Best day - ahem, WEEK - ever! Blue skies and sunshine, guaranteed! ( A May 4 - 11 trip report)

Less than 12 hours ago I stepped off of my return flight from Orlando to a rainy, dreary Providence. After picking up one dog from my parents' house, returning home to our other dog and maybe a quick nap that I snuck in, I'm ready to start my trip report!

When did we go? May 4 - 11th! Where did we stay? Caribbean Beach Resort! Who are we? Jess and Rich, happily married for 5 1/2 years residing in Massachusetts with our two furkids, Blitzen and Belle! Halfway through the trip we were joined by cousin and her husband, Crystal and Erik, along with Erik's cousin Amanda and her fiance Mike and their friends Celina and Brad. Along with a few friends we met up with along the way. Why did we go? Because we wanted to!

Saturday, May 4th
My alarm went off nice and early at 3:00 am. I had also set it for 3:01, 3:02, 3:03, 3:04 and 3:05 - just in case! But I woke up right at the first alarm, shut off the rest of them and hopped in the shower and got ready to go. I woke Rich up at 3:45 so he could get himself together and get the luggage loaded into the car. We got on the road at about 4:15 heading to the airport with a stop at the ATM first. About 2 1/2 miles down the road the check engine light came on in Rich's car. We decided the best thing to do would be to turn around, switch the luggage in to my car and take that. After transferring the luggage and stopping at the ATM, we were on our way to TF Green.

Packing up the night before.

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We parked the car at about 5 am and took the shuttle to the airport from the long term lot. Check in and security took us a whopping 15 minutes to get through, if that. We headed down to gate 21 to wait to board our flight. The sun was shining and it was going to be a great morning for flying!

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We ended up landing about 25 minutes early and headed straight for the Magical Express. Wow was it ever crowded! The lines were crazy long! But they moved quickly. About 20 minutes later we were on our bus heading for Caribbean Beach. It was rainy and foggy in Orlando. I checked the weather and it was set to clear out shortly.

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We arrived at the Custom House at Caribbean Beach after first dropping off guests at the Beach Club and the Boardwalk. I did my check-in online so it was pretty quickly that we got through. The Custom House was very busy. Lots of people checking in and out. A lot of people there for the Everest Challenge and cheering competitions. I was starting to get nervous that we had picked a bad week to be there, but later that day my worries subsided.

Our village for the next 7 nights would be Barbados. We were in building 14, room number 1427. It was a first floor room with an adorable little courtyard area right outside our door. While waiting for the internal bus to come pick us up we realized building #14 was right across from the Custom House and we could walk over. So walk we did! Our room was ready thankfully, so we dropped off our stuff and headed to Old Port Royale for some lunch. It was now about 11:30 and I was set to meet Kingdom Camera Rentals at 1:00 to pick up a lens I rented. I got a text from them saying if I could meet earlier they were in the area! They met me at Old Port Royale about 15 minutes later with a beautiful Canon 10-22mm lens to use. I was just as excited to test out the lens as I was for the trip itself!

It was still spitting out but there were breaks of blue sky starting to show and they looked promising. At 1:30 our Alamo shuttle came to pick us up so we could go get our rental car for the week. We were given a 2012 Chevy Impala. Nothing fancy, but it worked and it was comfortable!

Some pictures from strolling around the resort...

Rich looking for turtles...
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Once we got our car, we headed right over to the Magic Kingdom! We stopped at Guest Relations to get our tickets from will call. It was then I realized I'd left the papers back in the room. Thankfully I was able to retrieve the confirmation numbers from my phone. After getting our tickets we headed through the gates and we were home sweet home. This was about the point the clouds really started to break apart and the skies were getting bluer!

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The first stop at MK was to get Rich a taco salad. We had an Ohana reservation for later that night (9:20 pm) and Rich had really wanted to try one. We both got a taco salad from Pecos Bill's. It wasn't horrible. But it isn't something I'd write home about, either.

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Our next stop was Haunted Mansion. We walked on. This was when my fears of the crowds being crazy started drifting away. For a Saturday it was quite calm at Magic Kingdom, and it would only get better later in the week!

Trying on some hats on our way over to HM

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Looking good, hunnie!
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Disney_Belle

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
After trying on some hats, we headed over to the Haunted Mansion. This was a walk on. Awesome :)

On the way out one of the Cast Members was kind enough to let me inside the roped off area so I could grab a shot.

