VWL Groupies & Lovers Thread (Special Collectors Edition 2.0) updated 21 June 2023

[twinklebug]

What a year this has been. I am so ready for it to be over. Friday my nieces husband passed away. He was in a single car accident. He ran a stop sign, hit a curb, went airborne and then crashed into a tree. We don't know exactly what happened. If he was distracted or if he suffered a health issue. About 2 years ago he had a small stroke. Needless to day my niece (late 40's) is beyond devastated. This marks the 6th death in my family and friends circle this year. 2 old friends, a sister, a former neighbor, a nephews wife and now my nieces husband.

I am sooo ready for a trip to the world. Needing our happy place right now. We have to hold out for next summer though. So please keep the photos and reports coming. Feels like they lower my blood pressure just looking at them.

I hope everyone is doing well.

@sleepydog25 are you still Sleepy"Mark" or do you have your own name tag now? We are talking about another trip to HHI in the next few years. We enjoyed our last (and first) trip there a few years ago.

I'm so sorry Jen, sending love.
It does sound like he had a medical event. Heartbreaking.

 

[sleepydog25]

What a year this has been. I am so ready for it to be over. Friday my nieces husband passed away. He was in a single car accident. He ran a stop sign, hit a curb, went airborne and then crashed into a tree. We don't know exactly what happened. If he was distracted or if he suffered a health issue. About 2 years ago he had a small stroke. Needless to day my niece (late 40's) is beyond devastated. This marks the 6th death in my family and friends circle this year. 2 old friends, a sister, a former neighbor, a nephews wife and now my nieces husband.

I am sooo ready for a trip to the world. Needing our happy place right now. We have to hold out for next summer though. So please keep the photos and reports coming. Feels like they lower my blood pressure just looking at them.

I hope everyone is doing well.

@sleepydog25 are you still Sleepy"Mark" or do you have your own name tag now? We are talking about another trip to HHI in the next few years. We enjoyed our last (and first) trip there a few years ago.

We, too, offer our condolences. Even without COVID, you've had a really tough year, and its specter makes it even worse, I'm sure.

Nope, I'm still SleepyMark. I don't go back to work until Wednesday, so maybe, maybe I'll have a name change by then.

In other news, just had our third gator sighting in the last two weeks, floating right by our back yard in the lagoon. I get such a kick out of them.

 

[twokats]

DVC Jen, so sorry for your loss.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

My sympathy @DVC Jen. Such a difficult year you and your family are having.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

In other news, just had our third gator sighting in the last two weeks, floating right by our back yard in the lagoon. I get such a kick out of them.

Ya know - we have coyotes, rattle snakes, the odd black widow spider or scorpion and now and then a mountain lion, bobcat and black bear running around. I'll I have to say I'll keep all of them over your friendly neighborhood alligator! Maybe too much Peter Pan in my youth.

 

[bluecastle]

What a year this has been. I am so ready for it to be over. Friday my nieces husband passed away. He was in a single car accident. He ran a stop sign, hit a curb, went airborne and then crashed into a tree. We don't know exactly what happened. If he was distracted or if he suffered a health issue. About 2 years ago he had a small stroke. Needless to day my niece (late 40's) is beyond devastated. This marks the 6th death in my family and friends circle this year. 2 old friends, a sister, a former neighbor, a nephews wife and now my nieces husband.

I am sooo ready for a trip to the world. Needing our happy place right now. We have to hold out for next summer though. So please keep the photos and reports coming. Feels like they lower my blood pressure just looking at them.

I hope everyone is doing well.

@sleepydog25 are you still Sleepy"Mark" or do you have your own name tag now? We are talking about another trip to HHI in the next few years. We enjoyed our last (and first) trip there a few years ago.

I am so sorry to read about how much you've had to deal with this year, in addition to all the COVID stress. Your poor niece. My heart goes out to her. Does she have a good support system nearby? Even life's most tragic events are made more complicated by this damn virus.
I hope that there is a long and magical WDW trip for you in the not too distant future. I am hoping that when we finally go, we can go for a longer period of time and just savor all that we've been missing.

