[hrbib21]

Participants: Eric 35 (me), Michele 36 (the Queen), and Bud 34 (first timer)

Friday, 9/22: I skipped out on work (I was supposed to work 3 hours; no, I won’t get in trouble) and left at 11AM on our 470 mile drive. We drove down to Mt Pleasant, SC (just north of Charleston) and stopped for lunch at Atlanta Bread Company and shopped in a couple of stores. We continued on and arrived at the La Quinta Inn about 5 miles from the airport a little after 8PM. No, I didn’t like it even though it was given 3 stars by AAA. There were ants crawling up the wall in the bathroom. But, they did have something Disney doesn’t offer: free wireless internet. Or ants.

We then ate at some not very good restaurant next to the hotel called Fish On Fire. That was a complete waste of $50. I’ll put it this way: fish wasn’t the only thing on fire after eating at that dump. Off to bed.

[hrbib21]

Saturday, 9/23: Got up about 8AM, packed up the car, and headed off to the airport to pick up my best friend of many years, Bud, who arrived at 9:30AM. We timed it perfectly as we met him coming off the escalator heading to baggage claim. We loaded Bud into the car and headed off down the most expensive (per mile) toll road in the world.

We arrived at CBR at about 10:30AM. We checked in, which took about a half hour, and went right to our room, Jamaica 4441. We unpacked and went over to Old Port Royale for lunch to begin our DDP “experience”. We then took a bus to Downtown Disney for a look around the stores for a couple hours. Then, back to CBR to get ready for dinner.

CAVEY READ HERE: Spoodles. WOW. Cavey’s right: it’s great. We loved it. I had the Mediterranean dips, Portuguese Seafood Stew, and Cherry Gelato. My God it was awesome. Michele had the Garlic Shrimp, Rigatoni w/ shrimp, and chocolate ice cream. Bud had the 4 cheese flatbread, Oak-fired NY Strip, and chocolate ice cream. We each had this fruit punch drink that was incredible, too. Definitely get that (it’s non-alcoholic. This was definitely among the best meals we had. Total DDP bill: $161.

After dinner, we walked over to Epcot for a couple hours. The International Gateway is my new favorite way to enter Epcot. Park at Boardwalk, take the boat to Epcot, never worry about a bus.

A couple of pics of our CBR building:

[hrbib21]

Sunday, 9/24: Magic Kingdom day. This is the traditional start of our trip (isn’t it everyone’s?), even though we hit Epcot the night before. We went right to POTC and the Haunted House, my two favorite rides in all of Disney. I love the updates they did to POTC with adding in Capt. Jack Sparrow. Definitely better.

We continued on through MK until lunchtime when we ate at our traditional MK lunch spot, Cosmic Rays. We then went on a couple of rides in the Future World area, like Carousel of Progress (I just love that one) and then headed back to Hall of Presidents to see if it had opened (it wasn’t earlier) and it was. I was surprised because I read on another site that it had closed for repairs.

Of course, you have to take the mandatory train station picture:

[hrbib21]

The also mandatory castle pic ruined by a crane:

[hrbib21]

My favorite statue

[hrbib21]

Disney landscaping always amazes me:

[hrbib21]

I want my backyard to look like this:

[Jen]

Eric ~ you take amazing pictures!! What kind of camera do you use??

I could so get rid of that crane in you castle pic if you want

Spoodles sounded awesome!!

[hrbib21]

Thanks. It's actually two camera's that are very similar. They're both Sony 5.1mp.

More tomorrow.

[daisyd]

Welcome back!!!! Gotta love a man that refers to his wife as The Queen

I hope your dining experiences never sunk to the low of the Fish on Fire What a waste of good money, lol.

Your pictures are so sharp and just beautiful!

[Jen]

hear ya go ~ no crane

[hrbib21]

Hey, that's great. Thanks.

I have to leave you with at least one character pic before bed. I'm the goofball on the right:

[Erin]

Originally Posted by hrbib21

I want my backyard to look like this:

Beautiful!!! I want mine to look like that, too!
Excellent picture!

[Erin]

Rib! I can't wait to read more! Promise you'll come back and post more tomorrow.

[jenbarnwell]

So far so good! I am loving the trip report.
My friend and her hubby went down to disney for their first year anniversary and they had a bunch of pictures taken in front of the castle only to find out that that silly crane was in almost every single one!