(Updated 10/18) I May Be Just a Bit Crazy - Sept 2025 TR

[Araminta18]

Hi everyone! I'm sure everyone's probably a bit sick of my trip reports, but I'm back! I was attending the Disney Data Analytics Conference at Coronado Springs, and so of course I decided to spend a few extra days touring the parks! This was an interesting solo trip for me but I had a great time - I'm excited to share it!

If this is your first time joining me on a trip report, I go SUPER extra with the photos #sorrynotsorry - I used to use imgur to host 30 photos per post but I got burned when that whole thing went weird, so now I just upload directly to disboards, but that means each post only gets 10 photos. So that's why you'll see days broken up into like 7 or 8 posts, cause ALL the photos.

The details:
who: just me!
when: Sat Sept 6th to Thurs Sept 11th (Conference was Monday morning, then all day Tuesday and Wednesday)
where: Coronado Springs

Introductions:
I'm Tiffany, I'll be your ghost host for this trip report. I'm 38 and while I'm a librarian by education, I currently do records management, since records management is where the pay is, and I gotta pay for Disney! Favorite princess is Sleeping Beauty, but I also love Mary Poppins and Beauty and the Beast and Rapunzel. Favorite rides are Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind, Expedition Everest, Tower of Terror...I feel like I should stop before I just list all of them.

I'd planned on attending this conference for a while, before we ended up having the trips to Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris, so initially I'd intended to stay longer after the conference but with the other trips and other stuff happening at work, I decided to just go down on Saturday and come back when the conference ended, so not a ton of extra park time. But I had a couple goals: see the new Starlight parade, try Geo-82 and Beak & Barrel, and then as we got close, I realized that the Haunted Mansion map pin set was going to release on the Tuesday I was there so I added doing a pin-drop to my list!

 

[Araminta18]

Table of Contents

A New Hotel - Saturday Sept 6 2025 (part 1)
Jungle Cruise and Dinner! - Saturday Sept 6 2025 (part 2)
Waiting for the Parade - Saturday Sept 6 2025 (part 3)
Starlight Parade and the Beak & Barrel - Saturday Sept 6 2025 (part 4)
Starlight Parade Round 2! - Saturday Sept 6 2025 (part 5)
Bluey and a Salad - Saturday Sept 6 2025 (part 6)

 

[Araminta18]

A New Hotel - Saturday Sept 6 2025 (part 1)​

Friday was a crazy day of finalizing things at work for while I'd be gone and then packing that night. I ended up needing to finish packing early Saturday! But I managed to get everything set and let for the airport at 10 am, getting there at about 10:40, for my 12:35 flight. Not too bad!

My flight ended up being delayed a little bit due to the incoming plane being delayed, but not too bad. Also, Trevor decided that for my birthday (it was 2 weeks after this trip) he would upgrade me to first class, a nice little splurge. It was nice! Extra room, comfy seat, and even wireless charging. Definitely not "worth it", but a nice splurge and birthday present. The flight itself was uneventful; after we landed I got my bags pretty quickly and was in my uber on the way to Coronado Springs!

It was definitely storming as we drove - we went through bands of really hard rain and then nothing and then hard rain again. But soon, we were passing under the sign!

And by 4:35 we were pulling in to Coronado Springs!

This was my first time at Coronado Springs - not gonna lie I wasn't super excited about it. I don't tend to like the super huge resorts and the theming didn't really appeal to me but since this was where the conference was, that's where I'd stay. Nice to check another resort off the list though.

I got all checked in and then headed over to my room. I was staying in the Casitas, building 3 - it's a preferred section and close to the convention center, which was nice. It did take me a little bit to find the room - the signs were not good at all! But eventually I made it. It was on the third floor, facing the lake:

Not a bad view!

The room itself was nice and big, just for me:




Not bad!

I dropped my stuff off and got ready to head over to the Magic Kingdom! I had a reservation at the Beak & Barrel at 9:10 pm, and I wanted to see the Starlight parade. I assumed it might rain a little bit more so I left my ears in the room and brought a poncho just in case. I was a little bit worried about the parade being canceled with the rain, but nothing to do but wait and see.

