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[jc040404]

Oh my gosh!! I don't even want to imagine!



You poor thing! This was such a mess!! Poor Blakers (though his Mickey pose makes me smile EVERY time). Your kids are so sweet and how adorable that they wanted to stay there so bad. I'm sorry you guys had such a rough time with all these rooms! I really hope the rest of the trip gets better...it really can't get worse I guess.

The trip does get better! I'm not including any of the other mousekeeping issues from here on, but even those were met in a different way. We just assumed this place was awful so nothing was all that shocking.

Omg I can't believe that happened to you guys. I only have one pet peeve that will tick me off to the point of no return is my kids. I would have had the manager cleaning my room every day or an upgrade to a deluxe resort if that had happened on our trip. I am glad Blake was okay

I do regret not going back over to Custom House and turning into the very thing I'd said I hate earlier. John suggested they should cover an upgrade when he called me a snob, but I didn't want to deal with anything else. Maybe I should've let him handle this instead. We had spent so much of our trip dealing with room issues already that I just wanted it to end though. The boys had been so excited about staying here that it still really upsets me to remember this.

Oh my goodness! I have to say, you must be a very strong woman! All of that would make me turn into crazy lady! My breaking point would have been the first room location with the smoking area! I hope that something was done after you send the email! Remind me to take CBR off of my "want to stay there list"! I REALLY hope that you and your boys end up having an AWESOME rest of the trip!!!! Livy and I are heading up from Saturday-Tuesday this weekend and staying at POP-just so I can get the pics of her with her letters on the keyboard! I LOVE LOVE LOVE your idea! Can't wait to read more!

Someone did get back to us after I sent the email, and we were mostly pleased with the results. That's all I'm saying about it. I have trouble believing it caused any major training or change though.

Have a great time at Pop! I'm so jealous, but kinda not, too. Writing about all of this doesn't have me super interested in going back right now. We only have a few days left to renew our APs. This part of writing my TR came at the wrong time for Disney! I don't have that crazy desire to spend every second of my life giving the mouse our money right now. haha..

Oh. My. Goodness. I think my heart skipped a beat when I read about the table collapsing!! Poor Blake! I'm glad he was okay!!!

It sounds like the Mousekeeping managers and staff at CBR could use some additional training. In how to properly do their jobs AND in customer service!!!

I certainly hope you all managed to have some fun later in the day!!!!

They definitely do! How could that woman not even apologize? If Blake had been hurt in any way, this would've had a completely different ending. The rest of the trip was fun for us, and the boys still loved being at CBR in the coming days. Wild, huh?

 

[AprilRenee]

The trip does get better! I'm not including any of the other mousekeeping issues from here on, but even those were met in a different way. We just assumed this place was awful so nothing was all that shocking.

You had MORE issues!?!?!?! Oh my gosh!! I think I would have been up in the front asking for an upgrade too. Although, I say that from my comfy spot on the couch. If I was actually there I'd do exactly the same thing as you: just get things fixed as much as possible and then go enjoy the parks.

 

[akayek31]

We once went on vacation to Chattanooga. I found the hotel online on hotels dot com. It was the worst room I have ever been in in my life. There were people living at the hotel (I learned to read the reviews after this stay), it was in a seedy part of town, and everything that could go wrong did. As we were leaving I complained again to the manager of the hotel. He said since we had booked and paid through the website that there was nothing he could do about it except offer 50% off our next stay. Now since I would never ever stay there again I smiled and took his business card. I had paid $144 for three days to stay here so when I got home I called the main hotels headquarters. I got only $50 back but it was some kind of vindication from the chain that they were willing to help. This was about 8 yrs ago and I have yet to set foot in another hotel with their name on it. My friend who went with us told me he had never seen someone complain so much that they gave me money to shut me up I now go on these websites to look at reviews and prices and then I call the hotel and book through them so if I have any problems I can get my money back.

 

[Dugette]

Wow! I don't even know what to say about your CBR experience! Given that we got upgraded to Poly Club because we had one night of noisy neighbors, I think you should have been staying in the Castle after all that! I can't believe the table collapsed...glad Blake was okay!

