I must be completely insane or not! June/July 2009 TR Updated Nov. 10

[mdsouth]

I would love to travel more, if only my budget and hubby would go for it!
However do you convince your hubby to go for the trips?

It would be so much fun to go around Christmas. The week after Christmas is a good time to get away. I have traveled before during this week (visiting family, etc). It is nice to have Christmas at home and then get up and leave the next day. That way, you can enjoy the build-up towards the holiday, and the actual holiday itself without lugging around presents and such.

From the pictures that I have seen, the holiday lights on the castle are absolutely breathtaking! I would love to see it in person!

Staying at CR would be so much fun! We ate at Chef Mickey's last year, and wandered around a bit. My DS still remembers it, four years later and said that it would be cool to stay there with the monorail running through it! I agree! It would be so nice to just hop on the monorail to get to MK and Epcot.

 

[mdsouth]

Since we are on the basic dining plan we will have 7 TS credits to use. I currently have 10 TS credits planned.

I would love to keep them all, but we are already splurging a bit to get the dining plan and my DH will not be too pleased to have to pay out of pocket.

I dropped 50's Prime Time. I am sure we would have enjoyed the atmosphere and my DH would have liked the food. However, there are lots of other great restaurants to try at WDW. It really does make it hard to choose!

I am debating on whether we really need both 1900 Park Fare and Cinderella's Royal Table. The CRT will be using up 2 of our TS credits. My DD likes to dress up as a princess occassionally, but is really not into princesses like so many other girls. She likes princesses, and enjoys playing them with her friends but she is much more into playing with her little dogs and stuffed dogs. I just don't know what to do!

We have the 1900 Park Fare scheduled for early in our trip and CRT scheduled for our last full day at WDW. So, I might cancel CRT based on her reaction to 1900 Park Fare. I just have to make sure and cancel before the 48 hour cut off. On the otherhand, I, myself think it would be pretty cool to have the experience of eating in the castle - at least just once.

I could drop 1900 PF but, I have read that the character interaction is better here, and the show is entertaining as well. So, I think that as a whole family we would enjoy the 1900 Park Fare moreso than CRT.

Any suggestions?

 

[Echo queen]

I dropped 50's Prime Time. I am sure we would have enjoyed the atmosphere and my DH would have liked the food. However, there are lots of other great restaurants to try at WDW. It really does make it hard to choose!


Any suggestions?[/QUOTE

The portion at 50's are huge, you could do oop and share meals. It was a good meal.

CRT is never an option for us with boys

I have seen stollers in the gift shops but can't rember which ones, you might want to start a new tread on it to get more feedback.

 

[Echo queen]

I would love to travel more, if only my budget and hubby would go for it!
However do you convince your hubby to go for the trips?

]The one thing that helps the most is the fact that I have the ability to make quite a bit of extra income because of my field. My womanly woes gets me the rest of the way. My dh does believe if mama's not happy then no one is.[/I][I
It would be so much fun to go around Christmas. The week after Christmas is a good time to get away. I have traveled before during this week (visiting family, etc). It is nice to have Christmas at home and then get up and leave the next day. That way, you can enjoy the build-up towards the holiday, and the actual holiday itself without lugging around presents and such.

From the pictures that I have seen, the holiday lights on the castle are absolutely breathtaking! I would love to see it in person!

Staying at CR would be so much fun! We ate at Chef Mickey's last year, and wandered around a bit. My DS still remembers it, four years later and said that it would be cool to stay there with the monorail running through it! I agree! It would be so nice to just hop on the monorail to get to MK and Epcot.

When you do a Christmas trip you will not be disappointed it is all that and more, I can not put it in words how wonderful it is.

 

[KatMark]

Since we are on the basic dining plan we will have 7 TS credits to use. I currently have 10 TS credits planned.

I would love to keep them all, but we are already splurging a bit to get the dining plan and my DH will not be too pleased to have to pay out of pocket.

I dropped 50's Prime Time. I am sure we would have enjoyed the atmosphere and my DH would have liked the food. However, there are lots of other great restaurants to try at WDW. It really does make it hard to choose!

I am debating on whether we really need both 1900 Park Fare and Cinderella's Royal Table. The CRT will be using up 2 of our TS credits. My DD likes to dress up as a princess occassionally, but is really not into princesses like so many other girls. She likes princesses, and enjoys playing them with her friends but she is much more into playing with her little dogs and stuffed dogs. I just don't know what to do!

We have the 1900 Park Fare scheduled for early in our trip and CRT scheduled for our last full day at WDW. So, I might cancel CRT based on her reaction to 1900 Park Fare. I just have to make sure and cancel before the 48 hour cut off. On the otherhand, I, myself think it would be pretty cool to have the experience of eating in the castle - at least just once.

