UK's August Adventure! A Live TR

What can I say. Sports watching and betting are always big parts of my trips

 

On the plane with about another hour to go. Will try and update tonight after we land

 

How the hell are the Browns going to win 7 games this year? Obviously I'm confused how the leagues worst franchise can suddenly vault from 0 and 1 win to sniffing .500----- if my local gets the sportsbook running by week 1 I'm considering a nice wager on the under....thoughts?

 

I think the Browns are improved and I haven't looked at their schedule yet, but 7 wins seems like a stretch

 

Just checked and the weather looks very good for our water park day tomorrow. Plan for tonight is maybe grab a snack at the airport and then head for Disney's magical express for a ride to our resort, Caribbean Beach. We have never stayed there and I know there is some construction going on, but we won't be at the resort much this weekend. It was a good price.

 

Curious to see your review on Red Square. I've walked by there dozens of times, but never dropped in.

 

A quick summary of Caribbean Beach would be appreciated if you do a bit of exploring there. That's the resort we picked for our next trip. Have fun!

 

I went to Tunica yesterday to check at Gold Strike (2nd time since opening lol) ....anyways, there was no one there so I could actually check the book out......and there isn't much to it. The betting stations with all the lines and odds on some tv screens then the "seating" is a bunch of tables used for the Pickle and Jam restaurant. There are a bunch of TVs on the walls and in the back of the area there is some bigger chairs and maybe a couch or 2..cant remember. I HOPE when college and NFL games start that they will open up other rooms and have TVs setup for people to watch the games. We shall see.

 

Just got in from the water park and will do a full update later, with some thoughts on Caribbean Beach. Short response: if you all can re-book to a different Disney resort, I would!

 

Probably not , but I believe all construction should be completed by the time we plan to go. So I hope it's construction related!

 

So here is the Saturday afternoon update!

Last evening we arrived at the hotel via disney magical express without incident. For the unfamiliar, the DME is a free service Disney offers for any guests arriving at the airport and staying at one of their resorts. On the plus side, its free. On the negative side, each bus makes multiple stops. So you never know if your ride will be long or short. And trust me, it makes a big difference. Anywho, we lucked out and Caribbean Beach was the second of four stops.

Caribbean Beach (or CB) is an odd property. Its very large and spread out. And I did not know that there are no walking trails between the various lodging buildings and the main Customs House where the main lobby is located. So the only way around the resort property is via an internal bus system at the resort. And last night, we stood around for fifteen minutes after checking in to get a bus to the building where our room is. After a long trip, that was annoying. To make it worse, the bus service is not a 24 hour service. Skipping ahead a bit, we are scheduled to catch the DME back to the airport tomorrow morning. But our bus is scheduled to leave very early before the internal resort shuttle starts operating. So I called the bellman to ask how we can get to the Customs House in the morning for our DME. He said they can provide transport, for a few, but we have to get up a half earlier than planned (and we are already having to get up before dawn; my partner has a work project back home tomorrow, so we leave early). That was extremely frustrating! So we decided to cancel out MDE for tomorrow, use a Lyft to the airport, and get some extra sleep on top of it. The Lyft is obviously more than the free MDE, but when you factor in how much the bellman was charging to ferry us to the Customs House, it really isn't all that much more. So, these internal transportation issues are definitely a mark against CB.

Otherwise, CB is just ok. There is a lot of construction going on, but that hasn't really bothered us. Actually, if you're into Disney pin trading, they give each guest a set of pins as an upfront apology for the construction. We're not into pin trading, but they are cute and we will give them to our young relatives. Also, the construction has significantly limited the available on resort dining options, but all of our meals this trip are off site, so that hasn't really impacted us. Thus far, I like the Coronado Springs resort more than CB (and its usually the same price). But CB is close to Typhoon Lagoon, which was convenient for us, and it may be more interesting once Disney completes their new gondola transport system (the CB station for the gondolas is being built just outside our room).

Back to the present. We got up at 9 this morning, put on the swimsuits and sunscreen, and got a Lyft to Typhoon Lagoon (or TL). TL was a blast! We got there about ten minutes before rope drop and we were allowed in far enough to get a locker and line up on the far right side of the lagoon, nearest the Crush N Gusher.

At rope drop, while everyone else scrambled for chairs, we were the first guests on the Crush an Gusher. Its basically a water roller coaster. It has three different routes and we rode all three in quick succession. After that, we walked over to Miss Adventure Falls, the newest attraction at the park. Its a family raft ride that is very good and really well themed. We ended up riding it four or five times throughout the day.

After the falls, we grabbed a snack and watched the children scream in the giant wave pool. The TL wave pool ahs to be seen to be believed. Sometimes it is set to a normal wave pool setting. But most of the time, its placed on a setting where every few minutes its send a tsunami across the pool. That's not an exaggeration. It sends a ten foot tall wall of water screaming across this giant pool! When we were leaving, I got a few pics of the pool, which I will add in a pic dump after this post, but unfortunately no pics of the tsunami. Still, just imagine a wall of water across a pool that large! Each time, the wave would pick us up and carry us at least fifteen feet before falling back into the water of the pool. Its absolutely incredible and a ton of fun.

Along with the pool, we did one of the storm slides (a body slide) another raft ride called Keelhaul Falls, and spent a solid hour on the lazy river that circles the park. We also enjoy a game of looking for wildlife while waiting in line, and we each spotted a bunch of lizards and skinks in the park. The only downside was that the restaurant spot we choose kept screwing up my order. It was clearly my fault for ordering off the menu, lol.

After six and a half hours in the park, we headed back to the room to relax and get cleaned up for dinner. The plan tonight is dinner at Flying Fish, which is supposed to be one of the better Disney restaurants. Its at the Boardwalk resort, so we will probably spend some time over there after dinner and maybe find out if we can see the evening fireworks at Hollywood Studios or Epcot. I will next post some pics I took on my way out of the water park. More later

 

Here are some pics from the park

 

Just sat down at flying fish. Menu looks good. These lighting fixtures are appropriate!

 

The triple brie on this cheese plate was too good for words

 

The Atrium restaurant is being retrofitted into the sports book. God only knows how long that will take. But, it is a good sized area, so who knows.

 

You will be able to see fireworks from the boardwalk. I was there a couple of months ago for work and stayed at swan and dolphin. I walked down to the boardwalk in the evenings and caught the firework show. Enjoy!

 

That's good to know. Sams Town opened theirs and it's more of a sports book than GS. There are pictures of it on their Twitter.

 

We watched a bit of it from a bench on the Boardwalk. It was a nice way to end the evening

 

Final recap for Saturday:

Dinner at Flying Fish was excellent. I wasn't starving, so I only had part of the cheese plate I posted above and the lobster bisque. I was pleasantly full. Afterward, we stopped in the Abracadabra bar adjoining the restaurant. It was cool. The magician themed artwork on the walls was interesting. I will post some pics. Then we walked around the boardwalk a bit, watched the fireworks, and stopped in a gift shop for a pen. My partner finds or buys a unique pen for each trip we go on. This time, she found a pen shaped like Ariel from the little mermaid and she loved it. So we have added that to the collection. Now we're back at CB, resting up for an early departure tomorrow. Will post few pics from the Boardwalk and then I am going to crash. More tomorrow ....

 

Here are some pics from the disney boardwalk