Trip Report THE ONE WITH THE ENHANCED CLEANING AND PHYSICAL DISTANCING, August 2020

Hello!!
Boy it feels good to be back here and actually have something to sayšŸ˜‚

Like many of you, I had a few trips,
four actually, that were canceled because of
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I was not going to let my August trip get canceled as well. But....
My original plans were to drive my oldest back to school in south Florida then spend a few days in the World. I invited my nephew as a 17th birthday gift (he loves Star Wars and Disney) and my niece as her college graduation gift. I booked a room cash (Riverside 5th sleeper) expecting to switch it to DVC, using the leftover points I would have after booking February. I never switched it to DVC and then I wasnt allowed to borrow points but Riverside was closed and my sister in law wanted to go but I couldnt add her on to the reservation then NY decided we had to quarantine two weeks so my SIL decided she would not be going and neither would her two children. My son couldnt find a suitable apartment, I couldnt give my boss dates I would be gone but still I sat on that Riverside reservation. I was curious to see what Disney would do with it.
I called Disney, they switched the reservation to CBR. That did not excite me. But I still wanted to go.

My youngest had a lacrosse camp in North Carolina he was scheduled to attend so I asked my middle son, AJ if he wanted to go to Disney World for a long weekend. (He had been working a lot without any time off so I felt he needed a small vacay). I told him to invite a friend then quickly realized I cant stand most of his friends (like the one who reported him to the state as a person he had contact with after the friend tested positive. Yep, threw him under the bus with no warning.) But I adore AJā€™s GF so suggested he invite her. (My husband and her Dad used to work together so we have known her forever. We were at her parentā€™s weddingšŸ˜‚)

I canceled CBR and booked the following weekend at Pop instead. Then my youngestā€™s lax camp got canceled so we asked him to come with...asked the hubs too but he would just be getting back from moving my oldest into his new, and really nice, suitable even, house, down in south Florida so he said no thanks.

But 4 of us in a Pop room??? I wasnt convinced. We like to breakfast in the room. But did Pop have microwaves in the room? Or available in the food court? I doubted they had one available in the food court during these covid times but I called. And I was told ā€œyes, the microwave is availableā€. I still doubted that so I PMā€™d @ajrwdwgirl
who was at Pop. She and Brad were so kind, they scoped out the food court (no microwave) and asked the front desk if they had them to borrow (maybe).

Back to the Disney website, SSR was not that much more per night than Pop (nice AP discount!) plus I would be saving breakfast money, kids will love the pool and I love the easy access to Disney Springs. (Plus with parks closing so early that means more time in the room)

Done! (After texting @riverside , who was at SSR to find out exactly what was open and what was not.

The crew
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on the way to the airport.

edit to add that I know the above post is a jumbled mess of thoughts and run on sentences but that is how it happened. It all kept coming. One thing after another in true 2020 style.
 

Darstarr

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
No
Sunday August 30 cont

After dinner the kids wanted to go back and swim. I wanted to stay but I wanted to be with them so we exited the park. AJ saw the skyliner and decided he would rather ride that. So funny.
Dre headed back to the room. AJ and K went to ride the skyliner and I went here...
(Baseline)
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Then I remembered how much I love slinky at night and it was almost night so I headed to Toy Story land.
I would not be fooled by the red sky at night again. I was no sailor but the weather was certainly NOT a delight!!
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It was pretty though.
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Selfie? Why yes please.
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And another?
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At this point I texted the kids:
No waits on anything! Come back!
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I really had fun on this. I let the stress of the @&!$/? boarding group mess go and I flew with the slink dog.
Then I headed to Toy Story since I had missed it that morning.
Then I headed back to slinky.
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AJ and K were back and walked on to RnR.
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I did Toy Story again.
Then I did Slinky again.
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My fourth of the dayā¤ļø
I texted AJ and K to hustle over and we could do the last ride of the night together.
 

