Trip Report JenniferS was live! 9/6/17 - 9/16/17

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.

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.

 

[Songbird76]

Small rewind while I sip my first cup of tea in 12 days!

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Ya gotta admit - this is a little creepy.
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2h 10m flight. 129m movie. What could be better?
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I have never heard of Sprite Zero. I wonder if we have that up here? The flight was less than 1/4 full, so when I asked for two snacks, the flight attendant said, "Sure, honey".
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Along with a bunch of boring t-shirts and sleep pants for the boys, I neglected to take photos of these little beauties along the way.
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We had to do the "shuffle of shame" at the airport. Mike's bag - 55 lbs. My bag - 45 lbs. Duffle bag - <35 lbs. Duh, that wasn't hard to rearrange. Shampoo and 5 of the leftover beers into the duffel bag ... done!

The house was a little messy, but by no means trashed. So yay. I have unpacked my suitcase and the knapsack. All the "gifts" are crammed into the duffel bag to be dealt with next week. I can probably get 3/4 of my Christmas wrapping done if I have enough gift tags.

What is that creepy picture, actually? Are they filming people in the park and broadcasting it on a ride?

 

[Monty]

We had to do the "shuffle of shame" at the airport. Mike's bag - 55 lbs. My bag - 45 lbs. Duffle bag - <35 lbs. Duh, that wasn't hard to rearrange. Shampoo and 5 of the leftover beers into the duffel bag ... done!

I don't remember if either of you has prior Military Service, but if you do... You can use the baggage exemption and the former Military Member would be eligible for 3 bags up to 70lbs for free.

https://www.aircanada.com/content/dam/aircanada/portal/documents/PDF/en/military_baggage_policy.pdf

For future reference. WestJet and Porter have the same, or very similar, policies. The Airlines in the US are different, I don't know if any of them recognise Canadian Service. Something to keep in mind if it applies.

 

[coachwnh]

Thanks for taking the time to report live. It was fun following along.

 

[75disney]

Thanks for a great trip report! I am sad that I won't be able to read your updates every morning.

 

[Plowboy]

Breakfast at Kona.
No Big Kahuna on the menu, but wait ... you CAN still order it - with zero substitutions. So that's what the boys did. Me, I got the usual. (With bacon.)

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Look at how pretty Eric dressed up that pancake. It looks good enough to eat!
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Stitchie!
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Nope. No Dole Whips this year.
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Yeah, and no Samoan either. Sniff, sniff...

Thanks for bringing us along on your trip. Enjoyed your photos and commentary very much.

 

[JenniferS]

What is that creepy picture, actually? Are they filming people in the park and broadcasting it on a ride?

It is the "end of the line" for the monorail shuttle at MCO.

 

[riverside]

Great live trip report!! Thanks so much!! Looking forward to next years!!

 

[Trisha Lynn]

Thanks for the great report. I'm glad you had such a great time; sorry we missed each other.

 

[krisri18]

Great report and glad you made it home safe!

 

[George]

Awesome report. Thanks for sharing. Looks fun and adventurous.

 

[JenniferS]

Thanks for the great report. I'm glad you had such a great time; sorry we missed each other.

Are you there yet?

 

[93boomer]

Thanks for sharing your trip with us! Awesome!

 

[Trisha Lynn]

Are you there yet?

Yep! Waiting for my Hobbit to finish up some court paperwork for one of his clients in the Kidani Village library, then we'll be going back to Animal Kingdom Park.

 

[JenniferS]

Yep! Waiting for my Hobbit to finish up some court paperwork for one of his clients in the Kidani Village library, then we'll be going back to Animal Kingdom Park.

Hope you have a great vacation.

 

[Trisha Lynn]

Thank you; you're very kind.

 

[Tiggerish]

Ehrmagahd, I went away for a long weekend overseas, so fell behind and had to catch up. Apologies for quoting zombie posts, but...

I asked if the Vader socks were available in large. She vaguely said, "I'm not sure if we have any right now." (No, "let me check.")

I asked who a particular character was. She said, "I don't know, I don't follow Star Wars." (At $20 - $28/pair, you need to know your inventory! It was Governor Tarkin, BTW.)

As I was about to ask her about ordering the Vader socks in large (to go with the the Stormtrooper, R2D2, Luke Skwalker socks I already had in my hands), another man had walked in and commented to his wife, "Oh look, they have (whoever the sports guy was) socks."

No "Excuse me, I'll be right back" or anything; she just overheard a comment that interested her and flitted away.

I am in sales. Have worked for the same company since 1989. Not to brag (you've heard me admit I am a terrible cook, a lousy housekeeper, can't park to save my life), but I am very, very good at my job. I don't sell clothing, mind you; but the concept is the same.

When the guy didn't buy the "blah blah blah" socks and left, the salesgirl returned to her sales partner to continue their chat and never came back to inquire if I needed any more help. One by one, I replaced the 6 or 7 pairs I had in my hand at this point, and we left.

Done with Stance.

In solidarity, I will never enter that place. Seriously, what rotten CS.

I would have thrown in a well-timed Pretty Woman reference

Sweet! Well done, @Songbird76 that's one of my favourites too!!

sure it wasn't Grand Moff Tarquin

I'm fairly certain that in A New Hope, Princess Leia refers to him as Governor Tarkin (or if you insist on spelling it the European way, Tarquin). Grand Moff was in the Novelization. *wife of geek*

TBF

HA! Most people say "TBH", which, while true...I admire your use of Frank!!! W00T!

Or perhaps you're part Filipino? I would have dug into it with my hands, picking the meat off the bones and popping it into my mouth. Can you take resort restaurant food back to your room with you?

