As it turns out, I didn’t need to worry about sleeping through my alarms. Gizmo knew I was leaving, and was not pleased that I was leaving again so soon after being away so he made sure I was up a couple times in the night. Since one of those times was…less than an hour before I needed to get up anyway, I ended up just staying awake. Good thing I don’t have any crazy plans today!
Eventually I got up, got dressed and woke Nick up to say “see you in Florida”. Then I hopped in my car about 3:30 for the half hour trip down to MHT. Thankfully, at this hour, said trip was uneventful.
When I got to MHT, I easily found parking on the same level of the garage as the walkway to the terminal. I parked and headed inside, struggling to believe this trip was really actually happening. Once at the ticketing kiosks, my boarding pass printed but my bag tag didn’t. I flagged down my 6th grade science teacher’s husband (it’s a small world after all…), he groaned and told me that I was about the 4th person this had happened to this morning, and he led me over to the ticket counter, where he got things squared away and got my bag tagged to Orlando.
And then it was off to security. The actual ID check part of the wait was as quick as I would expect in Manchester in the pre-check line at shortly after 4 am, but things were chaotic at the luggage scanners. First off, there was a whole family from Mass who had clearly never used pre-check before, so that was a thing. And then one of the machines went down, so anyone that had been in that lane was getting shifted to my lane.
But eventually I was through security, without any random searches. I picked up a bottle of water at the news stand and headed to the very end of the hallway to gate 15, where I made sure to avoid coughing people. While I know for sure that this trip is going to test how long Rona immunity lasts since we had it in January, I’d like to wait on testing that until I at least get to FL. I eventually found a spot to sit, and I basically stared into space until boarding time. Guys, I’m EXHAUSTED.
I think I was A31 for boarding this flight, so it was easy enough to find a window seat, albeit a little ways back, because seat savers. Boarding overall was uneventful. It was a completely full flight, despite being a 5:30 am flight, but we pushed back early and followed another plane out to the runway. Wait, what?! I haven’t seen more than one plane taxiing at Manchester since before the pandemic. WOOHOO! This little airport is coming back!
The flight down to Baltimore was uneventful. Pretty sky. A couple minutes of dozing. Oh, and we flew such that I could see the collapsed Key Bridge on descent. Saw the sunrise too.
My plane came in somewhere in the C terminal. Shortly before touch down this obsessive flight tracker watcher had noted that the next flight would be at gate B9. My flight down from Manchester had been less than an hour, so I had ample time before my 8:40 flight. I was kind of kicking myself for not taking the 7:50 connection that had also been offered, but, the scheduled arrival time had been more like 7:05 and while I know a flight from MHT to BWI almost never takes an hour and a half, I have absolutely seen a flight be held in MHT for a bit due to inappropriate staffing at ATC for the New York air space, so I hadn’t been willing to risk it.
Anyway, I emerged into the BUSY terminal C and quickly discovered that my next flight had had a gate change to A11. No big deal, I’ve got time. I trekked over to A11, which was hopping, so I found a spot in terminal A, slightly away from the chaos, to watch the grounds chaos and also take my “ready for Disney in August picture”.
I hung here for a bit, texting and facebook spamming, until I heard an announcement about a gate change for the flight to Orlando. Unfortunately, said gate change announcement was interrupted by an announcement paging passengers that were missing from some flight that was about to depart. Knowing that they could have very easily changed the flight to MCO to the other side of the airport, I headed back towards A11. The monitors along the way hadn’t yet been updated with a new gate, which wasn’t helpful. Thankfully, the screens at A11 HAD been updated, so I was able to move right along to A14, at the very end of the terminal (but not very far away). Yeah, getting my steps in this morning!
A14 was packed, so I found some space along the windows to stand and pulled out my iPad to check on my AirTag. Given that my first flight had landed SO early and there was an earlier flight to Orlando that Southwest was offering as a legitimate connection, I would not have been surprised if my suitcase got sent on that one. I once had a suitcase take the nonstop to Manchester when I was taking a flight with a connection, so…it happens. But all was good; my suitcase was still at BWI.
Boarding began…a bit later than scheduled, but was relatively uneventful. I was in the A50s for this flight, which seemed wild to me given how early my first flight was, but anyway…I got myself a window seat that had a perfect view of the luggage loading operations. That was a process! There was a lot of luggage, and some of it was a little atypical…like a couple of hockey sticks…on a flight to Orlando in August.
Luggage loading took…awhile. So we pushed back late. And then I think we taxied all the way to DC. And then I’m guessing with the late pushback we lost our place in line, so we sat in one spot while like 10 other planes got to leave ahead of us, even though they rolled up to the runway after us. I had places to be. I was not impressed!
Once we were airborne, the flight was uneventful and full of apologies from the flight deck for the ground crew delays on departure. It was even reasonably smooth for most of the trip. Landing was just about 11:20.