Darstarr

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
No
Sunday August 30 cont

Another selfie or two? But of course!
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The kids made it! These next photos are time stamped 7:59!
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My 5th SDD. I was happy.
It was a pretty night as we made our way out.
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We got a little bit of pixie dust sprinkled on us as we left.
As we neared the bus stop a CM approached us and asked where we were going. ā€œFollow meā€, he said and led us to a bus that said Caribbean Beach. He turned to us, ā€œI know it says Caribbean Beach but it is going where ever you need it to go.ā€
Our stop in SSR is usually the third stop but the bus driver took us, and only us, directly to The Paddock bus stop.
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Darstarr

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
No
Monday, August 31st, 2020

Today was Animal Kingdom Day. I love Animal Kingdom and as an added bonus, K had never been!!!
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I was up early, showered and started getting ready. The kids all woke and showered, dressed and packed. Dre had his luggage on the floor near the slider. Once he was packed and zipped up he rolled it to the front door. But, BUT, something had taken up residence under his suitcase.
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This is a baby lizard. You can see he dropped his tail (top right) when Dre went to move his suitcase. Dre did not mean to kill it, his suitcase must have crushed him when he moved it. Ugggh. I hate ground level rooms.
Bell services came and got our luggage. We had a bag of pretzels and cool ranch Doritos that the kids never opened. I usually give the unopened stuff to bell services (or @bee šŸ˜‰) but I didnt know If the rules had changed due to C19. He happily took our unopened snacks.

We were on the 7:20 bus to Animal Kingdom!
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We arrived at 7:45. Aaaahhhh. I love this park. It is both relaxing and exhilarating at the same time.
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This reminded me of my good friend....
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(@riverside in case you are not surešŸ˜‰)

Hey! A real live PP photographer. A PPP. Or a 3P if you will.
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Darstarr

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
No
Monday, August 31 cont.

We went straight to FoP. It was basically a walk on. Look how empty:
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There was a shorter preshow. There used to be two rooms of preshow. Now they took the two shows, smushed them into one and show them simultaneously in the two rooms to allow for physical distancing.

We were near the middle on the top and had a great ride. K really liked it. We went to the restroom on the way out, then, wanting to get the most out of our last day, we got a couple of beverages. ā€œIs it too early for a margarita I asked?ā€ ( It was 8:15) The CMā€™s answer? ā€œITā€™S NEVER TOO EARLY FOR A MARGARITA!!!ā€
I liked her.
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The kids split that other thing. The one that is not a blue margaritašŸ˜‚
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We then headed over to ride Navi River Journey and met the best, funniest, anti-Callen PPP ever on the walk over

He started by taking the regular group shot.
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Then he asked if AJ and K were a couple. They said yes so he told them to pose.
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Then he asked them to look deep into each others eyes.
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Then he told them to pretend to kiss while he sang
šŸŽ¶can you feel the love tonightšŸŽµ
He sang and sang and they held the pose and people were cracking up because he wasnt even taking pictures. His camera was down by his sidešŸ˜‚
Finally he told them, ā€œI stopped taking pictures two minutes agoā€.
They were so embarrassed.

K liked Navi but I have no pictures as my phone died. It was at 100% when we left the room about 7:00. Less than 2 hours later and I was at about 8%. (I know, I know @Billy6 )
I had a portable charger so plugged it in for Navi and relaxed (and giggled over the 3P incident).
 

Darstarr

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
No
Monday, August 31st cont

After Navi we went to ride the Safari. It is funny how real life shapes what we see.
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How many times have I passed this bike and not given it a second thought. This time I thought, oh no itā€™s not locked up. Someone is going to steal it.
Pathetic right? I know.
Bikes have been in such high demand with a small supply since the C19 began that bike theft is on the rise where I live. My neighborā€˜s daughter had her bike stolen from the inside of her car! The thief left her a flower. Can you say creepy? The other daughter had her bike locked up outside a nearby restaurant she was eating at and it got stolen. And my favorite, AJ, who has two bikes of his own, took Dreā€™s bike to go to Kā€™s house. He stopped at 7-11 ā€œjust for 5 minutes and there was a cop parked right thereā€, the bike was gone when he came out.

