Around 'The World' in 7 Days -- The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

[Must C Mickey]

Hello DISer’s, This is my first trip report and I took plenty of pics (318 to be exact) this Jan in high hopes of starting one. A little background…For the past 3 yrs DH, myself, my brother n law Tony, his wife Tara and their kids Taylor (13) and Cody (10) travel to WDW together. It has become a fun tradition and we all thoroughly enjoy being around each other. DH & I live in NC while they live 3 hrs away in VA. We don’t get to see them as much as we’d like so these week long WDW vacations every yr give us plenty of time to catch up. This yr our travel dates were from Jan 16-23rd. Now let me introduce our cast of characters:

Here we are last yr at the World (didn’t want to give away any sneak peak pics from this yr yet).

Starting from left to right: BIL – Tony, in the real world he’s an Executive Chef and works long hours. He can get crazy funny sometimes and we all love to laugh at him. I also guess that we’ve all kind of nominated him as our pack leader…well maybe it’s more like ‘follow the leader’. He’s always leading our way out in front of everyone to whatever ride or attraction we’re headed to (we like to call him Ricky Bobby b/c he’s always wanting us to pick up the pace and likes to tell us over and over that “if we’re not 1st, we’re last.") He and DH have also been nominated to be the honorary Fast Pass retrievers.

Next to him is my SIL – Tara, in the real world she works a 9 to 5 @ a local bank branch. Tara & I pretty much drive the family’s Disney obsession. I was blessed w/ a great great SIL and we’ve become close friends thru the yrs. Tara loves to cut up, laugh at funny movies and shares my passion to travel and plan for our next vacation. As soon as our WDW trip ends, we get busy w/ talks of our next one.

Next up is DH – Matt (there in the back). Matt is Tony’s big brother and is also an Executive Chef (Tara and I love to laugh at how much he and Tony have in common). He works A LOT too and gets little down time for living. He is a HUGE UNC Tarheels basketball fan and would probably bleed Carolina blue if I stuck a pin in him (just like Tony). DH is also the sweetest, big hearted person I know….one of the many reasons I married him.

On the far right is myself: Lori. In the real world I work as a television producer at a local tv station and I love my job…most days. I am mostly the planner and reservationist of the family. I put together the trips (make reservations, flights, ADR’s and plan our schedule)… plus keep my fingers crossed that we all have a great time. No pressure…haha. I have lots of help from Tara… so no worries really.

Down front we have Cody and Taylor. Cody is 10yrs old this yr and is every bit into Star Wars as any 10yr old boy could be. He has the best laugh I’ve ever heard and is also just as big hearted as his Uncle Matt. He is always making kind gestures to everyone, is so polite and will always give his seat up on the WDW bus to someone more deserving. Cody’s favorite characters are Donald and Stitch.

Beside of Cody is his big sis Taylor. Taylor was officially a teenager (13yrs old) on this trip and is definitely a teen in the making. Her dad knows this and loves to embarrass her. She just shakes her head at him and follows with a “Dad, Stop!” She wants no attention drawn to her what so ever and if something is wrong and she’s not acting herself, her response is always, “I’M FINE!” She is so much fun to hang out with, is also super sweet and turning into a beautiful young lady. Her fav character is Tink.

I couldn’t be prouder of how these kids are turning out as I watch them grow up.

Well there you have it… THE CAST of our Jan 2010 WDW Family Trip!

 

[Must C Mickey]

Sat. January 16th: Day 1

THE DAY FINALLY CAME…Saturday, January 16, 2010! Tony, Tara and the kids had made their way to our house the night before. This is customary for them to drive down from VA to our house in NC the night before WDW. We would be flying out of Charlotte this morning and needed to be on the road by 10am for a 1:00pm flight to MCO. It takes about an hour to get to Charlotte but wanted to allow for traffic. Luckily the trip to Charlotte was pretty uneventful and we were able to arrive right around 11:15am. We got unloaded, checked in and were thru security in no time. We arrived at our gate with plenty of time to spare and immediately started talking about all that we were going to try and accomplish on this shortened day at the parks. We finally got called to board and off we headed to Orlando for the week!

We arrived at MCO on time at 2:30pm.

We jumped off the plane and headed towards Magical Express check-in. I must say that our first WDW encounter was a bit disappointing. We were placed on a Mears bus instead of a Disney bus and it just wasn’t the same. We didn’t have a peppy driver and NO WDW WELCOME VIDEO to welcome us. Oh well, I got over it pretty fast considering I was on my way to The Happiest Place on Earth!!!

We get to the WDW welcome sign and the goose bumps hit. There is just something about going under that sign when you first arrive.

