The anti-dining trip report that could have been a disaster but ended up being Yacht-some!! April 2021 at The Yacht Club! Complete 11/5!

[pkondz]

We leave in less than two weeks for our next trip

Woot!

and I haven't done a thing to get ready!

What!?!

Allie and I head to New Jersey for her last dance comp

Ah yes. Bittersweet. Did that with my DD not long ago.

She tried out for, and made the dance team at Quinnipiac so she will still be dancing in college!

Hey that's great! Congrats to her.

There's even a rumor that they are in a comp in WDW in January so this may just be the push I needed to finally get to see the F-ARTS!

Now that's a good reason to go again!

In less exciting news, my mom is really stressing about going to WDW in two weeks. She's very (understandably) nervous because Ava is too young to be vaccinated, even though the rest of us are. She's seriously considering not coming and I'm really bummed about that, though I completely understand. The reports of crowds has me slightly on edge too but with two more trips this year, we'll make the best of it.

Oh dear. But I totally understand. Covid is... scary.

Anyway, this also brings up a problem that I had not foreseen. When I made ADRs for this trip, half are under her name…I made her an MDE account and almost all but a couple are split since I couldn't get anything for 7 people. I pretty much made all of our ADRs for 4/4 (Allie was considering bringing a friend and I figured we could always downsize if needed), so now if we all still go, it'll be 5 of us. I don't know if I should keep all the reservations in my mom's name and explain when we check-in that we only have 5, or do I cancel all the reservations in her name, keep the ones I have for 4 and hope they take all 5 of us?? Ughhh…add this to things I never knew I needed to worry about when planning a trip What would you all do??

Hmmm... I think I would leave the ADRs in whoever's name it's under. I would then say "There's 5 of us, not 4." When they say "For 4?" You can say you booked it for 5 or say you made a mistake depending on how your conscience is, I guess. I'm pretty sure they'd honour the ADR and just add a chair. Might have to wait a bit for a different table, but... that's always the case.

If you don't pose with one foot up, are you really posing???

Awwww.

Nice shot of all of you.

I don't remember much about the safari, so I guess it was fine.

What a glowing endorsement!

So...

See your tree?

Afterwards, we walked towards Everest ,
where I always try to line up these pictures just so...

And then someone finally got one of me, obviously way off

But a nice shot of you!

Not surprised you didn't ride. How difficult was it to not go on?

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

I work the next two days and then Wednesday morning, Allie and I head to New Jersey for her last dance comp

Where in Jersey will you be? I assume North Jersey. How bitter sweet for you both!

She tried out for, and made the dance team at Quinnipiac so she will still be dancing in college!

That is fantastic news! It will be so nice for her to have her passion to break up all of her studies! And a great way to make some new friends.

In less exciting news, my mom is really stressing about going to WDW in two weeks. She's very (understandably) nervous because Ava is too young to be vaccinated, even though the rest of us are. She's seriously considering not coming and I'm really bummed about that, though I completely understand.

Ugh!!! I am sure what your mom is stressing about is what I do on a daily basis! it is so hard for the little ones still.

I don't know if I should keep all the reservations in my mom's name and explain when we check-in that we only have 5, or do I cancel all the reservations in her name, keep the ones I have for 4 and hope they take all 5 of us?? Ughhh…add this to things I never knew I needed to worry about when planning a trip What would you all do??

I would keep the reservations for now. Wait till you know for sure what your final party will be. It's got to be easier to get reservations now that more is open but still. I would think most of the time if you show up with 5 for a 4 person reservation they will try to accomidate. But some places may just not be able to.

I don't remember much about the safari, so I guess it was fine.
The plastic sheets really impeded the views and made it hard to get pics.
Does anyone know if they are still there?

I want to say they were slowly removing them. Which makes sense since you are outside the whole time.

 

[buzzrelly]

Hey that's great! Congrats to her.

Thank you!

If you don't pose with one foot up, are you really posing???

Not if you're Allie!

See your tree?

Ha! I did! And I almost included the pic but thought maybe I have overused that poor Baobab tree! But here, just for you...

Not surprised you didn't ride. How difficult was it to not go on?

