Are you still holding onto hope for July/August Vacation Plans?

[Smittolis]

@HopperFan Long time no see! ;o)

Good to be back...... I think like anything, when you do things too much it can often start to lose its appeal. We did Europe last year instead and had a great time, it was an awesome change up. That allowed the kids to get a hankering for Disney again and forget about some of the issues and pet peeves! They ended up going without me in Feb on Grandma's dime so got some Disney time in right before it closed!

Good to hear your timing and finances worked outin your favor! Shame about the NJ quarantine thing though, definitely interesting times!

 

[HopperFan]

@HopperFan Long time no see! ;o)

Good to be back...... I think like anything, when you do things too much it can often start to lose its appeal. We did Europe last year instead and had a great time, it was an awesome change up. That allowed the kids to get a hankering for Disney again and forget about some of the issues and pet peeves! They ended up going without me in Feb on Grandma's dime so got some Disney time in right before it closed!

Good to hear your timing and finances worked outin your favor! Shame about the NJ quarantine thing though, definitely interesting times!

Yeah, I think I was of the thought process that since I hadn't been since August ... I didn't have anything to share or contribute that was current. My inside folks are talking but at this point, I think it's better we all just sit and ride the waves because the situation is fluid and likely will be the rest of this year.

Personal opinion: Disney is making some good moves from an operational and financial standpoint other than Epcot, I'd prefer it stay closed until fall so they can focus on the other three parks being a complete experience. Without the ICP at Epcot it's really not the same, and missing all the DCP, which is a huge chunk, will mean CMs have to be moved about. I'm hoping Disney is extra careful with hours to front line "older CMs" so their exposure to guests is minimal. BUT I won't be going until next year, just reading all the different places there are too many booked to go that are already upset and can't grasp why some things happened .... can't imagine them in the parks ........ I'm good. We are starting week 12 hunkered down. My one son has no understanding and it was a rough first month. He has been going to his program 13 years so took it quite personal that he couldn't go. But I think now he is sure he is retired and has adjusted to Mom not letting him leave the house. This week we are at FL house (he is thrilled) and it's rained most the time but we have sat on beach a couple days very much social distanced from others. That was so nice.

Yeah NY NJ CT LA all have to quarantine 2 weeks before leaving their lodging ..... but not if they book hotels. So stupid especially since they expect owners who rent to police this. Our community was not interested in calling the police to arrest guests so they opted to not rent to them to start with. Florida is making inconsistent demands across all businesses and from we've seen so far (we are here this week) most are not abiding by it. I really hope Disney & Universal hold their ground, all eyes are on them.

 

[Smittolis]

Well sadly we are right slap bang in the middle of some of the protests, so not only dealing with COVID19 but the civil unrest and opportunistic looters and anarchists.... Welcome to level 6 of Jumanji! haha Crazy times.

We have a reservation for beginning of August at the B-resort so we will see how it goes, the cancelation process is so generous we have some time. I guess we will see!

 

[chad_1138]

So, the Magic Band count for our July 5-17 trip at Pop changed today. Yesterday it was 1 day, today it now says 26 days.

Also, received the email saying our final payment is due 30 days before arrival.

 

[Monykalyn]

@TamaraQT i kmow how much you guys love your Florida Trips , so sorry it didn’t work this year. Next year sounds fantastic though! While we didn’t do an entire month, last year we did several days at Cabana Bay and Universal, then a 5 day cruise. Kids first cruise and we got a great deal right before sailing to switch to a suite- kids now spoiled lol. This May was supposed to be long planned graduation trip to France and DLP. Now pushed to next year.
However after being stuck at home since mid March, no trip and WFH since then, and DH with no job rest of year (works with schools) a couple weeks ago we decided to fix the stir crazy. We impulsively used extra accommodation certificate and the week we were supposed to use in France (expires before we can use it next year) from our timeshare to spend 2 weeks at a resort in Orlando. Currently at Marriott Harbor Lake, pools open, sports courts and mini golf open and resumed limited activities this week. With low occupancy its been great and a much needed getaway. I still need to work most days, but just having a change of scenery is doing wonders. We drove, brought most of our food to cook in condo.The enhanced cleaning and reminders to distance are fine. Even with a drastically reduced amount of pool loungers no issue finding some. Actually having so much space is wonderful! We even went to Universal for a day as we have AP anyway. Actually not terrible as crowds were so low! Literally walked on everything we wanted to do. Mask was hot but not as horrible as I thought, although the day we went was mostly cloudy most of the day.
All that to say- next year sounds awesome, but if you can work even a safe quick weekend getaway it may help tide you over a bit. I really needed this for my mental health, as I was not doing well. It’s helped with the kids some too.
I’m lookin forward to hearing about your trip planning for next year!

