VegasVick
07-26-2007, 07:46 AM
WDW Coronado Springs Resort, July 28-Aug. 1, 2007
Players:
Vicky (46): The woman who must go to Disney at least once per year…yes, fanatic is a good word.
Joe (48): Patient, loving husband who enables my addiction…after 20 years, he knows me pretty well.
Background/Pre-Trip:
Here is the list of our trips to Disney. I couldn't figure out how to make hotlinks for my Mouseplanet Trip Reports, so I just set them bold:
Disneyland: October 1999, October 2001, April 2002, July 2003, July 2004, December 2004
Walt Disney World: June 2000, April 2003, January 2005, June 2005, June 2006
Well, we don’t live in Las Vegas anymore, which is why I haven’t been to DL since 2004, however, we now live in Illinois which is closer to Florida, so…
I had no hope of Disney this year. We went on a Caribbean cruise over New Year’s, and we’ll be using our timeshare this summer in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Vacation time and money has been spent or encumbered…and Disney just costs too much.
One evening over dinner, while visiting Chicago in May, Joe tells me about the “2007 Sustaining Military Readiness Conference” which he had been asked to attend. Guess where? Coronado Springs Resort & Conference Center. Does that mean his airline ticket, the room, a rental car, and his meals are paid for? Yup. Is he telling me about it because he wants me to tag along? Yup. All I needed was a plane ticket and money for food. I was pretty sure there were some unexpired park passes somewhere…He then reminded me that he had a free ticket on Southwest that was going to expire, but for $50 we could extend it…hmmm, $50 roundtrip sounds cheap enough.
I think I’m going to WDW! This will be our second trip to Florida without the kids (ages 18 and 14). It’s a totally different dynamic…couple vs. family.
Planning:
May: If you’ve read any of my other trip reports, you know that I plan, plan, plan. Joe did not leave me much time, but, I gave it the old college try…I can’t go for the entire week because of limited vacation time and work deadlines. But, Joe suggested we go on Saturday, July 28th (our expense) and have a couple of days together, before the conference starts. The conference room rate is only $89 per night! I never argue with my brilliant husband, so, four days…two on my own! I’ve never been to any Disney park alone…
First, the airline ticket… Using Joe’s free ticket, I was able to order my ticket according to schedule, not price. I’ll leave St. Louis at 6:35 a.m. and arrive in Orlando at 9:50 a.m. Joe will travel separately on American, leaving at 6:15 a.m. and arriving at 9:30 a.m. (Don’t ask…it’s a military thing…) Part of his budget includes a rental car, so we’ll pick up our luggage, pick up the car, and head to WDW. This gives us almost all day Saturday!
Next, tickets…I found the old ones, but failed to write down what’s left on them…typical. I’ll stop at guest services first thing. I’m pretty sure there’s two days (with hopping). There may even be a water park day on them; if there is, we’ll do that on Saturday afternoon. If we need additional days, we’re military, so whatever we decide on, we’ll just go to Shades of Green (near the Polynesian) to purchase what we might need.
Another option (since we’ll have a car) is to go to SeaWorld on Saturday afternoon. The "Here's to the Heroes" promotion has been extended into 2007. Basically, a military family can go to one Anheuser-Busch theme park once per calendar year for free. This trip is all about keeping the expenses to a minimum. I really like the “Shark’s Underwater Grill” restaurant, so we’ll keep our options open.
Now Joe is NOT a big fan of any theme park (can you imagine?!)…He goes because of me. This trip he only “has” to go to one park on one day…only one. And, I’m even letting him pick which park. But will he? Nope.
June: Okay, plans moved right along. I made an ADR for Artist Point on Sunday and one for California Grill on Monday. Saturday, we’ll see where we are at dinner time. If I play my cards right, we’ll be in a theme park ;-) Tuesday, there’s a reception following the conference’s programs, so we’ll go to that, then probably DD with Joe’s friends for any additional food and fun. I really want to check out Raglan Road (the Irish pub). It was open last summer, but we didn’t get a chance to go in. We could eat at the RainForest Café which is a Disney tradition for us…we’re Safari Club members (love that 10% off). (Now I have to find my Safari Club membership card too…)
July: My objective this month was to finalize the daily plans and watch for rental cars. Joe has a set amount that he’ll be reimbursed (mid-size), but he can rent whatever he wants; we just pay the difference. We like convertibles. If you wait until the last minute, sometimes you can do pretty well on the rates. On Wednesday, the base rate was $459…Thursday, the rate was $239…reservation made!