We were staying at Caribbean Beach Resort this time and staying in Pirate Rooms. This would be our first experience at a resort other than POP. We were so excited to be going and seeing new stuff. We pulled into the resort and were not disappointed. CBR is gorgeous. I love the tropical feel (especially coming from the snow and cold weather we had all been pounded with in the last few weeks), the themed pools and mostly the double sinks in the bathroom.

 

[Pyrate_Pryncess]

What a nice start!!!!!!!!! Im glad you got away from all the show we were all getting in January! We are up by Williamsburg in VA!!!!!! Can't wait to read more!

 

[TrayRene]

Hi Lori,

I came over from Jordan's trip report. Great start! I love the fact that you and your brother-in-law's family get together every year for a Disney trip. I'm starting to plan a trip with my son, and my sister and her son, and our step-father. I hope it turns into a yearly Disney trip tradition as well.

 

[Must C Mickey]

cont. Day 1 – Jan 16th

We pulled into CBR and unloaded at the depot/check-in building. I had done the early check in from home the day before for both families so all we needed to do was pick up our packets and be on our way. We had requested joining rooms and Matt and mines wasn’t quite ready yet. The CM issued our KTTW cards anyway and sent us on our way since they were almost done. We hopped on the bus and got off at the 1st stop which was Old Port Royale b/c we were starving and needed to burn some time anyway. This WDW trip was a big yr of firsts for us: the 1st yr flying on another airline besides Southwest, our first Moderate Resort and it was also our first yr for being on the Dining Plan. We were all really excited about the dining plan…especially Cody. He LOVES sweets and chocolate and was ecstatic that he got to have 2 desserts a day! We got into Old Port Royale and loved the feel of CBR already. We were a lil nervous on how to use the Dining Plan since this was our first time but Tara and I had done our homework and I am happy to say that our first CS meal went over w/o a problem. Everyone knew what they were allowed to get and where to check out. So far…mojo working (as a fellow dis’er would say)! I am sorry to say that this is the only meal that I do not have in pictures.

After our meal we jumped back on the internal bus and rode around to our stop at Trinidad South. This is pretty much all a blur b/c we were running behind by this point and wanted to get to the parks. We ran in our joining pirate rooms, dropped our bags, I traded my turtleneck that I had wore down for a t-shirt and light jacket and we were back out of the door and headed for our first park of the trip….Epcot.

We arrived at Epcot pretty quickly, jumped off the bus and was hurried along by Tony (Ricky Bobby) to our first attraction. Spaceship Earth was the closest thing to us and had no wait time. I don’t think we even cared who we rode w/ b/c we were just soooo happy to finally be at WDW and in the PARKS! We grabbed a ride buddy and jumped in a seat as they came around to us… I sat down and for the 1st time of the trip….let out a sigh of relief…. aaaaaaaaah….we were finally here, finally at WDW and we had all made it safe, sound and were full of energy to get us thru the week. I was an extremely happy camper .

Taylor and I rode together, Tara and Cody rode together and Matt and Tony together. I love when we stick the brothers together on this ride…it’s so funny to watch their future video. (as u can see…we all know when to make faces at the camera for our picture).

 

[Must C Mickey]

What a nice start!!!!!!!!! Im glad you got away from all the snow we were all getting in January! We are up by Williamsburg in VA!!!!!! Can't wait to read more!

Yay my first post!!!! Welcome and Thanks.

Yes...It was sooo nice to get out of all the snow and cold weather in Jan. I talked to Tara over the Easter weekend and she said the kids aren't getting much time off for Easter b/c of all the snow make-up days they have. whew!

And I love Williamsburg, all of us actually took a trip together 2 summers ago to Busch Gardens and Colonial Williamsburg...not to mention the Prime Outlets...yippee!

 

[Must C Mickey]

Hi Lori,

I came over from Jordan's trip report. Great start! I love the fact that you and your brother-in-law's family get together every year for a Disney trip. I'm starting to plan a trip with my son, and my sister and her son, and our step-father. I hope it turns into a yearly Disney trip tradition as well.

Thanks for tuning in...It is soo much fun traveling w/ an extended family. Not that I'd travel w/ just any extended family...but...if it's w/ the right people and you have great chemistry w/ them...it's great!

FYI..my middle name is Rene & spelled like yours.

 

[*Seanaci*]

Found your link for your TR on the Peep site.

So far so good! Subbed in for the ride.

 

[Must C Mickey]

Found your link for your TR on the Peep site.

So far so good! Subbed in for the ride.

WELCOME and thanks for joining in fellow peepster.

