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.

 

[unkadug]

Any requests, Unk? I'll be passin' thru that way in 2 weeks! :wave:

There's not much to take pictures of except in the Mobile area. The rest looks like anywhere else on the panhandle.

Still waiting on the choking. :lol:

 

[stefan74]

[/QUOTE]I appreciate your coming aboard! I tip every day we are in Disney World. Usually, I tip $1 per person per day. We are pretty neat travelers and mostly clean up after ourselves but mousekeeping does have a hard job. I know that the mousekeepers can change during the stay so I leave the envelopes daily.[/QUOTE]

Thank you very much. We are neat travelers as well and I will have to do the mousekeeping envelopes for our trip in March 2011. Thanks for the idea! Can't wait to read the rest of your Trip Report. I plan on taking lots of pics of our upcoming trip and doing a trip report. It will be my first trip report. One question, do I need to save my pics to my profile so I can post them on my Trip Report?

 

[mickeystoontown]

When I left off, we had checked out of the Jameson Inn in Crestview, Florida and were ready to hit the road again. Even though I did a pretty good job of taking pictures of our first day/night of driving, I didn't do so good on our second day of driving. In all honesty, the drive from Crestview to Disney is pretty darn boring. Not a lot to see so you aren't missing much.

I did, however, take a picture when we made a pit stop at one of the Florida rest areas:

And, then, after Mama got out of the car, she took one of us:

The sun was beaming down and we could tell it would be a scorcher of a day. Nothing new to us since we are from Louisiana and our temps are already in the 90s by this time of the year.

Instead of simply jumping back into the car, we walked around a little. I picked up a Georgia and a Florida Room Saver book. We are going to Georgia in July to see Lacey graduate and I thought it might have a coupon or two in there that we could use.

I don't know if ya'll have ever noticed but, sometimes, there are a couple of vending/newspaper type machines at the rest areas that sell "singles" newspapers. I remember when we first started going to Disney, the pictures on the front were pretty darn racy. If there's a travel brochure in sight, Hunter always wants to get them. I would always try to steer him away from those particular newstand things because, back then, you didn't have to buy them, you could just take one.

Anyway, we finished up our walking tour of the rest area and were back on the road. We made it to Gainesville and made the turn to I-75 on our way down the State of Florida. Again, nothing to see except for those "We Bare All....Couples Welcome" signs along the interstate. I swear there was one every 3 or 4 miles for a long stretch of road. What ever happened to the family friendly Universal Studios, Sea World and Walt Disney World billboards?

We made it to where we turn onto Hwy. 27 and where we would start the stretch of road that I can't stand. You have to go through all those little towns and stop and start and slow down and stop and start again. Every year, we say we are going to try out the turnpike or find a different route but end up not doing it because we at least know where we are going if we just stay on that particular highway.

Finally, finally, we saw the sign that said Walt Disney World/Hwy. 192. Hip Hooray! We were almost there! We drove past all of the super tacky buildings that have the giant flamingos, wizards and mermaids on them. Tacky but a sight for sore eyes when you have been driving for hours and hours.

I turned onto the loop to World Drive and we were there!

We were in Walt Disney World!

Mama said we weren't "there" until we actually pulled into the parking lot of the Caribbean Beach Resort. What's that you said Mama? Don't you know that when you turn onto World Drive that you're officially "there"?

Maybe this would make her believe that we were "there":

No? Well then how 'bout this:

Wait.....is it too far away for you to see Mama? Look! We are there!

Oh my gosh, we were at Walt Disney World!

There's nothing prettier than that Walt Disney World sign.

Continued in next post

 

[mickeystoontown]

We continued on and I snapped a few pictures as we drove down World Drive:

I made the turn down whatever road it is that leads to Downtown Disney, Pop Century, Caribbean Beach, etc. We spotted our first Disney bus and the excitement continued to build. And, then, like a ray of sunshine through a dark and dreery rain cloud, there it was......the entrance to the Caribbean Beach Resort.

I stopped at the Guard Station and showed her my identification and she checked both my reservation and Mama's reservation off her list and directed us to the Custom House.

I found a parking space very close to the front of the building and we got out. Okay, Mama, are we "there" now? That would be a "yes".

I snapped this picture as we were walking down the sidewalk to the Custom House:

Our first order of business would be a stop at the bathroom. Still, I took pictures. This is the Airline check-in desk:

Inside the Custom House. This is the check-in/out area:

Continued in next post

 

[mickeystoontown]

As we walked back into the main area of the Custom House, I noticed that they had moved the Online Check-in windows. Instead of being to the left when you walk in, they were now on the right. There was only one gentleman in the line (actually already at the window). Sweet! We wouldn't have a long wait at all.

We waited about 3 or 4 minutes and were called to the window. Mama went with me because we wanted to make sure that our two reservations were "linked" and we were at least in the same building. The castmember took my information first and then Mama's. He did a little clicking on the computer and informed us that we were in rooms right beside each other. Score! I asked if we were in ground floor rooms and he said that we were. Double score! He pulled out our packets and the park map and showed us where we would be staying for the next 9 nights. Jamaica 41! Triple score! We actually were hoping for Jamaica.

Oh, and when he pulled out the packets, he gave Hunter his Birthday button and Mama her 1st Visit button. The castmember asked us if we were celebrating an anniversary or anything else. We told him that our anniversary wasn't until August. He said we needed to celebrate anyway and gave us two Anniversary buttons. On mine, he wrote 25 years. On John's, he pulled out a calculator and tallied up how many days it was and wrote it on the button.

In a little over 10 minutes, we had all of our information and were ready to go find our building. When we first stayed at the CBR four years ago, we were assigned to Jamaica Building 41. We liked the location because it was close to the bus stop and a short walk to Old Port Royale. I also remembered that it was, often, the first pickup/drop off within the resort.

We found the building easily and I parked in the circle drive so we could unload everything. Every time I look at the trunk of the car piled full of stuff, I thank the Lord that we have never had a blow-out or something that requires we get to the jack 'cause we'd have to unload everything in order to get to it. Anyway, we each start grabbing bags and carrying them to our room which were some of the first rooms off the sidewalk.

I normally take oodles of pictures of the room but this time I didn't take as many. I was in a hurry to try and help unload the car. I would rather carry a bunch of bags than Mama have to carry a bunch. So, I snapped a few and went back out.

We got everything unloaded and into the rooms fairly quickly. Now, if it had been up to me, I'd have just thrown the stuff in the room and started exploring the resort. But, I had to remember that this trip was different. We were taking a more laid-back approach to this trip in order to let Mama enjoy herself and not get too tired.

John noticed that the safe didn't have a key in it. We always use the safe so that wouldn't work. I placed a call to maintenance and they said they'd be there soon to replace the lock. I also called Bell Services to get them to bring our Garden Grocer delivery to the room. Once the calls were made, I went over to Mama's to make sure everything was okay in her room. It was so I left to move the car into a parking spot. As I was walking out of Mama's room, I saw a castmember pull up on a golf cart and stop outside our room. I am not telling a tale when I say that, by the time I made it from the parking lot to the room, the castmember was gone. He had replaced the lock in less than 5 minutes. Talk about fast!

Remembering that I was supposed to take things slow, I actually unpacked my suitcase and put everything into drawers. I also unpacked our toiletries. John unpacked his suitcase. In the middle of unpacking, Bell Services came to deliver our groceries. Bell Services was fast too.

I took part of the groceries over to Mama's room. She had already unpacked her suitcase and toiletries and was resting. How the heck did she get that done so fast? Hunter was going to stay with his Mamaw every night so we had his suitcase in her room. Something told me that it wouldn't be a permanent thing so I didn't unpack his stuff.

Continued in next post

 

[mickeystoontown]

This post will be short on pictures but long on words/details. I apologize in advance.

We had finally arrived at the Caribbean Beach Resort and had gotten our room requests! I had restrained myself and had not gotten in a hurry to go exploring. You have no idea how hard that was for me. I am the type of gal who drops the bags and shoots off into the wild blue yonder going ninety to nothing. This time, it was to be a slow easy glide into the wild blue yonder on whatever tail wind we could catch.

