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!!

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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.

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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!
 
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Tony the Tigger

Tony the Tigger

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
catmom46 said:
My goodness - how many records did you buy??
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Not too many - maybe a dozen – but between the regular price already being lower than my distributors, plus my Chase Visa 10% off, plus my tax-free sales tax certificate and no shipping fees – excellent deal.

But can you believe an information board is out of order? LOL. That just strikes me funny.
 
catmom46

catmom46

Well-Known Member
Tony the Tigger said:
Not too many - maybe a dozen – but between the regular price already being lower than my distributors, plus my Chase Visa 10% off, plus my tax-free sales tax certificate and no shipping fees – excellent deal.

But can you believe an information board is out of order? LOL. That just strikes me funny.
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I'd rather have an out of order board than one that provides incorrect info! :p

I think I was also distracted by the banana drink and octopus pics. :cat:
 
MinnieM123

MinnieM123

Premium Member
Tony the Tigger said:
But can you believe an information board is out of order? LOL
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No, I can't! I could understand a digital board being out of order (software issue, etc.), but a regular board?! :banghead: They could either remove it, or cover it temporarily, with some sort of (material) with a Disney scene. And I just now read @Tuvalu 's comment about it still (two months later) having that same, silly sign over it. This type of inattention to details is not what we would have found years ago at WDW. :mad:
 
catmom46

catmom46

Well-Known Member
MinnieM123 said:
No, I can't! I could understand a digital board being out of order (software issue, etc.), but a regular board?! :banghead: They could either remove it, or cover it temporarily, with some sort of (material) with a Disney scene. And I just now read @Tuvalu 's comment about it still (two months later) having that same, silly sign over it. This type of inattention to details is not what we would have found years ago at WDW. :mad:
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Oh, I thought that was a digital board. It's a regular board??? Crazy.
 
Tuvalu

Tuvalu

Premium Member
MinnieM123 said:
No, I can't! I could understand a digital board being out of order (software issue, etc.), but a regular board?! :banghead: They could either remove it, or cover it temporarily, with some sort of (material) with a Disney scene. And I just now read @Tuvalu 's comment about it still (two months later) having that same, silly sign over it. This type of inattention to details is not what we would have found years ago at WDW. :mad:
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catmom46 said:
Oh, I thought that was a digital board. It's a regular board??? Crazy.
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It is a digital board.

My husband commented later that perhaps it is an intentional joke. In that same spot there used to be a small "information hut" of sorts (similar to the type of thing found in the Kilimanjaro Safari queue) that had a sign across it that said: "Out to lunch, back in August" (in the winter/spring) or "Out to lunch, back in February" (in the summer/fall). If the new sign is still the same on my next visit, I intend to find out if it is real or a joke!
 
MinnieM123

MinnieM123

Premium Member
Tuvalu said:
It is a digital board.

My husband commented later that perhaps it is an intentional joke. In that same spot there used to be a small "information hut" of sorts (similar to the type of thing found in the Kilimanjaro Safari queue) that had a sign across it that said: "Out to lunch, back in August" (in the winter/spring) or "Out to lunch, back in February" (in the summer/fall). If the new sign is still the same on my next visit, I intend to find out if it is real or a joke!
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Thanks for the clarification--I could only see the "solid" part of the top of the board--didn't realize that the "temporary" sign actually covered a digital display. But even more so--they couldn't update a DIGITAL display??!! :eek:
 
Tony the Tigger

Tony the Tigger

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I don't know why, but I don't like to start new trip reports. I'll start a new one in 2017, OK?

Anyway, today is Brian's birthday. Had we stuck to the original plan, we would have gotten home from WDW last night after a quick trip so he could go to work today.

But he had to work yesterday, too! LOL. So we are squeezing in an even quicker quickie (a quickier?) in a few days.

With all our trips in the last 10 years or so, I think we always miss the brunt of Christmas stuff. I am in retail, he is in restaurant, it's hard to get away during what is really peak work time. We often go in September, then October or November, then January. You can often see some remnants in January (depending on how early you go) but I thought this year, for his bday, we would try to go full-on Christmas, even if only for a "quickier."

I know we went one year when the Osborne lights were up, but it was raining, and they were off. Totally missed it.

So the goal, without overplanning (I hate having to rush from place to place, and we are NOT closing any parks this time. Lesson learned.)

We both work Sunday until around 7 or 8. We have the puppysitter to watch Kylie on Monday & Tuesday. We will pack on Sunday and drive up Sunday night, hopefully arriving by 11pm or so. Depending on how that all goes, a quick trip to Disney Springs is not out of the question, but I don't want to get my hopes up, especially if we go check in to the hotel first.