Once the door was open, deplaning was fairly quick, and pretty soon I was on the first attraction of the trip: the fake monorail, staring at the palm trees!
As soon as I emerged from the tram, I noticed how quiet the security area was. It’s 11:30 am, and I THINK it’s a Friday. Where are all the people?! They weren’t in line either. Security was all but a ghost town. WOAH! Here’s hoping this is indicative of the crowd levels we’ll see in Disney!
I headed down to baggage claim, which was a bit of a mess because they had two flights that had arrived at basically the same time initially assigned to the same carousel. But eventually they moved my flight to the next carousel over, bags started emerging, and after several agonizing minutes, I had my bag, and was headed back up to level 3 to cross over to the B side, to then take the escalators down to level one.
Eventually I made it to the Mears check in area. There were two self check in kiosks and one Mears employee at the check in desk. Of course a dad was tying up his time, because he couldn’t understand that even if he checked in now, it didn’t make sense for him to get in line without the rest of his family who were retrieving the luggage.
The kiosk…didn’t really work. So the second oblivious dad moved away from the check in dude, I handed check in dude my phone. He was able to successfully check me in and directed me to the bus line, which obviously I walked all the way to the front of. A minute or so later, a different Mears employee came along to move the rope and directed me out to a loading bus. I passed my suitcase off to the driver, told him which resort I was going to, and boarded the bus, to be welcomed aboard by one other passenger who was already onboard.
Over the next 15 or so minutes others trickled on to the bus with me missing the volume that Magical Express used to transport, which made this wait faster. And then the driver closed up the luggage bays, and we were rolling just under 20 minutes after I boarded the bus. I guess that’s not terrible.
About the same time the bus got rolling, I got the text that my Instacart order had been delivered. Nice! Then the driver made the announcement about resort order and Coronado would be the first drop off. Sweet! And then I got the text from Disney that my room was ready! Awesome! AND…in looking at the app, tonight’s room had been upgraded to a king room…the same room type as the rest of my reservation. Maybe I won’t have to switch rooms tomorrow?
Then the bus ride got interesting…but not in a bad way. There were a few members of some college softball team on the bus, seated just behind me. They were loud enough that eavesdropping was inevitable. In a matter of two minutes their conversation bounced from their door dash orders, to their itinerary for the day, to their vodka tolerance levels, to their migraines, and then on to Diva cups. Fascinating and whiplash inducing!
I passed the rest of the bus ride texting, and soon enough, I guess haha, the bus was passing under those pearly blue gates and the driver was welcoming everyone to Disney!!
Minutes later we rolled in to Coronado Springs. I think I may have been the only one to get off the bus here, so I had my suitcase in hand and was rolling towards building 4 basically instantly. It was probably a 10 minute walk from where the “airport transportation” stop next to Gran Destino Tower was to building 4, but Florida had had a cold front, so the temperature (and humidity!) wasn’t bad at all and the walk was a pretty one. Guys, I think I like this resort!
It was pretty easy to find Casitas 4. Finding the elevator took a bit longer, but I was eventually successful. I took the (very warm) elevator up to the 4th floor and then wandered a bit until I found room 4446. I headed inside, Lysol wiped the place down, pulled my day bag out of my carry on (pro tip…pack the park/Disney Springs/wandering Disney survival bag and put it into the carry on already packed so you just pull it out of the carry on and go!), and headed for the bus stop. It’s time for some lunch!
As I left my building, I could see a bus pulling in to stop 2, which was just across the parking lot from Casitas 4 (man, I’m in a good location!). As I got closer, I could see it was a Disney Springs bus, so I resigned myself to the fact that I was just going to miss it. But, it sat for a bit, so I picked up the pace, made eye contact with the driver and nodded. She gave a thumbs up and waited for me. Woohoo!
I hopped on the bus, thanked the driver, and we were off! Two more very quick stops and the bus exited the resort. Hmm…all these bus stops are right along the perimeter. Maybe the multiple bus stop thing won’t be so bad after all!
It was a relatively quick ride over to Disney Springs. Once off the bus, I headed for the West Side. Time to kick off this trip of trying new-to-me things in Disney!
First stop was Pepe by Jose Andres. This is the quick service side to Jaleo. I ordered the chicken fritters and the patatas bravas (and the requisite bottle of water) then grabbed a seat in the small but very uncrowded seating area. My food was delivered to me a few minutes later. It was delicious! The chicken fritters involve basically fried goodness surrounding shredded chicken and cheese. The patatas bravas are potatoes with a barely spicy tomato sauce and cheese sauce. I experienced some pricing confusion here, because the prices on the menu boards were higher than what was on the menu in the app, but I think the price I paid reflected the price in the app more than the menu boards, so it was a pretty cheap (for Disney), filling, and tasty lunch. I was not able to eat all of it. I finished the chicken fritters but had to ditch about half the potatoes. It was a decent amount of food.