 

[TamaraQT]

@TamaraQT i kmow how much you guys love your Florida Trips , so sorry it didn’t work this year. Next year sounds fantastic though! While we didn’t do an entire month, last year we did several days at Cabana Bay and Universal, then a 5 day cruise. Kids first cruise and we got a great deal right before sailing to switch to a suite- kids now spoiled lol. This May was supposed to be long planned graduation trip to France and DLP. Now pushed to next year.
However after being stuck at home since mid March, no trip and WFH since then, and DH with no job rest of year (works with schools) a couple weeks ago we decided to fix the stir crazy. We impulsively used extra accommodation certificate and the week we were supposed to use in France (expires before we can use it next year) from our timeshare to spend 2 weeks at a resort in Orlando. Currently at Marriott Harbor Lake, pools open, sports courts and mini golf open and resumed limited activities this week. With low occupancy its been great and a much needed getaway. I still need to work most days, but just having a change of scenery is doing wonders. We drove, brought most of our food to cook in condo.The enhanced cleaning and reminders to distance are fine. Even with a drastically reduced amount of pool loungers no issue finding some. Actually having so much space is wonderful! We even went to Universal for a day as we have AP anyway. Actually not terrible as crowds were so low! Literally walked on everything we wanted to do. Mask was hot but not as horrible as I thought, although the day we went was mostly cloudy most of the day.
All that to say- next year sounds awesome, but if you can work even a safe quick weekend getaway it may help tide you over a bit. I really needed this for my mental health, as I was not doing well. It’s helped with the kids some too.
I’m lookin forward to hearing about your trip planning for next year!

Thanks @Monykalyn for the kind words of encouragement. I hope to squeeze in a little something this year too. DD14 has asthma and she is scared to take a chance at going anywhere. She says she is willing to wait until next year so we will see. The good news is that since I physically stashed the vacation funds into a separate account. I can take a quick trip at a moments notice without worrying about budget. I have considered doing a family trip for thanksgiving, but I cant count on everybody in the extended family. Anyway, I am glad you enjoyed your vacation. And thanks again.

 

[KristinU]

Checking in with you guys - we just pushed from July to the first week of August. We had a few factors push us:
1. the NY/NJ/CT quarantine EO, I'm thinking it will have to be lifted for August 1st if they're hosting the Republican convention in August
2. gives us more time to watch the COVID trends for both air travel and visiting FL
3. one of DS's football camps set a reschedule date at the end of July
4. DS's behind the wheel lessons have been rescheduled from the shutdown and fall at the end of July

All this said, I'm still maybe at 50% optimistic that we'll be going. After the first week of August we'll be hitting football practice (fingers crossed!) and then back to school, so if this new week doesn't work out that's it for reschedules and possibilities until winter.

 

[npatellye]

Checking in with you guys - we just pushed from July to the first week of August. We had a few factors push us:
1. the NY/NJ/CT quarantine EO, I'm thinking it will have to be lifted for August 1st if they're hosting the Republican convention in August
2. gives us more time to watch the COVID trends for both air travel and visiting FL
3. one of DS's football camps set a reschedule date at the end of July
4. DS's behind the wheel lessons have been rescheduled from the shutdown and fall at the end of July

All this said, I'm still maybe at 50% optimistic that we'll be going. After the first week of August we'll be hitting football practice (fingers crossed!) and then back to school, so if this new week doesn't work out that's it for reschedules and possibilities until winter.

We also moved our trip up due to a change in my kids’ school calendar that bumped up the first day of school. We wanted to make sure we returned in time to quarantine for two weeks before school starts. We will end up missing cheer conditioning but, since my girls are only doing youth cheer at their age, the cheer director approved it.

 

[npatellye]

Ooh, good point, I should keep an eye on the guidelines for DS's football practice. He'll be a junior and has been starting varsity since last year. If there's a travel quarantine in place that would push his conditioning therefore pushing his ability to practice in pads, we'd probably scrap the trip.

So, bottom line, this summer is very much up in the air! At least I have a couple of local and regional camping trips on the books to look forward to!

Honestly, I wouldn't be considering FL and Disney at all if we didn't have APs that we started in January. We went down for a long weekend for DS's birthday gift trip to the Pro Bowl. The APs were our family Christmas gift with plans to use them in January, April, and December. Not the year to buy APs, that's for sure! We'll get next spring break out of them with the extension, but we had figured that spring break next year might be college visits. But who knows! We'll go with the flow!

Oh yes, you’re at the other end of the spectrum from me in terms of football. My kids are almost 5 and 7 lol so it’s low key for us. We wouldn’t be going if we didn’t have DVC points that have to be used. It is what it is.

I hope it all works out for you!!!!

 

[KristinU]

Oh yes, you’re at the other end of the spectrum from me in terms of football. My kids are almost 5 and 7 lol so it’s low key for us. We wouldn’t be going if we didn’t have DVC points that have to be used. It is what it is.

