Pre-Trip They made me an offer I couldn’t refuse....A 2020 Disney Trip Try #3 🤞🏻

That’s right...I’m back! And still kind of in shock! It’s been one HE🏒🏒 of year right?? Our original trip was for April 2020 but then the Rona happened. So we moved it to the beginning of July thinking “it’ll have to be done by then right??” Wrong! The Rona decided we didn’t need a trip then either. So we gave up and decided to just cancel. 😩 But then a few months later Disney sends you an email...

Let’s go over the intros and details!

Who: Me (Megan), my husband (George), and our daughter Ryleigh
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(Photo from our last minute “since we can’t go to Disney” beach trip which consisted of eating at our condo and staying away from people on the beach)

When: November 5-8

Where: Art of Animation - Little Mermaid section (I know it’s the furthest away but we’re only 3 people and Ryleigh has become quite the Disney movie fanatic during quarantine so I think she’ll love seeing the different sections)

Why: Does being tired of 2020 count????
Our lives got crazy around May this year. My husband was laid off for 6 weeks during quarantine. (Stinks but also nice when he has worked 6/7 days a week during our whole relationship). During this time, he helped his parents do some work around their house and clean out 30 years of “memories” that they have accumulated. (2.5 dumpsters full 😒) This lead them to decide that they were ready to downsize to a smaller home or apartment. Before my husband got laid off, we had been looking at new homes because we were ready for some more room. (God always has a plan!) So we decided to purchase their house once they found somewhere to move to. They built it when my husband was around Ryleigh’s age and I love sentimental stuff like that. We figured if everything happened within the year that would be perfect. But it was more like a couple weeks 😨 They were just browsing at options and within 3 weeks found somewhere that they couldn’t pass up. By the end of June, they purchased it. We put our home on the market and within 4 days we had 7 showings and 3 offers. We signed contingency papers 5 days after the house went on the market. Our original closing was the beginning of August so that gave us one month and a few days to get them into their new home, clean out whatever they left behind, and get our stuff moved into our new/their old house. And that included one week being blocked out because we booked our last minute beach trip before we knew all of this would happen and we couldn’t get out of our reservation. (My in-laws went too) Holy whirlwind!

Mixed in with all of this, life kept throwing us some good ones....we celebrated our 10 year anniversary, had to say goodbye to one of our dogs 😭, and our home kept giving us little surprises like a freak accident breaking our new air conditioning unit! But we managed to make our deadline to close and.....our closing got delayed! 🤬 Our buyers decided they wanted to start making some demands that needed to be met before we closed. We complied and were set to close the end of August and....it got delayed AGAIN! 🤬🤬 More demands. We complied AGAIN (and also informed them that if they pulled that again, they would be finding a new house to buy). Naturally, our household was quite stressed. I had been reading trip reports and seeing posts of low crowds and the itch started. I mentioned to George if we closed by my birthday, we should book a celebratory trip to Disney. He humored the idea and then the signs started....
*I get an email the next day from Disney with a discount code and it was a price that we couldn‘t pass up but we weren’t for sure yet 😨
*During our closing last week (it FINALLY happened!!!), our buyers realtor started talking Disney with me because she remembered seeing all of our Disney decor when she showed our home 😨😨
*The check we got at the closing was a tiny bit more than we expected...almost EXACTLY what my hypothetical trip would cost 😨😨😨
*The cost of the flights is EXACTLY the amount of credits we had from our canceled trip 😨😨😨😨
*Disney Jr recently started showing WDW’s Christmas commercial and Ryleigh gasps every time and proclaims ”I want to go there and ride Bumbo” 😢😨😢😨😢

So to finish out my birthday yesterday, WE BOOKED OUR TRIP! We may be crazy for doing this during a global pandemic but we need some magic! I’m not doing too much broadcasting of our trip because everyone’s got an opinion (entitled to them but it’s to each their own). But I figured my fellow magicians were a good company to share the news with!
 

