Trip Report The (second) ONE with enhanced cleaning and (a little less) Physical Distancing. Sept 2020

How is everyone doing out there???

A little background on this trip. This trip was origionally booked as a Food and Wine/Birthday girls getaway with two of my friends. We booked The Poly at 7 months Thursday through Sunday. (One friend’s bday was Thurs, the other was Sunday! Sooooo perfect!!!)
Buuuuut, they are both teachers and were not allowed to go. (Read that again. Not Allowed)
I had the reservation and I wanted to go. My friend, R and I had a trip in April we had canceled. We had rescheduled for October to do a Halloween party (Nope!) and a DVC moonlight madness (Nope again). Then, she lost her job so she came back to work with me. Her Mom, Gpa and Uncle own the business.
“Hey R, want to go to Disney in September instead?”
“Yeah!”
“Should we add a night? I still have 18 points I can use.”
“Yeah”
“Do you think we can get the extra day off?”
She looks at me. I look at her.
I mean, her Mom makes the schedule.

She booked her flight, bought her park tickets, made her park reservations and we were set.

Tuesday night, September 15th I caught the sunset and headed to bed for an early start the next morning.

Wednesday, September 16 came early. R’s Gma was flying back to Ft Lauderdale an hour before our flight. So we all went together to help her out.

We were not sitting together because our flights were booked seperately. I asked to move us together but I asked on the late side and it was a no go. It was fine. We watched movies. I love Jet Blue TV’s!

Yay! The sign said 45 minute wait. The woman who checked us in pointed out the sign and said it “could” take 45 minutes.

Overheard on the ME: “Mom, I dont want to go to the Magic Kingdom!”
“Where do you want to go?”
“Legoland!!”
Haha
Lets check the weather...

Notice my phone is only at 44%

Back of the bus. Not a 45 minute wait but about 20.

Too far in the back of the bus to get THE SIGN. How about the side of the road? Almost as good???

For the record, we went to Wilderness Lodge, BLT, the Contemporary and then The Polynesian.

We finally made it and were ready to let the fun begin!!

 

[donaldtoo]

 

[donaldtoo]

Thanks for reading and commenting (see @MickeyCB , someone does pay attention)
As for writing the letter, I feel like it would be rubbing salt in the wound. Theirs, not mine.
I dont think we got any deals on Pandora. R is not a “sales rack” shopper. Especially when she was using her Uncle’s (my bff’s) card

Shopping Disney ducks...!!!!!!!

 

[donaldtoo]

 

[lindawdw]

It's really too bad that some people just can't follow the simplest of rules!

I do feel bad for the CM's that have to enforce the whole mask rule but it's also uncomfortable for the other guests when the safari situation happens too. I can't believe this is the last moments in the park of your trip already! The one thing we've learned about R on this trip is that she certainly loves shopping!!!

 

[donaldtoo]

Friday September 18, 2020

I remember the clock saying 3:30. At 6:30 I gave up and got out of bed. So, for arguments sake, we will say I got 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep.

I showered, made my breakfast and took it out on the balcony.
R slept on...
View attachment 505736

I probably read trip reports. Face timed my husband, it was Friday so the kids were in school. Yay school!!!
After last nights shopping trip I ordered an email delivery Disney GC from Target which I then transferred to the GC in my wallet.
View attachment 505737


I saved $10 on this $200 GC. I told myself I would use that $10 on either a celebratory beer, or the beer to drown my sorrows. See, we were headed to Hollywood Studios today.
You all know what that means. I could barely eat. I had BG stomach already.

R got up and got ready.
We were at the bus stop by 8:55 for a 10:00 open. There are a few benches at the bus stop, half of them are marked “do not sit”, but in a nicer way. Then there are the green physical distancing markers every 6 feet that go up the path we came down.
A bus was just filling up and getting ready to depart.
We were second in line and all three benches were full. Another group came and got behind us, then another group.
The bus driver from the full bus hopped out to speak with a transportation CM who had arrived. The CM said in a booming voice, “Don’t worry, I will call for another bus.”
I yelled, “get two!”
Everyone turned to look at me. Seriously??
The CM, who was big in stature as well as voice, walked toward me with purpose studying me the entire time.
Then he starts counting.
“23, 24, 25. You’re good.” (There was a total of 25 people waiting)
“Yes, but”, I countered, “ we get by groups. Only six groups to a bus.” He counted again. By group this time.
“You’re group five. You’re good.”
I turned to group seven, twelve feet behind me and said, “I got your backs.”
They thanked me.
Buttttttt
Through the magic of Disney, we all got on that bus

9:14am
View attachment 505738
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Beautiful palm trees.

Going through security guess who got stopped.
Guess why.

answers below:

1) R
2) epipen. The epipen I told her to take out of her bag and hold in her hand while going through security.

 

[Darstarr]

It's clever but only if the font is smaller. Like, right now you could read that from a block away

Not me:

 

[Darstarr]

I was at a mall stand ordering a pretzel the other day when a woman with a mask saying "Please keep 6 feet away" walks right up next to me and starts looking at all the pretzels in the display. Do as I say not as I do...

The deli clerks in the grocery store all had new safety yellow vests saying “keep back 6 feet”. Their union must have just handed them out. Meanwhile, two of the guys are practically wrestling and the two ladies were gossiping so they were thisclose to each other and whispering in each others faces.

First of all,

And second, I need a new grocery store.

 

[Darstarr]

God bless that CM. I know they get tired of reminding people to keep their masks on. I have a friend who works at Star Tours, and she kept a tally one day of how many times she had to remind people in a single shift - 35 times. 5 of those were all the same person.

Your poor friend must feel like:

 

[Darstarr]

It's really too bad that some people just can't follow the simplest of rules!

I do feel bad for the CM's that have to enforce the whole mask rule but it's also uncomfortable for the other guests when the safari situation happens too. I can't believe this is the last moments in the park of your trip already! The one thing we've learned about R on this trip is that she certainly loves shopping!!!

 

[Bullseye1967]

Got here late, but great TR!!

 

[Darstarr]

Got here late, but great TR!!

I saw all your “likes”. I was waiting for you to catch up

 

[Darstarr]

Saturday September 19 cont

We walked out of Animal Kingdom towards the buses. I do not think we stopped to shop but I am probably wrong

The bus was full but another came right away. A couple with their young sons were seated near us. The baby dropped a water bottle, mostly empty, on my foot. The Dad said, “uh oh” but made no attempt to pick it up. In pre rona days I would have picked it up and hand it to the child. In rona days I expected the Dad (or Mom or big bro) to pick it up. No one made a move for several minutes. Finally, in my most passive aggressive voice I said to R, “I guess I am throwing the bottle out”. I picked it up and threw it out once we got off.

Earlier I had ordered another GC from target that was delivered by email.

For dinner.

Also, I still could not get in touch with my husband. Maybe he was cooking dinner?

Texting my children: whats up?
.............
Me again: hello???
???
Finally
Them: hey
Me: where is your father
Them: sleeping
Me: What????
Them: he went to the dr. Allergies bothering him.

Home sweet home. If any of you find yourselves staying at the Poly anytime soon, DO NOT STAY IN 3932!!!

(Unless you like fire showers)

We showered and got ready for dinner. The forcast called for heavy rain. Of course.
We had two reservations, the first was for paddlefish. Looking at the menu I knew R would love some of the appetizers. There was a “lounge” menu, further investigation led me to believe the lounge was open air on the top floor. That sounded neat! I wasn't sure if we needed a reservation but I made one and we were going to ask to be seated up in the lounge. Then we had a second reservation about 1.5 hours later for City Works Pour House. (I never made it during my August trip and I really wanted to try it, especially reading @coachwnh ’s rave reviews). We had planned a perfect evening with drinks and apps in two different spots.
Hmmmmm....
what is it they say about the best laid plans???

( ummm, yeah)

We went to the bus stop and there was a line so we waited. And waited. And waited. 30 minutes came and went and it started to rain. And it was time for our first reservation.
I made the executive decision to cancel City Works since we, obviously, due to transportation issues, could not do both restaurants. I would rather have canceled Paddlefish but like I said, it was time.

More people showed up, including a bride and groom. Sadly, a bus did not. R got us a lyft. Slowest lyft ever!!!! There was so much traffic. I think we could have walked there faster.

We were a full 45 minutes late for our Paddlefish reservation. The rain was coming down in buckets. The hosts at Paddlefish were making announcements that if you did not have a reservation to move on as there was no availability. We got in line to see if our reservation would be honored. The bride and groom were right behind us...had they called for a ride as well or taken a bus???

We were sat immediately...this is where the fun begins!! (BTW, we did not ask to be seated in the open air lounge⛈ In fact, I am not sure if it even exists. Does anyone have any insight?? I would like to know for future visits.)

We had a nice view of both the front and backside of water. It was pouring!!!

I had never been to Paddlefish. Nice place. They gave us bags for our masks when we sat down. Fancy!

There was a special menu

It was a good deal and had what we probably would have ordered on it anyway. But first drinks!
R ordered something off the non alcoholic menu. Lemonade with strawberry and basil I think. Then she added Tito’s (Atta girl!)

Big Wave on tap for me.

 

[Swissmiss]

I want to say I can’t believe the other family didn’t pick up the water bottle. Except I can believe it.

 

[BuckyMom]

More than a few years ago, I was in charge of planning a dinner for 2 work groups. Our Milwaukee team and our Atlanta group at Disney- we ended up at Paddlefish. We had that outdoor patio and the room inside right off it. Cocktails and apps out there was awesome. At that time they held it for private parties.