I'm looking forward to the trip getting better!

PS-We booked our air tonight, so we're officially going back in October!

ETA-Just saw a thread over on the resort boards about how the pizza delivery thing is a scam run by identity theives! Yikes!

 

[PirateKate]

Wow! I can't believe what horribly bad room luck you've been having. The thing with the table could have been really dangerous. I think I would have told them not to bring another one in.

I suppose it is possible for all resorts to have a bad showing and I know there are other people who love CBR, but I'm still glad we switched to Pop. I've stayed at all the Value resorts, POR, POFQ, CSR, AKL and SSR. Out of all of those, I liked AKL the best, but I never had any problems with any of the stuff that happened to you at CBR.

I've made a mental note to always buy two light sabers in the future.

 

[jc040404]

You had MORE issues!?!?!?! Oh my gosh!! I think I would have been up in the front asking for an upgrade too. Although, I say that from my comfy spot on the couch. If I was actually there I'd do exactly the same thing as you: just get things fixed as much as possible and then go enjoy the parks.

Unfortunately, yes. You're exactly right, too. Looking back, I want to tell myself to do something else. In the moment, I just wanted it all over to get back to the parks and enjoying our trip.

We once went on vacation to Chattanooga. I found the hotel online on hotels dot com. It was the worst room I have ever been in in my life. There were people living at the hotel (I learned to read the reviews after this stay), it was in a seedy part of town, and everything that could go wrong did. As we were leaving I complained again to the manager of the hotel. He said since we had booked and paid through the website that there was nothing he could do about it except offer 50% off our next stay. Now since I would never ever stay there again I smiled and took his business card. I had paid $144 for three days to stay here so when I got home I called the main hotels headquarters. I got only $50 back but it was some kind of vindication from the chain that they were willing to help. This was about 8 yrs ago and I have yet to set foot in another hotel with their name on it. My friend who went with us told me he had never seen someone complain so much that they gave me money to shut me up I now go on these websites to look at reviews and prices and then I call the hotel and book through them so if I have any problems I can get my money back.

How awful! How sweet of him to offer money off coming back though. Sorry you had such a rotten experience, but it is good to know this. I've looked at hotels a few times, but we've never used them. I think I'll skip it in the future. I don't like the idea that they claimed "nothing we can do" simply because you paid through someone else. I wonder if the chain ever looked into that place..

Wow! I don't even know what to say about your CBR experience! Given that we got upgraded to Poly Club because we had one night of noisy neighbors, I think you should have been staying in the Castle after all that! I can't believe the table collapsed...glad Blake was okay!

I'm looking forward to the trip getting better!

PS-We booked our air tonight, so we're officially going back in October!

ETA-Just saw a thread over on the resort boards about how the pizza delivery thing is a scam run by identity theives! Yikes!

I saw that thread on the resort board, too! I wish Disney would put a little more work into keeping them out now. I still don't know how though. Anyone can hop on a bus and we noticed a gate near our first building that someone could easily walk right in with no trouble. Scary stuff!

Wow! I can't believe what horribly bad room luck you've been having. The thing with the table could have been really dangerous. I think I would have told them not to bring another one in.

I suppose it is possible for all resorts to have a bad showing and I know there are other people who love CBR, but I'm still glad we switched to Pop. I've stayed at all the Value resorts, POR, POFQ, CSR, AK and SSR. Out of all of those, I liked AK the best, but I never had any problems with any of the stuff that happened to you at CBR.

I've made a mental note to always buy two light sabers in the future.

One light saber was pointless anyway. Who was he supposed to battle at home? Andrew likes to teach Blake the routine from the show when they're allowed to play with those things.

 

[jc040404]

After our perfect lunch, we were soon back on property. This trip will have quite a few runs off property, but I think they were needed for us after all the room troubles. A family vote was taken in the car and DHS won. Shocking, right? I bet you thought we’d end up at MK. Unlike all of our other visits, we don’t spend every possible second there this time. We’d actually made a point to attempt avoiding that park for most of the stay!

