9 Days of Magic Trip summary and observations

[grandma jan]

Nine Days of Magic

Cast of Characters
Grandma Jan…….Me
DS2…………No 2 son age 31
DDI…………….wife to DS2 age?
DGS1…………age 13
DGD…….age 10
DGS2………….age 6

Trip June 7th thru June 16th…………………Coronado Springs Resort

Day 1 June 7th Travel Day

Time has come for our trip and everyone spends the night before with me so we can get up early and catch our flight!!! Alarm goes off at 3 am and we are up and out of the house by 3:30. We make our way to the parkingspot and leave the van there. We check our bags and have a 2hr wait for take off. Breakfast at MacDonald’s in the airport and it is finally time to board our plane!!!!!!

DGS1 and DGD ready to go!!!

DGS2 is really nervous about the takeoff and DDI comforts him!!!!

American Airlines provides us with a smooth flight from DFW to Orlando and all is well!!! We arrive at MCO and head straight to the Magical Express check in. This year it is really crowded and we wait about 30 mins. for our bus. We are finally on the bus and the kids began to get excited!

We know we are there when we see this sign!!!!!!

 

[Tanya90210]

subscribing... can't wait for more

 

[sharonW]

BRING ON THE MAGIC!!!!

 

[grandma jan]

I promise more tomarrow!!!!!

 

[grandma jan]

I will begin where I left off. Time to ck in.

This is our first time at Coronado Springs and the lobby is great. It was a fairly simply check in, we did have a few people in front of us but no great wait!!!

DS2 admiring the lobby.

Our rooms are not ready yet and it is about 12:30 so we are all really hungry so off to the Pepper Market for lunch!!!! This is the best food court I have ever been in. It beats the Allstars and the Poly by a long shot!!!!!!

Here we are having a great meal!!!!!

Ok so far we love this resort!!!!!

Our rooms won’t be ready for several hours so off to DTD in search of Build Your Own Light Saber!!!! The wait for the bus is very short and plenty of seats for everyone. DGS2 takes a short nap.

The boys enjoy building the light sabers and we all enjoy shopping and the sights at DTD. It is now time to catch the bus for the Contempary and dinner at Chef Mickey’s. It has been a long day and the early morning is catching up with everyone

[

Both boys fall asleep on the bus!!!!

We make it to Chef Mickey’s and only wait a few mins. to be seated.
Please disregard the funny face on my son; he tried to make a face in every photo that was taken!!!!

Minnie comes by just as we are being led to our table and she decides to escort DGS1 to the table, clear across the restaurant! I wish I could have taken a picture of his face, it was priceless. You know at 13 you have to be sooooo cool and that is hard to do with Minnie holding your arm and everyone watching you!!!!! I did get this shot when Minnie came back. I think she has a crush on him!!!!!

The food was really good and we all enjoyed this meal as well as meeting all of the characters especially Mickey!!!!

Here is what I had for dessert!!! Yummy!!!!

We are all ready to get back to our resort and get into our rooms. We take the monorail to MK and catch the bus to CS. Yeah!!!! We are the only ones waiting for the bus and it comes in record time!!!!! Still no waiting for a bus!!!!!!

Our rooms are in Cabanas’ B rooms 8681 and 8682. Our view is of the parking lot, but we do not mind at all!!!! The quiet pool is very close and so is the laundry room. We are very close to bus stop 4. This is just next to perfect for us! Our luggage is in the rooms so we do a little unpacking and then it is off to bed early. We have an early morning waiting for us with breakfast at AK at 8 am.

 

[grandma jan]

June 8th Animal Kingdom

I am awake at my normal time, 3:30 am. Ok I am not at home, oh yeah it is vacation!!! I lay in bed, awake, for another hr. I don’t want to wake anyone so I close the door to the other room and pull the curtain at the sink area. I take my shower and make a pot of coffee, it is now 5 am. I fill my mug with the pot of coffee and head out the door for the smoking area.

The smoking area is right in front of the quiet pool, on the path that goes around the lake. It is beautiful here! I have 1 hr of solitude to reflect on the first day of our trip and I look up and this is what I saw.

And behind me I see this.

It is a beautiful morning. I drink my coffee and have my smoke and all is well with the world. I get back to the room and there is movement.

Today we have to catch the early bus for breakfast with Donald. We are out the door and at the bus stop by 7 am. 2 buses pass thru for MK, 2 for MGM, 3 for EPCOT and it is now 7:30 and no bus for AK. DGS2 takes advantage and starts pin trading, this is his very first trade.

Where is that bus?

