You're the best parents in the world! I gotta pee! Where's My Tooth? Trip report!

[MICKEY4EVER!]

You girls are my kind of peeps. I count those blessings everyday.

 

[Myhappythought5]

GUESS WHAT!!!!!!!!! I couldn't leave well enough alone and called Disney Travel on my way home. This was to be my last call to see if they'd let me upgrade my buy 4/get 3 free resort. This is almost the exact conversation:

Me: When I booked our buy 4/get 3 free reservation, I asked if I could upgrade to a moderate resort at any time. I was told that I could and there would be no penalties because I would be spending more money. Can I upgrade to the Caribbean Beach Resort now please?

Castmember: Yes Lisa, that's true if the resort is available. If I can get the Caribbean Beach for you, do you wish to upgrade?

Me: Absolutely, if the price is something I can afford. It has to be less than $500.00 or we can't do it.


Castmember: Do you mind holding for a minute?

Me: Sure.

LISTENING TO SPLASH MOUNTAIN MUSIC AND THEN THE DWARFS SING HI HO HI HO!

Castmember: I found a standard room at the Caribbean Beach Resort for you.

Me: Great, how much extra would it cost?

Castmember: Let's see. I'll have to see what the difference comes to. Hum, it looks ike $456.64.

Me: Do it!

Sooooooo, we are now staying at the CBR!!!!!!! No hauling around the ice chest or dorm size fridge. No worrying about the single bus line at Pop. No worrying about room size. Those were my three worries about Pop. One day we'll probably rebook a stay at Pop but this year, we are going back to our favorite, Caribbean Beach Resort.

Hey, I just had a thought......I can swipe more little flowers.

That is awesome that you got the resort you wanted. I am so happy for you.
I know how you feel. We love the POR and stay there all the time. It is like home to us. We booked a stay at the Music when we went Feb 2008. 3 months before we left we changed back to POR. We just couldn't stand the thought of not going home.
We are staying at CBR this time and are still a little iffy about that. In fact the one thing keeping us from changing is the Pirate room.
I think that once you find a resort that you love it is hard to go elsewhere. And the more you go back to that resort the more it feels like home.

I am glad you got the resort you like and it was in your price range.

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

GUESS WHAT!!!!!!!!! I couldn't leave well enough alone and called Disney Travel on my way home. This was to be my last call to see if they'd let me upgrade my buy 4/get 3 free resort. This is almost the exact conversation:

Me: When I booked our buy 4/get 3 free reservation, I asked if I could upgrade to a moderate resort at any time. I was told that I could and there would be no penalties because I would be spending more money. Can I upgrade to the Caribbean Beach Resort now please?

Castmember: Yes Lisa, that's true if the resort is available. If I can get the Caribbean Beach for you, do you wish to upgrade?

Me: Absolutely, if the price is something I can afford. It has to be less than $500.00 or we can't do it.

Castmember: Do you mind holding for a minute?

Me: Sure.

LISTENING TO SPLASH MOUNTAIN MUSIC AND THEN THE DWARFS SING HI HO HI HO!

Castmember: I found a standard room at the Caribbean Beach Resort for you.

Me: Great, how much extra would it cost?

Castmember: Let's see. I'll have to see what the difference comes to. Hum, it looks ike $456.64.

Me: Do it!

Sooooooo, we are now staying at the CBR!!!!!!! No hauling around the ice chest or dorm size fridge. No worrying about the single bus line at Pop. No worrying about room size. Those were my three worries about Pop. One day we'll probably rebook a stay at Pop but this year, we are going back to our favorite, Caribbean Beach Resort.

Hey, I just had a thought......I can swipe more little flowers.

AWESOME!!!

I have booked POR for the next trip, and it's really hard not to switch to CBR because we know we love it so much!

 

[mickeystoontown]

You girls are my kind of peeps. I count those blessings everyday.

Me too!

Ditto!

