Pre-Trip I look at you, and I'm home - September 2020 (LIVE)

Hello everyone! This is going to be my first ever trip report and I'm pretty nervous to be honest haha. I debated for days on whether I would write it or not, and I finally decided, why not?

So welcome to my first trip report! We will be heading back to Disney World for Labor Day weekend, a tradition of ours seeing as it always falls on our anniversary. Fun fact: This will be our last dating anniversary before we get married on our 5 year anniversary next year on Labor Day weekend (totally trying to convince the future hubs we need a DisneyMoon!)

A little back story: My fiance and I both grew up in Miami, FL and grew up going to Disney World plenty of times a year seeing as we were so close and school trips here tend to be to Disney. We met 4 years ago and bonded over our love of Disney and went on our first trip to Disney together in August of 2016. We have been on 14 trips together in the last 4 years and this will be trip 15. On our 10th trip together, March 2019, my fiance proposed and we became DVC Members.

So lets get into the trip!

Who: Me, Marlene & my fiance, Stephan

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When: September 3rd- September 7th

Our anniversary is September 3 so we will be arriving on Thursday and spending Labor Day weekend at the World and heading back on Labor Day. We will be driving up Thursday morning since we live in Miami and it is only about a 3.5 hour drive for us.

Where: Grand Floridian Villas

We were originally booked to stay at our home resort, Copper Creek Villas, but somehow we were able to find a studio at the Grand Floridian Villas which is my absolute dream resort. We were a little hesitant since the NBA is there and I've heard their security is a tad intense and that their bubble takes a way from the experience, but we don't know when we'll get another chance to stay here so we're just going for it and we'll make the best out of it!

Why: We will be celebrating 4 years of dating and more specifically our last dating anniversary before we tie the knot next year on our 5 year anniversary. We love Disney and have made it a tradition to spend our anniversary in our favorite place, even if that means masks, park reservations, and low crowds (which when is that ever bad?) We are curious to see if the magic is still there without all the extras and the large crowds because we have been hearing different things.

I will be sharing our daily plans with you all soon! I hope you decide to stay tuned as we continue our countdown and start gearing up and getting ready to head home. 25 more days!
 

Ariel_x33

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Enjoying following along with you, but not at all excited to hear about the mask non-compliance, and people were not distancing in some of those photos!
That bums me out as we are planning an Oct trip and was hopeful the crowds and compliance would be similar to what I have been reading on peoples recent trip reports.
I am hoping that it's just because it is labor day and the parks are at capacity, but sometimes it really does feel like a normal day at the parks which is a shame.
 

Ariel_x33

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Good morning everyone! We are up bright and early today to get to Hollywood studios in the hopes of getting a boarding pass for ROR. We did this in March right before the parks closed and we loved it so we are looking forward to riding this again! Dinner last night was very good, we tried the Artisan Burger but no pictures because we were so hungry we completely forgot 😂 We got to experience the mass amount of security at the resort for the NBA, even though there is only one team left here at the moment. I will post pictures of the room shortly!
 

Sulley_1313

Active Member
I am hoping that it's just because it is labor day and the parks are at capacity, but sometimes it really does feel like a normal day at the parks which is a shame.
I’m here now as well and have the same observations you’ve made the last couple of days. I really hope that it is because it’s a holiday weekend. 😬 I hope y’all have a great day at Hollywood Studios today!
 

Ariel_x33

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We are back at the Grand after a full day at Hollywood Studios! I am happy to report that today was a much better day than the last two days 🎉 we got to Hollywood at around 9 AM and just walked around until about 9:50 when we sat down and waited for the clock to turn 10 so we can get a boarding group and we did! We were boarding group 32, so off we went to go ride some rides. First, we rode Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway, that ride never gets old I love it. After Mickey & Minnie's we rode Millennium Falcon and we were both pilots, kind of strange not having a full ship and everyone yelling at eachother what to do. After Millennium Falcon we were getting a bit hungry so we headed to Backlot Express and had some chicken tenders and a burger. After this came Star Tours and we got the new movie which was pretty cool! Still wanna be the rebel spy though, one day! After Star Tours, we headed to Toy Story Land where we rode Toy Story Mania (I lost like always 🙃), Alien Swirling Saucers, and Slinky Dog! After finishing all of Toy Story Land, our boarding group got called for Rise of the Resistance so we went to ride that. We love that ride and wish we could ride it more than once in a day. After Rise, we went back for one more ride on the Falcon where we piloted again. After this, all that was left was Rock n' Rollercoaster and Tower of Terror so we headed toward the front of the park hoping to avoid the storm that was rolling in. We rode Tower of Terror first and then straight into Rock n' Rollercoaster, and once we were done the rain was finishing up, we had missed the whole thing while in Rock n' Rollercoaster. We headed out of the park, not before my sweet fiance surprised me with a Dooney bag I had been eyeing our entire trip. We are now back at the Grand and deciding what to do for dinner tonight. We had a very successful day at Studios today and we never waited more than 20 minutes even though waits were posting much higher!
 

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Ariel_x33

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Hello everyone! We are back home in Miami and already missing Disney. We had an amazing trip and can't wait to be back. I'm going to summarize up our trip and hope that I can do better for our November trip report 😂

Last night we ended up taking the monorail over to the Contemporary to have dinner at Contempo Café. I tried the meat lovers flatbread and my fiance had the spicy chicken sandwich. We were very impressed with the food at Contempo Café and would definitely go back. After dinner, we browsed around the contemporary for a while and then caught the last monorail back to the Grand. We had wanted to stop at the Polynesian for a dole whip but because it was pouring and the monorail wasn't going to be running anymore, we decided against it and headed back to the Grand. We picked up a Mickey Ice Cream Sandwich on the way back to the room to finish off our last night at Disney. We packed everything up and went to bed.

This morning we packed up the car and parked at the front of the resort for our Grand Floridian Cafe Breakfast. We got called right at our reservation time and noticed the hotel was a bit more busy today than it was the last 4 days. I got the eggs benedict and my fiance got the lobster thermidor burger. Everything was incredible, but the biscuits and orange butter stole the show. We headed home right after breakfast and made it to Miami around 3 PM.

Thank you all for tuning in to my trip report! I hope you will tune in to my November trip report where I hope to be better at posting.
 

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Ariel_x33

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Here are the room pictures!
 

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Pooh'sBuddy

Well-Known Member
Thanks for reporting! I'm glad you got another ride of RotR. We are so stoked for that attraction. Beautiful room at the Grand. Which Dooney did your fiance surprise you with?
 

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