Two Chips and a Dip (The Appetizer Trip) Nov 30 thru Dec 5, 2007 - With Final Thoughts - COMPLETE - Updated 2/21 - Page 39 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Eileen, sorry to hear you were under the weather but glad you are on the mend. Thanks for the update but I got tears in my eyes seeing your last picture of the boys heading home.
Take care of yourself, these boards are too quiet when you are not here.
I have GOT to look for the peg leg prints!! Never noticed that before!
I am totally feeling Calder's pain about leaving. I am the worst big baby on departure day. First thing in the morning I get up all sad, then I'm okay cause we go do stuff, then I get all moody again cause it's time to go.......
Love Bob waving at the IASWA guy. Andy gets a kick outta waving at the Pirates guy everytime
I think the person in the front of your Splash picture is praying...... maybe that they won't come off with inappropriate @$$-crack problems
I think the person in the front of your Splash picture is praying...... maybe that they won't come off with inappropriate @$$-crack problems
That's Bob in the front doing his "little girl -- oh please, oh please, oh please..." pose.... (Calder's the one all tucked-down and Sharon's the one with her arms up in the air like she just don't care!) I think he's praying that he doesn't lose his Cubs hat on the way down.
As for the number of Cubs shirts, he only packed Cubs shirts for the trip as a passive-aggressive way of saying "the NEXT vacation better include some time at Wrigley Field." (He had about 10 shirts before this past season and his sister sent him at least 5 more after they clinched the division, including the "Sweet Lou" shirt, which is *my* favorite!)
That's Bob in the front doing his "little girl -- oh please, oh please, oh please..." pose.... (Calder's the one all tucked-down and Sharon's the one with her arms up in the air like she just don't care!) I think he's praying that he doesn't lose his Cubs hat on the way down.
You know, I looked really hard at that pic trying to decide if it was someone in your clan...... but I thought surely Calder wouldn't duck down like he'd never ridden before IT!
So, it's time for my final thoughts on the appetizer portion of this trip. (I don't know **when** I'll ever get a chance to think final thoughts on the Mousefest/CLT portion as I have no idea when either of those ladies will get back to their TRs....)
Anyway, here's what I think I thunk about WDW this time:
The resort
Caribbean Beach is an attractive and clean resort.
It *is* somewhat spread-out and getting from one spot within the resort to another (say... from the room to the main building) means that you'll either have to deal with the well-run internal bus or by hoofing it. Not a big problem, but not a point in its favor for me. Getting a quick cup of coffee, for example, was not such a quick endeavor.
The laundry facilities were great and the quiet pool in Aruba was very nice.
You can hear IllumiNations (and the Candlelight Processional) very, very clearly from the resort. If I had little ones, the noise of the finale would've woken them every night -- for us, not a problem, and it afforded some fun when we caught them from the walkway outside of our room.
The room was clean and well maintained. Bob thought the hot water heater was a real trooper and it never ran out on him, despite taking 25 minute showers at the hottest temperature. I really liked the storage cabinet underneath the double sink -- it was nice to have a place to store toiletries. The armoire was like most others in the moderates and had plenty of room for the three of us and our stuff. (I did also get extra hangers from Mousekeeping to hang clothes.) Mousekeeping was good and efficient, but there weren't any "extras" and we had little interaction with them compared to what we've had at the Port Orleans resorts -- nothing to complain about, but thought I'd mention it. One thing I will complain about is the fact that the beds themselves squeaked like nuts, every time we rolled over or shifted in our sleep -- it made it even harder to sleep the first night until I got used to it. (But I did like that I could tuck stuff under them, which you can't do on the "platform" beds at the PO resorts.)
I do have to say that I felt the smoking areas were awfully close to the rooms themselves. It was no fault of the guests smoking, but a breeze would carry it into the room. The flip side of that was they were lovely little seating areas for me to escape my sleeping boys in the mornings.
The food court was decent and the staff was helpful. If it had been closer to our room, I think we might have spent more time there.
The main pool was fun and had lovely landscaping around it. The hot tub was a great temperature and my DH adored the hot waterfall that fell into the hottub -- he was literally crying when he first tipped his head under the hot water. But, I will say that it's in a stupid location within the pool complex. There's no place to lay down a towel or store your stuff where you can keep an eye on it.
The pirate adventure Calder and I witnessed looked like great fun!
We had a great rate of $105 per night on either a Disney Visa discount or an AP discount, I can't remember anymore.
