This is my first trip report so I apologize if it's not up to par with others.
OK I’m going to start this report by my arrival in Orlando.
Day 1, Saturday, May 23rd: we arrived in Orlando around 2pm and checked in for the night at the Spring Hill Suites Convention Center/International Drive area. The hotel is not up to Marriott standards, but I get a sense that anything in that area will be like that. The elevators were not air conditioned and the hallways were poorly air conditioned. We just lounged by the pool and then went to City Walk for dinner. We wanted to go to Bubba Gump’s but it had an hour wait so we ended up eating at RedOven and it was delicious…great pizza actually and then we checked out NBA Café and had ice cream at Coldstone. When we got back, there was no parking at the hotel and we were told to find parking around the Residence Inn and Hampton Inn next door and if we didn’t find it, to just park in the roundabout outside the hotel lobby because we would not get towed.
Day 2, Sunday, May 24th: we checked out and actually did not eat breakfast at the hotel lobby…we had leftover pizza! LOL But all kidding aside, the breakfast area was a zoo, even though it was big. Checked out and headed out to SeaWorld. SeaWorld was crowded but not too bad and we went straight to Atlantis. Did not have a line at all and we enjoyed the ride…REALLY COOL! If WDW were to ever modify Splash Mountain that would be a cool ride to mimic. We touched the Stingrays and then paid the little fortune of close to $50 for 3 people to go pet the dolphins. You can no longer feed them and honestly, while it was cool to see my son with the dolphins, the “visit” lasted maybe 10 minutes. Went to see the Clyde and Seamore show and it was cute but not as funny as I remembered, not to mention that the animals were not into it and a few times did not do what they were directed to do. We went on the Turtle Trek attraction and it was a cool 3D video with every inch of the walls and ceiling used as a screen. Last, we went to Shamu’s show, sat on the 5th really close to where the whales pose out of the water throughout the show…did NOT get splashed yet the area we sat in last time, got soaked…just our luck.
Did not ride the Cracken or Mumba because my son and I are not big thrill ride junkies but the lines were not bad. SeaWorld employees have a lot to learn from Disney’s employees in terms of being nice and courteous. We then headed out to WDW to check in at Coronado…
Checking in, I asked to be put by the best Bus Stop…Donna who checked us in, not only did that but upgraded us to a Preferred Room with a lake view right in the Casitas 3.
The room was spacious and comfortable but the A/C was not the greatest so we kept the fan on full blast and the room was quite cool. We hit the pool, which is awesome by the way, and my son just loved that water slide. The bar by the pool made me a very bad Brazilian Caipirinha…yuck! Then we went to dinner at Cross Roads by House of Blues at Downtown Disney. Speaking of which, DTD is a fiasco! Walking paths are narrow, boards up everywhere, it was such a pain to get there (took the bus a good 15 minutes to park) and to walk around that we didn’t come back as planned later in the week.
Food at Cross Roads was delicious but because our bus was late due to all the construction and parking issues, we were late for our reservation and left there close to midnight.
Day 3, Monday, May 25th: Magic Kingdom here we come! We got to Magic Kingdom around 10am and we knew it was going to be a packed day because on our last day, MK closed at 6pm so our dessert party got moved from that day to this day. We got there and went straight to Tomorrowland and rode the Buzz Lightyear ride. To my surprise the line was light and in 25 minutes we were shooting bad guys. One thing we noticed, was that the Buzz Lightyear right before you board the buggies was behind black curtains. We had fun and my wife somehow scored 500,000 points…we then went on the Speedway and boy…just close it or refurbish the whole thing…it’s sad. Had lunch at good ole Casey’s Corner and as usual, it didn’t disappoint. We rode POTC twice and it was great being in the cool line, taking a nice break from the heat. The ride ran smoothly, I didn’t see any glaring issues. We also rode Aladdin’s Magic Carpet. Had our first Dole Whip…and man are those things good or what? Had fast passes for Splash, Big Thunder and Seven Dwarfs. Splash was REALLY full of water…never seen it that full but it was fun. Animatronics seemed to be well in sync. Big Thunder was fun as usual…it’s simple but so much fun! Seven Dwarfs is a fun coaster, smooth, but way too short. Without a FP+, I would not wait in line to ride it. At 6:20pm we went to pick up our bracelet for the Tomorrowland Terrace Dessert Party…well, there was no one there because the Disney Cast Members on the phone and at the part couldn’t agree on what was up. I even got mixed answers in terms of having assigned seating or not. Finally had a gentleman who was setting up tell us that we should be there between 8:25 and 8:45 to check in. Went on to BOG and they were running 15 minutes behind on everyone’s reservation. There are a few freaks that go to BOG…including this lady dressed like Belle in a slutty version of her dress who would stop Beast every time he walked by the main dining area and flirt with him. She flirted hard with him…really awkward. The food was fantastic…really delicious. Portions are very big as well and the dessert is not so bad. Got a FP+ for Space Mountain for after the Fireworks and went to the Dessert Party. Had assigned seating and had great seats. The whole thing is worth for the view for the fireworks though right now there’s construction boards and a big tree blocking part of the castle from the viewpoint you’re in. The desserts suck big time and they served water that smelled and tasted like Splash Mountain’s water. Also had a parent feed their son so much sweets that he puked all over the place but Cast Members did a great job cleaning up. We went to ride Space Mountain after the Fireworks and it was down, it was good to go earlier in the day. So we went to ride 7D again. On that line, we got the e-mail from Disney that our FP+ could be used anywhere else except for 7D so we went to Big Thunder…it was AWESOME to ride it in the dark…this was past 10:30pm. Our son loved it. We then planned to leave the park because we had been there almost the whole day but on our way out, Splash had wait times of under 10 minutes…did it in the dark and it was awesome as well. Left the park 15 minutes before closing and netted almost 14 hours straight in there. Our feet were killing us and we were exhausted!
