Ooh, the monorail DOES smell funny... (almost finished!) [11/30-12/17, 2010]

[elliefusmom]

I'm here... patiently waiting for our Spring Break trip to the World! At this time we ARE NOT planning on venturing out to Universal to see Harry Potter, but after receiving the entire 6 DVDs for Christmas and your upcoming trip report...we just might be convinced to!!

 

[bumbershoot]

Wowie, the fate of your trip lies partially in my hands!

I'll say that while WWOHP is small, it's pretty amazing just being there. And Universal is amazing. And having the Express Plus pass from staying onsite is definitely amazing!


Now you have me talking out of order....

 

[bumbershoot]

We were slated to sleep in pirate-ship beds for the first two nights, and E was excited about it.

We asked for Bell Services to come meet us at our room, because we had no interest in leaving our stuff in the car all night (have I mentioned the windows weren't tinted AT ALL?) and we had a LOT of stuff. So the virtual tip envelope was definitely used that night, and on all moving days. My wallet got so sore! Next time I'm leaving the tipping up to the hubster and just ignoring the process as usual.

__________________________

After settling in the room, we went to dinner at Shutters. That wasn't the plan, but the counter service there at Old Port Royale was less than tasty-looking. For the WDW-newbies like me, the counter services (that we encountered) have these HUGE LCD TVs above the ordering area, that show the menu. But the brightness is turned way up while the color is turned to "boring", so the pictures of the food are as unappetizing as you can get, IMO. It's like going to a Chinese restaurant with the plastic models of the dishes, but they've let the plastic get old and dusty and sticky and faded...

So we went to Shutters instead.

I got the Blue Glowtini there. It was blue! Well, not so blue when I took the souvenir glow cube out of it, but still. I'm not normally into martinis, but this is a vodka one, so it was acceptable. I liked the sugared rim of the glass.

Our server was enthusiastic, but less than accurate. Brought Robert a lemonade instead of his non-boozey smoothie. Brought E a chicken pizza instead of a cheese pizza. Made a late meal take that much longer.

Robert and I shared the caesar salad and the veggie pasta. Of all our meals, this was probably the most lackluster (aka "meh"). Once E got his cheese-only pizza he was happy.

And it was here that we discovered that he will happily eat carrots AND celery, as long as he has some mustard to dip it in. EXCELLENT. We used that throughout or stay, and twice at home so far. We kept offering him creamy dips, but those were just a big "NO" for him...but mustard makes him happy!

After dinner we wandered in the store and bought a few packaged treats. Turns out the "Divvies" products, which are highly esteemed on the vegan/vegetarian threads, are 100% unacceptable to us, as they use corn syrup in all of them. SO disappointing!

However, we found that the Minnie's bake shop items, like a cookie and the "character cookies", are basically acceptable, and relatively tasty. They made us feel like we weren't missing out on things entirely, though we bought very few over our stay.

Robert also found a gluten free brownie, packaged of course, and E really liked that...but the entire stay just was NOT all about the desserts for some reason...is it any wonder that the three of us all lost weight (me possibly a relatively significant amount) during our trip?

________________________________


Well the room is really cute, that's for sure! The beds are basically a Full size, not even Queen, and the mattresses are skkkkkkkiiiiinnnnnny....there's a hefty box spring underneath, but the mattresses are maybe a third of a normal mattress, maybe even a fourth. Very thin. For someone who likes a firmer mattress it's just fine, and we slept fine, but wowza.

The fridge is in a barrel. Very clever, except that they had the barrel opening on the left, and the fridge opening on the right, so that was a bit odd. E and I got our fingers slightly caught in the barrel a couple times each (we don't seem to learn quickly when jet-lagged) b/c of that odd arrangement.

There's a curtain separating the vanity from the bedroom, and then the toilet and tub/shower are in their own room with a door. On the curtain is a BIG skull and crossbones. Something they make you aware of (or at least our lady did) when you check in is that something cool (or dreadfully frightening, depending on your age and braveness level) happens when you have the vanity-area light on, close the curtain, and turn the main room's lights off. E liked it and hated it at the same time. We had to show him, because we would have hated to do it accidentally, and he definitely made sure we were careful about it.


The bedspreads are both cheesy and fun. This is what happens when you're 6 and love POTC...

Note, his hand is in the form of a musket...so he's steering the ship and firing on someone at the same time. He was very Jack at the moment, but I didn't catch any video of him. Too bad his eyepatch was on upside down, but it was late, and he's 6.


Eamon called dibs on snoozing with Robert, so I got to stretch out. Well, as much as I could in a Full sized bed LOL.




I should also mention that this day saw our first introduction to Stacey of the "Disney Must Dos". We Stacey. She's adorable. That's all we have to say.

