Well we're back.
If you're expecting lots of pics and a daily play by play, you can forget it. I'm not that type of Disney person. I wish I were because I so LOVE reading other people's TR's.
We arrived on July 3 around 1pm. Our cabin was ready for us around 12:30 and I received the email and text message telling me I could go straight to our room. We were given cabin 2304 and I felt this was a great location. The cabin was very nice and much more roomy than I anticipated. The boys and I quickly got the car unpacked, took the bus to the outpost, picked up our cart, drove down to the bike barn and registered for the 4th of July parade. We then headed back to the site to finish getting settled in and started decorating our golf cart. I do have pictures of the cart and I will post them later. My husband and our friend arrived around 10pm, but I was out at
Walmart buying batteries for some of the kids toys. I had no idea they needed batteries. The Walmart was a nightmare!!
For the 4th, we woke up late, and just piddled around. The parade was at 5, so we headed over to the hitch/unhitch area around 4:45. The parade started a few minutes after 5, but I can't tell you how exciting it was for me to be in the parade. We didn't win anything, but I surely don't care. It was SOOOO much fun to honk and wave!! We did finally decide to go down and watch the Fireworks from the beach. As much and I hemmed and hawed about Disney's overreaction, I have to be honest when I say nothing about my trip was impacted. I, of course, noticed the barriers at the water and wished I could go to the edge so I can look for fishies and turtles, but it really didn't phase me. The barriers look rather natural in the fort setting. My friends and I don't know how to behave and kept pointing out non-existent alligators to each other.
On the 5th we got bored and decided to go for a monorail tour. It was so hot out today. I mean, really hot. Even for a Floridian, it was incredibly hot. The AC units in the hotels, monorail, and buses just couldn't keep up. It was fine in our room, but like I said, we were bored. The pool was overflowing with people which made the water even warmer so we decided we would just venture out. The monorail was ok until it stopped at the MK. The amount of people on the monorail increased our already warm car by at least 10 degrees. The monorail was absolutely unbearable with the amount of people on it. Even with the heat, the MK was PACKED. We stopped at the Contempo Café and probably just chilled out there for a good 2 hours or so. We headed back to the cabin around 5:30 and it had cooled off enough that I made some ribeyes and we sat outside and ate.
The 6th was our Typhoon Lagoon DVC day. They didn't allow admission until 8:00pm and this was a HUGE disappointment. Last year they allowed us entry at 7 and we had 1 hour until the park closed to the public making it so we could ride Crush n Gusher as well as Shark Reef. This year, it was closed off as part of the event. I think it's kinda dumb to hold a party at a water park and close the headlining attractions. We mostly just hung out in the lazy river and the wave pool since nothing else held any interest for us. We stayed at Typhoon Lagoon until 12:30 and got back to the room around 1am. We had friends who came and joined us for the event and they hung out at the cabin until about 3am and then we were all up until 5. This was stupid.
The 7th was our check out day and what was to be our Downtown Disney day. No one got up before 10am. I called the front desk and asked for a late check out and it was denied, so we had to pack everything up in an hour as quickly as we could. I think we officially got out of there around 11:30am. My husband returned the golf cart around 10 since he needed it to go pick up his car from the front desk area anyway. Once we were all packed we headed over to DTD. I had to pay for our son to enter Disney Quest because it was NOT included in his annual pass as it had been previous years. I was hoping they would retro it back into his pass since he has the premium, but that was not the case. So, I forked over the $80 for the 2 boys to get into Disney Quest and the adults went to Splitsville for lunch and then a movie. After the movie, we hung out at Bongos and the boys burned a cigar. We did some shopping and even though it was a short walk, we took the water transportation due to the extreme heat. We eventually landed at the Coke store and I have to say I am SO disappointed. It's 2 floors of Coke merchandise (Seriously, who likes Coke THAT much) and then the rooftop (3rd) floor is the "bar" area. This was also hugely disappointing as the service area is too small to accommodate the crowd. There's also nothing really special about this area. Sure, you can order the 16 cup international flight and taste sodas from around the world, but this is no better than doing it for free around Epcot. One of the flavors is even Beverly. Seriously? I was so not impressed and I am disappointed because I was looking forward to this.
After just chilling on the rooftop of the Coke building, which does have incredible views, we all decided it was time to go home. Now, I hate leaving Disney, but the heat had me wanting my pool and my bed. We headed home around 6pm and stopped to drop off our son's friend and then finished the 45 minute drive home. The ride home was rather uneventful. We unpacked the car, put away the stuff that needed the refrigerated and decided to leave the rest for the next day. I think it was around 10pm or so when we got home and everyone was just exhausted that we all headed to bed early. My husband had to work at 5am the next morning so I am pretty sure that's what we did.
Overall opinion: We had a good time. Our friend from NJ wants to do it again next year, but I am not so sure I am on board. I don't do summer at Disney for a reason and when I break that rule, I am reminded why I don't do Disney in the summer. The cabin was wonderful and I would definitely do the cabin again, but due to the heat I kinda felt like we were trapped in it. Sure, we could go to the pool, but neither of the pools was a very "quick" option. In the hotels, either I am right by the pool or I travel in my air conditioned hallway to get there. With the cabins, I was so hot by time I go to the pool I nearly passed out. We had a good time, we really did. It was great company, very nice accommodations, and I would recommend staying at the cabins.
Prepping at home was definitely the way to go. I am so glad I did not wait to do that at the cabin. We threw everything in ziplock bags and then put it in a cooler for transport and when it was time to prepare something, I just took it out of the fridge and threw it on the grill. Having a full sized kitchen was definitely a highlight. I used the convection oven once to warm something up and it took a bit longer than I think a regular oven would have so definitely add a few minutes onto the time when heating or baking something.
BTW, the sofa beds are the exact same ones found anywhere else on property. We've slept on these before and slept on it again for this stay. I find them comfortable. I know some people miss the Murphy bed, but we liked the current set up. On our last day, Disney was switching out the living room chair for another design. Not sure why as the one that was there was very comfortable. It seems the one they were switching it out for was more in line with the current fabric color scheme.
I DID IT, I DID IT, I DID IT 