Lunch consumed, I headed towards the Marketplace side of life, popping in the occasional store along the way, and stopping at Vivoli Il Gelato when I made it there. Time to really get this vacation started! Let’s mix ice cream (ok, sorbetto) and alcohol! No, really! I got the vivoli spritz, which is POG sorbetto, prosecco and sprite. It tasted like vacation!
Once the sorbetto had melted enough to blend well with the liquids, I set off again for some more shopping. This really was more like browsing. The merchandise was pretty blah. I did find one shirt I liked in World of Disney but, they didn’t seem to have it in my size on the shelves and that place was WAY too chaotic to ask a CM if they had any in my size out back. Plus with Disney’s recent trend of stocking the same merchandise in all the main stores, I wondered if I might find the shirt during my park day tomorrow.
Browsing done for today, I headed for the bus stop, picture taking a bit along the way, and marveling at how lucky I’d gotten with the weather. A cold front was making today cooler than when Nick and I were at Universal last FEBRUARY!
It was a trek, but I made it to the Coronado bus stop as a bus was loading and was greeted with “long time no see” by the bus driver, who was the same bus driver who’d waited for me on the way to Disney Springs. She told those of us loading that she was a few minutes early and it was driver switch time, so the new driver would be arriving in the next 5-7 minutes, but she hated to sit off to the side watching people stand in the heat, when we could be seated in the AC. I really wish I’d paid attention to her name so I could have given a cast compliment in the app. She was great.
Just as she’d said, the new driver showed up a few minutes later. He did his start-up routine, and then it was off to Coronado. It was an uneventful ride back, and pretty soon I was back at the resort. Knowing that it was national rum day and I would be having a tequila based drink with dinner, I took the bus to stop 3, in the Ranchos section, and headed for Siesta Pool Bar, taking some pictures along the way.
Once I made it to the pool bar, I got the Cancun Colada, which also tasted like vacation. It was excellent. And Siesta gets serious bonus points, because they serve drinks with agave straws, rather than paper!
It was a quick and scenic walk back to my room from the main pool complex.
Once back in the room, I debated my timelines for a couple of minutes and then called down to bell services about getting my Instacart order delivered. She said they’d send it right over, so I took a few room pictures before I could mess the place up more.
Within 10 minutes or so I heard a cart arrive at my building and a couple minutes later there was a knock on my door. The CM was standing there with my case of water and single target bag on a dolly, which looked kinda funny but was completely understandable. He brought the items inside for me, asked me how my day was going, and headed on his way. And then I did some thinking, which is dangerous. My response to the CM when he asked how my day was going was a fairly routine, “it’s great…I started the day in NH and am ending the day in Disney!”. But my reality was such a juxtaposition from the previous day that it was a bit hard to believe.
Trying not to dwell on the events of the previous couple of days or get back on the emotional roller coaster, I changed into my swimsuit and headed out to the lovely (reasonably) quiet pool that was right next to my building. Have I mentioned I’m loving my location at this resort?! I enjoyed the pool for about half an hour before going back to my room to change into regular clothes.
After pool time I spent a couple hours texting and letting my phone charge, before heading to dinner. I’d made a (unnecessary) reservation for dinner at Maya Grill. I was seated as soon as I checked in.
Dinner here was honestly pretty great. I did have another “how is this real life” moment as I listened to the musician playing “every little thing’s gonna be alright” on the guitar, again, trying not to reflect on the last couple of days. The (live) music played in the restaurant didn’t exactly fit the restaurant theme, but was very good and contributed to a dinner that was laid back enough that I did briefly worry I might fall asleep at the table. The food was also very good. I had the chicken quesadilla, which sounds boring, but it was delicious and came with the most delicious black beans I’ve ever had. I also had a prickly pear margarita that was fantastic. While the quesadilla (and honestly most of the food menu) seemed a bit overpriced for what it was, even by Disney standards, the margarita was strong, and in line with Disney drink pricing. Would I go out of my way to eat here again? Probably not. But did I very much enjoy my dinner? Yes.
After dinner, I did some picture taking on my way over to the main lobby.
Then it was time to find out if I needed to change rooms. The CM seemed to brace herself when I started explaining that I was hoping to find out if I was going to need to change rooms tomorrow since I had two reservations, but grinned and was “happy to help” when I continued on to say that I just wanted to know if I needed to store my luggage in the morning or not. She looked up my reservation and quickly told me that I did NOT need to move rooms the next day and would be staying put. She said I might need to check out in the app to finalize tonight’s reservation, but that that would be it. Sweet! I thanked her and headed on my way.
I did some more picture taking on the way back to the room, because that evening glow.
Back in the room, I showered, watched a little of the current version of the must dos, set my alarm for the morning and crashed hard. Considering it was my first night at a hotel, which is usually not a good sleeping night for me, I slept pretty well. I was pretty exhausted though.
