Girls' Work and Play Getaway (or "Two Moms Play in Disney World") - COMPLETED! About This Page:

[goofyboysmama]

AWHONN Convention trip, June 2014

Hi again everyone! I'm back from a week of grown up time in Disney World . I'll try not to make this too long, but I have so many pictures and things to share with you! I got to try so many different things, one of them being to experience Disney World without family (and some solo time). I stayed in a new resort (for me), had some new fun, and pretty much everything I ate and drank was for the first time. Well enough with that, on with the show!

Some background: I'm a Mother/Baby nurse and I belong to AWHONN, the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses. They have a big convention once a year and this year was, of course, in Disney World, at the Coronado Springs Resort. I've been to the World several times staying at DVC resorts, so this would be the first time staying at CSR. When my good buddy Katie and I found out about it, there was no doubt that we'd be going to the convention (exciting in itself) and that we'd get to go to Disney together! She's a MB nurse too, but after working together for years, she had to go off somewhere else exciting and awesome, leaving me behind, boo hoo . (It doesn't help that she lives about 2 1/2 hours away, so I only saw her at work, usually once a week.) We had gone to a conference at the Downtown Disney Holiday Inn last April, but weren't able to go into the parks, just to DTD. Anyway, Katie and her family had just been to DW in September, so she left the planning up to me. Since this isn't a pre-trip report, I'll just tell you about our days and the plans as I go along. I'll try not to make it too long and supplement with lots of pictures Also, I tried to take good notes, but as usual, I'll be relying a lot on the time stamps on my pics and even receipts to help me out!

Sunday, June 15
This was going to be kind of a crazy day. The phrase, "sleep is for the weak" kept coming to mind when I planned it out. Here is the basic layout, and sorta kinda what happened.
Depart Baltimore Washington International, via Southwest Airlines at 8:15, arriving MCO 11:30
Take Magical Express to Coronado Springs Resort, head right into the Convention
After the sessions, check into resort.
Head to MK

What happened: We met up at the airport, departed and arrived without any problems. After having been through MCO and taking ME enough times to know what I'm doing , managed to get us turned around, wondering where Magical Express was... on the A side ! Embarrassing, especially after reassuring Katie that I knew very well what I was doing, lol. We finally got ourselves to B side and after Katie getting to use a magic band for the first time, got in the queue for CSR.



I noted that the CMs had COWs (computers on wheels, like we have at work which was funny.) The ride to Disney was uneventful, and even though I didn't have any bags for him to handle, I tipped the driver as he was very entertaining. (BTW, new videos on the buses, yay!)


Getting excited...


Really excited!


Almost there!

We headed straight to the convention hall as planned after having been impressed with how pretty the resort was so far. The meeting spaces were really nice, in case you ever have to go there. The resort provided water, pens and writing pads. It took a minute for me to "settle down" after finding a place to sit, but then I was able to finally pay attention to the awesome nurse-ness going on.


We were a little late, so we had to sit in the back section


Getting ready for a breakout session

When the afternoon meetings were done, we were finally able to go check in. I love the lobby of CSR! It's so airy and it felt like we were checking into a resort somewhere in Latin America. The friendly CM gave us our room after making sure all was in order. I had made the reservations and checked us in online, so Katie had to put her own credit card and PIN number in the system. We walked over to the 8A section and room 8154 where we had a slight problem.


Nice room... except for the trail of bathroom water

If you look at the carpet in the photo, you'll see a faint dark trail. That's water leading from the bathroom to the door (bathroom water :P). Katie also noticed that there was water puddled at the floor by the door of the refrigerator. After maintenance came out and after a virtual "Who's on First?" routine, we ended up calling the front desk to change rooms and we were changed to the next section over, 8B room 8629 after the cast member called me back. After a long day, we certainly did not feel like lugging all our bags and things to the new room, so we left them there, with the promise from the front desk that everything would be moved over while we were at Magic Kingdom. Before we could go to the park, we had walk to El Centro (the lobby) to leave our carry-on bags at bell services, because our Magic Bands couldn't open the door to our new room ( ack!).

After doing all that, and being reassured several times that our bands would work later on that night, we needed a drink! It had been a long day without any down time and we just had to relax before we could even go to Magic Kingdom. We headed over to Rix Lounge...








ahh... just what the doctor ordered. "Mango Blueberry Basil" Margarita - Exotico Blanco Tequila, Coconut Rum, Orange Juice, Mango, Blueberry, and Basil, with Hibiscus Himalayan Salt Rim (the whole berries were lightly macerated) Katie got a craft beer of some kind.

