 |  |
| Discussion Boards | Reviews | News | Trip Planning | Shop | Travel | Site Map |
| Disney Trip Report Archive An archive of reader-submitted trip reports | |
| Alex Stroup, editor | Search just the Trip Report Archive. |
|
Dana Avery -- October 2003 -- Walt Disney World (CSR)WARNING!!! This is my very first attempt at writing a trip report. Please be patient.Here’s the cast:
When we’ll be there: October 18-25th, 2003. Where we’re from: South Central Kentucky. (About halfway between Louisville and Nashville). How we’ll get there: We’ll drive because Casey nixed the whole flying idea. (She’s a bit afraid of heights). Where we’ll stay: Coronado Springs Resort, Standard Room. Disney Experience: One previous Disney trip--A six night trip June, 2002. Day 1, Friday, October 17th OK, the plan was for me to work ½ a day today, say good-bye to the grandparents, aunts and cousins and leave Munfordville, KY at 2:30. So, the very beginning of our trip, we’re LATE. We don’t leave until 2:38!! Oh well, I chill out and take off south down I-65. We drive into Nashville (where we will catch I-24 east) and get completely stopped in traffic. I’m glad I left when I did if rush hour is this bad at 3:45 in the afternoon. After about a 20 minute delay we get out of Nashville and are on our way to Chattanooga. I love I-24. Every time we’ve been on this interstate it’s never busy. So I’m just driving along and enjoying the ride when suddenly, just about two hours from home I realized that I had FORGOTTEN EVERY SINGLE BIT OF OUR CHECK-IN PAPERWORK!!! You know, the whole pretty packet of things that the Walt Disney Travel Company sends you. The statement showing your zero balance, the vouchers for you room tickets…all of it was at home in a lovely pink folder. So, I worry and fret for about five minutes and finally decided that if there were some kind of hang up at check-in, I would simply call my sister and have her copy and fax the paperwork. I calm down considerably and we proceed to drive onto Marietta, GA (just a couple of miles north of Atlanta) where we stopped for the night. We made good time, as we didn’t stop until we checked in. It was about 8:15 EST, so I filled the car up with gas and we had some snacks for dinner. We called back to Kentucky to check in with my parents (this happens a lot while we’re on vacation) and went on to bed. Tomorrow we’ll get up fairly early, as Casey likes to leave early in the morning so she can sleep during part of the ride. Day 2, Saturday, October 18th We left by 6:15 EST and breezed through Atlanta. Somehow we got snagged in some construction just south of Atlanta. Traffic was down to one lane and so we moved about 2 miles an hour for 45 minutes. We finally got through and kept going until Lake Park, GA where we stopped for lunch. We made it to Coronado Springs Resort by 2:15 (please note that all times are now Eastern Standard Time even though my internal clock still says Central Standard Time). We were easily checked in, about a 10-15 minute wait. Thank goodness, no problems regarding check-in, they did ask that I mail them the UPH ticket vouchers, though (to which I graciously agreed). Our room was not ready yet but we were in Cabanas 8A (which is the exact building I had requested when I faxed over, hooray for the room assigners!!!). We drove around to the parking area for that building and I grabbed Casey’s swimsuit bag. I let her change and as we were walking out of the changing room, I decided, on a whim, to call and check our room status and it was ready!! Room 8103, yea, 1st floor. I went ahead and let Casey swim for a while. She loved the pool and especially the slide. After about ½ an hour I dragged her kicking and screaming (well, she was mentally kicking and screaming) from the pool to find our room. It was in a great location very close to a bus stop (#4) and just around the corner and a nice (short) stroll by the beach from the main pool. I could see the main buildings across lake and would find out later it was also a nice, although a little lengthy, stroll from our room. I then proceeded with the horrible and heinous duty of unloading the car. My original itinerary had called for us going over to the Magic Kingdom around 6:30 with our only goal to see Wishes and the 2nd Spectromagic parade. Well, it was now about 4:30, not really enough time to swim (yeah, right), so we decided to head on over to the Magic Kingdom. (Ok, really, I just couldn’t wait any longer!!) We hopped a bus (after only about a 15 minute wait) and I started grinning like a maniac upon seeing