Rise of the Chunkies! A Jan 2020 Trip Report! NEW 7/14 THE END of our TRIP!!

[chunkymonkey]

Rise of the Chunkies!
A January 2020 MLK Weekend Trip Report with
Chunkymonkey and Chubbyhubby and a whole cast of DISboard friends!

When: January 17-22nd
Where: Caribbean Beach Resort

Hi everyone! I said I wasn't going to start a new TR because, well, it is kinda bittersweet to be thinking about Disney when COVID-19 has pretty much shut down real life (as well as our happy place) , but then again, being stuck at home makes you do strange things and now I all I want to do is write about Disney and re-live those happy moments. Especially since our 16-day Hawaii trip and Disney Hawaii cruise in May has officially been cancelled. It really is a bummer, but hey, we didn't really lose any money (well, we got credits for flights and cruise) and will be rescheduling another Disney cruise in the future. For now though, I'll just have to entertain myself with the idea of future trips and re-live old ones beginning with this TR. I'll also be starting our March 2020 TR very soon. We were there the last weekend before Disney World closed and we were so lucky to experience it just a short while ago.

This trip however, was SO MUCH FUN. We had plenty of new experiences - we rode Rise of the Resistance, visited the new Riviera resort, and I went to MK's After Hours! We also partook in Festival of the Arts eats and experienced the coldest night ever! The best part was spending time with many of our DISBoard friends! It was practically a mini epic trip because many of the same people were there over that weekend. Speaking of which, when did January get so crowded? Seriously, it was the most crowded I've seen Disney! I couldn't have imagined the crowds we experienced, but still we managed to have some great fun!

Intros:

Hi I'm Chunkymonkey, aka Su-Lynn! I'm the trip report writer, trip planner, and all around-Chunkster! I love food, and love Disney so any excuse to go to Disney to eat is right up my alley. I am 44 years old (although I was 43 in this TR, yes I have to point that out to hold on to my youth) and due to COVID-19 I am currently working at home as an IT business analyst which I think is a lot harder than working in the office, haha. Things I love: Disney, Epcot, Star Wars, Marvel, princesses (Mulan and Belle are my faves), the Fab 5, Eeyore, the Peoplemover, Slinky Dog, and of course, FOOD. I love it when Epcot has a festival because I can eat even more, but not so happy about how round I get after a trip! Read all my previous Trip Reports here.

Here's my DH, Steve aka Chubbyhubby, although he can't understand why I call him that since he claims he is "svelte".
He's also 44 and "enjoys" Disney although he'll always say it's all because of me, LOL. He's very easy-going and just goes with the flow with whatever I plan at Disney (does this sound familiar with all spouses?). He has a new found love in the quick service at the Riviera on this trip and he literally went back twice after to get the same dish. You'll find out what it is soon! He loves all thrill rides and has a bit of a Gaston complex but it looks like Buzz is rubbing off on him too, LOL.

I booked this trip a little later than I usually do, so there were no rooms available using our DVC points. We managed to get a King Room over at Caribbean beach though in a building right next to the brand new Skyliner, which became our favorite mode of transportation during our trip!

Hope you're in for our very fun January journey!​

 

[chunkymonkey]

Table of Contents

Intro
Travel Day: Checking into CBR and First DISMeet of the Trip!

Day 1 Part 1: An Early Rise...
Day 1 Part 2: The Chunkies Rise!

Day 2 Part 1: We Rise to Brunch!
Day 2 Part 2: This Day Never Ends!

Day 3 Part 1: Daisy Teaches us Dance
Day 3 Part 2: Top of the Disney After Hours

Day 4 Part 1: The Attempt to Rise!
Day 4 Part 2: The Attempt to Rise pt 2 and Day 5 the end of the trip!

 

[rdkeim]

Following!

 

[photoguytjb]

Hi! I'd recommend taking down that photo which was taken inside the club (the one that has the coasters - you can tell by the serving dishes that's in the Club). Photos inside the club are not allowed and you could get your host Member in quite a bit of trouble. This was from the Feb 2020 trip report including Club 33.

 

[DLo]

Dreams do come true another Chunky TR . Can’t wait to read about your adventures and your dismeets.

