Orlando, FL 2007

19 May 07 - Arrived at Orlando at 9:30 am and picked up a Chevy Malibu from Alamo.  Then we drove to Kissimmee to pick up our pre-ordered Disney park-hopper passes.  We ate at a Cuban restaurant called Havana Cafe and it was wonderful.  I actually enjoyed their food better than the Florida Cafe in Las Vegas. After that we headed down the road to Clermont where our resort was.  We were too early for check-in, but we hung out at the pool.  The pool is open 24 hours and there is a tiki bar there with typically overpriced, undersized drinks.  But we enjoyed a beer and a pina colada anyway.  There was also a like with climbing floats, paddleboats, jetskis and a pier for fishing off of.  You don't need a license to fish in their lake.  There were a lot of people enjoying the amenities.  By 3 our condo was ready and we were in a 3rd floor room with a view of a pool right behind our unit.  That pool is not 24 hours, but we used it every chance we got.  We went to the Publix supermarket and stocked up on food and then drove through Chik-Fil-A for dinner.  I miss Chik-Fil-A a lot, seeing as I've spent most of my life on the East Coast and have been a transplant on the West for about 6 years now.  I hadn't had Chik-Fil-A since 6 years ago and it tasted wonderful!

20 May 07 - We got on the free shuttle bus to go to the Magic Kingdom.  It took about an hour to get there because it naturally stops at all the resorts in between for other pick-ups.  We spent the day riding rides and eating!  We went into the Enchanted Tiki Room and the Toowntown County Fair (where we waited in line for an hour to have our pictures taken with Minnie Mouse, Donald and Daisy Duck, and Pluto).  I couldn't believe that was our longest wait of the entire week!  Oh well...We rode the Jungle Cruise, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Space Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean.  Pirates has been updated to feature Captain Jack Sparrow from the movies.  But don't worry, the ride is still the traditional Pirates, with him added in.  We ate turkey legs and were accosted by an egret and about 4 or 5 ibises.  As we sat eating them, the egret lunged forward to snatch some meat, and Evie had to jerk her arm back, where, unbeknownst to her, an ibis was waiting on the fence railing to take some for himself!  Who knew egrets and ibises were cannibals?  All sorts of other people started noticing and were coming around taking pictures!  Later in the evening we picked up my mother at the airport.

Who knew egrets and ibises were cannibals?

21 May 07 - We drove from Clermont to Lakeland to visit my step-grandmother.  From there we drove to Osprey to visit the Tervis Tumbler store (www.tervis.com).  They have great drinking glasses that are insulated and guaranteed for life.  You can put them in the dishwasher and microwave, too, and you can find just about any little decoration you want for them.  After shopping in Osprey, we drove to Siesta Key which is a beach in Sarasota.  Talk about beautiful!  I've been to a lot of beaches around the world, but the sheer size of this beach and the sand there take the cake.  It was HUGE!  And the sand was the finest and whitest I've ever seen.  I got to put my feet in the warm water of the Gulf of Mexico for the first time ever.  I was upset that I didn't know we'd be going to the beach, because I would have had my suit on otherwise.  We traveled back and ate at a place called Shells, which is a chain of seafood restaurants, but it was very very good.  Nice atmosphere and the food was delicious and priced right.

22 May 07 - We took our shuttle bus to the Magic Kingdom and then boarded the Monorail for the ride to Epcot. We rode Spaceship Earth (which got stuck) and Ellen's Energy Adventure (which had to be shut down half-way through, and we actually had to get off the ride!)  We also rode Test Track.  But the best part of Epcot to me is the World Showcase.  We saw Chinese acrobats and Japanese drummers.  We ate fish and chips in the United Kingdom.  And we rode a ride in the Mexico pavilion that featured the Three Caballeros.  The restaurant inside there looks really nice, but we did not eat there.  Of course, the end of the day at Epcot is always marked by their amazing Illuminations show.  It features water, fire, fireworks, lasers and music and it's awesome.

23 May 07 - We took the shuttle to the Animal Kingdom.  We started out the day seeing the Festival of the Lion King, which is geared towards little ones, but still brought tears to my eyes since I'm such a fan of the movie and the Broadway musical.  After that we rode the Kilimanjaro Safari.  We waited about a half hour, but it wasn't too bad.  They need to actually make their line lanes narrower because too many people lagged around and didn't pay attention, and it was really annoying....Anyway, we got on the truck and started on our safari.  We saw the black rhinos and then had to stop.  We were stuck sitting there for 30 minutes.  The whole ride itself is only 20 minutes!  Well, we were stuck because of a breakdown in the equipment up ahead.  They got it fixed and we were on our way.  The safari was nice and the animals were very close.  The only ones we couldn't see very well were the lions who were napping in the shade on top of a hill.  When we got off the truck, we were greeted by staff who gave us all fast passes to be used on another attraction.  That worked out really well because they have the new roller coaster, Expedition Everest.  We were able to walk right on.  That ride was great.  Very exciting with a lot in the dark and going backwards.  I don't think there was enough Yeti, though...We rode Dinosaur which was very fun.  It has the largest animatronic in the world and the way the vehicle moves is hilarious.  We went to see Finding Nemo the musical show.  It was really well done, like a Broadway show on a stage.  The costumes were really awesome, but we are talking Disney here...We walked around the park and took pictures of animals including these tiny monkeys that had white mohawk hair.  They were absolutely adorable.  We also went under the Tree of Life and saw It's Tough to Be a Bug which is a 4-D show.  Very funny.  We had to leave because the park closed at 6pm.

24 May 07 - We took the shuttle to the Magic Kingdom, the Monorail to Epcot, and the ferry to MGM.  MGM was awesome because I'm such a movie fan.  We rode Tower of Terror first and I loved it.  I could have ridden that all day long.  We bought the photo they take of you because my Mom's face was hilarious.  Then we went to the Rockin' Roller Coaster.  We had to wait quite a while for that one, but it was ok.  Except for the unsupervised pre-teen kid who decided to poke me in the arm for some reason and then wave at me like I knew him.  He's lucky I didn't break his finger off.  For those of you out there who let your kids go out unsupervised, I hope you have taught your kids to keep their hands off strangers.  We also went on the Backlot Tour.  That was kind of cool, but not as good as I thought it was going to be.  Muppets 3-D was probably my favorite.  I'm a huge fan of the Muppets.  I could have gone crazy in their gift shop.   We rode Star Tours which was a bit lame.  It seriously needs to be updated.  But we got to see Darth Vader walking around, so that was cool.

25 May 07 - We were done with all the parks, even though we could have gone to one again because we had 5-day park hopper passes.  We went to Downtown Disney for shopping and to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3.  I enjoyed walking around down there and we had wonderful Godiva chocolate ice cream.....mmmmm good.

26 May 07 - I took Mom to the airport at 6 am.  This time I did NOT get lost coming back.  Then we spent the rest of the day at Downtown Disney where we saw Shrek 3.  We did some shopping and then it was time to head to the airport.  We got back to Seattle at 2 am.