Our Disney Vacation

Yes, finally, an update!

J took the Friday before we left off, so we spent the day shopping for summer clothes at the outlet mall. Then, we went home & finished packing so we could go to bed at a reasonable hour.

We were up before 5 on Saturday & got to the airport early, only to find we had an hour delay. The flight went smoothly (aside from one of my bags...and the clothes in it...coming out smelling like fuel) & we had some time to play once at Disney. We had lunch at the Coronado Springs food court, then went & hung out in the pool.

In the evening, we headed over to MGM & poked around a bit before our dinner reservation. We rode Star Tours & Pie spent some of his souvenir money right away on a stuffed Ewok. Dinner was at the Science Fiction Dine In Theater. We sat in a little car, looking at a big screen showing clips from all kinds of campy old sci fi movies. The kids got burgers & J & I had soup.

Sunday morning, the kids did the Easter candy scramble at our hotel. We spent the bulk of the day at Typhoon Lagoon water park. It was kind of odd to be sunning & swimming on Easter...but, we had a blast. We had only been to Blizzard Beach the last time & we liked Typhoon Lagoon a lot better. I found a great spot at the edge of the wave pool where I could read AND enjoy the water. The kids & J rode water rides & swam with sharks. The kids also got deeply involved in sand-castle building....much to J's relief because it gave her a chance to just flop!

Our Easter dinner was at Boatwright's, which is located at the Port Orleans resort. The kids had burgers (if you think you are detecting a trend here, you are oh, so right!), J had a steak, & I got a spicy dish of jambalaya. After dinner, we took the boat to the French Quarter area of the resort. The night water was so lovely.

The French Quarter area was neat & we got to see the pool there...we think we might stay there next time. We picked up beignets in the food court, then took another boat to Downtown Disney to catch a bus to our hotel. I LOVE the boats!!!

We spent Monday at Magic Kingdom...the kids discovered the joy of autographs & were thrilled with all the characters. When they were younger, they were totally uninterested. This time, Boot developed an almost alarming obsession (he cried when Goofy left before he got his signature)with getting to meet them.

The boys were exhausted at the end of the day, so we let them order room service pizza while we had dinner at The Maya Grill. We had wonderful seafood dishes there...and the chimichurri sauce for the bread-dipping was phenomenal. Walking back along the lake to the room in the cool of the evening was so romantic & lovely.

Tuesday, we headed back to MGM to do the rest of the things there. We grabbed lunch at the ABC Commissary...a not-that-great Cuban sandwich for me (I need to go to Miami!). After some time in the hotel pool & hot tub, we took the kids to Downtown Disney. They loved Disney Quest (of course, with all those video games!) & Boot spent some of his souvenir money on a print of the landscape he created. We had dinner at Planet Hollywood...burgers for the kids, steaks for us.

We spent Wednesday at Blizzard Beach. Pie was having a ball finding lizards & calls it "Lizard Beach". I think that was his very favorite thing from all of Disney last time. I broke down & got a Tinkerbell beach towel for my souvenir. The sand castle building became even more intensive. It's so much fun to watch them just be kids...so much of the time at home, Boot is trying so hard to be cool & grown-up.

Dinner Wednesday night was the Spirit of Aloha show & luau over at The Polynesian. We took the monorail from Magic Kingdom...I wish the buses ran from resort to resort, but it IS fun getting to try the different forms of transportation. We liked the Polynesian & may stay there in the future, too.

We had wondered if the luau would really be worth all the money we paid for it, but the food was good (J loved the pineapple-coconut bread & I can't even tell you how many ribs Boot devoured) & the show was great fun. Our favorite part was the fire dancer...amazing stuff!

Thursday, we took advantage of the early opening hour for resort guests at Magic Kingdom & were able to ride everything we wanted before it got crowded. After more autograph-seeking, we had a yummy lunch at the Liberty Tree Tavern. Yes, burgers for the kids. J had a great roast beef sandwich & I had pot roast.

After lunch, we spent the afternoon at Typhoon Lagoon. It was marred only by a rude group of teen & preteen boys on the lazy river, whacking each other with rafts & using foul language around little kids...I ended up calling security after they started verbally taunting us when I asked them to stop & after they elbowed Pie in the face. THREE different lifeguards did nothing about it when we...and other adults...pointed them out, so I got out of the river & called security...I hope they were able to do something. Boot also encountered them. He asked them to get out of his way & they called him a motherf***er. He shoved them & they moved for him. Now, we don't advocate physicality like that, but I don't blame him. He said they left the park not too long after that...I don't know if they were asked to leave or if their folks were just ready to go.

Dinner that night was at Bongo's Cuban Café in Downtown Disney. We left the boys safely stashed at the hotel with chicken wings & pizza (gotta love resort babysitters) & had a nice solo dinner. It rained heavily while we were sitting out on the patio...very romantic to be safely dry while the rain poured down beyond the patio. Found out my Cuban cooking (and my mojito making) is as good as theirs...I had no idea I'd gotten that good.

We spent much of Friday at Animal Kingdom. J loved the animals, Pie loved the lizards, Boot liked the rides. I was most impressed by 2 things we saw in the street. The first was a contortionist family. They did some amazing things...huge stacks of glasses held on a knife held in the mouth as they went under a LOW limbo stick, juggling while balanced on rolling cans while spinning a hoop with the butt, just very impressive!

The second was really neat. Pie was on the lookout for lizards & noticed some ivy on a tree rustling. As we watched for lizards, the ivy revealed itself to be attached to a woman! She was on big leaf-covered stilts, with matching arm attachments, and had her face painted a magical blue-green. She slooooowly unfurled herself from the tree & walked through the crowd to another tree, where she attached herself. It was so well done that I almost felt I'd seen an actual dryad.

We took the kids back to Disney Quest for the afternoon...I was wishing I had a book with me...then had dinner at Boma, at Animal Kingdom Lodge. The food was a buffet of African foods...tasty & fun to try new things. I was really impressed with Boot for trying new things, too. Pie stuck to the prime rib, fruit, & desserts. I liked the food, but wished they had some Ethiopian foods. I am hungry for injera & doro wat.

Once back at our rooms, we packed up & went to bed. After breakfast at the food court, the bus picked us up for the airport at 10. The flight home was rough...turbulent from Florida to Knoxville & again to Cincinnati. Once in Cincinnati, our flight was delayed & then cancelled. We ended up taking a taxi from Cincinnati...I am trying to convince J to drive down next time! With all-day flights (and no food service or time for food at the airport) becoming increasingly frequent, driving seems to make more sense to me. We got dinner...after having no lunch...at Ruby Tuesday on the way home & finally arrived home at almost midnight. Our flight was supposed to get in at 6:30 in the evening!

Needless to say, we slept in Sunday morning! Then, we got ready for book group. We had read Pride & Prescience, a take-off on Jane Austen, so we prepared an English tea with orange-cranberry mini-scones, lemon raspberry mini-tarts, cucumber sandwiches, Walker's shortbread, & lemon ginger cookies.