Hello Disney Friends. I have now been back from WDW for over two weeks and in all honesty I really had no inclination to do a trip report, which is not typical of me. I love trip reports. I read every single report that is posted. Not only do they allow me to live vicariously through others, but I often find great ideas and points of view that perhaps I hadn't considered before then.
So why no trip report? Well, for the first time ever I had a not so magical trip and I simply felt that my story was going to sound way too much like complaining and that no one would really be interested in indulging in that kind of a trip report. But since my return I began to realize something that I was never willing to consider before: As much as I love going to my happy place, WDW does not exist in a vacuum and sometimes real life creeps into the pixie dust and that's just the way it is. So, with that being said, I will finally get started on this trip report and what occurred.
This trip was unexpected as I was just at WDW in September with my husband. But at the beginning of November I received a pin code and thought "well, this is too good to ignore" and promptly started trying to figure out how to convince my husband that another trip was in his future. You see, I am the Disney freak in our household. Hubby truly enjoys going, but he could go once every five years and be fine. I on the other hand want to go once every other month. After thinking about it I decided that instead of going with hubby, I wanted to go on a girls only trip with my Mom. I knew that it had been 20 years since my mom's last trip to WDW so she was long overdue for a Disney experience. I called her and asked if she was interested and proceeded to wax poetic for 20 minutes about all the wonders of WDW and why she needed this trip. She was convinced! Let the planning begin.
We decided to stay at Coronado Springs and signed up for the QS meal plan. We would leave on Sunday, 2/28 and come home on Friday, 3/5. I was thrilled and super excited to have this opportunity to not only go back to WDW so soon after my last trip but to do so with my mom, who is my very best friend in the whole world. I am so blessed that she and I have such an amazing relationship.
So, Sunday 2/28 finally arrives. We flew out of Columbus, OH at 5:50 am and arrived in Orlando at 9:54. It was a perfect flight. We left on time, arrived on time and had a very brief lay-over in Atlanta.
I surprised my mom with a town car rental. We grabbed our bags and were at Coronado Springs by 10:45.
Warning: I am a horrible photographer with a horrible point and click camera, so my pictures reflect this fact.
This is the only picture that I got of our resort.
I had completed our on-line check in several days prior to arriving so we headed inside to get our check in packet. We walked right up to the on-line check in, found out that our room was ready and we could get in immediately. Fabulous!! So we get our room number assignment and see that it is 7666. My mom and I made a few jokes about the last three digits being 666 and began walking over to our room. Now, neither one of us is terribly superstitious, but perhaps we really should have asked for a different room number considering what happened next.
We dropped our bags in our room and decided to walk back to the Pepper Market for some lunch. Our room was located on the Rachos section of the resort, which is the furthest from the main building. We didn't really mind because we both found the resort to be beautiful and enjoyed the walk around the lake. At this point, we were both giddy with excitement. Our plan was to head over to MK after lunch. It was chilly but gorgeous that day so we gobbled our food down and decided to head back to the room to get what we needed for our evening at MK.
And here is where everything went off the rails. A little background information for you: My mom is a small business owner. She owns her own flower shop/antique/gift shop. She has spent the past 30 years of her life building and working on this business. She loves it so much and is immensely proud of it. As she and I were walking out of the Pepper Market her cell phone rang. I was a few steps in front of her when I hear her say "It's on fire"?! I turn around and can see that she is shaking. She hangs up the phone and immediately calls my dad and tells him that one of her employees just called and said that her shop was on fire. I could tell she was in shock so I simply decided to get her back to the room until we could figure out what was going on. She just kept repeating over and over "it's all gone, it's all gone".
Let me tell you, that walk back to the room was the longest walk ever. We finally get back to the room only to realize that for whatever reason we didn't have a signal on either of our cell phones. I think it had something to do with the fact that the building is solid concrete and we were smack in the middle of it. So we were constantly walking outside to try and get a signal.
The next 3 hours were nothing but phone calls and tears and trying to figure out what to do. I immediately started making phone calls to see when the next flight that we could get on was leaving. In the end, my dad convinced my mom to stay and explained that there was a lot of damage but nothing that she could do about it right then because it would be days before insurance would be able to get in there and do anything.
Reluctantly my mom decided to stick it out. We decided to try and make the best of a very bad situation since everything was already paid for and my dad was at home to take care of the shop.
We did end up going to MK and only rode two rides before going back to the room. Mom's heart and mind simply weren't in to it. She has since told me that she doesn't even remember what we did that day. So back to the room we went to try and get some rest in the hopes that things would look better after a good nights sleep.