 

[Raeven]

Following along!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Day 0 - Travel Day and First DISmeet of the trip!

We left on a Friday night after work. This has been our usual routine now when we go for short weekend trips: leave from work and drive straight to the airport, park in long term parking, shuttle to terminal, go through pre-check and then to our gate or a restaurant if we're early. We usually do carry-on only since we have our Owners Locker, but for this trip since the weather was to be really erratic I brought more layers and jackets, I did pack one check-in bag so we had to drop that off first. I also brought some more toiletries to stock our owners locker, LOL.

I think our flight was on time and we arrived at MCO, picked up our luggage and hopped on Magical Express with no lines. It seemed like there wasn't that many people here, so we thought it was a good sign (warning, it was NOT).

We arrived at Caribbean Beach Resort - we had never stayed there before so were quite excited for the new experience. The lobby smells amazing though! We were hungry so thought we should grab a bite to eat so went to the quick service and placed a mobile order. I was texting with @Mollydolly334 since she already in WDW and was wandering around the Riviera resort next to CBR, although she wasn't staying there just yet. We were waiting for our food when I see the sweetest face running towards me.! It's Molly!! We hugged and squealed because we hadn't seen each other since the Epic trip last year. Even though she is much younger than old me we get along super well; I like to say that I adopted her, my own Chunkybaby! LOL

Less than 30 minutes here and already our first DISmeet!!

Our food took a while and it felt like we were waiting for a long time but finally Steve went to see what was going on and it turns out they were making a fresh batch of food hence the wait. It was nice though as it gave us plenty of time for us to catch up with Molly. They ended up giving us a double order of our entree for the price of one, how nice, a little bit of pixie dust to start our trip!

We ordered the: Braised Beef Stew - Cuban-style Ropa Vieja served over Rice and Beans with Green Beans and the Spinach and Kale Salad -
Spinach, Kale, Tomato, Avocado and Pickled Onions tossed in an Herb Vinaigrette Dressing. Everything was great but we only needed one entree since we shared everything and it was also late and didn't want to overeat. So we packed up the extra entree in case we had the nibbles later.

Since I was texted our room number, we headed straight there, and we brought Molly along to check out our room! Our room was Number 4244 in the Jamaica section which was the closest building to the new Skyliner. We couldn't wait to check it out. We used the resort maps to figure out where we were going since we didn't know!

The resort is really big though, as I have heard and it is the truth. After what seemed like 15 minutes we ended up in our room Building 4 on the 2nd floor:

I'm glad we got a king bed! It actually makes the room seem, well, roomier! It was a standard moderate room, although I thought it was a bit plain and it needed a little spiffing up since you can tell the carpet was a little murky, the corners are dinged, etc. I actually liked our room at All Star Movies better, but hey, it's just a place to sleep and the room was very spacious. As you can see, the first thing I turned on was the Disney blue screen. The soothing music just sets the tone for me

And yes they brought back the sea salt lotion to the rooms. Thank goodness for the uproar from DISboarders LOL. #unitedwestand

We had fun checking out the room with Molly and then we parted ways and said good night - she was going to walk to the skyliner but unfortunately it wasn't running at that time so I think she took the bus back to her resort.

We also had our owners locker delivered - yay! Finally I could get cleaned and changed and get some sleep because we had an early early day tomorrow - we were going to try our hand at Rise of the Resistance!!!

Oh and if you are wondering what is my favorite thing I keep in my Owners locker - it is liquid hand soap. I don't like bar hand soaps - it's just inconvenient and I feel like I can never get the soap off too so I thought this was the best thing ever, LOL.

Next up...our EARLY EARLY morning at Hollywood Studios!​

 

[chunkymonkey]

Following!

Yay! Thanks for visiting my new TR!

Hi! I'd recommend taking down that photo which was taken inside the club (the one that has the coasters - you can tell by the serving dishes that's in the Club). Photos inside the club are not allowed and you could get your host Member in quite a bit of trouble. This was from the Feb 2020 trip report including Club 33.

