As the great majority of you can attest to, if you have been married, (or I even suppose just living together), for a long enough period of time eventually you have "The Fight". See, some of you are groaning and nodding your head already because you know immediately of which fight I speak. "The Fight" that is about everything and nothing and has very little to do with whatever catalyst sparked the flame, and more about every single issue you have ever had as a couple but not bothered to bring up over the years. Not just any arguement, "The Fight". It could start as something as simple as, ohhhhh let's say, not picking your shoes up off of the floor, but ends up blowing up into a rage of how 10 years ago you said you'd be home at 5 and didn't get home until 10, and how you never say "bless you" after someone sneezes. You know what I'm talking about. (Well, some of you do anyway.)
Mr. Hyde and I had that fight. At Epcot. In the middle of Via Napoli.
But, one again I am getting way ahead of myself. Let me back up about 12 hours to Sunday morning.
We had gone to bed immediately after getting back to Shades. Well, my daughter and I did anyway, we wanted to get an early start and hit rope drop at the MK. Before going to bed however...
Dr. Jekyll (Remember he had food in his belly now, so Mr. Hyde was kept at bay for a bit.) : So what is the plan for tomorrow?
Me: We would like to get up and go to the Magic Kingdom in the morning before we have to check out of here and go to the Coronado Springs.
Dr. Jekyll: *crickets* *dramatic pause* What time are you looking at there?
Me: We usually get up around 7, we want to be there by 9.
Dr. Jekyll: *crickets*
Me: Ok, how about you sleep in, and Kass and I will go over there alone then come back and meet you at checkout time.
Dr. Jekyll liked this idea.
*A side note here about Shades of Green. I love to hate that hotel. I love the rooms, they are larger than even the rooms at the Poly, they aren't hideously ugly like they look in some pictures, and we had a large flat panel tv and a totally closed off separate bathroom area. It was definately a deluxe room by Disney standards. I wish I would have gotten pictures, we were on the 3rd floor with a view of the Magnolia pool, the one shaped like a Mickey head. If I'm being honest, the room was way bigger and nicer than my room at the Coronado Springs. I have 2 issues with Shades of Green, however. #1: We are die hard deluxe dining plan people, and you can't get a DP at Shades. #2: We spend A LOT of time at the pool at WDW, several hours a day in the afternoons, and the pools at Shades are incredibly lackluster. No pool activites, really small, no slides, none of the Disney extra fun stuff. As nice as that room was, and as nice as it is to have a real, actual Starbucks stand near the lobby, those two points are kind of deal breakers for me. Dr. Jekyll really enjoyed it there, however. At Aaron's rank we paid $123 for our night there, tax free. With our military discount at the CSR we paid $103/night there, making the moderate less expensive.*
Ok, back to the good stuff. Well, the juicy stuff anyway.
Dr. Jekyll woke up around the same time as Kassidy and I, but still didn't want to go to the MK. We were all fine with that. I went downstairs to get us coffee and cinnamon rolls, Dr. Jekyll went and got our tickets at the ticket counter, kisses and hugs were had, and the DD and I were off to the TTC to activate our tickets.
It was hot. HOT. Already that early it was hot. I remember it being the same last year at this time, but it as still a shock to our Seattlite systems. We walked over to the TTC across the street, probably about a 15 minute walk, and then took the ferry over to the MK. Here is what I don't get about people. There was a MASSIVE line at the monorail. MASSIVE, as in, the line went all the way down the ramp and almost back to the ticket booths. And if you did get into a monorail car, you would have been packed in there like a sardine. Not cool with me. So, we just kept going left on hopped right on the ferry. I couldn't understand why more people just didn't take the ferry rather than stand in that gawd awful line, but whatever trips their trigger.
We didn't have a whole lot of time, since we had to head back over to meet Dr. Jekyll at checkout time. I am looking now and I didn't get any pictures that morning at all, I think we were too rushed and excited. We did Frontierland, rode SM and BTTMR, went on the Jungle Cruise, (which I will NEVER stand in line for without a Fastpass, thank you very much. WORST line in the MK.), grabbed a Dole Whip, then hightailed it to the monorail to the Poly so we could walk across to Shades.
Oh, I forgot to mention that by now it was 11:15 and checkout was a 11. Which meant Mr. Hyde, and I was sure it would be Mr. Hyde now, was sitting outside in the heat with our luggage waiting on us.
We were dead. We were so dead. I had that panicky pit in my stomach as we literally ran in our flip flops up that long **** driveway to the hotel.
Imagine my surprise when we were greeted with a smile and hugs.
HUH???
Apparently Dr. Jekyll had struck up a conversation with a WWII veteran and they were gabbing like school girls, so he didn't mind that we were running behind. Thank you Shades of Green for letting the veteran population stay there! Not only is it awesome for them, but you saved my hyde!!! Ha ha, literally. Get it? Mr. Hyde....Yeah, bad joke. Anyhooooo....
