Sunday, February 19, 2023- Disney Resort Hopping - Day 1

      We left our hotel in Hardeeville, SC, before 8:30 this morning and headed south, with hopes that we would be at Disney World for lunch.  When we checked into our hotel in Pennsylvania on Friday night, it was 19 degrees out.  This morning when we left the hotel it was 58, and we eventually had a high of at least 85 today.  Of course, we stopped at the Florida Welcome Center for orange juice when we crossed into the state.  Abby drank not one but two cups of juice, and then she was so proud that she told everybody that she saw there about it.  She certainly enjoyed the orange juice, which is a bit of a surprise because she didn't like it when we stopped last April.  Things change fast when you're three.

     Driving took us a little longer than we had hoped.  Traffic and the needs of a three-year old are things that you don't have any control over when you are travelling. We had pulled off of 95 near Jacksonville in order for Abby to use a potty, but we then watched a fire engine pull onto the expressway and saw the back up that the accident was causing on the entrance ramp. We tried to find another way around that city, which took time.  Julie's dad had warned us that the traffic around Daytona was going to be heavy because it's the weekend of the Daytona 500.  Actually, the traffic wasn't that bad there, but we did see the Goodyear blimp and several airplanes pulling advertising banners around the racetrack.  We finally made it through the thick traffic in Orlando to pull into the Disney All-Star Movies Resort shortly after 2:00.

     We checked in and since we hadn't eaten lunch yet, we immediately went to the quick service food court.  Abby got the pizza that she has been wanting for the last few days.  She has been nibbling at it all day, but the slice was so big that she will probably still have some to eat from it tomorrow.  A cast member asked Julie if Abby had any allergies, and when she said no, gave Abby a free cupcake with orange frosting.  

      We then went up to our room.  The All-Star Resorts (All-Star Movies, All-Star Music, and All-Star Sports) are Disney's budget hotels.  They certainly aren't cheap, but they are the least expensive option for staying at a Disney resort, on the Disney property.  We stayed in the All-Star Movies hotel once or twice before (in 2014 at least), and Julie has stayed at all of them at one time or another when she was coming down with the kids from JFK. There are several wings of the All-Star Movies Resort and each one is themed to a different Disney movie, including 101 Dalmatians, Fantasia, Toy Story and the Mighty Ducks. We are in the section for Herbie, The Love Bug.  There are giant objects and characters in each of the sections, so ours has oversized Volkswagen Beetles and automotive tools.    As we were about to enter our second floor room, we heard what sounded like Mickey talking to us.  It turned out to be one of the workers below us who was doing a spot-on impression of him.  When we opened the door, the TV had the message "Welcome Frank Family" on it.   The room is fine, but one of the beds is a Murphy bed that folds down from the wall.  Another interesting feature is the "barn door" style door that separates the sleeping area from the sink. Another barn door serves as the door for the bathroom.  Abby immediately commented on the picture of Minnie, Mickey and Donald that hangs over the bed, but another more elaborate one of Huey, Dewey and Louie is revealed when the Murphy bed is pulled down.

     It was time for Abby to have some fun.  The trip hasn't been great for her so far, so we planned to give her some pool time this afternoon.  There are several pools here, but the biggest is the Fantasia pool, with the sorcerer's apprentice, Mickey Mouse, conducting the water fountains at one end.  Abby loved being in the pool with mommy, and was figuring out how to float using her swim vest.  Julie figures that they were in the pool for at least an hour, and Abby loved every minute of it.  Eventually, Julie got cold, though, and needed to get out of the pool.  They went and waited for Scott to get back.

    Scott had gone off on his quest to have a beer at each Disney Resort.  He started with a Jai Alai at the All-Star Movies Resort pool bar.  It is brewed in Tampa and has a grapefruit taste.  He walked through the neighboring All Star Music Resort (where we will be the next two nights) and went to the All-Star Sports Resort.  He had a Bud Light there, because it seemed to fit with the giant footballs and baseball bats decorating this resort.  He was impressed with the astroturf that is in the middle of the football section where kids were running a few plays.  The swimming pool is shaped like a baseball diamond, complete with two scoreboards and a backstop.  Goofy is on the "pitcher's mound" in the pool's center, recreating a scene from an old cartoon as he uses a cannon to fire baseballs at the plate.  When Scott crossed back through All-Star Music, he found that the line at the pool bar was very long, so he continued back to All-Star Movies, and eventually found Julie and Abby waiting for him to get into the room.

     We visited the gift shop and Abby bought a Micky bubble wand that lights up.  The bubbles she was spreading got people smiling when we were waiting for the bus, but we made her turn it off on the bus itself.   Scott got a pin that says "All-Star Resorts" for our Disney board in the living room.  We also got a collectible cup that is refillable at any of the quick serve restaurants in any of the resorts.  We've gotten these cups once before, but knowing that they weren't good in the parks made us hesitate to get them again.  This time, though, the resorts are all that we are doing, so we will carry this one with us and will be sure to drink our money's worth of soft drinks over the next couple of days.

     It was after 5:00, and we decided to go to one of the "outlier" resorts, that isn't really connected to the others with cool transportation like boats, the Monorail, or the Skyliner.  We chose Coronado Springs.  We had never been to it at all. Since the bus transportation links the resorts to places like the parks but not to other resorts, we had to take a bus from the All-Star Resorts to somewhere else (which ended up being Disney Springs) and then transfer to a bus going to Coronado Springs.  This resort has a theme based on "ancient" Mexico and the American Southwest.  We entered the main part and found a pretty fountain where Abby threw a couple of pennies in. The gift shop is called Panchito's after the Mexican rooster in the Three Caballeros.  Our plan was to take one of the three bridges to the "Three Bridges Bar and Grill at Villa del Lago."  It was a pretty walk out on the lake, with Spanish/Mexican guitar music and a nice view of the Gran Destino Tower.  Julie had hoped to sample a sangria flight there, but we didn't have reservations.  We were told that the wait for a table would be 2 hours and 45 minutes, and we quickly decided not to eat there.  Instead, we went to the quick service restaurant, El Mercado, and ate there.  Scott had a spicy Buffalo chicken sandwich that was great, but many of the drink options seemed weak.  We think the sugar-free lemonade was actually water.  Scott wanted to get a beer there too, so before we left, he got a can of Corona Extra, which seemed to fit the Mexican/Southwest theme of the place.

     We had talked about trying to go to one more resort tonight, like maybe Fort Wilderness, but we were all feeling pretty exhausted after a long day.  We took the first bus we could, which was going to Hollywood Studios, and from there we took the bus back to the All-Star hotels.  As we passed the pool bar, Scott got Julie a Dole whip pineapple smoothie as a treat to take to the room.