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Steve Crow -- June 2006 - Walt Disney World (CBR)

Introduction

We prepared for our trip about 9 months in advance, going through a travel agent who was a high school friend of my wife. We had four people going - myself, my wife, and two children (boy - 13, girl, 10). My wife and I had been to Florida for our honeymoon in the 80s and that was it.

We wanted to avoid the summer rush but with the kids in school, we felt we had no choice but to wait until the week after school let out. As it turned out we probably could have left a week earlier since they had two snow days and didn’t do anything the last couple of days.

We went with the Magical Express package but after some deliberation decided against the meal plan. Our son would have been paying adult prices and he just doesn’t eat that much and is pretty picky. We also didn’t know how much we’d be eating on-site.

We originally planned on getting a rental car from the day of our arrival (Friday) for two days, so we could go to Sea World on Saturday and pick up any breakfast food, etc.

We figured we’d be taking advantage of the Extra Magic Hours in the evening for all four parks, and booked priority seating accordingly at four restaurants in the parks we’d be at about 180 days in advance. We had no trouble with the times we wanted.

We went through some struggles to get a flight that would get us there in the afternoon. Originally we were okay but then we got bumped to an early evening arrival. Our travel agent managed to bump it back to a 6 a.m. departure. We met with her for our schedule a couple of weeks before departure, and after a last frantic night/morning of packing, we were off.

Friday, June 9th

First problem - our shuttle to the airport (about 20 miles away) didn’t show up, two hours before plane departure. We called and found out the driver was out sick and no one had bothered to adjust the schedule. Very professional (not).

We quickly loaded up into the van and headed out. We arrived about an hour twenty before departure and parked in the long-term lot. We ended up saving $30-$40 but lost some convenience.

Security and boarding went fine. The kids had never flown before but they didn’t have any problems. We went through Dallas, had no problems switching flight, and arrived in Orlando on schedule in the early afternoon. After a bit of scrambling we managed to find the Magical Express bus to the Caribbean Beach Resort (CBR) and were off.

Check-in went smoothly and we let the staff know our son had his birthday the next day. We took the internal resort shuttle to our room at Martinique in the 2100 building. The front desk clerk had erroneously marked us down as having a second-floor room, but fortunately that wasn’t the case. We did discover the only real problem with the CBR - it’s big. If we had known we might have requested a 2300 or 2400 room. As it was, we made our daily way to Old Port Royale through a bit of a maze of buildings. Barbados’ beach and pool were actually closer.

After acquainting ourselves with the hotel layout and grabbing lunch at the food court, we returned to our room and the luggage arrived about three hours after we checked in. Everything was there, no problems.

Our next step was getting the rental car. That was the second problem, as both our travel agent and the front desk clerk had told us that rental cars were at the Transportation Center. We took the shuttle to Magic Kingdom and the monorail to the Transportation Center, only to find...no rental place. We ended up at the kennel where they were kind enough to let us use the phone. We found out the rental was at the Swan & Dolphin as we had originally thought but as folks had told us was no longer the case. They were wrong.

We eventually managed to negotiate a rental price with National and decided we’d be best off going for a whole week at a discounted rate. We then hoofed it over to the shuttle we arranged with them to meet us at the Polynesian and take us to National’s office.

We went back to the hotel via rental car and then headed out to get some groceries and familiarizes ourselves with the area. We ended up at a Goodings, where the staff was friendly but the prices were relatively high. We then grabbed supper at KFC, went back to the CBR, and the kids went for a swim at both our local pool and the main pool. The pool is open until midnight but the lifeguards go off-duty at 9 and close the play structure/slides.

We went back to the hotel and went to bed early in preparation for Sea World.

Saturday, June 10th

This was our non-Disney day. We slept in relatively late but were out by 9:30 after a brief breakfast in the room from our supplies. We had taken the precaution of pre-buying tickets at the promotional kids’ price for everyone and after a relatively brief line and parking, got in by about 10:30 to Sea World. We scheduled for three shows, headed for the first one and stopped off at the stingray and dolphin "petting" ponds. The kids and I went on the "Journey to Atlantis" water ride then walked most of the length of the park to catch the Shamu show. Very hot, very exhausting. Then back to the sea lion show. My daughter passed on the Kraken ride so we grabbed some drinks and headed out.

