Excuse me, you'll need to see security. What has Mickeystoontown done? Update 3/25x2

[disprincessesmom1012]

Whew finally caught up!! with our time out of town and trying to get ready for our trip in three weeks, i got so behind. Loving the report. I think i can safely say i wouldnt like a cruise. I have major anxiety issues.

 

[melnbil]

It has been about a year and a half since I have been on the boards. But, since I didn't think I would get to go back for many years, it made me sad to see everyone going. But then it happened!! My son (8) said "Mommy, I want to go back to Disney World". Well what did I do? I started looking. I will hopefully be able to book in Feb and go back in October. Since he wants to stay at CBR, who is the 1st person I thought of? You! Yep that's right! I knew it was your favorite and you could answer my questions, plus I enjoy reading about your family. I have spent the weekend catching up on last year, your ptr and the trip so far this year!! Can't wait to finish up. I will probably bug you between now and the time we go with oodles of questions!!

 

[mickeystoontown]

It has been about a year and a half since I have been on the boards. But, since I didn't think I would get to go back for many years, it made me sad to see everyone going. But then it happened!! My son (8) said "Mommy, I want to go back to Disney World". Well what did I do? I started looking. I will hopefully be able to book in Feb and go back in October. Since he wants to stay at CBR, who is the 1st person I thought of? You! Yep that's right! I knew it was your favorite and you could answer my questions, plus I enjoy reading about your family. I have spent the weekend catching up on last year, your ptr and the trip so far this year!! Can't wait to finish up. I will probably bug you between now and the time we go with oodles of questions!!

Welcome back to the Dis and to my trip report! I bet you were having some major Disney World withdrawals and were jumping up and down when your son asked about going back to the most magical place on Earth.

Bug me all you want. I'll be happy to answer any questions that you have. If I can't answer 'em, I'm sure some of my other readers can.

Whew finally caught up!! with our time out of town and trying to get ready for our trip in three weeks, i got so behind. Loving the report. I think i can safely say i wouldnt like a cruise. I have major anxiety issues.

Three weeks! I'd love to be going back to the World in just three weeks. I thought that we'd never want to go on a Disney cruise again but, after reminiscing about the trip, I'd book another one if I could.

 

[mickeystoontown]

I may have done the opposite It will be a while before I get to that part of the TR though so I'm honestly not sure.

K had made some meeting arrangements I think, and we lucked out with one family who had a daughter K had already made friends with as they'd chosen loungers right in front of us on the family beach so that made it easy. She was off either playing volleyball or soccer most of the time, the sand soccer was on the schedule though and I think that helped people connect up and go from there?

I can hardly wait to see the pictures that you took especially since I failed to take many.

How neat that K got to meet up with some new friends on the island. I'm guessing Hunter didn't even think about telling his "Vibe" friends to meet him there.

Lisa, the last three posts are hilarious! I loved seeing the pics of y'all bustin your move!

And Castaway K looks, well....like an island! LOL The view from where you were sitting was really pretty. Sounds like father like son when it comes to the sleeping thing, at least while you were on Castaway K.

I'm curious what y'all found to eat!

Thanks! We were really cutting a rug at the pirate party!

The island was absolutely gorgeous! If Disney had a resort there, I'd book it in a heartbeat.

Just read your intro, and I'm smiling and laughing already! Can't wait to get started!

Welcome! I hope that you're close to being caught up and will feel free to comment here and there.

I want to be on a private Island! With a hammock. And take a nap without someone poking me to ask for a glass of water or telling me they are hungry.

Great view! I hope this was a good day for you guys!

I agree with you 100%! The day was absolutely beautiful!

For some reason, the air strip is the only thing I HAVE to see if I ever get to go to castaway cay.

Pictures coming up soon!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Good morning! The first thing I did after opening up the office this morning was apply for the Disney Moms Panel. This was my fourth time applying and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll make it to the next round. As you all know, we are certified Disney nuts and I'd love to share our love for Disney with others. To all of you who have also applied, Good luck!

 

[melnbil]

You asked for it. Just kidding. I am just wondering since we are wanting the pirate rooms, and they are the fartherest (sp) away from OPR, can we stay at CBR and never visit OPR? Are there drink stations at the villages or do we have to visit OPR to get drinks for the mugs and stuff? My son insists that we stay in a pirate room so Jack Sparrow can visit and leave him stuff, Disney Florist here I come.

