Hi. I hope this will be an ongoing daily update to our current 8 day trip. I'm writing this as my DW is getting ready for day 2.
Day 1: We touched down at MCO at around 4:40am having slept at most 2 hours all night. Using the Magical Express we arrived at the resort at about 5:45am. Breakfast in the tent started at 6:30am, but the internal buses didn't start until 7:00am. Bell Services was kind enough to give us a ride to Old Port Royal so we could eat an early breakfast before heading to HS for the day. We didn't get our 'Room is ready' text until almost 6:00pm, which was right before we left HS to go back to the hotel...that was cutting it a bit close on having our room ready. Room is awesome (Trinidad North, King Bed). Dinner at the resort was a hot dog from the food truck while sitting on the beach listening to a live calypso band...fantastic ending to day 1.
Day 2: Today was EPCOT. Left for the park at about 9:30am and waited maybe 5 minutes for a bus. Lot's of room on the bus even after hitting the other stops.
Day 3: Animal Kingdom. Left for the park at about 6:50am, waited 10 minutes for a bus. Tons of room on the bus even after hitting the other stops. FOP = the Disney Magic of my youth returned! I was totally immersed and at one point actually raised my arms to shield my face from an imminent collision that I was convinced was about to occur. Amazing ride! It's the only ride I would seriously consider waiting an hour or so to ride...30 minutes is usually where I draw the line.
So far construction at the resort has been visible, but practically zero impact on us. This type of construction would NOT keep us from returning to CBR again in the future. In fact, I would say construction is more visible elsewhere as we ride the buses to and from the resort than it is at the resort itself.
Day 4: MK morning then hop to HS for dinner and Fanstasmic!. Left for the park at about 7:50am and walked onto the MK bus with 0 wait. There were maybe 15 people on the bus by the time it left the resort for MK. Dinner at the Brown Derby was delicious. Would take the steak at Brown Derby over the steak at Le Cellier hands down.
Ok...the park days kept getting longer and the nights shorter, so I ran out of steam to keep up this ongoing report. The remaining days were about identical as far as the buses went. We never waited more than 10 minutes for a bus at the resort and there were always plenty of empty seats.
Our last day was where things got a bit stressful. I really didn't like having to be on the magical express 4 hours early. We were through security at the airport 2 hours before they started boarding our flight. We could have easily spent another hour in the park on the last day. To make matters worse, we had to plan on arriving back at CBR about 20 minutes earlier than normal to have time to catch an internal bus to Custom House. So we actually lost 1 hour and 20 minutes of park time on that last day. When we arrived at Custom House it was chaos. So many people checking in and out all needing to use bell services for luggage that the staff was obviously completely overwhelmed. When I was finally able to give a cast member our carry on claim ticket, it took nearly 30 minutes for them to return with our luggage. Given that departure experience, we won't be stay at CBR again until they find a better way for guests to move about the resort on arrival and departure days. Everything in between arrival and departure was great!
