Disneyland, Wdw, Universal & Disney Cruise 2015-2016

Dec 31st - Happy New Year.
Our only plans today was dinner at The Whispering Canyon at Wilderness Lodge.
I think in the morning, we did washing, yes it has be done and then decided we wanted to go to Pop Century for one of the delicious ice cream sundaes you can get in the food court there.
We stayed at Pop the last trip.
Anyhow we caught a bus to HS , to just get off and get on a bus to Pop. Funny thing is CBR is next to Pop, but no way of walking there, I don't think.
So we went to the food court, had lunch, then the disappointment, the section were they make coffee and ice creams was closed , think they were renovating. Oh well Mickey Ice creams all round instead.
Had a look in the shop there, much better than the one at CBR and then got a bus back to HS, then a bus to CBR.
After that mammoth effort, which we all agreed it was a fizzer, it took us like 2 hours to get there ands back, not including lunch. Had a good laugh.

So I decided to do a bit off packing, before we headed off again this time to The we Wildnerness Lodge, if I remember correctly we caught a bus to MK and then boat across.
Yep, remember seeing the crowds going into to MK and thought to myself, Good Luck with that!
Dinner was fun, the server mucked around, throwing napkins and such. We ended up taking dessert to go, just couldn't fit it in after the meal.
Then lobby was georgeous, I love that resort.
Ok, so time to head off, bac onto boat to MK, hmmm , people everywhere, we were not stopping, so caught bus home.
CBR had a a dance party and movies going gone, as well as games for kids.
They were also giving out party hats and blowers.
My sister and I headed down to the main pool / food court area where it was all happening, grabbed ourselves a bench table and chairs, this was around 9.30pm. We each had a small bottle of spirits each, so we just filled up our drink mugs in the food court and poured some grog into them. Hey the bar was 10 people deep lol.
The kids wandered down aroun 11.15 and from our great position we could see the fireworks from MK and Epcot.
It was a lot fun, sitting their chatting with people and watching the fireworks.
We then had a 10 minute stroll back to our room.
I imagine people at MK were still struggling to get get out hours later.

A "selfie" we took back in the room. Lol was so much fun

Jan 1st - Animal Kingdom
I like this park a lot, as we only had one day , I mapped it all out and happy to say it was a success.
We were not sure how busy it would be as it was NY day.
So we left CBR around 8.30am, hmm not many people about.
When we arrived at AK , walked straight in, and went to Dinasour, we didn't ride this last time, it was fun, but we didn't want to do it again, even though it was walk straight on.
Everest was our first fp, I rode this last time and didn't mind it. Holy cow, this time I got off and was shaking, it's fun, but too extreme for me.
Our next fp wasn't until 1.30pm, so we had plenty of time to have a look around , we had lunch at flame tree bbq and then time for Lion King Show, amazing!
I love all the shows Disney put on, but this is one of my favourites with Aladdin, we managed to see Aladdin in Ca Adventure earlier in the trip.
Our 3rd fp was Kilimanjaro Safaris, this is a great ride, we managed to see quite a few animals this time.
By the time we got off this it was close to 4pm, we noticed the park steadily getting crowded as the day went on, but it was no way rammed with people.
Our adr tonight was at 5pm at the Rainforest Cafe, similar to T Rex but a different theme.
Another good meal had by all, but we all said we liked T REx better.
Successful day, saw and rode everything we wanted.
When we left the Rainforest Cafe we jumped on a bus to AK Lodge, wow , now I can't decide which was my fav resort of all the ones we saw.
We were not sure where to get off , but managed to hop off at the right spot. Just wandered around, the pool area was great, we saw a couple of giraffes. In hindsight probably would have been better to do it during the day.
Lost son on way out, he was ahead of us and just got on the bus, it pulled away as we were walking down to it. Didn't know if he would wait for us back at AK bus stop, but no , he was watching tv when we got back to the resort.
Tomorrow , MK .

