I think we ate at every character meal.. TRIP REPORT w/pics! FINISHED!!!!!!!

[that's nice]

On Saturday it was going to be so nice out we decided to take Melody's grandmother to the beach for a little while. We packed up the car and drove about 15 minutes to Coquina Beach. It was a little breezy but was still warm. The water was pretty cold about 60 degrees. I went in up to my knees but Juliana wanted to play in the water.

We had a great time at the beach. Juliana even befriended a little girl who was 3 1/2yrsold. They were playing so cute together. It was funny... Juliana was bigger than her. The little girl let Juliana play with her toys and it was like they knew each other forever. I felt bad that we had to go. But we were getting hungry for lunch.

We had lunch and dinner with Melody's grandparents. Then we went back to our hotel. I really don't want to waste time talking too much about our hotel but it was OK. It was clean.. thats the most important thing. We didn't spend too much time there, except to sleep. But they did have a bar next to the marina so I got Mel a frozen drink and I had a beer. Then we went to bed. I couldn't really sleep that night. I felt like a little kid. I was so excited to be going to Disney the next day.

PIC from the hotel.

On Sunday we packed up the car. It was raining. The front that was about to bring snow to CT was bringing cold to FL. I didn't really care, we were on vacation!!! We went back to Melody's GP's and I cooked everyone bacon, eggs, sausage, and toast. Oh yea, and some freshly squeezed O.J. At about 12:45pm we were saying our goodbyes. It was sad to leave them. By 1pm we were on our way to CSR.... Next report FiNaLlY DiSnEy!

 

[that's nice]

What a fun trip report! I can't wait to see all the pictures! What a great dad you are.. bet you get a lot of extra points that Christmas!

It always seems like every year I try to go bigger than the last.. I don't know how i will top Christmas '08. LOL

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIANA
I hope you got everything you wished for

and love the TR definatley subscribingg cant wait for the next installment!

Thanks for reading. I thought no one would read it.

Happy Birthday Juliana!!!!

I am already loving your TR! Your daughter is beautiful, I can't wait to hear all about your trip.

Well i'm almost to the Disney part.

Happy Birthday Julianna!

and a good day to Tim and Melody, too!

Thank you. And thanks again for spreading some extra magic.

Happy, happy birthday precious Juliana!

Thank you.

What a blessing your wee one is..she is so beautiful....
Happy Birthday little one

Thanks... peoples comments keeps the writing flowing.

 

[kadesha]

can't wait to read more!!! We love character meals, I'm so excited to see all of your pics!

My DD has kidney problems too. She had a condition called Vesicoureteral reflux. Her urine would back up into her kidneys and it caused her to have severe infections. Now her kidneys are scarred and function is reduced. She had 3 surgeries to fix this condition. They tried to correct it with 2 smaller surgeries but they didn't work so they ended up having to detach the ureters from the bladder and reconnect them at a different spot. She has one kidney that is significantly smaller than the other and has lost about half of it's function. Luckily the other kidney is working harder to compensate. Thank goodness they have 2 of them, right!

 

[DearDaisyinDurham]

Can't wait to hear about the character meals!!!! We love them too, and did lots on our October trip. Looking forward to seeing your pictures.

Your daughter is beautiful. What an ordeal your family has been through. So glad to hear that she is doing better. And how much more special it must have made your first trip to WDW. I would bet you cried lots of tears of joy on this trip.

you had me at "character meals" and then your little one just pulled me right in!! can't wait to read more! we're taking our DNiece to a few character meals later this month so can't wait to read - please type fast!



and a special Hi! to Juliana!!

Happy Birthday, Birthday Girl!!!!!

 

[Disneychix]

What great beach pictures!! It's funny because looking at the photos of Melody's grandparents' place it could be my own grandparents! They have the exact same set-up near Tampa. Even the orange trees!

 

[that's nice]

can't wait to read more!!! We love character meals, I'm so excited to see all of your pics!

