Live-ish Trip Report! #AmyandJohns2ndAnniversary!!!

[bc7ate9]

Hello!

I am going to make this into a real Trip Report once we get home, but will also post along the way with some live updates!

Very quick intro for now: we are Amy (me) and John. We are celebrating our 2nd anniversary with a quick trip to WDW - Wednesday, 9/23 - Sunday, 9/27. It's really lucky how our anniversary aligns so nicely with Food & Wine and MNSSHP every year. It's almost like somebody planned it that way...anyway, this trip is going to fly by - we usually stay twice as long. I'm not allowed to complain, though - we already spent a week at DL in CA and almost a month in Japan, including 3 days at the Tokyo Disney Resort and Parks. We are really excited to bring our Total Number of Disney Parks Visited in 2015 to EIGHT with this trip!

We always give our trips a hashtag for Instagram and stuff - you can follow #AmyandJohns2ndAnniversary, or me - bc7ate9.

So, back to the reporting...We left MSP at 8 am CST and arrived in Orlando a little after 12 pm DST (Disney Standard Time). Flight was fine - we tried a budget airline for the first time and we'd give it a solid ok. I managed to sleep for most of the flight - my Duffy bear makes a great pillow.

We landed and made our way to the Magic Express. Does anybody else start noticing other Magic Bands on your flight and start to feel a little competitive? I'm not usually competitive, but I'm definitely not going to let all those other people beat me to Disney!

No lines at Magic Express - except for the All Star Resorts. We are going to Coronado Springs (first time!) and didn't have any line. The All Stars boarded their bus and CS still just had us for a line...so they put us on the last 2 seats of the bus bound for the All Stars. I was hoping they'd just dump us off first. Nope. We get a tour of the All Stars first. I could complain about that, but I'm a positive, optimistic sort of person - it'll be neat seeing the other resorts! Right?! I know I'm convinced!



We got our room # right after we checked in for ME. We've never had a room ready for us before so that's pretty cool. We are in what appears to be the most remote part of the resort possible - Ranchos 7a. Whatever - we like walking and hardly ever eat at the resort anyway.



Approaching All Stars - must pay attention and enjoy the tour.

 

[bc7ate9]

Here's us at Tokyo Disneyland in April.



And again at Tokyo DisneySea.



FYI: the All Star Resorts aren't all that exciting from the outside...2 down, 1 to go - then off to Coronado Springs!!!

 

[bc7ate9]

Stopped at check in just to get a map - and totally forgot to get our anniversary buttons!



Made our way to the room - the resort seems very lovely! The landscaping is beautiful and the atmosphere is very quiet and relaxed. We are close to the main pool and also a quiet pool. The room is nice - a typical moderate. I like that the vanity area is separated by the heavy wood doors.



Dumped our stuff in the room and found Bus Stop 3 - very convenient. A bus to MK arrived in 3:21, right behind a HS bus. Now I'm going to relax and enjoy the ride. Thank you!

 

[roller99]

Excited to follow along!

 

[bc7ate9]

CS to MK: 17:42



The SECOND this stops being magical for me, I will walk out of Disney and never, ever come back.

The new hub looks great!
No crane up by the castle!

At Cosmic Ray's for lunch. This is one of our favorite places for absolutely no good reason. We just always eat here...so it's slightly special by default, I guess? It's always empty when we are here - today...not so much. Park overall seems more crowded than what we are used to in September. It's ok - we still got a great view of Sonny Eclipse and a cherry slush, among other things.

 

[marabusybee]

Joining in! So excited for you. Makes me wish I hadn't waited until December to head back.

 

[bc7ate9]

Well...note to self: trust the crowd calendars. I ignored them today - I just wanted to go to MK first...it's busier than WE have ever seen it (take into account that we travel when crowds are generally low and NOTHING has lines) which is maybe not all THAT busy...but still! We even had to wait in line for the People Mover!!!

We have done a lot since our late lunch, though:
Phillharmagic
BTMRR
Country Bears
Tangled Toilets (we decided these should count as an attraction)
People Mover
Space Mt
Laugh Floor
Dinner at Columbia Harbor House (first time)
Little Mermaid
Goofy and Donald

Not bad. We miss our low crowds, though.

 

[JustCor]

Well...note to self: trust the crowd calendars. I ignored them today - I just wanted to go to MK first...it's busier than WE have ever seen it (take into account that we travel when crowds are generally low and NOTHING has lines) which is maybe not all THAT busy...but still! We even had to wait in line for the People Mover!!!

