Trip Report Part III - as in Caballeros (plus 2)

My first trip report - we'll see how this goes...

We are driving up from Fort Lauderdale, about 3 to 3 1/2 hours, right...NOW.

We were supposed to leave tomorrow morning, but decided a few days ago to get a jump on things today. Only problem was our doggy-sitter (booked for Monday) had other plans and could not come today, so we wanted to wait until late enough that it would be OK to leave our precious pup overnight. I hate leaving this fuzzy face!!

That's about 58 pounds of Shep/Chow mix we call Kylie. I love this dog too much and miss her every day of these trips! (Kylie will be 6 next month.)

Almost my turn to drive - not gonna take a pic of us now looking a little frumpy - so here's a shot of us at a random local bar. You probably should get used to bar pics.

That's Brian on the left and me on the right. We're heading up for our 8 year wedding anniversary on Tuesday the 8th. Yes, we were married on 9/8/7 - very easy to remember!

Hoping to arrive just in time to get our TiW card at DTD and hit Raglan Road. (Never been.) Staying off property tonight as it will be all about getting right to sleep and hoping for that early check-in text so we can avoid the separate check-in bldg at CBR! Fingers crossed.

Well, we moved from I-95 to the FL Turnpike a few minutes back, and that was my cue to take the wheel, so I'd better do that or risk a dirty look LOL.

I miss my puppy!

 

[corey154]

Happy Anniversary! That's our wedding anniversary too! Sure makes it easy to remember!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Happy Anniversary! That's our wedding anniversary too! Sure makes it easy to remember!

Wow, happy anniversary to you, too!!

 

[StephK]

Happy anniversary! How lucky you are to live so close to WDW. I hate leaving our fur baby too, it is so hard, i wish they could come with us
Were staying at CBR next month so will be following along to see your thoughts.
Have a great time

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Happy anniversary! How lucky you are to live so close to WDW. I hate leaving our fur baby too, it is so hard, i wish they could come with us
Were staying at CBR next month so will be following along to see your thoughts.
Have a great time

Important to note about CBR right now, and I don't know how long this will last - but the bridge is out! It's being worked on. So that bridge connects Aruba and Jamaica to Port Royale. You cannot walk over to Port Royale. We are in Aruba and luckily have the car. Without that, we'd have to rely on the resort shuttle every 15 mins or so, which would be less than ideal.

I would definitely call ahead to find out if the work will be done before you get there - and if not, pick a different village for this trip!

 

[ItlngrlBella]

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That is a beautiful thing next to the "Welcome to WDW" sign.

Congrats on your wedding anniversary and cute dog! The only bad thing about going to WDW is leaving the fur-kids behind... and the only good thing about leaving WDW is going back to them.

Can't wait to see more!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Thanks Flagg, Catmom & Princess!

Naturally I woke up at 5:30AM. And that will be that.

Hoping to find a nearby Supercuts for 9am (one of my pre-trip to-do's that didn't get done) and a Dollar tree (I remembered my poncho but B did not.) Google time.

Oh yeah - found Brian's poncho still packed in his bag from the last trip lol.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

We really tried to take it all in. This was actually the first time I've seen the film. I think one more time is in order.

Fun fact - B fell asleep on the movie. I kept nudging him at important parts. He kept nodding off...

 

[TheMouseFan]

Important to note about CBR right now, and I don't know how long this will last - but the bridge is out! It's being worked on. So that bridge connects Aruba and Jamaica to Port Royale. You cannot walk over to Port Royale. We are in Aruba and luckily have the car. Without that, we'd have to rely on the resort shuttle every 15 mins or so, which would be less than ideal.

I would definitely call ahead to find out if the work will be done before you get there - and if not, pick a different village for this trip!

I was just there yesterday and was told it will be open around Thanksgiving. They had to make some changes to be ADA compliant. They are offering water taxis from the Aruba beach over to the marina.

Have a great time the rest of your trip!!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Ok to recap last night...

The Wave for dinner +1 cocktail...

Dinner was very good. I ordered the fettuccine carbonara (with pork, ta-da!) and B ordered chicken with caramelized brussels sprouts, etc.

After the first few bites, we looked at each other ("how is yours?" "Good. How is yours?" "Ok.") switched plates, and enjoyed the rest of dinner much better lol. (I was not expecting my dish to have a cream sauce. He likes that. I don't. What a sweetie for switching!!)

