Happy Tuesday, friends! You know what that means. It's trip report time! I can hardly wait to recap a day that I'll forever remember fondly!
Day 2 - Monday, October 10, 2022
We had originally planned to rope drop this morning, but after receiving the surprise upgrade to stay at a resort we hadn't previously spent any time at we decided to scrap our plans and spend the morning enjoying Coronado Springs' offerings. Changing our plans allowed for something that's quite a rarity for us while on Disney property. We got a full night's rest! Ha! Refreshed, we got ready for our day and then made our way to one of my favorite spots in any resort, their gift shop. :)
Panchito's is a cute little shop. We had fun looking through this year's Halloween merch and the resort specific items. I picked up two of the souvenirs I traditionally purchase when staying at a new-to-us resort, a magnet and a pin.
We took our shopping bags outside and found a scenic spot to soak up the Coronado atmosphere. Near their fabulous fountains we talked about our hopes for the trip, looked over the merch we'd picked up, and got into some Disney goodies that somehow found their way onto the checkout counter. ;)
She picked up a Disney's Silly Symphonies hoodie. Anyone else remember this classic cartoon? My elementary school music teacher played it for my class each Halloween season! She also purchased a Coco journal embellished with cute crocheted flowers. Fun finds!
Snacks with character and chocolate are my favorite! :)
Around noon we headed to Magic Kingdom by the way of our first ferryboat ride of the trip.
When we board the Magic Kingdom ferryboat I always make a beeline upstairs to the front of the boat to take in that pretty park view. It adds to the anticipation of the magic to come!
Even washcloths look more magical in hidden Mickey form! Funny side note here, I heard Jason ask the girls, "Did mom see that hidden Mickey?" They replied, "She just took a pic of it." Naturally. ;)
I was so excited to take in the first glimpses of Halloweentime here as we entered the park!
No crows here. Only cuteness! They're doing their job well and still make me smile just as big as they did on my first fall trip here years ago. As I finished capturing these beloved fall displays Jason noticed the double decker bus prepping to depart for a trip down the middle of Main Street U.S.A. to Cinderella Castle. I was so thankful he spotted it while there was room to spare on the upper level of the bus. This time of year that section of seating offers riders an eye level view of the pumpkins perched alongside the windows of Main Street. It's such a magical way to take in the seasonal sweetness there!
One of my favorite things about the Disney Parks is the attention to detail and the pumpkins are no exception! They are thoughtfully themed for each storefront they adorn. You'll spot candy carved cuties above the Confectionery, frozen desserts at the Plaza Ice Cream Parlor, and more!
As we arrived at our destination, Cinderella Castle, we heard a cast member telling guests that this was their final trip of the day. It was one of those magical moments that made my heart smile! We'd happened upon it just in the nick of time to board their final ride and arrived for our first look at the Castle in style!
It was now one of the best times of day at Disney World, meal time! We took our rumbly tumblies to Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn & Cafe for some Mexican yumminess. The girls both got tortilla chips and queso blanco. Jason went with chicken nachos. I chose the fajita platter which unfortunately didn't make it into the photo, but trust me there was more than rice and black beans on that plate in the top right of the snapshot.
After lunch we were greeted by pavement prettiness that a custodial cast member had created with their broom and water. While at Disney always be on the lookout for magic, sometimes it might even be below your feet!
The crowd level was pretty high on this afternoon, so we opted for some of our favorite underrated attractions with low wait times. First up, Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress!
Next, Peoplemover!
Tron coaster construction
Every time we ride down the exit of Peoplemover I reminisce about a photo I took of my oldest on her very first Disney trip. Then 4 years old and all dolled up in a Cinderella gown with a tiara atop her curly locks, she posed like she was surfing down the moving exit ramp. This year she recreated the pose from that photograph taken sixteen years prior. It made this mama's heart oh so full! :D
On our way out of the park we stopped by Lunching Pad for some sips and snacks to go. I got a frozen Coke and my girlies grabbed a family fave, cream cheese pretzels.
On a monorail making our way back to our rental car
If you read the trip reports from our previous vacation in fall of 2021 you may remember the mistake we made following the newly implemented park hopping rules. I'd had the idea of popping on the Skyliner and heading over to Epcot around lunchtime, not thinking about how park hopping is no longer allowed until after 2pm. When this happened we had a quick family chat to decide where to go from there and opted to get back on that Skyliner and grab lunch at a resort we'd never visited, Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort. If you missed that post and would care to see it, you can find it here. That turned out to be a happy mishap as we enjoyed the atmosphere so much that it became a top pick for the start of this trip! On this fine afternoon we'd check in for a five night stay before moving on to Disney's Polynesian Resort for the second week of our trip.
Room tour time . . .
You know I can't resist a room tour mirror wave. Ha!