Cinderella Castle. We skipped down main street and I checked the times board. We rode Pirates of the Caribbean (15 minute wait, but seemed much longer what with all the obnoxious teenagers and people whose children must climb all over everything!) After that we went over to Splash Mountain. There was an hour wait, so we got a fastpass for 9-10 o’clock. (Side note: This ride was something Casey had finally worked up her nerve for last June, but we didn’t get a chance to ride. She was ready for a go on it now, though. She had tried out another “drop type” ride at King’s Island this summer and felt rather experienced at this type of ride. ) We went over to Pecos Bill’s and had a hot dog. I sat there eating my hot dog and envying the lady with the chicken wrap. She kept trying to give half of it to her husband, but he didn’t want it. I wanted to offer to take it from her, but decided not to. We walked over to Fantasyland, there were several long waits, but I expected this as it was a Saturday night. We rode It’s a Small World with only 10 minute wait---hey, I LIKE this ride, well, I like it at least once a trip anyway. We then meandered over to Tomorrowland where we rode the TTA—always a favorite and better yet, never a wait!! We then saw another favorite, Carousel of Progress, ahhhh, total and absolute Disney bliss!! After that we stood on the Tomorrowland bridge to wait for the fireworks. Casey was wearing my pin lanyard (with strict instructions on which pins could be traded). While we were waiting for the fireworks, she saw another little girl (her name was Grace and she had a lovely English accent) with a lanyard. Within minutes, the both of them were looking at each other’s lanyard and soon Casey had made her first official “non Cast Member” trade. We watched Wishes. It was good, but for some reason I expected more fireworks. But since I haven’t seen Fantasy in the Sky, I didn’t really have anything to compare it to. Casey hated it, as she hates ALL firework shows (she doesn’t like the noise). We then tried to make it over to Frontierland but the crowds around the front of the castle were terrible!! We could barely move at times. I considered climbing on a bench and trying out the “mosh pit” mentality, but decided that Casey wasn’t really old enough for that yet. We really should have tried to cut around Tomorrowland and through Fantasyland or, better yet, caught the train at Mickey’s Toon Town Fair. But if we had done that we wouldn’t have gotten to get REALLY close with all the other visitors. (For you Delswife fans, there was a LOT of skin-to-skin contact). But anyway, we finally made it over to Frontierland where it was time for our Fast Pass for Splash Mountain. All I can say is it was great, but it scared the holy heck out of Casey. Her little knees were actually shaking when we were finished. I don’t know why it scared her so much, I think it was the build up to the drop as this ride is much longer than you think. Anyway, the look on her face in the picture was one of absolute terror. I was afraid to buy it lest I be sentenced with child abuse for subjecting a child to such torture!! Anyway, we made our way back over to Fantasyland to catch Mickey’s Philharmagic. We waited a little while (about 20 minutes) but it was well worth it!!! This show is fantastic!! I could have went home right then and been perfectly satisfied (well, no, but you understand what I mean). We didn’t manage to see Spectromagic, but since we saw it last year, I wasn’t too upset about it. We made it back to the resort at 11 o’clock where we collapsed in bed. A very long, but extremely satisfying day!!!! Day 3, Animal Kingdom and MNSSHP, Sunday, October 19th I was up 7:15 (Casey up at 7:35) and after breakfast in the room we were off to the bus stop to catch a ride to Animal Kingdom. We waited about 15 minutes for a bus (pretty standard and quite acceptable). The bus wasn’t crowded at all and we arrived at Animal Kingdom just as they started letting people through the turnstiles. It was crowded, much more so than I remembered last June and every single person who came in headed straight for Kilimanjaro Safari. Casey started to panic and kept asking, “Are ALL these people going to the safari ride? Why are they ALL going the same way we’re going?” We headed that way too, but only for a fast pass (9:45). We headed over to Dinoland where we rode Primeval Whirl (it’s a bit jerky, isn’t it?), Triceratops Spin (it’s a bit like Dumbo, isn’t it?) and Dinosaur (it’s a bit SCARY, isn’t it?) I would have bought the picture from