Trip Report Mask up for the August Alternate 2020 Trip

Hello friends! My husband and I just got back about a week ago from our WDW trip, it was strange, hot, fun, and in a way unexpected. I'll start with some quick details:

Who: Me (Am) and my husband (Brad)
When: August 6-20, 2020
Resort: Pop Century (was scheduled for All Star Sports)

Let me explain my title a little: We were scheduled to travel to WDW in June the 21st through July 5. It was going to be epic.....we would be there over our birthdays, 15th wedding anniversary, and had a couple of Magic meetups planned. That trip didn't happen. While planning our trips at home I always come up with some sort of title for our trips to give it a little excitement. Well, shortly after the shut down in March, about 2 weeks after the parks closed I had a feeling that my June trip wouldn't happen so hubs and I looked at the calendar and figured out a date when we could go to WDW, we had to plan around some of his church activities (all got cancelled) and a girls trip to California for me (cancelled too). So in late March I booked a two week stay at the Sports. But all while planning including the frustrating day in June to get park reservations and the day I cancelled June/July I was never able to build up much excitement for this August trip. So I always stayed labeled in my planning things as the August Alternate trip, how generic! So I had hope that the trip would happen but I was convinced something would happen and we wouldn't be able to go.

Fast forward to the first week of August, days before leaving. I get an email from my boss (principal) asking what my travel dates to Florida were so they could be consistent on teachers traveling and returning back to work. My return date was 4 days before I would start back to work for inservice so no time to quarantine if he asked me to! Ugh! I couldn't lie to my boss and I couldn't ignore his email. Well he didn't ask me to quarantine but he did ask that I get a Covid test upon my return and then quarantine if needed or until my results came back. He asked if I wanted to come in an work a day so that if something happened I would have had time to work to get my classroom ready and he said I could bank it as a day worked so I wouldn't have to use a day if I did quarantine. So that's what I did. In a way it was surreal to be back working in my room, which was the day before we left for WDW. As I was working in my room that day I had a flash, the last day I worked a full day in my classroom was before I went to WDW in March! Whoa! So with a fully day of work banked, suitcases packed, it looked like our Alternate trip was really happening!

*Spoiler alert: my Covid test came back negative, it was probably too early to take it when I came back but it satisfied my boss. Also neither of us have had any symptoms of Covid upon return so looks like we might have stayed safe.

Okay, let's begin......

August 6, 2020

Our flight out of Minneapolis left at 8:20 am so our plan was to wake up around 4 am get ready and drive to the airport. Who sleeps before a trip! We were up around 3am but we didn't leave until around 4:15am. I got a great parking deal at a Park n Fly for our two week park that was like $7 a day so much cheaper than the small airport lot at $15 a day! Does anyone remember the old WDW information station that used to play the song "I'm Going to Disney World"? I have that song and usually play it on the way to the airport and I played it as we pulled into the Park N Fly lot. I didn't play it before I didn't want to jinx us!

The airport was really strange, usually it is such a hub bub of activity but today it was so strange because there weren't many people. Security was a walk up and we were through in less than 2 minutes! We got breakfast at the Caribou Coffee near our gate and spent time just relaxing in our masks waiting. Our flight was on Delta and they did a great job on the flight. When we boarded we were handed wipes to wipe our area, they reminded people about masks, and during flight we were handed a snack pack in a plastic bag with water,chocolate covered pretzels, cheez-its, napkin and hand sanitizer. The middle seat was empty so we had our own row and Brad watched Star Wars something and I watched the Downton Abbey movie (I'd rewatched the series before leaving so this pleased me to rewatch movie too).

The airport in Minneapolis.
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Flights on time, and plane is here! It's happening! It's really happening!
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Waiting at the gate
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On the plane, looking out! Different from my last flight in March. No snow on the ground this time!
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Ready for flight!
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And we've made it to Orlando!!! Again the airport was pretty empty and we had to retrieve our own luggage this time.
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And here we are at Magical Express, not too many people in line. I think when we came in March this is where we started our line up to check in.
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There was a sign that said our wait could be an hour and the ME agent said that too but from check in to the bus pulling away it was less than 20 minutes which is shorter than some of the pre-Covid trips we have had.
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Coming up: arrival at WDW and will there be tears?
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
August 15

off to Pandora and we went on the River journey which was fine but the time we were done with that Flights was posted. At 40 minutes so we just kept on going and had a nice short line for the safari and an excellent safari ride. The lions were cooperative for pictures.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
August 15, 2020
It should be interesting to see the new area on the safari when it is done and I had to get a shot of the plasticized safari truck. Next we headed over to the jungle trek in Asia, I wanted to see the tigers. On the trek we saw the Komodo dragon and learned that he got super bummed out during the shut down, turns out he must like seeing different people and missed them and perked up again when guests returned.

