OUR FAMILY TRIP TO THE WORLD! WITH PICTURES!

[Andipandi]

Hello, my name is Andi! I'm going to try and write a review of our recent visit to the World! This is my first time writing a review of anything so please bare with me. The characters in my family are my hubby (let's call him Zeb since he relates to the Country Bear Jamboree), my oldest son who is 20 years old (let's call him Zeke since he loves to skateboard) and my youngest son 18 years old (let's call him Han since he literally dresses up for comicon as Han Solo).

I want to start by saying we love Disney but we don't get to come as often as most people. Our last trip was five years ago. A lot has changed since we last came. We live in Ohio and winter can be long and very cold. Not to mention this past year was such a bummer with the pandemic and having to cancel trips. So my Zeb came home one day and said book a trip to Disney. He wanted to go in February since our business is usually slow during that time. He tells me this in September of 2020 and I'm wondering if I could even get a room or get flights in such short notice. Well, first I rented points from a DVC member and we were able to get a studio pool/garden view at BWV. We decided to go from Tuesday to Tuesday. Zeke, Han and I had non expiring tickets for two days from a trip we took a long time ago. So I only had to buy a 4 day ticket for each of us and I bought a 6 day ticket for Zeb. Next I had to figure out what days we would go to which parks and make the reservation for the day pass and link our tickets to those passes. It was very easy through the My Disney Experience.

Now I had to find flights. If I couldn't find flights we would drive but we really just wanted to get there and not hassle with that long drive. Five years ago we drove and I vowed never to do that again. Talk about torture!! Some may like long car drives to their vacay destination but believe me being in the car with three males for hours on end is not my idea of fun! I found flights on Spirit which were really cheap and that should have been my first clue that it wasn't going to be good. Nothing that good ever seems to work out for me. We had a flight early on Tuesday morning which left at 6:30am. Which was great because we could start our vacay early!! I also booked a rental car through Hertz so we could go to the grocery store and get some stuff for the week(drinks, snacks, breakfast stuff). Well, three days before our trip Hertz sends me a notice that they do not have any where close to our resort for me to drop off the rental car. They allow me to cancel that reservation. I had read on DIS boards that Alamo was great to rent from and you could drop the car off at the Car Care Center. And they would shuttle you to your resort. Ok, so I rented a car from Alamo and we were all set! Well, I decide to check on our flights just to make sure everything was good. I'm so glad I did! Our flight had been changed to 7:15pm. Um, no no no was what I was thinking as I saw that change. We would lose our whole first day in Florida and not get to the resort till really late. I called Spirit right away and asked for the original time that I had booked. Of course they didn't have that flight or any even close to that time. It was go the night before, which wouldn't work due to my sons work schedule or go that Tuesday night. I told Spirit that didn't work and they decided to give my money back to me and cancel our flights. So now I have to find a flight for my family three days before our trip. I was in panic mode!!! I'm a skymiles member with Delta but since the flights were so cheap with Spirit I didn't even consider using my skymiles. Well, I went on the Delta site and found 4 seats on a flight leaving at 6:30am. I used my skymiles for Zeb and I and bought the other two seats for Zeke and Han. Ok, long car ride diverted!! Thank goodness!!!

The day before leaving for our trip I worked on business stuff and finishing packing everyones stuff. I find it hilarious that three grown men can't pack a suitcase for a vacation. I love hearing "how many pairs of socks do I need?" or "can I just wear the same shorts everyday?" Good lord, can you imagine what these goofballs would look like if they packed for themselves? Needless to say after getting everything together and getting the house situated I had 1 1/2 hours to sleep before waking up to leave for our flight. It takes a little over a hour to get to Pittsburgh International Airport from where we live. So we get everything in the car and we are off!!! We are all so excited!!!
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Our flights were a breeze. We had a short half hour layover in Atlanta and then we landed in Orlando. We picked up our car from Alamo and we were off! We decided to go to a Publix near Disney Springs. We bought a styrofoam cooler from Publix to hold the milk and refrigerated stuff with some ice. Got all our snacks and breakfast stuff and then we headed to Disney Springs. We wanted to have lunch there. I haven't been to Disney Springs. I remember when that area was called Pleasure Island. Anyone remember that? And then it was Downtown Disney. Well, Disney Springs is wonderful! So much to see and do! We got a reservation at the Boathouse restaurant. Great seafood!! After lunch we looked at a few shops but then I received a text that our room was ready. It was only 1pm. We were totally siked to be able to check in early!!

