Trip Report - A Long Weekend at WDW Day 3

A Long Weekend at WDW

Who: Joe and Amanda, 30-somethings, engaged and in love with one
another and Disney
When: Thursday, February 2 - Sunday, February 5, 2006
Where: Caribbean Beach Resort

Saturday, Feb. 4

Today was supposed to be the day of Joe's friend's fireworks show,
but the constant rain storms had caused it all to be cancelled, and
Joe's buddy called us to break the "bad news" some time
yesterday. Oh well! We weren't sorry, it meant a full day at WDW we
hadn't counted on, and we were glad we'd been kind of "tricked"
into making this trip at all.

No noise this morning, thank God, from the connecting room next door.
I think I did hear our neighbor's door close, but whether it was just
the maid, and they'd checked out, or they were quieter today, or we
just slept way more heavily, I don't know. But thanks for small
favors!

I've been trying to get to breakfast before they quit serving it, on
these trips with Joe, for a year now, and rarely succeed. This
morning, he'd encouraged me to make a reservation for Boma, where
I'd tried to go twice before and we never made it out of the room on
time. Animal Kingdom Lodge is my favorite resort, and I missed it and
wanted to just darken its doors a bit this trip, too. I am really
craving staying there again, but I don't want to unless my son Miles
is with me, because he loves it so much, too. Maybe next summer.

We actually got up and out on time, and got seated right as everyone
else was starting to clear out, but the buffet stayed nicely stocked up
until and even after we left, so no fears if you duck in at the last
minute. Our waitress was on drugs, I think, or just really bad,
because she kept disappearing and forgetting things, and sitting down
at the table next to us every time she came by. Another waitress
finally had to take over a bunch of her duties. I wanted Joe to give
her 10% for a tip but he 15%-ed her. And that's really radical for
me, because I normally tip 20%. But you know, if you make me get up and
wander around the restaurant looking for anyone to help us after you
said you'd be right back 15 minutes ago... Maybe she was in the
potty, I don't know, but if you're going to disappear, tell someone
so they can cover for you.

The food was good, Joe especially enjoyed the "bear claws", a soft
handmade mini honeybun with cinnamon type thing, and I really liked the
sticky buns with nuts and the chocolate croissants. The pastry here is
the best thing, though they do a decent job with the meats and eggs,
too.

Too much money later (but thank you, baby!), we went up to the lobby
where I showed Joe some of the architectural features here that make it
my favorite resort. We browsed the gift shop for a moment, and Joe
nixed the $70 salt & pepper shakers from Zimbabwe.

We were off to the Animal Kingdom now, to try and get on Everest. Last
weekend had been the Annual Passholder and DVC Member preview, and I
fully expected it to be closed, or mobbed, so I didn't have very high
expectations.

On the way from the parking lot, I finally got a-hold of my son and had
a nice 15 minute chat. He informed me that he still doesn't want to
do any "scary" rides at Disney World. You think he'd be mad that
I go sometimes without him, but he is not as into it as me, and one
trip every year or other year or so is fine with him. He doesn't
like any of the coasters or anything with a drop, though oddly he used
to love them when he was just tall enough first to ride. It was only
after he turned 5 that he started being scared of them. I think when
he's around 10'ish, or certainly as a preteen, he'll come around
and want to start trying everything.

We went through the Asia trail first, and had a great time just sitting
on benches in a couple of locations, looking at some details in the set
we'd not noticed before, and listening the sounds of the birds and
the wind in the trees. This place is just SO beautiful.

Walked over to Everest, and what do you know, it's fully open except
for the Fastpass system not being up yet. Only a ten minute wait! We
barely had time to enjoy the queue, which was neat, but not as nice as
the one at Kali River Rapids, in my humble opinion.

For our first ride, we got seated at the center of the train, and
really enjoyed it. There's a nice, smooth opening hill and banked
curve, before you hit the big lift hill. Then there's a part where
you go backwards in the dark that's really really intense! The
intensity took me by surprise. The big drop at the end wasn't too
stomach churning because it quickly leads into a banked turn and rise,
which feels great. I really enjoyed it.

We decided to go do Dinosaur and come back later to ride one more time,
if it was still open. Stopped at Restaurantasaurus and Joe enjoyed
some Mickey D's chicken nuggets and fries, sitting up in the front of
the place in a cut-open old Airstream camper. A pack of young boys was
sitting nearby eyeing us for a while, and I was wondering why until we
got up and they descended upon our seats like a flock of eager seagulls
on a bucket of chum. I guess I'm not the only guest that digs eating
in the Airstream!

Dinosaur said 20 minutes but it was more like 5. We find that they
always overestimate the wait time for that ride, or maybe it's just
how you hit it. The front of the line waits 20 but you can walk into
the end of a group in the pre-show and only wait 5. The ride was fun.
I have to say, after a dozen times on this attraction, it finally
doesn't scare me anymore. We took a really cute photo, up in the
front row, but we already have one from this ride so we didn't buy
it. There's new giant soft rubber dinosaurs in the gift shop, by the
way. Miles has three and I will add to his collection next time I go,
I think. We were buying too much junk for the condo this trip to add
toys to the list, but I'll put it at the top on our next visit.

We went back to Everest, and the line was a little longer, but not more
than a fifteen minute wait. We asked to ride in front, and they had a
separate "front of the train" line they put us in that soon had
several couples behind us, with the same idea.

The front of this ride is kind of wild, because there is nothing in
front of you, like, no fake train engine etc., it's just your feet
and a wall of fiberglass and air. It was even more fun this time, and
I got a great view of the tracks switching for the backwards drop,
though Joe was too busy watching some other show element to notice. I
think this is the spot where they use a projection of a Yeti shadow to
show you how the tracks got all ripped up, which sends you hurtling
backwards.