All ready, I just had to go find the bus stop! It was a bit confusing to find but eventually I made it - the stop was a solid 5 minute walk from my room! So far! I don't think I'd choose to stay at the resort again unless we stayed in the tower so we'd be right at the bus stop, but *shrugs*. Anyways I made it to the stop at 5:17, and the app had said the MK bus was coming at 5:23, so plenty of time. But once I made it to the stop the sign said the next MK bus was coming at 5:18, so I made it just in time. The bus came and I got a seat which was nice - my bus stop was the first one in the loop which was nice for that reason (usually able to get a seat) but then the bus does the loop. It took about 8 minutes to make the loop and head to Magic Kingdom - I would imagine if the bus stops were full it would take longer. So...pros and cons *shrugs*

Anyways, made it to the Magic Kingdom at 5:40 pm. It's so pretty to see it all decorated for Halloween!

I even saw a photographer on the sidewalk on Main Street, which is a new spot for me:

I was just so excited to be there, despite the humidity and the heat. I ducked into the Emporium and looked around a bit - they had a bunch of the Haunted Mansion merchandise I had seen online and wanted (the black bag with the white outline of the mansion, and the CM uniform spirit jersey), but I decided to live dangerously and not buy it yet (I didn't want to carry it around all night).

I stopped and talked with a Guest Relations CM at the blue umbrella about the parade maybe being canceled and she said that it does run in the rain and that she's never seen them cancel both parades, only one. So that made me feel pretty good. I was going to stop and get some cheeseburger spring rolls but when I was checking the app I saw that Jungle Cruise was posting only 20 minutes! So I decided to go for that instead.

When I got over there though, this was the line:

All the way outside the queue...they must have just re-opened from being closed and everyone had the same idea I had when they saw the short wait! I decided I didn't really have anything else to do so I decided to wait, cause why not.

 

[Araminta18]

Jungle Cruise and Dinner! - Saturday Sept 6 2025 (part 2)​

I waited for a bit and the wait time bumped to 35 minutes, but again, I figured I might as well wait, cause why not. I did join the walkup waitlist at Skipper Canteen - it said it was 30 minutes so I figured we'd see how the timings lined up.


Free kittens!

I spent a lot of the time in line playing with the little girls in line in front of me - they loved my Monsters Inc popcorn bucket, and so I kept opening the doors and they would close them. That passed a lot of the time.

At 6:26 I got on the boat - almost exactly a 30 minute wait. I actually got the "your table is ready" text right as I sat down on the boat - oh well! Hopefully they'd hold my table, but I'd have to see.

Such a great ride - our skipper was very enthusiastic and energetic. Yay!

I got off the ride and booked it over to Skipper Canteen, about 10 minutes late, but they got me checked in and seated in just a couple minutes. Yay! The menu had these great pencil drawings that I don't remember seeing before:


I love those.

I decided to just get a root beer and the Brazilian cheesy bread - wanted something light cause it was hot out.

The cheesy bread is so good! Highly recommend it. It was a great dinner.

At 7:15 i finished dinner, felt refreshed and cool, and excited to continue my Magic Kingdom night. It was still very hot outside, but the Haunted Mansion was only posting a 13 minute wait, so I decided to head over that way.

Unfortunately when I got there, it was similar to what happened at Jungle Cruise earlier - the line was much longer than I'd expect for that wait time:

It did still say 13 minutes as I actually passed under the sign-

But I heard the CM call to someone (right as we passed them) that they were about to open the extended queue and needing a bump in their wait time. Oh well!

Again though there was a toddler that was having fun playing with my popcorn bucket, so that passed the time a bit. And then we did get to go through the extended queue which I almost never get to do, so that was neat.


The grave is leaking!

 

[alohamom]

I'm sure everyone's probably a bit sick of my trip reports

NEVER! Following along for allllll the pics!

 

[DLo]

Following along. Looking forward to reading more

 

[HappyGal]

So happy to find another trip report from you!

 

[bettertheangel]

Following along! It looks like a great start to the trip!

 

[Araminta18]

NEVER! Following along for allllll the pics!

thank you for reading!!!! I'm glad you're here!