Not at all, though slightly harder than skipping RnRC. I do like EE, but it scares the pants off of me on a good day!

 

[buzzrelly]

Where in Jersey will you be?

Seacaucus, which is……somewhere in Jersey...I have NO idea! I'll be relying on Siri to find it for us. It's just over 2 hours from CT, that's all I know!

I would keep the reservations for now. Wait till you know for sure what your final party will be.

Good idea…I have some time to figure this out.

I want to say they were slowly removing them. Which makes sense since you are outside the whole time.

Totally makes sense

 

[kastoney]

We leave in less than two weeks for our next trip and I haven't done a thing to get ready! I definitely need to start packing but I work the next two days and then Wednesday morning,

So exciting!!!!! I usually never pack until the last minute but I was so excited last trip I'd been packing for weeks

She tried out for, and made the dance team at Quinnipiac so she will still be dancing in college!

Congratulations to Allie!!! What a great accomplishment

She's very (understandably) nervous because Ava is too young to be vaccinated, even though the rest of us are. She's seriously considering not coming and I'm really bummed about that, though I completely understand. The reports of crowds has me slightly on edge too but with two more trips this year, we'll make the best of it.

I know crowds are bad right now but I'm thinking they will start to go down in August when some schools start to go back. Of course Casey isn't vaccinated either so I know the struggle. I was pretty shocked at how many kids weren't wearing masks last month, but Casey had no issue wearing one indoors. I usually wore one with her in solidarity too.

I don't know if I should keep all the reservations in my mom's name and explain when we check-in that we only have 5, or do I cancel all the reservations in her name, keep the ones I have for 4 and hope they take all 5 of us?? Ughhh…add this to things I never knew I needed to worry about when planning a trip What would you all do??

Yikes! There is a real dillema right there. Well hopefully they go with you but if not I'm thinking keep them or just be on the look out for reservations for 5 (we had a lot of success getting reservations the day before). I think you'd be better off showing up with less people than with more

The plastic sheets really impeded the views and made it hard to get pics.
Does anyone know if they are still there?

I'm happy to report they are gone, gone, gone

 

[buzzrelly]

APRIL 12, 2021
PANDORIAN LUNCH


We did eventually make our way over to Pandora
and stopped for some lovely pics on the way...


In my earlier post, I mentioned that normally we head straight to Pandora
to go on FoP first thing.
When Allie woke up this morning she reminded me why we didn't do that.
Even though we were at the bus stop super early,
we had to wait FOREVER for an AK bus this day…
there were 4-5 MK busses and none for AK so when one finally did show up,
it was packed and we could only get one of our scooters on.
The three of them went ahead on the first one and I waited for the next AK bus,
which came just a short while later.
We ended up all meeting in the park just near the ToL,
but it was too late to Rope Drop Pandora.

But having gotten the safari and EE done,
we headed there now to see how long the wait was.
I believe the posted wait was around 60 minutes
but with the way they were doing the line, it went allllllll the way back, across the bridge. Nevertheless, it's one of our favorite rides so we decided to wait.

Ava posed for more pics in line...


and by 10:30, we were boarding our Banshees...


Ava was a little nervous, but ended up loving this!

We were getting hungry by the time we got off,
so we put in a mobile order for Satu'li
and I also hopped in line and got a couple snacks from Pongo Pongo
(is that the right name??)...




We got the pineapple lumpia and this gigantic pretzel.
Both were good, but I loved this pretzel!
It was even better than the Mickey pretzel I had gotten the day before at DHS.
It came with cheese, but I skipped that and grabbed some mustard from Satu'li instead, and I split the lumpia with my mom…I literally think I took one bite and it was good,
but I was afraid to overdo it.

Allie got the cheeseburger pods...


Ava got the hotdog, which she was nervous about
but it ended up being like a big pig in a blanket
and she loves those so she loved this.


Allie didn't love her cheeseburger pod,
so she snitched some of Ava's hotdog and some of my pretzel.
I was surprised she even tried it…that's a big step for her since she's such a fuss pot!

Our lunch was yummy and we took our time just relaxing in the shade there.