 

[Must C Mickey]

cont. Day 1 – Jan 16th

OK when I last left off we were riding our first ride of the trip….Spaceship Earth. From there we headed to go do another first….Ellen’s Universe of Energy. The line was short and we only had to wait about 10mins before we were let into the doors. We took our seat up against one of the walls and Cody just loved the intro w/ Ellen talking about Stupid Judy. He thought it was hilarious. I think we all enjoyed the ride and also all agreed that they could do a better animatronic of Ellen during the ride, just look at what a great job they did w/ Johnny Depp in POTC. Ellen needs updating for sure! After Ellen we noticed that Test Track was up and running…HOORAY!!!! I had checked online before we left and it said that Test Track was going to be down for refurb on this day but much to our surprise when we inched closer to it we saw them letting people in to ride. We got in the standby line which said 70mins but luckily only waited for about 40mins . Not too bad as we had not even expected to ride TT today. Here is my only attempt at getting a pic during the ride. I think this was taken at the Hot – Cold conditioning portion.

My BIL loves the new Camaro’s so we of course had to get him to pose w/ the one in the TT showroom. (Last summer we all took a trip to Atlanta for a Braves game and he yelled everytime we would see a Camaro on the hwy). Doesn’t Ricky Bobby look happy…

After TT we headed towards World Showcase as we needed to start making our way towards the International Gateway b/c we had a 9pm ADR at Captain’s Grille @ the Yacht Club Resort. On our way we still had a lil time to burn so we stopped off in the UK and saw these guys hanging out.

These were some new characters for us as we had never seen Pooh or Alice out for pics before. We shopped around in the stores a lil bit and noticed that The British Invasion was just starting to play in the back court yard.

We hung out for a few songs and we all enjoyed listening to these guys, they are really good. I checked my watch and saw that it was time for us to make our way to the International Gateway and to our ADR. International Gateway is such a nice quiet entrance. What a great entrance option for those resort guests. We hopped on the boat and were off to our first TS meal of the trip.

 

[OhMari]

I'm interested to hear what you have to say about the beds at the resort.

The International Gateway to the Boardwalk area is really nice. Instead of taking the boat, you can walk. And you can go under the bridge or over the bridge. If you go under, sometimes you can hear romantic mustic. Last time we walked under, they were playing Asian music. I

If you want to stay in the Boardwalk area, you should check into renting points from a DVC member. Sometimes the rooms are cheaper than moderates, if you can find someone to rent from at $8 a point.

 

[Must C Mickey]

cont. Day 1 – Jan 16th

We arrived at the Yacht Club resort and walked down the long pier. When we got inside we could see Captains Grille over to the right. We checked in and were seated within 5mins.

Our drinks, bread and salads all came out pretty quickly from what I remember.

Our waitress was Carmen and we thought she was great. She was very quick and very personable. Soon our entrees came out and Tara and I both got the crab cakes. We couldn’t believe that it came w/ three as we both ended up w/ one left over. The crab cakes were pretty good, a lil bready for my taste but I loved the stone ground mustard sauce that came w/ it and I don’t think neither Tara or I was happy w/ the fennel, arugula and fingerling potatoes. The fennel and arugula were very bitter and welted.

DH (Matt) had the Grilled Ribeye w/ Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Seasonal Veggies and Herb Butter. He ate it all so I assume he liked it.

Taylor had the Snow Crab Legs w/ New Potatoes and Corn on the Cob. She ate all of the crab legs and most of the corn and potatos.

Tony had the Grilled Pork Chop w/ Fingerling Potatoes, Apples, and Bacon. He cleaned his plate as well.

Cody had the Oven Roasted Chicken Breast, subbed the pasta for garlic mashed potatoes and it also came w/ season veggies. Cody really enjoyed his chicken and potatoes although he couldn’t quite finish it all. That was a huge helping of mashed potatoes.

Dessert was next and again Tara and I both got the Chocolate Profiterole as well as Cody. It was yummy!

Tony got the Choc House Made Gelato and Taylor got Vanilla.

Matt had the Braeburn Apple Tart w/ Caramel Whipped Cream.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed our first TS meal and we were very full. We headed out of the resort and towards the bus stop. It started to rain heavily while waiting but didn’t last too long as it had stopped by the time the bus to DTD arrived. We headed to DTD, traded busses and were back on our way to CBR in no time. We settled into our rooms and did a lil unpacking. Matt headed to bed after a while and I realized that I hadn’t taken any pics of our pirate rooms yet.

I got a few pics (notice a sleeping DH) and turned on some Stacy to watch as I crawled into bed and dozed off myself.