I had to stop in the gift shop on the way out, and see if they had a
pin, but they didn't! They sold out of the Annual Passholder/DVC
preview ones, they said, and none of the open stock pins had arrived
yet. I did find a little stuffed cutesy looking Yeti for Miles.

We decided not to do anything else here this trip, and headed back for
the resort, because our lamp was supposed to be at package pickup after
1 p.m. today, and if they had mucked it up, Joe wanted us to find out
now, when there would still be time to rectify the situation before we
left the next evening.

It was a totally painless package pickup! That really surprised me.
Maybe they've gotten better, but I've NEVER not had a problem, or
an insane wait, before.

We checked out the food court, nothing special, and bought a pin for
the Caribbean Beach Resort. I have a pin for every resort I've
stayed at, except Ft. Wilderness, because I've never found one from
there I like, yet, and Shades of Green, because they didn't have one!


We put the lamp back in the room and put on our jackets and went out
right at sunset to rent a boat from the resort marina. We got a Boston
Whaler for half an hour with our Annual Pass discount, and Joe took the
helm for most of the ride up to the end of the resort and back.
Looking at all of the "islands" which is what the resort calls the
various sections, I decided if we ever have to stay here again, I'd
try for a water view room in Jamaica.

You do NOT want to stay in the "Trinidad South" section. It's an
entire lake away from the rest of the resort, and you'd have to have
a rental car to get to the food court, or ride the bus. No thanks!
The rest of the sections were ok, including "Trinidad North", which
is a third of the Trinidad section and is right next to the pool and
food court.

Epcot is right across the road from here, in fact, you are just a stone
throw from the back of American Adventure when you come out of the
resort and turn onto Buena Vista Drive from Victory Way. Joe thinks
that with that proximity, you might be able to find some good spots to
see the fireworks from Illuminations every night, specifically the
beach right in front of the Old Port Royale pool/food court.

We mulled over ordering a pizza from Papa Johns and eating it in the
room for dinner tonight, but decided not to waste all that time, and
try Disney Quest's pizza, on a hope and a prayer it wouldn't be
full of garlic. Joe detests garlic and it rips up my stomach.

We drove over to Downtown Disney and parked the car on the West Side,
and put our new Premium Annual Passes to use with our second trip to
Disney Quest. We found, to our delight, that the pizza here is great,
and enjoyed a pie and some Ms. Pacman, then I tried to recapture the
glory of my youth when I could beat the entire Moon Patrol game and get
into the top three for scores. I seem to have lost my old knack. I
just need a full day on the thing, and I know I can beat it again! Let
me at it!

We did the design your own coaster thing next, Cyber Space Mountain.
Joe talked me into going upside down as much as possible, and we got
two warnings from a machine and one from a cast member as to were we
aware we would be going upside down eight times? Yes, we understood,
and I have to say it was really fun. I had taken my Bonine earlier,
just in case, but I'm not sure would have needed it. The "ride"
is very smooth.

We cut a cd next of our new hit single "My Dog Gets More Dates Than I
Do" and decided next trip, I want to wait in line, no matter how long
it takes, and do the animation instruction class where you draw a
Disney character on a computer screen. Joe wants to make a mixed up
toy to take home and torture the cat with, with a cat head and hot
wheels legs and a dinosaur body.

We took the boat (kind of sorry we did as I was COLD!!!) over to the
Marketplace side, to do some shopping. Our first stop was the Art of
Disney store. Years ago, I'd seen copies of the WDW attraction
posters that are in the tunnels at the Magic Kingdom, up front as you
go under the railroad tracks. I think they were around $25 then,
unframed, but a fairly large size. Too large for anywhere I'd want
to put them, at the time. But now we have our new condo, and we have a
long hallway that's perfect for five or six of them. Joe's plan is
to get a couple each time we go, and put spot track lighting down the
hall ceiling. It will be our own "tunnel"! But, alas, I could not
find them for sale anywhere where they used to be! Queries to cast
members led nowhere, until finally we had found a lady in the fine art
shop at Epcot who knew to send us here.

It seems that Disney is experimenting with going to print-to-order
posters, and we had a fine selection to choose from on a computer kiosk
here at the Art of Disney store. They didn't have all of the
attraction posters that you see at the MK, but the cast member helping
us seemed sure that they would be adding more designs soon. We ordered
a Splash Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean, and were told they'd
be ready for us to pick up in about an hour and a half.

We were sad to find that there's no more Disney at Home store here!
Booo!!!! The home goods selection now is really really paltry, just a
corner of the World of Disney store. All the cool stuff is gone. We
decided on a salt & pepper set, finally, Mickey and Minnie in a car.
No napkin holders of any type for sale.

Then we stopped at Ghiradelli's and fought a capacity crowd for a
dirty table to eat a couple of sundaes at. Joe loves their cookie
dough flavor, and I love their hot fudge! The waiter said on cold
nights like this, all the seating gets filled up. It really wasn't
as bad as it was last May/June when we were here. That was nuts, how
crowded it was. I think late night it's always packed, and they
could expand to be about twice the size they are.

A trawl through the "under $10" discount store yielded a Mickey
hand bathrobe holder for the back of our bathroom door, that's all
done up in the "scattered" pattern that's been around for a long
time. We call it "Severed Mickey".

Picked up our finished posters, nicely rolled for us in a sturdy tube,
and waited for fifteen minutes on a COLD COLD COLD and windy dock for
the last boat of the night back over to the West Side.

Back at the room we had our usual routines and were asleep by 2 a.m.

.