There's No Place Like Home......

[thornton0511]

Catching back up!

Sounds like y'all had a fun night @ POR. And y'all did great the next morning with going to another resort for breakfast & still getting to DHS for rope drop!
thank you! I felt accomplished!!
That stinks about the tickets not being activated though! Glad they fixed it quickly & y'all still got the show & TSMM done. We actually got our 6 y/o DS on ToT this year, too! He didn't scream, he didn't cry....he just held his mouth open in shock & then swore to never ride again.
that is too funny lol I would say he's a pretty brave little guy for getting on at his age
We love Star Tours, too! It's such a fun ride!
GAH! It is fun but my family definitely love it more than I do
Sounds like y'all got a lot done that morning @ DHS!

Yes we did!

Just quickly regarding ToT. I think they will ride again, I really do. Sometimes it just takes time and there is no shame in that at all. But I also wouldn't rule out the "putting you in a home" either. But that would likely be something completely separate.
Ha! You are probably right I really do hope that someday they will grow to love it!
You know, you're right. Star Tours seems to always have low waits. So bizarre.
I think a lot of it must have to do with the large capacity of the ride maybe?
Ah see, Disney knows what's up. Angry after ToT? You are now the rebel spy!!! Very cool.
Exactly
I have to appreciate Sydney only being lifted to adult height. Good to see, but not really blocking those behind either.
Ha! Yes this is true, well that and partly because I'm not sure if DH could lift her higher than that too
Well it is hard to turn down a request for Minnie Ears in Disney at the best of times. So, no surprise here.

obviously Rob

Well, good for the kiddos! Conquering their fear…they should be very proud!!
very proud indeed
I just conquered mine this past summer at DLR. Both my DDs had no problem riding TOT multiple times with their uncle and aunt. And even though DH isn't a fan of these type rides he has ridden w/ them. But I was just afraid it would mess with my head or stomach and I would have a bad rest of the day. So even tho I am a coaster lover, I had never ridden it. For some reason at DLR I decided the time was right! And DS said if I did, he would. I actually thought it was fun, but he was hanging on for dear life and did not want to ride again. Which led to a mommy/son showing of the Muppets while DH rode with the girls again. But you know what? That was the BEST showing I have ever seen! The place was practically empty and for the first time, we had front row center! So cool! We could actually see the cute little penguin orchestra…my DS loves penguins. Anyway, it was a special time for us and we really enjoyed it!
good for you and your son!! And now you can say you did it! So cool that you got a moment of magic with him during Muppets! These situations seem to be when the best memories are made, and when you would least expect it!!
Moving on to DH and my visit end of Aug to WDW and we FP TOT and we must have had the sequence where it doesn't drop much because I thought although it was cool to move forward, there wasn't much more "excitement" to it. Glad to know that the sequences are different and we may have a more exciting ride next time!!
Ha! Yeah maybe you will get our deadly sequence next time and we will get your boring one lol
Really enjoying this TR…looking forward to hearing about FD!!

thank you so much! I am so glad that you are following along

 

[thornton0511]

Checking in to Coronado

We arrived at our new resort after a nice relaxing bus ride….that also happened to be near empty. Not too many people coming to the resorts at this time of day I suppose lol.

We made our way inside, and into air conditioning….ahhhhh. Since we knew we wanted to go moderate for the free dining promo this fall that only left us with a few choices…well actually only two. Since POR and POFQ were both excluded that only left CBR and CSR. We had previously stayed at CBR and so we chose CSR instead since it would be a new one for us. The main thing that turned us off of CBR was the sure size of the resort and so I was a bit apprehensive that I would feel the same way about CSR, plus I had heard that it's more mildly decorated Disney because it’s a convention resort too.

Walking in I was impressed with the beautiful lobby area

And the ceilings. It was not love at first sight like with POR but I still was very impressed with the resort so far. Very Spanish and beautiful.

We headed over to registration while the kiddos hung around in the common area by the fountain and the pretty ceiling.

