Trip Report May 2017 Caribbean Beach Resort/ Flower & Garden Trip COMPLETED

myhappyplace · May 12, 2017

We had a dinner ADR later in the day, but we were hungry, and have been wanting to try Harambe Market's food, so that's where we went next. On the way, we passed this guy

DH ordered the ribs, and I got the chicken skewer. DH thought the ribs were okay, but not as good as Flame Tree Barbecue's, which we really enjoy, and also find to be a good value. My skewer was delicious, however, and I wished there had been an option to add more to the meal...I wanted more! We didn't care for the green papaya slaw, and I don't really like black eyed peas, so I really just ate the skewer.

Oops! Huge piece in my slaw!

Afterwards, we figured it was time to head back to the resort for a break and swim. First a couple of pictures on the bridge

We split a Mickey bar, as we leisurely walked around the tree again before heading out...brace yourselves for even more Tree carving pics!

We really enjoyed calling out different ones we saw, and there was a little older couple that pointed out a couple of animals they saw in the tree too.

And a peek at the floating rocks of Avatarland (they were doing cast member previews)

We bused back to the resort, changed into our suits, and headed to Aruba's quiet pool. While walking to the pool, we saw the same (we think) large bird sitting on the railing of the second floor of our building. It didn't move as we walked toward it a bit, but we were too scared to go too close.

We stayed in the pool for 20 minutes or so, which felt refreshing. As we walked back to the room, I was commenting that I kept looking for snakes, thinking that because of all of the lizards we saw, and given the large amount of landscaping, there were sure to be some. Suddenly, DH says "did you see it?". I thought he was joking, but no-he saw a snake on the sidewalk! It hurried into hiding before I saw it though.

While I showered, DH went back out with the camera to see if the bird was still there, and it was!

My guess was a turkey vulture? Anyone know?

While DH then showered, I walked over to the Custom House to pickup a purchase from the day before. There was a crew in the parking lot unloading some new furniture; the truck was there for a couple of days. We noticed what looked like bedside tables, but they had 2 drawers instead of the one drawer, and lower open shelf that we had in our room. I felt so stealthy

When I got to the Custom House, as expected, the Calypso Trading Post was closed. Package pickups were now out in the Straw Market.

Even though we still had dinner plans, I wanted a little something sweet, so I picked up an M&M cookie and a pineapple upside-down cake for us to share (I think I ate the majority of the cookie)

I think we napped, then finished getting ready to head back to Animal Kingdom for the evening!

myhappyplace · May 12, 2017

Tiggerish said:
Same here. Cats. Can't resist 'em. Also can't not take photos on KS. How lucky to get so many lions on your safari! Great photos!!

I was never a cat person until I became a cat owner. Or should I say owned by cats. Thanks!!

Tiggerish said:
Beautiful photos, especially the two of the flowers. And the ToL carvings.

I was a grown woman the one and only time I saw ITTBAB. And I was scarred by it! #neveragain

Thanks again, we both seemed drawn to flower photos...must've been in that Flower & Garden mood, even though our Epcot day would be the next day!

We made the mistake of making ITtBaB be my 4 year old (at the time) little brother's first Disney attraction years ago...hoo boy. He didn't make it the whole way through, so didn't even get to the point where the bugs crawl under you. He just kept asking tearfully "why did that bug toot on us?!"

myhappyplace · May 12, 2017

So, it should be no surprise to anyone that we took more pictures of the tree when we arrived back at the park? If it is, it shouldn't be!

It's just, the details are so amazing!!

Soon enough it was time for our dinner! Where?

We had a Tiffins/ Rivers of Light package!

myhappyplace · May 12, 2017

Tiffins dinner, continued

Some of the themeing/ decorations inside

Our server was Shawn, and he was very nice. He sort of reminded me of Dr. Greene from ER.

DH had the Marinated Grilled Octopus for his appetizer

And I had the Tiffins Signature Bread Service...loved both the tastes and the presentation! Sorry about the reflection.

For my main course, we both had the Wagyu Strip Loin and Braised Short Rib, which I thought was delicious! DH preferred the Short Rib over the Strip Loin.

For dessert, I had the South American Chocolate Ganache...again, yum!

DH had the Lime Cheesecake

After our meal, we walked around in each room of the restaurant to take pictures

When we left there was a Carnivale going on!

We saw the lotus floats setting up for Rivers of Light

We had a FP for Dinosaur (though it wasn't really needed). I couldn't remember what side the camera was on, so our picture didn't turn out too special. THIS time, that is.