 

[Araminta18]

Following along. Looking forward to reading more

Thank you for following! I'm glad you're here!!

 

[Araminta18]

So happy to find another trip report from you!

aw, thank you! and thank you for reading!!

 

[Araminta18]

Following along! It looks like a great start to the trip!

Thank you for reading! It was definitely a good trip

 

[Araminta18]

Waiting for the Parade - Saturday Sept 6 2025 (part 3)​

I ended up waiting about 25 minutes for Haunted Mansion - not too bad!

Trying my evil face for the picture

The ride stopped for a little bit but at the perfect spot - right by the Hatbox Ghost! I had fun watching that for the couple minute stop.

When I got off, there was a photographer taking pictures so of course I took some more photos:



I did some shopping in Memento Mori and ended up buying some things. It was about 8 pm, and with the parade scheduled for 8:30, I figured I'd look in the Christmas shop and the pin shop and maaaaaaybe get beignets and just kind of see what I could see of the first parade but plan to get a good spot for the 11:30 parade. I was a bit torn cause what if it rained and I missed the last parade? So many decisions!

Anyways, I got a Black Cauldron ornament from the Christmas shop and was going to the pin shop when they made an announcement that Main Street was completely full so I was like wow, maybe I should go ahead and get a spot here in Frontierland. I saw that there was a line of tape in front of the DVC booth, but no rope, so I asked the CM there if I could stand there and he said yes - well, he made it sound like he would specially allow it and then got talking to me and talked me into a DVC sales pitch at Disney Springs. He made it sound like I'd just get let into the lounge at DVC but after talking for a bit it was clear it was the sales pitch. Oh well! But at least I did get the spot at the rope there in Frontierland:



I kept seeing lightning in the distance, behind the Tangled bathrooms, but I was hoping it was far away, cause I bet the parade would go in rain but not in lightning. At 8:30, they announced that the parade would run in 10 minutes - not too bad of a delay. They even had photographers coming by with parade signs, so you know me, I got those too.

 

[Nicnicnic.nic]

Following

 

[Araminta18]

Starlight Parade and the Beak & Barrel - Saturday Sept 6 2025 (part 4)
​

While we were waiting for the parade to get to us, they had spotlights shining on the castle from the Liberty Square area and they were sparkling! Not sure if it was just rain or what, but it was cool looking. Finally at 8:45 I could hear the parade music, and they just dimmed the lights. Yay!

I had purposefully avoided all spoilers so I was quite excited to see it. It was really neat! Nighttime parades are gorgeous, and I just loved all the throwbacks to the Main Street Electrical parade. I think my favorite float was the Peter Pan float, but I also loved the princess float:

Really cool! I just wish it were longer. But it ended just in time for me to make my way over to my 9:10 Beak & Barrel reservation.

I made it over there and then ended up waiting like 5 min to get seated. I ended up getting seated in the Captain's Quarters - not the main room with the bar - and worse, at a standing spot! I hate the standing spots at Oga's and didn't realize they were doing that here at Beak & Barrel too. It actually really put a damper on my mood - there were lots of seats around both at tables and stools for the standing spots, so after letting my tiredness make me mad for a bit, I finally asked a CM if I could move over one of the stools from one of the empty spots and she said yes, thankfully. Having a stool made it much better - I really don't understand why Disney has any of the standing spots? Why not just put stools at all of them? It can't make that much of a difference space-wise, and it's SO irritating to not be able to sit down.

ANYWAYS! The Captain's Quarters is the big room that doesn't have the bar, and the bar is where most of the effects happen. There's still some cool theming int he room though.


My particular spot was next to a "window" into the room with the bar, but the window had like a 3 inch gap all around that let me see right into the bar area:


So I could see the effects at the bar and the parrot animatronic through there, which was nice.

