Well, after five months of working on this report, we have finally reached the end of our Unconventional June trip. To wrap up this portion of the report, heres a look back at the trip and some of the information I thought would be most helpful to anyone planning a trip. For those of you who have been reading the whole trip report, I hope that you enjoy reading this look back at the trip as I did writing it. For those who dont want to read a long trip report and just want some quick takes on the weather, crowds, dining and more, hopefully this will be helpful for you.
Weather:
The weather was pretty typical for summer. It was mostly sunny and warm with a few hours of thunderstorms every day. It was almost unbearably hot the morning of the first day, but thankfully those afternoon storms helped cool things down to a more reasonable temperature for the rest of the trip. Unfortunately, that same rain did scuttle a few of our plans including seeing the Main Street Electrical Parade and the Summer Nightastic Fireworks, but all in all the weather was not too bad as long as you stayed hydrated, took advantage of indoor, air-conditioned attractions and restaurants and have a poncho on hand.
Crowds and Wait Times:
This was my first time going to Walt Disney World in June, and I was expecting the huge crowds that I have come to expect from July or early August, but the crowds really werent too bad. The parks were very manageable, and I was shocked on how many times we had a Disney bus all to ourselves (something I cant ever remember happening before).
Wait times were very reasonable and not too many ever exceeded 45 minute. For those that did (
Space Mountain,
Peter Pans Flight,
Toy Story Mania,
Rock n Roller Coaster), getting there at rope drop and utilizing Fastpass or the Single Riders Line really helped. The longest wait at either Magic Kingdom or Hollywood Studios turned out to be Buzzs last afternoon ride on Toy Story Mania which was about 45 minutes. After that, the next longest lines we waited through were only around 20 or 30 minutes-
The Great Movie Ride, the
Astro Orbiter and a few of the character meet-and-greets (
The Judge's Tent in Toontown and the
Princess and the Frog Meet-and-Greet in Liberty Square). Everything else was less than 20 minutes including
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad which was practically a walk-on in the middle of the afternoon and
Tower of Terror which had waits of 5 - 10 minutes pretty much all day.
Coronado Springs Resort:
We were all impressed with the Coronado. It was really a beautiful resort, and all of the Cast Members that we encountered were friendly and helpful. Id seen some reviews where people complained it always full of rowdy conventioneers and how it was not as family friendly as other Disney resorts, but I hadnt seen that on any of my past trips here, and I certainly didnt see it this time either. Perhaps it really depends on what kind of convention is going on.
If anything, the large amount of conventioneers staying at the resort for seminars instead of going to the parks might have been one of the reasons the buses always seemed to range from being half-full to empty. I will say that it does at times feel like just a nice, Southwest-inspired convention hotel instead of a fully-themed immersive Disney resort (the lounge areas and guestrooms come to mind), but even those areas are still very pleasant and well decorated, and there are many more areas that I thought really were fantastically themed in the best Disney tradition.
Our room was located in the
Ranchos section which was pretty far in the back of the resort. It was a bit of a walk to the lobby and restaurants, but was fine for us. We also had a bus stop right in front of our building which was very convenient. The Coronado is a fairly sprawling resort, so if you dont like having to walk very far to get from the lobby to your room, you might want to either request a room in one of the closer buildings in the Casitas or Cabanas or make use of the internal bus system. If you dont mind the walk, the area around the Ranchos is really beautiful and close to both the Dig Site Pool and a quiet pool (neither of which we made it to on this trip, but maybe next time we will).
Attraction Highlights:
At the Magic Kingdom, this was Buzz and my first time getting to see the (now-defunct)
Honorary Volunteer Cavalcade with the Muppets. We both thought that it was a lot of fun, and it was great to see Kermit and Piggy in true Muppet form included. Hopefully, theyll reappear somewhere else in the parks sometime soon. This was also our first time getting to ride
Space Mountain after its year-long refurbishment. The queue really does look great now, but Im still not a big fan of the ride itself. Id love to experience it again sometime though now that theyve added some music to it though. Also vaguely new for us was the
Prince Charming Regal Carousel which had been changed in name only since we went last. Whether you like the new name or not (and, for the record, Im still undecided), it really changes nothing about the ride itself.
Since it was Goofys first time at Disneys Hollywood Studios, everything was new to him. Being the thrill-seeker,
Rock n Roller Coaster was undoubtedly his favorite attraction of the day, but he said he really enjoyed
MuppetVision 3D, the
Tower of Terror and
The Great Movie Ride as well.
