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!!

 

[Darstarr]

HOTDOG!

Hi @Rista1313

 

[dave&di]

Looking forward to another TR!

 

[LSV]

Lurking as usual. Not even gonna try to gif.

 

[Loco_driver]

Haha
Not a hat rack indeed. You will be mentioned many times in this TR so pay close attention!

I’ll be paying very close attention!

 

[Darstarr]

Looking forward to another TR!

Glad to have you (both?) here

Lurking as usual. Not even gonna try to gif.

LURKER!

Awwwwe, give the gif a try. Everyone’s doin‘ it.

 

[Darstarr]

Wednesday September 16th

We arrived at The Poly! Yay!
Hmmm, why hasn't our instacart order been delivered yet?

The Poly is odd in that not only does it have Bell Services, but it also has Valet. And never the two shall meet! More on this as it unfolds.

First, some proof of life photos to send to R’s Mom. First one side:

Then the other:

We schlepped our bags inside to see what the real situation was with our room.

Lawrence at the front desk saw I requested Tokelau (as per True Value’s recommendation). He said there were two rooms in Pagu Pagu, and pointed to their location on a map. Both were overlooking the parking lot so we decided to wait for Tokelau.
“You are going to give us the best room right Lawrence? We will wait for the best room, thank you!”
Lawrence and I joked back and forth a bit. It was a nice Aloha!
“Lawrence, we are going to go to Epcot, can we leave our bags with bell services?“(The BS desk is connected to the front desk).
“Take them back out to Valet. They will store them for you.”
I have to say, maybe I am uncouth or uncultured or I plain old dont get out much but, isnt Valet for cars? And isnt bell services for luggage? My most recent stay was at SSR and they had Bell Services right there as soon as you pulled up. And they hustled. Whatever we needed they were there to help. Meanwhile, back at The Poly, we schlepped our bags back outside to Valet.
“And we are expecting a small instacart order as well.”
“No problem Miss. Aloha.”
Hmmmm, thinking to myself, where is that instacart order???

At the bus stop

Our first bus to our first park!!!

Our first threat of rain. NOT to be the last. But we had ponchos and a good attitude!

Back to 95%-love them portable chargers!

We were starving! About 4 weeks prior to our trip we printed out the Epcot booth menus. We then highlighted the items we had to have. Mine was color coordinated. Mine had pink for food. Mine had yellow for drinks. Mine had orange for desserts. Mine was still home on my dresser
R had hers!

Not all was lost. I had taken a photo of mine to send to R. Mine was in my phones photos.

 

[Darstarr]

Wednesday Sept 16 cont

“R, we are going to have a great time today! In fact, we are going to have a ball!”

Then it was time for a photo shoot.

Can you turn on the wind machine?
Thanks.

Can we mix it up?

How about a couple uncomfortable single close ups?

Let’s get down to business!!! We agreed Poutine would be our first stop. R got in line for the poutine, I got in line for my traditional first Epcot drink, Moosehead draft.

Had to send that pix to X, as per tradition.

After I got my beer I jumped on line to get R the Orange wine slushie she had highlighted. She met me in line with the poutine. The couple in front of us had something from some booth, I dont remember exactly what. But they were stationary and we are physically distanced in line, and we werent really moving so they ate their food. R and I did the same. The poutine was so good! So good.

When it was time to order the slushy the poutine was long gone. “R! They have lobster here!” On her menu, all lobster items and most of the slushy drinks were highlighted. We ordered the lobster and the orange wine slushy.

I am not a huge lobster fan but I tried it. It was chewy and overcooked. The drink was good.

Life was good.

*One note here*
I might have mentioned once or twice that eating at WDW is hard. Well, R has allergies. Like carry an epipen allergies. This is one of the reason we preprinted the menus.

Also, her epipen set off the alarm in the new security screening system (love btw) when we entered Epcot. “R, just make sure you take it out next time we go through security.”

 

[krause]

WHY IS THE GRAVY UNDER THE CHEESE CURDS ON THAT POUTINE?! That is how you get the perfect melty stringy cheese that defines a poutine. Tell them to let Canada back in (not that we’d ever come there right now )

 

[93boomer]

I’m here!!!! On our last night at WDW. I need something to read going back tomorrow!!

 

[Songbird76]

Wednesday September 16th

We arrived at The Poly! Yay!
Hmmm, why hasn't our instacart order been delivered yet?

The Poly is odd in that not only does it have Bell Services, but it also has Valet. And never the two shall meet! More on this as it unfolds.

First, some proof of life photos to send to R’s Mom. First one side:
View attachment 500674View attachment 500675
Then the other:
View attachment 500676
View attachment 500678

We schlepped our bags inside to see what the real situation was with our room.
View attachment 500680

Lawrence at the front desk saw I requested Tokelau (as per True Value’s recommendation). He said there were two rooms in Pagu Pagu, and pointed to their location on a map. Both were overlooking the parking lot so we decided to wait for Tokelau.
“You are going to give us the best room right Lawrence? We will wait for the best room, thank you!”
Lawrence and I joked back and forth a bit. It was a nice Aloha!
“Lawrence, we are going to go to Epcot, can we leave our bags with bell services?“(The BS desk is connected to the front desk).
“Take them back out to Valet. They will store them for you.”
I have to say, maybe I am uncouth or uncultured or I plain old dont get out much but, isnt Valet for cars? And isnt bell services for luggage? My most recent stay was at SSR and they had Bell Services right there as soon as you pulled up. And they hustled. Whatever we needed they were there to help. Meanwhile, back at The Poly, we schlepped our bags back outside to Valet.
“And we are expecting a small instacart order as well.”
“No problem Miss. Aloha.”
Hmmmm, thinking to myself, where is that instacart order???