2nd Jan -MK again
This was a Sat and I knew it would be crowded. Yep it was.
We didn't go until lunchtime, can't remember why, but we did have evening fast passes booked so that might have been why.
Anyhow, today was just to go on our favourites again.
We didn't bother with Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, we had already rode it about 8 times!
We did, HM,BTM, Speedway, Space Mtn ( not me) I did the people mover lol, when the others went to Space Mountain. Pirates, dumbo, it's a small world. Presidents Hall of fame.
We found when the parades were on or shows in front of the castle, the wait times went down.
Our last adr was dinner at BOG.
Much better than lunch and of course we got to meet the beast.
When we were leaving BOG the fireworks started, so we stood there and watched them. The others were sick of watching fireworks, but I wasn't.
Actually we saw or heard fireworks nearly every night somewhere.
We could see Epcot & MK ones from CBR and also HS Star Wars ones if we walked around to the back of the building we were in .
We even saw some whilst sitting on the bus somewhere along the way, I think it was leaving HS.
The only ones we watched from a park were the MK ones.
Tomorrow we leave the Disney bubble and head to Universal

I booked the cruise with Dreams Unlimited and this is the gift basket they sent to CBR.
Had some handy stuff in it.

Sunday 3rd Jan.
We were up early , had breakfast and as we had some QS credits left on the dining plan we exchanged them for snacks to take with us.
We booked a taxi from the room, he was there within 10 minutes. We only had to walk a couple a minutes to the Car park at the back of our our building to meet him.
Pretty sure we left Disney around 10.30am.
He piled all our stuff into the van and we were off to Cabana Bay Resort at Universal.
It had been sprinkling a bit this morning, but halfway there in the cab, it poured.
We had been so lucky with the weather, in fact it just felt like Xmas at home weather wise.
We pulled up at Cabana Bay, mad house!
People, cars, taxis, buses everywhere.
The driver eventually was able to pullover so we could get out, raining ugh!
Anyhow we checked in, room was ready. This place looks awesome .
After checking out the room, food court, pools , we hopped in a taxi and headed off to the outlets on International Drive, I am thinking this was around 12.30.
Everyone goes, finally some shopping!
The outlets were a mad house, Sunday and raining probably why?
So we found the food court, fought for a seat and had lunch. I remember having 5 guys burgers, they were pretty good burgers.
Then onto some shopping. Most shops were crowded and the lines to pay , were long, long, long.
So when we went into a shop , I said we have to split up otherwise if we follow each other around we will be here all night. So go and find what u want and meet back here in 30 mins and then someone can line up to pay.
This was necessary in the Nike shop, Sketchers , Victoria's Secret ect.
Anyhow, we all managed to spend a fair amount of money and after about 5 hours we had had enough, it was raining more and as a lot of that place is in the open without much cover, it wasn't fun in the rain.
It was now dark & around 6.30pm and we managed to find a taxi and headed back to Cabana Bay.

Cabana Bay resort, Food Court , one of the pool areas and one of the towers which housed the rooms

LivingforDisney said:

The bed will be suitable for your 8 year old. My daughter was turning 15 when we stayed and she slept in it fine for 14 nights . Her feet did hang of the end , but she didn't mind lol. I think most nights she was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow, from the walking and long days. I will see if I have a photo of the bed.
CBR was lovely, we stayed in Jamaica 21, which was close to a bus stop. This stop was always the first stop on the way back from the parks.
Going to the parks, they did stop a a couple of times before leaving the resort, but most of the times the buses were not crowded and we always got a seat. The busses were pretty frequent.
It was about a 10 minute stroll from our room to the food court and main pool.
I swam in one of the pools, which was close you our room and there was a laundry there. Thee kids always went up to the main pool, which did always look crowded.
It was a lovely resort and funnily the only place it seemed crowded was up near the main pool and food court.

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Thank you LivingforDisney. It sounds like the pull out bed will work out really well. Thank you also for the information about how long it took you to stroll from your room to food court etc. I've read a few reviews with people complaining about how spaced out the resort is and how long it takes to get to rooms, but 10 minutes seems fine to me - great bonus of getting a room near the first stop on the way back from the parks!

Montanabel, yes I did a lot of research of the resorts before we left. To be honest it is hard if you haven't seen the resort before. I didn't want to pay the extra they charge for rooms closer. The walk was nice as it is a lovely resort.
If you want you can also hop on the internal shuttle that goes around.
Have you decided what section you want to stay in. I called them and also asked for a room with the extra bed, as they all don't have them. I also asked for the ground floor.
Not sure if you have seen it, but there is a map, it is on the disboards site about the CBR.

