"Can We Un-Birthday Yet?" A He, SMEE, & They Sept. 2020 Trip Report *Update 11/21 COMPLETE!*

[Wood Nymph]

We found that Peter Pan was a walk on while Pirates had a long line when we were there in October, which is the opposite of the usual experience.

I've read some negative reviews of Frontera Cocina, so I'm glad to hear that the food has improved.

 

[JWeston8716]

I live in Maine and work on a college campus, and both of my boys go to UMaine, but different campuses. My older son is all remote this semester and my younger son (this is his first semester of college) is on campus, but will be remote for the time between Thanksgiving and the end of the term. The college I work at is doing the same thing, although we are having rising cases, so they are supposed to determine today if the health code will change and what that will mean. I am working on campus now but will be working remote from Thanksgiving until early January.

 

[KathyM2]

Yes her daughter is on the mend and NO she didn't come home for the wedding...but she will be home for Thanksgiving anyway and then home until sometime in January as that's the earliest they will allow them back at college after that. My friend even thinks the wedding is just nuts anyway...in the current climate, and they won't be outdoors.

This is just mind boggling. I am very very scared to see what happens in the US to case numbers after Thanksgiving because from what I am hearing, a lot of people are not changing their plans to travel or gather in large groups as they usually would. Yikes. My son's boarding school in the US is not even taking a Thanksgiving break, they are getting a half day off school. Anyone who leaves for Thanksgiving break will not be allowed back on campus until January. Also, all the staff and students are being rapid tested before and after Thanksgiving. I'm so thankful that his school is being so careful.

Back to Disney...looks like you guys had a great last day @CruellaNY . I always debated whether taking a later flight and trying to have some last day park time was a good idea because it just seems like a pain to have to store luggage and such, but I guess it's all worth it to have some more rides and Disney food lol...maybe when I can eventually get back I will give it a try lol

 

[CruellaNY]

o nice! I must check out our AE when I am in town this week!

Yes! It was a nice surprise and I can't wait to wear my new duds next week in Disney

It looks like an amazing day at AK. It's always my favourite park!

It's quickly moving up to my favorite! Our days there the last 2 trips have been about the best OF the trips and I am really looking forward to our day there next week.

I can't believe your trip is only 8 days away now. Once again, I will be living vicariously through your travels. Hope you have an amazing time

One week from tomorrow! Already started a bit of Christmas decorating to be ahead of the game when we return lol, now to pack soon!

They gave you a ride. It's not polite to then disparage their driving.

Oh no no, I leave the disparaging driving remarks to comments about @Jenny Sanders smelly ol' Budget rental

I wonder how many days... weeks... months you'd have to stay there before you were like: "Whelp. Guess it's time to go home now. I'm done."

I volunteer to find out!
We did a 10 night stay once back in 2014. I could have stayed another few nights but the boys were ready to leave. Ingrates!

Skelemonks.

+ 🐿

 

[CruellaNY]

AH those empty park photos...brings back so many great memories of our August trip before people started coming back to the parks. I loved being able to walk on to so many rides back then. It was defintely not the same this time around but it wasn't horrible.

It was different in September than it was for us in July, but like you said not horrible at all. I hope after our Thanksgiving trip I can also say hot horrible lol!

STUPID maskless people...UGH!

Melinda and I were making comments behind them about how annoying they were Worse was that as we were about to go down that hill in Pirates their son STOOD UP. Kinda hoped he would fall over in a sick way although that would have ruined MY last day!

July was the first time we'd missed MK on our departure day (dang park reservation system and no park hopping!) otherwise that is always our last park. I always have to say goodbye to the castle!

Often we would run to a different park for a ride or two on departure day and then hit MK so I feel you.

not goodbye, maybe just see ya real soon!)

I hope you have an AMAZING trip with your boys next week! I'm super jealous

Thank you!! At least 3 out of the 4 of us are looking forward to it

I may have ordered stuff from AE as soon as I saw Ariane's post...

I gotta see what you bought!

