Countdown to Adventure *Pirate Style*CBR/CSR PICS!!

[jngwright]

great updates... a night to yourself... NICE! I cant even imagine... Epcot would be my choice for sure if I had a night to myself. I think when Owen gets old enough I am going to do that for one night. We wouldnt vacation in Disney w/o them... but I WOULD like to have one night to go out to dinner with Wayne and a few hours of going on some rides, just me and him!!!

The kids clubs are just great-they have so much fun, that I had no qualms about leaving them there!!

Ooh, your evening sounds perfect. Fun was had by mom and sons. What could be better? The bonus was that you then came back refreshed and ready for the rest of your week. (or so)

You should definitely save the picture of the boys inside the frilly white curtain for graduation.

Ha! I didn't think about that!!

 

[brobrosmom]

Lovin your trip report. Y'all are too cute!

Can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip. Don't make us wait too long.

 

[jngwright]

Lovin your trip report. Y'all are too cute!

Can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip. Don't make us wait too long.

Thanks for reading!! In your honor- Day 6!!


We got to AK pretty early. Once we got in a minimal line-you guessed it "mom-I HAVE to go the the bathroom". So we got out of line and by the time we got back, the line was waaaay long. About 8:45, they said "Should we open the park early??" Well, you can imagine the response!

We went right to EE and walked on. The boys had agreed to give it another try, but spent the whole time worrying about when they were going to see the Yeti,so they didn't really enjoy it. We went and got FP for the safari and headed to Tusker House for breakfast. I will say that we will never do a later breakfast again. We had a 9:25 ressie and were seated at 10:00. By the time we got out of there, it was 11:00. It just kind of blew the whole morning. We didn't have good character interaction either. Goofy skirted our table (we were sitting there) and went to all the tables around us. I asked a server if he would be coming back and was told "I bet you are next" Well, he never came back. I mentioned it to our server later and she went and talked to the handler, who said we weren't at our table at the time.. In the meantime, Alex fell off his chair in excitement of seeing Donald and hit his head HARD. A huge goose egg popped up. He was a trooper and tried to be brave for his pic with Donald. You can see the residual tears.. Goofy eventually came back and we never saw Daisy (same story with her-oh well. We were just ready to get out of there!)

I will edit this with more info later, but I need to teach in a few minutes and need coffee first!!!

Okay-I'm back. Originally, we had an earlier breakfast time and I lost it when we switched our AK day from TU to TH, so I took the 9:25. NEXT TIME, I will only do early ADR's for breakfast!!
We did the safari, which was great. And the boys love Kali River Rapids-but of course, who is the one who gets soaked?? That's right! Me! We headed to Dinoland to give Primevil Whirl a....whirl (they loved it), passed over Dinosaur, spent time in the Boneyard, did the Bug's Life (screaming, frightened children aplenty) and headed back to CBR for some downtime.

Kali queue detail:


Now-I had the boys scheduled to go on the CBR pirate cruise on day 7, but when I asked them earlier in the week if the wanted to do the cruise or another park day, they chose the park day. They had done the GF pirate cruise and loved it, so I was surprised.
Coming up next-Day 7 MK, Move it-Shake it!

 

[cjackearl]

Aw, poor Alex. Getting hurt at Disney is not allowed! Didn't you tell him that before your trip? I'm assuming the glove full of ice was for his head?

 

[theduck619]

The Pirate room is awesome. We have Twins (girls) and they loved CBR. We stayed in Jamaica so that we could be close to the bust stop, but I may have to reconsider now...

Greta report....

 

[jngwright]

Aw, poor Alex. Getting hurt at Disney is not allowed! Didn't you tell him that before your trip? I'm assuming the glove full of ice was for his head?

Yes-he got quite a few stares, walking around with an ice filled rubber glove on his headBut it did help the swelling! I was just so thankful he didn't split it open!!

The Pirate room is awesome. We have Twins (girls) and they loved CBR. We stayed in Jamaica so that we could be close to the bust stop, but I may have to reconsider now...

Greta report....

Hi! We loved CBR too! When we stay again, we will stay in a regular rooms, since we've done the Pirate Room. We really did like TS, though!

 

[MJAJmom]

I love all the character meals, you got some great pics! We're going to try 1900 Park Fare for the first time, so I was liked seeing the pictures and hearing what the boys thought about it. My boys loved TH too. You're right about a late breakfast taking up most of your morning touring time. We've got our TH scheduled for 8:15am, hoping to get out of there for the 9am rope drop to get onto Safari. Can't believe your son got a big bump on his head - poor baby - I bet that hurt!! You're pics are getting me excited to go in 2 weeks!!!