That is awesome that you got the resort you wanted. I am so happy for you.
I know how you feel. We love the POR and stay there all the time. It is like home to us. We booked a stay at the Music when we went Feb 2008. 3 months before we left we changed back to POR. We just couldn't stand the thought of not going home.
We are staying at CBR this time and are still a little iffy about that. In fact the one thing keeping us from changing is the Pirate room.
I think that once you find a resort that you love it is hard to go elsewhere. And the more you go back to that resort the more it feels like home.

I am glad you got the resort you like and it was in your price range.

I guess it was always in the back of my mind that I wanted to stay at the CBR but was happy to be staying at Pop which was something different. It also didn't help that I was doing this trip report and looking at pictures of the CBR over and over again.

AWESOME!!!

I have booked POR for the next trip, and it's really hard not to switch to CBR because we know we love it so much!

Oh my goodness girl, you aren't going to do like me and wait until the last minute and change back to the CBR are you?

 

[mickeystoontown]

Where in the world did my lunch hour go? I know where. We didn't get out of the office until 12:15 and I didn't bring my lunch with me today so, by the time I grabbed some lunch, drove back to the office and ate, lunch hour was GONE! We are off tomorrow so I really don't mind that I missed part of my lunch today.

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Oh my goodness girl, you aren't going to do like me and wait until the last minute and change back to the CBR are you?

I might!

 

[aaaateamsgrandma]

Where in the world did my lunch hour go? I know where. We didn't get out of the office until 12:15 and I didn't bring my lunch with me today so, by the time I grabbed some lunch, drove back to the office and ate, lunch hour was GONE! We are off tomorrow so I really don't mind that I missed part of my lunch today.

I am going to run and get lunch. We had a drug rep bring today and the Dr. wanated Mexican. Not my choice so I just had ice tea. Now to go get real food. We are off tomorrow also and going to Tennessee to take Alex home. Andrew is going along for the ride. 9 hour road trip.

 

[mommytothreeboys]

Woo-Hoo for the UPGRADE!!

Good for you for being persistent! Sometimes you just have to hold out for the right person!

I really hope Lacey is able to join you...that would be so special for all of you.

An extra $100 in my pocket each week? Yes Please!

You are absolutely right to call a blessing what it is...a blessing! Not luck or coincidence!

 

[mickeystoontown]

I am going to run and get lunch. We had a drug rep bring today and the Dr. wanated Mexican. Not my choice so I just had ice tea. Now to go get real food. We are off tomorrow also and going to Tennessee to take Alex home. Andrew is going along for the ride. 9 hour road trip.

If I don't get to talk with you before you get on the road....be really careful. People go nuts on the highways when it's a holiday.

Woo-Hoo for the UPGRADE!!

Good for you for being persistent! Sometimes you just have to hold out for the right person!

I really hope Lacey is able to join you...that would be so special for all of you.

An extra $100 in my pocket each week? Yes Please!

You are absolutely right to call a blessing what it is...a blessing! Not luck or coincidence!

I was chatting with Momof2Disneyboys (an avid CBR fan) earlier today and I kept asking her if she had heard that I upgraded (I knew that she had but I wanted to tease her.). I think I asked her two or three times I was so excited.

I knew that it was a longshot getting the upgrade but I wanted to try just one more time before I gave up. I really think it was because I worded my request just right and the third castmember really listened to what I had to say.

We are 99% sure that Lacey's coming along but I am holding out to the last minute to add her just in case. At least I know I already have the money set aside.

Honey child, I know that I am blessed with my new boss. He's the kind that tells you when you do a good job and has no problem acting like he's my equal...not above me. And, the extra money doesn't hurt either!

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

I was chatting with Momof2Disneyboys (an avid CBR fan) earlier today and I kept asking her if she had heard that I upgraded (I knew that she had but I wanted to tease her.). I think I asked her two or three times I was so excited.

I knew that it was a longshot getting the upgrade but I wanted to try just one more time before I gave up. I really think it was because I worded my request just right and the third castmember really listened to what I had to say.