Mon 4th Jan
Well we didn't get up earlier enough today. Staying at Cabana Bay you get early entry in to Harry Potter part of the park. We were obviously tired and we got to the park around 11am.
To say the least it was crowded, ET was even 40 mins wait!
I thought the holiday crowds would be gone by now.

Trying to think what we did?
We saw the makeup show, which was good and pretty funny. Also Terminator.
Had lunch at Mels diner.
Did single rider for transformers twice, I love this ride. Single rider on Spider-Man, love this one too.
We all did Shrek.
Kids and sister waited 50 mins to go on The Simpsons, I really don't like this one, have done it a couple of times before, but I just had a wander around by myself. The weather was lovely, oh I bought my son one of those big Simpson pink doughnuts for $5 and we all shared it that night.
My son and sister went on Men in Black.
We then decided to get the train over to the other park.
It took 40 mins in the line, but the line moved quick and I think it was worth it.
We didn't go on Gringetts today, line was way to long as was Forbidden Journey.
We stayed at the park until around 6pm and then stopped at Bubba Gumps on the way out and had dinner.
Haven't been here before, the food was great.
Early morning tomorrow, airboat ride.

Tues 5th Jan
Wildlife park & airboat ride.
We were up early this morning as we had to get to another hotel for our pickup at 7.30am.
It was a bit chilly today, anyhow we jumped in a cab and it wasn't far, I think the cab cost $8
The grayline bus picked us up and did a few other stops, then he took us to a car park in a shopping centre where we were transferred to a small van.
Crickey, I now know how a sardine feels! There were 13 of us doing this tour and we were all squashed into this tiny van, the English man I sat next door was not impressed to say the least lol. It was a bit clustrophobic in there and of course we were one of the last to get in so had to practically crawl up to a seat in the back.
Not fun at all.
i think it was a torturous 50 min drive.
The day ended up being great though. Was nice to be away from the theme parks and crowds.
The wildlife park was very well maintained, you just wandered around by yourself and they had a show with reptiles.
We got to pat a nice big ugly cane toad and hold a baby alligator.
So we had about 90 minutes and then we were off on the one hour airboat ride.
These are great to do if you get the chance.
We did one last time, but at a different place,as we did it after going to KSC..
The only complaint was it was bloody freezing on the water, zipping along.
Time to leave ugh, the kids were in the gift shop so of course we were last on the sardine can again, up the back we go. Lol can laugh about it now.
I asked the guy if he could drop us near The Titanic exhibition, he dropped us out the front of the place on I Drive.
This was very interesting and a good way to spend a couple of hours.
Before going into the Titanic we had a walk up the road, a lot of junky tourist shops. We didn't buy anything.
We came across a Burger King so ventured in there for lunch.
After the Titanic we went into a Dunkin Donuts place , actually had a decent cappuccino!
It was actually really cold now, so we spotted a cab parked near one of the $2 shops, managed to get across the road and headed home.
The kids decided to go in the pool , cause the water was warm and spent a hour floating around the lazy river.
Dinner at the food court, food was a lot better than Disney's food courts.
Early start tomorrow.

LivingforDisney said:

Montanabel, yes I did a lot of research of the resorts before we left. To be honest it is hard if you haven't seen the resort before. I didn't want to pay the extra they charge for rooms closer. The walk was nice as it is a lovely resort.
If you want you can also hop on the internal shuttle that goes around.
Have you decided what section you want to stay in. I called them and also asked for a room with the extra bed, as they all don't have them. I also asked for the ground floor.
Not sure if you have seen it, but there is a map, it is on the disboards site about the CBR.

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I'm still researching about which section. I have booked a preferred room, only because I have read so many people complain about how far away the other sections are, but if it is only 10 minutes......the most important aspect is the extra bed. Thanks for the tip about calling them in advance to request it.

if there are 5 of you travelling, they will give you a room with the extra bed. We were a party of 4 and I didn't want to sleep with my 17yr old son for 2 weeks, so I was happy we had the extra bed as my daughter used it , my son had his own bed & my sister and I shared

There is just the four of us (well we do have a friend who is travelling with us but he will be booking his own room). DD11 and DD8 could share a bed, but I think the holiday will be much smoother if they each have their own bed...........