Check in deserves its own paragraph! We pull up to Boardwalk entrance and after checking with the security guy he says "Welcome Home!" YES!!! We are finally here!! We unpack the car and get a trolley thing to bring everything in. Our room was 3024. We have magic bands and I knew we could just go to our room and not have to go to the front desk. When we walked in it was so weird because there was no other guest in the lobby. We stayed at BWV on our last trip five years ago and it was packed with guests and cast members. Really as I will tell you later the whole Boardwalk was empty. We get to our room and I use my magic band to unlock our room and as I walk in I get this feeling we are in the wrong room. Wait a minute this room has a whole kitchen and a livingroom and a separate bedroom, a huge balcony overlooking the pool. What? Were we pixie dusted? Heck, yea we were!!! We got a one bedroom instead of the studio I had booked!! I was literally jumping up and down with excitement!!! Zeb had parked the car and came up and walked in and was so surprised as I was to get such a great room with such a great view! We like the pool view and the lights at night. Sitting on the balcony with a glass of wine at night and just relaxing. So much fun!! This was a great start to our family trip!

 

[Andipandi]

Our first park would be HS. We decided to take the boat over instead of walking. I like staying at BWV since you are so close to HS and Epcot. My hubby and boys couldn't wait to see the Star Wars area. A note about mask wearing - you will be admonished to wear a mask and wash your hands from the moment you board the boat over to the park and through out the park. Of course we had no problem doing that at all. There was even hand washing stations in different parts of the park for you to wash up if you wanted. Most people kept their masks on and didn't have any issues. I did see a few that would pull them down under their nose and a cast member would politely ask them to cover properly. There are also areas in each park called relaxation stations where you could take your mask off and have a seat while have a drink or snack or just taking a break from wearing the masks. That was really nice that Disney thought of those areas. As someone that works from home I don't wear masks unless I go out in public so it was nice to take a break at times. Before entering the park they take your temperature and then you walk through the security check. My eyeglass case pinged the security and my bag was checked. They told me next time to take it out and hold it up so they know. We used our magic bands to enter and in we went. There wasn't as many people as when we came 5 years ago. I love walking down the street and seeing all the stores and up ahead seeing Mickeys Runaway Railway. We didn't have a plan of attack on which ride or area to go to first but I knew these boys wanted to head to Star Wars. It was amazing to me how detailed the Star Wars part was. You really felt like you had walked right into the movie or were on that planet. From the buildings to the music being played it took you right there! I'm going to attach some pictures if I can. I'm a little tech challenged but I will try.



Well, I guess I figured it out. LOL These are just a few pictures.

The lines for all the rides in Star Wars were over a hour long and the boys didn't want to wait in line just yet. So we headed to Aerosmiths Rockin Rollercoaster. I'm not a big rollercoaster person. Never was. When I was younger I was the girl who held everyones purse and coat while all my friends rode the coasters. My boys talk me into riding Aerosmiths roller coaster. The line was less then an hour and I thought ok lets do this. Let's just say I didn't do well on that ride. As soon as the bar came down I knew I was in trouble. The boys never mentioned that the whole thing was in the dark and that it would bang me about so hard. After getting off the ride my legs started to buckle and I almost fainted. They had to bring me a wheelchair. How humiliating!!! Well, I'm officially too old for rollercoasters!!

 

[Andipandi]

So from the picture I posted of Aerosmiths Rockin Roller Coaster you see people spread apart. That's actually the line for the ride. They had markers on the ground every few feet and each person or group that was together would be on a marker. Even though there wasn't that many people in the park it seemed like it took longer to get on a ride. I can only believe it was because of the social distancing in line and the precautions being taken on the ride.

So after getting my legs back and my heart rate back to normal we headed down the street. Tower of Terror was down at the time so we decided to head to Toy Story Land. Every ride in Toy Story Land was over an hour wait. So we checked other ride wait times and the boys saw that Star Tours had a short wait time so they headed there and i found a spot to rest.

I'd like to mention I really like the Disney App. You can pull up the park you are in and look at wait times for the rides or look for food options or restrooms. It was great in helping us decide what to do.

Oh I almost forgot what we did at 7am that morning to try and get on Star Wars Rise of the Resistance. You have to go to the app and try to join the queue. It fills in like 8 seconds. We didn't get it that morning and we had one more try at 1pm which we didn't get either. I feel like this is a bad way to get on a ride. If you are only going to the park one day then you have two trys to get on the ride. If you don't get in on the queue then you're out of luck. We fortunately were going two days so we had two more trys to get on.

It's getting late so I will call it a day for now and start back tomorrow with the rest of our HS day!!

 

[Andipandi]

After having lunch the boys wanted to see about building a droid and a lightsaber. No matter how old my boys get they will still be little kids at heart. Including my hubby!! We didn't realize that you had to have a reservation to build both the droid and the lightsaber. The boys got a reservation for the droid building but were not able to get the lightsaber reservation. The area to build the droids was really cool. I took a few pictures.

 

[Andipandi]

Unfortunately, I can't get the picture that I took inside the droid building to download. But it's really cool with a conveyor belt on the ceiling with droid parts going around and it really looks like a workshop. After building their droids we headed to Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run. The wait time wasn't bad but because they had to social distance everyone they actually had to use space behind the scenes for the line to spread out. Once you got close to the actual ride the wait line was almost a part of the ride itself. I like that you got to see the Millennium Falcon so close.