 

[Bridora]

I'm so glad to hear that you'll have Mama, Lacey, and Jesse with you at Disney next year! I hope we're able to still vacation together as our kids grow up!

You early-bird Castaways! I think it's funny there were no other teenagers on the beach yet. I'm betting they were still asleep back on the ship!

I'll keep my fingers crossed for your Moms Panel application!

 

[Bridora]

Just before reading your update I was reading this: GigaPan of Castaway Cay
.

This is so cool! I just wasted probably 10 minutes zooming in all around the island!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Good morning! The first thing I did after opening up the office this morning was apply for the Disney Moms Panel. This was my fourth time applying and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll make it to the next round. As you all know, we are certified Disney nuts and I'd love to share our love for Disney with others. To all of you who have also applied, Good luck!

Good luck!!!! Too bad they don't ask for referrals from friends to get the position, you'd be a shoo-in from everyone here recommending you

 

[mickeystoontown]

You asked for it. Just kidding. I am just wondering since we are wanting the pirate rooms, and they are the fartherest (sp) away from OPR, can we stay at CBR and never visit OPR? Are there drink stations at the villages or do we have to visit OPR to get drinks for the mugs and stuff? My son insists that we stay in a pirate room so Jack Sparrow can visit and leave him stuff, Disney Florist here I come.

Unfortunately, there aren't any drink stations for the refillable mugs in the villages. There are drink machines though. I've taken the walk over to Trinidad South several times and, honestly, it wasn't that bad of a walk to me. I'd say my longest walk to OPR was 7 minutes tops.

I so wish that the CBR had the pirate rooms back when Hunter was younger. I'd have stayed in one in a heartbeat.

I'm so glad to hear that you'll have Mama, Lacey, and Jesse with you at Disney next year! I hope we're able to still vacation together as our kids grow up!

You early-bird Castaways! I think it's funny there were no other teenagers on the beach yet. I'm betting they were still asleep back on the ship!

I'll keep my fingers crossed for your Moms Panel application!

We are excited to have everybody going back! My kids have grown up going to Disney and I think that's why they don't mind going back even after some feel they have outgrowni t.

I'm thinking the other teenagers were still asleep too. We didn't see any teenagers on the beach for quite some time after we got there.

Keep those fingers crossed for me! I would love to serve on the Panel.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Good luck!!!! Too bad they don't ask for referrals from friends to get the position, you'd be a shoo-in from everyone here recommending you

Thanks! That's so sweet of you to say!

 

[scottny]

All caught up.

The Springs trip looked like fun.

I really do have to try a cruise. Castaway Cay looks nice. My friends family has a private island in the Bahamas, only 5 houses on the island and all theirs. That is the life.

Looking forward to more.

P.S. loved the dancing photos.

 

[TeresaNJ]

Yay! I'm all caught up! Loving reading about your adventures! LOL, almost arrested for an iron, who would have thought? You are a very attractive family, and you most certainly don't look like a "hot mess"!

I've always wondered if I would like to do a Disney cruise, and yours is the first TR I've read about one. So far I'm not sure. I've been on one cruise, on Norwegian cruise line's Norway, almost 20 years ago, so that experience doesn't count, plus I barely remember anything about it anyway. I just so love WDW, that I don't know if I'd be disappointed with the cruise.

Do you think it's worth the money? We're discussing this right now on FB on a private group page made up of DISers I became friendly with on the CB years ago, from posting frequently on a political thread. When we were no longer allowed to discuss politics, we made our own group on FB, and now discuss everything to our heart's content! Anyway, I digress. One of the women said her sister is going on the Disney cruise in November, and she'd like her, her husband, & 3yo daughter to go too, but it will cost $2400 for a five night cruise, and she doesn't know if it is worth it. I couldn't give her any advice, never being on a Disney cruise. I thought about directing her to your report. I calculated paying rack rate at Art of Animation, the basic meal plan, and park tickets would cost them about the same price. It does seem like a lot of money for a cruise, considering what you could do at Disney for five nights.

 

[PittypatBR]

Good morning! The first thing I did after opening up the office this morning was apply for the Disney Moms Panel. This was my fourth time applying and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll make it to the next round. As you all know, we are certified Disney nuts and I'd love to share our love for Disney with others. To all of you who have also applied, Good luck!

Oh, Lisa, they really should pick you. You would be a terrific Moms Panel member. I will keep my fingers crossed for you!

 

[pwdebbie]

Good morning! The first thing I did after opening up the office this morning was apply for the Disney Moms Panel. This was my fourth time applying and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll make it to the next round. As you all know, we are certified Disney nuts and I'd love to share our love for Disney with others. To all of you who have also applied, Good luck!

