A TR..Surprises galore!MNSSHP,WishesDessertParty,Wishes Cruise -- Final Thoughts :(

[OhioDisneyLover]

Hi everyone! We're back! Welcome to my TR.

Cast of Characters

Me (47), Disney addicted. Can never get enough Disney....never!

DH (38), Disney addicted as well although I think he'd take a Steelers game over Disney if he could.

Mom (we shall not tell her age as she will smack me upside the head if I do so). Mom loves Disney. She almost wasn't able to go this trip due to medical concerns but at the last minute, and I mean last minute, she was able to go.


Where:

Disney's Coronado Springs Resort. This was a first for us. More on our thoughts throughout my TR.

Hope you'll join me.........

 

[Stefy]

I'm in

 

[lillylynnb]

waiting for more!!! Im home sick and need my disney fix!!!!

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

I'm in

waiting for more!!! Im home sick and need my disney fix!!!!

Hi and welcome to my TR. I'm in the process of fighting with Photobucket right now to try and upload some of our 4,000 pictures for this TR!

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Before I get started I thought that I'd share a bit of background for those readers that were not with me on my PTR.

About 18 months ago I met a fellow DISer, inkedupmomma. After meeting on the DIS, we arranged for a meet at DAK in September 2008. For those of you that have not seen her PTRs or TRs, check them out! She's awesome. We had a blast during our 2008 trip. Over the next year we became friends and it feels as though we have known each other forever. We both decided last year to book at CSR for September 2009 and began planning our adventure.

Here is a picture of Jenn and here awesome family

Originally when we booked this trip my sister and nephew were going to join us as they do every year. Things didn't work out that way so it was just DH, mom and I meeting Jenn and her family. I was also going to get to meet Jenn's friend Kelly and her family this trip and I was looking forward to that as well!

From September 2008 to September 2009, Jenn and I planned our butts off for this trip. We planned a number of surprises too which will be disclosed during my TR. There was a surprise for just about everyone this trip which made it extra special.

Here is a picture of Joe, mom and me

About a month before vacation mom got sick and we were not sure that she would be able to join us. After a number of medical tests and doctor visits, a few days before we were going to leave, she was cleared to go!

 

[inkedupmomma]

Boooo.. I'm not first LOL! BUT you have new readers! yay for new peeps!

btw, Photobucket SUCKS! I am getting so frustrated with it! I have decided to add 100-200 pics at a time into separate albums so I don't go crazy! seems to be working so far.. but it is taking foooo eva to load the pics!

Love you and miss you

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Boooo.. I'm not first LOL! BUT you have new readers! yay for new peeps!

btw, Photobucket SUCKS! I am getting so frustrated with it! I have decided to add 100-200 pics at a time into separate albums so I don't go crazy! seems to be working so far.. but it is taking foooo eva to load the pics!

Love you and miss you

I am really frustrated with Photobucket. Can't load any without crashing... so ... I am loading them to the DIS. One problem.....takes SO DANG LONG!!! And I have like 4,000 to look through and decide on. Gonna work on Photopass tomorrow morning or tonight b/c I doubt I will do much sleeping.

 

[KatMark]

I'm here for the trip report! Can't wait to read it.

 

[mrskckitty]

I'm looking forward to reading your trip report! I just booked the Wishes Dessert Party for December, so I can't wait to see your photo's from that.

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

I'm here for the trip report! Can't wait to read it.

Kat, so sorry that we missed the meet and greet at CSR. Would have loved to be able to meet you in person.

Thanks for joining my TR.

I'm looking forward to reading your trip report! I just booked the Wishes Dessert Party for December, so I can't wait to see your photo's from that.

Hi, and welcome! I took TONS of pics at the party so I will be sure to post them. I did not get food pics but man, the view of Wishes was incredible!!

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Normally we cab it to the airport. This time since my sister and nephew were not going with us my sister drove us to the airport. No thanks to Continental, we were leaving at 9:40 instead of our original flight which would have gotten us there at 9:10. I hate when the airlines change flights!

