Trip Report - Sept/Oct 2021

[Noreen411]

Introduction

Noreen: Senior Vice President at an Investment Banking firm in New York City. I will be the author of the report.
Scott: My husband. Independent contractor

This trip was in the fall of 2021; before Genie+ and ILL, and masks were still required indoors. It took me a while to get started on this. I did a dining review for the trip which I posted and I copied descriptions from the menu for that one. I didn’t keep many notes so am trying to recreate what we did from memory so I’m sure I’ll forget some stuff. I would send myself texts throughout the day to remind me what we were doing. Between the texts and the pictures, I’m hoping to remember most of it.

We had other people join for part of our trip:
Jen & Kevin: My sister and brother in law
Dana: Lives in Florida maybe an hour from Disney
Kalli, Tiffany, Trish, Neelam, and Pamelyn: Co-workers/friends who work in the Tampa office of my company
Jen & Dawn: Scott’s ex-wife and her friend

I’m going to post a picture or two of Scott and I so you see what we look like. Also I like some of the photo pass photos

 

[Noreen411]

Planning:

Our last few vacations, like everyone else, were cancelled due to Covid. We knew things would be different than before but we were happy to be getting away. We’re pretty easy going and have fun whatever we are doing.

We have a wedding to go to on Saturday 9/25 which we will attend, stay over, then start the drive to Florida Sunday 9/26.
Originally we were planning to be at Disney from Monday 9/27 - Friday 10/8.
Scott’s ex-wife and her friend Dawn are arriving in Disney the day we were planning to leave so we extended our trip to stay through Sunday 10/10 to meet up with them.
We had a last minute change (while we were there) and left a day earlier to come home due to crowds, leaving Saturday 10/9 instead of Sunday 10/10

Lodging:
We are going to stay at the sister resort to my timeshare. I own at Vistana Resort, but we are going to stay at Vistana Villages this trip. We like the big 24 hour fitness center at Vistana Villages. We own a week in a 2 bedroom / 2 bath villa but when it’s just Scott and I, we usually stay in the 1 bedroom premium villa. It‘s less points/options and we can usually stay for about 2 weeks.

Transportation:
We are going to drive to Florida. We live in Northern New Jersey. We’ve done it a few times and prefer the flexibility it gives us over flying.

Park Passes:
Our annual passes expired during the shutdown so we needed to buy passes and make reservations for the parks. I originally bought 10 day hopper passes and made park reservations. We thought about maybe spending a day at Universal or Sea World

A little after buying our passes I read about possible annual pass recovery for those whose passes expired during the pandemic. I called to get on the list and received a call back maybe 2 weeks later. The person was super helpful and was able to apply the cost of the previously purchased 10 day hopper passes to our new/recovered annual passes.

Dining:
I had a handful of restaurants I wanted to try to get reservations for. I would log on at 60 days out each morning right before they opened and would book dinner. I kept checking and changing things as we went along.

Scott and I both lost weight recently so don’t eat as much as we used to. We sometimes will share meals. During the trip we would normally eat a healthy breakfast in the villa. Lunch most days were things like protein bars and baby carrots. We also had some healthy snacks. Since I have a sweet tooth, there will still be plenty of desserts/snacks during the trip.

 

[Noreen411]

The week before the trip:
We tried on clothes and did a little fashion show for each other. We do this before all our trips.

We did the bulk of the packing. Once we decided we were taking Scott’s truck rather than my car, we had a lot more room and ended up taking even more. We both overpack.

On Thursday 9/23/21 night we lost power for a few hours. I was very stressed as I was trying to finish up work knowing I would be out for over 2 weeks. We ended up going out to dinner since there wasn’t any point sitting in a dark house. By the time we returned our power was back on and I logged back in to finish work.

 

[Noreen411]

Friday 9/24/21
I am glad I took the extra day off. The last day before vacation at work is always stressful/busy and this way I had today to take care of my own stuff before the trip.

I went to the spa to get my manicure and pedicure. I chose what I call a Donald Duck blue on my toes with my pedicure. I did a shellac manicure (so it lasts the whole trip) on my fingers in a sparkly pink princess color.



We finished any last minute packing and were excited about our trip.

 

[Noreen411]

Saturday 9/25/21 - My friend’s wedding:
We had a normal Saturday morning, using the gym, then got ourselves ready for the day.

We left the house about 2pm. The truck has plenty of room even with all the stuff we packed.