 

[TCRAIG]

Oh Jen - so sorry to hear about your nieces’s husband and other family/friend losses...sending a big hug to y’all

 

[Corinne]

Jen,
So sorry for your loss, and to hear about all you’ve gone through this year.

 

[DVC Jen]

I am so sorry to read about how much you've had to deal with this year, in addition to all the COVID stress. Your poor niece. My heart goes out to her. Does she have a good support system nearby? Even life's most tragic events are made more complicated by this damn virus.
I hope that there is a long and magical WDW trip for you in the not too distant future. I am hoping that when we finally go, we can go for a longer period of time and just savor all that we've been missing.
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yes she does. Both of her parents are still alive and live close by. Her older sister is also very close and she has a brother just about an hour away. She also has her 2 sons from her first marriage and a lot of friends. They had only been married for 7 years. Her first marriage was tough. She found happiness in this marriage. It really is tragic. My heart breaks for her.

 

[jimmytammy]

Jen,
As if this year hasn't been bad enough, the news you shared about your nieces husband in addition to all your other losses, wow, just wow

My sympathy to you and your loved ones. I will be praying for you and your family as you deal with it all. May God grant you peace among the chaos of life as it is now. Just know, we are one big family here, and you can lean on us anytime you need.

 

[Granny]

Jen...so sorry that you and your family have faced so many tragedies this year. You are in our prayers.

 

[Lorana]

All my love and sympathy, Jen. I know how hard losing a loved one is, and it's especially challenging to cope with our grief these days.

 

[twinklebug]

Is everyone who had planned on going in December still on? I cancelled one of my two rooms and am either cutting down the second one to 4 nights, or cancelling it altogether... my kids think I'm nuts to want to risk going to Florida this year.

 

[Granny]

Is everyone who had planned on going in December still on? I cancelled one of my two rooms and am either cutting down the second one to 4 nights, or cancelling it all together... my kids think I'm nuts to want to risk going to Florida this year.

We cancelled our December trip. Nothing planned until next October at this point.

I don't think you're nuts at all, Cindy. We just don't feel comfortable with the crowds yet.

 

[TCRAIG]

So far, we’re still going but not 100% sure of our dates yet due to a ‘higher calling - Grandma and GranJer’ duty for our 2 little Grands!

 

[Lakegirl]

Jen so sorry for your loss.

 

[jimmytammy]

Me being a kid of the 70s and teen of the 80s, it was tough hearing this week that my all time favorite guitarist Eddie Van Halen lost his long battle with throat cancer earlier this week. He was 65, still very young IMO. 2020 has been a tough year on us all, this just adds to it for me personally. Not many celebrities have I ever had a desire to meet, but he was one guy I would have liked to had the chance to do so. His music will live on which to me is a great thing.

In better news, I am currently listening to a group, Voctave, who some of you may know. Never knew they existed until this AM. They are a spinoff of The Voices of Liberty and are just as awesome as we know them to be at Epcot. If you have Amazon Prime, check them out. Several albums(I know, this dates me)are on there and so far all are very good!

 

[Lakegirl]

