Throw Up on the Lap Bars Please- A June 2019 TR! COMPLETED 3/1!

[lvcourtneyy]

Haha this is hilarious! Minnie is copping a feel!



Wow all your pictures really are selling me on the resort. Spyglass Grill looks delicious!

I know- I cracked up when I saw it lol

It was a very gorgeous resort for sure! Spyglass Grill was delicious. I just wish we had made it back for another meal!

 

[NJlauren]

When I left off, it was only 9:30 am and we were already at our resort, with a full Disney day ahead!

I mean what is better then this!

t was already almost 90 degrees out, so we decided to head to the pool! I only wish I had thought to put my bathing suit in my backpack because I felt a little weird opening my suitcase in the lobby, but I'm sure no one really noticed except me.

Quick stop out front to bell services to drop off the suitcases, and we were off to the pool!

HAHA! This has been me before, whatever... its better then the one time my suitcase came out at the airport and it was a bit opened with a bra hanging out... HAHAH

Minnie, this is a family place!

HAHA Minnie!

unger was starting to set in, and despite the fact that it was already 10:30 am, the pool bar still wasn't open!

I feel like on this day its like i have been up since 3 i deserve alcohol!

his is the picture I sent to my family and posted to social media that morning. Full vacation mode in effect!

LOVE !

Soon enough, we were approaching Spyglass Grill- but first had to check out the Skyliner construction!

CAN NOT WAIT! I wish we would get an idea of when they would open!

After reading through the menu, I decided on the Breakfast Yuca Hash (Roasted Yuca with Chorizo Redeye Gravy and a Sunny-Side Up Egg topped with Pico de Gallo, Cotjia Cheese and a Lime)



I was a little hesitant to order this at first since I never had yuca before but I decided to take a chance- and I'm so glad I did! It was delicious! The yuca tasted similar to potatoes to me and all the flavors were super tasty. (Side note: I'm also not entirely sure what cotija cheese is but I haven't met too many cheeses I didn't like)

I Love YUca and all cheese,

Mike chose the Breakfast Cuban (Pressed Cuban Sandwich stuffed with Ham, Pulled Pork, Egg and Swiss Cheese)

this looks fab too, i want to stay here just for the breakfast menu!

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

The resort looks gorgeous and breakfast sounds yum.

I'm interested to hear how things went with the buses. We looked at CBR, as it's one of the lowest budget options for 5 person rooms, but ultimately decided against it. The buses were part of that decision.

 

[SimplyGoofy]

The picture with Minnie is pretty darn funny...

You took great pictures around the resort! I've never stayed at CBR and after staying at Coronado Springs, I wasn't sure I'd want to as that resort was huge and I believe CBR is even larger! Still, the surroundings do look nice.

Your breakfasts look GREAT! And now I'm hungry...

 

[tundra1]

CBR is one of our options for our next trip. I just can't decide if the bus system will be too much. And what is going to happen there once the Gondolas start running? Can't wait to hear more about your impressions.

 

[pcbianchini]

I’m happy I found your report. I leave on the 23rd for a week at CBR. Can’t wait to hear more about your experiences.

 

[Newsies]

TSA agent: Everything out of your pockets
Man in front of me: Does that include gum?
TSA agent: everything.

TSA agent: All electronics bigger than a cell phone need a separate bin.
Man in front of me: Does that include my cell phone?
TSA agent: Only if it's bigger than a cell phone

See, I couldn't be a TSA agent for this reason.

I was shocked to see the Ben and Jerry's stand opening as we were boarding and strongly considered getting ice cream at 5 am.

Honestly? That sounds like the BEST way to start a Disney vacation. I will look for Ben and Jerry's next time I'm at an airport at 5 AM.

I absolutely hate the part before take-off, I think they call it taxi-ing? You know, the part where the plan walks around in circles for what feels like FOREVER, seemingly deciding whether or not to take-off. I put my music on extra loud at this point and try to ignore that it's happening until we actually take-off.

YES!!! I hate this part so much!!!!

