Yippee!!! I finally get to write my own trip report after reading all of your wonderful ones. So to get started, I'll recap on a few categories:
New Experiences:
ALL OF THE BOARDWALK!
Tom Sawyer Island
Tommorrowland Transit Authority
NEW Haunted Mansion
Beautiful Christmas decorations!
Beautiful Crystal-lit Cinderella Castle
Dole Whip Pineapple Float
Nighttime Pics that actually came out
Mexico Donald Character Greeting
NEW Spaceship Earth
UK Pavillion
France Pavillion
Experiences I didn't quite catch and so far have never seen:
CoP(I know I'll take a hit from this one)
Monster's Inc Laugh Floor
Stitch's Great Escape
Minnie's House
Hall of Presidents (under refurbishment)
Ellen's Energy Adventure
Circle of Life
Innoventions (I've got impatient kids)
Snow White's Scary Adventures
There's probably more that maybe I'll remember later. Point is, one of the great things about Disney is, that this is not my first trip, yet check out all the new things I saw! I noticed that some of my old favorites seemed better than ever now that my kids are experiencing them for the first time. And I know that next time we go, there will still be great things to experience for the first time.
OK...Enough already! On to the trip report!!
Day 1
So Saturday my DH wakes up and he's got that look in his eye...he NEEDS to escape for a long weekend. I'm praying in my head for my FAVORITE place on earth and he says it! "Hun, let's go to Disneyworld!" So we pack up ourselves and our 3 kids in about an hour and head to Orlando, a 6 hour drive. On the way, we book a hotel (off property) and buy our Fl Resident 3-Day tix.
We got there at 6pm and we started our mini-vacation by heading over to The Boardwalk, where our younger kids and I explored and my oldest and my DH went over to the ESPN club for some FOOTBALL!!
Now I've never been to the Boardwalk, or even explored the resorts much, and this one is breathtaking! The detail is amazing and I absolutely love the ambiance of the seaside bustle.
My husband and son had to wait in a pretty long line, but they got in eventually and loved it!
My younger kids, ages 5 and 3 basically walked around and I just let them go and do whatever they wanted, no major agenda. We went to Seashore Sweets and I let them fill a little candy bag about half full and I picked up a yummy white-chocolate-covered-mickey-mouse-shaped pretzel.
Then when we came out, we bumped into a street magician, and no one had met him yet. My boys got like 2 uninterrupted minutes by themselves with him as he teased them by pulling coins out of their ears and making their shoes and noses magically squeak. They particularly loved how he would "throw" a ball up into the air so high it never came down.
After that, the kids and I strolled down to the boatdock and took a tour on the Friendship 1. I got to see all of The Boardwalk and the Dolphin and Swan resorts, as well as the entrance of DHS. I've never seen this view before. It was very relaxing. Sorry some of the pics are a little unclear, but they are certainly better this trip than last! :shrug:
After we took our little water tour, the boys were getting a little antsy and I saw some kids playing in the grass in a courtyard there so I let them do cartwheels and play for a while. While we were there, a banjo player came and played a few ditties for us while the kids danced. It was so cute!
Then we noticed a juggler a few feet away so we went to watch him. The kids got a huge kick out of the show! At one point, the man dropped a pin and my 3-year-old went and retreived it, which prompted a whole lot of dropping and the crowd was rolling with laughter as my little pin-ging child ran around the juggler.
Right after we walked away from the juggler, my 3-year-old started screaming bloody murder because he heard the booms from Illuminations across the way. This prompted us to hide in the nearest gift shop and decide it was time to go. Aside from this ending, I had to admit that starting our mini-vacation this way-slow paced-was the best thing to do ever!
New Experiences:
ALL OF THE BOARDWALK!
Tom Sawyer Island
Tommorrowland Transit Authority
NEW Haunted Mansion
Beautiful Christmas decorations!
Beautiful Crystal-lit Cinderella Castle
Dole Whip Pineapple Float
Nighttime Pics that actually came out
Mexico Donald Character Greeting
NEW Spaceship Earth
UK Pavillion
France Pavillion
Experiences I didn't quite catch and so far have never seen:
CoP(I know I'll take a hit from this one)
Monster's Inc Laugh Floor
Stitch's Great Escape
Minnie's House
Hall of Presidents (under refurbishment)
Ellen's Energy Adventure
Circle of Life
Innoventions (I've got impatient kids)
Snow White's Scary Adventures
There's probably more that maybe I'll remember later. Point is, one of the great things about Disney is, that this is not my first trip, yet check out all the new things I saw! I noticed that some of my old favorites seemed better than ever now that my kids are experiencing them for the first time. And I know that next time we go, there will still be great things to experience for the first time.
OK...Enough already! On to the trip report!!
Day 1
So Saturday my DH wakes up and he's got that look in his eye...he NEEDS to escape for a long weekend. I'm praying in my head for my FAVORITE place on earth and he says it! "Hun, let's go to Disneyworld!" So we pack up ourselves and our 3 kids in about an hour and head to Orlando, a 6 hour drive. On the way, we book a hotel (off property) and buy our Fl Resident 3-Day tix.
We got there at 6pm and we started our mini-vacation by heading over to The Boardwalk, where our younger kids and I explored and my oldest and my DH went over to the ESPN club for some FOOTBALL!!
Now I've never been to the Boardwalk, or even explored the resorts much, and this one is breathtaking! The detail is amazing and I absolutely love the ambiance of the seaside bustle.
My husband and son had to wait in a pretty long line, but they got in eventually and loved it!
My younger kids, ages 5 and 3 basically walked around and I just let them go and do whatever they wanted, no major agenda. We went to Seashore Sweets and I let them fill a little candy bag about half full and I picked up a yummy white-chocolate-covered-mickey-mouse-shaped pretzel.
Then when we came out, we bumped into a street magician, and no one had met him yet. My boys got like 2 uninterrupted minutes by themselves with him as he teased them by pulling coins out of their ears and making their shoes and noses magically squeak. They particularly loved how he would "throw" a ball up into the air so high it never came down.
After that, the kids and I strolled down to the boatdock and took a tour on the Friendship 1. I got to see all of The Boardwalk and the Dolphin and Swan resorts, as well as the entrance of DHS. I've never seen this view before. It was very relaxing. Sorry some of the pics are a little unclear, but they are certainly better this trip than last! :shrug:
After we took our little water tour, the boys were getting a little antsy and I saw some kids playing in the grass in a courtyard there so I let them do cartwheels and play for a while. While we were there, a banjo player came and played a few ditties for us while the kids danced. It was so cute!
Then we noticed a juggler a few feet away so we went to watch him. The kids got a huge kick out of the show! At one point, the man dropped a pin and my 3-year-old went and retreived it, which prompted a whole lot of dropping and the crowd was rolling with laughter as my little pin-ging child ran around the juggler.
Right after we walked away from the juggler, my 3-year-old started screaming bloody murder because he heard the booms from Illuminations across the way. This prompted us to hide in the nearest gift shop and decide it was time to go. Aside from this ending, I had to admit that starting our mini-vacation this way-slow paced-was the best thing to do ever!