I could drop 1900 PF but, I have read that the character interaction is better here, and the show is entertaining as well. So, I think that as a whole family we would enjoy the 1900 Park Fare moreso than CRT.

Any suggestions?

Okay...I found you and I'm all caught up. Are you breakfast eaters? If so, I would switch 1900 Park Fare to breakfast rather than dinner. I've read some really bad reviews of dinner, but some great ones about breakfast.

 

[mdsouth]

Okay...I found you and I'm all caught up. Are you breakfast eaters? If so, I would switch 1900 Park Fare to breakfast rather than dinner. I've read some really bad reviews of dinner, but some great ones about breakfast.

I am an early riser, but the rest of my family are night owls. So, they are really not big breakfast eaters. That is why I chose to make use all our TS credits for either lunch or dinner.

1900 Park Fare is one that I have been debating on dropping anyway. I figure one princess meal will be enough since my DD likes princesses but it not a super huge fan. I chose 1900 Park Fare because I had read that the stepsisters and stepmom are a hoot and fun to watch!

 

[WelovMickey!]

Hi!

I am here I haven't read all your trip report yet but I saw your leaving in 5DAYS and you have waited 4 YEARS for this trip! You are a strong woman. I could not of done it. Your husband and my husband sound a lot a like. He hates it when I say we have to go here now, cause ________ will have a long line if we wait! I am so happy for you to be able to go on this trip. Just remember your goal is to get your husband to fall in love with Disney so you can go again next year. I am cheering for you! I can't wait for you to get back with all the details.

 

[jmskinner]

Just remember your goal is to get your husband to fall in love with Disney so you can go again next year. I am cheering for you!

I think this right here is probably why you should stick with CRT. Maybe the magic of being in the castle and your daughter meeting all of the Princesses will change your DH's mind. I hope it works. Wow, 4 days until your trip.

I'm cheering for you also to change DH's mind!

 

[mdsouth]

We left WDW yesterday at 1:15 PM.

So, now I have to get all my notes together and start writing the trip report.

 

[Planning fanatic mom]

Welcome home. I hope you had a great time. Now the post Disney Blues will set in.

 

[Echo queen]

I am so waiting for your report

 

[mdsouth]

Welcome home. I hope you had a great time. Now the post Disney Blues will set in.

You are so right! Yesterday afternoon, I just moped around the house. I did a little laundry but not much.

It is nice to welcomed back! Thanks for being here!

 

[mdsouth]

I am so waiting for your report

I am very appreciative of the knowledge that you looking forward to my report. Knowing that there are people here that are interested in my report will really motivate me. I just finished the first installment and posted it below. I plan to edit it later and add pictures.

 

[mdsouth]

Chapter 1 – And Away We Go!

After much last minute scurrying, we loaded up the van and left our home around 9:30 PM Central time on June 25. We drove two and a half hours to Indianapolis. We arrived at our hotel in Indianapolis 1:00 Eastern time. We were staying at Indianapolis’s Comfort Inn and using the Sleep, Park, and Fly service. We asked the hotel clerk for a 4:30 AM wake up call since we were leaving for the airport at 5:00 AM.

We got the kids to bed and then I tried to set the alarm clock in the room as a backup to the wake up call. The alarm clock, however, was a really weird design (lots of lights and extra sounds) and did not function properly. My husband (an engineer) and I could not get it the alarm system to work. I debated about returning to the front desk to request a new alarm clock, but chose instead to use the alarm clock on my husband’s watch instead.

I was worried that we would not hear the watch’s alarm or the wake-up call, and as a result I sleep very little during the three hour time frame. At four-thirty, we were all up and quickly jumped into our clothes and gathered our things. The shuttle service was right on time, and we were headed to the airport.

The new Indianapolis airport terminal is very nice. Even though I had checked in on-line, we had to go to the airline desk to check our bags. There was a short wait of about 25 minutes.

My husband and kids wanted to get something to eat for breakfast before we went through security. I was anxious and just wanted to go through security first and then eat. My husband and kids won, and he waited in the Burger King line for food. My family tends to be slow eaters, so, I became more anxious the more time they took. Finally, I convinced them that we really needed to go!

It was a good thing that I did. The security lines were huge! The airport had lots of lines but each one was huge. We waited at least 35 to 40 minutes to go through security. Once through security, we hurried down to our gate. They were already loading our plane. We were one of the last five groups to load. It was too close of a call for me.

The flight was wonderful! My DD fell asleep right after take-off and awoke upon landing. My DS enjoyed the bird’s eye view from his window seat. It was a relaxing uneventful flight. It took us less time to fly from Indiana to Orlando than it did for us to drive to Indiana from our home in Illinois.

