Hello Again

I know you didn't miss me...probably didn't even know I was gone...

I missed you though. 

I missed having Internet and being connected to all of this.  I did enjoy writing the posts I had scheduled though.

Where was I you ask?

Disney World of course!

My dh and I had promised our kids that if we saved (for 5 years) and then sold our house (which just happened a couple months ago) then we could take them there.  It was perfect timing as our baby turns 6 in a week and a half so he is old enough to mostly remember it.

So, if this is all you wanted to know, quit reading because here comes the rest!  :)  I only have 13 photos (out of the MANY I took) and will not give you a detailed description...but this will be long.  Just sayin'!

One of the things I enjoyed was that there were Mickey images everywhere.  On the food....

Hidden in places you wouldn't really expect...

Even on the floor in the bathroom...

It was such fun to spot one and then tell everyone else.  The boys really got into it looking at everything more carefully so they could be the ones to spot them.  :) 

Our first day there we spent just walking around Downtown Disney.  We didn't want to use our park hopper (more on that later) until the next day.  We wanted to eat later, and were discussing it when we walked into a shop. It was called "The Rainforest Cafe".  We had never heard of it, but the gift shop was fun.  While we were in there, there was a "thunderstorm" and the animals started to move and make noise.  We booked a table right then!  :)

We sat by the Elephants...

He wasn't really scared.  I told him to act it. 

Every fifteen min, the elephants would move around and bellow.  Every hour there was a thunderstorm.  It was such a cool place.

The rest of the stuff takes place over the next 9 days, and I am not going into all the detail we did all day, just highlight some stuff.  Hope that is Ok.

We also went to Lego Land.  The boys were thrilled about seeing all the things that they have made with Lego.  Now, because I live in a houseful of boys, I didn't take a photo of the princess themed things, just the "boy" stuff!  This sea monster was made of over a million Lego pieces and took over 3 months to build.

It was pretty amazing to see the creations. 

Our hotel (and lots of the other hotels we saw) had surrey's for rent.  I saw on a friend's blog (private blog so sorry, I can't link) that her family had been on one and have wanted to do one ever since.  Of course dh is ALWAYS excited to do things like that, so he was all on board with that!

It even had a nice little basket on front that my baby fit into.  He said he worked the hardest at pedaling!  :)

In a few of the parks there were some pretty cool places to visit.  We went on a "safari" seeing lots of animals up close and personal.

We went to an aquarium, finding Nemo in the process and then looking at the animals closer on our own.

Being the kind of girl I am, I was most excited about the many topiary's and planting beds they had around.

Some of them were more elaborate then others, and some were just a surprise around the corner.  It was such fun seeing the creativity.

There were fireworks every night in one of the parks (three of them do it each night).

So we enjoyed that as well.  It gets dark earlier there in Florida than we do here so it was fun to be watching in the full dark by 9pm.

There were these little lizards running around everywhere, so we made new friends.  :)

We ate some amazing food...

...and yes Mom, I even ate my parsley!  :)

Florida is much more humid than I am used to.  I am used to the heat, but the humidity...not so much.  My poor feet didn't like me by about day two.  By the end they hated me!  :)  I had a reaction to the sun...not a good one.  (which was baffling as I have been in hotter climates, like Mexico, but never had the same reaction...so weird)   But even after that it was still wonderful and totally worth it.

Just for my records, and maybe if you are doing it as well, I have a few things that I wrote down as "tips" if you will.

• Transportation around the parks and to the hotels is wonderful.  You don't have to pay, it is all included in your hotel/parks fee.  We did boats, buses, and monorail.  What a fun choice to have.  When you are hot and sticky, boats are a nice change, the monorail had A/C so if we really just wanted to sit in a cool place...that is where we headed!  :)
• Park hopper tickets were awesome.  If we started in one park and wanted to head to another, we could.  We would do rides in one and eat in another sometimes.  Or once we finished a park and hopped over to another.  It was great to have the option.
• If we did it again, we would come earlier.  It was not crazy crowded, but still more people than I would have liked.  I am so thankful we did go when we did and not later though, the lines would have been too much!
• We made reservations on the computer for dinner before we left.  It was nice on some nights, but we didn't use all of them and shuffled things around alot.  It was not necessary to make at the time we went either.  Only lunchtime was busy enough to warrant a reservation, and we weren't even doing a big sit down meal for that.
• Dining plans really do save you money if you want a sit down meal every day.  If you are doing just quick service (like a buffet type of fast food cross) for all the meals it would not be cheaper.  Food is really pricey there.  ($3.50 for a bottle of water...)
• We didn't factor in the totally inflated price of food for our tips and didn't realize that the minimum tip we would be expected to pay was $20!  It was a price we didn't expect with an all inclusive trip.  (the meals averaged around $150 per for our family...something we usually spend about $60 per for when we eat out regularly)
• Passes just to get in the park were $134/adult with $54 to add on the park hopper option.  That is just if you go for one day.  When you buy a package the price goes WAY down to $70/adult/day WITH a park hopper added on.  I was thinking it was a totally dumb price until I went into the park the first day and saw all the stuff that is included.  Now, I think it is WELL worth the price.  So much can be done in each park.
• If you get the chance, go to the shows!  The shows are amazingly done and well worth the time spent in line.  For example, we waited in line for an hour to see "The Festival of the Lion King" and it was beautiful.  The acrobatics and the costumes and the dancing and singing...all so amazing!  The 3D shows in each park are also wonderful.  I have been to 3D in the theater and really just expected that...but the 3D they have there...OH MY GOODNESS!  It is amazing.  (seems like that is my word today, sorry)  Well worth it and so wonderful.  They are interactive and totally real.  You feel as if you could actually reach out and touch the fun that comes out of the screen.  The interactive shows like the Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor are also fun to go to.  My K got "spotlighted" and was "Randall" in one of the jokes.  Even without him being in the show, it was stinking hilarious!
• Parks need one and a half to two days to do.  If you are just going for a short jaunt, don't expect to get all the stuff done.  We had short lines, (often only about half an hour) but the parks are full of fun stuff to do and places to explore so it takes all day to hit it all.  (and then some)
• We did our trip through an agent (AMA) and it was such a great experience.  We got a wonderful deal and it was worth it to have the stress gone planning for something I didn't really know alot about.  She was wonderful to work with.  If you are going as a whole package thing, I would heartily say to go with an agent, they know what they are doing.  (or maybe I lucked out...)

We had such fun and it is a trip that we will remember forever.  Hope it wasn't too boring for you to read about.  :)

I will be back on track soon...and hope to keep the blog up as I settle (and finish laundry).

Cheers