Trip Report "I'm COLD!" : Our chilly (to me!!) & then hot April TR!

It’s so hard to believe we’re back already! All the planning and waiting and thinking about your trip and then the trip comes and goes so fast it’s like you blinked and it’s over. Just like that you are waiting for your next trip again! It’s fun to re – live however, so here is my trip report for our trip from 4/8-4/16 at Caribbean Beach Resort!

You can read my PRE TRIP Report here: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/we-have-to-go-back-april-2016.906141/

CAST:
Me- Brittany aka Mom!
AJ- My Husband
Harper- Our princess 21 months.
Gigi- My mom
Pappy - My step dad

Where: Caribbean Beach Resort

When: April 9th - April 16th


Thursday 4/7

After I left work on Thursday night, I decided that I’d get my “Disney nails” done tonight rather than going in the morning since I’d agreed to take my mom’s dog to the vet to be boarded because they worked until lunch time on Friday. So I zipped out to the mall and got my nails done in what seemed to be record time, and got back home while Harper was still awake. I remember she was up late this night and sat with us watching cartoons. We didn’t care since we didn’t have to get up early in the morning.

Friday 4/8
I think we woke up around 6:45am on Friday. Harper woke up really early and I remember being bummed because I didn’t want her nap time to be before we left and have to wake her up to leave (luckily, this wasn’t an issue). Most of my stuff was packed up so I left around 8:15am to go over and take my mom’s dog to the vet. Mom was still there so we chatted a bit before we went off our different ways. Since I was taking her car, I went straight home after dropping him off.


This part is all kind of a blur, but we packed the car, moved the car seat, and attached her DVD player. We also finished cleaning up around the apartment and made sure nothing was on, and made sure we turned the air off before we left. Before we knew it, we were headed over my mom’s house to meet my parents there to leave together! (something we decided to do fairly last minute)

First thing we did before leaving town was getting some coffee’s from Dunkin! It’s not a road trip without drinking coffee on the way out of town! We ended up getting on the road RIGHT around 1:30pm which is exactly what we planned on! We were taking a new route this year! We took I-81S to 77 (and eventually I-26) which was a BEAUTIFUL ride. I could not stop taking pictures over the mountains.

Good thing I wasn’t driving! J One big difference this year on the trip? IT WAS COLD! Every time we stopped, I was freezing. I am NOT used to this!

Most of the drive was uneventful and easy. When Harper took her nap eventually, I read some of my book and stared out the window! We stopped somewhere in NC for dinner at K&W Cafeteria. These places are pretty cool and made for a pretty quick stop. Harper wasn’t real interested in eating, but she was happy running around a little bit. I think it was about 8pm when we were done dinner and we tried to decide how much further we thought we could go. After last year when we WAY overdid it, we decided that we’d only drive until 11pm and then stop for the night. My mom made reservations at the Hampton in Orangeburg, SC. When we got there the place was BOOKED and the parking lot was full. They said it was because of the Master’s. The room was gorgeous, and modern. The bathroom was bigger than ours at home, and had a nice spacious tub.

We went right to bed though, and woke up early the next morning.

 

[Figgy1]

I love your F&G pictures they're so pretty, thank you. Now I have to talk my dh into going next year

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Wednesday 4/13 EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival Continued...

We finally met up with my parents in France and sat by the fountain for a while.

We were looking for a quick way to catch a bus that didn’t require walking ALL the way to the front of Epcot, so we took a Friendship boat from Epcot, to DHS and caught a bus there! Lazy? Maybe.. but it was better than doing MORE walking! We were beat.

We all finally swam at the resort this evening. Harper wasn’t a fan of the little baby pool (the water was cold) and was happier with us in the big pool. It had been warm ALL day so the swim was refreshing, and we got a good hour in before it started to POUR. We hid out under a roof of the main building, but when it didn’t stop, I put the cover over the stroller, took my flip flops off, and ran back to the room leaving hubby in the dust. Hehe.

Don’t remember much more of this evening, probably just got food and then went to bed!


Stay tuned for the next installment which will be LONGGGGG. It was AJ and I’s adult day in MK and boy did we do A LOT!

 

[ScarletBegonias]

I love your F&G pictures they're so pretty, thank you. Now I have to talk my dh into going next year

They were gorgeous! I really wish I had had more time to check them all out in great detail! It makes me want to go back for the Food & Wine Festival, but I'd definitely have to have a babysitter! It'd be too busy and hard to try to keep up with a toddler! The time she was sleeping was awesome because we didn't have to rush!

 

[Figgy1]

They were gorgeous! I really wish I had had more time to check them all out in great detail! It makes me want to go back for the Food & Wine Festival, but I'd definitely have to have a babysitter! It'd be too busy and hard to try to keep up with a toddler! The time she was sleeping was awesome because we didn't have to rush!