What a great 1st day we had!

(Next up…Day 2 and we head to MK and stay for Evening EMH!)

 

[Must C Mickey]

I'm interested to hear what you have to say about the beds at the resort.

The International Gateway to the Boardwalk area is really nice. Instead of taking the boat, you can walk. And you can go under the bridge or over the bridge. If you go under, sometimes you can hear romantic mustic. Last time we walked under, they were playing Asian music. I

If you want to stay in the Boardwalk area, you should check into renting points from a DVC member. Sometimes the rooms are cheaper than moderates, if you can find someone to rent from at $8 a point.

Oh wow really, thanks for the tip OhMari. I just love the Yacht and Beach Club resorts. How do you go about renting points from a DVC member? I know there is a link somewhere here on the DIS as I've seen it before, just never done any investigating.

 

[TrayRene]

What a great first day! Bonus that you got to ride on TT. The food looks delicious.

Rene is great middle name, isn't it?

 

[Must C Mickey]

What a great first day! Bonus that you got to ride on TT. The food looks delicious.

Rene is great middle name, isn't it?

We were so excited to see TT up and running and the food was very good. We were all so excited to be on the Dining Plan this yr.

I love that u spell Rene the same way I do, most girls w/ the name are spelled Renee.

 

[*Seanaci*]

WELCOME and thanks for joining in fellow peepster.

You're very welcome.

Great update today by the way. The food looked delish!

 

[YukiPhnx]

Also joining in from your plug in Jordy's TR!

Wow, what a great first day indeed!

All that food porn left me drooling. It all looked SO GOOOD!

I love the little barrel in your room, and the POTC curtain. I also think it's pretty cool to see a flat screen sitting on top of wooden boxes, haha

 

[Must C Mickey]

Also joining in from your plug in Jordy's TR!

Wow, what a great first day indeed!

All that food porn left me drooling. It all looked SO GOOOD!

I love the little barrel in your room, and the POTC curtain. I also think it's pretty cool to see a flat screen sitting on top of wooden boxes, haha

Hey YukiPhnx and welcome. The barrels in the room were very cute and housed the mini fridge. I would've liked it better if one of the hinges on it wasn't broken. Was a real headache getting stuff in and out of it. But all of the room decor in the Pirate Rooms were really cool.

Capt's Grille was yummy, I would def recommend it to anyone. It was nice and quiet and located at a very beautiful resort.

 

[YukiPhnx]

Just Yuki is fine

Ohh, it was a mini fridge? How creative! I would love to stay in one of the pirates rooms some day. When I can afford it of course!

Too bad it gave you trouble, but I'm sure the rest of the room more than made up for it

 

[Must C Mickey]

Day 2 – Magic Kingdom

I set my alarm clock for 8:30am this morning and of course popped right up when it went off. I had heard several bad things about the pirate beds not being very comfortable but honestly…we are not the best people to ask for a review… DH could fall asleep in a gravel driveway and be perfectly happy, he’ll sleep anywhere. And for me it’s not so much a comfort issue as the temp in the room for me to sleep has to be right. So no, they probably were not the worlds greatest beds, but after a long day at the parks, anything soft and cozy would be just fine. I’ll text my SIL real quick and see what they thought about the beds.

Anyways…we all got up and got our showers and were ready to go by 11am. We decided that it would be nice to walk from our rooms in Trinidad South to Old Port Royale for an early lunch. It gave us a nice opportunity to see the resort. I am sorry to say that I did not take any pics on that walk but we all thought the resort was quite breathtaking. Being their in January made it nice and quiet too. I just loved all of the beaches and walking under the bridge that we passed along the way. We got to Old Port Royale and used a CS credit for lunch. DH & I split a beef and blue sandwich and greek salad.

SIL had a tuna sandwich, BIL had a greek salad, Taylor had the philly cheesesteak and can’t see or remember what Cody had.

I have a serious addiction to Rice Krispy Treats and when I saw that I could have those for my CS meal dessert everyday I was on Cloud 9. I love that they are Mickey shaped and I of course got the one w/ the ears dunked in chocolate, yummy.

While we were finishing up lunch we witnessed an incredibly rough CM take out one of the double doors to outside. She was collecting garbage I think but busted thru the door and ripped the sucker right off of the hinges. We all got kind of a kick out of it b/c it was quite comical. A few other CM’s came to her rescue and helped her stand it back up. We also noticed that for the rest of our week at CBR, those double doors were still out of order. Wow, she must’ve really done a job on them…

Anyways…after that catastrophe we jumped on the bus and were on our way to mine and Tara’s FAV park, Magic Kingdom.