We walked through the turnstiles just before three. People were lining up for the new parade, but there were still lots of empty spots. None of us had much interest in this one, having seen a video that didn’t impress us. The block party of before was so much better! I could see Mister Incredible posing above the gate, so we decided to give it a try anyway. That’s how parades seem to work for us most of the time. There was a spot. It was about to start. Why not?

How Cute!

My children had never seen any of those movies, so this wasn’t the most exciting thing we’d ever done for them. They liked seeing characters and all, but these were strangers. Andrew knew what movie they were all supposed to be from, but we’d just never watched them yet.

The Up characters seemed to be the only group that were interacting with everyone watching! Maybe it was because we were at the very start of the parade, but a lot of them didn't seem super into what they were doing yet. Russel gave a high five to both of the boys as he passed.

^My favorite pic from the parade

Toy Story! These were people the boys knew!

Blake and I love playing with his Little People!

The End. This was over soooo fast.

This parade was really cute, but not a huge hit for us. We really loved the block party bash, so it seemed a little empty to simply watch everyone dance by us. Even if I didn’t have anything to compare it to, I think the song would still make me a little nuts. The boys were both singing it for most of the day. The colors and characters are pretty cool though, so I think Disney could make this a great parade if they tried.

With the parade moving away, we decided to do the same. And so did everyone else! It was the biggest mess! We made our way over to the opposite side of the street and eventually got to the animation courtyard. I couldn’t believe how wild that journey was!

One of the big reasons DHS won the park vote was the new Disney Junior show. We’d yet to see it since Jake & the Neverland Pirates joined, and the boys couldn’t wait! We’re all really big fans. Blake loves that his name rhymes with Jake, but thinks he’s more like Cubby. It’s adorable to watch him play this at home. My only complaint if the excessive use of pixie dust. “Only in an emergency” seems to mean whenever they don’t want to try anymore. It stinks being stuck playing the girl part all the time. I make it fun by insisting we use pixie dust for everything, just like Izzy! The boys don’t seem to like that for some reason. Haha! But I’m rambling now..

Back to the fun! There was already a decent sized line, but we hopped in anyway.

We were pretty far back! That wasn't a problem, as we try to let people ahead of us anyway. You can see more if you aren't on top of the stage. A tallish man was sitting somewhat in the center, just a few people rows back. He had mickey ears on! That was the oddest thing to me. I get loving your ears, but there are little children on the floor behind you! I was glad he wasn't blocking our view, but I wish I'd tried to catch a pic with them. I'm sure it was annoying, but it looked pretty funny, too. This show can be difficult that way sometimes.

The show was great! It was so much fun not knowing what to expect, so all the gold doubloons falling instead of Roo’s leaves was awesome for them. The boys loved grabbing up a couple of “shinies” to carry along as we left. This was definitely something we’d be seeing again soon!

 

[IheartDDuck]

The kiddos loved Disney Junior when we went! Joaquin kept going on and on about the gold dubloons falling from the ceiling. He absolutely adores Jake and the Neverland Pirates.

 

[Dugette]

Wow...a park that's not MK...who are you?

I'm not a big parade person, but the somewhat unique characters in that parade look kinda cool! And you gotta love Dug! I wonder if any kids ask why Remy is so big in the parade? Certainly bigger than the one at Chefs de France and way too big to fit under a chef's hat! Oh, well.

Disney Junior looks fun for the boys. Something we've never done. Looking forward to more DHS!

 

[jc040404]

The kiddos loved Disney Junior when we went! Joaquin kept going on and on about the gold dubloons falling from the ceiling. He absolutely adores Jake and the Neverland Pirates.

It's definitely a hit with the little ones! I thought it was nuts how Disney added that to this show before it was big on Disney Junior on television, but it looks like it was a great idea.

Wow...a park that's not MK...who are you?

I'm not a big parade person, but the somewhat unique characters in that parade look kinda cool! And you gotta love Dug! I wonder if any kids ask why Remy is so big in the parade? Certainly bigger than the one at Chefs de France and way too big to fit under a chef's hat! Oh, well.

