Wackdawg
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2013
Hello everyone. Decided to give another trip review of our latest adventure. We arrived at Coronado Springs late morning on Thursday February 2nd, 2017 and we were placed in the 8b cabanas. I knew the resort was undergoing renovations but our room definitely looked really beat up and our bed made more creeks and cracks then anyone would probably ever desire. We didn't care too much even though our last trip in October at the same resort we were placed in the casitas which were in much better shape. Coming back to this resort on our next October trip probably not gonna happen until the renovations have ended. We have agreed to give Port of Orleans French Quarter a shot next time. Otherwise all the staff was extremely outgoing and helpful and having a bus stop right near our room was fantastic.
We started our first day at WDW running by going to Animal Kingdom. We got there about 11am but before venturing into the wild we had decided to become annual passholders and went right to the ticket booth where a real nice man helped us change our current tickets for three days into a AP. Everything went great and the only question we had after all that was said and done was can we get refunded for memory maker being it comes with the AP and we already paid for it. He told us to go to guest relations to find out. We thought as we approached Guest relations that if they do it great, if not no big deal, we understood that we already made that commitment before we arrived and if a refund was not possible so be it. The woman who helped us after we explained everything was having issues with the request. For some reason the original MM we had never downloaded to our account even though we paid for it and they could see it attached to the account but was told that if we hadn't come to GR first that most of our pictures would never have downloaded to MDE thus no pictures. We were glad to see at least that was corrected and they did refund us with a Gift card for the cost of MM. We never complained and just waited for the corrections to be made. However we waited 45+ minutes for it to be resolved which we didn't mind. We just wanted everything to be good to go and get a refund if possible. I guess because we were such good sports about it all the gave us a huge lot of Fast passes to be used. They gave us each 3 FP+ for anything at animal kingdom for that day, that was over the three we already had. Then she gave us an additional 3 FP+ certificates on gold tickets to be used anywhere at any park throughout our stay except for Frozen. Awesome! Wasn't even expecting any such generosity liked we received. Good form Disney!
Anyway we already had FP for Everest, safari and Dinosaur so we used our extra FP for another safari, M&G with Mickey and Minnie and Everest at night which was fantastic. We are now true believers of Everest at night being a better attraction and you are able to see so much more that isn't as visible during daylight hours. We also enjoyed walking the trails near the tree of life and the projection show for the Tree of Life later that day was very pleasurable and a nice touch to the evening. We also ate at Harambe market and while it was good it left us still hungry after our meal. I don't know why but I never had that feeling before after eating at a Disney restaurant. We also got to meet again King Louie and Baloo, Russell for the first time and Donald over near Dinosaur which is always a real honor. We then left AK to go to MK around 7pm.
We arrived at MK at around 730 ish and checked in for our Disney After hours event with ease. We got some vinylmations then we immediately did POTC then went on to do BTMR (twice), JC, HM, PP, IASW, JOTLM, POTC again, 7DMT (twice), Pooh, M&G Tiana & Rapunzel, Buzz (Twice) and had three rounds of ice cream, popcorn, and soda's. This event was amazing and when we go next year around end of January I hope it continues on. I would hope for our October trip but with MNSSHP going on I seriously doubt it. Many times throughout the night there was no one in sight except for CM's and the ability to hear the music pumping throughout the park was fantastic. This event is totally worth the price. However one thing to note. The bus ride back to Coronado took 45 minutes. The driver drove right by our resort to go to AK lodge, then he hit all the All Stars before going back to Coronado. We could of done without this aspect of the evening.
The next day was at EPCOT and enjoying the 1st Festival of the Arts. We had FP's for Frozen, SPEarth, and M&G with the Characters. We used two of our golden fp tickets for Test Track and Soarin' and rode Soarin' also first thing in the morning at rope drop, We also squeezed in Nemo, three caballeros and Figment and acquired myself some Joffrey's coffee and pastries. We ate around the world experincing food at all of the kiosks for the festival while playing the figment scavenger hunt which was real fun also. We acquired all 4 magnets for the hunt which are fun looking as well. We liked the BLT with pork belly, the Reuben, the chocolate flight, beef short rib,and the popt 'art. We both felt a few more kiosks would have been better so hopefully next year they ramp it up a little. The pictures of art that you could pose in were a fantastic idea and a lot of fun as well and the paint by number mural was absolutely the most nicest thing I have seen Disney do in awhile. What a great idea of community painting in EPCOT. We had dinner at one of our favorites and reliable restaurants at Chefs de France which as always was very good. We ended up having another M&G with Alice in front of the UK which was also a great experience. We then Hit up the best souvenier shop on property Mouse Gear and then headed back to Coronado with no 45 minute bus trip...phew.
