Who Knew Choking Each Other Would Earn Us Fastpasses? We were just kidding!

Hello there and welcome to my trip report.

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.

 

[mickeystoontown]

We still had some time to kill before we could use our Toy Story Mania Fastpasses so we just meandered along, stopping to smell the roses, so to speak.

I have no idea what the heck Hunter was doing in this picture. Maybe he was upset because the meter ran out or something?

It was nice to take in all of the details along the streets of Hollywood Studios. It's funny how you can miss all of these things when you are in a hurry.

 

[mickeystoontown]

We came upon Mater and Lightning so we stopped to take a picture since there was nobody waiting. I don't know what was up with that since there always seems to be lots of little kids wanting to see them.

A little further along, we saw this Star Wars backdrop which we assumed they were using for Meet and Greets during Star Wars Weekends:

We continued on and turned the corner to see the Muppet store and Mama Melrose painted on the side of a building:

Even though we had seen Muppetvision 3D on our first Hollywood Studios day, we figured why not see it again since there was very little wait.

Oh, before we did that, I took a picture of one of the statues in the fountain:

Walking into Muppevision 3D:

 

[mickeystoontown]

Once we were inside the actual theater, I took two more pictures before the standard "no eating, drinking or flash photography" spiel.

For those of you wondering if John took a little siesta during the show.....he did!

**Up next: Toy Story Mania baby!

 

[annadseal]

Thanks SO much for continuing to share this TR!! I'm only finding it today, but just sat here and read the entire thing up until today's posting. It's so great...makes me feel like I'm there with my family! My family is from Louisiana as well (a little further south than you though), so our trip to Disney is pretty similar to yours. Fun stuff!

And thanks for all of the "extra" pictures, like of the Streets in Hollywood Studios, etc. That's one of my favorite places in all of Disney...used to go grab some lunch and eat back there on my break when I worked at the Beach Club. Thanks for bringing back some good memories.

 

[BookwormxBelle]

I finally got a chance to catch up! :]

It's definitely cool that they picked Hunter to take part in the first part of the Backlot Tour, when I was there earlier in the month, they weren't taking volunteers for the earlier shows which was sad since it was my boyfriend and a friend of ours first visit and I told them they should volunteer.

I also love looking at all of your CBR pictures since it's a resort I haven't visited yet. It's so pretty!

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

That's super cool Hunter got picked to be an extra. U've done it twice and once I got to sit in the chair and get water dumped on me like he did!! lol. It was great fun!!
I love all the pictures!! We're contemplating the CBR next November for our trip (we're going in May but staying off site) We're trying to justify spending double the CBR rate to stay at the Poly but not sure if we can do it!! :lol: CBR has been someplace my sister and I both have always wanted to stay at and your pictures are convincing us even more that it's the right resort for us!!! Can't wait to read the rest!!

 

[PhoenixSpirit]

I've adored your trip so far, your detailing makes it feel like I'm there with you- scary thought.
Please update soon!

 

[wishes2013]

I kinda want to be an extra now. It sounds like so much fun! I can't wait for the rest of your report. Post soon! I need more!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Thanks SO much for continuing to share this TR!! I'm only finding it today, but just sat here and read the entire thing up until today's posting. It's so great...makes me feel like I'm there with my family! My family is from Louisiana as well (a little further south than you though), so our trip to Disney is pretty similar to yours. Fun stuff!

And thanks for all of the "extra" pictures, like of the Streets in Hollywood Studios, etc. That's one of my favorite places in all of Disney...used to go grab some lunch and eat back there on my break when I worked at the Beach Club. Thanks for bringing back some good memories.

Glad to have you on board! I like taking pictures of the little things that you would normally miss at Disney. So, you used to work at Beach Club?! I've always wanted to work in Disney.

I finally got a chance to catch up! :]

It's definitely cool that they picked Hunter to take part in the first part of the Backlot Tour, when I was there earlier in the month, they weren't taking volunteers for the earlier shows which was sad since it was my boyfriend and a friend of ours first visit and I told them they should volunteer.

I also love looking at all of your CBR pictures since it's a resort I haven't visited yet. It's so pretty!

Hunter was so excited that he was chosen. I've never seen it when they didn't choose volunteers.

We instantly fell in love with the CBR when we first stayed there several years ago and, while I wonder if we should try something else, we find ourselves going back to the CBR every time.

That's super cool Hunter got picked to be an extra. U've done it twice and once I got to sit in the chair and get water dumped on me like he did!! lol. It was great fun!!
I love all the pictures!! We're contemplating the CBR next November for our trip (we're going in May but staying off site) We're trying to justify spending double the CBR rate to stay at the Poly but not sure if we can do it!! :lol: CBR has been someplace my sister and I both have always wanted to stay at and your pictures are convincing us even more that it's the right resort for us!!! Can't wait to read the rest!!

Very neat to hear from another person who was chosen for the same part. The CBR is absolutely beautiful resort. I am like you and can't seem to justify paying the extra moolah for a stay at the Poly.

I kinda want to be an extra now. It sounds like so much fun! I can't wait for the rest of your report. Post soon! I need more!

