Exclusive Baby Gorilla Photos! (plus bonus Trip Report) - June '15 - completed 10/23 - Page 31

[nilla]

Every year at Coronado, I take at least one walk around the entire resort. Yeah, shut up, runners. I know you take multiple laps, almost daily. I see you pass me. And pass me again.

Anyway, right now seems like a great time to finally circle Caribbean Beach, and Kristin and the kids are cool with it. They don't have any plans.

Here's my route. Follow the purple arrow, starting and ending at the red X. Thank you for providing the virtual crayon, Paint.NET!



Left out of Aruba, around the corner of the lake, and toward Barbados:



Into the Forests of Endor...





Back to the Beach...



And here we are: Barbados.



Nice! Not my favorite location, though. Too close to the Customs House. I know how ridiculous that sounds, considering my whining about the location of the Customs House. But there is an acceptable distance from one's room to the Customs House. And it's between the distance from Aruba and the distance from Barbados.

Great view, though:



Back into the Ewok village...



More lake:



...and we're approaching Martinique:



There's a big beach here, and it's jumpin', though you can't tell from the photograph:



And here's the building:



And the view:

 

[nilla]

Sun's starting to go down.









Here's what I meant by "jumpin'":



There were people playing volleyball, too. As I said, jumpin'.

Did I mention the sun was going down?



I reached Old Port Royale now.



Skipping any photos of the pool, I walked past, into Trinidad North:



Here is the "ugly" view we passed up on Day 1:



And here is the building:



I like the view better going this way:





Coming up to the bridge:





Hey, it's Mr. Happy!



Mr. Happy, whose first known appearance was in Clarf's Trip Report, delights in greeting guests and obstructing bikes, strollers, and scooters. I also think he COULD double as an ashtray, if the desigers would've just brainstormed a bit longer.

I bop my way past, and I'm in Trinidad South:





Home of the famed "Pirate Rooms", this area's too remote for me. But I'm sure that's why a lot of people love it. Also, probably why pirates love it.

There's no loop here, so I'll have to turn around when I reach the end. It's a nice walk until then:

 

[nilla]

Heading back now...







This time, I'm going over the bridge. Since I can't swim to Jamaica.



Of course, you need a photo from the bridge:



And one over the water to Trinidad:



We're in Jamaica now, but we're in "bad lighting" territory now, so the buildlings don't look so hot:





View's still photographing well, though:





Kristin likes Coronado much better at night. I might agree.

Almost home now. Hey, I know that bridge!





Back in Aruba now, with a view you've seen MANY times in this TR:





Finally back! It was a great walk, and I loved getting to see the entire resort. This place IS huge, but that's what I love about it. It's like it's own, little world. With nations and everything.

 

[nilla]

When I reached the room, the rest of the family was gone, but this note was left in their place:



Alright, who can turn down that request? And who can resist night pool photos?







Put on your sunglasses, it's gonna get bright:



We tried swimming at night last year, in May, and it got too cold, oddly enough. But June is perfect for a dip after dark. These two agree:



More theming:











During this nighttime aquatic spectacular, we also got to see both the Illuminations AND Star Wars fireworks, plain as day. From the top of the pool slide, Epcot sits just past Aruba, while HS is behind Jamaica. Great views!

No photos, though.

Dylan got tired of swimming before the rest of us, so we let him head back to the room by himself. He's a big boy now. High school in two weeks. Mostly, I think he wanted to get back to playing Pokemon. Whatever.

The rest of us returned to the room around 11:00, and I think I'm asleep by 11:15. It was a long day, on not a lot of sleep. But I loved it. One of my favorite days of the trip, since there was so much to it. AK, Everest, Dinosaur, Day Swimming, Night Swimming, Shutters, and a walk.

Oh, and let's not forget the apes:



(Up next, back to Epcot for Day 7)

 

[reelmom]

I am really enjoying your report. Thanks for the pictures of Lilly and her siblings. Lilly has been hiding on our last 2 trips so it was amazing to see how big she has gotten. I also read a blog about the Fichwa Fellow Mickey at the Harambe Market. Fichwa means Hidden in Swahili, so it is a in your face Hidden Mickey. I love Disney!!

 

[nilla]

I am really enjoying your report. Thanks for the pictures of Lilly and her siblings. Lilly has been hiding on our last 2 trips so it was amazing to see how big she has gotten. I also read a blog about the Fichwa Fellow Mickey at the Harambe Market. Fichwa means Hidden in Swahili, so it is a in your face Hidden Mickey. I love Disney!!

Wow, that is really cool! I have not read that, but that's interesting. Thanks for the supplementary info, and thanks for reading!

