1 crazy family+2 resorts+5 parks+1 snake+1 surprise=A Mickeystoontown report 4/3x2

[Koh1977]

Isn't it crazy how those boys can eat pizza every single day and not complain? I couldn't do that.

I hope that ya'll are having a great time. Your complaint about WL's counter service isn't the first that I've heard. I think that most deluxe resorts have little CS and not much variety.

I wish that we had stuck with POR and not changed to FQ. I do feel like we would have enjoyed it more.

John's brother's family were at Sports the same time we were at CBR and they really enjoyed it. I'm betting that River will like all of the different sports icons.

I did like Captain Cook's at Poly...

 

[HiHoOffWeGo]

2015 as we do Disney every other year. The Alamo city next year.

 

[MagicShell]

I'm glad you got the magic case back. It wouldn't be a Disney trip if I didn't loose at least 3 things. Luckily I've always gotten them back.

 

[ddstratton]

Oh, my. What a lousy CM!!!! First off – really… What business is it of hers if you are only staying for one night, and why??? The attitude really was not called for at all. Not a good way to give a good impression of the resort!!

The rooms have been refurbed since our visit in 2010.

I’m not sure if I like the darker look or not…

I’m trying to remember, but I don’t think we ever really utilized the food court at POFQ… I know we did at Caribbean Beach, and enjoyed the food court there.

That monkey cupcake sounds absolutely delicious. I'll take one now, please!

Your meal at Caribbean Beach sounds much more satisfying that your meal at POFQ.

I'm finally all caught up -- we just got back from a 10-day vacation visiting family in North Carolina. We went over to Gatlinburg twice. I can now say that I will NEVER go in June again. Wow -- it was NUTS!!!

Looking forward to reading about the rest of your adventures.

 

[bigbabyblues]

De-lurking, finally. I really enjoy your reports, and especially the CBR pics.

I guess you're a lot nicer than I am...I would have told the cm at POFQ that I was only there one ight to try it out, but if all the cms had her attitude, I would like to switch to CBR now! What can I say, we drive 15 hours straight through to get to WDW, and I'm not always cheerful when I get there. (DH checks in for us, lol).

Looking forward to reading more about your trip!

 

[mommytothreeboys]

Yay for finding the magic case!!

Now I need a cupcake.....

 

[MEK]

I'm sure I've missed an update (or two), but enjoyed your last one. So very glad that John found his Ativan! Thank goodness because if my memory serves me right, didn't he almost have a seizure on last year'r trip? That would have been a drag to try to get a new prescription.

I can tell you are so happy to be at your Disney home. Yeah for a yummy QS meal!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Fairly new to DIS, been in lurker mode for a month. Love your TR and figured I would leave lurkdom and join in. Looking forward to the rest of your trip!

Yay! Welcome! I had hoped to get an installment written yesterday but work called.

Glad you found the case!

Can't wait to see the new room at CBR! I'm glad you all enjoyed your meal there too

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

We were so happy to have found the "magic" case. Once we arrived at the CBR, we felt a sense of being home.

Yes POFQ is small but for us old folks and people with health problems it is perfect. Not a lot of walking. When we stayed at POR we liked it better and after trying both food courts POFQ can't hold a candle POR. Only 5 min. apart on the river path. I thought the Beignets sucked. Linda, a chef said they should not call them Beignets. A of A looks good if you need to save. Looking for more.

I can definitely see how many people would love the small size of the FQ. I guess that we are just used to the large grounds at CBR.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Hi, Lisa-

I have spent the morning catching up on last year's report and starting this one. I have loved reading about your family's travels for years. I have to admit I've taken an "extended" break from the DIS because, honestly, when we didn't have our next trip planned it just got a little too hard. Well, now we've got something in the works and I have a bit of free time so I'm trying to catch up on everything.

It's great to see your reports, except for one small thing....I am absolutely terrified of what I call "low wildlife" (I can't even bear to write the name), so I don't enjoy that whole piece of the report. Still, you guys have so much fun that I will try to hang in there.

Thanks for sharing with us. I'm looking forward to reading more!

Welcome to our latest adventure! I can certainly understand not wanting to be on the Dis much if you didn't know when you'd be going back to Disney. It'd be sad to read all of the lovely reports and anticipation and not get pangs of wanting to go.

That's a cute saying "low wildlife". I need to remember that.