Still, our quick walk through Port Orleans French Quarter that one afternoon had me almost in tears. While I won't poo-poo the CBR, the PO resorts are my hands-down favorite. I'm not saying that I would cancel a trip if I couldn't get into POFQ, but I think I'd give up an AP rate if it meant I had to stay at a different moderate.
Food (and not doing the dining plan)
Looking at our receipts, my original estimations of whether we'd save on the DDPlan were correct. Knowing that Calder really doesn't eat much but would've cost us an adult's DDP is the real kicker for our family unit. We ate only 4 TS meals when we would've paid for 5 (although I think we could've squeezed in another meal had we had the DDP). Bob doesn't scrimp on his meals on vacation, so the DDP would be a great deal for him, but Calder and I do a lot more grazing when on property and we split alot of meals. That said, had we had the DDP, I know he and I would've ordered more, but I think we would've been more full than we enjoy and I know there would've been quite a bit of wasted food.
Our food costs were $404.90 (including tips, drinks, treats, and fruit)
Our DDExperience savings were $30.76)
The DDPlan for 3 adults would've been $570
Our OOP vs. DDPlan savings was $195.86
The DDP in Dec 07 still included tip so I would've had to factor that in had we gone in January. (Lucky for "math-challenged" me, I don't have to worry about that at the mo'...)
The Plaza -- this little gem is still a great favorite and I absolutely adore the sandwich bread and the potato salad.
Yak & Yeti -- expensive, but a real winner. The Yak Attack is divine! I know we'll be back!
Earl of Sandwich saw us two separate times. The holiday special (a turkey and stuffing sandwich with cranberries) is a phenomenal treat during the season.
Chef Mickey's is a favorite for the character interaction, but it is rather expensive, especially as Calder doesn't eat much more than a waffle or two and an apple. Bob and I do our best to consume our weight in eggs and OJ, but we really come for the characters!
The 50's Prime Time was delicious, but we had a less than stellar waitress. Oh, she was competent, but she didn't interact with us at all, and we definitely gave off the vibe of people who are willing to tease and be teased. (The CLT had a **MUCH** better meal there a few nights later.)
The Cantina in Mexico was very tasty, especially as it was accompanied by a lovely margarita and a warm sunny afternoon looking out over the water. Sigh...!.
School bread was tasty and I'm glad I tried it. For the price, it's a great snack
Souvenirs
I was rather disappointed in the souvenirs available. It really seems as if all the resort gift shops, the park stores, and the shops at Downtown Disney have gone to a totally homogenized offering of the same derned thing in every store and they haven't changed much since 2006 nor were they different from what I saw in Disneyland this past March.
Even so, Bob and I managed to spend about $200 on souvenirs and Calder ran though $112 of his savings. But, for a boy who loves to spend, spend, spend, the fact that he came home with almost $50 in cash says something about what there was on offer.
Had Calder not recently broken my heart by putting his foot down on wearing Disney shirts to middle school, I could've easily spent more money buying him funny shirts. Buuuut.... he won't even wear Karen's gift of the "Yoda and the height requirement" shirt unless he has a hoodie over it. I guess he's tired of being the "Disney kid" at school.
Our flights
Airtran was once again a great deal and a nice trip. There were some problems on the way back for me, but it was more a goof on the part of the gate agent that caused me some uncomfortable moments and not really the airline's fault. The three of us flew for $450/round trip -- not my best, but pretty darned good.
DME
It was once again smooth and painless, although I did learn that it would be best for us -- when taking an evening flight -- to pack one carryon with the air mattress and the basics for that night. Having to wait until after midnight for the air mattress was not my idea of fun.
Getting to use the Remote Airline Check-in (RAC) was a hit and Calder and Bob really liked not having to touch their bags until they got to our home airport. With a youngster to deal with, that one less hassle is a blessing! (Thank you, Airtran, for becoming a participating airline!)
The Parks
I thought the holiday decorations had been toned down quite a bit. It's still lovely and almost overwhelming, but it did seem to me to be about half what it's been in the past. I have to say that I didn't mind the reduction and it didn't make me feel any less "in the Christmas spirit," but I did notice it and thought I'd mention it.
