In a week when things get exciting and more positive Stateside, news for international travel this week has not been so positive and so it’s been a week of mixed emotions.
As we reported in our midweek blog Disney Springs and Universal’s City Walk have both reopened, following social distancing rules and health guidelines, and both openings seem to have been pretty successful. Visitors have felt safe and looked after, and despite the new rules and regulations, most of the bloggers and vloggers we follow have still felt that Disney magic or Universal excitement when visiting. So that’s good news. Good news that people can start to visit again and that they can feel and stay safe whilst doing so. Following on from that lots more attractions have opened this weekend – such as Starflyer, Icon Park and Island H2O. The even bigger news is that Universal Orlando Resort have submitted plans to be allowed to re-open to the public from 5th June, including both theme parks and Volcano Bay water park. Legoland and various other smaller parks have also submitted such plans for round about that timescale and as malls and stores re-open, we are just waiting for the BIG Big announcement about WDW’s plans for re-opening which have so far not been forthcoming. We have no doubt that dates will sneak out in the next couple of days or weeks.
So that’s the good news for Orlando and Florida. From the UK though we are faced with the news that any international travel into the UK will mean a 14 day quarantine upon return, so that essentially means that a two week holiday will need us to have 4 weeks off work to be able to fulfil that requirement, and is therefore not an option for any of us. Additionally, if most UK travellers are not able to do that, the flights will just not be scheduled. Of course also there has been no announcement that any international borders have opened up at this stage anyway.
Being the positive folks that we are we are not focussing on the negatives – we all need to get back to normal and are absolutely delighted that Orlando is taking it’s first tentative steps in that direction, and when our turn comes the UK will find it’s way out too. So instead of getting into any kind of political debate about why/whether these steps are right or wrong, or good or bad, or too soon or not soon enough we thought we’d head to everyone’s go-to cheer up food – ice cream. In particular, the WDW Cookie Sandwich ice-cream, home made of course. You can’t beat a WDW snack – definitely something to smile about.
First problem – we had no idea how to make cookies. Most of the recipes say it’s easy, and it sort of was to make the actual cookie dough, but cooking them became a bit of an issue. We wanted them thick enough to hold the ice-cream and make an actual sandwich, but also they spread in the oven and if you leave them too thick the edges burn but the middle stays raw, and too thin they cook better but aren’t robust enough to hold the ice-cream. Anyhow – a couple of batches later we had enough serviceable cookies to have a go. Incidentally the cookies not robust enough to use for the sandwiches were still delicious and so nothing was wasted, we ate them just the same.
We went for a chocolate based sandwich so the cookies we made were chocolate chip ones. We also had to make a chocolate sponge cake to get the cake crumbs for the edge of the sandwich. Again, we only needed a few crumbs so we had to eat the rest of the chocolate cake to ensure nothing went to waste. The things we do in the name of blog research.
So cake baked, and crumbled up, and cookies in the oven. Time for a little clear up and,knowing us, another long conversation about our favourite WDW snacks, or snacks in general, because let’s face it it’s all about the snacks. We’ve got pretty good at making Cracker Barrel breakfasts, funnel cake (that blog is still to come at some point in the future), cinnamon rolls and we’re going to have a go at churros sometime soon.
Cookies out of the oven and cooled and away we go with assembly. A generous blob of vanilla ice-cream applied to a cookie – like building a wall with cookies – and another cookie on the top. So far so good. Then we rolled the edge of the cookie sandwich in the chocolate cake crumbs. It didn’t look too bad to be honest – and now for the best bit, the tasting. It was pretty delicious actually, and Rob conducted his taste test with the help of his new best buddies, his Lego Boba Fett and The Child (baby Yoda) although I am not sure how much input they had into the final verdict.
It was a fair enough first attempt and it helped pass an afternoon in lockdown, and always it sparked a joyful conversation about WDW, Universal, Orlando and Florida. Our conversations on this topic are never ending and we never tire of talking – hence the blog – about our favourite subject.
Another week goes by in this strange and unusual time, and hopefully another week nearer everything being more happy and normal and positive. We continue to watch absolutely loads of fabulous programs on Disney +, and we are both back at work and so our evenings are again spent catching up on our favourite vlogs and the daily news coming out of Orlando and Florida. We absolutely love watching these lovely bunch of people in the places we want to be – warms our hearts!
Our 60 Fastpass window opens this week, and it’s obviously not the exciting task we have been waiting for. Before all of this started we couldn’t wait to get to the 60 day mark and book our Fastpasses, and now of course we are going to be booking them whilst fully expecting them to be cancelled. But like we’ve said – the positive folks we are – we are going to do them anyway. You never know – the universe might get its act together and allow our trip to happen this summer, in which case we’ll be kicking ourselves if we haven’t booked any, but if it doesn’t then we’ll have had a good practice run at booking our Fastpasses. We have read lots of accounts of it being a bit tricky and the most popular Fastpasses usually get used up pretty quickly, so we intend to employ the tactics much favoured by Molly at Allears.net and join team fiddle faddle to see if we can get the ones we want. It’s all experience at the task in hand and if our choices are not going to be used this Summer then they we’ll be all over it for our next trip and the next time our 60 day window opens. We’ll practically be experts. So My Disney Experience account at the ready, and we’ll let you know how we got on in our next blog.
In the meantime, to our UK readers who may have trips booked this year and not know whether they are happening or not, welcome to our little watching and waiting club! To our USA and Orlando friends, vloggers, cast and team members and general good guys and lovely folk, we couldn’t be happier that you seem to be getting over the worst of this crisis and getting chance to get back to work, back to fun, and back to what you all do best. We can’t wait to join you. Stay safe and see you back at the place “Where dreams come true”.
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