NOW we were ready for some Magic Kingdom ! Last year when Katie and her family went to Disney, it rained almost the entire time. We just laughed when it started raining that evening and donned our handy ponchos. I had been bringing ponchos to the parks in previous trips, but never really got the chance to use them. This time made up for all those other times!




These pictures don't really show how hard it was coming down!

Fantasyland was first...
The circus was in town!
















She's making Maleficent cakepops, the "horns" are Bugles



...a short walk to the beach.




I love this one. Drenched, standing in front of a waterfall.


whozits and whatzits






Ursula. She's just bad. No redeeming qualities, except for maybe her cool hair.


You can do it!


Mysterious castle off in the distance.

We had a light dinner in France at this "cozy" little tavern.


Sometimes you can appreciate things later after looking at photos. I love the names of these beers. "Three Blondes" "Chateau Blunderbuss" Hilarious! LeFou has his craft brew up there too.




We had the place nearly to ourselves.


Initially, I had my doubts, but this pork shank was GOOD. Not as big as I thought, but Katie and I could share it. She got the cinnamon roll, which was big and good, but not the same as my old friend from MSB.


"Cozy"? Not sure, but I love it! I think only in Disney could a place like this make you smile.


Gaston is a cutie by day, but doesn't he look a little menacing at night?

It was just drizzling at this point, but off in the distance there was a fantastic lightning show in the sky. I tried several times to catch it - I almost did.


Then it was off to America, where it was first spooky, but then wondrous...







We were running late for our Wishes FP+ check in. I was nervous about this, because I wasn't sure about the view as it was going to be in the Rose Garden and I thought it would be full by now. We dashed across the hub, dodging, bobbing and weaving in a sea of humanity to get to the other side. I thought we'd be too late, as the Magic, Memories, and You show was playing already. "Cool, new Frozen stuff on the Castle!" "Awesome, keep going!" We made it in time - years of helping to bring babies into the world had conditioned our feet like ballet dancers, no toes were stepped on, nobody had gotten run over . We checked in with our bands... and had almost the whole garden path to ourselves . This is probably not the best view of Wishes, as it is partially obstructed by trees and light posts. If I was seeing the show for the first time, I'd be disappointed by the view. But as I sank gratefully down onto an empty sidewalk and stretched out my legs, we were treated to a different, but amazing view of the fireworks behind the Castle. I'm really happy with my iPhone camera.


You can't see the show on the castle from here.

















I know you've probably seen a hundred photos of Wishes, I just wanted to share them from the FP+ perspective

We ended our time in the Magic Kingdom by going "Back to the Future".




A little friendly competition between friends...

We went on the Carousel of Progress for the first time. Please forgive me CP fans, but after years of hearing the love about this attraction, I was sadly underwhelmed . I was too tired to take any pictures by this time.

Although extra magic hours would have allowed us another hour (1am!) we were done done done. Our first session was at 8:30am and we still had to go back and find out if we were going to be able to get into our new room. We got off at bus stop 4, conveniently located right across the small parking lot by our room and we were so thankful for that little green light on the lock when our band worked.





We called bell services to deliver our bags from the other room and our Garden Grocer order (They forgot one of the grocery bags and had to go back to get it ). It was then lights out on our first day in Disney World.

next up: a great meal and good times!

[MayraLR]

Great start! How cool that you got to work and have fun at WDW!

[disneydreamer33]

Not too bad for your first day minus the rain!!!
Loving all your pics!

[lauriep]

What a nice surprise to see this TR from you! Great start, despite the rain. The last half of June seems to have been pretty much non-stop rain in central Florida. Glad they finally got you a good room, but too bad you had to change.

[Cam22]

Very long and busy first day, but sounds like your conference and WDW visit are off to a fine start.

[Colexis Mom]

Great start!!

[KMB733]

Great Start!!! Looks like you had a great time at MK despite the rain!!

[shazza]

What a busy day. Enjoying your report.

[DMA]

How fun to have a convention at disney world. Though, I would be tempted to skip the break-outs and go to the parks! thanks for sharing the view of Wishes from the FP+ area. Good information to store in the memory banks for next time!
Looking forward to reading more!

[goofyboysmama]

Originally Posted by MayraLR

Great start! How cool that you got to work and have fun at WDW!

