I’m sitting here on my last day of work before vacation, and since I’ll be busy packing, celebrating Father’s Day and my father-in-law’s birthday over the next few days, I figured I’d post this a little early. We leave in 4 days, and you can feel the excitement in our home.
Wait, it feels like I’ve done this before.
Ok, yeah, this is going to be somewhat of a rehash.
So without further delay:
Background: Although DW and I had gone to WDW many times pre-kids, we took our kids the first time in 2018 and then again in 2019. Given how much fun we had, I never would have suspected that it would be another 3+ years before we’d return. Our plan was maybe to take a year off and return again, probably in 2021. But even in early 2020 we were starting to think about a short trip that year.
Then we all know what happened in March.
I don’t remember when it was, exactly, but as soon as 2021 reservations were released, we made them for April of 2021. We figured it was something to look forward to, and there was no way the pandemic would last that long (
). When vaccines looked like they wouldn’t be available yet, we postponed the trip. Then postponed again. And again. Through Delta, Omicron, etc., we finally settled on April 2022, right after Easter.
Even as late as February we weren’t sure if we were going to go, as there was no vaccine available yet for DS4. But once cases started going down from Omicron, coupled with the fact that schools in our state stopped requiring masks, we decided that we had waited long enough, that we really needed this vacation and to return to our happy place, and that we really want our kids to start experiencing life again.
We got within three days of our trip. Then we got the flu.
As soon as DS12 started feeling crummy, we made a backup plan for June, because Disney, and because we have been going stir crazy for two years. The plan fell together rather nicely, and we were able to even add an extra night at basically the same cost, so now we fly down the evening before our first park day.
As we got closer to our upcoming trip, the excitement built again. Then just 11 before our trip, DS4 started feeling crummy and developed a fever. A rapid test confirmed it - after successfully avoiding it for 2+ years, it finally hit our household - COVID. We scrambled to book yet another backup trip, this time in July, figuring we’d all be infected within a few days.
But then DS5 got better. And none of us developed symptoms and continue to test negative.
I think this is really happening people!!! 
So here we are, getting ready to head to Disney!
When: We leave on Monday, June 20, and are there through June 28. This will be my longest trip ever.
Who: Myself, DW, DS12, and DS5 (they’ve both had birthdays since the planned April trip).
Where: Yacht Club Resort
We’ll be staying at the YC resort - we love the resort, and we typically spend a lot of time in Epcot, so this is perfect for us. Our April reservation was for BC, but we only could get YC for this trip. That’s fine, we’ve been wanting to stay at Yacht for a while, and it’s practically the same.
Miscellaneous:
- We’ll be making extensive use of Genie+ and some ILL, as we added G+ to our ticket back in November.
- We’re using Cast and Crew Transportation to get us to and from the airport, with a grocery stop.
- It’s only our second time going in the dead of summer, and the first time in 18 years (last time we went the first week of August 2004 for our honeymoon).
This won’t be a pure live trip report - I want to focus on my family during this trip - but I will try to post when I can while on the trip, offer observations, photos, etc, so I fulfill my liner duty, and will definitely add my recap/observations after the trip.
So relax, sit back, and enjoy! I know I will.
