OMG We Went to Disney World!

I've been recovering from awesomeness (or Disney Magic), that's why this post is delayed.  Or it's what I'm telling myself.

We had an awesome time in Orlando with my family.  On Christmas Day, Dave and I flew into Charlotte, rented a car and headed to my sister's house to meet her family and my parents.  We had some food, packed up the cars and then headed out on the first leg of our trip.  We stopped in Georgia and spent the night.  We were a little punchy from the holiday, the travel and the rain we drove through.  The kids in particular were a bit crazy.

The next morning we geared back up and hit the road again.  The drive wasn't bad but our GPS decided that after 5 years functioning mostly in the Northeast it couldn't handle being that close to the equator and kept losing satellite signal. For like 10-30 minutes at a time.  Luckily we were following Nate and Amy and had printed directions so we never got lost (except for that one time that Amy told us to take the wrong exit but technically we weren't lost, just wrong).

Can we talk for a second about traffic in Orlando?  Nate, growing up in Florida, had always mentioned Florida drivers but I never really understood what that meant. OH MY GOD THEY"RE CRAZY!  The sheer magnitude of traffic was nuts, no matter what time of day (I do realize that we were there at the busiest time of the year) but the blatant disregard for other drivers and/or basic traffic laws was insane.  At one point we watched several cars--at different points on the highway--cross the grassy median to get on the highway in the opposite direction because they didn't want to drive all the way to the exit.  Dave even mentioned he was surprised no one tried to go through the guardrails to do it.  Then we rolled up on an accident where someone crashed into the guardrail.  We can only assume they were trying to go over it and go in the other direction.

Despite the crazy drivers, we got to our rental and it was amazing.  Seriously, if you ever travel to Orlando and want to stay off the Disney properties, visit Florida Sun Vacation Homes (thanks Felise and Nick for the recommendation!)  We had everything we needed, including 5 bedrooms (with en suite baths), a kitchen, private pool, game room, everything.  This made it easy for us to eat breakfast at the house each morning and pack snacks for the parks.

Our first day was at Epcot and it was awesome. Though it did rain at one point, I must admit my Eagle Scout came through for me.  A week or so before, Dave bought ponchos for us and packed them in our bags so we wouldn't have to run around to a gift shop in the parks if the clouds let loose.  So while we were drinking our way through the countries (me on my second margarita and Dave on his third beer) (at maybe 1 or 1:30 pm), it started to sprinkle and then come down a little heavier.  Dave suggested we stop and put on our ponchos.  So we huddled under a tree while one of us held the alcohol, the other put on a poncho.  By the time we were adequately covered it started to pour.  Like a serious storm.  Happy little campers with out ponchos and drinks, we started to make our way towards the UK which was where the rest of my family was hunkering down from the rain.  On our way I looked up and we were just about the only people a) not squeezed under some sort of roof and b) not running like mad to get to a roof and squeeze under it.  We made our way to the pub and peered in the window where we spied Nate. He was getting a beer at the bar and when he saw Dave he pointed to his beer, basically asking Dave if he needed one.  Dave pointed to his and we took a seat at the outdoor chairs since we were protected from getting too drenched.  The rain stopped after about 20 minutes or so and we gathered up the rest of our crew.

Yeah, Amy, JR & I all in the phone booth.  Sibling Love.

Donde esta Donald?

We ate at Via Napoli in Italy and it was phenomenal.  We'd gotten reservations for the Candlelight Processional so they treated us right and made sure we enjoyed ourselves and got out on time for the show without feeling rushed.

After the show, some people headed back to the house (the rain had brought with it some cold and though most of us had sweatshirts, we weren't really prepared for the drop in temperature).  The rest of us (Nate, JR, Dave, Elyse, Aidan and I) did a few rides, including the Test Track which was really cool.  They take you through a simulation of car safety tests and then spit you out on a track at about 65 miles per hour.  It was awesome, although I did lose my voice (don't worry, I found it...10 days later) from the screaming.  I love this picture because Elyse's face is more of disgust or "Ew, what's that smell?" than fear.

The next day we hit up Magic Kingdom.  It was crowded and crazy but totally awesome.

We spent a lot of time in Tomorrowland (hello, Space Mountain!) but also did the Jungle Book Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean (ZOMG I love Pirates!  And can we talk about how much Johnny Depp really does look like Jack Sparrow?  I mean, the ride came first, so they really did an awesome job finding someone to play Jack that looks so much like the original.)  But back to Jungle Book Cruise--our tour guide was hilarious--Trevor? Tristan?  Funny guy (plus we got the best seats since we got to board first).  Abi was a hoot--when Trevor/Tristan told her to duck so the pygmies wouldn't spear her, she seriously ducked!

We paused during the day to have dinner at Chef Mickey, which was great.  We celebrated my parents' anniversary (40 years this April), which included dancing from the characters and a cute plate of cupcakes.  The kids loved getting the character's autographs and it made for an easy way to get pictures (rather than standing in line for 20 minutes like I did for Pooh Bear and Tigger).

This was the only full costumed character Abi would even get near.  She was ok with Mulan and looking at all the characters, but the animals were a little big and intimidating.  Since Pluto was being goofy, she was too tickled to be afraid.

My parents had enough after two days of parks so they took a break on the third day while Amy, Nate, Dave, Aidan, Abi and I went to Hollywood Studios.  JR, Jen and Elyse went to Dade City Wild things where they got to play with a leopard cub.

Hollywood Studios was fun--you can do the whole park in a day (or less).  Because we got there early, we received special FastPasses for the stunt show, which was pretty cool.  We rode the Star Tours ride which was a lot of fun, especially because Aidan (and by proxy Abi) is into Star Wars pretty good as a result of the Clone Wars cartoon.  Aidan did Jedi training, we watched the Indian Jones stunt show, did the back lot tour (although the sound system was busted so while we rode the tour, we didn't really get any information), saw the Muppet 3-D movie and ended the night with a ride on the Rockin Roller Coaster. It was fantastic.  Aidan was fine while we were standing in line, but just when we could actually see the coaster (it's indoors) and watch it go from zero to 60 right next to us, he started to get increasingly terrified.  And if I'm being honest, so was I.  My heart was pounding and I was getting anxious because I don't love roller coasters, but I always go on them.  But this one was fantastic.  I actually think it could have been longer.  And when we came to a stop, the first thing I heard from Aidan behind me was, "That was AWESOME!  Let's do it again!" (And if it hadn't been an 80 minute wait in line, we probably would have.)

Aren't you a little old to be getting your picture taken with characters?

The last day, JR, Jen and Elyse hit up Sea World before flying out, while Amy, Nate and the kids went to Animal Kingdom, followed by Downtown Disney.
 

We stayed back with Mom and Dad and relaxed since we'd be driving all the way back to Charlotte the next day.  We had a chance to hang out, play cards and then the four of us caught up with my uncle Chuck and his wife Lori for dinner, which was nice.

The next day we got up early and hit the rode to get back to Charlotte for New Year's Eve.  Exhausted, no one stayed up to watch the ball drop.  Apparently there were fireworks in the neighborhood but I didn't hear them given my Disney-induced sleep coma.  In the morning, Dave and I headed out to the airport and flew home.

It was an amazing trip and I'm so glad we got to do it as a family.  I would love to visit Disney again (maybe in a less crowded time), but nothing would top this particular trip.