chechas
12-20-2008, 09:10 AM
Cast:
Myself - Disney nut
DD (13) - Even bigger Disney nut
Dates: Dec 19- 27
Hotel: Coronado Springs
Today: Dec 19
Weather: High 70s/low 80s during day, dropped to mid to high 50s at night. Clear sunny skies.
We did not hit the road until about 2pm as I was waiting for a delivery from UPS. We got caught in a traffic jam through Tampa but made it to DTD by 3:30. I switched out my Florida Resident 3 day pass for an Annual Pass and bought Tey's pass. We pulled into Coronado Springs at 3:50. I was wondering why the car line was so long to get through the gate and boy did I find out. The guard on duty was a very friendly and chatty fellow. Did I mention chatty? He must have talked to us for 7 minutes about I don't even remember what with the line of cars backing up behind us. He was so cheerful and happy it was hard to cut him off but he finally let us go. Check-in was not bad at all. There were maybe 4 people in line ahead of me and it moved fairly quickly. When it was my turn I chatted a bit with the cast member (Emma)and she commented on how tall Miss Tey is (she is 13 but stands just shy of 6'). I then asked her very nicely if there was any way to get one of hte newly refurbed rooms and she was like let me see what I can do. She looked on the computer and then excused herself and spoke withsomeone else who pulled up another computer. When she came back she did not say anything until she was circling our room location ont he map and saying we now have a waterview! (I booked standard) So we ended up in Casitas 1 on the 4th floor! YAY!!! We drove around to our building and I am now so very thankful that I went ahead and bought a small luggage cart! It was only $21 but it saved us extra trips to the car. We got all the big stuff (as we also bring a big plastic storage bin of decorations and small tree) in the first trip. The room is gorgeous! But I will say that I am not sure how long they will keep the all white bedding! While beautiful and rich looking with kids and adults spilling things etc, these will not be snowy white for long! I also really like the carpeting LOL. The desk chair was a tad uncomfortable though so I moved one of the ottamans over and use that at the desk. Anyways, we left out and headed to Winn Dixie real quick to stock up on snacks and breakfast items before going to the Magic Kingdom. Winn Dixie is only about 5 miles away if you go out Hotel Plaza Drive (headed towards Goodings) but take a left instead of going straight. Follow around and Winn Dixie is on the right hand side. We got back to hotel around 6pm and brought in the last couple of small things along with the groceries. Then headed to the bus for Magic Kingdom as we had tickets for MVMCP. The wait was maybe 5 minutes and the bus was not packed but boy when we got to the park we hit it at wrong time as it was just gone 7pm so there were hoards of people trying to get through bag check and entrance turn styles. We had to go to will call window to pick up tickets and that line moved pretty fast. By the time we got tickets, the line for bag check and turnstyles were only 2-3 people deep! LOL. So lesson learned either get to park early or later not right at 7pm. I have to say that there is no better feeling than that first view of main street at night during Christmas time! Walking out onto the square and seeing the tree and the lights and snow and music and of course Cindy's Castle all lite up just does my heart good! We headed to Tomorrowland and rode Buzz Lightyear after a 5 minute wait. We walked out and got right in line for the 8pm show of Twas the Night Before Xmas (this is a must see - to durn cute!). We got good seats and the show was entertaining as always. We then just walked around taking in the sights and sounds. Most of the big rides - The Mountains, Pirates etc all had maybe 10 minute wait. But I did notice that some of the more kid friendly ride - Snow White, Pooh etc had 20-30 minute waits. We got a couple churros and water in Fantasy land..I did notice that the lines for the free hot chocolate and cookies were pretty short and they seemed to have more locations than in the past. On to Haunted Mansion, which we literally just walked right in and on! The 8pm parade which ended up starting closer to 9 was on and by the time we came out of HM, the line was backin gup to Liberty Square! Good timing! We then walked through frontier land and stopped at Pecos Bill for some chili cheese fries (yes it was junk food night) LOL. We realized that it was almost time for the 9:30 Wishes fireworks so we hightailed it to Mainstreet and got a spot right in front of Crystal Palace to watch. It wasn't too crowded where we were and we were able to sit which was nice! Tink is still so cute flying over. After the fireworks we were both exhausted and decided against staying for 10:30 parade so we headed to the shops to get our MVMCP 2008 pins. They had one little stand and in the past on the last night of the party, the merchandise was marked down....not this year! Though they have marked all ornaments and tree skirts down 50%. I won't get into the argument I had with a CM about a misplaced sign. LOL. When we came out of the shops I realized it was only 10 minutes til parade time so we decided to wait as we have never caught the Xmas parade. We sat on the steps of city hall taking silly pictures. We had a great spot and alot of people had cleared out of the park so we had an unobstructed view of parade. My daughter loved it and it was so cool watching her face as each float turned the corner! It reminded me how young she really is as she comes across older than she is.
We hung around main street for a bit after the parade then caught the bus(standing room only) back to Coronado. Got back a little after midnight.
Tomorrow: Universal Studios and Grinchmas, set up out Xmas tree and lights.
