Trip Report * Completed* An Anniversary/Birthday Trip to Remember, December 2024

We're back!! And there were many memorable things about our trip, some fantastic and some not so great things, but overall a wonderful trip!

Quick overview:
Who: me (Amy) and my husband, Brian
Why: we were celebrating our 25th anniversary and 50th birthdays, just 1 year late!
Where: Caribbean Beach Resort, Jamaica building 42
When: December 6-11, 2024

We had a later flight out of Columbus, so left our house about 3pm and made it in plenty of time for Brian to nap before we had to board!

We were scheduled to depart at 5:45, so got to see the sunset from the ground and the air.

I was unlucky enough to have a young child behind me that kicked my chair the entire 2 hour flight until about 10 minutes before we started our descent. We asked nicely and the flight attendant asked nicely and the mom continued to sleep with her earbuds in, so in addition to the kicking, we got to constantly hear "mom, mom"! Longest two hour flight ever!

I was worried about having to check a bag, but it made it MCO with us and in good condition, so that was a relief! Our driver met us and we were soon on our way and seeing these:

We got our room ready text while on the way. We were booked into a water/pool view 5th sleeper since that was all that available using the Bounceback offer for our dates. I had requested Jamaica and that our water view be of Barefoot Bay and not a pool. I also requested to be near the Skyliner. Yay, all of my requests were granted!!

 

[TheMouseFan]

A few more Coco tree pics

This next tree was very difficult to get good pics of due to the glare on the window and the people standing around it.

That's it for the trees! I really enjoyed seeing them all, but I liked it better when they were all in one place on the Christmas Tree Trail. There may have been more people when it was that way, but everyone stepped up to the trees and looked and took their pictures, then moved on to the next tree. Now, most of the trees were in planters and people sat on the edges of the planters and never moved which made it difficult to get good pics of some of them. I get that they are trying to disperse people throughout Disney Springs, but I liked it better the old way.

Then it was time to head to our dinner ADR.

 

[TheMouseFan]

We were headed here:

We opted to wait a few minutes to be seated outside since it was such a beautiful night!

The rolls were delicious!

 

[TheMouseFan]

I had the filet mignon sliders

Brian had the coconut shrimp

And we shared the truffle fries

Everything was good, but we barely made a dent in the fries.

Then we headed back to CBR for the night.

We got off at Old Port Royale to grab some hot chocolate in our mugs before walking back to the room.

 

[TheMouseFan]

A few more cat pics just for fun!

One of Cruella's favorite spots to be when Brian is in the shower:

Harry likes to play fetch with us:

And she likes to steal his toys!

 

[Wicked Sisters]

A few more cat pics just for fun!
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One of Cruella's favorite spots to be when Brian is in the shower:
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Harry likes to play fetch with us:
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And she likes to steal his toys!
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These two cuties are Sprout and Stellar. They live next door but spend many hours round our house during the day. I think they are the spitting image of Cruella and Harry .

 

[TheMouseFan]

Tuesday, December 10, 2024 - Epcot

This was the day I had been most looking forward to...and I was up sick all night. Not to torture you with TMI, but I'll just say that I was really missing my Quilted Northern Ultra Plush TP by morning! Brian offered for us to stay in the room for awhile, but I didn't want to miss any of the day, but especially our Guardians LL. He ran over to Old Port Royale and found a bag of pretzels for me to snack on for breakfast and filled my mug with Coke. Unfortunately, he got me a Free Style one instead of a fountain one, but it was better than nothing. I loaded up on meds (I took Zofran, Imodium, and non drowsy Dramamine) and we headed out for the day. I still took quite a few pics this day, but not nearly as many as I normally would have, so I apologize ahead of time for that!

No pictures until we were already through the International Gateway. Due to my FOMO on a night time ride on Living with the Land, I bought LLMP for this day and reserved Remy as our tier 1 ride, so we headed straight for the front of the park to start our day.

 

[TheMouseFan]

First up was Soarin'. We ended up in the middle, so didn't get a good appreciation for whether or not the crooked Eiffel Tower was any better or not.

Then we walked on to Living with the Land.

 

[TheMouseFan]

 

[TheMouseFan]

Our original plan was to get the peanut butter cookie from Sunshine Seasons for our breakfast, but instead I ate more pretzels and Brian got us a Coke to share. I couldn't even talk Brian into getting a cookie for himself. We ended up sitting for about 15 or 20 minutes to let me rest a little before moving on.

 

[TheMouseFan]

I forgot to mention the weather again. This day was supposed to get up to 80 and started in the 60s. I wore capris, t-shirt, and tennis shoes with my sweatshirt jacket to start the day, but I shed it pretty quickly.

Then we made our way across Future World for our Guardians LL. We made a short stop to sit in some Adirondack chairs for a few minutes and enjoy the quiet before the crowds descended.

We also stopped for some PP pics.

 

[TheMouseFan]

We got Disco Inferno and it didn't make me feel any worse than I already did, so win!!

Then onward to our Spaceship Earth LL.

I definitely had my eyes closed more than they were open! I never truly napped, but it was a nice rest break.

 

[TheMouseFan]

We made a stop at Creations Shop and then we ran into Connections Eatery for a cup of water for me before heading toward World Showcase and our lunch ADR.

 

[TheMouseFan]

 

[Tiki Traveler]

Thank you for all your photos of the DS Christmas trees. They are so detailed and unique, especially the tree toppers!

It’s also impressive that they have to last through rainy weather!

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[Go.Nijntje]

What a shame that you were up all night. I'm glad you still made it to EPCOT.

 

[TheMouseFan]

Thank you for all your photos of the DS Christmas trees. They are so detailed and unique, especially the tree toppers!

It’s also impressive that they have to last through rainy weather!

You're welcome! I love finding all of the little details!

What a shame that you were up all night. I'm glad you still made it to EPCOT.

Yeah, it was a bummer, but I wasn't about to let it stop me since I didn't have any symptoms that were contagious!

 

[TheMouseFan]

We made a brief stop in Canada on our way to lunch.

We apparently skipped over the UK and headed to France.

 

[TheMouseFan]

We checked in online and were quickly seated at Spice Road Table. We had a nice view from our table.

 

[TheMouseFan]

We were using the Candlelight Processional dinner package, so we started with the shared Lemon-Vegetable Tagine.

Brian decided to try the Mediterranean Beer. I stuck with a Coke.

We each got to choose two small plates. We ordered the House-made Hummus Fries, the Spiced Lamb Kefta, the Naan Spreads, and the Chicken Bastilla.

For dessert, we got both the Dessert Platter and the Pomegranate-Chocolate Tart

Brian loved absolutely everything except the hummus fries. I thought the tagine and the naan bread with the hummus were good, but didn't care much for anything else. I don't know how much of that was my queasy stomach versus me truly not enjoying the food. I'm leaning more toward me just not enjoying that type of food, but I was only really able to take a small bite of each thing to say I had tried it. Brian is ready to go back for another meal, but there are lots of other places I would like to try before returning here to try again.

 

[TheMouseFan]

After lunch, we had a little time to kill before our Remy LL, so we decided to head to The American Adventure. We made a pit stop in Japan for Brian to look around the store. I chose to sit outside and rest while he did that.

This just goes to show you how poorly I was still feeling because normally I would have walked over to the koi pond and gardens they have to get pictures and wandered to the back of the pavilion for pictures.