Month: May 2021

Let It Lingus

by mkingdon, posted in Walt Disney World

Hello again. I was inundated with a message last week regarding the lack of a post last Sunday. I’m grateful for anyone giving a toss of course but I just gave myself, and perhaps more mercifully, you the day off from another post with me spouting uneducated guesses about things that are unknown. The day was filled with other stuff (mainly mowing tbh) so I just chose not to burden myself and others with the blogging thing.

Things still aren’t known of course but I’m back at it, whether I or you like it.

To quote a random millennial from off of Instagram, with regards to this bloody holiday I have been at the “I can’t even…” stage for a while. We’re all still here with no clue as to what and when the US might do and our own government, unable to avoid snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, have somehow enabled a variant to instigate a climb in case numbers that could very well be putting Biden off letting us in.

Over in the States they are doing their best to remove all the stuff that was putting us off from going, with restrictions being removed quicker than EU citizens from the UK. Yet still, perhaps understandably with the UK having impregnated itself with this new variant for no good reason, they may well now be reticent to let us in.

Biden is over here in early June and it may well be then that we learn some more about if and when us dirty infected Brits can once more eat ourselves into diabetes in a Dennys.

Our loose and tentative plans for September have remained in place, as much as they could with zero financial commitment for a while now. Then, on Thursday the stars aligned and some real world stuff we’d been waiting to hear about fell into place and despite the nagging voices in my head telling me not to do it to myself again, flights were soon thereafter secured.

It will not be a surprise for anyone that we have still not had our refund from Virgin for our now cancelled June flights. With it now being over two weeks since I got their email confirming my request for a refund, I got in touch. Many hours passed and it turned out they had no record of my request for a refund. Seemingly they had just randomly emailed me about a refund I had not requested, confirming that I had requested it.

I re-requested it. We wait some more.

Anywho, luckily Aer Lingus, who will have the honour of carrying my not inconsiderable frame across the Atlantic, offered a deposit only booking with more flexible options for cancelling and/or moving than you could shake a Shillelagh at. So I feel as comfy as you can these days that whatever happens we’ll be OK.

I had tidied up the last piece of the June cancellations this week, being a month out from our intended Vero stay I was allowed to convert that into a credit note for future use. I got those credit notes on Friday and have started the process of rebooking our days at Vero this time in September.

Outside of holiday news, now we are allowed, we’ve done things like have Rebecca, Tom and Freddie for tea last Sunday and Freddie even stayed over at ours on Tuesday night. That’s been lovely.

I’ve done another five hours of mowing on our field and it already looks like it needs doing again. This is mainly because it has rained constantly, apart from the five hours I spent mowing, since April. I am also delighted to report that the frustrating WiFi woes we have been battling since we moved in have been defeated by my technical genius. Well, I say technical genius. I spent £40 on a new router from Amazon and a 30m ethernet cable to run to my office. Anywho, on our wireless network pre-upgrade I was getting 7 Mbps and after 70Mbps. That is the single most impressive thing I have done for many a year. Plusnet, the routers you provide are a bit shit. FYI.

Work has been a bugger recently. Lots of plates spinning, some coming very close to hitting the ground and one of my team had some horrendous family news this week and we’ve been supporting him through that in whatever way we can. It’s seems churlish of me to complain about work in light of that, but I suppose I still will.

So, in summary. We go again, again. My planner is rejigged once more and it has been so that often that it is dizzy. I had, despite the lack of interest and belief that we’d be allowed to go in September, booked theme part reservations for our September dates so that’s all good. I am now beginning to fill up the days with the important stuff. Where are we eating?

This is trickier than normal as many on-site places remain closed but we only really want two of those, Sanaa and O’hana and I’m hopeful they will be open at least by the time we go. Whether we can get an ADR remains to be seen. Other than that our list will include all of our Greatest Hits such as –

Cowfish

Hash house a go go

Teak Neighbourhood Grill

Romano’s

Olive Garden

Bahama Breeze

Cheesecake Factory

With some new ones for us, such as Antojitos at City Walk.

For all our sakes let us hope that this is it now and we get to do this trip. It is now a war of attrition and I will either have this holiday or bore everyone to death trying.

Till the next time……

Hit Me Baby One More Time

by mkingdon, posted in Walt Disney World

I think it’s fair to say that this time last week as I was as close as it may be possible, for me, to fall out of love with the idea of a WDW trip. Three sets of dates and over a year of endless speculation, stress and worry can do that to a person.

Well, if a week is a long time in politics then it’s currently an age in the realm of Florida trip planning. All I can say is…

I'm Ready To Be Hurt Again GIFs | Tenor

This is of course madness as we still have no solid information about when borders will re-open in the US or what ludicrous testing expense will be involved in any trip, but the tractor beam of fun and food has pulled me back in. Frankly, we’ve already missed enough time over there, especially with Freddie, so despite there being several reasons why we probably shouldn’t dive right back in, the speedos are on and I am perched on the edge of the diving board with all my flab wobbling.

With some real life stuff to bear in mind, our window of opportunity is a small one and for reasons I will probably share with you at some point, we really need to get this thing done before the end of September.