I hope it all works out for you!!!!

Oh how cute!!! And, yes, it all gets more intense when they get older, but what you'll LOOOOOOOVE about when they hit high school is that the practices are after school! Before dinner! Ahhhh, so much better than dashing around and trying to have some semblance of evening nutrition in between pick ups and drop offs.

I hope it all works out for you too! Keep us posted!

 

[TamaraQT]

Well it's been a month.....anyone still going within the next 30 days? With the sudden spike of Covid in Florida, I am glad we did cancel. As much as I want to go, I would have been very much disenchanted by all of the restrictions in place. I belong to a HICV Orange Lake thread on FaceBook. Reading/watching some of the reports from people who went, I am glad I cancelled. It doesn't seem like things were that bad, just too many restrictions. Pools were not open for the usual hours. They had to close for cleaning thruout the day. It's hard to plan around that kind of stuff. It's just too many restrictions from what we are used to. And what we are used to is the ability to come and go at our own pace. Even our favorite family buffet restaurant(Golden Corral) never re-opened. Being a buffet, I can see that being a breeding ground for Covid. It just wouldn't be the same vacation for us. Activities at the resorts were closed/limited. I was wondering if anyone cares to share their current experience. Did you go? Did you cancel? Are you still thinking it over? Do we need to start the support group?

 

[MrsBooch]

Nope. We cancelled. We would have been traveling with my in laws (at risk and from CT) and we are from PA. We wouldn't have had enough time to quarantine before school started (if school starts) and we didn't want to risk it for anyone's health.

Now pushed into November - in laws not coming - hoping for a Thanksgiving in Disney World.

 

[WonderlandisReality]

Well it's been a month.....anyone still going within the next 30 days? With the sudden spike of Covid in Florida, I am glad we did cancel. As much as I want to go, I would have been very much disenchanted by all of the restrictions in place. I belong to a HICV Orange Lake thread on FaceBook. Reading/watching some of the reports from people who went, I am glad I cancelled. It doesn't seem like things were that bad, just too many restrictions. Pools were not open for the usual hours. They had to close for cleaning thruout the day. It's hard to plan around that kind of stuff. It's just too many restrictions from what we are used to. And what we are used to is the ability to come and go at our own pace. Even our favorite family buffet restaurant(Golden Corral) never re-opened. Being a buffet, I can see that being a breeding ground for Covid. It just wouldn't be the same vacation for us. Activities at the resorts were closed/limited. I was wondering if anyone cares to share their current experience. Did you go? Did you cancel? Are you still thinking it over? Do we need to start the support group?

We leave in 23 days. But my risk level at Disney is less than my risk level at work. Which is not the norm for most, I realize. The restrictions at WDW are about the same as the hospital I work at...so we figured we would make the most out of a crap situation and just do it. This fly in the ointment is the restrictions to return home but we were in agreement to follow them.

 

[Bjkandma]

We are still planning on going August 18th. There are restrictions and there are risks. We are hoping for a more laid back vacation and not leaving the "bubble". (We have until August 10th to change our mind)

 

[DoryGirl1963]

Going to Universal Orlando 8/16-21/20 - we're local (1 hour away), so we're already "in the soup", so to speak, LOL.

Looking forward to our first stay at Royal Pacific and low crowds & wait times!

 

[KristinU]

Thanks for pinging this thread, @TamaraQT ! Glad to hear from everyone! So, we cancelled. Aside from the whole NY/NJ/CT quarantine still in place, we have the quarantine on this side now if we travel to a whole huge list of states...almost a month and a half of time just for a vacation, that's just a nope for us. And probably the biggest factor: after being near one of the early epicenters we're happy to just "circle the wagons" and stay local/regional while the flare ups are happening elsewhere. We are still holding out for our December plans, and then next April though!

 

[ScubaCat]

Flying down in 2 weeks and again a month later. I rebooked the upcoming on property though since it seems a little safer and guarantees me park reservations. I've done a few flights recently so not concerned about that part. Just keep mask on and get in/out of the airports ASAP.

 

[Jennasis]

We are going (God willing) August 10-16 but not doing ANY theme parks. We have our VRBO vacation home with private pool/hot tub rented and are planning to pretty much isolate for the week. We'll get take out, hit some state parks to hike or kayak and essentially avoid humans the whole time.

 

[Disney Von Drake]

According to the CDC travel increases your chances of getting infected and spreading COVID-19.

 

[halfpintpeggy]

Flying down in 2 weeks and again a month later. I rebooked the upcoming on property though since it seems a little safer and guarantees me park reservations. I've done a few flights recently so not concerned about that part. Just keep mask on and get in/out of the airports ASAP.

Have the flights you’ve recently taken been packed?