Our First Trip to WDW and Coronado Springs

[mckeonfive]

Well we're home, back to reality and soooo missing the comfort and beauty of the Coronado Springs Resort.

Our trip was July 18-24.
Cast of Characters:
Me, DH, DD8, DD2 and DS 9 mos.

WE LOVED CORONADO SPRINGS!!!

Sunday:
Left home at 4:45 am, arrived in Orlando around 4:30 in the afternoon and checked into Holiday Inn. Kids loved the kidsuites! Ate supper at Bennigans and swam in the pool. There is a small kiddie pool for the babies. We stayed here the first night so as not to waste time and go straight to Coronado to check in as early as possible and get to the parks early.

Monday:
Despite waking up later than planned we made our way to Coronado Springs to check in around 7:30 am. Checked in no problem, no wait. We had our choice of rooms and even after hearing all of the suggestions for picking Cabanas 8b, we chose Ranchos 7b ground floor. This was the only room ready at the time. This works out good for us, not too far from digsite pool area and bottom floor is a must when dragging babies! LOL. It was ready, but I really wanted to get to Animal Kingdom for EMH.
Forgot to mention, we had oatmeal and cereal that I purchased before we left and had a quick breakfast at Holiday Inn.

Animal Kingdom was awesome!! We went straight to Kilamanjaro Safaris and had only a couple minutes wait. Got on and saw plenty of animals. The kids really loved this ride.
It rained off and on that day, just put a poncho over the stroller so it didn't get soaked and we were fine. Hubby bought a new baseball cap with mickey swinging a golf club (he looks so darn good in a cap, never wears one at home, lol).

DD8 and I got fastpasses for Primeval Whirl. Great ride! We also rode Triceratops Spin, saw Festival of the Lion King (love this show!!What beautiful costumes!!), Tough to be a Bug (Ouch), and I'm probably leaving a few things out. We had a great time!

The kids got tons of autographs, Mickey and minnie, lilo and stitch, Kenai, pooh, tigger, eeyore, goofy and pluto. I got tons of good photos.

We had a good lunch at a counter service place(can't remember the name of it), rotisserie chicken, corn on the cob and baked beans.

We used the Qand C vouchers, Q&C vouchers were really a great value. Especially at the Pepper Market.

We left Animal Kingdom around early afternoon and went to CSR to check out our room. We got bell services to meet us in the parking lot and bring our bags to our room. Every bit worth the tip.
We decided to rest and get ready for our PS at Chef Mickeys that night. We were too excited to rest too long and went ahead and got ready and took bus to Magic Kingdom for a short look around. Went into a few shops and got DD2 her mickey ears with name stitched on. Got the souvenir bucket of popcorn, yummy, for a snack, just to tide us over until our big dinner.

We then took the Monorail to the Contemporary Resort for our late but great PS at 8:30 at Chef Mickey's. (I was late doing this PS and everything earlier had been booked) My husband is a sales manager at a car dealership and were used to eating late. Food was really good at Chef Mickey's , kids really liked it. Characters were great and we got lots more photos of the characters. Mickey, minnie, donald, chip and dale, goofy and the penguin were there.

We took the monorail back to MK and saw the end of Wishes, which was beautiful, through a slight opening in the trees. Our next trip I will really plan better and make sure we get a good view for this.
Took a crowded bus ride back to CSR to collapse in bed and start again in the morning.

*sidenote* I have read a lot of other people's accounts of seeing the castle for the first time, and now I understand, I really got teary eyed!!

If you made it this far, thanks so much for reading, I will add to this same post with the other days reports as soon as I can.

 

[Minniespal]

Great report ~ Thanx for sharing.

 

[jennymouse]

I love reading newbie's trip reports! Can't wait to read more!

 

[dsnylvr]

Thanks for sharing!

 

[mckeonfive]

Part 2

Tuesday:
We all got up, a little tired from the night before but not enough to deter us from going to MGM.

We really loved this park. It's beautiful. DH liked the theming here very much.
It was crowded but we went at our own pace and did what we could.
By the time we got to TOT and RockinRoller the fastpasses were for 11:30 +. We got two for me and DD8 at TOT and then went and got one for my DH at RNRC. He did not care to try TOT anyways. I was really surprised DD8 was willing to try TOT and the whole time we were waiting for our time and in the line finally, I was expecting her to bail out on me. But when the time came we got on , last row, i told her to close her eyes if she got too scared, but she didn't! She absolutely loved this ride. I was very proud of her. It seems she takes after me and is unafraid to ride anything! Makes me happy because that means I don't have to stand in line alone!
Hubby sat with babies and had a snack while we went on. After we rode, I bought DD8 a TOT pin to add to her lanyard.
What an awesome ride this is!! She made me promise to ride it again later.

By this time it was DH's turn to go on RNRC, so I sat with the babies and he went on. He came back grinning from ear to ear. I didn't get a fastpass (duh) and wasn't about to wait in line, so we went and looked around and went on Great Movie Ride and probably some more stuff that I should have wrote down so I could remember!
Oh and DH got kissed by Aunt Rosie, who was trying, lol, to make it down the road in her old car, blaring her horn at everyone and making funny remarks. She was a riot! DH had her lipstick print on his cheek all day!

Looking back, we missed a lot of stuff on this trip, but we had the two little ones and it being the middle of summer, the crowds, we just had to go at our own pace and take it easy. We didn't feel at the time that we were missing anything, we loved just looking around. The kids were in awe, i think, and didn't whine about being in the stroller much. I did take my sling for standing in lines with DS 9 mos, as suggested by another DISer and that worked out beautifully. ( I found some mickey fabric and sewed my own, I was very proud of myself, lol)

We went back to CSR for a late lunch, we were dying to try out Pepper Market. I was pretty hungry and the Grilled Tuna sounded good, so I got that, with rice and veggies. YUM!! DH got some type of pasta with grilled chicken. We used the Q and C vouchers and made out!! With drinks, dessert and tax and tip we came out way ahead. DD2 shared with me, DD8 got the kids pizza. Poor DS 9 mos was stuck with his jar of baby food, he didn't mind!

We decided Pepper Market was the way to go! We ate there throughout the trip.

We went to the Digsite pool for about an hour to let the kids swim some. DD2, without my knowledge went down the slide by herself. Oh my Lord!! She had a lifevest on and everything but my heart just did flipflops seeing her come out at the bottom of the slide. Later I found out my DH had asked the Lifeguard if it was okay for him to slide with her, lifeguard said no, but if DH went down first , he could wait right there at the bottom and catch her. Well to my surprise , DD2 came up smiling from ear to ear!! I can't believe how grown she became on this trip, LOL.

After resting a little while we went to Epcot to look around. We made it through most of the countries. DD's both got masks but we couldn't finish them. DD's got some autographs from the cast members that were doing the masks. That was nice.
We went through the Cool Station(is that the name of it??) and I remembered hearing about the Beverly drink. DH wasn't too thrilled with me after that! He took a big gulp of it, lol.

We got some good places to sit and watch Illuminations while I went to get us some drinks and a snack from McDonald's . Oh my lord, that was a slooooooow line! Also I noticed that these boys behind me , who didn't speak english did not appreciate the notion of personal space. I tried to be a good sport.

I had no idea how beautiful Illuminations would be! This was sooo moving and soooo worth the time to take to watch. I was very impressed. DH said this was his favorite, especially the fire part.

Around now is when my knee started going crazy , felt like bone rubbing bone. I hobbled out of Epcot and we made it back to CSR for some much needed sleep.

That's it for now, hope i didn't bore anyone too much! LOL. I will post the next days as soon as I can.
Thanks for reading!