Hi! Welcome! I think you mean May 2019 as we didn't go in Feb 2020. I was told pics of food is ok but i took it down in any case. It really was an amazing experience.

Dreams do come true another Chunky TR . Can’t wait to read about your adventures and your dismeets.

Aww thank you and welcome to the new TR!

Following along!

Hi Raeven! Thanks for following!

 

[missangelalexis]

Joining in!

So fun meeting up with Molly as soon as you got there!

I always try to pack liquid hand soap when I can- I hate hotel bar soap!

 

[Mollydolly334]

Hi Su-Lynn! YAY! So glad that you wrote about this trip! Can't wait to re-live all of the memories Can we just go back to this time please?? Reallllly missing Disney right about now!

. I was texting with @Mollydolly334 since she already in WDW and was wandering around the Riviera resort next to CBR, although she wasn't staying there just yet. We were waiting for our food when I see the sweetest face running towards me.! It's Molly!! We hugged and squealed because we hadn't seen each other since the Epic trip last year. Even though she is much younger than old me we get along super well; I like to say that I adopted her, my own Chunkybaby! LOL

It really is crazy how we can just pick right up where we left off! It was so awesome meeting up with you guys this first night- started off the trip in such a fun way!!

HAHA I love how you say that you adopted me. We're our own quirky little family

 

[disneyAndi14]

Joining in! I miss WDW so much!
January was crowded and cold but very enjoyable with so many Dis friends visiting at the same time!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Day 1 Part 1: An Early Rise...

So the parks were set to open at 7am during the time we were there. Yes, 7am everyday, yawn. Which means, if you want to get any shot at doing Rise of the Resistance you'd have to be in the parks before then, phones out and ready. What they don't tell you is that there is no Disney transportation prior to that ungodly hour, or if there was, we never saw a bus come into CBR, and the Skyliner wasn't running either. So what did we do? We called an Uber! We asked them to come by 6:20am.

Here's my tired face:

6:19am

I woke up and my face was all puffy and bloated due to travelling and the lack of sleep. And since I didn't know what I was doing that early, I piled on the makeup so that's why I look like I'm ready for a (rough) night out. Don't worry it will all melt off later, LOL.

So we called an Uber and made the ride over to DHS. Which honestly isn't that far, but the line of cars to get into the park is a little crazy. We got dropped off right at 6:30, went through a semi-long bag check line (we realized it was a mistake to come with bags, we learned the next time). We just made it through before the bag-check lines got SUPER long, like I was serious worried for the people in the rows behind us whom I'm not sure even got into the park in time.

After the bag-check line, you have to deal with the...tapstile lines. Yes there are lines everywhere. Every line was this long because they don't start letting people in until a little before and so it backs up. So luckily we made it into the park with like 15 minutes to spare! Whew! We were really lucky that day. If we had even been 3 minutes later, it would have been backed up exponentially so I'm not even sure we could have made it in in time!

6:37am:

This is the crowd at 6:41am:

It was definitely a stressful 25 minutes, because the anticipation plus the anxiety kind of gets to you especially when you wake up so early and made all the effort to do so. But once we were in the park we breathed a huge sigh of relief.

We even had time for a DISmeet! My Facebook friend Alyssa who lives in New Zealand (yes I have Disney friends all over the world and I'm so happy!) was also in the park at that time and we managed to meet up and chat for a bit!

So...right at park opening 7am there is a huge hush over the entire crowd. Everyone is on their phone. You have to go to the MDE app and click on the Find Out More button below which takes you to the screen to get a boarding group.

6:57am open and ready to get a boarding group

And we ended up with Boarding Group 62!! Of course my friend Alyssa got Boarding Group 18! I'm not even sure how they assign groups since we were all checking at the same time, and pressing buttons at the same time, but hey, it may be random or not who knows, but we were excited to even get a Boarding Group!!

So this morning there were two factions:

People with Boarding Groups --->


People without Boarding Groups --->

Yes it would REALLY suck to make all that effort and not get that reward when it's so close and within your grasp. Let's just say that Steve was in the latter group later in the trip. It's an entirely confusing story and I'll fill you guys in later. But for now...we were on cloud 9 and ready to rock!!! Rock n Roller that is!!