I am really getting nervous so we call the front desk from the bus stop. Never ask the front desk about bus service!!!!! They tell us to take the next bus to MK and they will drop us at AK. NO THEY WON’T!!!!!! Finally it arrives and it is a short drive and we are walking into AK.

We all like this meal and all of the characters.

I love Goofy and he makes a kissing sound and whistles in my ear!!!!

We finish our meal and say goodbye to Donald and promise we will see him later.

We are out the door and DS2 heads off to EE for fp’s . DDI and DGS1 head for Dinosaur while DGD, DGS2 and I ride Triceratop.

We all meet in front of Dinosaur and DS2, DGD, and I take our ride. I just love this ride, it is one of my favorites at all the parks. DGD keeps her eyes closed the entire ride!!!

Next everyone but me and DGS2 ride Primevil Whirl. He is still too short for this ride and we play some games and I win 2 frogs and a little Dino for him while we wait on the rest of the clan.

We all head over to EE and it is not time for our FP yet so we go on to Maharajah Jungle Trek to see the tigers.

We can get a FP for the River Rapids now and then we head back to EE. Oh no!!!! It is broken down and they don’t know when it will be running!!!! It is close to 11:30 now so we decide to go see the new Nemo show. This was the best show I have seen at WDW!!!! I cannot say enough about this experience. You just have to see it!!!!!!

Back we go to EE and it is still down!!!! So we head off to Africa and watch for Devine on the trail. Alas we are not fortunate this trip and never see Devine.

We take the train to Rafiki’s Planet Watch. Guess who we meet?

DGS2 gets to pet a snake and he loves it!!!!

We take the train back to Africa and decide to eat lunch at Tusker house. Well the food was good, but, and that is a big but. How in the world do you find a seat here!!!!! Inside there were only a few spaces and nothing to seat 6 people…we noticed a lot of people that were not eating, just sitting. I know that some were saving space for their party that was getting food but others were not!!!! We finally find a spot outside and we all crowd around a table for 4 and my DGS1 sits on the floor!!! I can see the people inside that are just taking up space and no on comes with food. They are just there to rest and enjoy the AC!!! On our way out we past them again and 2 people taking up a table for 6 and still no food!!! I felt this was extremely rude!!!!! I don’t mind if someone is saving space so they can eat but this was ridiculous!!!

From here we go thru the Pangani trail to see the Gorillas and Hippos!! The Hippos are so far back in the water we only see their nostrils up out of the water. We are told by the CM that the group in front of us scared the Gorillas and they are pretty far back in the exhibit. Why don’t people listen to the CM’s on these trails? Keep quiet around the Gorillas and don’t point at them!!!!!

We decide to see It’s a Bug’s Life, there was no wait at all to get into to this!!!! From here we walk back thru Africa and the boys enjoy the drums for a few mins.

We get to the River Rapids and we all ride using our FP's and this is a good break in the heat!!! We all get soaked!!

We walk on around to see if the brave ones will be able to ride EE. Yeah it is up and going. The boys and I are the chickens and we have a cookie ice cream sandwich while we wait for the brave ones. This is our view while we take our break!

The kids ride EE with the FP’s and then ride it again!!!! They loved it, but they all told me I would be a basket case if I had ridden it and they were glad I didn’t!!!!!

It is time for us to make our way to the front gate and take our bus to AKL for dinner at Boma’s!!! We do some shopping on the way out and I have 2 new wind chimes shipped home for us.
The bus is waiting for us and our commando day has all of us feeling it!!!
The AKL is beautiful and this is our first time seeing it!!!
Here is me and the boys waiting to be seated at Boma’s

I failed to get any good pictures of this resort or Boma’s. My camera was acting up tonight!

This meal was wonderful and different. We all enjoyed it, especially the Zebra Domes for dessert. If you have the chance try this buffet and be sure and try the watermelon rind salad. It was so different I just cannot explain the taste!!!!


We are all full and happily tired after our meal so out to the bus stop with only a short wait again for the bus to MK then to the bus for CSR.
Here is DS2 enjoying the bus ride with only 2 other people on the bus with us.

The kids enjoy a nice conversation with the bus driver. When all at once the driver yells…….


SHUTTLE LAUNCH!!!!!!!

And the bus slows down for us to get these pictures!!!!

We are all amazed that we got to see this!!!!! Do you believe in magic? Well we do now!!!!

This is just our first full day in one of the parks and we have 7 more to go!!!! Will there be more pixie dust for us or do dreams really do come true? Come back for more tomarrow.

Have a Magical day!!!

 

[jmb912]

I will begin where I left off. Time to ck in.

