Fun, food and a possible concussion-June 27-July 3

[Kristi391]

Hello all!

I love reading other people's trip reports but I am terrible about completing them, so I am going to give it another try.

First off, an introduction. I am Kristi. Full time special ed teacher, part time toys r us store room employee, high school hockey time keeper/scorer and baby-sitter of the best nephew and niece in the entire world. This is me with my nephew, Wes, at Disney on Ice back in January.



Trip background:

I had been wanting to take Wes back (we all went in October 2015 and that trip was less than magical) but my sister-in-law said no, he wasn't allowed to go back until his sister was older. So, I started planning a trip for just me with hopes that she would change her mind or my youngest brother would want to go with me. If not, a solo trip would be great too!

During one of our snow days this past winter, I booked Port Orleans French Quarter for June 26-July 2 because my sister-in-law would be on vacation that week and it wouldn't interfere with my baby-sitting duties for the kids. I also thought my brother would be able to get that week off from work easier than the week that included July 4th if he decided to come.

Winter turned to Spring and discounts came out at the end of March. I looked into how much I could save and changed my reservation to Coronado to save about $400 but wasn't overly excited about it but liked the extra money. Then that same day I switched again to Riverside, which I was much more excited about. This saved me about $300 and I liked the resort much better.

Throughout the spring, my brother was on the fence about going. He took the time off but then decided that he wan't up for it. I was disappointed because he is a lot of fun to travel with. My next thought was to invite my cousin, Deb, and her daughter, Jessica. Deb loves Disney more than just about anyone I know and Jess did the college program in 2014 and 2015. Jess was all in but Deb couldn't commit because he son had a lot of soccer stuff going on in June. Finally she told us it just wasn't in the cards this year. Jessica and I were excited and had lots of lunches, texts and phone calls to keep up with planning.

Up next: Adding people and some resort modifications...

 

[Kristi391]

So, Jess and I were super excited about our vacation. Then at the end of April Jess called me with a question. Her friend/work friend, Meghan, wanted to go down as well and Jess asked me if I would mind adding her to the reservation. I said sure. Then at the end of May my brother Derek started asking questions about our plans. He said he was reconsidering, he just needed to see if he hit goal at work for the month of May. I added him to the reservation because he always hits his goals at work and he was close to it when he said he wanted to go. So, the more I thought about 4 adults in 1 room, the more we needed another room. Another room at POR was too expensive, so I called Jess to see if she and Meghan would mind staying at All Star Movies. They both agreed and we were all set. And then we added another day, so we were staying until Sunday. So excited! It was coming up so quickly. I just needed to get through the last few days of school and things would be great.

Finally the day is here!

Travel day:

Our flight was leaving at 6:30 am so I got to Derek's at 4:30, which he thought was much too early (he only lives about 15 minutes from our local airport). It was fairly chilly in NH, so he was wearing sweats. I told him he was nuts! We met Jess and Meghan at the gate and arrived at MCO on time and got to Magical Express with little difficulty. Derek kept forgetting what resort we were staying at and started to get off at French Quarter. We got to Riverside and went to check in. Our room wasn't ready and they couldn't give us an upper floor like I had requested but no big deal. They said we would get a text within a few hours. It was around 11 so we went to the food court and got lunch and then explored the resort. Then we went to relax in the lounge.





Finally around 3:30 we were getting hot and wanted to shower before going to dinner at Swan so I went to the front desk to inquire about the room as we had not yet gotten a text. I spoke with someone who told me, "Yeah, the room was ready at 1:30, you should have gotten a text." That was kind of annoying but at least we could go to our room.







I really liked the resort and our room (8551) location was fantastic. I had booked a standard view so I thought we'd be looking at a parking lot, but we were kind of tucked away and very close to one of the quiet pools. One complaint (other than the lack of a room ready text) was housekeeping wasn't great. We found a condom wrapper under one of the beds and the sinks weren't cleaned each day.

Up next: Dinner at Garden Grove and Jellyrolls!

 

[Kristi391]

We had a 6:15 dinner reservation at Garden Grove. Derek and I left around 4:45 to catch a bus to Studios and then walk over to Swan. This would have been great except for the downpour that started just as we got off the bus. We were completely drenched by the time we got to the restaurant. Jess and Meghan had also gotten caught in the rain while they were at Animal Kingdom so they ran back to their resort and were a little late meeting up with us. When Jessica sat down she told me that she had fallen on the way in and hit her head. She said she had a bump but was probably ok, so we stayed to eat. The buffet was small, but the food was really good and they gave AAA discounts, so that was cool. Pluto and Goofy came around for pictures, so that was cute.



Meghan and Jess

Towards the end of dinner Jess started feeling not so great and had to leave the table due to feeling nauseated. This is when I became more concerned about a concussion. She said she was going to go back to the resort and not go to Jellyrolls. Meghan said she was going to go with her to make sure she was ok. She then decided she wanted some fresh air so we went for a walk around the boardwalk and Yacht and Beach Club.




After a bit, Jess said she was feeling better and wanted to go to Jellyrolls, so off we went. It was $12 to get in and they don't take Disney gift cards, but that was fine. There weren't many people there yet so we easily got a table. We ordered some drinks and listened to the two musicians. They were great! Lots of interaction with the small crowd and were really entertaining. They passed out free shots and played a few songs. The place started to fill up a bit more. Around this time Jess started to feel ill again (the banging of the tambourines was what did her in) so she and Meghan left. Derek and I stayed and had a ton of fun. Around 10:30 Jess texted me saying that Meghan was also sick and they think they picked up a bug at the day care they both work at. This made me happy that Jess probably didn't have a concussion. Derek and I stayed until around 11:30 and had a ton of fun.



Next up: Hollywood Studios.

 

[DVC Darcy]

Glad no one is concussed! *knock on wood*
Seems like you guys had a great time

 

[Kristi391]

Glad no one is concussed! *knock on wood*
Seems like you guys had a great time

Yeah, we lucked out that it was just a stomach bug and a quick one at that. We had a great time!