We are 99% sure that Lacey's coming along but I am holding out to the last minute to add her just in case. At least I know I already have the money set aside.

Two or three times??? Try five or six times (in about 5 minutes!)!

I sure hope Lacey is able to come! And it will be a great surprise for her and Hunter getting to go to CBR!

 

[overthemoon4mickey]

Yeah for you! I'm so happy you get to go back to your Disney home!


You had the same thoughts I had this go round. We've stayed at CBR, CSR, WLV, and POR. I liked POR but thought it looked too much like home. WLV is out of my price range! (we got to stay there when we we "stuck" in Disney due to Hurricane Rita hitting Houston when we were due to arrive home. ALWAYS get the travel insurance!!!! All 3 days at the WLV and our food was covered.) We stayed at CBR our first time and didn't know enough to mind being stuck out in the furthest building from the main building. So we never really spend much time in the heart of the resort. We loved CSR and DH loves the Pepper Market enough to base his resort choice on that alone.

So....I thought this time since we are not really in the room that much to just stay Value. Well, now since a certain someone upgraded and planted to idea in my Disney obsessed brain and... I'm off to see what I can do.

 

[aaaateamsgrandma]

If I don't get to talk with you before you get on the road....be really careful. People go nuts on the highways when it's a holiday.

They sure do and we are stuck with traveling Friday and back on Sunday. You have a great 4th if we don't chat again.
Ginny

 

[mickeystoontown]

Now that I've told everyone that can possibly give a care that I upgraded to the CBR....

Hey Momof2Disneyboys, did I tell you I upgraded to the CBR? ....

Anyway, now that I've told you guys all about my upgrade, let's get back to what you actually signed on for....a trip report.

Once I had pictures of the new T-Rex restaurant construction, we made our way towards the Lego Store, World of Disney and Mickey Mart. First stop was the Lego Store. Here's a picture of Hunter with this groovy looking Lego guy. Hunter has this look on his face because some little boy had just run by and accidentally stepped on Hunter's foot...thus the "hurry up and take this freakin' picture because I want to say OWWW!" look:

After much looking around, Hunter decided there wasn't anything in the store that he really wanted to spend his money on so we just picked up one of the free Lego magazine/catalog things and were off to the World of Disney.

For the last two years, John had bought a hat/t-shirt golf combo at the World of Disney store. He just loves them. I don't know really know why 'cause he doesn't care anything about golf and has never even been on a golf course but he said they fit good.

Now I don't know about you guys but when we go to this store, there is no way in the world we can keep up with each other. Usually, Hunter goes off with his best buddy and I go off alone. John's mission was to find the hat/shirt combo. Hunter's mission was to find a toy, any toy. My mission was to find my boss a 3x t-shirt and I wanted a new wallet.

John and I also like to buy little things for each other that we don't know about and then surprise each other later in the vacation. It's so funny because we do this every year but still sneak around doing it. Why do we sneak when we both know? I don't know. I guess we're just weird? Oh, and we also had to find something for Lacey.

John called me after about 30 minutes to say he had found some 3x t-shirts and for me to head over to the Men's section and take a look. There were only about 3 designs to choose from in the large sizes. One was Donald. One just said Walt Disney World. The last was Grumpy. My boss is the grumpiest person I have ever met in the morning (never to me thankfully) so I chose the Grumpy one. That decision having been made, we continued to look around for John's hat/shirt combo and finally found it tucked way in the corner. Another item to mark off the list.

Now, it was Hunter's turn to find something and we made our way through the crowded store to the boy section. On our way through the store, I spotted Peter Pan soaring high above me.

Wendy and John were flying around up there too and I took their picture but I can't find it on photobucket. I'll keep looking and post those later.

Hunter finally found the Disney characters dressed as Star Wars characters and decided to get a couple of those. He was really saving his money to build a lightsaber at Once Upon A Toy. We also bought him the little packages of collectible itty bitty figures. They come in different themes. You don't know what you are getting. They cost just $5.00 and you can trade them. Gosh, I can't remember what they are called. I'll go home and see if I can find one of the packages and post it later.