This is our first time at Coronado Springs and the lobby is great. It was a fairly simply check in, we did have a few people in front of us but no great wait!!!

DS2 admiring the lobby.

Hope you enjoyed your stay!!! Can't wait to hear all about it...subscribing!!!

The food was really good and we all enjoyed this meal as well as meeting all of the characters especially Mickey!!!!
Here is what I had for dessert!!! Yummy!!!!

Oh I am so glad you have good things to say about Chef Mickey's! We will be trying it for the first time in Sept. and we are really excited!! We are doing it on our last evening and I think it will become a tradition! My kids will love those desserts!

 

[grandma jan]

jmb....we love Chef Mickey's we started last yr and now that will always be our first dinner each trip.....You will love it!!!!

Jan

 

[duncanssweetie]

Hi Grandma Jan, just wanted to let you know that I'm hopping on for the "ride", I mean TR, LOL !!

Can't wait to read more, you have a sweet family

 

[jcc0621]

Loving this TR. Your Gk's are beautiful! Can't wait to here more.

 

[grandma jan]

June 9th

Magic Kingdom

I wake up this morning and know where I am!!!! I do my usual routine with my coffee and morning solitude on the bench in front of the quiet pool. This is soooooo nice and a great way to start my mornings.

Everyone is up and ready to go this morning. It is breakfast in the Castle and we all remember it from our trip in 2005. This morning the bus is there very quickly and we are off to MK.

I love getting into the park early our ADR is for 8 am and this is what Main Street looked like

We make our way up an empty street to the Castle. Everyone is looking forward to our breakfast!!!!

We are really, really here!!!!

We are the second family in line and we have our audience with Cinderella!!!!

We are seated and our waiter begins the meal. Mark was wonderful with everyone and he addressed me as Queen Mother!!

DGS2 really got into pin trading this trip and no one was safe from him!!!! He just had a ball!!!!

Jasmine, Snow White, Belle and the Fairy Godmother came around and we got autographs and pictures with each of them.

The food was very good and we all loved the stuffed French toast!!!

It was getting close to 9 and we wanted to be at rope drop at the castle. We finished our meal and head out before the wishing ceremony

The plan is to have DS1 head to Frontierland for FP’s to Splash Mountain and meet us at Peter Pan so he heads out the minute they let us in. I go to the smoking area behind the Castle and the rest head into the first gift shop. I catch up with them and we head to Peter Pan. We have to wait on DS1 and he finally makes it back and we ride Peter Pan. Then on to Snow White’s Scary ride, Winnie the Pooh, and It’s a Small World. We make it into Mickey’s Philharmagic with just a 5 min. wait!!! We have completed Fantasyland in the first 45 mins.!!! This is the way to do this park. No lines at all.

From here we had to Frontierland and our second set of FP’s to Big Thunder Mountain. On our way we run into Woody and Bullseye and DGS2 takes part in the roundup!!!!

DS1 gets the FP’s and we head over to Pirates of the Carribean. We all love this ride and DGS2 is really looking forward to it!!!! Well Yo Ho Yo Ho….We love the changes made and are all glad to see the dirty foot guy is still on the bridge!!!!!

We go thru the gift shop and DS1 says he saw Captain Jack outside and we all miss seeing him. We will make sure we see him on our second day at MK. We make our way back to the mountains in FL and DRS2 and I ride Splash Mountain for the first time. I can do this one if I keep my eyes closed on the big drop!!!! From here we go to BTM and me and DGS2 sit this one out. It is around noon and everyone is hungry.

Lunch at Columbia Harbor House! DDI and I love the Ham and Broccoli slaw sandwiches!!!

We enjoy our meal and decide to take a break today. We get a set of FP’s for Jungle Cruise to use later today on our way out of the park.

Well mousekeeping has decorated our windows when we get back to the rooms!!!!!

This is something the kids look forward to everyday from here on out. It is really fun to get back to the room just to see how everything is arraigned in the windows!!!!



I will post more later today. Have a magical day!

 

[Tanya90210]

Great chapters.... cant wait for more

 

[AlyssinWonderland]

Awesome trip report Grandma Jan! Looks like your family is having a great time!!! Whats in a Zebra Dome? I keep reading (Everywhere) about them but never have I read what's in it! Thanks!!!

 

[grandma jan]

We get to our rooms and decide to go to the pool.

Here is a shot that we took the first day.

The pool is big and was not crowded at all. We all like the water slide and the line moved really fast to go down.

Here is DS2 coming down!!!

You can see that there is no crowd on a hot June afternoon!!!!!