We have done a lot since our late lunch, though:
Phillharmagic
BTMRR
Country Bears
Tangled Toilets (we decided these should count as an attraction)
People Mover
Space Mt
Laugh Floor
Dinner at Columbia Harbor House (first time)
Little Mermaid
Goofy and Donald

Not bad. We miss our low crowds, though.

Following along!

During my August trip, there was a MASSIVE line for People Mover on one of the days. I was completely shocked. There were even long lines for almost every portal for Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom.

 

[bc7ate9]

Disney Confession: we don't care about fireworks. Or parades. Or any related entertainment. We know Disney does a great job with that stuff, but it's just not our thing.

Related note: we LOVE the path that runs parallel to Main St. The one that has zero congestion and, like, 3 other people on it while everybody else is crowded onto Main Street waiting for all that stuff WE don't care about. It's new since we were here a year ago and we love it.

There are so many family reunions here today. I have never seen so many large groups in matching shirts.

Anyway, after we did all that stuff I listed earlier, we rode small world (my husband's favorite - seriously) and the 7D Mine Ride. Now we are waiting for our bus because my BFF is at our resort waiting for us. I haven't seen her in 2 years!!!! She's not really a "Disney person", but I can look past that.

Bus from MK to CS arrived in 7:31. It's not very full (another reason we just don't care about staying for fireworks.)

 

[zamboniman333]

Have fun!

 

[nilla]

Yay, Coronado Springs! LOVE that resort!

Are you in the Cabanas?

 

[bc7ate9]

Yay, Coronado Springs! LOVE that resort!

Are you in the Cabanas?

Ranchos 7a. It's probably the building furthest from El Centro which we don't mind at all. It's super close to bus stop 3.

 

[bc7ate9]

We spent today with my best friend, her 7 year old daughter, and 5 month old son. It was our first time experiencing Disney with kids!!! We went to Epcot since they'd never been. Such an awesome day. John and I love pre-opening day at Food & Wine.

Our friends had to head back to Tampa around 7. It's so hard saying good bye when you're having so much fun!

After saying our good-byes, John and I headed to MK. We ate at the Friar's Nook for the first time. Loved the pot roast Mac and cheese! We got a couple more FP - HM and Pooh - then rode the People Mover (no line!) and Buzz. We headed out just as the fireworks started.

Sorry that this is more of a journal entry than a trip report, but it'll help me remember the details when I get home!

 

[JustCor]

We spent today with my best friend, her 7 year old daughter, and 5 month old son. It was our first time experiencing Disney with kids!!! We went to Epcot since they'd never been. Such an awesome day. John and I love pre-opening day at Food & Wine.

Our friends had to head back to Tampa around 7. It's so hard saying good bye when you're having so much fun!

After saying our good-byes, John and I headed to MK. We ate at the Friar's Nook for the first time. Loved the pot roast Mac and cheese! We got a couple more FP - HM and Pooh - then rode the People Mover (no line!) and Buzz. We headed out just as the fireworks started.

Sorry that this is more of a journal entry than a trip report, but it'll help me remember the details when I get home!

Pot roast mac and cheese is my favorite! Sounds like a fun time so far.

 

[bc7ate9]

Started the day at Magic Kingdom. We had an 8:35 ADR for BOG. The buses were a little slow - most were going to Epcot, probably because it's opening day of Food & Wine. We waited 13:46. Pre-open ADRs feel a lot less special now that so many people can get them, but it's still neat seeing Main Street and the castle with so many fewer people. It's just not EMPTY the way it was when it was only CRT and CP offering the pre-open ADRs.

We wanted to sit in the West Wing so we found a table for 6 with only 2 people who were happy to share it with us. They told us that's how THEY got the table. Later, after the left, another couple asked if they could share the table with us. It's nice when people follow social conventions and everybody's happy.

Breakfast was tasty! We both enjoyed the sandwiches we'd ordered a week ago - John had the bacon sandwich and I had the one with ham. They brought them to the table and asked who ordered the "whatever the official French name is". We stared dumbly till they just handed us plates.



We finished a little after 9 - 7D had a 75 minute wait!!! We walked on to Splash Mt instead. They were letting people stay on, but I got plenty soaked the first time.

After that, we did Jungle Cruise, Tiki Room, and the Flying Carpets. I thought John should sing "Whole New World" to me in a romantic fashion. He disagreed.



Crowds were low, but we plan to be at EMH tomorrow night & MNSSHP tonight so we had enough MK.

We hopped a monorail to Epcot - no wait at either the MK or the TTC. We also didn't have to walk down and around at TTC to get our connection which was awesome.

More about our day at Epcot & Food and Wine soon!

 

[vleeth]

Just found you from the facebook dec group.

Happy Anniversary!