Trip Report **completed**Our not so perfect, but good enough July 2021 trip

Hi, all! It took me much longer to get this started than I wanted, but my computer decided it didn't have room for any more of my photos and I had to get an external hard drive and transfer some in order to start! We've also been a little busy getting everything ready for Logan to leave for Iowa in 2 weeks!

So, if you didn't follow along with my PTR, we were supposed to be on a cruise to celebrate Logan's HS graduation, but instead had to switch gears and decided to spend a few days at WDW.

Now, the specifics:
Who: Me (Amy), my husband Brian, Logan (18), Lily (16), and Owen (13)
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Where: Cabana Bay Beach Resort and Pop Century

When: July 11-20, 2021

Why: as I previously mentioned, this trip was to celebrate Logan's HS graduation. He asked for a cruise, so I do have another one scheduled for next June and we quickly threw together the Disney portion of this trip (so I guess we can call this his preliminary graduation trip!!)


We had some truly magical moments on this trip and some definitively un-magical moments as well! Unfortunately, our first day held one of the most un-magical moments.

We drove from Ohio and always try to leave very early to try to avoid as much traffic as possible. We set an alarm for midnight and our goal was to leave the house between 1 and 1:30 am. We were spot on!
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We made a quick stop at McDonald's for Cokes and were on our way. It was smooth sailing all the way to northern Florida. We even made it through Atlanta with no drama or slow downs!!
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Florida was stop and go the whole way, but we still made decent time and were pulling in to Cabana Bay Beach Resort about 4:00 which was about 1-1.5 hours later than we had anticipated, so not too bad! However, that is official check in time, and the parking area was a mess, as was the lobby!
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Luckily, they had sent me an email that allowed me to check in prior to arrival and that line was fairly short! The regular line was wrapped all the way around the lobby and was said to be 2 hours long! Brian dropped me off and found a parking spot that he probably shouldn't have been in to wait for me and sent Logan in to the lobby to guide me back to the car!

Now for the most un-magical moment of our trip! I had booked a 2 bedroom volcano view suite as a surprise for Logan since it was his celebration trip and I thought it would be cool to see the volcano lit up at night and watch all the activity in the park from our room. I paid way more than I normally would for a room, but felt it was a reasonable splurge. Well, we get to our room which happened to be on the second floor and this was our view:
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Yes, that is the back of a service building and the very tip of the volcano!! I don't understand how they can charge the same amount of money for this view as they can for the higher floor rooms (which I did request)! They need a lower partial or obstructed view charge for the rooms on this floor. I did say something and no one cared at all and basically told me to stuff it! Needless to say, we won't be back there any time soon!
 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
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We had just enough time to get a quick pic of the kids and the fountain before checking in for our ADR.
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We were seated very quickly out on the enclosed patio area. Our server apologized for not being Italian, but was very personable and we really enjoyed him. Brian, the boys, and I ate a mezzo metro half pepperoni/half sausage pizza that was delicious (and had lots of cheese!)!
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Lily ordered a caesar salad and green beans. Not a combination I would ever think to order, but she enjoyed both of them, so who am I to argue!! Sorry for the blurry pic!
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Lily and Owen were having a good old time doing something on Lily's phone. Owen caught me taking a picture!!
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Minnesota disney fan

Well-Known Member
I just now got caught up on your fun trip report!
I was wondering about the photo of the Manta ride with all the balloons and other "stuff" in the background. Does sea world have a release of balloons at opening, or? I didn't think releasing alot of balloons was allowed anymore due to flight patterns? But I'm not sure where I heard that. Thanks:)
 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I just now got caught up on your fun trip report!
I was wondering about the photo of the Manta ride with all the balloons and other "stuff" in the background. Does sea world have a release of balloons at opening, or? I didn't think releasing alot of balloons was allowed anymore due to flight patterns? But I'm not sure where I heard that. Thanks:)
Thanks for reading! That picture is of the shade umbrellas and there is netting above them to catch things that fall from pockets while on Manta. That is what you are seeing in that pic!
 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Now back to Epcot! After lunch, we decided to ride Frozen since it was right there. We made a quick stop in Germany first to get caramel popcorn for a snack later and Lily and Owen found the Kidcot station where they were handing out postcards and stickers in a Ziplock baggy "suitcase". They got the Italy one before we went in to lunch. The wait time was listed at about 45 minutes I think. We waited a little less than that if I remember correctly. Unfortunately, there was zero shade for the outdoor part of the queue. Logan and I stood in line while Brian took Lily and Owen to get the Kidcot postcards and stickers. They only had stickers for Norway and Mexico which made Lily upset.
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TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
More Frozen:
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Here is where the day really started going sideways. We looked on the app to see that the wait times for all of the rides were horrendous, and the Lines app agreed that they were horrendous! There were lines to get into all of the stores! And there were mile long lines at every food booth! And it was hot!! We decided to head back to the resort to regroup and drop off the backpack I was lugging around. We headed toward Mexico to make our way back to the International Gateway.
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Since we were walking right by Canada, Lily and Owen wanted to find the Kidcot station, so some quick Canada pics:
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TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I do want to note that the lack of people in my previous post was not a true indication of the crowd levels! Everyone was just in a line somewhere!!

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Of course, when Lily spotted France, she begged to go hit the Kidcot station before leaving! See all of those people behind that wall, that was only about a quarter of the line for the France food and wine booth!
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TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We were finally on our way out of the park at about 3:30. Not a very impressive amount of time in the park considering it didn't even open until 11:00! I was not very happy, but everyone was hot and tired and whiny, so I figured it was best to get some AC, rest, and a quick snack.

Here's the crowd (still doesn't really do it justice, but a little more realistic look):
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Best snack in the world!!
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We were in the room a little less than an hour before heading back out.
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