Can’t wait to watch and tag along on the strolls. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for bringing your pictures and report here!
1 Like
Day#2 (part 1). Checked out of the Wyndham and drove up and down I-drive hitting the souvenir shops. Then strictly for nostalgic reasons, we drove to the hotel I stayed at when I was a kid. Days Inn on I-drive (Now it’s a Rosen Inn near the big McDonald’s) it’s where I first learned how to swim and dive into a pool.
(Backstory: we weren’t poor but not quite middle class either. Our vacations to Florida involved driving straight through from MA., we always stayed at the Days Inn on International Dr. @ $25 a night, breakfast & lunch included cereal and deli meat sandwiches my Mom packed for the trip. Dinner was a treat as we went to Morrison’s Cafeteria behind the Days Inn. Grab a tray, slide it down the rail on the counter and pick items under the glass display along the way. The food was gross and I mostly just ate the jello but my Dad loved the place, I’m sure the price played a factor in that. Lol. Our trips were always 5 days. 2 driving and 5 in Florida. They were “Florida” vacations and not Disney vacations. Most days just involved swimming in the pool all day, walking up and down I-drive to see the shops, maybe mini golf and then 1 day at an amusement or water park before driving home. Of all our trips we only did Disney 1 or 2 times. But it’s what we could afford and we enjoyed it together as a family. Those trips stopped around 1985 as I graduated high school and it was no longer cool to vacation with my family 
…
Fast forward 20+ years and now I’m the parent of 2 kids. Now I’m taking my kids to Florida. In 2008 we took our first trip with my family and we took my parents and my wife’s parents. Quite a different trip. We flew down vs. driving. We stayed in a 3 bedroom condo at a new resort on I-Drive South (Floridays Resort) vs. the Days Inn, We did Disney parks, Universal Studios & Seaworld vs. Wet n Wild and the carnival behind the Steak n Shake. And we ate much better food than Morrison’s Cafeteria. Including the Spirit of Aloha dinner show at the Poly, Crystal Palace, Ohana, etc…
14 Likes
Thanks for taking us on a stroll down memory lane!
2 Likes
Thank you for sharing your story. I never heard of Morrison’s!
1 Like
Day#2 (part 2) after the I-drive sightseeing tour we drove over to check into Coronado Springs Resort. We got room 4251 Casitas 2nd floor. We had a beautiful view of our car in the parking lot but I couldn’t ask for a better building to be in. It’s very centrally located between everything.
The room seemed refreshed like it had been returned recently. 2 queen beds, storage underneath, wood floors, sliding barn doors enclosing the bathroom area and a newer looking bathroom vanity area in general. After getting settled we went for a walk around the resort. Simply Beautiful!!
We headed for the Hot Tub, then back to the room to shower before dinner. We were planning to go to dinner off-site but I pulled an audible and grabbed a table at 3 Bridges last minute. Loved it. The scenery transitioned from daylight to sunset while we ate and it was marvelous watching the environment change and everything light up. I had the lamb chops and my wife went with the pulled pork nachos. Both were fantastic and not outrageously priced either. after dinner we walked around some more, went into the lobby and then the tower. Just a beautiful place, I can’t say much more about it. We took the elevator up to Dahlia Lounge(?) and headed out on the observation deck. From there you could see Galaxys edge all lit up and Spaceship Earth. Gorgeous views. Walked some more because the weather was pleasing and the grounds and scenery were too then headed back to the room, played some cards (DW kicked my butt as usual) then we called it a night.
15 Likes
Thank you so much for the pictures of CSR! I just love that resort.
2 Likes
Oh I’ve got more for you but you’ll have to wait
1 Like
Day#3 (part 1)started with an early morning stroll of the resort. I’ll link the video here when it’s ready. This is my favorite Resort for relaxing stroll videos.