Once we arrived at MCO we took a few minutes to take a few photographs in front of the Disney store. There is a cute wall scene outside the store with Mickey and the castle.

My son remembered having his picture taken in front of the scene the last time we were at Disney, four years previously. So, we snapped a few photos so we can compare how we have changed over the years. Then we made our way to the Magic Express service. It paid off to pre-register since we were able to skip the check-in line and proceed right to the bus. We hopped on the bus and were on our way to Coronado Springs!



Next up: Chapter 2 – Coronado Springs

 

[Planning fanatic mom]

Great beginning. I would have voted with you and waited until after security to eat.

I can't wait to hear more about Coronado Springs. I've never known anyone that stayed there. Do you have any pics??

 

[KatMark]

Oh good...the report is starting. I can't wait to read it.

 

[Echo queen]

Great start.

 

[mdsouth]

Great beginning. I would have voted with you and waited until after security to eat.

I can't wait to hear more about Coronado Springs. I've never known anyone that stayed there. Do you have any pics??

I am almost finished with my next chapter. Yes, I have lots of pictures! Hopefully, I will be able to upload them successfully.

 

[mdsouth]

Great beginning. I would have voted with you and waited until after security to eat.

I can't wait to hear more about Coronado Springs. I've never known anyone that stayed there. Do you have any pics??

Oh good...the report is starting. I can't wait to read it.

Thanks KatMark - CSR was great! Thanks to all your information and help!

EchoQueen - thanks for the positive support.

 

[mdsouth]

Chapter 2 – Arrival at Coronado SpringsOnce we were on the Magic Express bus, it started to sink in that we were actually in Orlando and heading for Walt Disney World! My DD enjoyed the WDW video as we drove. I liked watching the scenery. It was amazing how the closer we got to WDW the scene changed from swamps and trees to huge resort complexes. It was interesting to me to see actual resorts that I have seen photos of over and over on the Dishoards ads.

Finally, we drove through the magical gates and everyone on the bus cheered! The bus first stop was at Pop Century. It seemed to be a bustling place. There were some maintenance workers in front repainting the big bowling pins.

Next, we stopped off at Caribbean Beach Resort. It gave my family a chance to reminiscence since the last time we were at Disney four years ago we stayed at Caribbean Beach.

Our bus continued on to Coronado Springs! I was so excited to arrive! We jumped off the bus, gathered our bags, tipped the driver and headed into the lobby.

The fountain and lobby was just as I imagined after having viewed all the photographs on the CSR thread.
There was the regular check-in line to which most of the people on our bus entered. Since I had used the online check-in system, I proceeded to a different line. There was one person at the desk ahead of me, and then it was my turn! It really paid off to use the online check-in! You can see both the regular check-in line and the online check-in line in the photograph. I am the one standing at the counter with the black top and tan shorts.

I showed the CM my ID and she handed me a welcome packet. She went over everything in the packet, including our keys to the kingdom, and park hours. We had a room only reservation the first night and a continuing reservation for the remainder of our stay. The CM gave us a map of CSR and told us we would be staying in Cabanas 9A.

Woo Hoo! I knew that we would definitely have a renovated room since all the Cabanas have been renovated. Since it was so still early, 10:30 AM, our room was not ready. She told us that we would get to stay in the same room for our room only reservation the first night and our continuing reservation. They would inform us of the actual room number through a text message or a voice mail message. She told us that it would be on the ground floor just like I requested. I was so happy with the room assignment. I had requested the Cabanas when I booked our vacation. I requested the ground floor during the online check-in process. So, the CMs at CSR really do look at the requests when assigning rooms.

Our plan was to spend some time at the pool while we waited for our room to be ready. We had our swim suits in our carry-on luggage, so all we would have to do would be to change at the changing rooms by the pool. We also thought it would be fun to get our lunch from Siestas (the pool bar and grill) and eat at one of the tables overlooking the pool. As we were planning which bags to take to the pool and which to leave with bell service, the clouds opened up and it started to pour down rain!

We know that it is typical to have small rainshowers/rainstorms in the afternoon in Florida, but this storm looked like it was going to last quite awhile. The week before our arrival, Orlando had been getting some pretty heavy rain and this looked like another one. So, we had to modify our plans. We decided we would go ahead and head out to the Magic Kingdom and spend the afternoon there. My family was getting hungry and wanted to eat lunch. Since our dining package did not start until the next day, I really did not want to pay full price for a meal at Pepper Market or Maya Grill. Siestas would have been a good “budget” choice but I was afraid that they would have closed the bar/grill due to the huge rainstorm. So, I managed to get my DH to wait and eat at the Magic Kingdom. We grabbed some bags of chips to tie them over. They ate their chips as we waited for the Magic Kingdom bus.

Next up Chapter 3 – Walking down the middle of Main Street USA.