It has a been a very fun and relaxing trip to Florida. It has been interesting to notice the differences of these unprecedented times. We went to the outlets. It was interesting to see how many international tourists were not in Tommy Hilfiger (their majority client). It has been a little sad at times too. Many of my favorite places are closed: Sweet Tomatoes, Wolfgang Puck Express(temporary?), Southwest Moe’s (Vineland location), Typhoon Lagoon (temporary). Pollo Tropical’s drive-thru was still open, so we ate there.
On Tuesday, we met Mireya. We went to Pop Century and Art of Animation and rode the Skyliner to the Boardwalk. We had pizza outside at the Boardwalk. It was nice to talk to her again. We also toured the new resort, Riviera.
On Wednesday, we went to Epcot after Andrea worked. Since character meet and greets are no longer allowed, we saw more characters in parades than usual. They also turned the Norway restaurant into a Relaxation Station, so it was neat to see inside of the restaurant. I do not think I have been inside there since the ’80s. It is sad to see many buffets closed for now. We rode Living with the Land and tried food from the Flower & Garden Festival kiosks.
On Thursday, I met Robert early and we went and picked blueberries in Clermont. We also stopped by Showcase of Citrus. We played a round of mini golf until Andrea was done with work. Then, all of us went to Disney Springs. The popular new thing to do there is try these cookies at Gideon’s. We got on a 2-hour virtual queue and decided to walk to Saratoga Springs. At the hotel, as I ate worms in dirt, our spot in line opened up, so we had to walk quickly back to Gideon’s which was probably around 2 miles. We have been averaging 6 to 7 miles a day of walking which is good as those cookies have 800+ of calories. Andrea got a peanut butter cold brew which she loved. The cookies were a bit much. Later, we ate at Pei Wei with Robert. It was fun to reminiscence about old times.
A space shuttle (a rocket carrying astronauts – I do not know what they call it these days) lifted off at 5:49 a.m. I happened to be awake at that time, so I turned on youtube and saw it. I decided to look outside just in case and saw a blaze of fire in the sky. I could not capture it well. I woke Andrea up and we were able to see clearly the boosters fall off. It was amazing. Our room’s height (12th floor) and direction were perfect. Other people were prepared as we could hear other balconies listening to NASA tv.
Hollywood Studios is so popular these days it is hard to obtain a reservation. Well, we have learned that if you wait until people can park hop, park availability opens up. On Friday, we were supposed to go to Epcot again, but around 1 p.m., we saw Magic Kingdom open up, so we got a reservation. We were headed there – on the bus and everything – when I looked again and saw that Hollywood Studios was available. At Hollywood Studios, we were able to ride the new Mickey and Minnie ride and a new-ish Star Wars ride. It was fun to see characters in parades that we never see usually. Because of all the newer rides, we were able to get on Toy Story 3 times without a wait.
On Saturday, we first went to Animal Kingdom Lodge. It was the first time you could see the impact of the pandemic. It was sad to see an empty Boma. The stores were closed and the shelves empty. From there, we went to Animal Kingdom. We ate at Satu’li in Pandora. I had the tofu, green onion vinaigrette, sweet potato hash bowl. Afterwards, we went on the safari and saw a lot of animals. We rode the train to Conservation Station where they had Animation!!! At least animation still exists. I remember the days we would draw in Hollywood Studios. Then, they moved it to Epcot for special occasions and now it is at Animal Kingdom. We had a really good teacher as we drew Simba. We rode Dinosaur and then, we left. FastPasses do not exist, so we do not like to wait in line long for rides. We went back to Animal Kingdom Lodge for falafel and zebra domes.
Although there is risk being here, we would estimate 99% of people wear their mask correctly. If you do not, you will get told quickly. Our temperatures are scanned a few times a day. You only can eat and drink while stationary. We only eat outside and are outside most of the time. All areas are socially distanced as well as you expect. We see limited older people with the average age being 30 to 35 and most are in good shape as there is a lot of walking (approaching 40 miles this week) in the heat (75 to 80 degrees). I would not want to be here in the summer. The mask is only an annoyance during a few hours of the afternoon when it gets hot. Currently, the parks are at 35% capacity which has been nice. The Skyliner and other rides where they normally pack 10 people into, it is only Andrea and me which is great! It has been nice being forced to go slowly and we have so much more time than usual – 2 weeks! It has been nice only spending 6 or 7 hours in the parks instead of the entire day.
We are headed into week #2. We had two different reservations, so I asked if we could stay in our current room for the second week and they allowed us to stay. We will head to Epcot and Magic Kingdom this week.