Trip Reports

Time of Year: Falln
Travel Method: Plane, Shuttle Service
Resort: CBR
Accommodations
Ages Represented in Group: Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Frequent
Comments: Mike and Rebecca had a nice four day visit to WDW just because their next trip wasn't scheduled to happen until the Fall of 1999 - far too long to wait for another trip! With their honeymoon trip last December, and this one, it like we have some new addicts on our hands.


September 24th to September 27th 1998

Introduction:

Participants:

Michael – 27 (me)
Rebecca – 26 (my wife)
This whole trip started innocently enough with a trip to the mall to escape the heat of early summer. We slipped into the local Disney store like we normally do to see if there are any new books or anything else that we can’t live without. I picked up the newest Disney catalog and shoved it in the bag. When we got home Becca was flipping through it and saw an ad for a discounted stay at a moderate resort. After talking about it for a few minutes Becca thought that we should go back again. After all we weren’t planning on going back to the world until Sept. of 1999 and that’s a long way away. We decided that it would be nice to go there one more time that’s guaranteed to be children free for us. The next day we called AAA and booked 4 days, 3 nights at the Caribbean Beach Resort. We wanted to stay there for 2 reasons, 1) we loved the resort when we stayed here in December on our honeymoon, 2) since we were only there for 4 days we wanted to stay at a resort we were familiar with.

September 24th:

We woke up around 5:15 in order to be at the airport to catch our 7:15 flight. After a quick breakfast and last minute packing we were on our way. We got to the airport with plenty of time and had an uneventful flight to both Cleveland and Orlando. We touched down in Orlando at about 11:30 and hustled to baggage claim to get our vacation started. At baggage claim was the representative for Tiffany Towncar (TTC) waiting for us. He helped me with our bags and we were QUICKLY on our way.

After tossing it back and I decided to take TTC over Mears. I’m glad we did. Becca and I both thought that this was a million times better than the Mears Shuttle. We were able to avoid waiting for our van to show up and we didn’t have to stop at any other hotels to drop off other people. The car was very comfortable and the driver was very friendly. He told us that it was probably gonna rain for the four straight days we were here, but hey that’s OK we’re at WDW.

We arrived at the Caribbean Beach Resort (CBR) at exactly 12:00, 30 minutes earlier than I thought we would get there. We dodged the raindrops and ran into the customs house. I asked for a non-smoking room in Trinidad North but I guess that wasn’t available because we were assigned room number 2533 in Martinique. I said that was fine, the only reason we wanted Trinidad was to be close to Calypso, and building 25 is right next to Old Port Royale.

We were shuttled to our room and started to unpack. It was a corner room laid out the same way as room 4661 in Jamaica where we stayed on our honeymoon in December. We quickly unpacked and headed over to MGM Studios. By this time it had stopped raining and the sky’s looked pretty clear.

There was no one at the gates so we walked right in and headed right down sunset blvd. Becca said she was hungry so we headed over to Pizza Planet for a quick pizza. We ordered a sausage pizza, which was pretty good actually. After pizza we headed over to Muppet Vision 3D. This was one of only four rides we wanted to do at MGM. This was of course great, but looking back the effects are probably the weakest on this 3D movie but the characters and the story more than make up for it. Our next ride was the Great Movie Ride. We ended up getting the gangster scene. I don’t know why but this ride just didn’t do it for me. As we walked out of GMR the Mulan parade was just ending so we watched a little of the parade before we went to see Voyage of the Little Mermaid. Becca and I both love this show. It has the perfect combination of cartoon, live performances and special effects. After VoLM we walked over to Tower of Terror (TOT). We were able to walk right on this ride practically. Becca was nervous about this ride because of her bad back but I assured her she would be fine. This is one of the best rides at Disney. Becca was pretty spooked and we weren’t even at the drop yet. Finally they dropped us, Becca was screaming through the whole thing, she loved it.

After TOT we browsed through a few shops and headed out. We originally wanted to hit Typhoon Lagoon but with the threat of rain we decided to skip it for today and grab the next bus for the Magic Kingdom.

