Back from the World...

We just returned from a week-long vacation to Walt Disney World, and it's back to reality today. But the good news (I think) is that I may have some material for a few blog entries coming up over the next week or two. Today's entry, however, is just a quick recap of the trip, hitting the high points, so to speak.

We were in Florida for seven days, Saturday to Saturday. We spent five of those days at Disney parks, and two at Universal's Islands of Adventure. We had five days of perfect weather, and two days when we had to deal with a bit of mid-day rain and slightly cooler conditions. Very nice weather overall.

We had planned on spending one day at Islands of Adventure, and one day at Universal Studios park, but it didn't work out that way. Our first day was spent waiting in lines and getting drenched. It wasn't supposed to rain that day (Monday); I believe they were giving it a 10% chance. But rain it did, and we were caught unprepared.

Our first line was the line to get into Mythos. We had booked what we thought was a reservation for lunch, but we learned that they really don't take "reservations" per se, just priority seating. So our 12:30 time was just a what? An estimate? We did finally get seated right around 1:30 for lunch, blowing over an hour just doing nothing (because there isn't much to do in the Lost Continent, and the girl at the counter said that if we missed it when we were called, we could just tell her when we got back and we'd be moved back to the top of the list) and then another hour eating. Then there was a line to get a ticket to stand in line to wait to get into Hogsmead. Then a wait in that line, then finally a nice long wait in the line to get on Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. Then a wait to get into Ollivander's, Makers of Fine Wands. I'd guess this one was close to two hours. (I know. You're saying, "Sucker!" That's what I felt like.) You see a quick show where one kid (not either of mine) was chosen to have a wand selected by the proprietor and to work some spells on various objects in the store. Then you buy a wand, whether you intended to or not, because you stood in line for TWO HOURS!!!

I said high points, didn't I? The point was that we didn't get much done that first day because of the rain, which kept us huddled under an umbrella used by the line attendant for the Flight of the Hippogriff ride, and because of all the lines. But the butterbeer made it all worth it!

So we spent our second day at the same park, and hit more rides, including the Forbidden Journey ride again.

The rest of the week was spent on Disney property, one day for each park, with two (the short Saturday of our arrival and the Friday right before we left) at Epcot. We had some really good meals at Chefs De France, Le Cellier, the California Grill, the Brown Derby, the Yak and Yeti, Sanaa, and the 50's Prime Time Cafe. We stayed at Kidani Village at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, but didn't really take the time to enjoy the resort itself - something we will be certain to rectify next time. I'm thinking that perhaps we'll skip the Disney parks altogether.

We hit most of the high points on rides, too. We did NO water rides, just because it felt a little cool to walk around wet all day. But we did most everything else at the parks. Saw a few things we'd not seen before, including the Hall of Presidents and the Festival of the Lion King show. The boys tried a couple of Kim Possible missions in the World Showcase and that was actually pretty fun for them!

So I think I have some more detailed posts coming up over the course of the next few weeks, and even some photos! It's good to be back! I needed to get back to work to get some rest time in!

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