Dinosaur, but as Casey’s head was in the floorboard, I decided against it. We trekked back over to the Safari ride. I don’t remember seeing a cheetah last year and for some reason the male lion wasn’t out this morning, only a lioness…..hmmm. Anyway, we caught the 10:45 showing of Festival of the Lion King. I love this show, I mean LOVE IT!! I think it’s worth the admission price to Animal Kingdom just to see this show!! After that we got some lunch at 11:30 at Pizzafari (it was almost completely empty, where did all those people go? Probably getting a GOOD lunch of barbeque pork). We both got kids meals and I can’t imagine how a normal kid could eat that pizza, it’s quite large in my opinion, I could barely finish mine and Casey only had 1/3 of hers. We got a fastpass for Kali River Rapids and walked the Maharajah Jungle Trek where we found all the other people in the park. It was pretty neat and it was something I hadn’t done before. We rode Kali River Rapids and it seemed very, very short and once again I escaped getting very soaked, I was just a bit soggy when it was over. We went back over to Dinoland to ride Primeval Whirl again per Casey’s request. We also rode Dinosaur again after I bribed her with a charm for the Disney Charm Bracelet she was going to buy once we got back to the resort. I didn’t enjoy Dinosaur as much as the first time and once again, Casey was in the floorboard during the picture. We got our ice cream (free!!) and saw that It’s Tough to be a Bug only had a 10 minute wait so we jumped in line. This was cute as usual, but my glasses (or my eyes) didn’t really seem to work and compared to Mickey’s Philharmagic, it lacked a bit of something. We left around 2:55 and made it back to the resort at 3:30. We rested until 5:00 when we left for our 5:55 PS at Liberty Tree Tavern before Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. We waited anxiously for a Magic Kingdom bus which took 30 minutes this time (that is the Murphy’s law of transportation, right?? If you’re in a hurry, the bus will take FOREVER). We made it to LTT with no time to spare, checking in right at 5:55. We were seated in about 10 minutes and our food came quickly. A pat on the back for me for trying AND enjoying the salad with the strawberry dressing. I also tried the stuffing, but stayed clear of the green beans (after all, two new foods in one day is plenty). We were finished eating (absolutely stuffed) and had been visited by all five characters (Meeko, Minnie, Chip, Dale and Pluto) within 45 minutes. The whole meal was great, but everybody in the restaurant seemed to be having a birthday that day. We were in the upper level with only about 9-10 tables and at least four tables had birthdays to celebrate. I was jealous, I wanted to celebrate my birthday too. (But my birthday is in February…) We went outside and sat down for about 15 minutes watching the park change. We listened to the dude checking the microphones and we had our photo taken (which was not the complimentary photo I thought it was). At 7:00 we rode the Haunted Mansion with no wait. Always fun!! I finally noticed the pet cemetery on our way out. We then rode Peter Pan’s Flight (no wait) and did a bit of trick or treating. Casey’s nerve was back and she decided to give Space Mountain a try, IF there was no line. We went over to Tomorrowland and there was only a 5 minute wait (which actually meant NO wait). We rode it and I couldn’t enjoy it because I was worrying about her. Well, she LOVED it and so we rode it two more times walking right back on each time. There was a bit of a line building up after our third ride and so we walked over to Toon Town. We rode Goofy’s Barnstormer (big yawn this year for some reason, maybe because we had just gotten off Space Mountain??) and did more Trick or Treating. Toon Town was PACKED with people, they were everywhere (more skin-to-skin contact with strangers)!! We went back over to Fantasyland and waited for 10 minutes for the Winnie the Pooh ride (there was a nice preshow this time consisting of two teenagers groping each other, after all, what’s a bigger turn on than an entire queue of children, right? Sheesh!!) We decided to see Mickey’s Philharmagic again (cause it’s a great show!!). We had to wait until the next show started but when we got out it was only five minutes until the fireworks. They were GREAT!! I really loved the perimeter fireworks. Casey hated the fireworks, of course, as she hates ALL firework shows. I loved them, however, and enjoyed them more than Wishes the night before. We went over