Disney is ALWAYS my favorite Birthday gift!

[MagicalMawMaw]

This is this MawMaw's attempt at her very first trip report.

After, I started reading another persons report today...I thought...
I guess I should of started mine with alittle about us.

We're the lucky PawPaw & MawMaw to 5 cute grandkiddos.
They keep us young & at times make us feel old!
And August will bring us #6!

We have 4 kids. 2 of our girls are married & they live close by.
1 daughter still lives at home but works full time &
our youngest son is at A & M...a full time student with a full time job.

This is my DH & me.
PawPaw is Eugene & I'm MawMaw or Sharon

DAY #1

Surely not? You are going there again?!
I mean...how many times have y'all already been there?

Hmmm...lets see...this was our 9th trip & we love it more everytime we go!

I never have to guess what my DH is getting me for my birthday.
For 6 years now I've been given a trip for the 2 of us to Disney & before we checked out we booked bounceback for next December!!

December 8th found us rushing to the airport after Church to catch our plane. We'd booked great flight times & a direct flight ages ago & then they bumped our time up. So, after madly dashing to get there... we find our plane had problems & we had a several hour delay while a working plane was located. Much as I wanted to be on the way... I'd much rather wait than to board a plane with a problem!

Finally, we were on our way & we had a smooth flight. After landing, we didn't even wander around mixed up this time... but went straight to Magical Express & boarded our bus. After a short wait.. we were on our way & we found that CSR was to be the first stop!

We love Coronado Springs Resort!

Our room this time was in the Casitas.

We were in bldg #5, 3rd floor, room # 5330 a king.
We loved this location. We were very close to bus stop #2 which we think is the best bus stop. You are first on & first off the bus & we love that part.

This was our third stay at CSR & we find the resort to be so peaceful & relaxing!

The walk to the front area of the resort is a pleasant stroll around the lake area. We usually went every afternoon to refill our cups & get my DH a newspaper.

After checking into our room we headed to our ADR at Fulton's at DTD.

We've always wanted to dine at Fulton's & as they joined the DDP this year we decided to give them a try. We originally planned to shop at DTD & then eat. However, with our delayed flight times we were tired & decided to try & check in early to eat. We were sucessful & were soon seated at a great table.

My DH ordered Alaskan crab & a shrimp cocktail. The shrimp were huge & he thought they were both awesome! I am allergic to shellfish... so I ordered fish tacos & a steak. Both were great! The fish tacos were simply delicious! I could of made a meal off those. The desserts were great too & the service wonderful!

Fulton's is now on our must repeat every trip list!

 

[MagicalMawMaw]

Monday morning we were up early & at the bus stop about 6:30 a.m.

I'd always wanted to try Chef Mickey's. We've scheduled it several times but always ended up cancelling it. So, this time I booked it right at the first so we'd for sure keep the ADR.

We got the MK bus & were the only folks on board. Our bus driver kindly dropped us at the bus stop at the resort... so that was a great start to the day! We ended up arriving early as we got taken directly there & we got seated early also.

Chef Mickey's gets lots of bad reviews on here.. but, I loved it! The characters were awesome & the food great! The Fab 5 are my favorite characters & this was a super way to start our trip off at Disney!

There was also a special reason I wanted to eat at Chef Mickey's this trip.

The last 3 years for my birthday my daughter has embroidered me a skirt for my birthday. This year she designed & made & embroidered me a MawMaw's FAb 5 skirt. She took handprints of my 5 grandkiddos & turned them into the Fab 5 characters & embroidered them on the skirt. I wanted to wear it & get photosHere's a few photos of my cute skirt that I love! of each character that day.

When we got home I did a photobook & eack kid has a page with their handprint, their photo & MawMaw & PawPaw with their character on it. They were impressed!

This is their handprint character.

Chef Mickey's got top marked with us on service, food & the Fab 5 were great. Another restaurant finds itself on our must repeat next time list!

We were now on the way to Magic Kingdom & rope drop!

 

[MagicalMawMaw]

After watching the opening show at MK we headed straight to the new Fantasyland. Wanted to check it out before the crowds got too bad.

Found that Under the Sea - the Journey of the little Mermaid wasn't working. So we got a fast pass. After checking back several times we were told the fast pass would be good all day long.

So we went & checked out the Beast's Castle. You could look into the ballroom & it was really pretty.

We rode bunches of rides, saw the Country Bear's & found we could about ride anything that morning with very little wait.

 

[MagicalMawMaw]

We had an ADR at Crystal Palace at lunch.

I booked this mostly because of the characters as we aren't huge buffet people.

We found the food as usual to be pretty good....but not anything special.
And the characters moved on more quickly at the tables than they did at Chef Mickey's this morning.

