Prepare for a lengthy post!
The crazy-ness has settled down and the post-Disney depression has settled in. But I wanted to share my experiences with my most recent trip!
Who: Myself and boyfriend
Where: Disney’s Coronado Springs
When: 11/16-11/21
Our package: We did two day PH and 2 days at Universal (HUGE HP nerds )
One note: My boyfriend has never been to Disney/Universal before!!!
A few takeaways from our time at Coronado Springs (new resort for both of us):
- The food is VERY good!! I kept ordering the rice bowl which was delicious while my boyfriend loved the cheesesteaks.
- The resort is huge. We had a preferred room and thank god we did because our first night was in a lower room category (all I could book when I extended my stay) and we had a hike to walk when we finally arrived at night. Definitely try to get a preferred location as it really is much more convenient.
- There are 4 bus stops that go in the order of 2-3-4 and then around to 1. There was never an issue getting on a bus in the morning at the front lobby due to crowds from the other stops however getting around the resort at night when returning from the parks took F-O-R-E-V-E-R. We almost missed our transfer back to the airport even though we allowed a lot of cushion due to how long each bus stop at our own resort took.
- The staff weren’t all on the same page. Often times we would ask one CM a question which we then discovered to have been given the wrong solution just for us to go up to another CM and they tell us something entirely different. It wasn’t too big of a deal but it definitely happened more than once.
- With that being said there as always were some amazing CM’s one man in particular (which unfortunately now that I’m writing this his name escapes me) remembered where my boyfriend and I were travelling from even though we had a brief conversation 4 days prior! On our last day with our luggage in our arms he wished us a save journey back to PA. We were in awe about how he even recognized our faces let alone where we were from!
- The construction wasn’t an issue. Besides the front lobby not being the bus stop and ugly fencing that was aligned in most places.
- Our room didn’t have a microwave? My last two stays have been at AoA and they have had them in our rooms and from previous trips I remember being able to heat things up. That was a slight bummer since we had groceries delivered to our room (before we ever actually saw our room) and bought a few things that needed to be microwaved. There also wasn’t one in the food court. Not sure if this is a new thing or we completely missed it? Just an FYI for those travelling with their own food.
The Parks:
- Like I briefly mentioned, my boyfriend has never been to Disney World. Man, just watching him experience everything was definitely the highlight of my whole trip.
- It was CROWDED! I have gone over so many holidays and during the summer vs the spring but Thanksgiving was a lot! I went over Easter in about 2010 and that was hands down the worst experience at Disney. The reasoning (besides an obvious holiday with a lot of vacation breaks) was that there was the HUGE cheerleading nationals happening in DHS at the same time. The funny thing was during this trip there were a load of cheerleaders staying at Coronado Springs. A small flashback.
- Due to timing, we had to park hop whereas my previous trips I have been able to allocate a full day to each park. That definitely made it a lot harder to ride the most amount of rides due to our FP choices and RP strategy. My boyfriend didn’t know any better but some things I was definitely bummed about missing and didn’t want to/didn’t have the luxury to wait 50 minutes for.
- I’ll always preach it, but I wish WDW had more single rider lines. I completely understand how hard it is to make ANOTHER queue, the drawbacks of it as well as it not quite being a “family” style push. But Universal does it for nearly every attraction and it just allows you to do SO. MUCH. MORE. We went to Universal before we even stepped foot in a Disney park and my boyfriend kept asking “does this have single rider? Does this?” most likely no! I also understand a lot of the rides aren’t engineered to be for singles especially at MK, I’m not sitting in a car on Winnie the Pooh next to strangers. I get it. When we were almost on Space Mountain, every other car I saw (just on our FP side alone) had an empty seat. Why can’t TOT? No one cares who you sit next to it’s such a short ride. I wish Midway Mania could just because I also saw so many families of 3 or 5 that had empty shooters. My input.
-Tony's was surprisingly good! I don't know if it will be a must do from now on but can definitely put it into the rotation for future trips if need be.
- Since I was on these boards so much before I traveled, I noticed the amount of strollers (motorized and for kids) so much more. Wow they take over the parks now, huh?
Quick story: After the fireworks at MK we left to go get in line at our bus stop. When we were at our stop there was already one scooter at the front of the queue to the side in their own designated spot. As our bus was FINALLY pulling up to our stop, another motorized scooter with her whole entourage arrive and go to the front of the queue. Not only was it very annoying to have to wait for the production of getting not one but two scooters onto the bus. The second family was able to go on ahead of every single person that was standing there for much longer!! And of course scooters take up so much space. It just rubbed us the wrong way, and of course when that is happening you start over-analyzing the people riding the scooters.
- The day we were supposed to go to AK the park was opening up at 9 AM. Every single thing we checked told us that the park opened at 9. We got there a little before 8:30 AM to see that the entrance was already opened, and not only that, that the FOP queue was already 65 minutes!! I guarantee that the crowds were a lot and they had to do something to alleviate the mess at the entrance but I was slightly annoyed. Who knows if we could’ve managed to get there earlier/with regular opening got on FOP quicker, but I didn’t know they did that. I was there just this past December and we arrived 50 minutes early and still had to wait until about 10 minutes prior to opening before they started ushering us through the park.
No matter what, Disney has such a special place in my heart and now i have another person that caught the Disney bug and is already itching to go back!