And for dessert - split one no sugar added creme brûlée. B has been type 1 diabetic since age 10. When I can find a sugar free or NSA dessert as unusual as that, it's a must-do, and worth the reservation just for that. This was fantastic, btw.

I didn't take many pics last night. No pics of the Wave. But B took this one of Chef Mickey's just because he liked it.



We'll probably never eat there lol.

Oh, btw - we overslept a bit in the afternoon after our tune-up at Tune-in lounge (3 drinks each plus split a pot roast and a pork chop. Good times.) so we called WDW and they graciously pushed back our dinner Rez one hour to 7:50pm without penalty.

Fun fact: the first time we ever went to Tune-In was so I could get Brian a slice of NSA cheesecake several years ago.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

With dinner happening an hour late, and wanting to explore Contemporary a bit (first time) I suddenly realized we were running out of time to totally dominate MK until 11pm. And then...records happened...

This was at one of the stores at Contemp. I own a record store in south Florida. I know a customer had asked for that lion king at some point, I remembered it was hard to get from my distributor and more expensive than what I was seeing, but couldn't remember for sure if I had ever successfully gotten it for him. I messaged him right then and there, he was out of town and couldn't remember, either, lol!

Tick-tock, 9:30PM! DH is so patient.

Cut to me on the monorail researching all those titles on my wholesaler's website on our way to MK. Arrived just before 10pm. (Clerk said they could not send a package to my room if I bought the records then. )

Continued...

 

[Tony the Tigger]

So...MK...Brian instantly finds his kindred spirit:

In that one hour at MK, first we did TS space ranger spin, because we happened to walk to the right to avoid the crowds of spectators. Brian always kicks my . I declared this was going to be my night. He laughed. He was right.

My score on the left is three thousand and something. You can see Brian's obnoxious point-hoarding on the right. I was like, "What the hell are you hitting, Mr. Blind-in-one-eye?!" (If you can joke about it, that's a good thing.)

See how intense I am? And how closed his eyes are? And he slaughtered me lol.

I am all out of pics - running on memory now!

Next, we walked all the way around behind the castle to my fave HM. Then back up to Peter Pan, which was less than a 20 min wait, and something we usually skip because it's usually an hour wait. Loved that! No FP!

And then right at 11pm to Jungle Cruise, where we were two of only four apparently "red shirt" passengers. No one else in the boat. Hence we dubbed it "a gay cruise." The CM was hysterical. It was the best little moment lol.

Monorail to TS, tram to car, car to CBR but GPS took us to some kind of back (security? CM?) entrance. Had to back out and find the regular entrance. Drove to Port Royale but it was 12:01am so it had been closed for about a minute. Getting impatient and cranky, and with no signs with ARUBA on them, we wasted time driving around and testing each others' nerves lol. This was when B announced he liked the buses better lol.

For whatever reason, we both had a really tough time sleeping. So I'm glad I didn't make any FP for this morning, trying to let B sleep. He sleeps way better than I do, and says that's why he has no gray hair. We're both 44 - well, I just turned 44 on 8/31 and he will in early December - but we were both born in 1971, just like the MK! (I want to get one of the tees with 1971 on it.)

I'm going to probably take a morning walk, and we changed our early park from AK to MK again just so I can go back to Contemp and buy a bunch of those records for my store. Then we can bring them right back to the room for our afternoon siesta and not have to carry them around.

Evening will be EPCOT and Yachtsman steakhouse!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

I was just there yesterday and was told it will be open around Thanksgiving. They had to make some changes to be ADA compliant. They are offering water taxis from the Aruba beach over to the marina.

Have a great time the rest of your trip!!

Thanks – I didn't know about the water taxi until you said that!

Just went exploring - turns out you can still walk to port Royale, you just walk in the opposite direction. It's a lake LOL. You just go around it the other way LOL. Took me 10 minutes walking fast.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Thanks – I didn't know about the water taxi until you said that!

Just went exploring - turns out you can still walk to port Royale, you just walk in the opposite direction. It's a lake LOL. You just go around it the other way LOL. Took me 10 minutes walking fast.

Actually you can walk the other direction as well, you just can't cut across the bridge, so it's a bit longer.

I have now walked both ways around the lake from Aruba to Port Royale in about 27 minutes.

 

[Uncle Lupe]

With dinner happening an hour late, and wanting to explore Contemporary a bit (first time) I suddenly realized we were running out of time to totally dominate MK until 11pm. And then...records happened...