 

[CruellaNY]

We are at a spot here in AL where they're seriously considering going to remote learning from Thanksgiving break thru Christmas break, which isn't the same thing at all of course, but it's all just such a mess.

Well same or not, as you said it's all a mess. So far here they aren't saying the kids will be remote after Thanksgiving; if they do then Chris will have been in school 6 days I definitely feel NYC schools will shut down before Christmas as their rate is higher than ours. And who knows come January what will be what.

I hope you guys have an awesome trip next week!

Thanks Katie

We found that Peter Pan was a walk on while Pirates had a long line when we were there in October, which is the opposite of the usual experience.

Yes! It was like that in July and September! So weird, possibly since their using all "ships" on PP and only seating the first and last rows on Pirates?

I've read some negative reviews of Frontera Cocina, so I'm glad to hear that the food has improved.

I hadn't heard anything great about it and that's one reason we'd never been. But I do want to eventually try ALL restaurants and I do also trust Melinda and her DH's taste It's not the best Mexican we've had but it was really good and I wouldn't hesitate to go back.

I live in Maine and work on a college campus, and both of my boys go to UMaine, but different campuses. My older son is all remote this semester and my younger son (this is his first semester of college) is on campus, but will be remote for the time between Thanksgiving and the end of the term. The college I work at is doing the same thing, although we are having rising cases, so they are supposed to determine today if the health code will change and what that will mean. I am working on campus now but will be working remote from Thanksgiving until early January.

I hope your freshman is able to enjoy his first year to some degree like Ricky is! Quinnipiac is also remote after Thanksgiving through the end of the semester and most other colleges I know are including all the SUNY schools. SUNY moved back the start of the spring semester to Feb. 1st. Ricky is still set to go back after MLK weekend but we'll see! Quinnipiac did announce they are able to go back down to orange status from red as of tomorrow for the last few days before the kids all return home. Not much but it's good they've controlled the # of cases and gotten them lower again. Best of luck to you and both your sons!

My son's boarding school in the US is not even taking a Thanksgiving break, they are getting a half day off school. Anyone who leaves for Thanksgiving break will not be allowed back on campus until January. Also, all the staff and students are being rapid tested before and after Thanksgiving. I'm so thankful that his school is being so careful.

Most colleges here are not going back after Thanksgiving but are staying remote for the last couple weeks of the semester and the SUNY schools just announced that all students will be tested before returning home- and before returning which they failed to do in August! Quinnipiac will again require the kids to be tested prior to returning in January and then they'll test again within 2 days of returning while doing their 1st 2 weeks remote. I do hope they all get to go back after the holidays!

I always debated whether taking a later flight and trying to have some last day park time was a good idea because it just seems like a pain to have to store luggage and such, but I guess it's all worth it to have some more rides and Disney food lol...maybe when I can eventually get back I will give it a try lol

It does sound like a pain and that's how I used to feel! But it's not really at all; storing luggage is so easy and then it's just grabbing it quick before getting on ME!

 

[pkondz]

Oh no no, I leave the disparaging driving remarks to comments about @Jenny Sanders smelly ol' Budget rental

I volunteer to find out!

Me too!!! We can compare notes!

We did a 10 night stay once back in 2014. I could have stayed another few nights but the boys were ready to leave. Ingrates!

Foolish mortals.
They're too young to know any better.

 

[vamassey1]

Our last day, the day we all dread!

YES, totally agree.

Then on a Feb. 2014 trip flights worked out that we left around 7pm so we gave it a try, and since then it's our preference to be able to do a park on departure day; makes the last night a little easier to swallow.

We have started doing park days on our last days too. I really like it, it 's growing on DH.

I have never seen this. You should frame it.

Steve just got coffee and we easily found a physically distanced table inside while I enjoyed EVERY.SINGLE.BITE of this:

Yum!

unfortunately as we thought we did not get our ride photo because a family of nimrods sitting in front of us had their masks off as soon as we pulled away

So rude!

 

[CruellaNY]

Me too!!! We can compare notes!