Oo-de-lally this time of day might have made for a near empty bus, but not for checking in!
]
We waited patiently in line for our turn and ended up with a lovely CM. She was very happy and cheerful. I love Disney. Check in was a breeze and even though our room was not quite ready she did confirm that our request for a Cabanas room in 9A had been met! This would put us a close as you can get, in a standard room, to both El Centro and the Dig Site. She also handed us our Anniversary buttons to wear for our stay.
Our 14 yr wedding anniversary had been earlier in August, but since we had decided to forgo going somewhere this year so that we could make it a dual Disney year, and it was still technically our Anniversary month, we deemed it a Happy Anniversary Trip. So there….lol.
We gave the nice CM my DH's cell number to text when our room was ready and we were on our way. It was decided that we would first kill the wait for our room time with lunch. And our first use of dining credits in what has been noted as one of the best counter service locations in the world….Peppermarket!

We made our way down the hall to the Peppermarket. Registration, the gift shop, all eating places, and the convention center are all located in this one building called El Centro. It was amazing! And full of AC too!! We thought it would be a good idea first to get our refillable mugs that are included with the DDP. Our colors were chosen and then we got in line to activate them. One would think that all would be smooth sailing from now on, especially since we had officially checked in right? Well, not so much………
To be continued…….
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[BellaBaby]

LOL…We checked OUT of CSR on Sun. 8/31!

We were impressed with the beautiful lobby area too and we liked Pepper Market. I think it was a good choice for our adults only trip.

We haven't stayed at POR yet, but it's on the list.

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

I've only been to CSR once just to look around. It really is pretty but I still found it pretty big. But I could see it being a great choice if a good portion of the trip was resort based.

Hey, I'm with you on the Anniversary celebration. Makes perfect sense to me.

 

[thornton0511]

LOL…We checked OUT of CSR on Sun. 8/31!
Ha! That's too funny Man that was a busy day for CSR!!
We were impressed with the beautiful lobby area too and we liked Pepper Market. I think it was a good choice for our adults only trip.
it really is a beautiful resort and the Peppermarket did not disappoint
We haven't stayed at POR yet, but it's on the list.

oh it's now my favorite mod!! We will be going back there next year

I've only been to CSR once just to look around. It really is pretty but I still found it pretty big. But I could see it being a great choice if a good portion of the trip was resort based.
yes sir it is huge!!
Hey, I'm with you on the Anniversary celebration. Makes perfect sense to me.

lol Rob I knew you would agree!!!

 

[thornton0511]

Even Disney World is Not Always Perfect
So there we stood ready to purchase our refillable mugs and then move on towards getting lunch when the little green Mickey once more was not on our side. The CM checking us out asked if we wanted to charge the mugs to our room. Huh? Come again? We informed him that we were on a free dining package and the mugs should be included. He then replied that it was not showing up that we had the DDP. Seriously? You have got to be kidding me right now. I then told him that we just now checked in and I pulled out our paper showing our DDP credits. He said that was all fine and good but for some reason it was not showing up and there was nothing he could do. Hmmmm. Okay so let's talk with someone who can help then, please sir. He flagged down his manager.
The manager approached and we explained our situation. We told her we had just checked in and showed her our papers with the credits. She could not explain why it was not showing up and suggested that we go back to registration to sort it out. I guess at this point she saw a look of utter frustration on our faces and offered to walk with us to registration to get it sorted out. Having us go alone and once again stand in that very long line was not something I wanted to do.
We ended up with the friendly CM that had checked us in earlier. The other manager then left as we tried to figure out what the deal was. She was pulling up everything correctly in her computer and could not understand why it was not working from the other end. At this point she got her manager to come over. 90 minutes later I still did not understand what the issue was to be honest. All the manager could tell us is that since the system had not quite checked us out of POR yet it was not allowing things to show up for our new ressie package here. Again none of this happened with our split stay last year and I don't know why we were having such an issue this time. There was nothing she could do to magically make the system show our credits (and possibly our park tickets) so she gave us a card with her name on it and it had this incredibly long sequence of numbers written on it. She said that if this happens again to just give this to the CM and they would be able to enter it in and we would be good. But….to also note that she could not give us a definite on whether this would be something that we would have to endure for our entire stay or not. Seriously bummed at this point and not really liking the idea of having to carry this card around all week anytime we want to use a dining credit or enter a park. But what do you do?
Two hours had passed now since we had gotten off the bus to check in as we walked back to the Peppermarket to have lunch. We were quite hungry now. We also noted that we had not received a text the our room was ready, but that it was not quite check in time either so no worries.

Peppermarket for lunch round 2 lol. We made our choices for lunch and stood in line prepared to hear the spill again when we swiped our MB's but low and behold they worked. No issues whatsoever!! Hooray for technology lol! We grabbed a table and finally had lunch. I will say that the peppermarket is really quite awesome. They have such a vast selection of choices! Here is what we went with for lunch…

First up was Miss Sydney who went with the child's order of chicken nachos with a side of grapes and cookies. Everything was a hit with the exception of the chips ahoy type cookies.

I went with the cheese empanadas with rice and churros. The empanadas and churros were soooo good! The rice was kind of meh however.

Both DH and Cory went with a grilled Chicken Caesar salad and a cookie for dessert. Note the unusual amount of dressing on the salads lol. This is how it came. It was a bit much….would you like some salad with that bowl of dressing?

We also used our mugs for soda to go with our meals and opted for bottled waters to take with us to the parks. Gotta love the DDP!!!
To be continued…..
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[MEK]

Subbing in! Looking forward to reading about your trip! Cute kids!

 

[scottny]

Too bad about the bands but glad they fixed them and you didn’t have to go back to the resort.

Love the queue for TSM too.

Sorry they didn’t like TOT but at least they tried it.

I have waited 45 minutes for Star Tours, you're lucky. LOL.

Nice he got to be the Rebel Spy.

CSR is a gorgeous resort. We stayed there a few years ago at Christmas time and it was so nice.

WOW! That is a long line at check in.

That is terrible how long it took you once you went back after Pepper Market. I did chuckle that they did work fine when you went back to eat. Sorry.

Vinny would love that salad being he always asks for extra dressing everywhere. LOL.

 

[thornton0511]

Subbing in! Looking forward to reading about your trip! Cute kids!

Well hi there glad to have you follow along!!

Too bad about the bands but glad they fixed them and you didn’t have to go back to the resort.
yes indeed
Love the queue for TSM too.
I know it's like taking a trip back to my childhood!! Love it!!
Sorry they didn’t like TOT but at least they tried it.
Oh yes we were very proud of their bravery. Plus on the bright side I got to remember how much I like the ride and DH found out finally how much he has been missing out the past few years
I have waited 45 minutes for Star Tours, you're lucky. LOL.
oh my goodness Scott was this opening week from the rehab or something lol?
Nice he got to be the Rebel Spy.
yes!
CSR is a gorgeous resort. We stayed there a few years ago at Christmas time and it was so nice.
it really is a beautiful resort
WOW! That is a long line at check in.
yeah it was

That is terrible how long it took you once you went back after Pepper Market. I did chuckle that they did work fine when you went back to eat. Sorry.
No your absolutely right it was a bit humorous. Here we were having the worst luck imaginable and all ready for disappointment and then.....green Mickey. lol only us!
Vinny would love that salad being he always asks for extra dressing everywhere. LOL.

Ha! Then peppermarket would be the place for him to go....seriously. I will admit I'm kind of like that with ranch. I'm also Southern. It's a thing. We like to dunk just about everything in ranch here lol!

 

[thornton0511]

Thornton Family and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day

With lunch now finished it was nearing 3pm and we still had not received a text or call that our room was ready. It seemed to be taking forever but still with it technically not being 3:00 we did not want to question it since there is no guarantee that your room will be ready before the official check in time.

We decided we would kill some more time by checking out the gift shop.

First we had to pause to hug the donkey! Obviously!!!

Sydney found a Disney castle play set to keep her busy while we looked around the store a bit.
After looking over every inch of the store it was now after 3pm and still no word about our room. Time to get in line again. DH stood in line while we hung out around the lobby area. Guess what? Room was ready. The CM said "did you not receive a text when your room became available? Sorry……" We seemed to be hearing a lot of that today. At this point any one of these things would have been no big deal by itself but we just really could not shake bad luck today. No sense it fretting, room was ready now. Plus we had the building we requested so that was a positive thing!

We made the short walk over the bridge toward the cabanas. It really was not a long walk at all! And this resort was really pretty.