 

[jngwright]

Okay-I finished my AK post!!

AND-OMGosh!! 1000 posts!! Never thought I'd see the day

I love all the character meals, you got some great pics! We're going to try 1900 Park Fare for the first time, so I was liked seeing the pictures and hearing what the boys thought about it. My boys loved TH too. You're right about a late breakfast taking up most of your morning touring time. We've got our TH scheduled for 8:15am, hoping to get out of there for the 9am rope drop to get onto Safari. Can't believe your son got a big bump on his head - poor baby - I bet that hurt!! You're pics are getting me excited to go in 2 weeks!!!

2 weeks!!! Awesome! I can't believe it was 4 weeks ago that we were heading there. Time flies!

I hope you have a blast!

 

[jngwright]

We were at MK pre rope drop again today. Still loved the show and hid behind my sunglasses (so the boys didn't ask me LOUDLY why I was crying). Our last day at MK until the next trip. We went in, did all we wanted to do, and got FP for when we returned later. We ate an early lunch at Pecos Bills, the site of my bloody nose faucet last year. (Alex was sitting on my lap and excitedly turned around and headbutted me just right that I got a gushing bloody nose, right in the middle of the restaurant. Ahhh, the memories.) Anywhoo-I digress.

We were headed down Main Street, when we saw a Main Street Character on the sidewalk. We stopped to watch her, turned around, and here came the Move it, Shake it parade! We do not usually line up to watch the parades, but lucked out and watched it right from the curb in a great spot!

I liked the song that went with the parade, very fun and cute!

We went back to the resort for some downtime, and made a BIG decision!!

Up next: Should we?? Could we?? Do we dare??

 

[shordiebecka]

your boys are so photogenic! they seem to not mind having their picture taken too! How wonderful to have such photogenic kids

 

[jngwright]

The scene of the crime:

Have I mentioned that EVERY DAY has been beautiful?? Just perfect weather! As the boys are swimming at the quiet pool by our room, I am talking to DH on the phone. I tell him that we are so sad to be leaving tomorrow and are just having a blast. He says "why don't you stay an extra day?" OMGosh...should we?? He gets online to see what is available for flights. The only flights are a minimum of $322/person Oh well, we have had a great trip. We say goodbye and I go back to my magazine. My phone rings, it is Greg. He says "You know, there ARE flights on Monday for $95." Could we?? Do we dare?? "Book it!!" I say. I am so excited, and nervous. I am such a planner, and to make a spur of the moment decision like that is SO not me! I cannot wait to tell the boys
We head back to MK for the evening and our dinner at LTT. I love the food at LTT, but our service is just sub par again. I did have a nice time chatting with the hostesses there-they were very friendly. After supper, I sat the boys down and told them the news. 3 more days at Disney!! Needless to say, they were thrilled!

We took the last raft to Tom Sawyer Island. It was so pretty, and the boys loved Fort Longhorn (is that what it is called??)

We had a fun night, and headed to the bus while Wishes was happening.

We need to get back to the resort to pack. Did I forget to mention that CBR was at capacity, and we have to transfer to CSR? Well, we do! I tried for Poly, but just couldn't swallow $386/night for 2 nights.

Coming soon....Hola CSR!!!

 

[jngwright]

your boys are so photogenic! they seem to not mind having their picture taken too! How wonderful to have such photogenic kids

Hi Shordiebecka-how are you?? I am loving how you are converting your DF to your way of thinking

They were troopers, but there were definately times, when they said "NO MORE PICTURES MOM!!"

 

[cjackearl]

Yea for 3 extra days!!!! What a great hubby to work that out.

My son just saw the picture of your boys in the fort with the gun and said, "I want to go there!" What is it about boys and guns?

 

[mickeystoontown]

Hip Hip Hooray! Three more days at WDW and not planned at that. Truly magical. What I wouldn't give to add extra days to our trip. Our first stay started with just 5 days. Then it went to 7 days. Then it went to 10 days and I would stay more if I could. But, when you work in a one paralegal/one lawyer office (notice I put them in the order of importance), I just can't get more days off.

Looking forward to seeing pictures of the CSR and how a CBR lover liked the stay there.

 

[heaven2dc]

I know I said it before-but we just loved this resort! I know we will be back and I am so glad we experienced it.

I just loved this pic of the boys! How sweet!

I can't believe I just discovered your TR. What a great time you are having (I'm so glad you got some time to yourself.)

 

[MJAJmom]

I'd be so excited to know we were staying some extra days. Then again, I'd probably pass out because like you, I'm a planner too, so I'd freak out that I didn't have everything planned out well in advance. Can't wait to hear what you thought about CSR compared to CBR.

