Disney Vacation 2013

 At the airport.  Very excited!  They both were surprised with the trip through a scavenger hunt filled with clues and at the end had the surprise that we were going to Disney World!!  Ella is probably tired at this point.  ;)

 My first view of Coronado Springs.  It was beautiful and very quiet at this resort.

 We have been wanting to go back to Disney when Ella was around 5.  Her 5th birthday is mid-January.  I really didn't want to take them out of school the whole week unless we needed b/c Emily is in the 3rd grade now.  We talked about Christmas break to go, maybe around New Year's but everyone told me the crowds were awful at that time of the year.  We talked about her actual birthday week, but it's difficult for me to take a week off when we just had 2 week Winter Break and I go down to only working minimally.  Another option was Spring Break.  My dad got an email about free dining and Thanksgiving week was covered if we checked in the resort Friday or Saturday before.  Free dining?  It saved us about 1000 dollars, so I think so!
I was going to have them miss Friday of school, but it turns out our flight didn't leave until 6:30pm so we didn't need to miss school.  I left around 1pm so I can get all the bags situated and the scavenger hunt.  I've heard so many great stories of kids being surprised.  Both girls knew we would probably go in the next year, but they didn't know the exact date and doing earlier than her birthday worked out great!  I really can't believe they didn't know after multiple conversations between my parents and I about reservations, etc.  We booked the trip in April, so I had plenty of time to book all reservations this time and look at too many cute Disney outfits. :)  We loved Pop Century last time, but we kind of wanted to see a different resort this time.  I wanted moderate resorts so we'd have table dining in the plan.  Last time, we had to upgrade to include the table meals.  We were initially debating on Port Orleans or Caribbean Beach, but Caribbean Beach wast the pick at the initial booking.  A few months later, we noticed Caribbean Beach had double beds and we really wanted queen beds to be comfortable so we switched to Coronado Springs resort.  My friend had stayed there before and loved it!  It's more like a deluxe resort-type, so I felt good with the decision.  I still would love to see Port Orleans, maybe next time.  ;O) Since our flight left later in the evening (de-icing the plane multiple times and making me nervous), we didn't arrive in Sanford/Orlando airport until 10pm.  After getting the rental van and stopping for water/snacks, we didn't arrive at the resort until around midnight. Not fun!  We had an issue that we weren't in adjoining rooms with my parents (which we had booked over 6 months in advance), but the first night we were in the Ranchos area the furthest from everything.  :(  My dad got up early the next day and got everything straightened out, so the first morning was spent hurriedly repacking everything to change rooms.  We ended up in adjoining room with my parents in the Casitas building, which we loved and close to a bus stop/ pretty close to dining.