Who is on deck?! Including Srentmee trip report!

With @TarHeelTiff wrapping up her trip today and @DumboRunner sure to be nearing the end of hers, we need more boots on the ground!

Who is next up to enter the bubble and keep us playing from home alive with hope???

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We leave two weeks from today. First park day won’t be until that Thursday, though.

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I didn’t do very good posting picsđŸ€Ș Back come again, 14 day isolation for me now.

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We’ve got one more day tomorrow at AK, but will be anxiously looking for the next group of trip reports to ease back into real life!

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We will arrive Thursday.: AK, POP
Friday: MK
Sat: Ep

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Here now to fill in the gap. I’ll probably do this @galuchies_463555 style and just take over this thread. I’ve been terrible about taking pics so far but promise to pick up the slack tomorrow. Can’t believe how much we’ve lucked out on the weather so far. General overview:
Dates: Sun 9/20-Fri 9/25
Resort: Beach Club Villas studio (first time renting points—rental secured back in early January)
People: me, DH, DD, DD5, DS3.5 and my mother, henceforth known as Grammy.

Told the kids about a week out this time and so got to experience a week worth of overly dramatic “I just can’t wait to go to Disney” every 5 minutes or so from the 5 yo
and super frequent one song crazy dance parties initiated by the 3.5 yo in the lead up: “Alexa, play “Supercamafenigigfy-make-me-animotion” 
and yet she can’t quite understand my requests to set the timer for ten minutes.

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Sunday 9/20
Got to MCO around 10:30 am and it was pouring.


Picked up Starbucks and checked luggage and proceeded to DME. The airport was noticeably busier than it had been for our last minute trip in July. FOMO last minute trip report
Given the standard “it may take up to 45 minutes” expectation when checking into DME but barely had time to take of my sweater before we were on the bus. I had hoped that I would get the room ready text early but figured this would be less likely with DVC rooms than regular hotel rooms. When we got to the hotel, I was trying to revise my initial plan because it was still pouring and so going straight to the pool or straight to EPCOT no longer made sense. They asked for the reservation name upon entering the lobby and within 2 minutes, the text came and we were off to our room. Unpacked and fed the kids while they watched some cartoons. By the time they were done eating, the rain had slowed to a drizzle so we put on some silicone shoe covers and walked over to EPCOT.
They wanted to find Remy again so we did that again and they were much better at it this time around.
Started at Canada and went counter clockwise.

Ate at some of the festival booths—if it didn’t have a long line and looked somewhat interesting, we tried it. Hummus fries excellent. DD loved Teriyaki bun in Japan and my husband got some kind of vodka martini from Japan that had some sort of herby/floral quality that just made it taste like gin. So naturally he thought it was good, but if you are a person that gets a vodka martini to avoid the taste of gin, steer clear. Both food selections from Africa were good and 5 large piripiri shrimp come on that skewer which is a pretty good value. Anyway, Sorry no food pictures.

By Italy it had pretty much stopped drizzling and we took off the silicone shoe covers. I grabbed a margarita, ok 2 margaritas from Choza while the other 4 went inside to ride 3 Caballeros. I did not see pleased faces on the people before me who had tried the spicy poblano blackberry margarita, so naturally I had to try it for myself. In retrospect, perhaps I should have seen their sip-and-immediate-frown faces as a warning. It was interesting, not terrible, but not something I would recommend. The other was just a classic margarita rocks for my mom. I figured I’d be through the Choza line about the same time they came out of the Mexico pavilion but I was through a lot faster, so I drank most of the weird smoky-spicy blackberry margarita to save them from having to drink much of it
but then needed to wash the taste out of my mouth with half of the other normal margarita. We then headed to pick up their Remy prize and then to my daughter’s favorite ride, Figment.


Son and I got popcorn while others rode as he has decided this ride is scary. Next, got to the land pavilion just as the rain started pouring again. Rode LwtL and then ate ice cream right outside but still under the roof. Rained stopped again and went to check out the seas pavilion and then over to Mission Space, a first for all of us. Green of course with the kids but even if not, I don’t know how anyone could tolerate orange, but I’m not a giant fan of tight enclosed spaces. Park closed at this point and scored some free popcorn on the walk back to International Gateway. Kids wanted to go to the pool, so headed to the shallow sand area for about an hour. They love the sand in the pool. Water temp was nice but a cool breeze was blowing so dipped in hot tub to warm up before heading to bed.

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Sounds like a fun first day!

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Monday 9/21
Super pleasant weather, around 82 degree for the high, relatively low humidity, mostly sunny with a steady breeze and no rain. Absolutely fabulous sweetie darling and totally not what I was expecting for this week.
Got to the Beach Club bus stop about 7:55 for the 9 am MK open. DD5’s first online kindergarten zoom meeting of the day (the one when they take attendance) starts at 8 am so she did most of that at the bus stop and finished up on the bus. Skipped her other zoom meetings today. Had originally just planned to pull her out of school for the week when I first made reservation back pre-pandemic. Anyway, on the first bus around 8:20 and through the gates by 8:40.



DD5 took above picture thankfully or I would have almost none to post. Again abysmal today with the picture taking. Will do better tomorrow.
Decided against heading to 7DMT first and instead rope dropped Swiss Family Treehouse (because that is necessary). Next walked on JC and got a great skipper—very funny and engaging. Then Magic Carpets—got camel spat. Did Tiki Room, a first for all of us, and it was really cute. Next to Splash and then BTMR both about 20 minute waits. Next ate at Pecos Bill and then over to TSI (another first for all of us). After that went to PP and the wait was about 25 minutes with a pause for a cleaning cycle. The interactive shadows in the queue were unfortunately turned off. DD passed out on me in the line so I took the chicken exit and while the others rode, deposited her in the stroller. When they finished son wanted to ride in the stroller and immediately started playing with DD’s hair and woke her. Kids started to get cranky but found a table in the shade and revived them with ice cream. Off to ride 7DMT but the line stretched back to Storybook Circus so walked onto Dumbo first and then waited 5 minutes for Barnstormer before getting in 7DMT line. Waited about 30 minute for this (posted 50), next tea cups and then headed to drive the stinky cars.