After checking into the Caribbean Beach Resort and checking out our room we dashed out the door for our evening at Epcot!
We were in the building nearest the Skyliner between Disney's Caribbean and Rivera Resorts. Very handy!
Family Skyliner selfie
It's always fun to take in that Spaceship Earth view on the way into Epcot!
This was to be one of the most special nights I've enjoyed at Epcot! Two of my favorite people, my Aunt Ann and Uncle Ken, who are also huge Disney fans and Disney Vacation Club members, just happened to be vacationing at WDW at the same time and were planning to be at Epcot on this particular evening too! We always wondered if our trips would ever overlap and during this awesome October they finally did! Backing up a bit, I can't resist adding that my Disney memories began with them way back in 1989. I finished out that year and rang in the start of the 90s with them on my first ever Disney trip when my family joined my aunt, uncle, and cousins for a week at WDW. Now over three decades later we'd be back there together once again with my own children! It was truly wonderful!
We exchanged texts that afternoon and originally planned to meet up at the DVC lounge above the Journey Into Imagination with Figment attraction. It hadn't crossed our minds that the lounge actually closes at 6pm, but we got there a bit before that and put our names on the waiting list. While I could say "unfortunately" space in the lounge didn't open before they closed, it was actually fortunate because what we did instead was perfect! While brainstorming for another meet up idea I initially thought a ride wouldn't be a great plan as it wouldn't allow for visiting, but then I got to thinking maybe a ride with just the right length of wait time would work well. I saw that Soarin', a ride we all love, had a 45 minute stand-by time. Typically we'd pass on that as we often can find a time to ride it with a 15-30 minute wait, but in this scenario it was just right! Everyone was on board with the idea and it just so happened that my uncle was even dressed for the occasion! (Check out his tee in a photo below! Talk about perfection! :))
We enjoyed every single minute spent in that queue, catching up, laughing, and having a good ol' time together! Once we got up to the cast member assigning guests a section and row of the ride we were given the best seats of the house - top row, center. This meant no feet dangling from above and the Eiffel Tower didn't resemble the Leaning Tower of Pisa (if you know, you know). Soarin' is one of my favorite rides in Epcot and that will forever be my favorite time riding it!
Next, we rode another fave, the greatly underrated Living with the Land. This was so nice and relaxing and fantastic finale to our time together!
I spy a celebratory "50"!
We parted ways with light hearts and wide smiles, knowing it'd be a magical moment in time that we'd forever look back on fondly! Being in your happy place with your favorite people, there's not much that can top that!
Our plans for dinner that night were to split into pairs, Jason and I would head out on a Food & Wine Festival date and the girls planned to enjoy a Sister Night. I spent much of the evening marveling over how happy I was to have spent time with Ann and Ken there and how much that meant to me! :D
We sampled a few festival offerings. Jason picked up the Thai shrimp and coconut-curry rice noodles with shiitake mushrooms and Thai basil from The Noodle Exchange booth. I'm not a shrimp fan, but from what I heard I wasn't missing out of much leaving this one to him. Next we hit the China booth for their Dandan Noodles. The menu description read "spicy pork with sichuan sauce, peanut butter, sesame, and green onion" and that all sounded great to us! This dish did surprise us with the heat level for a dish at Disney. We love spicy foods and typically "Disney spicy" is pretty mild. This did pack a punch. The flavor was good, but the noodles tasted like spaghetti which honestly seemed weird to us with the other ingredients.
As we passed the Eat to the the Beat stage we heard some familiar tunes from 38 Special and lingered for the show. I couldn't resist sending a couple quick vids to my parents who wished they could've been right there with us for the entire night.
The girls met up with us here and together we made our way back to the resort for the night. They'd spent the remainder of their evening at Epcot shopping in World Showcase. Their Disney shopping bags were full, but their tummies were empty, so we set off to remedy that at the Caribbean quick service spot. Jason and I were still pretty hungry ourselves after those small samplings at the festival, so we decided a little pizza party was in order!
While we waited our our pizza we got our rapid refill mugs for this trip. We went with a blue and a gold in each of the two 50th designs, making it simple for each of us to identify our own mugs throughout the trip. Soon our pizza was ready and we began chatting over warm cheese and pepperoni topped slices.
After dinner my oldest shared her Mitsukoshi haul with us.
Cheers to a fun night!
We wrapped up the evening with a lovely waterside stroll before heading back to our room to catch some zzz's at the end of this marvelous Monday!
This was such a fun day to recap and share with you today! Thanks so much for being here! I invite you to return this time next week for more Disney deets!
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
Previous Trip Reports from this Vacation:
I love that you share some lesser seen Disney things that you see along your journeys! So fun that you got to spend that time with your aunt and uncle too.
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