On Saturday we went back to MK for the day. We had FP for PP, SDMT, and POTC. We rope dropped PP after not being able to have our breakfast hotdog at Casey's and after the morning show...meh. From PP we used our FP, then IASW, SDMT (FP) after waiting for break down to be over, then we went for POTC FP but that went down so we used it for BTMRR. Then got another FP for pirates. However in pirates they loaded the boat awfully bad. All the men with my gigantic build were all on the left side and myself anchoring the back left. I noticed as well as the guy in front of me that the boat was like 3 inches from going under water which prompted me to get my fiance to move over a lot to rise us up a little. It looked and felt like we were going down if I didn't do that. After that we realized real fast it was going to be a crazy busy day when we saw the crowds everywhere and FP's disappearing real fast. We decided on doing some shows like Mickeys philharmagic, Country bear Jamboree and the Tiki room for the afternoon. We also rode the carousel , LM, and Pooh. We also did a lot of damage in the Christmas Shoppe and caught some of the muppet show above Heritage House. We got lucky and had a M&G with Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dum which made up for us not getting them during MNSSHP in October. Tried twice to get fairy godmother but no dice. Lunch was at Casey's and we had dinner at the Skippers Canteen which was okay but I might try something else next time and the wait for the food was way too long. We saw the new projection show Once upon a time which we liked but it is no substitute for a parade. Again it was a crazy busy day at the magic kingdom.
For Sunday our last day we decided to hit EPCOT for breakfast at Garden Grill which is really under rated I think for the food is good and the character interactions are great. We always have a good time here. We used a gold ticket FP for Test Track and then used a fp for SPEarth which is one of our goodbye rides always. We also managed to get in another Mexico ride in and saw the festival display in the odyssey. We then called it a stay and headed back to the resort to go to the airport but before we left we had seen armies and I do mean ARMIES of young cheerleaders/dancers coming in chanting loudly. It was kind of impressive but at the same time a little startling to see that many and organized that well. I could see the stress in the cast members faces already it only took like 90 minutes of park open to accomplish that. Felt bad for them that day and even before we rode SPearth they let 4 cars go by so we would not be bothered by them. We didn't ask they just did it. Thought that was nice of them. Well that's all I can muster up right now so now I wait and plan our next trip for the French Quarter. Is it October yet?
We started our first day at WDW running by going to Animal Kingdom. We got there about 11am but before venturing into the wild we had decided to become annual passholders and went right to the ticket booth where a real nice man helped us change our current tickets for three days into a AP. Everything went great and the only question we had after all that was said and done was can we get refunded for memory maker being it comes with the AP and we already paid for it. He told us to go to guest relations to find out. We thought as we approached Guest relations that if they do it great, if not no big deal, we understood that we already made that commitment before we arrived and if a refund was not possible so be it. The woman who helped us after we explained everything was having issues with the request. For some reason the original MM we had never downloaded to our account even though we paid for it and they could see it attached to the account but was told that if we hadn't come to GR first that most of our pictures would never have downloaded to MDE thus no pictures. We were glad to see at least that was corrected and they did refund us with a Gift card for the cost of MM. We never complained and just waited for the corrections to be made. However we waited 45+ minutes for it to be resolved which we didn't mind. We just wanted everything to be good to go and get a refund if possible. I guess because we were such good sports about it all the gave us a huge lot of Fast passes to be used. They gave us each 3 FP+ for anything at animal kingdom for that day, that was over the three we already had. Then she gave us an additional 3 FP+ certificates on gold tickets to be used anywhere at any park throughout our stay except for Frozen. Awesome! Wasn't even expecting any such generosity liked we received. Good form Disney!
Anyway we already had FP for Everest, safari and Dinosaur so we used our extra FP for another safari, M&G with Mickey and Minnie and Everest at night which was fantastic. We are now true believers of Everest at night being a better attraction and you are able to see so much more that isn't as visible during daylight hours. We also enjoyed walking the trails near the tree of life and the projection show for the Tree of Life later that day was very pleasurable and a nice touch to the evening. We also ate at Harambe market and while it was good it left us still hungry after our meal. I don't know why but I never had that feeling before after eating at a Disney restaurant. We also got to meet again King Louie and Baloo, Russell for the first time and Donald over near Dinosaur which is always a real honor. We then left AK to go to MK around 7pm.