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We made our way up through the Tangled bathroom area. Most beautiful restroom area I've ever seen! I really enjoyed the music they had in the area, too. Well done Disney!

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I asked Rich if he wanted to check out Under the Sea and he said yes, so that's where we headed to! The wait time posted was 55 minutes, but we got on in about 20 minutes. When we got off the ride, the wait time now said 20 minutes.

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Inside the queue area...

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Disney_Belle

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
After Under the Sea, we wandered over to Tomorrowland. I stopped and got a raspberry lemonade slush at the Cheshire Cafe. So good! Next on our list was the PeopleMover. I think I could sit on this all day and be happy!

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After our tour of Tomorrowland Rich said he wanted to visit the Laugh Floor. He absolutely loves this attraction! The audience was great and if they were called on to participate they did. It was such a fun show!

Rawr.
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The sun was starting to set and we decided it was time to head to the Poly for our 9:20 reservation. We knew we'd be there early but hanging around at the Poly is no daunting task :) We took the boat over, first stopping at the Grand Floridian.

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We checked in early and got seated about 25 minutes prior to our ADR time. Dinner was yummy. Wishes! started playing while we were in the restaurant. We had a pretty obstructed view, but the music itself was nice to listen to. After dinner we hopped a monorail over to T&TC to get our car. We headed back to CBR called it a night. We were sleepy!
 

Disney_Belle

Well-Known Member
Original Poster

Disney_Belle

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Sunday, May 5th

I was waking up every half hour starting at 5:00 am, so at 7:00 I decided to give in and just get up and start getting ready. Rich was up by the time I got done showering and we headed down to Old Port Royale for some breakfast. I started my day off with a Mickey waffle and bacon, he chose the steak, egg and cheese quesadilla.

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After breakfast we headed out to Epcot for the day, followed by evening EMH at Magic Kingdom!

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The weather was perfect. Sunny, warm, light on the humidity and a light breeze. It ended up being about 77 - 80 just about every day we were there with the same conditions, aside from our last full day which was a bit more mugger and in the high 80's. The weather couldn't have been more perfect! Blue skies and sunshine guaranteed!

We made it to Epcot and were greeted by these two!

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We headed over to The Seas for our first attraction.

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My friend Shalon lives locally to WDW (she's been in a few of my previous trip reports) and was heading to Epcot to spend the day with us so we took our time through The Seas while we waited for her.

Uploading photos to Facebook

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We walked outside and I saw this rare sight. Not one person was posing near the Nemo display! I can never get a picture without someone posing in front of it or a child climbing on it!

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Shalon texted me and said she'd just parked her car and she was on her way in. It was about 11:00 so we decided to meet inside The Land. The three of us went on Living with the Land. It was about a 10 minute wait to get on. We love this ride. It's so relaxing. Except when people don't remain seated and let their kids hang out of the boats and the safety warning gets repeated excessively throughout the entire ride and people don't get the point that it's being geared toward them. It kind of ruins the ride. Okay, rant over.

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After Living with the Land we grabbed lunch at Sunshine Seasons. Rich and I both got our favorite - the turkey and monterey jack sandwich with a side of noodles. Yum.

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After we finished our lunches, we started making our way over to Mexico. It was Cinco de Mayo after all! We were also meeting with Richard (@Master Yoda) and his family to say hello before they went back home. Along the way we went through the butterfly house (it was insane) and then through the Radiator Springs display for the Flower and Garden Festival.

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Disney_Belle

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We also stopped in MouseGear so Rich could find a hat (he forgot his at home). He never ended up buying one, but him and Shalon tried a couple of them on.

Not entirely sure what the expression is about.

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After the models were done showing off their fashions, we made our way to the Mexico pavilion. We were meeting Richard and his family at 1:30 at La Cava. We expected the line to be quite lengthy given that it was Cinco de Mayo and we were right. Actually, funny enough, this was one of the longest lines we had waited in our entire trip! Shalon got the sangria, Rich got a coffee margarita and I had the cucumber margarita. Richard, his wife and his youngest daughter arrived not long after. We chatted for about an hour. It's awesome when I get to see my KK family because we all live so far apart! After spending time with them, we said our "See ya real soons" and headed to tour the rest of World Showcase. We did more walking than stopping. We had a 4:15 Coral Reef reservation we had to get to, so it was a pretty quick trip around the world.