Day 4, Tuesday, May 26th: Epcot…eh! So we got there right at 9am, and we had FP+ for Soarin’, Mission: Space and Crush. With a park that is so decadent, why in the world did Disney decide to not allow people to get a FP+ for Soarin’ OR Test Track? Anyway, we got there and went straight over to Test Track…65 minutes! This was my first time at Test Track, so we endured it. Holy cow I had been missing an awesome ride! I don’t care how old that ride is, it’s really cool. Period. Some folks say this version of it is not as good as the previous, original, version. I can’t fathom how much cooler the original ride was.
After we got done with that, we started walking around and honestly, there was not much to do. Other than Soarin’, the Land Pavilion has nothing. We had lunch down there and the food was OK. Innoventions was like a deserted town…it’s sad, very sad what has become of that place. We rode SSE and while it’s nostalgic, it’s time for an update…let’s show some more recent stuff please. We went to World Showcase and because my son is not really into it, we walked around took it in and then left to go to Crush. After Crush we went back to Coronado and hung around the pool. We had a reservation at the Coral Reef at 6:30 and a FP+ for Soarin’ from 7pm – 8pm. Well…leaving the resort, we waited 45 minutes for the Epcot bus…honestly, the only time that riding the buses at WDW stunk during this trip. We got to Epcot and I went to Coral Reef and explain the situation as we got there at 7:20 and were afraid we had to choose one or the other. The manager at the Coral Reef was super nice and told us he would make sure we would have a table and told us to go enjoy Soarin’, which put a huge smile on my wife’s face as that’s her favorite ride at Epcot. Rode Soarin’, and enjoyed it as usual, I don’t see the issues that some around here see…not saying they are not there, but I didn’t notice. Dinner at Coral Reef was delicious, the food was fantastic but the portions are not as big as other places at WDW. Service was slower than other places so when we left, we had missed most of the fireworks. The worst part of the day: On the way out, we see SSE lit up and want to take a family picture in front of it. I see a MemoryMaker Photographer took someone’s picture and as we’re walking towards him, he had picked up his tripod. I asked him, very politely, if he was done for the day and he laughed and said he was done and walked away. Thankfully, a Japanese family offered to take us that picture but that photographer was a jerk.
Day 5, Wednesday, May 27th: Universal and Islands of Adventure! My son’s first time at Uni and our family’s first time at IOA. We went to IOA first and I have to say that I was extremely impressed with the theming. Our first ride was Spiderman and holy crap what a fun ride and really cool…my son was ecstatic and I do have to say, it was really cool. Some of the things that you hope WDW would do. We then went Popeye’s water ride and we got soaked, a lot more than Kali River Rapids, which was very much welcome. After that, we went to Dudley Do-Right and while the ride is fun and you do get a lot wetter than Splash Mountain, the seating arrangement is very uncomfortable. The ride got stuck a couple of times, which made it an even bigger pain to sit there uncomfortably, but in the end, it’s definitely a fun ride. We then went to Jurassic Park’s water ride. The ride, honestly is kind of lame. But the splash area outside the ride is so much fun! We skipped Harry Potter because we’re the only people who have never seen any of the movies and honestly, we did it because we realized that both parks in one day is too much. We saw the Dr. Seuss area which is very well themed and then we went to Universal using the Harry Potter train…OK that was really really cool! The Harry Potter area at Uni is very cool as well, I was very impressed. We then started walking around and looking for a map, I hit a Vacation Information kiosk…yep…Timeshare! They gave us $100 to go see them the next day…seeing as it would be our Water Park day and I’m a cheap guy, I took it. LOL! We then went over to the Simpsons area and let me tell you…it hurt to see what once was Back to the Future rethemed as the Simpsons. I’m sorry that was a crappy solution for that area…all it took was a new paint job and a new video. Really sucky ride. We then went on to the Minions and it was a cool ride, funny, BUT…not worth the wait. We did Shrek and a few other rides and I miss the old Universal…the place is unrecognizable. We ate at Bubba Gump Shrimp and I was surprised at how good it was for a chain restaurant…not to mention that I used my free $100 to do that. LOL
