Well the long delayed trip report is finally happening. I have been so swamped with work since returning, that I am just barely getting a chance to write about my trip. So here are the details. I also have lots of pictures to post, so those should be up shortly also. I definitely learned a lot of interesting things on this trip that I will share as they happen.
Cast: Me, 21 years old, and sister Kelli, 17 years old
Dates: June 21-July 3
Resorts: Coronado Springs, Swan, and Dolphin
Day 1--June 21
We flew to Orlando from Salt Lake City on Delta and there were no delays getting there. The flight was very uneventful and about 4.5 hours. It seemed to take forever because we were so excited and had no idea what to expect. With all the planning I had spent doing, I expected this trip to be flawless. Well it was on the plane that I realized I had failed to pack the itinerary and the Unofficial Guide touring plan I wanted to use
…so this trip ended up being more spontaneous than I had imagined.
We arrived at MCO around 2:35pm, right on time. We had received luggage tags for the Magical Express, but they had been for the wrong resort, so we didn’t use them. So we proceeded to find the Magical Express desk which is very easy to do with the greeters with the large Mickey hands directing traffic. The line was very short and moved fast. The man at the desk (who was the same man at the desk in the video they show on the bus—we chuckled at that) was very nice and had me point to the type of luggage we had checked. He then gave me my boarding passes for the bus and I proceeded to the next line.
I went in with no expectations for the Magical Express and overall I was pretty impressed. The buses were very cool looking and the inside was well air-conditioned and comfortable. We waited about 10 minutes to board the bus and then another 30 minutes before the bus finally left. Initially it was supposed to be all Coronado Springs guests, but the bus driver kept delaying the departure and finally we ended up with guests from a total of four resorts. I didn’t care though because I was finally headed to Disney World.
It’s always funny to watch other people in these types of situations. The one I had to laugh at the most was this family of four: a mother, grandmother, and two kids. The young boy was playing his Gameboy while we were waiting for the bus to leave and all of a sudden the grandmother starts yelling at him to put it down because they hadn’t spent all this money for him to come to Disney World just for him to play his video games. Then the mother starts yelling at him too and tries to grab it out of his hands. They made quite the scene on the bus because this poor kid was just passing time waiting to leave and we weren’t even at Disney World yet. Some people are just so random.
So our first stop was Pop Century and the resort looked pretty cool. I was too worried about staying at a value, but I might have to reconsider whenever I go back. I was pretty impressed. And then we finally arrived at the Coronado Springs around 4:30pm--two hours after we landed--not too bad in my mind. The resort was gorgeous and I instantly fell in love with it. The line to check in was long, but I also found out there was a Pampered Chef convention going on, so the resort was crowded all week, but not too bad.
I had initially requested a Cabanas room, but was given one in the Ranchos 6A area. We also had paid for a water view since it was the only room type available with the AP discount. The Ranchos area was very pretty—again, not what I had expected it to be. The only complaint I had was the long walk to get to El Centro. Although they have the golf carts roaming around, we were always unsuccessful in flagging one down. So the few times we went to El Centro, we walked. We had a corner room so the extra window was nice—the water view was a bit of a stretch though, but I didn’t care too much. We were hardly in the room to enjoy it anyways. The best part was we were very close to the bus stop, so it was convenient.
Coming up...our first night at the Magic Kingdom and first experience with a Florida storm