DISNEY WORLD! Day 1, August 18th

On Tuesday, August 18th, we set out on a journey to Disney World in Florida. We woke up super early (at least it was super early to me) and drove over to Jon's brother's house. Dave was going to drive us the rest of the way to the airport so we wouldn't have to pay to park our car there. We got the the airport about an hour and a half before our flight. We couldn't check-in online for whatever reason so we had to stand in line to check in. We got up to the check in kiosk and we still couldn't check in. So the lady at the counter took our IDs and reservation number and disappeared for awhile. She never did say what the problem was, but she came back with our boarding passes in hand. Then we looked at the line for security...it was so long. Thankfully they had a separate "family" line so we didn't have to wait at all. Getting through security is quite the ordeal when traveling with children, but we made it through all in one piece. We got to the gate and they were already boarding, score...no waiting in the airport with 2 small children who wanted to run around!

The first plane was great, we flew into Atlanta and both kids slept most of the way. Once in Atlanta we had a 55 minute lay-over, so in other words just enough time to stop at the potty for diaper changes, grab so grub, and make it to our gate...again they were already boarding! We went to board and they stopped us telling us there was a problem with our seat assignment. After standing there awhile the guy gave us new seat assignments and we got on the plane. Of course there were already people assigned to the seats he gave us and our original seats were wide open so we just sat in them anyway. This time the kids were awake most of the ride, but for the most part they were still good.

We arrived at Orlando airport and went to find the Disney Magic Express bus (notice I didn't say we found our bags first...a great service of using the (FREE) Disney Magic Express is they get your bags for you and deliver them to your room a few hours after you get there). A half hour bus ride later we were checking in at the Caribbean Beach Resort. The CBR is a very spread out resort. Our room was on the second floor of a building in Trinidad South, which with the stroller was not fun since there were no elevators. Trinidad South was also the farthest away from just about everything, but there was a resort shuttle that just drove around the CBR all day. It helped a little but it was a bit annoying. Our room was a pirate themed room.

Pirate Ship Beds

Curtain that seperated the sleeping area from the bath area.

It was pretty cool, but we did pay extra for the room (not our choice, it was the cheapest room available on Disney property when we booked) and I don't think the price of the room was worth it. Overall we were not super impressed with the CBR and will probably not stay there again. 7 years ago for our honeymoon we were at Coronado Springs Resort and we loved it, so that will be our first choice when opting for a moderate resort in the future.

After getting in our room Jon took Nathan and Emily to the little beach area nearby our room. It had a little playground. I waited in the room for a crib and our groceries to be delievered (we ordered some groceries from gardengrocer.com, a local online grocery store that delivers to residents and resorts in central Florida). Before we knew it it was time to go to our dinner reservation for the evening. We had a 6:30 reservation at the Whispering Canyon Cafe at the Wilderness Lodge. If you ever go to Disney, this is a MUST EAT restaurant! The name "Whispering Canyon" is very misleading (we knew that going in). It is a fun, loud, hootin' and hollarin' kinda place. Jon ordered a lemonade with his meal and when he got a refill the waitor brought out an iced-tea instead (not exactly something we are going to drink) so Jon told him of his mistake and he came back with a HUGE jar of lemonade and said he wouldn't make that mistake again! They had the kids do stick horse races around the restaurant, random sing alongs to the Hokey-Pokey, and watch out if you ask for Ketchup or a specific color crayon!

Jon's Lemonade

Nathan asked for some Ketchup and the waitor yelled "Can somebody please pass the ketchup?" and tons of kids came over to the table to bring us our ketchup...lots of it!

We thought about going to Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM Studios) that night but by the time dinner was over it was late, we had had a long day, and the kids were ready for bed.