Saturday, Day 1: “I’m not gonna let a little rain ruin my vacation!”
I will state right now that I am in no way, shape or form a morning person. I’m not a roll out of the bed and go get the day kind of gal. I’m more of a hit the snooze as long as possible type of person.
However, on vacation, that does not apply at all. I’m not sure if I really slept at all that night but it didn’t matter, we were going to Disney World!
To start us off, we had an fairly early flight from Midway Airport near Chicago to Orlando and landed about noon. We go to Midway Airport pretty frequently as my son flies Southwest to visit his father. Normally, I park right next to the terminal since I have to check him in for unaccompanied minor status. But of course this time we were doing the long term parking. Between that and all the delays from early this summer I didn’t want to leave anything to chance so we got there early. Maybe a little too early but running late is not worth the stress. We were up and going at 5 am, gave the keys to my mom and headed out the door. She had agreed to keep an eye on my cat, the one in my user icon. Maybe one day I can convince her to come along too!
By 9:00 we were on the plane and ready for our adventure!
The flight was really smooth and they even had some cute little plane-shaped, cinnamon graham cracker cookies for the snack. Other than it felt like it took
for-ever it was a good flight. At some point while we were in the air, I must have gotten the room assignment text and email. Once I turned my phone back on, it was right there waiting for me! My only request was a room ready early and I got it. We were getting so close!
I think we landed around 12:30 Florida time and since we had the magical yellow tags, we made our way directly to the Disney Magical Express desk. It was a looooong walk and of course we passed all the shops on the way. Since we weren’t going to stop into Kennedy Space Center, we stopped into their shop and I picked up a NASA t-shirt for my boyfriend. I kept the hat for myself since he’s not really a hat guy. Of course we had to take a photo with the Astronaut suit.
Once we got downstairs there was a huge line. I hadn’t even thought about that so already I was a little bummed. Would this be a sign for the coming week? Had I picked the worst time to go? Overall, the line took about an hour. As I overheard a guy near me say, “Not exactly what I’d call express…” But I realize maybe since it was around noon and a ton of travellers came in, patience is probably needed. After a lot of agonizing waiting and some tummy grumbles, we were on the bus and headed to Coronado Springs! It seemed to take forever between the anticipation and the hunger. But finally we saw that sign and we were officially there.
(not my picture, thanks Google!)
We headed to Pepper Market first since we were pretty hungry after all that waiting. I grabbed our mugs and paid for those. Success! Magic bands good to go. We picked up a couple sandwiches from the deli, some bottled juices for the room, and 2 orders of churros. I wasn’t the biggest fan of my sandwich, the Italian. But my son liked the turkey and bacon he got. The churros were really good and we snacked on the second container that night.
After lunch, my son was ready to get moving again. I gave him the option of hanging by the pool or going to Hollywood Studios. He chose the pool, so off we went. Since it was my birthday, I got myself a margarita while he swam a bit and found the waterslide.
I went with Margarita el Girasol, described on the website as: Tequila, Agave Nectar, Triple Sec, Sour Mix, Pineapple & Mango. It was really great tasting and they didn't go light on the good stuff either. While I was enjoying my drink, something must’ve happened in the pool because they closed it not long after Dylan got a couple turns on the waterslide. Since I guessed it was, ahem,
biological in nature, I suggested we head over to Hollywood Studios to use those fastpasses and he totally agreed!
We rushed back to the room and he changed back into his clothes from earlier and we headed toward the bus stop. We had some monumental luck because as we walked up, a Hollywood Studios bus was pulling in. We ran for it, and hopped on. After what seemed to be only about 5 minutes we were walking up to the entrance! I couldn’t believe how close we were.
After a quick picture with the Chinese Theater in the background...
We headed toward the Tower of Terror! My son absolutely loves drop rides and I tolerate them. I knew the queue was full of cool details and theming so even if I didn’t want to ride it after all, I’d be able to see all the cool stuff. I was pretty nervous boarding the ride and the CMs being in character totally creeped me out (in a good way). But I’m so glad I went. The visuals were really cool and definitely made up for the falls.
After that, we headed toward Star Tours. We had a bit of time left so we stepped into the cool air and watched The Path of the Jedi. We’re both huge Star Wars fans so of course this was nothing new but it was nice to see the footage in a different way. I thought it was a nice summary for someone would might not be as familiar with Star Wars. After that, we took a peek at Jedi Training and of course he was excited to try it himself. I told him we’d get a chance to sign up later in the week, or so I planned…
Once we got to Star Tours, we had a quick run through the fastpass line and boarded our vessel. I’d never done this ride, and as a theme for most of the trip, I found I didn’t remember many rides except Splash Mountain, the teacups, and some other rides/experiences that are now sadly gone. But it was a great time and very immersive. The Jakku scene was cool and I’m glad we got a chance to see it before they put it as a random scene. The vehicle reminded me a lot of Body Wars from back in the day. I wonder if it's similar or based on that.
After that we had about an hour and half until our Rock N’ Rollercoaster fastpass so we grabbed a snack from Backlot Express, the cherry slushy. This was a total miss unfortunately. Dylan thought it tasted like medicine so I ended up trying to drink it. Not my favorite, nor worthy of an iPhone bohek photo. By this point, storm clouds were forming so we booked it toward The Great Movie Ride while I tried to choke down my cough syrup flavored drink. Hey, at least it was cold…
We waited about 20 minutes in standby for Great Movie Ride, which I’m sure is not quite ideal but considering the rain started soon after we got in line, I felt like it was a good move. I just wasn't sure what we’d do after we left. All told, it was a really fun ride. I don’t know if I have ever been on this one, and if I had they probably changed it a lot anyway. Even Dylan thought it was kinda fun. My only complaint is that I had a hard time understanding the CMs who were speaking since my hearing isn’t so great. Once we got out, it was full on pouring and my Dark Sky app predicted it would for a while. Because Dylan basically said "I'm not going to let a little rain ruin our vacation!" I figured we should probably just buy some ponchos. So we dashed over to a shop and bought a couple. Which happened to be one of the better purchases for the week. We used those things a lot! After that little side trip it was time for our RnRC fastpass.
All I can say is, what a great coaster. As a teenager I loved Aerosmith so the music is all familiar to me. The first push surprised me a lot but after that it was a great experience. It did seem pretty short in comparison to some other coasters I'd been on, but still great, especially when using a fastpass. As we left the building, rain was still pouring down so we decided to leave the park, as did just about everyone else. I think they either delayed or cancelled the Star Wars Spectacular that night but I couldn't hear the announcement all that well. So, we headed back to CSR to try out the Business Class Lounge and hang out in the room. While it was still pretty early, I wanted to get plenty of rest ahead of our rope drop morning.