We have started doing park days on our last days too. I really like it, it 's growing on DH.

It's never thrilling in hot months when you get on a plane after spending sweaty hours in the parks lol, but at that point I really don't care what anyone else thinks!

I have never seen this. You should frame it.

LOL true, and I highly doubt we'll see that next week

 

[Terra Nova guy]

unfortunately as we thought we did not get our ride photo because a family of nimrods sitting in front of us had their masks off as soon as we pulled away

Ah yes, the 'maskholes' strike again.

 

[CruellaNY]

Happy Weekend!

Anyone else get their McD's Disney toys yet?



And that's not even all of them! I got 2 full sets of the 10 and then about 6 "extras". Steve "knows people" lol. My favorite? Tower of Terror of course!

Before I finish our September departure day I thought I'd give you a quick run through of what we have planned for our Thanksgiving trip starting next Wednesday So happy the boys will be with us!

Wednesday 11/25: land around 10am and Lyft to BLT. Drop stuff and go to Epcot. Grab a QS lunch, hopefully see the cavalcades, ride Test Track so Chris feels the day is worthwhile and have dinner at Tutto Italia. I don't know that we'll need to stay to close since we should be there at noon but at least we should be there when it's dark which is my favorite time to be in the parks.
Thursday 11/26: Happy Turkey Day all! We'll get to AK EARLY - at least 3 of us will, Chris will probably meet us there later. Ricky's favorite ride is FOP so we'll go right there; nobody else will do that right We'll either do lunch at Yak & Yeti using our Landry's card and then take a break at the resort before going to DS for a late dinner at the Boathouse. I want to see some of the DS trees so hoping it's not ridiculously crowded and we're comfortable staying.
Friday 11/27: MK day! Again we'll get there before opening but this time we can walk! I want to see ALL the cavalcades. Not sure what we'll do for lunch since my previous reservation was messed up in the glitch but we'll go to dinner at the Wave. Easy to get there and easy to get back to the park afterwards if we want.
Saturday 11/28: HS today. First time the boys will see Galaxy's Edge and even though they aren't SW fans Ricky is looking forward to seeing it and to riding MMRR. Yes we'll try for a ROTR boarding group! I am sure if we don't get the 7am one we'll still be in the park to try for the 2pm one because everyone has their "favorites" to ride here and I know lines are going to be unpleasantly long.
We have lunch at HBD. How long we stay will depend on lines and when/if we get a boarding pass but otherwise I think we'll definitely end up taking a break at some point. I may suggest taking the skyliner to Riviera as the kids haven't ridden that yet either nor seen the resort.
Dinner is at Il Mulino. LOVE it here, but we were supposed to eat at Narcoossees until, glitch What's worse is that this is the ONE thing Chris requested for the trip so I feel bad and am trying to get a reservation there still.
Sunday 11/29: departure day after a few hours in the MK and lunch at the Plaza. Our flight leaves at 5:30 so we'll Lyft from BLT around 3, giving us a good amount of time in the park!

I know it's going to be way more crowded than our September trip on one hand and on the other, probably not as crowded as previous Thanksgiving trips. The big question is how the boys do without Fastpass. But they did say they'd like to do mini golf and they both frequent the gym here and want to use the gym at BLT, so if we do find the parks too crowded or lines too long there are other things to occupy them instead.

Knowing that when we return I'll be busy getting into Christmas shopping along with taking on another responsibility of sorts at work, I started decorating this past weekend. I still need to do our big tree and my village but I did the rest of the house and had a helper to hang ornaments with me on our smaller tree! It did tire her out though so she took a cat (or maybe mouse?) nap right in the middle:



I forgot what fun it is to have a toddler hang ornaments on a tree Ten ornaments on the same branch! Next year should definitely be even better. Ricky has helped my mom put up her tree for years and I'd love for Hayden to do that with me as a tradition.

Now, when I last left off we were in the MK for a few hours before leaving with our good friends Melinda and her DH "R". We'd finished rides and only had about 30 minutes left so we hung out near Country Bears waiting on cavalcades.

