Thursday, March 26, 2009

Our First Family Trip to Disney World

While my college students were on Spring Break we decided to take a trip down to FL for many reasons: 1) it was the only time in the foreseeable future that we could go anywhere, 2) it was relatively cheap, and 3) it was my birthday and Disney was letting you in for free this year on your birthday. We had talked about doing that twice this year for both our birthdays, but now that I am pregnant we will not be visiting the happiest place on Earth on Sept. 1, which is 2 weeks before my due date. I think I would probably make it the worst place on Earth that day.

I digress, we made it to my mom's house on Saturday and had a nice dinner with friends and then on Sunday we headed out to Orlando. We had reservations at Pop Century, one of the budget resorts in the park, and it was a great place, nothing fancy, but who needs that for a 2 night stay. Our first park was Epcot.


We decided to go there because there seemed to be more to do for people who couldn't ride roller coasters (Me and Meredith). I love walking around the world showcase and the living seas. Meredith did great and we made the decision before we went that we would just see how she did and would go with her flow. Luckily it was a beautiful day so she seemed to enjoy the sights. We were able to let her ride Spaceship Earth, the Imagination ride, and the Clam ride in the Living Seas. She did better as the day went on, at first she didn't like the dark and when she got used to that the Imagination ride had to blow a big puff of air on us which freaked her out (it was so forceful it knocked my sunglasses off my head).
While in the world showcase we got to meet Donald Duck...

She was scared at first, but settled down and even waved bye to Donald after this picture. We tried again the next day to see how she would do with the characters when we saw Jimminy Cricket, but she was not happy about that. So I am glad we did not run in to Mickey or Minnie because I would have hated to pass up the photo op (I refuse to torture my child for my sake).

The last thing we did at Epcot was the Living Seas, which is now based around Nemo. She really liked it (obviously, she loves the GA Aquarium). She even watched the Crush show which was an interactive video of Crush the turtle talking to the audience and teaching them how to speak turtle. Do you know how to speak turtle? Well, let me teach you, say "hey dude" and you are speaking turtle. Meredith can teach you because she likes to say it now. Of course we can't get her to say it for the video camera, but as soon as we do I will post it. Here is a pic of Meredith and Bill being eaten by Bruce.


The next day we went to Animal Kingdom and it was the best day of all. I love Animal Kingdom and I now have a child that does too. Many people asked why we didn't do Magic Kingdom and I don't think Meredith would have liked it because she doesn't know the characters and she isn't old enough. One of the best things at Animal Kingdom is the Circle of Life Tree which has all types of animals carved into it.
I didn't want to put too many pictures on here so I only included one, but we have tons of closer ones that show the detail.

This is Meredith and my mom waiting to go on safari. She was very excited to see the animals, but I was amazed that this wasn't her favorite thing.
Her favorite thing was the bird show. We actually decided to go to the show when we did because Meredith was asleep and we needed a break. She woke up as the show started and became fascinated by the birds. She was smiling and clapping the whole time. I wish we had a video of it.

After the bird show we waited in our longest line of the day, for the train to go to the petting zoo. They normally have two, but one was broken so it took forever. She really liked getting to touch the animals.

That night we went to Downtown Disney and did a little shopping. The next day we were heading back to Mom's house, but we didn't want to leave without getting in to the pool (which was nicely heated). Meredith enjoyed playing.



The rest of the week we spent relaxing and reading. Bill and I even got a date in, we went to dinner on the beach to celebrate my birthday late. On Friday we went and had breakfast at the pier on Flagler Beach. We took Meredith down to the beach and she wasn't really sure what to think about it. But she was sure that she didn't like getting splashed by the COLD waves. That trip lasted about 5 minutes.

Overall it was a much needed break for all of us and we can't wait to go back, but who knows when that will be.

1 comment:

Andrea said...

Awh, such fond memories for me of Disney, Epcot, and Animal Kingdom. So glad that you did not torture Meredith for your sake to get a picture of Mickey or Minnie...maybe in a few years she will be ready for that! So glad you all are doing well.