That night we had a reservation at Capone’s, an Orlando musical/dinner show. We headed back to the room and found the staff had left a signed photo of Rafiki and Timon for my son’s birthday along with some balloons. We showered, changed, and navigated our way to Capone’s. We arrived about 15 minutes early when we were told we’d be seated, but had to wait for about 20 minutes just to get seated. The food was all-you-can-eat and excellent, there was plenty to drink, and the show was good. Overall a good experience that we’d recommend. Back to the hotel room and bed by about 11:30. We had spotted a Wal-Mart but it was too late to get some needed supplies.

Sunday, June 11th

This was our Magic Kingdom day, with Extra Magic Hours in the evening. We got up and checked the Weather Channel, and found that Tropical Storm Alberto was swinging by. I suggested we take the ponchos we had brought along and after some argument about the weight, my wife agreed.

We then took the hotel shuttle to Magic Kingdom, got there about 8:30. The line for the bag search was short (as was the case throughout the week), but the ticket machines were a bit erratic (also the case throughout our visit). We got in within five minutes, caught the pre-opening character arrival, and headed for Frontierland. After the rope drop we got three FastPass (FP) tickets for Big Thunder at 10 and walked on to Splash Mountain. My wife, not a big ride fan, sat it out. The ride was good, better then Journey to Atlantis, with some relatively minor soaking.

The Splash Mountain line was still light so my daughter and I walked right on again, then me and the kids briefly went over to Adventureland to make sure Pirates was closed for renovation. It was. We then went back to Big Thunder but the staff took their time setting up the FP line. Apparently someone wasn’t back from their rotation or something, which didn’t make a lot of sense an hour after park opening, and the staff seemed pretty indifferent. Since this was our first FP experience it didn’t help any as we weren’t entirely sure what was going on. Eventually the kids and I got on and rode.

We then headed over to Tomorrowland where my daughter wanted to ride Space Mountain. Neither my son nor wife were interested so we got two FPs for Space Mountain and then used their two FPs for Buzz Lightyear. We then went on the Stitch’s Great Escape, which was...okay. Basically a 3-d movie without the movie. Nice pre-show, the actual show was so-so.

After that we FP’d through Space Mountain, then Buzz Lightyear. I had brought a glasses strap for Space Mountain but it seemed unnecessary - still, better safe than sorry. Buzz Lightyear was a bit confusing as to what you were actually supposed to do.

We had done most of the rides we wanted to see at that point, so headed over to Frontierland for lunch at Pecos Bill. It was okay, but nothing special. Our lunch was spoiled by outside events - some woman had left her child in a stroller near the only empty table on the patio. After waiting a minute or two we took the table but the child was clearly in tears and the one clean-up cast member seemed unconcerned. We took about 10-15 minutes to eat our lunch and were just about ready to get up and let a cast member know about the situation when the child’s mother arrived. She hugged her child but couldn’t seem to understand why the kid was upset, or why leaving her for 15 minutes alone and unattended was a bad idea.

We then went over to Tom Sawyer’s Island to give the kids some runaround time. We made the rounds of the island and were at Aunt Polly’s when...the fringes of Alberto hit. It poured incessantly for 10 minutes, and then a cast member showed up to say we had to evacuate. No one was very enthused about that! Fortunately we had brought the ponchos so we headed over to the raft along with a number of people who hadn’t brought raingear. It was a wet miserable ride back and we decided to head back to the hotel for a break.

We went back and caught a nap while the kids went swimming. We then decided to track down a Ponderosa and catch supper there. Then we stopped at Wal-Mart. Finally we got back and decided to return to the Magic Kingdom. We went through Main Street past the first electrical parade and headed for the Jungle Cruise and walked on. The boat captain was a friend of mine from back home that I had no idea was working there. We chatted briefly and then went on the cruise, then hit the Swiss Family Robinson Tree house. That was also a straight walk-on so we were through there in about five minutes, which gave us time to buy some pineapple whips and catch the fireworks show.

My son wanted to do the Haunted Mansion but my daughter passed. We went right on but there were two "technical difficulty" stops and overall neither one of us were that impressed. The ride could use some updating. My daughter wanted to catch the Frontierland rides again so we went on Big Thunder, then her and my son went on Splash Mountain while I took pictures of the second electrical parade from Frontierland.