We arrived at MK at the gates at around 5:00, and stopped by the brick kiosk to find out where our brick we had purchased after our Dec. ’97 trip was placed. It turned out to be between the TTC and the poly, no time to find it now probably Sunday. Now, on to the gates. This is always my favorite part of our trips to Disney, that first time I get to walk onto Main St.. The sounds and smells along with the amazing architecture, even with the increase of retail shops this is still my favorite part of WDW.

Our first stop was Tomorrowland. We were able to hit most of the attractions there, timekeeper which I think is great, the Carrousel of Progress which is one of the best attractions at WDW. We were pretty tired from our commando day so we took a relaxing ride on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. While we were cruising along we saw that there was a 2-minute wait for Space Mountain so we jumped in line. I wasn’t going to go on SM originally because Becca has a bad back and couldn’t handle it but she said I should and she took the chicken exit. By now it was 7:00 and the park was about to close so we decided to do Alien Encounter to keep us in the park as long as we could.

As we strolled out of Tomorrowland I took advantage of the lack of people to snap off a few pictures. It took me a while but after about five minutes of waiting I finally took a picture of the castle with absolutely no one else in the picture, as it turns out this ended up being probably the best picture I ever took. We browsed through the ever-increasing retail stores on Main St. and debated on where to eat dinner. By this time it was about 7:30 and all the restaurants on Main St. were closing down and we felt bad about making the CM’s stay any later than they had to. We planned on watching the fireworks show over the Seven Seas Lagoon so we headed over to the Grand Floridian and see what their restaurants had to offer. We ended up eating at the Grand Floridian Café. The restaurant was very elegant, just like everything at the GF, and we felt very underdressed, they assured us we were fine though. I had pasta; I can’t remember what Becca had. They were both excellent.

We finished our dinner around 9:00, just in time for a quiet walk around the lagoon. The weather was perfect, especially since they were predicting rain for our entire stay. By the time we got to the Poly all the seats were taken on the beach. We did manage to find a hammock tucked away in a corner. The hammock was fabulous. It gave a perfect view of the MK and GF. We were able to look at the castle for about a half-hour before the fireworks started. I love the castle now that they took the frosting off of it. It’s amazing to watch the castle change colors.

Finally the fireworks started, unfortunately we were down wind and the smoke from the explosions covered up the show. We decided to try and get out of the way of the smoke so we walked through he Poly towards the pool area. This was my suggestion; I had read that there was going to be a R.A.D.P. meet there so I wanted to see if I could find it. As it turned out I didn’t see anyone; In fact I only saw 2 R.A.D.P. pins the whole vacation. I apologize for not having one of my own, next trip.

By now it was 11:00 and we were exhausted so we decided to go back to CBR (which was no easy task from the Poly). Once we got back to the room we grabbed our refillable mugs we were given during our Dec. ’97 trip and walked over to Old Port Royale (OPR). After a quick fill up we stopped off at the hot tub, which wasn’t on, although it was still warm. We stayed about 15 minutes and decided to head back to our room before we passed out.

September 25th:

We had originally planned on grabbing some tanga toast for breakfast at the poly, but we discovered that the restaurant is closed for repairs. On to plan "B", Danishes and free pop at OPR. We intentionally didn’t fill up on breakfast because we planned on grabbing a turkey leg at Animal Kingdom (AK) today.

It was now about 11:00 and we were off to AK. From what I’ve read we planned on spending about 4-5 hours at AK and that should pretty much cover the entire park we want to see on this abbreviated vacation. When we come back next Sept. we want to spend a whole day here discovering everything there is in this park.

We pulled up and walked through the gate, which was very impressive, and was greeted by The Oasis. After grabbing a locker and a quick pit stop we were on to the rest of the park.

