It’s taken me far longer than I’d like to write up this trip report, which is possibly an indication of how sad I feel to have no WDW trip on the horizon.  Sigh. In any case, since it’s been about a month since our trip, I figured it’s time to get this thing out on the Interwebz.  As usual, it was a lovely trip, although a bit different than the usual trip we take each year to see the Flower and Garden Festival.  Why it was different:

• Instead of taking a four-day trip over a weekend, we extended this trip to six days, and *gasp* did a few non Disney things.
• I left Disney and stayed on in Florida for several days for work.
• We spent much of this trip with my grandparents, who are wintering in Florida. Originally, they were going to meet us in Disney for an afternoon to see Flower and Garden. A afternoon turned into a night, and then two, and then three, and then they bought annual passes. Ha!

So, our trip looked something like this:

Day One: Fly into Orlando, stay one night at the Hilton Bonnet Creek Resort (thanks, Hotwire!).

Day Two: Morning/early afternoon at WDW, drive to Sarasota to meet grandparents and see Ringling Museum.

Day Three: With my grandparents in SW Florida. Ft. Myers Beach, Red Sox vs. Twins spring training game.

Days Four-Six: WDW for Flower and Garden Festival.

Days Seven-Ten: CP returns to New England; business travel in Miami/Vero Beach.

Day Eleven: Return to Orlando before flight home, might as well spend the night at WDW. (When in Rome…)

So, let’s get started, shall we?

Wednesday, March 6

No photos on this day, and it barely warrants a mention anyway. It went something like this: work all day. Frantically pack and pick up CP at work; drive to airport. Forget to eat dinner, relegating us to one of a few mediocre choices at the Hartford airport. (Ultimate winner? McDonald’s. Sigh.) Breeze through security thanks to purchase of jetBlue Even More Space seats. Eat said dinner. Quick bathroom stop, and then we’re boarding. Literally not a minute wasted.

The flight was lovely, and honestly I’m not sure how I’m going to back to regular economy seats after sitting in a row with so much leg room.  MCO was quiet when we arrived, and so we had our luggage and our rental car in no time.  Drive to Disney property as if on autopilot, but then, we can’t find the Bonnet Creek Resort. Granted, we had a GPS with us, but I was confident I’d find it eventually. (We did.)

I’m a big fan of staying on Disney property, but the Hilton Bonnet Creek makes me seriously question my Disney allegiance. This was one nice hotel.  Granted, it was a little chaotic when we checked in owing to some wedding reception or convention that was taking up nearly the entire lobby (hey, drunk and aged frat boys!), but after that it was 100% lovely. The hotel is modern, well appointed, and has all the amenities you’d want, whether you’re a business traveler or a family headed to the parks. I loved it.

Check e-mail, brush teeth, fall into bed, sleep.

Thursday, March 7

It gets more interesting, I promise!

In spite of going to bed fairly late, we were up early so as to shower and dress in time to meet the representative from Kingdom Camera Rentals.  My completely unsolicited review of KCR is that they are awesome, and if you’re at all interested in photography and want to try out a new camera and/or lens, it’s worth the money to rent one on your next WDW vacation.   Lens in hand, we packed up our room, checked out, and headed to Starbucks while we figured out how we wanted to spend this bonus day at WDW. Where did we end up?

Magic Kingdom is typically the first park we visit on longer trips, and it seemed the most fitting place to spend the few hours we had for our bonus day. We didn’t intend to ride much so crowds weren’t a factor, and as it turned out it was a totally manageable day anyway. Taking in the familiar sights and smells, we started our visit in the Emporium:

It was truly a picture-perfect day at the Magic Kingdom:

With no particular goals in mind, we wandered about, enjoying the sunshine and me trying out my new lens:

On our previous two trips to the Magic Kingdom we had somehow missed Pirates, so we knew our next destination:

After a quick ride on Big Thunder Mountain, we continued our aimless wandering, eventually ending up in new Fantasyland.

After taking our favorite path from Storybook Circus to Tomorrowland, we couldn’t resist a ride around on the TTA.

By this time it was nearly lunch and we were starving. Our first choice, The Plaza, of course didn’t have any availability for walkups, so we started to think where we could go outside of the parks. On a whim, I suggested we head to the Polynesian to eat lunch at Kona Cafe, a place we’ve frequented for breakfast. CP readily agreed. A few shots on our walk out:

CP is not really a fan of WDW boats, so it was the resort monorail for us. I couldn’t get over my childish glee at having an entire monorail car to ourselves:

As I’ve outlined before, I am deeply attached to the Polynesian for sentimental reasons, in spite of the fact that I think it’s wildly overpriced and terrifically outdated. (Yes, I know there’s a refurb going on, but the pictures of the new Poly rooms haven’t totally won me over.) I love the smell of the lobby and the serenity of water and the tropical foliage:

Although I had made a reservation on the fly using Disney’s Much-Touted-My-Super-Special-Disney-Experience-Mobile-Application(tm), Kona was nearly dead and we could have walked right in.  In any case, we were seated quickly at a table out of the nonexistent fray, and set about deciding on our order. Plentiful Diet Cokes were a given, and then we decided to split the pot stickers and each have the noodle bowl with chicken:

Lunch at Kona turned out to be an excellent decision. Service was fast, the food was really good, and the prices were pretty reasonable for the quantity and quality of food we received. I’d definitely eat lunch there again. (Dinner, however…but that’s another story.)

CP and I strategically avoided Kona dessert in favor of….

Dole Whip! Cheaper than what you can get at the Magic Kingdom, and just as tasty. Plus, we could eat it and enjoy this view:

Contented, we walked around the Polynesian construction and back to the TTC, peering in on the room renovations as we walked:

To walk off our lunch we skipped the tram and walked back to the car. Our next stop was Sarasota, where we were going to meet up with my grandparents to tour the Ringling Museum and grounds.  This may be a Disney blog, but I’m going to save the Ringling Museum for a future post – if you like Disney, I’d be surprised if you don’t enjoy a look at this remarkable museum. More soon!