Excuse me, you'll need to see security. What has Mickeystoontown done? Update 3/25x2

[Angies1274]

I'm so glad you enjoyed WPE!! We love eating there!! Unfortunately, we probably won't make there this trip because we are trying T-REX instead. But, it's one of our favorite QS restaurants!!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Would it be shorter this way or that way?

As John and Hunter were finishing up their sweets, we talked about which path we should take to get back to our room. We really weren’t sure. So, we decided to walk out into the Old Port Royale courtyard and take a gander at the two ways to get back. Once outside, we looked to our left and then straight ahead. Then, we looked to our right. Hum? Would it be shorter this way or that way? We decided on “this way” which was to take the path through the courtyard, through the island and then the promenade to Barbados. Honestly, we really didn’t care which way was shorter because we were at the Caribbean Beach Resort and not stuck at home or at work.

Let’s take a little walk shall we?

The bridge that takes you to the island:

The pathway through the island:

Once we were through the island and back to the main promenade, we took a right and continued on:

I did a really crappy job taking pictures this trip. It seems like everybody is always standing in a shadow. Oh well, at least you can see the scenery around John and Hunter:

Hunter and I standing in the same spot. Oh and this is the hat that I bought at World of Disney:

Looking towards Bardados:

We made it back to our room in Barbados Building 11. “This way” was probably a bit longer than “that way” but, like I said, we really didn’t care. We decided to just chill out a while in the room and watch a little television. After all, we hadn’t taken the time to watch the “must sees” presented by Stacey yet.

At some point in time, I went down to the SCAR to make sure that we had gathered up all the trash from the drive and get it re-organized. When I opened the door, I could smell a weird odor. What the heck? It wasn’t overwhelming but it wasn’t a faint smell either. It didn’t smell like something had crawled up under the hood and died. It didn’t smell like food. It smelled like.....it smelled like.....something that had been stored for a long time. Something like luggage that had been in the attic. Or possibly blankets that had been in the linen closet forever. Gosh darn it! We had done such a good job keeping the SCAR smelling like a new car and now it smelled. Would we ever get that smell out?

I told ya’ll about John being picky about the cleanliness of the car and wanting it to look and smell new. What I didn’t tell you was that he doesn’t want anything rolling around in the storage compartment in the back or anything rubbing up against the sides of the storage area. So, whenever we put our luggage back there, John insists on putting a blanket on the backside of the seat, one on the sides and then one to cover it all so the black luggage doesn’t rub on the sides or the back of the door. Before we left, I had pulled out some afghans that had been in the linen closet forever to use as our “shields against the rubbing warfare”. Apparently, the combination of the luggage which had been stored in the attic and the afghans that were stored in the back of the linen closet and the hot Florida sunshine were not a good mix. We hadn’t even noticed any smell when we packed everything into the car or on the drive down.

Great! Now I’ve gone and made you all think that we are stinky people! We’re not. I promise!

Anyway, I gathered up the blankets and took them to the room with me and then told John about the smell. Naturally, he wanted to go see how bad it smelled. Surprisingly, John didn’t think that it smelled as bad as I did. But, then again, he works in a cabinet shop with no air and at the end of the day, the men all smell to high Heaven. Except my man, he doesn’t smell bad...I tell him he smells like money. John also figured it was a combination of the luggage having been stored, the blankets and the heat. We decided that when we came back from the cruise, we were going to take all of the luggage to our room at the CBR and let the car air out. We’d also wash the blankets before we used them again. Maybe that would help.

Our evening plans included going back to Downtown Disney, exploring a bit of the other end of DTD and then dinner at T-Rex. We freshened up a little and then went to the bus stop to wait on a Downtown Disney bus.

When we got to the bus stop, there was a lady and her two sons and then a gentleman. She was complaining to the man about how she had been waiting for ten whole minutes for a Magic Kingdom bus and thought that was too long to wait. Seriously? Ten minutes? An EPCOT bus came and went. The gentleman told the lady that she could have gotten on the EPCOT bus and then taken the monorail to the Magic Kingdom. I wanted so badly to interject and tell her that, yes, she could do that but she’d also have to walk a ways from the EPCOT bus stop and then up to the monorail and then also wait on a monorail to come. It would be wise for her to just wait for a Magic Kingdom bus. I refrained from butting in and sat back to watch and see what she ended up doing. About 2 minutes later, up pulled an EPCOT bus and she and her kids went. Oh well, live and learn lady...live and learn.

Not a minute later, a Magic Kingdom bus came along. I looked over at the gentleman and said “bet she’d kick herself if knew”. The guy just laughed and then proceeded to tell us all about how the Disney transportation system works. Some of his greatest tips were.....hum....I can’t remember. I tuned most of them out but let me just say that his information was bunch of malarky. It was obvious that he didn’t know as much as he thought he did because if I took some of his suggestions/tips, I’d be riding on a bus or a monorail or a boat all day long and would never make it to the parks. Normally, I have a great tolerance for chit chatty people (heck I’m one of ‘em) but this guy was irritating.

