Live from Hollywood-I mean Disney......

[mmtska]

Hi everyone! We're here now at WDW-more specifically the Coronado Springs resort! It's been a long day, but I'm going to post some quick info.

CSR-LOVE it so far!! We checked in pretty easily. I did online checkin and it went quick and painless-minus the people in front of us that had issues. I have no idea what was going on, but as soon as we made it up to the counter we had everything set!

We were supposed to have a standard view, but I've heard what they consider a water view, and I therefore consider our room a water view :lmao: It's so pretty, and we have a cool corner room-which is pretty cool looking

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a312/mmtska/SDC12352.jpg
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a312/mmtska/SDC12348.jpg

We headed over to the MK and got our tickets (yay only 125 bucks for me and the DH :cool1: thank you military and Disney!) and headed in to at least see the castle! We got some pictures taken (the balloon and Tink in the hand for sure!!) AND I already met Pluto!!!! He was great, and I kept cracking up. We caught the end of Dream along with Mickey, and then headed over to the GF for our Narcoosee's ADR.

Narcoosee's: AMAZING! We had a really sweet CM for a waitress, who's husband is in the army, so that was neat. I'll have a full report on that later-I'm tired!!

Having a GREAT time, but it's HOT and humid! Oh well-it's Disney!

[teruterubouzu]

I love the new decor at CSR. Congratulations on getting a "water view"!

[butiflfeet]

I love live reports! And I have to say, I'm loving the remodeled rooms at CSR too :thumbsup2

Rest up and try to stay cool! I'm sure it's going to be a great trip!

[KatMark]

I'm in. Thanks for the pics...that's the first full pic of the dresser I've seen from a front view. Have a magical trip.

[mmtska]

I'm wishing at this point we had shown up on Sunday-it was AMAZINGLY beautiful yesterday-no rain. Today I woke up at friggen 5 am to a thunderstorm. No sleep for me! We're getting ready for EMH at MK right now (I should be doing that instead of this actually.....) Packing the rain jackets. It's supposed to be 90 all week so maybe a little rain will actually feel good, but just in case of a downpour!!!

Crowds (cuz you know it'll be asked) not overly bad. DTD was a little crowded last night, but I think that was more of people walking in a group, slowly, while taking up the entire road. There was a group of like 12 people walking side by side......I wouldn't have overly cared, but I had to go to the bathroom!

MK wasn't bad either
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a312/mmtska/SDC12364.jpg
after the Dream along with Mickey show.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a312/mmtska/SDC12367-1.jpg

Be back later-either this afternoon (not likely, but we'll see :laughing:) or tonight with more!!

[MissMichelle]

yay--love live reports...especially ones where people stay at my home away from home--CSR :)

[mickeystoontown]

Thanks for the live report. Hopefully, you will be able to post more. Have a great day!

[Minnie&Nana]

What fun!! Thanks so much for taking the time for a live report!

Love the pics...looking forward to more.

p.s. Where's your room located at CSR: Cabana's, Casita's or Ranchos? :)
Corner rooms are great!!

[milmore104]

I love your reviews so far. Thanks for taking the time during you vacation to post.

[mmtska]

What fun!! Thanks so much for taking the time for a live report!

Love the pics...looking forward to more.

p.s. Where's your room located at CSR: Cabana's, Casita's or Ranchos? :)
Corner rooms are great!!

We are in the Ranchos. I like our room, but I have the door decorated and no one comes by, so no one has really signed anything :( boo!

[WishMom09]

Loving the live report!
Hope you had an awesome day today!
Can't wait to hear about it!
Were the ride lines long??

[mmtska]

Ah, I love this place. We're back in the room for a bit-DH is passed out and I'm listening to the Disney Channel in the background :) We went for am EMH this morning and I'm SO glad we did!! We got to the MK around 750. I figured we be there earlier, but no-DH took forever to get out of bed and read and we didn't get to the bus until 720. It took about 23 seconds to get through the turnstiles and everyone else went to the right-we went to the left and I'm glad we did!

