Trip Report The Rain Never Bothered Us Anyway - June 2024

Hi! We're back and I'm sort of settled back into our routine, so I thought I would try to get started on this report. There were lots of ups and downs, but we had a good trip! And as my title suggests, the torrential rain and flooding they were calling for did not happen and we were not bothered by the rain that did happen! I'm going to start with some general thoughts in this first post before jumping into the actual trip, so please bear with me.

I really struggled this trip, and not just the way you would think I would and definitely not just the way I thought I would. It was definitely hard going back without Lily, but I really struggled physically this time too. I've always been blessed with a good metabolism and have stayed pretty much the same weight I was in high school (things just shifted a little after having kids), but I'm going to be honest here and tell you all that I've been pretty lazy and sedentary since Lily's accident and we haven't had the best eating habits. Combine that with the hormone changes that happened almost like a light switch went off when I turned 50, and I'm carrying 15 more pounds than I am used to. My legs and feet hurt like they never have before on a Disney trip! By the end of our 5th day, my left ankle and foot were swollen and the top of my foot looked like I was getting the "Disney crud" on it. I wore the same shoes on our first day that I have always worn on Disney trips and that I wore all weekend in Des Moines and have never had any issues with, but I had pretty bad blisters on my left foot by the end of our first day. Luckily, I had plenty of blister band aids and such and was able to treat them and not have them give me much issue. I was just not able to tolerate the heat like I used to be able too either! All of this was very frustrating to me.

My heart was literally breaking the first day watching Owen struggle. He and Lily were so close, and he thought he would be ok, but he really wasn't. He was almost crying in the lobby of CBR first thing when we got there. Then later that day, as we talked about the schedule for the week, he commented that he wasn't planning on swimming when we were at Typhoon Lagoon. He and Lily always hung out together in the wave pool and lazy river at the water parks. I asked before scheduling the After Hours at TL and he was excited about it. Just not when it came right down to it. He did end up enjoying his time there with Logan, but, man, it was hard watching him work through it.

But you know what was the hardest part? I never would have thought of this ahead of time, but the first time they asked how many in our party and I had to stop myself from saying 5 and say 4. It hurt every single time I had to say that.

Not gonna lie, I did cry a little on the plane on the way down, but once I got myself under control again, there was a rainbow outside the window. It was hard to catch with the camera, but it was definitely there! It made me stop and smile.
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I promise, the rest of the posts will be more upbeat!
 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We opted to catch the bus at the Old Port Royale bus stop. I don't remember waiting a terribly long time for the bus to arrive, so it must have come fairly quickly. We started out heading to the Marketplace side since our lunch ADR was on the west side.
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The benefit of going early in the day is the lack of crowds!!

Brian and the boys started at the Lego Store while I got some pics.
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TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
World of Disney was next.
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We left without purchasing anything! I think that is probably a first for me!

We headed to the Pin Traders shop as I was trying to find these pins:
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Unfortunately, I never was able to find the Epcot one and I didn't want a partial set, so I didn't come home with any of them! (the picture is from an Ebay listing where they are way overpriced)

The boys were starting to get hangry, so we changed course and headed toward the west side to see if we could check in early for our lunch.
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TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We stopped into the M&M store on the way for a quick hit of AC.
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Then we headed down to City Works.
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We were about 45 minutes early. As we were approaching, we saw them turning people away at the door, so we just sat and waited for awhile. We were right in front of the House of Blues.
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At 12:30 on the dot, we were able to go into City Works.
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Their AC had stopped working and they were getting temporary units and trying to cool down the restaurant. Apparently, they had cancelled all ADRs prior to our 12:30 one. Luckily, it was relatively cool and comfortable. There was a slight odor to the units, but nothing too awful and we didn't notice it after the first few minutes.

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And Logan had his first Disney alcohol!! It was some sort of pineapple cider.
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TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Brian ordered the Cuban sandwich
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Logan got the Scorpion Burger (habanero pepper jack, jalapenos, five pepper jam, aurgula, tomato, and scorpion pepper aioli)
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Owen got the Smokehouse Burger (BBQ pulled pork shoulder, smoked provolone, BBQ bacon onion relish, Carolina mustard BBQ sauce, and buttermilk onion rings)
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And I ordered the grilled cheese sandwich (smoked chopped brisket, BBQ bacon onion relish, beer cheese sauce, American cheese, and smoked provolone on Challah bread)
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My sandwich was delicious!! Everyone else enjoyed theirs as well and we all agreed that it was worth the wait to get in!