The crowds were still relatively low, even though it seems that early December gets more and more crowded each year. (I've now been in December for 2002, 2005, 2006 and 2007.) Most waits were in the 10-25 minute range and there were still FastPasses well into the evenings, with most FP windows only "out" about 60-90 minutes. We never passed up a ride because the wait was too long. We did what we wanted to do (except when the animatronics "went on strike" at the MK two mornings in a row) and saw everything we wanted to see. Plus, we only encountered one Brazilian Tour Group the whole trip and it was a rather "glancing blow" and didn't affect our enjoyment in the least.
The Cast Members were still enjoying themselves with the Year of a Million Dreams promotion. You can tell that this was a real morale booster for them and they've enjoyed getting to sprinkle pixie dust every day.
Once again, we spent most of our time in Epcot and the Magic Kingdom. The Animal Kingdom and the Studios are fun, but don't draw us to them as much as the others. (I bet Calder will enjoy them more once he becomes a thrill junkie.)
The rehabs and "new" stuff
We all really liked the Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor -- Calder just mentioned it this morning and said he wanted to do it again. As a family, the Lloyds willingly throw ourselves into things and are open to enjoying experiences to the fullest, so we laughed and yelled and got into it each time we saw it.
The new Haunted Mansion updates are brilliant -- we all thought the "stairway to nowhere" effect was cool. Bride 2.0 can't help but send shivers down a DHs spine and Calder appreciated that the creepy pop-up ghoul heads were gone. The sound system was a great improvement and everything looked lush and new, even the dust and cobwebs!
The Canada movie with the new Martin Short segments (and the removal of the more dated pieces) was a great improvement. It's now something I can see wanting to catch each trip, whereas this was an attraction I only did if I was showing newbies around.
The Mexico rehab was just brilliant -- again, we will now want to check out Donald's streaking each trip.
We hadn't done Maelstrom in years and years. I think Calder liked it enough to want to add it to our repertoire from here on out.
Annual Passes
We bought our APs last year for the Leenee-palooza Grand Gathering trip. I got to stay an extra couple of days when the CLT first formed, so I saw 11 days use that first trip while Calder and Bob only saw 8 days.
The "appetizer" trip was essential () in getting our money's worth on the APs for my guys. They got 5 extra days in the parks, taking their total to 13, well above the breakeven point of 11.5 days.
I got an additional 9 days on my AP this year, for a grand total of 20 days on this AP. That brings my per day costs to around $24 (not taking into account that we saved a TON with room discounts and the DDExperience on both vacations.)
Which is why I'm considering an AP for the June trip I'm taking with Sharon and Karen... in the hopes that I'll get back for another birthday trip while Bob is at IAAPA in November or a possible return to Mousefest '08.
And... unfortunately, I don't think I can drag this TR out any longer. I have to finally give up the ghost and recognize that trips really do come to an end eventually. At least, these boards and the fun of writing trip reports extends the enjoyment of a trip by months and months.
So, until June, my friends.... That's only a few months away!
Eileen
Ahh, sorry the Appetizer Trip report is over. I hope that you do continue with the CLT portion (even if the others don't complete there parts). Thanks for all the details and wrap up. We've stayed at POR once and POFQ twice. Until DD and I stayed at CBR last summer, POFQ was our favorite. Do give CBR another chance. We had the most towel animals and best mousekeeping of any of the moderate resorts.
My DD is the same age as Calder and she does the museum shuffle (with some actual tears thrown in for good measure) every time we leave, so I know exactly how he felt about leaving. It takes great restraint on my part to not join her tearing up.
Loved the pictures of your family! You all enjoy your trips to their fullest.
Wonderful report and photos Eileen, sorry it's come to an end I'd have been the same as Calder on my last day, I'm always heartbroken. Thank you for sharing your final thoughts too.
Great update and final thoughts Eileen!! I have never seen the peg-leg, but I sure will be looking for it!!! Great photos!!! That last photo of Calder and his father was so sad. I felt for him having to leave.
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Another fantabulous report Eileen!! Fingers crossed for a birthday trip in November so we can cross paths again! Lots of luaghs from beginning to end and know there will be more in the future!
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the ones of Calder and Stitch - priceless!!!
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Pixie Dust
You know, I looked really hard at that pic trying to decide if it was someone in your clan...... but I thought surely Calder wouldn't duck down like he'd never ridden before 
) in getting our money's worth on the APs for my guys. They got 5 extra days in the parks, taking their total to 13, well above the breakeven point of 11.5 days.
Thanks for reading!
Thanks so much for sharing your adventures with us 
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