to Frontierland and did a little more trick or treating and sat down to wait for the parade which was to started in 20-25 minutes. We got to see the Headless Horseman (wicked awesome) and the wait for the parade didn’t take too long. I haven’t ever seen so much candy being consumed in all my life!! I’m sure that Disney didn’t make much on snacks that night. The parade was great, I especially liked the Hades float, however, it did look rather crowded and I can’t imagine how crowded Main Street was, or even the 1st parade for that matter. The character interaction during the parade was great. After that, we were just all done in…. and so we decided to head back for the night. We waited 10 minutes for a bus and were back at Coronado Springs by 11:30. A fun, but another very tiring day. Casey is holding up really well thus far, after all (“she’s eight this year, she can handle it!”) Day 4, Monday, October 20th. Typhoon Lagoon and Kaki Gori rocks!! We got to sleep a bit later today at Typhoon Lagoon didn’t open until 10:00. We got to Typhoon Lagoon at 9:50. We found a nice table in the shade in the far corner of the wave pool. We played in the wave pool for an hour, six foot waves—awesome!! We floated in the lazy river and here is where I show my age. I thought the river was gross what with all the nature (leaves and sticks) in it. I just couldn’t enjoy it with all that around me, but I know it’s just me getting more and more squeamish as I get older!! Casey didn’t want to stay in the river once she realized that all you do is float in a tube, she apparently thought that was quite boring. We went back to the wave pool for a bit. We then decided to give snorkeling a try. We collected our snorkel gear from a rather grumpy fellow and walked over to the snorkel area. Casey balked at first when she felt the water temperature and then flat out said “NO” after putting her face in the water for one millisecond. Now, she is a very good swimmer and is often in 10 foot water. Not much about water bothers her, but she did NOT want to do to this. I sent her over to the bridge to wait for me while I snorkeled. All I can say is it was not my cup of tea at all!! My mask was foggy (why did it get foggy??), the water was extremely salty and I kept getting water in my mouth. I can see how some people enjoy it, but I am not one of them. Apparently nature is not for me (not that I could see it anyway due to all the fog in my goggles). We went over the raft ride areas and rode the single inner tube ride. We then got in line for the family raft ride. I have to ask, “What genius decided it was a good idea to have people carry their own 1000 pound raft up two flights of stairs??” Might I also add that it is extremely hard to look and feel graceful when trying to push, pull, tug and maneuver a raft that is larger (and probably weighed more) than my car up two flights of stairs. Then, to add insult to injury, the ride was terrible. It was short, slow and rather cold water kept splashing on us for no reason other than to distract us from the fact that the ride is terribe!!. Sheesh!!! After cooling off a bit more in the wave pool we left. We arrived back at the room at 1:30. We called and checked in with the grandparents and left for Downtown Disney at around 2:30. We went to World of Disney and bought a couple of things, mostly just browsed. Casey was hungry so we decided to leave and there was a bus waiting for us at the bus stop!! On the way back to Coronado Springs, I debated where to eat. My first thought was Pepper Market –nah. I then thought, maybe Epcot?? As we pulled into the 1st bus stop there was an Epcot bus right behind us making it’s last stop before heading to Epcot. That helped me decide and we scooted over to Epcot. We went straight to the Electric Umbrella and had a hearty order of chicken strips. After that we saw Ellen’s Energy Adventure (this was fun and something we didn’t do last year, I like Ellen, she is super funny) and saw Cranium Command (I love this show, it’s hilarious! My favorite line, from the stomach, “OK, who ordered the butterflies??”) We tried to ride Spaceship Earth, but it was down due to some technical difficulty which lasted until the park closed, I believe. We jumped over to Ice Station Cool where I tricked Casey into trying Beverly again this year (I’m 2 for 2 in this trick. I know, I know, I’m evil). We took the Friendship boat over to Morocco where we walked over to Japan to get Casey a cherry Kaki Gori. I got a thimble full of white chocolate mousse from one of the F&W Festival booths. But