Cue the Music: How we MADE money and slept with Ariel! Done!

[MICKEY4EVER!]

I FINALLY got caught up! Love your trip reports, sweet friend!

 

[pwdebbie]

Patiently waiting . . . .

 

[mickeystoontown]

I'm here! I usually just lurk, but I love your writing style!

I love your reports. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experiences.

Another lurker. I love all the pictures you post!

Im here! I am behind on so many threads I am not commenting just enjoying the ride lol! I didnt care for Homecoming either. I do not eat dark meat chicken, and dont care for comfort foods. My friend was dying to go there so we did, she enjoyed it a lot, but I wont be back.

Your report on Homecomin makes me glad I didn't book it.

I am still here, loving all the pictures.

I'm still here, following!! Looking forward to the rest of the report.

Sorry you didn't enjoy the dinner, It always looked like a good place from reviews I have seen

I am another lurker and I always look forward to reading your trip reports! Please keep writing!

Longtime lurker. I seldom post comments but I'm here and I always enjoy reading your trip reports!

I'm still reading!

I'm still here and enjoying humor

Still here and following along. Busy with end of school stuff will have more free time in a week yay!!!!

Finally had a chance to catch up!
Loving your pictures ..and humor.
What day are we on into the trip...I can't remember anymore.

You are making me want to plan a trip down to Florida but I am too poor right now to even afford tickets. LOL!

Still here! Please don't stop! Love reading about your trips. Because, we aren't planning on going back until our
granddaughter is 5 and she is just turning 3 in July!

I am still here!! We had a very busy weekend, and now I am back in class...so less time for my DIS addiction. But, i am still following along, for sure. Keep it up, friend!!!

Still following along!

Just read from start to finish and I’m loving your trip report. Please don’t stop!

I'm still here! Keep 'em comin'!

I am still reading along!

I FINALLY got caught up! Love your trip reports, sweet friend!

Patiently waiting . . . .

Thanks to each and every one of you for sticking with me! I have updates coming soon!

 

[mickeystoontown]

I'm here Lisa! I'm the absolute worst at commenting on reports, but I love reading about your adventures. I think we actually may have been in Disney at this same time - I celebrated my 50th there on 11/21/2017 - did we overlap?? It was a great trip, but boy did the crowds move in the day before Thanksgiving! Luckily, that was also the day we headed home to spend Thanksgiving with our family.

We've stayed at POP a couple of times, and love walking around Art of Animation - they really did a great job with the theming there.
Excited to read about the rest of your trip!

I'm following along! Love the Caring for Giants tour.

I'm still here. Busy days on this end (my dh has added a whole bunch of new diagnoses to his already lengthy list and it's been weeks of medical appointments and tests) so I've just been reading everywhere but not interacting anywhere.

I’m here. I don’t post very often. I really enjoy reading your reports.

Still here! I’m disappointed that Homecomin’ didn’t live up to the hype, I’d been thinking about going this November. I’m also kinda glad though, because I had one too many restaurants on my ADR list and you just made the choice easier!

Thank you all for sticking with me! I had that spurt of writing and then went missing for a while. I am going to remedy that in just a bit.

 

[mickeystoontown]

I HAD THE FLIGHT OF MY LIFE! AND I OWE IT ALL TO YOUUUUUUU!

We had experienced Flight of Passage, gone on a fantabulous new tour using our free money, and eaten at a just okay but new to us restaurant the day before. I have one picture that I forgot to post in my earlier update. We had gone back to the resort to change before going to Disney Springs. One of my clients and friends had sent me a cute shirt with an embroidered Minnie Mouse. Of course, I had to strike a pose in it.



Today, we were going to do something else new but old but new and now old and new again. This will all make sense when I get to the story. I promise. But, first, I need to get us to the park. What park? This park.



I took this next picture hoping to get a good picture to show first time clients. I wanted to capture a picture of the marquee on the front of the bus to show them how to tell where a bus is going. Humm, that's not much of a help. Luckily, I have others.



As you now know, we were going back to Animal Kingdom! I had snagged yet another Fastpass for Flights of Passage. This time, I didn't take pictures of the queue but rather video which I haven't uploaded to You Tube. We were through the Fastpass line in no time and were in the pre-show.




We did our wiggling and jiggling and they assigned our avatar. Then they went on to explain how we would ride/board our banshee.








Because we had ridden before and I knew that we had to store all of our things including cellphones in the bins at the back of the room, I had the camera on my phone at the ready. I wanted to snap some pictures of the ride vehicles. I had to be quick because a cast member was in the room with us and giving us the instructions to put everything in the bins.





Pictures taken, I put everything away and boarded my "banshee". The ride was fantastic! Simply amazing!

