Whether you are new to the Disney world, or an old friend looking to keep up on all the Disney happenings, follow along as I discuss news and tips related to Walt Disney World and the Disney world as a whole.
I know I said I'd talk about the party, but this update got a bit longer than I anticipated. Since I know I'll have a lot to say about the party, I'll save that for the next posting.
We went to bed early and slept in a bit today. A bit meaning that people got up after 7:30am. We're early risers at my house anyway so sleeping in, even for my teens, doesn't happen frequently.
Over breakfast in the room, we decided that we'd head to Animal Kingdom since we hadn't been there yet. Plus, the kids were clamoring for Kali River Rapids, especially since it was soooo hot.
Stefan was not in the mood for Cheerios, so we headed down the road to the McDonald's by the All-Stars since it was on the way to AK. Stefan loves their breakfast burritos. At the intersection, I had my first sighting this trip of The Purple Van from Owner's Locker!
Hi John!
So we got the food and drove the short distance to AK. We had a fairly front parking spot, but there were a lot of people waiting for the tram. We decided to walk it rather than wait for another tram to come along. As it was, we got to the front area at about the same time.
It was just after opening, so it was still a little busy.
We got in and decided to head for Kilimanjaro Safaris. The stand-by wait said 10 minutes, but the line was already outside the actual entrance. We decided to get Fastpasses so we had about 40 minutes to kill.
Tip for AK: Utilize every shop with A/C you can. I do that everywhere, but it's darn near essential here. The tropical-like nature of this park seems to condense the humidity and just makes it blech.
Stefan and Caitlin decided they needed a drumming break:
And then we happened to run into Flik with no wait.
We headed to Kali River Rapids. Bryan took care of all the stuff because he doesn't ride rides where it says, "you WILL get wet." Scoutmasters melt in water, don't you know?
So here's a few shots he snapped below. I rode Kali once - the kids rode it three times in a row.
And the two of them totally soaked after their water adventures.
We headed back over to Kilimanjaro Safaris, used our Fastpasses and got right through. I think we maybe waited in line 5 minutes before getting on a truck. We saw fellow incentive group achiever Karen Z. there as well!
Here's a few shots from the Safari:
Birds on top of hippos under water
Hippo coming up for air
Baby Giraffe
Another baby giraffe lounging around
Baby elephant and mama
After the safari, we were hungry so we headed to our favorite counter service in all of Disney World - Flame Tree BBQ. Bryan and Cate had the ribs and I had the BBQ Chicken Salad. Stefan was still full from breakfast burritos.
We headed home after that for a break.
Since dinner was at the party and not until after 7pm, we did some grab & go at the Rix Cafe and ate in the room after a brief pool break.
It's early entry day for our incentive group. Well, even though we hit the hay early the night before, it was a bit of a rude awakening to get up at 5:30am Eastern, especially when our bodies were probably still thinking it was 4:30am Central.
And it was going to be a steamy one again. Here's the photo from our room doorway as we left around 6am:
It was red shirt day today. As we headed to the ballroom for our buffet breakfast, it was a sea of red shirts.
The family sitting down to breakfast. Yep, Stefan was not awake yet.
I saw my friend, Laurie, and her family but as you can imagine, there were a lot of people there.
After breakfast, we headed down the hallway to get on special buses that were taking us to Magic Kingdom. We got on about 6:30am and arrived at MK just before 7am. They were just opening the turnstiles as we got up there.
We entered and I had to take a castle pic:
It looks more crowded than it was. Seriously, we walked on to everything.
We didn't have a specific plan. Being veterans, we've done just about everything. We headed toward Adventureland since, as usual, everyone else headed for Tomorrowland and Fantasyland.
We came up to Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride and Stefan decided we needed to do this.
This is tradition. Stefan and Bryan ride in the same magic carpet vehicle and Stefan tries to get the camel to spit on his dad.
I had to stop and take this picture:
In all my years of going to Disney World, even when we've been there at rope drop, I have NEVER seen a ride that says it has a ZERO wait time! I needed to document that for posterity!
Once we got off of that, I used my coupons and got two bottles of water. It was already steamy.
We headed through the tunnel to Frontierland and who did we run into: Jessie & Woody! As face characters! First time for that one!
Here's one of me and Woody - terrible, I know - that's how humid and icky it was.
Stefan wanted to hit the shooting gallery so Bryan waited with him while Cate and I made a beeline for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (BTMRR). It wasn't up and running yet. So we jumped on Splash Mountain and walked right on. It was refreshing to get wet, even that early in the morning.