Don't rush things! Before you know it she'll be off exploring on her own too embarrassed to be seen with you. Never mind she'd never do that, I think my boys are getting to me.

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Don't rush things! Before you know it she'll be off exploring on her own too embarrassed to be seen with you. Never mind she'd never do that, I think my boys are getting to me.

Oh, I'm sure her day will come.. I certainly don't want to rush it! LOL

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Thursday April 14th - Magic Kingdom ADULT DAY!

Since we’ve been planning this trip, we knew my parents had planned on taking Harper this day to have a “non park” day and we would have this day entirely to ourselves to do the parks without a stroller, book bag, and a toddler with her own agenda. I won’t lie, I was REALLY excited about this!!

I will preface with saying this was a LONG day. This will be broken into several sections. We were out for 15 hours straight, and walked 11 miles in just one day, so there is a lot of detail to remember and pictures to post! And, it was not busy at ALL compared to Tuesday’s crowd. The difference was crazy.

Okay, so like every other morning, we got up and showered and got Harper ready to go to with my parents for the day/night. We dropped her off 8:15am and headed towards the bus stop! It was sooo weird to not have a stroller to lug around (weird = awesome!!) and we got to the park just 7 minutes after rope drop! We came across this first!

We wanted to get coffee, but we had a Space Mountain FP and I didn’t want to slurp down a huge coffee and get right on after that, so we decided to skip it and come back. First however, we walked right onto Buzz because we had time. My thoughts on Buzz were just “meh”. My shooter was not calibrated or something and my score was literally like 9,000. I pretty much just gave up halfway through because it was broken, but we walked right on so no time lost.

We were too early for our Space FP but because the park had just opened the wait lines were really short. I got on alone before our FP (AJ can’t ride too many times without feeling a little ill, so I rode alone). My first ride is when I had the joy of riding with a mother who was FORCING her crying child to ride Space. He was crying in line, and crying when we got in. It was annoying for me (“you’ll be fine” “it’ll be okay!” over and over), and I felt bad for the kid. I understand sometimes they don’t know if they will like it, but if my child is bawling, I’m not making them go on. Anyway… moving on… after that ride, we did our FP and had a blast even though they put us in different cars.

This is when we decided to go ahead and walk back to Starbucks. The line was crazy but at least we didn’t have a child in a stroller to contend with! From there we headed over to Adventureland and sat down for a while to people watch and finish our drinks.

AJ has never been on Jungle Cruise, so we headed there first. I was a little put off by the 40 minute stand by sign, but hey! It’s our kid free day, and this is the time! In actuality, it was only about 15 minutes. Not sure how it got so far off!

Our next FP was for Mine Train and of course was all the way across the park! We stopped and asked a CM the quickest way to get over there and made our way. I do love this ride, but the FP is the ONLY way I’d ever ride it. After that was done we decided to try AGAIN to meet Gaston, but he was leaving AGAIN! We tried 3x on this trip. He must only be out for 20 minutes at a time. So we went and hung out in Gaston’s Tavern for awhile and drank some free water. We had a 1pm ADR at Be Our Guest! Neither of us had ever been, but we still have some time to kill!

We got in line to meet Merida and felt kind of silly because we were the only ones in line that didn’t have kids! I always feel odd talking to the real people characters because I never know what to say!! She started right away with how we were both red heads and she talked for a while about the tapestry behind us. I asked her if that was before or after her mom turned into a bear.. it was before! Anyway, I'm glad we did it, It was fun!

From there, I went to the Mad Tea Party. I have always thought these looked fun, but AJ doesn’t do any spinny things, so I knew I was in for thing one alone! I had a good ol’ time by myself!

Next up! BOG!

 

[MinnieM123]

I'm enjoying all of your pictures and commentary. And Harper--that little kid is so photogenic--she can't take a "bad" picture ever! (Every picture taken of me, I toss! )

 

[Goofnut1980]

Great report!!!! Love all the pics

 

[Figgy1]

I'm enjoying all of your pictures and commentary. And Harper--that little kid is so photogenic--she can't take a "bad" picture ever! (Every picture taken of me, I toss! )

^^^This LOL there is very little photographic evidence of me LOL

 

[ScarletBegonias]

I'm enjoying all of your pictures and commentary. And Harper--that little kid is so photogenic--she can't take a "bad" picture ever! (Every picture taken of me, I toss! )

Thank you! She's our sweetie

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Great report!!!! Love all the pics

Thanks for reading!!!

 

[Tiggerish]

Oh, the Minnie ear hat...so incredibly cute!

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Thursday April 14th – ADULT DAY! Part 2.