We drove south to Freehold, NJ to the American Hotel for my friend Cathy and Adam’s wedding. Once we arrived at the hotel and checked in, and brought most of the luggage in (we left some in the truck), we had some time to get changed for the wedding.




The ceremony was really nice. All the guests received red clown noses. During the ceremony when Adam was saying his vows he mentioned wanting to keep Cathy laughing and put on a red clown nose. That was our cue to put ours on as well. It sounds corny but was really sweet. She cries often so this was a great way to get her laughing seeing everyone with their clown noses.



We had a nice time at the reception and I saw people I used to work with but haven’t seen in years. It was great to be there to see Cathy & Adam get married.

 

[Noreen411]

Sunday 9/26/21 - Start the drive to Florida:
We left about 6am to start our drive to Florida. Not only were we almost 2 hours south of where we live, but not having to take care of feeding the cats, giving one cat her insulin (she’s diabetic), cleaning litter boxes, etc; it was so quick taking care of ourselves showering and getting dressed; and we were ready to go. There wasn’t a gym at the hotel so we skipped our normal morning workout.

Maybe it’s because it’s our first trip since the pandemic started but the ride seemed to go very quickly. We would stop at various rest stops to use the bathroom and walk around a bit. Knowing we were planning to stop for the night rather than drive straight through made it much more relaxing/less stressful.

We were in Maryland by 8am, North Carolina by 12:45, and South Carolina by 3:40. We talked about changing plans and driving straight through as we were making good time, but decided not to after all.

We booked the Fairfield Inn and Suites in Santee SC online when we were maybe 1.5 hours away. What did we do before cell phones? This was so easy. We stayed here early 2020 on our drive to Fort Lauderdale, FL for a cruise.

We checked into the hotel a little after 5. The room is pretty nice and perfect for our one night stay. We brought some of the luggage in but left some in the truck.





We had dinner at Clark’s which was recommended by the hotel employees. Dinner was better than we expected it to be. They didn’t have white sangria (my recent drink of choice) so I had a Malibu Bay Breeze. Scott had a Martini. We shared the meatball appetizer which was really good. Scott had the fried chicken (what they are known for). I had the roasted chicken dish and Scott took the chicken off the bone for me. I won’t eat meat off a bone. My dish was really good. Scott said his fried chicken was pretty good but a bit too greasy for him. He finished my dish. We shared pecan pie for dessert.








When we got back to the hotel we watched some TV, talked about our plans, and just were excited to be starting our vacation. We fell asleep early, probably by 10pm.

 

[cccory]

Great trip report. Can't wait to read more.

 

[footballmouse]

 

[Noreen411]

Monday 9/27/21 - Arrive Florida:
We both went to the hotel gym around 6am. It’s small but worked, we were the only ones using the gym. We love when hotels have 24 hour gyms.




Back in the room we showered and got dressed. Scott was ready first so he stopped at the breakfast area. He brought me yogurt; he had a breakfast of eggs and sausage. We got our stuff organized to head out.

We left about 8:30am. We would definitely stay at this hotel again if we were driving through.


We got to Georgia around 10am. We wanted to stop at Peach World. There are two so we drove to the one that was further south and got there around 11. It’s not peach season, but we bought pecans and peach jam.



We got to the Florida Welcome Center by 12. While we kept saying the drive was going pretty quickly, once we got to Florida, it seemed to take a while to get to Disney.

 

[Noreen411]

Monday 9/27/21 - Continued:
We arrived at Vistana Villages about 3:45pm. The woman helping us with checkin was super helpful. We are in the St Augustine section which I requested since we want to be near the large 24 hour gym. We’re in villa 26-414.



We really like the layout of the 1 bedroom premium villa in this section at this resort.

When you enter it’s an open floor plan with the kitchen, dining area, and living room. There is a small laundry room off the kitchen.






The bedroom is a decent size with a closet, dresser, TV, bed, night stands. I didn’t get many pictures of the bedroom.



The bathroom is broken up into several rooms. We normally don’t like hotels that have the sink outside the bathroom and the toilet and shower in a small room (preferring a self contained bathroom) but this isn’t that type of split. You can enter the bathroom from either the living room or the bedroom. From the living room you would enter into the room with the stand up shower, sink, and a water closet (toilet in it’s own room).


The next room has the jacuzzi tub and a separate sink. There are doors between each of the bathroom sections. Scott took the sink near the shower and I took the sink in the room with the jacuzzi.




From either the living room or the bedroom you can go out onto the screened in balcony. We had a nice view overlooking the pool with a pirate ship and water slide.



