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.
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!
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.
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...
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!
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.
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
Looking good, hunnie!
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.
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!
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.
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...
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!
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.
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
Looking good, hunnie!