I’ll have the laptop with me (for work & school stuff), so I might try to post the actual trip as it’s happening (or not).
The Trip - planned:
Saturday, July 28 = Plan for the day: Get up and to STL by 4:45 a.m. to park and get Joe to the American terminal by 5:15 and me to the Southwest terminal by 5:30 a.m. Arrive at MCO at 10 a.m., meet up with Joe at baggage claim, straight to the rental car, and on to Coronado Springs. Once we check-in, we’ll stop at Guest Services to see what’s left on our tickets. This will strongly influence what we decide to do for the rest of Saturday.
Sunday, July 29 = Plan for the day: “We” decided to spend the day at the Animal Kingdom. We’re trying a new (to us) restaurant today: 8 p.m. ADR at Artist Point in the Wilderness Lodge. It’s gotten some rave reviews, so I’m totally optimistic. I’ll ask for a window seat when we check-in, since we’re never in a hurry at this time of day.
Monday, July 30 = Plan for the day: Today’s the first day of the conference, which goes from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. So we’ll have an early breakfast together then go our separate ways. I’m spending the day at EPCOT. I have to attend my online class, which begins at 5 p.m. (I’m finishing my graduate degree), then we can go to dinner. Our “romantic” favorite is the California Grill, so we have a 7:40 p.m. ADR there. I prefer sitting next to the windows, so I’ll request that at check-in. We’ll probably hang out at the bar after dinner until the 10 p.m. MK fireworks.
Tuesday, July 31 = Plan for the day: Today, Joe goes from 8 a.m.-5:30 p.m. I want to make 8 a.m. early entry at Magic Kingdom, so no breakfast together today. I’ll meet Joe back at the hotel, and then we’ll attend the early evening conference reception. Hopefully, we’ll end the day at Downtown Disney/Pleasure Island.
Wednesday, Aug. 1 = Plan for the day: Joe has two more days at the conference; I have to get back to the real world. My plane leaves MCO at 11:40 a.m., so I’ll catch the DME at 8 a.m., and that will be that.
Only today and tomorrow to survive at work, and then we're off! Jealous? ;)
Players:
Vicky (46): The woman who must go to Disney at least once per year…yes, fanatic is a good word.
Joe (48): Patient, loving husband who enables my addiction…after 20 years, he knows me pretty well.
Background/Pre-Trip:
Here is the list of our trips to Disney. I couldn't figure out how to make hotlinks for my Mouseplanet Trip Reports, so I just set them bold:
Disneyland: October 1999, October 2001, April 2002, July 2003, July 2004, December 2004
Walt Disney World: June 2000, April 2003, January 2005, June 2005, June 2006
Well, we don’t live in Las Vegas anymore, which is why I haven’t been to DL since 2004, however, we now live in Illinois which is closer to Florida, so…
I had no hope of Disney this year. We went on a Caribbean cruise over New Year’s, and we’ll be using our timeshare this summer in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Vacation time and money has been spent or encumbered…and Disney just costs too much.
One evening over dinner, while visiting Chicago in May, Joe tells me about the “2007 Sustaining Military Readiness Conference” which he had been asked to attend. Guess where? Coronado Springs Resort & Conference Center. Does that mean his airline ticket, the room, a rental car, and his meals are paid for? Yup. Is he telling me about it because he wants me to tag along? Yup. All I needed was a plane ticket and money for food. I was pretty sure there were some unexpired park passes somewhere…He then reminded me that he had a free ticket on Southwest that was going to expire, but for $50 we could extend it…hmmm, $50 roundtrip sounds cheap enough.
I think I’m going to WDW! This will be our second trip to Florida without the kids (ages 18 and 14). It’s a totally different dynamic…couple vs. family.
Planning:
May: If you’ve read any of my other trip reports, you know that I plan, plan, plan. Joe did not leave me much time, but, I gave it the old college try…I can’t go for the entire week because of limited vacation time and work deadlines. But, Joe suggested we go on Saturday, July 28th (our expense) and have a couple of days together, before the conference starts. The conference room rate is only $89 per night! I never argue with my brilliant husband, so, four days…two on my own! I’ve never been to any Disney park alone…
First, the airline ticket… Using Joe’s free ticket, I was able to order my ticket according to schedule, not price. I’ll leave St. Louis at 6:35 a.m. and arrive in Orlando at 9:50 a.m. Joe will travel separately on American, leaving at 6:15 a.m. and arriving at 9:30 a.m. (Don’t ask…it’s a military thing…) Part of his budget includes a rental car, so we’ll pick up our luggage, pick up the car, and head to WDW. This gives us almost all day Saturday!
