Trip Report JenniferS (and Mike) will be live 9/2-9/13 ... maybe!

Yes, it’s that time of year again, time for another live trip report from two of your favourite Canadians ... which means of course, that another hurricane is headed to Florida.

This will be my fourth live WDW trip report. The “who” and “where” remain the same, but the “how” and “when” are very much up in the air right now.

2016 here: (No, I don’t know how to embed links in a little blue “here”)

Hi, my name is JenniferS, and I am a Disneyholic. I have been accused of being a Pixie Dust snorter. I've been accused of worse, so no biggie.

Once we get home from a Disney trip, I am always in a bit of a funk, and never really up to doing a proper trip report. For those of you who know me, I generally post live over in Chit Chat somewhere. This is my first dedicated live trip report in the actual Trip Report Thread.

The cast:
Me. JenniferS. Just turned 49. Honestly friends, I don't know how that happened. I still feel 27. But, my passport and driver's licence insist I was born in 1967, and I have two 20-something sons, so it must be true.

This is me, on my way to work this morning. All smiles, because this is my last day of work for almost two weeks!
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And this is Hubby. He is not on his way to work today, as he has been off work for 6 months. He is 48 years old and this is the first entire summer he has had off since he was 14. In 31 years together, this is only the second time I have seen him with a tan.

Goofy is his favourite character.
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And last year, he was obsessed with this over-sized "Stitchie". There was no room in our luggage, but this year, I am determined to buy it for him, and bring it home by any means necessary. Actually, I'm just going to bring our big SouthWest duffel bag, and pay for an extra bag coming home.

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This will be our first Disney trip, just the two of us, since 1992!

Okay, that's the Who.
Coming up next - the Where.

2017 here:

This will be my fourth live trip report in a year, and after NYC last week, I thought Hubby had reached his limit, but he says, "No, go ahead, do a live trip report. It lets me control the tv while you talk to your friends." (As we meet more of my WDWDisney friends, he uses finger quotes around "friends" less and less.)

So, here we go, another live trip report. I really don't have the will to do a post trip report, so it's "live" or nothing. Once I'm out of the bubble, I'm out.

Introductions.
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That would be me, Jennifer, on the left. Big Disney fan, big Blue Jays fan, big Hubby fan. Ace, in the middle - although he will always be BJ Birdie to me. Hubby, Mike, on the right. Although Mike is the one who first introduced me to Disney in 1991, it's not really his thing. He goes with me most years to make me happy. And also for the food.

As with our past three trips, we will be spending 11 days, 10 nights at Coronado Springs Resort. We booked a BounceBack offer before checking out last year, before knowing how much construction would be going on. Oh well, it is what it is. And what it is, is my favourite resort in my Happy Place; so it's all good.

We have a Preferred King room booked, which means Casitas 1, 2, or 3. Nonetheless, I think I will be sending in a room preference fax tomorrow asking for a refurbed King room in either 7A or 8A. I'll be happy either way. I am ridiculously easy to please whilst in WDW.

Yes, I am one of those Free Dining parasites. By booking the BB offer last year, we are actually getting the full DDP for free, instead of having to upgrade from QDP. I put great thought and effort into our ADR's. Mike is a big guy and eats a lot. The heat and humidity really kills my appetite, so Mike eats at least half of my meals too. (I've recently packed on 20 pounds, so that may be a good thing.)

Next up, our somewhat loosey goosey itinerary.

2018 here:

Technically this is a pre-trip report, but we’ll be going live in less than a week!

This will be my third live September trip report.
2016:
https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/jennifers-is-live-9-7-16-9-17-16.918342/#post-7389286

2017:
https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/jennifers-was-live-9-6-17-9-16-17.931263/#post-7871205

It’s going to be a lot of same old/same old, as the cast, location, and ADR’s are pretty much the same. What can I say - we like what we like. And what we like is each other, Walt Disney World, Coronado Springs, and Free Disney Dining.

First, the who.
Me, JenniferS - Uber planning, pixie dust snorting Disney-aholic, 51 year old kid at heart (despite what the mirror says).
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This is Hubby. He likes the Tar Heels, the Blue Jays, food, beer, and me. Not necessarily in that order.
The words most often heard coming out of his mouth are “Whatever you want, Baby.”
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This is us. We are adorable together. We’re each other’s ride or die.
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Last year, we were celebrating my 50th birthday (as much as women celebrate these “milestones”).

This year, we are celebrating Mike’s 50th (both of us born in August, so it’s close enough to count) AND our 25th wedding anniversary earlier this year.

We have children, but we don’t bring them to Disney very often anymore. If they decide to get married and start giving us grand-babies, I will re-visit this decision. But for now, they stay home. We are on Jen and Mike time.

After two live trip reports, I’m not sure how wordy this report will be, but it will be heavy on pics, most especially of food! As Mike says - I’m only here for the food.

To be continued ....

To be continued ....

 

[JenniferS]

And dessert!

Banana cream tart for Mike.

Chocolate and coconut crème brûlée for me.

And the damage:

 

[JenniferS]

Before dinner ....

We never did end up going swimming. Although the storm lasted less than 20 minutes, our naps were at least double that.

We’ve got a really long drive ahead of us tomorrow, and no J to take the wheel for a spell. Mike says he’s willing to stop for a couple hour nap in a rest stop, but we don’t have time for an 8-10 hour hotel overnighter. We both work on Sunday.