After that ride, the wait was so low, we had to ride again to see if we could improve upon that picture! We talked it out and planned our pose, sort of a nod to @lostpro9het and @Tuvalu . Funny thing was, the guy next to me wasn't in on our plan, yet his pose worked PERFECTLY with ours!! I only wish his friend would've done the same. I love this picture! I think I laughed for 10 solid minutes afterward.

myhappyplace · May 12, 2017

Rivers of Light time! Our first time seeing it!

The theater was well done, and I loved all the light changes, and the shadows of the animals going by. Really set the mood for the show!

myhappyplace · May 12, 2017

Thoughts: visually beautiful. Not sure it got me in the feels, like say Wishes, but visually I thought it was stunning.

We received one of these buckets with our Tiffins package, but we had an incident where we dropped it on a bathroom floor, so we threw it away. Looks like this man was the designated popcorn bucket holder!

One of my major priorities at AK at night, was the Tree of Life Awakenings, so after the show, we headed that direction, and stood in front of the tree. I tried taking pictures, but #1) they were difficult to capture and #2) I just wanted to enjoy.

After it was over, they ran another one...and we were so excited! Until...we noticed that it was the same one. Wasn't there supposed to be a couple?

Anyway, it had been a wonderful day, until we reached the bus stop! Here was the view:

Actually, I don't remember it taking that long to get back to the resort, then it was off to bed. Epcot tomorrow!

ajrwdwgirl · May 13, 2017

Great Rivers of Life pictures!

myhappyplace · May 13, 2017

ajrwdwgirl said:
Great Rivers of Life pictures!

Thank you!!

myhappyplace · May 13, 2017

Tuesday, May 2nd- Epcot

This morning I woke up early, got ready, and walked over to the food court, for an item that I'd seen on the menu boards the day before. I took some morning shots of Center Town.

A look a the food court- I'm not sure what all will change, but wanted to get a picture as it was

More bird-watching on the walk back

And here's what I wanted: the breakfast quesadilla. I got both of us one, and took them back to the room. I've never gotten food court food and taken it back to the room, so I was super impressed with their "to-go" station!

After breakfast, it was time to head to Epcot! We were ready for the Flower & Garden Festival

While we were walking past the entrance plaza near the Leave a Legacy monstrosities, DH was taking a picture when he heard the sound of something he kicked on the ground...we gained a pin!

The flowers were so beautiful!

Figment! My best friend Penny, who loves Figment, was the first person to take me to Disney World. I could never remember his name, though, and for the first 2 or 3 trips (with Penny) I kept calling him Filament.

First stop, the 3D butterflies/ Gardenscape

DH informed me after this pic that I shouldn't have been standing on the butterfly's wing...I think we took a better one later in the week, but for now...

Everything was just so colorful- a feast for the eyes!

Those workers there? They were there every time we tried to take this pic, same spot. Even the other Epcot day...we wondered if there was a problem in that area or something.

Take note of the cloudy sky...

myhappyplace · May 13, 2017

One of my goals at the F&G Festival was the Butterfly House

We spent quite some time photographing the butterflies

We especially liked trying to capture photos containing more than one butterfly in it at a time...there are 4 in this picture, can you spot them?

bee · May 13, 2017

myhappyplace said:
Figment! My best friend Penny, who loves Figment, was the first person to take me to Disney World. I could never remember his name, though, and for the first 2 or 3 trips (with Penny) I kept calling him Filament.

FILAMENT

myhappyplace · May 13, 2017

Next up, we had a FP for Living with the Land (which wasn't really needed). Sky is still looking dark.

On the way, we encountered the least-shy squirrel I've seen on Disney property. It quite literally was going from person to person to see if they had any food.

At the Flower & Garden festival, there are planters and flower beds with plants according to various themes. This was one was the Pepper Fire Garden:

Here is the Health and Healing garden:

Monorail playing peek-a-boo

We had a good ride, though there was an audio issue...the sound kept cutting out. Also, when we entered the greenhouse, we could see that it was raining.