We arrived at our ground room floor. Our standard room was facing the parking lot, which was to be expected. We were not planning on spending anytime gazing out of our room window anyways lol. Now being that we had just spent the previous night in a royal room that screamed Disney from every corner, we accepted the fact that we would probably not get the same Oooh and Ahhhh from this room.

Okay. Well. No surprises here but it's what was expected.


I will say that where the room seemed to be lacking, was made up with the beauty of the resort. I don't think that this resort will be high on our return to list but it was not a deal breaker…..plus it's still Disney!!!

And how could you possibly find fault in a view such as this?
We did not spend too much time in the room and made our way back to El Centro. We had spent enough afternoon time at the resort and now it was time to head back to the park! We made a quick stop at bell services to make sure that our luggage had arrived, and indeed it had. We then hopped on a bus and made our way back to Hollywood!

As we made our way back to the park I did a quick switch a roo on our FP+ selections. Since there was really no way that we would be riding ToT again I tried to find a substitute. Unfortunately there really was none since we already had TSMM and there was no way the family would be getting on RnR I just picked the 5:00 Indy show. Why not?

We made our way up to the Green Mickey posts and just when it was our turn something stopped us from entering……..you just can't make this stuff up folks.
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[catherines_mama]

We made our way up to the Green Mickey posts and just when it was our turn something stopped us from entering……..you just can't make this stuff up folks.

Okay. If you aren't yelling at someone by now you are my hero.

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

Ugh, it appears the new system still has some kinks. And I was starting to feel fairly confident in it. And then they finally work. Oy, how does one keep track of all this?

Wow, you really were hitting the bad luck train this day Jenn. Hopefully this is just to get it all out of the way, and it'll be smooth sailing going forward.

I guess that is the danger of staying in a Royal Room at the beginning. Everthing would seem like a downgrade after that.

JENN STOP WITH THE CLIFFHANGERS!!!!! You're making me feel guilty about always doing that myself.

 

[Victoriasmom98]

Oh my!!! I just came across your trip report and have read it in its entirety.......but there's a CLIFFHANGER!!! Agh!! what happened??!!! I'm subbing to find out!!!!

 

[petals]

OMG your family seems to be having the worst luck with technology on this trip. Hope things got better

 

[thornton0511]

Okay. If you aren't yelling at someone by now you are my hero.

Ha! Honestly at this point all we could do is laugh it was so ridiculous!

Ugh, it appears the new system still has some kinks. And I was starting to feel fairly confident in it. And then they finally work. Oy, how does one keep track of all this?
Oy is right Rob lol! I just hope that they are able to find a solution because with the exception of FP+, which makes me have evil thoughts lol, I really think this all could make for an awesome experience.
Wow, you really were hitting the bad luck train this day Jenn. Hopefully this is just to get it all out of the way, and it'll be smooth sailing going forward.
we shall see......
I guess that is the danger of staying in a Royal Room at the beginning. Everthing would seem like a downgrade after that.
yeah it really did...our bad
JENN STOP WITH THE CLIFFHANGERS!!!!! You're making me feel guilty about always doing that myself.

bahahahahahha

Oh my!!! I just came across your trip report and have read it in its entirety.......but there's a CLIFFHANGER!!! Agh!! what happened??!!! I'm subbing to find out!!!!

lol first of all I am so happy that you found my TR! I did not mean to leave everyone dangling off the cliff for so long so I finally finished an update. I hope that you are still out there somewhere lol

OMG your family seems to be having the worst luck with technology on this trip. Hope things got better

lol yes it would seem that way. It's funny how everything was going so great the first day at POR and as soon as we checked out and moved resorts we just kept getting hit with unlucky situations. Still at Disney though and that makes it all okay

 

[thornton0511]

The Never Ending Saga of Disney Technology
So here we were about to reenter HS, being able to put all of the unfortunate events of the day behind us, and now we were made to stop just as it was our turn to touch Mickey to Mickey. And this time it had 100% nothing to do with our bands lol.