The crazy-ness has settled down and the post-Disney depression has settled in. But I wanted to share my experiences with my most recent trip!
Who: Myself and boyfriend
Where: Disney’s Coronado Springs
When: 11/16-11/21
Our package: We did two day PH and 2 days at Universal (HUGE HP nerds )
One note: My boyfriend has never been to Disney/Universal before!!!
A few takeaways from our time at Coronado Springs (new resort for both of us):
- The food is VERY good!! I kept ordering the rice bowl which was delicious while my boyfriend loved the cheesesteaks.
- The resort is huge. We had a preferred room and thank god we did because our first night was in a lower room category (all I could book when I extended my stay) and we had a hike to walk when we finally arrived at night. Definitely try to get a preferred location as it really is much more convenient.
- There are 4 bus stops that go in the order of 2-3-4 and then around to 1. There was never an issue getting on a bus in the morning at the front lobby due to crowds from the other stops however getting around the resort at night when returning from the parks took F-O-R-E-V-E-R. We almost missed our transfer back to the airport even though we allowed a lot of cushion due to how long each bus stop at our own resort took.
- The staff weren’t all on the same page. Often times we would ask one CM a question which we then discovered to have been given the wrong solution just for us to go up to another CM and they tell us something entirely different. It wasn’t too big of a deal but it definitely happened more than once.
- With that being said there as always were some amazing CM’s one man in particular (which unfortunately now that I’m writing this his name escapes me) remembered where my boyfriend and I were travelling from even though we had a brief conversation 4 days prior! On our last day with our luggage in our arms he wished us a save journey back to PA. We were in awe about how he even recognized our faces let alone where we were from!
- The construction wasn’t an issue. Besides the front lobby not being the bus stop and ugly fencing that was aligned in most places.
- Our room didn’t have a microwave? My last two stays have been at AoA and they have had them in our rooms and from previous trips I remember being able to heat things up. That was a slight bummer since we had groceries delivered to our room (before we ever actually saw our room) and bought a few things that needed to be microwaved. There also wasn’t one in the food court. Not sure if this is a new thing or we completely missed it? Just an FYI for those travelling with their own food.
The Parks:
- Like I briefly mentioned, my boyfriend has never been to Disney World. Man, just watching him experience everything was definitely the highlight of my whole trip.
- It was CROWDED! I have gone over so many holidays and during the summer vs the spring but Thanksgiving was a lot! I went over Easter in about 2010 and that was hands down the worst experience at Disney. The reasoning (besides an obvious holiday with a lot of vacation breaks) was that there was the HUGE cheerleading nationals happening in DHS at the same time. The funny thing was during this trip there were a load of cheerleaders staying at Coronado Springs. A small flashback.
- Due to timing, we had to park hop whereas my previous trips I have been able to allocate a full day to each park. That definitely made it a lot harder to ride the most amount of rides due to our FP choices and RP strategy. My boyfriend didn’t know any better but some things I was definitely bummed about missing and didn’t want to/didn’t have the luxury to wait 50 minutes for.
- I’ll always preach it, but I wish WDW had more single rider lines. I completely understand how hard it is to make ANOTHER queue, the drawbacks of it as well as it not quite being a “family” style push. But Universal does it for nearly every attraction and it just allows you to do SO. MUCH. MORE. We went to Universal before we even stepped foot in a Disney park and my boyfriend kept asking “does this have single rider? Does this?” most likely no! I also understand a lot of the rides aren’t engineered to be for singles especially at MK, I’m not sitting in a car on Winnie the Pooh next to strangers. I get it. When we were almost on Space Mountain, every other car I saw (just on our FP side alone) had an empty seat. Why can’t TOT? No one cares who you sit next to it’s such a short ride. I wish Midway Mania could just because I also saw so many families of 3 or 5 that had empty shooters. My input.
-Tony's was surprisingly good! I don't know if it will be a must do from now on but can definitely put it into the rotation for future trips if need be.
- Since I was on these boards so much before I traveled, I noticed the amount of strollers (motorized and for kids) so much more. Wow they take over the parks now, huh?
Quick story: After the fireworks at MK we left to go get in line at our bus stop. When we were at our stop there was already one scooter at the front of the queue to the side in their own designated spot. As our bus was FINALLY pulling up to our stop, another motorized scooter with her whole entourage arrive and go to the front of the queue. Not only was it very annoying to have to wait for the production of getting not one but two scooters onto the bus. The second family was able to go on ahead of every single person that was standing there for much longer!! And of course scooters take up so much space. It just rubbed us the wrong way, and of course when that is happening you start over-analyzing the people riding the scooters.
- The day we were supposed to go to AK the park was opening up at 9 AM. Every single thing we checked told us that the park opened at 9. We got there a little before 8:30 AM to see that the entrance was already opened, and not only that, that the FOP queue was already 65 minutes!! I guarantee that the crowds were a lot and they had to do something to alleviate the mess at the entrance but I was slightly annoyed. Who knows if we could’ve managed to get there earlier/with regular opening got on FOP quicker, but I didn’t know they did that. I was there just this past December and we arrived 50 minutes early and still had to wait until about 10 minutes prior to opening before they started ushering us through the park.
No matter what, Disney has such a special place in my heart and now i have another person that caught the Disney bug and is already itching to go back!
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