November 4-10th, 2020: Day 7

Tuesday November 10th:
Got up at 6am. Finished the last packing. Said goodbye to S&K. We drove to Dunkin to grab breakfast for ourselves and my dad. We were heading to his apartment. We were to him by 8:15am. My dad was tired because he didn’t sleep well from worrying about my mom. Teri met us there around 9:30am. We all visited and got my dad squared away with meals and such. It was nice to sit and visit. Huge hugs given and lots of tears. My dad is 81 and really slowing down. So it gets a bit harder to say goodbye each time now. We left his place around 11:20am. Some heavy and light rain on our drive to the airport. We got gas right in the airport loop and dropped off the rental minutes before our drop off time at noon. Security was a breeze, less than 5 minutes. I got Chipotle for lunch and Ryan got Jersey Mike’s Subs. Both were yummy. 2:35pm departure on time and landed a little early in Dallas. Grabbed CFA for me and BBQ for Ryan. Departed on time and landed a bit early in El Paso. Luggage was within a few off the carousel. Put our light jackets on. Quick walk to the car and an hour drive home. Home by 8pm. Winne was so excited to see us that her whole body was wagging! She loved having Miss Ally over though. We unpacked and had lights out oat 10pm.
Miles Logged 4.5

Final Thoughts:
It was so nice to get away and get in a vacation, even though it was during the time of Covid and restrictions. We still had fun. But the masks did get a bit warm throughout each day. We tried to make several mask breaks by stopping to eat or visiting relaxation stations. I found that I wasn’t nearly as talkative because talking in the heat and humidity made me feel hotter. I think we were all a bit quieter than usual. It was nice not having people stand on top of us while in line, thanks to social distancing markers. People followed the rules on that and masks very well for the most part. We did hear CM’s did a great job at reminding guests to be stationary and to the side while eating or drinking. And we heard them reminding people to keep their masks over their noses as well. Mobile ordering became a breeze for us! It was very convenient. I will say that I personally enjoyed having the character cavalcades happening in the parks. It allowed us to see characters that we normally wouldn’t see! And we didn’t have to wait in long lines to see them! We didn’t see any of the parades in HS because we were deeper in the park than the route was. It was sad not having shows/parades and fireworks. But we still made the best of it! We were able to see and ride so many attractions in a short amount of time because the lines really moved quickly. The lines often looked very long and daunting, but that was just because of the social distancing. I definitely would not want to visit WDW for my first ever visit with all the limitations and restrictions in place. But as seasoned Disney fans, we were okay with them. We will be taking one more trip in April on our AP’s but then we won’t be renewing until things are fully and truly back to normal. We don’t see the benefit of paying the renewal rate when hours and offerings are still so limited. We wear masks all day at work. But we are inside in a climate controlled environment. It did get to be hot and sweaty quickly in a mask outside all day. We’ve had WDW AP’s for over 5 years. So it will be strange to not have them. But it will save us a lot of money for the year ahead. We will still visit WDW but will just get multi-day tickets for a while. And we will likely only go once or twice a year instead of the 4 times a year we had been doing. We took a week long trip to St. Augustine in January and really liked having a true relaxing vacation. We see doing trips like that for a while. Thanks for reading!