If any of you happened to read any of my other posts you might recall I was going to go solo to Disney but decided it would be cooler to take my friends 10yr old daughter, Kayla, for her first trip. I don't think she would have been able to go to disney unless I took her there.
We just got back yesterday! It was a great trip! And I'm going to attempt to recap all of our vacation for all of you read.
PRETRIP:
Our flight out of Chicago, Midway aiport was at 7am, so Kayla spent the night at my place the night before. Neither one of us could sleep a wink, we were so excited. Bags were packed and ready to go.
Up at the crack of dawn on Friday, 5am, and headed for the airport. A friend dropped us off.
This is Kayla's first airplane ride. She was excited and looking forward to it. Check in and security was a breeze. We had some breakfast and watched the planes out the window. Played cards for a little while. Finally the plane was ready to be boarded. We flew southwest and had "A" boarding passes because we were so early, so that was great. I let Kayla choose a seat by the window. Unfortunately we sat behind a rambunctious young child, who dropped crackers everywhere and was bouncing and talking loud.
Take off was great, Kayla got a kick looking out the window at the cars getting smaller and smaller. Once we were on our way we did some word finds. The young child in front of us puked.
so it smelled gross for a little while. Some other infant on the plane was screetching at levels that would shatter glass. 
Finally we arrive in orlando! First thing we did was go to restroom to change into shorts. (it was like 24 degrees in chicago when we left) It felt so good to be in shorts. Kayla and I got a front seat on the tram that takes us to our luggage. Then, after claiming luggage we waited for our MEARS shuttle, which took about a half hour. We were getting antsy.
We got to the Coranado Springs resort around one or two, and proceeded to check in. The line took a little bit. Ok, Now I have a bunch to say about the check-in service we received at CSR. The girl that helped us completely confused me with the key/ticket explanation. I told her I wanted both room keys to actually be keys, and I was initially going to just get single day tickets because we were only going to have 2 full days to hit the parks. She said for $20 more I can get ULTIMATE park hopper tix. Hey, I was all over that for only $20 more. She said we can use it for our whole length of stay. So, I was like cool! Alright, we have our hotel swipe card that doubles as our tickets, we have ultimate hoppers, we are good to go. I asked for a transportation map around disney but she didn't give it to me and I forgot to ask again. (Later you will hear more on how she totally screwed our plans up- well, it wasn't the end of the world but it was very inconvenient.)
We rode in a golf cart to our room. This place is huge! you have to walk far to get anywhere. The room was nice, the bathroom could of been cleaner. There were some tiny dead bugs on the toilet seat- that kinda freaked Kayla out.
At this point it was nearing 3pm so we threw on our suits and went to the DIG site (the main pool area). We were starving so we ate some cheeseburgers at the concession stand there by the pool. Kayla was estatic about the water slide, heck I was too. We did that and swam for a little while and discussed what we should do next. We thought about trying to go to the water park but I knew they closed at 5 so that would be cutting it close. We agreed it would be fun to go to downtown disney and shop at the market place. I really wanted to show her the Lego statues. So after a swim we changed and grabbed a bus to downtown. We spent a lot of time in Rainforest cafe looking at the fish and trying to decide what to buy. It was fun. By the time we made it to planet holliwood we were hungry so we had ate some of the snacks we brought with us. It was just getting to be dark out. We agreed it would be neat to try disneyquest since we were right there and had the ultimate hoppers. We found out our tickets didn't let us in. The tix attendant said they only work for our 2 main days-sat and sun. OH! well, thats not what the girl at the hotel told us. OK, we dealt with it, kayla wasn't devistated or anything. We were glad that we didn't try to go to the water park and waste time getting there and find out it wouldn't work. We were getting tired so we went back to the CS and had dinner. Kayla really wanted pizza for dinner. Luckly Pepper Market had that for the kids meal. I was not too thrilled with the choices, proportions, and prices for adults. I choose the pasta and marinara. I couldn't believe how spicy the sauce was! My mouth was on fire, but I was hungry and wasn't going to waste my money. I ate it anyway. We forgot our refillable mug, so I drank water. The line to get pay took forever, with only 2 registers open, and many people. we walked back to our room, unpacked and got settled in our room, and went back to the dig site to swim and sit in jaccuzzi. Got to bed around 10pm. Then I had a surprise for Kayla.
(And for me too actually). My good friend-(my exboyfriend, whom I am still good friends with, and kayla loves him too)(He and I always wanted to take her to disney together) he made arrangements to be there and share in the fun, I was expecting him around 11:30 that night. I waited until then to tell her. she was really excited about that. She fell sound asleep, and he arrived as expected, we chatted a bit and finally went to bed around midnight. During the night I was like a cat clinging to the ceiling freaking out because Kayla grinds her teeth ALL night long! ACK what a horrible sound! to be continued with day two.....