We got off and got on to BTMRR and then met the boys as they had gotten on the train just before ours.
We decided to head to Tomorrowland since the kids wanted to do Space Mountain.
We got a little sidetracked and had to walk on to Buzz Lightyear. After I scored 700,000+, Bryan wanted to go again and try and score higher. So the kids went off to Space, and he and rode Buzz again. 5 times. Seriously. We just kept walking on.
Bryan, the little snot, maxed out at 999,999. I took a picture, but my flash makes it hard to see. His console is the one on the left:
and mine at 809,000
We took a break to watch for the kids and then Bryan had to go meet Buzz Lightyear
We finally met up with the kids and they decided they wanted to ride Buzz again. So we rode two more times.
Then it was approaching 8:30am and we needed to use our coupons before 9am. We headed over to Cosmic Ray's and got some water and juice.
Even by 9am, it was so humid. We decided we'd just do two more things: Jungle Cruise and Mickey's Philharmagic.
On the way to the Jungle Cruise, we saw the "other" Woody and Jessie, and the Lotso Bear from the new Toy Story 3. (Honestly, I don't know how long Lotso will last in the parks once people see the movie.)
Then Alice toodled by and said we were going the wrong way and we should follow her for all the fun!
We headed off and did the Jungle Cruise and Philharmagic. Then we headed for the bus area to head back to CSR.
Once we got back, the housekeeping elves had been there and had Bear and Kitty all waiting for us.
We had a pool break and then decided we'd head to the Pepper Market for lunch.
Not a fan of the PM. It took them 10 minutes to get me a burger. I should have ordered the Shrimp Paella that Cate had because it was ready and it looked fabulous. But I didn't. The boys had something Mexican and were happy. Overall, I felt it was overpriced. Even for Disney. I miss my villas kitchen.
Yeah, I'm a hotel snob and not afraid to admit it.
We decided to hang in the room and just watch some TV. It was truly too hot and humid for us. Plus, having been up since 5:30am, we were ready for a break.
Dinner time was much better this time. We headed to the Crossroads and went to Sweet Tomatoes. I had head a lot about this place online and thought it would be okay to try. I was a little worried because I have teens...teens who are meatosaurus-like. I wanted to make sure they were full.
I had a coupon for BOGO...could I find it? No. At least not until after we came home.
Everyone agreed that it was good. Thankfully, there was more than rabbit food once we got through the salad bar or my kids would have disowned me. But even Bryan, who's not a huge vegie fan, thought this was a good place.
We headed home and packed it in for the night.
Next up: June 15 - Animal Kingdom and the big party at MGM Studios!
I got up early because I was able to pick up our group incentive packet starting at 7am. While everyone else was snoozing, I got dressed and went out to El Centro.
I headed over to the conference center area:
I entered the ballroom and our group pretty much had it all to ourselves. The check in area was to one side and there were some snacky-type buffets in the middle of the room. Lemonade is one thing, but potato chips and pretzels at 7 am was just not what I was looking for.
I headed back to the room and thought I'd take a picture of this very clear day:
Here's my building as you walk from El Centro along the lake path:
I got back to the room with our cool red t-shirts (we have a special day for those) and people were getting around. So we had some breakfast and headed to the car to drive to Epcot.
I wasn't sure what to expect. Sunday was Morning Extra Magic Hours and we didn't arrive at the turnstiles of Epcot until 8:50am.
I was prepared with a second GADGAD voucher so we could get special Fastpasses for Epcot today as well.
(Aside: I don't know what we would have done without those GADGAD Fastpasses. We certainly would have been spending much more time in line or not seen what we wanted to see. I'm very glad we had them.)
We entered the park and split up. Stefan wanted to go on Spaceship:Earth, one of his fave attractions on property and Bryan wanted to do Sum of All Thrills. I went with Stefan and Cate went with Bryan.
Stefan and I finished first so we walked over to Innoventions to see how they were doing. Bryan and Cate were in the simulators when we walked up. There was a lot of upside-down going on so I think they had a lot of loops in their custom designed roller coaster.
When they got out, we decided to use our Fastpasses for Test Track. We got the passes, entered the Fastpass line and in less than 10 minutes, were in a ride vehicle.
Now, this was a first for me. I had never ridden Test Track before. The lines had always discouraged me. Plus, part of me was, "What IS the big deal here?" I don't stand in lines. It's not part of the fun for me. So I just haven't done it.