On to other animals...
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AJ and the Okapee could twins. Same pose and both blurry! (What say you now @cgersic ?)
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This lady was feeding the birds.
It took all my willpower not to sing:
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This next photo is of the physical barriers they put between every row. And then they skip a row as well. Kinda overkill if you ask me because then there are TWO physical barriers between groups.

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The animals were not that active this morning.
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šŸ˜‚Speaking of not active!

And the new structure that has everyone speculating as to what it is for.
(BTW, photo credit to K because my phone was deadšŸ¤¦šŸ¼ā€ā™€ļø)
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Darstarr

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
No
I read that as: ā€œThe kids spit that other thing.ā€ šŸ¤£

And
CAN YOU PLEASE BUY A NEW PHONE TOMORROW?!!
(You might have better BG luck with one. šŸ˜‰)
Haha. Today at work I was training R (the one I will be traveling with this week) how to do BGā€™s. At 1:58 her Mom (boss) needed us to do some work (the nerve) so no practice run. We will try again in the morning.
And I got a new battery for my phone. It seems to be working now. What can I say, I am my Fatherā€™s daughter. I keep things way past their expiration date. Just ask @bee about my caršŸ˜‚ (but I love that car).
 

Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Then he told them to pretend to kiss while he sang
šŸŽ¶can you feel the love tonightšŸŽµ
He sang and sang and they held the pose and people were cracking up because he wasnt even taking pictures. His camera was down by his sidešŸ˜‚
Finally he told them, ā€œI stopped taking pictures two minutes agoā€.
They were so embarrassed.
This sounds a lot like my buddy Brian. Heā€™s my favorite PPP and one of my all time favorite CMs!
 

Darstarr

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
No
1. Your glasses are super cute!

2. Donā€™t let certain TruValues peer pressure you into a new phone. Stay the old phone club with me. (One of my coworkers saw my phone not too long ago and asked if it was an iPhone 1 šŸ¤£)
My friend got a new car and was showing me the phone charger. ā€œYou just place the phone on this. You dont have to plug it in!ā€
I said ā€œyou donā€™t have to plug it in. Me? I have to plug it in.ā€šŸ˜‚
 

Darstarr

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
No
It makes my heart so happy to hear that someone else loves AK too! I usually only hear people hating on it (yeah, I'm looking at you @Tuvalu !!) I'm very much enjoying following along on this adventure and can't wait to hear about the rest of your day!
Thank you so much for reading.
I really love AK. My only complaint is I never get enough time in the park. And now with the shortened hours it is even harder. I could sit and watch the animals all day (after an 8:00am margarita of course).šŸ˜‡
 

Darstarr

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
No
Monday, August 31 cont

It was Dreā€™s turn not to feel well.
We decided to take the train to the conservation station. It had been closed for awhile and I wanted to see what was up. I will tell you right now, they should have kept it closed.
The train ride was nice. It is neat to see the backstage animal barns. Once we got there we were told the petting zoo is closed because there is no way to physically distance kids running after a goat. Those were the CMā€™s exact words and I appreciated his candor.
Trunks up!
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The Vets were doing a dental procedure on a red river hog brought over from the Lodge. That was pretty cool to watch.
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This is for @imahistorygeek
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We left, underwhelmed. The red river hog was cool. So was the train ride but there really wasnt anything worth the time invested. There was an animation class going on, if that is your thing then it would be worth a trip out.

Maybe a morning snack is in order. AJ loves dumplings! Two please.
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We also got an order of the yummiest fries ever and sat down by the water eating. (We bought the food at Kamal something)
While snacking away this came by:
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