Disney World

Last week we had the chance to go to Orlando and spend the week at Disney World. Karlee stayed at home with grandma and grandpa while Kim and I enjoyed our time at all four Disney World Parks (Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Animal & Magic Kingdom). Going into it we had maybe too high expectations of what we were to experience. I actually remember laying in bed doing the math Disneyland= 2 parks and 100% pure fun, so Disneyworld= 4 parks so 200% of the fun. Although I think we both can comfortably say that Disneyworld is more fun than Disneyland, the margin may not be a full doubling in the fun factor.

Sunday night as we approached Orlando the pilot was so kind to let us know that the storm that had plagued the Southeast was sitting on top of Orlando. We started to circle and circle and circle the airport. It felt like something out of a movie as it was completely dark outside, the rain was beating on the plane, and there was a light show of frequent lightning outside the window. After about 90 minutes of this the pilot made us feel as if we were going to be diverted to West Palm Beach to refuel. To all of our delight we eventually were able to land after over a six hour total flight.

Monday we spent the day at the park we were most excited for going in. . . Epcot. After riding Soarin and Test Track we were anxious to experience the World Showcase. Although the world showcase was fun we realized that unless we had a pocket full of spending money it was not going to live up to expectation. We left the park early as we had seen everything we came to see and were exhausted from arriving late and getting up early.

Tuesday we headed to Hollywood Studios (which on the rank scale ended up being our second favorite of the four parks). We rode Tower of Terror, the Aerosmith Rock n' Roll Rollercoaster, and Toy Story Mania as well as experience the Extreme Stunt Show (showed how they perform high speed car chases, etc), the Indiana Jones Stunt Show, Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid Musical Theatre, One Man's Dream (History of Walt Disney). To say the least the day was mainly filled with shows, but we loved it.

Wednesday we went to the Animal Kingdom. Which was our favorite and in our opinion is by itself enough of a reason to go to Disney World. There we experienced the Mt. Everest Coaster, Dinosaur (much like Indiana Jones at Disneyland), African Safari (which was awesome to be close up to animals that we never get to see), as well as The Lion King show, Finding Nemo Musical Theater show. The park was almost all shade with trees and cool animals to see all around. (Our new favorite ride at DisneyWorld is the Mt. Everest Coaster which was quite the thrill.)

On Thursday we were dead tired going in but headed to the Magic Kingdom. There we experienced Space & Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Rollercoaster, along with Kim's "have-to" ride Peter Pan. We did not wait in many lines all week, we actually can't think of any ride that we waited in line for more than 15 min, except Peter Pan which we waited 40 minutes for. We felt like the Magic Kingdom was a little more crammed together and it felt like there was many more people there than at the other parks. This was my least favorite of the parks. By Thursday night we felt like we had seen everything that we wanted to see and so decided to sell our tickets to the park on Friday.

Friday we slept in then arose to head to Ron Jon Surf Shop. We drove up to the Orlando Temple then ate lunch and took a nap (yes we were that tired). We then went to dinner and hit the Mini-Golf course near our hotel. It was nice to actually relax on one of our six days away.

Saturday was our trip home. We were both very anxious to see Karlee. At the airport she was very happy to see me and gave me lots of hugs. Her sentiment towards Kim was not as nice as she didn't want Kim to hold her. I think she held Kim solely responsible for being abandoned. . . good for me, not for Kim. She has since returned to her crazy little self and given us both enough loves to make up for a week away.