shopping for me for free!

I'm gonna kick the hornets nest again with this one.

If I may ask, do you prefer curbside pickup so you don't have to go into the store and risk getting sick? Or because you simply prefer to have someone else do your shopping?

 

[meggo819]

I'm gonna kick the hornets nest again with this one.

If I may ask, do you prefer curbside pickup so you don't have to go into the store and risk getting sick? Or because you simply prefer to have someone else do your shopping?

A year ago, I was certainly being cautious about COVID -- now I just love someone else going through the store and doing all my shopping for me! So much faster (for me)!

I should clarify I have 2 kids under age 4, so it's much simpler for me to do curbside after picking kids up from daycare, as opposed to trying to shop with them.

 

[Zipadeelady]

I'm gonna kick the hornets nest again with this one.

If I may ask, do you prefer curbside pickup so you don't have to go into the store and risk getting sick? Or because you simply prefer to have someone else do your shopping?

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

A year ago, I was certainly being cautious about COVID -- now I just love someone else going through the store and doing all my shopping for me! So much faster (for me)!

I should clarify I have 2 kids under age 4, so it's much simpler for me to do curbside after picking kids up from daycare, as opposed to trying to shop with them.

I like the convenience now of curbside pickup. Most of what I want or buy frequently is saved to my grocery store profile so it doesn't take very long to get my shopping done. My store has always been very good at my requests of a late expiration date on things like milk too. So what started as Covid caution is now something that saves me time and money since I don't impulse buy as much either.

 

[macefamily]

After a relaxing stay at Baseline, we made our way to Star Wars. We had a group reservation that would be coming due in a little over an hour so we planned on doing Smugglers Run before that. The listed wait time for SR was 45 minutes, but I never saw the queue where it was at. It actually snaked back behind the ride itself into a cast access area. Interesting. I took a few pics.

 

[38053WDW]

I'm gonna kick the hornets nest again with this one.

If I may ask, do you prefer curbside pickup so you don't have to go into the store and risk getting sick? Or because you simply prefer to have someone else do your shopping?

Soon we will be a Wal-E movie.... Why leave the house? Why get out of our chairs?

 

[macefamily]

The posted wait time was pretty much right on the mark. But we saw that ROTR was down. Our group will be postponed. We decided that since we haven't done Tower of Terror in our past few visits because the wait time was crazy, we were going to see about trading out the ROTR grouping for a ToT fastpass.

 

[macefamily]

Before we looked for a customer service person to update our reservation, we decided to walk through Toy Story. We did Toy Story
Mania. I can't remember the last time I won out of our group. My daughter usually racks up over 200,000 and I'm lucky to hit 140,000.

 

[macefamily]

Time for a late afternoon meal. We ate at the Brown Derby for the first time. Kind of odd considering we've been going to the parks since the late 90's. I knew what I'd be ordering; the Brown Derby staple, a Cobb salad. Our plan was to have a light meal, get "dessert" from the outside bar and say hello to Ron. Then we will take a slow walk down Sunset Blvd. to Tower of Terror. We were able to cancel our RotR reservation, and we were able to substitute a Fastpass.

 

[macefamily]

The outside bar at the Brown Derby. I wish I knew how much I spent on Long Island Iced Teas there over the years. We sat down at the outdoor patio and sipped our drinks. I overheard a man and woman talking about Newark airport and I asked where they were from. They were from PA too. They were down for the week. Actually, we ran into them again at Old Key West and Epcot. Very friendly people. I finished my drink with all of the pleasant conversation taking place, so I needed another for the walk and the wait at Tower of Terror.