Next up is finally our BOG ADR! I’ve never been here and Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney movie, so I was super excited about this. We went up and checked in and they gave us a menu. We then had to get in line in the beating hot sun and stand there for about 10 minutes. Interesting. I thought having an ADR would prevent this, but oh well.

We got in, ordered, and went to find a seat. The ballroom was soooo beautiful and it is exactly like the movie!! I wanted to sit there but it was really crowded, and the west wing was completely full, so we went to the other big room on the other side (not sure if there is a name for this room?)

AJ went up to get the drinks and we settled in at our seat. We only waited a few minutes and then like MAGIC, they show up knowing exactly where we are sitting with our food! I got the GF turkey sandwich. I did not expect TWO full size sandwiches, but I will tell you, I ate both of them, and they were delicious.

Anthony got the roast beef sandwich, but what ended up coming was turkey. We waved someone down, and they took it back and came back promptly with the correct sandwich!

After I finished eating, I wondered around to get pictures of the rose, and of the “outside” where it was snowing. Seriously so cool.

I’m so glad we went. Everyone says the food is just okay, but I was really happy with it. We didn’t even THINK about getting dessert. We totally forgot.

We snapped a picture of the mural and got moving!

More to come….

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Oh, the Minnie ear hat...so incredibly cute!

I know! I love that thing! and it's adjustable, so I ended up wearing it later in the week! LOL

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Thursday April 14th – Magic Kingdom ADULT DAY! Part 3.

We were so full after leaving BOG, so we wanted the next ride to be something more tame. We meandered over to Haunted Mansion and got in line. The standby was about 30 minutes I think. I know we didn’t wait quite that long, but it did seem like we were in line for a while.

Next up was a FP for Splash Mountain! AJ has also never rode this so we were excited, but wondering how wet we were going to get? I haven’t rode it in 10 years, so I couldn’t remember. We walked right up to the areas to get on and popped our phones into a Ziploc bag. We got the front row, and went on our way! I forgot how fun this is and that there are a couple smaller drops before the big one. We tried to decide something funny to do for our FP picture but decided to do nothing but act normal, and were laughing because we did get a bit wet.

From there because we were close we decided to give Big Thunder a try. This was so much more fun with someone with me. I didn’t realize how much it throws you around when I got on the first time by myself, but poor AJ, I kept slamming into him around the turns and I was coming WAY up out of my seat. I don’t remember waiting very long on this either. We had great luck with lines on this day!

Next up we decided to do Pirates again because we were walking through and the line was only 10 minute standby. We hardly waited for this as well!

We decided to take a stroll over to new fantasy land and see what Dumbo looked like, and stopped off first into the gift store that looks like a circus tent and pick up some treats (yes we were hungry already! LOL) I got a rice krispy treat mickey head that had peanut butter ships all over it, and AJ got an Olaf cookie which we munched on til we got to Dumbo and I stored the half of my treat back in the bag in my purse.

Dumbo was broken as always and won’t go up or down. I have the worst luck with Dumbo, but it’s okay. It was still fun.

We had been going all day at this point.. It was probably about.. 4pm or so? We decided since it was going to be a LONG night ahead of us, it was probably time for another Starbucks run, so off to Main Street we went. We looked for a little quiet spot and found a table in this little street that shoots off of main street. We watched a lot of CM’s disappear behind the doors.

We had sat there for a while when we heard the announcement that they would be doing the flag retrieval ceremony in a few moments. I remember someone here on the board talking about how everyone should see this if they haven’t, so we walked up to the square. It was a very nice moment, and I’m glad we got to see it.

We had another ADR at Tony’s at 6pm and it was about 5:20 and we didn’t want to get too far away, so we decided to do the stand by line to see talking Mickey at Town Square Theatre! It said 30 minutes and we figured we had enough time, so we jumped in line. By the time we got in the room with Mickey, it was about 5:50 and I was getting really worried we were going to miss our ADR, but it was our turn before we knew it! I got a big ol’ hug from Mickey! That talking Mickey really makes me feel like a kid again. It’s so exciting. He talked a LOT! He asked where we were going after that and we told him we were getting dinner. He said that maybe after he was done here, he should take Minnie to dinner! It was such a fun interaction!

Next up.. Dinner at Tony’s, a Jump to DHS for Star Wars Fireworks and more…

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Thursday April 14th – Magic Kingdom ADULT DAY! Part 4.

By the time we got to Tony’s it was 6pm right on the nose, and we were taken back a few minutes after we checked in. I’d say we got one of the best tables in the place. It was inside, but looking out at the square so you could still watch the hustle and bustle of The square into Main Street.