When we were done, we went and said hello to the Na'vi...


With no shows happening at the time,
and no desire to get soaked on Kali,
we had pretty much done all we wanted to do here
so we kind of just meandered around taking pictures.

Continued in next post...
​

 

[buzzrelly]

Congratulations to Allie!!!

Thank you!

I know crowds are bad right now but I'm thinking they will start to go down in August when some schools start to go back. Of course Casey isn't vaccinated either so I know the struggle. I was pretty shocked at how many kids weren't wearing masks last month, but Casey had no issue wearing one indoors. I usually wore one with her in solidarity too.

I hope you're right about the crowds!

I think Ava would be okay wearing a mask, she's so used to it. Depended on the crowds, I'd probably wear one indoors with her!

Yikes! There is a real dillema right there. Well hopefully they go with you but if not I'm thinking keep them or just be on the look out for reservations for 5 (we had a lot of success getting reservations the day before). I think you'd be better off showing up with less people than with more

I kind of agree. I just have to make sure I explain it so my mom doesn't get dinged for missing a bunch of reservations!

I'm happy to report they are gone, gone, gone

Yay! Easier to get a clear shot of my tree

 

[pkondz]

Ha! I did! And I almost included the pic but thought maybe I have overused that poor Baobab tree! But here, just for you...

One can never have enough of Kelly's tree!!!

I do like EE, but it scares the pants off of me on a good day!

Okay... please excuse the question, but since I'm a guy, that automatically makes me fashion dense.

Is Allie's shirt cut on the angle? Or did she pin up a "normal" T-shirt?
Colour me confused.

Even though we were at the bus stop super early,
we had to wait FOREVER for an AK bus this day…
there were 4-5 MK busses and none for AK so when one finally did show up,
it was packed and we could only get one of our scooters on.

Ugh...

Alllllllmost got that foot up.

also hopped in line and got a couple snacks from Pongo Pongo
(is that the right name??)...

Close. Pongu Pongu.

So that's what they look like! I've never seen one. Only heard about them. It looks good.

Both were good, but I loved this pretzel!
It was even better than the Mickey pretzel I had gotten the day before at DHS.

Really! I need to remember this. I love a good pretzel... but a bad pretzel is a lot easier to find.

It came with cheese, but I skipped that and grabbed some mustard from Satu'li instead,

Oh! That's brilliant! I need to do this.

Allie got the cheeseburger pods...

Those just do not appeal to me at all. And it looks like, judging by Allie's reaction, that I was right.

That hot dog looks good. Dip that in mustard too!

 

[buzzrelly]

Okay... please excuse the question, but since I'm a guy, that automatically makes me fashion dense.

Is Allie's shirt cut on the angle? Or did she pin up a "normal" T-shirt?
Colour me confused.

You're too male to understand and I'm too old to understand
I think she tucks it under but don't ask me why!

Alllllllmost got that foot up.

She had a good teacher that week!

Close. Pongu Pongu.

Tell me you're too lazy to look up the name
without telling me you're too lazy to look up the name…I'll go first

So that's what they look like! I've never seen one. Only heard about them. It looks good.

I'm going to have to give it another try now that I'm feeling better. I think it was probably better than I'm giving it credit for.

Those just do not appeal to me at all. And it looks like, judging by Allie's reaction, that I was right.

Do NOT judge any food by Allie's reaction! Unless you're happy eating chicken nuggies and pizza forever!

 

[pkondz]

You're too male to understand and I'm too old to understand
I think she tucks it under but don't ask me why!

Guess we'll both have to just live in ignorance.

Tell me you're too lazy to look up the name
without telling me you're too lazy to look up the name…I'll go first

I'm going to have to give it another try now that I'm feeling better. I think it was probably better than I'm giving it credit for.

I plan on trying to make them, if I can find some spring roll wrappers.

Do NOT judge any food by Allie's reaction! Unless you're happy eating chicken nuggies and pizza forever!

Okay. But I still don't want it!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Seacaucus, which is……somewhere in Jersey...I have NO idea! I'll be relying on Siri to find it for us. It's just over 2 hours from CT, that's all I know!

