Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Missing Disney!

I have been trying to find the time for several months now to blog about one of the BEST vacations we have taken together as a family. I seem to have finally found the time to post all pictures and gather my thoughts. I warn you, it might be the longest post in history!

In late September of this past year, our family scheduled a week long trip to Disney World in Orlando, Florida. We had 7 nights and 8 days of absolute continuous fun, great weather, and good health! (until the last night), "sorry honey, you caught the cold crud and was unable to attend Horror Nights at Universal with us!"

The day we departed from Greensboro. We were so thankful we were able to get decently priced airline tickets!

Landing in Atlanta, Georgia to change plans. Pouring down rain and storming. Was praying the weather in Florida would look better.

Beautiful, sunny Florida!

After arriving at the airport, we were taken by courtesy bus to our destination at Disney's Pop Century Resort.

We decided to lounge around the resort for the remainder of the day and get a good night sleep for our big day tomorrow. Our first stop would be breakfast at Chef Mickeys and a visit to Magic Kingdom!

Chef Mickeys was great! I highly recommend it! All the Disney characters such as Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto, and others come and visit your table. We were able to take pictures and because we were celebrating my birthday, Donald brought me a birthday cupcake and danced with me!

Dancing with Donald!

My birthday Celebration Cupcake. I would receive many more of these during the week we were at Disney! They love to celebrate!!

Taking our picture with Mickey!

Our picture with Donald!

Our time with Donald was extra special. If anyone knows my husband well, they know that my husband does a fantastic impression of Donald Duck and sounds just like him! When Rachael was smaller, she would laugh until she got the hiccups because her dad would talk to her in Donald Duck language! I believe the Sizemore children and Stephen Pollard have seen the Donald Duck in action before and loved him!

Taking our picture with Minnie!

I would love to post all the pictures we took but there we so many of them. We do have them on our face book page so feel free to visit and view them!
We enjoyed all aspects of Magic Kingdom and rode every ride even the smaller ones for children. After all, when you visit Disney, you must become a child at heart to thoroughly enjoy everything it offers!

One of my favorite rides at Magic Kingdom!

Kissing my prince in front of our castle!

The O'dell family was at Disney World the same week as us so we were able to enjoy time together with them as well and make some special memories. Here we are riding Splash Mountain with the O'dells. Frnt R: Tyler and Rachael. 2nd Row: Jimmy and Taylor and Mark and 3rd row: Angie and Stephanie.
Mr. Jimmy is holding a sword that lights up and was the comedian for our ride! Great Memories!!!

Our next visit was to Disney's MGM studios where we started the day off with a showing of Beauty and the Beast.

There were rides such as Tower of Terror, Aerosmith's Rockin Roller coaster, and much more. One new attraction was the taping of Disney's own American Idol Show. This was great fun and we enjoyed watching each of the contestants.

Taking a scenic ride together with the O'dells.

Getting ready to ride the crazy, fast, Aerosmith Rockin Roller coaster!

While at Disney MGM, we ate at the 50's Prime Time Cafe. I also recommend this place to everyone. We had a blast and the staff is hilarious. I will tell you they are strict about table manners and will correct you for bad ones!

Our host, Michael. He was such a nerd and a cut-up! We miss Michael!

We are heading over to the Caribbean Resort to have dinner at 1900 Park Fare. This is also character dining with Cinderella and her evil step-mother and step-sisters. We rode a boat from Magic Kingdom and the view was gorgeous!

Caribbean Resort. I would love to stay here but we would need to budget for this one and save some more money! This place is absolutely one of the pretties resorts on Disney.
Arriving for dinner!

There are always plenty of people waiting to take your picture! One of my favorites of me and my "baby"

Jimmy, Cinderella, Rachael and me!

The evil step-mother who was a little "too flirtatious" with my husband!

One of our next stops was to Animal Kingdom. We enjoyed looking at all the different animals and also riding all the different rides they offer. We rode Mount Everest and I have to say, it scared me more than any ride I rode for the week. It definitely gets your heart racing!

The top of Everest!

Our boat ride at Animal Kingdom!

One of our favorite highlights for the day was the Jungle Parade at Animal Kingdom. You must take time to see it. Get there early and get a front row spot! It was a great parade with lots of participation and fun!

At the end of the parade, one of the floats broke down in front of Mickey who was at the end so we were able to enjoy Mickey dancing for over 45 minutes. We were laughing because the more he danced, the more he got into his dancing and was showing off some pretty good dance moves!

There are so many wonderful memories that were made and I will treasure each and everyone of them to the character dining, rides, shows, and time together with friends!

There are so many more things I could say and pictures I could post of our time at Disney but I don't want to spoil it for the rest of you. If you are blessed enough to visit and I pray you will be, I recommend Disney to everyone! Just remember, when you step off the plane, or arrive at your destination by car, put your Mickey ears on, leave the world behind, and just RELAX and ENJOY!!