Half a day early. What to do?

[heychadwick]

Hi All,

My family will spend 4 hours driving to stay with my parents just north of Savannah, GA. The next day we drive the last 4 hours to Orlando. We will come in some time after noon. We don't have park tickets for that day and don't want to pay for park tickets for that day. We are paying to stay at our hotel for a day early. Our hotel is the Caribbean Resort.

What should we do for that half day there? At first, we thought about just swimming at the resort and getting to bed early. Maybe go to Downtown Disney if we get bored. Is that the best thing to do? The pictures of the swimming pool there are really cool. I can see everyone wanting to burn off some energy after some driving. Also, I expect that we won't spend much time at the hotel after we hit the parks. We have 5 days of park hopping to do. I don't think we will go to the pool much.

Is there something else to do? My daughter is 15 and my son is 9. I don't want to spend a lot of cash. So, the idea of Downtown Disney doesn't sound very interesting. It's just a bunch of shops. Oh, there are the other places that we can pay a good amount to go to, but once again, I don't want to spend a bunch of cash to do something.

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[CaptainShortty]

For food, we were just going to do the food court at the hotel. If we went to one of the full sit downs, we are talking $40 a plate. I'm fine with waiting a day.

Fireworks sounds cool, but 9:20 is late for the 9 yr old, especially if we are just kicking off a week of Disney!

The more I think about it, it might just be best to chill at the hotel.

Maybe check out one of the quick service restaurants at one of the other hotels? I'm a big fan of the landscape of flavors at art of animation and that's a really fun resort to explore! Lots of great photo ops with the giant character sculptures everywhere. Pop century is across the bridge which is also fun to explore the grounds of.

Some have also mentioned DAKL which has a great QS in the Mara. Maybe want to go there to eat and explore? There are often activities happening at each resort so you can look into those and/or checking out what the movie under the stars is and watching that together as a family by the pool before you pack in for a busy week!

 

[heychadwick]

It's funny that no one mentions getting the quick service restaurant at our own hotel. Only a few mention checking out the Caribbean, as well. We've gone a few times and stayed at Pop Century. The Caribbean is supposed to be a mid tier place, so a step up. I don't think we will eat there at all the rest of the vacation, so why not try the service counter there? Also, I think we will check out Caribbean.

OH, I know people mention the animals at the Polynesian, but we have a couple of great zoos nearby and I don't think we will see anything unusual to make it worth it.

 

[Kosmo1986]

I think people talk about other hotels because they assume that at some point during your stay you will end up eating there between parks, but it is much harder to take the time out of a park day to go and visit the other hotels. Each hotel is so different and has some great things to see. Animal Kingdom lodge isn't really a zoo but it is pretty cool to see, the entire hotel is African themed. I have a zoo near my house too and go to AK often but there is something awesome about seeing the hotel that makes it worth it to go visit (plus it is free)

I am a florida girl and do not have kids, so hanging at the pool isn't something that interests me. That being said I am sure your family will enjoy just relaxing and hanging at the hotel, it will probably be the only rest you get all week so you should take advantage of it!

 

[heychadwick]

I think that once we get into going to the park that we won't see the hotel until the end of the day. Wake up, head to park, return back to hotel to fall asleep. That's what I see as the plan.

We don't have little kids or old people, so no reason to pop back to the hotel on a constant basis.

That being said I am sure your family will enjoy just relaxing and hanging at the hotel, it will probably be the only rest you get all week so you should take advantage of it!

Yep! I believe it will be the only rest we get all week, too!

 

[iluvMainStMagic]

It's funny that no one mentions getting the quick service restaurant at our own hotel. Only a few mention checking out the Caribbean, as well. We've gone a few times and stayed at Pop Century. The Caribbean is supposed to be a mid tier place, so a step up. I don't think we will eat there at all the rest of the vacation, so why not try the service counter there? Also, I think we will check out Caribbean.

OH, I know people mention the animals at the Polynesian, but we have a couple of great zoos nearby and I don't think we will see anything unusual to make it worth it.

