Considering a Christmas trip to WDW: anyone else?

I’m enjoying reading about your all. I’m crossing everything for Saturday. I’m afraid to pack, and then we can’t leave this province 😂
after tomorrow,‘s new set of rules I will pack.
 
Susan2771 said:
We are officially out. Got the call late last night that all 4 of us are close contactS with a positive case, so we are house bound. We were sooooooo close. If anyone has a trip coming up, take no chances and do not socialize with anyone at all Leading up to your trip.
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OMG I am so sorry.
 
What a strange and confusing time for travel and life in general.
We just returned from a week in WDW. Left from Montreal on Air Canada, never had to show our negative rapid test.... just had to say we had a negative one and took our word for it. We did have to show our vaccination QR code a couple of times.
Flight was easy and mostly safe... the large family in front of us had problems keeping their masks on their faces and were reminded constantly during the flight. UGH
At Disney, I would say 95% mask compliance indoors... most had them properly worn, only a few under their noses. Cast members were trying their best to keep people safe. For outdoors, only about 5% wearing them outdoors, even when in outdoor lineups in close proximity to others. I suspect it was mostly Canadians wearing masks in these situations. We wore ours the whole time. It wasn't all that bad, just happy to be there and feel like we were being safe. We sanitized constantly... every time we rode a ride, went in a building, before we ate, after we ate.
Our Beeper MD person didn't show up and no communication that day when we called and emailed to find out what was going on. Very unreliable. We had appointments made at a travel testing site at the outlet mall. $175 USD and 30 minutes later we had our negative PCR tests.
Coming home, Air Canada was chaos and unorganized... leave extra time to get through check in... even if you checked in online. They require everyone's documents to be checked at the counter. We had to show our vaccines and negative test documents at the check in counter.
Arriving in Montreal was easy and quick... but we went through a maze of lines not sure what was going to be expected or asked of us.

As for Disney itself, we had a great time. We rode only a few rides each day before it got busy mid day. Then spent the rest of the day exploring resorts or hanging out at our resort/pool time. We ate outdoors at QS the whole time. We didn't do fireworks, as the crowds were big and not many were masked outdoors. I will say, things are not the same right now, but we were expecting that. A noticeable drop in customer facing service. It took until day 3 to hear "have a magical day". There were some great cast members, but I saw things I have never seen before in my multitude of Disney trips. Cast members ignoring guests, chatting to each other instead of guests. Cast members complaining to each other about their lack of training... no kidding. WOW. I also saw more garbage, more broken things such as paper towel dispensers etc., more chipped paint and more dirty bathrooms. Not so bad that if you were a first time visitor you would be horrified, but enough that if you are a veteran visitor, you notice the difference. I realize it's due to lack of staff and proper training. I just hope that this is a passing phase and the level of cleanliness, service and magic return post covid.

We still had a great time. We felt very grateful that we were able to go. Wishing everyone going over the holidays a great trip. Go with reasonable expectations, and use the extra hours to your advantage... we got tonnes done during those hours.
 
igrsod said:
What a strange and confusing time for travel and life in general.
We just returned from a week in WDW. Left from Montreal on Air Canada, never had to show our negative rapid test.... just had to say we had a negative one and took our word for it. We did have to show our vaccination QR code a couple of times.
Flight was easy and mostly safe... the large family in front of us had problems keeping their masks on their faces and were reminded constantly during the flight. UGH
At Disney, I would say 95% mask compliance indoors... most had them properly worn, only a few under their noses. Cast members were trying their best to keep people safe. For outdoors, only about 5% wearing them outdoors, even when in outdoor lineups in close proximity to others. I suspect it was mostly Canadians wearing masks in these situations. We wore ours the whole time. It wasn't all that bad, just happy to be there and feel like we were being safe. We sanitized constantly... every time we rode a ride, went in a building, before we ate, after we ate.
Our Beeper MD person didn't show up and no communication that day when we called and emailed to find out what was going on. Very unreliable. We had appointments made at a travel testing site at the outlet mall. $175 USD and 30 minutes later we had our negative PCR tests.
Coming home, Air Canada was chaos and unorganized... leave extra time to get through check in... even if you checked in online. They require everyone's documents to be checked at the counter. We had to show our vaccines and negative test documents at the check in counter.
Arriving in Montreal was easy and quick... but we went through a maze of lines not sure what was going to be expected or asked of us.

As for Disney itself, we had a great time. We rode only a few rides each day before it got busy mid day. Then spent the rest of the day exploring resorts or hanging out at our resort/pool time. We ate outdoors at QS the whole time. We didn't do fireworks, as the crowds were big and not many were masked outdoors. I will say, things are not the same right now, but we were expecting that. A noticeable drop in customer facing service. It took until day 3 to hear "have a magical day". There were some great cast members, but I saw things I have never seen before in my multitude of Disney trips. Cast members ignoring guests, chatting to each other instead of guests. Cast members complaining to each other about their lack of training... no kidding. WOW. I also saw more garbage, more broken things such as paper towel dispensers etc., more chipped paint and more dirty bathrooms. Not so bad that if you were a first time visitor you would be horrified, but enough that if you are a veteran visitor, you notice the difference. I realize it's due to lack of staff and proper training. I just hope that this is a passing phase and the level of cleanliness, service and magic return post covid.

We still had a great time. We felt very grateful that we were able to go. Wishing everyone going over the holidays a great trip. Go with reasonable expectations, and use the extra hours to your advantage... we got tonnes done during those hours.
Click to expand...

