One of My Favorite Places

At the beginning of August I took a week and went to Disney World. Since I grew up going to Disneyland, just seeing the castle makes me happy. I've never realized how much I love that place. Yes, it's expensive and yes it typically doesn't change much. But the smells, the sounds, the way the rides hurt your neck and back as you get older are things I absolutely love.

We arrived on a Sunday, hung out in the hotel and swam in the pool Sunday Night. We stayed at the Wilderness Lodge on the Disney property. Having jammed the Disney experience into one single day my entire life, this was a new experience. I had a week. There were 4 parks that were on the plans and the Magic Kingdom was going to be hit twice.

Day One:
We woke up ready to go. We boarded the boat that conveniently took us from our resort to the Magic Kingdom entrance and headed out for the 8a opening. I NEVER knew there was a little show at the entrance before the park opened! All those years. We rushed to Space Mountain and got our first Fast Pass. We did so much on Day 1. Around 4 we went back to the hotel to regroup and calm our sensory organs. We headed back out around 7 for the parade and fireworks.

Day Two:
We went to MGM on Day 2. MGM never used to be fun. The best ride they had was the backlot tour. Then they got the Tower of Terror and put themselves on the map. I LOVE the Tower of Terror. The kids were nervous. In line G wrapped her arms around me and I could feel her little heart beating against my leg. She LOVED it. We did that 3 more times. We went to ride the Star Wars Tour because M can't get enough Star Wars. He was so excited. I had to opt out because of my mother's wonderful gene pass of motion sickness. They were walking out of the ride with these passes around their neck. Everyone had one. This is the "Year of a Million Dollar Giveaways" or something like that. They had given away a Dream Fast Pass. It had six fast passes on it. You could use them all day long at any time. They give these passes to 40 people a day at each park. It was fantastic. We did everything. The kids did the Rock 'n Rollercoaster. It goes 0-60 in 3 seconds or something ridiculous like that. There was an extreme stunt show too. Motorcycles, fast cars, jet skis flying all over the place. It was my favorite thing at MGM, besides the Tower of Terror. We were seated for the Fantasmic show that night and the rain started. We ran to our bus stop, drenched and cold and came home. It was a full, fun, wonderful day.

Day Three:
I think we went to Typhoon Lagoon (edit...oops, forgot the 'n' the first time around) on Day 3. It was crowded. That's really all there is to say about that. There were so many people there. We were able to do their little swim with the sharks pool. It was 68 degree water and about 20 feet of swimming. That was it. Kinda cool, unless you've been able to snorkel elsewhere in this world. Then it was puny and kind of lame. They have the largest wave, wave pool in the country (I think). There was a thunderous boom and then this wave came. It wasn't so much a wave but a wall of water. It had to have been a 10 foot wave. We weren't in the right place for this wave. If you didn't know, you can't outrun water. It swallowed all of us up and spit us out near the concrete shore. Needless to say, we scooted back and learned our lesson. G lost her goggles on the first wave. Miraculously they floated up and hit my foot a little bit later. We waited for one slide, M got a belly ache and we headed home. The kids were done. We went to the hotel and rented little mini Sea Ray boats. We coasted about the lake around the Magic Kingdom and had a great time.

Day Four:
Animal Kingdom had lots of hype when it opened. It was very cool. We got there early for the Disney Magic Hours. If you were staying on Disney property some parks had extra hours. Either an hour early or a couple hours late. So we got there at 8a instead of 9a when they let the commoners in. We headed for the talked about safari. We saw elephants, hippos, giraffes, monkeys, antelope and more. Then we saw a Lion walking around. It was early. I think it was the hour that it was awake for the day. Which was pretty cool. It was very similar to the Jungle Cruise, but with real animals and in the Savannah, not the river. There is also a new ride called Everest. It was huge. I didn't do it because i'm a pansy and thought there would be loops. I can't do 360s on roller coasters. The neck and back gets all out of whack. T and the Kids loved it though.

The last day we were there was at Magic Kindgom again. We had a lunch reservation with Cinderella at her castle with her princess friends. If I were younger it would've been my worst nightmare. People in costume freaks me out; always has. We met Cinderella, Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Mary Poppins, Snow White and Belle. It was also the best food i've eated at Disneyland or the Magic Kingdom. It was a grilled Salmon with some sort of rice. Tasty stuff. Worth having to small talk with the princesses.

I was sad to leave. It was such a great time. There is so much more but I can't remember it all to write it down. Hopefully in time little snippets of the trip will pop into my head for more posts.

At the airport, ready to go! M didn't want to take the picture...can you tell?

This is the Wilderness Lodge. It is as huge as it looks.

The MGM hat.

My Favorite ride.

The parade at Magic Kingdom. Pays to have someone taller than the crowd with you!

Going to the airport...no one wanted to leave.