 

[ksromack]

Now I wish we had made plans for Shutters! But guess what? We decided to add one day on at the end of our trip. At present CBR is unavailable for that last night but guess what is? Yep, Coronado Springs. I haven't been there since it first opened.......well, within the first year of it's opening. I'm excited to swim in that pool again and since our last day will not include park tickets, we plan to do just that until DME takes us to the airport.

Curious to see how you liked Narcoossee's. We're doing Citrico's this trip so I hope it is just as good as Narcoossee's was.

 

[pookersmom]

I've been reading your trip report this weekend and really enjoying it. CBR is our family's favorite resort. We always end up in Jamaica. We like how quiet it is there. We'll be back next June. We've never gone in June before but our son is in high school now so it's going to be summer trips only for us for the next few years. We've gone at the end of August though, when it felt a bit like walking around in a sauna. So we can survive June, right?

 

[MrsJamesPSullivan]

Really enjoying your report. I don't have any interest in staying at CBR but we may have to check out Shutters sometime in the future after your review and pictures!

 

[nilla]

Now I wish we had made plans for Shutters! But guess what? We decided to add one day on at the end of our trip. At present CBR is unavailable for that last night but guess what is? Yep, Coronado Springs. I haven't been there since it first opened.......well, within the first year of it's opening. I'm excited to swim in that pool again and since our last day will not include park tickets, we plan to do just that until DME takes us to the airport.

Jealous! That pool is great!

We briefly considered split-staying, but once we're situated, we don't like leaving.

Curious to see how you liked Narcoossee's. We're doing Citrico's this trip so I hope it is just as good as Narcoossee's was.

Hopefully we'll get there before your trip!

I've been reading your trip report this weekend and really enjoying it. CBR is our family's favorite resort. We always end up in Jamaica. We like how quiet it is there. We'll be back next June. We've never gone in June before but our son is in high school now so it's going to be summer trips only for us for the next few years. We've gone at the end of August though, when it felt a bit like walking around in a sauna. So we can survive June, right?

Welcome!

We're in the same boat with school, and not happy about it

But June wasn't that bad, IMO. I'm sure it's nothing compared to August!

Really enjoying your report. I don't have any interest in staying at CBR but we may have to check out Shutters sometime in the future after your review and pictures!

Cool, hope I'm helpful! I really was surprised by how much I liked it. If we stay at CSR next year, I still want to eat there.

Alright, here's the start of Day 7!

 

[nilla]

 

[nilla]

Day 7 - Sunday - Epcot

Itinerary:

• Sleep in
• Wing it in Epcot
• Watch Illuminations

FastPass+

• Spaceship Earth: 9:20-10:20
• Figmet: 10:20-11:20
• Soarin: 11:30-12:30

ADR:

• Coral Reef: 5:30

 

[nilla]

7th day in Disney, and the third already that we're sleeping in and not trying to make rope drop anywhere. What's happening to us?

After Friday night's insomniafest, though, sleeping in is much welcome for me. And I slept wonderfully, with Dylan in the Murphy bed and me with the entire queen-sized bed to myself.

Our plans are for Epcot today, but our first FP isn't until 11:30. Well, our first FP we actually care about. I don't really care if we can get FPs for those other ones later, either.

Emily started the day off right with cookies baked by our friend/neighbor:



After taking that photo, I braved the slow 'n spotty wifi to upload it to Facebook. Finally done, we get ready and get to Epcot around 10:30.



Emily brought Duffy today, since this, in all likelihood, be the last we meet the Disney Bear. In America, at least.

We missed our Spaceship Earth FPs, but none of us cared. We're currently missing our Figment FPs, too. But guess what? Yep, none of us care.

Instead, we plan to ride this:



"But how?", you ask. The standby time is around an hour, and we don't have FastPasses.

Single rider it is! We ride, I get no photos, and we exit. We were literally in successive cars. The woman sitting next to me asks if I waited in the hour-long standby, and I resisted the urge to bark, "are you nuts?", instead telling her about the wonders of the single rider line. She and her daughter loved the idea, and said they'd be using it later.

After TT, we took a walk over to the Land. Epcot looks odd without the playgrounds from Flower and Garden. I thought they would just un-theme them. Nope. Gone entirely.



Though Epcot's not empty today, it sure looks it:



We stopped for a quick PhotoPass shot...

(Note: If that photo is showing sideways for you, I honestly don't know why. I rotated it in PhotoBucket.)

..and then continued on. Wow, looks odd without the butterfly garden, too:



Giant crane at 1:00! We found out later it was for the Soarin' expansion, which I'm very excited for. It's about time.

Speakin' of Soarin'...