I'm always telling my husband that he should try and get chosen to be an extra but he won't do it.

I've adored your trip so far, your detailing makes it feel like I'm there with you- scary thought.
Please update soon!

Thank you! I have many updates coming up right now!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Sorry it's been so long since I've updated. I've been one busy little bee lately......Lacey is getting married, John's been working on a job out of town, I'm sewing Disney backsacks to sell on Ebay, etc. I have many, many updates coming up so sit back and enjoy!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Our Fastpass time was quickly approaching so we started walking that way.

When I saw the line, I was sooooo glad that I was able to get Fastpasses. You can see a little bit of the line in these pictures:

When we arrived, we had about 5 minutes to wait before we could use the Fastpasses so we stood to the side and waited. This was to the right of us:

This was to the left of us:

This was behind us:

After the 5 minutes passed, we showed our Fastpasses to the castmember and were on our way to have some fun. Pictures I took while walking and waiting in line. Yes, there was a wait even though we had Fastpasses but nothing like the wait we would have had if we were in the standby line.

 

[mickeystoontown]

 

[mickeystoontown]

We were in line about 20 minutes before we made it to our ride vehicle. Hunter was seated behind us by himself and John and I were together. I wanted to see if I could take pictures during the ride and this what I got:

Yeah...they aren't very good. It wasn't easy to take pictures while spinning around.

***Continued in next post

 

[mickeystoontown]

As we were getting out of the vehicle, I snapped one more picture:

And, one last picture as we walked out:

I don't remember what our scores were but I know that mine was pretty low. I am so not a gamer and am one of the most uncoordinated people I know.

It was starting to get very hot and we were ready to get back to the resort and see what Mama was up to. John called her on our way towards the front of the park and told her we were coming back to the resort. He asked her if she had eaten lunch yet and she said she hadn't. Our plan was to get back to the Caribbean Beach, drop our backsack and walk over to the food court.

On our way out, we spotted this funny lady:

As you can see from this picture, there were still a lot of folks coming into the park and it was 12:45 ish....1:00 ish.

We made it over to the bus stop and there were only about 7 or 8 people at the stop. I don't know what's up with the bus stops at Hollywood Studios. Why is there so little shade? Don't remember what I'm talking about? I snapped this picture just so I could post it here:

See, there's hardly any cover for the guests to stand under. It was so stinking hot and not all of us could fit into the little shaded area unless we squeezed in really tightly. That's even if the people in front of us would have moved up a little and actually let us get in the shade.

It seemed like it took fifty forevers for a bus to come while standing in the heat. It actually was about 15 minutes before one pulled up. This time when we got in the bus, we were ready for some air conditioning. Well, guess what? It wasn't freezing cold. As a matter of fact, it was just "luke". The driver apologized and said that she had just gotten on the bus for the day and that she had the air turned up to high in order to get it cooler. We were all okay with that because we were out of the sweltering heat at least. The driver didn't make us wait very long before we left the park and were on our way back to the resort.

I am not telling a tale when I say it took us less than 5 minutes to make it to Caribbean Beach.

During most of our stays at the CBR, the buses to and from Hollywood Studios have taken the side entrance/exit to the resort. This time, they took the front entrance. We decided to just get off the bus at Old Port Royale and call Mama and tell her that we were there. One of us would walk over to Jamaica and get her if she wanted us to.

 

[mickeystoontown]

The outside of Old Port Royale:

 

[mickeystoontown]

When we got off the bus, we called Mama to tell her we were back and that we were at Old Port Royale. I asked if she wanted me to come over and walk back to the food court and she said "Why? I know my way there."

While we waited on her to get there, I popped into the restroom. Wanna see what the inside of the CBR OPR bathroom looks like? Here you go:

Hunter found a checkerboard in the corner of the store that any guest could use and he and John played a game. A boy about 9 or 10 walked by and John asked him if he wanted to play. He said yes so he and Hunter played until Mama arrived. Hunter bid his new friend goodbye and we were off to see what we wanted for lunch.

Mama ordered a chilli cheese dog with french fries. She added onions from the toppings bar:

Instead of choosing a cake or something similar for dessert, Mama chose to wait and get soft serve ice cream. They gave her a cup at checkout and all she had to do was go over after she finished her meal.

I ordered a cheese pizza as did Hunter. They both came with a side salad and a dessert. Hunter's pizza, salad and cupcake:

This is my cupcake:

John's sandwich that he got from the pizza and pasta station. Look how much meat they piled on!

A view that shows the top of the bread and the carrot cake John chose as his dessert. Oh and it came with a side of homemade potato chips.

 

[mickeystoontown]

I forgot to mention that the table we sat at in the food court was right beside a window and we could see the promenade and all of the people walking by. We could also see a few dark clouds in the sky and wondered if it would rain. We were going to Hoop Dee Doo Review that evening and had planned on taking a bus to the Magic Kingdom and then the boat over to Fort Wilderness. If it started raining, we might want to reconsider how we would get to Fort Wilderness.

We finished up our meal and decided to do a little browsing in the stores.