Oh, I hope you make it! You would be perfect!

 

[lovethattink]

Great update from Castaway Cay!! Boy, do I miss that place! It's changed since we were there, 7 or 8 years ago. I think we're due for a return, what do you think?

That is odd that there were no teens at their beach. Late night?

 

[mickeystoontown]

What flew up her butt? Is this a landing strip?

A look at the map revealed the fact that Cookies Too BBQ was just a little further down from where we had dropped our stuff for the day. We weren’t sure what time it was but it had to be getting close to time for the restaurant to open for the day. I grabbed my backsack and off we went to search for something to fill our tummies. As we approached Cookies Too: (picture borrowed from the internet):

We walked over to Cookies Too BBQ along with many other guests. There were three or four people in front of us with plates so we got in line and we were stopped by a castmember that said, in a very rude and loud voice, “M’am, you can’t come in here. We aren’t open and you have to wait”. I told her that we thought they were open because there were other people in front of us with trays. She said “I don’t know how they got them but you can’t get your food yet so wait here.” and it was said in a rather snarky tone of voice. She also said it in a loud enough voice that the people around us said “What’s her problem?” John looked at me and whispered “What flew up her butt?” I told the castmember that we were fine with waiting and smiled. I thought that the smile would be returned but it was not and so we just stood. After about 5 minutes, the castmember simply said “here” and put a plate/tray in my hand. Someone was having a bad day but I was determined not to let her ruin mine.

One note that I’d like to make here is that we were surprised that the plates, utensils and napkins were all “real”. The plates were “real”, the napkins were fabric and the utensils were stainless steel.

We left Ms. Grumpypants at her station and looked to see what we wanted to try. I chose a burger, a rib, a small spoon of german potato salad, some homemade salsa, tomato salad, slaw and a little piece of grilled fish. Oh and a cookie. I couldn’t leave out their name sake dessert dish:

John chose a cheeseburger, a piece of chicken, an ear of corn, slaw, german potato salad, banana nut bread and some chips:

I guess that I forgot to take a picture of Hunter’s plate but I remember that he got a burger and a hot dog, chips and a cookie.

We went to the drink station to get our drinks and that’s when I realized that there was self serve ice cream available. I made a mental note that we’d have to come back later and try out the flavors offered.


The homemade salsa and tomato salad were really good as was the banana bread so we went back for seconds on those. The chips made their way into my backsack so that we could eat them later while lounging or in our room. We walked back toward our loungers and laid down a while to let our food settle.

I feel the need to say something before I start my rant/complaining/etc. We are used to crowds (we have been to Walt Disney World every year with some of those times being mid-May, over the Memorial Day holiday, Star Wars Weekends, early and mid-August, and during Thanksgiving...enough said ) but the guests around us now weren’t the courteous sort when it came to making sure they weren’t spraying sunscreen all over us or not shaking the sand from their shoes around our heads when we were lying on the lounge chairs. We heard several parents tell their kids “Just find a tube and take it. I’m not renting one.” What? Are you serious? People have paid money to rent those tubes and you are telling your kid to just take it as if it were their’s? It was all I could do to bite my tongue and not say something.

As I said in the last post, we chose our chairs because there was an umbrella and a palm tree right beside us. A lady in a lounge chair behind and to the right of us decided that she didn’t want the umbrella up and promptly put it down meaning I was directly in the sun. Ya’ll have seen my lily white skin....I burn easily! You’d have thought that she would have asked if we minded her letting it down or she could have even moved over a chair or two and been directly in the sunshine without ever letting the umbrella down. But no...she just put it down and plopped back on her lounge chair.

**Continued in next post

 

[mickeystoontown]

The sand that had been flung on me from the kid behind me was rubbing my backside and the sun beating down on me was taking away from the “this is my private island” feel. I turned to John and to Hunter and asked if they wanted to go rent bicycles and get away from the sunscreen spraying, sand tossing, umbrella letting downing (gosh that sounds so redneck) and tube stealing for a while. They were game so off we went.

There were two castmembers working the small bicycle rental booth. We handed over our card and, I believe, signed a waiver. Hunter was told that he had to wear a helmet because of his age but John and I could go without. The castmember told us to follow the signage and to watch out for trams. He also said that the trail was 4 ½ miles long and if we didn’t want to ride the entire way, we could turn around at any time. We told him that we were going the whole 4 ½ miles and he wished us luck.

