With park hopper tickets, we visited all the parks multiple times with the exception of Hollywood Studios. We rode everything there last time around and enjoyed the Star Wars area… just not enough to go back this round. No matter the park, Coco wanted popcorn from every vendor. Soon as one box was empty we were purchasing another.
The fruit and Nutella waffle sandwich from Sleepy Hollow is amazing — and we watch for the spring roll truck in Adventureland like it’s our job. The cheeseburger one is my favorite, but we also tried the 50th anniversary special. It tasted like a White Castle cheeseburger and I’m not a fan of hot pickles.
Not sure why, but Disney World serves up the BEST bacon ever. Add to the bacon one other thing we’re all a fan of…
We like Magic Kingdom for the classic rides most — like It’s a Small World. With the new ‘non-fast pass’ system, at times the wait was 60-minutes even for this ride. While it’s a staple, I will not wait an hour to see dolls dance no matter what they’re wearing. I’ll do 10-minutes.
Another classic, simply-can’t-miss-it ride is Haunted Mansion. I remember taking Ben when it was scary to him, and Coco when it was scary to her. But it’s not that way anymore. We rode with ghosts 4 or 5 times this trip. I think the photo below was taken on our 5th go around:
The outside of the Haunted Mansion is so awesome — almost as good as the ride itself.
We never miss Mickey’s PhilharMagic show and love it every single time. The new Coco scenes added were great. And you can’t go to Magic Kingdom without helping the dwarves mine up some jewels, right? It’s ok if you feel sorry for me because I’m sitting alone. 😉
While Magic Kingdom is what most think of first and foremost when Disney is mentioned, it’s now my 3rd favorite park. Tomorrow we’ll travel to my second favorite park. Guesses?
Disney World is still magical — but it’s also jam-packed with people, has incredibly long lines for rides and food, is more difficult to get to, and is now pay-to-play in many instances. Park Pass Reservations are required — you have to pick where you want to go early enough for it to still be available.
Disney is no longer offering transportation services from the airport to onsite properties — that’s gone. They’ve also resorted to hiring outside bus companies with non-Disney drivers to supplement their driver shortage and it’s still standing room only to get to the parks from resort hotels. Good luck getting a good driver AND a seat.
If you’re lucky enough to reserve the park you want to go to, be prepared. The only time I’ve seen Magic Kingdom busier than last week was after Christmas and New Year’s Eve a few years back. Even our spring break trip pre-pandemic seemed to have fewer people crammed into Main Street.
In case you don’t already know, in addition to reserving the park you want to visit, there are also a ton of other changes that all mean LESS service and MORE money. Ticket prices have gone up and Fast passes have been eliminated — replaced with Genie+ and Lightning Lane options. To bypass the standby line, some rides require you to purchase both Genie+ AND a Lightning Lane pass.
The castle is gorgeous during the day and at night…
If you purchase a Photopass, a Disney photographer scans your magic band, takes your photo (after you stand in a loooong line) and you can download the digital version from the My Disney Experience app. For more money, you can buy prints. These are my two favorites of Ben and Coco from Photopass session one:
And now for the Photopass fail! Below are two photos taken at the same time — same day — same people…
In a matter of 5 seconds, I grew huge breasts — like Dolly Parton even. Coco is totally convinced that someone edited all the front facing photos of me taken during that session. I’m convinced I made the right decision when I didn’t have implants back when I once considered it.
More on the Magic Kingdom park, rides and food tomorrow.
After driving all night, our first stop the evening we arrive is always Disney Springs. Lots of shopping, street tacos, and chicken and waffles have always been our favorites. This year, we tried something new!
The Chicken Guy!
With 20 different sauces to choose from — and amazing tenders — The Chicken Guy was an awesome choice. Celebrity chef, Guy Fieri, was even there with a live chicken… sort of. 😉
Checking the weather a couple weeks before leaving, temps for our stay were forecasted to be in the mid-70’s. By the time we arrived that had changed. It was pretty miserable with fog until at least noon and smokin’ hot temps with horrific humidity throughout the day and late into the evening.
Speaking of smokin’ hot — prior to 2019, Disney had smoking areas within the parks. They were far away from everything — out of sight and away from routes to anything, anywhere. Now, each park has one smoking area that’s outside the gates (after you go through security but before you go through the park gate).
I didn’t think the way it was before was bad, and for the most part I don’t have a huge problem with the way it is now… EXCEPT…
These new areas ARE where non-smokers must pass to get to transportation services. They’ll sometimes make loud coughing noises as they walk by (they don’t want to smell it… rightfully so) and that infuriates the smokers who don’t want to be forced outside the park anyway. Smokers have been pushed into too-small areas with too-few seats.