My DD has kidney problems too. She had a condition called Vesicoureteral reflux. Her urine would back up into her kidneys and it caused her to have severe infections. Now her kidneys are scarred and function is reduced. She had 3 surgeries to fix this condition. They tried to correct it with 2 smaller surgeries but they didn't work so they ended up having to detach the ureters from the bladder and reconnect them at a different spot. She has one kidney that is significantly smaller than the other and has lost about half of it's function. Luckily the other kidney is working harder to compensate. Thank goodness they have 2 of them, right!

Kadesha,
Sorry to hear about your DD. Every time Juliana goes to her oncologist she gets her blood-work done. Of course they check her kidney function. They told us you can live a normal life with 1 kidney. She just has to be careful when/if she starts playing sports. They told us that anything extreme should be avoided.... skydiving, deep sea diving, etc. But what about skiing, horseback riding, hockey, etc. She just turned 3 so we have some time to talk to doctors about these things.

One thing that we have to do is make sure she stays hydrated. Every day we have to push her to drink water. We sound like a broken record. "Juliana where's your water?" "Juliana get your water" "Can you please drink your water?" She must be sick of hearing it, cuz we get tired of saying it. But its what we have to do.

Tim

 

[that's nice]

you had me at "character meals" and then your little one just pulled me right in!! can't wait to read more! we're taking our DNiece to a few character meals later this month so can't wait to read - please type fast!



and a special Hi! to Juliana!!

Happy Birthday, Birthday Girl!!!!!

Daisy,
If you are following along, we are about to get to the character meals!!!! Our first was 1900 park fare dinner. But i'll be geting to that!

 

[DearDaisyinDurham]

Daisy,
If you are following along, we are about to get to the character meals!!!! Our first was 1900 park fare dinner. But i'll be geting to that!

Oh, goooooood! That's one we haven't been to, and we have it booked.

 

[that's nice]

So where was I? Sunday 3/1 Ah the drive to disney. So we were on the road at 1pm. About 25 in to it Juliana passed out. We fed her before we left Melody's grandparents but we didn't eat. We stopped at Taco Bell for a little something. We didn't want to eat too much, just something to hold us over. We had a 5:35pm ressie at 1900 Park Fare..... I know what your thinking. In the Christmas note it said Crystal Palace. From the time I booked the trip to the time we left, I was following the calendar on the disney website. It always seemed like it was changing. So we finally decided that we wouldn't goto a park on Sunday and we would get into the Disney spirit by seeing Cinderella and her crew. On the whole ride over I had to keep looking down at the speedometer. I think I had a lead foot on that drive.

We pulled into Coronado Springs about 2:50pm.

When I booked I requested (in this order) Cabanas 9A, 8B, 8A. I did the online check-in, which was easy, but there is no spot to put any written requests in. Being the first time staying on property, I really didn't know what to be requesting anyways, so I just went for it. When we arrived at the desk, there was no special place to go if you did the online check-in (it said there would be when doing the online check-in). They pulled up my name and all my info was already in a packet. The CM said that I was her 1st online check-in. The manager (??) gave Juliana a birthday button and gave us Celebrating buttons. (I guess this is why there are the 'what are you celebrating' questions everytime you call) But the 2 ladies were very nice and very pleasant.

I paid for a king room figuring that we would bring our pack-n-play for Juliana. We were assigned room 8626 in Cabanas 8B. We arrived at our room to find it was a newly renovated room on the second floor away from the elevator facing the parking lot (run-on sentence). I was slightly bumed....but whatever we were so excited to be here. The room was very nice. (you can see pics in any CSR thread) So Mel and Juliana were in the room and I took 5 trips up and down the stair to get our stuff into the room. We unpacked and then we were ready to explore. Oh YEA this little animal greeted us when we opened the door.

Right outside of our building

I had Melody and Juliana pose for a picture

We kept exploring and while I was posing DW & DD for a pic, a nice guy took my camera and took a pic of all of us. According to the map, we were about to be at the DIG SITE.

We climbed the few stairs, walked down a short path, then there it was.....That huge pool! You can see pictures but it is so much 'cooler' in person!

It was cold(by Florida standards) so we didn't go in. Plus we didn't have time because we had our 5:35 dinner. But Juliana saw the playground and HAD to check it out.

Then we headed back to the room to get ready for dinner.

