Starting 2007 Off Right - Final Day is Up!!! Pg 16!

[FauntleroyFAN07]

Great pics with some characters that are hardly ever out. We had reservations for Cape May last year, but forgot about them and since the dinning plan was so busy last year, we turned in a table service for a counter, and got some trading pins. Later that night, we were like wait a minute we had reservations tonight didnt we. Now I am upset, that place sounds really good.

 

[MapleGirl]

I just finished reading this thread and I can't wait for the next installment. I love all the photos. So sorry to hear about the housing issues. We bought our house about a year ago and I vividly remember how stressful it was. Good luck!!!!

 

[natale1980]

Day 9 ~ Thursday, January 25th:
This is one of our favorite Disney traditions – we have eaten here at least once on our nine trips together to WDW and have even enjoyed breakfasts here from time to time as well. Cape May is hubby’s opportunity to enjoy some seafood on our trip. I don’t eat ANY seafood at all, so it’s great that Cape May has such a wide variety of foods that allow hubby some seafood & me some good old American fare. And if you haven’t been to Cape May – the dessert buffet is delish!! The Oreo bon-bons are awesome!! We had another perfect meal here – yummy food & good service. Two thumbs up!

Ok... you have me convinced!! Next time I go to Disney with my DH Cape May is on the top of our to do list!!

-nat

 

[Mickey'sMainMami]

I just finished reading your TR and I love it! Glad to hear you are going back so soon!! We will be there from 9/13-9/21, and can't wait! I hope you will be writing another TR of this trip too! Also, just wanted to say that I was sorry about your MC, not to get into it on here, BUT, if you stop by my TR you can see that I know exactly how you feel. Good luck with everything and I hope you have a wonderful trip!

 

[Code]

Coming out of perma-lurker mode to say how much I have enjoyed reading through your TR! Great pictures, and you are an adorable couple (is a guy allowed to say this? )

I'm very jealous of your many trips, sounds like you two have it all figured out! Sorry about all the headaches you've been through with your house.

Your touring style actually inspired me to change up our itinerary to hit more EMH and park hop almost every day

 

[arizonacolbys]

Anothere great update!!!

Thanks!

Great pics with some characters that are hardly ever out. We had reservations for Cape May last year, but forgot about them and since the dinning plan was so busy last year, we turned in a table service for a counter, and got some trading pins. Later that night, we were like wait a minute we had reservations tonight didnt we. Now I am upset, that place sounds really good.

Thanks! I definitely recommend checking out Cape May someday - my in-laws also eat there every trip & we took my parents there 2 years ago & they also really enjoyed it even though my Dad is not big on buffets.

I just finished reading this thread and I can't wait for the next installment. I love all the photos. So sorry to hear about the housing issues. We bought our house about a year ago and I vividly remember how stressful it was. Good luck!!!!

Thanks Yeah, we're just taking a break from all the house stress for awhile.

Ok... you have me convinced!! Next time I go to Disney with my DH Cape May is on the top of our to do list!!

-nat

I don't think you'll be disappointed!! Cape May is the best!

I just finished reading your TR and I love it! Glad to hear you are going back so soon!! We will be there from 9/13-9/21, and can't wait! I hope you will be writing another TR of this trip too! Also, just wanted to say that I was sorry about your MC, not to get into it on here, BUT, if you stop by my TR you can see that I know exactly how you feel. Good luck with everything and I hope you have a wonderful trip!

Thanks so much for your kind words. I've started a pre-trip for my trip that's just 10 days away - the link is in my siggie. I've checked out your pre-trip & can't wait to hear all about your trip, too!

Coming out of perma-lurker mode to say how much I have enjoyed reading through your TR! Great pictures, and you are an adorable couple (is a guy allowed to say this? )

I'm very jealous of your many trips, sounds like you two have it all figured out! Sorry about all the headaches you've been through with your house.

Your touring style actually inspired me to change up our itinerary to hit more EMH and park hop almost every day

Thanks! Especially in the slower season, we have found that we really enjoy switching parks mid-day to break up the day a bit. My hubby grew up going to one park in the morning & staying until closing. We really enjoy the break in our day & since you can get so much more done in half a day during the slower times, it's nice to switch parks. We HIGHLY recommend the Morning EMH, but really haven't had as much luck with the Evening EMH.