We'd 6th Jan
We managed to get up and be at the park for the early hour. We wanted to Gringotts today.
Well.... We got in the park and they said Gringotts was down, really?
Then it started raining, it wasn't heavy but annoying.
Anyhow they had opened up some other rides for the inconvience
So we walked straight onto Minions, this is a good ride.
Did transformers with no wait, then decided to head over to Gringotts, it was still down, so we had a look around Diagonal Alley and in the shops, then we decided to go over to the other Harry Potter ride, the wait for the train wasn't too long today at this time.
The fun bit is when you walk thru platform 9 3/4, if you want to tape it, get the person to walk ahead and you hang back.
We did this on 2 occasions.
The others went on HP , I don't like it, so I went for a wander and went in the wand shop, only waited a couple of minutes to see the show.
Met up with the others and then we checked out the shops, can't remember what we did for lunch lol.
We then got the train back to the other side, much quicker from this side, the lines were never as long.
We ended up going in Jurassic Park, did the ride with no wait, then we saw the raptors, make sure you see this, it is so life like I was terrified of the thing and it was rubbing its big teeth in my hair, the video we got is great, my daughter wouldn't go near it, so she taped it for me.
We ended up staying at the park till nearly closing time, fireworks were going off as we left.
Yeh, we got to ride Gringotts later , early evening it was about 20 mins wait. So well done this ride, loved it.
Was a good day, got to ride a lot today, crowds had died down a bit.
Last day at Universal parks tomorrow, let's see if we make it for early opening.....
I tried to add the video of walking thru the platform , but didn't work, so I don't think the raptor one will either as it is quite long.

Thursday 7th Jan.
Well we managed to get up early, but not earlier enough and by the time we got to the parks, half of the early morning hour had elapsed.
Never mind, it wasn't busy at all, we headed straight to Transformers, walked on no wait, so we rode again.
Minions was closed from today for 2 days, so glad we got to do that once.
I remember we walked over to ET, no wait, so we did that twice.
Corny, but fun lol.
The kids talked me into going on the Simpsons today, we waited about 15 mins.
They did Men in Black.
After doing everything we wanted, we headed for the train, this time we only waited about 15 mins.
We then did Gringotts and the others did Forbidden Journey.
Around 3pm we decided we decided we would go back to the hotel and then come back around 6pm.
Once at the hotel, I decided I should to some washing as we were going on our cruise in 2 days and that I should really organise the suitcases.
So around 5pm we went to the food court at a Cabana Bay and then the kids headed back to the park by themselves.
So my sister and did the washing and packed.
The kids were back around 8.30pm and said they had fun and got to ride quite a bit.

Fri 8th Jan
Today we left Cabana Bay and we're staying one night at a airport near the hotel, before going on our Disney Cruise and we had decided we wanted to take the Disney transport to and from the cruise port.
I was going to stay at the Hyatt Airport hotel for convience, but it was quite expensive.
I then came across the Hampton Inn and Suites which had great reviews, so that was the choice.
We caught a taxi around 11.00 am and arrived at the hotel to very, I mean very friendly reception staff.
Gave us our room which was massive, wow.
So far every hotel has given us our room, even though we were hours early checking in at each one.
This hotel was fantastic, free wifi, free airport shuttle, free hot breakfast.
Anyhow after having a look around the hotel, we asked reception to call us a cab as we wanted to go to Florida Mall.
My son decided he didn't wanted to go shopping, so he stayed at the room.
We left around 1pm and got back around 5.30pm.
The mall was lovely and of course Large. We grabbed something to eat at the massive food court.
My sister was wanting to get makeup for her daughter, so we did that, we found The Build a Bear Shop, M and M shop and my daughter wanted to go into the American Girl Store.
We got a few good bargains in Victoria's Secret.
It was a fun couple of hours, we then went back to the hotel in a taxi.
Across from the hotel was a few resturants, so we dropped our bags and headed off to the steakhouse resturants, it was packed, so we had a 40 minute wait.
The food was lovely though.
After dinner we all showered and got our bags all ready as we were on the 9am shuttle to the airport.