I even went down the slide!!!!!

We all enjoyed our swim and it really was nice to take this break. The pool is wonderful and I failed to get a picture of the huge hot tub.

Here is the view we had walking back to our room. It is the marina and main buildings. Just a beautiful sight!!!!!!

We all take a shower and feel so refreshed!!!! And off we go to the bus stop and back to the Magic Kingdom for dinner at the Crystal Palace with Winnie the Pooh and gang.

I really like this buffet the food is really good and we all enjoyed it immensely

Winnie The Pooh comes around for pictures and autographs!!

Are we eating too much? This dining plan is working out great!!!

We meet all the characters and finish our meal and head out to Tomorrow Land!!!

This day is going so good! DS2 did get FP’s, before our meal, for Buzz and we have a set for the Jungle Cruise and Space Mountain. We walk over to Space and everyone rides but me and DGS2. We go pin shopping and he finds a Stitch pin which means I will have to buy one for the other two also. This is my goal in life, to make my grandkids happy without spoiling too much!!!!

We ride Buzz and we all try to beat each others scores!

It is getting dark now and we head over to the Jungle Cruise. I have heard it is neat to ride this after dark. The animals are lit up and it is kind of different.

We have done everything we had planned to do and more today!!!!
We only waited in one line for a little
over 15 mins. (Pirates), no problems with the bus service
and we have had more food than we are used
to!!! And to top that off I rode Splash Mountain for the first time!!!!!!
This was just a magical perfect day!!! Not even a single meltdown from anyone!!!!



It is getting close to time for the parade and we decide to
get to the bus stop and beat the crowds.
This group does not care about the parades and we do not stay for any of them in any
of the parks. We plan on seeing Wishes on our last night.

We make our way down a crowded Main Street!!!
We do decide to go thru some of the shops to get thru that horde of people.
It is just a short wait for our bus and we are all ready to end our day.

Sleep comes easy for all of us tonight!!!


Tomarrow MGM and Starwars!!!! Have a magical day!!!

 

[grandma jan]

Allyssin, Zebra Domes are a chocolate mousse dessert and it is delicious!!!!
We are all ready to go back!!!!!

 

[Tanya90210]

I have yet to try the JC at night... the pic you took logs wonderful... guess I'll have to add that plan to our next trip

Great chapter...

 

[KathyRN137]

The plan is to have DS1 head to Frontierland for FP’s to Splash Mountain and meet us at Peter Pan so he heads out the minute they let us in..... We have to wait on DS1 and he finally makes it back and we ride Peter Pan. Then on to Snow White’s Scary ride, Winnie the Pooh, and It’s a Small World. We make it into Mickey’s Philharmagic with just a 5 min. wait!!! We have completed Fantasyland in the first 45 mins.!!! This is the way to do this park. No lines at all.

Hmmmm. Methinks I see a TGM-er.

"The Queen Mum"..... If that's not tag material, I don't know what is!!

Keep up the good work,

Kathy

 

[AlyssinWonderland]

Thanks for the info! Loving your trip report! Thanks for all the pictures (I love reports with pictures!)

 

[grandma jan]

Thank You
Alyssin, Kathy and Tanya, I really appreciate all of your comments!!!!
We had such a great time!!!!
Jan

 

[grandma jan]

June 10
MGM Starwars Weekend!!!!

Last year I was with the oldest son’s family for Star Wars Weekend and I made
Costumes for all of us to wear and we had a ball!!!
This year no one is willing to dress up so no costumes for this group. Kids can be so different!!!
Here is a picture from 2006.

Now to start our day!!!

We are up early today because we want to make the rope drop at MGM.
The boys are really excited about today because they are both Star Wars fans!!!!!

First it is breakfast in bed!!

Then waiting at the bus stop. It was again a short wait!!!

We make it before the rope drop and there is already a crowd but we are not too far back in the line.

The music is playing and the Storm Troopers are on top of the gate!!!!

We are let through with about a million other people…but it is ok because we have a plan!!!
DS2 heads to TOT for FP’s and we wait at the Hat for him. He takes off running and passes tons of people and makes it back in record time!!!!

Now off to Star Tours and to meet the Characters!!!

The first place we see is painting faces and the boys have to get into character!!! They both choose the same face and this is how it starts out

This is the finished product!!!! They are both so pleased!!!!!

Then my granddaughter gets her face painted too. No Star Wars Character for her!!!! Isn’t she just precious!!!!

Now that everyone is in character we are off in search of autographs and we can get our FPs for Star Tours now too.

We spot Queen Amidala and everyone is soooo happy to get her autograph and picture!!