Day 6 Part 2: Masking our Good-Bye Sorrow

Waiting in this spot paid off almost right away! Not a cavalcade but maybe better, these talented guys went by playing Disney tunes. They started with Under the Sea



We waited a bit more but nobody else was coming (but right after we walked out of the park Melinda texted that they were watching the Jack Skellington cavalcade, the only one we'd missed). We began staying our good-byes and documented our time together to prove this day happened:

Melinda @pepperandchips and I looking FIERCE with attitude:



And the menfolk:



When we said good-bye to Jenny and Joe we at least knew we'd be seeing them again in February, but saying good-bye without knowing when you'll see your friends again stinks. We left them to enjoy more time as they weren't leaving until later in the afternoon.

Notice we didn't eat after Gaston's; I don't recommend this hence our Plaza reservation next weekend on our departure day. We ALWAYS have a TS lunch when we do a park on departure day so we don't end up starving at the airport. And that's what happened on this day and there are fewer food places currently open at MCO. Steve got a sandwich at Starbucks and I stood on line at Burger King for about 45 minutes to get crap food to hold me over until late that night when we got home and picked up good ol' NY pizza.

If you couldn't tell, Steve's 60th Birthday Disney vacation was a hit! Always made better by sharing the time in Disney with good friends

Oh! Did I mention? I get to go back to Disney again in December! Yup, we'll return on Sunday Nov. 29th and then on Sunday Dec. 6th, Steve and I will fly down for 3 nights! Well only 1 night at Disney staying at BWV followed by 2 "work" nights at Universal, staying here:



Where there's lots of cool rock memorabilia and pictures on the walls, like this:



Originally we were just going for the work portion Dec. 7-9 at Uni but then JetBlue messed with our flights, and it really only made sense to add a night at Disney! This works out perfectly since we won't be doing Epcot for the Festival of the Holidays next week, we can do that on the 6th. Then on the 7th we'll do MK before going over to the darkside later in the afternoon.

As always thank you again for following along! I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving with whatever friends or family you can see. I may or may not do a TR for our Thanksgiving trip so keep your eyes open! Be well my friends!

 

[CruellaNY]

Ah yes, the 'maskholes' strike again.

Exactly and I hope they felt bad when they didn't get the ride photo! If they even realized there was a ride photo Plus did you see where I responded to someone that as we were going down that small drop their young son stood up??? And they didn't tell him to sit!
I mean I don't like the masks but you do what you gotta do or stay home. And at Disney I'm certainly not going to do anything that would get me kicked out or contribute to Disney closing down again!

Hope you and the family are doing well up there Jeff!

 

[DLo]

Darn it , I am just going to miss you. I am WDW Nov. 29-Dec 5th UNI Dec 5-6. Going to the Orlando Informer event. Usually stay at Hard Rock but trying Royal Pacific this time just for something different . Safe travels next week !

 

[Wood Nymph]

It did tire her out though so she took a cat (or maybe mouse?) nap right in the middle:

That is an adorable picture of your granddaughter. The lower branches of our Christmas tree had unbreakable ornaments for years because toddlers love to rearrange things.

Your December trip sounds fun. We love Disney in December, just not this year.

 

[Jenny Sanders]

may suggest taking the skyliner to Riviera as the kids haven't ridden that yet either nor seen the resort.

May I suggest Bar Riva! Great food and drinks.

Melinda @pepperandchips and I looking FIERCE with attitude:

LOVE this pic.

If you couldn't tell, Steve's 60th Birthday Disney vacation was a hit! Always made better by sharing the time in Disney with good friends

We had such an awesome time celebrating with you and Steve and spending time together. Can't wait to do it all over again in february. It's soooooooooo far away...