Basically, she was telling him he had to sit up and put his seatbelt on for the descent and his response was "But, I'm taking a nap". The flight attendant looked at him and say "Oh really? I don't care. Safety first". I think she and I would be friends.

Why were 98% of the people you ran into at the airports and on the planes just NOT okay?!? Glad you made it to Disney safe and without incident... you know, other than having to witness people walking around the cabin while the plane was taking off at a 75 degree angle.

Mike chose the Breakfast Cuban (Pressed Cuban Sandwich stuffed with Ham, Pulled Pork, Egg and Swiss Cheese)

He's a pretty picky eater but he said he enjoyed his sandwich. He said the pulled pork was a little on the dry side but that he still enjoyed the taste.

This looks really yummy!!!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

I mean what is better then this!

Not much ! lol

HAHA! This has been me before, whatever... its better then the one time my suitcase came out at the airport and it was a bit opened with a bra hanging out... HAHAH

That's something I could see happening to me!

I feel like on this day its like i have been up since 3 i deserve alcohol!

Agreed!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

The resort looks gorgeous and breakfast sounds yum.

I'm interested to hear how things went with the buses. We looked at CBR, as it's one of the lowest budget options for 5 person rooms, but ultimately decided against it. The buses were part of that decision.

Definitely gorgeous and the food was delicious! I have to say, good choice on not choosing it, purely because of the buses.

 

[lvcourtneyy]

The picture with Minnie is pretty darn funny...

You took great pictures around the resort! I've never stayed at CBR and after staying at Coronado Springs, I wasn't sure I'd want to as that resort was huge and I believe CBR is even larger! Still, the surroundings do look nice.

Thank you! CBR is definitely bigger than Coronado in my opinion. Gorgeous but GIANT.

Your breakfasts look GREAT! And now I'm hungry...

Ugh me too! I need to have snacks with me while I'm on the boards lol.

 

[lvcourtneyy]

I’m happy I found your report. I leave on the 23rd for a week at CBR. Can’t wait to hear more about your experiences.

Thanks for reading! Your trip is so soon! CBR was gorgeous but we had some issues.

 

[lvcourtneyy]

CBR is one of our options for our next trip. I just can't decide if the bus system will be too much. And what is going to happen there once the Gondolas start running? Can't wait to hear more about your impressions.

The buses are a big part of why we would hesitate to stay there again. I'm not sure what will change with the gondolas but I hope it helps the issues!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

See, I couldn't be a TSA agent for this reason.

Me neither. They make the same announcements so many times and people still don't get it!

Honestly? That sounds like the BEST way to start a Disney vacation. I will look for Ben and Jerry's next time I'm at an airport at 5 AM.

I agree! I'm still regretting not getting the ice cream lol

Why were 98% of the people you ran into at the airports and on the planes just NOT okay?!? Glad you made it to Disney safe and without incident... you know, other than having to witness people walking around the cabin while the plane was taking off at a 75 degree angle.

Seriously I have no idea!! That man walking around made me so anxious!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Caribbean Beach Room Tour

When we left off, we were on our way to Old Port Royale to store the rest of our stuff with bell services so we could go to Epcot.



I spotted these lanterns that I hadn't noticed before on the way in and I thought they were so pretty!

-----Also, here's some bonus pictures that Mike had on his phone and never sent me.

Untitled by Courtney Holder, on Flickr

I knew there was an actual photo of me in the hammock, not just an accidental video.

Untitled by Courtney Holder, on Flickr

The breakfast menu at Spyglass.

Untitled by Courtney Holder, on Flickr

A plinko game at Spyglass. I tried to take a video of Mike playing it which ended up with me spilling my soda all over myself and my phone. I should NOT be trusted with cups without lids.

---------------------

There was a huge pin trading board out in the lobby so we stopped and traded some pins. Mike headed to the bathroom to change but I decided to look around the gift shop first and I'm glad I did because I got the text that our room was ready as he was coming back out to meet me!

