Feeling Hot Hot Hot! The Rain Curse is Broken! Two Weeks of Fun in the Sun! COMPLETE

[Moira222]

I just love your under water and above water photos! You have reminded me why we just loved CSR the first time we visited WDW. What a beautiful resort.

There was a convention going on when we were there and we still found the resort to be peaceful and calm. aside from one day rush at the market place we would not have known there was a convention.

BTW you would have laughed had you seen me trying to navigate your TR on my little droid phone secretly this weekend while working. Are you going to add chapter links? please?

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Looks like you guys had a great time touring the resort. And I think you've got me sold!!! I was planning on revisiting the Caribbean Beach Resort for our next vacation. Instead, I think we'll be trying out Coronado Springs!

Your brothers are hysterical! Great update!

Try living with them.

Looks like Lessa caved in and promised to never change my posts again without permission. So no update sorry. 1 Erich 0 Lessa YEAH

Oh man, these pictures of CSR are making me really want to stay there. It never appealed to me in the past but it just looks gorgeous. I think the family pictures turned out well! I always hate pictures of myself, though.

I usually hate all pictures of myself as well, at least I have matured from my teen years and actually allow my family to take pictures of me.

I just love your under water and above water photos! You have reminded me why we just loved CSR the first time we visited WDW. What a beautiful resort.

There was a convention going on when we were there and we still found the resort to be peaceful and calm. aside from one day rush at the market place we would not have known there was a convention.

BTW you would have laughed had you seen me trying to navigate your TR on my little droid phone secretly this weekend while working. Are you going to add chapter links? please?

Links are already there. I have a table of contents in the second post of this thread and links to the next chapter at the end of each update.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

May 12th

Our first park day was upon us and I was not rested at all. Mom had been snoring all night and I just could not get to sleep! I tossed and turned for hours and then when I did fall asleep I would wake up an hour or two later. I will not leave you in suspense on whether or not my sleep improved during the trip, it didn't, in fact, there was only one night where I actually slept soundly throughout the night. The others all had a similar problem, nobody slept well this vacation. Not sure what the problem was as this has never happened to us in the past. The beds were comfortable so that was not the problem, it was just all the snoring!

I eventually gave up on sleep around 6am and decided to quietly get dressed and go for a walk. Well Mom woke up when I did and wanted to join me. Alek complained that we made a ton of noise despite our best attempts.

I stopped in at Cafe Rix and filled my mug up with some Cherry Coke. I had been hoping for some apple juice or hot chocolate but sadly they do not offer those options at CSR. Other than pop they had coffee and tea and I drink neither so Cherry Coke was the drink of choice.

We got back to the room and all started getting ready for the day. Mom turned on the tv to watch the news so we got to hear them talk about Arnie's affair for days and days and the record high temperatures.

One thing about the tv, it was REALLY loud. When you turn it on it is automatically on the WDW channel which seems to be 100x louder than the rest of the channels. The volume was always really startling when Mom turned the tv on in the morning.

I was sad to discover that morning that my Minnie Mouse ears were broken! No idea how it happened but the end of the headband was snapped so no ears for me that day.

We were off to Hollywood Studios that day. We left the room right around 8 and we were parked and walking to the front of the park by 8:16.

I always take a picture of the row we are parked in so that we can find the car easily and avoid another Animal Kingdom parking lot incident like the one back in 2007.

We didn't have to wait at the entrance for long before they started letting people into the park. I was through first and started making my way up the street towards the rope so that I could be in a good position for the rope drop ceremony, I thought that the others were right behind me and would join me. Nope, they were super slow and ended up being a couple people behind me. I did have room at the rope for one of them, I kept telling Erich to come up and join me and to bring their tickets but he wouldn't do it, he claimed that he couldn't hear me. Erich is the fastest so my plan had been to send him ahead to get Toy Story fastpasses, stupid brothers foiling my plan!

Can you spot me all the way at the front?

This family must have received early entry.

I was disappointed with the rope drop ceremony, it was not what I remembered.

