A Star Wars Wild Weekend -- A PolyGirl40 Trip Report


5/13/04 – Day One – Will We Ever Find Our Room?
May 13, 2004 – Hot & Humid (86/68)

Starting Line-up:
Me: Carol
#1 Son: Jeremy

Dates: May 13-17, 2004

Today was our travel day. Jeremy stayed home from school since we were leaving for the airport by 11AM. We flew out of Hartford via Song. It was so cool having the satellite TV option. You also get a choice of 2 pay-per view movies, music channels, game play and “our flight”. I read and kept my monitor on the flight channel. It was very interesting watching the flight pattern and knowing all the little details going on while in air. I’m not a very good traveler. Nonetheless, I get antsy after an hour. However, the time did seem to pass very quickly with the TV.

Our flight was uneventful and landed on time. Happy Limo was waiting for us when we proceeded down the escalator. Our luggage was out fairly quickly and we were on our way in no time flat.

This was our first visit to Coronado Springs Resort. Wow! Is this place HUGE! We went right to check-in since it was after 3PM. Our room was ready. We were upgraded to a water view. (I must admit that without a balcony the water view was really no big deal.) Our room location was a lot closer to the Main Building than most. We were in Casita 3 on the 4th floor – room #3482.

We got lost. This place can be like a maze if you’re not paying attention. It was our fault. We opted to not use bell service. We wanted to walk and get accustomed to the location. We found Casita 3 with no problem. The room was another story. We kept going around in circles and could not find the elevator. We did get great views of the courtyard and pools along the way. Forget the elevator! We ended up dragging our 4 bags up the 3 flights of stairs. Oy. Finally after about 20 minutes of visiting every hallway but our own, we found our room. It was a nice tour. [img]graemlins/silly.gif[/img]

The Casita rooms are decorated in a Southwestern theme. Lots of greens, tans and corals. There is a table with 2 chairs, armoire with ample storage/drawers and an open closet near the sink area. We typically do not like a split bathroom. However, Coronado Springs' rooms provide a privacy curtain that blocks off the sink area from the sleeping quarters. It worked out great. I could get ready early in the morning without disturbing Jer.

A small 4 cup coffee maker, blow dryer, iron and ironing board were provided as additional amenities. There were extra pillows and towels on the closet shelf. Nice room!

We hadn’t eaten lunch so we were hungry. We wanted to scope out the Pepper Market and headed there for dinner. It is set up like a Marketplace. The theming is great. It is basically a food court but works a bit differently. Each person gets a card. You take your card to one of the 8 stations (kitchens). When you select an item your card is stamped. You pay at the end of your meal when your card is tallied up. It eliminates paying at a bunch of registers. However, you must pay a “service charge” since wait staff seats you and brings your beverage.

I opted for an ice tea and went off to the Grill Kitchen for some rotisserie Chicken and a baked potato. It was fresh, moist and yummy --- very tasty. I also selected a slice of German Chocolate Cake from the Bakery. YUM! Jeremy decided to have pizza from the Pizza Kitchen. (no surprise.) He waited forever. I thought he got lost again. It took over 15 minutes for his pizza to be ready. He was quite annoyed when he got back to the table. That passed quickly once he started eating. He deemed his pizza delicious. He chose a huge chocolate chip cookie for dessert. Total for our meal was $31.07.

After dinner we explored the resort some and headed for Downtown Disney. Jeremy wanted to check out “Once Upon a Toy” and their Star Wars merchandise and I needed to go to Guest Relations to activate my Annual Pass.

The bus stop for our section is right beside the Main Building. A bus came within 5 minutes and we were on our way. We spent a few hours shopping and realized we were running on empty and very tired. Travel days seem to do that to us. We opted to head to Guest Relations and then back to the resort. Oops! They would not activate my Annual Pass voucher ticket without a photo ID. I’ll have to do it in the morning. I wanted to avoid that since it was the first day of Star Wars Weekend and I expected masses at the gates. Live and learn.

We were back in the room by 11PM. I put in for a 5:30AM wake up call. We wanted to be on that first bus heading to MGM bright and early. Sleep came quickly with visions of Ewoks dancing in our heads! [img]graemlins/sleepin.gif[/img]

Coronado Springs Photos

Next Up:

Who turned out the lights? – Star Wars Mania & the Best Chicken EVER!

Edited to change the tagline date to the 13th. [img]graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

[ May 20, 2004, 09:30 AM: Message edited by: PolyGirl40 ]