After this, tried looking in a couple stores for a Mike Wazowski mask for DS as he has determined this is the must have face covering. Did not find Mike Wazowski but of course the kids found some pins that they wanted so I let them pick one each and told them they could pick another tomorrow. With the 30% AP discount even a pin a day isn’t bad for a souvenir and it doesn’t take up much space. Anyway this is a beast of my own making because I figured they would probably like the pin trading aspect so during the lock down I read all about the whole pin trading thing and the whole debate about authentic pins versus scrappers and what this means for the Disney pin trading community, watched videos about how to tell the difference, etc. started buying the pins that were on sale from ShopDisney when they were available (and when we could use that 30% AP discount online). The problem is, all the pins are cute and my kids wanted to divide them up and keep them
and even if I got an authentic pin straight from Disney for $2-3, I’m going to feel icky if I watch my kids trade it for a 75 cent scrapper from the pin boards. So then, I bought them some scrappers from Etsy specifically so they would have something to trade in the parks. Again, a lot of what came was cute and while I can see that the shade of yellow might seem a little off or that the Mickey waffle print on the back might just fall short of reaching the edge, the kids don’t care. They think those pins are cute too and wanted to divide of the scrapper lot and keep them for themselves. I figure, when it comes down to it, if they do want to trade, I will just do my best to see that they trade scrapper for scrapper and real for real. Anyway, sorry for the tangent.

Came out of the Emporium on Main Street to a Jack Skellington cavalcade and then picked up SotMK cards and headed out around 4:20. Bus pulled up as we got to the stop. Fed kids in the room and then back to SAB. Played in the shallow sand area for a while and had brought some seashells from home that they magically kept finding while digging in the sand around Grammy. Some other kids caught wind of this and when they couldn’t find any seashells where they were just kept getting closer and closer so we then decided to go check out the water slide. Warmed up with the tiny water slide a couple of times then climbed the big one. DD started to back out once we were up there so I went first and waited at the bottom. DS3.5 came down next followed by DD and then Grammy. Repeat x10 replacing Grammy with DH in middle. No line at all. In fact, there were only 2 other kids using the water slide around the same time as us. Explored the rest of a mostly empty SAB as the sun set. Popped in the Hot Tub to warm up and then headed back to room.
Stopped at the little DVC grocery/random store on the way back and I want to mention this because as a first time DVC renter I had heard people mention this store but did realize what all they had there regarding food/grocery
if anyone has a specific question about what is available, let me know
suffice to say, it was much more stuff than I was expecting. DH got some warm sandwiches from somewhere, ate in the room, showered and bed.

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I’m headed back at the end of October (10/26-10/31) - with a different group. DS is staying home and I’m heading down for Food & Wine with my newly 21 year old niece, mom, sister and brother in law. This will be COMPLETELY different from our trip last month!

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You are at the Beach Club, right? Are you talking about the temporary Solarium setup? I’m glad they have a lot! We are coming down in late October and I have been hemming and hawing about an Instacart order versus just the DVC stores.

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How’s the quality on these? I’m looking forward to doing the hunt and unsure if we do just one or two.

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:rofl::rofl::rofl:

Just want to say 
 thank goodness you’re there! I was just starting to feel sad that there weren’t any trip reports happening.

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We have a package of the medium size Pixar masks. Do you think they would fit your DS? I would be happy to mail them to you! We just want them to be used by someone and your DS3 holds a special place in my heart ever since he tried to pack a rug for your trip in August. :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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I have 5 grand nephews and nieces. I got the two older boys lanyards and 6 pins for their birthdays in May so they could start pin trading. My niece says they are not going to want to give away any of the pins, so I have a pile for trading when DLR eventually opens and we can all meet there. My oldest grand niece turns 4 today and we sent her her own lanyard and pins. So now the twins need them too! Their birthday is in January and they’ll be three. I have had so much fun buying pins for them. I’ve purchased a lot of them on ebay and know there’s no guarantee they’re authentic, but I have been avoiding the super cheap lots. Each kid has a different theme plus I get them a year pin for their birth year and a ride pin from a ride that they enjoy. It has been so much fun for me to look for pins for them and even scour our own collections so that each of them get one of my pins too. My girls started pin trading on their first visit to DLR but they were a little older (7 and 9).

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The quality is OK though I doubt they’d last more than a couple drops. They seal tightly and don’t leak. If you have an annual pass you‘ll get the 30% discount on the maps. I figure it avoids any argument if it is a prize per kid.

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I think so. I’ll have to double check this. I don’t have a baseline to compare it to vs. the regular selection but I’ll snap some pics next time I’m there.

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That is so sweet. As it turns out, I thought he was requesting the mask on the left which I have one for myself but actually he just wanted the one on the right which we bought last trip. The problem is that he licks and chews the inside while wearing them so he goes through 4-5 per day

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Ugh my DS4 does this too! It is SO gross and I feel like we go through WAY more than 4-5 a day. Thankfully he has about 15 masks now.

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Yes it is the Solarium here are some pics of the food selection


Hope this is helpful. I might have picked up an IPA while I was there.

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