 

[Spartangirl]

Great update!!! We haven't tried Cape May, but it sounds good. Like you two, we love spending time in Animal Kingdom. I can't believe that you got to do the P&P Party twice...how cool!

 

[Marjol]

Great update!

I had to laugh about the warm sweaters, hats and gloves.. it was a lot warmer when we were there in may

 

[coolbeans]

I just went thru this whole report and am loving it. I love pictures and noticed that you and DH wore Disney themed clothing almost every day!!!!

 

[arizonacolbys]

Great update!!! We haven't tried Cape May, but it sounds good. Like you two, we love spending time in Animal Kingdom. I can't believe that you got to do the P&P Party twice...how cool!

Thanks! We really love AK. The P&P Party was awesome & we're looking forward to returning for another one in less than a week!

Great update!

I had to laugh about the warm sweaters, hats and gloves.. it was a lot warmer when we were there in may

Yeah...it can get chilly there in the winter months!! We've had weeks where you wear shorts & swim every day & then the next day you're shivering in your pants & sweatshirts.

I just went thru this whole report and am loving it. I love pictures and noticed that you and DH wore Disney themed clothing almost every day!!!!

Thanks - yeah, we've acquired quite a Disney wardrobe over the years.

 

[arizonacolbys]

Day 10 Continued...

When we got back to CBR we went to our room to get our refillable mugs & drop off our bag. The first thing on our priority list was to head to the Custom House to see about getting our boarding passes printed up for our departure day. We were flying home on Southwest (Which I really can’t stand!!! Not a direct flight & I hate not having an assigned seat & having to line up before you board. After flying into St. Louis every other weekend all summer last year on Southwest to visit hubby at Fort Leonard Wood, I had nothing but delayed flights every time I flew, which really got old. But, with a free earned roundtrip flight…we flew home on Southwest. )

Now, from everything I’d read, I was a little worried about getting our boarding passes printed up for our trip home since we were flying on Southwest & it wasn’t a participating airline with DME. But, never fear, we had a very nice CM assist us at the CBR Custom House. She was able to pull up our confirmation & print out our boarding passes with no problems at all. She also gave us these cute paper crowns for the Pirate & Princess Party that we happily took & wore around the resort. We were able to hop on an approaching bus across from the CH & ride along until we got over to Old Port Royale for our mug refills. We took more pictures around the resort on our way back to our room:

We spent some time in the room this afternoon just resting up a bit & finalizing most of our packing. This was our last night at WDW & since we knew we would be out late again at the Pirate & Princess Party & we were heading to the MK for our last morning, we had to get packed up.

Prior to our first Pirate & Princess Party we ate at one of our favorite restaurants, Liberty Tree Tavern. Once we were at the party we saw that El Pirata y El Perico was open during the party, so our plan was to eat there during the party. We used to really love it there, but it hasn’t been open in several years (I’m thinking our September 2001 trip) during our trips in the slow seasons. We bundled up in warm hoodies for the evening & headed out to the MK a couple hours before the 7:30 pm party start time.

We were able to get some of our favorite rides done again prior to the party so that we didn’t have to spend valuable party time waiting in lines for rides. Our goal for the night was to just have as much fun as we could on our last night at WDW & to definitely take in the fun parade & awesome fireworks again!!

When the party started this time, one of the first things we did was get in line to see my favorite

He was very in character & a lot of fun to meet. I think Disney should have him available for pictures every day, not just during this party. We missed seeing him the first night – at times his line is over an hour long & there are just too many fun things to do at the party to spend an hour in this line, so we hit it early & probably still waited 30 minutes. Funny story – while waiting in line to meet Captain Jack there was this teenage girl in line behind us with her dad. She was just crazy excited to meet Captain Jack & was yammering on her cell phone to all of her friends the whole time she was in line. She was convinced that we were actually going to meet Johnny Depp …she had heard a rumor floating around that Johnny Depp was seen on the monorail that afternoon & he was at the park for the media events they had going on that week for the Year of a Million Dreams & the Pirate & Princess Party. She was also convinced that he would be in the parade during the party. OMG…we were trying SO hard not to laugh at this poor girl! She definitely kept us entertained while in line.

 

[arizonacolbys]

Continued...

We also went on the Riverboat during this party (we missed this the first night) and we both kind of agreed that we didn’t miss much the first night. There’s a story told over the speakers while you float down the river, but there were so many loud people aboard, we really didn’t hear much…

I didn’t get any pictures of the fireworks, just enjoyed watching them with my hubby. I have lots more parade pictures though! I have a pretty good assortment of this parade now – we sat on the opposite side of the street in Frontierland as the first night, so I was able to get both views of the parade.