 

[kaoden39]

Love the picture of E on the bed. I could so see my 14 year old son doing that too.

That's sad about the food at the counter service places. Disney needs to step up on this. And the waiter? Poor E having it delivered to have it taken away.

We love gluten free brownies here.

 

[bumbershoot]

It turned out the food itself was fine at any of the CS places. It was just the images on the TV screens that was unappetizing.

And yes, the pizza problem was a bummer. But they left the veggies, and then he asked for mustard, so it became a better situation.

 

[kaoden39]

I cannot imagine the taste of mustard on veggies. But, hey if it works go for it.

 

[bumbershoot]

Neither can we!

But E's first lick of "food" was a lemon, he's ALWAYS loved pickles, and mustard has been a huge fave of his since forever (I remember him smearing mustard into a plate of Bush's vegetarian baked beans before he was 2)....so it works for him!

He feels the same way about us as we do about him and mustard, when he sees us snarfing on ranch dressing LOL. (though he does like mayo for artichokes and veggie "chik'n" nuggets)

 

[kaoden39]

Too funny. I see the mayo for the artichoke, that is how I learned to eat them. But, on nuggets? That is where I like mustard. Or ketchup and ranch together.

 

[Sherry E]

I was going to say that I think E has good taste! I am a mustard person, too! I haven't tried it on veggies yet, but I will lather up a chicken or turkey sandwich with mustard, as well as a burger. I am not a mayo person, and I can only tolerate ketchup on beef. So mustard goes a long way with me!

Did I read correctly in that Universal is amazing? Really? Is it amazing? I've never seen the one in Florida, of course, but the one out here (near me) is not amazing. It's so obvious to me when walking in that Disney has really mastered the art of the theme park and all other parks pale in comparison. I'm glad Universal is here because it gives people more options if they are not Disney fans, but I think I could deal with going there only once a decade and be fine.

 

[DLR29]

Neither can we!

But E's first lick of "food" was a lemon, he's ALWAYS loved pickles, and mustard has been a huge fave of his since forever (I remember him smearing mustard into a plate of Bush's vegetarian baked beans before he was 2)....so it works for him!

He feels the same way about us as we do about him and mustard, when he sees us snarfing on ranch dressing LOL. (though he does like mayo for artichokes and veggie "chik'n" nuggets)

Oh my goodness!!! My favorite food are pickles! Yummy! Although I don't think I'd use mustard to dip my vegetables...interesting option. I probably missed this in the PTR but were you on a dining plan?

 

[bumbershoot]

December 1, Day 2!​

Well, we woke up; it wasn't bright and early, that's for sure, but it was before noon. Since sleeping in was pretty much the whole point of staying at CBR, I'm glad we managed it.

Many thoughts have been given to doing about the same next visit, but at the airport's Hyatt instead. And just one day (since we were about as rested as possible after that one sleep-in, and the next morning we were up and at 'em out of necessity anyway). For those who don't know, the main Orlando airport has a Hyatt inside the place! Look up, and there are hotel rooms. Kinda neat. Makes me think of the pictures I've seen of RCCL's Oasis of the Seas' inside rooms, the way it's set up. We've also thought about staying there before a morning flight as well, instead of taking our last day as a half-day in a park with a rush (though we didn't have to rush this time, yay) to get to an afternoon/evening flight. Since I've seen mention that this Hyatt can pop up on priceline at around $59, it seems like a good plan.



OK so anyway, we woke up.

Oh hey, there's a map of CBR here!

You can see the Old Port Royale "centertown" in what is basically the middle of the resort. The Pirate rooms are in Trinidad South. So it's not a long walk at all. And it's a lovely walk. Let me show you!

Let me interrupt this walk by apologizing for my camera. I'm not sure why, but sometimes it takes great pictures, and other times it looks like a scan of a print. Like those above.


Across the lake, er, Barefoot Bay, so that must be Jamaica.

Eamon got to wear shorts this day! So did I. Robert wore shorts EVERY day. He only wears pants when he has to, or when it goes below 32 degrees.

Fun little birds that were gathered around the fountain there every time we went by.

So we went into the building, and decided to have counter service stuff. Another problem with the monitors as menuboards is that they don't show everything all at once. It's just annoying. I don't understand why they can't just have a proper menuboard and have done with it. But someone sold them on the idea of these TV/monitors, and they went to the expense of buying them and installing them and all...I doubt they are going anywhere anytime soon.

This was the moment of truth for coffee. We each bought a cup of coffee; me so I could see if I needed to buy coffee or just stick with my tea, and Robert so he could decide if he was going to buy a mug. For me, the coffee experiment FAILED. Nasty nasty stuff. As for Robert, he bought a refillable mug. (which he then used for our entire trip, except for at Universal...naughty naughty boy...)