The text came at 11:27 am and the timing couldn't have been more perfect. If we had just left for Epcot and then got the text, it would've been very annoying!

We headed back out to bell services to retrieve our suitcases and let them know we also had a grocery order that had been delivered. The CM then asked if we wanted someone to just drive us to our room with our suitcases and our groceries! Of course we said yes please!

I was honestly expecting someone to come with a golf cart but not even 2 minutes later, a CM pulled up with a van to load us up with our stuff! He was so nice and told us all about the resort, the buses, the internal shuttle and the best way from our room to the bus stop. I felt bad that our room was on the 2nd floor and there were no elevators, but he had a little hand truck and refused to allow us to help take anything up. We tipped him nicely for all his help but I wish I had remembered his name for a cast compliment!

Now I present you with a photo tour of a standard room at CBR:

Untitled by Courtney Holder, on Flickr

Apparently this is the first thing I decided to take a picture of in the room. You're welcome.

Untitled by Courtney Holder, on Flickr

Untitled by Courtney Holder, on Flickr

Untitled by Courtney Holder, on Flickr

Untitled by Courtney Holder, on Flickr

Untitled by Courtney Holder, on Flickr

Untitled by Courtney Holder, on Flickr

Untitled by Courtney Holder, on Flickr

Untitled by Courtney Holder, on Flickr


Our thoughts?

The room was nice enough, nothing particularly special though. There was no real theming at all except for the one picture on the walls. I was surprised to find carpet on the floors since I thought they were going to hardwood floors with all the refurbs, which I like much better.

My one complaint, which isn't even specific to CBR is the fridges they're using now. The ones with the clear door. They are SO tiny and there's barely room for anything in them and there's no freezer section at all.

We quickly got our stuff situated and got ourselves changed and ready to head to Epcot. I'm laughing to myself as I write this because it's basically like we had a whole day already before making it to a park!

Before leaving the room, I was busy taking the all-important mirror selfie for Snapchat.

Untitled by Courtney Holder, on Flickr

In the meantime though, Mike apparently was doing something productive, and checked to see if his magicband worked to open our room.

Spoiler alert: it didn't.

To make a long story as short as possible, on our trip last October, Mike's MDE account apparently "corrupted" from too much data! We were literally in Magic Kingdom and suddenly couldn't make fastpasses or do anything at all. It took 3 visits to guest relations, 2 phone calls on my own to IT before an amazing CM at Fort Wilderness got to the root of the problem. They ended up deleting his entire account and rebuilding it and we had no more issues for the last few days of our trip. IT had warned us though that this may become a recurring issue on future trips so we weren't totally surprised.

We decided to continue on to Epcot and save our visit to the front desk for when we came back later.

As we were leaving the room, I checked the app for the bus times and it showed "no times available for Epcot". #thanksfornothing.

We continued out the door to the bus stop anyway figuring one had to come soon right?
​

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Is a Bus Ever Coming?

The Jamaica bus stop was a short walk from our room by cutting through the parking lot and we got there at 12:20. The times board at the stop also showed no time up for Epcot.

Eventually the board updated to show a bus coming at 12:40. We were a little annoyed but ok.

I passed the time sending snapchats and found this fun filter!

Untitled by Courtney Holder, on Flickr

Then I saw Disney photopass had posted lists of magic shots on their Instagram story so I screenshotted those.

In the meanwhile, we watched 3 buses come for Animal Kingdom, 2 for Hollywood Studios, 1 for Magic Kingdom, 2 for Disney Springs and an internal resort shuttle. And the time an Epcot bus was coming just kept changing. I was trying not to be annoyed on our first day but Mike kept reading the times to me as they changed and I was getting grumpy quickly!

I was hoping to make our first FP for Spaceship Earth which ended at 1:10. As the minutes went by with no bus, it was seeming unlikely to happen! I was really wishing I had @pkondz VIP transportation package at this point.

Finally, at 12:49, an Epcot bus showed up! One thing I think the values do better than the others is by having dedicated lines for each bus because I hate that free-for-all dash to the bus.