I didn't find a wallet but did have a few other things I found that I just had to have.

After about 2 hours in the store, we all had our finds and were on our way to the checkout. While standing in line, I saw that they were having one of those "spend such and such amount of money and get this rolling duffle bag for just $20.00". Suckers that we are, we bought a rolling duffle bag too. Hunter kept his Star Wars figures but we sent everything else to the resort. I love resort package pickup.

And then we're off towards Once Upon A Toy but not before stopping at a few other stores along the way. We didn't buy anything but did get a really good laugh when we remembered something Hunter had done to Lacey many years ago. This is a little how shall I say it.....detailed.....so I'm warning you now.

Hunter was about 5 or so and had gotten mad at Lacey for something while we were shopping at Downtown Disney. Who knows what for. Anyway, they were puffed up at each other for about half an hour and Hunter finally said "give me a hug" to Lacey. They hugged and we went on our merry shopping way. We went through two stores and in our third store, Lacey turned around where I could see her back and there was a huge streak down the back of Lacey's black shirt. I looked closer and it was a dried booger. Hunter had wiped it down her back when he hugged her as a way of getting back at her! It wasn't funny to Lacey and I had to get on to Hunter but later it was really funny.

Ahhh! McBride Family Memories!

Okay, back to the present story. We left the other shops without buying a single thing and went on down to Once Upon A Toy. Hunter was ready to build his lightsaber. He had been waiting all year to do it. I couldn't figure out how to do it. John couldn't figure out how to do it. Hunter kind of knew how to do it but I got a castmember to come over just to make sure we were doing it right. He built one that was a double lightsaber. It's really neat. The only thing it doesn't do is light up because it has the two extendable things on it.

I have two sisters and they each have two children and the list of nieces and nephew continues to grow so we draw names for Christmas. For those of you not familiar with this, let me explain. We put everybody's name on a slip of paper and each person draws out a slip. We have four people in our family so I draw out four names. Those are the four people that I buy Christmas presents for. With the family being so large, it's just monetarily impossible to buy a gift for each person. Thus, we draw names.

I had drawn out my two nephews names so I bought them each a lighsaber since they are brothers and just 13 months apart in age. I wouldn't dare get them something different for them to fight over.

I also bought some small items for John's niece and nephew since they brought us something back from their Disney trip.

Now that our pocketbooks were a bit lighter, we went to Mickey Mart. I absolutely love Mickey Mart. Everything is under $10.00! I can also usually find some stuff to sell on Ebay at Mickey Mart. We came out of the store with three huge bags of stuff and had it sent to the resort package pickup as well.

After this much shopping, we wanted something to drink so we snuck into Goofy's and bought a drink and some cotton candy.

Sometime during our walk around the CBR and DTD, we decided we wanted to go see Wilderness Lodge and Pop Century since these were the two places we had previously wanted to stay. We went to the bus stop and waited on whichever bus came first. Wilderness Lodge came first so we hopped on. When we pulled up to the Wilderness Lodge, the first thing I saw was the gorgeous lodge itself. We made our way up the pathway and walked into the massive doors. The lodge itself was so pretty. We walked all through the lodge, shopped in the store, looked around the resort grounds, looked at their food court, etc. But, I wasn't blown away. And I didn't take one single picture. Hum?

We caught the bus back to DTD and lucked out when a CBR bus pulled up about 5 minutes later. We made a bathroom stop and decided we'd just drive our car to Pop Century. The drive took just a few minutes. I didn't realize it was so close to the CBR. We told the guard we were there to take a look around, he looked at our driver's license and told us to go on through. The resort is really cute. We went through the main building and walked all around. Here are a few pictures that we took.

Our tummies were talking to us about now since we hadn't eaten anything since our morning snacks so off we went to the Pop food court. Hunter got a pizza. I got a chicken caesar salad. John got a vegetable sandwich/pizza thing. We didn't want anything too heavy since we would be going back to Downtown Disney to eat at Rainforest Cafe that night.