The left (right in front of the tunnel entrance)
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a312/mmtska/SDC12405.jpg
And the right
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a312/mmtska/SDC12404-1.jpg

Yeah no contest....we booked it back to Winnie the Pooh and were the 2nd family on. (FYI we have Ridemax and it worked GREAT!!) We got done super early on our itinerary, so we had to wait for adventureland to open. At 10:00 we were done with our morning for ridemax and had nothing to do until our ARD at 4:45......so we decided to wander. By 1 pm we had ridden everything we wanted-except Cinderella's Carousel and Mickey's Philharmagic. This is what Adventureland looked like
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a312/mmtska/SDC12483.jpg

And about 2-ish this is what Main Street looked like
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a312/mmtska/SDC12409.jpg

We ate at Starlight Cafe-YUM-but I wish we had gone to Pecos Bill's. I really wanted cheese sauce for my fries..... For Dinner we had Crystal Palace. OMG that was so good!! We met all the characters in about 45 minutes and then were so nice.

I've been reading a lot of negative comments on here: Crowds, nasty CMs, bad food, poor service, etc and so on. So let me just say this-We've had a great time so far. I've conversed with tons of great CMs and totally got confused when a photographer said I had poo on my shirt (in my defense I thought he said blue, and I kept looking for blue paint!) I was wearing my Pooh shirt and got comments like that all day :):) The lines were manageable, if you know how to use fastpass. We walked on Buzz in about 5 minutes (btw we GOT the FP at noon-they were for 1, so I don't think many people were using FP.) It's busy, but not horrible. We're going to either head to Epcot for pm EMH or back to MK for Wishes, so see you real soon! ;)

[mmtska]

Off to the AK today! Hope it doesn't rain *crosses finger* or if it does, at least right after we gett off of Kali!

[milmore104]

Off to the AK today! Hope it doesn't rain *crosses finger* or if it does, at least right after we gett off of Kali!

:wizard: Rain Rain go away!

[KatMark]

Have a great day! I'm so enjoying your daily reports.

:)

[Minnie&Nana]

Have a great day! So enjoying your daily reports..but one question..what is Ridemax, please? I must be out of the latest loop.:thumbsup2

Thanks!!

[heaven2dc]

Thanks so much for reporting "live"! You are such troopers handling the heat but sounds like you got it all down as to where to go when :thumbsup2

Anxious to read all about your day today :surfweb:

[teruterubouzu]

I love the live updates! Hope you had a rain free day today. You'll have to post a review of ridemax when you return. I'm curious about how it works.

[Maybelle]

loving the live report....keep it coming!

[mmtska]

:wizard: Rain Rain go away!
It worked!! No rain until this evening when we headed home ;)

Have a great day! I'm so enjoying your daily reports.


:)

Thanks! And thank you for talking up CSR-I really like it here, and would totally come back when we return!

Have a great day! So enjoying your daily reports..but one question..what is Ridemax, please? I must be out of the latest loop.:thumbsup2

Thanks!!
Thanks! Ridemax is a program that will make a schedule for you. You pick your park and your day, and pick the rides you are interested in. It then comes up with an itinerary that is the best way to go to each ride with the least amount of wait times. So far-so good!

Thanks so much for reporting "live"! You are such troopers handling the heat but sounds like you got it all down as to where to go when :thumbsup2

Anxious to read all about your day today :surfweb:
I am still melting from today! I'm completely believing that AK is hotter than any of the parks!

I love the live updates! Hope you had a rain free day today. You'll have to post a review of ridemax when you return. I'm curious about how it works.
Rain free day, until Illuminations-oh well!!

loving the live report....keep it coming!
Thanks for reading!!

[mmtska]

Today was a LONG day! We started out at almost rope drop at AK. Why almost? Because we missed the first bus to AK by about a minute (we saw it pull up, started running, saw it pull away and stopped running) and the next one didn't come for 40 minutes. I don't know why it didn't, but we were afraid to go try another bus stop in case it came. Anyway, we got there a few minutes late and then the day went from there

AK EMH was MUCH more crowded than MK EMH! We booked it for EE, got FP and headed over to the Safari-something was wrong so we waited longer than was posted. 20 minutes turned into almost 40, but that's ok. AK is the only park I haven't been to, so I had to see what was there! Got some pretty good pics of the animals, but they weren't moving around that much.