Nope. This time it was affecting everyone trying to get in. Something went screwy with the system and it would not authorize anyone access to the park. And it all went down just as Cory was putting his band up to the post lol. Talk about your timing….
On a positive note it seemed that they had called in Tobey Maguire to fix the issue. When the entire Disney system fails you call in Spiderman to save the day…..makes sense to me.
Only he could not get it to work either. Soon there were lots of important Disney employees at the gates, all in blue shirts, all scrambling to get the system up and going. As more and more time passed with no luck, more and more blue shirts popped up. Where in the world were all of these Disney people coming from lol. Then as they were running out of blue shirt staff, people dressed in regular clothes showed up. They were talking with the blue shirt people so obviously they were employed with Disney. Then I had a thought. Gasp…..were these the elite undercover Disney secret service people that I have heard about? I was scared to take a picture lol.

Speaking of scary, the mob of unhappy, and hot, people that had accumulated behind us looked as if their patience was running thin. Ummmmm please Disney blue shirt people hurry and figure this out so that I don't get caught in a stampede of fed up guests…..
I had heard in the past of this happening and eventually they had just given up and let people in. It was beginning to look as if that would be happening here. Finally they made the call and let us all go without swiping our bands. People were cheering as we all made our way through the gates. It was quite funny.
The bad news at this point was that we had missed our FP+ return time for Indy….the good news is that it's FP+ for Indy so……..yeah we got in with no worries.
We have seen this show so many times but it's classic and we always get a good laugh from it.

Oooohhhh Indy what you looking for down there?

You had better be careful there Indy….that doesn't look too safe…..just sayin

I dunno Indy,if it was me I would just leave that alone. Well, don't say I didn't warn ya.

Cue the fight scenes and explosions. Never gets old….we love it!!!
Okay that was fun…..now what? Well we had one of two options here. We could hang around for a bit longer in the Sept heat and smothering humidity until upcoming TSMM FP+ time, or we could get in the 20 minute standby line for Great Movie Ride, which would be air conditioning, and risk missing our FP+ for TSMM due to our upcoming dinner ressie. Hmmmm….decisions decisions.

The lengthy ride with air conditioning won in the end. Plus we had already experienced TSMM today. I was really loving this go with the flow deal this trip. Who cares if we only get to ride TSMM once this trip? Not us.

While we were waiting DH and I decided to take a selfie to show off our anniversary buttons…..to which our children decided "hey wouldn't it be fun to photobomb mommy's TR pictures again? Thanks kids.

It ended up taking us 30 minutes to get on the ride. Probably the longest we have ever waited to get on GMR by about 25 minutes lol. Ah well it did give me a chance for once to really enjoy the queue, and for once I got to see the entire reel of movies in the queue also….over and over and over lol. With it being close to 6:30 now there would be no way that we could make our FP+ for TSMM and dinner in time. But being that we had already gotten to experience TSMM this morning we were not sweating it. This is a classic Disney ride IMO and we always enjoy it!

We got to say hi to Mary and Burt…..

Our good friend John Wayne…..

And everyone's favorite, the wicked witch! Once we were finished with our ride tour we took a relaxing walk down to our dinner location for the evening. We were all really enjoying this taking it easy and not rushing around approach this time around. I could get used to this!!
​

 

[disneyfreak25]

Cute magicbands!

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

Hmmm, are you sure Cory didn't break it... The timing is suspect...

Well, Spiderman is a Marvel character and Marvel is owned by Disney, so this is a great way to get around that whole contract issue with Universal. Smart.

I like technology but I don't love technology. This is why I always carry cash. I just don't trust debit or credit to always work.

Well done on the photobomb kids!!!

I agree Jenn. It would be hard on a first trip or if you don't visit often, but just going with the flow is such a refreshing approach to Disney. And I think way more rewarding.

 

[thornton0511]

Cute magicbands!

Thank you

Hmmm, are you sure Cory didn't break it... The timing is suspect...
bahahahaha...right?! apparently our bad luck technology was contagious
Well, Spiderman is a Marvel character and Marvel is owned by Disney, so this is a great way to get around that whole contract issue with Universal. Smart.
hey nice tie in
I like technology but I don't love technology. This is why I always carry cash. I just don't trust debit or credit to always work.
I don't mind technology so much if it's user friendly and actually works lol
Well done on the photobomb kids!!!
it was a think this year apparently
I agree Jenn. It would be hard on a first trip or if you don't visit often, but just going with the flow is such a refreshing approach to Disney. And I think way more rewarding.