We didn’t see as many characters during this party since we were able to see so many of them last time. We really just enjoyed being in the park on our last night & are really looking forward to another Pirate & Princess Party in less than a week!

Stay tuned for our last morning at the MK on our way home....

 

[BaBeeCee14]

Great TR! I think you said you will be there until Sept 5? We will be arriving that day (late at night) so looks like we will miss you by 1 day. Hope you have another fabulous trip and maybe another great TR to follow?

 

[arizonacolbys]

Great TR! I think you said you will be there until Sept 5? We will be arriving that day (late at night) so looks like we will miss you by 1 day. Hope you have another fabulous trip and maybe another great TR to follow?

Thanks! Yep, we fly home on the evening of the 5th - have a great trip, too!! I have a pre-trip started in my siggie!

 

[arizonacolbys]

Day 11 – Saturday, January 27th – Our Departure Day:

We woke up on our departure day very sad & gloomy that it was our last morning at Disney World. We tried to cheer ourselves up by talking about how excited we were to go home to our favorite furry pooches. After getting our luggage picked up by luggage services, we were boarding the bus to the Magic Kingdom. We were there right around opening at 9 am. It was still a bit chilly that morning, but the sun was shining & it wasn’t too bad.

We started out our morning off in Fantasyland as usual & got our usual rides done – Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh & Snow White (there’s never a wait for this at all in the morning! ) Then, we did our normal trek over to Tomorrowland to ride Buzz & Space Mountain one last time. After that we headed back thru Fantasyland & hit the Haunted Mansion on the way to Big Thunder & Splash Mountain. We were able to get these all done by lunchtime when we stopped off at Columbia Harbor House for our last meal at WDW.

We discovered CHH a couple trips ago & it is our favorite CS in the MK. We enjoyed a nice & quiet meal upstairs looking out over the crowds below in front of the Haunted Mansion. We both got the starboard sandwich – a yummy ham sandwich with broccoli slaw on it & split a side of fries.

After lunch we walked over to see about the Jungle Cruise, but the line was insanely long!!! I don’t know what the deal is with Jungle Cruise for us lately, but the line is frequently way too long for us. So, we ended up skipping the Cruise this morning & instead did our final ride on Pirates for the trip. It was a really great ride for us to end the trip on.

We had a little bit of time to kill before heading back to CBR to catch our DME bus back to the airport, plus we didn’t want to leave the MK any earlier than we had to. We strolled around the castle & took some pictures:

We walked around to the side of the castle & stopped at my favorite last minute snack stop – Sleepy Hollow. We love to grab a bucket of caramel corn here to take home with us. It is yummy & a great deal for $3.99. We found a nice bench to sit on near the bridge going into Adventureland & enjoyed sitting there together for awhile just taking in as much Disney as we could.

When it was finally time to head out, we hopped on the bus back to CBR & got off at the Custom House to pick up our bags from luggage services. We only had to wait about 10 minutes for our DME bus to arrive & pick us up. Luckily, we were the last stop on the way to the airport, so it was a direct ride for us again! We enjoyed the video they showed on the way back & we had a pleasant driver that kept everyone in good spirits even though we were all sad to be leaving.

We had some time to kill at the airport, so we enjoyed browsing thru some of the shops there. We found these cute backdrops for pictures:

And, on the second leg of our flight home, we had a half empty plane. Our favorite travel companion had his own seat :

 

[arizonacolbys]

Recap:

All in all, it was another awesome Disney trip!! We’ve never had a bad trip to WDW and this trip was no exception! We loved our first few nights at POP & will definitely return there again in the future. You just can’t beat the value of staying there, especially when you do a lot of commando park touring. We love the food court there & the pools are fun, too.

Unfortunately, our only real disappointment in this trip was our stay at Caribbean Beach Resort. It was nice enough, but just not up to our Disney standards. The room was too run down & had that funky, musty smell that I really couldn’t get over . We hated all those bus stops (which I did worry about before we got there) & didn’t like the trek to the food court when we wanted a mug refill. The actual resort is very beautiful & we enjoyed what we saw of the beaches. Unfortunately, I think the colder weather while we were at CBR dampened our spirits about being there – it was only warm enough to lay in the hammocks once (and even then it started drizzling on us) and we never got to swim in the fun looking pool. Maybe if it was warmer & we were able to fully enjoy the atmosphere, we would’ve left there with a higher opinion of it.