We arrived at MK at around 730 ish and checked in for our Disney After hours event with ease. We got some vinylmations then we immediately did POTC then went on to do BTMR (twice), JC, HM, PP, IASW, JOTLM, POTC again, 7DMT (twice), Pooh, M&G Tiana & Rapunzel, Buzz (Twice) and had three rounds of ice cream, popcorn, and soda's. This event was amazing and when we go next year around end of January I hope it continues on. I would hope for our October trip but with MNSSHP going on I seriously doubt it. Many times throughout the night there was no one in sight except for CM's and the ability to hear the music pumping throughout the park was fantastic. This event is totally worth the price. However one thing to note. The bus ride back to Coronado took 45 minutes. The driver drove right by our resort to go to AK lodge, then he hit all the All Stars before going back to Coronado. We could of done without this aspect of the evening.
The next day was at EPCOT and enjoying the 1st Festival of the Arts. We had FP's for Frozen, SPEarth, and M&G with the Characters. We used two of our golden fp tickets for Test Track and Soarin' and rode Soarin' also first thing in the morning at rope drop, We also squeezed in Nemo, three caballeros and Figment and acquired myself some Joffrey's coffee and pastries. We ate around the world experincing food at all of the kiosks for the festival while playing the figment scavenger hunt which was real fun also. We acquired all 4 magnets for the hunt which are fun looking as well. We liked the BLT with pork belly, the Reuben, the chocolate flight, beef short rib,and the popt 'art. We both felt a few more kiosks would have been better so hopefully next year they ramp it up a little. The pictures of art that you could pose in were a fantastic idea and a lot of fun as well and the paint by number mural was absolutely the most nicest thing I have seen Disney do in awhile. What a great idea of community painting in EPCOT. We had dinner at one of our favorites and reliable restaurants at Chefs de France which as always was very good. We ended up having another M&G with Alice in front of the UK which was also a great experience. We then Hit up the best souvenier shop on property Mouse Gear and then headed back to Coronado with no 45 minute bus trip...phew.
On Saturday we went back to MK for the day. We had FP for PP, SDMT, and POTC. We rope dropped PP after not being able to have our breakfast hotdog at Casey's and after the morning show...meh. From PP we used our FP, then IASW, SDMT (FP) after waiting for break down to be over, then we went for POTC FP but that went down so we used it for BTMRR. Then got another FP for pirates. However in pirates they loaded the boat awfully bad. All the men with my gigantic build were all on the left side and myself anchoring the back left. I noticed as well as the guy in front of me that the boat was like 3 inches from going under water which prompted me to get my fiance to move over a lot to rise us up a little. It looked and felt like we were going down if I didn't do that. After that we realized real fast it was going to be a crazy busy day when we saw the crowds everywhere and FP's disappearing real fast. We decided on doing some shows like Mickeys philharmagic, Country bear Jamboree and the Tiki room for the afternoon. We also rode the carousel , LM, and Pooh. We also did a lot of damage in the Christmas Shoppe and caught some of the muppet show above Heritage House. We got lucky and had a M&G with Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dum which made up for us not getting them during MNSSHP in October. Tried twice to get fairy godmother but no dice. Lunch was at Casey's and we had dinner at the Skippers Canteen which was okay but I might try something else next time and the wait for the food was way too long. We saw the new projection show Once upon a time which we liked but it is no substitute for a parade. Again it was a crazy busy day at the magic kingdom.
For Sunday our last day we decided to hit EPCOT for breakfast at Garden Grill which is really under rated I think for the food is good and the character interactions are great. We always have a good time here. We used a gold ticket FP for Test Track and then used a fp for SPEarth which is one of our goodbye rides always. We also managed to get in another Mexico ride in and saw the festival display in the odyssey. We then called it a stay and headed back to the resort to go to the airport but before we left we had seen armies and I do mean ARMIES of young cheerleaders/dancers coming in chanting loudly. It was kind of impressive but at the same time a little startling to see that many and organized that well. I could see the stress in the cast members faces already it only took like 90 minutes of park open to accomplish that. Felt bad for them that day and even before we rode SPearth they let 4 cars go by so we would not be bothered by them. We didn't ask they just did it. Thought that was nice of them. Well that's all I can muster up right now so now I wait and plan our next trip for the French Quarter. Is it October yet?
