Hello, this is my first post, first pre-trip, first trip report, and...first trip to WDW.
Many things may get in the way of this trip including the fact that my husband won't know for sure if he is approved for time off until early November. Also 2020. Also everything we seem to get hope up for is snatched away with a snicker these days. So my philosophy is this, if we go it's going to be such a wonderful thing just to get away and enter the magic disney bubble and let the real world fade for a week, if not well I'm right where I started but it will have been an amazing upper to plan and dream of Disney for these last few weeks and I'll have learned a ton for when we can go.
We are booked for the second week of December staying at the CBR and planning for a day in each park with a rest day halfway through. It'll be myself, hubby and 2 sons (6 and 7 now)
I'm a mom and ER nurse (Northern California) who is functionally burned out and drained from 2020 (just like everyone). I went through the eery quiet of the ER in March and April where we kept waiting for the other shoe to drop then into the steady pace of covid patients.
Our covid population has steadily declined replaced with the masses of other patients that regularly overwhelm the system. We just got downgraded from purple to pink in our country and so the kids started back to school this week on a hybrid part time schedule (yay!!!).
So I booked the trip using the magic is here room and ticket package and got Monday dec 7th to Sunday the 13th. Its the standard view 5th sleeper and I'm glad I booked because I don't see that option listed anymore under the package deal. I'm thinking to request building 45 or 51 so I be be across the bridge from old port royale but decently close to the skyliner. 2 questions-
1) How do I make a room request. Is it best to be specific with room numbers or just buildings. I am also worried about making a request as we will be coming in very early after a red eye flight and would appreciate an early check in to feel settled and rest.
2) Anyone stay at the CBR and walked to the Riveria to use that skyliner, advantages/disadvantages to requesting a room close to the Riveria skyliner station?
My strategy for choosing the CBR is this, my husband does not share my travel style. He thinks vacations are for rest and relaxation (LoL). I think he would secretly prefer to have a staycation at home to having a trip where he is managed and pushed into various activities. I suffer from fear of missing out and he suffers from my FOMO. I'm enthusiastic about travel, he's enthusiastic about shopping online. CBR seems like a quieter laid back place where we could take some time off from the hectic pace of Disney. The pool looks awesome and the kids would love a pool slide (if it happens to be warm enough to go for). Also skyliner looks amazeballs.
Flight is not yet booked. I'm eyeballing a red-eye from san francisco even though it isn't our home base airport because it would be non-stop which cuts our travel time by at least 4 hours. I'm thinking non stop cuts our exposure to other passengers by bunking with one plane worths possible covid carriers and not 2 planes worth. Maybe at this point I'm splitting hairs
. Also the SFO flight would be a red-eye from 1030pm arriving at 7am the next morning. So this takes away the element where I'm so excited I can't sleep the night before we leave and I think will help us adjust to local time. I am not a morning person but will get up early for Disney it's just an added challenge that it's early plus a loss of 3 hours. My kids have been awesome about wearing their masks for a full 8 hour day time to level up and see how we do for a 6 hour flight while sleeping.
We will take ME to CBR and hopefully chill for the day. We will be jetlagged sleep deprived but happy to be at Disney so I plan to leave things loosey goosey for this day. I figure we'll leave our bags with bell hop and then mobile order our mickey waffles for brekkie
. Explore the resort including a nice stroll around CBR maybe nap in a hammock. 
. If it gets warm enough we could swim. We could take the skyliner over to Epcot and walk over to the beaches resort for lunch or take the bus over to Disney springs for lunch and shopping. I'm hoping Monday lunch time won't be too busy there as the parks will be open. Who knows what will happen with crowds by December anyway as it looks like Desantis is going to let WDW dictate their own capacity schedule as of yesterday's news. Unlike Cali where we can't even open yet. But I trust in Disney as they seem to have done an excellent job so far.
Hopefully our room is ready by 3 and we can settle in and find dinner then get to bed early from exhaustion. Myself and hubby aren't likely to sleep on the flight.
