Trip Report Masksgiving: a daring escape

Okay, maybe the title is a little misleading. It wasn't all that daring...

So, the Brifraz clan made a second trip to WDW since all the re-opening. This time, a little more aware of what to expect but also a little more wary because of what we were expecting. For those who might have missed it, we headed to the World this summer for two weeks in July, just a short time after all four parks had reopened. It was certainly an odd trip - and not just because of the COVID precautions - both @MeffysMom and I had significant amounts of work that we were doing (she was taking an AP teachers course for half the trip and I was writing curriculum for a few days). We found that the limited offerings (no shows and no fireworks) were disappointing, but the limited crowds and lines were pretty refreshing. You can read all about that one if you want - July Trip Report.

As a family with three people in different local high schools, our lives are pretty much dictated by the school calendars, so upon returning from that summer trip, we all were getting ready for the unique situation that has been this school year. At the time, we didn't know whether we would be in-person, virtual, or some hybrid. So there was quite a bit of anguish and frustration in terms of planning (only augmented by the fact that I'm a music teacher and had to have three distinct plans for marching band, which should have started in early August). Eventually, our school board decided that we would be starting the year with virtual learning (our schools start after Labor Day), but moving to a hybrid model October 19th so we were planning basically a month with the virtual approach and then figuring out how to make a hybrid plan work.

Without getting into too much complaining and woe, I'll just say it was tough for all three of us. Teaching music virtually is certainly not an ideal scenario for me, my wife's school administration was changing the rules/guidelines for students on a daily basis, and our daughter was trying to cope with her senior year activities getting cancelled one-by-one. At some point in there, I began having small group/socially distant/masked but in-person marching band activity which was great for the kids but a LOT of additional work to normal for myself (and support staff). Then a couple days before we were supposed to move to the hybrid plan, the Board of Ed decided to stick with virtual for another couple weeks. So, plans all had to be re-made and adjusted and changed. Suffice to say, we were all a little stressed. Which meant, that @MeffysMom started 'relaxing' by shopping online for cheap hotel rooms at Disney so we could escape for a few days.

Now in mid-October, she found a pretty good deal on the Holiday Inn right next to Disney Springs, so we decided to go ahead and book a brief visit - driving down on the night before Thanksgiving and then leaving the Sunday after. Plans were made, ideas hatched, ideas were revised, others recent reports were read. Basically got all our ducks into rows as best we could. Then (much to our surprise), we found ourselves back in school buildings on November 5th in a hybrid model with less than half the students opting to be in the building and those spread out into two groups (so about 20% of students in person on any given day) which lasted a whopping four days. Not going to get into the politics of all of this, but the fact that our local Board of Ed is making decisions that impact over 25,000 students and 2000 teachers just a day or two before implementing them and then reversing those decisions just a day or two later... well, that causes a little stress. Sorry, I've digressed from the topic at hand which is a Disney visit, right? But, I did so for a little perspective - and to explain why, just about 10 days before our trip, we added another day to the visit with the drive now planned for Tuesday before Thanksgiving and not leaving until late Sunday night.

As expected, we now filled every moment that wasn't work (which was not nearly enough moments, for sure) with re-planning, hatching new ideas, and revising the revisions to our plans. The biggest 'concern' was the crowds. We knew it wouldn't be nearly as empty as the summer, but we had been impressed with Disney's COVID precautions at that time so we weren't too worried. So we planned accordingly and tried to figure out ways to avoid the most crowded times and places as best we could.

Tuesday, November 24th finally arrived. I failed to mention earlier that I am still doing all my virtual teaching from my school because there is no high speed internet where we live and having three of us on Google Meet at the same time just doesn't happen successfully. So, I was at my school, but left as quick as I could (my last class of the day got a little extra time to work on their own) and we managed to get ourselves on the road at about 2:30pm which meant a potential arrival in the Orlando area around 6am on Wednesday.

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(notice eyes are still on the road)

See you there!
 

brifraz

Marching along...
Premium Member
Original Poster
After we put our feet up for a ride on Test Track it was getting close to noon and we were pretty hungry, but not quite motivated enough to head back into World Showcase and find food there, so we headed over to the other side of Future World. And this friend was outside welcoming us to our mini-vacation!

