Monday, February 4

Monday began with…regret. I mean, let’s be honest – it wasn’t *that* bad. But I did wake up and instantly wish that I hadn’t let Mr. Talented Bartender whip me up quite so many tasty Manhattans the night before.  I was certainly functional, but my no means rope drop functional. In my defense, CP wasn’t exactly feeling rope drop, either, and she’d been smart and only had one super delicious drink the evening before.

But what she too had consumed the night before were those blasted corn dog nuggets. So let’s just say that both of us spent some time in our room on Monday morning feeling…not good. I’ll spare the delicate among us the details, but Manhattans or no Manhattans, corn dog nuggets were a one-time thing for us.  Neither of us eats much in the way of fried food in our real lives, and now I think I know why.

Anyway! We finally pulled ourselves together to finish packing, load up the car, and make the blissfully short walk to the Magic Kingdom one last time.  On the docket was our customary lunch at the Plaza, some pin trading, and walking off the grogginess after our night off too much fun (and corn dog nuggets, ugh).

It was another picture-perfect February day, and the nice breezes and abundant sunshine were just what the doctor ordered.  I know I was feeling much better, and really enjoyed just wandering the MK, taking it all in:

We wandered through Adventureland and Frontierland, pin trading and people watching, and finally made our way to the Fantasyland expansion. We even made it onto a ride!

Next it was off to Storybook Circus to pin trade, and then we hopped on the train to kill the final minutes before our Plaza lunch:

We exited on Main Street and found Cast Members scurrying about, putting up the final preparations for the Super Bowl MVP parade.  I really couldn’t have cared less about the MVP or the parade, but as I detailed here, my heart skipped a beat when I saw they had put up scores of the old-style Mickey balloons:

We had made our way up to the Plaza, and were checked in and seated for lunch in about five minutes’ time. Not bad. The Plaza was surprisingly quiet for the lunch rush, and so we enjoyed a peaceful lunch at a corner table where we could keep an eye on the passers-by outside.  Creatures of habit, we both ordered our usuals: me the grilled chicken sandwich, CP the club sandwich, and plentiful Diet Coke for both of us. We finished off the meal by splitting a hot fudge sundae, and left feeling awfully contented.

We finished up our Magic Kingdom time doing some pin trading and taking in the sights and sounds of a busy Main Street. Even though I knew we’d be back in a month or two, it’s always a bit sad to leave the Magic Kingdom. But, we had places to go and new resorts to check out, so we walked back to the Contemporary, got into the car, and drove over to Coronado Springs, our home for the night.

We had done online check-in before our trip and walked right up to a Cast Member at the online check-in desk. This Cast Member turned out to be none other than the lovely @PrincessJess508, something of a celebrity on Twitter and on the DIS boards (she’s an awesome trip report writer in her own right!),who was “earning her ears” and learning how to work the front desk. She did a terrific job checking us in, and soon we were off to our room in Casitas 3. We had booked a King Preferred room, which automatically put us in Casitas, the “preferred” area of the resort. This area caters largely to convention crowds owing to its close proximity to the main building, restaurants, bars, and convention center.

After doing some minimal unpacking and freshening up a bit, we decided to take an afternoon walk around the resort to get a feel for the grounds.  Although I’m a self-avowed Deluxe resort snob, on that walk Coronado really grew on me.  (For deeper thoughts on this subject, you might want to check out my review of Coronado here.) The sun was low in the sky, and the light was just perfect:

We ended our walk with a quick tour of the main building and Panchito’s gift shop.  For a moderate resort, Coronado is really tricked out – with a salon, gym, tons of restaurants and drink options, and a good-sized gift shop, you really wouldn’t have to leave the grounds if you didn’t want to. Plus, the rooms are really nice for a moderate, much more modern and well-appointed than the other Disney moderate resorts.  As much as I love the Deluxes, I was quickly seeing that Coronado might be our new home away from home – it’s a great resort, and the price is right.

We stopped back in our room to regroup before heading to the car and over to Epcot for our last night in the parks. We were supposed to end the evening with dinner at Via Napoli and a viewing of IllumiNations, but frankly we weren’t that hungry and didn’t feel like staking out a seat for the fireworks super early. So, we just decided to wing it. Epcot in the early evening is my absolute favorite Disney park experience, so you won’t mind if I spam you with a few hundred pictures of it, right?

We took our time, ambling about, and ended up walking through the World Showcase.

The thing that drives me crazy about Epcot is that in the absence of an adults-only area on property, Epcot is the default party location for boozing. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not a teetotaler by any means. But without a place like Pleasure Island to draw the ‘serious’ partiers, the World Showcase at night invariably becomes one big outdoor bar. By the time we got to Germany, it was wall-to-wall people, most with drinks in their hands. Not my favorite way to tour the World Showcase, so we took some pictures and quickly moved on.

We made our customary stop at the Japan store, and then finding that School Bread wasn’t exactly a filling dinner, we decided to pop into the new bakery in France to check out the wares.  The food certainly looked better than what you could get at the old French bakery:

So the food is definitely a step up, if not world-class – but if you want a light meal or a dessert, it’s a good bet. Here’s the thing, though: it was an absolutely awful dining experience because the dining room is just too too small.  At first we ended up hovering over a standing table trying to eat our soup, and then we were able to snag a table as another party departed. Of course the table only had one chair, so CP had to squat awkwardly until someone else left and offered her a seat. It was also cramped, loud, and full of kids running around, nearly knocking food and beverages off the table. So, my advice is to get your food to go and try to grab a seat out in the France courtyard, or grab something you can eat while walking.

With packing to finish and an early flight for CP the next morning, we continued through the World Showcase and back to Future World for some final pin trading and shopping. We soon said goodnight to Epcot, and headed back to Coronado.

It’s pretty anticlimactic from here on out – packing, sleeping, taking CP to the airport, me returning to Coronado to pack up and take some final pictures:

CP went back to Massachusetts, and I continued on to Ft. Myers to see my grandparents and travel for work.  I was supposed to fly home on Friday, February 8th, but Mother Nature was going to intervene….and get me back to Disney much sooner than I anticipated. Story to come!