Disney Junior looks fun for the boys. Something we've never done. Looking forward to more DHS!

Andrew would say the exact same thing during Pixar Weekend! He was worried about the little kids figuring it out too soon. Remy was out with some other rat that day. No idea who that was? I still haven't seen this movie!

 

[AprilRenee]

Yay! Sounds like the day is looking up!!
Jake and the neverland pirates sounds cute! I need to find a kid to watch it with me so I can use them as an excuse!

 

[jane2073]

That is the same spot where we like to watch the Pixar Parade.

 

[PirateKate]

We love Jake and the Neverland Pirates, too. I'm hoping to catch the new show in October. It looks like it's pretty cool, if you're into that sort of thing.

I can see how the Pixar Parade wouldn't be a bit hit with little kids who hadn't seen a lot of the movies. I thought it looked fun, though.

 

[CAStevens218]

The parade looks cute, but I agree, it seems like Disney could make it amazing if they put a little more effort into it! I think we'll be skipping that one...I'm mostly a fan of night parades!!

I love the boys in their sunglasses again!!!

 

[jc040404]

Yay! Sounds like the day is looking up!!
Jake and the neverland pirates sounds cute! I need to find a kid to watch it with me so I can use them as an excuse!

I would feel kinda silly going in without a child, but I have seen people do it! Mostly old people though.. I guessed they probably didn't know what it was. It's really cute!

That is the same spot where we like to watch the Pixar Parade.

I think catching a parade from right at the beginning is the best! We'd do that a lot for the 3 o'clock parade at MK.

We love Jake and the Neverland Pirates, too. I'm hoping to catch the new show in October. It looks like it's pretty cool, if you're into that sort of thing.

I can see how the Pixar Parade wouldn't be a bit hit with little kids who hadn't seen a lot of the movies. I thought it looked fun, though.

It did look fun, but being character clueless hurt it for them. I've always thought they might like Monsters Inc maybe, but never seem to remember to watch it with them.

The parade looks cute, but I agree, it seems like Disney could make it amazing if they put a little more effort into it! I think we'll be skipping that one...I'm mostly a fan of night parades!!

I love the boys in their sunglasses again!!!

It was so cute, but it is so short! I couldn't believe how quick it went by us.

Those sunglasses are making me sad! I checked Children's Place for a new pair yesterday, but they only had the bigger sizes. They were so cute! I wish I knew what Blake did with them. I'll never understand how things just vanish around here sometimes!

 

[jc040404]

We all moved into the animation building next so John and Andrew could check times to learn to draw a new character. It turned out that their favorite teacher was going to be running the next one, so they found spots in the little holding area to wait. It would be starting in just ten minutes. Perfect timing!

This left me and Blakers to find something fun to do without them. My little man immediately remembered something about this place and had a request.

He had to show Mickey his pose again! The big guy loved it. He grabbed my baby for a hug and wouldn’t let him go!

With all the excitement over the Mickey pose, I completely forgot about those autograph books. Blake and I agreed that it was okay to skip them this time. Brother wasn’t with us! I couldn’t believe this was our third time to see Mickey and we still hadn’t gotten that most important signature. Haha..

While standing in the Mickey line, Blake had been sad that he forgot about the most exciting Disney attraction at DHS. We could’ve spent all that time touching colors and pictures instead! What a waste, right? Noticing a little boy jumping away from the little painting games, I hurried Blake up before another child claimed it. As I sat him down to play, I heard another mother telling her son that they’d just missed it. I will admit that I felt a bit victorious over this. They really need more of these!

Blake had a fun time making Timon look nuts, but I was a little sad that he hadn’t picked Flounder first this time. He was still very much in love with Ariel.

As fun as it is to watch Blake make Timon’s hands green, and then purple and then yellow, and back again.. This was getting old fast. I people watched and entertained myself with the nifty jars above us. These are wild to stare at it. Blake and I both agreed that we really should get some to take home with us. Best night lights ever!