My daughter wanted to take in Space Mountain again so we headed over that way but first I insisted on going to the Philharmagic and Small World. Philharmagic proved to be the best of the 3-d shows in everyone’s opinion, and the kids moaned and groaned through Small World. My wife and son then wanted to do a little shopping while my daughter and I rode Space Mountain again, and then went through Buzz Lightyear a couple of more times. We met them back at Main Street and headed out for the bus. Unfortunately it was close to closing so we had about a 20-minute wait due to the last-minute rush for the shuttle and we got back to the hotel about 2:30 a.m.

Monday, June 12

This was our Animal Kingdom day, and our reservation for a character breakfast at Restaurantosaurus. Unfortunately, due to the weather and the late night there was no way we could make it and so had to cancel. A quick phone call and I managed to get a reservation for the Ohana character breakfast on Thursday. We then went back to bed and got moving about 10 a.m. for Animal Kingdom. The weather was still miserable, although not as bad as Sunday. Checking the weather channel, it looked like the storms would clear on Wednesday, so we decided to move our water park day to Friday instead of the planned Tuesday, and have Tuesday be our "spare" day.

We got to Animal Kingdom amidst sporadic rain, no problem, and walked right in to the Bug’s Life show. As far as special effects this is probably the best of the 3-d shows with the moving seats and the (somewhat painful) stingers in the seat back. As far as the movie itself we still preferred Philharmagic.

Next up was the Kali River Rapids, but when we got there we found it closed due to technical problems. Disappointed, we continued on to Expedition Everest at my daughter’ insistence. FastPasses were all out for every ride by that time, but the walk-on was only 20 minutes so we went into the standby. The line moved pretty slowly although I enjoyed the pre-show line exhibits. We eventually got on and found it as good as promised.

After checking the Kali River Rapids again (still closed), we headed over to Dinoland and Restaurantosaurus for lunch. After an okay meal, we took in the Dinosaur ride and walked directly in from the standby, and I managed to convince my wife to go on it. She was...less than enthused by the bumpy ride but a good time was had by all.

(As an aside, it’s clear that the Disney Imagineers have put a lot more work into the pre-show exhibits for more recent shows. Dinosaur, Bugs’ Life, Tower of Terror, Star Tours, and Rock-n-Roller Coaster have very elaborate and interesting pre-show displays compared to Space Mountain, Jungle Cruise, Universe of Energy, Spaceship Earth, and Haunted Mansion.)

The kids and me then went on the spinning roller coaster in Dinoland. My daughter and wife went on the triceratops spin and then we headed over to the Kali River Ride which was finally open. We went through the 20-minute standby but my wife and son took the chicken gate. The rain had pretty much let up by then so we kept the ponchos on and went ahead. I wasn’t that impressed by the ride. The story/theme was rather vague, the rapids weren’t that rapid, and (perhaps thankfully) we didn’t get that soaked. My daughter wanted to go again but I passed.

We then went on the Safari ride and caught some good views of the animals, although the lions weren’t out.

We went to the Lion King show, which my son wanted very much to see. It was crowded but not to capacity and we had no problem getting in. Excellent show. I checked at the Rain Forest Café but there was a 2-1/2 hour wait for reservations so we passed. We stopped off at Pizzafari for the kids and then hit Everest two more times. The standby was shorter then posted both times and the lines seemed to move faster than our earlier visit even though the listed wait time was the same. We then picked up our Magic Hour wristbands and went over to Flame Tree for supper for the adults. My wife and son decided to head over to catch the late show of Lion King and my daughter and I took in the spinning rollercoaster at Dinoland. We then went to Bug’s Life (twice) and got to watch the newcomers react, and then headed out to catch a bus back and to bed.

Tuesday, June 13th

This was our designated "day off." We were running out of clothes and my son wanted to catch a few things at Magic Kingdom we had missed on Sunday. We slept late, then took the rental car to IHOP for breakfast. We then stopped at the post office to mail some postcards and Wal-Mart (again!) to pick up some mini-umbrellas. It rained persistently throughout this period.

(Another note: unless you’re anticipating a heavy rainstorm, or are going to go on Kali River Rapids repeatedly, stick to umbrellas. Ponchos are a huge pain to carry around and are almost unbearably sticky due to the humidity. The rain tends to be sporadic so all you really need are a couple of umbrellas to dash from building to building.)

After the late brunch, we headed back to the hotel. My son and I caught the shuttle to the Magic Kingdom while my wife did laundry and my daughter went swimming. She made some new friends and had a good time.

