Celebrate The Magic - June 15, 2010 - The Purple Van and AK

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.

Next up:  The private party at the Studios!

Celebrate The Magic - Arriving at Coronado Springs

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.

More in the next post!