We didn’t spend any time in the oasis, other than looking at the sites as we walked through. Coming out of the rainforest of the Oasis the entire park opens up for you and the Tree of Life (TOL) is about 300 ft. in front of you. I think Disney did a great job with the approach to the TOL. Once you come out of the Oasis you are at the top of a gradual hill. This allows people stop in front of you to take pictures without interfering with your line of sight. Well done.

The tree itself is magnificent, as well as the theming for the park. The first attraction we wanted to see was Festival of the Lion King (FOTLK). By the time we figured out where it was, had missed the 12:00 showing, so we decided to explore a little more. We were told there was no wait for It’s Tough to be a Bug (ITTBAB), what we weren’t told was that you had to walk through the whole queuing area to get the theatre. The walk was very nice; it took us around the TOL, which is even more amazing the closer you get to it.

The show was great, probably the best one of the bunch, if only it wasn’t so short. After ITTBAB we headed back to Camp Minnie & Mickey for FOTLK. Once again another great attraction at AK. Now we were getting pretty hungry so we headed over to Dinoland to grab a turkey leg and go on Countdown to Extinction (CTX). This was a great ride also. I was worried about Becca’s back but she handled the ride very well.

The clouds were starting to get darker but we still had Kilamanjaro Safari (KS) to see yet so we made out way through Asia and over to Africa. KS was incredible it was amazing to see all these animals in the Savannah together. We did get drizzled on a little during the ride, but not enough to cancel our plans to go to Typhoon Lagoon (TL). It wasn’t until we got off the ride that it started to downpour. Unlike Buffalo rain, it only lasted 3 minutes and we were on our way to TL

I love WDW in the off season. There was no one at TL. Luckily for us, considering it was 4:30 by the time we changed and the park was only open till 7:00. The first "ride " I went on was the shark tank. This could be the most amazing "ride" at WDW. Being able to swim (float) with sharks and devil rays was very relaxing. I probably could have stayed in there for hours. Becca decided to take a dip in the wavepool so I met here there after. And we headed over to the lazy river. This was very peaceful. There was no one there and unlike December the water was warm.

After a slow lap around TL I wanted a little more adventure so I went on the water slides and the free fall water slide. Becca joined me for the tube ride, which was very fun. Then it was on to more waterslides, which Becca skipped on in order to go to the wavepool again. It was about 6:30 so I had just enough time to visit the sharks one more time before getting changed to go.

After TL we grabbed a bus to take us to Downtown Disney (DD) for a nice dinner. Becca really wanted to eat at Wolfgang Puck’s (WP) so that’s where we went. We took a leisurely stroll down the West Side on our way to WP. There was an hour and a half wait but it was well worth it. The weather held out so we were able to eat on the patio overlooking the water. What a beautiful sight being able to see all the lights of the Marketplace (MP) and Pleasure Island (PI). I ordered the pepperoni pizza and BCE had the swordfish. Both were incredible and our server "H. Franky" (as it says on our receipt) was the best waiter we’ve ever had. After dinner we walked down the West Side toward PI. We hadn’t planned on going to PI this trip but we decided to take a peak at what was going on tonight.

PI spit us out to the MP and we walked along the lake to the World of Disney Store. At this point the long day was starting to get to us so we could visit some other shops at the MP and still try to be back to the room at a decent hour. Next we went to Ghiardello for a hot fudge sundae that neither of us were to impressed with. It was now about 11:00 and all the stores had posted 11:00 closing time (although all the stores were still open when we ended up heading back to CBR at 11:30) and Becca wanted to visit the Christmas store. This is a great store, even in September it puts you in the Christmas mood. From the Christmas store we visited Art of Disney, which was my request. I always hope to be able to find some prints of some of the amazing architecture at Disney, but they never seem to have any. I guess I’ll have to keep framing my own pictures. After a quick bus ride back to CBR I filled up my refillable mug relaxed a little in front of the TV and crashed.

September 26th:

I woke up extra early today in order to get some pictures of CBR while BCE slept. I walked along the jogging path for about half the resort and managed to get a bunch of great pictures. When I finally got back to the room I woke Becca up and we were off to Epcot.

