Ok feeling better and thought I would type in my fun week now that I'm not having stomach bug issues or exhaustion from the head cold.
Oh before I forget Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
Hope if you went shopping today (online or in stores) you got lots accomplished!
Ok first day when we arrived it was raining. We were sitting in the front seat of the Magic Express bus so I tried to take a picture of the "Welcome to Disney World" and all you can see is the rainy smudge of the words. LOL
But by the time we checked in, the rain pretty much stopped and the sun was out.
Our room was ready but my friend's wasn't so we had them drop their luggage off at our room and DH and I went to get our rental while they went on the bus to Epcot. We met them there and went over to play with the dancing water. We had some nice giggles. We missed our Soarin FP+ for that day but caught Journey to imagination and Test track.
We had dinner at LeCellier and the waiter (Tony) was very nice and fun to talk to. He brought us champagne and our desserts had the Happy Anniversary chocolate on it. Nice start to our vacation.
Opinion on food: it was ok. Atmosphere was nice and waiter was nice but DH and I agree that the steaks we got were nothing any more special than the steak house at home. Glad we went but not worried about not getting ADR next time.
Day 2 we took the car to the Shrine for Mass and went shopping for water bottles and a few other things before coming back to return our car. As we had planning to use Disney transportation the rest of the vacation.
Day 3 was a Magic Kingdom day and we did some walk on kind of rides and then saw the Castle lighting before we had dinner at Crystal Palace. We had a nice Waiter and fully loved our buffet and taking pictures with the characters. Because it was our anniversary they gave us a nice table near the window with a pretty view of the Castle.
Opinion of the food: Amazing!!! We will do this place again.
When done eating we walked right out of the park because it was a
MVMCP night and we didn't have tickets. We went to Extra magic hours and Hollywood Studios and enjoyed Osbourne lights and having our pictures taken with the Disney photographers.
Day 4 we had Lunch with an Imagineer at Brown Derby. My husband loved this a lot. The gentleman was a Producer for various projects and very nice to talk with. The other 8 people in our party seemed very knowledgable of the whole history of Disney and asked a lot of great questions. We enjoyed the company.
The food was very good. And once again we were brought Champagne to celebrate our anniversary. That was a bit embarrassing as we were with 4 other couples and singled out. The rest of the day the weather was less humid and we stayed at HS until Fantasmic was lining up. We decided to skip it and take the boat over to the boardwalk so we could enjoy our dinner at Cape May.
We thought the buffet was very nice but found where we were seated to be a heavy traffic and loud area. Not our favorite environment. Waitress was very nice and brought us an extra dessert (chocolate Mousse bon bon with a candle in it) and was going to get people to sing but I begged her to not so she was nice and didn't.

The buses at Magic Kingdom (they had Extra magic hours and that was the easiest way to get back to the resort) were crowded as people were leaving after the fireworks, so we decided to walk around and went on a couple rides before heading back to the resort.
Day 5 was our Animal Kingdom day. I wasn't feeling well at all. But plugged through the safari, Lion king and Nemo. I had never seen the Nemo musical and was totally blown away loved it!!! And Nemo after bows came over and wished us a Happy Anniversary. (Oh we were wearing the pins)
After a Quick service lunch at Yak and Yeti I needed a break. DH and I went back to resort for nap before I changed into long sleeves to go back to MK for our BOG ADR. LOVED THIS PLACE!!! felt so magical and special.
Waiter did bring us Grey stuff as well as our dessert. Loved getting picture taken with the Beast and just loved the decor! Glad I took the nap cause that was worth being awake for this night. Hopped on some rides before heading back to resort.
Day 6 we slept in and went to 1900 Park Fare for brunch. The free dining plan was way too much work for us. All this eating sit down meals was more food than we usually eat. We then spent time walking around Epcot countries and enjoying our time, until the rain came and I realized I forgot the ponchos and umbrella in the room. This was the day we had dinner reservations at Ohana and were not able to watch the fire works from the beach. The rain just made everything soggy. DH bought a new shirt to change into before dinner.
Food at 1900 was very good and the seating they gave us was in a quiet area so I was happy. Ohana was good but not sure I would worry about going back. The Hostess was rather rude and when I asked if all the people sitting around were waiting to be seated she told me "Well we are a sell out restaurant!" It was just a question.
We called it a night.
Day 7 we went back to Epcot and DH and I totally enjoyed the entire day of just taking it easy and enjoying the countries. Then we went over to MK for our dinner at Tony's. We were seated on the porch and saw the parade. Then we were surprised with Personalized Bride and Groom Mickey ears and wishes for our 25th! DH and I enjoyed a great view of the fire works on Main St. and didn't make it for the second parade. We knew we had to pack and be ready for magic express in the morning.
Day 8 we had breakfast at Pepper Mill. It was ok. I didn't like the way the stations were set up. I only got my breakfast quickly because the father ordering was not understood by the woman at the counter and got the order wrong, so I just asked to have the order that the Father didn't want.
When Magic Express came the driver was looking for paper work that I panicked and thought I put in my check in bags. You see when we got to Orlando the lady at the ME bus told us our magic bands were all we needed and to put away all paper work, now this guy didn't want the Magic bands and thankfully I had the paper work in my carry on. I was so stressed.
Then as we pulled away from the resort my friends phone buzzed and her mother texted her telling her our flight was cancelled and we would not be going home until the next day. I wanted to cry.
During the week I had developed a rash on my legs and plugged through but now going home my guard was down and I wanted to just get home.
We were put on a flight to Boston and then promised a shuttle to the airport closer to home where we were suppose to fly into.
IN the end it went ok and although home 3 hours later than planned we were home.
And that is where the head cold and stomach bug found me.
But when I look back at pictures and think about the look on the little kids faces as the characters approached and the feeling of love I felt when I took advantage of the Free photo with Mickey and Goofy at the Disney Visa spot as well as the character meals. There was so much magic in so many things.
Personally the business feel over near El Centro at Coronado Springs did distract me from the Disney feel. The area we were in was very low key but this is not my favorite resort.
So that's my summary. I'm sure tomorrow when my friend comes over and we review and add boarders and crop our pictures from our photo pass more memories will flood me with excitement.
I've personalized my Magic Bands for my shorter trip in February and today got a flashdrive in a box from Disney and LOL it points me to the "myexperience" page. But the flash drive lights up like the mickey heads we used to use our Magic bands, so it's a fun/cute idea.
I hope my summary didn't bore you too much. But I thought incase someone was wondering about some of the places we had for ADRs I would share.
Time for bed for me. I had a successful day (no didn't do the extreme door buster times) in getting most of my Christmas gifts bought. Now I can focus on getting things put away and catching up on laundry. My son is home from college and his roommate will be joining us tomorrow night so we can bring the boys back to school on Sunday.
I hope all of you recover soon from your trips and we get to hear about any pixie dust or even just family fun.
hugs!
Giggles......My solo trip is in something like 65 days.

I'm looking forward to relaxing at POR. I'll have to start reading that thread.