MegRuss626

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We’re 35 days out! 😯 Time sure flies when you book your trip a month and a half out! And I would like to extend my apologies for the longer wait times I’ve been hearing about in the parks....I’m guessing it’s the effect from us deciding to go for the low crowds! Sounds like our 2020 luck!😒
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(I FINALLY learned how to do this so I won’t be left out of participating in @Darstarr reports!)

But anyways, our magic bands came last week! Ryleigh got the fun Elsa one and George and I have the boring ones because we have puck sliders for the centers that we put on our watches.
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I tried really hard but I couldn't resist doing some Etsy shopping 🤷🏻‍♀️ I’ve beven buying something that I would have never guessed in a million years I would ever need....Disney masks! 😂😷 I figure a fun Disney one to start the day then we have disposable ones. #priorities I got some magic mail this week too! I am a purse girl and when they released the new leopard print Loungefly backpack last month, I HAD TO HAVE IT! I stalked ShopDisney for a couple weeks but it never appeared. The only place it had been located was inside AK which did me no good because we weren’t going to that park - I MAY have contemplated adding a day onto my ticket so I could run in to grab it. I ended up finding it on Mercari with a very minimal markup with a bonus....matching ears!
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Isn’t she beautiful?? 😍
 

Darstarr

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
Beautiful indeed!!!
One is not suppose to overly handle the merchandise to help “preserve the magic” but there may be two or three backpacks and ears at Animal Kingdom with my fingerprints, touch DNA and maybe even a little drool on them. But I did not purchase😞

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MegRuss626

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
That's the one Loungefly backpack I've ever contemplated buying. So cute!!!

Me too!!! I saw that one and instantly fell in love! The ears were an added perk (that I really didn’t need but I’m a sucker for leopard print 🤷🏻‍♀️). I figure I can use it on this trip since I have to carry a little more than usual....extra masks, hand sanitizer, hand wipes, chlorox wipes....the 2020 essentials 😂
 

Swissmiss

Premium Member
Me too!!! I saw that one and instantly fell in love! The ears were an added perk (that I really didn’t need but I’m a sucker for leopard print 🤷🏻‍♀️). I figure I can use it on this trip since I have to carry a little more than usual....extra masks, hand sanitizer, hand wipes, chlorox wipes....the 2020 essentials 😂

Since you say you’re a sucker for leopard print, you need to check out the new Dooney’s at AK (just saw them in a blog post).
 

MegRuss626

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Beautiful indeed!!!
One is not suppose to overly handle the merchandise to help “preserve the magic” but there may be two or three backpacks and ears at Animal Kingdom with my fingerprints, touch DNA and maybe even a little drool on them. But I did not purchase😞

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You have more self control than I! 😂
Since you say you’re a sucker for leopard print, you need to check out the new Dooney’s at AK (just saw them in a blog post).

I saw it! It’s gorgeous! I will have to refrain from buying that one...I got my dream purse for our anniversary this year so no new purses for a while 🤷🏻‍♀️
 

MegRuss626

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Good thing I didn’t do the official plans post last night like I almost did because.....FROZEN WILL BE DOWN FOR MAINTENANCE NOVEMBER 2-6 🤬 (Stupid 2020) I was thankfully able to switch our two park reservations so we can go to Epcot on the 7th so fingers crossed Disney holds up their end of the deal 😩
 

MegRuss626

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Question about grocery delivery to the hotel....we’ve used garden grocer in the past but I was looking and I don’t really want to pay $12 for a case of water. Suggestions and tips are welcome!
 

MegRuss626

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Our “plans”
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(Air quotes because we know 2020 likes to have some fun with plans 😒)

November 5th:
We fly out of Pittsburgh in the early afternoon and luckily we only live about 15 minutes from the airport. We’re contemplating asking my FIL to drive us to the airport. Our only plans for the evening are pool time at the resort. Fun fact: I’m wondering what our resort will end up being. AoA is due to open November 1st but because I’m a crazy planner, I’ve been checking the Disney site to see if they are still on track. As of today, AoA has no availability until the second week of November instead of starting on November 1st. 🤔 I‘m starting to wonder if we’re actually going to get to stay there. We shall see what 2020 has got up it’s sleeve with this one.