Then the little one spots Princess Leia!!! Isn’t he just the proudest thing!!!!

This side of the park is really getting crowded so we ride Star Tours and little Darth is thrilled. He was too short the last trip and could not ride. When we get off he is shouting “That was awesome grandma.” I get Uncle Johnny on the phone so he can tell him all about it!!! His uncle is thrilled that he called him. We do some shopping in Tatooine Traders. The boys saw someone at the resort, that had a Yoda backpack and it was the cutest thing, so we are searching for it. We find it in Traders and each of them have to have one and we buy one for their uncle back at home.

These are just the cutest!!!

I tell DGD that I will buy her something too, but she wants to wait and find a snowglobe!!! “Whatever you want sweetie!” You know my motto, spoil them but not too much!!!!

We decide to get some lunch at Pizza Planet. This place is packed!!! The lines are long and there is no where to sit. So DDI goes up stairs and waits to grab a table as soon as someone gets up!!! DS2 and I wait in the line. This meal takes awhile to get. Just as we are getting the food DDI Yells over the railing that she got a table…just in time!!! Yeah!!!!! The kids love this meal and it is really funny to watch two Darth Mauls eat Pizza!!!

The meal gives us energy to continue our day. As we walk outside there is a hair wrapping station and DGD wants to do this. DS1 and older Darth go over to see Muppets while we do the hair thing and then little Darth has to have a pirates tattoo. By the time the hair is done everyone is back and ready to go.

We head for the streets of America in search of Cars and we find them!!!!

From here we make our way round to the Backlot Tour! This is our first time on this and it is quite interesting especially the flash flood!!!

We make it over in time for LMA and the boys really enjoy watching this. DDI and I are not so impressed!!! But anything thing for the men in our lives!!!

The little Darth wants to do the Honey I Shrunk the Playground and we go inside.
Big mistake!!!! It is sooo hot in here and of course the kids have to explore everything. The kids enjoy this but us adults do not. Just beware of this place!!!! You can lose a kid in here and it is very hard to keep up with a little one!!!

We finally talk everyone into moving on!!! I am sweltering by this time and we need some AC!! I want to do some shopping in Jabba’s Hut for the family at home and GLORY BE!!!! No line to get in!!!!! In fact we walk right thru and find the Mickey and Minnie special beanies for 2007. This is the first year I won’t have to order them off of EBAY!!!!! I purchase one set for each grandkid and a set for the uncle at home!!!! This is the one thing the 2 granddaughters at home asked for and I am so happy to get them!!!!

Our shopping spree helps us all cool off and we enjoy walking down the street with all the characters from the Dark Side!!!

Now it is off to TOT and the 3 brave ones ride and the chickens wait for them.
We have time to make it to Beauty and the Beast show so we go in early and enjoy sitting and waiting for the show to start.

The boys are ready to get the paint off of their faces and I fear we will need a fire hose to accomplish this mission. DDI tells me that baby wipes will work like magic!!! I did not believe her and I was wrong!!!!

He looks tired!!!!!


The show starts and this is our first time seeing it. All of us girls really enjoy it and the men do to but they won’t admit it. My pictures do not turn out from this show and I am so disappoint because the costumes were fantastic.

Just as the show ends it starts to rain and rain and blow and rain and rain somemore!!! The wind is blowing really hard and everyone gathers into the middle of the theater. It gets a little scary too. Lot’s of lightning and thunder and more rain. No one leaves the theater!!!! They cancel the next show and we all wait out the storm for over an hour!!!!!

We left our ponchos at the resort and it is getting close to time for dinner at 50’s Primetime! The wind stops blowing and the rain lightens up. DS1 runs across the street and buys 5 new ponchos and we are off to have dinner. It is still raining by the time we make it to the restaurant!!! We get to wait inside to be seated and the hostess brings us plastic bags for our ponchos.

We have a wonderful meal and our waiter was so funny, we really enjoyed the food too. No pictures from this meal either.

We decide to call it a night and make our way to the bus stop. Bus service is great to CSR. There are always enough seats for all of us!!!!

We get to our rooms and again the windows are decorated and now there are 2 more towel animals that is a total of 4 now. The boys start playing with the toys that they bought today and everyone relaxes until bedtime. DGD and I look at all the pictures we have taken. She got a digital camera for Christmas and is getting really good at taking pictures. We down load everything on the lap top and enjoy comparing pictures.

This was just another next to perfect day at the World. We hit the pillows and have no trouble falling to sleep again tonight.


Next up
EPCOT Future World and lot’s of magic!!!!