...we arrived at the Land, where we were just a few minutes early for our Soarin' FPs. I suggested eating first, since Sunshine Seasons tends to fill up, but we instead opted for standing in the FP line, telling guest after guest behind us that we still have about 3 minutes to go, and they could pass.

Eventually, the clock struck 11:30, and we were in, with not a photo to show for it. But we did wait for row B1, as always. We all love this ride, but we're happy hitting it once per trip. If the FP+ tiering were gone, it might be a different story. But even in past years, it was not something we rode again and again.

 

[nilla]

After riding, we hit Sunshine Seasons for lunch. This is without a doubt my favorite QS lunch in WDW. And, just like last year, I ordered the Curry Shrimp:



Yep, the same, delicious dish that ruined my San Angel Inn shrimp meal last year. Love it!

Kristin got the Mongolian Beef, as always, and the Key Lime Tart, as always:



Dylan got some variation on a sandwhich, as always:



And Emily...well, got chicken.



And an Olaf cupcake. "Hi!"



Emily and I are incapable of saying "hi" any way that does not resemble how Olaf says it, ever since Disney Channel ran that "Olaf's Snow Jamz" mix song between shows.

I got the tiramisu, as always:



For how many different options they have here, it seems like we all settle for the same things, year after year. But why not? If we like it, why not return to it?

For example, Dylan got plain cheesecake, as always:



One last close up of Kristin's dessert...



...and we're done. Great, as always, and why not? We got the same things we got last year. The good things. Our favorite things.

 

[nilla]

While sitting at lunch, we decided to brave the relatively-short standby line for Living with the Land, which, for some unknown reason, is a Tier 1 FastPass. What?

Speaking of LwtL and line times, I spotted this bizarre contraption on the back of the standby wait time clock:



No idea what that was. Since it was after 12:00, this clock made zero sense to me.

I had a Vikings shirt on today, and the Bears fan in front of me struck up a converstation with me in line. He and his wife were really nice, even if they were filthy, disgusting Bears fans.

Standby ended up being about twenty minutes, which isn't horrible.

I got my "7" photo for the day header, then walked directly into the bar holding up the boat awning while boarding. Not like "walk into, then duck and say 'ow'." More like "walk into and get stopped dead in your tracks". Once I realized what I did, I then ducked down and got into my seat. Ow.

Hey, I took photos on this ride!





Kristin loves waterfalls, so those photos are pretty much required. As is the Star Wars one:



And, of course, the 700 photos taken in the greenhouse:



Wait, that one had a waterfall, so I get a double word score for it! Nice!

Fruit time:



Waterfall time:



Fountain time:



And whatever these things are time:



WANT. Though I shouldn't. And wouldn't enjoy it.



For no apparent reason, here are some gators:



Not sure what their purpose is here. I think they should let them loose to increase the thrill factor of this ride, but as my avatar clearly shows, I'm starting to think Disney won't take my calls.

Fichwa Fellow!



Other stuff:





Hey, we're off the ride now! I apparently didn't take nearly as many photos as I usually do on that one, but that's probably because I have hundreds of photos from previous rides on it.

Always a fun time, that Living with the Land one. Now, back outside.

 

[nilla]

As you could see from that last photo, we're back into the center of the Land, but on our way out. But first, the Circle of Life.

We get there just after the last showing stopped seating, so we're the first in the waiting area. More people show up, eventually, but it never gets anywhere near full. We really like this one, though. Depressing, but still interesting. Plus, it has the "and everybody's ok with this?" line, which in this context is even better than in the original Lion King. Which is the best Disney movie EVER, in my opinion.

The film also contained a two-second clip to two bears play fighting, which Emily's Duffy loved. Speaking of Duffy, we realized at this point that he had been EXTREMELY patient, but it really was time to meet his much larger namesake.

Alright, so NOW we're outside. We walked to the front of World Showcase and got in line. The line wasn't big at all, which is amazing, because Duffy is the best.

We're literally the next group up, and Duffy has to take a quick break. He's back shortly after, though, and Emily heads on up.



That photo makes it look like Duffy's hug was unwanted, but that becomes obviously not the case soon enough:



Emily's Duffy was CLEARLY not feeling shy, either:





Emily got a hi-five...



...and we were out. Duffy was great, as usual. We will be SO sad to see him go, but were glad we got to see him this year. Bon Voyage, Duffy! Have fun back in Japan!

 

[nilla]

So, what to do now? We're sort of sticking to Future World today, though we're did wade over into these World Showcase waters to see the Duffster. But now, it's back to Test Track:





Single rider again, and the vehicle check-in at our loading spot is on the Windows splash screen:



We got on pretty quickly again, as is typical for the single rider line, and weren't spaced out very far again. Single rider is NICE.