November 6th:
Epc.....I mean Magic Kingdom day!
Our plan as of 2 days ago was to spend this day at Epcot. I even managed to get a perfect Garden Grill dinner reservation at 6:30 with the park closing at 7. But then 2020 decided yesterday to throw us a curveball....FEA will be closed November 2-6. So I scrambled and switched our park reservations...Disney better open it on time 😠 But anyways, Magic Kingdom here we come! No fast passes....no dining reservations....no real plans other than riding “Bumbo” and hoping/praying the crowds won’t be too crazy. Ryleigh is just tall enough for 7DMT which is a plus. George and I will probably rider swap (is that still a thing these days?) Splash Mountain since who knows if we’ll get to ride it again before they change it. We’ll probably eat at Cosmic Rays although I hear eating in Disney is hard right @Darstarr ?

November 7th:
Now it’s for real Epcot day...minus the great dinner reservation time and hopefully including riding FEA. I did manage to get a Garden Grill reservation for 4:30 but I‘m checking daily for a later one 🤞🏻 Ryleigh is tall enough for TT and Soarin although I’m not sure she would really like Soarin. Our hope is the same as the day before...please don’t let there be crazy crowds 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻 George’s main goal/plan is to get an egg roll in China. Some backstory to that goal...his goal in October 2014 was to get an egg roll in China but he never did. His goal in November 2015 was to get an egg roll in China but he never did. You can guess how September 2016 went. And October 2018, we didn’t even go to Epcot. I’m not sure why out of all the food in WS he chose the egg roll but here we are. He likes to tell the story as I never let him go to China for said egg roll. He’ll also tell you that I never let him watch the bird show in AK.
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November 8th:
Time to head home! (Hopefully without the Rona as a souvenir) Our flight is around 1 so we won’t have to get up uncomfortably early.
 
Last edited:

Swissmiss

Premium Member
Our “plans”
giphy.gif

(Air quotes because we know 2020 likes to have some fun with plans 😒)

October 5th:
We fly out of Pittsburgh in the early afternoon and luckily we only live about 15 minutes from the airport. We’re contemplating asking my FIL to drive us to the airport. Our only plans for the evening are pool time at the resort. Fun fact: I’m wondering what our resort will end up being. AoA is due to open November 1st but because I’m a crazy planner, I’ve been checking the Disney site to see if they are still on track. As of today, AoA has no availability until the second week of November instead of starting on November 1st. 🤔 I‘m starting to wonder if we’re actually going to get to stay there. We shall see what 2020 has got up it’s sleeve with this one.

October 6th:
Epc.....I mean Magic Kingdom day!
Our plans as of 2 days ago was to spend this day at Epcot. I even managed to get a perfect Garden Grill dinner reservation at 6:30 with the park closing at 7. But then 2020 decided yesterday to throw us a curveball....FEA will be closed November 2-6. So I scrambled and switched our park reservations...Disney better open it on time 😠 But anyways, Magic Kingdom here we come! No fast passes....no dining reservations....no real plans other than riding “Bumbo” and hoping/praying the crowds won’t be too crazy. Ryleigh is just tall enough for 7DMT which is a plus. George and I will probably rider swap (is that still a thing these days?) Splash Mountain since who knows if we’ll get to ride it again before they change it. We’ll probably eat at Cosmic Rays although I hear eating in Disney is hard right @Darstarr ?