We still didn't have a room ready text, so we headed back toward the Marketplace to finish looking at the stores we had skipped. We stopped at Disney Style on the way.
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TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
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Our destination was Days of Christmas, but I stopped in the Vera and Lilly Pulitzer stores on the way.
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Then we hit the art store and started walking over the bridge.
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We decide to stop at Swirls on the Water for some Dole Whips! Brian got lime and the rest of us got pineapple. They really hit the spot!
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TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
It was about 2:45 at that point and still no room ready text, but I had gotten a text from @Tuvalu that she and @TrolleyFollower91 were on the way to DS, so we headed over to where the bus dumps everyone in to wait for them.

A few pics as we were leaving the bridge:
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We found a shady spot on the porch of the DVC building and waited. Soon enough, they arrived! We had a nice little chat and caught up with each other. Unfortunately, we didn't get to spend too much time together because I had some cranky boys that I needed to get back to CBR so I could figure out what was going on with our rooms! I'll share the pic again in case some of you didn't see it in my PTR.
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I am so glad we were able to make this happen!

And a blurry pic of the water tower on the way back to CBR.
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TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I initially thought we had left Disney Springs without making a single purchase, but then I remembered the $$ pair of Maui Jim sunglasses that I bought for Owen! But no actual Disney purchases for us! Brian was shocked!!

We were soon back at Old Port Royale.
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Brian and the boys found a spot to hang out in the lobby while I went to the desk again to figure out what was taking so long to get our rooms. The CM was very nice and she was apologetic especially when she saw we had been there at 8:25 that morning checking in. She made a call and was told they were working on the AC unit our room. (I really wanted to remind her that we had two rooms and surely they didn't both have issues with the AC, but I managed to keep that to myself!) She went to her manager to see if she could hurry things along. She came back and said she could put me in different rooms but they wouldn't be connecting. I was like, we've waited all day for these connecting rooms, I'll wait a little bit longer. She went back over to the manager and returned saying they should be ready shortly and was telling me the problem with the AC units is that people try to turn the temperature up too high because the rooms get cold with the ceiling fans. About that time, I finally got the room ready text!! She wrote the two room numbers down for me on a map and we were off to bell services to get our luggage. We're special and like to handle our luggage ourselves, so we took our suitcases and headed off across the parking lots as that was the most direct way to our rooms. We didn't end up in one of the two buildings I had requested, but we ended up being in a perfect location and it only took a few extra seconds to get to the main sidewalk to get to the Skyliner station.

All is well with the world, right!?! Wrong!!! We went into the room assigned to Brian and Logan and realized that the connecting door was on the wrong wall to connect with the room assigned to me and Owen. So we went into the other room which was also a connecting room, just not to their room! I left the boys in that room and hoofed it back over to Old Port Royale. I talked to yet again another CM and explained that we waited all day for connecting rooms and when we just now finally got into our rooms, they were both connecting rooms, just not to each other. He was appalled and immediately got on the phone with someone. After verifying that we had done nothing other than enter the first room, he was able to transfer the second room to the one connecting to mine and Owen's. I hiked all the way back praying that Brian and Logan's Magicbands would open the second room. And they did!! Way too much drama to get into our rooms!! The new room was a corner room and had 2 windows, so Brian and I took that room and left Owen and Logan in the original room. I made them stay out of the second room until I got all of the pictures I wanted.

So here are the pics of the Under the Sea rooms in Trinidad at CBR:
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TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Bathroom pics:
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And since I was so worried about it, there were soap dishes for the hand soap!
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And the fifth sleeper pulled down:
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And the murphy bed pulled down in the other room:
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A couple of thoughts on the rooms: Overall, I really liked them! However, I wish there had been more counter space next to the sinks, it was difficult getting ready in the morning and having to constantly move things around. A minor inconvenience, but something I would have done a little differently. I liked the extra storage space that they have built in. We didn't really need it with just two of us in each room, but had we all been in the same room, it would have been very useful. The connecting doors would not stay open without being propped. We ended up using luggage which is fine except that it was a little bulky to walk around every time we wanted to go between rooms. They needed to have some sort of door stop available.
 

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