*I Only Said We Could Swim to Get Them Out of the Park!* A Sept. 2016 TR_NEW UPDATE 6/30/2017 DONE!

[kclark9830]

Hi People! And welcome to my Labor Day Week trip report! If you'd like to read about all the planning that went into this trip you can find it here: Take Me To Neverland_Sept. 2016 PTR.

If not, here's an introduction!

Please excuse the picture quality here; this is a picture of a computer screen the photographer from my brother-in-law's wedding sent me .

WHO: Micheal, Katie (that's me!), and Ashlyn

Micheal's favorites? Disney's Hollywood Studios is his favorite park, and the Tower of Terror is his favorite ride. However, in all fairness, Disney World isn't anywhere near his favorite place to go. He loves me so he humors me .

Katie's favorites? Magic Kingdom and Epcot are tied for parks, I think. I love them both but for very different reasons! Favorite ride? Again, a tie! It's between the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Soarin'. Favorite Disney movie? Beauty and the Beast! And favorite character? Belle (who else?!).

Ashlyn's favorites? Her favorite park is Animal Kingdom, and this year her favorite ride was Kali River Rapids. She also loves 7DMT and Soarin'. Favorite Disney movie? I'm not sure she has an absolute fave! And favorite character is Cinderella!

WHAT: A Walt Disney World super fun vacay!

WHERE: The Caribbean Beach Resort!

This was the view from our room, #2521. A lovely view, no? I found this view using Touring Plans, and then requested it via fax. We were so very happy when we found out our request had been granted! Besides this lovely view, we were very, very close to Old Port Royale, which was important to us. We also had an adjoined room with my sister and her family, so score! And, we had a corner room, so two windows! Love this room, and loved our resort. But more about that later...

WHEN: September 4-10, 2016

WHY: Our trip morphed over the months we planned it. It went from a trip meant for rejuvenation and relaxation to a go-go-go trip of lots of fun new experiences. Not sure we liked that part of it, but it is what it is.

It was a great, if exhausting, trip. While we're glad to be home we are already thinking ahead to the future of our Disney travel. But again, more on that later!

Before I go for the night, I have to include a little bit of background information about the motivation behind this trip. You see, my family here is not complete. Not by a long shot. Part of my heart lives in Heaven now. I look forward every day to the time we will be together again.

This is Ashlyn, and her big sister Emma, with Tigger at the Crystal Palace, 2014. Emma fought cancer at the age of 3, and again at 9. In Dec. 2015 she had a bone marrow transplant which wreaked havoc on her poor little body. But I suppose a day in Heaven is better even than a day at Disney, so she's got us all beat now . This trip was planned with her in mind, as a way to celebrate her eventual recovery. After she passed away earlier this year, we decided to take the trip as a way to rejuvenate and heal.

Emma was lovely, and the day she passed away I imagined her in Heaven running around with her arms wide open--just like Rapunzel in Tangled when she left the tower for the first time: This is the BEST DAY EVER! I know she is happy. And I know I will see her again. And her memory and legacy on this earth are beautiful.

So, now you know all about me. I hope you decide to follow along. ​

Next up...

TRAVEL DAY!​

 

[ariane37]

I should have prepared myself before clicking on your TR, I knew better Beautiful tribute to Emma just like in your PTR
And.......you're back!!! Not only am I excited to hear all about your trip, but I'm excited I'm the first one here

 

[AZMouseMom]

Can't wait to read all about your trip!

 

[LanaBear-ox]

I'm excited to read your TR! I'm debating whether to change our dates to just after labor day!

 

[kclark9830]

I should have prepared myself before clicking on your TR, I knew better Beautiful tribute to Emma just like in your PTR
And.......you're back!!! Not only am I excited to hear all about your trip, but I'm excited I'm the first one here

Thank you! (and sorry! Haha!) I'm glad to have you along .

 

[kclark9830]

Can't wait to read all about your trip!

Glad to see you here! Welcome!!!

 

[kclark9830]

I'm excited to read your TR! I'm debating whether to change our dates to just after labor day!