Park #1 Tuesday - first park I'm thinking MK of course. My kids haven't been to Disneyland since they were 2 and 4 and don't have any tangible memories so I'd like to start things off right! Also my older son (7) gets concerned easily when anything gets intense and I'd like to ease him into dark rides an roller coasters. We may not make rope drop depending on how well we time shifted and I don't want to put too much pressure on the family, gotta keep the hubs happy. I'm thinking small world for first ride as it seems with covid cleaning the boat rides load slowest. Also it's as tame as it gets for an indoor dark ride and will ease my chicken little into things. Then the rest of fantasy land is open to us. Barnstormer before seven dwarves to build courage.
Dilemma that those with experience might be able to speak to - my husband will want us to go back for naps daily. From what I've read it's quite a time sap to leave MK and make the round trip to CBR with shortened hours this could rob is of a lot of experience. What's the time frame for turn around half an hour each way? Would it maybe make more sense to stay full day and shorten the day?
Here's what I'm up against. We went to a pumpkin patch this last weekend with the neighbors and the kids had a blast playing in the maze, in the playgrounds, panning for marbles for about 2 hours then we all had lunch and rode the train. By then it was about 1pm and my hubby is ready to go. My response "but we didn't take the hay ride to the pumpkin patch yet, that's the whole point of this" thankfully a neighbor family was very much into going so my husband after slight token grumble went along. It was a wonderful hay ride through old oaks we were dropped off in a pumpkin patch and wandered around admiring pumpkins collected up 3 and were back on the next wagon within 20 min. Hubby stood at the wagon station and watched us. I am nothing if not efficient so when hubby was packing up pumpkins I optimized by hightailing it to the bakery stand so we didn't miss out on treats though we had to eat them at home. (I'm a firm believer atmosphere makes food taste sooo much better..so disney).
I'm wanting to do dinner in the park as the CBR has no sit down option also that who atmosphere making your food taste better thing. Right now I'm thinking liberty tree tavern early dinner to give us flexibility to either leave early if we didn't nap or jump in a line after to get more time if we napped.
Many things may get in the way of this trip including the fact that my husband won't know for sure if he is approved for time off until early November. Also 2020. Also everything we seem to get hope up for is snatched away with a snicker these days. So my philosophy is this, if we go it's going to be such a wonderful thing just to get away and enter the magic disney bubble and let the real world fade for a week, if not well I'm right where I started but it will have been an amazing upper to plan and dream of Disney for these last few weeks and I'll have learned a ton for when we can go.
We are booked for the second week of December staying at the CBR and planning for a day in each park with a rest day halfway through. It'll be myself, hubby and 2 sons (6 and 7 now)
I'm a mom and ER nurse (Northern California) who is functionally burned out and drained from 2020 (just like everyone). I went through the eery quiet of the ER in March and April where we kept waiting for the other shoe to drop then into the steady pace of covid patients.
Our covid population has steadily declined replaced with the masses of other patients that regularly overwhelm the system. We just got downgraded from purple to pink in our country and so the kids started back to school this week on a hybrid part time schedule (yay!!!).
So I booked the trip using the magic is here room and ticket package and got Monday dec 7th to Sunday the 13th. Its the standard view 5th sleeper and I'm glad I booked because I don't see that option listed anymore under the package deal. I'm thinking to request building 45 or 51 so I be be across the bridge from old port royale but decently close to the skyliner. 2 questions-
1) How do I make a room request. Is it best to be specific with room numbers or just buildings. I am also worried about making a request as we will be coming in very early after a red eye flight and would appreciate an early check in to feel settled and rest.
2) Anyone stay at the CBR and walked to the Riveria to use that skyliner, advantages/disadvantages to requesting a room close to the Riveria skyliner station?
My strategy for choosing the CBR is this, my husband does not share my travel style. He thinks vacations are for rest and relaxation (LoL). I think he would secretly prefer to have a staycation at home to having a trip where he is managed and pushed into various activities. I suffer from fear of missing out and he suffers from my FOMO. I'm enthusiastic about travel, he's enthusiastic about shopping online. CBR seems like a quieter laid back place where we could take some time off from the hectic pace of Disney. The pool looks awesome and the kids would love a pool slide (if it happens to be warm enough to go for). Also skyliner looks amazeballs.