So why no trip report? Well, for the first time ever I had a not so magical trip and I simply felt that my story was going to sound way too much like complaining and that no one would really be interested in indulging in that kind of a trip report. But since my return I began to realize something that I was never willing to consider before: As much as I love going to my happy place, WDW does not exist in a vacuum and sometimes real life creeps into the pixie dust and that's just the way it is. So, with that being said, I will finally get started on this trip report and what occurred.
This trip was unexpected as I was just at WDW in September with my husband. But at the beginning of November I received a pin code and thought "well, this is too good to ignore" and promptly started trying to figure out how to convince my husband that another trip was in his future. You see, I am the Disney freak in our household. Hubby truly enjoys going, but he could go once every five years and be fine. I on the other hand want to go once every other month. After thinking about it I decided that instead of going with hubby, I wanted to go on a girls only trip with my Mom. I knew that it had been 20 years since my mom's last trip to WDW so she was long overdue for a Disney experience. I called her and asked if she was interested and proceeded to wax poetic for 20 minutes about all the wonders of WDW and why she needed this trip. She was convinced! Let the planning begin.
We decided to stay at Coronado Springs and signed up for the QS meal plan. We would leave on Sunday, 2/28 and come home on Friday, 3/5. I was thrilled and super excited to have this opportunity to not only go back to WDW so soon after my last trip but to do so with my mom, who is my very best friend in the whole world. I am so blessed that she and I have such an amazing relationship.
So, Sunday 2/28 finally arrives. We flew out of Columbus, OH at 5:50 am and arrived in Orlando at 9:54. It was a perfect flight. We left on time, arrived on time and had a very brief lay-over in Atlanta.
I surprised my mom with a town car rental. We grabbed our bags and were at Coronado Springs by 10:45.
Warning: I am a horrible photographer with a horrible point and click camera, so my pictures reflect this fact.
This is the only picture that I got of our resort.
I had completed our on-line check in several days prior to arriving so we headed inside to get our check in packet. We walked right up to the on-line check in, found out that our room was ready and we could get in immediately. Fabulous!! So we get our room number assignment and see that it is 7666. My mom and I made a few jokes about the last three digits being 666 and began walking over to our room. Now, neither one of us is terribly superstitious, but perhaps we really should have asked for a different room number considering what happened next.
We dropped our bags in our room and decided to walk back to the Pepper Market for some lunch. Our room was located on the Rachos section of the resort, which is the furthest from the main building. We didn't really mind because we both found the resort to be beautiful and enjoyed the walk around the lake. At this point, we were both giddy with excitement. Our plan was to head over to MK after lunch. It was chilly but gorgeous that day so we gobbled our food down and decided to head back to the room to get what we needed for our evening at MK.
And here is where everything went off the rails. A little background information for you: My mom is a small business owner. She owns her own flower shop/antique/gift shop. She has spent the past 30 years of her life building and working on this business. She loves it so much and is immensely proud of it. As she and I were walking out of the Pepper Market her cell phone rang. I was a few steps in front of her when I hear her say "It's on fire"?! I turn around and can see that she is shaking. She hangs up the phone and immediately calls my dad and tells him that one of her employees just called and said that her shop was on fire. I could tell she was in shock so I simply decided to get her back to the room until we could figure out what was going on. She just kept repeating over and over "it's all gone, it's all gone".
Let me tell you, that walk back to the room was the longest walk ever. We finally get back to the room only to realize that for whatever reason we didn't have a signal on either of our cell phones. I think it had something to do with the fact that the building is solid concrete and we were smack in the middle of it. So we were constantly walking outside to try and get a signal.
The next 3 hours were nothing but phone calls and tears and trying to figure out what to do. I immediately started making phone calls to see when the next flight that we could get on was leaving. In the end, my dad convinced my mom to stay and explained that there was a lot of damage but nothing that she could do about it right then because it would be days before insurance would be able to get in there and do anything.
Reluctantly my mom decided to stick it out. We decided to try and make the best of a very bad situation since everything was already paid for and my dad was at home to take care of the shop.
We did end up going to MK and only rode two rides before going back to the room. Mom's heart and mind simply weren't in to it. She has since told me that she doesn't even remember what we did that day. So back to the room we went to try and get some rest in the hopes that things would look better after a good nights sleep.
I certainly have a new appreciation for my favorite vacation destination. I don't think I will ever take it for granted again. 
