Hi everyone!! Thought I'd check in since I left you hanging!! Here's how the rest of our trip played out thanks to Coronapocolypse....
I last left you I think March 1 when we had a great day at US and IOA. My friends T and M were due to come home on March 14, and my mom had only been with us for one day. At this time - all the US parks were still open, so we decided to brave one last day - March 13 - at MK, because other than US, that was the thing my mom really made the trip for - to go on IASW seriously and relive my childhood with me and her granddaughter. So, call us reckless...but we went to MK on Friday the 13th during a global pandemic. I really hoping that we don't regret that. In any case, the parks were still open and while things were getting crazy...in Orlando, I guess everyone was in denial because it didn't seem all that bad, and I guess...in WDW there always seems like hope and an escape from the real world so...there you have it.
By end of day on Friday March 13, the reality had started to sink in, even in Orlando and WDW. The announcements had been made that DLR was shutting down, followed by the announcements from WDW and US that their parks would be closing as of Sunday March 15 at the end of the day. At that point...we didn't know what to do. Our friends T and M had their planned flight home on the evening of Saturday March 14, and we had planned to hit AK that night, the only park that we had not yet visited on the trip. We had hoped to do the safaris and we had FP for ROL because my son wanted to take night time pics and my mom hadn't seen it. We decided to wait on making a decision on that until the afternoon when our friends were due to leave. We had a relaxing morning, and decided to go to Target to check out their selection of Disney merch. As I write this it's very surreal to think that just a week ago things were getting crazy for us but life was still relatively normal, went to Target, had breakfast....went about our day. We found some cute Disney pj's and other random stuff. Of course Target was already out of toilet paper and sanitizers and looked a little picked over, but nothing too crazy.
We lazed around the rest of the morning. By about noon though...more and more dire stories about thoughts of borders closing and rising panic....we decided that not only would we not tempt fate by visiting any more parks...but we decided to try to get an earlier flight home. AT this point, we were originally planning to fly home on Sunday March 22 - yesterday. Last time I was here on the DIS was when I was on hold and managed to change our flight to Wednesday March 18. I felt ok about that until Saturday March 14 evening when more and more scary news started showing up, so I decided to call WJ again and see if anything could be done to get us home even sooner. After a lengthy hold, I finally got through and we were very lucky, we managed to score 4 seats home on Monday March 16 - AND we got to go on the WestJet Disney Frozen themed plane to boot!! It was a long process to get us booked, and also had to book a ticket for my son, since he was originally scheduled to fly back to his boarding school in the US on Sunday as well, but now had to come home with us. I managed to get all of us tickets home without paying any extra money for my son's ticket because prices had gone down so much. I also had to wait on hold for another long stretch to make sure that my dog could be on the flight with us!! Finally got that done - that was Saturday night...so we still had one more day in Florida.
At this point, I had to ridiculously take my son shopping to the outlet mall. I know it sounds crazy, but because my son had been at boarding school, and his whole wardrobe was there, he only had summer clothes and one pair of pants with him. No coat, or warm clothes...and he would be coming back to Toronto in March - which is NOT really spring by any stretch so. Had to get him a jacket and some hoodies and jeans. I knew that once home he would not be going out much, but needed something. We were very careful and sanitized and stayed away from everyone at the outlet mall, which was pretty dead by this point anyway, scored a great parking spot!!
Sunday we decided again, no more parks, even though this was the last day the parks were operating. We gave up our BOG breakfast and our La Hacienda dinner and decided not to tempt fate. If we hadn't caught the virus yet, we were done taking chances. We decided to go to the beach in Cocoa Beach instead. I know there were scenes of idiot young people all over beaches in Miami and FLL...thankfully...it was NOT like that at all. We kept our distance, got an umbrella, and sat there for a few hours of sunshine therapy. It was lovely and I did not want to leave. But leave we did, at a decent hour because it was a long drive back to Kissimmee where we were staying. We got back late afternoon and packed up our stuff. Ordered dinner on DoorDash from Ford's Garage which is supposedly a Florida legend. The food was really good, I would love to eat there in person one day.
Monday March 16 - got up early, checked out a week early from our Air BnB house, and headed for the airport. We had to hide the dog again as we returned the rental car, but I don't think in these times anyone was watching too closely. We made sure to stay far away from people at the airport, bought our own snacks so we didn't have to get anything on the plane, used our last wipes to disinfect everything we touched on the plane, and were very happy to be home in Canada a few hours later.
At customs they asked us where we had been etc. I was actually nervous to tell them we had been at the theme parks. They didn't actually ask that specifically but they asked where we came from and we said Orlando. Then they gave us a pamphlet about self quarantine and asked us to acknowledge that we are supposed to self quarantine for 14 days and did we understand. We said yes, and were on our way.
We got home and of course my 17 year old son wanted to go see friends. It's heartbreaking because he was been away at boarding school for a long time, and was desperate to see people. I really had to lay down the riot act for him - and yes, before anyone says it...I know he can be a vector and spread the disease etc, and I told him all that. And because he is a selfish teen...he only hears what he wants to hear. I basically had to threaten him that if he leaves the house other than to walk the dog, he will not be allowed back in because he is putting his family and community at risk. I am hoping that sunk in. For the rest of the week he has been staying in and relatively compliant, but now he rarely leaves his room. Oh well. I will take that. I haven't shared that much about my son here, but let's just say...he has some mental health issues and challenges which are the reason he has been in the US so long, first in treatment for mental health issues, and then at a mainstream boarding school, and we did not expect to have him home until at least a few more months...and we had hoped to have more of a plan for when that time came.....
But.....as we all know...mother nature had other plans for all of us!! So we are here...trying to make the best of it...my daughter is handling it pretty well. We have baked some cupcakes and done all kinds of things around the house that we have put off for years....and just trying to be grateful that this is happening now, when we have food, and heat and even companionship available to us online. It's still pretty lonely, but tolerable because of that.
I hope everyone's safe and fed and coping ok!! Hang in there!!