Trip Report Florida Fresh Spring March 2018

Hello all and welcome to my trip report! I've been back for about a week but I've been slow to upload pictures and I actually caught a pretty nasty cold that has had me down the last couple of days.

So here's the intro:

Who: Me (Amy) and my husband (Brad)
Where are we from?: Northern Wisconsin (So were were definitely in need of some Florida sun.)
When: March 10-17, 2018
Resort: All Star Sports (we stay value because it is the cheapest and we can use that extra $$ for good food and drinks)

Start of the journey:

We actually started our trip on Friday March 9 and drove up to Minneapolis and stayed at a hotel near the airport. Our flight was leaving early in the morning and we didn't want to have drive early in the morning to the airport. So we relaxed at the Hilton by the airport and had a nice dinner at the Mall of America. We did have a crazy experience at the pool area here...we were just getting into the pool and we saw a pre-teen girl get out of the hot tub and was walking quickly (not running) towards the pool and she slipped and her head banged like a basketball on the pool area floor. It was pretty horrifying. I was about to get out of the pool and go help her but her parents were there and helped her and got medical help. So that put a little bit of a damper on what turned out to be our only pool time of the trip but I'm sure the girl had a worse time of it then we did.

Me with my first beer of the trip at the Mall of America. It was a Surly Furious, a local brew.

Relaxing at the Hilton with a drink. A fancy rum and Coke for hubs and a Grain Belt (another Minnesota beer) for me. This was at about 7:30-8pm and we were basically falling asleep.

At the airport bright and early for our flight! The Caribou coffee place wasn't open yet, but I like their coffee so much better than Dunkin', Starbucks, or even McDonald's so I waited about 15 minutes for it to open before heading to the gate.

All aboard! We splurge a little bit and always get the big front seat when we fly with Spirit, it is almost like first class but without the booze and the meal.

Bye bye!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

So that wraps up the March trip and in a few days Brad and I will be back in WDW for a longer trip.

But like I said I took a trip to Florida with a gal pal from college and after 5 great days on Maderia Beach (on the Gulf a little south of Clearwater) we spent 2 nights in WDW. My friend has been to WDW before once with me and another friend to Epcot for a day, and once with her husband and son. They went to the Magic Kingdom for one day, and she claims it was only a good day because she followed the itinerary I made for her. She is not a Disney person.

By the way, I'm not including pictures of her, because I don't know how she feels about being on a Disney forum on the interwebs, but she really did travel with me!

So anyway, I'm going to briefly share here a quick summary of Disney time.

We stayed at the Coronado. Loved the refurbished room and we were in Casitas so construction didn't bother us even with the time we spent at the pool

On check-in day we went to Trader Sam's (and met up with a couple cool WDW Magic members, and now my friend know how Disney obsessed I really am). And then we had dinner at California Grill. I thought she should see Happily Ever After and since she didn't have a ticket this was the best and fanciest (impressive) option I could think of.

After fireworks we had to catch a bus back to the Coronado but we did pause for pictures outside the gates.

For our only full day at WDW, she picked Epcot. She wanted to Drink Around the World. We did Future World stuff including characters. She wasn't thrilled about meeting characters but since we were wearing "matching" shirts I cited it as a good way to get pictures together. I tell you when Mickey came over and greeted us and escorted us to the picture spot and then gave her a hug, I saw pure joy on her face! She thought getting hugged by Mickey and the interaction with the characters was so cool. Maybe she got bit by the Disney bug after all?

We did complete the task of drinking around the world. Some people may call it cheating but at least half of the drinks we shared. I don't think it is cheating because we still had drinks from every country. We also did almost all the attractions, except the Canada film. Not because we didn't try but because we just missed the start and didn't want to wait. But my friend didn't want to do the American Adventure either, she said she saw it last time and that was enough.

Anyway margaritas in Mexico

beer in France

There were other drinking picture but most of them have my friend in them. We did see the new Guardians show. I thought it was rockin'!

We ended the night with the Frozen dessert party. So worth the money!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I liked this dessert party because it had sweet and savory items, alcoholic drinks, a great viewing area, special glasses for the fireworks, and a ride on Frozen after Illuminations. Frozen ended up being my friend's favorite ride, I thought she would think it was silly. I guess I was wrong. A couple food pictures from the dessert party. Being from Wisconsin, I needed my daily gallon of cheese, so the cheese fondue was a hit with me and my friend.

And some sweet treats. I didn't eat all of it but tasted at least all of it. Actually the almond cookie came home with me. I was full by the time I got to it and I thought the nibble I had was tasty.

The glasses were so stylish!

And an iphone picture of Illuminations. It was a great spot to see the show but the wind was blowing in our direction so we had quite a bit of debris land on us.

And a good night pic of Spaceship Earth.

The next morning we had to go home but we enjoyed some pool time at the Coronado and then had lunch at Frontera at Disney Springs.