As far as food, I got the Cook’s Corn Griddle Cakes with Chipotle-braised Chicken: Warm Corn Cakes stuffed with Melted Cheese, Lime Sour Cream, Chili Peppers, and Cotija. To drink I got Treasure Trove: A mysterious Ube, Lemon, and Coconut Concoction served with a Vanilla Cake Plank, Chocolate Cannonball, and Golden Caramel Popcorn

I thought the treats in the Treasure Trove would come in the drink but it makes more sense to have them come on the side. They weren't actually very good? The cake pop was dry and the popcorn was a bit stale, though the brownie was pretty good. The drink itself was weird - ube, lemon and coconut is not my favorite flavor combination.

The corn cakes however were really good! I liked these a lot. They were a bit spicy but mostly I was able to avoid the peppers so not bad at all. I absolutely would get these again. I also really liked the mugs they served drinks in - too bad they don't sell them!

I also asked for water but the CM seemed a bit distracted - I didn't get water til about halfway through. Also I know this one is a hard one to book but there were a good amount of empty seats that stayed empty the whole time I was there so *shrugs*

Every couple of minutes there'd be some effect that would go off - there's a parrot animatronic that comes out above the bar and talks a bit. I filmed several of them, but I feel like you'd have a much better view in the other room but still cool to see.

After I finished eating, I spent a couple minutes looking around at all the theming:

 

[Paulaparm]

Yay! So happy to see another trip report from you!

 

[Araminta18]

Starlight Parade Round 2! - Saturday Sept 6 2025 (part 5)​

The theming is pretty cool, not gonna lie:

Stacks of coins!



Wouldn't it be cool to be seated in the brig?


Swim School! LOL


It's an anchor on the ceiling!


Kind of a clean foot, actually.


Rules of the Tavern!

Overall, I think I hit a wall as I entered and saw that I was standing, even though I got a stool. The food was good, the drink was not. The theming is awesome but sitting in the Captain's Quarters made me feel like I missed a lot of it. I'd like to come back with Trevor and get a seat in the main room, but overall my experience was middling.

Anyways! I left a little bit after 10, and my plan was to do some shopping and head out, but as I passed Pirates, it said it was only 5 minutes!

But despite only 5 minutes on the sign, that's a pretty backed up line and it wasn't moving, so I decided to bail and go back to my original shopping plan. I looked around the pin shop and was looking in Main Street when I noticed that there were a lot of people sitting on the curb at Main Street, and realized that the parade was at 10:30, not 11:30 like I originally thought. So I decided hey why not, I'll watch the parade from here.

The parade started on time and I realized that the earlier parade was missing dancers from between the floats, I assume for the rain. So it was neat to see the parade again with those dancers.

Flynn handing Rapunzel the lantern!

With the parade over, I headed to the bus stops. There was a pretty good line for Coronado Springs so I missed the first bus but I made it on the second and got a seat. I realized I was still hungry so I placed a mobile order for a salad from the Three Bridges Bar & Grill.

 

[Araminta18]

Bluey and a Salad - Saturday Sept 6 2025 (part 6)​

I made it back to the hotel at 11:35 and made my way to the lake to get my food.

so pretty! I should have pressed the "i'm here" button sooner though - it took about 10 minutes after I got there for my food to be ready. Which felt like a long time but I was hoping that meant the food would be fresh.

I made it back to my room to eat and watch Bluey! I dunno if any of you are fans of Bluey but Trevor and I love it - it's funny and uplifting and just a nice brain break.

Bonus points if anyone can guess the episode

As for food, I got the Villa Del Lago Chicken Berry Salad: Grilled Chicken, Mixed Greens, Citrus Segments, Seasonal Berries, Chili-Lime-dusted Cucumbers, Cotija Cheese, Orange Honey Mustard Vinaigrette.

It was really good! Highly recommend - everything was fresh and tasted delicious. It was fantastic. Delish!

Overall, a great day. I managed to see the Starlight parade twice, and get the merch I wanted, and try Beak & Barrel even if my experience was middling. Made me excited for my day tomorrow!

Fun with Metrics:
Steps walked: 11404 steps (4.4 miles)
Ride count: 2 (Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion)
Annual Pass Savings: $41.60 (merch and 10% off at Skipper Canteen)

 

[Araminta18]

Following

Yay! Welcome!! I'm glad you're here!

 

[Araminta18]

Yay! So happy to see another trip report from you!

aw, thank you for reading! i'm glad you're here!