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!
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