Why Disney didn’t at least make the areas better and away from others (making both smokers and non-smokers happier — and leaving more room for kids with smoking parents to avoid 2nd-hand smoke) is beyond me. It’s one more thing removed from the old “Disney experience” to the new “Disney experience” which is “give me ALL your money!”
BUT… if you pay for three ballrooms, an exhibition area, a huge block of rooms and more, you CAN smoke at the Coronado Springs resort in non-designated smoking areas. For the record, cigars are stinky, you guys!
Coming back to the Gran Destino Tower at Coronado Springs, the night-time lighting had me liking the resort even more.
Coming tomorrow… Magic Kingdom, wait times and lots more — MAYBE even a story about a Photopass fail.
Fortunate for the opportunity to secure all of the speakers for the 2021 Mopar Business Conference, one generous perk they rewarded me with was hotel accommodations throughout the conference dates. How cool is that? We arrived on day one at the Coronado Springs Resort and Convention Center. Our room was located in the Gran Destino Tower that is 15 stories tall with 545 rooms.
Attempting to check-in, the “Disney experience” was frustrating and pretty darned poor overall. There was a mix-up in where our room was to be — they tried to give us one of the older rooms near the conference ballrooms. After about 45-minutes of phone calls and whispering by the hotel staff, we were given a tower room but were told we might have to pay the difference.
Early the next morning, they were calling my mobile trying to kick us out — and by evening (after getting a call from my Chrysler/Stellantis buddy) they were offering us an upgrade from the tower room to a suite at no charge. Again… not the Disney experience expected. Sadly, some of the speakers had the same problem. It was fixed prior to the arrival of the second day’s speakers, but handled poorly until that point. One speaker was told there was absolutely not one single room left in the tower. 15-minutes later they found one. 🙄 I didn’t like that much.
Once we got to our room, I immediately felt the Mopar magic — goodies were waiting along with a wonderful note from Jay, one of the guys I worked with throughout the conference planning stages.
I opted not to take the suite upgrade — not only because I didn’t want to move, but also because we were really happy with the room we had and its location to the elevators and park transportation. Our room was great!
The overall vibe of the tower is fabulous. The decor, color choices and lobby seating is also very nice. It’s American Southwest/northern Mexico themed, but sort of feels like Las Vegas-lite. Other than muted Mickey heads in the room’s wallpaper, you see zero reminders you’re staying in Disney World.
The Coronado Springs resort is home to Disney World’s largest outdoor hot tub (seats 21), a 15-acre lake (Lago Dorado), bubbling springs, and flowing fountains. It’s also home to snakes and alligators. Hardly a surprise, but warrants a reminder for those not familiar with Florida and the wildlife there.
Basically where we are on day one’s hotel check-in is that Mopar is providing all the magic! The Coronado Springs Resort property is great, but the “experience” provided by Disney to us as “guests” at this point was sub-par compared to just about everywhere else I’ve stayed — inside and outside of the park.
Hotter than normal temps, fog, and resort part duex tomorrow. While you’re waiting (ha!) here’s a bit of trivia:
Gran Destino Tower takes its name from the Disney animated film “Destino” by Walt Disney and renowned surrealist Salvador Dali.
Coronado Springs is Disney’s largest convention resort featuring one of the largest single-level convention centers on the East Coast.
If you’re not a Disney World fan — or could care less about hearing all about our Disney experience last week — you should skip this post and not come back to whatifitdid.com for a week or more. Otherwise…
The recap should begin in the beginning, of course — the grueling trip from Indiana to Florida. This was likely my last road trip. Our rented, full-sized Kia K5 was bursting at the seams with snacks and luggage as we headed south. “We” is me, my favorite son, Ben, and my granddaughter, Coco. The drive is around 925 miles or around 13 hours if you don’t get gas or have to pee.
My puppies remained home under the care of the Peskies and Perry. Ben dropped his dog and cat to be boarded for the week. THANKS SO MUCH MR PESKY!! (Please stand and clap — he deserves it.) It was in the 40’s last Saturday evening as we departed and it got foggier the farther south we went — and warmer too.
All night on the road and a good part of day #1 and we finally arrived at the happiest place on earth! So very many changes at Disney since our last trip right before the pandemic — and I don’t just mean wearing masks indoors. I’ll get to that… and lots more too… but tonight I’m doing laundry and catching up on 942 email messages. Yes. 942.
In the meantime, here’s just a glimpse into my world for 13 hours when I should’ve been sleeping in a bed… I’m lucky to be alive to relive the week’s adventure:
Our hotel and resort property will be tomorrow’s focus.
Our room was located in a new addition to a resort that’s in the Animal Kingdom area. Although the resort opened in 1997, this addition just opened in July 2019. Already know or care to guess the resort where we stayed?