When we exited, it was spritzing if I recall, but we were able to walk over to the Seas, for a ride on Nemo! A shell-fie:

myhappyplace · May 13, 2017

bee said:
FILAMENT

I know!

myhappyplace · May 13, 2017

We didn't visit the Seas for long, but did peek in at the manatee. So, now it was about time for World Showcase to open, and what we had really been looking forward to, the food booths! We started making our way in that direction, when DH stopped at the restroom, and I began waiting outside. Suddenly the sky opened up, so I darted into the women's restroom for shelter. I was quickly joined by a couple, and then a couple with a little girl. I texted DH for him to come around to the women's entrance and hang out there with me, that other men were there too, but the text apparently didn't go through, nor did the one I sent in reply to his texted question "did you find shelter?" I mean, it was REALLY coming down, with lots of thunder & lightning. Finally, I went around the wall and saw him in there, so I joined him in the mens room entrance, so I could bring him his poncho (I always carry the cheap Walmart ones in my Disney bag)

It finally slowed down just enough for us to exit, and headed toward the fountain in the center, where we found some shelter next to Club Cool. The rain picked back up then for a bit

Just as DH said "I don't think it's going to stop", a woman next to us said "look, blue sky!", and sure enough there was! We happily put our ponchos away, and headed toward World Showcase

We loved the floating planters!

Notice the sky is still dark where we are heading...

We were interested in getting a F&G Festival pin, so stopped in the shop right as you enter WS (can't remember the name). My shoes were soaking wet, and there was water slushing inside them

We went to the left, reading the menus, but not getting anything just yet. We made it to Norway, where we had a FP for Frozen Ever After.

We had a fun ride, though it seemed shorter than last time! When we exited, it was raining again!! So we decided to head out and come back later. On the way out, we did stop at a pin kiosk in Future World and got our F&G pin. We ended up with one of the Mickey Mouse ones, though I don't like his smile on it. I would have preferred a Figment or Beauty and the Beast one, but oh well.

When we got toward the bus stop, several things of note. One was that the sidewalk near the CBR bus stop was at least to mid-calf. The other thing is that no one knew how to line. There was a family there, but they were standing in the middle of the second row, under the shelter. We stood there awhile as did the party of 2 ladies in front of us to see if they were going to get in line. We weren't sure if that first group was with a scooter user and that's why they weren't in line properly? Finally I said to the ladies in front of us, I'm going to get in the line the right way, and so I did. I offered them to go ahead of us, but they declined. And so, we became first in line because no one else knew how to line.

While in line, we watched a person on a scooter tried to go through the calf-deep water to get to a further bus stop, and her scooter stopped. A man was trying to push it on through with little luck, so DH and another man went to help get her through...his pants legs were soaking wet anyway because his poncho didn't cover that area, so it didn't matter.

See the people in the left hand side of the picture? They came after us all, and just went and stood in front of us then, as did an older couple. I felt like we were surrounded by idiots.

We also had fun just watching everyone go through the water. At this point, everyone was soaked, so you just had to have fun with it I suppose. One man flapped his 'wings' and quacked as he went through!

We finally boarded a bus, and sat next to a older mom, dad, and their 20 something daughter. The mom was a talker for sure! She talked the entire way back. Very friendly, but a bit of an oversharer. Soon enough we were back at our resort.

When we got back, there was a message on our phone stating that walking paths to the Custom House were now closed due to the CBR construction.

I've never used a laundromat- Disney or otherwise, but needed to dry DH's pants and my shoes. I took them to the laundry room, and thought I did everything right to start the dryer cycle, but apparently I didn't, because when I came back a time later, they were still as wet as before. So I did it correctly once more, and that worked. While our clothes were drying, I pushed our dinner reservations back by 1.5 hours, and then we watched a TV episode and relaxed for a bit.

myhappyplace · May 13, 2017

It had stopped raining, our clothes were dry, and we were back in Epcot that late afternoon! We changed our ADR to a bit later so we didn't have to rush all the way back to World Showcase when we got there.

Back in we went, and this time, the entrance was less busy, so we stopped for some photopass pictures, as well as took more ourselves of the topiaries.

We decided we would head to World Showcase, but focus mostly on topiary pictures, and then have dinner, saving our snacking around the world until the next Epcot day.

While I took a phone call from my little brother, we wandered around the Nature Works Everywhere exhibit near the entrance to World Showcase. While I chatted, DH took some pretty pictures

And, a couple more photopass pictures-

We decided our plan would be to head to World Showcase, but focus mostly on topiary pictures, and then have dinner, saving our snacking around the world until the next Epcot day.

We started on the Canada side this time...Bambi & friends!

Pooh characters in Great Britain

One of my faves, Tink!!

On Thursday (our second Epcot day) we would discover that there was a topiary we'd missed here in Great Britain...

myhappyplace · May 13, 2017

On to France! I absolutely loved the Belle and Beast topiaries, and both days we were in Epcot, there were always lots of people around, or I would have LOVED to try and get a photo including the fountain and the topiaries without people in it.