We ended up doing everything we wanted, but by about 11 it was CROWDED! http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a312/mmtska/SDC12591-1.jpg now that I look at it, it doesn't look too bad, but I should have taken more crowd shots!! UGH. We rode, explored and got our pics taken, then waited for a friend of mine at the Rainforest Cafe. I'm going to save my review for the TR because I still need to cool down a bit (NOT happy about some things)

We then bussed over to the Boardwalk and checked things out over there-too cool! We now want to stay there or Y&BC at some point :) Then we went to Epcot and got some rides in, including Test Track-mega fun!:banana: At 5, Epcot was DEAD http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a312/mmtska/SDC12644.jpg

We had ADRs for the Princess Dinner, and it was AMAZING. :love: I haven't had a bad food experience yet, but the cold appetizer bar is so neat, I had the best pork chop ever and the chocolate mousse made me drool. Plus I got to see Aurora again (with my Aurora shirt ;) of course!) We finished in perfect time to catch Illuminations, but it started raining, and we're heading back tomorrow, so we'll catch the whole thing rain or not! We saw about 10 minutes of it, and love it so far!! Bus back to CSR? Crowded, but not horrible and it's a quick ride!

DH is already passed out, and I'm off to shower the grime off

[KatMark]

Thanks! And thank you for talking up CSR-I really like it here, and would totally come back when we return!




Thanks. You are the first person to say that. Most people say (or at least think out loud) that they wish I'd shut up! ;)

[Minnie&Nana]

I am still melting from today! I'm completely believing that AK is hotter than any of the parks!

YES, YES, YES!!! It must all the trees and foliage - no room for any air to flow. We avoid AK like the plague when it's hot!!

Thanks again - oh, and thanks for the Ridemax info.:thumbsup2 No wonder we've not heard of it - we never wait in a line (times of yr and times of day we go), but sounds like it is great for those who visit during busy seasons!

:goodvibes :goodvibes :goodvibes

[7165red]

I'm really enjoying your live TR and love the photos. Keep it coming!:goodvibes:goodvibes:goodvibes

[DisneyTabby]

I'm on board. Great LIVE report:) We love CSR too. Can't wait to here more. Keep cool!!!!!!

[mmtska]

Thanks to all my readers!! I'm missing Thursday's report because we tried doing EPCOT EMH but my foot decided to have a breakdown, and we hobbled back. I HATE my ankles! We're heading back there today-actually leaving as soon as I write this-and ride Soarin' which is the only thing we haven't done yet!! Then hopefully a Kim Possible mission, and then resort time/mini golf. We're planning on closing MK tonight to end our stay with Wishes and some Pirates of the Carribean.

So I'll be back this afternoon hopefully, and have I got an AMAZING day to report!:banana:

[Minnie&Nana]

Hope those ankles are feeling better today. :hug:

Try to stay cool and have a great day!!

[heaven2dc]

Sorry to hear about your ankles! Hopefully the rest will help today. Now I can't wait to hear all about your day!

[mmtska]

I would love to report about fighting the crowds at DHS (because there were crowds-not quite as bad as AK, but still fun) but I can't give an honest report about experience DHS. Why do you ask? Oh because DH and I got chosen as the Family of the Day yesterday!!! Pretty much the coolest thing ever! As many people have said, there's nothing special to do-the stars have to align!

We were walking in, getting our tickets ready (we were earlier than AK, we got there about 830) and this lady comes up to us and tells us how much she likes our shirts, and how would we like to be family of the day! :cheer2: Of course we said no and.....HA I about did a dance right there :) We got taken into the Studios and just chilled while everyone else fought for the best spot ;)

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a312/mmtska/SDC12684.jpg
Just a little peek at the view we got!

We did the opening ceremony, and then we were driven to RnRC which we got to ride twice-once ALL by ourselves in the front, and then they let us ride again-this time in the back! We even got our first picture for free! Then we got fastpasses to TSM and 2 (each) other FP to any other ride in the park. We went to TSM first and got another FP.

After we did that, I went an auditioned for AI. I have an operatic voice (I trained for 6 years) which doesn't work well for pop, so when I'm belting, it works, when I'm not.....eh, so I made it through the first round, but only got the alternate to the 4:00 show. Everyone showed up so I didn't get to perform on stage, but I got 4 MORE FP to whatever ride in the entire park!! Including the other FP we got for Star Tours, we went on Star Tours, ToT, TSM (3 times!) and RnRC (3 times!) and never really had to wait ;) So my experience was a little skewed lol!!!