Well, I see what the big deal is now. It was very enjoyable, snarled hair and all. I don't know if the speed readout is the same for all cars, but ours read 65.8 MPH as we flew by.
I was just reading the Disney Parks Blog and the update on the Radiator Springs Racers that is being constructed at DL. It's using the same ride tech as TT and looks super fun.
Anyhow, back to the story...After TT, since we were there, we decided to walk over to Mission:Space. We all LOVE M:S. It was a 10 minute wait for Orange so we just walked on.
If you aren't familiar with M:S, there are two ways to experience this attraction: Green and Orange. Orange is the original setup with the centrifuge, feeling the G-forces, etc. It's labeled as "more intense." Green has none of that; you just see the stuff on the screen. At least as far as I know; I've never ridden on the Green side.
As usual, we all enjoyed it. It's probably the closest I'll ever get to spaceflight in my lifetime.
And, of course, we stayed in the Advanced Training Lab to do the Mission Space Race. As a family, we rock this game. We've never lost whether we've been Team Triton or Team Orion. It's just too much fun. We stayed for the game after to be mission control support.
At that time, Stefan needed a Mickey Ice Cream Bar so we had a minor snack break before heading off to the Land pavilion for Soarin'.
Again, thank goodness for those FastPasses. Although I was surprised that the return times were before 4pm, it was great to be able to walk right through. We still had to wait probably 15-20 minutes before getting on the ride itself.
While it's a nice experience, it just doesn't jazz me. I know a lot of the online fans seem to think this is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I agree that it's a great attraction, but the wait times for this thing really are not justified.
By the time we got done, people were seriously hungry. We just headed to Sunshine Seasons Food Court. Wow. It was crazy busy. But it was also noon. Let's see: Cate got the Salmon, Stefan got the quarter chicken and Bryan and I had some sort of Asian platter.
Bryan wanted to take Stefan to Sum of All Thrills and Cate wanted to go to Living Seas. So we split up again.
Did I mention it was freakin' hot? Seriously, I know I sound like a broken record, but good grief, it was hot and humid.
Cate and I hooked up with the boys once they were done with Sum of All Thrills. That attraction has a two-thumbs up from everyone in our family. If you haven't had the chance to check it out, give it a try.
We headed over to World Showcase and it was dead. I mean, there were very few people walking around. Hello; it's 1pm on a Sunday in June. All the smart people are staying out of the heat and humidity in the middle of the day and here we are, doing the opposite.
We took in Maelstrom and then Bryan decided he needed Rice Cream from the Kringla Bakery. So did everyone else, it seemed. Or they were in there pretending to order so they could get into the A/C. By the time Bryan got out, I was ready to head out.
Stefan wanted to hit Japan for some ridiculous YuGiOH something or another. Ugh. The boys raced ahead. Cate and I stopped for A/C and water on the way. Then she wanted a Funnel Cake. Really? In 100+ degrees, you want a Funnel Cake?
We got that, met the boys and walked around the rest of the World Showcase and back to the car.
Here's a picture of what World Showcase looked like:
Not very busy.
We got back about 2:30pm-ish. The kids went to swim. I jumped in long enough to get wet, but again, the pool was very warm and not refreshing at all.
I headed back to the room, took a shower and just reveled in my A/C and watched some TV.
Dinner time approached. I didn't have a plan for dinner - or at least no reservations. I suggested we head out to 192 and see what grabbed our fancy.
Big mistake on my part. I was actually thinking a Ponderosa would be great. In MN, we have this one Ponderosa that was fantastically clean, great service, above average food and that's what I was thinking about.
I'll admit that I never really got what the online Disney people were griping about when they said that they wouldn't be caught dead at a buffet, Disney or not. I can honestly say that I've never been to a buffet that has been sub-par.
Well, I have now.
I have to give two-thumbs down to the Ponderosa on 192 that's closest to Animal Kingdom. While the entrees that we ordered were passable, the buffet was just not good-looking. And talk about over-priced.
So I get what people are saying about icky buffets now. But I have to say that I have never seen anything like that at a Disney buffet. I will definitely continue to patronize my Disney favorites.
Now I know to just stay away from 192 unless I'm going to Olive Garden or something.
We ended up going home and feasting on our snacks. Thank goodness for that grocery run.
We needed to head to bed early tonight because tomorrow was going to be very early. We needed to get up at 5:30am because the buses were leaving at 6:30am to take us to Magic Kingdom for our exclusive early Extra Magic Hours.
I can't believe I'm still on that first day. Sorry for the delay, but I actually had to get some work done before I could get on with the story here.
Once the kids got back from the pool ~ without my room key. So while they were changing, Bryan headed down the front desk to get me a replacement.
Then the subject of food came up. I asked if people wanted to stay at CSR and eat there or do something else. I got something like, "Um...well...I don't know." Thankfully, Mom is prepared. "Well, I made a reservation for Kona Cafe. Anybody want to do that and then go to Magic Kingdom afterward?"
Well, that was all I had to say and people were ready to go.
Now if you aren't familiar with the Kona Cafe, it's a table-service restaurant at Disney's Polynesian Resort. 'Ohana, the other table-service restaurant on premises, is more sought after. At least it has much longer lines and wait times than the Kona Cafe ever has.
That doesn't mean Kona is a bad place to eat. On the contrary, I think it's a hidden jewel with wonderful service and fabulous food.
I planned on parking in the Magic Kingdom lot and then just taking the monorail to the Polynesian. When we were done eating, we would take the monorail or the boat over the Magic Kingdom.
After pulling into the Magic Kingdom parking lot and seeing it was literally almost to the back of one side, I turned around and decided to park at the Polynesian for dinner. It was just too hot and humid for me to even consider riding the tram at that point.
Before anyone jumps on me, my new plan was to eat dinner, send the family on to Magic Kingdom and then I would go move the car back to the MK lot. Hopefully by then, I could move up a little farther than the back 40.
After parking at the Polynesian, we walked up to the second floor to check in at Kona Cafe. My kids headed over to the gift shop while I waited to get my pager. By the way, already at 5pm, the line to check in at 'Ohana was almost all the way back to the Kona Cafe entrance.
Since Kona had just opened, I think we waited maybe five minutes before the pager went off and we were seated.
We had a great meal. I had the shrimp and scallops with sticky rice and salad, which is fabulous. My son had the Teriyaki Chicken Wings Appetizer for Two...for his entree. My daughter had the Chicken Pan Asian noodles. And Bryan has the Ginger Crusted Ribeye.
Bryan likes his meat medium rare and it came out a little pinker than he liked, but our server was prompt in getting that fixed for us. All in all, a great meal from Kona Cafe as usual.
Everyone was drooping a bit. I'm sure we had a little bit of the full-tummy-sleepies, but when I asked if people still wanted to head to Magic Kingdom, I could see the energy level just wasn't there. So I exercised a mom-veto and said we'd just head back to the resort to settle in for the evening. That seemed to make everyone happy.
We stopped in at the main shop on the ground floor of the Polynesian. This store had some great mint foot cream that I've been looking for. If you don't have something like that, mint foot/leg cream is awesome for sore feet and legs...like the kind you get when you walk in the theme parks too much.
And, we had to take a follow up picture with the Tiki statue...This is the nice one...
And this is the silly one...
Teenage boys...what would you do for entertainment without them?
Caitlin and I went to look at something and I can't even remember what it was. When we came out into the lobby to find the boys, here's what I found:
They are watching channel 96, which at Disney World, shows all these old-time, classic Disney cartoons.
You used to be able to get channel 96 in your resort hotel room, but in the last couple of years, it seems that they have filtered it out.
I want it back! My kids love the old toons and I bet lots of Disney fans, whether newbies or veterans, would love to have it available all the time!
So we headed back to CSR, watched some TV and crashed for the night.
Next up: Sunday, June 13. Picking up the group incentive stuff and heading to Epcot.
The kids and I got back to CSR and decided to hit the pool right away.
Being at Casitas 3, we were probably an 8-10 minute walk to the main theme pool - The Dig Site.
I didn't take my camera with me, but there are tons of pictures out there at disneyworld.com.
There's not a lot of shade at CSR. We had to walk the perimeter path around Lago Dorado to get to The Dig Site. If it wasn't 95 degrees and super humid, it probably would have been a nice walk. As it was, we were steaming by the time we got there.
The Dig Site is a nice sized pool with a decent water slide. CSR has a nice pool bar with snacks and beverages and the arcade is in a building at the Dig Site. Children have a splash area and a playground to explore. If it was a little less hot, I imagine that the on-site volleyball court would have been in use.
My one complaint: The water was too warm. So warm that it made me a little queasy. When you are hot, you'd like a "cool" pool to cool you off. I think it just gets so hot so fast and that Disney doesn't have cold water flowing into this pool. It bothered me the most; my kids are fish and will play in any body of water. But they both felt it was too warm as well. I suggested we go back to our quiet pool and see if it was any cooler.
We trudged through the heat and humidity to get back to the Casitas pool. We all pretty much agreed that we would not be going to The Dig Site again as long as it was this hot.
The Casitas pool was a bit cooler, but not very refreshing. Bryan caught up with us after having gone to The Dig Site first to find us. He got in for a bit and then we both decided air conditioning would be more comfortable. I gave the kids another 20 minutes and told them to head up to the room after that.
That's one thing about having teenagers...I don't have to watch them in the pool and can trust them to get up to the room on time. Plus, they are both good about taking care of the other.\
I can't tell you how good it felt to take a shower and just sit in the A/C and watch some TV. I'm so glad we had a fridge with lots of cold water and Gatorade. We needed it this trip.
At the end of my last post, you probably thought, "How is this girl going to get through this day?"
When you last left me, I was headed into the park to find the family. I had to abandon my plan of leaving everyone at MGM to head to Magic Kingdom for the WDW Radio Show Meet of the Month. We just didn't arrive early enough and get going enough for me to do that. Which bummed me out completely because I wanted to participate, meet Lou Mongello (because he's got an awesome show and some great books) and have him meet me. I'm on a mission to work with the guy as I think he's sorely in need of a skilled virtual assistant so he's not constantly working! But I digress here...
I suppose I should introduce the family AKA Cast of Characters:
Bryan: My husband. The total Star Wars geek of the family. The one who doesn't want to vacation anywhere else but Disney World. The one who doesn't care where we eat as long as there are characters. In his real life, he's a systems architect.
Stefan: Teenage boy. Eagle Scout. Walking eating machine. Loves Star Wars. Loves to swim. Loves to make trouble. Loves Disney World.
Caitlin: Teenage girl. Bookworm. Unintentional, sometimes deadpan, comic. Recently discovered she loves Space Mountain. Loves hidden Mickeys.
and then me.
Anyhow...I called Bryan and found out they were in Star Wars shopping area ~ I think it was called Boba's Warehouse ~ waiting to get the passholder stuff. Since I had all the Fastpass cards, I headed over to Toy Story Midway Mania to get fastpasses.
By the way, with these Fastpass cards, Toy Story was in the same group with Rock N Roller Coaster. So I know I needed to leave at least one on that group for RNR. But my plan was to get multiples for Toy Story.
I walked over to the Fastpass line for Toy Story and it was already getting a bit long. I have to say the CMs rocked in getting people organized and keeping them moving through the 6 Fastpass stations that were there.
If you haven't been to Toy Story yet, it's hugely popular and Fastpasses run out before the end of the day. At the time I got into the Fastpass line (9:50am-ish), the return time for regular Fastpasses was 3:10pm. By the time I got up the Fastpass machine (which really wasn't long ~ maybe 5-8 minutes), the return time was 4:05pm. Crazy.
Once I got up there at 10:00am, I fed the Fastpass cards in twice and got those instant Fastpasses that were good right away at 10:00am.
I walked toward the Backlot to find the family. Just as I got there, they were coming out and so was Boba Fett!
But we were on a mission to get to Toy Story!
I have to say, it was awesome to just walk into the Fastpass line. We had a small wait where the lines came together, but all in all, we maybe stood in line for 10 minutes, if that.
We got right back in the Fastpass line and did it again. It was really funny...we were all wearing our tie-dye Mickey shirts that day...
The ham and his sister in line for Toy Story...
Anyway, the CM did a double take when we got back there and was like, "How'd you get up here so fast?"
It was great fun to do that ride twice in a row.
But they were hot to trot to get to Star Tours. So we mosey in that direction and people are starting to line up for the Star Wars Parade at 11am. We turn the corner and Star Tours has a 10 minute wait time in the Stand-By Line. I hesitated, thinking, "This is Star Wars Weekends. There's no way it's really 10 minutes." One of the CMs seemed to read my mind. He said, "There's no wait right now."
He was right. We walked right in and waited 2 minutes to get in the ride vehicle. Now we've been on Star Tours dozens of times and we are super pumped for Star Tours 2.0 that comes out next year. But it's still fun to ride, especially when everyone else in your vehicle has obviously never been on the ride before. Lots of laughter and stuff from our fellow space travelers.
At that point, people are hungry. We headed over Backlot Express, our usual standby for MGM.
I will say that of all the parks, MGM has the fewest number of eateries that jazz me. But Backlot Express is safe in that it has burgers, chicken strips and hot dogs - the safe food for any family of picky eaters. I, however, absolutely LOVE the Southwestern Chicken Salad. It's huge! It comes with lots of chicken, mixed greens, a tortilla wedge and a cilantro-lime dressing that is just yummy. It really was enough to fill me up without weighing me down on a hot and humid day.
At that point, I had the full-tummy sleepies. Plus, I was ready for a break from the heat and humidity. I'm from Minnesota. We rarely ever have 95 degrees AND 70+ degree dew point. The kids were ready for some pool time, too. Bryan wanted to do a little more shopping and decided to take the bus back to CSR.
We had to make one more stop, however, at this really cool set that looks like it came out of Star Wars.
The kids and I hopped on the tram, got to the car and drove the short distance back to CSR.
Next up: The quest to find the best swimming hole at CSR.
The one thing about travel days is you either sleep like a rock or you have one of those "transition" sleeps where you are getting used to a different bed.
I think I had one of the latter. I slept fine, but I was up early. That was probably because I was ready for the first day of vacation actually in Disney World.
There were a few things on the agenda for today, but the important part was to get to Disney's Hollywood Studios (which I will affectionately refer to as MGM Studios) for the last of Star Wars Weekends.
First, I needed to pick up our Park Hopper Passes from the Hospitality Desk. This was one area of the trip that frustrated me. You could only pick up your passes between 8am and 10am OR 3pm and 5pm. Kind of inconvenient for people who's flights come in later or who want to hit the parks early...like me.
Anyway, I traipsed down to the Hospitality Desk and got the tickets as well as our snack coupons for our Magic Kingdom day. I'll tell you about those later.
I got back to the room and people were just starting to get around. So I got them up, fed and dressed so we could get to MGM Studios before the park opened.
Now you might be thinking, "Um, Mary, why do you need to be there before the park opens?"
1. You always want to get there before the park opens. It's the best time to get your attractions and shows in before the rest of the world gets there.
2. It's Star Wars Weekends and MGM. It's going to be busy no matter what.
But #3 is most important for our story here: I needed to get my Annual Passes (APs) renewed.
With Annual Passes, you have up to 30 days after the expiration to renew them at the discounted renewal rate. Seriously, it's saves you like $70 per person. Our APs expired on June 6 so we were good.
Even better: I could put the value of my 3-Day Park Hopper passes towards the renewal of my APs. In the end, I paid less than the cost of one AP to renew all four of the APs for my family. That rocks.
Unfortunately, it took a bit of time because there were a lot of people in line at the ticket booths outside MGM.
Now you may be thinking, "Mary, why didn't you just do that at your resort with the Concierge?"
Because you can't. The Concierge can add days and add plus options, but he can't give me an AP. APs are only available for purchase at the ticket windows at the park.
It's a little sucky. I could have saved a lot of time.
I got those done, but I wasn't done yet. I needed to get my special Fastpasses.
Earlier this year, my family did some volunteer work under the "Give A Day, Get A Day" promotion from Disney. Basically, if you fulfill a volunteer need, then you get a certificate that can be exchanged for a one-day, one-park pass. If you have multi-day passes already, you can exchange the certificate for a special Fastpass.
Here's how this works:
You turn in the certificate and you get a special Fastpass card for each person in your party, up to 8 people, I think. Each card has a total of 6 Fastpasses on it: 3 Fastpasses from the Donald group and 3 Fastpasses from the Daisy Group. Each park has its own list of attractions in each group that the special Fastpass is good for.
The cool part about this card is that it gives you "instant" Fastpasses - even if the Fastpasses at a given attraction are gone for the day.
Yeah, this rocks. Especially in the summer, at MGM, during Star Wars Weekends.
The problem: The person who did my APs said I had to get in yet another line to get my Fastpasses. Puke. I got in that line and told the family to go into the park and I'll call them when I get the Fastpasses. I got to the front of the line and the Cast Member says she needs the APs for my whole party to give me the Fastpasses. At this point, I've probably been standing in lines for 30-40 minutes in the FL heat and humidity. I called the family and they were already headed to Toy Story Midway Mania.
I got out of line, entered the park, met them, got their APs and headed to Guest Relations inside the park. By this time, I was sweating bullets and had already sucked down the bottle of water I had brought with me. Thankfully, Guest Relations was in the A/C. I grabbed a CM and asked if there was any way he could get my Fastpasses. He was a gem and took off right away to do it.
Whew. What an adventure. Now I could go off and actually enjoy the park.
Next post will have more pictures and adventures as we head to Toy Story Midway Mania!
Did I mention I really liked the Dodge Charger? Very smooth ride.
Anywho...we headed down 417 to Exit 3. It seems the roundabout way to get to Coronado Springs Resort (AKA CSR), especially in the dark, but it got the job done.
I had done Disney Online Check-In. By the way, it rocks...most of the time. It probably rocked on June 11, too, but I was too tired and too impatient with the front desk people to register that feeling at the time.
Here's the scoop with Online Check-In:
You can go online 10 days out from check-in and essentially pre-register yourself. You plug in your reservation number and put your credit card on file, if you want privileges on your room keys. The big key feature, in my opinion, is that it asks you for your arrival time and departure time. When you arrive at your resort, you go to the special check-in line that says, "Online Check-In" to get your room keys and stuff.
I think this is a key service for people who check in early in the day. My theory is they ask for your arrival time so they can assign you a room right when you arrive and not make you wait for a room. As rooms as cleaned, they are assigned to the online check-in people based on arrival time.
That's my theory anyway. Since I arrived at 8:45pm at night this time, it probably didn't make a difference for me.
BUT...I will say that in the last two times I've traveled to WDW since online check-in went live, I've checked into the resort between 12:30pm and 1pm. Official check-in time isn't until 3pm or 4pm, depending on your resort. Each time, my room was ready to be occupied.
Back to CSR check-in...Only one person was at the front desk and I probably had to wait 5-8 minutes (thought it seemed like 10-15 minutes) just to pick up my keys. It was a little aggravating, but I admit that I am not a patient person.
We stopped at Bell Services to have them bring our Owner's Locker and Garden Grocer order to our room.
We got in the car and drove around to Casitas 3 - exactly the location that I had requested. It's centrally located between El Centro and the theme pool, The Dig Site. Plus, the Casitas quiet pool was right there next to us.
Finding the elevator was a challenge. The signage was a little weird and we went on a trek just trying to find one. Again, one more strike against arriving after dark. Had we arrived during daylight, we probably could have found it sooner.
Got up to our room - #3360 - and it was conveniently located around the corner from the elevator and also in its own little corner.
If you haven't been in a room at CSR, most rooms have two queen beds, as ours did. We had a nice large flat screen TV plus a small refrigerator and coffee pot. I also called down to Housekeeping to request a microwave. If they have them available, they'll bring one to your room for the length of stay for FREE. Very nice for microwave popcorn.
Bell Services came with our Owner's Locker and groceries. Turned out I somehow didn't order the special muffins I wanted for my daughter. I thought I had typed it in the notes box, but apparently I didn't because it wasn't on the enclosed invoice nor was it in their system when I called. Crap. So she was stuck with Cheerios for most breakfasts.
Since it was late, we hopped in our PJs, got out the Aero bed and hit the hay for the next day.
I did my check on the rental car and, lo and behold, saved $45 by re-booking with National. I'm an Emerald Aisle - Executive member so I'm all set to walk to the EA, pick my car and go on Friday.
I went ahead and placed my grocery order with Garden Grocer. The forecast is calling for iffy weather here at home on Friday. If we get delayed, I don't want to be grocery shopping late at night. Plus, I'm not even sure how late stores in FL are open. That way, I have my groceries and I can worry about just having some fun at the resort when we get there!
That's the sucky part about taking an afternoon flight. I did this once about 8 years ago. I hated it then. And I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up not liking it again. I'm so a get-up-and-go type person. But I decided to save a few bucks and take the itinerary I chose. Yeah, I'm a freakin' moron. Next time, I'm just biting the bullet and paying for my usual routes.
Phase I of laundry is done. For now, it will just be staying on top of it. I hate coming home to a mess.
I've got our APs (Annual Passes) out and ready for renewal. The cool part is I'm getting free 3-Day Park Hoppers with this incentive trip. I can put the value of those tickets toward my AP renewal. Since I have the DVC AP, I have an even better price. I'm paying less than the price of one DVC AP to renew all four for my family. Rock on awesome.
My daughter informed me that she needs more shorts. This is after me pestering her about it weeks ago and her telling me she doesn't need anything. Did I mention I hate last minute stuff?
So after I pick her up from school today, we'll be stopping to get a couple more pairs of shorts. Those darn teenagers and their growth spurts.
Flights: Checked my itinerary and found that our departure gate has been assigned. It's no surprise that we're leaving from the G concourse at MSP. The flights to MCO usually leave from the same bank of four gates. I also printed off the coupons for shopping and eating at MSP. Gotta be prepared just in case people get hungry or need a book or something. I should probably check and see if MCO or MEM has coupons for our return flights.