After a bit, I asked if he wanted to visit someone else in here. He agreed and we joined Lotso’s line.

I love how the line was set up to look like Sunnyside. The pictures were too cute! We had a pretty long wait, but seeing so many ahead of us with open autograph books did make me remember the boys’ this time.

Lotso was super smoochy with Blakers. The little guy seemed to like it, which was a good thing. Blake isn’t a big Lotso fan.

Nothing left down here to interest us, we decided to head outside and see a show. I knew John and Andrew would probably be done before us, but they’d find something to do. Blake wanted to see his mermaid!

At the top of the stairs, I noticed a new-to-us character wandering around. Frozone was out with no one near him at all! I wasn’t sure if he was coming or going at the time, so I paused to find out. He motioned for Blake to come near and we added a brand new character to his book.

How fun! Blaker waved goodbye and we moved back outside. Poor Frozone went back to wandering around alone. I guess he just doesn’t have the following that Mickey does.

 

[jc040404]

We had excellent timing again and were able to walk right in to the Voyage of the Little Mermaid. Blake hopped on my lap and we enjoyed the show. He loves it so much! The more I see this, the more I’m not sure if Ariel is the type of girl I want Blake interested in! What exactly is the moral of this story supposed to be?? The music is fun anyway. Blake likes to point out the mermaid that looks like her in Peter Pan. Think they stole her look from it? I’ve never looked into it, but they’re so much alike!

I was right about John and Andrew finishing up first. They guessed where we’d be and were just waiting around outside for us. They showed off their newest works of art, pictures of a Bugs’ Life character, I believe. Then John said we needed to hurry back in the animation building. The Genie was inside This is one I’d wanted to meet for a while, so we all hoped he’d still be there.

Sure enough, he was there! I took a few really terrible pictures.

I even made John pose again.

We checked to see if any other fun characters might’ve joined the area, but didn’t see anyone new. In a character mood, Blake asked if we could see the Little Einsteins next!

Leo and Annie were already outside, so we hopped in the line to wait. Andrew wasn’t as thrilled as Blake to see this group, so he asked for my camera to keep himself busy. I gladly let him have it and he took the first picture when our turn came. I think it looked awesome!

We moved over to Handy Manny next. With a sorta-low wait (totally technical line time lingo there), it only made sense to add him to their books now, too. When we were next in line, he left us for a break. We have such luck sometimes.

Andrew didn’t mind it and spent the time chatting up the CM who was waiting here. He asked about Jake & the Neverland Pirates coming to the park, but she didn’t seem to know anything. Her guess was next summer, and I’m sure it’s as good as any. We changed the subject back to Manny. If she was guarding his spot, she’d have to know something about him, right?

“What’s the angry screwdriver’s name?”

Andrew argues that he really isn’t angry, just not totally happy all the time. I say it’s the same and this is my favorite Handy Manny character. In our area of the line, not a person could come up with his name! I was sad since I couldn’t remember either and turned to talk about Kelly and Manny instead. I think we all had the same thoughts about what’s going on there! Still, the CM was clueless. She didn’t even know who Kelly was! That was sad. Luckily, Manny walked up and saved her from more character embarrassment.

I love Manny’s autograph! He made a little hat and a nail. It was so cute.

Blake noticed my favorite Little Einstein was out now, so we were back in the other line again. This time our discussion had better results. The mom in front of us knew the angry screwdriver’s name! I found it hilarious that I had so many people trying to figure this out that day. I’ve totally forgotten again though. Oh well. He’s great, but we don’t really watch the show all that much. With a television time limit, the boys have to pick their most favorites and Manny doesn’t quite make the cut.

Andrew launched back into calling the Little Einsteins a “baby” show, so I handed over my camera to quiet him. I couldn’t help but feel a little scammed this time. His was in my bag, but this was easier to deal with. He did take a great picture of them!

One of my favorite things about Andrew having camera control is how the characters get excited over it. They always make such a big deal of posing for him. It’s adorable. Any of the CMs seem to and it makes his day. It’s so sweet!

