Our travel day finally arrived for our trip.  The girls had school that day, so we had arranged to pick them up at 10:45 so we could get home in time for the taxi to pick us up at 11:30.  Our flight was scheduled for 1:45 pm, so with the taxi ride, we would have two hours at the airport to get through security, get some lunch, and arrive at the gate.  We picked up everyone and got back home in plenty of time for the taxi to arrive and take us to the airport.  We breezed through security thanks to TSA PreCheck. 

We grabbed some lunch and settled in waiting to board.  While waiting to board, I received a text message letting us know that our room at All Star Movies was ready.  We were staying in Building 8, Room 8741.  This is one of the Preferred Rooms at All Star Movies since it is close to the main building.  I had booked this category room (mainly because it was the only thing I could find at the time of booking). 

Boarding started and ended without incident and the plane backed away from the gate.  Then, we stopped.  The pilot came on and told us that we were on a ground stop because of traffic congestion in Charlotte.  I thought we had plenty of time since we had an hour and 15 minutes to make our connection, despite the flights being in separate terminals.  I was now concerned because we were on at least a 20 minute delay.  We eventually got permission to take off and we were on our way. 

 

Despite being delayed in arriving into Charlotte, we made our connection without issue.  Our arrival gate ended up being right next to our departure gate, so we didn’t have to traverse the airport in Charlotte.  We boarded that flight to Orlando and landed in Orlando with no further issues.

Our first stop in Orlando was to collect our luggage.  Since we had scheduled Magical Express, we could have sent our luggage straight to our room.  We decided not to do that though.  We elected to pickup our luggage and carry it to Magical Express ourselves so it would go on the bus with us. Our concern was that it would take a while for the luggage to show up and we really wanted to be able to get to bed early in order to make rope drop the next morning. 

Once we got our luggage, we headed downstairs to Magical Express on the B side of the airport.  We had to wait a few minutes before we were at the front of the line for check in. 

We arrived at the desk and checked in.  This consisted of the nice cast member scanning our Magic Band, and then directing us to the correct line, where we would wait for the next available motor coach to take us to our resort.  She did let us know that the bus might make a few stops before arriving at All Star Movies.

There wasn’t anyone in front of us in line, but there also wasn’t a bus waiting.  Our bus arrived in about 10 minutes.  We took the luggage to the driver, who had us set it next to the bus so he could load it later.  We  boarded the bus and took our seats.  The bus waited another 10 to 15 minutes for more passengers and then we took off. 

The bus stopped at Coronado Springs first, then at All Star Sports and All Star Music before arriving at All Star Movies, our home for the next 5 days.  We went through the lobby, but didn’t have to stop because we had done online check in.  We knew our Magic Bands would open the room, so we headed to the room.

We had stayed at All Star Movies once before, and also visited a few times when the girls were smaller.  They love the decorations for the buildings, including these oversized magic brooms from Fantasia (which was the section of the resort we were staying at).

The Sorcerer Mickey at the pool is fantastic as well.  We had plans to swim one of the nights we were staying at the resort, but it never ended up working out. 

Our room was on the backside of one of the buildings next to the pool, on the ground floor.  I was actually really happy with the location since there it wasn’t on the main path that people walk on and it didn’t face the pool.  Both of those items could have caused a lot of sound problems and we didn’t experience any issues.  The room was small, but very nicely decorated and clean.  It had two double beds, a small table with two chairs, and a dresser with a television on it.

The bathroom area had one section with a sink and another section containing the toilet and tub.  The sink area was separated from the main bedroom area by a curtain.  The tub area was separated by a door from the rest of the room.Both of the areas were really small, which sometimes caused congestion when getting ready in the morning.  

After dropping off our luggage (and taking pictures of the room), we headed to the food court for some dinner.  The food court at a number of different stations with various food options. 

We looked around at all the choices and each selected an entree and then headed to the register to pay.  We used Disney Gift cards to pay for our entrees. 

 We returned to the room to settle in for an early night.  Our plan for the next day was to head to Epcot for the Food and Wine Festival!

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