The Plan B -- but best case scenario -- WDW trip

Walt Disney World
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So my family of 4 is booked on the 1/22 DCL Magic Marvel Day at Sea out of Miami. I booked initially thinking my 3yo would at least be partially vaxxed by then. Then that fell through. Then I thought, well, it’s safer than preschool and as long as I test her before we leave, it’s fine. And then omicron threw some new pandemic math at us. The number of people who are vaxxed and boosted testing pos just keeps on climbing. The idea that we could rapid test, fly to Miami, then test pcr pos at port even if asymptomatic/boosted/antigen neg, and then have to drive home 14 hours… THAT is a cruise ruiner for me. The reality that we are very likely not going on this cruise is just starting to settle in. If I hadn’t gotten a TA rate I’ll probably never see again, I would’ve already cancelled, but passing on a good deal is sacrilege in my hopelessly odd personal worldview, and we got a huge complimentary upgrade to a perfectly located midship room, and… sigh.

At this point, the BEST case scenario is that we stay covid free, cancel the cruise and go on our back up trip to WDW. I haven’t cancelled the cruise yet because if we all end up with covid next week (and I’m seeing that happen all around us), then we could all get recovery letters to avoid testing and cruise worry-free. but that is obviously not the goal or plan.

SO, I booked a pretty sick back-up trip to WDW! The downside is that my son and I were just there 2 weeks ago, albeit only for 36 hours; and that all the fun extras I have on the bucket list don’t open til Feb 6; and that DS’s fave ride will be closed. But, I’ve got refundable southwest flights, room only reservation, beach club water view CL (all that was available at TA rate), our CM friend who is my kids’ fave babysitter has already told us her days off, I’ve looked at pricing for Drawn to Life, glanced at fun FArts stuff (our first!), winter summerland, typhoon lagoon and stormalong bay. DS is excited even though a) we just went b) EE is closed. I’ll book tickets at the last minute or whenever we definitively cancel the cruise. This makes me feel much, much less sad.

So I’m looking for all your tips on 1) making use of CL. I may drop it if a non CL room becomes available just for the savings, but I’m doubtful it will. Can we have breakfast there daily? Lunch on a resort day? Or is it just snacks? Grab bottles of water on our way to the parks?
2) Drawn to Life. Who has been? Are the upgraded seats worth it? Leave DD3 with the sitter, right?
3) FArts. This will be our first time and DS8 is a budding visual artist, so I’m really excited for him to try all the artsy things. What’s unmissable?
4) Your favorite Epcot resort area restaurants, including Swan/Dolphin and the park itself. Skyliner to RR will be closed :frowning:
5) What’d you’d do for adult night. We did V&A in early 2020, and while that will be very hard to top, whatever else we choose will at least be much cheaper

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Happy planning! Club level: you can eat breakfast daily, a light dinner (I usually plan a TS lunch). Mid-day is only snacks. Beer and wine are available at least for dinner (some club levels will get a beer/wine on request any time, others will not).

You might also just plan on eating lunch or a night time snack at the food booths EP.

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Yachtsman and Flying Fish if they ever reopen. Topolino’s breakfast is a new fave.

If you enjoy live music I thought The Edison was fun. Swanky, visually beautiful, great drinks.

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The edison has awesome mocktails!!!

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As far as the cruise goes, I would hold off cancelling for now.

You depart on the 22nd, so from the 8th onwards you can cancel with no penalties at all if none has Covid or suspects they are in close contact with someone who does. You’d need to call but other than that there iare no hoops to jump through. DCL would far rather you stay away from the ship if in any doubt at all. And you can choose between a full refund or a future credit,

As for the rest, can’t help a whole lot. Check out Il Mulino at the Swan / Dolphin - I know several people who say it’s the best Italian on property.

There’s also a nearby but off property very high end resort which has a restaurant also very highly recommended. I’d have to check a few places to find it’s name though…. could be Four Seasons perhaps.

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VERY good suggestion. Dining there the night before marathon, actually!

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yep, that’s the plan. was gonna wait until the week prior, just in case all 4 of us have it and recover in that 14d window or something else changes.

i’ve heard good things about the restaurants at 4s from @OBNurseNH and others but DH and I are 1000% into not dressing up and eating burgers (the V&A was a christmas gift). Maybe a monorail bar crawl? I don’t drink but i do love a good mocktail and i’ve always wanted to hit trader sams~!

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Il Mulino does not require dressing up.

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Nice! What about ravello? Isn’t that where you went?

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Yes that is WOW!!

I would suggest that over Il Mulino and would share that I went in park attire (leggings, ath let if quarter-zip) but would have liked to be dressed just a little more up. That said I was joy made to feel uncomfortable at all - quite the opposite (service there is BEYOND). It was me that made med feel uncomfortable.

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Welp, while we were in the ED last night awaiting DH’s emergency appendectomy (yeah), he claims he never agreed to wdw as a cruise replacement and that going to wdw is not as bad of an idea as going on a cruise right now, but it’s a decently close second.

Sigh. I already cancelled the return flights because I booked those partially with cash but I’m holding onto the rest, just in case.

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WTF?!?!

Man :frowning: I hope he feels better soon.

Also, it says a lot about the level of fandom both of you have that during a medical crisis you were still sorting out Disney-focused trip plans. Eleventy points for that.

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It says a lot about my fandom and his sheepishness at being the world’s worst patient. RLQ pain started tues pm and I couldn’t convince him to go in until I basically tricked him into dropping him off at the ED door last night. And this is not the first time this kind of thing has happened.

We may still wdw, but now I’m also booking refundable stuff in the keys if anyone has tips on that with a preschooler.

The ED was a scary place last night though. We got the “this guy works here” expedited service last night and had kn95s, but I def didn’t wanna be there.

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Healthcare workers are the worst patients.

The goal right now is for nobody to need medical care. At all. Because it’s bad out there.

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Hope he recovers quickly!

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Sending your husband well wishes for a speedy recovery!

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So, all of wdw has been officially cancelled, and dcl will be cancelled once we are 14 day window. I’m thinking I will swap our rci Greek isles cruise for a dcl this summer, since there may still be restrictions in place about what our daughter is allowed to do since she prob won’t be vaxxed still by then and I’m not trying to see the ports from a bus if I can wait a year and explore on my own.

Instead, we are keeping our MIA flights and have booked a house in islamorada for the week. And invited both sets of grandparents. Everglades national park on the way down, lots of fishing, swimming and sea life encounters, potentially dry Tortugas National Park. I mean, at this stage in my kids’ lives it’s hard for me to get excited about taking them anywhere but wdw, but two national parks plus lots of inshore fishing for hubby and my bff mom joining, and I’m getting pretty pumped!

But wdw come mothers day weekend is ON for sure!! Staying at yacht, wild Africa trek, drawn to life and park time!

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That sounds really awesome! One of my favorite things I did on my trip to the keys was visit the turtle hospital in Marathon. Highly educational and fun for the whole family.

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The turtle hospital is definitely on the list and the dolphin rescue! We are also looking into the dry tortugas and feeding the tarpon at robbies. And of course, fishing and fishing and fishing

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I love the Keys - bf family has a house in Ocean Reed Club (Key Largo). Our favorites places to eat are: Square Grouper, Lorelei’s, Morada Bay (next to World Wide Sportsman), Ziggy Maddogs for steak (need reservations).+ feeding the tarpon!!

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