It was totally cool!

Originally Posted by disneydreamer33

Not too bad for your first day minus the rain!!!
Loving all your pics!

Thanks, What's a little rain in Disney World?

Originally Posted by lauriep

What a nice surprise to see this TR from you! Great start, despite the rain. The last half of June seems to have been pretty much non-stop rain in central Florida. Glad they finally got you a good room, but too bad you had to change.

Hey Laurie! Yeah, I just jumped right in

Originally Posted by Cam22

Very long and busy first day, but sounds like your conference and WDW visit are off to a fine start.

Yes, it was a great start to a great week!

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

Great start!!

Originally Posted by KMB733

Great Start!!! Looks like you had a great time at MK despite the rain!!

I love MK anytime!

Originally Posted by shazza

What a busy day. Enjoying your report.

We were so tired, but happy!

Originally Posted by DMA

How fun to have a convention at disney world. Though, I would be tempted to skip the break-outs and go to the parks! thanks for sharing the view of Wishes from the FP+ area. Good information to store in the memory banks for next time!
Looking forward to reading more!

We ended up skipping (only) a couple I learn so much from other people's reports, I want to help too!

**************

Monday, June 16
We stayed at the resort today, no parks, but I wanted to share with you some photos of Coronado Springs and our food Like I said before, I think the resort is very pretty. I was a little nervous to eat there because it doesn't really get raving reviews as far as food choices. Both Katie and I love Latin American foods, so we tried to keep an open mind. I was also impressed with the convention hall and meeting spaces. There were a lot of nurses there but the flow of everything was very good and plenty of places to sit. They even "converted" one of the men's bathrooms into a "women". I'm telling you it was needed! #coffeeallday . We missed the morning's general session (sad, heard it was outstanding ) because of our late-night shenanigans , but with the extra sleep we were able to pay attention the rest of the day.








I'm at a convention here? Gotta love Floridaahhh...

We took our lunch break at the Pepper Market. They had a set up for the convention goers outside the restaurant with sandwiches and stuff, but we wanted to try out what the resort had to offer. It was pretty good Disney counter service, but I wouldn't go out of my way for a special trip there. For those who don't know, the set up is a little weird, you have to give a ticket to the CM who prepared your food and they stamp it. After you eat, you pay for your meal after giving them the ticket. I like that they use real dishes and flatware - helping to reduce, recycle and reuse I didn't take a picture of Katie's lunch , I thought I did, but here's mine. (I'm aware of my annoying habit of having to take a food photo whenever I eat in Disney - or other places, lol. I try to let others eat now, and just shoot mine.)



"Make Your Own" Chef Salad (Very big, tasty and filling. I asked for avocado when I saw another guest ask for it )


Churros. Not exciting, but enough to share. They needed a little dipping sauce or something.

When our convention day was over, it was dinner time. We were really looking forward to a meal at Maya Grill. I wrote a review of it and submitted it to Sara, but here it is anyway

Maya Grill Review




My friend and I recently stayed at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort for a convention. We wanted a nice place to dine and relax after a long day of meetings so I chose the Maya Grill and made an ADR for dinner. I had a little anxiety about it due to some of the less than stellar reviews I had read about it. With any review, especially anything about Disney dining, I had to take with a grain of salt - I think people tend to write reviews if they think something is excellent or if something is terrible. I love "Tex-Mex" style cuisine and I wanted to see for myself and hopefully get to try something new.




The Maya Grill is located in El Centro, the main building and lobby of Coronado Springs, past Pepper Market food court. We showed up for our 7pm ADR on time and we were seating within a few minutes. Since we were seated so quickly, I didn't have a chance to really look around, but from what I saw, it felt light and airy, and the theme felt like "upscale Mayan", kind of masculine and modern, but very nice.

Our server was named Boris and he was very pleasant and efficient. He was from Peru and had an accent from that region, but we didn't have any problems understanding him. We didn't know right away what we wanted, so he let us relax and look at the menu without rushing us. For appetizers we decided on chips and salsa with guacamole. For drinks, I got the Margarita Flight and my friend got a Blue Moon beer. I've been trying different kinds of "flights" around the Disney World resort during my visits as it gives me a chance to sample several different drinks at the same time. The margaritas were fantastic! My flight included shot glasses of: Jalapeño, Pineapple, Horchata, Classic and Mango Blueberry Basil, all for $18. I liked them all, but my two favorites were the jalapeño (rimmed in a dark pink "hibiscus Himalayan salt") and the Horchata. The jalapeño flavors were so intense and good - chile and lime, agave nectar and cucumber... It practically jumped up and slapped me. But in a good way! The Horchata was a great compliment: sweet and cinnamony, like eggnog or chai, but light, not heavy. I had to look up what horchata was: it's a Spanish or Latin American drink made of almond or rice milk. If I had to order a whole margarita, I'd get the Horchata. It would be very nice to sip on and went very well with my meal.