We did stop and see a performance by Voices of Liberty.

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Brave.

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I think they were duck watching?

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We made it to Coral Reef right at 4:00 and checked in. We were seated almost immediately. And score! We had a tank side seat! We didn't see anything spectacular. Just a shark and sea turtle in the distance and an occasional sting ray that would glide on by.

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Shalon got the Appetizer for Two as her meal and said she loved it. I got the grilled New York strip steak and Rich got the sustainable seasonal catch and seasonal shellfish which ended up being Cobia and mussels. He loved his meal. I really enjoyed my steak, too. After dinner we all decided to order dessert and got the Baileys and Jack Daniels Mousse. It was delish. Though the Jack Daniels portion was a bit strong.

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After dinner we headed out toward the exit. Shalon had some errands to run and we were on our way to Magic Kingdom. Before we left the three of us went on Spaceship Earth.

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Disney_Belle

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We stopped back at the resort before heading to MK EMH that evening. Rich grabbed his jacket and I changed into a cardigan. It was getting to be chilly!

We parked at T&TC and took the ferry over to Magic Kingdom. The sun had just about set. It was beautiful.

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More Facebook photos!
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It was a busy time on Main Street while everyone found their seats for the parade.

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I want everything in this store.

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We stopped in Uptown Jewelers to look at the Dooneys. Nothing that caught my eye.

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One of my favorite places in all of the Magic Kingdom...

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We made our way over to Adventureland. I stopped and got a Dole Whip Float. Yum!

The next stop was The Jungle Cruise. We walked on, yay! Our skipper, Dan, was amazing. He was a hysterical and made the whole cruise so much fun. I made sure to let him know after that it was the best JC trip I'd been on to date.

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After the Jungle Cruise we went on Magic Carpets of Aladdin. It was the last and final attraction in the Magic Kingdom that I had never done. I'm not a fan of continuously spinning rides, but there was no wait, so I figured why not? Well I learned that I cannot handle even the Magic Carpets. I wasn't extremely sick, but it was enough to make me feel a bit woozy for quite some time. I'm a wimp. We walked on Pirates of the Caribbean after that. We actually had the entire boat to ourselves which was pretty cool.
 

Disney_Belle

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We started heading toward Liberty Square. We were walking along the walkway bridge on the Rivers of America when Wishes! started. We stopped where we were. It was at this moment I realized not only did I forget to bring my tripod with me, I completely forgot to pack it and it was still in my closet in my office back home. Boo. So I made the best of what I had and used the rails and posts of the bridge to steady the camera.

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After Wishes! ended, we walked up toward Fantasyland. Rich loves Tigger, so we visited our friends in the 100 Acre Wood.

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Silly old bear!

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Rich hadn't seen the finished Storybook Circus aside from the new Dumbo and the Barnstormer, so we made our way over so he could check it out.

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Weeeee!
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We were starting to get tired. It was about 11:30 at this point. EMH were until 1 am. We decided to go on Space Ranger Spin and then call it a night. We wanted to beat the crowds to the monorail to the T&TC.

For the record, I beat Rich by over 500,000 points :)

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After my victory we headed out. We hopped the monorail to T&TC and headed back to CBR.

Next up - Day 3 - DHS and Epcot!
 

englanddg

One Little Spark...
Awesome so far! I really loved the pictures of Wishes from Frontierland. I like watching it from in front of the castle, but I also enjoy seeing it from other places around the park.

Also, your picture of Dumbo was fantastic! I think one of my favorite "Disney" pics I've ever seen.
 

Disney_Belle

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Awesome so far! I really loved the pictures of Wishes from Frontierland. I like watching it from in front of the castle, but I also enjoy seeing it from other places around the park.

Also, your picture of Dumbo was fantastic! I think one of my favorite "Disney" pics I've ever seen.

Thank you very much!

I too, love Wishes! We were engaged during Wishes in 2006, so it has a special place in my heart. Over the past couple of years I have watched Wishes from different places (Poly beach, New Fantasyland, fireworks cruise) and this spot in Frontierland was pretty awesome. I loved the reflection in the still water.
 

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