After the ride, Kristin and Emily wanted to get the green screen shots, but Dylan had to be an idiot and try to photobomb them:



Check out Emily's expression. I warned him to stay out, and the fun resumed:





We walked over to the Universe of Energy, and it is HOT right now. Probably because we stopped walking. We find some shade in the queue, but I wander off to get this photo:



And, for some reason, this one:



And then this one:



While I'm not a huge fan of Ellen, I think she's sort of funny in this one, and there are certainly quotes to repeat outside of Disney ("Stupid Judy. Stupid Energy."). Not to mention Emily's school got a $100,000 grant from Ellen and her show (and Target) because of a letter a teacher wrote to her as part of a contest. That was cool.

Back to the ride, I managed to get some pictures in the dino part, too.





I like this one, even though you can't really see much in it:



One more:



And we're at the end. The film here is fun, too, and in all, this is another "we love this but will only do it once this trip" ride for us. Certainly not a Top Ten, but definitely a good one.

 

[nilla]

After UoE, we stopped at Club Cool, then over to Innoventions West to see the line for the Disney Visa character Spot. It's long, but not absurd. Plus, they have those dated video game demos the kids can play.

In an even better attempt to alleviate line boredom, the couple in front of us is playing Heads Up!, the smart phone app that is like the physical game "Hedbandz". For anyone not familiar with it, you can pick from a number of different categories, and the name of something from that category appears on the screen. You show the other person, he gives you clues, and then you try to guess what it is. It was fun to watch. Plus, the kids claim they can get it on their iPods.

We're eventually in, and the photos are great here.



Somewhere along the way, though I don't really recall when, exactly, we stopped at a FP+ kiosk to look for another FastPass. Nothing worthwhile was available...except special seating for Illuminations. Ok, we'll take it. Not sure how much better than normal seating it will be, but why not? What else would we get?

We still have about an hour until our 5:30 ADRs, but head on over the The Seas anyway.





There's next to no line for the Nemo ride, and plus, the surf conditions look great!



For as much as the kids fight, they do love to ride together, and we let them. They seem to be riding with a spirit of some sort in this photo, though.



Hitchhiking ghosts on Nemo? What??

This is a fun ride, too. Afterwards, we check out some fish:



And look, dolphins!



They were up to all sorts of hijinx, but we only caught the tail end of it. We did see them swimming, though. Which they've been known to do, from time to time.





Someone outside the tank was trying to hook the hoop in the bottom right of the photo, but not doing a very good job:



Hey, more dolphins!



Well, same dolphins, if we're being technical about it. The dolphins are done being bothered by us, so it's on to the next aquatic animal we can harass:



Manatees! I love these guys, but man, do they STINK. And eat lettuce. Perhaps there's a connection.



This has been a really leisurely Epcot day, and it's different to be taking our time in here, as opposed to our usual run-to-Nemo-then-go-right-to-dinner-then-leave-the-seas touring strategy for this pavilion. We even had time for this:





And this:





And this:



We even had time to take the "Name's Bruce Challenge", in which you are asked five questions about sharks. Some are really obvious, but others are a bit tougher. I got 4 out of 5, which means there is only a 20% chance I will be eaten by a shark.



Still with time before dinner, we decide to tread where we haven't dared to tread in YEARS...Turtle Talk with Crush. Yes, we did.

Cool lights on the way in...



But no more photos in there.

Crush was REALLY good, though. I forgot how funny. This is more little-kid-targeting than the Laugh Floor, but still entertaining.

In the highlight of this show, Crush returned with a bikini top, asking what it was, as I'm sure happens often. As kids laughed hysterically, Crush asked, "what's wrong with this?"

To which, a little girl - I'm guessing around 10 - shouted, "there's NOTHING wrong with that!" To thunderous applause. Crush replied, "that has to be the coolest girl ever, right there."

Ok, we've fooled around long enough. Time to eat!

(next update)

 

[AllysonL]

How did I miss such an epic update?! Shame on you Disboards notifications!

Your meals from Shutters look AMAZING!! That steak looks delicious, and are you kidding with those desserts!? They're huge! Looks really yummy... and now I'm hungry!

The pictures of CB are great! I love the sunset, and the way some of the buildings seem to change color in the light. Nice job! I really need to get back there, I forget a lot of what that resort looks like.








LOVE the family photo!! And I STILL haven't been to the Seas. I was going to go this last time, and opted not too. I'm saving it for when we take K back. She loves Nemo, so I think she'll really enjoy this and I didn't want to see it without her.

Great update! Can't wait to read more!!

 

[DisneyJo]

Oh wow that key lime dessert looks amazing, I think I need to schedule a lunch stop at SS