I was just browsing through a thread where people post their crowd pictures and came across one you posted with your ds in it from 2008. Oh my how he has grown since then!!
It's on this page.http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2048556&page=19

I have pictures of my own kids from our first trip in 2008 and when I look at them now it makes me all teary. They grow so fast! I'm so grateful for all the Disney memories we have as a family.
Just thought I'd share it with you because I just happened across it this morning

Oh my gosh! Thanks for posting the links to my pictures. My word! Hunter's has grown up so much.

Best Fathers Day card ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love it.

The magic contact case, I love the ingenuity of it and am SO grateful you found it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lunch looks good, glad everyone enjoyed it.

Thank you! John really enjoyed his card.

With the pills being so soft and easily dissolve, we knew that we had to find something that was flat and watertight to keep them in. The contact case works perfectly.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Sounds delicious!!

It is!

I did like Captain Cook's at Poly...

Yeah, I've heard good thinks about Captain Cook's.

2015 as we do Disney every other year. The Alamo city next year.

San Antonio? It's been years and years since we've been there but that was a fun trip!

I'm glad you got the magic case back. It wouldn't be a Disney trip if I didn't loose at least 3 things. Luckily I've always gotten them back.

We are usually pretty good about keeping up with our things especially at Disney but this time was different.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Oh, my. What a lousy CM!!!! First off – really… What business is it of hers if you are only staying for one night, and why??? The attitude really was not called for at all. Not a good way to give a good impression of the resort!!

It really shouldn't matter to her where we were going after staying at French Quarter. The attitude really was rude and I wasn't impressed at all.

The rooms have been refurbed since our visit in 2010.

I’m not sure if I like the darker look or not…

The new rooms were really pretty but looked too familiar.

I’m trying to remember, but I don’t think we ever really utilized the food court at POFQ… I know we did at Caribbean Beach, and enjoyed the food court there.

That monkey cupcake sounds absolutely delicious. I'll take one now, please!

The food at FQ was just plain old yucky! I didn't like it at all.

The monkey cupcake was so good and, like you, I could take one right now.

Your meal at Caribbean Beach sounds much more satisfying that your meal at POFQ.

I'm finally all caught up -- we just got back from a 10-day vacation visiting family in North Carolina. We went over to Gatlinburg twice. I can now say that I will NEVER go in June again. Wow -- it was NUTS!!!

I don't know how it is in June but in July and over the Thanksgiving holiday it was chaotic! That's why we want to stay somewhere right downtown so we don't have to drive in that crazy traffic.

Looking forward to reading about the rest of your adventures.

Replies in red

De-lurking, finally. I really enjoy your reports, and especially the CBR pics.

I guess you're a lot nicer than I am...I would have told the cm at POFQ that I was only there one ight to try it out, but if all the cms had her attitude, I would like to switch to CBR now! What can I say, we drive 15 hours straight through to get to WDW, and I'm not always cheerful when I get there. (DH checks in for us, lol).

Looking forward to reading more about your trip!

Yay for delurking! Welcome!

Working for a divorce/custody/family law attorney, I deal with really really rude/upset people every day so I have learned to blow off a lot of stuff people say. The interaction with the castmember did leave a nasty taste in my mouth though.

Yay for finding the magic case!!

Now I need a cupcake.....

Me too!

I'm sure I've missed an update (or two), but enjoyed your last one. So very glad that John found his Ativan! Thank goodness because if my memory serves me right, didn't he almost have a seizure on last year'r trip? That would have been a drag to try to get a new prescription.

I can tell you are so happy to be at your Disney home. Yeah for a yummy QS meal!

We have more Ativan in our luggage but really wanted to find the contact case since it makes it easier to carry. Yes, you are remembering correctly, we did have some problems last trip.

 

[scottny]

The room looked nice. The headless shoppers are creepy.
Oh you should have checked out Riverside. Hope you do before you transfer.
I love the boat ride to DTD.
Ooh escargot. Yum. LOL
Hmm, says bandwidth exceeded.
Love the father’s day card.
That is great you were able to find the case.
I bookmarked where I am. All I get now is bandwidth notices on all pics.
I will be back.

