The Vacation

Yes I know, I planned it differently, but this is what I got, so there. We all made it back ok, and we had a great time, here is how it played out.

The first day: my wife and I were talking… we wonder if the people going or coming from vacation feel like we do (we think this a lot since we live in a tourist town)
And then I thought, maybe they are glad to be off of vacation… because you really don’t relax much when you go on vacation.

Day Two: Man what a let down Epcot was to me. I thought Mexico would have the beloved sopaipilla but alas no. They didn’t even have a great beer selection in Germany. Basically, Epcot stinks, but I guess you have to go at least once.

What I can say is taking a boat ride from Fort Wilderness to the Magic Kingdom is awesome. The bus everywhere else is a bit of a drag. We went to the night parade and fireworks show… I don’t think I have it in me to go through that again. Honestly, you think you’re doing good by getting a spot early and such, but in reality no, that is not the case. Because you will be walked over and pushed and basically wish you never even came there in the first place. I won’t dwell on it, but it really does suck to be a person that arrives early or prepared, when others around you can just be otherwise.

Day Three: We checked out the Animal Kingdom and saw lots of animals. I like it because it is not so “Disney” as the other parks. Or maybe it just wasn’t as crowed as some of the other parks as it rained all morning. We finally ate at a place that I liked, not saying that it was very good, but it was palatable, and within Disney that is saying something.

Day Four: We went to the Magic Kingdom for the “extra magic hour” Which in one way is cool, because you can actually get to and ride some things; the bad part is there is all these other people that want the same thing. And it makes you get up early, which on vacation, is not all that good. We finished the evening off at Hollywood Studios. Which has this kind of night time show “Fantasmic” but it was so crazy, and so many people were there, an hour and a half before the show started, we opted out of it.

Day Five: We went back to Animal Kingdom and finish up the park, the 45 minute Nemo show and ‘Dinosaur’. And then we went back to the hotel took a dip in the pool, and went to Downtown Disney. Let me tell you, don’t do this. Don’t take the bus to Downtown Disney unless you like long, long bus rides. It took 30 minuets from the time we got on the bus (another 20 waiting for the bus to come), and the worst part is, it will only take 5 minutes if you take your own car. There is plenty of parking, so I say, skip it and just go in your car. (Add to that our 3-year-old convinced us not to take the stroller and once we got on the bus, conched out, and basically slept through dinner, in fact when we tried to wake her up for dessert, she cried and screamed so much we wound up leaving, with some good dinner I think, but otherwise empty handed.)

Day Six: We stayed at the hotel, but honestly we all felt like we were somehow missing out on something… that is the curse of this place. You really can’t “relax” because there is something new and exciting waiting for you. In the evening we went to the Crystal Palace to eat with Eeyore, Tigger, Piglet, and Pooh. Which was fun, I mean you need to have a reservation weeks in advanced but if you know you’re going, I would definitely do it. Afterward I took my 3-year-old on Tomorrowland Speedway and then on to a “loller caster”, The Barnstormer (A Goofy ride) roller coaster, and for that I am truly impressed. My 13-year-old would not ride a roller coaster so it is really saying something. After all of that fun, we waited in line for an hour to meet the princesses and though I don’t think it was worth it, my daughter would argue differently.

Day Seven: We went to Hollywood Studios to checkout some stuff we missed previously and then went to Downtown Disney to do some shopping (by car instead of bus) bought everything for everybody (which really wasn’t much) rest that night and headed for home in the morning.