Then, it started to rain. I mean really rain. Hard! So what's a good Disney lover to do while it rains? Shop! The store had a lot to choose from and I think I remember buying a few small things. Since it was still raining, we walked around and looked at the displays in the check-in area. The rain had just about stopped and we made a dash for the car. We went back to the CBR for a nice afternoon rest.

Next up, another trip to DTD.

 

[cmskok]

Then, it started to rain. I mean really rain. Hard! So what's a good Disney lover to do while it rains? Shop!

Ha!! My favorite part is the shopping!

 

[aaaateamsgrandma]

Hunter was about 5 or so and had gotten mad at Lacey for something while we were shopping at Downtown Disney. Who knows what for. Anyway, they were puffed up at each other for about half an hour and Hunter finally said "give me a hug" to Lacey. They hugged and we went on our merry shopping way. We went through two stores and in our third store, Lacey turned around where I could see her back and there was a huge streak down the back of Lacey's black shirt. I looked closer and it was a dried booger. Hunter had wiped it down her back when he hugged her as a way of getting back at her! It wasn't funny to Lacey and I had to get on to Hunter but later it was really funny.

I know for a fact our families have to be related. Not only would we have done that (and did) so would my daughters and grandchildren. That is too sad for us all.

Love this update. The pictures are fab.

Just did an update before I leave for the weekend.

 

[nettii]

Another great instalment! I Love the story about Hunter and Lacey sounds like something my youngest DS would do. Congrats on CBR Id love to stay there once maybe next year. What bldg. do you recommend?
Cant wait to hear more Nettii

 

[longing2Batdisney]

Just showed Ashton the pics from POP; dats two tato heads, look a big wabbit,,go back, go back, dats two biiiiggggg!!!! tato heads

I think he really liked them...now I wish we would've gone to Pop instead of ASSp although he kept saying dats a big boucyball (all balls except basketballs are bouncyballs)...

another great installment!!
Have a great 4th

 

[MK2010]

I'm planning on pre buying souvenirs for my kids before we go. I was going to get my son a Build Your Own lightsaber kits from Hastings or Toys R Us. We're on a really tight budget and my kids are really understanding about that sort of thing- they rarely ask for stuff. Anyhoo- is Downtown Disney the only place you can build your own lightsaber? And is it worth the extra money to let him have the experience?

 

[hhockman]

Great update. You guys even have fun on non-park days.

My boys are TOTALLY going to do the build a lightsaber thing. I haven't told them we're going, so obviously I haven't told them about this, but they will be doing it. They would buy one of the $5 ones every time we went to the store if I let them (of course I don't!). Do you remember how much it costs? I want to make sure they are bringing enough for that plus a few other small things.

I've stayed at POP once and it was cute. I forgot how cute. But we still love ASSp rotfl: I totally didn't realize what the initials for that resort spell and I only got *** so I had to come back and add the "p" ). And ASM for that matter. I'm really looking forward to POR though.

I totally wish I was bringing enough money to shop and shop, but I know I'm going to have to be choosy. Still, it's even fun to browse at Disney.

And thanks for the TRex picture. We're doing it this time too. I ordered a giftcard from their website so that money is already taken care of too and I KNOW we're going. We usually do Rainforest cafe, but don't have it planned this time. We might do Planet Hollywood. We have reservations, but will have to pay OOP, so I'm not sure if we'll be able to do it. Even with the free $15 they give you (now if I could use 3 of those at once I'd be set b/c I know my parents and my brother won't be using theirs...but I'm sure we can't).

Anyway, before I highjack your thread, can't wait for the next installment!

 

[jenseib]

I got 4 pages behind again.
All caught up now. So you are changing then. wow! LOL! You will be comfortable though knowing you like CBR. They are right next door too. Someone once posted there is a "nonpublic" path between the 2 palces and she had jogged it daily while she was down there. I never went and looked for it though.