DH checked us in online the night before. We were all seated together and he paid our bag frees...yep, $80 bucks people just for DH and I! He also checked us in with Alamo so that we could go straight to the car upon arrival.

Surprise Number 1 -- We arrived at CLE about an hour before the flight. I was a bit freaked because of the weight of one of our bags. I had a TON of stuff in that bag, including all of my room decorations. It was just under 50 pounds. I think it was 48.5 or something like that. Well, it didn't really matter.....we got FIRST CLASS!!!! We were able to upgrade for $99 bucks each and considering our tickets were originally $144 we thought...what the heck!! First class it is! DH has a horribly bad back (he is a disabled vet) so we jumped on the chance. I sat with mom and DH sat across the isle.

Good-bye Cleveland................

We boarded the flight after waiting not more than 15 minutes. Just enough time to grab a snack. I got an everything bagel and ate half. We ended up putting the other half in a paper bag...for later...yeah, not a good idea!

They served us a small meat and cheese tray along with fresh fruit on the plane. I didn't eat much since it was a turbulent flight. I was a tad bit scared. Mom and I don't fly well. DH was snoozing away as usual.

Once we arrived at MCO and deplaned, DH and I began to notice all of the construction. That dang airport has been under construction for YEARS! Are they EVER going to be finished???

We waited for the fake monorail to take us to baggage. There was construction going on and we did not know that only one was working. A bunch of us walked RIGHT PAST some contractor dude and waited for the tram...there was lumber splitting the section in two so if the other tram came there would be no way to cross over and get on it. Wouldn't you know, the dude let us walk through there and wait...only to find that this side was NOT WORKING! DH was furious and made a comment like, "dude, you couldn't TELL us that this side wasn't working?" People were not happy and it was PACKED. I thought that if this was a sign of how things were going to be...we were in trouble.

After a pretty long wait and a lot of shuffling around, we got over to the main terminal and baggage claim. DH got a porter because we had 6 bags, and 8 carryons!! Yeah, there were only 3 of us.

I've never before been at MCO and been able to get to the rental cars without having to go outside to do so. This was the first time which was nice considering it was raining outside. It is always a production for DH to select the car. Drives me nuts sometimes. He went ahead and found us a car. He chose a gray Toyota, 4 door. Now to squeeze all of the luggage and us into the thing!

After getting settled we left MCO and for the first time ever, DH went the wrong freaking way!! So we did laps around the airport, found the South Exit and we were on our way!

After paying several tolls (what's up with all of those things anyway?) we finally saw this!!!!!!!!!!!

We normally stop at WalMart first thing upon arrival. Not this time. In fact, we did not go there even ONCE, which is a record for us. (Ok Jenn, I know what you are thinking....you HATE Walmart!)

We headed straight over to CSR to wait for Jenn and her family to arrive.

 

[AlohaPolynesian]

Your pictures are great! I don't fly well either but that is AWESOME that you got to upgrade to first class!! Loved the picture of Cleveland

That construction is terrible on the Continental side, but I flew Southwest over Memorial Day and that side is amazing!!! I couldn't belive it. I think I laughed out loud when you said fake monorail...I don't care if it is fake it still gets me excited about getting on the REAL monorail!

I'm anxious to hear about the trip and what you thought of CSR. And I'm so glad your mom was able to go on the trip!

 

[Beka]

I'm in!

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Your pictures are great! I don't fly well either but that is AWESOME that you got to upgrade to first class!! Loved the picture of Cleveland

That construction is terrible on the Continental side, but I flew Southwest over Memorial Day and that side is amazing!!! I couldn't belive it. I think I laughed out loud when you said fake monorail...I don't care if it is fake it still gets me excited about getting on the REAL monorail!

I'm anxious to hear about the trip and what you thought of CSR. And I'm so glad your mom was able to go on the trip!

I've never been on the left side of the plane to get a city shot. This time I got lucky.

The freaking construction has been going on FOREVER at MCO.

Fake monorail only gets me ready for the real deal.