We cabbed it over to the Coronado Springs. I was immediately impressed with the location. I had thought it was kind of way out there by the AK, but in truth it's right off of World Drive, if you were driving your own car it would be really simple to commute anywhere on property with no confusion. We were met immediately by a smiling cast member and directed to the check in desk where we found.......wait for it.....a MASSIVE line.
Mr. Hyde began his takeover at that point. The force is strong in him. He hung around for the rest of the day.
I waited in line while Mr. Hyde and my daughter sat and waited. I think it took me maybe 15 minutes in line which is way longer than I have ever had to wait before for check in. The online check in line was just as bad, btw. It didn't save those people time.
I got to the counter, the whole time chanting in my head, "Not Ranchos, not Ranchos, not Ranchos", and were put in.....Ranchos 6b.
The hotel was full, it was the best they could do. I just wanted to be as close to the main pool as possible, I guess it was the best they could do. I refused to let it get me down, I plastered a smile on my face, because at least the room was ready right then.
The thing about the Ranchos section at the CSR, while the area is pretty and really does look like you are in Mexico, it's as far as you can possibly get from the main building. For the majority of your stay, if you don't intend to go up there much this is actual a non-issue, but hauling your own luggage what feels like a half mile in the intense heat, pardon my French, SUCKS. I tried my best to stay positive, while Mr. Hyde grumbled the entire way. It didn't help that the buildings are not at all clearly marked. I figured out when we had at least found the Ranchos section by the architecture, but it was difficult to find building 6b, and it was even more difficult to find our actual room. By the time we got there, I knew Mr. Hyde was in full effect and wouldn't be leaving anytime soon. But, I tried my best.
Me: Hey! Let's go swimming and hit the pool bar!
Everyone loves a pool bar, right? RIGHT??? (Imagine me saying this with the widest, most forced plastered on smile you can possibly have.) I prayed for patience and fun and we walked over to the pool.
The main pool at CSR is amazing. A-MA-ZING. If we chose to stay here again, it would be solely for the pool. Other than maybe Stormalong Bay, it's the best pool on property. It's huge, it's beautiful, the slide is a lot of fun, and the pool bar serves a full menu and you can get your mugs refilled there. All huge plusses, especially if you are stuck back in the Ranchos like we were and didn't want to trek all the way back up to El Centro to eat. They also do the campfire at sunset and show movies by the pool, (or in the cooler months by the adjacent playground).
I disagree with people who say they don't feel the Disney "Magic" at CSR. In fact, I think it was the best choice for our situation. The Disney magic is absolutely there, it just isn't all up in your face. It does have a little more of an adultish feel, while still being kid friendly. If you have a non-Disneyphile spouse, the CSR is a great compromise. It's as much Disney as you want, if you seek it out. If you want to shut the Disney out and just have "adult" time, you can do that too.
So, there we were. At the pool. Chilling, relaxing, splashing around. Everything was good, right? You would think so, but something was off. I could feel it. Nothing had happened, there wasn't any "incident", you could just feel the tension rolling off Mr. Hyde in waves. I tried to ignore it and kept as chipper as I could. Kassidy and I hopped in the pool immediately and had a blast. The pool games started at 1pm, and I think she played every single one. In fact, we won Disney Trivia and Kass got a large stuffed snake for doing so. We were rolling in the magic.
Mr. Hyde, however, didn't move from his lounge chair and spent the afternoon glaring and giving me grunts and one word answers.
Cue the
Wait, I know what will help this situation, I thought to myself.
DON DON DA DON!! BEER TO THE RESCUE! (I need a superhero smiley with a cape right here)
I went and bought him two Blue Moons from Siestas, and bought myself something called a Tropical Storm that was blue and frou frou and perfect for the moment. I had visions of us lounging next to one another poolside with drinks in hand, smiling lovingly as our daughter frolicked in the pool and musing about how nice it is to be here.
In reality, I did get a smile and a thank you for the beers, which was a HUGE improvement from what I had been getting. But rather than sit together happily it was more like we swatted the swarms of lovebugs away and constantly wiped sweat out of our eyes and my daughter constantly bugged us about which one of us was going in the pool with her, NOW. Like she was actually tugging on my arm.
Come on Sweetie, Mommy needs a drink.
After the beers were downed, the tension returned. Thick. It was probably an omen that the clouds had been gathering all afternoon and it now looked like rain was imminent. Around 5 we left the pool to go and shower and head to Epcot for our fated dinner reservations at Via Napoli...
Casey, I am In! I have to go back and read your first day post but after reading your post #1 I just know this is going to be a great TR. Why?
great writing!
Thanks for reading!So far (I hope I am not jinxing myself), our trips have been pretty good with only small bits of Dr. Hyde behavior. It might help that I am the Disney nut in our family and DW and our adult children know better than to spoil it for me!
cranky DH! 