After the stroll I had some breakfast by the water and headed back to the room. DW was still getting ready so I hopped over to the Dig Site pool and had it all to myself. (Yes, I did the slide but no video. It has a waterfall you go through and I didn’t think the camera would survive). Hit the hot tub next (again, all to myself) then back to the room to shower and pack it up. I did try and go up to the lounge again on top of GDT to get some daylight pics but it was closed.
13 Likes
It’s beautiful. I guess people just don’t like it for the busses?
It’s one of our favorite resorts, we’ve stayed there more than any other actually. There are ways around the busses. I like the bigger rooms at moderate prices, the grounds are lovely and the buildings are beautiful… especially the new areas.
2 Likes
So glad you did the slide! I’m making it my mission to try as many resort slides as I can. So far I’ve only done Kidani, Jambo, and OKW. But later this month, hoping to add BW, weather permitting.
CSR looks so lovely! I want to stay there now …
3 Likes
ME TOO!
3 Likes
Day #3 (part 2) Room wasn’t ready at Grand Floridian until 3 so we drove around Rt. 192 and hit up some of the souvenir shops over there. I laugh at some of the things they have there and send pictures of the funny stuff back to my daughter’s at home. They get a kick out of them
Then it was time for lunch so we headed over to Disney Springs because I was craving a Holiday sandwich from EOS. OMG it was amazing. DW reluctantly tried one too and now it’s all she keeps talking about. Got some great deals on some Xmas merch over at WoD (70% off plus my Disney Visa discount). Finally we stopped at Amorettes for some take home desserts. Got the room ready text around 3ish and drove over and checked in. Room was OK, a tad dated, but a nice view of the monorails passing by. Explored the grounds, hit the hot tub, back to room and got ready for dinner. walked over to the Poly for dinner (5 min walk) Had to have the Tai Coconut Meatballs I’ve been hearing about and they didn’t disappoint. Ate by the pool over by the Poly. Did a little shopping in the gift shop then hopped a boat back to the GF, had our desserts we got from Amorettes earlier with a little coffee and watched the electric water parade then called it a night
12 Likes
Love 3 Bridges! We’ve had the lamb chops. 
Amorette’s! Love everything!
1 Like
We stayed at Floridays in January 2018. We loved the location being right in between WDW and UOR. Thanks for sharing and glad you guys are having a good time!
1 Like
Day#4. Started it off with an early morning stroll around the resort
Did I mention the bathroom at the GFV had one of those cool Tv’s built into the mirror? Room wasn’t ready at the Poly so we went for a drive to the Mermaid souvenir shop on 192 because with all the souvenirs my DW bought we now need to buy another suitcase LoL. We’ve been coming to that same gift shop and taking goofy selfies with the iconic giant mermaid since the early 1990’s headed back to the Poly and still no room ready text so we decided to jump on the resort boat and do a loop around 7 seas lagoon. We had the boat to ourselves and literally as we were pulling away from the dock the room ready text came through. So we got off at MK and grabbed the express monorail back to the TTC
Room was gorgeous. Lake view, 3rd floor, right next to the TTC. We could see the TTC, Contemporary, Grand Floridian, Space Mountain and the Castle. We had reservations for Kona for dinner but the limited menu didn’t appeal to is so we decided to switch it to Whispering Canyon so we hopped on the ferry over to MK (we were the only ones on it besides the crew) and then grab the resort boat over to WL. We were a few minutes early so we made our way to the 4th floor fireplace overlooking the lobby and just admired the view. WCC was great. Gus Gus was our server. He threw the straws up in the air and said “catch” other than that no antics. All the food was delicious but our favorite was the cornbread LoL. After dinner we caught the boat back to MK and hopped on the express monorail back to the TTC then walked to our room to call it a night. Heard some loud music and forgot about about the Electric Water Parade so we caught that. Then decided to hit the Hot Tub one last time before calling it a night.
9 Likes
That Poly Villa looks really pretty online.
Wow!!! What view!