Trip Report Our "It's 'Disney' real" June 2016 trip

We're back!!:(:( We had a fantastic time with some not so fantastic moments thrown in, but what trip doesn't have those!

For those of you that haven't read my pre-trip report, here is a quick synopsis:
Who: Me (Amy), my husband Brian, and our kids Logan (13), Lily (11), and Owen (8)
What: 10 day trip with free dining
When: June 2-11, 2016
Where: Caribbean Beach resort

Unfortunately, our flight was set to leave from Columbus at 5:30am. We live in Dayton, which is a little over an hour away from Columbus, so my goal was to leave our house by 3am on Thursday, June 2. We made it!!

Everyone was very excited!

We made it to the airport before the security check even opened!:eek: By the time we got our bags checked in to Southwest, we only had to wait a few minutes to get through security.
We were in early boarding group A, so we were on the plane in no time! Still excited!


We got to see the sun coming up once we were in the air.



 
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TheMouseFan

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The food arrived quickly. Apparently, I forgot to get a pic of the fantastic pineapple bread.:oops: They were a little skimpy on the fruit this time:

But we had plenty of the rest!!

We all love the food here! We also enjoy the POG juice. In fact, I think Logan probably drank a gallon of it! Not kidding, the waiter just kept refilling, and Logan just kept drinking!
It took forever for the characters to get to us.:arghh: We sat through two parades before we saw all 4 of them! Lily and Owen participated in the first parade.






Then we walked over the the TTC and caught the monorail to Epcot.








 
Tuvalu

Tuvalu

Premium Member
TheMouseFan said:
Sunday, June 11
Another beautiful day at CBR!


Too bad that was overlooked very quickly as we realized out time in Disney had come to an end!:( But not quite yet!;) We had a 7:05 Bell Service pick up time (they told us they don't do 7:00o_O), and they were right on time! He had us loaded into the van and at The Custom House in no time flat. We quickly checked our bags at the airline desk and were on our way to the bus stop. Of course today the bus came about a minute after we got to the stop!!:rolleyes: We soon arrived at MK and made our way to the Polynesian. We wanted to take a boat, but they weren't running, so we used the monorail.




A view out the window while we waited:




We waited quite a while to be seated, which I should have expected because we arrived early, but it was still frustrating! We were seated 2 tables down from where we were the first night we ate here. Our view:


Click to expand...
Think you meant Saturday, June 11 ;).
 
TheMouseFan

TheMouseFan

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Original Poster
We had to stop and make a purchase before we started around WS. On Monday, when Lily and Owen were doing the Duffy sticks, the CM in Japan had accidentally stamped over the stamp for Morocco on Lily's stick. By the time she realized it, it was raining so hard and we were so upset with the kids, that we were not traipsing all the way back to Morocco for a darn stamp!! So I bought Lily and Owen passports to use this time around WS. (Obviously, the pictures were taken once we were home!)



They had a really good time doing them and talking to all the different CMs.
Then I had to make sure they all knew that you could see ToT from inside Epcot! They were not terribly impressed.:eek:

Then, on to Mexico and the Gran Fiesta Tour.






Norway:




 
TheMouseFan

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
DSCN2557_zpsz5epvkdc.jpg



Japan:




Morocco:







 
TheMouseFan

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Then we were on a mission to find a frozen fruit bar that Owen wanted.



We finally found them near Nemo. The problem is, there is nowhere shady to actually sit right there. More benches please, Disney!!


I neglected to get pics of any of the treats other than mine!:oops: Logan and Lily had Mickey ice cream bars, Owen had a frozen strawberry bar, and Brian and I had these:


They were delicious! There were chunks of real strawberry in them!
Then over to our last FP+, Test Track.



Lily's car:

Logan and Owen's car:




 
TheMouseFan

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We decided we had enough time for Brian and the kids to ride Mission Space again. I checked out Mouse Gears again while I waited for them.