We drove to the Grand Flo, arriving just before 7:00 and promptly hopped on the monorail. As you know, we went to my treehouse (funny story about that later), and then stopped by Jungle Cruise. 30 minute wait. Nope, no time for that.

I then suggested the Tiki Birds. Mike said nope, no way, no how, but encouraged me to go ahead.

Sooooo ... onward to PotC. Once via SB, once via FP. And that’s how we ended our last day at our last park for this year.

We took the resort launch back to the GF and had dinner, watching HEA from the verandah.

We’ve done a coffee run, and if we were smart we’d go to bed. No one feels like packing tonight. So we’ll get up at 8:00 and do it then.

It’s really just a matter of throwing everything in the back of the truck. No need to pack carefully in order to avoid the airport shuffle of shame. No airport. No shuffle.

Pics from today. Pirates 1 & 2, so the order may be off.

 

[JenniferS]

As we were leaving the park passing my treehouse, I heard a lady say “Hey Jennifer, do you want to go visit your treehouse?”

For a sec, I thought it might be a certain friend I’ve been looking for, but my momentum (with a bad knee and bad hip, you DO NOT break the momentum) took me past the group, and when I looked back they had moved on.

Hopefully, whoever they were, they did indeed go visit my treehouse. Once my hip is replaced and my knee is fixed, I’m moving in permanently! For now, the stairs are a little much, so the visitors may continue.

 

[JenniferS]

Breakfast tomorrow at Kona. Macadamia nut pancakes. Pineapple and butter on the side.

Somebody please remind me to get bacon. I don’t like Kona sausage.

Good night Peeps. I am exhausted, and I received an out of the blue message from a friend of a friend, and am feeling a little verklempt.

 

[JenniferS]

There are a lot of bags there. Hopefully it sorts itself out before the morning. Otherwise, I’ve got a lot of organizing to do.

I’m afraid to total up the receipts. We’re very close to, perhaps even, over our exemption.

 

[trr1]

There are a lot of bags there. Hopefully it sorts itself out before the morning. Otherwise, I’ve got a lot of organizing to do.

I’m afraid to total up the receipts. We’re very close to, perhaps even, over our exemption.

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hide them in the in the spare tire

 

[JenniferS]

hide them in the in the spare tire

Nah, I almost always tell the 100% truth and am willing to take my lumps. They usually just wave us through.

A middle aged couple coming home from Disney World a couple hundred over their duty free exemption is not who they’re looking to nail.

If it were $1600 USD value, I’d be fine; but it’s $1600 CAD value, so we’re walking a very fine line here.

Good thing I didn’t buy that $468 Dooney eh?

 

[Swissmiss]

Have a safe trip home .

And as for border crossings, I tend to use the answer to do you have any merchandise: yes, but I don’t think I’ve gone over any of the limits. I usually get waved thru.

 

[PUSH]

You should stay another week so I can keep living vicariously through you.

 

[JenniferS]

You should stay another week so I can keep living vicariously through you.

You say that every year.

 

[trr1]

You say that every year.

But we truly mean it every year. Next time can you make some picture like the 1960's batman show?

 

[JenniferS]

All packed up and checked out. And now we’re here at Kona.

Mike loves this juice. It goes by different names depending on the restaurant, but it’s all POG, I believe. Passion fruit, orange, guava.

The Big Kahuna for the Big Kahuna. Still not back on the menu, but if you ask for it, they’ll bring it.

Oh look, I remembered to order bacon. All by myself. ‘Cause no one reminded me.

I did better than most years. No one really needs three pancakes this big!

 

[Rista1313]

All packed up and checked out. And now we’re here at Kona.

Mike loves this juice. It goes by different names depending on the restaurant, but it’s all POG, I believe. Passion fruit, orange, guava.
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The Big Kahuna for the Big Kahuna. Still not back on the menu, but if you ask for it, they’ll bring it.
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Oh look, I remembered to order bacon. All by myself. ‘Cause no one reminded me.
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I did better than most years. No one really needs three pancakes this big!
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My husband would disagree with you!

 

[JenniferS]

$6.50 for that tiny glass of juice?
That’s like nine bucks Canadian.

 

[worldfanatic]

Safe Travels.
Have really enjoyed your WDW Adventure.

 

[Rista1313]

Thanks for the live report, it definitely made this last week of waiting more bearable! 1 more sleep!

 

[Zipadeelady]

Be safe. Thanks for posting your live adventures.

 

[JenniferS]

We have a 24 hour drive ahead of us, so I’ll have lots of time to do a wrap-up, and “best of” series.

Telling you now though - best dessert: the Kungaloosh!

FYI - Mike wants to drive next year too.
Mind you, he hasn’t spent 24 hours alone with me in the car yet ... so we’ll see.

 

[Andrew C]

We have a 24 hour drive ahead of us, so I’ll have lots of time to do a wrap-up, and “best of” series.

Telling you know though - best dessert: the Kungaloosh!

FYI - Mike wants to drive next year too.
Mind you, he hasn’t spent 24 hours alone with me in the car yet ... so we’ll see.

Are you going to stop overnight on the way up?

 

[JenniferS]

Are you going to stop overnight on the way up?

He says nope. A couple of hours snooze in a rest stop. I won’t be doing any of the driving, so it’s totally his call.