Day 6, Thursday, May 28th: Time Share, Blizzard Beach, Typhoon Lagoon and Spirit of Aloha! So we left to go have breakfast at this SPG Timeshare Resort off I4 somewhere. They had a ton of people so we didn’t have one of the sales people to talk to us. Instead they sent us the property manager who supports the current owners. Really weird sales pitch, I was there just for the $100 from the night before so when his bad pitch didn’t deliver, he sent “a guy from IT” who was your typical salesman shark. Offered us the timeshare for $10K, as long as we only came back to Orlando every other year. I said no so they sent us to the lady from Corporate to check us out…she got mad when I said I just came for the $100 and then offered me 40K SPG points for $1,016 and I said no. I laughed and got my $100 haha. Went on to Blizzard Beach…first time for my wife and my son, and first time for me since 1997. I can’t confirm but it looks like the place was not fully developed when I went in July of 1997 as it looked there was a lot more to do this time. We went on Team Boat Springs and we had fun, though some of the hits against the wall were pretty hard. Then we went to the Slush Gusher and on the last hump, I caught some air and that kind of freaked me out. Not sure if that’s what’s supposed to do. Went on the Downhill Double Dipper, which was fun too though the wait time posted was nowhere near the actual wait time. Then we went to the Toboggan racers which looks lame but was AWESOME. No Summit Plummet for me…the heights at the Slush Gusher was too much already. We then left and went to Typhoon Lagoon and ate at Typhoon Tilly’s which was delicious as usual, love their shrimp basket! We rode Gangplank Falls which we had forgotten how short the ride actually is…not worth it if the line is long. Then we rode Mayday Falls and that one was violent…I don’t know why it was so much more violent than our last visit in 2012, but I hit the wall hard right by my hand where I was hanging on and I am going to the doctor tomorrow because my wrist still hurts today. Then we went on the Crush n’ Gusher and rode that plenty of times because the line died down after our first turn. Wrapped up TL by hanging in the Wave Pool and enjoying that awesome wave. Love that thing. We finished our nigh by eating dinner at the Spirit of Aloha. For whatever reason, I got upgraded seats, right in front, to the left of the stage. The food was fantastic, those rolls and the barbecue ribs are so so good. Last time I made my wife go on stage because of her birthday and this time she made me go even though my birthday is not even close to May/June. LOL
Day 7, Friday, May 29th: Animal Kingdom, roar! We knew this was going to be a short day for us, let’s face it, there’s not much at AK! We rode Primeval Whirl right off the bat…that’s our family’s favorite because last time, on my son’s first trip his smile was priceless so we did it again! Then we went on to Expedition Everest, which was one of the thrill rides my son and I agreed to go as we’re both chicken. Well, he chickened out at the last minute so that was a bummer as I had prepared myself mentally to go on it. We then went to the Lion King show and I was really impressed by it, really good. Kind of embarrassing that Disney has that pathetic Lion King video at Epcot when they can do such cool things like they did at AK. Then we went on to Kali River Rapids which was fun, but that ride is way too short…thankfully we had a FP+. We went to Rain Forest Café for lunch and the food was better than expected, really delicious. Then we went on Kilimanjaro and our driver was as cheesy as the boat captains at the old Jaws ride at Uni…really annoying but we enjoyed seeing the animals and then we went back to Coronado and enjoyed the pool and had dinner at the Quick Service spot over there. Really good food and lots of options.