Someone got a cheese omelette, someone got some "bounty" platter, someone else got another platter. It was all....better with tabasco LOL. Naw, it was OK. Thinking back, CBR was entirely the most boring food of our trip. But not bad.

It was after 11 when we paid for our food, so it would have been nearing noon when we were leaving.

There's this really cool "island" in the middle of the bay, called Caribbean Cay. I had wanted to really explore it, but we were tired and I seem to recall that Robert had hurt something, his leg I think. So Robert stretched while I took pictures and Eamon played.

It was so pretty in there...I wish we could have explored more!

But we needed to get on back so we could go on errands.

E's first proper sand.

Pretty.

Our room was in building 36 (note map linked to above), room 3611. It was right on a little courtyard. The courtyard was beyond lovely. Alas, I never got a nice picture of it because it was a smoking area, and we always had to rush through.

But on this one day I did notice a little lizard, and got a picture of it.

He's there, I promise.

 

[bumbershoot]

Sherry, yes, we felt that Universal was amazing! I had read a comment before our trip that they felt Universal (in FL) was not themed and was boring. I was a little scared reading that! But just walking in to either park there...that person must have had their eyes closed or something. We found the parks to be vibrant, packed full of theming, and really fun.


Stephen, we never did get onto a dining plan, but we did end up buying the Tables in Wonderland card (which tells you that we bought APs as well). The TIW card is for FL residents or AP holders (the cost is $75 for AP holders and it's good for until the end of January '12), and it gives you 20% off of most Table Services places (including booze) and some Counter Service places (food court at Port Orleans French Quarter and the values, if I recall correctly, and Pizzafari in Animal Kingdom). Now it does add an 18% gratuity to the Table Service places, but we never once felt that that wasn't warranted (except for the first night at Shutters, but we didn't have that card yet!).

 

[kaoden39]

I found him!! I wonder if he enjoyed his vacation? That is a beautiful hotel and grounds. No wonder the place is so huge.

 

[bumbershoot]

I found him!! I wonder if he enjoyed his vacation?

That is a beautiful hotel and grounds. No wonder the place is so huge.

I'm glad you found the little guy.

And that's just ONE resort! One! And a "moderate" resort, not even one of the fancy-schmancy ones. It's amazing.

 

[kaoden39]

I'm glad you found the little guy.

And that's just ONE resort! One! And a "moderate" resort, not even one of the fancy-schmancy ones. It's amazing.

Now I thought that was one of the better ones. Wow, I think we have been cheated at the DLR.

 

[bumbershoot]

December 1, Day 2 continued​

Well, we needed to do some errands. First, we'd forgotten to pay rent before we left. Whoops! And we needed WATER. And sunscreen (not having a full handle on the forecast yet) and various other items. And so we sallied forth.


We went to a bank! That was exciting. (our landlady banks at the same bank we do, so we put a check into her account)

We went to Costco! Exciting, but annoying, because no one at that Costco believed in putting their carts in a cart-space, and also because they had a display of 3D TVs etc up front. Robert did a quiz recently that was made to show if you should get such a system. Even he, the gadget-guy, scored in the "nope, 3D TV is not for you" range. I'm nearly in the negative range. So to have our "we just want water!" Costco excursion halted by that silly display was....slightly obnoxious.

But I persevered, and we got some ZephyrHills water. For days I was saying "zephryillhis" in my head whenever I saw the label. Finally said something out loud, and my aunt told me that my mom called it the SAME thing! So that's kind of neat. It's Zephyr Hills, for the record.

We went to Target! Not just any Target. Super Target. Do you hear the angels singing in a choir in the background when I said that? You should. It. Was. Huge. Yeah yeah, we've seen big Targets. But this was....really big.

Their Disney section up front was as big as my normal Target's shoe section. I don't even want to think about their shoe section.

But again, I persevered (easier this time as Eamon had fallen asleep, so he and Robert stayed in the car), and got sunscreen, ibuprofen, some cookies (Milano cookies are safe), and (get ready for the angels singing again) Advanced Breath Right strips. The latter SAVED this trip. One of us snores. The other adult needed earplugs (purchased ahead of time), but the strips were fabulous. Whew.

I went on out, and wowie, it was almost 5pm. Long day the day before, not enough food through the day, breakfast at 8am Pacific time, and here it was 2pm "our" time and...we were hungry. Hey wait, there's an Olive Garden right there in the parking lot! Let's go!

