The Travelers: me, my sister DS, her daughter DN and her daughter DGN, aka the karate kid
The Destination: US Open, 6A karate tournament at Coronado Springs, WDW, June 2020
The Lodging: 4 nights at Coronado Springs, reserved October 2019, tournament discount
The Tickets: Armed Forces Salute military discount to be bought in March (not available in 2019 anyway)
The Prologue:
March: pandemic postpones the US Open. New date, December 2020, lodging reservations moved to December. Tournament discount still. All ticket sales temporarily suspended.
WDW opens, park reservations required, still no ticket being sold.
Finally tickets being sold, bought, park reservations made, but US Open cancelled for 2020.
Still, tournament promoters and Disney agree to honor resort reservations for December. Do we still want to go? Heck yeah.
November: a 1br villa at Saratoga Springs becomes available for exchange thru RCI. Do we want it? Well, sad to say goodbye to staying at CSR but Saratoga again! Heck yeah.
But wait, the SSR dates leave us needing a night at the end of our stay, which is the same as our last night at CSR! Hello again.
December: days before we leave a second SSR 1br becomes available for exchange. Do we want it? DS and DN say heck yeah, two bathrooms. We’ve put in a room request for a Paddock bldg, and traveling together link the second 1 br. We decide to check in when we arrive to get our complimentary magic bands. We’ll use them to go between our two villas.
Departure: first day, it’s raining but that means the sun is not in our eyes. Our Tupelo hotel is easy to find and has a handy in house restaurant.
Second day, on the road before 6, we lose an hour today. It’s raining but the sun is still not in our eyes. We’re making good time but we begin to realize day 2 has more miles than we anticipated. We’re not arriving anywhere near the time MDE deposits DN at SSR. But that’s ok, she’s lead on the first 1 br.
Mid-afternoon on day 2, we notice the first 1br is no longer showing on My Disney Experience. I call some Disney number. Trinidad discovers “remnants” of our reservation. She reaches out to DVC. Eventually it’s discovered our reservation was canceled as a no show. Eventually we’re issued a 1 br reservation to replace the canceled one, here’s your new number. Btw, I’m now lead on that 1 br. But thank you, dear Trinidad!
Check in: our villas are in 2 different buildings, in 2 different areas of the resort. Duh, new reservation. At check in we’re quickly handed off to Matthew, a manager type person who has a wonderful mask, very second star to the right but for CMs only. We’ve asked Matthew can we down grade one of the 1 br to a studio and have connecting units. He says, I’ll check availability. Amazingly, we wind up with a dedicated 2 br villa in the Springs area. The remodeled unit is so cool! Our previous 2 br, 5 years ago, was a bit tired looking. Thank you, dear Matthew.
Also, instacart canceled DN’s food order, not once yesterday afternoon but twice. DN was beside herself by this time. She found a phone number, and after I called, we had the order reinstated, cancellation charge removed and delivery went smoothly.
Plans for first day, Sunday (today), are sleep in, late lunch at Kona, activate AFS tickets at MK and maybe recon MK to see how the new touring normal feels. DS is leery of how quickly she’ll get too hot.
I’d like to post as we go. Ain’t much guaranteed in this world, tho. 