We went to ride Rock n Roller Coaster with Alyssa and since she didn't have an FP we went into the Single Rider line. It was like 7:10am maybe and the single rider line moved really fast which was great! We were in and out of the ride by 7:30 which was very lucky as when we got out of the ride, the lines were super long!

It was then that Alyssa's Boarding Group was called, LUCKY DUCK!! So we parted ways and said we'd try and meet up later in Epcot.

SOOOO nice finally meeting you Alyssa! We had a wonderful time chatting with you and can't wait to visit New Zealand one day!

Steven and I actually had an FP for Rock n Roller so we went back on the ride through the FP line.

I can't stand my puffy face, LOL. But oh well. We then decided on what to do, because our other FPs weren't until a bit later but they were just for Star Tours and another throwaway one so we had no interest on waiting around to do them.

But first, Photopass!

This is what we're like this early (NOT)

I did want to get some breakfast though from Galaxy's Edge since we didn't try it last time so we headed there. On the way I got my trusty popcorn bucket filled.

Because there's nothing like popcorn at 8am!! We walked over to Galaxy's Edge though the crowds. They were CRAZY. Once there we headed to Docking Bay 7. In the pic below you can see the throngs of people behind me. That is part of the standby for Smugglers Run. Yes the line was about 2.5 hours long.

Me kissing the fastest hunk of junk with my puffy face/neck. I cringe, LOL.

I mobile ordered I think, so while waiting we got this PP shot:

Here is our entree at Docking Bay 7:

Bright Suns Breakfast Platter
Three-Cheese Egg Bite, Pork Sausage, Purple Potato Hash, Mini Mustafarian Cinnamon Roll. We split this since it was quite a bit of food and I don't usually eat a lot that early. I liked the sausage and the cinnamon roll. The potatoes were cold so not the best, and the egg wasn't bad, just fairly standard egg rounds. Maybe next time I'll get the breakfast ronto roaster.

We decided that we didn't want to stay in the park that much longer because there wasn't much to do with the lines being so long, and we decided to head back to the resort where we can just relax a bit and freshen and for me up de-puff.

We went out through the Toy Story Land exit:
Steve's new favorite pose:

It was around 9am that we exited the park and headed to...the Skyliner! Since riding it first in November last year it really has become our favorite way to get around because it's super fast and efficient. (OK I realized I had it in my intro that we rode the Skyliner for the first time on this trip, but it wasn't, it was November of last year. My days are getting all muddled together right now, LOL.)

The speed at which it could take us back to the resort, was UNCANNY. It took us like 6 minutes to get from DHS to CBR. And we were back in our room two minutes after we got off, so like 10 mins door to door is pretty unheard of. It was SWEET.

Back in the room I tried to take a nap but it was too hard with all the excitement that was going on. I was at Disney! I don't nap!
Steve was completely out though, LOL So I just let him get some rest. Our boarding group wouldn't be called until much later plus they kept having technical difficulty during the day so who knew when we'd be able to ride it! I kept checking the RoTR boarding group status, and it seemed to be stuck on one set of numbers for the longest time so we figured it was down for a while

Here's me trying to de-puff: LOL

Not sure it worked though.

After a few hours in the room and we were all fresh again we headed out to go to Epcot for some food. While we were walking out we ran into Renee's husband Chad and realized they had the room that was a floor below us. They had just arrived for their weekend trip and it happened to be that we were staying at the same resort! Renee (@ArielSRL) was filming a room tour and I sort of interrupted her by banking on the window to say hi!

I believe that is AJ in the picture.

They were going to get settled in so we said goodbye and headed to the skyliner. The line to get to Epcot was pretty long but the skyliner lines continuously move pretty quickly so that was nice.

The lines at Epcot did not, however, seem to move at all. Even after installing the new tapstiles, it just seems to get more crowded! Imagine if we had to start taking temperature at the entrance now? Well everyone just be prepared to wait an hour just to get into a park! It's coming, I'm telling ya.

But happy to have finally made it to to Epcot!

First order of business: food! I went straight to Japan and got the sushi donut because it is just so freaking pretty.

It was also very tasty!