Day 8, Saturday, May 30th: Hollywood Studios…May the rudeness be with you? Well, Star Wars weekend…we were excited for that day and for our son experience it. We got to DHS and got an e-mail about RnR being down. Well poop! An already limited park, became even more limited. We went to the Muppets right off the bat before our first FP+ and got right in…not a lot of interest of folks to go to that attraction. On the way out, we see Phineas and Ferb, our son’s favorite! We were in line and it started raining, very light rain, and as we were third in line the CMs there just told us that Phineas and Ferb had to go inside because the rain didn’t make it safe for anyone. Say what?? There were no other people other than the 3 families…could they have closed the line after us? No…they were just rude and wouldn’t tell us why rain is such a big deal. So my wife wanted a cup of coffee from the Joffrey’s kiosk nearby. Got the cup of coffee and from walking from the kiosk to the bench against the building that faces the kiosk, the cup was almost like melting from the heat of the coffee. When I handed the cup over to my wife the lid popped off. We put it back on and when she had it in her hand, the lid popped off and the cup collapsed and spilled hot coffee on her hands. The people at the Joffrey’s place replaced her drink with an iced coffee, but still, their cups stink. Then we went to Star Tours which was a FP+ we had and it was fun as usual. Darth Vader walked by us twice and my son tried to talk to him and he was “rude” and didn’t want to stop for picture, but I’m pretty sure that was part of his character. We then went to eat at Mama’s Melrose…oh boy…food was delicious. Really was. Big portions and really good meal but then it all went downhill…I got the check and I told the waitress that I needed the voucher for Fantasmic!. The waitress, looks at me and said I’m not eligible because I didn’t have a reservation. I then pull up the reservation on the app and the waitress had the guts to tell me that she didn’t want to see it and that she knew we were not eligible. Then she goes away and comes back with the voucher and acts as if she had pulled some strings to make it happen. On our way out the manager came over to ask how was the meal and we told him about his waitress. He asked to see the reservation on the App and said that it was clear we had a reservation, apologized and told us he would address it. As we’re about to leave the place, the waitress almost chased us outside and kept asking if we were good, if everything was OK between us and her. After the Phineas and Ferb fiasco, the coffee fiasco and now the restaurant, we decided to skip Indy and go to our hotel pool a little earlier and then come back to hopefully ride RnR (it never opened that day) and maybe Toy Story and then Fantasmic. But we decided to stop by Guest Relations. I know I know…but we wanted to let them know about the issue with the cup mainly but we shared it all. A nice lady, Samantha from Chicago, took down our concerns. She apologized for the issue with the cup and asked if my wife was hurting and told us she was escalating to management because she didn’t want people to get hurt. She apologized about the waitress and told us that was unacceptable and when my son said that he was sad that he couldn’t ride RnR she was really touched by that. She didn’t act annoyed and really wanted to address our concerns and then gave us a FP+ for Toy Story Mania. We left to go to our resort pool and when we got back to DHS, after riding Toy Story and while waiting for Fantasmic to start as we were seated in the preferred seating area thanks to the vouchers, my son says: “Samantha from Chicago saved the day and made a really crappy day turn into a great day!”. On the way out, we saw the Star Wars fireworks and holy crap…that is really cool. Kudos to Disney, big time!
Day 9, Sunday, May 31st: Magic Kingdom, our last day. Boo! Well, the last day came and the WDW Blues were starting to hit but hey, let’s make the best out of it right? We got to the park wearing our personalized t-shirts and mickey ears and took pictures on Main St. The first thing we did was going to Space Mountain as we didn’t ride it last time…my son was a little apprehensive and the fact we had to wait 30 minutes, didn’t help his case but nonetheless he had a blast riding it and he got quite the kick when half way through the ride I screamed that I had to pee (seriously, all the shimmying and banging, I thought I was going to wet my pants). We then went to Buzz Lightyear and one of the guns in our buggy was not shooting all the time and when I reported it, they just shrugged and told us to move. Oh well. We then went on to 7D and had fun again, but again, too short. We then had lunch and Pinocchio’s and their meatball subs are so good. We rode Splash Mountain and I continued my streak of looking at the camera making funny faces, which made it fun. The “How do you do?” song is now our #1 annoying song in our house…while we love it, it’s such a catchy song that just by saying that, the song gets stuck in your head for days! Rode Thunder Mountain and that ride is a blast, I don’t care who you are, it’s fun. We rode the Haunted Mansion, my son’s first time, and I’ve never seen a nine year old so scared and that got momma bear really mad…LOL. I bet $5 he would not be scared and he was, and it wasn’t even for the money. Seriously. Rode Splash Mountain again and on our way over the Country Bears were signing Rocky Top and we Tennessee fans ate that up. Go Vols! Rode Splash again and I just love how much my boy loves it. We also went the Enchanted Tales of Belle and first of all, the mirror special effects are super freaking cool. Period. Then the furniture and Lumierre animatronics are fantastic. I got chosen to be a knight and my son was the Beast. He hates girly movies and he missed out on looking good with a hottie…LOL we rode Dumbo and the Barnstormer as well. Crowds were really light because MK closed at 6 that day so we got to ride a lot of things because the lines were very short…it was a great day that we capped off with me having a Turkey Leg and my family having ice-cream on Main St. On our way out we bid farewell to the castle and Main St and we hope to see you in two or three years.
We went back to Coronado and enjoyed the Dig Site some more and had dinner at the Maya Grill which had very very very good food, wow…that place is good. My wife and I had the Parrillada del Mar and that was spot on. Great meal to end our vacation
Day 10, Monday, June 1st: See you soon WDW! We ate breakfast at Pepper’s Market and my son kept his tradition of having Mickey Mouse waffles on our last day. We used all our remainder snack credits packed the car and left WDW. We enjoyed Coronado Springs very much, the place is beautiful, the pool has a great atmosphere, rooms are spacious and beds were comfortable. Just what the doctor ordered.