of course, I had to try the Kaki Gori and I must say, it totally rocked!! It was incredible. I really need an ice shaver like they have. So there we sat, in front of Japan, listening to music, eating delectable treats and soaking up serious Disney atmosphere. We decided to walk back over to Test Track and check the wait. On the way we saw Imaginum which was very entertaining. We waited 35 minutes for Test Track and thoroughly enjoyed this ride. We left at 8:45 and were back at the resort by 9:30. Another great Disney day!! Day 4, Tuesday, October 21st. Dining with Royalty. I was up today at 6:15 to get ready for our 8:05 PS for Cinderella’s Royal Table. We caught a Magic Kingdom bus just in time and arrived at the Magic Kingdom at 7:50. After arriving at CRT, we were seated very quickly. This restaurant is very nice and I loved the spiral staircase. We were seated next to a window which mostly overlooked some roofs, but we could see a bit of Fantasyland. They brought out a basket of bread and muffins along with fruit and our drinks. Very soon after that the Princesses arrived!! One by one (with no waits) we saw Snow White, Belle, Cinderella and Mary Poppins. We also saw Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) who found my itinerary that I had put in the autograph book. (Side note--before we left I had a very strict itinerary which was thrown out the window once we arrived. The only reason why I had this print out was simply for the PS number I had printed on it.) Aurora got a hold of it and insisted that she check it out. She gently kidded me because I had written “proceed directly to Fantasyland” as our next step. I was so embarrassed!! But it was all in fun and after she made an additional suggestion, she was on her way. During all the royal mayhem, our food was brought out. I thought it was very good and enjoyed it thoroughly. We were finished by 8:45 and headed directly to Tomorrowland. While waiting for rope drop (before the actual opening had occurred) we met a little girl named Rachel and her father, David (from Philadelphia). They were also going to head directly to Space Mountain. We were let through the rope just before opening and were the fist riders on Space Mountain that day!! Casey and I and Rachel decided to take another ride since there was still no line. David decided to sit that one out and Rachel rode with Casey and I. We got a fastpass for later that morning after our second ride. We then all walked over to the Indy Speedway and had a drive. This was longer than I expected and Casey enjoyed it very much. We all then went over to Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. Might I add that I hate this ride. I am terrible at it, I scored a whopping 4200 points, whoooeee. I’m surprised Buzz himself didn’t smack me on the way out. We said good-bye to our new friends and headed over to Frontierland. On the way we saw the Queen of Hearts and got her autograph and picture. We rode the Juncle Cruise and saw the Enchanted Tiki Birds (this was my idea since I hadn’t seen this show before, it wasn’t as good as I had hoped). We went back to Tomorrowland and tried to use the fast pass we had gotten earlier, but it didn’t really help as there was NO line. So we rode two more times. We rode the TTA (again) and had another enjoyable show at the Carousel of Progress. We stopped by the Plaza Pavilion and had some chicken strips. As we were leaving the Magic Kingdom we saw Maleficent and stopped to get her autograph. We took the monorail to the TTC and then took the Epcot monorail. We rode Spaceship Earth and then walked over the Land pavilion. There was a 30 minute wait for Living With the Land so we saw Food Rocks! instead. We rode Test Track and got a fast pass for later. We walked through the World Showcase with the thoughts of more Kaki Gori at the front of our minds. We had our Kaki Gori (this stuff is great!) and managed to catch most of the Chinese Acrobat show (those little girls are amazing). While we were touring the World Showcase, we ran into Jasmine in Morocco and Mary Poppins in England. We left Epcot and were back at the resort by 6:00 where we did some swimming and snacking. We called home (again) and went on to bed. Day 5, Wednesday, October 22st. Animal Kingdom and Disney Studios. We decided to go back to Animal Kingdom again this morning. We weren’t in much of a hurry today and headed out the door at about 8:55. Almost immediately, an Animal Kingdom bus pulls up. We were at Animal Kingdom by 9:10. We went directly to Dinoland where we rode Primeval Whirl three times. Sheesh!! We jumped on Triceratops Spin just because there was no wait. We left Dinoland stopped by the boneyard for about five minutes where Casey decided she was too old for this sort of thing. We went over to Africa and got a fast pass for the Safari, the fast pass was in 45 minutes so we decided to walk the Pangani Trail. It was neat, but once again, this trail was also very crowded. When we were finished, it was time for our fast pass (the male lion was back today) and we had another enjoyable safari ride. After the safari, I let Casey pick between seeing Flights of Wonder and Festival of the Lion King. She picked Festival of the Lion King (that’s my girl!!), but it didn’t start until about 30 minutes later. So we had a snack (a pretzel and a fruit and cheese cup) and sat on a bench just watching people. Flik happened by to bug us a little (hee, hee, “bug us”) as he went in and out a side gate taking a break. We went over to FoTLK about 10 minutes before it started. We were, once again, in the Warthog section. I still LOVE this show. The show was over at 12:15 and we decided to leave for Disney Studios. WARNING: At this point and for the next hour or so, I apparently lose my freaking mind. Instead of taking the very direct bus from AK to Disney Studios, I get the bright idea that we would take a Boardwalk Bus back to that resort and then take a boat over to Disney Studios and viola there is a Boardwalk bus waiting for us. BUT, this bus doesn’t just go to the Boardwalk Resort, it also goes to the Swan Resort, the Dolphin resort, the Yacht Club resort, the Beach Club resort and FINALLY to the Boardwalk Resort. I decided to get off at the Beach Club resort where we wander aimlessly around the Beach Club (which looks very nice, by the way) looking for the boat docks. After meandering around the lobby, I see a lot of water out the back door and figure where there is water, there’s a boat. I finally see the boat dock and wait about 10 minutes for a boat to Disney Studios. Of course, this boat stops at the Swan and Dolphin resort (hey, this looks familiar!! Sheesh!!) before heading to Disney Studios. I had made a 1:30 PS for the Sci-Fi Drive In Diner the day before. We checked in at Sci-Fi at 1:45 (an hour and 15 minutes after we left Animal Kingdom). We were seated in about 10 minutes and our food was brought fairly quickly. It is nice and relaxing in there and we were finished just as we started seeing the clips for the second time. We went over the Great Movie Ride (15 minute wait posted, 5 minute actual wait), I love this ride!! I always succeed at making a doofus of myself by singing along with “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. We went over to Star Tours where we rode twice with no wait. By the way, did you know that if you ride Star Tours twice in a row, you get a headache?? We found spots for the 4:00 parade at 3:50. This parade was cute, but seemed rather short. We went to Muppets 3D—which Casey loves—and I enjoy as well. We toured One Man’s Dream where I lost myself in all things Walt Disney for about 30 minutes. I then saw the movie (I think Casey was with me, who know?? I was concentrating on Walt). This was a wonderful exhibit and I would like to see it again. We decided not to wait for the 6:00 Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular (a bad move on our part I would realize later in the week). On the way out, we saw the Streetmosphere actors/actresses playing the “Where are you from?” game. In this game, all the actors are in a circle and they sing a song and one by one they pick people to ask “where are you from?” They then go back to the circle and mirror their actions and add on to the previous person’s “where are you from” victim until they finally went all the way up to 13 different “where are you from” actions. (Did you get all that??) They were fun to watch. We went back to Coronado Springs for some swimming and had dinner at Pepper Market. We then spent all our change at the arcade. Tomorrow we go to Blizzard Beach. Day 6, Thursday, October 23rd. Blizzard Beach and Disney Studios (how do you break a show?) Today was another “sleep later” day as we started the day at Blizzard Beach. I get a pat on the back today because I drove us to Blizzard Beach instead of taking the bus. Good job me!!! Last year, my car never moved because I’m a big giant chicken about driving in unfamiliar cities, but since it was easy as pie to drive to BB that’s just what we did. After arriving we found a nice spot near the Ski Patrol Area (which I found