At the bus stop
View attachment 500677
Our first bus to our first park!!!

View attachment 500682

Our first threat of rain. NOT to be the last. But we had ponchos and a good attitude!
View attachment 500681
Back to 95%-love them portable chargers!

We were starving! About 4 weeks prior to our trip we printed out the Epcot booth menus. We then highlighted the items we had to have. Mine was color coordinated. Mine had pink for food. Mine had yellow for drinks. Mine had orange for desserts. Mine was still home on my dresser
R had hers!
View attachment 500683
Not all was lost. I had taken a photo of mine to send to R. Mine was in my phones photos.

I'm so glad to hear I'm not the only person who makes color coded lists!!!! Thank you for that! My husband laughs at me. For our 2016 trip, I had made a list of Disney Restaurants where I had written down what kind of food they had and highlighted in different colors...items we want to try, items we love and would want to know where we could get them, places with french fries for our picky son. I had separated it into QS and TS. Then I had a basic itinerary with which park we were in each day, listing the ADRs and fast passes for the day, and since we were also traveling to Wyoming on that trip, and there was a library book sale in my home town, I had made a list of books I already have and a list of books I still wanted so I could look for them there. And I had a list of important addresses and phone numbers...for lodging, friends we wanted to see, and people we wanted to send postcards to. I thought it was all perfectly reasonable, and I sent the lists to my husband to print off. He also included a "List of lists" as a joke.


Don't forget to recharge the portable chargers. That's my husband's trick. Use the charger, then leave it empty in the bag so it does no good the next day. Or leave the cords in the hotel. I took over the power banks for our trip last summer so I could make sure they were full and brought along.

 

[Songbird76]

Wednesday Sept 16 cont

“R, we are going to have a great time today! In fact, we are going to have a ball!”
View attachment 500687


Then it was time for a photo shoot.
View attachment 500692
Can you turn on the wind machine?
Thanks.
View attachment 500693

Can we mix it up?

View attachment 500694

How about a couple uncomfortable single close ups?

View attachment 500695
View attachment 500696

Let’s get down to business!!! We agreed Poutine would be our first stop. R got in line for the poutine, I got in line for my traditional first Epcot drink, Moosehead draft.
View attachment 500688
Had to send that pix to X, as per tradition.

View attachment 500689

After I got my beer I jumped on line to get R the Orange wine slushie she had highlighted. She met me in line with the poutine. The couple in front of us had something from some booth, I dont remember exactly what. But they were stationary and we are physically distanced in line, and we werent really moving so they ate their food. R and I did the same. The poutine was so good! So good.

When it was time to order the slushy the poutine was long gone. “R! They have lobster here!” On her menu, all lobster items and most of the slushy drinks were highlighted. We ordered the lobster and the orange wine slushy.
View attachment 500690

I am not a huge lobster fan but I tried it. It was chewy and overcooked. The drink was good.

Life was good.
View attachment 500691

*One note here*
I might have mentioned once or twice that eating at WDW is hard. Well, R has allergies. Like carry an epipen allergies. This is one of the reason we preprinted the menus.

Also, her epipen set off the alarm in the new security screening system (love btw) when we entered Epcot. “R, just make sure you take it out next time we go through security.”

I love your skirt!! And your t-shirt! Nice combo.

 

[Darstarr]

WHY IS THE GRAVY UNDER THE CHEESE CURDS ON THAT POUTINE?! That is how you get the perfect melty stringy cheese that defines a poutine. Tell them to let Canada back in (not that we’d ever come there right now )

I think the heat of the day handled the melty situation. To be honest, it did not last long enough to get melty...we was hungry!!!

 

[Darstarr]

I’m here!!!! On our last night at WDW. I need something to read going back tomorrow!!

Oh man. It’s over already? Will we be hearing from you???

 

[Darstarr]

I love your skirt!! And your t-shirt! Nice combo.

Why thank you.

 

[93boomer]

Oh man. It’s over already? Will we be hearing from you???

Hey it went by too quickly!! I don’t do TRs any more. I feel in my friends but that’s about all the time I have. We did have a good time though. Glad we came!

 

[LSV]

I did it! Had to use my laptop, no success (after many attempts) when I tried on my phone.

 

[Darstarr]

I did it! Had to use my laptop, no success (after many attempts) when I tried on my phone.

All the gifs in the world and this is what you debut with?

 

[krisri18]

I'm 3 pages behind but totally along for the ride! (As long as Phoebe's not driving)

 

[LSV]

All the gifs in the world and this is what you debut with?

Finding and posting gifs is like eating at WDW these days:

so back to lurking for me

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Are you physically distancing your TR posts @Darstarr ?

()