I was so happy when a Downtown Disney bus pulled up. I was tired of listening to Mr. I Know Anything and Everything There Is To Know About Traveling Around Walt Disney World. We hopped on the bus and were off to Downtown Disney for the second time in one day. This time, we chose to get off the bus at Pleasure Island so that we didn’t have as far to walk to the Vinylmation store and “the other side” of DTD.

We made our way to the Vinylmation store and I immediately started taking pictures:

I don’t remember if we bought anything in the store but I’m thinking not. We were early for our ADR but we slowly made our way through Pleasure Island and to T-Rex. I figured we’d see if they could seat us early. We were greeted by a horde of folks. There were three lines which I didn’t understand and then people standing around everywhere. I went to the line on the left (when facing the building) and found that lots of the folks standing there weren’t even in line which I thought was kind of odd. There were two people working at the podium so the line moved semi-quickly. I gave them my name and told them that we were about 30 minutes early. I was told that we could either wait for our ADR time and then check in or we could give up that ADR and simply wait to be called which would be in about a 20 minute wait. Mr. Trebek, we’ll take the 20 minute wait for 1,000.

We found a spot to sit and people watch. There were so many people that it was hard to hear what name was being called. A couple of times, it sounded like they had called McBride but we weren’t sure. I’d go into the crowd and listen for them to call the name again. After a full 20 minute wait, our name was called and we went to the front of the restaurant. It was confusing because when we checked in, the lady said to go the line on the right when our name was called. So, that’s what we did. The line was long though so we weren’t sure if we were standing in the correct place or not. We stood a little longer and we heard them say McBride again but nobody came to get us from the line. I finally got out of line and went to the podium. He said that we were supposed to go to the right line at the podium. Umm, there was no right line at the podium. Anyway, I motioned for the rest of the gang to come join me and a nice lady showed us into the restaurant.

Now I don’t know how many of you have eaten at T-Rex before but it’s pretty loud. Loud enough that when you are walking behind a fast walking hostess who is asking you a million questions, that it’s hard to hear her. I’d just smile at her when she turned around and nod my head. I was pulling a John McBride on her. What’s that mean? Well, you see, John can’t hear very well. So, instead of asking somebody to repeat themselves over and over again, he just smiles and nods his head. I told him that he’s going to get in trouble doing that one of these days ‘cause he has no idea what that person is saying or asking of him. I kept my fingers crossed that my doing a “John McBride” didn’t lead to us either sitting at a table out back, being seated in the bathroom or tipping our waiter or waitress 50%.

Our fast walking hostess sat us at a table to the right of the ice cave. We could see the chef at the meat station/rotissiere kitchen thingie/place. We started looking through the menu but, unless there was something new and extraordinary on the menu, I already knew what I wanted to order. Our waiter took our drink order and I took pictures:

John and I:

The 14 year old Hunter as opposed to the 15 year old Hunter who will be seen in tomorrow’s pictures:

Our drinks came and we placed our food orders. Would we try something new or would we stick with the old reliable?

**Up next: Oh my gosh, this is so much food but it’s so good!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

I really enjoyed all the CBR pics! And T-Rex too, as I've never eaten there. I have lots of pics of the outside of it though

 

[Fantasyland Mom]

I LOVE hearing people who think they know everything at WDW! It's kind of like an attraction in and of itself!

LOL @ you pulling a "John McBride!" I don't have spectacular hearing, especially in a crowd, so I'd do the same thing.

I'm sure Hunter will look old and wise in the next day's pictures.

 

[francis6306]

I'm not sure why they want to be all chatty on the walk to the table! I won't think you are rude, sweetie! Just lead me to my seat!!!!

 

[jenseib]

I can't wait to read your review....we have this one scheduled in Nov.

 

[addictedtothemouse]

Someday I'll take a relaxed vacation at Disney and go to DTD twice in one day!
Your hat is so cute. I can't wait to read more.

 

[Caretames1]

That lady was just lucky she wasn't stuck at DTD for an hour waiting!

We enjoyed ourselves at T-Rex, and you are right it is very loud in there. Sam had quite a headache while there, but overall it was a place I go to again.

 

[lovethattink]

Great update! Lol, that poor lady and kids. At least the monorail is a fun ride, and they would get to ride 2.

It kills me to hear well intentioned people totally mislead someone at WDW. It would have been REALLY hard for me to keep my mouth shut. You did good!

Great pics at T-Rex! Can't wait to see what you ordered!

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

"Great! Now I’ve gone and made you all think that we are stinky people! We’re not. I promise!"