Myself - Disney nut
DD (13) - Even bigger Disney nut
Dates: Dec 19- 27
Hotel: Coronado Springs
Today: Dec 19
Weather: High 70s/low 80s during day, dropped to mid to high 50s at night. Clear sunny skies.
We did not hit the road until about 2pm as I was waiting for a delivery from UPS. We got caught in a traffic jam through Tampa but made it to DTD by 3:30. I switched out my Florida Resident 3 day pass for an Annual Pass and bought Tey's pass. We pulled into Coronado Springs at 3:50. I was wondering why the car line was so long to get through the gate and boy did I find out. The guard on duty was a very friendly and chatty fellow. Did I mention chatty? He must have talked to us for 7 minutes about I don't even remember what with the line of cars backing up behind us. He was so cheerful and happy it was hard to cut him off but he finally let us go. Check-in was not bad at all. There were maybe 4 people in line ahead of me and it moved fairly quickly. When it was my turn I chatted a bit with the cast member (Emma)and she commented on how tall Miss Tey is (she is 13 but stands just shy of 6'). I then asked her very nicely if there was any way to get one of hte newly refurbed rooms and she was like let me see what I can do. She looked on the computer and then excused herself and spoke withsomeone else who pulled up another computer. When she came back she did not say anything until she was circling our room location ont he map and saying we now have a waterview! (I booked standard) So we ended up in Casitas 1 on the 4th floor! YAY!!! We drove around to our building and I am now so very thankful that I went ahead and bought a small luggage cart! It was only $21 but it saved us extra trips to the car. We got all the big stuff (as we also bring a big plastic storage bin of decorations and small tree) in the first trip. The room is gorgeous! But I will say that I am not sure how long they will keep the all white bedding! While beautiful and rich looking with kids and adults spilling things etc, these will not be snowy white for long! I also really like the carpeting LOL. The desk chair was a tad uncomfortable though so I moved one of the ottamans over and use that at the desk. Anyways, we left out and headed to Winn Dixie real quick to stock up on snacks and breakfast items before going to the Magic Kingdom. Winn Dixie is only about 5 miles away if you go out Hotel Plaza Drive (headed towards Goodings) but take a left instead of going straight. Follow around and Winn Dixie is on the right hand side. We got back to hotel around 6pm and brought in the last couple of small things along with the groceries. Then headed to the bus for Magic Kingdom as we had tickets for MVMCP. The wait was maybe 5 minutes and the bus was not packed but boy when we got to the park we hit it at wrong time as it was just gone 7pm so there were hoards of people trying to get through bag check and entrance turn styles. We had to go to will call window to pick up tickets and that line moved pretty fast. By the time we got tickets, the line for bag check and turnstyles were only 2-3 people deep! LOL. So lesson learned either get to park early or later not right at 7pm. I have to say that there is no better feeling than that first view of main street at night during Christmas time! Walking out onto the square and seeing the tree and the lights and snow and music and of course Cindy's Castle all lite up just does my heart good! We headed to Tomorrowland and rode Buzz Lightyear after a 5 minute wait. We walked out and got right in line for the 8pm show of Twas the Night Before Xmas (this is a must see - to durn cute!). We got good seats and the show was entertaining as always. We then just walked around taking in the sights and sounds. Most of the big rides - The Mountains, Pirates etc all had maybe 10 minute wait. But I did notice that some of the more kid friendly ride - Snow White, Pooh etc had 20-30 minute waits. We got a couple churros and water in Fantasy land..I did notice that the lines for the free hot chocolate and cookies were pretty short and they seemed to have more locations than in the past. On to Haunted Mansion, which we literally just walked right in and on! The 8pm parade which ended up starting closer to 9 was on and by the time we came out of HM, the line was backin gup to Liberty Square! Good timing! We then walked through frontier land and stopped at Pecos Bill for some chili cheese fries (yes it was junk food night) LOL. We realized that it was almost time for the 9:30 Wishes fireworks so we hightailed it to Mainstreet and got a spot right in front of Crystal Palace to watch. It wasn't too crowded where we were and we were able to sit which was nice! Tink is still so cute flying over. After the fireworks we were both exhausted and decided against staying for 10:30 parade so we headed to the shops to get our MVMCP 2008 pins. They had one little stand and in the past on the last night of the party, the merchandise was marked down....not this year! Though they have marked all ornaments and tree skirts down 50%. I won't get into the argument I had with a CM about a misplaced sign. LOL. When we came out of the shops I realized it was only 10 minutes til parade time so we decided to wait as we have never caught the Xmas parade. We sat on the steps of city hall taking silly pictures. We had a great spot and alot of people had cleared out of the park so we had an unobstructed view of parade. My daughter loved it and it was so cool watching her face as each float turned the corner! It reminded me how young she really is as she comes across older than she is.
We hung around main street for a bit after the parade then caught the bus(standing room only) back to Coronado. Got back a little after midnight.
Tomorrow: Universal Studios and Grinchmas, set up out Xmas tree and lights.