Trip Report This is the End, Beautiful Friend - October 2020 Trip

Ok ok, the title is a bit dramatic, but if you get the music reference, we can be friends. Fun fact: I used to write that on the last page of all my journals in high school :hilarious: I have always been a bit of a drama queen.

I've gone back and forth about even doing this trip report because, as you can probably tell from the title, we were not as happy with the current state of WDW as others are. I'll tell you up front, we don't plan to go back until things are back to semi-normal. I guess we'll use our judgement on how normal it needs to be before we make the effort.

Here we are, well what you can see of us...


I'm in the middle of busy wedding season, but I'll try to get this all written up quickly! Hope you're all doing well, I've enjoyed following along with everyone else's reports, so I hope you'll enjoy mine. The good and the sad 😬 We did have TWO magic meetups, which were highlights of the trip!

Let's do this thing!
 
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Back!Elbow!Shoulders!

Back!Elbow!Shoulders!

Omnia mutantur, nihil interit
Premium Member
Another new TR?
happy bob's burgers GIF
 
sheriffwoody

sheriffwoody

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
A little background on this trip:

We cancelled our March trip because of Covid (Disney ended up closing right before we would have been going). That was supposed to be our chance to take our daughter again, and I was so sad to miss it. We rescheduled for September so as not to lose our Southwest points (they later extended the travel fund expirations). We ended up buying a house in July and selling ours shortly after, putting us getting home from Disney the day before closing. When we realized how much work we had to do on the house we were leaving, we moved the trip out to January.

Well...after closing, we had about $3K more money than we thought we would from the house we sold, and you know what you can do for $3K? A Disney trip! We set it for October 25-29. R thought it was too short, but I didn't want to leave our daughter for too long. We debated taking her, but I just really didn't know what she'd enjoy without all the entertainment and characters. Fall is also supposed to be our "Us" trip, ya know?

Since the Poly was closed (our original resort choice) we decided to try the Riviera. There was a decent discount for TN residents, so I felt like we got a good deal. It did suck to pay for tickets, but we'd cancelled our APs and they weren't selling them anymore (looking back, I'm glad!).

Our flight was on a Sunday, and my mom arrived 30 minutes early to our house, so we got on the road early. We flew out of Nashville so that we could get a non-stop. 1 hr longer drive, but worth it.



BNA has changed a lot since we have been there, but we managed to get parked and inside. We splurged on long-term parking instead of economy because I hate taking the shuttle.



We were SO early. Got through security and sat down at our gate about 2 hours before the flight :hilarious: This area seemed new, but I don't know. When we flew back it was the area I was used to being in, so I don't know why we were here!

I read a little and people watched. Only one man was not wearing his mask right. He was taking it down while he talked. I felt bad for the woman he was talking to...she was not giving "talk to me" vibes :hilarious:

Flight went smoothly and I started watching Rebecca, which I downloaded on Netflix. That's my favorite book, and I wasn't happy with the adaptation, but I won't get into it. I do love Lily James though.



I don't know why I took this picture on the fonorail, but R was watching football. I also remember that BNA was NOT playing the Titans game on the tvs at our gate. What the heck? That was weird and I heard several people comment on it.



Got off the fonorail and headed to get our bags. So far it was definitely less crowded than normal but certainly not empty.



Now this looks empty! We waited just a minute to be let into our line for ME. Then we waited maybe 5 minutes to get onto a bus. Honestly not back waits at all.



45 minutes was definitely not accurate.



Waiting on our painters tape.



We made it onto Magical Express! The driver gave us a row as we got on and I was so nervous counting down. I was afraid I would lose count and go to the wrong one. Thankfully, we got seated without incident.

I can't remember what the first stop was, but the second was Caribbean Beach and then we were at Riviera in a flash!



I thought it was very pretty!



My friend just stayed here and I knew I had to try this cafe at some point.



Headed up to our room! A nice cast member directed us to the correct elevators, thankfully. I don't know how long it would have taken us to find our room without him.



Really blown away by all the art in the resort.



Almost there! We were just a short walk from the elevators, which was awesome!! I loved our room location.



Light fixture for you, @Doc Disney

Up next: Some very sub-par iphone room photos + Disney Springs
 
sheriffwoody

sheriffwoody

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
My camera was at the bottom of my backpack, and I am lazy, so you get some iphone snaps of our room. Sorry!


This is from the bed area, looking back at the door.


The pull-down twin bed, which I forgot to take a picture of pulled out! It has a cute Pascal design.




This also pulls out into a bed. We normally sleep on separate beds at Disney because we're used to a king, but we left this one folded up and shared the main bed. Maybe that's why we slept poorly this whole trip :hilarious:


The main bed. I like the lights over the nightstands



Cool French art by the bed.



Bathroom. To the left of this is the toilet and a walk-in shower. To the right is a bath/shower combo.



Soon after we got there, we got a text from @blreinsel that they were headed to Disney Springs. Yep, we had a meetup already! The four of us got together a couple of years ago for drinks and had a great time, so we were excited to see them again. We vowed not to drink nearly as much this time though. R and I had dinner plans later anyway, so we knew we'd have to cut ourselves off :hilarious:




Headed to the bus stop! I don't think we waited that long for this bus, but most of the time we waited at least 20 minutes.



Made it to springs! We popped into Zara to look for something for LP. I love their clothes for her. I didn't get anything though since I was mainly looking for our family photos and they didn't have anything in the right colors.