Welcome! We decided that we won't go over Labor Day weekend again...People may disagree with us on that one, but even though we were expecting holiday crowds, and the waits weren't actually terrible, it still felt like a crushing number of people. If we go at this time of year again we will probably not go to the parks until the day after the holiday.

 

[kclark9830]

TRAVEL DAY!

Welcome back everyone! Today was day one of our trip--it was travel day, but also day 1 of our park tickets. We were packed and ready to go by 6am...and then we waited, and waited, and waited. My sister was picking us up, as we were going to travel to the airport and on to Orlando together. Well, her and her family arrived around 7. Almost an hour late! It was a good thing we had planned to leave super early . If you read my pre-trip report you may remember my debate about how to pack for this trip (all carry on, or not). After talking with Micheal about it, we decided we would do a majority of carry on luggage, and only 1 checked bag carrying things that we wouldn't care too much if it got lost or damaged. I bounced around on whether to use packing cubes and finally settled on using Ziploc bags. My carry on suitcase looked like this:

It was a neat idea, and I thought I loved it when we started off. But as the week went on I found it to be tiresome. I'd packed one outfit per bag, and I found I wanted to wear a different bottom with a different top, so all the bags ended up in a jumbled mess anyway. Lesson learned.

Anywho! We made the hour and a half drive to the airport with no problems and we had plenty of time to get through security and do all the airport things. We were on our way to Disney World with an entire plane of people also going to Disney . It was a fun, quick flight. One of the stewards kept up a running comedy act throughout the flight and he also collected money for a little girl on the flight who was having a birthday. He made it very fun .

Airplane selfie! And this was what my shirt said...my favorite!

Once we arrived at MCO, Micheal and I deferred to my sister and her husband, as they'd used Disney's Magical Express before, and we had not. Well...

After wandering around for a good 30 minutes, we finally managed to ask for directions and find the Magical Express. The bus was about half full. We found our seats, waited another 10 minutes or so for the bus to fill up, then were on our way!!!

It just so happened that Caribbean Beach Resort was the first drop off, and nearly the entire bus emptied at the Custom House. We waited our turn in line because we hadn't received a text letting us know our room was ready. By this time is was about 1pm, so no big surprise (especially since I'd requested a specific room). At check in I was told we'd received our room requests , then we checked our carry on bags with bell services and headed to Old Port Royale because no one had eaten at all and we were hangry!

I got the pulled pork sandwich with some kind of mango coleslaw, and let me tell you--it was delicious! For future reference throughout this TR, I did not take any food pics during our trip. Micheal does not understand what we do here, and that we enjoy sharing our trips with each other. He judges . In other words, it embarrasses him when I try to take pictures of our food. So, I humor him in this and refrain. We also grabbed our refillable mugs and looked around a bit, hoping we would get a room-ready text at any moment. Well, we did not. Still, the resort was lovely. We'd only stayed at the All Star resorts in the past, so a moderate resort was a nice change. Around 4pm we finally decided to head to Magic Kingdom. We had fantastic bus luck throughout the week, and a bus arrived within minutes. Guess what happened as soon as the bus left the property? That's right! Phone chimed with a text, and our room was ready. Oh well, who cared?! We were on our way to MK! We arrived and made our way toward the castle where a stage show was going on. We stopped for a bit of a watch.

After that, the girls (throughout the report I will refer to Ashlyn and my niece as "the girls") wanted to ride Dumbo. Posted wait time? 30 minutes. Actual wait time? 1 hour. Yes, it was Magic Kingdom on Labor Day weekend, and we were feeling it. Once it finished, it was time to use our first FP.

7DMT!!! This is Micheal and my sister's hubby in the front row, being the way they always are together (meaning crazy). But we got a good laugh out of seeing this picture. Ashlyn refused to ride, as she had lingering bad memories of riding Goofy's Barnstormer when she was 4yo. I ended up riding alone, squished against this poor man who must have felt very uncomfortable sitting beside me, at least based on the way he held himself stiffly away from me throughout the ride. Oh well, I had fun anyway! Next we headed over to our second FP, Peter Pan's Flight. We all love this ride, and it was grand. By this time, thanks to the 1 hour Dumbo wait, it was time to head down Main Street and check in for our 6:30 rez at Tony's Town Square. It had started to pour down rain throughout the walk from the castle to Tony's, but we made it relatively unscathed and were seated promptly. I had the spaghetti and meatballs, and it was fine. I like spaghetti, as a rule. It was nothing spectacular and nothing icky. Just spaghetti (in all fairness, I was still pretty full from lunch at OPR). But our waiter was fantastic, and he brought all the kids at the table small toys to play with. Looking back, we had amazing servers throughout the entire trip.