North Jersey... No where near us. Also not the prettiest area of Jersey... Don't judge all of Jersey by Seacaucus..

Our lunch was yummy and we took our time just relaxing in the shade there.

So cute!

 

[vamassey1]

Allie and I head to New Jersey for her last dance comp Actually, on that front, she got some exciting news. She tried out for, and made the dance team at Quinnipiac so she will still be dancing in college!

Congratulations! I'm so happy for her.

In less exciting news, my mom is really stressing about going to WDW in two weeks. She's very (understandably) nervous because Ava is too young to be vaccinated, even though the rest of us are. She's seriously considering not coming and I'm really bummed about that, though I completely understand. The reports of crowds has me slightly on edge too but with two more trips this year, we'll make the best of it.

Oh nooo! It really is scary for the little one right now.

We were up early and dressed in our finest animal prints, and at the bus stop by 6:58 am...

Love the outfits!

Afterwards, we walked towards Everest ,
where I always try to line up these pictures just so...

We like this picture spot too.

And then someone finally got one of me, obviously way off

At least you got your picture taken. I find there are usually very little photos of me.

 

[disneyAndi14]

Kelly, I had a post already to go for your last installment and the Dis lost it, it refreshed and it was gone, grrrr. I even saved it

I wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your pictures with Everest in the back and lining up the temple with the mountain.
I think you should keep both ADRS because I think it is easier for them to seat a few less than to add a person.
I see you had the same bus dilemma as us! We would have gone into Pandora later like you did except we wanted to get to Sanaa
I love Satuli. The pretzel you had looks like the one from Baseline Tap house, very yummy!
I’m sorry your mom is not feeling comfortable going in August. Would it be her and Ava who stay home? I hope the crowds wind down some in August. We leave on the 26th of August.

 

[Steppesister]

I know, isn't that insane?! It's not even that good there!

For real. I've eaten there 2, maybe 3, times and it's been underwhelming every time. Costco-like quiche, a basic sandwich, whatever. I know folks love the French Onion Soup, but $55 to try soup is rather excessive.

We leave in less than two weeks for our next trip and I haven't done a thing to get ready! I definitely need to start packing

You sound stressed, Girlie! Take a deep breath. It'll all work out!

Actually, on that front, she got some exciting news. She tried out for, and made the dance team at Quinnipiac so she will still be dancing in college! She's very happy about that, and I hope to go watch her perform/compete sometimes!

That's GREAT, Kelly!! Congrats to her on a job well done!

There's even a rumor that they are in a comp in WDW in January so this may just be the push I needed to finally get to see the F-ARTS!

How exciting!! And YES!!! You need to!!

Anyway, this also brings up a problem that I had not foreseen. When I made ADRs for this trip, half are under her name…I made her an MDE account and almost all but a couple are split since I couldn't get anything for 7 people. I pretty much made all of our ADRs for 4/4 (Allie was considering bringing a friend and I figured we could always downsize if needed), so now if we all still go, it'll be 5 of us. I don't know if I should keep all the reservations in my mom's name and explain when we check-in that we only have 5, or do I cancel all the reservations in her name, keep the ones I have for 4 and hope they take all 5 of us?? Ughhh…add this to things I never knew I needed to worry about when planning a trip What would you all do??

See my response below as a quote to Caroline.

I don't remember much about the safari, so I guess it was fine.
The plastic sheets really impeded the views and made it hard to get pics.
Does anyone know if they are still there?

I don't think any of the plexiglass is still there on any of the rides. Thank goodness!

Oh gosh, Kelly, she is just so, so adorable!

With my stomach being what it was, I didn't ride EE this time like I normally do.

Totally understandable.

we had to wait FOREVER for an AK bus this day…
there were 4-5 MK busses and none for AK so when one finally did show up,

UGH, the buses just simply sucked. So hit and miss. It's like they simply could not adjust to the demands and flow of the need. I was not impressed. I'm inclined to either stick with the mono, 'Liner, or take rideshare.

I believe the posted wait was around 60 minutes
but with the way they were doing the line, it went allllllll the way back, across the bridge. Nevertheless, it's one of our favorite rides so we decided to wait.