Our waitress ended up being a girl that lived in Cumberland, MD which is only about 40 minutes from where we are! We had to laugh because during the week, we kept encountering CM’s who lived closer and closer to us. I said to AJ “Next we will find someone from Hagerstown!” (where we live). I took a look over the gluten free menu and ended up ordering the grilled chicken over noodles with spaghetti sauce and cheese! I think AJ just got spaghetti but I remember it had two different sauces on it.

Our pomegranate lemonades came, and then the bread. They even had gluten free bread for me which made me super happy because I didn’t think I was going to get any.

Not long after, the entrée’s came. They were so good, but I was already pretty full from the bread. I feel like I hardly ate anything, but what I did eat, I really enjoyed. I just knew we had a long night ahead and I didn’t want to be miserable.

From here we went over to Guest Services to check what we had spent on our magic bands this week, and gave our Jungle Cruise skipper a shout out, because we thought she was awesome. While talking to the CM here I noticed her name tag and about lost it!! It said "Hagerstown, IN" oh.... Indiana! Darn! I found a Hagerstown, just not the one we are from! How about that! Making our way to the bus for DHS, it was starting to look really ominous outside. It was windy, and the sky was getting dark. I was a little worried they’d cancel the fireworks we were going to DHS to see.

When we pulled up, a ton of people were leaving which I was excited about.

We had plenty of time until the fireworks so we checked out Star Tours and ended up walking right on. I really wanted to do ToT again, and it was dark out now, so we walked over there happy to see it was only a 10 minute standby time AND we got the red card, so of course we had to take a picture

We ended up getting grouped in with a bunch of teenage boys who were being quite obnoxious, but after a while, it was actually pretty funny. I just love ToT. It’s terrifying!

When we got off here, we realized the rain had started and we pulled out the trusty ponchos. I really hate these things, but at least we were able to stay dry.

AJ really wanted to meet Chewbacca, so we headed over to the Launch Bay and went in. It was DEAD in there and we walked right in to meet Chewie and Kylo Ren. The experience with Kylo Ren was just weird for me, but Anthony seemed to enjoy it! The Jawa’s were something else AJ really wanted to do. We didn’t have anything to trade with them though, so they really wanted nothing to do with us.

After that we had a tad bit more time so we wondered through some of the stores and tried to stay out of the rain. It had amazingly ended right before the fireworks so we got to enjoy them in all their glory!

However, afterwards there was a mass exodus going on. We knew we were going to wait FOREVER for a bus, so we texted my mom quickly for alternatives. Since we were going to Disney Springs to go shopping, we decided to take the boat from DHS, get off at Beach Club and catch the DS bus from there! It was really cool to get to see another resort up close and personal. I’m a huge fan of all things nautical, so I enjoyed getting to see it. We didn’t wait too long for a bus, but the ride to DS took nearly 30 minutes. We didn’t get there until 10:30.

The sheer exhaustion started setting in on the bus to DS. We’d been moving since 8:30am. We walked through some stores and made it to World of Disney. We got what we wanted, and when we went out we noticed that everything was starting to close up! AJ grabbed some ice cream and we headed towards the bus.


The long day was over. Just to recap.. here is what we did today:


Buzz

Space (x2)

Jungle Cruise

7DMT

Merida M&G

Mad tea party

BOG

Haunted Mansion

Splash

BTMRR

POTC

Dumbo

Watched flag retrieval

Mickey at town square

Dinner at Tony’s

Star tours

ToT

Chewie/Kylo Ren M&G

Star wars Fireworks

And Disney springs! Woooo!


Up next.. our final day in Disney.

 

[Tuvalu]

We then had to get in line in the beating hot sun and stand there for about 10 minutes. Interesting. I thought having an ADR would prevent this, but oh well. The ballroom was soooo beautiful and it is exactly like the movie!! I wanted to sit there but it was really crowded, and the west wing was completely full, so we went to the other big room on the other side (not sure if there is a name for this room?).

You can skip the outdoor line if you pre-order your food online. Not sure how this works with a GF diet, though.

You dined in the Rose Gallery .

 

[Tiggerish]

Two excellent examples of efficient usage of Disney transportation! I'm impressed.

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

First however, we walked right onto Buzz because we had time. My thoughts on Buzz were just “meh”. My shooter was not calibrated or something and my score was literally like 9,000. I pretty much just gave up halfway through because it was broken, but we walked right on so no time lost.

Hey, this is supposed to be a trip report, not a place for you to make excuses about your poor performance on Buzz!

Broken, sure it was...

 

[ScarletBegonias]

You can skip the outdoor line if you pre-order your food online. Not sure how this works with a GF diet, though.

You dined in the Rose Gallery .

Thank you! yes, I know you are right! I didn't want to pre order ahead of our trip because I don't know what i'll feel like eating that day!

The Rose Gallery. Thanks! Good to know!