After the rope drop I quickly moved to the side to wait for the others so as to not get trampled by the wild herd of guests that were stampeding their way to Toy Story.

Once we were together again we started to make our way to Toy Story as well. Alek and Erich insisted on stopping to take a picture with some cast members.

I was in a rush to get going so I snapped a picture quickly and ended up cutting off Alek's hand. He gave me grief about that later, didn't he know he was messing with my plan! We needed to get to Toy Story! They know how crazy it gets there and they kept messing things up! Mom did take a picture from the side that has all of Alek in it so that should have made him happy.

Finally we were at Toy Story!

Of course the line for the fastpasses was ridiculous as I knew it would be so I told them to just get in the stand-by line and we would get the fastpasses after we rode. Luckily the ride was still pretty much walk-on. We just walked straight through the queue until we got to the stairs portion of the line.

As per usual, Mom and I rode together and Alek and Erich rode together. Mom and I were a bit upset with our ride that morning. Our guns wouldn't work half the time. We have been on the ride many times so it was not a matter of not knowing how to shoot properly as Alek and Erich claimed. It was happening to both of us so was most definitely a car defect and not a rider defect. This is what we ended up with due to the malfunction. I am the sad red score.

[post=41487638]Click here to continue[/post]

 

[jenbear123]

Yay, you got a rope drop crowd pic! What's funny is that I never see a DISer whose photo is of the crowd in FRONT of them, it's always behind. We are so well planned, aren't we?

Sorry to hear you never slept well on the trip. But those CSR are beds are so comfy! I guess you just weren't doing enough in the day Try earplugs next time.

Looks like your TSM guns were too pooped to pop. That's happened to me before. Sometimes if you complain to a CM they'll let you go again without having to wait in line. I usually don't say anything because I feel bad for making those people in line wait even longer.

 

[UGAFan0829]

Wow, I thought CSR was beautiful during the day, but it's even more gorgeous before sunrise! I loved seeing those shots!

Wow, that was a huge crowd at MGM! We've never been able to make it to rope drop there before, so I'm sad to hear that you were disappointed!

I'm glad that y'all were able to pretty much walk on TSM! I hope you were able to score fastpasses afterwards. And it really stinks that the guns weren't working. That takes all the fun out of the ride! I hope the next go-round was better!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Yay, you got a rope drop crowd pic! What's funny is that I never see a DISer whose photo is of the crowd in FRONT of them, it's always behind. We are so well planned, aren't we?

Erich actually took that picture but yes, you can't beat a DISer in the planning department.

Sorry to hear you never slept well on the trip. But those CSR are beds are so comfy! I guess you just weren't doing enough in the day Try earplugs next time.

I am definitely getting earplugs next time! I resorted to my ipod one night. I can fall asleep to music much more easily than to snoring!

Looks like your TSM guns were too pooped to pop. That's happened to me before. Sometimes if you complain to a CM they'll let you go again without having to wait in line. I usually don't say anything because I feel bad for making those people in line wait even longer.

Yeah, I hate doing that as well!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Wow, I thought CSR was beautiful during the day, but it's even more gorgeous before sunrise! I loved seeing those shots!

Wow, that was a huge crowd at MGM! We've never been able to make it to rope drop there before, so I'm sad to hear that you were disappointed!

I'm glad that y'all were able to pretty much walk on TSM! I hope you were able to score fastpasses afterwards. And it really stinks that the guns weren't working. That takes all the fun out of the ride! I hope the next go-round was better!

Yeah, Mom and I were disappointed but had fun anyways.

 

[ddstratton]

Quite the crowd behind you at DHS!! But you got on Toy Story pretty quickly. The resort is gorgeous early in the morning.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Quite the crowd behind you at DHS!! But you got on Toy Story pretty quickly. The resort is gorgeous early in the morning.

Yes, it was a Fantasmic day so the crowds were a little heavy!

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

done with page 12 and thanks for all the pics of hte new lego store i have not seen any of the new designs yet, thanks for taking so many and posting them i enjoyed it.

hope to catch up the rest of the way tomorrow.

