MiJo
DIS member since 1999 and DDC Member #335
- Joined
- Sep 17, 1999
Cast: Me, The Tramp and my DW of 25 years, Lady
Objective: To celebrate our 25th Wedding Anniversary with a leisurely vacation in Orlando
Day 1, 12/1: We arrived at LVIA for our 6:30 AM flight to MCO to find an employee friend at USAir had upgraded our tickets to First Class! On top of that, a large 25th Anniversary card signed by all the employees and flight crew was taped to the bulkhead in front of our seats and a stewardess presented us with a bottle of champagne! Thanks, David! What a surprise! We arrived in Orlando at 9:00, got our luggage and headed for National's Emerald Aisle. We had never used this service before but I must say, it worked great! We had a choice of two dozen or so vehicles and we chose a Chevy Blazer. Upon check out, we found that our quoted price of $139 for 8 days (including 1 day free) was wrong; it was now $132! Our second pleasant surprise of the morning.
We hit the highway and headed for Coronado Springs! We had expected this resort to be beautiful after looking at the pics on Steve's site but even those great pics could not do this resort justice! The staff was friendly and helpful and the Christmas decorations, in our opinion, were second only to those at WL. A non-smoking room was available in the Ranchos section (where I was hoping to stay) so we took it and headed for Guest Services to get our CP Dinner Package tickets. The CM there also made PS ressies for the Brown Derby/Fantasmic for us for 12/5. It was now 11:10 and we mentioned we had lunch PS ressies for the Liberty Tree Tavern for 11:30. He suggested we get right on a bus for the MK, which we did. We arrived a few minutes late but the LTT was fairly empty and we were seated within a few minutes. My DW mentioned to the waitress that she has an allergy to wheat/gluten so she had Chef Tony come out to speak to her about her menu options. At his suggestion, she had fresh fish complete with rice flour dinner rolls; I had the Old Glory burger/fries. Both were excellent! We finished lunch and headed out into Liberty Square. During our afternoon stay we managed to do the following: the Riverboat, Hall of Presidents, Splash Mountain (FP), It's A Small World, Mad Tea Party, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Snow White's Adventure, Buzz Lightyear's Spaceranger Spin (FP), the WDW Railroad, and tours of Mickey's Toontown Fair and Tom Sawyer's Island. We also managed to get our pic taken with Donald at this Christmas tree stand and we heard the young woman practicing her singing near Main Street. We decided to head back to CSR a little early to locate our room and unpack.
CSR is a beautiful resort, but it is spread out. When we reached the Ranchos, we located our room (#7123) and unpacked. While touring the resort we discovered the bus stop for the Ranchos was still under construction! This meant we had to drive to the bus stop at the Cabanas or El Centro in order to get a bus to the parks/DTD. This only seemed to be a minor hassle and we liked the Ranchos so we did not request a room change. By the way, the bus stop seemed to be nearly complete on 12/6 so it is probably fully operational by now. The Ranchos are quiet, beautifully themed with cacti and dry riverbeds, and done in mostly earth tones. The room included a hair dryer, coffee maker/coffee and iron/ironing board. Our room was about a 5 minute walk to the Dig Site which is also very nice. We took advantage of the pool/spa during our first 2 days at CSR and enjoyed them very much. We would highly recommend this resort. We had supper the first evening at the Pepper Market, which we also liked very much. You are seated by a server who gets you drinks/refills. A laminated menu is given to you and you can use this as you walk around "the market" to the various food stands to make your meal selections. The 10% gratuity added to the bill did not bother us since we did have our drinks/refills brought to us and we had real silverware/plates, not plastic. Aside from a couple breakfast items not being real hot, the food was good and reasonably priced. We ended our first day with a visit to the Dig Site's spa.
Mike
Disneyland 1970
Off site 6/90
Dixie Landings 9/99
Coronado Springs 12/1-12/5 and Portofino Bay 12/6-12/8
[This message was edited by MiJo on 12-16-00 at 07:34 AM.]