Thanks for the comments on the video post. I promise that next time, I won't shoot a video on the same day that I'm working out. I just had been meaning to do that video and figured I better get it done. I'll plan ahead better so I won't stick myself in the "ugly faces" category.
As I'm composing this post, Countdown Clock in Firefox says I have 3 days 21 hours 23 minutes and 3 seconds until I leave for Disney World.
Being a veteran Disney traveler, a lot of preparing for a trip is automatic and instinctive for me. It's like breathing - I don't have to think about it, I just do it.
So this is a first for me to actually document prepping for a trip.
On the docket for today:
Login in to USPS.com and put my mail on hold.
LOVE this feature. I don't have to physically go to the local post office to do this. I can set the date I want mail to be held and the day I want it stopped. I can even tell the post office to deliver my held mail once I start delivery again. It's so much easier than trying to arrange for someone to pick up my mail.
Finalize my grocery list.
I usually go grocery shopping myself at SuperTarget once we get settled into the resort. I'm thinking about using Garden Grocer, a grocery delivery service in Central Florida. This is so not me. I'm so Type-A - it's a huge control thing. Plus, I'm one of those shoppers where I might think my list is finalized, but once I'm on the store I think of other things that I forgot. And if I order groceries and then realize I forgot something, then I have to make a run to the store anyway. So why not do it myself?
I need to decide today before all their delivery slots are filled. I'm thinking about doing it this time because our flight doesn't get into MCO until 7pm-ish. We're going carry-on and getting a rental car from National so we'll be out of there tout suite, but I'm thinking that we won't be in the room before 8pm. Now, I'm kinda wanting to check out the pool and get settled in. But I might also be wound up because I'll be at Disney World.
So I need to decide that and place the order if I'm going to do it.
Schedule newsletter delivery.
I own two businesses. I send out a newsletter for one of them on the 15th of the month. I need to finish that draft and schedule it in Constant Contact to go out on the 15th. By the way, I'm a Constant Contact goddess. If you need Email Marketing, Constant Contact rocks and I know the ropes.
Check Rental Car Prices
Remember what I said previously about rental cars? You can cancel reservations at any point without a penalty. I've probably canceled and re-booked the rental car for this trip 3 or 4 times as I find better prices. It's a daily thing now until I leave.
Stay on task.
Yeah, right. I'm a pretty focused person - I don't usually need motivation to work. My discipline borders on military. That's part of the reason my virtual assistant business is called Can Do Virtual Assisting. "Can Do" is part and parcel of my makeup.
But throw Disney World into the mix and I have to expend a little more energy on working.
What can I say; my O.D.D is in overdrive and I can't wait to indulge it.
I did my first video on tips to travel only carry-on for your Disney World vacation. Since it's my first one, I didn't realize I was too far from the camera so the sound is a little quiet. Turn up your volume all the way and it should be okay. I'm a little over-casual, but I hope you'll judge the content and not the goofy looking person in the video. : -)
Disney's ticket media is known as Magic Your Way because you can choose what features you want.
One of the main options, aside from the number of days you want on your ticket, is the Park Hopper option.
With the Park Hopper option, you have the capability of visiting more than one park on any given day. Without the Park Hopper option, you can only visit one park.
In a recent survey, I found that 65% of respondents usually choose the Park Hopper option. Since I polled Disney veterans, this number is much higher than average.
In reality, the numbers are probably flipped. Most people don't choose the Park Hopper because they don't want to pay for the privilege and think that they can just do one whole park each day.
While that is certainly an option that can make for an enjoyable time, I know that I find I'm in the camp that feels, "I don't know what I'd do without park hopping!"
There have been many times where I go to one park in the morning, take an afternoon break and then go to a different park in the evening. I love the flexibility that a Park Hopper provides.
You'll find that the people without hopping privileges will be at the park for Wishes, Fantasmic, etc. This can work to your advantage if you have a Park Hopper. Let's say Fantasmic is showing only on Monday and Thursday. People that don't have Park Hoppers will most likely be at Hollywood Studios on one of those days so they can see F! If you are hoping for more time and less crowds at Toy Story Midway Mania, go to DHS on days after F! shows and you'll probably see fewer people.
And what about dining? (Here I go...back to the food again.) What if it was your Magic Kingdom day and you just had a hankering to go to Epcot for dinner? Without Park Hoppers, you couldn't do that.
So weigh all the features and benefits of Park Hopping. Decide how valuable it is to you and your travel party. I know for me, I need that flexibility to make my vacation that much more enjoyable.
