Goodbye to Pleasure Island trip - DAY 1

[WinnipegDisneyFanatic]

THE GOODBYE TO PLEASURE ISLAND TRIP

DATES: August 28th - September 1st

CAST: Me (Chris; 5th trip to the World), Tink (My GF; first trip to WDW in 9 years).

RESORT: Coronado Springs (first time for both of us)

DAY 1: ARRIVAL,DHS & FANTASMIC!
THURSDAY AUGUST 28TH

I woke up around 5am and had everything packed the night before. I picked up Crystal around 5:20 and we drove to the airport - tired, but excited! We parked our car at the airport for $10 bucks a day the entire time we were gone - its still cheaper than a cab - we both live far away from the airport. Everyone always lives far from EVERYTHING in Winnipeg. Honestly even if you want to get to your nextdoor neighbours house, you'd somehow run in to a roadblock and it'd take you 10 hours to get there. Do I hate Winnipeg? No, not at all, not at all............*cough* sarcasmic! *cough*

Checked the baggage - always love putting those yellow tags on the luggage, Crystal was a bit nervous of it getting to our room from Winnipeg but I assured her things would be alright.

Security was quick and in no time we were on our flight to Minneapolis for a 1 hour layover. Since Canada 3000 went belly-up, there's been no direct flights from Winnipeg to Orlando. I miss those days. Anyone else remember Canada 3000?

We touched down in Minneapolis around 8:45am and walked around the airport for a while and had lunch - well it felt like lunch, I had pizza, Crystal had a breakfast sub from Subway.

We boarded the plane to Orlando and spent 3 grueling hours on it - its just annoying sitting there with the anticipation building and building as you all know!

When we touched down we got the blast of the Florida HEAT!!! Goodness it was hot and muggy - but we could get used to it. DME was waiting for us and we quickly loaded on, making a stop at POP and then at CSR - our first and overall impressions of this resort were the same - it was GORGEOUS!!! We're staying there next year, too (if not sooner, haha).

After finding our room in the Casitas section (room 2315), we hopped on the bus to DHS and began the fun. We headed right for dinner at the Sci-Fi Dine-in Theatre (which I recommend!). Loads of fun there. There was tons of thunder and lightning - but absolutely NO rain - it was the strangest thing ever. But we were happy of course After this, we went to Star Tours and then found our seats in the front row, farther-left side for FANTASMIC! which I was dying to see. Awesome show as always - and PACKED as always - I can't understand why they want to cut it to 2 nights a week...grrr..anyway...

After Fantasmic! the park was closed so we looked around the shops; it was about 9pm or so. Went back to the resort and walked around some more, bought the CSR refillable mugs, filled them with pink lemonade and took pics of the resort. Lots of little geckos and frogs around it! Around 11:30 we went for a dip in the Casitas private area pool - and though it closed at 9pm, we managed to stay in til around 1am Remember we were up since just before 5am!

We went back to the room, showered and crashed on the beds. Double beds are small - but I noticed a number of Queen sized matresses going in too - so that's a good sign.

COMING UP:
DAY 2: DHS & EPCOT with EMH!

Chris
p.s. a huge series of video episodes are being put together and will hopefully be online by the time September ends - PM me if you want the eventual links!

[KylesMom]

Great start to your trip, Chris! Looking forward to reading more!

[cal5755]

Awesome first day!! Making me all the more excited for our trip next week!!

[ibelieveindisneymagic]

Sounds like a great start to your trip!

And yes, I remember Canada 3000 (and Canadian Airlines). We often end up flying from Toronto to Montreal to Orlando, 'cause the times are so much more convienent.

[ChipnDaleGal]

You two are off to a great start and managed to do quite a bit at the Studios for a travel day. Thanks for sharing.

[tinkerbell04]

Sounds like it is a great start to the trip. I amlooking forward to hearing more.

[pink]

It sounds like you had a great first day. I hope my DBF and I have as much as energy as you two did on our first day! I would also love to see your video trip reports when you finish them.

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

Sounds like a busy first day

[laward32]

You got a lot done in one day. Can't wait to read more. I would love to see the videos. I will PM you for that. Thanks for sharing. Look forward to more reports.

[iheartmickey]

Sounds like a great first day!!! I'd be beat and sound asleep if I were up that late.

Thanks for sharing!

[wilshade]

Very busy first day. After all of that flying and you still had enough energy for DHS. Impressive!

[MauiMouse]

Chris, you got there the day I left. I was at the airport during that lovely thunderstorm. Unfortunately we had rain at the airport and the flights were delayed some.

Glad that you had a first great day!

[trapper]

We stayed at Coronado Springs last time and it was awesome.I loved the themeing. Very nice resort!!

[Lizzie]

What a full day. Thanks for the report.

[Jennib]

great day 1!!!

[dolphinmickey9170]

Sounds like a great beginning. Love Sci Fi. Great food, fun atmosphere, what more could you ask for.

Off to read more!

[yjgirl32]

Wonderful report. Can't wait to read more. Thanks for sharing.

[DizNee143]

wow what a busy first full day!! and i mean full..you guys almost took good use of all 24 hours in the day!! sounds like your having fun!!

[pdrlkr]

Thanks for the report!

[faline]

We arrived the same day but we stayed at Wilderness Lodge this trip!

Coronado Springs is my favorite moderate! I believe I remember having a king bed room there.

What a long and full first day you had!