So we've been back for about a week now, and what a time we had! Only one major bump in the road as you can probably tell from the title, but we'll get to that 
First a little back story....
3 days before we were scheduled to leave, my husband was admitted to the hospital with acute pancreatitis. He was in excruciating pain and eventually put in the ICU! He was ok with me leaving, and honestly what would have been able to for him that doctors and nurses couldn't? He wasn't dying, so off we went.
Wednesday, August 16th
Our flight wasn't until 2:30 that day, so we got up early to visit Kevin and drop the dog at the kennel. Our Uber came for us around 12:15 since we're 10 mins or less from the airport. There were no lines at check-in or security so we breezed right thru and searched for our first meal of the day. We decided on Sbarro pizza. While we were eating I saw Brook's best friends older brother walking in the terminal(who is my age). We called him over and it turned out that he, his wife and kids were not only on our flight, but also staying at CBR! We chatted for a few mins and then went our separate ways. Brook was begging me to talk to some pilots so I creepily approached one lol. I told him we were headed to FL to visit Embry-Riddle and he was more than happy to chat with us. Turns out he graduated from DSU, her number one choice as of right now! They exchanged numbers and she was on cloud 9! After that we went in search of something sweet. We finally settled on sharing a HUGE oreo rice krispy treat. It looked a lot better than it was, so we tossed it after a few bites.
We boarded and had an uneventful flight. Touched down right on time at 5pm. It felt very strange not to head directly to the ME. We grabbed our luggage, picked our rental car and decided right then and there that instead of driving to Daytona right away that we would go out of our way and head to Epcot. The major reason I decided on this was that the next day(Aug 16th) was the last day the Express Transportation could be purchased. We would need that on our tour day to get to AK in time for our FoP FP. I tried to purchase it over phone, but was told we needed to do it at a guest relations location. It was then that we decided to head to Epcot for dinner and few rides since we had to go for the purchase. Brook hopped on MDE during our ride and snagged us a FP for SSE and a 7:45 ADR for Coral Reef. She chose that since we had never been. We got to Epcot and it felt GREAT to be back and even better that we were ''sneaking'' some extra Disney time!!
For dinner I got the Mahi-Mahi with coconut rice and Brook got the kids mac n cheese. In the end, we both agreed that the atmospheres was neat, but there would be no reason to ever return. We took our desserts to go and headed over to MS with a FP Brook got while we were eating. We were excited to try the new version that had just opened back up 3 days prior. We assumed that since the ride is now called RELAUNCHED! Mission Space that it would be totally different. It wasn't. The only that we noticed that changed was the intro no longer has Gary Sinise. The scene during the ride was THE SAME! Bummer, it's one of my fave ride. The CM told us that we were on the last ride of the night! After riding we headed out and drove to Daytona Beach .
We arrived around 10:30 pm and the place was a DUMP. I was actually scared to be there and really wished my husband was with us. The Days Inn we were staying at looked like something off of an episode of Cops. There were some ''ladies'' hanging around outside if ya know what I mean lol. Had we arrived earlier I would have taken the loss and found another room, that's how uncomfortable I was. I pushed a chair in front of the door, locked both locks, and literally prayed that we would be ok. The bed was comfy tho lol. We woke up and realized there was free breakfast being offered so we stopped in. I had toast and Frosted Flakes and Brook made herself a waffle. While eating, a maintenance man came in, stood on a chair about 3 feet behind us, stabbed the ceiling with a sharpie and TONSSSSS of water came pouring out into a trash can. We lost it!!! Like diedddd laughing and got the heck out of there LOL!
The drive to Embry-Riddle was short uneventful. The school was beautiful but in the end Brook crossed it off her list.
Around noon we headed to Publix to get a bouquet and balloons for Elsie and a case of water for the week. We drove straight to POR and decided that after we visited with her that we would stay for lunch. She recognized us right away and said to her co-worker...''It's the sisters that are really mother and daughter''. I was glad she remembered us because it had been about 16 months since we last saw her!
After our meeting we checked out the pin board and grabbed some lunch. I opted for the create your own pasta with penne, alfredo, chicken and every veggie known to man. It was good...not great. But I had been craving alfredo for the past few days. Brook got the kids chicken nuggets and a king cake.
After lunch we drove over to CBR to check in. We arrived at 2:30 and I was surprised that we still hadn't gotten our room text yet. We ended up hanging around the lobby for about an hour until we got the text. Our room was in a great spot. Trinidad North, room number 3321. It was about a minute from the bus stop and quiet pool, and about 5-7 mins from the main pool and buffet. I was very happy with the location. The room itself was really nice! I didn't take a pic, but the decor reminded me of the Poly. We had a king bed which was SOOO COMFORTABLE!!! Double sinks behind barn doors and the fridge had a new glass door. The light fixtures were also very pretty. We loved the room except that it stunk. It only bothered me right when we came in, it must have been a smoking room.
Up next...our first night continued....
First a little back story....
3 days before we were scheduled to leave, my husband was admitted to the hospital with acute pancreatitis. He was in excruciating pain and eventually put in the ICU! He was ok with me leaving, and honestly what would have been able to for him that doctors and nurses couldn't? He wasn't dying, so off we went.