**Up next: Do you really think that they exist? I bet they do!​

 

[mickeystoontown]

Do you really think that they exist? I bet they do!

Y'all, when I say that I am scared of heights....I mean I am scared of heights. I was once stung over 100 times by bees when they swarmed around me and started stinging me all over. Just last week, I was bitten by a spider on my eyelid and my face and lips swelled up like a dang balloon. I'd take either of those situations again before I'd walk across a suspension bridge or bungee jump. I'm that scared of heights. Heck, I can't even climb an extension ladder and get on the roof without semi-freaking out.

Today, however, I had on my big girl panties and was conquering that fear on not one but two attractions. One was Flights of Passage and two was another ride on Expedition Everest. Funny, how Disney can make ya do things you normally wouldn't do. We left Pandora and walked to Asia.

First, I had to align this with mountains of Expedition Everest.

View attachment 407915

And grab a picture of the Rivers of Light seating.


Thankfully, we had Fastpasses and didn't have to use the Stand By line.


We watch a lot of nature and animal television shows. We once watched a show about some missionaries who had traveled deep into the jungles and had spent time with some aborigines. A tribe that other hadn't even know existed until the missionaries found them. We have also watched shows about "new" animal species that were discovered during explorations.

What the heck does this have to do with Expedition Everest. It always brings up the question: Do you think that a Yeti actually exists? I think that it is a possibility. Not a Yeti Yeti. Not Big Foot Yeti. But a large animal that no one knows about yet. Who knows? Anyway, now that you all think we are Big Foot huntin' hillbillies, let me move on.

This young man was in the test car.





One of the displays in the queue.


Here comes our rail car!


It looks like we were in the third or fourth car.


**Continued in next post​

 

[mickeystoontown]

Do you think they exist? I think they do! continued

Want to see something extraordinary? So maybe extraordinary is a stretch but it was a feat for me. I took pictures again.







There he is! The man himself! The Yeti!




We narrowly escaped the big guy and were soon on our way to the last Fastpass of the day. Which was. Which was for. Which was for hum. I have no clue. Don't tell me that you haven't forgotten something like that before. Remember, it's been a year and a half since this trip. If there's no picture to remind me, I'm at a loss.

I am sure that there was another Fastpass used. I just don't know what for.

**Up next: Visiting the something new but old but new and now old and new again.

​

 

[Steppesister]

Glad you conquered your fear of heights and made onto 2 of my favorite attractions! YAY!!! What a fun time!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Glad you conquered your fear of heights and made onto 2 of my favorite attractions! YAY!!! What a fun time!

I love both of the attractions too! My fear of heights is pretty darn bad but my love of all things Disney allows me to go for it!

 

[krr126]

Everest is the BEST!!!!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Everest is the BEST!!!!

Heck yeah! I love it!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Visiting the something new but old but new and now old and new again!

I promise that the title will make sense once I tell y'all what we did. We left Animal Kingdom and walked over to the bus stop. Instead of catching an Art of Animation bus, we hopped on another. Where were we going? I'll tell you.


It is no secret that our hands down favorite Disney resort is Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort. Love, love, love it! So much so that we have stayed probably 200 nights there over the years. At the time of this trip, it was in the midst of a major overhaul. As in the entirety of Old Port Royale was being gutted, a new DVC resort was being built and the skyliner was coming to the resort. Those were the reasons that we weren't staying at Caribbean Beach this trip. Well that and I wanted to try something new and I got free dining at All Star Music. Free dining saved us a lot of money so we went for it.

We were both very curious how the construction was effecting the resort itself and how the "food court tent" was working. We were in need of lunch so we figured why not go over to Caribbean Beach and see for ourselves. Y'all, I'm not going to lie. I was almost in tears when we pulled into the resort. It broke my heart to see my beloved resort so torn up. The pictures were taken while on the bus so they are bad and you can't really see all that much.








The construction doesn't look so bad from these pictures but it still hurt my heart to see the once serene and pristine resort in this shape. To those who had never stayed or seen it before, they probably thought it wasn't that bad. We got off at the Old Port Royale stop and followed the signs.

At the end of the pathway and to your left was a small food truck.




We took the path to the right and there was a small "store" truck that had mostly swim accessories, sunscreen, etc.



The beach had tables and chairs set up which isn't how it normally looked. There are usually only beach chairs and hammocks.


Further along the promenade was the temporary bar.



**Continued in next post​

 

[mickeystoontown]

Visiting the something new but old but new and now old and new again!

Our meandering continued and we came upon the food tent. Before ordering, John went in search of a bathroom and the nearest was at the main pool. While he was gone, I took pictures.



To the left of the walkway was the Superstar Catering food truck which wasn't open at the time.