I just about spit out my water when I read that.

 

[Urugami]

Hi there!!
I just found your TR from a link in the 2012 CBR countdown thread. My family loves staying at CBR, 3 times so far. Plus, I love reading things from fellow CoonA**es (can I say that on the DIS? Probably not), so when I saw a TR in progress, I started reading.
I have a question about y'all's southbound route in Florida. Yours looks more interesting than ours. So far, we've stayed on the big highways, I-75 to Turnpike, to 192. Boring, though we do get to pass Cafe' Risque and all of its signs, which never cease to get comments from DW.
Ahhh... from your clues and pix, it looks like you spend some time on SR 27, and get on 192 from there. I think I'll try to do that next time if we get to that part of the state in daylight. Long ago, I used to drive across Central Florida on SR 60, and it was fun. Doesn't look like it'll add too much time, and DS will get to see some really neat stuff.

Thanks for the travel tips, and the fun TR! Can't wait to read the rest.
Chris

 

[MissLiz]

You know, I've had that thought a few times about the bus and monorail, but it never makes sense. We had some people from Beach Club jump over the the Boardwalk bus at MK because the BC bus was taking forever to get there. They figured it would be quicker to do that and walk than to wait. Wouldn't you know, not two minutes after the Boardwalk bus left, the BC bus showed up.

My DH always says "OK" when he doesn't hear me. It drives me up a wall. I would almost rather him just pull a "John McBride" instead.

 

[shan23877]

That's too funny about the smartypants at the bus stop. People like that make me laugh.

Can't wait to see the photos of a much older Hunter! What a great way to spend a birthday!

We've never been to TRex, can't seem to tear DD away from RFC. Interested to hear what you thought, it gets great reviews!

 

[Kathy Jetson]

Oh no I hope you got your new car smell back!

I can't get over the picture of you and Hunter that he is that much taller than you now!

We love T-Rex. River was so upset I didn't make a reservation there this time so I took him in their dig site and let him play there for about 1/2 hour.

 

[JanaJohn]

Our drinks came and we placed our food orders. Would we try something new or would we stick with the old reliable?

Hi Lisa

Once again I'm having a fantastic time following the adventures of the McBride Clan at Disney World. I'll go out on a limb here and guess you ordered the "old reliable." That system usually works best for me. I normally stick with sandwiches, burgers or comfort food.

 

[natebenma]

Ooo-oo- that smell! Can't you smell that smell?!?

Too funny! Hope it wasn't a permanent addition to the SCAR.

The people who think they know it all are for more dangerous than the ones who know nothing! Sorry you had to deal with that guy.

Yum for dinner at T-Rex. We love it there, but you are right, it is very LOUD!

I know all about pulling a John McBride! My dad's hearing is awful and mine is not great, and both of us have the habit of nodding and smiling and pretending we heard it all. Must be hereditary, even though we are not related to John.

 

[eandesmom]

oh no! Musty blankets in the hot sun. WAH! time to buy one of those little trees and hang it in the car.

Noise is a huge reason why T-rex has never been on our radar, I am curious to see what you think of the food. All caught up, fun day so far, yummy eats, pretty walks, relaxing!

 

[MHTeacher]

The guy just laughed and then proceeded to tell us all about how the Disney transportation system works. Some of his greatest tips were.....hum....I can’t remember. I tuned most of them out but let me just say that his information was bunch of malarky.

You should have asked him for his DIS user name, and then when he didn't know what you were talking about, you could have screamed, "FRAUD!"

I was pulling a John McBride on her. What’s that mean? Well, you see, John can’t hear very well. So, instead of asking somebody to repeat themselves over and over again, he just smiles and nods his head. I told him that he’s going to get in trouble doing that one of these days ‘cause he has no idea what that person is saying or asking of him.

Tell John that when we were all talking at RnRC that Thursday night, Kevin asked him if y'all would pay for our trip to Disney next spring, and John smiled and nodded yes!

 

[MEK]

Can I just tell you that I ended up doing something impulsive like the lady who went to Epcot did and it did NOT turn out well at all. So Live and Learn is definitely the mantra of those inexperienced with Disney transportation!

T Rex looks so cool. I definitely need to try it soon!

Continuing to love those CBR pics!

 

[sherylcin]

What a nice "extra" day you're having. Hey, anytime I could go to DTD twice in one day would be a great day!! Interesting check-in system they've got there at T-Rex. Sometimes it really is confusing where to stand and/or line up. I laughed about you not being able to hear the hostess as she led you to your table. The older I get (I hate to admit this) I sometimes have the same problem especially in a noisy place. I like T-Rex. I think it's fun and the food it pretty good too. It was a little scary to my grandson who was only 3 at the time we went because of all the noise and the animatronics are so real he just wasn't sure about the whole thing. We need to go back again and see what he'd think now.