"Refrain from hibernating, and we'll all enjoy the show" - A February 2018 Trip Report

Kelsanna

Earning My Ears
Joined
Dec 30, 2015
Hello! Welcome to my trip report! This is my first attempt, so be patient and apologies if its a bit rough :o I didn't do a Pre-Trip Report so this first post might be a bit background heavy.

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Trip Details:

Where: Coronado Springs Resort, booked via Undercover Tourist
When: February 18-25
Tickets: 7-day park hopper (me), 6-day park hopper (my parents) - both Canadian Resident promotion rate
Transportation: flying (Air Canada Rouge)
Dining plan: Nope, don't eat at enough sit down restaurants, or buy enough snacks to make it worth it
Memory Maker: No, sadly trying to save money so didn't do memory maker this trip

Introductions & Background:

Who am I? Thanks for asking
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I'm Kelsey (or Kelsanna to my friends). I'm a 31 year old public servant from White Rock, BC (near Vancouver). Other than Disney, I love my pug Seymour, Halloween, reading and movies. What do I say that doesn't sound like a cheesy personal ad? If you want to know more, ask?

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I have always been a Dis fan, and growing up on the west coast of Canada that meant taking family trips as a kid to Disneyland (grade 1, grade 7, grade 10) and later trips to California and Disneyland with friends.


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A few years after finishing my degree at university and working in a real adult job, I decided I wanted to finally make a trip to WDW happen. In December 2013, my family and I stayed at POR French Quarter and my Disney addiction has EXPLODED since then! 2014, my best friend (S) and I went to Disneyland and in 2015 the two of us went to WDW for two weeks, stayed at POR Riverside and surprised our friend (M) who was working at Epcot. In 2016 I went with my family again to POR French Quarter before a Disney Dream cruise. In Spring 2017 I went with my family on a Europe trip which I insisted include a trip to Disneyland Paris (we stayed at the Newport Beach Resort). In the fall of 2017 a group of friends and I (in future this group of friends will be called the Mickeys Mounties) went to Disneyland so we could finally experience Mickey's Halloween Party and Tiki Day. I often try (and usually fail) to not be that annoying person who compares whats different at all the parks, but I'm just so interested! Definitely a bucket list item for me is to see all the parks across the world, and if one of my friends or family is considering a trip, watch out! I'm there helping plan and hoping that I can tag along. Since that first WDW trip, its impossible to go a whole year without a parks trip and I'm sure many of you can relate!


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I have two older sisters, two nieces, two nephews and some brothers in law who area all great; well except my sisters, they're pretty awful! Just kidding I love my sisters but as the youngest of three, the one my sisters call "Princess", its my duty to be a brat to them. They mostly deserve it though, if we ever meet in person remind me to tell you the tale of how on my first Disneyland trip my sisters convinced me Disneyland was an elaborate lie and its really a place where parents go to trade their children! No one one in my family is quite as obsessed as me with Disney but my parents have humoured me many times.

This trip actually came about because my parents (G and A) were taking an anniversary trip cruise from LA through the Panama Canal which finished in Ft. Lauderdale. My father (G)- Mr. "I don't ever need to do Disney again" was the one who brought up the idea of the trip when they realized they'd be in Florida. "I hear they have that Avatar land now" is what started the idea of me joining them after their cruise. So about 4-6 months ago we started looking online for trip deals. I've never stayed on property at Disneyland because of the insane price difference between the surrounding hotels, but at WDW and DLRP I've only stayed on property and wouldn't want to do it any other way. We're pretty firmly in the moderate category. I've walked around the All Star resorts and didn't really feel like the value resorts were my style and anything over moderate is pretty much out of my price range. I loved both Port Orleans resorts but this time I really wanted to try some where new so we avoided looking there. In the past, I've usually booked a vacation package with west jet or air canada but since we'd be meeting up and not flying there together, it made more sense to book hotel and flights separate. I found a decent room only deal on Undercover Tourist to both Caribbean Beach and Coronado Springs. After reading about the construction at both resorts, I felt like Coronado might be the better choice so we booked that one. Since my last WDW trip in 2016, west jet stopped their direct flight to Orlando from YVR, so unfortunately my only choice was the air canada rouge flight which only goes a few times a week. That flight schedule pretty much dictated that I'd get there a day before my parents and be there sunday-sunday. As much as possible I prefer to not have lay overs. I knew from my research about the Presidents' Day holiday and the runDisney event, that this trip would probably be during the busiest time I'd ever experience and spoiler alert: I was right. I went into it with the attitude that if I could do a few of the main things I'd identified wanting to see/do/eat it would be awesome, anything else would be gravy.