We have stayed at the Caribbean Beach resort (CBR) several times and love the atmosphere, plus the rooms there are a little bigger than the other moderate resorts, and it is the most recently refurb'd moderate, too. The main themed pool is really good, plus if you want to go for a quick swim closer to your room, each island section has it's own quiet pool (non-themed, but usually Much less busy than the main pool). In my opinion, the food court there is ok, but it isn't my favorite....but it's fine, and you have said you wouldn't be spending much time at the resort after your arrival day, which probably means you will be eating at other locations most of the time anyway.

Since it's your first time staying there, if I may make a suggestion -- the CBR grounds are very nice & tropical, but also very spread out, so if you are staying in a Standard room (or not in a Preferred Location room), you might want to request one of the buildings in the Jamaica or Aruba sections. Those are closest to a bridge that takes you across the water to the Old Port Royale building/area where the main pool, food court & resort store are located (sort of a short cut).
[Also, sorry if you already know this, but just in case if you don't - CBR is the only resort that has a separate building for checking in/out, that is, it's not in the same building as the store and food court. It's on the left after you pass through the entrance gate, and the resort "campus" would be on the right.]

Sounds like you have done a lot of good work in planning your trip, hope you have a great time!

 

[heychadwick]

Since it's your first time staying there, if I may make a suggestion -- the CBR grounds are very nice & tropical, but also very spread out, so if you are staying in a Standard room (or not in a Preferred Location room), you might want to request one of the buildings in the Jamaica or Aruba sections. Those are closest to a bridge that takes you across the water to the Old Port Royale building/area where the main pool, food court & resort store are located (sort of a short cut).

Oh, good to know! Are those ones that are also good to recommend to get closer to the bus areas?

[Also, sorry if you already know this, but just in case if you don't - CBR is the only resort that has a separate building for checking in/out, that is, it's not in the same building as the store and food court. It's on the left after you pass through the entrance gate, and the resort "campus" would be on the right.]

Oh, very good to know! We were originally going to fly in and I wouldn't worry about it, but now we are driving, so I need to pay attention.

Sounds like you have done a lot of good work in planning your trip, hope you have a great time!

Thanks! I've tried really hard to figure stuff out. If my wife and family can just relax and I have things worked out, then that's great. My wife is usually the planner, but we have found it's better when I plan the vacations. She relaxes more. Also, I've gone over everything with the kids and gotten their input. I think there is enough strategic planning to allow a lot of tactical decisions to be made on the fly. In other words, enough flexibility to just kind of let things happen. I'm the laid back one, so the plans aren't THAT bad!

 

[iluvMainStMagic]

Oh, good to know! Are those ones that are also good to recommend to get closer to the bus areas?



Oh, very good to know! We were originally going to fly in and I wouldn't worry about it, but now we are driving, so I need to pay attention.

Thanks! I've tried really hard to figure stuff out. If my wife and family can just relax and I have things worked out, then that's great. My wife is usually the planner, but we have found it's better when I plan the vacations. She relaxes more. Also, I've gone over everything with the kids and gotten their input. I think there is enough strategic planning to allow a lot of tactical decisions to be made on the fly. In other words, enough flexibility to just kind of let things happen. I'm the laid back one, so the plans aren't THAT bad!

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There is a bus stop at every Island area + one at Old Port Royale, so any Island section (there are 6 of them, with aprox 5-6 buildings in each) will have some rooms closer to the bus stops. There are buildings in each Island that are a bit closer to the bus stop (& parking lot), or the water, and some have a nice courtyard view. So in Jamaica & Aruba there are locations within the group of buildings in each Island that are a bit closer to the bus or the bridge, but either way it would likely be just a few minutes walk extra. We have stayed in Jamaica several times & in a Preferred room a couple of times, and I like the walk across the bridge, especially to save the extra cost for Preferred location (and depending on where you are in one of the Preferred Island sections, you might have about the same length of walk to the food court/pool.
There is also an Internal Bus that just goes around in the resort because it is so big, but some guests that drive and whose room is further away, choose to drive to the food court/pool rather than walking a long way or waiting for the Internal bus.
Something that is different at the larger moderate resorts than the value resorts, rather than having one bus stop at the main building, the park buses go all the way around the resort & stop at all the resort stops when coming/going to/from the parks.

Sounds like you've done a great job of preparing, and you are remembering the main thing - flexibility! No matter how good the plans, something will change once you get there, and being flexible is so important. ...and sometimes what happens when we have to "flex" turns out to be better than what we planned!