 

[Andipandi]

We wanted to try the blue milk from the milk stand. I didn't get a picture of the drink but it tasted pretty good. It's sweet and really looks like the drink from the movie. Han wanted to have a coke and it came in a really cool bottle.

 

[Andipandi]

We were able to see Chewie when we walked around. You can't see any characters up close but they try to bring out different ones at different times through out the park. The same was true for the other parks and the characters. They were either on a float or in a car or on a balcony. It's completely different from the old days when you could go right up to them and give them a hug and get a picture. I'm sure some day it will get back to that but for now you at least get to see them from afar.

 

[Andipandi]

I have to say that sometimes I get really bummed when I hear that a ride has changed. I was born the year Walt Disney World was opened in 1971. My parents took us to Disney almost every year when we would visit my grandma who lived in Florida. So I guess the old rides make me feel like I'm coming home in a way. Riding Carousel of Progress or It's a small World or any of the original rides brings me so much joy. That being said I didn't have a good feeling going into Mickey's Runaway Railway. Well, after riding the ride I changed my mind. It was so good!! You felt like you were in the cartoon. I loved it!! Sorry some of the pictures are sideways.

 

[DL1WDW2]

So happy for your Pixie Dust!

 

[Andipandi]

So happy for your Pixie Dust!

Thank you! We were so excited! That stuff never happens to us!

 

[Andipandi]

The rest of our HS day we went through shops and walked around checking out the park. The boys went on more rides and then we took the boat back to BWV. We decided to get pizza from the pizza window on the Boardwalk for dinner. The Boardwalk was pretty empty. The only restaurants open were the Bakery, Pizza Window, Big River Grille and Brewing and Trattoria al Forno. We ate at the Bakery and Big River and the Pizza Window. They were all good!

 

[Paulaparm]

Awesome upgrade!!! Looking forward to more

 

[Andipandi]

Awesome upgrade!!! Looking forward to more

We were definitely surprised! I'm going to try to add more today!

 

[Andipandi]

Our 2nd day we decided to go to Epcot. Epcot is my all time favorite park!! I love the different countries and the whole vibe of Epcot. So this next statement is only my opinion of Epcot at this time. I was a little disappointed. There is a lot of construction going on in the front. And it felt like there was a lot that had changed since our last visit. I understand construction and what will come in the near future will be great I'm sure. The other thing was that in the countries there was a lot of things closed. Morocco was a ghost town. Some of Canada's stores were closed when we were there and in the UK only the tea shop was open. France and Italy are my favorite pavilions to visit and I was happy to see everything open. One thing I did notice was in the stores at France and Italy pavilion there wasn't that much merchandise to see. I look on the bright side and think "Well, at least I'm not spending any money!"

Ok, I have a question, did Spaceship Earth change? We rode it once and I feel like something was missing. Wasn't there more at the end? Like I thought there was a family at the end talking.

Our first day at Epcot we had two reservations. We had lunch at the Germany Pavilion Biergarten. We have eaten there once before when our oldest son was a baby. We had an early reservation. When we walked in the place was pretty empty. The food is now brought to your table family style and you can have as much as you want. We had the nicest server and she wanted to keep feeding us but you can only eat so much. I love the atmosphere inside the Biergarten. It's supposed to be night time and you are outside. They even have a moon!
The food was so good! And the beer was brought out in huge mugs, so much fun!! We also got to see the band come out and play. I remember it being more hustle and bustle last time we came and a lot of people singing. This time there wasn't as many people but we still had a great time!!

 

[Andipandi]

Here are some pictures from our Germany Biergarten experience.

 

[Andipandi]

 

[Andipandi]

After lunch we went through the stores in Germany and Zeb found a stein he wanted to buy. Since we were coming back to Epcot on our last day he decided to wait to buy it then. We planned two days of our trip to HS and two days at Epcot. One day each at MK and AK.

We walked around the Norway Pavilion and who did we see? Elsa!!

 

[Andipandi]

We were visiting right before the International Flower and Garden Festival. I'm going to try and upload some pictures and rotate them so they are not sideways. I hope I can do it!

 

[Andipandi]

Since the wait time for the ride in the Mexico Pavilion was 5 minutes we decided to head there and take a ride. When you walk in there is a CM waiting to tell you when you can enter. I think they are keeping track of the number of people coming and going. We had a reservation for our last lunch there but since the ride wait time was so short we decided to go in. I love the atmosphere inside! It's like you are outside in a market. Very cool!

 

[Andipandi]

After Mexico we decided to head up front and ride Spaceship Earth and check out the the other areas. Zeb loves aquariums and we always have to make a stop at The Living Seas. I mean The Seas with Nemo and Friends. I loved the ride when it was the old way. I understand that they are trying to incorporate the Disney characters and movies into Epcot but I just miss the way things used to be. I'm nostalgic that way. Like the Maelstrom in Norway was one of our favorites. After The Seas the boys wanted to ride Mission Space. I can't handle that kind of ride but the boys love it. I was able to take a rest at the relaxation station right in front of the ride. It was nice to be able to take off my mask and get a drink. Here is my family, masks on!