OK I’m going to start this report by my arrival in Orlando.
Day 1, Saturday, May 23rd: we arrived in Orlando around 2pm and checked in for the night at the Spring Hill Suites Convention Center/International Drive area. The hotel is not up to Marriott standards, but I get a sense that anything in that area will be like that. The elevators were not air conditioned and the hallways were poorly air conditioned. We just lounged by the pool and then went to City Walk for dinner. We wanted to go to Bubba Gump’s but it had an hour wait so we ended up eating at RedOven and it was delicious…great pizza actually and then we checked out NBA Café and had ice cream at Coldstone. When we got back, there was no parking at the hotel and we were told to find parking around the Residence Inn and Hampton Inn next door and if we didn’t find it, to just park in the roundabout outside the hotel lobby because we would not get towed.
Day 2, Sunday, May 24th: we checked out and actually did not eat breakfast at the hotel lobby…we had leftover pizza! LOL But all kidding aside, the breakfast area was a zoo, even though it was big. Checked out and headed out to SeaWorld. SeaWorld was crowded but not too bad and we went straight to Atlantis. Did not have a line at all and we enjoyed the ride…REALLY COOL! If WDW were to ever modify Splash Mountain that would be a cool ride to mimic. We touched the Stingrays and then paid the little fortune of close to $50 for 3 people to go pet the dolphins. You can no longer feed them and honestly, while it was cool to see my son with the dolphins, the “visit” lasted maybe 10 minutes. Went to see the Clyde and Seamore show and it was cute but not as funny as I remembered, not to mention that the animals were not into it and a few times did not do what they were directed to do. We went on the Turtle Trek attraction and it was a cool 3D video with every inch of the walls and ceiling used as a screen. Last, we went to Shamu’s show, sat on the 5th really close to where the whales pose out of the water throughout the show…did NOT get splashed yet the area we sat in last time, got soaked…just our luck.
Did not ride the Cracken or Mumba because my son and I are not big thrill ride junkies but the lines were not bad. SeaWorld employees have a lot to learn from Disney’s employees in terms of being nice and courteous. We then headed out to WDW to check in at Coronado…
Checking in, I asked to be put by the best Bus Stop…Donna who checked us in, not only did that but upgraded us to a Preferred Room with a lake view right in the Casitas 3.
The room was spacious and comfortable but the A/C was not the greatest so we kept the fan on full blast and the room was quite cool. We hit the pool, which is awesome by the way, and my son just loved that water slide. The bar by the pool made me a very bad Brazilian Caipirinha…yuck! Then we went to dinner at Cross Roads by House of Blues at Downtown Disney. Speaking of which, DTD is a fiasco! Walking paths are narrow, boards up everywhere, it was such a pain to get there (took the bus a good 15 minutes to park) and to walk around that we didn’t come back as planned later in the week.
Food at Cross Roads was delicious but because our bus was late due to all the construction and parking issues, we were late for our reservation and left there close to midnight.
Day 3, Monday, May 25th: Magic Kingdom here we come! We got to Magic Kingdom around 10am and we knew it was going to be a packed day because on our last day, MK closed at 6pm so our dessert party got moved from that day to this day. We got there and went straight to Tomorrowland and rode the Buzz Lightyear ride. To my surprise the line was light and in 25 minutes we were shooting bad guys. One thing we noticed, was that the Buzz Lightyear right before you board the buggies was behind black curtains. We had fun and my wife somehow scored 500,000 points…we then went on the Speedway and boy…just close it or refurbish the whole thing…it’s sad. Had lunch at good ole Casey’s Corner and as usual, it didn’t disappoint. We rode POTC twice and it was great being in the cool line, taking a nice break from the heat. The ride ran smoothly, I didn’t see any glaring issues. We also rode Aladdin’s Magic Carpet. Had our first Dole Whip…and man are those things good or what? Had fast passes for Splash, Big Thunder and Seven Dwarfs. Splash was REALLY full of water…never seen it that full but it was fun. Animatronics seemed to be well in sync. Big Thunder was fun as usual…it’s simple but so much fun! Seven Dwarfs is a fun coaster, smooth, but way too short. Without a FP+, I would not wait in line to ride it. At 6:20pm we went to pick up our bracelet for the Tomorrowland Terrace Dessert Party…well, there was no one there because the Disney Cast Members on the phone and at the part couldn’t agree on what was up. I even got mixed answers in terms of having assigned seating or not. Finally had a gentleman who was setting up tell us that we should be there between 8:25 and 8:45 to check in. Went on to BOG and they were running 15 minutes behind on everyone’s reservation. There are a few freaks that go to BOG…including this lady dressed like Belle in a slutty version of her dress who would stop Beast every time he walked by the main dining area and flirt with him. She flirted hard with him…really awkward. The food was fantastic…really delicious. Portions are very big as well and the dessert is not so bad. Got a FP+ for Space Mountain for after the Fireworks and went to the Dessert Party. Had assigned seating and had great seats. The whole thing is worth for the view for the fireworks though right now there’s construction boards and a big tree blocking part of the castle from the viewpoint you’re in. The desserts suck big time and they served water that smelled and tasted like Splash Mountain’s water. Also had a parent feed their son so much sweets that he puked all over the place but Cast Members did a great job cleaning up. We went to ride Space Mountain after the Fireworks and it was down, it was good to go earlier in the day. So we went to ride 7D again. On that line, we got the e-mail from Disney that our FP+ could be used anywhere else except for 7D so we went to Big Thunder…it was AWESOME to ride it in the dark…this was past 10:30pm. Our son loved it. We then planned to leave the park because we had been there almost the whole day but on our way out, Splash had wait times of under 10 minutes…did it in the dark and it was awesome as well. Left the park 15 minutes before closing and netted almost 14 hours straight in there. Our feet were killing us and we were exhausted!
