Summary:
Biennial Pitts/Vallier Trip Report
Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort
October 2016
Overview:
Once again we did our Disney trip with the Pitts.We have scheduled to do a Disney trip with them every other year. This year we decided to travel in October. We chose October specifically for the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. Halloween is one of my favorite ‘holidays’ and we wanted to celebrate Disney style.
This trip was a years of firsts. First trip with a baby, first trip with my wife pregnant, first trip to the MNSSHP, and first trip we got the Memory Maker. As this was the first trip with the baby we decided to go for a lot of extras. We got a baby sitter from Kid’s Nite Out and we rented a Baby Jogger City Mini GT from Kingdom Strollers.
The sitter was very nice. The service level on the phone was good. I would recommend them. We’ll probably use them again assuming we don’t take a Grand Parent next time. We used the sitter during the MNSSHP. It was nice to have dinner and then drop the kid off at the resort and we could continue until midnight and not have to worry about his sleep schedule.
The City Mini that we rented was a life saver. We have a stroller that collapses but even collapsed, it’s very large. We also have an umbrella stroller but there is no storage or sun shield on it. It’s a great stroller. We’ll probably end up buying one. It was nice to rent it though because it showed up at the resort and I left it there. We didn’t have to find out how to make room for a stroller in our already cramped vehicle for the 9 hours drive.
Some things that we’ll do better next time. WATER! We were not prepared for the heat and need for water on the first day. Normally with just the two of us having drinks with our meals is enough. But I didn’t think about the baby’s bottles needing water and the very few water fountains in the parks. Nor did we think about how being pregnant increases your need for water. It just never crossed my mind in the planning. We purchased a case of water the next day and took 2-3 for her and the baby each day after that. Next trip, buy a case of water before showing up at the resort.
Dining Plan. As per usual we added the Disney Dining Plan. Just the regular plan: 1 Table Service, 1 Quick Service, and 1 Snack per person per day. Sometimes it’s worked out for us other times not so much.
Schedule of Events and Reviews:
- Saturday
- Pitts Arrive
- Pitts flew down and checked in
- Sunday
- We Arrive/Magic Kingdom
- As we drove down the Pitts went to Magic Kingdom and then met us for dinner at Disney Springs
- The drive down took a lot longer than it normally would, because of the hurricane. First, most of the restaurants and gas stations were closed. So finding a place to eat, potty and get gas took a lot of wrong exits. Secondly the traffic around our route was horrendous, so we took back roads. Thankfully the roads were clear of debris, except for a few downed power lines.
- Monday
- Magic Kingdom
- Summary: To start off the day we got up late. I put the wrong time on my schedule. I had the parked opening an hour after it actually opened. From then on we didn’t follow my plans. I had every minute mapped out via Kenny the Pirates‘ Character Locator‘s Touring Plan and I put all the info in Google Calendar with back up plan incase we didn’t like my ideas. None of it was followed. Not that it matter because we still had a lot of fun. This trip ended up being very relaxing. Probably because we had to go at a slower pace and work around baby’s nap times.
- Rides: we didn’t ride everything I wanted to but as I’ve ready stated it didn’t matter as we still had fun.
- Peter Pan’s Flight. This is my firs time riding it. I was amazed. It was a great ride. We went in standby entrance and didn’t wait that long. Maybe 40 minutes. It was worth it. The black light props and great music made it a great ride.
- It’s a Small World. Yes, we did ride it. I had never been and we had to go at least once for the kid. We’ll never need to go again until we have another kid to ride it. It’s a right of passage. You have to ride it at least once. I should say, at most once. It’s fun to see all the different puppets and props but the song…UGH!
- Pirates of the Caribbean: I wanted to ride this one, but it was nap time. So everyone else rode it while I pushed the stroller. We had FastPass+ for this so it wasn’t a long wait. I was able to catch a few PokeMon in the process while he napped.
- Monsters Inc Laugh Floor:
- Meet and Greets: We wanted to do a lot more of these for McCoy’s sake, but there just wasn’t enough time in the day.