 

[twinsmommy06]

wow that is SO cool. I LOVE your pics. And your dd is one brave little girl. I can't wait to hear more!

 

[msce2]

DS (2.5) and I are really enjoying your report! He especially liked the pool and the playground!! I really like your writing style, you make me feel like I was right there. It was so sweet how you set everything up for Christmas!!!

Your DD is beautiful! And incredibly strong!!!

Looking forward to reading more about your trip!

 

[that's nice]

So we drove over to the Grand Floridian. They asked if I wanted to Valet Park. I declined and dropped Melody & Juliana off. Then drove to park. Little did I know the parking was across the street. So I found a spot and hiked it back to the hotel. Mel was wondering if I got lost LOL. We were about 5 min early for dinner. We checked in at the counter. They gave us a little buzzer to let us know when our table was ready. So we walked around the lobby.

About 7 min later we were buzzing.. YEAH!! time to eat. Juliana LOVES Cinderella so she HAD to wear her gown. We got seated in the main dining area and had a nice waiter... (i can't remember his name) he took our drink orders and we were up to the buffet. I probably should mention I added the DDP about 5 days before we left. Figured it would be worth it considering the ADR's that we had. Anyways Juliana had mac&cheese, cheese pizza, and corn from the kids section and some pasta from the 'adult' section. She is a finicky eater but she was loving everything. I had tomato mozzarella salad, prime rib, paella, mashed potatos, salmon, and some veggies. The salmon was really good tender and moist. Paella was good as well, I wish there was more seafood in it. The beef was real good. A medium rare cut that wasn't chewy and melted in my mouth. Found a horseradish sauce to but on it that was good too! I had a beer and Melody had mixed drink that was changing colors. Here is a pic of some of the food. This is one of the few pictures I have of food. My wife made fun of me that I was taking a picture of my dinner plate.

The main reason I wanted to go there was to have Juliana see Cinderella. We met all the characters.

We thought Juliana would like to have an autograph book this time. We didn't do it the last two times. We felt she would understand it a little better this time. I'm so glad we got it for her. She had such a great time getting all her favorites autographs.The prince was very nice. Cinderella took a little extra time with Juliana because she was being shy. Lady Tremaine was funny... She was nice but firm. I know there have been people on the DIS that have stated she was scary or rude. I never got that impression, I felt she was nice while still playing the role of the stepmother. Well it was time to meet the stepsisters.

These two were so funny. They told Juliana she looked so much better in her dress than Cinderella ever did. They were bickering with each other across two tables. The stepmother yelled at them and told them to stop it or they were going to go to 'time-out' Juliana got a kick out of that. Also Juliana had a Cinderella wand that they both picked up and played with making some of the funniest faces I ever seen.

It was time for Cinderella to dance with the prince. They did their dance then had kids join them. Juliana wanted to but she was being shy again. She came back to our table then we got dessert. Our waiter brought over a cupcake and a crown for Juliana's birthday! Once again I guess this is why they asked me all those celebrating questions when I called to make ressies.

Right after I took that last picture, Juliana dropped her cupcake right into her lap. I thought she would be upset but she thought it was the funniest thing. All three of us were laughing hysterically. Thank goodness Mel put a dinner napkin on her right before it happened. We got the bill and I noticed the price was $30.99. I checked allears.net before we left to get prices and menus. The price here for dinner and breakfast has gone up. Thanks to the dining plan cuz I didn't care. I would definitely eat here again. The food was good but the atmosphere was better!

We finished our dessert and walked around the Grand Floridian for a while. Then Juliana wanted to go for a ride on the monorail. So we did the loop and got back about 15 min before the fireworks. We walked outside to try to find a good spot to watch but it was pretty cold and windy. So I got the car and picked them up to go back to CSR. We had a long MK day ahead of us starting with a 8:25 ressie at Crystal Palace!

 

[that's nice]

wow that is SO cool. I LOVE your pics. And your dd is one brave little girl. I can't wait to hear more!

Thanks for reading. I can see this is going to be a long writing process. Don't know whats going to take longer. The writing or uploading all the photos!!!!!