However around 2, things were quite busy. Here are the crowds right around Streets of America. Lights, Motor Action had just gotten out before we headed in around that area, so I was kind of amused to see about the same amount of people in that area about 10 minutes later! http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a312/mmtska/SDC12711.jpg

We hit Epcot last night and got to ride everything we had missed before-minus Soarin' so we hit that this morning. 5 minute wait right after RD and when we walked out, it was stretched across the pavilion. :dance3: We also did the Kim Possible thing in WS-so much fun! DH even got into it. We came back, rested, pool time, and we're about to head back out to Downtown Disney and then over to MK to see Wishes!! Have a good night everyone!! I'm really sad that this is our last night here :( We'll be back....just not soon enough.

[shannon47142]

what a great day at the Studios:dance3::woohoo:
have a great last hours at Disney:cool1:

[mmtska]

what a great day at the Studios:dance3::woohoo:
have a great last hours at Disney:cool1:

Thanks :) It was a pretty great day lol!!

Our last few hours were pretty cool. We went to DTD Disney and had us some Earl of Sandwich-and I'm so glad I heard great reviews! This place is amazing. The sandwiches are really good, and both DH and I had amazing soups. We hung for awhile, and I met a DISer! I had a lime green Mickey head on the backpack DH was wearing, and her daughter saw it! I'm pretty sure she said Dischick, and I know I saw someone by that name coming around this time so yay fun! Then caught we the bus to the GF and then the monorail to MK.

MK was PACKED that night! We happened to show up right when Spectro Magic was about to start, and luckily found a great spot right in front of Exposition Hall. Everywhere else was a good 4-5 people deep, but we only had 2 people in front of us-1 being a stroller. That turned out to be kind of a bad idea since the lady kept rolling the stroller into us and the people behind us kept pushing forward.....argh. We followed the parade down main street, and hit a spot right by Casey's, got some corn dog nuggets (YUM) and waited for Wishes. There weren't too many people there, but I had to go to the bathroom, and when I came back, DH stood up to let me sit, and as soon as he moved, someone else sat down. I just said, excuse me, he was moving to let me sit down. I got a nice glare, but he moved. Everyone ended up standing anyway when it started, but just steal someone's seat why don't ya! The lady next to me said I was much nicer than she would have been :)

Wishes was AMAZING! Since it's been so long since I've been, and I went with band, even if it had been around, I probably hadn't seen it. I got a couple videos, and some pictures and it was great! ANd yes, I teared up! I mean we ended our last night with it-of course I was going to cry. I also got to see the Kiss Goodnight, and that was SO neat! I have a couple cool pictures of the castle during that.

We stayed for the EMH. BTMR was still a 40 minute wait, so we skipped it. Peter Pan was 40 minutes, but Buzz said 20 minutes and it was more of a 5 minute wait. They did have the fastpasses open and we got them, but decided to do standby too. We never made it back though......oops. I met up with Goofy and Donald after we rode Dumbo (20 minutes at 1 am-and it's been 22 years since I rode that!!!) and Donald cracked me up. He loved his page in my autograph book but was all upset that he was 3rd (behind Mickey and Minnie) so I now have a picture with Donald saying that he's number 1!!!! So fun.

Well we left EARLY this morning. ME was a snap, and we had plenty of time for breakfast and just sat around for awhile. I didn't get my express checkout in time, so they just quickly printed me a charge slip and said we were good to go! Everyone was so nice-well the one guy doing the ME baggage gave me a little attitude. He asked me how many passengers-I said 2. He asked me how many bags-I said 1 (this was also on the slip of paper that the guy at the ME 'entrance' gave me, as well as all I paid for, but ok) and he printed off 2 bag tags. Then when the tagger was like, well where's your other one, I said, um I only have 1 and he talked to the other guy, who looked at me and said well you told me 2 bags. Well no, but whatever. Not a big deal, but it was just odd.

All in all, I had a great time in the World. Yes there seems to be a lack of common sense and courtesy from most guests, but I can handle that.....it makes me laugh. No issues from CMs though-no nasty comments or anything like that. We had great food, an awesome resort, and a BLAST in the parks. It may be awhile before we get back, but we WILL be back. DH said so!

Hope you enjoyed my live report. It looks like I'll be starting my TR soon!!!

:love: