Trip Report You're going when, again?!?! A live trip report from the Devil's week.

At the shaming of @amjt660 and the guilt trip of my DW I've decided to create a dedicated thread for our next visit to the bubble.

The Devil’s Week:
We are 7 days out from our next round of funtivities during the “Devil’s Week”…Spring Break. The DD is heading on a band trip for the week to our nation’s capital so we thought it a good time for another couples trip. My new gig at the school system has me enjoying all the school holidays off as the kiddos do so what else should we do with a week off other than visit the bubble!
Who:
The Parents!

When:
April 1-5
Where:
We’re taking advantage of some deep discounts at the CBR during their war zon…I mean refurbishments. It will be our first time at CBR and we are more staying there to check it off the WDW resort list than we are for the discounts. We’d like to stay at all the resorts at one point. CBR will be our 12th different resort stay so we are getting close to our goal, it’s just so darn hard deviating from the Deluxes. I know, I know...woe is me, first world Disney problems and all.

Teen band drama now has the grandparents coming to stay with the DD before her trip while we are hopping on a JetBlue flight for the bubble. We’ll have at least half a day the first day to enjoy AK at night. As far as getting around, we debated on renting a car and did our best to figure out how much driving we would need to be doing during the trip first. We decided it would be cheaper for us to just get an Uber gift card and use that to get around during the week so that’s the plan. We purchased the Uber card today and loaded it into the app. We’ve locked in a few ADRs that include Boathouse, Artist’s Point, and Yachtsman. Boathouse is new for us and I’ve enjoyed a few vlogs and reviews I’ve see on it so we’re looking forward to that. No dining plans that first night, yet.

We picked up our Disney gift cards at Kroger today to cover the trip and food and now have an insane amount of fuel points! My magic band came last week and we're pretty much ready for the craziness! Nothing has been packed yet but, hey, we still gots a week!

When we kick this off next week I'll start live updates of the chaos.

 

[LeighM]

So far we've pulled our luggage out! DW is playing Epic Mickey right now and our Contemporary Resort candle is putting us in the mood! Less than a week!

I love Epic Mickey!! My husband and I got addicted to it the year it came out and Mom got it for me for Christmas Epic Mickey 2 is my favorite because it's 2 player. My heart was a little sad when I heard there wasn't going to be a third lol.

 

[lostpro9het]

On our way to DTD we were told we had the luxury of riding in the Cadilac of busses. We asked why and she said check out the seats!

We were quickly at DTD and made a b-line for PolitePig. We shared the sausages and the cobb salad.

The food was excellent as always. We each got a working man porter and enjoyed the view for a bit.

After a few minutes we were joined by @dclfan and her beau! We shot the breeze for a while, shared some stories, and parted ways so they could make their mini golf date and we had some FPs to make.

We’re in an Uber now hearing some fascinating stories from a former Disney producer that ill share later. On to AK!

 

[lostpro9het]

Code V on FOP bay B2...

 

[Zipadeelady]

Code V on FOP bay B2...

Hoping you aren't the provider of said Code V.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Crowds are light for this period...as always the “offseason” sucks more and more each year

 

[lostpro9het]

Hoping you aren't the provider of said Code V.

Nope! Thankfully we entered bay C3

Crowds are light for this period...as always the “offseason” sucks more and more each year

Yup...

 

[lostpro9het]

So on our Uber drive we were fortunate enough to have a former Disney producer as our driver! He told us he worked directly for Disney for 7 years then as a contract worker before he was ousted and blacklisted by Eisner's Disney. He told us to Google Nahtazu and watch it. He told us he produced this video for Disney and gave us the back story of how they didnt want folks thinking AK was a zoo:


He then went on to tell us about his tell all book that was going to expose Disney. He was very excited about his memoir and repeatedly told us we wouldn't believe what he knew. As we entered AK's parking lot we noticed a coyote on the far edge of the lot. Both DW and I saw it and really couldn't believe we saw it. Anyway, we approached our drop off, thanked our driver for the ride, wished him well on his book, and made for the entrance.

Our first FP, EE, had changed to an open FP since EE had gone down earlier. We decided to just wait for EE to open back up and grabbed a few pics in front of the ToL before making for some time traveling dinos. Since EE was down Dinosaur was a little busy but nothing too bad. Still waiting on the Disney app to upload the ride pic.

One of the fun things we like to do on our couples trips is send reminders to the DD of how awesome we are! We do this by sending her "Thinking of you" photos. If you've read any of our previous TRs then you knew this was coming:

Aren't we just hilarious I know the DD thinks we are

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

So on our Uber drive we were fortunate enough to have a former Disney producer as our driver! He told us he worked directly for Disney for 7 years then as a contract worker before he was ousted and blacklisted by Eisner's Disney. He told us to Google Nahtazu and watch it. He told us he produced this video for Disney and gave us the back story of how they didnt want folks thinking AK was a zoo:


He then went on to tell us about his tell all book that was going to expose Disney. He was very excited about his memoir and repeatedly told us we wouldn't believe what he knew. As we entered AK's parking lot we noticed a coyote on the far edge of the lot. Both DW and I saw it and really couldn't believe we saw it. Anyway, we approached our drop off, thanked our driver for the ride, wished him well on his book, and made for the entrance.

Our first FP, EE, had changed to an open FP since EE had gone down earlier. We decided to just wait for EE to open back up and grabbed a few pics in front of the ToL before making for some time traveling dinos. Since EE was down Dinosaur was a little busy but nothing too bad. Still waiting on the Disney app to upload the ride pic.
View attachment 274492
View attachment 274493
View attachment 274490


One of the fun things we like to do on our couples trips is send reminders to the DD of how awesome we are! We do this by sending her "Thinking of you" photos. If you've read any of our previous TRs then you knew this was coming:
View attachment 274491


Aren't we just hilarious I know the DD thinks we are

I actually remember seeing that commercial when it aired. Wonder why he was blacklisted?

 

[lostpro9het]

We noticed EE was back open so we headed back towards Asia to use our FP. It seems we we're not alone in this idea and the queue was for FP was backed up so we decided to come back after our safari trip. We stopped of at Thirsty River for some hydration as we trek to the safari. I passed on the GM to try something different. We went with a Himalayan Ghost:

It was premixed and super sweet. DW liked it, though, and thats all that matters.

We continued on towards the safari and had to take the token Fichwa Foto along the way

During out M&G with @dclfan she made mention of a "must have" wine that is available at AK. She told us of a few places to find it at AK and we popped into Zuri's Sweets to pick it up. The wine is a pinotage by Painted Wolf Wines called The Den. I couldn't believe that there was almost no markup on this wine! At $15.50 it was a true Disney deal. What may have surprised me more is that they let me walk out of the shop with it! I was expecting to either pick it up at the front gate or have it delivered to the room. When I asked the CM "you're gonna let me take it now" she just looked at me funny and said "of course" Backstory: Last two times I purchased packaged alcohol at a Disney park the CMs told me it had to be sent to the gate for pickup or delivered to my room so this change was a surprise to me. We're looking forward to trying this later this week:

We continued to our safari and were most fortunate this evening, the animals were quite active!

One thing that was really noticeable this trip was the artificial lighting they had coming from just beyond the safari's edge. I'm guessing to simulate a sunset but really looked off, almost like they moved the The Osborne Family Spectacle back there.

Again, tons of animals roaming out tonight compared to previous trips so we were pretty happy about that and decided to cash in our EE FP so back to ASIA! When we arrived back the FP queue for RoL was RIDICULOUS! I felt bad for those folks waiting until I saw the FP queue for EE, it was stretched aback to the bridge! Well, we were committed to EE tonight so we sucked it up and hopped in line. Thankfully the queue moved very fast and soon we were getting our Disco Yeti on.

Our last stop of the night was FoP, I'll still say Avatarland is dud but FoP is awesome. We blasted throught the FP queue only to have to wait about 20 minutes in the staging area. While we waited we heard the call of an "accident" in B2. Cleaning crew CMs were making their rounds and we were just hoping we would not get B2, thankfully we didn't. While waiting we were asked about our DVC slider on our magic band. The guests next to us had just purchased at CC and she really wanted a slider. We talked about direct vs resale and how much fun being an owner is but had to break it to her that they no longer give out the slider so she would need to check with eBay. We congratulated her on on being a member then went on to enjoy James Cameron's Soarin.

As we left FoP it was pushing 10 so we were ready to head back. We waited less than 5 minutes for a bus and were quickly back at the resort. One criticism of CRB is they need better buss lanes. There was a queue of 3 buses waiting to unload because the lead bus had wheel chairs to unload so that meant the other two buses could not unload or go around because of lack of space. It was a minor inconvenience but unnecessary if there were better bus stops.