We got to the Magic Kingdom just as the rain stopped for good that day. We were looking for a particular souvenir doll but the outdoor kiosk we had seen it at was closed so we went to Hall of Presidents, which my son wanted to see. The kiosk was still closed so we went on Haunted Mansion again, where there was yet another technical stop in the middle of the ride. Not sure if we had bad luck, but the stops really take you out of the "mood" of the ride.

The kiosk was opened by the time we exited so we picked up the souvenir and went looking for some rocks my daughter wanted. We took the train from Frontierland to the Toon Fair, took some pictures (it wasn’t there on our previous trip), checked out the stores over there, and found the souvenir badge she wanted from Space Mountain. Our quest complete, we headed out of the park and back to the CBR. We had supper at the food court there and then took the rental over to the Winter Summerland miniature golf course. We played a quick 18 holes on a pretty well designed course (the snow/winter one) but opted not to go a second round. Then it was back to the hotel and bed.

Wednesday, June 14th

This was our Disney-MGM day, and we were about as well-rested as we were going to get. We headed out and caught the shuttle for the 9 a.m. opening and went for the Tower of Terror. Again, my wife and son passed on the roller coaster/fast rides so first we used their tickets to get two pairs of FPs for the Rock-n-Roller Coasters, then me and my son went on the Tower of Terror. Unfortunately my daughter had to go to the restroom and missed it. The Tower of Terror pre-show set-up was good, but the drops weren’t that great.

We then grabbed four FPs for Tower and my daughter and I headed over to the Rock-n-Roller. She was initially a bit leery but after the first ride was more then willing to go on a second time. After that we figured we didn’t have enough time for the FP on the Tower and still get to our 11 a.m. priority seating at the Sci-Fi Dine-in Theater. We gave the FPs away and went to the restaurant.

We put in for our priority seating then I went over to get three FPs for Star Tours. We got seated after about 15 minute and had a pleasant time. It’s a bit difficult to see the menus and the food was merely average, but the ambience was good. We came out to find we had missed the major rainstorm of the day and went on Star Tours and then hit Muppets 3-D. Then we went over to the Backlot Tour. The first part is good, but they tend to rush you a bit through the prop warehouse where there’s actually some interesting stuff. The tram ride was okay, but the guide definitely oversold the Action Stunt Show, so my daughter wanted to go there next. We headed on over after the ride and got in to catch the mid-afternoon show.

After that we wandered a bit and headed over to the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire "ride." We got in but they started late due to technical difficulties and that seemed to shorten the whole session as a result. We briefly checked out the Walt Disney Life & Times exhibit then went to our 5 p.m. priority seating at Hollywood & Vine with the Fantasmic tickets.

There was a very long wait here and it took us about 30 minutes to get seated. Hoping against hope, I checked out the Indiana Jones Stunt Ride for FPs, but no luck. We got seated and had an excellent buffet - we’d highly recommend it for the food. Unfortunately the service was a bit slow and we wanted to get to the 6:30 pm. Beauty & the Beast show. I stayed to pay and the wife and kids headed over there, and after another 10 minutes I got there only to find it was full. I had the video camera so we didn’t get any shots.

(Note: The Beauty and the Beast show was full for every show the day we were there. They could definitely use an Extra Magic Hours show for it.)

I met the family afterward and we headed over to the Indiana Jones show. After a long wait we got in, caught the show, and headed out immediately for the Fantasmic special seating at 8:25 p.m. After a very long walk we got into the crowded stadium, which was a sauna. They finally started the show, which was very enjoyable.

Afterward we headed out and were going to go on the Tower, but my daughter was too tired so my wife took her home. My son and I went to the Little Mermaid Show, then caught the Great Movie Ride and headed to the hotel and to bed.

Thursday, June 15th

This was our Epcot day, but first the Ohana character breakfast. We took the rental car over and parked at the Polynesian, and got seated after about 15 minutes. The breakfast was okay - rolls and bacon were good, scrambled eggs a bit underdone. We got visits from all the characters, much to the irritation of my son who wasn’t "in" to it.

Then we took the rental car back to the CBR and took the shuttle to Epcot. As anticipated, we didn’t arrive on opening and hit probably the heaviest crowd going in of any of our park visits. We headed over to Soarin’ about 11 and picked up three FPs for that ride (my wife again giving it a pass). We had a three-hour wait until 2 p.m. so we went to the Circle of Life theater on the kids’ insistence, and then hit the Imagination pavilion and did the Figment ride. We sent out some e-mails then caught the Honey I Shrunk the Audience Show. We weren’t too impressed by the pre-show but enjoyed the 3-d movie itself.

