Post by Dave on May 11, 2017 9:15:00 GMT -5
Day 1: Got up and had a light breakfast. We loaded the car the night before, so we had just a few things to cram in there this morning. Left home about 9:30 AM and headed for the World. We stay off of I-95 and I-4 so we travel through Palatka, FL, and the Ocala National Forest. Very few semi’s but some turkeys, raccoons and a few black bears. We use the Florida 429 toll road so we avoid all of the Orlando traffic. Plus, FL 429 has an exit right into Coronado Springs.
Arrived at CS at about 11:45 and were able to get our room right away (Rancheros 6555). We unloaded our stuff and hustled to the bus stop for our 2:00 lunch ressie at Planet Hollywood Observatory at Disney Springs. This was our first time there and probably our last time. My wife had salmon and I had grouper. The food and service were outstanding, best grouper I’ve ever had. It had a mango salsa and was served over a bed of rice. YUM! The problem was the noise. It was the noisiest restaurant I have ever been in. My wife and I could not even talk without almost yelling. Our server had to yell to us and we had to yell back. It’s unfortunate. The noise is the only thing that keeps this from being a “must do” place to eat.
We finished lunch and wandered around Disney Springs until about 6:00. Headed back to CS and had a quick meal (including soft-serve ice cream) at the Pepper Market. Back to the room to unpack and call it a day.
Day 2: Early start and off to The Magic Kingdom. We rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and just wandered through all the stores waiting for lunch. We had a 2:25 ressie at the Jungle Navigation Co. Ltd. Skipper Canteen. We skipped breakfast so we were ready for some food. We went to the restaurant at about 1:45 and asked if we could get in early. They were busy but took us in about 10 minutes. We have eaten there before and really enjoyed it. This time just reinforced how much we like it. Again, the food and service were outstanding.
Side Note: When the Adventurer’s Club in Downtown Disney closed (one of the biggest mistakes Disney ever made), they stored all the decorations in a warehouse. When the Skipper Canteen opened they moved a lot of the stuff there. Some of the artifacts are really cool. I loved the Adventurer’s Club. Kungaloosh! If you didn’t ever go to the Club, Google it. It was really entertaining.
Back to the Skipper Canteen. There are maps on the wall and we asked our server if there were any hidden Mickeys in the maps. He said no, but the menu has sketches and there are hidden Mickeys in the drawings. We had already ordered and our menus were gone. We asked our server if he would bring us a menu so we could find the hidden Mickeys. After we ate and paid our bill, I asked if I could take a menu home so I could get my reading glasses and look for the Mickeys. Of course he said, “Yes”. Typical Disney attitude. I now have menus from about 20 restaurants at Walt Disney World and a handful from several Disney cruises. Why? I don’t know. Just souvenirs I guess.
After lunch we decided to check the FastPass kiosk to see if we could ride something else. DW has to use her electric scooter for the parks so we pulled over to the side out of the way and started looking at the park map to find the nearest kiosk. A cast member was walking around with a dustpan and broom and saw us looking at the map. He came over and asked if he could help. We told him we were looking for a kiosk to check for FastPasses and see the standby time for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. We told him we had never been able to get FastPasses for the SDMT and really wanted to ride it. He looked at us and said that he was going to give us a ticket for not knowing the location of the kiosk and for blocking the walkway. He took an official looking “ticket” pad out of his pocket and asked for our names. He wrote some stuff on the ticket and handed it to me. It was an instant FastPass for the Mine Train. No waiting just go right in. After thanking him several times, we hustled to SDMT, showed our “ticket” to the cast member and she took us to the head of the FastPass line. Typical Disney guest service. We have been going to the parks since 1972 (before most of you were born) and never knew about the “tickets”. We decided that stopping, consulting the park map and looking very confused might be a good thing. Finished day 2 riding rides and shopping. Back to CS for a late dinner including soft-serve ice cream, and off to bed.
Day 3: A disaster – DW’s electric scooter started giving us trouble. The battery charge indicator would go to zero when she tried to move. She can’t walk any distance because of severe back problems, so she has to have the scooter. Our plan was to check out on Day 3, go to Disney Hollywood Studios and then go to St. Augustine for two days on the way home (St. Augustine is about 30 minutes from our house). Since we were meeting some friends in St. A on Day 5, we decided to go home on Day 3, get the scooted fixed and then go to St. A. We had breakfast at Olivia’s at Old Key West (a long-time tradition for our last day at WDW), and drove home. I took the scooter to a repair place and after two new battery packs and $176.00 later we were good to go.
Day 4: We went to St. A and checked in at a motel. We just wandered around and ate at a couple of favorite restaurants.
Day 5: Wandered around, met our friends at the Colombia Restaurant for lunch and headed home. Except for the scooter problems, we had a wonderful time.
We’re going back in September and again in December. Since we live close, are retired and have the WeekDay passes, we can go several times a year for a few days each trip. No more of the two or three week marathons. Overall we had a wonderful time. Looking forward to our next trip.