Ooooh wait.....I forgot to tell ya'll that I had chatted via instant message with Dana (one of my friends I met on another discussion board) a few nights before we got there. We were excited to meet each other and the plan was to meet after we got to the resort. We exchanged telephone numbers but I forgot to write her's down. I can be such a dumb bunny sometimes. Anyway, on our second day of driving, I got more and more upset with myself that I didn't have Dana's number. It was my hope that she would call or text me. Just a little back story that I had to add in there so the next part would make sense to you.

I had had enough staying in the room as I could possibly stand and we were getting hungry anyway. We finally left the rooms and were off for a walk to Old Port Royale. I could have sworn that I took more pictures as we walked along but I guess I didn't. I think I was too busy pointing out things to Mama, showing her the resort, etc. I told her that, as long as she could find the beach, she would be able to find her way to Old Port Royale since the walkway around the beach goes around the resort lake. This tidbit of information would come into play later when she decided to spend some time at the resort by herself.

For those of you wanting more pictures of the resort, don't worry 'cause I have more pictures of the resort coming up a little later. Here are the pictures that I did take.

The pathway from our room to the beach:

The Jamaica beach:

Walking over the bridge to the island (but looking back at Jamaica):

The entrance to the island:

As we walked through the island, we could hear the Caribbean/Jamaican music playing and it just set the tone for the laid back kind of style we would assume when at the resort. Believe me, I needed this kind of music or I would have been itchin' to go do something....anything.

We walked into Old Port Royale via the gift shop and immediately I smelled that smell. What smell you ask? That Caribbean Beach Resort smell. I don't know what it is but it's smells so good. Call me weird, call me odd, call me whatever you want, but there's really a smell in there, I tell you. And I like it!

Of course, when you walk into the gift shop/store, you just have to stop and look even if it's for a little while. We looked at a couple of things but then our stomachs started growling and we knew we needed to fill them up. We walked Mama through the various stations so she could see what food options she had to choose from.

Mama and John decided on the deli sandwich station and Hunter and I went to the pizza and pasta station. John ordered the Reuben sandwich. Mama got the philly cheesesteak sandwich. I got the fresh tossed chicken caeser salad and Hunter ordered a cheese pizza with side salad. I honestly can't remember what we got for desserts. Well, yes I do kinda remember. I got a carrot cake and Hunter got a fresh baked cupcake. I don't know what John and Mama got as desserts.

We got in the checkout line with Mama so we could show her how the dining plan worked. She was a little bit confused but figured it out after we explained it to her again when we sat down.

I thought that I had pictures of our food but I guess I didn't take any. I know our stomachs were happy. Mama was overwhelmed with the giant portions that came with the Disney Dining Plan. She kept saying that we should have gotten something and shared it. This would not be the one and only time we heard this comment. We heard it alot.

Anyway, everything was super yummy. I could eat a salad each and every day if not twice a day. I love love love salads. The chicken caeser (is that the way you spell caeser or is it caesar or is it ceaser...heck, you figure it out and read it the correct way

) salad was so good. I can tell you this about it though.....you better have a breath mint or some gum handy when you've finished or your breath will knock somebody over. If you're wondering, yes, I did have some mints in my purse....after coffee mints to be exact which would, from then on out, be called after salad mints by my family. John said the Reuben sandwich was just as good as last year. Mama said the philly cheesesteak was good but was waaaaay too big. Hunter gobbled down the entirety of his cheese pizza with the exception of one piece of crust. John ate the side salad that came with Hunter's pizza.

After we had eaten, we decided to check out the store and see what they had that we couldn't resist. I was a bit put out when I didn't find any Caribbean Beach Resort themed merchandise. We always get a CBR t-shirt but I couldn't find them anywhere. I found a castmember who said they didn't have anything with the CBR logo on them. She said that she had heard they were phasing out all resort themed merchandise. Guess there'd be no CBR t-shirts this year.

Dana had sent Hunter a lanyard before we left but we forgot it at home. Meaning, we needed to buy Hunter a lanyard for the Star Wars pins he anticipated buying this trip. He picked out a black one that had Walt Disney World on it. I don't remember it being too much. I think it was about $7.00 or right around that. He also found a pin but I don't remember what it was.

We walked around a bit more just to have something to do. I don't remember us finding anything else that we really had to have. I made a mental note that they had the Mickey head shaped cookie cutters in the store. I had two friends who wanted me to pick one up for them. These were a little too big to cut out a sandwich (which I knew they both wanted to do) but they would do if I didn't find any others later in the trip.

John said he wanted to take Mama outside and show her around a little more. I asked what time it was and it was about 8:30 p.m. if I am remembering correctly. I suggested that they go outside, look around and then try and find a table that we could sit at and watch the Epcot fireworks. Sounded like a plan to us.

Hunter and I stayed in line to check out. We paid for our stuff and went in search of John and Mama. It was already dark out so it was hard to see the people's faces who were sitting at the tables. I took out my phone and saw that I had a text message from Dana. Yea! She hadn't been a goofball like me and had actually written down my number. I texted her and told her that we were at the resort and was she there. While I was waiting for her to text me back, I called John and they were almost in front of us. If they had been a snake, they would have bitten me.

Just as we sat down at the table with John and Mama, Dana texted that she was finishing up a load of laundry and would come down to meet us. Her husband was sitting in the room resting and her son had just gotten out of the shower so it would be just Dana. I knew that it would be hard for Dana to spot us but I figured I would be able to see her coming since she was coming from a lighted area. In no time at all, I saw her and her son coming around the corner. I got up and walked over her way doing this crazy little arm waving while skipping thing and saying "Dana! Dana! Dana!"

For those of you who have read my previous trip reports, you know that I have no problem whatsoever with looking as goofy as all get out. I just want to have fun and don't care if perfect strangers look at me funny. That being said, I don't want to look so goofy that people are ready to call in the authorites to either: A) have me arrested; B) have me committed; or C) both arrested then commited.

So, actually, I was restraining myself a bit by just skipping along and waving my arms. I didn't want to embarrass Dana to the point of her turning around and acting like she didn't know me from a man in the moon.

Dana saw me immediately (would have been a bit hard to miss me

) and, believe it or not, she didn't act like I was a complete stranger. We hugged like longlost family members. I gave Dallas a big ole hug too.

Dana and I walked over to where the rest of my family were seated. Introductions were made all the way around. Hunter immediately started showing Dana's son magic tricks and had to show Dana too.

(Okay, so that little wizard isn't exactly a magician but it's close enough) A few minutes later, the Epcot fireworks started and Hunter and Dallas (Dana's son) walked over to a corner and watched them while we all talked.

The conversation between all of us flowed so easily. It was like we talked everyday. Wait a minute, we do talk everyday.I think ya'll know what I am trying to say. Dana filled us in on how their trip had gone so far. She and the family liked the CBR and I was glad to hear that since I think I helped influence her in their resort decision making process. We talked for quite a while and then decided we all needed to call it a night. We were really tired from driving/riding for so long. Dana needed to get back to her hubby and her laundry. We bid each other "good night" at the walkway to the island. We were all going to Epcot the next day so we said we may run into each other even before the scheduled Meet.

We walked back to our building. It was a nice evening with a little breeze blowing which made the walk even more enjoyable. I was so happy to be back at Walt Disney World! When we got back to our rooms, we told Hunter not to keep his Mamaw up too late because tomorrow would be our first park day and my very first Meet.. Actually, I think I should say my very second Meet since we had just bid Dana and Dallas ado.

Up next: Epcot!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Love the trip report, so far. It is really nice to see more of the south. We usually fly in. I think my kids may think Florida consists of an airport, and WDW! Gotta try and find the time to explre a little more, I suppose.

Can't wait to see more!

Thanks for coming along for the ride. The cheapest flight I have found from our neck of the woods to Orlando is over $350 a person. We can drive for much cheaper than that. However, if I were to ever find cheap airfare, we'd definitely fly.

There's not much to take pictures of except in the Mobile area. The rest looks like anywhere else on the panhandle.

Still waiting on the choking. :lol:

Amen! There's nothing really to take pictures of other than going over the Pensacola Bay. Since we drive through that area at night, I can't even get a picture of that.