Objective: To celebrate our 25th Wedding Anniversary with a leisurely vacation in Orlando
Day 1, 12/1: We arrived at LVIA for our 6:30 AM flight to MCO to find an employee friend at USAir had upgraded our tickets to First Class! On top of that, a large 25th Anniversary card signed by all the employees and flight crew was taped to the bulkhead in front of our seats and a stewardess presented us with a bottle of champagne! Thanks, David! What a surprise! We arrived in Orlando at 9:00, got our luggage and headed for National's Emerald Aisle. We had never used this service before but I must say, it worked great! We had a choice of two dozen or so vehicles and we chose a Chevy Blazer. Upon check out, we found that our quoted price of $139 for 8 days (including 1 day free) was wrong; it was now $132! Our second pleasant surprise of the morning.
We hit the highway and headed for Coronado Springs! We had expected this resort to be beautiful after looking at the pics on Steve's site but even those great pics could not do this resort justice! The staff was friendly and helpful and the Christmas decorations, in our opinion, were second only to those at WL. A non-smoking room was available in the Ranchos section (where I was hoping to stay) so we took it and headed for Guest Services to get our CP Dinner Package tickets. The CM there also made PS ressies for the Brown Derby/Fantasmic for us for 12/5. It was now 11:10 and we mentioned we had lunch PS ressies for the Liberty Tree Tavern for 11:30. He suggested we get right on a bus for the MK, which we did. We arrived a few minutes late but the LTT was fairly empty and we were seated within a few minutes. My DW mentioned to the waitress that she has an allergy to wheat/gluten so she had Chef Tony come out to speak to her about her menu options. At his suggestion, she had fresh fish complete with rice flour dinner rolls; I had the Old Glory burger/fries. Both were excellent! We finished lunch and headed out into Liberty Square. During our afternoon stay we managed to do the following: the Riverboat, Hall of Presidents, Splash Mountain (FP), It's A Small World, Mad Tea Party, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Snow White's Adventure, Buzz Lightyear's Spaceranger Spin (FP), the WDW Railroad, and tours of Mickey's Toontown Fair and Tom Sawyer's Island. We also managed to get our pic taken with Donald at this Christmas tree stand and we heard the young woman practicing her singing near Main Street. We decided to head back to CSR a little early to locate our room and unpack.
CSR is a beautiful resort, but it is spread out. When we reached the Ranchos, we located our room (#7123) and unpacked. While touring the resort we discovered the bus stop for the Ranchos was still under construction! This meant we had to drive to the bus stop at the Cabanas or El Centro in order to get a bus to the parks/DTD. This only seemed to be a minor hassle and we liked the Ranchos so we did not request a room change. By the way, the bus stop seemed to be nearly complete on 12/6 so it is probably fully operational by now. The Ranchos are quiet, beautifully themed with cacti and dry riverbeds, and done in mostly earth tones. The room included a hair dryer, coffee maker/coffee and iron/ironing board. Our room was about a 5 minute walk to the Dig Site which is also very nice. We took advantage of the pool/spa during our first 2 days at CSR and enjoyed them very much. We would highly recommend this resort. We had supper the first evening at the Pepper Market, which we also liked very much. You are seated by a server who gets you drinks/refills. A laminated menu is given to you and you can use this as you walk around "the market" to the various food stands to make your meal selections. The 10% gratuity added to the bill did not bother us since we did have our drinks/refills brought to us and we had real silverware/plates, not plastic. Aside from a couple breakfast items not being real hot, the food was good and reasonably priced. We ended our first day with a visit to the Dig Site's spa.
Mike
Disneyland 1970
Off site 6/90
Dixie Landings 9/99
Coronado Springs 12/1-12/5 and Portofino Bay 12/6-12/8
[This message was edited by MiJo on 12-16-00 at 07:34 AM.]
