I guess I'll start out with the introductions of the cast and crew.
My name is Lisa (a/k/aTinkerbell as my boss likes to call me) and I am a 44 year old paralegal, wife to John and mother to Hunter and Lacey (who didn't join us on this trip 'cause she's attending missionary college). My husband, John, also 44, owns and operates a cabinet shop which is good because I can always talk his boss into letting him off work to go to Disney.
John acts all nonchalant about going to Disney but when somebody asks him a question, he immediately starts chattering away.
Since I am still uploading pictures and can't seem to find a picture of John and I from this year's trip, I guess I'll just use a picture from last year's trip.
Hunter is our son and he turned 13 just 3 days before we arrived in Disney. We couldn't think of a better way to celebrate becoming a teenager than by partying hard with Mickey and the gang. Hunter is a multi-talented little dude. He can play the acoustic guitar, electric guitar, keyboard and viola. Magical illusions and cup stacking are his newest tricks and he's pretty darn good at both. When he's not playing an instrument or trying to trick you, he's playing football or singing in the honor choir. See....I told you he was multi-talented.
Also along for the ride this year was my Mama, Edna. She's 76 years old and dotes on John and Hunter like they were her little babies. Mama has been to Disney with us once at Thanksgiving, 2000. That was back in the day when we stayed offsite 'cause we didn't know any better.
We were anxious to see how Mama would do with all the walking, heat, humidity, conveyor belts, etc.
Again, I don't have all of my pictures uploaded so I'll just use a picture of Hunter and Mama riding the clamshells into The Seas with Nemo and Friends. Not the best of pictures but a picture nevertheless:
We are a pretty silly fun loving family that always seems to attract.......hum.......let's just say,we always seem to have an "incident" happen during each of our trips. Over the years:
1) We got stuck on Test Track in the cold section and I almost tinkled myself;
2) My tooth (temporary crown) fell out while eating lunch at the Electric Umbrella and I had to super glue it in;
3) John got his toe broken after being run over in a drive-by scooter incident;
4) Hunter boogied with every character we ran into;
5) My wonderful, beautiful, loving family pedaled off on the surrey bike without me when my shoe hit the pedal and flew over my shoulder;
6) Lacey and Hunter jumped for joy in front of the Epcot ball;
7) We laughed so much during the trips that I caught myself saying "stop making me laugh or......" every 30 minutes.
And so forth and so on. We love spending time together and there's no better place than Walt Disney World to act silly and have a good time. Our goofiness paid off during the trip and that same goofiness inspired the title of this report.
This was our 15th trip to Disney in 13 years and our 5th stay at the Caribbean Beach Resort. We spent 9 1/2 glorious days at Walt Disney World and I could have stayed longer had my boss not insisted that I return to "the real world".
I have people ask me all the time why we go to Disney World year after year after year. I've tried to explain it to them but, unless you are a Disney fan like myself, you just can't understand. Remember those old Lay's potato chips commercials? You know, the ones that said something like "Lay's potato chips...so good you can't eat just one!" I liken Disney to a Lay's potato chip....."Walt Disney World is so fun you can't go just once!"
Now that the introductions have been made, I guess I'll get busy working on the next installment.
Oh....I hope that everybody feels free to post replies/comments 'cause I really like chatting.
found more pictures of the show. Apparently, the ones that I posted first were from one camera and the ones below are from another. Hopefully, you aren't too tired of looking.
Okay, so there were more but they were pretty much the same as the ones I posted earlier so I won't post any more of the show.
Once the show was over, we, again, waited for some of the people to start filing out of the building but, for some reason, everybody was stopping. What was going on? Why weren't they leaving?
Because it was raining! A lot of the people didn't have ponchos so they didn't want to leave until the rain stopped. Others had on ponchos and couldn't get out. The castmembers were telling everybody that they had to exit the theater because they needed to get ready for the next show. While I didn't relish the thought of going out into the rain, we were ready but couldn't get out.
Some of the people were ticked off because they were having to go out in the rain without ponchos. I could understand them not wanting to leave but they should have also understood that this is Florida and it rains all the time AND the castmembers couldn't help it if they had to clear the theater in order to get ready for the next show.