I appreciate your coming aboard! I tip every day we are in Disney World. Usually, I tip $1 per person per day. We are pretty neat travelers and mostly clean up after ourselves but mousekeeping does have a hard job. I know that the mousekeepers can change during the stay so I leave the envelopes daily.[/QUOTE]

Thank you very much. We are neat travelers as well and I will have to do the mousekeeping envelopes for our trip in March 2011. Thanks for the idea! Can't wait to read the rest of your Trip Report. I plan on taking lots of pics of our upcoming trip and doing a trip report. It will be my first trip report. One question, do I need to save my pics to my profile so I can post them on my Trip Report?[/QUOTE]

I can't remember the site I found that had the mouskeeping envelope designs but I know you can Google "mouskeeping envelopes" and you should be able to find it.

I saved my pictures to Photobucket. It's free of charge.

 

[mickeystoontown]

I was just looking through my pictures and found one that I failed to insert into my trip report earlier.

Every year, there seems to be two recurring themes to our vacations: 1) John is always falling asleep somewhere at the oddest times, and 2) John receives frequent calls.

Let's get back to present day....well....not exactly present day but this trip report. As we were in our room getting things unpacked (and giving Mama time to rest up a little), John got....surprise! surprise!....a phone call. It was the same person who called John the first time on our 2009 trip. Now he was the first phone call of this trip too.

When John said the guy's name outloud, I had to laugh. John told him why I was laughing which caused us to talk back and forth a bit through John. Then, he and John talked for just a little while. Once the conversation was done, John told me what he was calling for. John had done some work for him a while back. In exchange for John's work, the guy was supposed to get us a nice tiller to use in the yard and in the garden. John had called him over and over again and he would never tell us for sure when we would get the tiller (if he would even answer the calls). You know, just putting us off. Anyway, the guy said he had been in the hospital after having surgery and had lost his dog. He apologized and said he had the tiller for us.

So, the call wasn't all for nothing. Gosh, that went on a little longer than I thought it would but anyways, here's a picture of John laying across the bed talking on the phone:

***This won't be the first time you'll see John on the phone.

***Next installment: Our first full day at Disney!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Ring ring! Ring ring! I woke up and looked at the alarm clock and then at the phone. When I answered it, Stitch yelled at me to wake up!

: I had requested a 7:10 a.m. wake up call and it was right on time. I woke up John who, to my surprise, wasn't that hard to wake up. Usually, I'm having to push, poke, shake, rock back and forth, etc. to wake him up. Okay, so I don't have to do all of those things but pretty darn close to it.

I called Mama and told her that we were up and getting ready. She said okay. We started getting ready and I assumed that Mama and Hunter were doing the same. Boy was I wrong! I walked over to Mama's room to get his clothes out for the day (I had forgotten to do it the night before.) I knocked on the door, Mama opened it and there was Hunter still laying in the bed half asleep!

What the heck? I told Hunter to get his behind in gear or we'd be late getting to the park.

Now, my Mama doesn't like for me to say anything that remotely sounds like I am getting on to Hunter. That's her baby and she'll let everybody in the world know it. I wasn't actually getting on to him but I could tell that she didn't like me saying anything to him. I just couldn't believe that Mama had let him just lay in the bed and not made him get up.

Hunter got up and started getting ready and I went back to our room.

I told John about Hunter and Mama and he just shook his head. We finished getting ready and there was a knock on our door a little while later. It was Mama and Hunter and they were both ready to go.

We walked over to the bus stop (which, by the way, didn't take but a few minutes) and waited on an Epcot bus. This would be our first time riding a bus this trip and we were anxious to see how Mama did. We had bragged and bragged to Mama how wonderful the buses were, how they ran frequently and it never took long to get anywhere. We got to the bus stop and there were only three other people there. Good! Mama would be able to sit down while we waited on the bus.

I know we waited less than five minutes before the Epcot bus rolled up. Thanks Disney for not making a liar out of me! Now was the moment of truth, would Mama be able to step up onto the bus and would we have to stand? The doors opened and Mama stepped right on and the bus was virtually empty. Great!

We made the other stops around the resort and we were off for Epcot. I remember timing our ride and, if I am remembering correctly, it took 12 minutes. That's from the time we got on until we pulled into the bus stop at Epcot. We made it before the park had actually opened!