This is a light up Ariel toy. He brought my nephew a light up pirate.

When we left the restaurant we still had a FP to use, but it was still pouring rain, and we still hadn't seen our rooms, and we were stuffed and tired. So...we left and caught a bus to CBR. It was a quick ride, and soon we were walking through the doors of our room where we were met with this lovely gift from the resort. Happy Birthday to me!

Our beds looked fantastic and inviting, but I wanted to unpack first. As I unpacked I heard loud pops coming from outside and was thrilled to find fireworks in plain sight of our rooms! I was loving our resort more and more. Later on in the trip we enjoyed the fireworks more fully, so I will talk about that more later. Finally, it was bedtime and I fell into a...not so great sleep, which also became a pattern throughout the week.

But that is neither here nor there, so let's leave it off, shall we? That's all for now! Next up?

Labor Day at Epcot!
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[Mollydolly334]

Following along!! That is so funny, we were at Magic Kingdom this day too and we also spent Labor Day at Epcot!! How in the world did we not run into each other??

Love the tribute to Emma. I know that she is in Heaven smiling down on you

 

[ariane37]

Your shirt is adorable and I love the special bday stuff they left in your room

I must admit I'm a bit surprised you had such crowds over LD weekend. We were there that time in 2014 and other than a slight increase on the day before LD, we had extreme light crowds. Granted we didn't go to a park on Labor Day, hung at the resort and then went to the first MNSSHP that night but even the party was the least attended one of the season with like half the tickets sold!

Still, sounds like you had a nice first day with good bus times and fun at MK Except maybe that Dumbo wait - ouch!

 

[kclark9830]

Following along!! That is so funny, we were at Magic Kingdom this day too and we also spent Labor Day at Epcot!! How in the world did we not run into each other??

Love the tribute to Emma. I know that she is in Heaven smiling down on you

Really?! And it's funny, because several times I found myself looking around for you, just hoping that maybe I'd actually spot you . Oh well, we always have the DIS! haha

 

[kclark9830]

Your shirt is adorable and I love the special bday stuff they left in your room

I must admit I'm a bit surprised you had such crowds over LD weekend. We were there that time in 2014 and other than a slight increase on the day before LD, we had extreme light crowds. Granted we didn't go to a park on Labor Day, hung at the resort and then went to the first MNSSHP that night but even the party was the least attended one of the season with like half the tickets sold!

Still, sounds like you had a nice first day with good bus times and fun at MK Except maybe that Dumbo wait - ouch!

Yes, I was a little surprised by what I felt were higher than expected crowds. Now, when we went to Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom it felt very empty throughout the week, but both Epcot and Magic Kingdom felt very busy to us.

 

[jsgrant5]

Following along. We are staying at the same resort in December for the first time. Can you tell me what room you requested please?

 

[MamaMeggie]

I'm so very sorry about your daughter. I just can't imagine, and your perspective is really inspiring. I hope,you had a truly amazing trip, and I can't wait to read all about it.

 

[kclark9830]

Following along. We are staying at the same resort in December for the first time. Can you tell me what room you requested please?

Sure! I believe I requested 2523 specifically, but my fax said I'd like any room from 2518-2524. We ended up with 2521, which was perfect. Keep in mind, we booked a water view room.

I'm so very sorry about your daughter. I just can't imagine, and your perspective is really inspiring. I hope,you had a truly amazing trip, and I can't wait to read all about it.

Thank you very much. And I'm so glad to have you along!

 

[kclark9830]

Labor Day At Epcot!

Monday morning, Labor Day, dawned bright and sunny. As previously mentioned, I didn't sleep so well and I was up super early. Still, I was pretty excited to check out our beach in the daylight hours, so I got dressed, grabbed my camera and phone, and headed out to lay in a hammock. It was a beautiful morning and we had a fabulous morning view.