We did some cleaning of the villa. Since we drove down, we brought cleaning supplies. We ran the dishes/silverware/etc that we thought we would use through the dishwasher. We filled the jacuzzi with water and bleach and ran it, emptied it, then did that again. We wiped down all the surfaces with clorox. I know it’s probably a bit much, but it made us feel better. We also started a bit of unpacking (we both overpack).

 

[Noreen411]

Monday 9/27/21 - Continued:
We drove to Disney Springs.



We walked around a bit just enjoying being there, and browsing through a few stores. We went to Guest Services to pick up our annual passes.

We were able to walk right into Homecoming. I wasn’t able to get a reservation but we were able to go right in. We chose to sit at the bar, but regular tables were also available.

Scott had the Bourbon flight. I had the Rumshine Punch (blackberry moonshine). It’s such a great feeling to be back in Disney at the start of our trip.




Last time we were here we loved the chicken biscuit appetizer so we ordered two of those as our entrees (Just one picture since it looks the same) I got my pickles on the side since I don’t like pickles so gave them to Scott. Scott also got an order of Mac and cheese. He loves Mac and cheese and will order it whenever he sees it on the menu. The chicken biscuits weren’t as good as last time; they weren’t bad but not as great as we remembered. The chicken was a bit too thick. The bartenders were a lot of fun to interact with.




We also ordered chocolate pecan pie to go (which I forgot to get a picture of).

The line for Gideon’s was 50 minutes and they weren’t doing a virtual queue so we figured we would try that another day.

We stopped at Publix for some groceries, then headed back to Vistana Villages.

We put the groceries away, finished unpacking and getting organized.

After showering and getting in our PJs we had the pie (pretty good), watched some TV, and were looking forward to the rest of the trip.

 

[Noreen411]

Tuesday 9/28/21
We were up and at the gym about 5:30am. We were the only ones there during our whole workout. We really like this big 24 hour gym. They have a good amount and variety of equipment.





Back in the villa we used the jacuzzi, showered, got dressed, and did some laundry. It’s so convenient to have the washer/dryer right there. Scott made a quick run to Starbucks and we made breakfast in the villa.

We drove to Magic Kingdom and were there before they opened. We parked and walked to the TTC as there weren’t any parking lot trams running. From the TTC we took the monorail to the Magic Kingdom.

The weather is beautiful, not too hot and no humidity

It’s also not very crowded. Scott took a picture of me in front of the castle and nobody else is there.



We headed first to 7 Dwarves Mine Train. The wait was listed as 50 minutes but in less than 30 minutes we were already finished riding. This is cute ride that normally has long waits. While it’s cute and we enjoy it, we wouldn’t wait too long for it.



We went to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad next which was a walk on. This was a lot of fun and we prefer it to 7 Dwarves Mine Train if I had to choose.

Pirates was also a walk on; we always enjoy this.

We waited about 25 minutes for the Jungle Cruise. I’m guessing since the Jungle Cruise movie came out this attraction has gotten more popular than it used to be.

Small World was also a walk on.

We are really enjoying the low crowds and great weather.

Scott went on the single rider line for Space Mountain. Or maybe he just waited to go on (I forgot what he said). He said it was really weird that it was so empty, he was the only one in his spaceship (or whatever the ride vehicle is called) and you didn’t hear anybody screaming or anything.

We enjoyed a ride on Buzz Lightyear; it’s always fun but my scores are always terrible.


Monsters Inc was fun too.

We’ve been taking pictures throughout the park and stopping whenever we see a Disney photographer for them to take our picture. Some of them come out great, especially when they use special effects. It’s nice to have pictures of us together.




As we were walking through the park we saw one of the character cavalcades go by



We headed out of the park a little after 2. The monorail was out of service so we took the ferry back to the TTC then walked back to the car.

 

[Noreen411]

Tuesday 9/28/21 - Continued:
We made a stop at Publix for a few more items we needed.

Back at Vistana Villages we went swimming. My new bikini is a little too big; I almost lost the bottoms on the water slide. We had a nice time at the pool. We swam, we hung out on our lounge chairs, I read my kindle. It was a nice way to spend part of the afternoon.

Back in the villa we showered and changed for the evening.

We drove to the Contemporary and valet parked. We had dinner reservations at California Grill. This was before the special 50th anniversary menu started.

I had the San Francisco Mai Tai and Scott had a Martini.


The bread was very tasty with a good dipping sauce.


We shared everything we ordered for dinner. We do that often otherwise we would never finish our food.