I know those don't really show much about the store but I guess that's all I took. After our purchases, we went over to the arcade so Hunter could play a few games. I honestly don't remember what we bought in the store but we must have bought something because Mama's holding a bag in this picture:

We had been in the arcade for about 30 minutes when Hunter's arcade card was used up. We walked into the main part of the building and immediately heard thunder. Oh no! We looked out the double doors and, sure enough, it had started sprinkling rain. The skies were darker and we knew we better hot foot it on over to Jamaica before we got soaking wet.

Out we went into the rain. Mama didn't relish getting wet again since she had already lost her voice from our Animal Kingdom day. We let Mama set the pace and let me tell you, she was moving pretty darn fast. Stupid me, being the picture taking fool that I am, took a picture of the rain falling in the lake:

We were over the bridge and almost to the village of Jamaica when it started to rain hard. Thankfully, the trees and foliage surrounding the buildings shielded us from most of the rain. We ducked under the cover of our building. See how hard it was raining:

When we opened our door, the room was freezing! That is one of my only complaints about the CBR, the mousekeepers turn the air conditioners on the coldest setting when they clean and the rooms are so cold. I say that but then I've read other posters say their mousekeepers turn their air conditioners on the lowest cold setting and their rooms are warm when they return. So, maybe we just have hot natured mousekeepers.

Mama said she was going in the room to change her clothes and she wanted to get in from the rain because she didn't want to get any sicker. I wasn't going into that cold room! John and I pulled the chairs out of the room and decided to sit and watch the rain.

Wanna see what a drowned rat looks like?

Hunter came out and took our picture:

Then, I took one of Hunter. You might not can tell how wet he is but his shirt is a light tan and it was now almost see thru:

 

[mickeystoontown]

You can't tell it from this picture but I was trying to take a picture of how much rain water was coming off the building.

It rained so hard that the gutters and rain spouts couldn't keep up with it and the sidewalk in front of our door had a bit of water coming up over it. (It quickly receeded when the rain slowed down.) I also have a video somewhere that I took of the rain and how the wind was blowing. The palm fronds were swaying back and forth from the hard wind.

Hunter went in to take off his shirt, watch a little television and do some cup stacking. He took the camera in with him and took a picture of himself cup stacking.

The rain slacked up after a little while and the room had warmed up enough that John and I went inside to rest before it was time to head out to Fort Wilderness. I know that John took a nap. Hard to imagine it...isn't it.

I think I may have dozed on and off. Hunter's at an age where I don't feel bad if I do get a few winks in. I did ask him to lie down while he was watching television so at least he'd get some rest.

We had booked the last Hoop Dee Doo show because, when you are on the dining plan, you can get Category 1 seating if you book the last show of the day. If you book one of the two earlier shows, you will be seated in Category 2 or 3. I was hesitant to book the late show because it didn't start until 9:00 p.m. We never eat dinner that late. But, John said he'd rather sit up front and let Mama get the full experience of the show.

We wanted to make a stop at Wilderness Lodge before going on to Ft. Wilderness and I made the necessary time adjustments to make sure we'd have time to do that. By the time we got ready to leave the resort, the rain had stopped completely.

When we walked outside you could definitely tell it had been raining. John picked up some debris and said they looked just like rabbit ears. They did!

I don't know what's up with the face?

You can also see the debris on the sidewalk. We walked over to the bus stop and we were the only ones there. We figured everybody was either still in the parks or had taken shelter from the earlier storm.

***Up next, a boat ride, Wilderness Lodge and the Hoop Dee Doo Review!

 

[mickeystoontown]

A Magic Kingdom bus arrived soon after we got to the bus stop. It was a little crowded when it pulled up but there were plenty of seats open because lots of people got off at the Jamaica stop. We made the loop around the rest of the resort and we were off to the Magic Kingdom.

As we approached the Magic Kingdom bus stop, the bus driver stopped in the road and was talking to a couple who were walking in the middle of traffic! He was telling them that it wasn't safe to walk in the median and that there was a crosswalk that they were to take. The couple looked at the bus driver like he had three heads and kept on walking. The bus driver yelled out the window that they needed to take the crosswalk! I saw him get on his radio and I heard him tell someone about the couple. I don't know who he was talking to but I heard him say "that's dangerous".

We pulled into the bus stop and the bus driver dropped us off at the nearest stop that he could. He made sure to tell us that this wasn't the CBR stop and to remember that on our way back to the resort later that evening. We got off the bus and started walking towards the boat dock. There were two castmembers "drawing" Mickey and Goofy with brooms:

Cool!

We made it to the boat dock and waited with about 5 or 6 other people. I took pictures while waiting:

I can not begin to tell ya'll how very glad we are that we no longer have to take the ferry boat to the Magic Kingdom. Back in the day when we stayed offsite, we had to take the ferry and it was a pain in the rear end. I absolutely hated waiting to get on the boat in the evenings.

 

[mickeystoontown]

The boat docked and we were allowed to board once the other guests had disembarked. I took more pictures while we waited and on our way over to the Wilderness Lodge:

My hair was really doing a number that day because of the humidity so I had it clipped with a barrette: