pangyal
#TeamSven
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2014
Mods- please feel free to move this if you feel there is a more appropriate spot for it!
I wanted to give a brief overview of our time here during the park closures. We were originally booked March 10-23 but had to end up cutting it short when we learned that the resorts would be booting us on March 20 and that our airline (Westjet) was ceasing all flights as of March 22. We were able to change our flight to the 20th, and decided to stay and enjoy our resorts. It’s just me and DS (10) here now.
I would opine that everything up until the last day (Sunday) was business as usual. We went to EMH at DHS and had one of the best few hours ever- it felt like the After Hours events we had loved before they were cancelled.
On Monday, we were still at VGF and had a lovely day of me being on the phone trying to change flights and get things sorted. The pool hours were shortened to 10-8 daily, with all poolside activities running along with the campfire and movies nightly. All food locations were open and operating as per usual.
On Tuesday, we moved to our existing reservation at Beach Club. It was super busy Tuesday and Wednesday but walk-ups for dining (including at Beaches and Cream) were possible for probably the first and only time in history. The pool was moderately busy but not packed, and they were not handing out wristbands. The resort has certainly not been empty, though the lack of normal noise from boats and general park-going bustle is a bit odd.
I did notice that pretty much every DVC room on property booked up within a day of the resort closure announcements.
We went to Bon Voyage yesterday (my kiddo’s favourite character meal) and were told that the experience would be modified. This meant that the face characters did a processional and a little dance around the room but would not stop to talk or take photos. Rapunzel and Flynn did stop by our table, though, to ask DS what his dream was (and I got a great picture of their expressions when his response was, “A stable career”). Ariel did not come anywhere near us but Prince Eric sort of skipped by and exclaimed that it was a great day for sailing.
However, we were then told that we would have “bonus” characters. Shortly after that, Goofy, Pluto and Chip & Dale came in and spent close to twenty minutes with us, who were the only table occupied except for one other on the other side of the restaurant, just goofing around and learning how to dance from Prince Eric, who led the instructions from the other side of the room. It was honestly one of the most memorable and unique experiences we have ever had with regards to characters and I know it won’t happen again (honestly- I hope not).
The kiddo was signed up for Captain Hook’s Pirate Crew on Wednesday night and I told him it would be cancelled. Imagine my surprise when we received a reminder call about the booking. They went ahead with a total of three kids, one of whom chose not to do the cruise. The experience was modified so that the kids did not handle the objects and there was a lot of hand-washing involved from what I heard. Since there was no boat traffic, they took them all the way up to Studios on their cruise and “scared the security guards”.
Lunch today was tricky as Big River Grille is already closed and QS places are slowly starting to deplete their stock. The Marketplace fridges are emptying and the products are not being restocked. The Villas appear to be a ghost town some moments and normally busy at others. The boardwalk bakery and pizza window are operating normally. All bars are shuttered, so Abracadabar, Joe’s, and the bar portion of Hurricane Hannah’s are not available (though we saw Hannah’s briefly open for QS dinner yesterday, not the bar side).
We are at the pool now and the Energizer Bunny CMs are running the scheduled activities as normal. The pool is not busy and the lifeguards are joining in the dance segments.
Overall, the mood is very positive and, most importantly, they are still very obviously committed to making sure that guests, and especially children, are having a wonderful time here. I cannot commend the CMs enough for keeping up the mood and the energy. They are all treasures and honestly saved this trip for us after the announcement of the park closures. We have only encountered one or two CMs who seemed “checked out”, but I realize that perhaps they are just trying to hide their concern about perhaps a family member who is ill or just the whole situation at large, so I cannot hold it against them one bit.
They have deployed multiple food service CMs from the parks to the QS locations to fill the gaps left by the college program CMs.
One more tidbit- we were told at Yachtsman the other night that they were doing away with corkage fees for the rest of the week if people want to BYOB since they could have to stop serving alcohol at anytime.