I know they looked really long, but they sure did move pretty quickly.

Allie got the cheeseburger pods...

I have tried this, but since it's absolutely unmemorable, it probably wasn't very good.

When we were done, we went and said hello to the Na'vi...

One must.

I think you should keep both ADRS because I think it is easier for them to seat a few less than to add a person.

I agree with Caroline. If you have to go UP from 5, you have to switch table types. If they are already planning for 7/8 they have it set up and you can more easily just not sit the extra places. They may not have a big enough table when you want it.

 

[CruellaNY]

Lol! It took me a minute to figure out who you were talking to! But Andi is sweet too!

LOL I know I'm totally late responding to this but that was a result of #oldbrain and following both yours and Caroline's reports at the same time lol

She tried out for, and made the dance team at Quinnipiac so she will still be dancing in college!

Awesome!!! That's great!

The plastic sheets really impeded the views and made it hard to get pics.

Ugh I hate them here, safari is my favorite ride in AK and theplexiglass ruins it.

Ava got the hotdog, which she was nervous about
but it ended up being like a big pig in a blanket

So that hot dog is delicious and now my go-to in AK if we aren't doing a table service lol

 

[buzzrelly]

Good morning, all!

I'll get back to your comments in a bit, but we leave in TWO days, and my friend, Ariane, just reminded me that I haven't shared my plans here!

First, some sad news…my mom has decided not to come with Ava This is tough for all of us, but obviously especially tough for Ava who has been talking of going back non-stop since our April trip. It was such a hard decision and I kind of stayed out of it…I have to say that I prefer not to follow the news too much about this stupid thing because it'll make me crazy, but of course the ridiculous rates in FL are all I seem to hear about. I still feel fairly confident going with the rest of us vaccinated, and I ordered more disposable masks and may even wear them outside if the crowds are as horrendous as I've been hearing. I am happy that Disney is enforcing indoor masks and from what I hear, most people are compliant with that, which is reassuring.

It's just crazy to me that we felt so confident in April that things would surely be MUCH better by August Boy, we were we wrong!

Hopefully, once things get better, my mom and I will surprise Ava by bringing her back down. But we already said, we will never tell her in advance that we're going because with the way things change all the time, nothing is ever guaranteed!

Anyway, here are our loose plans for the week. We left a lot of flexibility to change things up, if needed. I hope to have some meet-ups here and there if our parks and plans overlap!

Friday 8/6:

Mike's Travel Day! He'll be getting on a train at 8 am, switching in New Haven and then again in DC, where he switches for a final trip to Orlando. He will arrive on the morning of 8/7 and head to POP and then I made him a park reservation at EP where he can eat around the WS and may get a ride on Soarin'

Saturday 8/7:

Travel day…we fly out of BDL at 5:50 pm and won't land at MCO until 8:40 pm. I'm praying the DME isn't the same nightmare we experienced in April and that we'll get to POP at a decent time. Obviously, we have no plans this night…check-in, grab a snack, and rest up for the week! We do have two rooms and I called yesterday to see if they can be close together, if not connected. As we are only there one night, it doesn't really matter either way.

Sunday 8/8:

Check out of POP, send our bags to the BCV where we will be the rest of the week

We are having a scooter dropped off that am by Gold's, where we rented from in April. It's all paid for and was going to be for my mom but now we may keep it for Mike. He's had a torn meniscus and actually has surgery scheduled 4 days after we get home. He walks (limps) around on it okay around here but I had been toying with the idea of renting him a scooter for there anyway since he'll be walking a LOT more and honestly, will slow us down! Plus he's in a lot of pain so this just makes sense, even though he's not thrilled with the idea.

Once we get that squared away, we are heading to DHS, and hopefully with Allie's fast fingers, grabbing a BG for ROTR. We had originally planned an EP day but I changed it a couple weeks ago to DHS to give us a third try for ROTR. Neither Nicolas not Kaleb has been on, and Nicholas is a HUGE SW fan, so I know he'll love it. He's also excited about MFSR, so I'm sure we'll be spending time in GE.