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However the great joy of seeing Winnie the Pooh frolicking in the field was quickly dampened when we realized that The Land Pavilion had a significant line just to get into the pavilion - out to the main path that leads to Living Seas and Imagination, then through a series of switchbacks there and then across that path to the walls around the Innoventions wreckage! So much for hitting Sunshine Seasons - we were tired and hungry and tired, too.

Which meant that a kiosk outside of Imagination was just fine. So we grabbed a snack and went into the DVC lounge to rest and relax for a little bit.
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Maybe not quite the lunch of champions (not pictured is the fruit and cheese plate but it just wasn't as photogenic as the Mickey pretzel), but it was enough to get us the energy to move again and we knew that we were going to have a large dinner at about 4pm. We sat and slowly enjoyed our snacks and plotted our game plan for the rest of the afternoon. Decided to just try to hit Nemo and Spaceship Earth and then head back to the hotel for a VERY much needed nap. Nemo was showing a 20 minute wait, but we walked right onto our own clams and then spent a moment visiting with the manatees - I always find standing and watching them to be relaxing. Spaceship Earth was showing a 40 minute wait and we weren't even willing to stand in line for 10 at this point so back to the hotel we went. And a couple hours of sleep and getting refreshed was perfect.

At about 3:30pm we headed back to Universal to grab dinner and then head into the park for a little more IoA time. Dinner was at one of our family favorites, Toothsome's. We have always had very good luck with the staff there and the food is certainly enjoyable and usually pretty large servings. We didn't get food pictures, but we did get shots of the Gingerbread milkshake and the Old Fashioned that we enjoyed.
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And, if you have been there before, you know where we were sitting as you can see the big video screen (or window into the factory, right?) next to our table. Since we had dinner right after 4pm, we were heading back into Islands at about 5:15pm. And, of course, as we entered we managed to score more passes to ride Hagrid's at 6:10pm. We headed to Hogwarts for another ride with Harry and friends and only waited a couple minutes in line. Got in line for Hagrid's right when we hit our time slot at 6:10pm - I say 'we' but really it was just the girls riding again since I had maxed out on coasters for the day and just was enjoying hanging out in Hogsmeade (although the crowd was still a bit large). This was the 11th time that my wife and daughter had ridden Hagrid's and each time they hope and pray for front row seats, but had never been successful - and because of COVID concerns, you are not allowed to request to wait for the front row. But as they rode (the fourth motorcycle this time), I got them ANOTHER time slot to ride, at 6:50pm and... lo and behold... ride #12 was the charm and they got the front row and loved it. They definitely consider it a vastly superior experience being in the front motorcycle. Meanwhile I just walked around and got some pictures!

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Our initial plan had been to close out Islands, but we were all tired and it was getting late so we bailed out of the park a bit before 8pm and went back to the hotel to get some legit rest before Thanksgiving morning in Animal Kingdom!
 

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
We are all in Potter masks. Mine is little golden snitches on black. Our daughter’s is famous headlines from the Daily Prophet and obviously Meffysmom is in the Deathly Hallows pattern one. She made all our masks.

And, do take note - at Epcot, I was now in a Mickey as Steamboat Willie mask and Meffysmom is in a Jasmine mask.
Very cool. Your mask just looked plain black with the light on it, so I couldn't tell it was snitches! Love them!
 

Minnesota disney fan

Well-Known Member
Is your daughter a teacher or is she part of the support staff? I can imagine it's difficult no matter what your position is. How are counselors supposed to counsel? Or resource teachers help the special needs students if those students are at home? They have to be creative.

I was lucky when they were doing the remote learning, my kids both thrive in that environment....they loved it and still got straight A's. But they were definitely the minority, and I felt bad for my daughter's class....1/3 of their class was failing already BEFORE covid happened and they went to remote learning. By the end of the year, most of her class was failing. They ended up allowing everyone to decide for themselves whether they wanted to go down a level or stay with their current class, but if they wanted to advance, they had to have an academic plan in place to do so, including tutoring or homework help, etc. The school decided not to do remote learning once they went back to in-person at the end of the last school year, and they have not done anything different this school year than regular in-person instruction, but a lot of schools over here are being forced to close because of rising cases. The teachers really don't want to go back to remote, but I don't know if they'll be able to avoid it.