We got to Epcot pretty early and were treated to a beautiful morning. Because of its closeness to the entrance we rode Spaceship Earth (SE). This is a great ride and like all the future world rides we went on today it was a walk-on. After SE we went over to see Cranium Command and grab a bite to eat at the cafeteria in the pavilion. After our little snack we rode on Horizons. Not only was this ride a walk on, other that the CM’s we saw no one else on this ride. This ride was pretty good; I really enjoyed the orange smell. Since we were at Horizons we took a stroll by Test Track and tried to take a peak through the construction wall. We then walked through innoventions, where I found a computer to e-mail a couple of my friends, and went to the fountain view café for cheesecake and a danish. After our morning snack and an incredible water show we headed over to visit the pavilions on the other side of FW.

We started of at the Living Seas. We both really like this pavilion. They were working on one of the tanks so the water was very murky and we weren’t able to see any fish. Even with out seeing most of the fish it was very interesting, especially being able to see the Manatee munch on his lettuce. Next we moved down to The Land. The pavilion itself was very impressive, architecturally speaking. We went downstairs and got in what was our longest line of the day, still only 20 minutes though, for living with the land boat ride. We both loved this ride and thought it was very educational. Next was Journey into Imagination. All I gotta say about this ride is that if this wasn’t a complete walk-on ride and we had to wait, even 5 minutes, I would have been really mad. This ride does need some major rehab, I’m glad to find out that they’re tending to it. The last thing we wanted to visit in FW was Honey I Shrunk the Audience. This show is great, very entertaining.

By now it was about 1:00 and we both needed a rest, so we took advantage of our resort and went back to CBR for a relaxing dip in the pool, just like they suggest on the video. We went to the main pool was pretty busy for a nice swim. The best part of our visit to Old Port Royale was being able to watch the Michigan-Michigan State football game at the Banana Cabana, while sipping on my Caribbean Smuggler. I doubt if Bruce the bartender is ever going to read this but I want him to know that he has the best job in the world. Serving people drinks in a beautiful surrounding and all you have to do is listen to a few stupid stories once in a while. After enjoying a little of the football game I was off to the room to take a quick shower and get ready for the second half of our Epcot adventure.

We arrived at around 5:00 at Epcot to a slight Florida downpour. We dodged the rain until the entrance gates when it let up slightly. We strolled through FW making a b-line to Mexico. Last time we visited the World Showcase (WS) we started at Canada so we decided to go around the other way this time. We split a combo plate at Cantina de Angel, which was very good. Halfway through our meal it started to rain again so we rushed the rest of our dinner and to cover in the Mexican pavilion. This, along with Morocco, is my favorite pavilion. I think the Imagineers really captured the spirit of a Mexican town at night. We really just browsed through the "streets" and ended up going on El Rio del Tiempo. I really enjoy this ride. It’s not annoying like It’s a small world; It’s more informative like the boat ride at the Land.

After Mexico we walked over to Norway. I went into the stave church to take a look. There were some nice artifacts and a fairly well built model a Norwegian stave church. After walking through the shops were we saw the 8 foot tall gnome and some beautiful, incredibly expensive sweaters Becca wanted we got in line for Maelstrom. This is another good boat ride, just as informative as Mexico’s but with a little thrill. Next on our agenda was China. We weren’t able to see the movie last time so we wanted to do it this year. We grabbed some rice and waited for the next showing. We caught a little of the preshow with the young Chinese acrobats, who are incredibly talented, when we discovered the show was a circlevision show, so we decided to skip it. We took a walk through the store when it started to rain. Now I’m not talking normal rain, this stuff was really coming down. We waited as long as we could but we finally broke down and bought a couple of ponchos. We were so close to making it the whole vacation without having to buy them. Oh well, now we’ll have them for the next time we come back.

