Because I'm posting this on my blog, the trip report will eventually be in backwards order...sorry about that. So maybe you should just check in every day to keep up with it in order, what do you think?
We returned from our trip to WDW on Friday, June 13th (I have a habit of traveling on Friday the 13th, according to my daughter). I loved and adored the trip. I was truly in heaven. My family tells me they enjoyed it also and I assume they are telling me the truth (I saw plenty of smiles) although it’s entirely possible that they are sort of humoring me. I’m quite sure (they’ve all indicated that this is true) that I am the biggest Disney fan in the family and am the one who gets the most out of our trips. But they had fun too...I’m reasonably sure about that. :)
Big lessons learned:
- Next time there will be more time at Animal Kingdom! I really like that park, there’s so many details to see, but we went on our arrival day and after getting up at 4:30, the rest of my family was desperate to get back to the hotel after three things (EE, KS, and Maharajah Jungle Trek). I was going on pure adrenaline but knew it was smart to go back (it was) because the next day was a full EPCOT day. But next time….we will enjoy AK!
- The Dining Plan was worth it for us this time only because we had so many meals with a fixed price. Next time we probably won’t do two character meals (we might not do any of them...I like them more than anyone else) so it might not be worth it for us next time. BOMA
- I'm sure there are other lessons but I'm ready to move on to the meat of the trip report so enough lessons already!
General Info:
Our cast was: me, my husband, my daughter (15), and my son (11). We hadn’t been to WDW since Spring Break 2009 (waaaaay too long in my opinion) and this was somewhat spur of the minute from an uber-planner’s perspective since I could make my ADRs as soon as I paid for our trip (i.e. - we were within the 180 day window).
My daughter decorated my Magic Band for me.
I used a travel agent only because they had a deal where we could get one free water park ticket per person. We’d never done that and it was fun. It still frustrated me to have some things with the TA but all in all I was able to do everything I wanted in terms of planning.
We stayed at Coronado Springs Resort and really liked it. Was it a lot of walking? Yes, but that’s the case with any moderate other than POFQ. As with so many other Disney details, the difference is the attitude you bring to the experience. I ordered groceries (too many as it turned out, but there you go) so we didn’t have to go to the main building for breakfast. A couple of mornings I went to get hot chocolate for my kids (because I love them and needed to bribe them to get them moving) and frankly, I looked at the walk as a warm up for my day and truly enjoyed the experience. The resort has lovely landscaping.
The bus service was GREAT. There were two times we waited a little long for a bus but I believe each of those times was within the expected limit. The buses are exclusive to that resort and that makes quite a difference. Mousekeeping missed us one day (we were in the room when they came by and they forgot to come back later) - after that we got great towel animals so I ended up leaving a compliment card for our Mousekeeper. We saw bunnies and ducks every day, multiple times a day. The pool is very impressive and the slide is fun although we only went one night. We ate at Pepper Market on arrival night (we were too tired to stay at Animal Kingdom) and I was honestly shocked at how delicious the food was. Honestly, it was so good and I was hoping for adequate. I recommend CSR for sure. Some day I'll stay in Deluxe <sung to the tune of "Some Day My Prince Will Come"> but CSR was very relaxing.
(In case you're curious, we stayed at POR last time and also enjoyed it a lot. We especially liked the boats to DTD at POR. Both of these resorts have a relaxing feel to them - lots of walking, but it's so pretty to look at the gorgeous landscaping, the bunnies and the ducks.)
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