She is a high school secretary, and sees alot of what is happening.
In the HS, half of the 9th graders are failing (just after this distance learning was started) 9th grade is their first year of high school and it is a difficult transition anyway. This is hundreds of kids, not just a few, as this is a big high school. Most of the kids are struggling with learning without direct teacher contact. For ex: my granddaughter (10th grade), took the most difficult level math (which she normally sails right through). The teacher would put the problems on the blackboard, turn to the blackboard and work the problem all the while talking about what she was doing. My gd never got to SEE what she was talking about because she blocked the blackboard while talking. Then the teacher immediately moved to the next problem and did the same thing. It was difficult for my gd to figure out what she meant while she worked the problem and blocked the view. She was able to change classes to another math, and all is well now. She was extremely upset because her grades have always been good, especially in math.
Who's fault is this? No ones. Not the teacher and not my gd. The logistics of distance learning just don't work for some subjects. IMO.
I worry about those kids who are failing. Will they have to go longer to get the credits they needed to graduate?
I wish that our hs would go back to in school learning, but I guess that after the holidays, they might be going online only! I hope not.
 

Darstarr

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
She is a high school secretary, and sees alot of what is happening.
In the HS, half of the 9th graders are failing (just after this distance learning was started) 9th grade is their first year of high school and it is a difficult transition anyway. This is hundreds of kids, not just a few, as this is a big high school. Most of the kids are struggling with learning without direct teacher contact. For ex: my granddaughter (10th grade), took the most difficult level math (which she normally sails right through). The teacher would put the problems on the blackboard, turn to the blackboard and work the problem all the while talking about what she was doing. My gd never got to SEE what she was talking about because she blocked the blackboard while talking. Then the teacher immediately moved to the next problem and did the same thing. It was difficult for my gd to figure out what she meant while she worked the problem and blocked the view. She was able to change classes to another math, and all is well now. She was extremely upset because her grades have always been good, especially in math.
Who's fault is this? No ones. Not the teacher and not my gd. The logistics of distance learning just don't work for some subjects. IMO.
I worry about those kids who are failing. Will they have to go longer to get the credits they needed to graduate?
I wish that our hs would go back to in school learning, but I guess that after the holidays, they might be going online only! I hope not.
And then this morning google wasnt working so that doesnt help!!!
I agree, kids should be in school!!!
 

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
She is a high school secretary, and sees alot of what is happening.
In the HS, half of the 9th graders are failing (just after this distance learning was started) 9th grade is their first year of high school and it is a difficult transition anyway. This is hundreds of kids, not just a few, as this is a big high school. Most of the kids are struggling with learning without direct teacher contact. For ex: my granddaughter (10th grade), took the most difficult level math (which she normally sails right through). The teacher would put the problems on the blackboard, turn to the blackboard and work the problem all the while talking about what she was doing. My gd never got to SEE what she was talking about because she blocked the blackboard while talking. Then the teacher immediately moved to the next problem and did the same thing. It was difficult for my gd to figure out what she meant while she worked the problem and blocked the view. She was able to change classes to another math, and all is well now. She was extremely upset because her grades have always been good, especially in math.
Who's fault is this? No ones. Not the teacher and not my gd. The logistics of distance learning just don't work for some subjects. IMO.
I worry about those kids who are failing. Will they have to go longer to get the credits they needed to graduate?
I wish that our hs would go back to in school learning, but I guess that after the holidays, they might be going online only! I hope not.
We got the announcement today that we're going back into lockdown at midnight, and schools will be virtual starting Wednesday, but next week is vacation anyway. Does your school not have digital chalkboards networked to their computers? My daughter's school has that, so things like math, they see what the teacher writes....they don't see the teacher. It's directly hooked up to the teacher's laptop, so what the students see is whatever is on the board...almost like a powerpoint presentation, except handwritten. I think my son's school must have that, too because we had the parent teacher conference last Thursday and they were able to put his report card directly onto the screen for us to see. I can't imagine how difficult math would be without being able to see what the teacher is doing!

Well, half the problem with my daughter's class is that a lot of them are not particularly motivated. They didn't do the homework, so they were already failing before corona happened. Then when schools closed back in March, they treated it like a big vacation. My daughter liked it because most teachers didn't do a lecture, they just put the homework and materials up on the app they have, and the kids could work at their own pace for the most part. Rarely, they had to check in for a particular class, but most of the time they could do their own thing after checking in.
 