John and Hunter went through the "guest with no bags" entrance while Mama and I went through security. It was quick and easy and we were through in no time at all. We found the boys and went to stand in the line at the turnstiles. Here's a picture of Mama, John and Hunter looking all fresh and ready to hit the park:

I knew that there would be no way that Mama could walk over to Soarin' quickly enough to beat the crowds (or be in that first wave of crowds heading that way) so that we could obtain Fastpasses. I told them that I would go get Fastpasses and meet them outside Spaceship Earth.

First, we needed to have our Photopass picture made. Sorry, I don't have them back yet so I'll insert those later.

I took everybody's tickets and started off towards Soarin'. I saw a crowd ahead of me and realized that the park hadn't even actually opened yet. I positioned myself to the right of the crowd so that I could work my way through and over toward The Land. There were two women behind me that were talking about they were going to get Soarin' Fastpasses but they didn't know for sure where The Land pavilion was. I gave them directions and they thanked me. All the while I was talking, the opening ceremony was going on but I was so far back that I couldn't see a doggone thing.

After about 7 or 8 minutes, the rope was dropped and the crowd split. Half went towards The Land and the other went towards Test Track and Mission Space. I walked at a fast pace towards The Land and I heard the two ladies who were behind me saying "follow her she knows where she is going".

I could see ahead of me that it seemed like everybody was just standing outside The Land. What was going on? I kept walking and realized that there was only one door open to the pavilion. How stupid was that? I heard my cell phone ring but it was down in the bottom of my drawstring backpack. There was no way I could find it while standing back to back/side to side with all of these other people.

I finally made it in only to see that they only had one side of the escalator/stairs open. How stupid was that? Two stupid things in less than 10 minutes' time. Didn't those castmembers know that it would be easier on everybody if they opened up both doors and both sides of escalators?

Continued in next post

 

[mickeystoontown]

Anyway, I get down to the Fastpass machines and get in line. What happens? My cell phone rings again. I dig it out and it's John asking where I was. I told him I had to go because it was my turn to get Fastpasses. Once I had the passes, I worked my way back through the crowds and out of the pavilion. I called John and told him that I had had to wait for the park to open and that I was coming back to meet them. They were sitting on the edge of a flower bed and I could see them ahead.

We decided to go ahead and ride Spaceship Earth since the sign said 0 minute wait. I was a little nervous about Mama getting onto the ride vehicle because of the moving platform. John and I stood beside her and made sure that she got into her seat before we got in our's. She did really well for her first time.

I guess I was so busy talking with Mama and Hunter behind us and with John who was with me that I forgot to take pictures. The only one that I took was a bad one. I was trying to take a picture of us in the cartoon thingie screen.

At the end of the ride, we told Mama that she'd have to step off onto another moving platform so John got out first so he could help her off if he needed to. She didnt' even need our help. This was looking good! She had already tackled two moving platforms and she hadn't even stumbled. Way to go Mama!

Just as we got into the game/display area, our faces appeared on the globe and I tried to take a picture but, again, it's not that great.

I looked at our Fastpasses and it said we had a little bit before we could use it. We started walking over towards the fountain and I took a picture:

Then, Mama took our picture. Bless her bones, she took it from waaaaay back so we are tiny in the picture:

 

[mickeystoontown]

John spotted Ice Cool Station and said he wanted Mama to taste of the different Cokes so that's where we went next. The place was almost empty. I guess everybody else was riding the thrill rides while we were sipping our favorite watermelon flavored Coke. A few pictures:

Mama asked me "what does this one taste like?" . "This one" being the Beverly. I told her it was yucky but to try it. Here's Mama's reaction to the Beverly:

We drank some of all of the flavors. Some of them several times because they were so good.

 

[mickeystoontown]

We looked around in the store a bit and I took pictures:

We figured we better go on over to Soarin' and use our Fastpasses. Guess who we ran into when we entered? Dana and her family! I finally got to meet Dale. We talked for a little while and bid each other ado saying we'd see each other at 2:30 p.m.