We enjoyed it..but it isn't on the need to do next time list.

After lunch we wandered around & rode everything we wished too.

We watched the afternoon parade in the rain. Thankfully, it didn't pour down raining!

Our plans were to stay & watch wishes & see the electric parade.
However, as the day went on the crowds grew & grew...so we decided to take the boat over to the Grand Floridian & try & check in for supper about 2 hours early.

 

[MagicalMawMaw]

Right now I'm in the middle of redoing my dresser. We are doing a major redo in our bedroom...yippee!! The icky outdated wallpaper & paneling is going to go! We are going a pottery barn look with cream painted plank walls & rather than buying all new furniture I'm trying my hand at refinishing some of the pieces I like.

I refinished my cedar chest my Dad made me for my graduation from high school. It was sadly needing it as it was rather outdated...hmmm...it is over 30 years old! I did it distressed antique white & alittle bit of green. It turned out so pretty that it encouraged me to try the dresser.

I'm doing it distressed black with abit of dark wine accents. I'm between paint coats so thought I'd drop in real quick & share with y'all about Narcoossee's.

We arrived several hours early so I figured we'd have a long wait. We were tired though & decided we'd rather just sit & wait if needed.

However, after just a few moments we were seated at a window seat. That was a pleasant surprise!

After getting our glasses of iced tea we were ready to enjoy the meal & enjoy it we did!! Everything...food & service were great!

We were on the deluxe plan & we were starving so I started my meal with the cheese plate & my DH had oysters. He loved his & I took his word for it...I so will not eat those things!

For our entree my DH had steak & lobster while I just had steak. It was delicious!!

Then, on to dessert! Yum! This is one thing I love about the deluxe plan... I love getting a dessert every single meal! There is always room for dessert !!

The complete meal was tops! We had eaten here several years again & left not very impressed. This year we decided to give it another try & we sure were glad we did as Narcoossee's went onto our must repeat again next year list!! (Makes me think that one day we might need to give Artist Point another chance)

So after an awesome meal, we went outside & dashed though the rain & splashed though the puddles to catch the monorail to MK & the bus back to CSR.

 

[MagicalMawMaw]

At the last moment we decided to get hoppers.

We never, ever Hop!! We always say no way...so not worth it!

But, we decided to try getting them this year for several reasons:

1. We weren't doing the Christmas Party ...so we could go back to MK w/o using a whole day there.

2. We wanted to eat more meals at Epcot but didn't want to spend the whole day there... &

3. We wanted to go to HS several times to play Toy Story Mania!!

Would we feel hoppers were worth it by the end of the trip?

Hmmm... wait & see!


This morning had 2 choices:

Lazy start to the day & then Epcot...OR...

Rope Drop at HS & Toy Story Mania.

Guess what choice won out?!

We love that game!!

They let us in early & we walked straight to Toy Story & got a fast pass.

Then we got in line. They said it was broken & would be awhile till it started up. However, we decided to stick around awhile in line because we were there just to ride TS. About 10 minutes later it opened up & we walked straight on.

After we got off we rode again with about a 10 minute wait & then used our fastpasses for a 3rd ride.

I lost all 3 times but that game is a blast!!

After our 3 games we looked in a few shops & went to ride the boat over to Epcot as we had lunch reservations at Coral Reef that day.

 

[MagicalMawMaw]

We were lucky & only had to wait maybe 5 minutes for a boat to arrive to take us to Epcot from HS. I love riding the boats...is just a relaxing way to get around Disney.

We took our time wandering though the World towards Coral Reef.
And we decided to get a fast pass for soaring for later. However,
we found the return time to be really late & we wouldn't still be in
the park then. ( We found this happened often with soaring on this trip. Never realized the soaring & test track fast passes ran out so fast)

So, we decided to ride living with the land instead. This is a favorite
of mine & we both enjoyed it as usual.

We were hungry so we headed to Coral Reef to check in for lunch.

 

[MagicalMawMaw]

Coral Reef has always been the one meal my DH requests. He loves to eat there!

We arrived right as they were opening & requested a seat by the aquarium. As we are a party of 2 & we book right when they open for lunch...we've always been able to get a seat right by the fish. In about 5 minutes we were seated in a perfect place right by the aquarium.

We love to just take our time with our meal here & relax awhile & watch the fish. This time we had a sting ray & a shark hang out by us alot. The restaurant slowly starts to fill up so it is always abit quieter at lunch now also.

The starters were good. I love their salads here & always get one.

For our entree I ordered mahi- mahi. I ordered it last time & loved it!
It is so so good!! (My DH ate my shrimp)

The special that day was fried shrimp & fries which my DH ordered.
He thought it was great.

