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We just returned yesterday from a 3 day trip to the Mouse and thought I would share some of the highlights of our trip.
DH and I went alone from Rochester, NY. We left the kids home with grandma. Our reason for going was to close on our new home in Kissimmee! 20 minutes from
WDW! We move in less than 2 weeks!
We flew down on Thursday from Rochester to Orlando on Air Tran. I got a great fare of $79 each way non-stop. Seeing that I hate to fly this was the best way!
I love Air-Tran! I ordered our tickets on the internet. I was sent an email 24 hours prior to leaving to let me know I could check in online and select our
seats. I did that and printed off our boarding passes. This allowed us just to go to the gate in the morning instead of having to check in at the airport.
Security and screening was no problem. We had a quick breakfast and cup of coffee at the airport. We were scheduled to leave at 8:45 am and arrive at
11:40. We arrived 10 minutes early.
We rented a car from Alamo at a rate of 17.99 a day. It was a sub-compact but was very roomy for the two of us. it was the size of a Toyota corolla. Alamo
was quick. We found a car and we were off.
We spent the rest of the day doing business. We headed to ASMu around 6:30 pm. We hit the worst rainstorm ever! It literally poured for 45 minutes straight.
We could not see anything out of the car window. I hear that these rainstorms are the norm there in the summer.
We got to ASMu around 7:00 pm. We checked in. There was no line. We had paid for preferred view and the total was $79 a night with our AP. We were in he
Calypso building room 647 on the third floor. I was bummed because I really wanted first floor. But when I opened the door I was surprised by two things:
A King bed handicapped room! And the horrible Smell! It smelled like something was dead in the room! I expected to see a dead body! I pulled the phone
outside the door, because I could not stand the smell and called the front desk. They assigned us a new room, 447. First floor. So, I was bummed that the
upgrade was gone, but I got a first floor room!
We headed to our new room and opened the door. Guess what! Upgraded again! Kind size bed and handicapped room! This means large bathroom! I was in
heaven. We started to unpack and realized we also had a fridge in the room! Wow! Our room was at the back side of the building facing the parking lot, but
we had a woods outside our door. It was perfect! No noise from the pool, close to the main building and animals running around!
We headed to the AKL for our 8 pm PS at BOMA. It was our first time eating there. What an experience. I absolutely loved it. The food was amazing,
although there were some items I did not like....the watermelon rind salad being one.
But the highlight of the meal was an apple soup and of course....the Zebra Domes! They were sooooo good! I ate to many!
We went out to the savannah overlook outside after our meal and got up close and personal with a giraffe, wildebeest, gazelles, and zebras. It was so peaceful
and quiet out there!
We went back to the room and headed to bed.
Friday dawned hot and sunny. We arose and went to the food court for breakfast. We were closing on our house at 3 pm so we had some time to go to the MK.
We got to the MK at 8:30 and waited for the park to open. We saw the opening and went back to Splash mountain. No wait. Thunder Mountain was
closed.....technical problems. Everything we went on virtually has very little wait! We went to the Plaza for lunch. It was so good! I had the Rueben and DH
had the chicken sandwich. The waiter came up and told us that he felt bad that we had to wait so long for our food so the drinks we on the house! The funny
thing is that I did not think we waited long at all! More Disney Magic!
We went back to the pool for an hour before we were supposed to leave for the house closing. 15 minutes before we were supposed to leave, the mortgage broker
called and said there were a few more items that they needed for the closing and could I get them. Well, I needed the internet and a printer. So here is my big
tip for the week:
Coronado Springs resort has a convention center with a business Center. You can walk in there and go on the internet and print whatever you need. The catch is
that it is expensive. $10 for every 15 minutes of internet usage. $1 per page to print. But worth it when you are in a bind. The business center is open 7
days a week. You can also fax from there.
Another tip: There is a internet cafe on 192 just about a mile down from the Radisson resort parkway. If you are traveling away from WDW it is on the Left
side. It is well advertised from the road and is in a plaza with a dippin dots. It is open from 6 am to 10 pm 7 days a week. I do not know what the prices are.
But it is another alternative when you need help.
We also needed to fax something the first day and we went to guest relations at ASMu. They not only faxed it right away, they did not charged us anything to do
it! Love Disney!
Well our closing did not happen as there were other things that the broker found he needed. As Friday was a National holiday due to President Reagan's death, we
could not get what we needed. So we will be closing via the mail.
We headed back to the MK and hung out there. We had 9:30 pm PS at the castle for dinner. We were supposed to celebrating the house purchase. So instead we
celebrated being at Disney with no kids! Why so late, you ask? Well I had heard somewhere on the list that if you go there before Wishes start you can see
some of the fireworks from the castle dining room. I asked when I made the PS and the CM said that is not true. But it was the only PS available that night.
We were led to our table and got more Disney Magic handed to us: we were seated at the windows overlooking fantasyland and the Carousel. That has never
happened in the 18+ times I have eaten there! We ordered. We both had the steak and the beef barley soup, of course! Then we ordered dessert: the fantasyland
sundae to split. It was raspberry sorbet and blueberries, strawberries and bananas in chocolate sauce. It was so good! When dessert came, the restaurant
went dark and the Wishes music was piped in. All of a sudden, there was a giant light that filled the castle. We looked out the window and the fireworks were
happening directly in front of us! We has front row seats for the most amazing fireworks ever! What Disney magic! It was so romantic and beautiful!
hocolate, my husband and fireworks at Disney!
We headed back to our room after and went to bed. Got up the next morning and our plan was to go to Universal and scope it out for when we come down and bring
the kids. We have not been there in probably 10 years so this was all new to us. We had taken advantage of the Buy one year get one free offer that they
were running on the annual passes. We spent the majority of the day at Universal. The great thing at Universal: Starbuck's! It was not crowded at all.
We left around 4 pm and went back to ASMu. Then we headed to Downtown Disney to shop. We hit all of the stores without any kids saying: Can I have that?
We have PAP and decided to head over to the West side to explore Disney Quest as we have never been there. We spent hours there! We had a great time! I felt
like a kid! The human pinball game was cool! So was the jungle cruise. DH did Aladdin's magic carpets, but those motion rides make me ill. We then left and
did some shopping. We has PS at Wolfgang Pucks cafe at 9:15. We were seated outside. it was a beautiful night. I had the butternut squash soup! It was
amazing. I also had the salmon! Everything was so good! DH had the pepperoni pizza. He said it was awesome! We went back to the room and went to bed!
The next morning we got up and packed to head to the airport. Our flight left at 10:10 and we were there two hours early. We had to drop off the rental car
and check in. We did not want to pay all that money to check in on the internet on Sat, so we thought we would do it the hard way when we got to the airport. I
love Airtran! Guess what: they have internet terminals at their check in line. You check in online and you are off. Took 2 minutes. We did some shopping as
we had time to kill and had breakfast. High point of the airport: Starbucks! No problem with security and our flight left on time! This was the perfect
trip! Plenty of Disney Magic to be had!
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