Upon entering our room we were pleasantly greeted with our luggage!

 

[lostpro9het]

I actually remember seeing that commercial when it aired. Wonder why he was blacklisted?

Maybe @imahistorygeek can remember, he was saying so much it was hard for me to keep up because I was also updating the TR and my BS meter was spiking a bit.

Also, it seems like the TSA wanted to see what kind of beer I like because I found this nice note in my luggage!

 

[Zipadeelady]

Maybe @imahistorygeek can remember, he was saying so much it was hard for me to keep up because I was also updating the TR and my BS meter was spiking a bit.

Also, it seems like the TSA wanted to see what kind of beer I like because I found this nice note in my luggage!
View attachment 274526

English? I'm assuming they were just inspecting the liquids in your luggage and I'm hoping they weren't telling you that soon you won't be able to transport such items in your luggage.

I didn't particularly like the "sunset" on the safari either, it just didn't seem right.

Also, the Uber driver's story seemed out there so I'm glad your "BS" meter had kicked in.

Also glad to hear @imahistorygeek had a good flight.

 

[lostpro9het]

English? I'm assuming they were just inspecting the liquids in your luggage and I'm hoping they weren't telling you that soon you won't be able to transport such items in your luggage.

I didn't particularly like the "sunset" on the safari either, it just didn't seem right.

Also, the Uber driver's story seemed out there so I'm glad your "BS" meter had kicked in.

Also glad to hear @imahistorygeek had a good flight.

HA! Yeah the other side was English and, yes, i think they just wanted to look at my beer.

Your room video us still uploading and ill pass that along soon.

 

[Tuvalu]

Maybe @imahistorygeek can remember, he was saying so much it was hard for me to keep up because I was also updating the TR and my BS meter was spiking a bit.

Phew! Em and I thought you had fallen for the former-bus-driver-now-Uber-driver spiel.

 

[lostpro9het]

Phew! Em and I thought you had fallen for the former-bus-driver-now-Uber-driver spiel.

This is pretty much how i felt about it

I neglected to use “sarcasm” tags in my initial post about the uber driver, he was sure spinning some yarn

 

[imahistorygeek]

Phew! Em and I thought you had fallen for the former-bus-driver-now-Uber-driver spiel.

I said something along the lines of this being just like a bus driver story. He was entertaining though.

 

[krause]

his tell all book that was going to expose Disney. He was very excited about his memoir and repeatedly told us we wouldn't believe what he knew.

Sounds a little...

Last two times I purchased packaged alcohol at a Disney park the CMs told me it had to be sent to the gate for pickup or delivered to my room

Whenever we have bought alcohol in the parks (okay... twice )... we have been told we have to take it and it can NOT be delivered to our room

I'm guessing to simulate a sunset but really looked off, almost like they moved the The Osborne Family Spectacle back there

On Caring For Giants tour we saw the backside of this giant LED screen. The CM told us they had been tinkering with the colors to get them less extreme. When it lines up with the sunset time of day it is slightly more believable but it seems like a very expensive idea that didn’t quite pan out.

 

[becca_]

So jealous of those pins!!!

 

[dclfan]

It was so nice to meet you both @imahistorygeek and @lostpro9het . I can’t wait to hear your review of the pinotage. We’ve been meaning to pick up a bottle while we were there. I’ll have to live through your review.

Enjoy the rest of your trip.

 

[lostpro9het]

So we’re at the big golf ball most of the day today. We made for TT after a brief Pandora charm glance in Mouesegear. We did single rider, standby was up to 65 already.
Single rider parties will be seperated my #winning

Ill leave the topiary pics to my better half, it aint my rodeo BUT here are a few selfies

As we were heading to the butterfly sanctuary there was an announcement for us to direct our attention to the fountain patio as a new round of CMs were just employed by the mouse.

The butterfly area really is enjoyable and nature was in full swing...

As we exited the area we saw the sign for the AP magnets so we went ahead and grabbed a set. We’ll be back in May to get the purple ones

Were now literally and figuratively recharging in the DVC lounge while DW plans her food kiosk attack. Any recommendations?

 

[WDW74]

Just got back yesterday.
Berry Basket - lamb chop and blueberry IPA
Smokehouse - Beef brisket / pork belly slider and maple bacon stout !