It seemed to take us forever and a day to get down to the lower level. There were people standing around everywhere. Finally, we were at the Fastpass entrance and there was no one in front of us. We bypassed everybody standing in the stand by line and went right to the castmember. I took these two pictures as we walked:

We were waved through and were soon standing in a fairly short line. We waited about 5 minutes or so and the line moved on until we were asked how many were in our party. I told Hunter to just watch...we'd be put in row 1 again. Just so you'll know, I'm scared of heights. Wait, let me change that. I'm terrified of heights. I love Soarin' but I am deathly afraid of heights. There are a couple of parts of the ride where I turn my head (when we get to the top of the mountains and we are about to go over the tops) but the attraction is just so much fun.

Of course, the castmember directs us to Row 1. I looked at Hunter and he looked at me and just laughed. Mama said "What's the deal with row 1?" We told her and she said "Is that good?" John explained that it was a very good thing because you'd be at the top of the theater. Soarin' was one of the things that John really really wanted Mama to ride. He had been talking about it forever with her.

We watched the little presentation and were shown into the theater. We showed Mama how to strap in and we stowed her purse in the net thing underneath the seat. The seating arrangements were John on the far left, then Mama, then Hunter, then me and complete strangers to the right of me.

Our glider rose to the top of the theater/screen and we were Soarin' over California. I could hear my Mama giggling like a little girl. She would say something to John and then she'd say something to Hunter. We floated back down to the floor and unbuckled. John asked Mama how she liked it and she said "I loved it!". I looked at John and he was grinning ear to ear. He was so glad that she had enjoyed Soarin' since he had been telling her about it for so long.

***Up next, a ride on Living With The Land!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Lovin' it! So glad Mama enjoyed Soarin'. That's very cool!

Can't wait for mooooore!!!! :wave:

 

[Southern_Tink]

Your Mama's face after trying Beverly is priceless! Too cute! And I'm so glad she liked Soarin'. We are taking our in-laws for their first trip in March and though they are not quite your Mama's age they have various health issues (back problems, knee surgeries, etc.) so we expect a slower pace than what we are used to on our trips. But, your Trip Report encourages me that even while moving a bit slower we will be able to to all we'd like and have a great trip! Can't wait to read more!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Lovin' it! So glad Mama enjoyed Soarin'. That's very cool!

Can't wait for mooooore!!!! :wave:

I didn't know if Mama would enjoy Soarin' because she doesn't care for IMAX theaters. I was so happy that she enjoyed it!

Your Mama's face after trying Beverly is priceless! Too cute! And I'm so glad she liked Soarin'. We are taking our in-laws for their first trip in March and though they are not quite your Mama's age they have various health issues (back problems, knee surgeries, etc.) so we expect a slower pace than what we are used to on our trips. But, your Trip Report encourages me that even while moving a bit slower we will be able to to all we'd like and have a great trip! Can't wait to read more!

I had warned her about the Beverly but, of course, she wanted to see if it was as bad and I had said.

It was really hard for me to take Disney at a slower pace. I'm one who likes to throw down the bags and take off running. However, this trip, we knew we would be taking things slower so Mama could enjoy it.

We thought that she would need to rent a scooter or wheelchair but she did just fine as I am sure your in-laws will.

 

[tiaragirl]

Yay Mama! She's doing awesome.. anddd braved the Beverly.

Keep the TR coming!

 

[LizC]

What a great trip report. I am going in a 2 weeks, and am staying at the Carribean Beach for the first time. You are making me feel like I am there. Can't wait to read more!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Yay Mama! She's doing awesome.. anddd braved the Beverly.

Keep the TR coming!

Mama did extremely well on the trip. We came to find out that she's one determined lady!

What a great trip report. I am going in a 2 weeks, and am staying at the Carribean Beach for the first time. You are making me feel like I am there. Can't wait to read more!

I have more pictures of the CBR and will see if I can post them for you. They will be out of order on my report but that's okay.

 

[mickeystoontown]

So these aren't my latest set of pictures of the CBR but I thought I'd post 'em for LizC. I took a walk from our room in Martinique to the Custom House to pick up our luau tickets.

 

[mickeystoontown]

That's all I can find right now. Rest assured, though, that there are more to be posted from this year's trip.