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.
(notice eyes are still on the road)
See you there!
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.
See you there!
