This was the year that was split into two parts: before the pandemic and after the pandemic. Before Covid-19, life was moving along great in Central Florida. After Covid-19, everything changed dramatically, and in some aspects, probably permanently. Only time will tell on that one.

2020—Miscellaneous Orlando Adventures

The second weekend of the year was Marathon Weekend, and Madeline and Dana ran the 10k.

Sandi visited late January to meet Myles. We spent a day at Epcot, which was planning on some big changes. We also went to the Grand Floridian Café for brunch, followed by the Magic Kingdom.

At Epcot’s International Festival of the Arts, we surprised Madeline with an original Dopey, signed by the artist.

Myles made it to his first park. A fellow Comdisco worker, Carol Madaras, visited and had breakfast with us. We also had a nice meal at Citricos, one of my favorite restaurants.

We saw Aladdin at the Dr. Phillips Center

Back to Epcot for a late lunch and Broadway show. We also met up with Steve & Rose Allemeier. Steve was a roommate of mine during our college internships, and he was in our wedding. We hadn’t seen each other in probably 30 years.

Date day at Animal Kingdom

Princess weekend brought Madeline running a 10k and Dana running a half marathon

With Covid spreading quickly, the parks closed their doors on March 15th. We went to the Grand to see it very empty. A week later, the resorts were also shut down and the roads on property were scarily empty.

After the 4th of July, Disney held some cast previews that showed what the parks would look like. We went to Animal Kingdom, wearing masks, encountering characters from a distance, and socially distancing.

DAK & MK opened back up on July 11th; Epcot and Studios on July 15th. Reservations were required in order to limit the number of people who entered, but there were various buckets of people, such as resort guests, annual passholders, Cast Members, and others. We finally were able to go to our first park, Epcot, on the 30th. We had lunch at Coral Reef and saw Michael. We rode almost every ride there, and we took photos in very empty countries.

In early December, Hollywood Studios became the hottest ticket in town when it opened its Rise of the Resistance attraction in Galaxy’s Edge. When the parks re-opened, it again was the hardest one to get into. Cast Members were blocked out unless they used comp tickets. We did so, and we entered the park as early as we could. Still, getting on Rise was still a bit of luck, as you checked in to get a potential queue time. Then you had to hope that the ride didn’t break down. Well, when we went on August 6th, all the theme park Gods aligned. We were able to ride Rise, and it was fantastic!

We got on the park favorites and even watched the Lightning McQueen show for the very first time.

Right before the shutdown, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway opened, but we never had a chance to ride it. It  turned out to be a very fun ride with cool technology like Rise of the Resistance.

On August 13th, we concluded our return to the parks when we visited the Magic Kingdom. The park was so eerily empty that we rode 20 rides and had a quick service lunch and sit-down dinner.

We sold our house in Davenport on August 26th and went right to Epcot to celebrate, and celebrate, and celebrate!

In mid-October, Dana’s friend got us into Universal for free. We hadn’t been there in 5 years, so it was fun to experience some newer attractions. Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure was the main one, but we also liked E.T. that apparently we never went on in the past. Their entertainment was a little different than Disney, and we didn’t feel like folks were adhering to the mask policy very well, but we still enjoyed ourselves.

In late-October, we dressed up for Halloween, mimicking the main Disney characters.

In December, we went to Epcot to check out the Christmas decorations and look at a special cake.

On the 30th, we checked into Bay Lake Tower like we usually do, but there was nothing usual about the three days. We walked to the Grand Floridian along the new pathway from the Magic Kingdom, we checked out Riviera Resort and the Skyliner, we saw the Wedding Pavilion up close, and we spent several hours walking around the Art of Animation resort. The crowds were virtually non-existent, and there were no fireworks. From our Theme Park View room, we brought in the New Year looking at a lifeless Magic Kingdom and some random fireworks in nearby neighborhoods.