I took more pictures around the resort later throughout the week, but I'll save those for their respective days. Suffice it to say, the entire resort is very pretty! After sitting outside for a while (there were hammocks and pool chairs on the beach to the left), I returned to the room and found Ashlyn and Micheal awake. I had planned to be at Epcot no later than 10am, but Ashlyn was begging to use the pool. Since Micheal hates going right into the parks first thing in the morning, I agreed to swim...for 30 minutes tops. Unfortunately, the pools didn't open until 9am, and my sister also wanted to meet us out at the pool. Then, she and her family didn't get out to the pool until 9:30, when I was ready to go in and get ready for the park. Of course, with her cousin showing up, Ashlyn didn't want to go so we stayed another 15-20 minutes.

If you haven't been able to tell so far, I endured a bit of frustration on this trip when it came to coordinating with family. My sister is my best friend, so I'm not knocking her in any way. But we just didn't jive on this trip.

Anyway, at 10 'til 10 I insisted Ashlyn get out of the pool. We had Soarin' FP's that ended at 10:25, and I figured if we ran we could make it. Well, you'll never believe it, but we did make it! Ha! We returned to our room, got dressed, and headed right to the bus stop where our good bus luck continued and an Epcot bus was there waiting. (luckily, I had been out of the pool for quite a while so my hair was already dry, and I didn't wear any makeup for most of our trip) We made it to Epcot, got through baggage check, scanned our MB's to get into the park, and headed straight to Soarin'. I think we used our FP's 1 min. late, and it worked swimmingly. In fact, throughout most of the trip we used our FP's late and they always worked. I believe our latest one was 15 minutes late.

The updated Soarin' was fabulous! We all loved it, and we agreed it was worth the race to get there in time. I loved seeing the Eiffel Tower . After Soarin', we decided to head toward World Showcase as it would be opening by the time we made it over there. Once we made it over, we stopped at a food cart to get Ashlyn a hotdog, and Micheal got ice cream. Then, we headed to the England pavilion for fish and chips--a first for us. We sat in the small seating area down by the water, and there was a nice breeze coming off the water which made it a lovely spot. The food was good, and the birds were there to beg us to feed them. It was a neat little meal. Then, we were off to explore England and Canada, two of the pavilions I'd never checked out at all.

. I

This was the Tea Shop behind us, where I found Pumpkin Spice Chai. I wanted to buy it but decided to come back for it later. Well, that was a mistake because I never made it back inside . I tried to find it on the Disney Shopping App, but the pumpkin chai wasn't there. Oh well, there's always next time.

The Canada Pavillion was Micheal and Ashlyn's favorite, I think. They had lots of interesting stuff in their shops, and we enjoyed the O Canada show (even if it made me woozy).

You can tell here that we have on matching shirts. They were super cute, and said "Daddy", "Ashlyn", and "Mommy", respectively. Micheal's had a Mickey head while mine and Ashlyn's had a Minnie head. By now, my sister and her family had made it to Epcot and we headed around the world to meet them at the China pavilion. First though, we made a stop at one of Japan's gift shops. I wanted to pick a pearl, but the line was so long that I decided to hold off until later (another mistake because I ended up forgetting all about it and not doing it later). But, earlier in the day we had decided to buy a few small trinkets to leave at Emma's grave site. The Japan pavilion had a whole section of lucky cats.

Fun fact about Emma: she was obsessed with cats. She had an entire hope chest overflowing with stuffed cats. She had clothes with cats on them. Hats, bags, stickers, posters...you get the point. So, we figured a few lucky cats would be the perfect items. Ashlyn also saw the Hello Kitty fans and loved them, so we let her pick two of them and the cashier wrote her name on them in Japanese characters (this confused Ashlyn quite a bit .) Then, we at last made our way to China. As we walked, guess what started to happen? I'll give you a hint--it happens most afternoons in Florida.