We started out of China and headed over to Germany. This was a nice, albeit wet, walk around the showcase. The rain must have scared every one away and we had the all of WS to ourselves, at least the outside parts. We briefly stopped at Germany to adjust our ponchos, and then on to Italy where we adjusted again. We kept on our quick pace through the pouring rain past America, Japan and the Morocco. We finally stopped of at the pastry shop at France for a little snack and when we came out the rain had stopped, Gotta love that Florida rain. On to England where we took a walk through the gardens before we walked down to Canada to catch Oh’Canada. Living about 5 miles from the Canadian border we both wanted to see this movie, and we weren’t disappointed.

When we came out of the movie we took a walk down to grab the friendship boat over to Morocco, where we were able to browse through the streets and check out the shops. After we finished our Morocco walk through we grabbed a spot between France and England to watch Illuminations. The show was very good, despite being down wind from the fireworks. Our good viewing spot worked out perfect when the show ended, we were able to walk out the international gateway and grab the boat to the Yacht and Beach Club (Y&B).

Y&B was the first stop the boat took. We wanted to grab something to eat at Beaches and Cream this trip since we somehow missed it in Dec. We walked along the water to stormalong bay, which is amazing. I would stay at this resort for the swimming area alone, not to mention the view and the beautiful architecture and theming. We took a quick peek in the gift shop and ended up buying some of those little plastic things you freeze and put in your drinks that were in the shape of Mickey. After the gift shop, where everyone was just a little too snobby for me, we walked through the Yacht club over to the Beach club where we found Beaches and Cream. It’s a small little restaurant with a fantastic atmosphere. Our waitress, whose name I can’t remember, cut up our burger and put it on two separate plates after we told her we were going to split it. She was really great, almost as good as the burger and shake. We were able to see a table order "the kitchen sink" which is huge.

We left the restaurant and strolled along the lagoon over to the Boardwalk (BW). We both love this resort. It seems like it would be a fun place to stay. We walked by the Dance Hall and Jellyrolls and stopped in the gift shop. We both splurged quit a bit and bought a T-shirt with Mickey embroidered on t like the nice Polo T-shirts for me and a cute T-shirt dress for Becca. After our shopping trip it was about 12:00, too late for the new years celebration at PI so we decided to go back to CBR for a dip in the pool. After or transfer at downtown Disney we got back to our room and decided to skip the pool and just pack up our stuff so we can hit MK early tomorrow.

September 27th:

Today was our last day at The World. Since we packed last night we were able to get an early start on our shortened day. We had priority seating at the Crystal Palace (CP). We ate here in December and both loved it so much we decided to have this be our last meal for this trip. We were about 15 minutes early for our reservation so I took this time to get a few pictures of Main St.. When I came back to CP Becca was already inside. Breakfast was delicious and very filling.

After breakfast we headed through Adventureland where we walked through he Swiss Family Treehouse, which was nice since the reconstruction. Next was on to Pirates of the Caribbean, which we were disappointed to find out was having some technical problems, oh well, on to Splash Mountain. Splash is probably the best ride at WDW. It’s story line combined with the drops and the length of the ride make it a very fun ride (the fact that it’ was a walk on doesn’t hurt either). We walked over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and after a short wait we were seated on the first car, perfect for someone with a bad back.

Now that Frontierland was just about done we bought an ornament at the Christmas shop and then went on Haunted Mansion. By now it getting to be about 12:00 so we went over to Fantasyland. Our first ride here was Cinderella’s Golden Carrousel, then on to Snow White followed by Peter Pan, all not to be missed classics, well maybe not Snow White. Sadly we looked at our watches and realized our vacation had come to an end so we ran over to adventureland only to find out they had just closed down Pirates again, bummer. Ooh well, we headed back to Main St. to take a final lap around the park on the railroad.

We pulled back into the Main St. station to soon and took a short break at the railroad station overlooking Main St. What a perfect way to end a great vacation. Unfortunately it was time for us to grab the bus back to CBR. We arrived at the customs house to find our driver waiting for us. After grabbing our luggage we had checked in earlier we were on our way to MCO. Our flights home were quick and uneventful. Now to begin planning our trip next September.

Mike Banks

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