out later was a smoking area, whoops, my bad, oh well) We spent some time at the Ski Patrol area. We rode the family raft ride. This was super fun and the view from the top of the mountain was great. We could see Cinderella Castle, Space Mountain and The Contemporary Resort. We could also see some pieces of Animal Kingdom. It was a lovely view. After the raft ride we went over the wave pool, very nice. We did two of the toboggan slides (the racers and the single rides) and this was fun!! Casey got totally mad because on the toboggan race she stopped just at the bottom of the hill instead of going on further like the rest of the heavier adults. We spent more time in the wave pool and then had some lunch. After a bit more time in the Ski Patrol area we went ahead and left. I could have stayed all day. We went back to Disney Studios where we rode Star Tours (again), saw Muppets 3D (again) and the Great Movie Ride (again, is this a trend or what?). We had dinner at the ABC Comissary (not crowded at all). We thought about taking the Backlot tour but decided against it for now. We saw….er, heard…Sounds Dangerous. We then decided to see the 6:00 Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular. I had promised Casey ice cream after dinner, we knew the exact location of two ice cream carts, but they were closed by the time we were ready for ice cream!!! We had to settle for some soft-serve ice cream, which, by the way, IS NOT as good as a Mickey Premium. We got to the Indy show 25 minutes before it started. We had great seats right in the middle near the front. Watched them pick out the “extras” from the audience. The show started great, very neat stunts in the beginning. When they tried to split the set area, for some reason it wouldn’t work. At first, I thought it was part of the show as there were some tumblers who were entertaining us. I thought it was just part of the “movie making” experience, you know, having to wait and so forth. Apparently though, there was just some kind of technical difficulty and they had to cancel the show. I wonder who broke the show?? Major bummer, sigh!! We went back to the room to watch Survivor (I can’t help it) and Toon Disney. Tomorrow is our last full day!!! ?. Day 8, Friday, October 24th, Magic Kingdom and more Kaki Gori We were at the bus stop at 8:15 to catch a ride to the Magic Kingdom. Our goal today was to experience our favorite attractions. We had a granola bar at the bus stop and we arrived at the Magic Kingdom at 8:45. They were letting people through the turnstiles, but not onto Main Street yet. We saw the opening show and the countdown (I don’t remember this from last year). We were let into Main Street at 8:55. We were at 9:00 rope drop in front of Tomorrowland. We rode Space Mountain, and got a fast pass for 10:30. We went over to Fantasyland for Mickey’s Philharmagic (I still love it). We went over to the Haunted Mansion and walked right on. We cut over to Adventureland and went through the Swiss Family Treehouse and rode Aladdin’s Carpets because there were no lines. We walked on to Pirates of the Caribbean. We needed a snack and so we got some popcorn. We then had Casey’s silhouette done (I think this is a very good deal, two copies of the silhouette and a frame for less than $15.00). We went to the park behind the Christmas shop to enjoy the rest of our popcorn and there we happened upon Dopey with only two other families waiting to see him. We sat down and continued with our popcorn, but before we left Dopey came back to that same area and Snow White was with him!! Since we saw her at breakfast earlier in the week, we went ahead and left for Space Mountain (telling everyone we saw, “hey, Snow White is over there”). We rode Space Mountain again (for the last time) and then rode the TTA and saw Carousel of Progress one last time so I could sing along. We browsed our way down Main Street where I bought $10.00 worth of Mickey Rice Crispy Treats. Awwww, they’re so CUTE!! We took the boat over to the Wilderness Lodge for lunch at the Whispering Canyon Café (this was fun, we had never done this before, the view was lovely and we saw someone parasailing). Does anybody know what NO WAKE means?? We saw that on several signs during our boat ride. I think it was, Proceed Slowly, NO WAKE. Casey thought it meant go slow and be quiet, NO WAKING the fish. She made some man who was riding the boat laugh at loud at that one. Upon arriving at the Wilderness Lodge, we found our way to the lobby. Casey and I split the fried chicken dinner and a delicious chocolate