Next, tickets…I found the old ones, but failed to write down what’s left on them…typical. I’ll stop at guest services first thing. I’m pretty sure there’s two days (with hopping). There may even be a water park day on them; if there is, we’ll do that on Saturday afternoon. If we need additional days, we’re military, so whatever we decide on, we’ll just go to Shades of Green (near the Polynesian) to purchase what we might need.
Another option (since we’ll have a car) is to go to SeaWorld on Saturday afternoon. The "Here's to the Heroes" promotion has been extended into 2007. Basically, a military family can go to one Anheuser-Busch theme park once per calendar year for free. This trip is all about keeping the expenses to a minimum. I really like the “Shark’s Underwater Grill” restaurant, so we’ll keep our options open.
Now Joe is NOT a big fan of any theme park (can you imagine?!)…He goes because of me. This trip he only “has” to go to one park on one day…only one. And, I’m even letting him pick which park. But will he? Nope.
June: Okay, plans moved right along. I made an ADR for Artist Point on Sunday and one for California Grill on Monday. Saturday, we’ll see where we are at dinner time. If I play my cards right, we’ll be in a theme park ;-) Tuesday, there’s a reception following the conference’s programs, so we’ll go to that, then probably DD with Joe’s friends for any additional food and fun. I really want to check out Raglan Road (the Irish pub). It was open last summer, but we didn’t get a chance to go in. We could eat at the RainForest Café which is a Disney tradition for us…we’re Safari Club members (love that 10% off). (Now I have to find my Safari Club membership card too…)
July: My objective this month was to finalize the daily plans and watch for rental cars. Joe has a set amount that he’ll be reimbursed (mid-size), but he can rent whatever he wants; we just pay the difference. We like convertibles. If you wait until the last minute, sometimes you can do pretty well on the rates. On Wednesday, the base rate was $459…Thursday, the rate was $239…reservation made!
I’ll have the laptop with me (for work & school stuff), so I might try to post the actual trip as it’s happening (or not).
The Trip - planned:
Saturday, July 28 = Plan for the day: Get up and to STL by 4:45 a.m. to park and get Joe to the American terminal by 5:15 and me to the Southwest terminal by 5:30 a.m. Arrive at MCO at 10 a.m., meet up with Joe at baggage claim, straight to the rental car, and on to Coronado Springs. Once we check-in, we’ll stop at Guest Services to see what’s left on our tickets. This will strongly influence what we decide to do for the rest of Saturday.
Sunday, July 29 = Plan for the day: “We” decided to spend the day at the Animal Kingdom. We’re trying a new (to us) restaurant today: 8 p.m. ADR at Artist Point in the Wilderness Lodge. It’s gotten some rave reviews, so I’m totally optimistic. I’ll ask for a window seat when we check-in, since we’re never in a hurry at this time of day.
Monday, July 30 = Plan for the day: Today’s the first day of the conference, which goes from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. So we’ll have an early breakfast together then go our separate ways. I’m spending the day at EPCOT. I have to attend my online class, which begins at 5 p.m. (I’m finishing my graduate degree), then we can go to dinner. Our “romantic” favorite is the California Grill, so we have a 7:40 p.m. ADR there. I prefer sitting next to the windows, so I’ll request that at check-in. We’ll probably hang out at the bar after dinner until the 10 p.m. MK fireworks.
Tuesday, July 31 = Plan for the day: Today, Joe goes from 8 a.m.-5:30 p.m. I want to make 8 a.m. early entry at Magic Kingdom, so no breakfast together today. I’ll meet Joe back at the hotel, and then we’ll attend the early evening conference reception. Hopefully, we’ll end the day at Downtown Disney/Pleasure Island.
Wednesday, Aug. 1 = Plan for the day: Joe has two more days at the conference; I have to get back to the real world. My plane leaves MCO at 11:40 a.m., so I’ll catch the DME at 8 a.m., and that will be that.
Only today and tomorrow to survive at work, and then we're off! Jealous? ;)