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Okay so this feels like a good place to end the background and intros, next up will be Day 1. Feel free to ask questions or make suggestions, thanks for reading.

Stay tuned if you want to find out the answers to the following questions:

  • What did I think of Pandora?
  • What was the construction at Coronado Springs like?
  • Did we get a refurbished room?
  • What did I think of the famous Ohana Bread Pudding when I tried it for the first time?
  • Am I one of those pin people?
  • What Disney legend did I meet?
  • How many disney hats or headbands did I buy?
  • What Disney related thing am I saving my money for ? (The reason I didn't buy memory maker)
 
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We were there the same time, 2/17 to 2/24. We stayed at BLT and loved it! Joining in to find out all about your bullet points!
 
Following along! My mom's family lived in Vancouver and my uncle used to live in White Rock (before moving back to Langley), and we visited every summer growing up; still love Moby Dick's!
 


Day 1 - Travel and Arrival
I woke up bright and early on Sunday morning. It had snowed the night before and since we don't get much snow ever I was a bit anxious that the roads and airport. My aunt picked me up and dropped me off where check in and everything was pretty uneventful. I suffered through the annoying airport phenomenon of airline repeatedly telling people not to line up, but two or three huge messy lines forming anyway, but I was anxious to get the trip started so I joined the hoard. I paid extra in advance to book an exit row seat and my research paid off; I had a glorious amount of leg room and the rare treat of a two seat row with no one next to me! The pilot announced that the plane had been parked for 8 hours so the snow would need to be removed before take off. We spent about 40 mins driving on the runway to the wash station, lining up, parking, and then having the snow washed off.

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Eventually we were underway. The flight was delightfully uneventful. I forgot that Air Canada Rouge doesn't give ANY type of food or snack and had only packed a few snacks. I pushed the call button for food but didn't get any service for about an hour since they'd just started beverage service. Eventually I ordered a pizza but was told it would be free since it had been sitting for a while. I was hungry enough that the lukewarm cardboard pizza seemed edible :)

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After arriving at MCO and picking up my bags I headed to the Magical Express where I waited about 20 minutes before heading to my hotel. I chose not to online check in because I like to find out where my room is from a cast member. When I got to Coronado it was dark out and hotel seemed quiet, other than the long line at guest services. I hate getting an assigned room and bringing in my luggage, etc only to find out its not right and then have to go back to front desk to change rooms etc. I'd previously tried a fax request at POR Riverside and had success so a week or so before we departed for this trip I faxed one into Coronado Springs. I'd mentioned we were celebrating my parents anniversary and that my mom would have an ECV do to mobility issues and requested being near a bus stop in a refurbished room. I was happy to discover we'd been assigned a third floor room in Ranchos building 7A. It's the farthest building away from the main building "El Centro" but very close to Bus Stop 3. We were around the corner from the elevator and ice machines and facing the bus stop so we could see when buses were coming. Despite being far from the main building it was a great location for us; because of the way the buses are routed, we were the second actual stop on the route so buses were never too full and the main building was only a short bus ride away. There was a small pool and laundry close by and the main dig site pool wasn't too far away. The room was fairly quiet and the nearby elevator was handy with the ECV we rented. All in all very happy with location.... and..... it was a refurbished room! Yay!

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I'm a pin addict and trader so I was also excited to get a set of pins!

I loved the refurbished room!
- I think its smart that the Disney touches were very subtle because this is a convention hotel.
- The beds on the high wooden platforms were nice and provided room underneath for suitcases.
- I hate suspicious smelling public carpets, so the floors were also a bonus.
- Great big flatscreen TV and Keurig were a treat.

After exploring and unpacking I decided to search out a Disney first I've been wanting to try: Ohana Bread Pudding. I'd noticed while browsing the Tambu lounge menu at the Polynesian previously that you could order a single serving portion of bread pudding but when I checked more recently I noticed it was no longer listed on the online menu. Since I had no reservations or plans I decided to just ramble over there and check it out. I took the bus to MK and then the monorail over to the Poly. I poked around the stores and then headed to the bar and was happy to find the bread pudding was on the menu, so I ordered a portion.

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My thoughts? Honestly, it was good but not great. There was nothing wrong with it, but I think it was a case of too high expectations. I enjoyed it and am glad I tried it but I found the sauce extremely sweet. After stuffing my face I headed back towards the monorail and bus back to my hotel where I tucked myself in.