- Princess: we met Cinderella and Aurara in the Princess Fairytail Hall. McCoy was asleep at the time and we couldn’t bring the stroller so I just carried him. We has FastPass+ for this and that put us about 3rd in line as soon as we walked up. That was very nice, not having to wait. He slept through the whole meet and greet. It was nice it interact with them. They both made jokes about him sleeping. He was chasing Jaq and Gus and got tired or he was hit by Maleficent’s sleeping curse. We got some great pictures.
- Jack and Sally: very very long wait. We didn’t get in line until after dinner (see below), probably around 5:30PM. We were definitely in the last half of the group to see them that night. It was worth the wait. By far the best meet and greet we’ve had. They didn’t sign autographs and the line was long, so I was expecting a 2 second smile picture move along. But they took the time to talk to us and gave McCoy a lot of attention. We had over 25 photos from that one shoot. For comparison most M&G only take 2-3 photos. They handed out pre-signed autographs on a glossy card stock.
- Food
- Lunch: We were going to eat at Pinocchipo Villiage Haus but instead we chose to eat at Pecos Bill Cafe. We were not impressed. I order the South West Burger and it was good, but it was just a standard burger. Anna order the Beef Nachos, expecting hot cheese. There was no hot cheese. In fact it was nothing but beef and nachos. You had at to add the rest yourself at the condiments bar. There was still no hot cheese.
- Dinner: Be Our Guest. ‘nough said. I had attempted to get a seat for 5 (4 adults 1 stroller) at 180 days from the beginning of our reservation, but it was already booked. For the entire week we were there. Completely 100% booked full. After getting over my disappointment. I check again… and again… and again. I checked for an avaliable table 3-4 times per day, every day for a week until a seat finally opened up. Totally worth it. This was our first time for dinner. We’d already been for lunch during another trip. Food was amazing. I ordered the Grilled Strip Steak with Garlic Herb Butter. I ordered it Medium-Well, they brought out Medium-Rare. Which was a little disappointing but it gave me time to get McCoy’s food out and cut up. The dessert was good, although it wasn’t what I was expecting. I ordered the “Grey Stuff”. For lunch it comes the Grey Stuff is an icing that comes on a cupcake, but for dinner it comes on a hard brownie. As I was expecting a cupcake the crunchy brownie was a suprise. Not bad, just not what I was expecting.
- Notes
- Overall a good day. As I stated above, we should have brought more water. I also should have brought an extra bottle for McCoy. He was fine, but it would have helped to have the extra nutrition in him. Schedule better and schedule less. I planned to do too much and not what the group wanted to do.
- Mickeys Not So Scary Halloween Party
- Tuesday
- Epcot
- Summary: Another day where we hadn’t learned our lesson yet about taking things slow. We ended up getting Anna a wheelchair.
- Rides
- Ellen’s Energy Adventure
- Journey Into Imagination with Figment
- Frozen Ever After
- Meet and Greet
- Baymax
- Joy and Sadness
- Vikings
- Food
- Le Cellier Steakhouse
- Misc Vendors – Food and Wine Festival
- Notes
- Wednesday
- Animal Kingdom
- Summary
- Rides
- Kilimanjaro Safaris
- Expedition Everest
- It’s Tough to be a Bug
- Meet and Greet
- Mickey and Minnie
- Food
- California Grill
- Flame Tree
- Notes
- Thursday
- Harry Potter World
- Summary
- Rides
- Gringotts
- Train
- Food
- Golden Corral
- Notes
- Friday
- Hollywood Studios
- Summary
- Rides
- Tower of Terror
- Beauty and the Best Show
- Great Movie Ride
- Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
- Toy Story Mania
- For the First Time in Forever – A Frozen Sing-Along
- Meet and Greet
- Storm Troopers
- Food
- Backlot Express
- Mama Melrose Ristorante Italiano
- Notes
- Saturday
- Pack up and leave
- Check out: easy
- Food
- Pepper Market