Pre-Trip Here we go again...because I don't have cancer!

It has been an interesting year for us, to say the least. Trying to sell our house without success, dealing with both of our Dads with dementia, a health scare with our sweet daughter, as well as just the "regular" stresses of work and home life. We took a lovely adults-only trip to WDW in January to decompress and were ready to come home and hit the ground running with a new outlook thinking the tough times were behind us. Unfortunately, that wasn't meant to be and the first 4 months of 2015 haven't proved to be any less stressful. Most recently I had a major scare when I had to have a breast biopsy. I have a strong family history of breast cancer, so it was a long week waiting for those results. Fortunately, the results were all good and I don't have cancer!!! :)
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We wanted to take our daughter back to WDW this Fall anyway, and now that we know I don't need treatment or surgery, we jumped in with both feet and booked a trip with free dining for September. We are only going to do 2 (now it's 3!) days in the parks as well as one evening at MK for the MNSSHP so that we have more time to relax and enjoy the hotel, pool and other things in the area that we miss when we spend every day in the parks. Our daughter is excited as her favorite part is the pool! :)

Here is the breakdown:

Thursday Sept. 24- Thursday Oct. 1
Caribbean Beach Resort ( a first for us!)
2 3 day park hoppers with FREE DINING!

We have booked Nine Dragons, Teppan Edo,Via Napoli, California Grill, O'Hana breakfast, Rainforest Cafe, Tony's Town Square and Whispering Canyon breakfast 50's Prime Time as our table services. We are still hoping to catch a lunch reservation at Be Our Guest or maybe even a breakfast if they continue that. We also snagged a BOG reservation for Friday which is very exciting!!!​

This trip is a much-needed respite from one of the most stressful times of our lives, and we can hardly wait!
 
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SweetEvangeline

SweetEvangeline

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Social media is great, but sometimes can cause unnecessary panic. Case in point, we both belong to the Caribbean Beach Resort Facebook page. We assumed it was run by someone who was “in the know” regarding everything going on at CBR. Two days ago, it was posted that the bridge between Jamaica/Aruba and Port Royale was going to be closed until December 25th. We had specifically requested a room in one of these sections since Grace will be using a wheelchair for long walks and we wanted to be close to the main building and main pool so that we could avoid using it for those purposes. Since we had booked through a travel agent, we contacted her with our concern. She hadn’t been informed of anything of that sort, and neither had the folks at 1-800-WDISNEY. Our travel agent ended up calling the resort directly and had a hard time even finding someone there who knew where that rumor would have come from. They said there were some minor repairs going on with the bridge, but nothing that would take until December to resolve. They couldn’t give her a definite date when it would be complete, but assured her that it won’t be a problem and that they will do everything they can to accommodate us. Guess that will teach us to believe everything we read! :)
21 days and counting!!!!!
 
ScarletBegonias

ScarletBegonias

Well-Known Member
SweetEvangeline said:
Social media is great, but sometimes can cause unnecessary panic. Case in point, we both belong to the Caribbean Beach Resort Facebook page. We assumed it was run by someone who was “in the know” regarding everything going on at CBR. Two days ago, it was posted that the bridge between Jamaica/Aruba and Port Royale was going to be closed until December 25th. We had specifically requested a room in one of these sections since Grace will be using a wheelchair for long walks and we wanted to be close to the main building and main pool so that we could avoid using it for those purposes. Since we had booked through a travel agent, we contacted her with our concern. She hadn’t been informed of anything of that sort, and neither had the folks at 1-800-WDISNEY. Our travel agent ended up calling the resort directly and had a hard time even finding someone there who knew where that rumor would have come from. They said there were some minor repairs going on with the bridge, but nothing that would take until December to resolve. They couldn’t give her a definite date when it would be complete, but assured her that it won’t be a problem and that they will do everything they can to accommodate us. Guess that will teach us to believe everything we read! :)
21 days and counting!!!!!
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I saw that on a FB Disney group I'm in! Mass hysteria! I'm glad it's not true.
 
TheMouseFan

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
SweetEvangeline said:
Social media is great, but sometimes can cause unnecessary panic. Case in point, we both belong to the Caribbean Beach Resort Facebook page. We assumed it was run by someone who was “in the know” regarding everything going on at CBR. Two days ago, it was posted that the bridge between Jamaica/Aruba and Port Royale was going to be closed until December 25th. We had specifically requested a room in one of these sections since Grace will be using a wheelchair for long walks and we wanted to be close to the main building and main pool so that we could avoid using it for those purposes. Since we had booked through a travel agent, we contacted her with our concern. She hadn’t been informed of anything of that sort, and neither had the folks at 1-800-WDISNEY. Our travel agent ended up calling the resort directly and had a hard time even finding someone there who knew where that rumor would have come from. They said there were some minor repairs going on with the bridge, but nothing that would take until December to resolve. They couldn’t give her a definite date when it would be complete, but assured her that it won’t be a problem and that they will do everything they can to accommodate us. Guess that will teach us to believe everything we read! :)
21 days and counting!!!!!
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I was just at CBR today. The bridge is indeed closed. The CM I spoke with said they should be done by Thanksgiving. They are making a few repairs to become ADA compliant. They are offering water taxis from the Aruba beach over to the marina.
 
SweetEvangeline

SweetEvangeline

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
TheMouseFan said:
I was just at CBR today. The bridge is indeed closed. The CM I spoke with said they should be done by Thanksgiving. They are making a few repairs to become ADA compliant. They are offering water taxis from the Aruba beach over to the marina.
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Thanks so much for the information!

So strange. The CM our travel agent spoke to didn't know anything about a boat coming back and forth and acted like they didn't know anything about the bridge repairs. Did it cause much of a delay for you? We are just concerned because we requested Aruba or Jamaica due to the proximity to the main building since we have a wheelchair for Grace. We would rather not have to take the wheelchair to the pool area if we can avoid it and were hoping those buildings would allow us that luxury since it would be a shorter walk over the bridge. Hmmm...I guess we will wait and see what happens. They assured us they would accomodate us and I am confident that they will. :)
 
TheMouseFan

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
SweetEvangeline said:
Thanks so much for the information!

So strange. The CM our travel agent spoke to didn't know anything about a boat coming back and forth and acted like they didn't know anything about the bridge repairs. Did it cause much of a delay for you? We are just concerned because we requested Aruba or Jamaica due to the proximity to the main building since we have a wheelchair for Grace. We would rather not have to take the wheelchair to the pool area if we can avoid it and were hoping those buildings would allow us that luxury since it would be a shorter walk over the bridge. Hmmm...I guess we will wait and see what happens. They assured us they would accomodate us and I am confident that they will. :)
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I was only there for a quick visit because we are staying there with the kids in June and I wanted to get some pics for when we tell them about the trip. I just walked around. From Jamaica it was .51 miles to go around one way and .67 to go the other way. You never have to go through the pool area to get to Old Port Royale. There are walkways around it on all sides. Hope you have a great trip.
 
SweetEvangeline

SweetEvangeline

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So it has been confirmed that the bridge is indeed closed until the end of November. :-( Our TA confirmed today that they are not running a boat across only a bus shuttle to the main building. We will just keep our fingers crossed that we are not placed in Jamaica or Aruba, I guess. Its disappointing, as we were really hoping to stay on those buildings, but it just won't be easy with a wheelchair. 13 more days!!
 
ScarletBegonias

ScarletBegonias

Well-Known Member
That whole CBR thing is a disaster! We were going to stay there and changed to AKL at the last minute! I'm glad we did. My 14mo old DD would have loved the splash pad, and it's closed!
 

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