 

[pasofan]

So glad he remembered so quickly! If you had gone back to the room any later, you may not have been so lucky

Can't wait to see when you are "truly" home

 

[mickeystoontown]

The room looked nice. The headless shoppers are creepy.
Oh you should have checked out Riverside. Hope you do before you transfer.
I love the boat ride to DTD.
Ooh escargot. Yum. LOL
Hmm, says bandwidth exceeded.
Love the father’s day card.
That is great you were able to find the case.
I bookmarked where I am. All I get now is bandwidth notices on all pics.
I will be back.

I thought that the headless shoppers were weird!

Oh shoot! I opened a new Photobucket account because the old one wasn't working but it is now. Hopefully, the pics will be back soon.

So glad he remembered so quickly! If you had gone back to the room any later, you may not have been so lucky

Can't wait to see when you are "truly" home

I know! We were lucky to have found the case!

 

[JanaJohn]

We bid French Quarter goodbye again and started towards our home away from home....Caribbean Beach Resort!

Hi Lisa, I'm slowly getting caught up but yesterday I started seeing these unfriendly reminders from Photobucket.

 

[maryj11]

Hi Lisa, I'm slowly getting caught up but yesterday I started seeing these unfriendly reminders from Photobucket.

The photos are not showing up for me either Well some are and some are not. The photo of the beds on this page is working fine.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Hi Lisa, I'm slowly getting caught up but yesterday I started seeing these unfriendly reminders from Photobucket.

Sorry! I was using another Photobucket account because my Pro account was giving me fits. Hopefully, they'll show up again soon.

The photos are not showing up for me either Well some are and some are not. The photo of the beds on this page is working fine.

I had to use another Photobucket account for some of the pics because I couldn't upload to my pro account. The bandwidth exceeded pictures should show up again soon.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Why didn’t you send out a freakin' search party?

While eating, I had received a text saying that our room was ready but Mama had not. We took our time eating and taking in the vibe of the resort and would, every once in a while, check her phone for the text. The music was playing in the background and the fans above us were whirling. It was so nice to be back at Caribbean Beach. As we were sitting there, we could see outside and saw that there were some clouds rolling in but they didn’t look too bad. Maybe, we’d be able to walk out to the beach later and rest our tootsies in the sand.

Because Mama hadn’t gotten her text yet, we decided to walk around in the store a little while and look around. Someone on the CBR thread had questioned what snack items were available in the store and Hunter said that he’d take some pictures:







I saw a keychain in the store that said Pop Pop and I thought about Mac’s (John’s brother) new grandson, Tripp, and how he wanted Tripp to call him Pop. My sis-in-law wants to be called Mia so we looked for one with Mia on it but they didn’t have one. Mac and Janet were going by our house every other day to feed and water Oddball (our dog) and pick up the mail and keeping a general eye on things while we were gone. My sister was doing it the other days. We wanted to get them a little something to say thank you and I thought that the key chains would be cute. We made a mental note to keep searching for them during the trip.

I was also on a mission to find a “flipper”. A flipper? Yeah, a flipper otherwise known as a pancake turner. There were no flippers at the CBR. Okay, so I’ll keep looking. (Remember this as it comes into play as the vacation progresses.)

After roaming around in the store, we made a pit stop at the bathroom and Mama still didn’t have her text. Lucky for us, there’s a concierge desk in Old Port Royale and we hopped in line and soon found out that Mama’s room was ready. They gave us her room number and we were off. Let’s go find our rooms!

We drove back over to the circle drive near Martinique 22 and parked. Everybody took at least one piece of luggage and we went off to see where we’d be laying our heads at night. This little guy was startled by us (I’d probably be startled too if I saw a bunch of crazy folks who were 500 times larger than me and pulling suitcases behind ‘em.):



Ahhh, our view:



Annnnnnnnnd, this is where I am a bad Diser. I didn’t take one single solitary picture of our room. Can you believe that? I can’t! I usually take pictures of anything and everything. Not this time. I guess that we were too anxious to get our things in the room and settle in. We aren’t ones to live out of our suitcases and like to unpack everything and, like I said, get settled in. John, Hunter and I went to the SCAR to get the rest of the luggage and all of our other “junk” like backpacks, DVD player, etc.