Day 4, Tuesday, May 26th: Epcot…eh! So we got there right at 9am, and we had FP+ for Soarin’, Mission: Space and Crush. With a park that is so decadent, why in the world did Disney decide to not allow people to get a FP+ for Soarin’ OR Test Track? Anyway, we got there and went straight over to Test Track…65 minutes! This was my first time at Test Track, so we endured it. Holy cow I had been missing an awesome ride! I don’t care how old that ride is, it’s really cool. Period. Some folks say this version of it is not as good as the previous, original, version. I can’t fathom how much cooler the original ride was.
After we got done with that, we started walking around and honestly, there was not much to do. Other than Soarin’, the Land Pavilion has nothing. We had lunch down there and the food was OK. Innoventions was like a deserted town…it’s sad, very sad what has become of that place. We rode SSE and while it’s nostalgic, it’s time for an update…let’s show some more recent stuff please. We went to World Showcase and because my son is not really into it, we walked around took it in and then left to go to Crush. After Crush we went back to Coronado and hung around the pool. We had a reservation at the Coral Reef at 6:30 and a FP+ for Soarin’ from 7pm – 8pm. Well…leaving the resort, we waited 45 minutes for the Epcot bus…honestly, the only time that riding the buses at WDW stunk during this trip. We got to Epcot and I went to Coral Reef and explain the situation as we got there at 7:20 and were afraid we had to choose one or the other. The manager at the Coral Reef was super nice and told us he would make sure we would have a table and told us to go enjoy Soarin’, which put a huge smile on my wife’s face as that’s her favorite ride at Epcot. Rode Soarin’, and enjoyed it as usual, I don’t see the issues that some around here see…not saying they are not there, but I didn’t notice. Dinner at Coral Reef was delicious, the food was fantastic but the portions are not as big as other places at WDW. Service was slower than other places so when we left, we had missed most of the fireworks. The worst part of the day: On the way out, we see SSE lit up and want to take a family picture in front of it. I see a MemoryMaker Photographer took someone’s picture and as we’re walking towards him, he had picked up his tripod. I asked him, very politely, if he was done for the day and he laughed and said he was done and walked away. Thankfully, a Japanese family offered to take us that picture but that photographer was a jerk.
Day 5, Wednesday, May 27th: Universal and Islands of Adventure! My son’s first time at Uni and our family’s first time at IOA. We went to IOA first and I have to say that I was extremely impressed with the theming. Our first ride was Spiderman and holy crap what a fun ride and really cool…my son was ecstatic and I do have to say, it was really cool. Some of the things that you hope WDW would do. We then went Popeye’s water ride and we got soaked, a lot more than Kali River Rapids, which was very much welcome. After that, we went to Dudley Do-Right and while the ride is fun and you do get a lot wetter than Splash Mountain, the seating arrangement is very uncomfortable. The ride got stuck a couple of times, which made it an even bigger pain to sit there uncomfortably, but in the end, it’s definitely a fun ride. We then went to Jurassic Park’s water ride. The ride, honestly is kind of lame. But the splash area outside the ride is so much fun! We skipped Harry Potter because we’re the only people who have never seen any of the movies and honestly, we did it because we realized that both parks in one day is too much. We saw the Dr. Seuss area which is very well themed and then we went to Universal using the Harry Potter train…OK that was really really cool! The Harry Potter area at Uni is very cool as well, I was very impressed. We then started walking around and looking for a map, I hit a Vacation Information kiosk…yep…Timeshare! They gave us $100 to go see them the next day…seeing as it would be our Water Park day and I’m a cheap guy, I took it. LOL! We then went over to the Simpsons area and let me tell you…it hurt to see what once was Back to the Future rethemed as the Simpsons. I’m sorry that was a crappy solution for that area…all it took was a new paint job and a new video. Really sucky ride. We then went on to the Minions and it was a cool ride, funny, BUT…not worth the wait. We did Shrek and a few other rides and I miss the old Universal…the place is unrecognizable. We ate at Bubba Gump Shrimp and I was surprised at how good it was for a chain restaurant…not to mention that I used my free $100 to do that. LOL