October 7th:
Now it’s for real Epcot day...minus the great dinner reservation time and hopefully including riding FEA. I did manage to get a Garden Grill reservation for 4:30 but I‘m checking daily for a later one 🤞🏻 Ryleigh is tall enough for TT and Soarin although I’m not sure she would really like Soarin. Our hope is the same as the day before...please don’t let there be crazy crowds 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻 George’s main goal/plan is to get an egg roll in China. Some backstory to that goal...his goal in October 2014 was to get an egg roll in China but he never did. His goal in November 2015 was to get an egg roll in China but he never did. You can guess how September 2016 went. And October 2018, we didn’t even go to Epcot. I’m not sure why out of all the food in WS he chose the egg roll but here we are. He likes to tell the story as I never let him go to China for said egg roll. He’ll also tell you that I never let him watch the bird show in AK.
giphy.gif


October 8th:
Time to head home! (Hopefully without the Rona as a souvenir) Our flight is around 1 so we won’t have to get up uncomfortably early.
You might want to correct the dates of your plans 😉
 

MegRuss626

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
3 weeks from today we’ll be on our way! (Don’t you get any ideas Covid 🤨) I’m not going to lie...seeing these wait times of 45 to 60+ minutes for rides has got me a little nervous. Ryleigh is pretty good but I can’t see a 3 year old waiting that long to ride something.....who are we kidding, I don’t like to wait that long to ride something. 🤷🏻‍♀️
 

plaz10

Well-Known Member
3 weeks from today we’ll be on our way! (Don’t you get any ideas Covid 🤨) I’m not going to lie...seeing these wait times of 45 to 60+ minutes for rides has got me a little nervous. Ryleigh is pretty good but I can’t see a 3 year old waiting that long to ride something.....who are we kidding, I don’t like to wait that long to ride something. 🤷🏻‍♀️
If your 3 year old is anything like our 3 year old - snacks are life. And mine LOVED popcorn so a refillable popcorn bucket was key. Not only a cheap snack (for the whole family honestly) but it saved us from many a meltdown in line. And since you’ll be stationary and 6 feet from the other parties...handful of popcorn every 6 feet 😂
 

MegRuss626

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
If your 3 year old is anything like our 3 year old - snacks are life. And mine LOVED popcorn so a refillable popcorn bucket was key. Not only a cheap snack (for the whole family honestly) but it saved us from many a meltdown in line. And since you’ll be stationary and 6 feet from the other parties...handful of popcorn every 6 feet 😂

I would have never even thought to take the popcorn in line....such a great idea! We went to Boo at the Zoo last weekend and she was content riding in her wagon chowing down on some popcorn! Thanks!
 

MegRuss626

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We’ve reached single digits! And I realized something when getting our luggage out.....I have to change our tags since we moved. Never even occurred to me until I looked at one of the tags. 🤷🏻‍♀️😂 Thankfully we had the tags Disney sent with our magic bands and the tags they sent from our canceled trip....crisis averted! Now the luggage will sit empty while I make a million lists over the next 9 days, stress about having everything on said list, and finally put everything into the suitcase around midnight the night before we fly out. I’m a professional procrastinator while also being an anxious planner....I’m a good time! 😂
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RememberWhen

Well-Known Member
We’ve reached single digits! And I realized something when getting our luggage out.....I have to change our tags since we moved. Never even occurred to me until I looked at one of the tags. 🤷🏻‍♀️😂 Thankfully we had the tags Disney sent with our magic bands and the tags they sent from our canceled trip....crisis averted! Now the luggage will sit empty while I make a million lists over the next 9 days, stress about having everything on said list, and finally put everything into the suitcase around midnight the night before we fly out. I’m a professional procrastinator while also being an anxious planner....I’m a good time! 😂
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So cute! And single digits!! Yay!!
 

MegRuss626

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So I‘ve been looking at what weather is typically like in November in Orlando. It’s the least rainy month out of the year and maybe rains all of 4 days the entire month. My only theory is @Darstarr is planning a secret trip on my exact dates.
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(You can also see that I was looking at PJs for Ryleigh this evening....how does it know??? 🤔)
 

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