Our Vacation, Day three 1/2/09

We decided to go to The Animal Kingdom on Friday. I am so glad that we did. This park was incredible. I have to say that this was my favorite of the four parks. So many cool things to see. It has animals, rides, shows and parades. The park is centered around the tree of life. The tree is amazing. The entire trunk has animals carved out of it. It is HUGE!

From the tree we headed over to Dinoland. A super cute dinosaur themed area of the park. It has rides, carnival games, and a park for the kids. Tyler enjoyed the dinosaur park and the rides there.

Next we rode the BEST ride ever. Expedition Everest!!! YEAH BABY!! This was fun, fun, fun. Twists and turns. Up the mountain and back down. Backwards. Super fast, Super fun a must do. The photos below are from the ride.

Below are some random photos from the park.

We walked around and looked at the different animals. It was a nice way to take a break after being all shook up from the mountain several times. Next we headed to the Africa section of the park. I honestly felt as though I had arrived in Africa. We loved the area. It looked so authentic. This area had the safari ride. We loaded up into a jeep and off we went. The jeep is not on a track. It drives down a path through the animal reserve. The animals wonder around, even in front on the jeep. It was amazing. Not like seeing them at the zoo. We did this 4 x's over the 2 days we spent there and it was truly different each time. Because the animals are roaming around you never know what animals you will see on your safari. Check out the pictures. I am going to put half of them in this post and half in another.

There was a cool street band at the park. The music was nice. We love steel drums. They pulled some kids up to help out with the music. Tyler was picked. He didn't want to go at first. Once he was up there he had a blast!

Our Vacation, Day two 1/1/09

Got back to the room New Years Eve and unpacked. I just could not go to sleep with everything in bags. It was close to 4am by the time we got to bed. We slept in some on our second day. We got up around 11ish. We ate got ready and headed off for day 2's adventure. We went to Epcot. I have to say that I didn't think it was all that great. We did go back a few days later and my opinion did change a little. We checked out the park and rode a couple rides that day and we went to the World showcase that night. (Hey look, a viking.)

There were several countries represented but there was not a lot to them. They were small. Each country had a food place, a gift shop and some had a small (pointless) ride or show. China had live performers. They had the best show in the World Showcase. Tyler did however like Mexico. He tried on all the hats and wanted us to take his picture in each one. This park served alcohol. I don't think it should be served there. People tend to drink, get loud and forget that there are kids around. language!!! There are not many rides in this park.

Who's' the dummy??

We rode the Test Track ride. It was OK. I have been on better rides in my life though. I think Tyler's favorite part was at the end. When you exited you went through a new car showroom. He sat in all the cars and played around for ever. Now we know that all we need to do to entertain him is take him to a new car lot.

We went to innoventions west. Boring. It was totally for tiny little kids. Not for us. We went to the Ellen show. It was an energy adventure. OK. Didn't need to see it 2x's. Once was plenty. When we left the park we were not overly excited. We kinda thought of this park as a place that was built to help spread the crowds out more. The more parks you have the more people are spread out. Crowd control. We left around 11pm we were there about 8 hours.

Adios!!!

Our vacation, day one 12/31/08

I was trying to figure out the easiest way for me to do this. We were gone for so long and I have so much to say and so many pictures to post. So I have decided to make a new post for each day we were gone.
The night before our trip I didn't sleep at all. I tried and tried but all the check lists that I had made kept going through my head keeping me up. I finally got out of bed around 2am, ate a slice of pizza and watched some HGTV until 4:15am. Everyone got up and out the door just as planned. We drove to my mothers house and Larry took us to the airport. This saved us from paying a shuttle or parking fees.

We did everything online the day before so all we had to do is check in our bags. We waited at the airport for 1 1/2 hours before we boarded the plane. The flight was quick. Around 4 hours. We arrived around 2pm Florida time. When we got to the airport we went straight to the Disney shuttle check in station to let them know we had arrived. They directed us to the Disney shuttle that was going to take us to our hotel. When you stay at a Disney resort all transportation to and from the airport is included as well as transportation to the parks. Because of this we didn't have to rent a car or worry about arranging transportation. Below is a picture of Tyler on the bus.So excited to be on his way....Because we were staying at a Disney resort we didn't have to worry about our luggage. It was picked up from the airport by Disney and sent to our hotel for us. That was AWESOME. The first hotel we stayed at was called the Disney All Star Sport Resort. The towel Mickey was placed on the bed so it was the first thing you saw when you walked in the door of your room. So cute I had to take a photo. It was a Disney hotel located in the Disney bubble. Because we were traveling during the New Years holiday all the hotels were booked or so over priced. I couldn't make myself pay the 300-$600 a night some of the other Disney resorts were charging. . The Disney Sport Resort was around $125 a night. We stayed there for 4 nights then went to another resort. The DSR (Disney Sport Resort) was nice for the price. It was pretty clean and the rooms were decorated nicely. They had a food court that was priced pretty reasonable. The pool was heated to 80 degrees so people were swimming at midnight because the weather was so good.

We arrived at the hotel around 3pm and checked in. At check in we were told that the Magic Kingdom was filled to capacity so it was closed. Crap, there went our New Years Eve plans. We decided to go to the room and take a nap. We were all pretty tired from getting up so early and I was exhausted from not sleeping the night before. We slept for a couple hours then we were on the move. We went to Disney's Hollywood Studios to spend New Years Eve. It was fun! There was a band playing and people were dancing and celebrating all over the park. Great fireworks!! But again Disney fireworks always rock. The park was open until 3am and we stayed until 2am.

Home Sweet Home

We got home last night around 9pm. We had a wonderful time. I have lots of pictures to post and loads to blog about. Everyone went to work and school today without any trouble. I think we are still on Florida time. I hope to get more posted about the trip over the next several days. So check back.

It's good to be home!!!!

Happy New Year to all!!!

Almost time to go to Florida

It's 10:55 and I am off to bed. I have to get up @ 4am to make sure that we get to the airport on time for our trip to the Magic Kingdom. I hope everyone has a Happy New Year! Be safe.