Road Trip to the House of Mouse, Hopefully a Trip Report
 

First off, we intend to be very careful, and think it quite likely that we've had/been exposed to Covid already, so while we are obviously concerned about Florida's rising numbers, we are planning on going as long as Disney/Universal are operational. Our traveling party is DH (turning 55 during the trip), myself (53), and DS (25 with very mild developmental delays).

Our current plans are to leave on 8/27 stop somewhere on the road in Virginia or North Carolina (major chain of some kind), and drive straight through to Orlando from there. A stop at my kid's favorite take-out barbeque place on the Florida-Georgia line is kind of up in the air. We'll see how we feel about it.

In Orlando, we are booked for two nights at Yacht Club. I believe some of the resort has been cordoned off for the NBA, and I know some people have been moved, but as of right now, we've still got a reservation and their posted opening date is 8/24. We do, finally have dining reservations, since Disney cancelled the one I had, and only gave me the ability to rebook today. We don't have tickets yet, since we booked room only (a decision I now regret) and are waiting for them to open those back up for existing reservations. Park reservations for resort guests still seem to be pretty available, so that's a plus.

Assmining both tickets and reservations, we are planning on 8/29 at Epcot and 8/30 at DHS.

DHS should close at 8pm that night, and we plan to have the car assembled for our next stop, Loew's Royal Pacific. We have Universal tickets, and will do that on 8/31, leaving at park close to stay at the Doubletrree across the street (hopefully I won't regret that either, but it was a third of the price of a second night at Royal Pacific).

On 9/1, we will check out, bound for Wyndham Bonnet Creek. We'll spend three nights there in a two bedroom unit, and spend some time relaxing and visiting Disney Springs. We would normally spend some time at things like Fun Spot or Kissimmee Old Town, but unless the numbers are much better than I think they will be, we are not doing that.

Our last stop is Port Orleans Riverside, which I have not fully decided to keep. Disney has not moved us yet, but since that resort will almost certainly not be open, I'm sure they will move us. I think probably to Caribbean Beach, but it's a bit up in the air. If we keep it, we may add a third ticket day, for Animal Kingdom.

On Saturday morning it's back to Pennsylvania, probably stopping in North Carolina again.

We'll see if this actually comes to fruition, or just ends up being a pre-trip report.

And I just realized there's a particularly unfortunate typo in this...

I thought we now had the ability to edit, but I'm not seeing a button.

All I want is to get the h out of this state. At least Pa isn't having you quarantine on return. My friend booked a ticket to CT last week. She is screwed. I haven't been able to reach jetblue for my cancellation to NY. They are only giving credits. Glad you are staying on property. So many places have had to close but Disney makes their own rules so you never know how much covid is there. They have the best PR people and connections. We have packed restaurant bars now that bars are closed.

If PA adds a quarantine we may have to skip it.

Someone on a Disney board said that if you have a negative Covid test on arrival in CT you do not have to quarantine. I do not know if this is true, but might be worth looking into.

At this point we are pursuing antibody tests. They're not foolproof, but we would like to know, and testing the whole family will probably tell us something.

If JetBlue cancelled your flight they are obligated to refund. If they're really being difficult about it, you can pursue it with your credit card.

Pennsylvania has added a quarantine for people returning from Florida, although whether they're enforcing it is somewhat up in the air, and they didn't exactly widely publicize its existence.

There's no way we can quarantine, we all have jobs that require us to show up in person. We're still trying to arrange antibody testing, but I don't think there's an antibody exemption.

I'm not canceling yet, but we may have to. Contemplating Cedar Point as an alternative.

This kind of thing is very minor compared to most of the havoc this pandemic has wrought, but it does kind of feel like we can't catch a break.

We had a lot of years where our ability to travel was limited or nonexistent, and just when it seems like the world is FINALLY our oyster...

We've cancelled.

We're booked for Cedar Point and the Great Wolf Lodge in Sandusky. Hopefully that will continue to make sense, and I'll post a separate trip report for that.

Good move to cancel.