With the help of another castmember, we picked out our bikes and we were on our way. I’ve got to tell ya’ll that the bicycles on Castaway Cay are some of the easiest bicycles I have ever pedaled. You didn’t have to put much effort into it at all. That’s my kind of bicycling! We took off and I tried to take pictures but it’s hard to steer a bicycle and take pictures all at once. One of the signs showing us the way:

We came upon this long wide stretch of road and that’s when we all wondered and said aloud “Is this a landing strip?” It sure looked like it and maybe it was. I dunno.

We took the bicycle loop and, being the smarty pants that he is, Hunter whizzed by his dad and showed off his bike riding skills. John said that he could outdo him and promptly scrapped one entire side of his body into the plants alongside the path. Ouch! Of course, we all laughed our behinds off UNTIL we came upon a sign that said something like “Do not touch any of the plants or vegetation as they may be harmful to your skin and cause skin irritations!” Great! Now my husband is going to have some sort of skin rash that spreads over his entire body.

Let’s not show off any more and just stick to riding our bicycles:

Do you know how hard it is to hold a camera in the air while keeping your balance and steering a bicycle? Pretty darn hard:

All alongside the path were various items such as this:

We came upon the observation tower and we decided to stop. We parked our bikes alongside the others there and climbed up the three flights of stairs. My fear of heights wasn’t that overwhelming at the time and I was able to take some pictures without the fear of tumbling to my death.

There was a small “outhouse” with a bird in it to the left of the observation tower which we thought was pretty cute:

Pictures taken, we climbed back down and continued on our bicycle journey. The path that we were on now would take us to the private cabana area.

It was nice and quiet and there were places to stop and get a drink of water. There weren’t any fountains, there were just large coolers of water with cups. Some of the coolers were empty or had no cups. I certainly wasn’t about to hold my mouth underneath the spout and get a drink. Who knew whose lips had been on the spout. YUCK!

The path finally came to an end and we were greeted with an absolutely gorgeous view:

There were several people there taking pictures and we could tell that it would be a while before we’d have a turn so we left without any pictures of us with the view in the background. Oh well! We rode back to the bike rental station and turned in the bikes. The castmember was still there and asked if we had ridden the entire way. When we told him that we had, he seemed surprised. Maybe I’m not so outta shape after all.

We made pit stops and then wandered back to our lounge chairs. There were so many people there that it was hard to even get to the chairs and one look at the water told us that we’d be bumping into everybody if we went out there. I looked at John and then to Hunter and both of them had that “let’s get outta here” look on their face. Before we left, we stopped by the ice cream machines and each got a small serving. We had the vanilla, chocolate and banana and all were really good and helped to cool us off.

We slowly made our way down the pathway to the Disney Dream stopping to look in the shops and to listen to a musician who was playing. It was hot though! You know how hot the Animal Kingdom feels? That’s how the path back to the ship felt. It was flipping hot! We picked out shirts for each of us, a Vinylmation for Hunter, a magnet and a postcard. The small store was blazing hot and everybody in there was complaining about it. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough and was thankful when a castmember said that he could ring us up at the outside register. Purchases made, we continued walking back to the ship and I took pictures as we walked:

There’s a lizard in this picture somewhere:

There’s the Dream just waiting on us to come aboard:

**Up Next: Burning! Believing! Boo-hooing!

 

[sherylcin]

Wow! You had the good, the bad and the ugly all in one day! Good thing you got to the beach early and enjoyed some wonderful quiet beach time before everyone else got there. Too bad about the rude cast member. You were generous giving her a smile. I think she needed it!! Can't believe how parents can teach their children to do ugly things and then wonder why they turn out with the values (or lack of them!) that they do! Your bike ride looked wonderful. I would have loved it and the view at the end was beautiful! Do the cast members stay somewhere on the island? I've just always been curious about that.

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Wow! You had the good, the bad and the ugly all in one day! Good thing you got to the beach early and enjoyed some wonderful quiet beach time before everyone else got there. Too bad about the rude cast member. You were generous giving her a smile. I think she needed it!! Can't believe how parents can teach their children to do ugly things and then wonder why they turn out with the values (or lack of them!) that they do! Your bike ride looked wonderful. I would have loved it and the view at the end was beautiful! Do the cast members stay somewhere on the island? I've just always been curious about that.

Gorgeous pictures from the bike ride, which seems good since you had to deal with a rude CM and rude guests on the beach before that!