2. Yes, you can take restaurant food back to your room to do with as you will. 1. It's really cool to realize that many cultures do the same thing, even though separated by thousands of miles. I'm of Irish heritage (ok, first generation American) and my family are bone-scrapers. But only when it's just us. We behave when "dining out". Which explains why we eat home so often.

No posts yet today, but I swear, we are here.
Banging out rides, left, right, and centre with @Eric1955.
Since 12:30 - SSE, Test Track (single rider), Mission: Space (Earth), Frozenstrom, Gran Fiesta (twice), the American Adventure, lunch, and some Food & Wine snacks.
The weather is holding up, the attractions are complete walk-ons.
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More to follow.

I'm a wee bit gobsmacked...based on the handle @Eric1955, I was expecting a much older guy Regardless, and having met a number of WDWMagic friends of several ages, I'm really glad that you both hit it off!!

@Eric1955 I had you pegged as an old geezer.
Mea culpa.

I feel so much better now that I'm not alone!!! We probably both figured that "1955" was a birth year...which would have made him older than us.

Ireland F & W:

I hate to break it to you, but no one in Ireland actually eats any of this. The country was never known for good cooking, although over the last 10 years there's been a culinary "revolution" and things are improving leaps and bounds. Regardless, I'm glad you enjoyed booth of my home country.

During a tour I was used as the guinea pig to demonstrate the forced perspective at AA. One of the group we were with commented "Gee, for a brief moment you weren't anywhere near as intimidating!"

I never realised that just being tall made me intimidating... And I'm not even "Mike tall"!

You are just a very large cuddle bunny.

Okay, thank you. I definitely will check.
I just assumed they were lost days. Irma was not Disney's fault.

Decent people alert!!!

(same here)

Doing a little bit of packing, and Mike counts the beer left in the fridge, trying to figure how much room I have to leave in the duffel bag for the leftovers.

"Fifteen. I'll have a couple tonight, so maybe take home ten."

Yeah, and I'm the one who's bad at math.

ETA - Apparently that's "Irish math".

Erm, irish math would have taken the number of cans and divided them by the number of days left to come up with a degree of imbibement and ensured that the degree equaled the number of days left.

Text from Son #1:

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I remember a similar circumstance. I was prooobbbably 19, and dad went away for the summer to Ireland and instructed my younger (by a year) brother not to have parties. I was already working in an office and had to get up early. Needless to say, my idiot brother picked a weeknight for his bacchanalia. Guys womitting on the stairs, in the basement...I threw my first hissy fit and they all shortly sobered up and fixed the HD bins.

Made sense to me.

Didja boogie?

If you did, please consider being my roommate on a future Girls Cruise.

I have a bad feeling

You got that from an early Star Wars movie, didn't you?

I highly recommend the NEXUS Card, it is definitely worth every penny for me.

Same for my US Global Entry.

while I sip my first cup of tea in 12 days!

Dang.

Ya gotta admit - this is a little creepy.

It's kind of a lot creepy.

2h 10m flight. 129m movie. What could be better?

I had enough time coming the reverse direction to watch 3 movies, one of which was The Gifted (Chris Evans is just so handsome)

 

[JenniferS]

Bad feeling update - not a loose crown. An abscess under the crown, requiring a re-treatment of a six year old root canal. The fun begins at 2:15 tomorrow. In the meantime, I am in a-go-ny. Ugh!

 

[Gabe1]

Some random thoughts as we load the car and head to Kona for breakfast ....

It will be neat to try a new resort. We were supposed to stay at POR in 2011, before my mom suddenly and unexpectedly passed a week before our departure.

Frontera Cocina > Chef Art's.

Even if I were to eat nothing but the bread, The Wave is a million times better than Cape May.

Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake (when heated all the way through) is the best dessert on property.

'Ohana remains a must for our first night, and Narcoossee's for our final night - perfect bookends to what always turn out to be great trips.

Next year, Mikey can have a better rental car, and I will hear less complaining about the cheap pieces of carp I keep booking.

Florida is hot.

Brekkie pictures up next.

Been trying to play ketchup with your trip as I begin to recover from ours and contimplate writing one of my own. Glad you had a great time, we did too in-spite of Irma. Likely because we had pretty long trips and low crowds.

I think you will love Riverside. Their lounge is a hoot. The resort is set very similar to CS and their QS was being remodeled when we visited this trip, it is huge with pretty views of the River and dock. It is the resort we stay at more often than not though not this trip.
The rooms are the same as CS but I find the landscaping and most of the views prettier than CS but there is not a lake like CS just the winding river and ferry boats. Me, after decades of staying at POR I greatly favor the Mansions as they are 4 person rooms vs 5 in the Bayou areas, the rooms do not flow as well and drawers that are nearly floor level which might be a stretch for your sweetie.

Sorry you're home too but glad you survived Irma as well as we did. A great vacation even with Irma.

 

[Gabe1]

Splash is closed. Thunder Mountain, we did back to back one day, and there is nothing in Storybook Circus for us.

Here's what we didn't do:
Jungle Cruise (it was closed every time we tried)
Tiki Birds with Dole Whips
Any spinner
The Train
Philharmagic
HEA or ANY night time fireworks (from an actual park)

After Irma I never saw the Jungle Cruise reopen or the train. We did just about everything on Saturday the day of 9000 guests at the Magic Kingdom so we got everything in plus all of Epcot. Likely why I didn't mind Day #1 of the Irma Lockdown. Needed a rest I guess.

 

[Gabe1]

Bad feeling update - not a loose crown. An abscess under the crown, requiring a re-treatment of a six year old root canal. The fun begins at 2:15 tomorrow. In the meantime, I am in a-go-ny. Ugh!

Yikes! So glad that was not at Disney.