We are staying off property. Trying a new place. Our usual Red Roof Inn (which we've been disappointed with, even for a Red Roof Inn, over the last few years - but stay there because of the "bigger dog" privileges and policies) is no longer a Red Roof Inn as of a couple of weeks ago! No idea if they have the same owners or policies. This could become a factor in future trips with the mutt, but shouldn't have to worry about that for over a year. The new place looked pretty good and we got a much better deal on priceline than orbitz (even with an orbitz coupon code, it was still $20 cheaper on priceline.) It's called the Crown Club Inn - it's a few miles away, but not much further than the red roof, about the same price, and looks a lot nicer (fingers crossed.) $42/night for a double queen, I sprung for the Deluxe King for $52 - look at me, Mr. Moneybags LOL. Two nights worked out the same as it would have been for one night at the Disney value All-Star Movie resort. I can't see paying $110 to $120 (with taxes) for a value resort when we can often get a moderate for $120 to $130. If we had booked sooner and the value was $70 or something, that would be a different story. Not much available last minute this time.

...and we are going to try our first DVC deal for our January trip. (Really need to get on that today, may be too late?!)

But back to the (rough) plan.

Sunday night will either be a very quick Disney Springs trip, or just get to the hotel and go to sleep. I know we will both be tired. With that in mind, not planning to get up too early on Monday morning, just want to get on the road by 11-ish to get to our Epcot lunch reservation at Nine Dragons as part of the Candlelight Processional package. (The only options left were lunch, and the only venues left were China, Morocco, or Germany. I've never been crazy about the last two.)

Side note: really bummed because had we stuck to our original plan, the candlelight proc. would have been done by NPH. Ack. Now it's some guy I recognized from appearances on some shows but don't really know or care about. I think out of every person on the list, he's the least I care about LOL. Dammit, Whoopi, missed you by "this much!"

But this will be our first CP. So I hope it's cool. It's the 5PM one. So we have all day to casually explore Epcot, the Christmas in different countries, etc. I considered the $99 Holiday tour but then we'd have to be there before 9AM, and this is really our first time actively taking in all the Christmas stuff, so maybe too soon to go behind the scenes and perhaps lessen the magic a bit.

After the CP, our one and only park-hop will be to HS to see those Osborne lights, and since it's a Monday and we are AP's, I think we can get some kind of special glasses for viewing it.

I presume at that point we'll visit Julie (hopefully working that day) at the Tune-In Lounge, and see whatever is new/Star Wars-y at HS. Although the park closes at 8, so I suppose we are closing a park after all, but I can't imagine getting out of HS will be anywhere near as bad as getting out of MK or Epcot. 11 to 8 is a long time for us to go without a nap, LOL, so not putting much more on the day. Definitely not park-hopping to MK which is open til 11. No way. Not gonna do it. Not getting literally roped in there again.

Next day, Tuesday, will be MK day. Whatever time we get up, we'll head over to MK, no rush, see all the Christmasy-ness, get a new proper ornament for the tree (sometimes we use improper ornaments like WDW keychains LOL) and I'm thinking monorail to two resorts to see the gingerbread house thingy and maybe finally eat at California Grill - and get some more records (they are selling well!) at the Contemporary and make this an official biz trip. (woo hoo!) The monorail goes to Grand Floridian, right?

So I guess there isn't much point reading the upcoming trip report because I just told you everything we were going to do! Maybe I'll snap a few pics.

Already miss the puppy. Have to drive home Tuesday, not too late, for work on Wednesday. But we usually get antsy by early afternoon trying to avoid rush hour traffic around WPB. Oh, but may visit the BIL in WPB on the way home, which would alleviate some of that. Then back in January. Off to the DVC sites for that...
 
MinnieM123

MinnieM123

Premium Member
Tony the Tigger said:
Ok so Crown Club Inn off of 192 - impressed so far. Nice, clean room. Actually a big complex - 6 pools, a few bars, mini-golf, etc. For $50 a night at this time of year, can't go wrong.
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Happy to hear that you like the Inn. Haven't heard much positive about the 192 area behind WDW, but maybe parts of that area still offer a decent room, with very reasonable rates. (I just looked up some online reviews on the Inn, and most of them spoke well of the property.) Hope you're enjoying your evening at WDW tonight. :)
 
Tony the Tigger

Tony the Tigger

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
catmom46 said:
How was CP?
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Honestly...

I. Was. So. Bored.

I tried imagining the guy from Scandal was Whoopi. That didn't help.

I didn't know what to expect. But basically the star reader reads one or two lines, and then the chorus sings a whole song. I can't even handle that on Broadway. It's Cats all over again. Plot, please!

Of course the music was excellent. The horns were particularly impressive as they were very synchronized and moved around a lot.

The New Yorkers seated behind us - I couldn't believe how loud they were talking after the music had started. At one point, Brian and I reactively turned our heads halfway around and stopped short, ending up giving each other a look and reading each others' minds. I was thinking, "It'll be a great trip report post. Got decked and then escorted out of the processional." LOL. But they took the hint, either from us or someone else, and spent the rest of the show shushing their kid - who was not the loud one.

For entertainment, I picked out people in the orchestra or choir who really got overly "into it." The third cellist thought he was a guitarist in KISS. And one woman in the green "tree" section of the choir kept jerking and rearing her head with every "Hallelujah" and after the finale, she reacted like all the applause was for her. LOL. Loved it.

But seriously - boring. Luckily we brought beer and popcorn from across the way.
 

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