They had water and water with lemon in the drink dispensers for anyone wanting a sip of cool water.


I was falling down on my picture taking skills but it seems like every time I wanted to take a straight on picture, there were guests or cast members there and I didn't want to intrude. As you walk towards the main tent, there was a temporary building to your right. This is where you placed your order.







A cast member and I were chatting and I found out that she was from a town in south Louisiana which was about four hours from us. She was in the Disney college program and was really enjoying it. She had been going to Disney since she was young and had always dreamt of working for Disney. John came along and I introduced the two and we talked for a few more minutes and then went to the window to place our order. Once your order was placed, you could go into the tent and wait for your food to be ready.

Disney had done a great job making the tent look very untent like. It looked more like a building from the inside.




*Continued in next post​

 

[mickeystoontown]

Visiting the something new but old but new and now old and new again!

As you can see from the pictures, it wasnt busy at all. Not surprisingly, our food was ready in no time. We both ordered burgers. John's came with a side of tater tots and mac and cheese.





I chose tater tots and a pasta salad for my side items.


We were both satisifed with our burgers and were pleasantly surprised at how well Disney had done at hiding the facct that you were eating in a tent. Before leaving, I wanted to make a pit stop too so I made my way over to the pool bathroom.




I took pictures of the showers and the lockers but I don't have them here for some reason. I think that I put them in a CBR folder on my home computer and didn't bring them with me to work.

Pit stop done, we made our way back through the maze of walls and to the bus stop. I snapped one last picture before we left.


Given that the construction at the CBR is almost done and the skyliner should be opening soon, I think that you can now undertand the title of this latest update. CBR is something old to us, but the food tent was something new at the time, now it's old and the resort is new again.

**Up next: Noel! Noel! It's Santy Clause!​

 

[oopsiDAISY]

We have stayed there, and I can say....that place looks CRAZY!!! I can definitely see why your heart was so broken! I just cannot imagine it being a DVC with a big tower next to it, etc. The landscape of Disney is just morphing into something so foreign to us "old timers". We will go back to see Galaxy's Edge at some point, but probably never will go back after that. It is all just too much for us now...too many crowds, too many changes, too much money, just too much.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Before I move on to the next post, I found the pictures of the changing/shower/bathroom near the main pool at CBR. I know that it wasn't that big of a deal if I didn't find them. But, someone may be wondering what it looks like and can find some benefit from them.​

Movin' on

Noel! Noel! It's Santy Clause!​

One of requirements for booking free dining were park hoppers. I know that hoppers are a necessity for many but John and I rarely get them anymore. We normally stick to one park per day. However, on this day, we were bopping and hopping around. First, we were at Animal Kingdom, second we were at Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort and now we were on our way to our next destination which was Epcot. Don't really know why we were going there but we did. I'm thinking because it was the first day that the various "Santa Clause"/narrators would be in the countries tonight.

Hello there Spaceship Earth!


Our first stop was at Living with the Land. Again, I love this attraction. This time, instead of snapping millions of pictures, I took one. Just a single picture.



From there, we moved on to a "new to us" attraction. Can you believe in all of our years of going to Walt Disney World, we have never seen the film in Canada? To be honest with you, I forget that it is there. Today, we were going to rectify that.



I'm glad that we watched O'Canada. Martin Short is funny no matter if he is talking about something serious or doing a comedy skit. The film was a combination of both and we giggled several times. Giggling is good. It makes the world go round. Especially when you are traveling around the world...World Showcase that is.

The Canada pavilion is stunning!




**Continued in next post. Man I wish we could post more than just ten pictures per update.​

 

[mickeystoontown]

Duplicate post​

 

[mickeystoontown]

We have stayed there, and I can say....that place looks CRAZY!!! I can definitely see why your heart was so broken! I just cannot imagine it being a DVC with a big tower next to it, etc. The landscape of Disney is just morphing into something so foreign to us "old timers". We will go back to see Galaxy's Edge at some point, but probably never will go back after that. It is all just too much for us now...too many crowds, too many changes, too much money, just too much.

If we were traveling during the warmer months, I'd go back to CBR in a heartbeat. Those hammocks....ahhh! Love 'em. But with us going in November again, I wonder if we would really get any use out of them.

I understand your feelings. A lot of people are saying the same thing about Coronado Springs. It has a large tower there now too.

We went back to the CBR this past November and let me tell you, the difference was crazy. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. It was so hard to visualize when everything was so torn up in 2017.

 

[mickeystoontown]

I'll be back soon y'all. I am trying my best to finish up this trip report so I can start our 2018 report.

 

[MICKEY4EVER!]

LOVE your Minnie Mouse shirt! And the updates were great. I wish I had one of those burgers you got from the food truck right about now. They looked amazing!