 

[dtr_angel]

The resort looked really pretty & peaceful so early. I can't believe how quickly you made it to HS, that's awesome! I'm sorry you didn't sleep well during your trip. Looking forward to hearing about the rest of your HS day!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

done with page 12 and thanks for all the pics of hte new lego store i have not seen any of the new designs yet, thanks for taking so many and posting them i enjoyed it.

hope to catch up the rest of the way tomorrow.

Glad you like them, I thought they were amazing!

The resort looked really pretty & peaceful so early. I can't believe how quickly you made it to HS, that's awesome! I'm sorry you didn't sleep well during your trip. Looking forward to hearing about the rest of your HS day!

Yep, I wasn't kidding when I said CSR was just down the road.

Don't worry, the poor sleep didn't have too much of a harmful effect, just made us all grouchy in the morning.

 

[CandleontheWater]

I know that it wasn't your plan to get up so early, but the pics of CSR in the early morning light are just lovely!

Argg, I know what you mean about having a slow family. I'm usually pushing a stroller, and I still can manage to get my bag checked and get through the gates faster than the rest of them combined. There should be some sort of DIS bootcamp for poky family members.

Glad you got on TSM and then got fastpasses, but BOO! about your guns not working! I'm sure your score was much better then next time around, I guess you can think of the first time as your warm up!

 

[disneydreamingdebby]

Lovely pictures of CSR - you can "hear" how anxious Toy Story makes you. (I am in the same boat...I hear Toy Story and get anxious!)

 

[PlutosRHM55]

Love the pictures you took walking around CSR in the morning! It looks so pretty. One of the fountains reminded me of the one at... I don't know if it was Dolphin or Swan, but they are basically the same so one of those two. I'm guessing a lot of fountains look the same, but I just noticed that and had to point it out. Sorry, you didn't get a ton of rest, but what I say is you really don't have to sleep in Disney Hahahaha Especially when you are going for rope drop. I'm sorry you had to get pulled back by your family. I feel for you, happened to me so much with my friends and family, they just can't keep up But you made it to a walk-on TSM I'm sorry though it wasn't a great round (the moment you praise FPs). Can't wait to see what else occurs throughout your first full day at the parks!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

I know that it wasn't your plan to get up so early, but the pics of CSR in the early morning light are just lovely!

Argg, I know what you mean about having a slow family. I'm usually pushing a stroller, and I still can manage to get my bag checked and get through the gates faster than the rest of them combined. There should be some sort of DIS bootcamp for poky family members.

Glad you got on TSM and then got fastpasses, but BOO! about your guns not working! I'm sure your score was much better then next time around, I guess you can think of the first time as your warm up!

I wouldn't have minded the slowness that morning if Erich had come up to the rope with me like I asked so he could be the fastpass runner. Oh well!

It was annoying that our guns weren't working but I knew it wouldn't be our only time on so I didn't get too upset by it.

Lovely pictures of CSR - you can "hear" how anxious Toy Story makes you. (I am in the same boat...I hear Toy Story and get anxious!)

I am usually pretty relaxed when it comes to park touring but there really is no time for goofing around when faced with the Toy Story Stampede!

Love the pictures you took walking around CSR in the morning! It looks so pretty. One of the fountains reminded me of the one at... I don't know if it was Dolphin or Swan, but they are basically the same so one of those two. I'm guessing a lot of fountains look the same, but I just noticed that and had to point it out. Sorry, you didn't get a ton of rest, but what I say is you really don't have to sleep in Disney Hahahaha Especially when you are going for rope drop. I'm sorry you had to get pulled back by your family. I feel for you, happened to me so much with my friends and family, they just can't keep up But you made it to a walk-on TSM I'm sorry though it wasn't a great round (the moment you praise FPs). Can't wait to see what else occurs throughout your first full day at the parks!

The lack of sleep may or may not come into play towards the end of the trip.

 

[lbuzz52]

CSR just looks so classy! I want to try it sometime!

I'm sorry you had to endure snoring! It always stinks but especially incramped spaces.