We had a great time with these two. Blake made sure to let Quincy know he’s my favorite. “I cannot believe it!” stole my heart the first time I heard it. I seriously say it all the time! But it was June whose heart was captured today. She seemed so in love with Blakers and didn’t want to let him go. They snuggled and smooched for so long. It was adorable, but I guess I didn’t upload any of those pics. Haha.. You can imagine.

Done with all the characters around here, we started to move on. Then Andrew saw an icecream cart! He immediately neeeeeeded a snack. It was desperate and he promised it had absolutely nothing to do with having just seen icecream. If this was so, one of the healthy snacks in my bag would work, right? Funny how that instantly brought honesty out of my little man. The boys got a snack to share anyway. (I don’t remember what now? They usually split Dibs if I do this.)

After their snack, I thought about checking TSM. We all knew this was silly. Fastpasses would be gone and the wait would be insane. Even so, it could be a fun walk!

As expected, FPs were all gone and the wait was insane. Too bad! It stinks that you have to be here first thing in the morning to have a chance at riding this without standing in line for over an hour. This late in the day, that never would have worked for Blake. I don't think 106 minutes in that mess of people would've worked for me either!

After a teeny bit more wandering around, we realized this was mostly pointless. DHS just doesn’t have much for us as it gets late in the day! I bought that second light saber and moved out of the park. We decided to just bring dinner back to the room, with the boys sitting at a table that didn’t hurt anyone or fall over. Only at WDW could having dinner in your resort room have the potential to be as scary as riding ToT. I was glad to be settled in a safe, smoke-free room finally. We had a lazy evening and fell asleep early. Tomorrow was a big day for someone..

Next Up!! Andrew becomes a pirate!!

 

[IheartDDuck]

I love when Blake does his pose. It is just so absolutely adorable.

Is it sad that I know the screwdriver's name (Turner), and I don't have kids? In my defense, for a while he was my nephew's favorite toy.

 

[AprilRenee]

What a fun day!! This seemed so pleasant!! It's so funny how every time I read a TR update with a laid back day I'm like "wow how nice!" I'm really looking forward to our next trip and taking it easy and just enjoying the atmosphere and seeing just the things we love instead of trying to see everything! Our only other trips have been either our first time or taking a first timer. This time, it's all about laying back and enjoying! We'll see how that goes! I might be too much of a planner. In fact, I'm PLANNING laid back plans to make sure I do it!

I LOVE the pic of Mickey hugging Blake!

And I can't believe you saw Genie!! That's awesome!!

I wanna draw a Bug's Life character!! I love Bug's Life!! But with my luck it'll never happen! LOL ah well!

 

[jc040404]

I love when Blake does his pose. It is just so absolutely adorable.

Is it sad that I know the screwdriver's name (Turner), and I don't have kids? In my defense, for a while he was my nephew's favorite toy.

Turner! How do I keep forgetting that one? It totally fits. He's a screwdriver! Geesh..

What a fun day!! This seemed so pleasant!! It's so funny how every time I read a TR update with a laid back day I'm like "wow how nice!" I'm really looking forward to our next trip and taking it easy and just enjoying the atmosphere and seeing just the things we love instead of trying to see everything! Our only other trips have been either our first time or taking a first timer. This time, it's all about laying back and enjoying! We'll see how that goes! I might be too much of a planner. In fact, I'm PLANNING laid back plans to make sure I do it!

I LOVE the pic of Mickey hugging Blake!

And I can't believe you saw Genie!! That's awesome!!

I wanna draw a Bug's Life character!! I love Bug's Life!! But with my luck it'll never happen! LOL ah well!

Okay, so it wasn't someone from A Bug's Life. It was Jiminy Cricket. You've already done that one. I just asked John and he said that I thought Andrew's was a bug but couldn't figure it out that day. I suppose I was right about the bug part anyway! Crickets are bugs, right? I still need to find a way to store or display these pictures, but they're so big!

Good luck on planning not to plan to do everything! I'm sure you'll be able to relax more if you don't have first timers along for the ride.