DS (2.5) and I are really enjoying your report! He especially liked the pool and the playground!! I really like your writing style, you make me feel like I was right there. It was so sweet how you set everything up for Christmas!!!

Your DD is beautiful! And incredibly strong!!!

Looking forward to reading more about your trip!

Thanks. I wish we had more time to spend at the resort. We were kinda like park commandos this trip!

 

[Picabo]

I'm totally enjoying your trip report! I have a daughter (Abby) the same age and also a 21mos old who's name is - JULIANA! So of course I think your daughter has a beautiful name! In anycase, Abby and I are enjoying seeing the pics and hearing about your trip! We're taking our first trip in December so I'm really enjoying reading about your trip with your little princess! She is absolutely precious! Can't wait to read more.

Oh and FWIW, we also plan to hit tons of character meals! So I can't wait to see and read about all of yours and see how Juliana enjoyed herself! Did you go back to the resort for naps each day or did she do ok without a rest??

 

[ProudMommyof2]

Your family is beautiful-what smiles!

Happy Birthday Juliana!

 

[joleen76]

I am loving your TR. There is nothing like their reactions to Disney when they are young! I am loving reliving those moments through your TR.

Can't wait to hear more.

 

[that's nice]

I'm totally enjoying your trip report! I have a daughter (Abby) the same age and also a 21mos old who's name is - JULIANA! So of course I think your daughter has a beautiful name! In anycase, Abby and I are enjoying seeing the pics and hearing about your trip! We're taking our first trip in December so I'm really enjoying reading about your trip with your little princess! She is absolutely precious! Can't wait to read more.

Oh and FWIW, we also plan to hit tons of character meals! So I can't wait to see and read about all of yours and see how Juliana enjoyed herself! Did you go back to the resort for naps each day or did she do ok without a rest??

She did OK without stopping for the naps... On Wednesday we did a pool day and she napped for about 40 minutes in the room before dinner and on Friday around 4pm she passed out in the stroller for about 45 minutes. It was perfect because we had another ADR. I think she was too excited to take naps!

Your family is beautiful-what smiles!

Happy Birthday Juliana!

Thanks so much!

I am loving your TR. There is nothing like their reactions to Disney when they are young! I am loving reliving those moments through your TR.

Can't wait to hear more.

There are a few parts coming up that I will never forget! Stay tuned...

 

[aceys_h0ney]

I am in ! Your family is beautiful. Love what I have read so far. Your little girl is so precious and strong.

 

[that's nice]

Before I write about Monday 3/2, there were a few things I forgot to write about in the last report. About 20 minutes after we left the restaurant, we realized that we left Juliana's jacket there. This was a nice princess jacket that my wife bought for her (i think it was like $40). It was a few weeks old and this was the first time DD wore it. I stopped at the check-in booth to ask if anyone found it. The CM told me no one turned anything in. I asked if I could go back into the dining room to check my table. They said I could. I looked around for a minute and didn't see it. Just as I was about to walk out I saw our waiter. I asked him if he saw the jacket... he did find it and put it aside for us. I was so greatful. I wish I could remember his name so I could give him his due.

Another thing I forgot about. We got back to the room around 8:40. We gave Juliana a bath and got her to calm down for bed about 9:10. Well a few minutes later we hear a door slam then talking coming from the room next to us. There was Mom and 3 kids I believe. Well they were loud, slamming things, the mom was yelling at them. This went on for about an hour. I was hoping that they wouldn't wake up our DD. They didn't (thank god). I told Melody that if it happened again the next night I would call or stop by the front desk. They must of left because after that night we never heard anything again.

One other thing. I don't know if it is like this in every resort but at CSR when you flushed the toilets, they were EXTREMELY loud. I woke up a few times at night throughout the week hearing toilets flushing. They were so powerful you could of flushed 10 tonga toasts at once! I was worried the sound would wake up Juliana but it never did... (just a few nightmares, which she never has at home)

OK well in my next report MK day!!!!!!

 

[annabean]

new reader...

Your DD is beautiful. It's sad she went through so much but it seems like she handled it very well... at such a young age, very admirable. Even the way she handled her dropped cupcake is admirable... hehe.