Caribbean Beach Resort

Later this month, we’re flying into Orlando and driving down to Vero Beach where my parents bought a house last year. My dad lives down there full time. He is taking us to Crab Stop and the beach.

We’re then heading back to Orlando for a quick three night stay at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort. Check out the pool.

We’re only going to Magic Kingdom and EPCOT as we don’t think Paul, 19 months, will be able to tolerate a longer trip right now. We booked the trip last minute, so didn’t get any reservations for Be Our Guest. We really like the lunch there. We did get a reservation for Via Napoli for dinner at EPCOT and got FastPasses for rides. I am very excited to take the baby on rides like Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, and the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover!

We also got MagicBand 2.0s. I nearly completed my collection of the 1.0s, but never did get or want a pink one.

We’re ready to go!

Port Orleans French Quarter

Disney understands immersion and one need look no further than their resort theming as a great example. When we stayed at Coronado Springs we were surrounded by sights, sounds, and smells of Spanish-colonial Mexico, from the room decor, the food court selections, the plants, the music playing, down to the pool, with it’s majestic 50-foot replica of a Mayan pyramid. We booked our resort for March and after initially selecting Caribbean Beach Resort switched to Port Orleans French Quarter. I love New Orleans and the French Quarter. Some shots below show the details Disney uses to create this immersive experience. One might think they are actually in the French Quarter, at the corner of St. Peter and Royal. This is the only resort where you can get beignets, but I doubt they’re as good as Cafe Du Monde. Either way, laissez les bon temps roulez!

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Port Orleans French Quarter Pool Entranace

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Footage of the Magic Kingdom Under Construction

It’s fascinating seeing Seven Seas Lagoon before it was filled in.

Also, from the Wikipedia page, I never knew that… “The Seven Seas Lagoon was originally configured for artificial waves, tall enough to allow surfing. The machine began operation with the opening of the resort in 1971. However, it was soon disabled after causing severe beach erosion to the Polynesian Village Resort, for which the machine was installed.”

We Are Here to Change the World

Captain EO may not be at EPCOT much longer based on what’s happened to it at Disneyland. I’m glad I got to see it both at Disneyland and Disney World. I’m really glad I got to watch it sitting next to my mom, who loved it a lot.

Here’s one track from EO, called We Are Here to Change the World.

If you have time, watch the full video of Captain EO.

The Littlest Mouseketeer

Mouseketeer

After a very long year, and a very emotionally draining and expensive rollercoaster ride, we are expecting our Little Mouseketeer in June 2015. Expect this blog to go full on “baby” for the next 6 and a half months.

As you can see, I already bought Mousekeeter their first Ears and got this great shot at Magic Kingdom on our recent trip.

Our official due date is June 1st, 2015!

MISC

– I got a new iPhone 6. Usually I opt for the least expensive model but, as I may not be renewing my Spotify (which has been free since Feb 2013 [Thanks, Sprite!]), I am likely going to be using iTunes again and opted for a 128GB to accommodate my massive music library. I was working on a lady’s computer the other day and she was missing some songs in iTunes. I asked her how many tracks she had and she said, “A lot! I had a huge Library. Like 500 songs!” My current Library, which has not grown much since I started using Spotify:

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– I watched Amazon’s Transparent. Have you? It’s already been renewed for a second season and Jeffrey Tambor gave a great interview about his character. I watched Transparent. Have you?

mousearsWe head to Disney World in 19 days, 20 hours, and 10 minutes for our last trip of the year. We’re staying on property and secured 4-day park hopper passes. We’re hitting all of the parks and having FastPass lunch at Be Our Guest on Halloween. We also secured reservations for Parisian Breakfast at Chefs de France during EPCOT’s Food and Wine festival. I’m also looking forward to shopping at Memento Mori, the new Haunted Mansion gift shop in Magic Kingdom. Also, I cannot wait to hit up Earl of Sandwich at Downtown Disney for a Full Montagu.

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