So, I absolutely love reliving my family vacations, but I'm going to change my drift again with a trip that Sam and I made during COVID-19. We were stressed out, and we needed a little change of pace. Disney World was offering a way out with social distancing and reduced wait times. So we decided to see what this was all about with a quick last minute trip to my favorite place before school started.
We literally decided on this trip the day before we left, so we quick booked at a value resort, which neither Sam or I had stayed at before, but which offered a value conscience price for our last minute trip.
We made it to the airport in the am very early, and I was happy to see that the Delta Sky Lounge was offering mimosas at 6 am. Yeah, for Delta!
Masks are a necessity now. We left the lounge to wait for boarding.
We were staying at Pop Century this trip. We headed for Magical Express, which we just booked the day before. Disney is no longer transporting luggage to resorts, so we needed to pick up luggage at MCO, which was not as horrible as it sounded. Then we went to ME. We didn't know how long we'd wait, but it seemed they were merging lots of buses together and making multiple stops at resorts. It didn't take long before we were on our bus.
It wasn't long until we were at Pop Century. Not sure if this is a new thing. or if it a value resort thing, but the cast members at Pop serenades us upon arriving with a fun welcome song. I have never experienced anything like it, but it sure was fun!
Our room was not ready, so we decided to check out the resort since we have never stayed there before.
After spending this time walking around with masks in August I was completely sweaty. So I told Sam that we needed to go back to the lobby, where we waited for a bit. A cast member asked about what we were waiting for, and I replied waiting for our room. She said that we shouldn't have to wait this long for a room especially since most rooms weren't full, so she escorted us to the line and found us a room. We were happy with the choice. We paid for a preferred room, and we were happy with the walk to the lobby and the Skyliner.
The room was fine. Not a deluxe or villa like we are used to, but fine for the two of us. I ended up talking to my principal while we were there, and we both took a rinse off shower before we headed to Epcot for dinner.
This was our first time taking the Skyliner while staying here, and we found the wait time to be non-existent and very quick.
Once at Epcot, we did a quick ride on Soarin' because there was no wait time.
And while at the Land Pavilion, we had to do Living with the Land.
We had dinner reservations at Via Napoli, which is a total favorite of ours.
It was still a bit rainy, and I wasn't sure if we would get in before our reservation, but they took our name and we were soon escorted to our table. Everything was socially distanced and the menu was available using a qr code on your phone.
Our waiter came, and I wasn't finished looking at the drink menu. Sam tried to be nice and order my drink, but he didn't know what it was called so he just said "Limoncello". The server asked if it was the cocktail, and I wasn't sure that was it, but Sam said yes. So this is what we got.
It was a mule, which I do not drink. I wanted the Lemon Drop drink. We told the waiter what we wanted, and Sam got to drink the mule. My lemon drop came shortly. Delicious as always!
So I absolutely love the Lasagne here. Unfortunately, it was not on the menu at this time. I decided to order something out of the ordinary, which turned out to be amazing. Sam ordered his chicken parmesan as usual, and we also got the Mozarella Caprese, which was delicious!
When we got out of dinner, it was close to park closing, so we headed toward the Skyliner at the rear of the park to head home.
It was sad that one of our faves, Les Chefs de France was closed, but the line was not long at all for the Skyliner, and we went back to Pop Century to be ready for our day at Animal Kingdom tomorrow.
