Skip to main content

Going to Disney World for Christmas


Sunday December 2nd 2018, I rode with Kevin and Carolyn to Disney World. I've been to Disney World with Kevin many trips these past few years. This was the first time I've been to Disney World with Carolyn and its been about forty something years since Carolyn has been to Disney World. She says Kevin was only two years old when she went last! I never went when I was a kid. My first trip was in my late 30's, but I do love my little mid-life crisis. This next screenshot shows our route in blue. We covered 474+ miles over 7+ hours, including 2 time zones and a couple of toll booths.

We got an early start on the drive, but it was not as early as we had planned. A strong storm system blew across Pensacola before the sun came up and we waited for it to pass before we started loading up the car. The storm was actually moving to the northeast so we had to drive through some really intense rain and thunder storms east of Crestview. We also drove through the area on Interstate 10 that was hit by Hurricane Michael just a few weeks before. Trees were leveled. Billboard signs were toppled. The devastation spanned miles and miles along the interstate. This was the area northeast of Panama City Beach and west of Tallahassee.

This trip, the three of us stayed at Coronado Springs. Coronado Springs, not to be confused with Disney Springs - Disney's shopping and entertainment development, is located right in the middle of Disney's four main theme parks. It is a large resort with newly refurbished hotel rooms; plus, they are building a new hotel tower right next to their existing lobby and the new hotel tower is almost finished. They have reached the top floor and the hotel is scheduled to open in July 2019. I think it is a great resort and I'll probably stay there many more times in the future as long as the money doesn't run out and I don't die.




Here are a few pictures from Coronado Springs including the new hotel tower, the lobby Christmas tree, new lake restaurant and the resort lake and signage.

New Hotel Tower
Opening July 2019
Original Resort Lobby is to the left.

Coronado Springs Lobby Christmas Tree

Noah and Carolyn in the lobby

Coronado Springs Lake, Signage and new Restaurant in the middle of the lake.

Maureen joined us on this trip as well but she did not ride with us. She flew in on Delta via Atlanta. Lucky she did not book a Silver Airways direct flight to Orlando. Those small propeller plans would not have flown through the storm weather from this morning. She would have been delayed for sure.


After checking into our hotel room at Coronado Springs, we caught the first bus to Disney Springs for shopping, dinner, entertainment and people watching. Disney Springs is a huge place with tons of retail shops, restaurants, bars, movies, rides, live entertainment and more. It is free to get in although you'll probably leave a lot of money there before you're done.



We visited a few shops and then met with Maureen for dinner at Wolfgang Puck's Bar and Grill.

< Next Page >


Sunday
Page 1

Page 2
Going to Disney World for Christmas
Page 3

Page 4

Page 5

Monday
Page 6
Be Our Guest at Magic Kingdom
Tuesday
Page 7
Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party
Wednesday
Page 8
Christmas and Candlelight Processional at Epcot
Page 9






Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

Tuesday December 4, 2018 Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party I worked part of Tuesday from the hotel room again. I met Maureen, Kevin and Carolyn for lunch at Disney Springs Art Smith's Homecomin' restaurant. They were already seated on the porch on the water by the time I got there. We had a good lunch and then they did some shopping before we took a short afternoon break back at our hotels. Maureen met us at Coronado Springs and we all took a bus (not Maureen's preferred mode of transportation) to Magic Kingdom for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. Maureen and Mike had bought party tickets for us all. Thanks Mike! Thanks Maureen! The first thing that Kevin had us do was get photos with Winnie the Pooh and his pals - Eeyore, Piglet and Tigger. We got some cute photos and then Maureen and I rode the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. I realized on this ride that Pooh and his buddies had a very dangerous neighborhood. There were tornadoes, floods and it s
Post a Comment
Read more

Be Our Guest at Magic Kingdom

Monday, December 3rd 2018  was a half day for me. I worked all day (or at least most of the day) from the hotel room at Coronado Springs. As soon as I could wrap up client work for the day, I jumped on a bus and headed over to Magic Kingdom to meet Maureen, Kevin and Carolyn. Maureen and I had FastPasses for Peter Pan - my favorite ride at Magic Kingdom. It was great flying over London and realizing that I would actually be in London in just a few weeks. Our flying ship stopped unexpectedly as we were flying over the Indian campfire. We lurched forward twice before the ride got underway again. When they say rides can start at any time without notice, they really mean it. After Peter Pan, Maureen and I met Kevin and Carolyn on the bridge in front of the Beast's castle. We did not have to wait very long before they announced our names and walked us into the castle for dinner at Be Our Guest. It was an early dinner but Be Our Guest is always crowded. We were seated in the main di
Post a Comment
Read more