Flight is not yet booked. I'm eyeballing a red-eye from san francisco even though it isn't our home base airport because it would be non-stop which cuts our travel time by at least 4 hours. I'm thinking non stop cuts our exposure to other passengers by bunking with one plane worths possible covid carriers and not 2 planes worth. Maybe at this point I'm splitting hairs
. Also the SFO flight would be a red-eye from 1030pm arriving at 7am the next morning. So this takes away the element where I'm so excited I can't sleep the night before we leave and I think will help us adjust to local time. I am not a morning person but will get up early for Disney it's just an added challenge that it's early plus a loss of 3 hours. My kids have been awesome about wearing their masks for a full 8 hour day time to level up and see how we do for a 6 hour flight while sleeping.We will take ME to CBR and hopefully chill for the day. We will be jetlagged sleep deprived but happy to be at Disney so I plan to leave things loosey goosey for this day. I figure we'll leave our bags with bell hop and then mobile order our mickey waffles for brekkie
. Explore the resort including a nice stroll around CBR maybe nap in a hammock. . If it gets warm enough we could swim. We could take the skyliner over to Epcot and walk over to the beaches resort for lunch or take the bus over to Disney springs for lunch and shopping. I'm hoping Monday lunch time won't be too busy there as the parks will be open. Who knows what will happen with crowds by December anyway as it looks like Desantis is going to let WDW dictate their own capacity schedule as of yesterday's news. Unlike Cali where we can't even open yet. But I trust in Disney as they seem to have done an excellent job so far.Hopefully our room is ready by 3 and we can settle in and find dinner then get to bed early from exhaustion. Myself and hubby aren't likely to sleep on the flight.
Park #1 Tuesday - first park I'm thinking MK of course. My kids haven't been to Disneyland since they were 2 and 4 and don't have any tangible memories so I'd like to start things off right! Also my older son (7) gets concerned easily when anything gets intense and I'd like to ease him into dark rides an roller coasters. We may not make rope drop depending on how well we time shifted and I don't want to put too much pressure on the family, gotta keep the hubs happy. I'm thinking small world for first ride as it seems with covid cleaning the boat rides load slowest. Also it's as tame as it gets for an indoor dark ride and will ease my chicken little into things. Then the rest of fantasy land is open to us. Barnstormer before seven dwarves to build courage
.Dilemma that those with experience might be able to speak to - my husband will want us to go back for naps daily. From what I've read it's quite a time sap to leave MK and make the round trip to CBR with shortened hours this could rob is of a lot of experience. What's the time frame for turn around half an hour each way? Would it maybe make more sense to stay full day and shorten the day?
Here's what I'm up against. We went to a pumpkin patch this last weekend with the neighbors and the kids had a blast playing in the maze, in the playgrounds, panning for marbles for about 2 hours then we all had lunch and rode the train. By then it was about 1pm and my hubby is ready to go. My response "but we didn't take the hay ride to the pumpkin patch yet, that's the whole point of this" thankfully a neighbor family was very much into going so my husband after slight token grumble went along. It was a wonderful hay ride through old oaks we were dropped off in a pumpkin patch and wandered around admiring pumpkins collected up 3 and were back on the next wagon within 20 min. Hubby stood at the wagon station and watched us. I am nothing if not efficient so when hubby was packing up pumpkins I optimized by hightailing it to the bakery stand so we didn't miss out on treats though we had to eat them at home. (I'm a firm believer atmosphere makes food taste sooo much better..so disney
).I'm wanting to do dinner in the park as the CBR has no sit down option also that who atmosphere making your food taste better thing. Right now I'm thinking liberty tree tavern early dinner to give us flexibility to either leave early if we didn't nap or jump in a line after to get more time if we napped.
Some retired nurses are going back to work to help out. 