View attachment 109979

This was at one of the stores at Contemp. I own a record store in south Florida. I know a customer had asked for that lion king at some point, I remembered it was hard to get from my distributor and more expensive than what I was seeing, but couldn't remember for sure if I had ever successfully gotten it for him. I messaged him right then and there, he was out of town and couldn't remember, either, lol!

Tick-tock, 9:30PM! DH is so patient.

Cut to me on the monorail researching all those titles on my wholesaler's website on our way to MK. Arrived just before 10pm. (Clerk said they could not send a package to my room if I bought the records then. )

Continued...

I've seen those records at Hot Topic. Never dreamed that merchandise would be at the Contemporary. I have a few old ones and fun to see them make a resurgence.

Looks like you're having fun.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

I've seen those records at Hot Topic. Never dreamed that merchandise would be at the Contemporary. I have a few old ones and fun to see them make a resurgence.

Looks like you're having fun.

Yes, sir! Records are back big time. I can't believe how many first-time youngsters are buying turntables lately.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

So today is the actual anniversary. This is how I had our magic bands done to commemorate and keep:

I went for my usual almost hour walk this morning but still feel like a whale after yesterday lol. So glad there is no scale in the bathroom.

We are ready to go - MK, lunch, records, nap, dinner, Epcot - that's the rough outline, anyway. Who knows where the day will take us?

 

[Tony the Tigger]

So our ceremony was actually about 5 minutes from now, 8 years ago - but we were already technically married...my Grandma is housebound, and I could not get married without her of all people. So Brian and I drove the Reverend to her house in the morning and actually got married there with just us and my Grandparents. The ceremony with the rest of the family and friends was really a do over lol. Grandpa was the only person at both. (He was like our Phil Collins at Live Aid lol.)

Hopefully I post this link correctly - when our state of Florida finally recognized our marriage earlier this year, we did a little vow renewal and incorporated Disney into it.

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/...orporate-disney-into-your-vow-renewal.903761/

 

[Tony the Tigger]

So for this morning...in the name of spontaneity, we decided to park at the first park we passed. That was Epcot. As we parked, I got a fast pass for Test Track within 20 minutes of our arrival time. Ta-da!

Went to guest services for our anniversary buttons.

(For some reason I can't post pics right now - maybe can edit later.)

Walked over to Test Track, designed our vehicle...

(Another pic - later lol)

LOL! (Because the pic you can't see is really funny.)

...and while waiting in line for the ride, booked Rose & Crown for lunch. Thank you, Chase Visa reward dollars! (Which btw also covered 2 nights at CBR and last night's dinner at The Wave. Woo hoo!)

Side note about CBR: you can hear your next door neighbors in the bathroom and also people in the outside walkway pretty loudly. Fortunately it's usually pretty quiet around here!

After lunch (Shepherd's pie & Cider for me, Indian chicken & beer for Bri - all excellent, and every staff member was so friendly. Even the family at the table next to us wished us a happy anniversary before they left. How nice was that? All around great time.

Then we monorailed back to the Contemporary and I bought a stack of those records to stock my store, and here we are back resting at the room before the evening excursion. (You don't want a pic of that.)

Tonight the rough plan is park at Epcot again, see if we have time to do the chase visa meet & greet with free pic (depends how early we are for dinner) and then walk out the back to Yachtsman steakhouse. Did I mention we are mostly vegetarian plus fish on normal days? Tonight I'm getting freaking filet mignon and can't wait lol. No diets at Disney.

Just realized they have EMH at MK til 11 tonight, so may end up back there again after din-din.

 

[BuddyThomas]

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Atta boy. I knew you were my kind of people.

 

[BuddyThomas]

Who ever said CBR is not gorgeous?

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Love this room. $20 more than POP. And we would never use it, but how cute is this:

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Hard to see in the pic, but that's Mickey on the hammock with Pluto sleeping under it.

And now...

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Shot of Jack, and out the door to HS. Just booked a FP for Great Movie Ride in about 15 minutes, then our fave Tune-In Lounge. And of course. One Man's Dream. That's the whole park these days, right?

You're gonna get in big trouble with BuzzKillington or Preston or Bristolsmom or whatever the hell he is calling himself these days for having (gasp!!) drinks. And if you dare to tip anyone, his head might explode.