Trip Report The “No Trip” Trip Report *COMPLETED*

There are pre-trip reports.

There are trip reports.

I’d like to welcome you to what I believe might be the first “No Trip” trip report.

My name is Tuvalu. Ok, that’s not my real name (it’s not “Shirley” either ) but it’s how I’m known here on WDWMagic. For the past six years I have contributed a lot of trip reports in this forum. A lot! Along the way I have met so many wonderful people and made new friends, some of whom I have had the privilege of meeting in person. Honestly the reason why I write is for you, the reader, because I cherish our interactions. (Getting to re-live my trip is just a bonus!)

My husband Woody, my daughter Em and I were supposed to be leaving for our Spring Break trip to WDW tomorrow. Of course we are sad we cannot go (and our doing our part to keep ourselves and others safe) but remain confident we WILL get to go back sometime in the future.

I had been contemplating going “live” for our trip. Woody and Em are not fans of my reporting “live” since my attention is diverted from enjoying vacation with them. However this idea for a “No Trip” trip report came straight from Woody himself!

So for the next week, if you‘d like to Journey into My Imagination and read about what could have been, I’ll be here.

 

[Tuvalu]

Spoiler: Sorry I'm late. I had to get snacks for everyone 😁

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None for me thanks, I brought my own.

 

[MickeyCB]

I wanna be an innie too!! Said in a whiny voice.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I'm in for the no trip report. I'm sad that you had to cancel your trip, my sister was supposed to go today. I hope we can all get there again soon.

By the way, seeing this report pop up reminded me that I should probably start my trip report from March.

 

[LisaBelle]

Not Edna. Definitely NOT Edna.
And I’d read about your mock beach day, Jimmy! (But I see @Mr Ferret 88 has you covered!)


I managed to stretch out writing it for two months.
Happy to have you here!


< Clears throat > Ahem, isn’t there something else you need to be working on?

Yes ma’am! I shall post and read, post and read.

 

[LisaBelle]

I'm in for the no trip report. I'm sad that you had to cancel your trip, my sister was supposed to go today. I hope we can all get there again soon.

By the way, seeing this report pop up reminded me that I should probably start my trip report from March.

Yes! Please do!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Yes! Please do!

I'm planning on it this weekend. I still need to sort through some pictures from my husband's phone.

 

[93boomer]

I am so sorry I am this late Sis! I have been busy forgetting that today was supposed to be our travel day.




But now I am happy seeing this!!! Yayyyy!! This is going to be so much FUN!!

 

[Balki228]

Looking forward to reading. Our family trip was supposed to be next week (was hoping maybe to see you guys and get that famous card!).

 

[Tuvalu]

I wanna be an innie too!! Said in a whiny voice.

Got ya covered!

By the way, seeing this report pop up reminded me that I should probably start my trip report from March.

I am so sorry I am this late Sis! I have been busy forgetting that today was supposed to be our travel day.
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But now I am happy seeing this!!! Yayyyy!! This is going to be so much FUN!!
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[Ghostdog]

I’m also in. We too had to cancel our April 7-14 trip (daughters HS graduation trip that I booked last July ). We call our cancelled trip the Best Disney Vacation that NEVER Happened. We had some amazing dinners booked, got all the best FP and had planned to take our girl on the Keys to the Kingdom Tour. Let’s not mention the weather, it’s supposed to be PERFECT next week . So life threw us a curveball and now we’re trying to figure out what/ where we’ll be able to travel and squeeze in before our girl heads off to her first year of college.

I too, will be following along on your No trip, trip report. Can’t wait and looking forward to it.

 

[Tuvalu]

Looking forward to reading. Our family trip was supposed to be next week (was hoping maybe to see you guys and get that famous card!).

 

[Tuvalu]

I’m also in. We too had to cancel our April 7-14 trip (daughters HS graduation trip that I booked last July ). We call our cancelled trip the Best Disney Vacation that NEVER Happened. We had some amazing dinners booked, got all the best FP and had planned to take our girl on the Keys to the Kingdom Tour. Let’s not mention the weather, it’s supposed to be PERFECT next week . So life threw us a curveball and now we’re trying to figure out what/ where we’ll be able to travel to and squeeze in before our girl heads off to her first year of college.

This makes me so sad! But it sounds like you know what to do.

 

[Spash007]

 

[Kiwiduck]

BACKGROUND

I’ve been making regular pilgrimages to WDW since I was 11 years old. I introduced Woody to the MK while we were dating and on our honeymoon we experienced Epcot for the first time. Our firstborn son’s initial visit was at 13 months; #2 son at 2 years; and little miss Em at 18 months. So yes, we’ve done the stroller thing. Our family Disney vacations were dictated by the school calendar ~ summers and holiday breaks ~ and Woody and I looked forward to the day when we could visit WDW with our adult children during less busy periods.