During the week, I have been slowly bringing myself back around to believing we may actually go again, ever. Even though I thought the chances would be slim of managing to thread the needle of family logistics, dates and borders re-opening, I did, despite “not feeling it” book some stuff that incurred no expense. So, car hire was secured (and wtf is going on with car hire pricing?? I want to drive it for a couple of weeks, not bring it home!) with Discount Florida Car Hire who offer no deposit, free cancellation reservations, which is gold dust in these crazy times.

I had already moved the villa booking to some dates close to what I thought we would do (sorry Matt, I’ll be changing those again any day now!) rather than just cancel it, as it is too nice of a place to risk losing, and just because I could, I did some theme park reservations. Yes, this is what me not being in the mood to plan a trip looks like. I never said I was normal.

There are some other practical considerations to the September deadline too. Our theme park tickets expire on the 26th of September. Sure, I could cancel or move them but that is hassle, and our DVC Vero booking points have to be used by the 1st of October. If those two things alone aren’t a message from the Gods I don’t know what is.

So as I sit here today, I am very much in the mind of “Christ, we need a holiday to hell with the consequences”, and my finger is metaphorically hovering over the button that has..

Alexander Vlahos on Twitter: "Just booked a holiday & now I'm all:… "

on it on the Aer Lingus web site. I can do so with a deposit, and they have what seems to be flexible cancellation/rearrangement terms should this Indian variant gifted to us by the dither and incompetence of the corrupt blancmange in Number 10 do it’s worst, we should be OK. By the way for our “new” dates (see how I am already talking as if this is a done deal?) Aer Lingus are at least £1000 cheaper than Virgin. What idiot wouldn’t book that, right?

Hey, and look, the dollar rate is 1.4ish so the holiday pretty much pays for itself, right?

Ideally, we should sit back and wait for everything to play out. The confirmation that borders will open and when and what will be needed to travel etc. My concern is that once all that is done there will be a rush of bookings and the decent flight prices I see today may rocket.

On the subject of testing, I think I saw something from Virgin about £55 tests but didn’t read it in detail as at that point I was sulking. I also wonder if the US may not require testing for vaccinated folks flying in, as the mask policies now seem to be based on those who are vaccinated, even though there is no way of knowing who is and isn’t of course. For flights, there is a way to check (my vaccine now shows in my NHS App by the way) so it may be either a vaccine or a negative test.

To be honest, my return to the fold of trip planning also contains a large dollop of not letting this thing beat me. All that time ago, I booked a trip to WDW and by hook or by crook I am determined to bloody have it. Also, should I not give myself some hard deadline by which I need to stop eating shite constantly and lose some weight I will need to do something drastic like buy some bigger clothes.

It has been a great week for the return of some form of normality should we go ahead too. The CDC in the US have issued guidance about wearing masks outside, and within what felt like minutes all the theme parks announced that masks were now optional outdoors. This makes a huge difference. Come September, based on the incredible pace of change we are seeing now, masks could be optional everywhere, but if not, popping one on as you enter an air conditioned attraction, shop or restaurant is infinitely more tolerable than having to wear one everywhere.

I would imagine as the summer progresses and assuming vaccinations keep happening and cases numbers dropping, more and more of what we all recognise as normal in WDW and beyond will return. I’m looking at you fireworks and parades. With park capacity already being increased it makes sense that these shows and parades will need to come back to give the extra guests something to do, and hopefully Fast Pass too. I have, however, thought for some time that these park reservations may remain forever though.

The data and ability to plan that this gives Disney must be gold dust. For them to know exactly how many (and which) guests are coming to a park on any given day allows them to staff up accordingly plus a million other operational efficiencies that a pleb like me can’t even imagine.

So with my “I’m done with this whole WDW trip” strop over after just a few hours I am off now to ponder booking our flights, with the worry that Biden is sat in the Whitehouse shaking his head at the UK for allowing the Indian variant in for absolutely no reason whatsoever and wondering if this continued stream of national self-harm will continue much longer.

Let’s hope this does not stop the borders being opened to UK tourists as expected in early July as rearranging this trip again may be too much for me and I’d then have to sulk about it for a few hours and then jump straight back on the planning horse and start again. Again.

Till the next time…..

Cancel Culture

by mkingdon, posted in Walt Disney World

I have, over the years, had better weeks. I’m not one to moan as you know, but amongst other things I have spent a good amount of time this week cancelling all our June bookings and plans. There is literally zero joy in any of that work, especially when there are no new dates yet to replace the old ones.

However, having done so, and knowing it was the only call to make really, despite no official announcement having been made (at the time) there comes with it a form of liberation and release from the stress of analysing and worrying about every little announcement, nuance and tweet related to travelling to Florida in the coming weeks.

I know now that we won’t be doing so until late summer at the very earliest and if I were looking for sliver linings to this cloud of shit, then the fact that things will have settled down, become clearer and hopefully more normal by then has reduced my stress levels considerably.