mousse cake dessert. This was a wonderful lunch especially at only around $20.00 total. We did a bit of pin trading with a CM at the WL and caught the boat back to the Magic Kingdom where we caught monorail(s) to Epcot. We got a fast pass for 5:30 for Test Track so we could ride it one last time. We rode Ellen’s Energy Adventure and saw Honey I Shrunk the Audience (the mice affect was really well done, I thought). It was 4:30 so we had just enough time for more Kaki Gori in Japan (really, though, where can I get an ice shaver?). We walked back around the World Showcase and rode Test Track. We went back to the room so could swim and slide (I finally tried the pool slide and it was great!!) The mosquitoes were terrible for the 2nd night in a row. We had more pizza at Pepper Market (it was BUSY tonight at PM). We got the pizza to go as I wanted to pack up tonight since we check out tomorrow, Boo-hoo!! I finished the detestable job of loading up the car and we then went on to bed. Day 9, Saturday, October 25th. Last day, final thoughts. We got up around 8:15 and I finished loading up the car. The day before, I had told Casey that we could do whatever in the “world” she wanted on our last day and she picked the wave pool at Typhoon Lagoon. We headed over to the Maya Grill for their breakfast buffet, which was really very good (the French toast was awesome). We walked the rest of the way around the resort taking some pictures. We drove over the Typhoon Lagoon and arrived around 10:10. We found a couple of chair and spent the next 2.5 hours in the wave pool—getting completely sunburned as I forgot to apply any sunscreen today. At lunchtime we went back to our chairs to get our towels and I found that some gentleman had stolen one of our chairs and had pitched my towel onto the ground!!! This highly aggravated me, as there were several other chairs around (just not the long chaise type chairs). So, I went over to pick up my towel where I “accidentally” dripped all over him and then proceeded to pick up my towel at which time I might have “accidentally” shook some sand on him. Oops, I’ll try and be more careful next time. We took our stuff with us and went to find some lunch. Casey’s lunch came in a sand pail with a shovel and there was a small boy at the table next to ours who kept looking at her pail. We both decided to go ahead and give it to him as she wouldn’t use it and couldn’t use it back home in the 50 degree weather!! He was absolutely delighted and his family thought we were just the sweetest things ever (which we are, of course). We went back over the wave pool for another hour and left around 2:45 stopping for one more ice cream before we left. We drove and arrived at our overnight spot (Lake Park, GA) at around 6:15. FINAL THOUGHTS This was a great week. The weather was wonderful, only one 45 minute shower the entire week. The crowds were manageable, but I did notice what seemed like rather large crowds at the World Showcase in Epcot (from the F&W Festival, I’m sure). We experienced several attractions that were new to us (Space Mountain, Test Track, Mickey’s Philharmagic) and we enjoyed nearly all of them. Mickey’s Philharmagic was a wonderful, wonderful show!!! I can’t wait to go back and see it. Staying for seven nights was great and having an UPH was also great. We hit two parks every single day (except the last day) of our stay. We still didn’t get to do or see it all, but that just gives us a reason to come back. I only wish that we had more time to really explore and enjoy our resort. We stayed so busy, I didn’t feel like we had enough time to really enjoy the resort. I’m feeling a lot more confident about driving around Disney World. I may give staying off-site a chance next year, especially if the “room only” discounts don’t come back around. However, the Fairytale package this year worked out wonderful for us and I don’t know if I could pass up this deal if it was offered again. I did notice a lot of international visitors during our stay. I thought it was great that people would come from so far away to visit Walt Disney World. We loved Coronado Springs Resort. I could definitely see us staying there again. Age 8 is a really great age to bring a child to Disney World. I noticed a HUGE difference between last year and this year. Her stamina was about on par with mine, yet she still ate smaller quantities of food and was at the kid’s price for tickets. She was more willing to try the thrill rides and had a really great time!! Dana Avery daavery@scrtc.com Mail a Comment to Dana Avery |
|