Wednesday, August 16th
Our flight wasn't until 2:30 that day, so we got up early to visit Kevin and drop the dog at the kennel. Our Uber came for us around 12:15 since we're 10 mins or less from the airport. There were no lines at check-in or security so we breezed right thru and searched for our first meal of the day. We decided on Sbarro pizza. While we were eating I saw Brook's best friends older brother walking in the terminal(who is my age). We called him over and it turned out that he, his wife and kids were not only on our flight, but also staying at CBR! We chatted for a few mins and then went our separate ways. Brook was begging me to talk to some pilots so I creepily approached one lol. I told him we were headed to FL to visit Embry-Riddle and he was more than happy to chat with us. Turns out he graduated from DSU, her number one choice as of right now! They exchanged numbers and she was on cloud 9! After that we went in search of something sweet. We finally settled on sharing a HUGE oreo rice krispy treat. It looked a lot better than it was, so we tossed it after a few bites.
We boarded and had an uneventful flight. Touched down right on time at 5pm. It felt very strange not to head directly to the ME. We grabbed our luggage, picked our rental car and decided right then and there that instead of driving to Daytona right away that we would go out of our way and head to Epcot. The major reason I decided on this was that the next day(Aug 16th) was the last day the Express Transportation could be purchased. We would need that on our tour day to get to AK in time for our FoP FP. I tried to purchase it over phone, but was told we needed to do it at a guest relations location. It was then that we decided to head to Epcot for dinner and few rides since we had to go for the purchase. Brook hopped on MDE during our ride and snagged us a FP for SSE and a 7:45 ADR for Coral Reef. She chose that since we had never been. We got to Epcot and it felt GREAT to be back and even better that we were ''sneaking'' some extra Disney time!!
For dinner I got the Mahi-Mahi with coconut rice and Brook got the kids mac n cheese. In the end, we both agreed that the atmospheres was neat, but there would be no reason to ever return. We took our desserts to go and headed over to MS with a FP Brook got while we were eating. We were excited to try the new version that had just opened back up 3 days prior. We assumed that since the ride is now called RELAUNCHED! Mission Space that it would be totally different. It wasn't. The only that we noticed that changed was the intro no longer has Gary Sinise. The scene during the ride was THE SAME!
Bummer, it's one of my fave ride. The CM told us that we were on the last ride of the night! After riding we headed out and drove to Daytona Beach . We arrived around 10:30 pm and the place was a DUMP. I was actually scared to be there and really wished my husband was with us. The Days Inn we were staying at looked like something off of an episode of Cops. There were some ''ladies'' hanging around outside if ya know what I mean lol. Had we arrived earlier I would have taken the loss and found another room, that's how uncomfortable I was. I pushed a chair in front of the door, locked both locks, and literally prayed that we would be ok. The bed was comfy tho lol. We woke up and realized there was free breakfast being offered so we stopped in. I had toast and Frosted Flakes and Brook made herself a waffle. While eating, a maintenance man came in, stood on a chair about 3 feet behind us, stabbed the ceiling with a sharpie and TONSSSSS of water came pouring out into a trash can. We lost it!!! Like diedddd laughing and got the heck out of there LOL!
The drive to Embry-Riddle was short uneventful. The school was beautiful but in the end Brook crossed it off her list.
Around noon we headed to Publix to get a bouquet and balloons for Elsie and a case of water for the week. We drove straight to POR and decided that after we visited with her that we would stay for lunch. She recognized us right away and said to her co-worker...''It's the sisters that are really mother and daughter''. I was glad she remembered us because it had been about 16 months since we last saw her!
After our meeting we checked out the pin board and grabbed some lunch. I opted for the create your own pasta with penne, alfredo, chicken and every veggie known to man. It was good...not great. But I had been craving alfredo for the past few days. Brook got the kids chicken nuggets and a king cake.
After lunch we drove over to CBR to check in. We arrived at 2:30 and I was surprised that we still hadn't gotten our room text yet. We ended up hanging around the lobby for about an hour until we got the text. Our room was in a great spot. Trinidad North, room number 3321. It was about a minute from the bus stop and quiet pool, and about 5-7 mins from the main pool and buffet. I was very happy with the location. The room itself was really nice! I didn't take a pic, but the decor reminded me of the Poly. We had a king bed which was SOOO COMFORTABLE!!! Double sinks behind barn doors and the fridge had a new glass door. The light fixtures were also very pretty. We loved the room except that it stunk. It only bothered me right when we came in, it must have been a smoking room.
Up next...our first night continued....
The buffet was cheap...something like $20 per person..maybe a lil more. No AP discount tho. I thought it was really ghetto, they shouldn't have even bothered! They were showing the nightly movie on one of the tent walls, so you could BARELY see it...the picture was so faint. The food was....edible. There was regular buffet and a kids buffet. All I have written in my notes food wise is..turkey, BBQ wings, mashed and baked pots, rice n beans and some of the kids selections which were pasta, chicken nuggets and mac n chz. There was a big dessert case as well. In the end I wished we hadn't wasted our time. Oh well, ya live and learn! We walked back to our room and watched TV for a bit before falling asleep. Tomorrow was our last full day!!!