Where there's lots of cool rock memorabilia and pictures on the walls, like this:

Umm, last time we stayed at a Hard Rock for Joe's 4oth, I got plastered and threw up all over my shoes. Again, not one of my finer moments, and I learned that whiskey and Gin do NOT mix, lol!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Such a fun trip. We always spend are last day at MK, it is now a tradition for us and we usually say good bye to MIckey.
I want the toys from McD’s so bad and I can’t get them here, boo! The managers here won’t sell them separately such A bummer.
You know I am jealous of your Thanksgiving trip! If things would have been different Andi and I would have been there to. We ate our Thanksgiving meal at Yak in 2017. It was a perfect day at AK and not even real crazy busy! I hope it is like that for you!

 

[Terra Nova guy]

Hope you and the family are doing well up there Jeff!

Thanks Ariane, we are doing fine.
Oldest DD has been doing university from home and it's been working out so far. Youngest DD has been attending school and so far there are no cases in their school, so hopefully that continues.
I've gone through two furloughs (2 months May/June then 1 month in October) but I am still employed and back working now, keeping my fingers crossed.
I hope next year brings better things for everybody.

 

[pkondz]

Anyone else get their McD's Disney toys yet?

Nope! Not sure they're up here.
And I tend to avoid McD's as much as possible.

I forgot what fun it is to have a toddler hang ornaments on a tree Ten ornaments on the same branch!

these talented guys went by playing Disney tunes.

Nice.

Melinda @pepperandchips and I looking FIERCE with attitude:

You certainly do!

And the menfolk:

meh. Not nearly as fierce looking.

saying good-bye without knowing when you'll see your friends again stinks.

Yes.
Yes it does.

Notice we didn't eat after Gaston's; I don't recommend this hence our Plaza reservation next weekend on our departure day. We ALWAYS have a TS lunch when we do a park on departure day so we don't end up starving at the airport

ohhh...
At first I thought you were saying you got sick from Gaston's. Get it now.

picked up good ol' NY pizza.

That's actually on my bucket list.
Did you fold it? I understand this is the proper way to eat a NY pizza?

Oh! Did I mention? I get to go back to Disney again in December!

No! Lucky! Happy for you.

As always thank you again for following along!

And thank you for writing! Not too much of that going on around these parts, so I appreciate it even more.

 

[missjackiemcg]

I forgot what fun it is to have a toddler hang ornaments on a tree Ten ornaments on the same branch! Next year should definitely be even better. Ricky has helped my mom put up her tree for years and I'd love for Hayden to do that with me as a tradition.

We had an annual "event" every year where all the cousins decorated my Grandpa's Christmas tree--"Tree Trimming." Now, we all get together at my parents' house to decorate their tree together It's one of my favorite traditions!

Your trip sounds so awesome!!! I wish I was going sooner--I need some magic!!!

 

[CruellaNY]

Darn it , I am just going to miss you. I am WDW Nov. 29-Dec 5th UNI Dec 5-6. Going to the Orlando Informer event. Usually stay at Hard Rock but trying Royal Pacific this time just for something different . Safe travels next week !

Ugh you're missing me twice! We leave Disney right before you and get there right after you leave. Well enjoy! I really love Royal Pacific, I think more than Hard Rock. RPR was my first choice for this trip but most got their 2nd choice.

That is an adorable picture of your granddaughter. The lower branches of our Christmas tree had unbreakable ornaments for years because toddlers love to rearrange things.

Thank you She makes me happy whenever I see her - and tired lol! I realized I'll have to rethink some of my decorating this year as well since she can reach more and likes to touch everything.

May I suggest Bar Riva! Great food and drinks.

I do need to try it! We have lunch and dinner reservations that day but Steve and I can always grab a drink there - and send you a pic

We had such an awesome time celebrating with you and Steve and spending time together. Can't wait to do it all over again in february. It's soooooooooo far away...

Less than 3 months now at least ❤

Umm, last time we stayed at a Hard Rock for Joe's 4oth, I got plastered and threw up all over my shoes. Again, not one of my finer moments, and I learned that whiskey and Gin do NOT mix, lol!

I believe it!
Steve recently gave me a little talking to because the drinks I had in Disney in Sept and lots I've ordered up here since getting back have gin and he was warning me not to mix gin with basically anything lol.