Finally, we made our way out and it looked like this outside:
It wasn't raining hard, just showering and it stopped just about the time we made it to The Oasis. We took off our ponchos and decided to step aside for a little bit to let some of the people pass us. I guess, since it had rained, a lot of people figured they'd leave the park early.
While waiting, we looked around The Oasis. There are some neat animals there and some beautiful foliage:
When I last left off, we were leaving the Animal Kingdom and were a bit damp...both from the rain and from the misting fans. Luckily, by the time we left the park, it had stopped raining.
We walked down the pathway towards the bus stops and saw several buses pulling away. We were hoping that one of those wasn't the Caribbean Beach bus because that would mean we were in for a wait. As they passed us, we could see that they were for other resorts and not for the CBR.
We may have waited five minutes for a bus when one came pulling in. There weren't many people waiting with us and we thought that, maybe, the bus driver would wait for a while for other guests to board before we left. Thank goodness he didn't! Why? Because it was cold as heck in the bus. Great...another cold bus. The one that we had ridden on from Epcot was freezing cold too. Cold buses and damp clothes and hair are not a good mix.
The bus left as soon as the few people at the bus stop boarded and we were soon pulling into the Caribbean Beach Resort. We got off at our stop and walked across the parking lot to our building. The skies still looked like it may rain more and I worried that the luau would be cancelled since the show takes place outside. Me, being the smart Diser that I am, had made a back-up plan just in case the luau was cancelled. I made a reservation at Ohana at 8:00. So, even if it did rain, then we would still be at the Polynesian around the same time and we could still eat.
Anyway, we got back to our room and we found that mousekeeping had left us a little surprise. A towel dragonfly:
We had a little bit of time before we had to be at the luau so we decided to just rest for a while. John, of course, took a quick nap. Hunter flipped channels while I got our clothes out for the luau. I know it's a vacation but I always want to go-go-go. I guess I don't want to miss anything.
After about an hour, it was time to get ready. I called next door and talked to Mama, woke up John and told Hunter it was time to get dressed. We wanted to wear something that was semi-matching and Mama and I had gone shopping several times to find something for her to wear.
Once Mama was done, she came a knockin' on the door and when she said something, her voice was nearly gone. Oh no! The misting fans, the rain and the cold buses had done a number on her. We asked her if she felt bad and she said no not really. She was a little tired and sounded worse than she felt.
We walked across the parking lot to the bus stop and waited for a Magic Kingdom bus. I think this was our longest wait so far and it was only about 15 minutes. Of course, we had to keep in mind that it wasn't peak traveling hours to the parks and we could have just missed a bus before getting to the bus stop. When the bus did pull up, we were happy to see that there was plenty of room for all of us to sit down.
In no time at all, we were pulling into the Magic Kingdom and walking over to the monorail station. We saw that there was a monorail sitting there and we wanted to try and get on it. God Lord have mercy, walking up those ramps can be tiring at the end of the day.
We made it in plenty of time and Mama and I were able to sit down. Hunter and John stood up so that we weren't all squooshed in.
In 2009, we went to the luau and we searched all over the Polynesian for the theater. Every castmember we stopped seemed to give us different directions. We were nearly running to get to the theater that year.
This year, I remembered which way we needed to go and we were soon at the entrance where the castmembers give you the leis. We were directed to the photographer who took a picture of us all. Mama didn't want to get in the picture because she thought we needed a family picture. Huh? What was she talking about? She IS family!
Guess what? She was in the picture! (Sorry, I forgot to scan the picture so I could post it.)
After taking the picture, we were shown to another check-in line. I took this picture while waiting:
We were soon shown to our seat which was pretty darn good considering that we could be either Category 2 or 3. We were told that we had a Category 2 table. I was happy with the table we were given. It was off to the right hand side of the stage almost to the end but we were the second table which meant we had a good view.
Not long after we were seated, our server brought out the most delicious salad, juicy pineapple and wonderful bread. We fell in love with these when we saw the luau in 2009 and had so looked forward to Mama having a taste (or two or three).
Mama and Hunter:
Hunter is a super picky eater. He doesn't like anything with a sauce or gravy on it. He didn't eat any of the salad or pineapple but he ate almost all of the bread. Our server was very attentive and brought out two more wedges of pineapple and another loaf of bread.
I can not remember if the show started while we were eating our salads or if it started after the entrees came out. If they came out during the salads, I didn't take pictures of them.
