Friday December 6th, 2013
This seemed to be the first morning where we weren't rushing to get out the door and to the parks. So instead of heading right out, we decided to do some more exploring of the grounds of the lovely Coronado Springs Resort. I had stayed here on a previous trip so I was already familiar with most of the resort, but I wanted my mom and cousin to get to see more of it. It is funny that it took us 5 days to actually look around our resort. But I'm sorry, our room was literally 8 steps from the bus stop. Can you blame us that we only walked to and from the bus stop each and every day thus far?
This seemed to be the first morning where we weren't rushing to get out the door and to the parks. So instead of heading right out, we decided to do some more exploring of the grounds of the lovely Coronado Springs Resort. I had stayed here on a previous trip so I was already familiar with most of the resort, but I wanted my mom and cousin to get to see more of it. It is funny that it took us 5 days to actually look around our resort. But I'm sorry, our room was literally 8 steps from the bus stop. Can you blame us that we only walked to and from the bus stop each and every day thus far?
We walked all the way around the large resort, taking several photos. Above are just a few of the hundred pictures that I took on our leisurely stroll. When we made it back to El Centro, the park of choice was now Disney's Hollywood Studios.
As I may have mentioned before I really can take or leave DHS. There are a couple of things I love to do there, most things I could care less about, but we all decided we wanted to take advantage of our Toy Story Midway Mania fastpass plus reservation we had as well as make a stop at One Man's Dream.
So off we went to the studios and it was nearing an early lunch time. Our first stop when we arrived was Starring Rolls for lunch. I cannot say enough good things about Starring Rolls. This was my first time choosing it for lunch and to be honest I wasn't even aware it served more than pastries a couple of months prior to the trip. We were on the dining plan and the deli sandwiches there served as one credit on the plan. I was actually pleasantly surprised with the food quality and the best part was that ANY of the desserts in the restaurant could be chosen as the dessert option of your counter service credit. Any of them. Even the ones that were over $5. I was shocked. If you want to get the most bang for your counter service credit, Starring Rolls is the place to be! I had the turkey sandwich with some pesto lookin' type of sauce that was phenomenal. I say "pesto lookin" cause I can't remember what it was, but it seemed like a pesto. Fantastic! In the true Christmas spirit, I chose the Gingerbread Mickey Cupcake. It wasn't my first choice, but I had yet to experience a WDW cupcake so I said what the heck! And it had Mickey ears...I mean....seriously!
As I may have mentioned before I really can take or leave DHS. There are a couple of things I love to do there, most things I could care less about, but we all decided we wanted to take advantage of our Toy Story Midway Mania fastpass plus reservation we had as well as make a stop at One Man's Dream.
So off we went to the studios and it was nearing an early lunch time. Our first stop when we arrived was Starring Rolls for lunch. I cannot say enough good things about Starring Rolls. This was my first time choosing it for lunch and to be honest I wasn't even aware it served more than pastries a couple of months prior to the trip. We were on the dining plan and the deli sandwiches there served as one credit on the plan. I was actually pleasantly surprised with the food quality and the best part was that ANY of the desserts in the restaurant could be chosen as the dessert option of your counter service credit. Any of them. Even the ones that were over $5. I was shocked. If you want to get the most bang for your counter service credit, Starring Rolls is the place to be! I had the turkey sandwich with some pesto lookin' type of sauce that was phenomenal. I say "pesto lookin" cause I can't remember what it was, but it seemed like a pesto. Fantastic! In the true Christmas spirit, I chose the Gingerbread Mickey Cupcake. It wasn't my first choice, but I had yet to experience a WDW cupcake so I said what the heck! And it had Mickey ears...I mean....seriously!
I have to say the new Brown Derby outdoor seating looked really fantastic. A great location and it seemed like a nice place to take a break for a drink. I only regret we didn't get a chance to experience it. I really did not want to be in the Studios long and since it was our second to last day we had some more places we wanted to get to.
Moving on to One Man's Dream and Toy Story Midway Mania.
Man do I love One Man's Dream. I certainly hope they never remove it. I think I took about 87 pictures of old movie poster re-creations. And of course one of my favorites below:
Moving on to One Man's Dream and Toy Story Midway Mania.