Saturday 9th Jan
This was the day I was most excited about.
7 night Western Caribbean cruise on the Disney Fantasy.
We were up early, and went down stairs and enjoyed a nice hot breakfast, then we went and got our bags and waited for the shuttle.
The shuttle dropped us right where we had to check in with Disney, it wasn't very crowded as yet.
We never received our cruise documents before leaving home, my husband said they arrived a. Couple of days after we left Sydney. Didn't matter , the guy put luggage tags on our bags for us, we then just took our bags out the door to be loaded on the luggage bus and then joined the small queue to check in, we were then told to go outside and get on bus number? Can't remember now lol.
After about 15 mins sitting on the bus, yea we were on our way to the port.
To be continued....

Sat 9th Jan - Sat 16th Jan
The bus didn't take long at all around 40 mins I think. Was so looking forward to seeing the ship as we got closer.
Ugh, where is it? It was so foggy we could hardly see it when we arrived. Oh well.
Once off the bus we went through security , if you arrive on the Disney bus , it is a seperate entrance to where other passengers go into the terminal.
This took us about 3 mins to go through security and then we were in the building, it wasn't very crowded, so we lined up to checkin for the cruise and get our boarding number which was number 6.
We just had a wander around, we went outside to the viewing deck and watched as they were loading up the ship.
We didn't bother having photos done with Mickey as by now there was a very long line.
Before too much time had passed they called our number and we went through the Mickey ears , had a photo taken and were announced onto the ship. This is a cute little thing Disney do.
I told everyone I would line up to get the tickets for the Princess meet & Anna & Elsa, so that took me about 20 mins, the others just sat with our hand luggage.
After getting the tickets, we headed to Enchanted Garden Rest for lunch, as I had read on here it's better than trying to fight for a seat at Cabanas the buffet rest.
In the Enchanted Garden, they show you to a seat, get your drinks for you, but it is still a buffet.
Had a nice lunch, plenty of choices of food.
After lunch it was close to 1.30pm, so we headed off to find our cabin, we were on deck 7 midship.
Wow, the cabin was lovely and quite roomy. We had a cabin for 5, which was a queen bed, sofa bed with bunk above and a bed that came out of the wall. I chose this as no one wanted to sleep on a top bunk.
We dropped our hand luggage and then went exploring, the kids clubs were open , so we went there for a look and also went to the bars to have a look.
We went to the club where my kids could go, if they wanted, they said they might try it.
It was really good and they even had their own small pool.
So we checked them in and they were told they could come and go as they please, it would be open till 2am some nights!
We went back to the cabin and our bags were there, so we unpacked our clothes for the cruise and met our room steward, he was excited when he heard our accents, lol.
Australians yey,he said. He was from Jakarta.
It was now time for the muster drill, so we had to find our way to that on deck 4, I heard the accent of the family standing next to us, and said where are you from in Australia, lol they live about 15 mins from me.
After the drill , it was a mad rush to get up on deck for the Sail Away Party.
We got up on deck, geez a lot of people, not sure how they all managed to get up there so quick.
I said lets stand here, was behind a short lady and her daughter, mind you this was about 30 mins before the show was to start.
Anyhow about 5 mins before show time, her whole family of about 6 arrived, including one on a scooter and she said here you are I got you a good spot, I have seen it before so I am going.
I said hey they are not standing in front of me, I have been here for 30mins , they should have been here earlier, so I told my kids to stay where they were, of course they gave me the evil eye! They hate confrontation, anyhow the hogger moved and the lady on the scooter moved it closer to the railing, which was fine with me, as we could see over here, but I refused to let the other adults stand in front of me.
Not a good start lol, by the time the show started I had had enough, it was hot, crowded and so noisy with the music, but I stuck it out, watched the show and then realised the ship was moving.
After this , decided I needed a drink, so my sister and I went up on deck to the adults area and the kids went exploring. Told them to be back at the cabin at 5.30pm as we wanted to go to the show at 6pm.
We had 2nd seating for dinner at 8.15pm.
We all met up, the show was in the Walt Disney Theatre, after that finished we had a wander around and then it was time for dinner.
We were sat at a table with a family from Maryland , their son and daughter were the same age as mine. Good job Disney.
After dinner the kids went off to try the club and my sister and I went and had a look in the shops.
I don't think we went to bed till around 11.30pm.
Photos of the sail away party, you can see us behind the lady on the scooter, younger kids club , older kids club and the pool they can use.