Next, came the entree platter.
Here in Louisiana, if you have rice, it's usually either smothered with gravy or it is served with gumbo or jambalaya. At least that's the way it's served in our house. So, while the rice was good, it wasn't our favorite thing on the platter. The other foods were very good. Hunter ate some of the meat and continued to munch on the bread. Our server noticed this and brought out two hot dogs for Hunter which were very much appreciated.
Now, let's move on to the show pictures. Just after the show started, it started raining which meant that the performers had to perform on a small stage rather than come down near the audience. Still, the show was great. Ya'll are probably going to be sick of the pictures by the time I post them all. Some are fairly good, some are just okay and some aren't so good.
The girls were amazing....twirling the little pom-pom on a string thingies, shaking the little sound maker thingamabobs and swishing their grass skirts.
At some point in time during the above pictures, a fire twirler guy came out and he was AMAZING! None of the pictures turned out good and I guess I ended up dumping them. He was a little limited on how much he could do because it was raining pretty good by that time. He would get the crowd going and all of us were yelling and clapping for him. His performance was definitely one of the highlights of the show.
Also at some point, the servers came out with our desserts. They made a big show out of bring them out....there was hollering and smoke on the trays.
The dessert was tasty but it wasn't scrumpdelicious. I'm not a huge fan of raspberry as they are a bit tart. Having said that, there were no little volcanos left on the platter once we were done.
By the time the show and dinner was over (the rain had stopped completely), I had to tinkle very badly so Mama and I went in search of the bathroom as did everyone else in the theater. We waited our turn while John and Hunter waited outside for us.
We met up with the guys and started walking back down the pathway to the main building. Just then, we heard fireworks and stopped for a minute to watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks. What a great spot to watch them. I can see now why so many love the Polynesian.
Since the fireworks had just ended, we knew that the Magic Kingdom bus stops would be inundated with guests. So, we figured we'd just take our time and linger a little while.
I know that I took pictures of all of us in the lobby of the Polynesian and that I took pictures of the hidden Mickeys in the floor but I can't find them right now. Since Mama was getting hoarse, we thought we better stop in the gift shops and see if we could find some type of throat drop or, at least, some peppermint. We found some Sucrets (spelling?) in one of the shops and she bought those. We also did a little window shopping before catching the monorail back to the Magic Kingdom.
In these two pictures, you can see how close to the front our seats were had the performers been able to come all the way down.
I forgot to mention something earlier too. There was a little boy about 3, maybe 4 that kept walking out onto the performance area. His Mama and the rest of his group would just snap their fingers and say something like "you're going to get into trouble if you don't get over here". Even the performers were looking at the parents like "get your kid outta here". This was going on while it wasn't raining so the performers were coming down pretty close. Had that been my kid, he wouldn't have done that but once (had he ever even done it that one time). Finally, an older man from the group went up there and got him and made him sit down. Then, the kid fussed for about 15 minutes that he wanted to get down.
Moving on.....I found the pictures we took in the lobby:
He's just kidding....this time.
Mama took this one:
****Now, back to where I was before. Mama bought the Sucrets and we were off to board the monorail. We had an entire car all to ourselves. I have a picture of John lying in Hunter's lap on the monorail and I can't seem to find it. It was too cute.
We walked over to the bus stop and were soon on a bus back to the Caribbean Beach Resort. Tomorrow was our "down day" and we were looking forward to doing "whatever".
We were now several days into our Walt Disney World vacation and it was time for a "down day". You know the day when you have nothing planned and you just go with the flow. It took us many many trips to Disney before I realized that everyone needs a "down day". So, we lengthened our vacations and we built in some down time. Hey, seemed like a reasonable thing to do to me.
I did book us a 5:30 p.m. ADR at Planet Hollywood. This would be an out of pocket meal but we planned on using the $15.00 vouchers that came with our packages.
I don't have a clue what time we got up and about that morning. I know that John had to take his seizure meds at 7:00 a.m. and that we fell back asleep. Knowing me, it wasn't a deep sleep from that point. I'm not the type of gal who can sleep late especially while on vacation. My boys, however, are another story.