That's right. Torrential downpours! We quickly put on our trusty ponchos and found a bit of shelter to wait out the storm, which took about 30 min. Then, with my sister and fam, we made our way to Spaceship Earth. I love this ride. While I'm sure I wouldn't have loved it as a kid, I do love it now. But actually, Ashlyn loves it, and Emma always loved it...so maybe I would have liked it too.

When we finished there, the sun had returned.

My BIL took our picture in front of the "ball", (I promise, I do occasionally look halfway decent in pictures, but this one, with this visor on, is just not so good ) then we headed to the Land to ride Living With The Land.

We enjoyed Living with the Land, though I guess it's not something I'd want to do again and again. When we finished LWtL, we decided we were ready for an afternoon break and we headed back to the resort. My sister and her family decided to stay and take a bus directly from Epcot to our evening park...Animal Kingdom! We wanted to see the last showing of the Jungle Book. Did we see it? What did we think? All that's coming up later, so stay tuned!

Labor Day Evening at Animal Kingdom​

 

[kclark9830]

LABOR DAY EVENING AT ANIMAL KINGDOM​

When I last left off we were heading back to the resort for a little R&R before meeting my sister at Animal Kingdom for the night. We swam for a while, then chilled in the room. Then, we got ready and caught a bus to Animal Kingdom!

​

On our way into the park we passed this lovely…er…lady. Ashlyn was pretty intrigued!

​

The bus to the park was empty, so I had high hopes that the park would be equally empty. I was wrong, but it wasn’t terrible. There were hoards of people, but they were all sitting in groups, waiting for the lines to open up to get into the Jungle Book showing. Apparently, the night before had been rained out. So, lots of people trying to see it before it went away for good.


So, we met up with my sister at Expedition Everest where everyone rode a few times with little to no wait. *I* did not ride, because I don’t actually enjoy most roller coasters. Instead, I stayed with my nephew, who is 1 and fantastic. By now it was around 6:45, and we were starving. We had decided previously that we wanted Yak and Yeti. Originally, we had an ADR for the table service restaurant, but later we realized we could just eat at the QS location, so we did that instead. The food was pretty good. I didn’t think it was fantastic, but it was pretty good. And the employees were actually very rude. The guy behind the counter slammed my Diet Coke onto our tray, sloshing the drink all over the food. He saw it, stared for a half a beat, then walked away like nothing had happened. *rasberries on him*


After we ate, we knew it was time to get in line for the JB show. Now, I have no idea what we were thinking, but it was somewhere along the lines of, “we won’t have any trouble getting seats.”


Can you say WRONG? Because we were very wrong. They had just closed the standby line as we approached, and we were told we shouldn’t have any trouble getting seats for the second showing. Well, with several small children in the party, we knew we didn’t want to stay so late. My sister and her fam went ahead and headed back to the resort, but we weren’t quite ready to go, so we headed to DinoLand. Ashlyn wanted to ride Triceratops Spin (which I actually hate, but I humored her). We rode several times, then headed to the gift shop where we found these beauties. Since we had already been discussing getting a few trinkets for Emma’s grave, we figured these were meant to be. (If you look at the price tag, it reads "Emma Eggs")

​

Another fun fact about Emma, she was a hoarder. Big time! And rocks were one of her things. Perfect item, no?


After the gift shop, we made our way toward the Tree of Life and were rewarded with arriving just as the Awakenings were going on. I LOVED these, guys. I don’t even know why, exactly, but I loved them. I’m so glad we saw them.

​

After the show we headed out, hopped a bus, and returned to CBR. Guess what we found when we returned to our room?!?! A mystery person sent flowers for my birthday! All the card said was, "Think of all the joy you will find when you leave the world behind." If you read my Pre Trip Report, you'll recognize that this is a very meaningful saying for me. So, whoever sent those flowers did so with a purpose. I was very very touched. I just wish I knew who did it, so I could thank them properly! They were so beautiful, and had been sent from Disney Floral. They were even covered in sparkles!

​

After this, we fell into bed exhausted, but with plans for a fun day on the morrow. Where were we headed?