Anyway, I was much happier now since we were on our way to Epcot! The bus driver pointed out the hidden Mickey in the solar panels on our way but I wasn't able to catch it quickly enough.

We got to Epcot and made it through security and the tapstyles without incident (no more magicband problems yet- yay!)

The rain forecast had changed to 0% for the afternoon but this was our view on arrival:

Untitled by Courtney Holder, on Flickr

Ok weatherman, I beg to differ!

The monorail came so I was obligated to take another picture.

Untitled by Courtney Holder, on Flickr

It was 1:09 at this point so we could still make it to our Spaceship Earth fastpass!
Grand and miraculous.

But first, I wanted a photopass picture before the storm came and I looked like a
drowned rat.

#priorities

We lucked out because the photopass CM said we could be her last family before she went to seek refuge from the impending rain.

450573518 by Courtney Holder, on Flickr

450573486 by Courtney Holder, on Flickr

Thank goodness I had my sunglasses on. It was so bright and sunny out.

No sooner than we made it to the fastpass entrance, it started downpouring! The fastpass line looked extremely backed up but it was only because people without FP+ were trying to run into the line to get of the storm.

Thank goodness for that 15 minute grace period because we scanned in at 1:14.

Untitled by Courtney Holder, on Flickr

(I was trying to capture how badly it was coming down but you can't really tell from the photo)

There was a bit of a wait outside in the FP line but luckily it was mostly under cover and moved quickly. We still got a little wet because of the crazy wind blowing but it was much better than being stuck directly in the rain!

Soon enough it was time to design our future! I was surprised to find a whole new batch of questions for our future that I had never had before!

Untitled by Courtney Holder, on Flickr

I had no idea Mike made that ridiculous face for the camera but we were both cracking up hysterical when it came up on the screen!

Untitled by Courtney Holder, on Flickr

He stopped laughing though when he realized I was going to exploit this opportunity to take as many pictures of his face like that as possible!

Untitled by Courtney Holder, on Flickr

Untitled by Courtney Holder, on Flickr

We got off the ride and were happy to find it was no longer raining! We couldn't have timed that better if we tried.

We made a quick stop in the camera store across from Spaceship Earth so I could swap out my fuelrod for a charged one.

I know there's a lot of debate about whether Fuel Rod's are worth it or not. I think they're great. I know you can buy a much more powerful portable charger for the same $30 or less even, but the ability to swap them out in the parks makes it worth every penny! Now I don't have to run around our hotel room every night plugging in a bunch of chargers and I think it's the best thing ever. It sucks that they charge for swapping at Universal and I hope they don't start that at WDW!

I had move our next FP for Mission Space to later when I was trying to move our SE FP while waiting for the bus, so we had nowhere to be. There was a meet and greet we were both anxious to get to though so that's where we decided to go!

Any guesses where we were headed?

Next time: Does the weather hold up? Our much anticipated meet and greet and a terrible fastpass line full of cutting and shoving!​

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

We headed back out to bell services to retrieve our suitcases and let them know we also had a grocery order that had been delivered. The CM then asked if we wanted someone to just drive us to our room with our suitcases and our groceries! Of course we said yes please!

How nice of them!

nd there were no elevators

No elevators?! That eliminates this place for me. We prefer upper level rooms to cut down on noise from rooms above and my mom has bad knees which makes stairs challenging for her, especially after a long park day!

To make a long story as short as possible, on our trip last October, Mike's MDE account apparently "corrupted" from too much data!

How strange.

 

[lvcourtneyy]

How nice of them!

It was so nice!

No elevators?! That eliminates this place for me. We prefer upper level rooms to cut down on noise from rooms above and my mom has bad knees which makes stairs challenging for her, especially after a long park day!

Yup no elevators at all. I totally understand that. Even without any ailments, the stairs were rough at night so I’m sure they’d be impossible for a lot of people.

How strange

Very strange and very annoying! Especially since of the two of us, I go to WDW more frequently and don’t have any issues with my account.