We still have dinner plans at Via Napoli in EP that I decided to keep. We'll probably head out of DHS by 1-2, hopefully settle in at the BCV, and then to out dinner at 6.

Monday 8/9:

Magic Kingdom

We have a "breakfast" reservation at 11 at Chef Mickey's, so we'll do our rope drop and then head over to The CR for that. Depending on how we feel after breakfast, we'll either head back to the MK or back to BCV for pool time. I do want to see HEA at some point this week, but it may be more of a park hop over, rather than staying at MK opening to close.

Tuesday 8/10:

DHS

Hoping for another BG, or better luck if we don't get one the first day!

Lunch at Sci-Fi. We loved it in April and I think the boys will get a kick out of it. Nicholas went once back in 2015 and he likes this kind of stuff so it should be fun.

Dinner at Beaches and Cream…not great planning since it's very similar for to Sci-Fi, but I think we'll probably head back to relax at the resort for a bit. We may park hop after dinner, depending on how we feel.

Wednesday 8/11:

AK

Breakfast at Tusker House…I am so excited for this since we haven't been in a few years!

Dinner at Homecomin'…Mike's only request every trip! Allie doesn't like it but she loves DS so she may decide to ditch us and go to Chicken Guy, instead! Depending on how we're feeling, we may head to DS straight from AK, or go back to the resort and relax a bit first.

Thursday 8/12:

MK again

Lunch at Tony's or dinner at BOG, or both?? I can't decide on which one to keep so we may be deciding this one a day ahead of time and then cancel whichever we don't want.

If we haven't seen HEA, this may be the night we stay.

Friday 8/13:

DHS (again), but if we got BGs the first two days, we may change this.

Lunch at 50's PTC…none of us has been and this has been on the bucket list for a while. We may decide to keep DHS just for this!

Saturday 8/15:

MK again (remember…we were supposed to have a 5 year-old with us)

Lunch at The Plaza

Dinner at Teppan Edo, so it looks like we're hopping again. Nicholas just asked yesterday if I reserved this so I guess we'll keep it


Sunday 8/15:

Check-out day and EPCOT reservation. I just figured this is the easiest since we'll have to be back at BCV by 4 for the DME. Our plane leaves around 7:30 pm. Mike will actually be departing this morning to get to the train station and start his journey back to CT. He won't get home until the next day at 6:30 pm

Sorry this is a little light on details! I have still so much to do before we go and I'm heading to the hairdresser in a little bit!

Thanks for sticking with that and reading!

 

[pkondz]

we leave in TWO days,

Holy cow! That's... practically right now!

First, some sad news…my mom has decided not to come with Ava This is tough for all of us, but obviously especially tough for Ava who has been talking of going back non-stop since our April trip. It was such a hard decision and I kind of stayed out of it…I have to say that I prefer not to follow the news too much about this stupid thing because it'll make me crazy, but of course the ridiculous rates in FL are all I seem to hear about. I still feel fairly confident going with the rest of us vaccinated, and I ordered more disposable masks and may even wear them outside if the crowds are as horrendous as I've been hearing. I am happy that Disney is enforcing indoor masks and from what I hear, most people are compliant with that, which is reassuring.

Sorry to hear about mom and Ava... but... I also completely understand. Everyone has to judge for themselves what their comfort level is.

We are having a scooter dropped off that am by Gold's, where we rented from in April. It's all paid for and was going to be for my mom but now we may keep it for Mike. He's had a torn meniscus and actually has surgery scheduled 4 days after we get home.

Sorry to hear about Mike's injury. Smart to keep the scooter for him.

Plans all look good!

 

[footballmouse]

50's Primetime is so much fun as long as you get a fun server! If not, the food has always been good and the decor is fun.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

I have not breathed a word to the girls about our plans for next February. hopefully things will start to get better again sooner than later. But they would be heart broken if we had to cancel. I mean I will be as well. but I am an adult, I will have to deal with it.

 

[vamassey1]

Sorry your Mom and Ava won't be on this trip. Hopefully they will in the not too distant future.

Danielle will be working the night of 8/8 at Flavor by Fire if you pass by . I don't know where she will be on 8/15.

Plans sound good and I can't wait to read about it when you get back.