Mouse Madness: Back to Food and Wine (Part Two)featured

Up (not-so) bright and early to finally check in to our hotel for the week…

The Coronado Springs Resort!

When we were little, Stephanie and I had this Disney vacation planning VHS and there was a shot of these kids riding bikes through a corridor at the Coronado Springs Resort. We called it the hallway of dreams. And no matter where we stayed in Disney, we always wanted to stay here.

And we weren’t disappointed. The grounds were lovely and our room was spacious and well-appointed. They even left us some Halloween decorations!

We didn’t spend too much time exploring the grounds…we’d do that later. For now? I had big plans: four parks, one day. Well, most of a day. It was already getting late in the morning and we had to pick Stephanie up at the airport that evening so…four parks in part of one day. The rules? Must ride one ride in each park, must take pictures with iconic symbol in each park and I can’t go on any of Stephanie’s favorites without her. First up? Disney Hollywood Studios.

Mom and I grabbed Fast Passes for Toy Story Mania (which she’s never been on) and then headed to Starring Rolls Cafe to split one of their famous cupcakes.

And with that? We headed out of the park and onto the next one. Park one? Done.

We left the car at DHS and bus’ed it over to park #2: Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Our “ride” was going to be Kilimanjaro Safari, but it had an 80-minute standby. The workaround? The Fast Pass distribution was for less than an hour later. We FP’ed it and went to explore in the meanwhile. I love Animal Kingdom. The rest of the fam? Not so much. So we don’t come here much.

We decided to grab snacks while we waited. Mom had a Mickey Bar. I opted for a side of Chicken Fried Rice from Yak and Yeti Local Food Cafe. The price was incredibly modest ($3.99) and the portion was more than ample — Mom had to split it with me because it was too much. There were large, flavorful chunks of chicken nestled inside the perfectly fried rice.

And after snack time? It was safari time!

It started raining so we popped into a counter service restaurant for cover. And to re-juice my iPhone.

And when the rain let up? We headed out. Park #2: done.

We headed back to DHS because we were approaching our Fast Pass window to ride Toy Story Mania.

I win!

TSM down, we headed out of DHS and towards Park #3.

Hello, Magic Kingdom!

Our ride? The Tomorrowland Transit Authority. No wait and an excellent chance to put our feet up and rest!

We grabbed a cupcake for Stephanie at Main Street Confectionary and headed out towards Park #4.

Park #3? Complete.

Hi, Epcot!

Park #4: Complete.

End result? Exhaustion. We headed back to rest up and grab a quick dinner. We opted to grab dinner at The Pepper Market because it was quick, it was a counter-service credit (we were on the Disney Dining Plan, so this let us save our table service credit for a two-credit dinner on another day) and the food here is generally very good.

Chicken Fajita Platter

Ribeye Steak

Carrot Cake

Cheesecake

Stephanie’s flight took off while we were eating dinner. We walked around a bit and then went back to the room to rest.

There were really bad storms in the midwest and Stephanie was iMessaging me through her flight that her flight was incredibly turbulent and how she had a flight attendant sitting next to her keeping her calm. I couldn’t have done it. She landed safely around 11:00 pm and we greeted her curbside with relief all around that her flight was over and we were all together. It was a long day for all of us (Stephanie had a full day of work and Mom and I are never doing four parks in one day ever again) and we passed out not long after we got back to the room.