At Japan I also got the Sake Calpico slushy. Calpico is a japanese soft drink that reminds me of sweet yogurt and they made it into a slushy and had strawberry syrup swirled in. It was so good and not too sweet!

Festival of the Arts was off to a great start!

It was a beautiful day at 78 degrees. This was possibly the warmest day of our trip! (Foreshadowing)

I order a bunch of stuff at France too:

He's the CM making me French martini

Here's what we got:

From the back going clockwise, the French Martini, a glass of dry champagne, a Tomate Farcie Faҫon Paul Bocuse: Tomato Stuffed with Braised Ribs Paul Bocuse-style, and a Crème de Brie en Petit Pain: Warm Creamy Brie in a House-made Bread Bowl . All of it was excellent!!!

It was here that we met up with Alyssa again, who had already ridden Rise, as well as Molly who was also in Epcot!! It was fun just chatting and getting to know everyone! We saw that France had a Living Art photo op so we headed there. The photographer was so funny. His accent was strong so when he'd say "Touch the Bottle" we thought he was saying "Touch the Butter!" What butter?

Here's our series of pictures, it tells a story of how we are at a party and get progressively drunk and perhaps hungover. It was a group effort. Lots of vigilant acting here!

They finally stopped touching the butter and touched the BOTTLES! HAHA

Who wants to come to our parties LOL?

It was then that our BG was called!!! We were so excited!! So Steve and I left and headed back to Hollywood Studios nd everyone else went on their solo way (but no worries, we get to see more Molly later!!)

Coming up...our first ride on Rise of the Resistance!!!
​

 

[suse66]

Hi everyone! I said I wasn't going to start a new TR because, well, it is kinda bittersweet to be thinking about Disney when COVID-19 has pretty much shut down real life (as well as our happy place) , but then again, being stuck at home makes you do strange things and now I all I want to do is write about Disney and re-live those happy moments.

I am so happy to get to read all about your Disney adventures! Like you, I am missing Disney terribly! I had to cancel my July trip for my oldest son's 20th birthday and have tentatively rescheduled for December. Our borders are closed for non essential travel and there is no word yet on when they will re-open. I would say it'll be a while, though. We need a Canadian Disney, lol!

We left on a Friday night after work. This has been our usual routine now when we go for short weekend trips: leave from work and drive straight to the airport, park in long term parking, shuttle to terminal, go through pre-check and then to our gate or a restaurant if we're early. We usually do carry-on only since we have our Owners Locker, but for this trip since the weather was to be really erratic I brought more layers and jackets, I did pack one check-in bag so we had to drop that off first. I also brought some more toiletries to stock our owners locker, LOL.

That's what I did in December too when I was there for three days. It made the short trip so much better since I was able to get up and go on the Saturday morning.

We were waiting for our food when I see the sweetest face running towards me.! It's Molly!! We hugged and squealed because we hadn't seen each other since the Epic trip last year. Even though she is much younger than old me we get along super well; I like to say that I adopted her, my own Chunkybaby! LOL

Awesome! How perfect to have a Dismeet right off the bat.

I'm glad we got a king bed! It actually makes the room seem, well, roomier! It was a standard moderate room, although I thought it was a bit plain and it needed a little spiffing up since you can tell the carpet was a little murky, the corners are dinged, etc. I actually liked our room at All Star Movies better, but hey, it's just a place to sleep and the room was very spacious. As you can see, the first thing I turned on was the Disney blue screen. The soothing music just sets the tone for me

Disney blue screen love!

I woke up and my face was all puffy and bloated due to travelling and the lack of sleep. And since I didn't know what I was doing that early, I piled on the makeup so that's why I look like I'm ready for a (rough) night out. Don't worry it will all melt off later, LOL.

You don't even look puffy! I am amazed you were able to get so put together early in the morning!

We went to ride Rock n Roller Coaster with Alyssa and since she didn't have an FP we went into the Single Rider line. It was like 7:10am maybe and the single rider line moved really fast which was great! We were in and out of the ride by 7:30 which was very lucky as when we got out of the ride, the lines were super long!

Perfect way to start the day.