Frontera has the La Cava Avocado margarita! YUM! I also had a short rib torta.

By the time we left my friend was talking about bringing her family down to WDW in 2019 or 2020 for Star Warsland. She said she will either need me to make a play-by-play itinerary for her (like I did for her MK day) or come with and be their tour guide. I told her I'm up for either one!


Anyway, hope you liked my March trip report and the little glimpse into my June time. Soon I'll be back in the "world" and hopefully another trip report when I return.

 

[LisaBelle]

Enjoyed your report as always! So glad your friend had so much fun. I would definitely take her up on being the tour guide for her family ! I don’t think sharing drinks is cheating at all! I’m a lightweight so that’s the only way I’d have a prayer of completing the challenge! I will look for you and Brad when my family is at WDW in only 12 days. My daughter, @TheMARVELousAllieBrown, wrote a pre-trip report for our trip. You can check out our plans to see if any of our park days match up! Have a magical time!!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Enjoyed your report as always! So glad your friend had so much fun. I would definitely take her up on being the tour guide for her family ! I don’t think sharing drinks is cheating at all! I’m a lightweight so that’s the only way I’d have a prayer of completing the challenge! I will look for you and Brad when my family is at WDW in only 12 days. My daughter, @TheMARVELousAllieBrown, wrote a pre-trip report for our trip. You can check out our plans to see if any of our park days match up! Have a magical time!!

Thanks! I will check out your trip report and see if any plans match! If we don't see you there have a great time!

 

[krause]

I was wondering if this one had been properly finished! Enjoyed as usual, and can’t wait for the next one!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I was wondering if this one had been properly finished! Enjoyed as usual, and can’t wait for the next one!

Thanks! The end of the school year was so hectic this year I completely forgot about finishing. Hopefully the next one will go better!

 

[LisaBelle]

Thanks! I will check out your trip report and see if any plans match! If we don't see you there have a great time!

Thanks! You too!

 

[becca_]

Have so much fun on your upcoming trip!! No, I am not jealous at all!!!

 

[Longers]

Can’t believe you get to go back again!
I am counting the days until I am there again and amusing myself in the meantime making my own Mickey ears!
Enjoy your trip

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Have so much fun on your upcoming trip!! No, I am not jealous at all!!!

Thanks! We are really looking forward to it our spring and summer so far have been so busy we actually haven’t spent much time together, so we are looking forward to this long trip together. Although we do have two days planned for some time apart. He is going to golf and I will be on a tour.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Can’t believe you get to go back again!
I am counting the days until I am there again and amusing myself in the meantime making my own Mickey ears!
Enjoy your trip

So cool that you will be making your own Mickey ears. I have thought about it but I think my skills might be lacking in that department. And this might be the last trip to the world for awhile. We will probably get our Disney fix in California next year. It is my idea and now I have mixed feelings about it.

 

[amjt660]

Great two trips in one report

Love the reflection picture of the Coronado

Thanks for sharing

Have fun on your nextbtrip

Max

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Great two trips in one report

Love the reflection picture of the Coronado

Thanks for sharing

Have fun on your nextbtrip

Max

Thanks Max!

 

[Sabrina1705]

As always enjoyed reading your tripreport(s).
Have fun on your upcoming visit!

 

[LeighM]

I enjoyed your trip report! Even if we didn't manage to meet up while we were there lol. I really enjoyed our stay at Coronado Springs. My husband and I had always stayed at Riverside. I would stay at CSR again but POR is definitely our Disney home. We're now 299 days until our next Disney vacation!! I'm thinking of doing something crazy for our April/May trip - not go to ANY of the theme parks. We're only going to be there 2 nights before our cruise so I'm thinking about Disney Springs the Saturday we get there and a water park that Sunday, maybe mini golf as well. We've never managed to do anything but a park so I'm thinking this might be our chance. And I rented DVC points from the SIL we traveled with in March to stay at AKL Kidani for one night before we return back home. I'm living wild and dangerous LOL.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I enjoyed your trip report! Even if we didn't manage to meet up while we were there lol. I really enjoyed our stay at Coronado Springs. My husband and I had always stayed at Riverside. I would stay at CSR again but POR is definitely our Disney home. We're now 299 days until our next Disney vacation!! I'm thinking of doing something crazy for our April/May trip - not go to ANY of the theme parks. We're only going to be there 2 nights before our cruise so I'm thinking about Disney Springs the Saturday we get there and a water park that Sunday, maybe mini golf as well. We've never managed to do anything but a park so I'm thinking this might be our chance. And I rented DVC points from the SIL we traveled with in March to stay at AKL Kidani for one night before we return back home. I'm living wild and dangerous LOL.

Cool idea to stay with no theme parks. Before my trip with my friend I would have thought it would be very difficult but upon planning to go there with her I made quite a list of non-park things to do. And too bad we couldn’t meet up maybe another time will work.