We decided to meet them at Dockside Margaritas, so we headed that way (and I was lost of course)

We ended up finding it and got a nice table on the patio. We had a great time chatting with them for probably at least an hour? Maybe a little more...one drinks worth for me and two for R :hilarious: The roaming server kept trying to pressure me into another, but I was saving myself for dinner. ha!



The sky was so pretty, I had to get up and take this!



Soon we had to say goodbye to Brittany and Dylan :cry: Dinner was calling and I wanted to pop into the Co-op for an art print. We had a great time chatting with them again, and I hope we get to do this again soon!

Up next: Dinner!
 
sheriffwoody

sheriffwoody

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
donaldtoo

donaldtoo

Well-Known Member
sheriffwoody said:
A little background on this trip:

We cancelled our March trip because of Covid (Disney ended up closing right before we would have been going). That was supposed to be our chance to take our daughter again, and I was so sad to miss it. We rescheduled for September so as not to lose our Southwest points (they later extended the travel fund expirations). We ended up buying a house in July and selling ours shortly after, putting us getting home from Disney the day before closing. When we realized how much work we had to do on the house we were leaving, we moved the trip out to January.

Well...after closing, we had about $3K more money than we thought we would from the house we sold, and you know what you can do for $3K? A Disney trip! We set it for October 25-29. R thought it was too short, but I didn't want to leave our daughter for too long. We debated taking her, but I just really didn't know what she'd enjoy without all the entertainment and characters. Fall is also supposed to be our "Us" trip, ya know?

Since the Poly was closed (our original resort choice) we decided to try the Riviera. There was a decent discount for TN residents, so I felt like we got a good deal. It did suck to pay for tickets, but we'd cancelled our APs and they weren't selling them anymore (looking back, I'm glad!).

Our flight was on a Sunday, and my mom arrived 30 minutes early to our house, so we got on the road early. We flew out of Nashville so that we could get a non-stop. 1 hr longer drive, but worth it.



BNA has changed a lot since we have been there, but we managed to get parked and inside. We splurged on long-term parking instead of economy because I hate taking the shuttle.



We were SO early. Got through security and sat down at our gate about 2 hours before the flight :hilarious: This area seemed new, but I don't know. When we flew back it was the area I was used to being in, so I don't know why we were here!

I read a little and people watched. Only one man was not wearing his mask right. He was taking it down while he talked. I felt bad for the woman he was talking to...she was not giving "talk to me" vibes :hilarious:

Flight went smoothly and I started watching Rebecca, which I downloaded on Netflix. That's my favorite book, and I wasn't happy with the adaptation, but I won't get into it. I do love Lily James though.



I don't know why I took this picture on the fonorail, but R was watching football. I also remember that BNA was NOT playing the Titans game on the tvs at our gate. What the heck? That was weird and I heard several people comment on it.



Got off the fonorail and headed to get our bags. So far it was definitely less crowded than normal but certainly not empty.



Now this looks empty! We waited just a minute to be let into our line for ME. Then we waited maybe 5 minutes to get onto a bus. Honestly not back waits at all.



45 minutes was definitely not accurate.



Waiting on our painters tape.



We made it onto Magical Express! The driver gave us a row as we got on and I was so nervous counting down. I was afraid I would lose count and go to the wrong one. Thankfully, we got seated without incident.

I can't remember what the first stop was, but the second was Caribbean Beach and then we were at Riviera in a flash!



I thought it was very pretty!



My friend just stayed here and I knew I had to try this cafe at some point.



Headed up to our room! A nice cast member directed us to the correct elevators, thankfully. I don't know how long it would have taken us to find our room without him.



Really blown away by all the art in the resort.



Almost there! We were just a short walk from the elevators, which was awesome!! I loved our room location.



Light fixture for you, @Doc Disney

Up next: Some very sub-par iphone room photos + Disney Springs
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As per my user name, LOVIN’ the Donald suitcase...!!!!! :inlove::happy:;):)
 
donaldtoo

donaldtoo

Well-Known Member
sheriffwoody said:
Honestly the weirdest song, and I judge my parents for letting me listen to them :hilarious: But I was low key obsessed with Jim Morrison for a while.
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:hilarious:
Yep, I was quite “The Doors” fan back in the early 80’s, and even read the biography “No One Here Gets Out Alive”. Jim Morrison may have been a genius in some ways, but, he was also crazier than a poophouse 💩 rat...!!!!! :hilarious:
 
sheriffwoody

sheriffwoody

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
donaldtoo said:
:hilarious:
Yep, I was quite “The Doors” fan back in the early 80’s, and even read the biography “No One Here Gets Out Alive”. Jim Morrison may have been a genius in some ways, but, he was also crazier than a poophouse 💩 rat...!!!!! :hilarious:
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hahaha I read that too! I have been thinking of reading it again. And yeah he was a major nutter. I have several books of his poetry too, but I don't know who I'm kidding, I don't get most poetry...

Also, glad you love the suitcase! That was my bday present a few years ago and it's been so fun to take on Disney trips. We both pack in it since it's so huge, and it's always a mystery if it'll be less than 50lbs :hilarious:
 
Songbird76

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
Swissmiss said:
I had to laugh seeing the photo of Mademoiselle Mouse - they clearly did not proofread all of it 🤣
Click to expand...
Oh that's always fun...I like laughing at the TV shows that try to speak Dutch. There's a Thanksgiving episode on Friends where they are playing football and meet a "Dutch" woman, and my husband just rolled his eyes because "she doesn't even know how to pronounce her own name! She's so not Dutch!"

But they should at least proofread! I can forgive people not being able to pronounce something. But spelling is easy to check...make the effort!
 

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