In no time, we had it all unloaded and we got to unpacking. I had brought along two hanging shoe holders that I bought at Target and they worked perfectly for our toiletries and extra shoes. I hung them from the rod in the closet area so that they were within easy reach when standing at the sinks. They looked like this but different colors:

We couldn’t get everything organized quick enough in my opinion. I wanted to get out to those white sand Caribbean Beach beaches! The first thing I did, though, was find the pathway to the promenade. One of the tips that I gave Mama when she first stayed at the CBR with us was “if you can find the promenade, you’ll find your way to Old Port Royale” and she remembered that tip. When opening our door, I took a left and continued left and saw the walkway that I was looking for:




Just look at it! Look at that lovely view! I went back around and asked Mama if she wanted to take a short walk and she said that she would come with me so that I could show her the walkway but that she was going back to the room and rest a while. We walked down to the beach and then back to the room. I found John sound asleep on the bed and Hunter watching television. I asked Hunter if he wanted to go with me to the beach and he said yes. Mama said that she was going to lie down a while too.

I nudged John awake and told him that Hunter and I were walking down to the beach and would be gone for a little while. He mumbled “okay” and off we went. Ahhh, relaxing in the hammock:



Uh-oh, those clouds are looking ugly:







I had ordered some groceries from Garden Grocer (Forgot to mention up above that Bell Services delivered them to our room.) and one of the items that we ordered was cereal and bowls. I hadn’t ordered spoons because I knew that I could get some from the food court. I told Hunter that I was going to walk over and get them right then else I’d forget about them later. He gave me a thumbs up and kept lazing around in the hammock and texting his friends.



Just as I got to Old Port Royale, I felt a drop or two of rain. I figured if it started raining, I’d look around a bit more and then make my way back. Spoons in hand, I looked out and didn’t see any more rain so I decided now would be a good time to start my annual photographic tour around the resort. I started out in the courtyard of OPR and then took a right to go through the island. That’s when I felt more raindrops.





But there was only a few so I continued on and walked over the bridge towards Jamaica and Aruba:



Just as I got to the other side of the bridge, I felt more and more raindrops and I could see the rain coming across the lake. I, along with the gentleman and two girls in front of me, sprinted over to the closest Aruba building. They continued on to their room but I had no room to go to. Well, I did, but it was on the other side of the lake. Usually, Florida rain showers do not last long so I decided to stay put and wait it out.









After 15 minutes or so, I started getting antsy and was ready to get moving. However, it was still raining and I was a long way from “home”. Actually, not a long long way from home but it did look far when looking through the falling rain.

The buildings in each village are in a circle type layout and are connected to each other by sidewalks. I wondered if I could make my way back to Martinique by going through the buildings. Why not try? I walked around to the left and continued walking until I came upon a pathway leading to the next building. I ducked my head and sprinted over. I did the same at the next building. Looking back from where I came:



Doesn’t look like it’s raining too hard now does it? It was though and, because there are trees everywhere at the resort, the rain was blocked a bit in the village courtyards. Just as I got to the next building, it started raining harder. And harder. And harder. There was a swimming pool between me and the next building which made for a larger area that I’d have to cover. I decided to pop a squat and wait for the rain to lighten. Wanna see what a wet rat looks like? Here you go:



You can see the puddles of water that had formed in front of me:



Swimming pool in front of me:



The view to my left:



By this time, about forty-five had elapsed from the time that I had left the Martinique building. I had left my phone in the room and had only a handful of plastic spools, a few napkins, a pair of flip flops and a camera. I don’t think even Survivorman would have been able to send a signal to the family that I was stuck over on the other side of the resort. About ten minutes later, the rain lightened up enough that I figured why not go for it. I jogged a bit for the first minute or two because the rain was cold but then it was just a few drops here and there so I slowed to my normal fast walk.

When I got to the room, I knocked on the door....and knocked again....and knocked again and finally Hunter answered. He looked at how wet I was and asked what happened and where I had been. I said “I was gone for a whole hour. Why didn’t you send out a freakin’ search party?”. He just giggled, got a towel and threw it over my head and said "Oh Mom! Drama! Drama! Drama!" Good thing I knew that he was just kidding!

**Up next: Up! Up! And Away! Maybe?!?

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Even with the rain that resort is gorgeous! I better be able to go in September, as your TR is making me anxious to relax on those hammocks too!

 

[Katmat75]

The pictures are absolutely gorgeous! I love this resort so much! Can't wait until September! So, so glad I switched resorts and surprise hubby! This place is just beautiful! Ahhhhh! Nothing like it! Can't wait to read more!!Enjoying it immensely!