Then we headed to the Living Sea and got to witness some folks surprised by the "walking coral" person. We went in and walked around - my daughter was interested in all the exhibits but there were huge crowds for the Turtle Talk with Crush and we gave it a pass.

With a little time to spare I left the family at Innoventions East and went to get three FPs for Test Track or Mission: Space. Test Track was tied up for four hours into our dinner seating, but Mission: Space was pretty slow—perhaps due to the recent child’s death there? I discovered at this point my card was partially demagnetized and had to get a temporary paper ticket. It worked fine for everything, including our hotel room and general admission, so I never got it replaced.

We then went on the Soarin’ ride via FP and it was pretty good. We then headed over to Mission: Space after grabbing a few of the sample international Cokes against the 95-degree heat. I was pre-warned about the Italian drink but got to watch the rest of the family "enjoy" it.

We then FP’d onto Mission: Space (although it wasn’t really necessary) and me and the kids opted for the heavy-duty ride. I gave them all the standard warnings but other then some minor queasiness and headaches we didn’t have any problems. It also didn’t seem that thrilling and it might help if they make the controls a little more interactive. We didn’t have time to check out the post-show area other then to get my daughter another ride/ID badge. We wanted to catch the Universe of Energy, as we thought the dinosaurs would be popular with the kids. We walked in and took in the show, which was pretty good. The last time we’d seen it, the Ellen deGeneres part wasn’t included and even the kids got a kick out of her.

We then headed for Canada and our priority seating at Le Cellier at 5 p.m. We got there about 4:45 and were seated about five minutes later. The food there was good and "safe" enough for the kids pickiness-wise. The place was a bit noisy and echo-y due to the underground setting. Afterward we toured the Canada area, which has some of the best landscaping in World Showcase, and caught a bit of Off-Kilter.

We then started going counterclockwise around the lagoon. At this point the kids decided to collect the souveneir pennies from each country, leading to a great deal of footwork. We took in the Mexico ride, which was about as annoying as we remembered from our last visit, and took a 20-minute standby for the Maelstrom, which hadn’t been there on our honeymoon visit. We then went through the rest of the countries on that side over to the America section, collecting coins as we went except for Japan. We were in America when the Illuminations show started and got some relatively good seats. Unfortunately although we wanted to go on American Adventure there was no way the timing would work out without staying much later then we wanted, so we had to give it a pass.

After the show we completed our circuit - for some reason we never did find the Morocco penny machine. You can only get the China and Japan coins at the World Gateway. We were on the Extra Magic Hours and had missed the Test Track, but my son and wife weren’t interested so they headed back to the CBR. We took the 50-minute standby and went on the ride. I thought it was nicely themed but my daughter was unimpressed--it wasn’t exciting enough for her. We then hit the Spaceship Earth ride that I wanted to see and we headed back.

Friday, June 16th

We’d had a late night so we slept in a bit and missed the water park opening. We had breakfast in the room and then took the rental car over to Blizzard Beach about 10 p.m. I hit the major slides right away while the kids hung out in the wave pool. Eventually we got back together, did a few slides, and went round on the lazy river. We had lunch at one of the kiosks and were preparing for the slides again when the weather kicked up and they closed down first the ski lift and then the water park rides as the rain and thunder began. It was about 3 p.m. by then so we decided to head out after grabbing some treats (and another penny!).

None of us were radically impressed with Blizzard Beach and everyone seemed more interested in Typhoon Lagoon. Of course, we didn’t figure this out until afterward. We had to return the rental car by 6 p.m. so we drove it over, filled it up at the nearby Hess Express, then caught a complimentary shuttle back to the CBR and ate at the food court. Everyone else was pretty tired out but I wanted to head over to Downtown Disney as that hadn’t been there on our honeymoon visit either.

I caught the shuttle over and started at Marketplace and worked my way over. I picked up some t-shirts for the kids and candy for my co-workers, got some photos, and took in the Magic Masters store and then got into Disney Quest on our extended Park Hopper tickets. It wasn’t until our return that I heard Disney Quest was rumored to be closing down, but it was pretty empty for a Friday night so I can see why. I took in a few of the special rides covered by admission: Pirates of the Caribbean, Ride the Comix, and Invasion. I would _not_ recommend the latter if you have any problems with nausea or claustrophobia. I found it the most nauseating experience of the entire trip.