 

[Darstarr]

More than a few years ago, I was in charge of planning a dinner for 2 work groups. Our Milwaukee team and our Atlanta group at Disney- we ended up at Paddlefish. We had that outdoor patio and the room inside right off it. Cocktails and apps out there was awesome. At that time they held it for private parties.

Thanks for the info. I think it would be an awesome place to have a drink!

 

[Darstarr]

Saturday September 19 cont

I promised you fun....

There was a table across the aisle from us with two couples. I could see the couple that was facing me. Both were very preppy looking with perfectly combed hair and bright smiles. They looked like the cover of the Vineyard Vines catalog.
There was a couple across from them, she was sitting adjacent to me so I could see her from the side but I could not see the guy. She looked like.... how do I say this without offending anybody??? She had on a size 6 shirt for a size 12 body, and the shirt must have shrunk and shortened from the top and bottom revealing a lot. None of it good. And she complained about everything. She gave her server such a hard time. The acoustics were not great so we could not hear it all but we could tell by body language and tone etc. Plus the server was totally frazzled.
On the other side of them was a big multigenerational birthday party with about 15 people. Remember them.

Plus Preppy girl had a service dog sitting under her chair the whole time and R was ooohing and ahhhing at it’s cuteness.

There was a lot going on.

Food:
Perusing the menu weeks before R saw crab fries and had to have them. So we ordered them but with sauce on the side because of her allergies. (Hint: if the server can not fet a straight answer from the Chef if an item contains a certain ingredient, that item is not made in house)

So they were fries with crab dumped on top. It was an expensive plate of french fries is what it was.

I ordered the fried green tomatoes as my appetizer. So very delicious!

R got the ahi tuna poke, with everything on the side. It looked a little sad but she enjoyed it.

Entrees
Pork chop for R, which she loved.

Catfish for me which was really good. But I was full and barely ate it. We were leaving the next day so I did not take it to go.

And the floor show continued...

The odd couples left and a new family came in. I do not remember seeing a hostess seat them, they were just there. A grandma, and a couple with a small child. Their server, the frazzled one that TPT had just done a number on, spoke to them as they were seating themselves. Again, not sure what was said but she did not look happy. Turns out, they were with that big birthday party that had been there before we arrived over an hour earlier. The man was miffed at the way the server treated him and told his companions he was going to talk to a manager. He called over a guy who, despite his advanced year and wise looking demeanor, was a server not a manager. The employee listened and nodded and apologized. (Well done. Server of the year award.) But the man refused to eat, out of protest.
What the heck???

We were texting our new friends from HWS and trying to meet up for a drink as they were also in DS.

And it continued to pour.

Time for our third course. We were both stuffed but there were two desserts we wanted to try. We decided to split the chocolate chip cookie sundae and take the chocolate cake to go (to go with the brownie and cupcake we never ate the night before)

Sorry, no dessert pictures but while we were waiting for the check the fun continued. In walked a woman I can not begin to describe so I have a picture.
I was pretending to take a selfie so I could get this for you.

She was with a clean cut stock broker type.

It had been a strange dinner. But delicious too.

R and I ventured out into the rain. It was 9:00 already so we decided to divide and conquor. She had to get something in World of Disney and I promised my boys some Goofy’s candy.

I finished first and stood outside WOD waiting for R and trying to hook up with our RotR friends. But it started to really come down again and they left.

R and I headed to the bus stop. There was no Poly bus. BUT! There was a GF bus with a few parties on it. The driver told us to climb aboard and she would get us to the Poly. She dropped us off first. Yes! Bus redemption!!!

 

[Swissmiss]

A picture is worth a thousand words

And spill it @Darstarr - was preppy girl’s dog a real service dog?

 

[MickeyCB]

The baby dropped a water bottle, mostly empty, on my foot. The Dad said, “uh oh” but made no attempt to pick it up. In pre rona days I would have picked it up and hand it to the child. In rona days I expected the Dad (or Mom or big bro) to pick it up. No one made a move for several minutes. Finally, in my most passive aggressive voice I said to R, “I guess I am throwing the bottle out”. I picked it up and threw it out once we got off.

Since you can't swear on here let me just say, great ooglie mooglies!!

There was a lot going on.

But the man refused to eat, out of protest.
What the heck???

I can't even.....

I was pretending to take a selfie so I could get this for you.

So, one of two things must have happened. It was some comedy gig that you missed the cameras filming or there were 2 full moons hanging!

 

[Loco_driver]

I was pretending to take a selfie so I could get this for you.

Sometimes we forget that WDW is in the middle of FLORIDA, but then things like this happen to remind us!

 

[Darstarr]

A picture is worth a thousand words

And spill it @Darstarr - was preppy girl’s dog a real service dog?

100%
no doubt about it.