The lodge was absolute amazing. I must say Geyser Point is a huge plus for VWL right now. We got the Brisket and chips twice. They were so good. Turkey sandwich is enough for two easily. RF you need to order ahead of time. Give it at least 1/2 hour before you want to eat. You just show them your refillable cups and they give you what you would like for dinks in paper cups. I think they will come up with another way in the future. Maybe link to your MDE app. There was a manager at RF who apparently wasn’t usually at QS but she was amazing. My first time there this trip was a little chaotic and to add to I didn’t know I was supposed to order ahead of time. At that time I only wanted the refillable cups anyway and you can’t order them on the app yet. There was a problem with the register that had plexiglass in front of and and wouldn’t work, but there were 2 other registers without Plexi that did work. The two girls refused to use them because there was no pkexi in front of them. I had a mask on they had masks on. One of the girls literally just walked away from the manager after the manager told her to get a face shield if she didn’t feel comfortable and proceeded to have a guest a ask her a question about there app. She was face to face with a guest no plexi between (they both had face masks on). She had no problem talking to that guest but would not check me out. The check out line was getting longer and longer. The manager said to the CM that didn’t walk away that they would have a discussion with the whole team about servicing guests and if they are worried they can get a face shield not just refuse to help a guest. The hot tub was not hot and we were told y another guest that it had been the night before. The first night we thought it was due to it had just rained so hard. Second night is when we figured out it wasn’t. The hot tub was a very busy spot. I think everyone really enjoys that when on vacation. We met some nice people. The pool had times when it wasn’t busy at all. We
spent our morning that we were going to Epcot at the pool it was great. So beautifu. The main pool was much busier.
I love the Lobby of VWL but the fireplaces only were lit two days out of our 5 days. We usually only “stop” on our way back to our rooms for just a short sit to relax. i
I Thought there was something wrong with them and asked at the desk and they said they are not always lit. I said you mean on purpose? And she said yes. I said I thought they were just always lit 24 hours a day? The CM said they used to be but since we have reopened they are not. I thought that was very disappointing asI find them very special. The rooms were very clean and all the CM’s were great. I loved the 30% discount. I did notice it seams they have not reordered merchandise as it was really limited. I totally understand this from a business perspectiv.
I love my Disneysnacks and usually stock up to bring home so when I am missing Disney it brings me back. They had very limited snacks. No wrapped rice crispie treats or the Pretzels we usually like to take home. They did have fresh made rice crispie treats at Main street bakery but limited. We ate at Le Cellier and it was amazing! First time for us and we will be back. We also ate at Narcoose for my Birthday and I’m not sure we will rush back. The other times I absolutely Loved it.
I am having trouble getting reservations for our Nov/Dec trip. I will have to stock the reservation app for next 50 days.
Disney is really doing a great job at social Distancing. It is amazing how creative they are. The rule breakers I saw were usually eating in line, so apparently they thought it was ok to not have their ask on on line because they were eating. We just add sure we stayed back far enough and nobody complained as I think they knew why we were staying 12 feet away.
when we were waiting for the tragic express we were seated at the seats in the main lobby. There was somebody who was on the phone yapping away without his mask off. He was 6 ft away but it bothered me so we moved.
If we didn’t go all the time I am not sure I would suggest someone to go, but for us it was amazing and I am so glad we went and can’t wait to go again. Sorry for the long post but I love reading reports from all l of you when you go.

 

[sleepydog25]

It's the weekend, Groupies! Now, I'm on semi-retired time, so the significance of a weekend is no longer what it once was. Still. . . And in celebration of this particular weekend and the fact I wasn't working today (Luv was, or should I say Clare from the Philippines), I made a seafood feast. I stopped at Bennie Hudson' fresh seafood and picked up a dozen oysters, a dozen little neck clams, and a pound of local, fresh shrimp. I steamed most of the shrimp, save for a few I tossed in the fennel, onion, garlic, and fire-roasted tomatoes broth where I cooked the clams, as well. As an appetizer before all this, I shucked the oysters and made a quick, spicy cocktail sauce with which to have them. I took no pictures of this feast, but I did go out for a bike ride in the neighborhood where we live, so I'll post a few of those pictures instead.

 

[Granny]

SleepyMark...thanks for continuing to share your local surroundings and Disney experience with us. You have chosen a beautiful part of the country to make your new home, and I hope you continue to enjoy your new employer.

I'm sure there's a part of you and Luv that miss the hills and mountains of your last home. But I'm sure the waterways, marshes and beaches of Hilton Head will become a comfortable fit for the both of you.