For us in the future, I think it will be value or deluxe, or some sort of mix in between. I’m just not sure the moderates do much for us at this point – we’d rather save the money & stay at POP since we love it, or spend a little more & really enjoy a deluxe or DVC resort.

We had some great meals & no real complaints – we aren’t in a hurry to return to Hollywood & Vine. It wasn’t that it was bad food, but the service was just so-so & none of the food really stood out to us. Again, we’ve had no luck with a good place to eat at MGM. Some of our favorite meal experiences this trip include: Alfredo’s, Spoodles, Maya Grill, Liberty Tree & Cape May.

The Pirate & Princess Party is really a lot of fun & a great addition to MK’s after hours parties. I think it’s great that they’re adding a party for those that don’t get to visit during the traditional holiday parties that the MK hosts. Disney is really great at attention to detail & it really shows in all of their specialized parties. The highlights for this party are the awesome fireworks, parade & fun characters dressed up differently than during the day in the parks.

January is still a good time to go to WDW – it is value season, so resort stays are cheaper & you can usually get a discounted room on top of that. However, we’ve noticed an upwards trend in crowds in January over the last couple trips. We’ve been in January 2000, January 2005 & January 2007 & ’07 was definitely the busiest time for us – back in 2000 it was a ghost town! Our other problem with January at this point is just how cold it can get. We had several cold days this January & in ’05, too. It’s great to get outta Cleveland for a week in the Winter, though, so I’m sure it’ll still be a possible travel time in the future.

We are now preparing to leave for an unexpected trip back to WDW in just 2 short days. This will be our 3rd trip on these Annual Passes – so, we’ve definitely gotten our money’s worth! We’ll be down for 10 nights at the Wilderness Lodge (which I am beyond excited about!!! ) and during Free Dining. We’re trying some new restaurants & returning to many old favorites as well. We’re going to enjoy as much as we can since we REALLY don’t know when we’ll be back this time…

I know, I know…you’ve all heard that before. But, we’re really hoping our family will be growing a new addition over the next year or so & depending on how that timeline works out, we also intend to put our house back on the market this Spring or next. All these things add up to at least a year away from the Mouse!

If you’re interested – a link to my Pre-Trip report is below!! Thanks to everyone reading – it is really great to get everything written out from a trip & I love being able to share it with others who share my love for the Mouse.

 

[ThinkTink75]

Aw! What a sweet ending! And just in time for you next trip! Lucky you! I am so jealous! I wish I could afford to go more than once a year!! I am not as experience a WDWer as you but we loved CBR our last trip. I don't know if I mentioned this earlier in your TR but our first trip we stayed at ASMo and our first room was a disaster-- in the Toy Story buildings- smelt like mold and smoke, soda stains on the dresser, not vacuumed... but I wasn't willing to settle and when I called the front desk we were switched in no time. If you have a problem like this, don't let yourself be disappointed! Disney aims to please!

It is the best WDW advice I can give, especially since we just had a great experience at CBR and you seem like a similar couple to us so I wish you could have too! I am going to check out your new PTR and hopefully I will get through it while you are away. I don't know if you have popped over to mine but when you come back check out the link in my siggie for my PTR turned TR.... we have some really similar pictures.

I am also so jealous you are getting to go to Pirate and Princess party twice! I want so badly for it to return. I want to go back to WDW just for it! Since I am a teacher I can't go in January so I am secretly planning and hoping for a triumphant August return! Your pictures of it make me even more excited. We went in January of 2006 and got mostly barren crowds in the parks so I was surprised that you said it was so busy-- unless it was the draw of the P&PP.... which in that case makes me hope to go even more!

Also,
Have a great trip!!!

 

[jakenjess]

What a wonderful trip you had! I'll be looking forward to reading your report of your upcoming trip. Have a great time!

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

Great ending, I loved the pictures, and great timing in finishing it before your next trip starts, I dont think I am going to be able to pull that one off, I still more updates than days left before we leave.

Hope you enjoy your trip and go ND

 

[battlecat533]

I agree with that...Getting outta Cleveland to go to Florida in Dec/January is great. It may be chilly down there but it isnt anything compared to the 2 feet of snow we have here.

We are from Parma and are headed down for our honeymoon in Dec