Dessert was good too. I'll be truthful, I liked what my DH ordered way better than mine. Mine was ok....I should of ordered differently. My sweet hubby exchanged with me & let me finish his off...it was awesome!!
(Mine is the orange flavored dessert)

We enjoyed Coral Reef as we always do & it is back on the repeat list for next year.

 

[MagicalMawMaw]

After stuffing ourselves at Coral Reef we decided to go walk it off
around the World Showcase area. We can spend hours here just
wandering around & looking in the shops. Off Kilter & several more
weren't on the schedule for today...so I knew we'd have them for
sure on our schedule on Thursday.

After admiring Canada & the beautiful flower gardens & checking out the shops along
the way...we ended up at United Kingdom. I always like to get
a photo taken here with Pooh & Tigger. The line is always short &
they turn out cute.

Then on the way out of the shops, we noticed the World Showcase
players were starting to set up for a street show. We've seen
it lots of times but it is always funny. My DH wanted to stop &
watch so we found us a wall to lean on.

A few moments later...my So NOT outgoing hubby...found himself
picked out of the crowd to be part of the skit. I couldn't believe it
when he finally agreed to take part & be scrooge! (& I sure was
thankful it was him , & not me, that wanted to stop & watch!!)

I got lots of photos & laughed until my sides ached watching him!
It was one of the highlights of the trip for me! Believe me, he for sure
wore his complimentary button the rest of the day so not to be picked
out of the crowd again for a part! And during the day we had several
come up to him & say they had saw him earlier during the United Kingdom
skit & that'd send me off into laughter again just thinking about it!

 

[luckylady]

Just read your report so far. Sounds like a grand time with just the two of you. HAve never tried Chef Mickeys seems DH never wants to go there even when the kids were small. Coral Reef you, but what is the starter your DH got? How many days were you there? Waiting for the rest of the story.

 

[MelMel11]

Count me in!!!

 

[MagicalMawMaw]

Just read your report so far. Sounds like a grand time with just the two of you. HAve never tried Chef Mickeys seems DH never wants to go there even when the kids were small. Coral Reef you, but what is the starter your DH got? How many days were you there? Waiting for the rest of the story.

Hi..Glad to have you along!

I doubt my DH enjoyed Chef Mickeys as much as I did. I'm the Disney nut in the family... he enjoys it because I do. Chef Mickeys has all my favorite characters & I just loved it!

At Coral reef he had fish tostados. ( I think he was remembering how I loved my fish tacos at Fulton's on our first night) He raved about them & they sure looked good!

We arrived at Disney Sunday afternoon, I think about 7:30, was to be several hours earlier but our plane was delayed. So after we rode ME & checked in at CSR we had just enough time to go eat at DTD. We stayed 6 nights & left the following Saturday. We had a later flight out, which works out great & we ate lunch that day at Epcot & had a nice day at the parks before we had to catch the bus back to the airport.

 

[MagicalMawMaw]

Count me in!!!

Hi...Glad to have you along!

 

[MagicalMawMaw]

We continued our trip around the World area & I enjoyed looking into the shops along the way. I didn't find anything to buy though.

We slowly made our way to Japan. The Japanese Candy lady was making her neat candy animals & I love to watch her. She is so so talented!

We then went & watched the show at America. After all our trips we couldn't remember if we'd ever seen it or not. Usually, we now skip all the slide shows around the World area as they aren't the most interesting to see after the first time & they make me dizzy. Found this one pretty good & it was nice to sit in a comfy seat & just rest abit too.

We skipped the Norway ride, the last time we rode it...I ended up with a wet booty on a cold day...ugh! However, I like the Mexico ride with Donald Duck so we headed that way & rode it. Is always cute & I love the inside of the Mexico area. Is just so pretty!

We spent the rest of our day taking our time around the World area till it was time to start thinking about making our way towards our ADR for supper. On the way out we stopped in a few stores & especially the Art Store!

We checked out the lines at Finding Nemo & Turtle Talk with Crush & we found Nemo was a walk on & Turtle Talk just was a few minutes wait. So we did both of these & then enjoyed looking at the aquariums.

The day had been a blast so far ...but we were ready to call it quits for the day & just relax awhile. So off we went to catch our ride to California Grill for supper.

 

[luckylady]

I'm with you on some of the country shows. Canada is one. It's a 365 and make me dizzy. I think China is another. We did try the show in France. Wow it was great and now on our not to miss. Show in America, after seeing it a few times it's a great place to chill out for a few minutes and grab a quick nap. Good day you had.

 

[MagicalMawMaw]

We'll need to put the France show on our to -do -next time list. It had been several years since we'd done any of the shows & I can't remember if we've seen it or not.

We always watch the chefs stacking chairs & wine bottles at France. That is always neat to see.