Once we were up and about, I decided now was as good a time as any to walk over to the Custom House and get our Hoop Dee Doo Review tickets. In order to avoid another another dining credit mix-up, I called Mama to tell her I needed to get her Keys to the World card. When she answered the phone, her voice was almost gone! I told her I'd be right over.
Mama answered the door and, while she sounded horrible, she said she didn't feel too bad. She was tired and her throat was a little scratchy. Thank goodness I built in this day of rest. I asked her if I needed to go to the drug store and get her anything and she said no, she'd be okay.
I got Mama's card and set out on my walk. It was a beautiful day. I know that these pictures will look almost exactly the same as those I posted of my earlier walk but I can't help taking pictures around the resort. It's too pretty not to.
This was our view from our door:
I took a slight right and walked down this pathway towards the promenade. Notice the edging around the grass and shrubbery. It looks like a wooden chain link.
The bridge that crosses over the lake, through the island and on to Old Port Royale:
Well, hello there my fine feathered friends. Didn't I just see you a couple of days ago? Don't blame you one bit for making your home right there. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't mind joining ya:
When I got to the next wooden/wooded section, I saw this:
They were doing refurbishment on this section which meant that we wouldn't be able to rent a surrey bike and take a spin around the resort.
That was one of the things that we were really looking forward to doing with Mama. I made a mental note to ask a castmember when it would be reopened. We had another "down day" planned and I hoped that it would be open by then.
I took a little detour around the closed off pathway:
I cut through the village of Barbados and through the parking lot:
I saw this as I was about to cross the road to the Custom House:
I made it to the nice cool Custom House in no time at all even though I had stopped quite a bit to take pictures. I hopped into the Concierge line and waited behind just one couple who were finishing up. I was called to the desk and told the castmember that I was there to pick up our Hoop Dee Doo Review tickets as well as my mother's. I handed over the cards and the tickets were printed in just a few minutes.
I almost forgot to ask when the promenade would be reopened but remembered at the last minute. Unfortunately, he didn't know but said I could stop at the marina to ask. I thanked him and set back out into the Florida sunshine.
I cut through Barbados again and decided to take a left towards Martinique so that I could take pictures of the entire resort (again):
I decided I wouldn't stop at the marina right then but would wait until later to ask about the promenade. I guess I didn't take any pictures of Old Port Royale or of the main pool during this walking tour. I walked over the bridge to the island:
You can see from the picture above that the shrubbery was pretty small. We saw several landscapers removing the existing plants and replacing them with all new ones. It was a bit of a shame because I had gone on and on to Mama how pretty and big the landscaping was before we arrived. Oh well, we'll get to see how much it's grown when we go back in May.
I reached the next section of the bridge and had to take another picture, of course:
And, one more picture before arriving back at our building:
When I got back to our building, I stopped at Mama's room first to give her her Hoop Dee Doo Review ticket and her card back. She had gotten dressed, had talked to my older sister, her cousin and her sister. She had burned up the phone lines while I was gone and I wasn't gone very long either.
After I had gotten the Hoop Dee Dee Review tickets and checked on Mama, we decided that a trip to Downtown Disney was in order. John and Hunter finished getting ready since they were slacking in the getting dressed department that morning while I chatted with Mama. She still insisted that she didn't feel as bad as she sounded. She did want to see if she could find some peppermint or other kind of mints to keep her throat from feeling so scratchy.
Once we were all ready, we walked down to the bus stop where we experienced the longest wait of our trip....20 minutes for a DTD bus.
While we were waiting, Lacey called. I walked over to the side of the bus stop so I wasn't disturbing the other people waiting for a bus.
Lacey had good news and she had bad news. I hate it when a conversation starts that way. While Jesse hadn't formally proposed to her (John never formally proposed to me either....just asked me one day if I wanted to get married.....such the romantic! NOT!), they had discussed getting married months before and now they were talking details. Like, where they were going to get married, who was going to marry them, etc.
We chatted about the good news for a little while but, in the back of my mind, I wanted to tell her to give me the bad news. But, I didn't want to spoil her fun of wedding talk.
Finally, she gave me the bad news. She and some of the other Mission students had traveled to South Carolina to see the SC Mission students graduate from the Mission. They had all met at the church and then traveled in one or two vehicles. While they were gone, someone had broken into Lacey's Jeep and had stolen her CD player, her speakers and even the car battery. They had trouble getting the battery out, so the cut some of the hoses, wiring and cables just to get it out. Crap! I knew the bad news was going to be bad!
