A long-long time ago...in August 2009, right before moving from Florida to Japan, our family took a trip to World Disney World. Mark was a 7 months old baby at that time, Alex was 4 and Katya was 6. Yes, we did go to Tokyo Disney a few years later, but other than that, the kids had never been to WDW since then.
So. We decided to brave the pandemic, be patient with the masks rules and fly to Orlando for the grand Disney vacation of 2020.
We stayed for three nights at the Caribbean Resort on Disney property and then two nights at Shades of Green, a military hotel also on property. I know it was inconvenient to move, but the price was steep for the resort, so it was actually worth it at the end.
On our first day at WDW, we headed to Hollywood Studios. Just to get into the park it took awhile with all the ticket voucher exchanges, security checks and then health checks on top of that.
In front of the Tower of Terror that was our planned first stop but turned out to be closed for half of the day...making it a very difficult to get on the ride without a long wait.
And that’s how we look at all the pictures. They were very strict about wearing masks, even on rides.
Social distancing in practice. This was a Frozen show, also socially distanced. I believe it was one of the first performances of the season as they just started with the Christmas theme.
We took the kids through the Toy Story area, of course.
Did a few kiddie rides as they had a shorter line.
We obviously got on a few more rides but I just didn’t get any pictures.
Lunch, or any kind of snack or drink, was welcomed with much enthusiasm every time because we could actually take off our masks. This was a pizza place that had a nice salad to order as well. It was also kind of nice that we could order our food on the app and then when it’s ready to just go pick it up at the counter. Worked like magic!
The new Star Wars area was super cool!
I am personally not that much into Star Wars (everyone else is though) but it was still super exciting to see the atmosphere in this part of the park!
I mean, this filter makes it look like you are in a movie.
So yes, we stood in line for one of the rides and exactly at 2 pm we all tried to get onto the new Star Wars ride--Rise of the Resistance. Robert tried at 7 am to get on it, but couldn’t. Somehow it worked this time and we managed to get a time slot later in the day.
That’s pretty much the only picture I got from there. It was a really cool experience!
Everyone in our family (minus me) has been on a Mandolorian kick, so Mark had to get this picture!
As the park was closing earlier during these Covid-hours, everyone decided it was the perfect time to go on the Rock-n-Roll roller coaster again and again at the end of the day. I stayed outside on the bench, no thank you very much-ahahaha.
So! Day 2, we got up bright and early and headed to....
...MAGIC KINGDOM!!!
Magic Kingdom is fun, full of fantastic rides for the teenagers and little kids alike. We had to do everything, of course!
Space Mountain was a hit and we managed to get on it first thing in the morning, multiple times.
The Teacups! It’s a tradition.
Oh how much our family has changed since the last trip! But the teacups do not change!
Look at this throwback to 2009!
Dumbo! It was a must, just because, you know?
Disney World wearing masks is something else... 😆
The iconic Disney castle!
These two are great boys! Fifteen and twelve at the moment and the size difference is probably most prominent during these years. Not for long though!
I believe this was our first time visiting The Hall of President. Since we were here right after the 2020 election, it was especially cool to be reminded of the history of our country. The kids enjoyed it, and so did we. The portrayal of each president was very realistic! And this was the only ride where a security guard was present...
Back on Main Street!
Although official regular parades had been cancelled, we had these random short mini-parades throughout the day that we could watch.
No shows either and no meeting with the characters. This is as close as we got!
I don’t know how we missed it last times we were at WDW, but Dole pineapple whip has become one of our favorites for sure! YUM!
Oh yes, Splash Mountain was definitely a hit, no matter how soaked we got each time!
At night, the castle was already lit up with Christmas colors which was so festive and amazing! Everyone was especially excited about Christmas coming up this year of 2020.
We dragged the kids to the It’s A Small World After All because our app said that the wait is like 20 minutes--they were WRONG!!! 😆😆😆 But it’s okay! We had to do it! We had told Mark about it and how we had to do it at least once.
Bye, Magic Kingdom on Day 2.
On Day 3 we moved from the Caribbean Resort to the Shades of Green. It was nice that we could just send our luggage over to the military hotel and after that take a shuttle straight to the Animal Kingdom.
This park is possibly our favorite! Don’t tell Magic Kingdom.
It was not as crowded as Magic Kingdom, but it was still quite busy.
Expedition Everest was an absolute favorite! I think the kids went on like four times in a row since the wait was not horrible.
The Safari ride was AWESOME!
We all had a great time, really!
Eating beautiful desserts like that helped too!
At one point, the kids left to go on another ride while Robert and I stayed behind to wait for 1.5 for the Avatar Flight of Passage ride. It was INSANE.
Waiting. Still waiting.
But it was worth it! And it was super cool! And then we went on a bunch of other rides before the darkness fell (quite early actually). The park was closing at 7 pm, I believe. Everything was beautifully lit up and we felt like we had done a ton there in one day.
Day 4 was Magic Kingdom Day again!
We felt like pros by then and wanted to do just our favorite rides plus Skipper’s Canteen for lunch as our main splurge meal.
It was delicious! And it had started to rain, so we were happy to be inside for a short break.
And then! We had to brave the downpours and still go on rides wearing ponchos, and still getting absolutely soaked.
We were super wet, but not cold. And the worst part was that most rides’ lines didn’t get much shorter than usual!
The Jungle Cruise was super fun and pretty great in the rain too!
As soon as the skies cleared, we headed to for our mid-afternoon/early evening snack! Oh, how I love these funnel cakes.
After a long day at the park, we were ready to get back to our hotel. The following morning, we flew home but couldn’t miss the opportunity to take pictures with these fun pictures at the airport first.
This is Mark’s--"it’s so silly, and I am kind of embarrassed and kind of enjoying it" face.
Katya still loves Harry Potter!
And Jurassic Park, of course! I love Alex’s bag (my tennis bag that we used as a “large” personal item for the plane).
And I had no idea, but Jim Courier apparently is from Orlando!
And we are going to end it on this note (although not all conversations in our house lead to tennis;)).
Going to Disney this year was definitely a risk with an added inconvenience of wearing masks, but we were so happy we did it while all the kids are still at home! I don’t know when we go back to WDW, so this was definitely one memorable trip for us all!
Lyana.