The chips were thick, but crispy, lightly salted and perfect for dipping. The salsa was fine, but I was really impressed with the 3 ice cream scoops of fresh guacamole Boris brought us! It had few thin slices of pickled red onion that just set it all off.


Hidden Mickey?

Oh yeah, dinner...
My friend got the Chicken Enchilada Suizas, which she said were good.



I didn't try any because I was falling deeply in love with my Pork Belly Enchiladas. I've never had pork belly, and this tasted like a tender pork roast, but made out of smoked bacon. Oh my! The corn tortillas were nice and had really good flavor. The sides that came with it were the standard Spanish rice, which was ok, refried black beans, good, but not really memorable and a small scoop of corn soufflé which was the best of the sides - I wish I could of just had a bowl of that instead of the rice and beans.




The chicken enchilada suizas also came with rice and beans, with the corn soufflé. We had no room to try any of the desserts, but we were totally satisfied with having had a very filling appetizer. My plate was $19.95 for decent, but not huge sized portions. Our bill without tip came to $75.73, which included our drinks, appetizers and 2 entrees. It was a good meal, but I don't think it was a good value, simply because I have an idea of how much the items would cost if I bought them separately. However, if I was on the dining plan, I wouldn't have minded paying that much. It was a nice splurge though because I loved my margaritas, my pork belly and my guacamole. Boris was friendly and efficient. The restaurant itself felt "grown up" but not stuffy, with nice relaxing background music. I would consider eating at the Maya Grill again if I was staying at Coronado Springs, especially if I was on the Disney Dining Plan.



After dinner, we took a leisurely walk back to the room. CSR to me had a very relaxed feel to it and it didn't feel crowded at all, in spite of it being full from the convention. (Some nurses had to stay at Caribbean Beach Resort as "overflow". They had buses to shuttle folks back and forth.)


You know these guys



The lobby




I love the foliage!


Just peaceful!




The Cabanas section


I REALLY wanted to try these out, but a party was waiting!


From my phone - I wanted to show how cool and balmy it was. Low humidity too, in June!






The view from our room. Not too bad, very quiet. The bus stop is behind that tree to the left.

The AWHONN President's Party was that night and we relaxed for a bit before heading over. By the time we got back over to the hall, the party was in full swing (open bar! ). There was so much food there, we didn't need to have gone to dinner, but I'm glad we did anyway. The theme was "Once Upon a Time" and there were folks dressed up as princesses and other Disney characters. We didn't dress up, but we got to take fun photos.





There were different themed "clubs" set up, and we spent some time in the big one before heading to best one at Rix Lounge. We danced on a packed floor for more than 2 hours straight! We finally called it quits before the party ended. I didn't get any pictures inside of Rix's because I was having such a great time. I had had such a blast I could have turned into a pumpkin, who knows? Our first session was at 8:00am, so we hit the sack, nighty night! (Anyone walking by our room that night would've wondered why there were lumberjacks in there sawing logs...)


I take the worst selfies, but this is one of my favorites from the trip


Yes folks, you are seeing nurses shakin' some tailfeathers!



Great band from Miami

next up: another great day of nursing awesomness and quality time at the Studios!

[Colexis Mom]

Great pictures from CSR! Your food looks delish as well!

[mcc0313]

Looks like you are having tons of fun. We did a convention in October at the Coronado, I really loved the resort. Like you said very relaxed, beautiful scenery.

We did not try the Maya Grill, we almost did but the menu just was not calling out to us at that moment. I did really enjoy this roasted chicken they had at the Pepper Market.

Sorry for the rain at the MK but looks like you were not letting it bother you guys at all

[KMB733]

Great pictures of the resort! I really want a Churro now!

[bearak527]

Im not even there and I am havubg a great time reading your trip report!
Can't wait for more.
Betty

[Cam22]

Great pictures around CSR! for the review of Maya Grill!