Up Next Day 2 which began at Magic Kingdom.
 
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Day 2 Part 1- Magic Kingdom - Rookie Canadian Mistakes

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Monday morning started bright and early at 6 am. And then I turned off my alarm and went back to sleep. While trip planning I thought I would get memory maker and use this morning to knock out a few magic shots without having to bore my family. I was thinking of starting out at AK to get the Pocahontas colours of the wind magic shot and maybe line up to see my favourite princess herself. Closer to the trip I learned about a Disney related expense/opportunity that would be facing me right after my trip so I cut memory maker out of my budget (stay tuned to find out). The new plan was to take advantage of AK magic hours and try to experience some of Pandora but I woke up pretty tired from the previous travel day; rookie Canadian mistake for the morning #1 - forgetting how tired I would be from traveling BC to FL. I justified going back to sleep by telling myself it would be better to experience Pandora for the first time with my family :) So after snoozing for another two hours I got myself up and ready for the day. When I arrived the day before it was dark and I was tired, so it was nice to see the resort in the day time... until I noticed most of the scenery was construction. Oh well, I still got the nice shivery feeling I get when I see a Disney Resort sign, you know the "Yay! I'm Home!" feeling?!

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After arriving at Magic Kingdom and getting through the security lines.. I made rookie Canadian mistake #2: assuming the Canadian Resident Ticket redemption process at WDW was similar to the process at DL. In October when we used Canadian Resident Tickets in California we walked right up to the turnstiles and they looked at our receipt, scanned it and printed us out a ticket it was bing bang boom easy. After waiting in the longish line at MK this morning I stupidly assumed since my ticket was linked to my band I would be fine, I had a print out copy of the ticket in my bag. Nope. Denied. Got told to go to guest services, where I was asked at the entrance of a fairly short line what I needed help with. Here I was turned away from the short line with glorious shade provided by large umbrellas at Guest Services and told to go to the rather large line at Will Call. In the bright sun. No shade. This Canadian wasn't quite acclimatized to the FL sun yet and I think I melted my brain a bit. This is probably the thing that I had the most complaint about the whole trip so obviously in the grand scheme of things it was a minor annoyance, please bear with me while I get out my short-ish rant. I shuffled along in the Will Call line up for a about half an hour. Cast members would come up with tablets asking if they could help me, and I would dutifully report that I had a Canadian resident ticket and they would dutifully tell me to remain in the line since they couldn't help me, each time my excitement dimming a bit. Eventually I got to the front of the line and headed to the window where a castmember had waived me over to. I saw lip movement and couldn't hear a word the castmember said, there was no microphone or anything to amplify her voice through the glass and the sun was shining and reflecting off the window so I couldn't really make eye contact or mime or anything at the person behind the window; it was pretty frustrating. Eventually I got the message that the castmember was trying to restart her computer so it would be a few minutes. Okay, fine. Why did you waive me over then? Meanwhile people behind me in line are walking away after being helped at the other two will call windows. I wait. I wait. Cast member asks me two or three times what I need and looks at me like she's never heard of Canada. cool cool cool. I wait. I make eye contact with the supervisor standing in the back of the booth. She looks at me, she looks at the castmember twiddling her thumbs while computer restarts, she looks at the ground. This silent stand off continues for another five minutes or so and I'm FINALLY transferred over to one of the other castmembers at the window to my right. The gentleman asks me to tap my magic band, I do, he clicks one button in computer and asks if I'm from BC, when I reply yes he says I'm good to go. Didn't ask to see my ID, didn't have to pass go, collect 500 dollars, or go directly to jail. What was the point? I'm still not entirely sure. Anywho, I took a deep breath and turned to wait in the (now longer) park entrance lines.

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After entering the park I got that teary "wow I'm really here" feeling I always get on Main Street. It was pretty great since I was worried that my annoyance from the Will Call line up would follow me in. I started my first solo park experience by wandering into the Chapeau hat shop on the right hand side of Main street to look at hats and pins. I wandered through the stores on that side of Main street to browse a bit and went into Starbucks to grab some breakfast. I saw the line and turned around and left, decided I could wait a bit to eat. I then proceeded to make my way over to Liberty Square where my first FastPass of the day was located. I ran into the Muppet's Present Great Moments in History and caught a few minutes of the show before getting in the FastPass line for one of my all time favourite rides, the HAUNTED MANSION! :hyper: I like to open or close a trip with the HM because of how much I love it; Halloween is my favourite holiday, I love to dress up, I love to go to haunted houses, I love ghosts and all things spooky. The ride is just a total win for me. I also love how every park has a different Haunted Mansion and love to compare them. Phantom Manor was one of my main reasons for wanted to go to Disneyland Paris (and it didn't disappoint!).