I wasn't too impressed with the DHS opening show either. You had a great spot though.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

CSR just looks so classy! I want to try it sometime!

I'm sorry you had to endure snoring! It always stinks but especially incramped spaces.

I wasn't too impressed with the DHS opening show either. You had a great spot though.

They all told me that I was snoring as well so I am just as guilty as the rest as far as keeping people awake.

 

[marvali]

I'm surprised after the delays getting to TSM that the standby wait time was only 5 minutes!!! So glad we don't have any issues with people snoring in our room while we are at Disney.......

 

[emmaca]

May 12th

Our first park day was upon us and I was not rested at all. Mom had been snoring all night and I just could not get to sleep! I tossed and turned for hours and then when I did fall asleep I would wake up an hour or two later. I will not leave you in suspense on whether or not my sleep improved during the trip, it didn't, in fact, there was only one night where I actually slept soundly throughout the night. The others all had a similar problem, nobody slept well this vacation. Not sure what the problem was as this has never happened to us in the past. The beds were comfortable so that was not the problem, it was just all the snoring!


I still say to this very day, I do not snore!!! You have corrected yourself on several occasions and say that it is not true snoring, but that I make strange breathing noises ( sorry I cannot really describe it, as I am asleep. Lessa says it is more like a squeal...Lessa you describe...



I stopped in at Cafe Rix and filled my mug up with some Cherry Coke. I had been hoping for some apple juice or hot chocolate but sadly they do not offer those options at CSR. Other than pop they had coffee and tea and I drink neither so Cherry Coke was the drink of choice.

Yes, I too was disappointed at the choice of beverages compared to the value and deluxe resorts.

We got back to the room and all started getting ready for the day. Mom turned on the tv to watch the news so we got to hear them talk about Arnie's affair for days and days and the record high temperatures.

Days and Days and Days of Arnie, and when it wasn't Arnie it was 24/7 Casie Anthony. What is the world coming to?? This is why I like living in Canada ( I am an America, born and raised), when we turn on the tv and watch a Canadian news show we hear things like Mary Brown's cow died LOL... we live in a small town. We get very little coverage on crime, murder, cheating spouses, accidents, etc... We get all that by watching US stations.

One thing about the tv, it was REALLY loud. When you turn it on it is automatically on the WDW channel which seems to be 100x louder than the rest of the channels. The volume was always really startling when Mom turned the tv on in the morning.

Yes,the kids did get pretty annoyed with me each morning, this is one of the reasons I would go out for a walk in the morning,,by the time I would get back it would be 7 am, and time for the news... no matter what I did, the volume would be at it's highest volume.



We didn't have to wait at the entrance for long before they started letting people into the park. I was through first and started making my way up the street towards the rope so that I could be in a good position for the rope drop ceremony, I thought that the others were right behind me and would join me. Nope, they were super slow and ended up being a couple people behind me. I did have room at the rope for one of them, I kept telling Erich to come up and join me and to bring their tickets but he wouldn't do it, he claimed that he couldn't hear me. Erich is the fastest so my plan had been to send him ahead to get Toy Story fastpasses, stupid brothers foiling my plan!


Lessa, they were walking with me (I am the tortoise and the kids are the hares, heat makes me move slowly, as it very painful for me to move (MS complication) so the most common phrase throughout the two weeks, it wait up for mom)

Can you spot me all the way at the front?

Once we were together again we started to make our way to Toy Story as well. Alek and Erich insisted on stopping to take a picture with some cast members.

I was in a rush to get going so I snapped a picture quickly and ended up cutting off Alek's hand. He gave me grief about that later, didn't he know he was messing with my plan! We needed to get to Toy Story! They know how crazy it gets there and they kept messing things up! Mom did take a picture from the side that has all of Alek in it so that should have made him happy.

One of my advantages of being slow, it that I get to enjoy my surroundings and have the opportunity to snap pictures along the way. I always tell the kids they don't have to wait for me, just tell me where you are going and I will met you there. Like Lessa said, Alek was happy with my photo, as I was not rushed and managed not to cut off any appendages LOL