I officially started this trip report with random info about what happened after the race. I’m just awesome like that! If you want to read that short, uninformative installment, click HERE.

Otherwise, let’s get back to The Beginning!

On Friday, February 20, 2015 I left home and headed to the airport to start my journey to Walt Disney World for the Princess Half Marathon weekend! The flights were pretty boring and I tried to sleep as much as I could even though I wasn’t going to land in Orlando until about 10:30pm. I’d been waiting for this weekend to get here for months, and now that it was here I was a big mixture of nervous and excited!

Something about the Orlando International Airport (MCO) always makes me happy. Ummm…..probably because I only use this airport to get to Disney World… But at any rate, when I finally arrived and started to make my way to Disney’s Magical Express (DME), I was wide awake and full of smiles. Because I’d added my flight info so close to when my trip was starting, I was told I’d have to check in with DME to get a voucher for the bus ride to my resort. My friend Shari had been mailed my MagicBand so I supposedly needed a voucher to use DME. Before I left home, I’d actually made sure my past MagicBands were linked and active on my My Disney Experience account and I brought one with me just in case I could use that instead.

For some reason I thought that the Magical Express was going to be really dead at that time of night and I anticipated getting to sit in the front of the bus to get a good picture of the Walt Disney World gate when we arrived at the resort. Instead, I found that there were a good number of people also arriving this late at night. The line to check in with DME went pretty quickly though and my MagicBand worked to get me checked in without having to get paperwork printed out and such. YAY! The cast member pointed me in the direction of the line for Coronado Springs resort and I got in line to wait my turn.

Even though there weren’t a lot of people waiting to go to Coronado Springs, the bus was packed because they were putting people from Coronado Springs, Pop Century, and the All Star Resorts on the same bus. I ended up way in the back of the bus, so no picture of the gate for me this time! Oh well, I was just excited to get to the room!

Here’s the part where I realized I failed you all with my trip report….I took zero pictures once I arrived at Coronado Springs. I was cold, excited, and more concerned with getting video for the vlog edition of my report and I didn’t take one still photo. 😦 Sorry!

As soon as I got off of the Magical Express bus, I got my bag (I only brought a carry on with all that I needed for the weekend) and I started for the entrance to El Centro. This is the main building at Coronado Springs resort where you check in, check out, where the gift shop and the dining options are all located…oh and where the convention center is located. I didn’t even make it inside before I realized that I was going to need someone to tell me how to get to the room I was sharing with my friends. They’d already let me know that we were in room 7614 in the Ranchos section…building 7B, but all of that meant nothing to me. And since I got there at about midnight, my friends were asleep and I wasn’t about to call one of them to ask how to get to the room.

There was a Cast Member standing outside ready to greet all of us that had just departed the Magical Express bus, so I asked her what was the best way to get to building 7B. It was pretty cold that night so I’d resigned myself to the fact that I had a short little hike to the room ahead of me, but I just needed to know which direction to go. Without hesitation, the cast member said that she’d go ask someone to drive me to my building so that I wouldn’t get lost! Woo hoo! I wasn’t expecting that, but I sure did appreciate it! Within about 5 minutes, I was led through the lobby and back outside where another cast member was waiting with one of the resort golf cart thing-a-ma-jigs to take me to my building!

Again, I only took video at this point and I chatted with the gentleman who was driving me to the room. He was so nice and even stopped to let a family who was wandering aimlessly know that he’d be back in a moment to drive them to their room as well! I felt kind of bad because the family had 3 younger children with them and they actually all would have fit on the cart with us right then, but the cast member told them to wait where they were and he’d be right back for them.

Anywho, I was so excited to finally make it to Coronado Springs and to get into the room! Everyone was already asleep but after a quick hello to Shari and Cynthia (because I woke them when I opened the door to the room) I got ready for bed. We had to get up early for the festivities we had planned for first thing in the morning! And no, it’s not the race yet… 🙂

See Ya Real Soon!