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After a ride on the Haunted Mansion I headed into the shop and found hanging right in front of me the Haunted Mansion Christmas Stocking! I'd been wanting to buy it since I first saw pictures online but couldn't get my hands on one so I was pleasantly surprised to see some for sale. I've already packed it away with my Christmas decorations so I'll post a stock photo here.

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I had my purchase sent to my resort and I started moseying over to Frontierland. I decided to skip my FastPass for Space Mountain since I wasn't in the mood to cross the park and come back again. I peaked into Westward Ho to look at pins and snagged the LE Black Panther movie release pin before deciding I was now starving and needed to stop for food. On my way to Pecos Bill I notice Country Bears was just about to start so I had to stop there. Its definitely a classic from my childhood that I really miss in Disneyland. I sang along and clapped my hands in an entirely empty row and it was awesome.
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Really getting hangry by this point, I re-doubled my efforts to make my way to Pecos Bill. I promised I wouldn't do any more long rants so I'll spare you the tale but am I the only one who thinks that the stop the line, hold up a paddle, and wait for assistance approach to customer service in the quick service restaurants is frustrating? I understand that a cast member may need a supervisor, I think its awesome that they can ask allergy specific questions etc. However, you can't tell me that WDW doesn't have the technological capability to "park" or "pause" an order while the castmember is waiting for help, so that the next customer in line (who wants something simple) can order-pay-proceed. I've seen this at grocery stores and many other establishments for years. I wish I had taken a picture of the family of 10 in the line next to me all sitting on the floor while all three of the lines in my area of Pecos ground to a halt, and no supervisor came out. At least maybe a proper paging procedure other than a paddle in the air would be an improvement. But who am I?
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I was SUPER excited to see the Country Bears Jug still for sale on the menu at Pecos Bill. I wanted it last time I was at WDW but my family talked me out of it. Undeterred by the price, I proudly ordered it along with my meal: "THE SOUTHWEST BURGER PLEASE WITH THE COUNTRY BEARS REFILLABLE JUG" I shouted. I knew I was in for disappointment when the castmember winced. Apparently they haven't had them in a while and the monitors displaying the menu just haven't been updated. Sigh. After (eventually) visiting the toppings bar and asking a Castmember to help me find a seat (it was BUSY), I dug in to my burger and tortilla chips until I was stuffed. As I sat there wondering why I was getting so easily annoyed today I realized I'd made rookie Canadian mistake #3: forgetting it was a President's Day. I knew about the holiday when planning the trip but somehow I had forgotten in the lead up to my vacation which day the holiday was actually on. I was able to understand the crowds better and had a much more enjoyable day.

I honestly don't remember how I spent the next little while, I think I meandered through Frontierland to Adventureland and up to the castle before heading to Fantasyland. I went into Storybook Circus area and in the Big Top bought a 101 Dalmatians magic band. Eventually it was time for my 7DMT FastPass and that's how I finished off my last ride of the afternoon.

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After this I battled with my phone to connect to wifi and saw that my parents had arrived at the hotel so I headed back to meet up with them. While they unpacked they filled me in on their cruise and we caught up on the last two weeks. While A rested G and I headed to the pool near our building to go for a dip. The pool was nice, nothing special to report there. G and A didn't have park tickets for the day since they arrived late afternoon so after the swim and some more relaxing G and I headed to Disney Springs to explore. As mentioned previously, I'd only stayed at POFQ and POR before so I was used to the boat ride to Disney Springs. I think I'd only ever taken a bus from another resort once and it was to the old Disney Springs loop. The POFQ and POR dock is at the opposite end so I hadn't honestly spent much time in that part of Disney Springs so it was a bit overwhelming. A lot of new stores and restaurants I hadn't seen etc. We took a long time to figuring out what to get that we eventually took the boat to the other end where I wandered the pin store before settling on just grabbing Earl of Sandwich. By this time it was getting late and we decided to head back to the hotel. Apologies but I didn't take many photos the last half the day, so I leave you with this terrible mirror shot of me modelling the Baymax ear hat I picked up that day for my best friend so I could send her pic.

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NEXT UP: DAY 3 - ANIMAL KINGDOWM

 

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