Day 6, Thursday, May 28th: Time Share, Blizzard Beach, Typhoon Lagoon and Spirit of Aloha! So we left to go have breakfast at this SPG Timeshare Resort off I4 somewhere. They had a ton of people so we didn’t have one of the sales people to talk to us. Instead they sent us the property manager who supports the current owners. Really weird sales pitch, I was there just for the $100 from the night before so when his bad pitch didn’t deliver, he sent “a guy from IT” who was your typical salesman shark. Offered us the timeshare for $10K, as long as we only came back to Orlando every other year. I said no so they sent us to the lady from Corporate to check us out…she got mad when I said I just came for the $100 and then offered me 40K SPG points for $1,016 and I said no. I laughed and got my $100 haha. Went on to Blizzard Beach…first time for my wife and my son, and first time for me since 1997. I can’t confirm but it looks like the place was not fully developed when I went in July of 1997 as it looked there was a lot more to do this time. We went on Team Boat Springs and we had fun, though some of the hits against the wall were pretty hard. Then we went to the Slush Gusher and on the last hump, I caught some air and that kind of freaked me out. Not sure if that’s what’s supposed to do. Went on the Downhill Double Dipper, which was fun too though the wait time posted was nowhere near the actual wait time. Then we went to the Toboggan racers which looks lame but was AWESOME. No Summit Plummet for me…the heights at the Slush Gusher was too much already. We then left and went to Typhoon Lagoon and ate at Typhoon Tilly’s which was delicious as usual, love their shrimp basket! We rode Gangplank Falls which we had forgotten how short the ride actually is…not worth it if the line is long. Then we rode Mayday Falls and that one was violent…I don’t know why it was so much more violent than our last visit in 2012, but I hit the wall hard right by my hand where I was hanging on and I am going to the doctor tomorrow because my wrist still hurts today. Then we went on the Crush n’ Gusher and rode that plenty of times because the line died down after our first turn. Wrapped up TL by hanging in the Wave Pool and enjoying that awesome wave. Love that thing. We finished our nigh by eating dinner at the Spirit of Aloha. For whatever reason, I got upgraded seats, right in front, to the left of the stage. The food was fantastic, those rolls and the barbecue ribs are so so good. Last time I made my wife go on stage because of her birthday and this time she made me go even though my birthday is not even close to May/June. LOL
Day 7, Friday, May 29th: Animal Kingdom, roar! We knew this was going to be a short day for us, let’s face it, there’s not much at AK! We rode Primeval Whirl right off the bat…that’s our family’s favorite because last time, on my son’s first trip his smile was priceless so we did it again! Then we went on to Expedition Everest, which was one of the thrill rides my son and I agreed to go as we’re both chicken. Well, he chickened out at the last minute so that was a bummer as I had prepared myself mentally to go on it. We then went to the Lion King show and I was really impressed by it, really good. Kind of embarrassing that Disney has that pathetic Lion King video at Epcot when they can do such cool things like they did at AK. Then we went on to Kali River Rapids which was fun, but that ride is way too short…thankfully we had a FP+. We went to Rain Forest Café for lunch and the food was better than expected, really delicious. Then we went on Kilimanjaro and our driver was as cheesy as the boat captains at the old Jaws ride at Uni…really annoying but we enjoyed seeing the animals and then we went back to Coronado and enjoyed the pool and had dinner at the Quick Service spot over there. Really good food and lots of options.