Love this one by DH

Lady & the Tramp in Italy

Snow White & Dwarves in Germany

Aw, Bashful! Are you embarrassed because there's a lizard on your nose?

myhappyplace · May 13, 2017

We took a break from the topiary pics, because we had to head to the nation of our meal! Germany! Biergarten!

We were checked in by a very nice CM, and only waited about 5 minutes before being taken to our table by our server. I love the feel of this (and Mexico's) restaurants because of how they just take you from a sunny Florida sky to a night during Oktoberfest (or a night in a Mexican marketplace).

I really enjoyed the band, and it made me think of my late mom, who LOVED to polka at weddings, usually with me as her partner!

Food time! I come from central PA, where we have a lot of Polish folks, as well as PA Dutch influences, so I am familiar with many of these types of foods. DH is NOT a fan of cabbage. I tried to take pics of the buffet, but it got to be too difficult while trying to handle a plate as well, so didn't follow through all the way.

I also opted to have the wheat beer...prost!

This was taken with my phone, which I sent to one of my sisters, who has been to actual Oktoberfest.

My first plate

DH's first plate

We forgot to take pics of subsequent plates, until dessert, that is.

I loved our meal there!! It wasn't my first time, but it had been years since I've been there, so I'm glad we did it.

myhappyplace · May 13, 2017

After our meal, we walked (well, I waddled) on around World Showcase in the direction we were going, figuring we'd hit the countries we bypassed because of dinner the next Epcot day.

There were other booths selling items located around World Showcase, and so we were surprised to see this booth, from a town near us! We looked around and were interested in some items, but we didn't buy anything on this day.

Mahhhhh Pennsylvaniaaaaa...(that's how I jokingly sing the Lion King song, and a man heard me sing it, and said he liked that, so he started singing it too). Lion King topiaries at the Outpost

Next up, China! We were kinda fascinated with this dragon, because it seemed there was some sort of self-watering happening..

I really liked the water droplets on the lilypads

myhappyplace · May 13, 2017

We spent quite some time in the Disneyland Shanghai display room

The Garden of the 12 Friends was interesting to read about

I want this for my house!!

Norway was next...

In Mexico, we weren't sure we remembered passing any topiaries when we had gone in the other direction earlier that day, so we walked up the path beside the temple. No topiaries up there, but we saw this tree with all of these spikes, which was interesting to us.

And they had an orchid garden

Ah, then we found those loco tres caballeros! We apparently didn't notice them earlier...

Our plan now was to skip Illuminations, and go see if we could get on Soarin' before Illuminations started, then leave the park before the masses. First we passed this crazy thing. Before DH snapped this pic, the younger woman was taking a selfie, and the older woman was taking a picture of HER taking a selfie. So DH felt he needed to join in too. He didn't even do it covertly, but they were oblivious.

We passed Phineas and Ferb

And Donald and the nephews

The wait for Soarin' I think was posted higher than what it was...I think it only took about 15 minutes. After our flight, we left, and our plan was successful! Back to the resort. Magic Kingdom tomorrow!

Tuvalu · May 14, 2017

myhappyplace said:
We had a ToT FP scheduled, but DH wasn't feeling it, so as we wandered by The Great Movie Ride, I mentioned we should probably do it one more time, just because I don't know if we'll do it again before it closes. There was no wait posted, so I didn't figure it would be long. It ended up being about 30 minutes, actually. When we made it into the preshow theater, there was a woman sitting on the floor, with some Cast Members around her, offering her bottles of water, so I don't know if that had to do with the wait.

Look what I got @Tuvalu ! Also check out my mermaid-inspired nails (gotta love jamberry)

I just love old era Hollywood

We couldn't help but take lots of pics on the ride, sorry! One of my favorite movies...Gene Kelly was a looker!

The Duke

DH caught a pic of the alien...

Another favorite:

Over the rainbow!

I am waaayyyyy behind on my trip report reading.....thanks for bearing with me!
Excited to see you were the proud recipient of the elusive red card!

Back to reading.....

Trip Report May 2017 Caribbean Beach Resort/ Flower & Garden Trip COMPLETED

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Trip Report May 2017 Caribbean Beach Resort/ Flower & Garden Trip **COMPLETED**

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Trip Report May 2017 Caribbean Beach Resort/ Flower & Garden Trip COMPLETED