Going to try and get an update in today. I am fighting with photobucket at the moment. Jerks..........

I'm in!

Hey Beka, glad you are here!

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

When we arrived at CSR it was still raining and very hot/humid.

We stood in line at Registration for what felt like forever. There seemed to be a convention there (isn't there always?) so the wait was longer than we have waited at any other Disney resort.

Steve from MA checked us in. He was super nice. He kept teasing me about my binder....which i proceeded to whip out of my carryon bag looking for my vouchers that you don't need anyway.

We were in Ranchos 6B, room 6532. Mom was in 6531. Rooms were connecting. Stupid me asked for adjoining rooms and in Disney-speak that means rooms NEXT to each other that don't have a door between them. That was okay though because Steve knew what we wanted.

I called Jenn to check on her progress. They were close but we still had some time. We went into Panchito's to check it out.

We then headed to the Pepper Market since we were pretty hungry by then. That place is unorganized if you ask me. While the food was good, it was hard to figure out where the heck you had to go to get what it was that you wanted. For instance, I wanted something that was only on the dinner menu. I missed the hours that were apparently printed on the menu so I had to get something else instead. I ended up with the chicken and veggies which was actually pretty darn good. I didn't want or eat the fries. Got the strawberry cake as may treat but I never did take a picture of it. Joe had this for desert.

Here is my chicken:

We then headed back to the lobby to wait for Jenn to arrive. Yay, here they are!!!!!!!!!

Jenn and I headed over to check in. She was in room 6530, right next to mom! Yay, we were all in a row.

Surprise #2 - I had put together two gift baskets for Jenn's kids. It took me about 3 months or so, maybe a little while longer. I sent them UPS to the resort so that they would be there by check in time. I was a bit disappointed though that UPS did a craptastic job packing them and they were not as beautiful as they were when I sent them. Joe and John went to the convention center to get the boxes...btw, they charge him 5 bucks a box to pick them up! Yeah, I didn't know how I was gonna like this place. No resort has ever charged us to pick up boxes.............

Sorry, no pictures of the loot. It was mayhem when the boxes were opened. All in a good way though.

We all then went over to find our rooms. It wasn't too bad except for the fact that EVERYTHING at CSR looks exactly the same to me so I ended up walking in circles....this would be a common thing for me during our 9 night stay.

We all settled into our rooms before going to DTD. I decorated my door and window. My luggage was loaded with everything from tape, to suction cups, lights, garland, window clings...... The door decoration had Mickey heads that I had hoped people would write their comments on. Just Kayla did in the end. I was sorta sad that no one responded.

Next up DTD and TRex............

 

[wdwgirl03]

I'm here!

 

[Stefy]

Oops have missed three updates.

Coolbeans being able to upgrade to First Class, you certainly arrived in Orlando in style Although not hot about the fake monorail only have one working at that time!

I love your pic of the CSR Entrance, brings back memories

Can't wait to read more

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

I'm here!

HI!

Oops have missed three updates.

Coolbeans being able to upgrade to First Class, you certainly arrived in Orlando in style Although not hot about the fake monorail only have one working at that time!

I love your pic of the CSR Entrance, brings back memories

Can't wait to read more

Having more room on the flight was nice. We were in row 1 so we really had a lot of room.

Stupid fake monorail.......... I had to stop DH from going off on the construction worker dude who watched us all file past him like morons.

 

[inkedupmomma]

Omg.. I love the pic of you taking our pic as we walked in! So funny that I had my camera out and was hoping to do the same thing.... lol. dorks

Also, I loved your window cling ons! Totally rad! You didn't get any pics of them opening the gifts?? I swore Joe took pics with the point and shoot! idk if I have any pics either

Let me just tell you all, the gifts were AMAZING!

You guys totally rock our world

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

I was ready and waiting for you to get there. Shoulda put the big lens on though to get a better picture.

Window clings were fun. Gonna do it again next time we have a window!

Glad you guys liked your stuff. I have to dig through and see what pictures we have. Lord knows I have so many freaking pictures!