There was more good news though! Mr. Rick, a wonderful gentleman at the church was already starting to repair the damage underneath the hood and was working on getting her a new battery. Thank You God for Mr. Rick!
I told Lacey to tell Mr. Rick that I would call the bank and send money to her if he'd let me know how much to send. She said that she had already told Mr. Rick that and he had refused any money. Again, Thank You God for Mr. Rick!
Just as we were finishing up the conversation, the DTD bus pulled up and I was actually thankful that we had a longer than normal wait so I could chat with Lacey. I told Lacey that I'd have her daddy call her a little later and that I wasn't going to say anything to Mama yet because she'd be worried to death.
Once we were on the bus, I filled everybody in on the good part of the conversation with Lacey and left out the bad. I'd tell John the "bad" later on when we were out of earshot of Mama.
The bus ride to DTD wasn't too long so we were soon being let off at the DTD Marketplace bus stop. Our first picture was of Hunter with the Christmas setting:
Our first store to visit was the Christmas store. Mama was on the lookout for a wooden ornament to put on her tree. Many years ago, she started collecting wooden ornaments and, now, everywhere she goes, she looks for one. Some pictures I took inside the store:
I could have sworn I took more pictures but I can't find them right now and they aren't on photobucket so.......
We found a few things in the store. I found a pretty gold bracelet that I just had to have. Mama found a new Christmas ornament. Not a wooden one but one that looked like wood.
Our next stop was in Mickey Mart. I found all sorts of goodies in there! I remember some of the items I bought were the black totes that were on sale for $7, a Mickey Indiana Jones baseball for Hunter and a couple of cookie cutters for two of my friends. I know that we bought a few more items but I don't remember what they are right now. I do remember that we had two big bags and my total was a little more than $50.00! Gotta love Mickey Mart!
Hunter was just itching to get over to Once Upon a Toy to build a new lightsaber. Ya'll already know I am not a Star Wars fan and know nothing about it but I do know that lightsabers are something every little boy just has to have. So, we set off for Once Upon A Toy:
I don't think you can see it in the above picture but there was a vendor to the left who was selling all sorts of little Disney souvies. I picked up a Queen of Hearts button (not the kind you wear but a big one that you sit on your desk that looks like a paperweight but is a push button) that yelled "Off with your head!" and a Scar button that said "I'm surrounded by idiots!". They were only $5.00 each so I bought one of each for my boss. He's always muttering something similar under his breath. Now, he could just push a button and somebody would say it outloud for him.
We made it over to Once Upon A Toy and Hunter and John immediately went to the lightsaber building station. I, of course, took pictures:
By the time Mama and I walked over to see how Hunter was doing, he was finished and ready to check out. Man, that was fast!
Up next was a visit to World of Disney. I absolutely love that store. I could wander around in it for hours and hours and not get enough of it. Since I was too busy shopping, I didn't take too many pictures.
I have no idea how long we stayed in World of Disney. I know that, at a couple of points in time, we were all separated from one another. Now, I know going in, that John, Hunter and I will be separated. Hunter knows to stick with one of us. Mama, however, didn't know that Hunter knew that and I think she was watching for him the entire time. I finally convinced her that Hunter knew the drill and was definitely with John since he wasn't with me or her.
I bought my niece's Christmas present while in the store...a pretty blue and white sugar and creamer set. I bought a necklace and earrings and Mama bought a ring.
After our shopping was done, we were all starving. It was still a long time until our Planet Hollywood ADR and we didn't want to wait. I suggested we see how long we would have to wait on a table at T-Rex. I figured there was no chance in heck that we'd be able to get in but it was worth a shot.
I got to the podium and asked how long it would be if we waited on a table and they said "maybe 10 minutes". I gave them my name and we waited. The Disney gods were shining down on us, that's for sure. We maaaay have waited 10 minutes before our name was called. We were shown to the Ice Cave and given menus.
Hunter already knew what he wanted so I gave him the camera so he could wander around and take pictures:
John acts all nonchalant about going to Disney but when somebody asks him a question, he immediately starts chattering away. 
We were anxious to see how Mama would do with all the walking, heat, humidity, conveyor belts, etc.
I told her I'd be right over.