It was tasty. Eamon decided to end the meal by smashing his noggin on the bottom of the table (he was retrieving something he had dropped and needed, and didn't come far enough out before standing up)...such a loud crash that basically the entire restaurant went silent. The manager was out in a flash with an icepack, and I guess our server was unable to take another table's order when it happened, he was so worried about E. Poor dude. (Eamon, not the server, though I did feel for the server as well)

But E was OK, and our meal was finished, so off we went.

This SuperTarget and Olive Garden (and Publix supermarket across the street) is on a main street to the west of WDW. It's basically simple to get to, though you get to drive past LOTS of cheesy chintzy stores. Stores that we YEARNED to get back to, to fulfill my Florida Kitsch part of the trip report. Stores that we...never got back to. Next time...there's always next time....

But if you use a GPS (don't! don't do it! WDW is in a weird GPS-killing Everglades Triangle, and GPS will get you, er, us, lost more often than not!) and that GPS isn't smart enough to give you choices, you might end up on a toll road at 11pm with no change...happened to Robert, could happen to you.

But I digress.

We got back, all full of yummy food, with a nice warmish breeze in the air, with no sleepiness, and with a hankering for some swimming! The kid was ready.

It was dark by then, and we were all going in the pool, so I didn't bring my camera. Sorry.

They have one part at the main CBR pool that has a zero entry, um, entry. That's cool. Kids LOVE it. As an adult, and as an adult female, one cannot help but think of the two Bond "girls" who walked from the water on a beach, very much like you get out of the water in a zero entry pool....however, unless you LOOK like a Bond girl...it's just not the same effect. At all. Bleah. Especially when it's hitting around 50 degrees by the time you get out.

Brrrrr.

But while we were IN the 80+ degree pool, it was nice. Eamon was able to go on the slides, which he LOVED. He went on the big slide once or twice, but then switched to the smaller one. Again and again and again!

The water coming out of the slide creates a really strong current that can mess up a kid who hasn't experienced it before. But every time he got better and better at getting himself head first and coming up to the air, and that was good.

The slides then closed and the interest-level of the pool lessened quickly. Eamon wanted to hang out at the bar (there was another kid in there, so it would have been OK), but we knew we weren't going to be warm, and there would be nothing there for him to drink. So we made the cold walk back.



That walk in the daytime was so gorgeous!

That walk back in the "darktime" (not really *night*, but dark all the same) is spooky. Eamon watches a lot of Zoboomafoo, and really enjoyed telling us what it would look like if we saw an alligator or crocodile in the water or on the banks... That's a good thing to know. But in the mind of a 6 year old, it becomes difficult to ignore the concept of that reptile waiting *just over there*, no matter how many times his kind and patient, maybe even sainted, parents tell him that the likelihood of seeing said glowing eyes would be very very low, and even if we saw them they would be of a tiny reptile, and we weren't worried about it and neither should he be...

So that was a long walk.

Strangely, the sand made him brave. The sand also held hammocks. So we all took a darktime family lie-down in a hammock for a minute or two. Awwwww.

At last we were back to our room.




I'm not going to just come right out and show you what the curtains do when you do the light trick. But this is what it looks like with the light on in the bedroom part.

You'll just have to guess or cheat to figure out what it looked like with the lights in the bed area out.





And that concluded our first full day aka second day aka December 1.

 

[bumbershoot]

Now I thought that was one of the better ones. Wow, I think we have been cheated at the DLR.

Well there's "value" (POP Century and the 3 All Star resorts), then there's the "Moderate" level like Caribbean Beach, Coronado Springs, the Port Orleans resorts... And then the Deluxes (Grand Floridian, Polynesian, Animal Kingdom Lodge, Wilderness Lodge).

So "moderate" just means "middle" I suppose.



OK did I forget to tell you about my crying moment? It happened on our first day, but not when we landed or went under the WDW sign. Rather, it was after checking in, and as we drove over to Trinidad South.

There's a smallish pond, and in that pond is a spraying fountain. And that made me cry.

Because my mom and stepdad lived in Miami at Country Walk Estates (before it was laid to waste by Hurricane Andrew and the builder having used finish nails on most of the homes), and CWE was designed by Disney. And they had a water feature JUST like that one. I miss Country Walk, I miss visiting Miami, and I miss my mom.

And just like *that*, I was crying. Sniffle sniffle.

 

[kaoden39]

I love the curtains. Of course I am a major pirate fan. Even before Capt Jack, although he helps the attraction.

I don't think Scotty would see me once I got into a Super Target. I already love the store.

 

[kaoden39]

Oh Molly, that is kind of a nice sentimental moment. It is one of those moments that would have made any of us cry. I am sure. Heck I have been known to get teary over a Disney promo video.

 

[bumbershoot]

I had to keep reminding myself that the guys were waiting out in the car; otherwise I might still be there at the SuperTarget!