Vacation Trip Report #1

We are back! Let me tell ya, I don't think we expected to have nearly as much fun as we did. All that magic that Disney boasts - it's the real deal. Oh yeah, I said "Disney!" Didn't I mention that's where we went? Well, we did! We packed up the kids, and went to visit Mickey Mouse.

Okay, so the report. I will try to break it into manageable chunks, but I might get caught up in the memories so you will have to forgive me.

With my mom in tow, we headed out to Disney on July 1st. It was about a 12 hour drive, so we knew we would have to stop along the way to rest for the night. For the most part, the drive went well. The kids really did a great job of minding their P's and Q's. Once we past Savannah, we started to scope out a place to stay. No, we didn't plan ahead on were to stay, okay! That was one part of my planning (for three months!) that slipped through the cracks. But, it all worked out because we found a lovely Comfort Inn right across the FLA border. If we could get our butts in gear the next day, it would only be about 3 hours to Disney. Yay!

We slept, we ate, we drove - Disney World was in sight. Oh yeah, FLA does a great job getting you there, lots of signs saying "you're almost there!"

Our destination is Coronado Springs Resort. We find it no problem (again, great signage) and, it turns out that our rooms are ready right then and there. At 9:30am! Yippee! No leaving our bags and coming back after a stint in the park - just waltz right in, thank you very much! Another "yay!" for the books.

The resort is LOVELY. Very "Hispanic Paradise." Our rooms, also lovely. Nice theming. So, we dump our stuff and head to the bus stop and Disney Hollywood Studios. By the way, our bus stop is a hop, skip and a jump from our room. Off we go!

We get to Hollywood Studios and immediately purchase a stroller. Double stroller, multi day rental - poof! $80 has just gone bye bye. It was TOTALLY worth it! My son and my nine year old daughter would not have survived without it.






Hollywood Studios was a blur. It was our first day, and even though I had planned it all out, it was still kinda chaotic. I just didn't know where anything was, even with the map in hand. The layout of the place seemed really confusing. Anyway, it was still WAY fun. We didn't have time to do all the things we wanted to - Playhouse Disney, Ariel, Toy Story Mania, Rock N Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror BUT we did get to see the Indy show, go on the Great Movie Ride, see Fantasmic, play on the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground and, the best of all, watch Olivia fight the Dark Side of the Force as she trained to be a padawon (Rick will kill me when he sees I don't know how to spell that!!). She was awesome and she even got to use the Force against some storm troopers! So cool!






At about 3pm or so, Rick and Olivia headed to Typhoon Lagoon and Mom, Aidan and I went back to the hotel. We were wiped out! It was nice to just relax, put Aidan down for a nap and reflect on the day so far. I am sitting there reflecting, when I get a phone call. It's Rick, they were there for 15 minutes when the sky opened up and starting pouring on them! Ugh! But, they got a rain check for another day. Yay!







We finished up the day with some good food at the hotel, and a trip back to Hollywood Studios for "Fantasmic." It was a very cool show with lots of lighting and water effects.

So, that was our first day really. LOTS of fun and so much packed in. I definitely had my mind fixed on how to slow it down for the rest of the trip. See the next trip report for more . . .