Love the pictures of the castle in the sunshine and then at night all lit up. Very pretty! Looks like you had great weather.

 

[jngwright]

Yea for 3 extra days!!!! What a great hubby to work that out.

My son just saw the picture of your boys in the fort with the gun and said, "I want to go there!" What is it about boys and guns?

Isn't that true?? They had to try EVERY gun at the fort, and they were trying to close.. (and I couldn't figure out how the heck to get back to the raft!)

Hip Hip Hooray! Three more days at WDW and not planned at that. Truly magical. What I wouldn't give to add extra days to our trip. Our first stay started with just 5 days. Then it went to 7 days. Then it went to 10 days and I would stay more if I could. But, when you work in a one paralegal/one lawyer office (notice I put them in the order of importance), I just can't get more days off.

Looking forward to seeing pictures of the CSR and how a CBR lover liked the stay there.

I read about people who take 3 week or month long vacations at WDW and just drool!!! Someday, right??

CSR vs CBR is so controversial on here sometimes, I was excited to do both in the same trip to see what the drama is all about!!

I just loved this pic of the boys! How sweet!

I can't believe I just discovered your TR. What a great time you are having (I'm so glad you got some time to yourself.)

Hi!!!

I'd be so excited to know we were staying some extra days. Then again, I'd probably pass out because like you, I'm a planner too, so I'd freak out that I didn't have everything planned out well in advance. Can't wait to hear what you thought about CSR compared to CBR.

Love the pictures of the castle in the sunshine and then at night all lit up. Very pretty! Looks like you had great weather.

We had the best weather!!! It was so fab!

I didn't sleep well that night we decided to stay longer-I don't know why I think I just couldn't believe I had done it!! No ADR'S, No TOURING PLAN, No TIME TO RESEARCH CSR...

 

[my2disneyboys]

ooh i cant wait to hear about those next two days!!!

 

[jngwright]

We were up and at 'em early, as bell services was coming to do our luggage transfer to CSR and we wanted to be at Epcot at RD. We were sad to be leaving CBR, as we really loved it-but excited to try CSR. It had been 10 years since I stayed at CSR, and at a different point in my life-so I was excited to experience it with the kids!
We spent the day at Epcot, did some more Kim Possible missions. We sent this picture to daddy saying we missed him, his response was "yeah, right!" lol

Okay-that is an AWFUL picture of me, but the boys look cute

We headed to CSR around 2:00. I liked that the bus stop for CSR was closer to the park than the CBR stop. We got to CSR and checked in. Our room was in Casitas 3, top floor. I stayed in Cabanas last time, so was glad to try something different. We got to the room, which was one of the newly refurbed rooms:

Oh-it was so pretty!!!

Here are some other pictures of the Casitas. It seemed like every time we turned a corner, there was another beautiful fountain, or landscaping:

This was the quiet pool near our room:

The Dig Site pool was great. The kids loved the waterslide and I loved the Pina Coladas There was a great playground, but the sign said it was for kids 2-6 and under 45", so they were too tall (more on that later). We really liked the arcade too!

We really liked CSR too. Honestly, you always read all this hoo-rah about how big CBR is and how long it takes to get to Old Port Royale, but it is all relative. We were in the furthest village from OPR at CBR, but it didn't take us any longer to walk to the pool at CBR, than it took us to walk to the Dig Site pool from Casitas at CSR.

Things I liked better about CBR:
Our room was VERY quiet. We never heard our neighbors and they never heard us (I asked them!) At CSR, I heard alot of outside noise and people talking in the room next to us. No big deal-I wear earplugs on vacation.
The food court at OPR. Now-the food at CBR wasn't awesome, but Pepper Market just didn't do it for me at CSR. I didn't like the whole being seated, and having to tip at server for a CS meal. We didn't discover Cafe' Rix until we were running to the ME bus on our last morning.
There was a table and chairs in our room, which was helpful since we ate most breakfasts there. CSR just had a desk.

Things I liked better about CSR:
One word-Gelato!!! They have Gelato!!
They have a spa! If only I could have used it

I would stay at both resorts again, as they are equally beautiful and well themed and unique in their own way!!

Coming up-An insane RD crowd and our last full day!

 

[Lovemy3babes]

Thank you for answering my question about taking kids alone. I definitely had to come check out your TR! Thanks for the handy links in the first update. I love when people do that. Wow, wow, wow. What a great trip you all have had so far! I can't believe you got to tack on an extra 3 days. Were you nervous about winging it for those extra days? Keep the updates coming!