Man do I love One Man's Dream. I certainly hope they never remove it. I think I took about 87 pictures of old movie poster re-creations. And of course one of my favorites below:
Before heading out, my cousin wanted to go over the Animation building. She is quite the artist herself so she always enjoys seeing any new exhibits they might have and checking out the art store at the exit. I was willing to skip it but I am actually really glad that we didn't. The room where the Frozen artwork was seemed a little disappointing. It was such a huge room and there were literally only 2 small glass cases, one on each wall, with Frozen artwork in it. I remember when they had Tangled in there and it was at least a little more in depth. Disappointing.
However, the reason I was glad we didn't skip it was there was this really great exhibit right before exiting into the store that had all these GORGEOUS landscapes from different Disney movies. There was one case with castles, one case with countrysides, one case with cities and towns. It was really amazing and so fun to guess which movie they all came from. A couple favorites below.
However, the reason I was glad we didn't skip it was there was this really great exhibit right before exiting into the store that had all these GORGEOUS landscapes from different Disney movies. There was one case with castles, one case with countrysides, one case with cities and towns. It was really amazing and so fun to guess which movie they all came from. A couple favorites below.
We decided to cut out of DHS early and take the boat back over to Epcot for a couple more lovely hours in the World Showcase. Upon entering the World Showcase we went back over towards United Kingdom to do some more shopping. At which point we realized we skipped Canada the day before. On our way there we glanced to the left and saw that the doors to what used to be the Millenium Village were open and I completely geeked out because who should be doing a meet and greet but J. Worthington Foulfellow! He is my boy!!! Naturally he had ZERO line because everyone who passed by was probably thinking who the H is that? So I got my lovely picture taken with him. Amazing find!
I'm on the right.
So we passed through Canada rather quickly on our way over to Mexico and back to La Cava de Tequila! My new favorite hang out. Still upset that it had taken me until this very trip to go there. I will never miss it again, that is for sure. Once finished, we did a little more shopping as we made our way all the way around back to the International Gateway where we caught a bus to Downtown Disney to then catch a boat to Old Key West for our dinner reservation at Olivia's.
I was super impressed by the decor of Old Key West. This was a resort I had never been to and never really thought about visiting. But when I was making ADR's and deciding to try new places, Olivia's was on that list. I had quite a bit of Twitter warnings leading up to our trip to avoid Olivia's and go somewhere else that we already knew we liked. I almost switched it. I really did. But I stayed strong and said no. If I was going to hate it, I wanted to make that decision based off my own experiences. I feel restaurants are so hard to go off reviews for because there is always someone who can't be pleased, or there is always someone who just really has a terrible experience. But there could also be 100 great ones on the same day. You just never know.
I ordered the Pan Seared Sea Scallops. They weren't terrible. Actually I had a margarita right before and I have no idea if it was the drink but I got this unbelievable heartburn about 2 bites into my meal. I remember it tasting good, but I really did not eat much. The heartburn passed as we were finishing.
So we passed through Canada rather quickly on our way over to Mexico and back to La Cava de Tequila! My new favorite hang out. Still upset that it had taken me until this very trip to go there. I will never miss it again, that is for sure. Once finished, we did a little more shopping as we made our way all the way around back to the International Gateway where we caught a bus to Downtown Disney to then catch a boat to Old Key West for our dinner reservation at Olivia's.
I was super impressed by the decor of Old Key West. This was a resort I had never been to and never really thought about visiting. But when I was making ADR's and deciding to try new places, Olivia's was on that list. I had quite a bit of Twitter warnings leading up to our trip to avoid Olivia's and go somewhere else that we already knew we liked. I almost switched it. I really did. But I stayed strong and said no. If I was going to hate it, I wanted to make that decision based off my own experiences. I feel restaurants are so hard to go off reviews for because there is always someone who can't be pleased, or there is always someone who just really has a terrible experience. But there could also be 100 great ones on the same day. You just never know.
I ordered the Pan Seared Sea Scallops. They weren't terrible. Actually I had a margarita right before and I have no idea if it was the drink but I got this unbelievable heartburn about 2 bites into my meal. I remember it tasting good, but I really did not eat much. The heartburn passed as we were finishing.
After dinner we went back to Downtown Disney to do a little shopping but decided to have an early night back at the resort. I wanted another margarita, but thought against it! Good night all!
Missed Day 4? Read it here:
A December Trip Report - Day 4
Missed Day 4? Read it here:
A December Trip Report - Day 4
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