Then we grabbed some Mickey pretzels and drinks to share on the way out of the park. I didn't get a pic.:oops:




We had a bus waiting on us when we got to the stop! We arrived back at CBR in plenty of time to relax for a few before catching DME. Our flight wasn't scheduled to leave until 9:45, so we got to the airport around 7:30pm, and the security check point was empty!! I should have gotten a picture just so you all would believe me! It literally took us 5 minutes to show our ID and boarding passes, walk up to the scanners, and walk through them! Our flight home was uneventful and we were all in bed by 1:30am.
 
TheMouseFan

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Thank you all for reading along with me! Here are some final thoughts I have about this trip:

CBR
We loved it! I knew to request Jamaica near the footbridge, so we didn't have a long walk to the pool, food, or the bus stop. Our room was spacious and well maintained. The grounds are gorgeous. We would definitely stay here again!

Transportation
For lack of a better word, the transportation sucked this trip! And no one can even try to blame it on CBR, because I heard all kinds of complaints about the transportation this trip! Disney really needs to get their act together in that respect!

Animal Kingdom
We have always and continue to love it!! We really enjoyed the night time festivities, and I can only imagine that they will be even better once ROL opens! I was really disappointed that we were told ROL would be open, then it wasn't, but we made the best of it and enjoyed our time there!

DHS
What can I say? If it weren't for ToT and RnRC, we would have no reason at this point in time to go! Hopefully, we will feel differently once Toy Story and Star Wars are open. I am really bitter about them changing the Star Wars fireworks schedule a week before we were set to leave, so we couldn't change our plans to be able to see them!

Epcot
Had we not had the torrential downpours we had the first day there, we would not have needed a second day to see everything. In fact, we didn't really need our second day, Brian just wanted to see WS without the rain, and the kids wanted to ride Test Track again. Epcot really needs some help. Brian even commented on it after we were home, and it's his favorite park!

Magic Kingdom
It sort of felt "stale" to me. I just didn't feel quite as excited by it as I usually do!

Water parks
We really enjoyed both parks. As a family, we enjoyed the slides more at Blizzard Beach, but the ambiance better at Typhhon Lagoon. I have definitely decided that next time we go to one of the water parks, we will not schedule anything else that night!

Dining
We had some really good meals, and we had some not very good meals. I think we are beyond just chalking it up to a bad night for every restaurant. I think Disney really needs to re-evaluate what they are doing with their dining experiences. I know that we will not be doing a lot of sit down meals next time unless we luck into free dining again. The prices are just getting ridiculous! We really enjoyed 'Ohana, and I know we will be back there for dinner because it is Brian's favorite and we've not had a bad experience there. Tusker House was good, but I'm not sure we'll be back any time soon unless it would be for a ROL dining package. I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed the food at Chef Mickey's. I have not always enjoyed the food there, and we only went because Owen begged! We will at some point return to Crystal Palace and Garden Grill. I was not overly impressed with the rest of our dining experiences. Next time, we will be doing mostly quick service!

Merchandise
I was really disappointed in the lack of variety they had this time. We finally just stopped going in shops because I was tired of seeing the same things every time! I did, however, get my Starbucks mini mugs that were on my want list!


Overall, we had a fantastic trip! There were some things I felt were actually worth complaining about this time! usually, I just come home and forget any of the bad stuff, but not this time! Brian and I still sometimes talk about some if it. There were multiple things I didn't get to do that I had hoped to (Wishes, Illuminations, more night time in the parks, etc) and things I didn't end up purchasing that I had wanted (Hakuna Matata and It All Started With a Mouse Alex and Ani bracelets), and I forgot to take Owen's ear hat Lenox ornament to get his name put on it! So I have decided that one of two things need to happen! Either I need to take a solo vacation so I can do EXACTLY what I want, or Brian and I need to go together without the kids because he'll do whatever I want!

Thanks again for reading along!
 
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