Minnesota disney fan

Well-Known Member
We got the announcement today that we're going back into lockdown at midnight, and schools will be virtual starting Wednesday, but next week is vacation anyway. Does your school not have digital chalkboards networked to their computers? My daughter's school has that, so things like math, they see what the teacher writes....they don't see the teacher. It's directly hooked up to the teacher's laptop, so what the students see is whatever is on the board...almost like a powerpoint presentation, except handwritten. I think my son's school must have that, too because we had the parent teacher conference last Thursday and they were able to put his report card directly onto the screen for us to see. I can't imagine how difficult math would be without being able to see what the teacher is doing!

Well, half the problem with my daughter's class is that a lot of them are not particularly motivated. They didn't do the homework, so they were already failing before corona happened. Then when schools closed back in March, they treated it like a big vacation. My daughter liked it because most teachers didn't do a lecture, they just put the homework and materials up on the app they have, and the kids could work at their own pace for the most part. Rarely, they had to check in for a particular class, but most of the time they could do their own thing after checking in.

No they don't have that type of blackboard. I think that's the only thing they don't have because they sure like to spend money, LOL.
The kids that are failing arent' the ones who don't do anything anyway; They are mostly new to HS and trying to do the HS workload.
I'm sorry to see that your school is going to online after the holidays. Our teachers were given an extra day (Wednesday) without teaching classes so they could coordinate their online teaching. So the kids only have 4 days of online.
It's all so screwed up! I don't know how the teachers do it? let alone the kids who are actually trying to learn.
Hopefully this will all get better soon.
 

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
No they don't have that type of blackboard. I think that's the only thing they don't have because they sure like to spend money, LOL.
The kids that are failing arent' the ones who don't do anything anyway; They are mostly new to HS and trying to do the HS workload.
I'm sorry to see that your school is going to online after the holidays. Our teachers were given an extra day (Wednesday) without teaching classes so they could coordinate their online teaching. So the kids only have 4 days of online.
It's all so screwed up! I don't know how the teachers do it? let alone the kids who are actually trying to learn.
Hopefully this will all get better soon.
It's only for 5 weeks. It was really necessary, and actually they should have done it 2 months ago and then it would have been a whole lot better. But they kept saying "We'll wait 2 weeks and see how it goes. If cases don't decrease, we'll have to do something." Then 2 weeks later, cases INCREASED and they'd just say "Well, we're not sure yet...let's wait another 2 weeks and see how it goes." 2 months later, they finally had to admit that what we're doing isn't working and cases are still not dropping, and actually doubled again from 2 weeks ago. So now we do a lockdown. If they had just done that in the first place, we might have been able to have Christmas with our families and this would all be behind us. And as far as school goes, it would have been easier to do virtual teaching at the beginning of the school year with the easier material than it is now when they are getting more in depth.
 

Minnesota disney fan

Well-Known Member
It's only for 5 weeks. It was really necessary, and actually they should have done it 2 months ago and then it would have been a whole lot better. But they kept saying "We'll wait 2 weeks and see how it goes. If cases don't decrease, we'll have to do something." Then 2 weeks later, cases INCREASED and they'd just say "Well, we're not sure yet...let's wait another 2 weeks and see how it goes." 2 months later, they finally had to admit that what we're doing isn't working and cases are still not dropping, and actually doubled again from 2 weeks ago. So now we do a lockdown. If they had just done that in the first place, we might have been able to have Christmas with our families and this would all be behind us. And as far as school goes, it would have been easier to do virtual teaching at the beginning of the school year with the easier material than it is now when they are getting more in depth.
It's just crazy!!! No one does it the same. Our school system was wishy-washy on what to do and how to do it. My daughter learned the day of or the day before of major changes which impacted her job.
 

