When COVID hit two years ago, we (we being my husband, myself, B, who had then just turned 6, and W, who was about to turn 4) were just back from a trip to Disney. Like, justjust back – I went back to work March 9, and on March 13 I was in a 7am 75 minute lineup at the grocery store buying stuff (not toilet paper) to get us through the next few weeks. We talked a LOT about the trip in those first few weeks, along the lines of “Two weeks ago we were in Hollywood Studios and now we’re crossing the street to avoid other people on the sidewalk!” Things got bad, they got better, they got bad again, you all know, you were there. Last spring when things seemed not so bad I thought “Maybe it’s time to think about another trip.” On our 2020 trip we had talked about going every other year, obviously we missed 2021 due to everything generally feeling apocalyptic, but 2022! Could be feasible! B would be 8 and W would be almost 6 and they’re taller and could ride more rides! So I booked some flights that we could make changes to with no fees, and I booked Caribbean Beach because I didn’t feel comfortable committing money to DVC, and I started to think “……maybe.” And then a lovely poster on Touring Plans posted that she had some points to sell, and the Polynesian flashed before my eyes, and I contacted her and she waited until the 7 month period and booked us a lakeview room at the Poly and suddenly we were doing a split stay. Maybe. And it got closer, and the kids went back to school and that went ok, and numbers went down down down down and it seemed more and more likely that we’d go.
And then Omicron.
But even then I watched the numbers and got the kids vaccinated and banked on the peak hitting in early February and early March being on the downslope, and crossed my fingers. And we started to get really close, and the kids got COVID which kind of seemed like our prayers answered – no requirement for testing to get there OR get back! Despite our best efforts (my five year old literally coughed in my mouth!) my husband and I did not get COVID but we also work from home so if we weren’t going to get it from the kids, we were pretty comfortably safe from getting it at all (minus a scare the week before our departure where a friend sitting next to me at soccer practice commented idly that he’d been exposed the previous weekend and had had some symptoms but they went away so he was pretty sure it was fine….boy did I edge away quickly!).
And suddenly it was March 1, and we were at Costco getting our $16.99 rapid tests (price substantially increased by the fact that our membership had expired the day before – whoops!), and my parents were arriving to house/dogsit, and you guys, I think we might actually make it to Disney World!
We had a 10:15 flight so we left the house around 6:15 – my dad had volunteered to drive us so we wouldn’t have to pay the $250 to park, which was very kind of him, although as I wedged myself between two carseats in the back I wondered whether it was actually worth it. We arrived at Pearson and got checked in fairly easily. We had planned to hang out in the WestJet lounge but it was closed so we found ourselves an open area (which were plentiful!), had some breakfast, and waited for our flight. Finally it was time to board – we hopped on, they closed the door, we taxied away! We were almost on our way! We were…not moving! We were listening to an announcement about a problem with the hydraulics system. We were going back to the gate and waiting for a mechanic, we were hearing that things were ok but the mechanic had to fill out some paperwork, we were waiting for a gate crew to let us pull back away from the gate. An hour later, we taxied away a second time and this time got off the ground. Disney! Here we come!
I’m 700 words in and we’ve just taken off, I apologize for this novel in advance but I’m reliving it here and getting carried away.
I had booked Quicksilver to transport us to the hotel, and then read the updates here and gotten panicked, so I’d cancelled and on the recommendation from a friend booked Anthony Hinds. We had just landed when I got a call from our driver, Bob, who had been following the delays and asked me to let him know when we got our bags. Got through baggage claim, gave Bob a call, and he showed up a few minutes later. Bob was extremely friendly, chatting to us, making the kids feel comfortable. He told us about a satellite launch the next day (and actually texted me the next day to remind me!) and in what felt like no time, we were pulling up to Caribbean Beach. Our room wasn’t ready yet (we had requested Aruba 55, ground floor, because we wanted to be close to the Riviera, and were told that we were getting Aruba 54 second floor – not ideal with the stroller and no elevator but we decided we’d make it work). We had thought about swimming but B flatly refused to change in a public bathroom so we grabbed some Mickey bars and wandered around until I got the room ready text.
We went back to Bell Services to retrieve our bags and when we told them where we were they laughed and said “We’ll drive you.” so everything got loaded up into a van and they took us over – I had heard that the resort was big but I didn’t really appreciate how big until we got driven around it!
The room was fine – nothing special, but it’s not like we would be spending a lot of time in there. I’m not sure if some of the rooms have been refurbished but this one felt like it could use it, I would definitely have preferred to not have carpet. It also felt very dim, since the only window opened onto the walkway outside so we kept the curtains closed all the time. But honestly, we were really never there so it wasn’t that much of a problem, it had beds and enough space to stash the stroller when we weren’t using it and it was close to the quiet pool, the bus stop, and the Riviera – I’d pick this location again for sure.
We had 6:20 reservations at Beaches and Cream so after a bit more wandering, marveling at the Skyliner, and flipping out of the hammocks we hopped the Skyliner over to Epcot, walked to Beach Club, and checked in. This was the first meal we’d really eaten indoors in a year, and I was worried about how I’d feel - more generally, actually, I was worried about the whole trip, spending all the time feeling stressed at crowds and people not wearing masks. In this respect them lifting the mask requirement right before we left kind of helped, because I recognized that I would just wear a mask when I felt uncomfortable and other people would do their own thing and as a consequence, the only time I really cared about it at all was when we were places where masks WERE required and people weren’t wearing them (cough at least one person on every mode of transportation we took the whole trip PULL IT UP OVER YOUR NOSE YOU JERK cough). Dinner was ok – my son, who is something of a carnivore, ate half his cheeseburger patty and then dropped it on the ground and the waitress super kindly immediately brought us a whole new burger, which was so sweet.
We very stupidly ate too much and didn’t have space for ice cream, which was the whole reason we’d gone there in the first place – not our smartest plan. We finished up, Skylinered “home”, went for a quick swim in the quiet pool, and then headed to bed.