Day 8, Saturday, May 30th: Hollywood Studios…May the rudeness be with you? Well, Star Wars weekend…we were excited for that day and for our son experience it. We got to DHS and got an e-mail about RnR being down. Well poop! An already limited park, became even more limited. We went to the Muppets right off the bat before our first FP+ and got right in…not a lot of interest of folks to go to that attraction. On the way out, we see Phineas and Ferb, our son’s favorite! We were in line and it started raining, very light rain, and as we were third in line the CMs there just told us that Phineas and Ferb had to go inside because the rain didn’t make it safe for anyone. Say what?? There were no other people other than the 3 families…could they have closed the line after us? No…they were just rude and wouldn’t tell us why rain is such a big deal. So my wife wanted a cup of coffee from the Joffrey’s kiosk nearby. Got the cup of coffee and from walking from the kiosk to the bench against the building that faces the kiosk, the cup was almost like melting from the heat of the coffee. When I handed the cup over to my wife the lid popped off. We put it back on and when she had it in her hand, the lid popped off and the cup collapsed and spilled hot coffee on her hands. The people at the Joffrey’s place replaced her drink with an iced coffee, but still, their cups stink. Then we went to Star Tours which was a FP+ we had and it was fun as usual. Darth Vader walked by us twice and my son tried to talk to him and he was “rude” and didn’t want to stop for picture, but I’m pretty sure that was part of his character. We then went to eat at Mama’s Melrose…oh boy…food was delicious. Really was. Big portions and really good meal but then it all went downhill…I got the check and I told the waitress that I needed the voucher for Fantasmic!. The waitress, looks at me and said I’m not eligible because I didn’t have a reservation. I then pull up the reservation on the app and the waitress had the guts to tell me that she didn’t want to see it and that she knew we were not eligible. Then she goes away and comes back with the voucher and acts as if she had pulled some strings to make it happen. On our way out the manager came over to ask how was the meal and we told him about his waitress. He asked to see the reservation on the App and said that it was clear we had a reservation, apologized and told us he would address it. As we’re about to leave the place, the waitress almost chased us outside and kept asking if we were good, if everything was OK between us and her. After the Phineas and Ferb fiasco, the coffee fiasco and now the restaurant, we decided to skip Indy and go to our hotel pool a little earlier and then come back to hopefully ride RnR (it never opened that day) and maybe Toy Story and then Fantasmic. But we decided to stop by Guest Relations. I know I know…but we wanted to let them know about the issue with the cup mainly but we shared it all. A nice lady, Samantha from Chicago, took down our concerns. She apologized for the issue with the cup and asked if my wife was hurting and told us she was escalating to management because she didn’t want people to get hurt. She apologized about the waitress and told us that was unacceptable and when my son said that he was sad that he couldn’t ride RnR she was really touched by that. She didn’t act annoyed and really wanted to address our concerns and then gave us a FP+ for Toy Story Mania. We left to go to our resort pool and when we got back to DHS, after riding Toy Story and while waiting for Fantasmic to start as we were seated in the preferred seating area thanks to the vouchers, my son says: “Samantha from Chicago saved the day and made a really crappy day turn into a great day!”. On the way out, we saw the Star Wars fireworks and holy crap…that is really cool. Kudos to Disney, big time!
Day 9, Sunday, May 31st: Magic Kingdom, our last day. Boo! Well, the last day came and the WDW Blues were starting to hit but hey, let’s make the best out of it right? We got to the park wearing our personalized t-shirts and mickey ears and took pictures on Main St. The first thing we did was going to Space Mountain as we didn’t ride it last time…my son was a little apprehensive and the fact we had to wait 30 minutes, didn’t help his case but nonetheless he had a blast riding it and he got quite the kick when half way through the ride I screamed that I had to pee (seriously, all the shimmying and banging, I thought I was going to wet my pants). We then went to Buzz Lightyear and one of the guns in our buggy was not shooting all the time and when I reported it, they just shrugged and told us to move. Oh well. We then went on to 7D and had fun again, but again, too short. We then had lunch and Pinocchio’s and their meatball subs are so good. We rode Splash Mountain and I continued my streak of looking at the camera making funny faces, which made it fun. The “How do you do?” song is now our #1 annoying song in our house…while we love it, it’s such a catchy song that just by saying that, the song gets stuck in your head for days! Rode Thunder Mountain and that ride is a blast, I don’t care who you are, it’s fun. We rode the Haunted Mansion, my son’s first time, and I’ve never seen a nine year old so scared and that got momma bear really mad…LOL. I bet $5 he would not be scared and he was, and it wasn’t even for the money. Seriously. Rode Splash Mountain again and on our way over the Country Bears were signing Rocky Top and we Tennessee fans ate that up. Go Vols! Rode Splash again and I just love how much my boy loves it. We also went the Enchanted Tales of Belle and first of all, the mirror special effects are super freaking cool. Period. Then the furniture and Lumierre animatronics are fantastic. I got chosen to be a knight and my son was the Beast. He hates girly movies and he missed out on looking good with a hottie…LOL we rode Dumbo and the Barnstormer as well. Crowds were really light because MK closed at 6 that day so we got to ride a lot of things because the lines were very short…it was a great day that we capped off with me having a Turkey Leg and my family having ice-cream on Main St. On our way out we bid farewell to the castle and Main St and we hope to see you in two or three years.
We went back to Coronado and enjoyed the Dig Site some more and had dinner at the Maya Grill which had very very very good food, wow…that place is good. My wife and I had the Parrillada del Mar and that was spot on. Great meal to end our vacation
Day 10, Monday, June 1st: See you soon WDW! We ate breakfast at Pepper’s Market and my son kept his tradition of having Mickey Mouse waffles on our last day. We used all our remainder snack credits packed the car and left WDW. We enjoyed Coronado Springs very much, the place is beautiful, the pool has a great atmosphere, rooms are spacious and beds were comfortable. Just what the doctor ordered.