I then headed back over to the Adventurers’ Club, which was the only nightclub I was interested in checking out, and it seemed to appeal to my sense of humor. It did, and I wished I’d been able to stay until closing. It’s very much an audience-interactive kind of thing and you have to be into it. However, the last shuttle bus left at about 12:30 a.m. so after about 40 minute at the Club I headed out and caught the shuttle back to the CBR and to bed.

Saturday, June 17th

Checkout was at 11 a.m. so we were up by about 9. We ate breakfast at the food court for the first time, finished packing, and put in a call to Bell Services to pick up our luggage. Our plane was leaving at 4 p.m. so we were due for pickup at 1 p.m. (Note: our original Magic Express notification said we were to be picked up from the hotel at 4 p.m. - we resolved that with a phone call.)

We checked in our luggage at the Custom House airline desk then went back to the food court, as we had never had a chance to rent a surrey bike. So we ended up pedaling around the CBR lake in 90-degree weather - fun. We then went back to the Custom House and caught our bus to the Orlando airport.

The second Magic Express mistake reared its head at this point when we realized they had shorted us one boarding pass for the first leg of our return voyage. So it was back to the company desk (American) to get a boarding pass for our son, then a brief trip through security and a relatively long wait for our plane.

As we boarded we noticed Magic Express’ third mistake, which was that we were short one of our claim slips for a piece of luggage. There was nothing we could do so, dreading the worse, we got on the flight to Dallas. There were weather delays there and we grabbed supper and took off about 45 minutes late and arrived back home (to find _all_ our luggage, thankfully). We got our van out of long-term parking and made it home in one piece.

What did we enjoy and what went right?

Pretty much everything. We probably would have gone with Typhoon Lagoon if we went back to a water park. The rental car was a definite must to have once we knew where to find it. All things considered, we got pretty lucky with the weather.

The free-refill mugs at the resorts are also good as we used these at least twice a day.

Taking along snack-type foods—-rice krispies treats, beef jerky, peanuts, water bottles, dry cereal, pop tarts—-will save you much time in the morning for breakfast or let you bypass a meal during the day in the park to take in more sights. Or just give you a bit more energy without buying a snack on-site.

Going with the evening Extra Magic Hours gave us more time (3 hours over 1 for mornings) even though it meant we had a couple of late nights at Magic Kingdom and Epcot.

I think we would have saved money on the dining plan _if_ we could have got it for just the adults. Our kids were just over the age to get the childrens’ price, and there was no way they were going to eat adult dinners and get our money’s worth there.

My wife disliked the priority seating since it locked us into certain times. The only time I think this really hurt us was at Disney-MGM. Personally I was okay with it as seating at any kind of table service restaurant would have been impossible without it, and I wanted at least a few on-site sit-down meals. I wouldn’t have wanted more but I think we were okay with the four we did.

What didn’t go so well?

We were on a crash-course schedule with one day per park. On the other hand, my wife wasn’t too impressed with Epcot and I wasn’t fond of the Magic Kingdom just because rides and shopping are about all to do there. I like not just the rides, but shows and exhibits as well. The kids enjoyed everything, and I wished they’d had a chance to go see Disney Quest. However, if that’s being removed I suspect they wouldn’t have much to do at Downtown Disney in the future.

We did focus more on the rides, which meant along with the bad weather we missed several animal exhibits at Animal Kingdom. My daughter was more interested in riding Everest a third time then seeing the bird show and the Discovery Island animal settings. Animal Kingdom is also the one place where you should go with the morning Extra Magic Hour if you want to see animals. Not because they’re more or less active early in the day, but just because they close all the animal-related stuff by 7 p.m. and your ride selection is limited.

The Magic Express package is a huge benefit but you do need to double-check stuff.

The CBR was a good choice with a relatively large room, but if you stay in Martinique go for the 2200 or 2300 building if you can. Or choose 2400 or 2500 if you don’t mind a bit more foot traffic past your room. It took us several days to figure out the maze-like path from 2100 to the Old Port Royale food court. You get a lot of wildlife, including frogs and lizards on your doorstep, and it wasn’t noisy or overcrowded at any of the Martinique buildings during our entire stay. You can’t swim in the lake, however, so the beaches are only good for sand castles and the hammocks.

Overall, our trip went well and we’d have done much of it the same way if we’d had the chance.

Steve Crow
Crow_steve@hotmail.com

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