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
It's just crazy!!! No one does it the same. Our school system was wishy-washy on what to do and how to do it. My daughter learned the day of or the day before of major changes which impacted her job.
Yeah, that's a problem here, too....they announced it last night and schools have to go virtual tomorrow. They had no notice and no time to figure out what to do. My daughter had no idea what her schedule was going to look like for tomorrow until tonight while I was at work. They finally put up the schedule tonight. But they were talking about it on the news today that it was so sudden, teachers really didn't have time to prepare, nor did parents who now have kids at home and had to work out child care. If they had closed things down in September, they would have had ample time to prepare. But it is what it is.
 

brifraz

Marching along...
Premium Member
Original Poster
Man, you step away for a couple days because of heaping piles of work to get done and @Songbird76 and @Minnesota disney fan get into the finer points of virtual school vs in-person schools and coronavirus numbers! I could easily go on for at least 10 pages on that kind of discussion. Here in Maryland, it's been every district for itself since the summer (we are districted by counties so the size and population of each is greatly different) and my district has been one of the only ones to have moved to hybrid at all and one of the last two to move back to fully virtual. It's been an... adventure... to say the least. And the new twist is the foot plus of snow coming our way starting late tomorrow morning. Districts in MD are about 50/50 for what they are going to do for snow days, but our district (whose Board of Ed has argued extensively for keeping things as normal as possible for students psychological needs) has decided that there will be NO snow days while we are virtual (no, don't try to understand the logic, because it is absent). Suffice to say, quite a bit of outcry. Honestly, it makes very little difference for me personally, but I definitely think it is huge for kids mental health - let 'em go outside and play! Sorry, I'll be getting back off soapbox and will post day two of our trip tomorrow (after I require my 150+ students to be in virtual class for every minute necessary...or buck the system and let 'em out of my classes early)!!
 

pkkurz

Well-Known Member
Man, you step away for a couple days because of heaping piles of work to get done and @Songbird76 and @Minnesota disney fan get into the finer points of virtual school vs in-person schools and coronavirus numbers! I could easily go on for at least 10 pages on that kind of discussion. Here in Maryland, it's been every district for itself since the summer (we are districted by counties so the size and population of each is greatly different) and my district has been one of the only ones to have moved to hybrid at all and one of the last two to move back to fully virtual. It's been an... adventure... to say the least. And the new twist is the foot plus of snow coming our way starting late tomorrow morning. Districts in MD are about 50/50 for what they are going to do for snow days, but our district (whose Board of Ed has argued extensively for keeping things as normal as possible for students psychological needs) has decided that there will be NO snow days while we are virtual (no, don't try to understand the logic, because it is absent). Suffice to say, quite a bit of outcry. Honestly, it makes very little difference for me personally, but I definitely think it is huge for kids mental health - let 'em go outside and play! Sorry, I'll be getting back off soapbox and will post day two of our trip tomorrow (after I require my 150+ students to be in virtual class for every minute necessary...or buck the system and let 'em out of my classes early)!!
Thought you would get a kick out of this letter that was posted by our friend Tim’s wife (she is also a teacher)
38108A7E-9D0A-4C03-93CE-F964F0AF7347.jpeg
 

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
Man, you step away for a couple days because of heaping piles of work to get done and @Songbird76 and @Minnesota disney fan get into the finer points of virtual school vs in-person schools and coronavirus numbers! I could easily go on for at least 10 pages on that kind of discussion. Here in Maryland, it's been every district for itself since the summer (we are districted by counties so the size and population of each is greatly different) and my district has been one of the only ones to have moved to hybrid at all and one of the last two to move back to fully virtual. It's been an... adventure... to say the least. And the new twist is the foot plus of snow coming our way starting late tomorrow morning. Districts in MD are about 50/50 for what they are going to do for snow days, but our district (whose Board of Ed has argued extensively for keeping things as normal as possible for students psychological needs) has decided that there will be NO snow days while we are virtual (no, don't try to understand the logic, because it is absent). Suffice to say, quite a bit of outcry. Honestly, it makes very little difference for me personally, but I definitely think it is huge for kids mental health - let 'em go outside and play! Sorry, I'll be getting back off soapbox and will post day two of our trip tomorrow (after I require my 150+ students to be in virtual class for every minute necessary...or buck the system and let 'em out of my classes early)!!
Sorry we derailed your TR.

So...if you don't do snow days with the virtual model, what happens if the power goes out in some places and certain students can't access technology?
 

Darstarr

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
Sorry we derailed your TR.

So...if you don't do snow days with the virtual model, what happens if the power goes out in some places and certain students can't access technology?
They get marked absent. Want to see my kids attendance records??? I even got the dreaded “too many absences” letter. Sent the hubs, with all his NY tude to deal with that.
 

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