We noticed the same deficiencies and a few more. At least half of the hand sanitizers were empty. Stock at the stores was really limited (no mugs and very few children's items for example) and lots of stores were closed which made the main stores really difficult to navigate since they were jam packed. Tons of people were still wearing cloth masks and ill-fitting masks which are pretty useless according to all the new Omicron standards. Only a few wearing the now recommended kn95+.
 
damo said:
We noticed the same deficiencies and a few more. At least half of the hand sanitizers were empty. Stock at the stores was really limited (no mugs and very few children's items for example) and lots of stores were closed which made the main stores really difficult to navigate since they were jam packed. Tons of people were still wearing cloth masks and ill-fitting masks which are pretty useless according to all the new Omicron standards. Only a few wearing the now recommended kn95+.
Click to expand...
YES.... you are so right. We brought our own sanitizer and attached it to our backpacks, glad we did. The closed stores and REAL lack of merchandise was noticeable and sad. Supply chain issues was very apparent here. No mugs, no cute little trinkets for gifts, no stuffies, low variety. My friend who was with me bought quite a bit, but she would have bought more had they had the stock. I however just bought a couple little things off the list of things I was hoping to find.
I'm sure this will change in the future.
It was weird to see so many shops not even open.
 
Thanks for the updates at Disney.It sure makes it easier for me to take,by not going there.I get caught up in the numerous commercials on tv,but reading these posts bring me back down to reality.Thanks,again.
 
Its good to hear peoples experiences with testing in the age of Omicron. Debating whether to pay the money and order the do it yourself tests from the Wesjtet or Air Canada recommended providers or just hope I can go to Walgreens like I did with my last trip. I have booked my Antigen test at Walmart... we go in 4 1/2 weeks... hopefully.
 
CanucksRock said:
Its good to hear peoples experiences with testing in the age of Omicron. Debating whether to pay the money and order the do it yourself tests from the Wesjtet or Air Canada recommended providers or just hope I can go to Walgreens like I did with my last trip. I have booked my Antigen test at Walmart... we go in 4 1/2 weeks... hopefully.
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We also head down again in 31 days! I have BeeperMD booked but fully aware they may not be reliable, so Walgreens is our backup. Just can't justify $149 x 4 people when I know Walgreens is free. That's a LOT of dole whips! Can't wait to get away from our Sask winter and soak up the sun!
 
For those of you who are concerned - BeeperMD did come to our hotel (pop century). I was soooooooo stressed with all the bad reviews, but the nurse came at around 8:50 am (7-9am appointment). I called the phone number on the website in the morning of the appointment and call agent picked up the phone in about 20 min and he said the nurse is coming and gave me the approx time of arrival which was right on. My appointment time was first time slot available for the day. I did not get a text day/night before (and I was super worried!!).
I had Walgreens appointment for the same day in the evening and cancelled that one.
 
We are testing tomorrow (no word from Beeper MD and I don’t expect there will be). I’m the only one neurotic enough of the 5 of us to want to go into testing prepared - my RAT came back negative despite stuffy nose and irritated throat 👍🏻 It’s been so wet & I’m very allergic to mold, but we all know how it is - everything makes us think it’s Covid now.

We picked up a couple of ADRs (Trail’s End, CP and RFC) as the week went by and never felt any different than at home (especially given that Omicron is an equalizer between vaxxed and not now 🤷🏼‍♀️). We ordered in or picked up the rest of the time.

We have N95 flat/foldable respirator masks, but so many cloth and of course useless droplet/surgical masks around. And the maskless kids/toddlers coughing 😳😳😳. We left anywhere we felt at risk, including walking away from a bus stop once we realized we’d be trapped on a bus with a coughing kid.

We had an awesome vacation-it was so very needed. One more step before we head home - hope to do some Kohl’s and Target shopping on our no-park last day tomorrow.
 
damo said:
At least half of the hand sanitizers were empty. Stock at the stores was really limited (no mugs and very few children's items for example) and lots of stores were closed which made the main stores really difficult to navigate since they were jam packed.
Click to expand...

This is what we found too. Disappointed with lack of mugs and kids stuff. Holiday merch was really lacking too. We're having a great time overall but wish shopping options were better.

In terms of positive shopping experiences, I thought the Poly, GF and WL resort stores were pretty good. Also, Trader Sam's allowed for a drink to go with a souvenir mug on the back patio.
 
Jrb1979 said:
It's not the masking people seem to hate. It's the parks themselves with all the cuts and Genie+. If you go to the main board many are cancelling or going somewhere else.
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We had a great time but my daughter is a pro with Genie+ and it worked really well for us. We did notice the cuts (like no trams) and we did grumble a bit but we were so happy to be there!
 
Jrb1979 said:
It's not the masking people seem to hate. It's the parks themselves with all the cuts and Genie+. If you go to the main board many are cancelling or going somewhere else.
Click to expand...
We are not fans of G+ at all - not the cost, just the inability to preplan when you already have to reserve a park and dining. It worked well for MK, but DHS was just awful for us and AK we got EE, Dinosaur & Safari but had to pay for FoP to be able to sleep in….

We only ever do 3-4 rides per day but now zigzag all over and are frustrated by the return times. Wouldn’t cancel over it but we got only 3 day base tix for the 1st time ever. Never gone without length of stay tix in about 15 visits.
 
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