Breakfast with Cinderella in the Castle!​

 

[ariane37]

Did Ashlyn bring all those Princess dolls on the bed down with her? Love it!!
Like I said over on my PTR, no huge loss in not catching JB, although I'm sure at the time you were at least a tad disappointed. I'll bet normally if it had rained the night before it still wouldn't have been that crowded, but that plus it being the last night I'm sure made it worse.
After MANY trips, I've learned that saying we'll return to pick up a souvenir often doesn't happen Stinks to buy right away sometimes in case you end up seeing something you like better, but otherwise I end up trying to squeeze in running back to a certain location to pick something up.
Finding the Emma Eggs wasn't just a coincidence, I'm convinced And what a lovely way to end the night with those very special flowers!

 

[kclark9830]

Did Ashlyn bring all those Princess dolls on the bed down with her? Love it!!
Like I said over on my PTR, no huge loss in not catching JB, although I'm sure at the time you were at least a tad disappointed. I'll bet normally if it had rained the night before it still wouldn't have been that crowded, but that plus it being the last night I'm sure made it worse.
After MANY trips, I've learned that saying we'll return to pick up a souvenir often doesn't happen Stinks to buy right away sometimes in case you end up seeing something you like better, but otherwise I end up trying to squeeze in running back to a certain location to pick something up.
Finding the Emma Eggs wasn't just a coincidence, I'm convinced And what a lovely way to end the night with those very special flowers!

She did bring them all! They took up a full backpack, and part of a suitcase .

 

[kclark9830]

BREAKFAST AT CINDERELLA’S CASTLE


Tuesday morning dawned bright and sunny and perfect. We didn’t have to be at Cinderella’s Royal Table until 10:05am, but I, of course, wanted to go early. No one else agreed! We didn’t leave CBR until 9:35’ish. But, our good bus luck continued and we were actually right on time. Being the day after Labor Day, we expected crowds to be lower. In our opinion, this was not the case at all! It felt like a bazillion people all roaming around, shoving into us.


OK, maybe it wasn’t that bad J. Anyway, we made our way to the castle and checked in. We were ushered inside and met Cinderella, who was lovely and told Ashlyn she liked her ears. We waited for about 15 minutes before being called upstairs.

Micheal, Ashlyn, and I were seated in the section directly in front of the elevator, next to the railing. Our server was so very kind, as expected, and never failed to call us “my lady”, “my lord”, or “princess”. Micheal and I both ordered the traditional breakfast, and Ashlyn got the kid’s version of a traditional breakfast only minus the eggs and add extra bacon. They brought out the pastries and orange juice, and I immediately tried some kind of pastry that tasted like a mini pecan pie. Oh. My. Word. Fantastic! It was so very delicious!

The princesses that day were Aurora, Snow White, Jasmine, and Ariel. We were excited to see Jasmine there because she was on our list—we’d never met her before, and were determined to do it this trip. Score!

It took 15-20 minutes for our food to come out, which seemed like a strangely long period of time for breakfast food. It was yummy, but overall it was just breakfast food. I’m glad we did it for the experience, but I would never pay those kinds of prices again just for the experience of eating in the castle. (And honestly, I couldn’t in good conscious recommend others to pay those prices to eat there…but to each his own)


When we finished eating breakfast we headed out of the castle just as Elena of Avalor was leaving from her stage show. We saw the hem of her dress as she passed by, which made Ashlyn exuberantly happy. Poor kid! We promised to see more of her later.


Now it was time for some rides. First up, Prince Charming’s Regal Carousel. But first a detour to pull the sword from the stone…you can guess how that went!

While we were on the carousel, though, they did a little show and a kid DID pull the sword out, which made Ashlyn very disappointed in herself. I had to explain that it was all a show. After that, she felt better.


Next up was Mickey’s Philharmagic, which we had never done before. The wait said 5 minutes, but was more like 15-20. This was no big deal, and the show was so much fun. We all loved it, and my 1 yo nephew was so cute trying to reach out and grab the gems!


I think that at this point we had to make our way to our first fast pass, which was 7DMT. Ashlyn was refusing to ride, but we forced her. Yes, I was literally shoving her through the line as she fought me. Did she like it?


What do you think?! It was fabulous, and as soon as we disembarked she was begging to ride again. Well, it just so happened that my sister and her husband had gotten a rider’s swap because of the 1-year-old, and they also had FP’s, so they gave us their rider’s swap so Ashlyn could ride again. Yay and fun!