 

[Newsies]

There was a huge pin trading board out in the lobby so we stopped and traded some pins. Mike headed to the bathroom to change but I decided to look around the gift shop first and I'm glad I did because I got the text that our room was ready as he was coming back out to meet me!

The text came at 11:27 am and the timing couldn't have been more perfect. If we had just left for Epcot and then got the text, it would've been very annoying!

11:27 AM room text? Love that for you!

To make a long story as short as possible, on our trip last October, Mike's MDE account apparently "corrupted" from too much data! We were literally in Magic Kingdom and suddenly couldn't make fastpasses or do anything at all. It took 3 visits to guest relations, 2 phone calls on my own to IT before an amazing CM at Fort Wilderness got to the root of the problem. They ended up deleting his entire account and rebuilding it and we had no more issues for the last few days of our trip. IT had warned us though that this may become a recurring issue on future trips so we weren't totally surprised.

"Corrupted" from too much data?!? Oh, yikes. That's a big ol' NOPE from me

In the meanwhile, we watched 3 buses come for Animal Kingdom, 2 for Hollywood Studios, 1 for Magic Kingdom, 2 for Disney Springs and an internal resort shuttle. And the time an Epcot bus was coming just kept changing. I was trying not to be annoyed on our first day but Mike kept reading the times to me as they changed and I was getting grumpy quickly!

Another NOPE from this girl. C'mon, Epcot bus! Pull it together!!!

Finally, at 12:49, an Epcot bus showed up! One thing I think the values do better than the others is by having dedicated lines for each bus because I hate that free-for-all dash to the bus.

I always wondered about that! Seems so much easier and more organized!

I know there's a lot of debate about whether Fuel Rod's are worth it or not. I think they're great. I know you can buy a much more powerful portable charger for the same $30 or less even, but the ability to swap them out in the parks makes it worth every penny! Now I don't have to run around our hotel room every night plugging in a bunch of chargers and I think it's the best thing ever. It sucks that they charge for swapping at Universal and I hope they don't start that at WDW!

PREACH! Not having to charge a bunch of chargers every night is the best! #TeamFuelRod

There was a meet and greet we were both anxious to get to though so that's where we decided to go!

Eager to see who you meet!

 

[missangelalexis]

Glad you didn't leave before your room was ready!!

That's nuts about Mike's MDE becoming corrupted!

That stinks about the bus taking forever! The free for all bus stops are one thing I would really hate about staying at a Mod resort.

Cute PP pics in front of SE! You got them done just in time!

I'm going to guess you were headed to Ralph & Vanellope!

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

I felt bad that our room was on the 2nd floor and there were no elevators,

This was another big reason we opted not to do CBR. We traveled with two strollers and, while we could have requested ground floor, that's obviously not guaranteed. I didn't want to risk having to lug strollers up and down stairs every day. How nice that Bell Services took you on a direct drive to your room and lugged everything up the stairs for you!

Spoiler alert: it didn't.

IT had warned us though that this may become a recurring issue on future trips so we weren't totally surprised.

How frustrating. If they completely deleted and recreated his account, I don't understand why they couldn't do it in such a way that the issue wouldn't follow him. There's that award winning Disney IT for you.

Finally, at 12:49, an Epcot bus showed up!

30 minutes for a bus is really rough, especially because it was your first park visit of the trip. Glad you got to your FP in time.

Untitled by Courtney Holder, on Flickr

Ok weatherman, I beg to differ!

How ominous! AccuWeather must have a really tough time with pop up summer thunderstorms. I have been sitting in a torrential downpour while my phone says, "No precipitation expected for the next 120 minutes."

I know you can buy a much more powerful portable charger for the same $30 or less even, but the ability to swap them out in the parks makes it worth every penny! Now I don't have to run around our hotel room every night plugging in a bunch of chargers and I think it's the best thing ever.

I think it depends on how you plan to use it otherwise. Fuel Rods are super convenient for Disney travel, but if you're also thinking about other, non touristy destinations, you're stuck with a lower power portable charger.