Then Em became a teacher.

But over the last several years crowd patterns have changed and summers aren’t so crazy anymore. We don’t mind the heat and have had some fantastic trips with Em. Spring breaks have been a different story, especially when Easter falls at the beginning or end of vacation week. Like this year.

Knowing that Disney rarely discounts rooms during the peak Easter week, I decided to pursue something I’d never done before ~ rent DVC points. I’d read many testimonials on this site praising the ease and savings of hundreds (in a few cases thousands) of dollars. I contacted David’s Vacation Club Rentals and submitted my request for 6 nights (studio villa) at Wilderness Lodge. And waited....and waited.

Long story short, the best I could get was 5 nights. I signed the contract, paid the non-refundable cost in full (required), sat back and thought:

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I vowed not to check any future discounts that might appear for our travel dates. We were committed to our points rental. I did really well until I saw that AP discounts had dropped. I reasoned I could add a night before our villa stay began. WL was available and for the convenience of not having to switch resorts, I booked it.

So how much did we save by renting points? Using the AP rate I got for a regular, non-DVC room (which includes daily housekeeping), point rental saved us $12/night. Point rental also exempted us from paying the $25/day parking fee, so savings was actually $37/night.

$37 x 5 nights = $185 total savings....but no daily housekeeping.

For us, daily housekeeping is an essential part of our vacation. However we were willing to forgo it considering “all” the money we’d be saving. To be fair, if we had to pay rack rate for our WL room, point rental would have saved us considerably more money. Yet the only time we’ve ever paid rack rate was Easter week ~ which is why I considered renting points in the first place.

Of course all this is now a....
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Disney refunded our first night’s stay. David’s is working on some sort of travel voucher for guests impacted by WDW’s closure (details are several weeks away according to the email I received), so we may get to experience a DVC rental after all.

Meanwhile we’re ready to begin our Spring Break Fantasy in the morning!

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See ya real soon!

I also decided it would be a great idea to rent some vacation club points for a 10 night stay at the Polynesian (through DVC rental store) for my May trip after thinking about it for my other trips. Of course, I would choose to make this leap during a pandemic thereby losing all my money!!!!
Looking forward to reading this "not a trip" trip report.

 

[k8einwdw]

Man, three pages in already?!?

I’m late, but I’m in!

 

[Gabe1]

Well I am in! And I am sorry. And what a sweetie Woody is to help divert your disappoint and fill the gaps in your week. Seems like a lot of comments here are so many in the same boat. Me included.

I've been going to Disney since I was 18 months old when my Mom first took me to Disneyland from Chicago to CA as there wasn't a WDW yet. Imagine that. My DS first trip was at 14 weeks old, day after he finally decided to walk and my DD was 2 months old for her first trip, similar to Em's life, I find it a weird as Em and my DD are only a few days apart in Age.

For future reference, We stayed at BLT for our long stay in September on rented points also. We like you always take the housekeeping and I love being pampered with someone else cleaning up, making beds and above all an abundance of clean towels. Also I didn't like the idea of having to go visit a garbage closet in the hallway. Ewe. Any-who, we did not pre arrange for housekeeping but requested it for the 2 weeks at BLT. They so didn't want to bother with adjusting the reservation and they signed us up for full housekeeping and said it was a bit of magic, it is on us!

I am so sorry I am this late Sis! I have been busy forgetting that today was supposed to be our travel day.
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But now I am happy seeing this!!! Yayyyy!! This is going to be so much FUN!!
View attachment 460687

Ugh. Sorry for you too. We were to leave for WDW week on April 22. C'est la vie ! At least I put myself in the same category as @Tuvalu and pretty much you too, we go to WDW a lot. Our big 2 week trip is always September and that is already booked, but since last September Biggie I was there in October, November, December, January and February this year so I cannot ask for too much pity. Still disappointed though but thankful everything was refunded including airfare. For all the $$$ we have spent flying Chicago to Orlando you'd think the airlines will survive this pandemic.

 

[Sillysidewalker]

Late but here. 4 walls and 4 kids closing in around me. I could use the escape of a Tuvalu report!!! Thank you for this “No trip” report.

 

[kbarry117]

Thank you for doing this! I am definitely in. This is the sort of happy distraction I need.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Following along and looking forward to reading. Love that your kids grew up with Disney. Mine too, first visits at 20 months, 9 months, 4 months and 9 months for the 4 of them. Then at least once a year since. So glad we got our fix in January, feel sad for everyone that’s had to cancel.

 

[*Flynnderella*]

I’m in too!!! sorry about having to cancel your trip but I’m excited to read your “no trip, trip report” all the same!!