Next up was a FP for Haunted Mansion, which I hadn’t ridden before. We still had quite a while, and it was blazing hot, so we decided to take our time wandering over there. We stopped in the Rapunzel tower area and used the restroom, sat in the shade and drank some water, then headed over to the Ye Ole Christmas shop. I found a few things I liked, but nothing that stood out to me enough to buy. Christmas is my favorite, but oh well.

A stop by the Liberty Bell. Funny story here. As we were approaching, there was an older couple there taking pictures of each other in front of the bell. I have lots of manners, and I make my kids show manners too. So, I’ve got Ashlyn and her 5 yo cousin in tow, and we stand back far enough that we will NOT be in these folks’ pictures, but close enough that they can tell we’re waiting our turn to see the bell.


This couple turns around and glares at us. Glares! The girls were not being loud or disruptive in ANY way. I’m not sure what their problem was, but it seems Disney World is the wrong place to go if you don’t like kids.

Anywho, soon it was our turn and the girls posed for their pictures. Then it was time for the Haunted Mansion. I’m not at all sure why, but I didn’t get any pictures and I wish I would have. The FP line was fairly slow moving, but not terrible by any means. We were behind these people—two women with 3-4 kids. The kids were well behaved. The mothers? Very annoying. The CM’s were even getting frustrated with them. They never looked up from their phones and kept holding up the lines because they wouldn’t realize the line was moving. At one point a CM said, “Put down your phone and move!” That was kind of funny, I’m not going to lie.


At last it was our turn. It was a cute little ride, and one I’d do again, though it didn’t blow me away. I was a little nervous about what Ashlyn would think of it because she said she didn’t really want to ride it, it being haunted and all.


So, the ride is over and I ask her what she thinks. Instead of answering directly, she says…


Well, you know, Scary came with us. She didn’t like it very much.


Scary is one of Ashlyn’s 99 invisible sisters. Each of them is 3 years old. Yes, Ashlyn has an active imagination. Scary is by far Ashlyn’s favorite, and she goes everywhere with us—church, school, other vacations. So, by Ashlyn saying Scary didn’t really like it, I’m guessing she meant she didn’t really like it! Ha!


Our next FP was for Pirates of the Caribbean, another first for me. But we still had quite a while, so we made it a leisurely stroll over to Adventureland. Micheal and my sister and brother-in-law stopped in the sunglasses shop while Ashlyn and I rode the Magic Carpets and got Dole Whips. Ashlyn insisted she wanted vanilla ice cream, so I told her a little white lie and said it WAS vanilla. Well, she ate it!


We looked around the shops in Adventureland until it was time to use our FP, then we headed over to PoTC. It was a cute ride. Nothing fabulous or life changing, but cute. We all enjoyed it.


By this point it was around 2:45pm or so. Micheal was getting grouchy, and we were all hot and tired, so we left my sister and family at MK and headed back to CBR. On our way down Main Street we decided to stop in at UpTown Jewelers, and I chose a few Disney Pandora charms. I love the little boxes they come in! The pink charm is for Sleeping Beauty (Emma's favorite), the blue charm is for Cinderella (Ashlyn's favorite), and the Mickey and Minnie is for Micheal and me .

Then, as we got to the park entrance, the parade was almost there and Ashlyn wanted to watch it so we stopped for a while just in front of the train station. We didn't stay for the whole thing as we've seen it before, but it was a nice watch.

I had been hoping to rest for a couple hours then go to Epcot for EMH that night, but alas, Micheal did not want to leave the resort again once we'd returned.


In the end, it worked out nicely. I used the time to consider the bounce back offer and go swimming. We met up with my sister on the beach outside our rooms later that night, and had a lovely view from the hammocks of the Star Wars fireworks at Hollywood Studios, and immediately following a lovely view of Illuminations at Epcot. My pictures are low quality taken from my phone, but in person it was fantastic! And the kids loved playing in the sand the whole time. This experience cemented in my mind how much I liked staying at the Caribbean Beach Resort. A great ending to a great day!

Next up…


Happy Birthday to Me!
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