I had to run through the bat section again. I can’t stand them. The tigers were not cooperating and I only caught a glimpse of one in the corner. But besides the bats it was a nice walk.
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Since early March I’ve been posting a flower of the day on my FB page and I thought this was a pretty one.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
August 15, 2020

We caught a few of the characters on a boat and we caught Mickey and Minnie!!! The we took a trip through time to catch a Dino!
For lunch Brad and I thought about going to Satulii but as we walked past Flame Tree we both agreed bbq was calling to us. He got ribs and I got the pulled pork Mac and cheese and shared the chocolate Oreo cupcake.
Brad always wants to get in and out of AK quick but I made him walk the path around the Tree of Life trail and surprise... he enjoyed it!
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
August 15, 2020

soon we headed out of the park for our nap but returned again a couple hours later. And went straight to the safari. Another great ride and we saw the hyenas instead of the wild dogs so that was cool.
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At the bus stop at Ak, cool figment bus!
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
August 15, 2020

the lions were happy to see us again and posed for some awesome pictures. We left the safari area and it was really empty. There was a short debate about Everest or Flights and flights won because we hadn’t done that yet today. We exited shortly after park close.

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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
August 15, 2020

B and I took a bus to Saratoga Springs and walked over to Disney Springs. We got a spot outside at Jock Lindsey’s and it was a very pleasant evening. I had a mosquito mojito and Brad had scotch. We shared the loaded pretzel and the wings. Both were great. We had planned for tonight to be a Disney Springs crawl and get apps and drinks at a few places. We only ended up going here and to the Boathouse again.
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We got a great table by the outside bar at the Boathouse and right next to the water.
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The pictures got out of order this is from Jocks.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
August 15, 2020

We each got a drink. Beer for me and I think b got either a mai tai or a scotch. We shared the fillet mignon sliders (so good) and got the ice cream pie (with chocolate, caramel and macadamia nuts) for dessert. I think we had this in Hawaii and it was called hula pie. It was good and too large for us both to eat. Eventually we waddled to the Pop bus stop and had great timing there were only a couple of people in line but a couple of minutes later the line swelled, plus we only waited a few minutes for our bus.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
August 16, 202

it was a Hollywood day today and Brad wanted to get there early so we grabbed an Uber to the Swan and walked over. We saw only one runner on the path the whole time so we took a maskless selfie. Then we waited for security to open and no one else really showed up for another 30 minutes.
When we entered HS we headed right for MMRR and we were on the first train. Superstitious brad wanted to get our boarding pass again from the relaxation station in Galaxys Edge. Well it worked again for him! So now we are stuck with that routine until he strikes out! After securing our boarding group we played in Toy Storyland until our group was called.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
August 16, 2020

Our boarding group was called and while in line B did some hacking through the Disney play app, I think he would be happy to do that all day. After escaping the first order I needed some reinforcement so we swung by the Baseline and I got a yummy hazy IPA brad got a scotch and soda. There weren’t any spots in the main seating area so we sat over by the ABC Commissary to Enjoy our drinks before heading to our lunch ADR. It turned out to be fortuitous, soon we saw @riverside , E and J. They were headed to the Baseline . I mentioned that there wasn’t any seating but if they couldn’t find anything and wanted our table they could have it . Lucky for us they returned with their Baseline goodies and we were able to chat again for a bit before we had to go to lunch.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
August 16, 2020

Lunch was at the Brown Derby and it was lovely. A mojito for me and more scotch for B! He had a burger and I had a chicken sandwich that was great. We shared a chocolate dessert which was good too. It was very relaxing and we were ready for a nap afterwards.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
August 16, 2020

So we headed back for a nap. Right before I was going to fall asleep there was a knock at the door and it was the security check people. We had the room occupied sign up too so that was super annoying and I wasn’t able to fall asleep but I guess the rest time was nice. Then we headed back to the Studios.
we were greeted with the Pixar gang before we headed to Star Tours.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
August 16 2020

It was time for dinner but we weren’t ravenous so we decided a pretzel and charcuterie board at Baseline would be perfect. We easily found seating and it was perfect. Then we headed for a spin on Mickey’s before park close.
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Anyone ever notice that Mickey is written in the lawn near them end of the ride?
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Rista1313

Well-Known Member
(so I could check my blood sugar and stuff)
Do you have a Dario? (blood sugar checker that plugs into your phone) We got 2 for Scott.. one android for his phone and 1 iPhone one for my phone. I like it a lot.. small and convenient!

And don't think I didn't notice that Orange Bird Mask... OMGeee!!!!! Love it!

You and Riverside together... Man we really need a Magicians reunion (or union) sometime!
 

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