William's club volleyball team played in the AAU Junior Nationals Boys Volleyball tournament in Orlando July 1-4. Since William had freshman technology class the week they left, he couldn't fly out with the team, and he went on a later flight with us, but then stayed with his team at a rental house. We arrived late Thursday evening and after dropping him off with the house-parents at the the team house, John and I continued on to the new to us hotel, Gran Destino Tower at Disney's Coronado Springs. It's typically the convention center hotel, and that was just fine by us. The restaurant (Toledo's) and lounge (Daliah's) were amazing, and we also had a great view (albeit no balcony) of multiple parks. It was a fun time to be at Disney by ourselves and not feel guilty doing our own thing, since we knew William was having his own great time!
This olive appetizer was a must do each time we went upstairs, and this cauliflower entrée was the best meat-free dish I have had in recent history, and probably my favorite meal the entire week. So much flavor!
We enjoyed a full day of parks before the volleyball tournament started and then partial days depending on whether William was playing in the morning or evening wave.
On July 3rd, we were at Magic Kingdom for their holiday fireworks. A tip I had learned for New Year's Eve was that Magic Kingdom does identical holiday shows two nights (July 3/4 and December 30/31) while EPCOT only does the actual holiday (July 4 and December 31). NYE was by far more spectacular (and less oppressively humid and hot) but it was fun to be there to say we've crossed off the major holidays!
We also got our first ride on TRON this trip! Exhilarating (but short) ride after a boring queue!
On July 4th at EPCOT we also scored a reservation at Space 220, which was new to us. My ginger-orange cocktail was delicious. The food was pretty good, too. I ordered a stir fry that wasn't too heavy.
Fireworks were very neat. Also not as amazing as New Year's but a nice "topper" to the traditional evening show.
Our last day at the hotel before collecting William from the team house was this view. This is the standard view and was very impressive to me!