Oh it was so the way to go

 

[thornton0511]

Dinner at Sci Fi

We made our way to Sci Fi Diner for our 7:00pm reservation. A few years ago I picked this place for one of our meals thinking that it would be a cool experience. And it was! Honestly you just can't get a better theme for dinner…..BUT, I really thought it would be more like a onetime deal. Instead the fam loved it so much that they beg and beg to eat here every year now. Sigh. And I do love it too but there are just sooo many great places to experience so little time lol. After our last trip I just gave up trying to sneak a planned trip without this restaurant in the mix. I am outnumbered. And so I have accepted that we must make a special trip here….every year. On the bright side things could be worse. The family could have fallen in love with a bad Disney restaurant like…..huh. Can't really think of one of the top of my head. Ha! I guess they are all good!!

We checked in at the podium and waited just a few minutes before they called our name. I always laugh when they ask if we would mind sitting at a flying saucer table. Nope, we will wait for a car thank you. Besides "flying saucer" is just fancy talk for getting stuck at the picnic tables at the back behind all of the cool cars.

Yeah it's cars all the way with us! After being seated we were greeted by our awesome server! This guy really was amazing. And you guys are going to kill me because I cannot find his name anywhere in my notes and I cannot for the life of me remember his name! Okay if it comes to me I will add it in. But seriously he was great. He basically put all of his attention on our kiddos and told them that he was going to be their favorite Uncle during dinner and to just tell Uncle_____ what they wanted and he would make it happen, even if it wasn't on the menu. I swear this is going to drive me mad if I cannot remember his name.

At any rate we all started with shakes for our beverages. I went with the oreo cookie which is out of this world yummy

DH went with some kind of strawberry banana and said it was equally good. At this point he told Cory that he would have to wait and have his shake after his meal so not to ruin his appetite lol. Then he went on shaming us for having our shakes before dinner….he was quite a character. He also allowed us all to order sodas which normally is not the case if you order a shake for your beverage on the DDP. He was very generous and we made sure that it would be okay. I did not want to get him in trouble.

Moving on to dinner Sydney went with a hot dog which is no longer offered on the kids menu! Our wonderful server guy person told her to not look at the menu and just tell him what she wanted to eat….anything she wanted and he would get it for her. GAH this guy was truly amazing.

Cory, who is now thoroughly enjoying the fruits of ordering off the adult menu, went with the steak and fries. And surprising ate almost all of it too!

I usually go with either the steak or a burger, but decided to change things up a bit this time around and went with the grilled chicken pasta. It was really really good!

And DH also went with the steak but with the mash and veggie that it comes with.

Before long it was time to order dessert and oh my goodness I was sooooo stuffed! Bad stuffed guys, like at Thanksgiving. Needless to say I did not finish my pasta and our sever made an example out of me to the children and told them this is why you do not have a shake before your meal. Ha….he was a riot! And right. I should have listened to Uncle__________.
I went ahead a took a picture of the menu because, at the time, it was a bit different than what most online menus had down. The donut thing I had not seen before and found it intriguing.

Our awesome server not only brought the kids a shake each but still let them order whatever they wanted for dessert. Sydney went with an ice cream sundae.

Cory, DH, and myself all went with the new donut dessert thing. Well Cory went with just the donut. And that is what he got too….a glazed donut in a bowl lol. DH really enjoyed this but I thought it was awful. Bleh. There was nothing special about it as it was literally a glazed donut with apples and ice cream. It was probably for the best though because I was miserably full from dinner.

We did ask to have our picture taken and made sure that our server had a very generous tip since he was amazing! Even if I am the worst DIS trip reporter in the world for not remembering his name. Our table mates in the back there were a lovely couple who were enjoying a kid free trip and offered to duck down for our photo but we were happy to have them in it! They were super nice!! I really think that with all of the trips we have made here to Sci Fi this was probably the best one yet! We had to get moving at this point because we did have one last thing we wanted to do before the night was over and this was definitely not to be missed. And you are all going to have to just get used to me ending my posts like this….HA! How else am I supposed to keep you on the edge of your seats?!
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