We started with the California Roll and the Short Rib wonton appetizers. The sushi was the stronger of the two. The wontons were good but a bit on the salty side.




For our entree we ordered the filet with corn soufflé. Corn soufflé sounds a bit weird but it was actually very good.


Our dessert was the pistachio cherry soufflé. We really liked this.



Scott had a grand Marnier and double espresso


Our dinner was very good. We would definitely come back.

While at dinner I checked for available reservations and changed tomorrow’s dinner to Citricos. I would check regularly and made a lot of changes to our plans as we went along.

 

[Noreen411]

Tuesday 9/28/21 - Continued:
After dinner we browsed through the shops at the Contemporary.

Scott bought me a new Dooney & Bourke bag that I was looking at. I took this picture of it once we were back in the villa. I love this bag. It’s Disney but not over the top and unless you look closely you may not even realize it’s a Disney Dooney & Bourke. I get a ton of compliments on it.




We took some pictures outside



We started walking on the walkway to the Magic Kingdom. We thought we would watch the fireworks from the walkway but ended up going into Magic Kingdom instead and watched from the hub. This is one of the last showings of this version of the fireworks.




After the fireworks ended we browsed through some of the shops, then walked back to the Contemporary. We got our car from the valet and drove back to Vistana Villages. We watched some TV before going to bed.

 

[Noreen411]

Wednesday 9/29/21:
We went to the gym around 5am. Again, we were the only ones there.

Back in the villa we did some laundry, used the jacuzzi, showered, got dressed, and had breakfast.

We were at Animal Kingdom when the park opened at 8










Scott went on Flight of Passage. I can’t ride that; tried it once and it made me dizzy. I played on my phone while he rode. He was back pretty quickly.

The Navi Boat ride had a 30 minute wait so we skipped it. Everything else in the app was showing with practically no wait. In hindsight, I should have gone on the boat ride while Scott went on Flight of Passage.

Dinosaur was a walk on.

The Dumbo-like ride with Dinosaurs was also a walk on. Scott thought it was just for kids, but we had fun on it.

We played some of the carnival games. Scott won a stuffed Mickey; then at a different game a stuffed Minnie.



We saw that there was going to be a preview for the Kite Tails show a little later

We went to Expedition Everest where Scott went on the single rider line. It was so empty he went on twice.



We headed over to the Kite Tails theater. We were seated at 10:45. The pre-show started at 11 and the show at 11:15. It was hard to find a shady spot to sit in the open theater. The weather is nice today, but I can’t imagine sitting here in the heat of summer. There were multiple issues where the kites/floats crashed into walls or water. They ended the show pretty quickly. I know it was a preview and they still have to work out the issues.




The Nemo show hasn’t re-opened yet; we normally like that show a lot.



We went on the safari which said the wait was 30 minutes but we walked right on. This was fun; it’s always a good time seeing the animals.

We walked through the shops.

We left the park by about 2

 

[Noreen411]

Wednesday 9/29/21 - Continued:
Back at the villa, we did some more laundry.

We headed to the pool for a bit. It started to get cloudy so we headed back to the villa.

Scott took a nap. I read my kindle.



Later we showered and changed for dinner.

We drove to the Grand Floridian for dinner at Citricos. It’s our first time at this restaurant.



We were a little early so we browsed the shops at the Grand Floridian. We bought some shower bombs at Basin; we originally thought they were bath bombs. We’ll give them a try.

When we checked in at Citricos they were very welcoming but it was a bit over the top initially with multiple people welcoming us and walking us to our table.

Funny beverage story…I tried one of the specialty cocktails (Agridolce) but didn’t like it so gave it to Scott and tried a different one (Amaro Grapefruit Spritz). My new drink had a fly in it so they remade it. It was hard for me to get a picture of Scott with the drinks since he was too busy laughing about the fly in my drink. He also had his normal martini.



The bread was really good and we ate more than the 1 piece we tried to stick to.


For an appetizer we shared the smoked duck breast with fresh tagliatelle. This was delicious and I don’t normally like duck.


For our entrees I had the butter-poached cobia. Wow this was so good. Scott had the golden tilefish which he also said was really good. The portions were a good size, tasted great, and we both finished our food (very unusual for us).



We also ordered the truffle Mac and cheese. Scott loves Mac and cheese and orders it whenever he sees it. I can take it or leave it. I wasn’t crazy about this one; it was too watery. Even Scott didn’t love the Mac and cheese here.



The wait staff were great. After the over the top start, we had a nice time chatting with both of them.

