Family Vacation Resumes

Our room at CBR was nothing over the top special, but we didn’t hang out much there anyway.  I rented a stroller in Orlando before we left home.  It was delivered to the resort and was at the concierge when we arrived.  I knew we would do a lot of walking and I felt that expecting Pook to walk several acres per day, in the hot Florida sun, in July would have been a little bit too much!  Not to mention that if she fell asleep, poor Boo would have to carry her!  Pook  is not like the older two were. No…she is a healthy size!  

 So after unloading the truck, Pook and I changed into our WalMart/Disney shirts and we hit the road. We drove everyday.  No resort buses for us!  But not before her two sisters blessed her with birthday gifts.  

This was Thursday evening and we had 7pm dinner reservations at the Crystal Palace, which is a character buffet.  To be on time, we hustled over there after getting into the park and didn’t stop to see or do anything else in the MK.  

 The featured characters were Pooh and his gang.  They visited each table, so between running to the buffet for refills and hugging/taking pictures with characters, that’s pretty much it for your evening.   

That’s okay with me because, trips like this are all about the kids! J 

I hate to tell you all this but I saw something happen at the buffet, but I won’t tell it unless someone asks….

After dinner, the Electrical Light Parade started, so we watched.  I think we accidentally- saw it/ran into it- a total of 3-4 times over the period of days when we were there. The music has a tendency to get stuck in your head and drives you crazy (ask Middle Ma)! 

After the parade ended and a mosquito finished feasting on my back (I haven’t been attacked by a mosquito like that since childhood!) I decided to ride the Haunted Mansion for old times’ sake.  I tried to get Pook to come and I’m glad she didn’t.   She asked me, “If it’s not scary, why does it say HAUNTED?”  Pretty logical summation to me, so I didn’t push it.  She waited with dad while I rode alone…and when I say alone, I mean that I stood at the entrance in the semi-dark ALONE for about 10 minutes before some other riders finally showed up and the man opened the door to let us in. There were only about 15 people total (it was getting late) and I rode in the little car by myself.  Well, I must have forgotten the creepiness factor because it WOULD have been too much for Pook,,,although another little 7 or 8 y.o. little girl did ride it…she’s not Pook. 

 

Next, we all rode the Jungle Cruise in the dark. I was surprised they ran it at night but the boat has headlights.

Details on that later!

Family vacation continues

For this short vacay, we stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort.  The CBR is what Disney refers to as a moderate resort. 

 

 

Port of Orleans is also a moderate. Examples of value resorts are Pop Century & The All Star. Deluxe resorts are the Animal Kingdom lodge (where giraffes stroll past your balcony in the morning), the Polynesian & the Grand Floridian.  If you stay at a moderate or above, you can purchase the Dining plan or the Deluxe Dining plan.   

All I can say about the Deluxe is that it is way worth it and (over-) served us well.  On it, you get 1 table service meal plus drink (sit down restaurant with wait staff), 1 quick service meal plus drink (breakfast, nuggets, burgers, etc) and 1 snack (Mickey ice cream pop, popcorn, bottled water or soda) for each registered guest, for each night of your stay.  Can I say that the table service meals (according to our receipts) were priced at over $100 each, even when it was only me, Boo & lil Ma and all we had to pay was the tip? Worth-it!

The best way to enjoy the table service meal is to make a reservation at the restaurant you want to dine in. Otherwise, walk-ins are turned away unless they want to stay and wait for a long time (hour or more) after the people with reservations have been seated.  We saw this happen over and over.  When I booked the trip, I identified restaurants we wanted to try in 3 different parks and called to set up reservations.  The first place I tried to get was Cinderella’s Royal Table in the castle at the Magic Kingdom.  You meet all the princesses and we really wanted to take pictures with Tiana.  Well, unless you call 6-9 months in advance (which people do), you can forget that, so we forgot it.  But we did get into 3 other nice places, including a character buffet on our first night there, so that Pook could comingle with the characters. Any of you who know her know that she is wild about stuffed animals (no baby dolls or Barbies for her!); so getting to meet several giant-sized, walking, gesturing, hugging, stuffed animals was pretty much a dream come true in her book.

More later yall….

Family vacation begins

It’s amazing how much preparation is needed for a 3 night trip to Orlando, or maybe it’s just me? Ginger the dog, had to be taken to the kennel, mail pick-up was arranged with a good neighbor, and there were a few other details that I’ll discuss later.  Please keep in mind that I had been praying for a safe, enjoyable family get-a-way and planning to milk my 3 nights at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort for all they were worth! Me and Lil Ma had never stayed *on property*, don’t know at this point if and when we’ll ever do so again, so at this point, I’m going for as complete a Disney experience as we could afford, within reason.  Check-in time was late, like 3pm, so we took our time leaving home.  Soon, our bags were packed and we were ready to go.

We had a late breakfast at I-HOP (our favorite b-fast restaurant). 

Boo drove, Lil Ma watched dvds 

and I read (what else?) 

Soon, we picked up Oldest Ma & Middle Ma and checked in.  Pook received an “It’s My Birthday” button that entitled her to countless cast member (Disney staff) birthday wishes and a few special treats.  Oldest Ma took a few pictures.

 To back up for a sec, before we checked-in, Middle Ma suggested that we get our souvenirs from Wally World.  WalMart in Orlando carries discounted Disney stuff. Yay, she didn’t have to tell me (the discount detective) twice. Remember, I’m going for *The Experience* (affordably). So we went and picked up snacks & drinks (that we never ate, more about that later), a shirt each for me & lil Ma, a big beach towel for lil Ma, an autograph book with a pen (that came in its own pouch that COST LESS and IMO was nicer than the ones at the park *discount snobbery*), a picture album, a frame (for my office), a magnet (for the fridge), and a Minnie Mouse ears hairband that Pook insisted on wearing backwards everyday *shrugs*.  I pick my battles…

To be continued….

Baby Girl Had a Birthday....

...and we went to Disney World. :)  Thanks to a major hook-up (Mama loves ya!), we were able to turn it into a 3-night family get-together. We enjoyed each other's company, having time off work, staying at a resort and eating some interesting food.  If you are not into "the details", then this post is not for you!

We begin....

On her birthday, lil Ma didn't want to go to chik-fil-a, steak n shake or pizza hut or a kind of "kiddie" place.  No,,,she wanted to go to...

  

so off we went.  She had...

The agreement was that she could have crab legs IF she could pick the meat out on her own.  I told her that she could check with her older sisters, but that around me, the sooner you learn to pick your own crab meat, the more crab meat you'll have!

I was all excited because the next day would be the first day of our vacation.  So I splurged and had the .....

Lobster,,,it was tasty,,,:D


Hubby had...
 

Soon the Birthday Girl had a song and a dessert on the house...




Then it was time to go home & rest up...so she took an obligatory *photo by the lobster tank* for mom....
  

What was funny was that as we headed towards the exit, the man in this photo was in front of the tank staring down the lobsters. When we came, he moved to the bench...still staring the lobsters down! :)

To be continued....