Along with these new experiences, Buzz and I got to revisit a number of old favorites and a few attractions that we hadnt been on in years- the
Magic Carpets of Aladdin at Magic Kingdom and the
Backlot Tour at Disneys Hollywood Studios. Both were fun little diversions that we enjoyed revisiting, but I dont see either as attractions that well come back to again and again. Buzz also went on the
Atstro Orbiter for the first time in a number of years and said that the views were great, but he thought that even a 20 minutes wait was pretty tedious.
Dining:
My only full-service meal of the trip was dinner at
Planet Hollywood. I came in with pretty low expectations, but I actually really enjoyed my meal there. The food we had was pretty comparable to what you might find at an Applebees of Chilis but with inflated prices. However, when you consider that the price of your meal also allows you to explore whats essentially a museum of some really interesting Hollywood memorabilia, spending an extra few bucks on the meal may not feel so bad. If youre looking for something exotic or gourmet, this isnt the place for you, but if you want a burger or cheesesteak sandwich and a fun night of checking out all the movie props and costumes, Id recommend it.
Buzz and I tried a few counter service restaurants this time around that we hadnt before. My favorite was
Caseys Corner at the Magic Kingdom. The atmosphere was charming and the corn dog nuggets were really tasty. I only wish it had more indoor seating. Also at the Magic Kingdom, we tried
Cosmic Rays Starlight Café. The food we had was fairly typical Disney food court fare. I got the grilled chicken sandwich and enjoyed it. We also had fun watching Sonny Eclipse perform as we ate. At the Coronado, we tried
Café Rix, a small counter service restaurant that was new since the last time that Buzz and I had stayed at the Coronado. The menu was sandwiches and pizza and it was quick and convenient and a nice alternative to the Coronados Pepper Market. Not new to any of us (besides Goofy, of course) was
Pizza Planet at Disneys Hollywood Studios. Its not gourmet, but its some of the better fast food pizza in the Disney parks and the atmosphere is fun.
While not necessarily a meal, I cant go through talking about all of my dining experiences without mentioning my first Dole Whip Float from Adventurelands
Aloha Isle. I will say that if I ever go with getting the float again instead of just the regular Dole Whip, I think Ill go with the vanilla whip. I love pineapple, but the pineapple whip and pineapple juice was
almost too much for me.
Characters:
This was really a great trip for character meet-and-greets. I thought that both parks had a good amount of characters out (over two days, I managed to get photos of 27 different characters and probably passed by just as many) and a great assortment of different characters including some that were new and others that I typically dont see in the parks very often.
New to me on this trip were
Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen at their gazebo in Liberty Square,
Lotso in his Sunnyside-inspired location at the Magic of Disney Animation,
Pirate Goofy outside the Pirates of the Caribbean and
Handy Manny and a couple of the
Little Einsteins also at the Magic of Disney Animation. Other characters that were making appearances that I would consider as more usual to find include
Piglet at the Hat in Disneys Hollywood Studios,
Mr. Penguin and Bert joining Mary Poppins in Fantasyland and
Prince Eric wih Ariel (in human form instead of mermaid) in Adventureland. Unfortunately, now that summer is over, Ive heard that Mr. Penguin, Bert and Prince Eric arent coming out as much (if at all), but typically a few extra characters like them do pop up at the Magic Kingdom from about May through September, so they or some other characters may be back out come May. All the characters were a lot of fun to meet and photograph, but I think my favorites interactions of the trip were with the Mary Poppins crew in Fantasyland who really were fantastic. Along with many of the characters listed above,
Cinderellas Stepfamily in Fantasyland and
Mr. Incredible and Frozone at the Animation building were also very memorable.
Summer Nightastic:
Even though the Elelectrical Parade and Nightastic fireworks got rained during our trip, we did still manage to catch a few of the special Summer Nightastic additions to the parks. The biggest was probably the special additions and drop sequence to the
Tower of Terror. It had some pretty cool effects that I wouldnt mind seeing incorporated into the ride permanently, but I really wasnt that impressed with the star field replacing whats usually in the 5th dimension room. The only other Nightastic event we got to see was
Club 626 Dance Party in Tomorrowland. It was pretty cute, and it was neat getting to see all the characters in their Tomorrowland gear. Seems like a lot of fun for kids, but honestly, everyone seemed to get a kick out of watching Goofy, Stitch and friends try to one-up each other on the dance floor. As for the Electrical Parade, Im still hoping that it stays at the Magic Kingdom long enough to where well be able to have another chance to see it again.
Well, I think that pretty much wraps things up. Hope you enjoyed the report. It looks like there will be more to report in the future. Buzz and are planning on heading back to Disney sometime in the next few weeks for a day trip to Disneys Animal Kingdom, and were still trying to see if we can manage a family vacation in December. Ive also got a mini-Trip Report for Buzz and my day at Universal Studios coming up, so there will hopefully be plenty of trips to report even though this trip is completed. Ill have more on those soon.
all your pictures! 