It was around 9am that we exited the park and headed to...the Skyliner! Since riding it first in November last year it really has become our favorite way to get around because it's super fast and efficient. (OK I realized I had it in my intro that we rode the Skyliner for the first time on this trip, but it wasn't, it was November of last year. My days are getting all muddled together right now, LOL.)

Oh, I love the Skyliner so much! What a game changer.

After a few hours in the room and we were all fresh again we headed out to go to Epcot for some food. While we were walking out we ran into Renee's husband Chad and realized they had the room that was a floor below us. They had just arrived for their weekend trip and it happened to be that we were staying at the same resort! Renee (@ArielSRL) was filming a room tour and I sort of interrupted her by banking on the window to say hi!

Fun!

Coming up...our first ride on Rise of the Resistance!!!

Can't wait to hear all about it!

 

[juniorbugman]

I am here and reading along.

 

[pkondz]

here!
But holy crap that's a ton of posts! I'll be back to read later.

 

[PlutosRHM55]

Hi I'm here. Officially.

Lol, as someone who worked through January in the parks with a MASSIVE CP gap (aka lack of cast members at my location), I have to giggle a little at that optimism that it wouldn't be crazy during that time. It really was a shock to everyone how busy the parks were at such a normally dead time like January. Big struggle bus.

I've only ever seen Caribbean Beach from those times I rode the Skyliner back during previews and when it first opened (pre-accident) so I can only imagine how crazy it must be navigating that resort. It is HUGE. Props to you for not having too too much trouble.

Wow I thought the one morning I did Rise it was bad. This was even worse. Y'all were real lucky to get a Boarding Group. For the record, it originally was first come, first served but the system started becoming so overloaded they had to resort to a randomized version, which is what I dealt with when I rode in February and I was around the same number group as you. I was guaranteed a ride but I had to wait so long to be called.

I'm a total Ronto Wrap stan so I highly recommend trying the breakfast wrap. I do recall though that you didn't like the regular wrap in your previous report so maybe not since it's very much a similar style and flavoring. You're just getting the sausage with an omelet essentially. It's so so good, at least for someone like me who could live off Ronto Wraps and be forever happy.

UGH that Sushi Donut was my favorite thing I got at Festival of the Arts. So big and flavorful.

You're also making me sad for not having gotten a photo at one of the photo ops. I was almost always at FotA on my lonesome or the one time I wasn't we stuck it out in Future World. Y'all fit right in with those partiers in that painting (and yes that is a complement lol)

Looking forward to hearing about your Rise experience!

 

[KathyM2]

Oh and if you are wondering what is my favorite thing I keep in my Owners locker - it is liquid hand soap. I don't like bar hand soaps - it's just inconvenient and I feel like I can never get the soap off too so I thought this was the best thing ever, LOL.

Sorry this made me laugh....back in January there would be nothing funny about hand soap...but now...since I can't find any lol...would be nice to have some liquid hand soap again lol

So...right at park opening 7am there is a huge hush over the entire crowd. Everyone is on their phone. You have to go to the MDE app and click on the Find Out More button below which takes you to the screen to get a boarding group.

I remember exactly how this felt when we were there waiting to try to get a BG...so tense!! After getting up that early and everything you had to do to make it in time...so stressful!!

Maybe next time I'll get the breakfast ronto roaster.

We had that and it was really good.

First order of business: food! I went straight to Japan and got the sushi donut because it is just so freaking pretty.

What was the "donut" part made of? Looks yummy!!

 

[amazingact21]

Just wanted to pop over and say I'll be following along!

 

[FantasiaMagic]

HI Su-Lynn!

I was so excited to hear you started this TR!

I haven't had a chance to go to the FoTA yet at EPCOT, but am hoping to do it during 2021. The sushi, and the food you had from France looks amazing.

I love hearing your review of the Skyliner. The last time I was in Disney they were still doing testing so I didn't have a chance to try it out. It is definitley something I want to do whenever I am able to go back!

And Yay for being sucessful with the RoTR boarding group, I'm looking forward to hearing your review of the ride!

 

[TheTinyTiger]

Hi! Following along. I love your writing style! ☀ ☀ ☀