Everything related to our June trip was cancelled by mid-week where possible. Virgin and our Vero DVC points booking remained outstanding and then on Friday I got the email from Virgin telling me our flight was cancelled. For once, it turned out I was right. Their email came before the 5pm announcement of green countries so clearly airlines etc had been given a heads up, and Virgin’s move to start flights again to Orlando from July 1st ties in with all the predictions around when the US could open their borders.

The Vero booking, should borders not be open by the 26th of May, (one month before our stay there) will become a credit note.

The dates of any next trip remain uncertain. I know it doesn’t seem like it just by reading what I put here most of the time, but there are a couple of real world things that we need to get clarity on in the coming weeks and maybe months before committing to new dates and this is why I cancelled the Virgin flights rather than just move them. That in addition to their flight prices being ludicrous for later this year of course. So we wait for these real life events to sort themselves out and for Virgin to give us a refund. Who knows which will happen first.

On a more general note the stats in the US and UK continue to be excellent. Much better than the models predicted I think and as I said last week, I think it is clear now that WDW and Universal are very much planning for as much normality as possible by the time we get to “the fall”. What Mark E Smith has to do with it I don’t know. (Ask your Dad). Only yesterday, or was it today, cast members working outside now have the option to wear a mask or not. Over the coming weeks and months I expect almost all COVID related restrictions and practices to be removed from the parks and resorts.

My vlog abstinence continues. I just can’t bring myself to right now. That’ll change as our plans emerge from this fog of uncertainty but for now, it’s too soon.

It was pleasing to see TUI take a lead on the testing front. For as long as those are required, the absolutely ridiculous prices that PCRs are being offered at are profiteering of the highest order and TUI’s offer of £20 a head is much more like it. That will surely now force the hand of the other airlines and operators to offer a similar service. Again, by the time we go, hopefully with all adults having been able to get a couple of jabs, the vaccine will be enough.

In other more pleasant news, Friday saw Rebecca turn 24. I say it every year, but does that make you feel old? It was only about 18 months ago you were reading about her in my trip reports as a small child. She was a small child not you, I suspect.

Here come the usual set of photos to commemorate her big day.

A second birthday amid COVID restrictions for Rebecca then but Tom was able to take her out for an al fresco meal at least this time.

So the excitement and anticipation of having a countdown is gone, although I can’t say I have been too excited about any of the three sets of dates we’ve had booked recently, as we always suspected they wouldn’t happen. Hopefully, we can rectify that soon to avoid any prolonged huge man baby sulk on my part and weeks of me whinging on about it here.

I know you wish for it too.

Till the next time……

June’s Too Soon

by mkingdon, posted in Walt Disney World

You will be glad to hear that I cannot bring myself to spew out another post all about the ifs, buts and maybes of a potential holiday. This will make for a beautifully short post for you this week. This is mainly as it is now confirmed that we definitely won’t be going in June. But for anyone who is looking for a summary of another crazy and fast moving week in the world of international travel resumption here is where I think we are.

  1. It seems clearer by the day that the US will re-open its borders to some at the end of June.
  2. Virgin seem to have pushed back resumption of flights to MCO to the 1st of July
  3. Although they denied this was the case when I contacted them. I suspect they want to rearrange/cancel all the May bookings before dealing with those in June
  4. There has been a ton of progress in terms of removing and reducing COVID restrictions in and around the theme parks
  5. There’s a roadmap for mask mandate removal linked to vaccination rates, and temperature checks and hand washing stations are all being removed from the parks sooner rather than later. The parks seem to be planning for “normality” or close to, over the summer months.

So as soon as Virgin admit what is going on I will cancel our flight with them and settle in for the wait for the refund, along with all the other cancellable bits booked for June and take stock as to what we do next and when.

As and when the border re-opening is confirmed for late June as is now widely predicted that will be good news for everyone booked for later in the summer. In line with the expected mask mandate roadmap, by the time we get to the late summer/autumn it could be that masks are pretty much gone and even social distancing will be lessened or removed. It is testament to the efficacy of the vaccines that this is looking possible. They seem to be much more effective at everything it was hoped they would do than anyone could have hoped.

Certainly by 2022, assuming the variants knocking around continue to be handled relatively well by the vaccines and whatever boosters are produced, then I think we should be able to start to dream of a Florida holiday as we used to know them.

So if you have something booked for July and beyond it is looking like you will be allowed to go if you wish. How do you feel about that? Are you going regardless of the remaining restrictions and testing requirements or have you decided to leave it until the day that we can think of a trip as “normal”?

There is still a lack of clarity around tests I think. Last week Grant Schapps said in an interview that the test requirements were no big deal as they were already offering everyone free tests. Those of course are lateral flow so was he saying they would be acceptable or did he mis-speak?

It was also announced that the NHS app will be your proof of vaccination. Because I am wired the way I am, I downloaded it to see if my first jab was there. It isn’t, so I wonder if it only shows up once you are fully vaccinated? I’m hopeful that in coming years, an up to date vaccination for COVID will negate the need for any tests but as ever we can only wait and see.

So as things take shape week by week, some clarity is emerging for future trips. Now it’s clear ours will not happen, it’s time to take a breath and some refunds and regroup. Alas, you will hear all about it as usual.

Till the next time….