For dessert we shared the blackberry tartelette. This was beautiful; it looked too good to eat. But we ate it and it tasted very good too; a nice somewhat lighter dessert. We also received a little plate with truffles on it and a “thank you” written in chocolate on the plate.




We really enjoyed Citricos and are looking to change another dinner to come back here, and will ask to be seated with the same waitstaff if possible.

 

[Noreen411]

Wednesday 9/29/21 - Continued:
We took the monorail to the Magic Kingdom.




We stopped in one of the stores on Main Street and bought a few 50th anniversary items. There wasn’t much available and what was there people were grabbing like crazy.

Haunted Mansion was a walk on. We both enjoy this attraction.



We waited about 20 minutes to go on Peter Pan. This is a classic that always has a long wait. We figured 20 minutes wasn’t bad at all.

Ariel was also a walk on.

We watched some of the fireworks as we walked towards Space Mountain. Scott rode and I waited for him. He said again it was weirdly empty with nobody on his spaceship (ride vehicle).

It’s great that the park has been so empty.

We took the monorail back to the Grand Floridian, got the truck, and drove back to Vistana Villages.

 

[Noreen411]

Thursday 9/30/21:
We both went to the gym a little after 6.

After the gym, we had our regular morning routine of jacuzzi, shower, laundry, and breakfast before heading out for the day.

We stopped at the Marketplace store at the resort. Scott got a sweatshirt and a T Shirt.

We drove to Epcot arriving about 10:20; they didn’t open until 11am this day.



We took some pictures near the front of the park.




Cast members were playing games with the guests before the park opened asking questions to keep people entertained.

Parts of Epcot are being renamed. Instead of Future World and World Showcase; World Showcase will still be World Showcase, but Future World is being broken into World Celebration, World Discovery, and World Nature.

When the park opened we headed towards World Showcase.


We went to France hoping there would be a preview of Remy’s Ratatouille adventure (official opening is tomorrow) but unfortunately there wasn’t.



The weather is surprisingly nice again. We continued walking around World Showcase.







In Norway we rode Frozen with maybe a 10 minute wait. This is always a cute ride.



I got a rice cream in Norway which I usually love and look forward to each trip. Scott got a coffee. Unfortunately, it was not as good as it used to be. It wasn’t bad, just not as good as I remembered it being.




We looked at the various food and wine booths as we circled World Showcase, but nothing jumped out at us.

 

[Noreen411]

Thursday 9/30/21 - Continued:
We went on Soarin and were shocked that we just walked right on with no wait.

Living with the Land was also a walk on, as was Journey into Imagination with Figment. Several of the kiosks where you can send Figment postcards were out of order.

The first wait of the day would have been for Test Track with a 15 minute wait listed, but we used the single rider line and walked right on. We were in the same car just a row apart.


We are definitely enjoying the low crowds and great weather.

Scott was excited to see the Mac & Eats booth. He got the Cowboy Mac & Cheese; he thought it was really good. I took a taste, but I’m not a huge Mac & cheese fan so not the best judge.




We browsed through the shop that used to be MouseGear; I think it’s called Creations now. We continued walking around.





Spaceship Earth was also a walk on.



We headed out of the park and back to the resort. We went swimming, hung out by the pool, and I read my kindle. It was nice to have some time to just hang out.

Back in the villa, we showered and changed for dinner.

 

[Noreen411]

Thursday 9/30/21 - Continued:
We drove to the Yacht Club for dinner at Yachtsman Steakhouse. We were a bit early so we wandered around the resort.





When we checked in we were seated quickly.

Scott had a Martini and I had a Glowtini.



We were a little disappointed that they didn’t have the tuna tartare on the appetizer menu anymore. Last time we were here we had that and it was probably one of the best tuna tartare’s we’ve had. We went with the shrimp cocktail appetizer which was good.


The onion pull apart rolls were delicious. We both liked them with butter rather than the garlic spread. We couldn’t eat just one; these rolls were so good.



I had the filet with fries. This was very good. With our healthier eating we haven’t had French fries in a long time. We definitely enjoyed this dish.



Scott had the Cioppino which he wasn’t thrilled with; it had a weird spice in it. He ate it but wouldn’t get it here again. He helped me eat my filet and fries.



For dessert we shared the chocolate cake (it‘s meant for 2). OMG this was huge. The presentation was fun and the waitress split it for us.




We had leftovers that we brought back to the villa (both dinner and dessert).

We headed back to the resort after dinner and watched some TV before going to bed.