Please feel free to ask any questions about life here at the moment!
I wanted to give a brief overview of our time here during the park closures. We were originally booked March 10-23 but had to end up cutting it short when we learned that the resorts would be booting us on March 20 and that our airline (Westjet) was ceasing all flights as of March 22. We were able to change our flight to the 20th, and decided to stay and enjoy our resorts. It’s just me and DS (10) here now.
I would opine that everything up until the last day (Sunday) was business as usual. We went to EMH at DHS and had one of the best few hours ever- it felt like the After Hours events we had loved before they were cancelled.
On Monday, we were still at VGF and had a lovely day of me being on the phone trying to change flights and get things sorted. The pool hours were shortened to 10-8 daily, with all poolside activities running along with the campfire and movies nightly. All food locations were open and operating as per usual.
On Tuesday, we moved to our existing reservation at Beach Club. It was super busy Tuesday and Wednesday but walk-ups for dining (including at Beaches and Cream) were possible for probably the first and only time in history. The pool was moderately busy but not packed, and they were not handing out wristbands. The resort has certainly not been empty, though the lack of normal noise from boats and general park-going bustle is a bit odd.
I did notice that pretty much every DVC room on property booked up within a day of the resort closure announcements.
We went to Bon Voyage yesterday (my kiddo’s favourite character meal) and were told that the experience would be modified. This meant that the face characters did a processional and a little dance around the room but would not stop to talk or take photos. Rapunzel and Flynn did stop by our table, though, to ask DS what his dream was (and I got a great picture of their expressions when his response was, “A stable career”). Ariel did not come anywhere near us but Prince Eric sort of skipped by and exclaimed that it was a great day for sailing.
However, we were then told that we would have “bonus” characters. Shortly after that, Goofy, Pluto and Chip & Dale came in and spent close to twenty minutes with us, who were the only table occupied except for one other on the other side of the restaurant, just goofing around and learning how to dance from Prince Eric, who led the instructions from the other side of the room. It was honestly one of the most memorable and unique experiences we have ever had with regards to characters and I know it won’t happen again (honestly- I hope not).
The kiddo was signed up for Captain Hook’s Pirate Crew on Wednesday night and I told him it would be cancelled. Imagine my surprise when we received a reminder call about the booking. They went ahead with a total of three kids, one of whom chose not to do the cruise. The experience was modified so that the kids did not handle the objects and there was a lot of hand-washing involved from what I heard. Since there was no boat traffic, they took them all the way up to Studios on their cruise and “scared the security guards”.
Lunch today was tricky as Big River Grille is already closed and QS places are slowly starting to deplete their stock. The Marketplace fridges are emptying and the products are not being restocked. The Villas appear to be a ghost town some moments and normally busy at others. The boardwalk bakery and pizza window are operating normally. All bars are shuttered, so Abracadabar, Joe’s, and the bar portion of Hurricane Hannah’s are not available (though we saw Hannah’s briefly open for QS dinner yesterday, not the bar side).
We are at the pool now and the Energizer Bunny CMs are running the scheduled activities as normal. The pool is not busy and the lifeguards are joining in the dance segments.
Overall, the mood is very positive and, most importantly, they are still very obviously committed to making sure that guests, and especially children, are having a wonderful time here. I cannot commend the CMs enough for keeping up the mood and the energy. They are all treasures and honestly saved this trip for us after the announcement of the park closures. We have only encountered one or two CMs who seemed “checked out”, but I realize that perhaps they are just trying to hide their concern about perhaps a family member who is ill or just the whole situation at large, so I cannot hold it against them one bit.
They have deployed multiple food service CMs from the parks to the QS locations to fill the gaps left by the college program CMs.
One more tidbit- we were told at Yachtsman the other night that they were doing away with corkage fees for the rest of the week if people want to BYOB since they could have to stop serving alcohol at anytime.
Please feel free to ask any questions about life here at the moment!
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