Back From Disney and Back to Blogging

Wow, what a week we just had. We are back from our first real vacation as a family. We were at Disney World this past week and had a blast. It was the best vacation that I have ever had. We took the kids out of school and I had my grad students teach my classes with Hurricane IKE heading south we had no worries the entire week. The weather was hot and muggy but we had fun anyway. I have so much to share with our vacation that it may take a couple of blog entries to cover it all.

As a quick overview, we left WV on Saturday, Sept 6 and headed toward Orlando stopping in Columbia, SC (our half way point). We made it to Disney World by 3 PM the next day which made me very happy because we had dinner reservations at the Polynesian Resort at 4 PM to eat at Ohana. I highly recommend this restaurant if you like grilled meat. The food never stopped coming and the bread pudding and ice cream dessert at the end was heavenly. We went to the Animal Kingdom on Monday and then spent the next three days at the Magic Kingdom and then did the reverse drive back to WV again stopping in Columbia, SC. This was my third time at Disney World and it was by far the most fun that I have had so far being able to share the experience with my own kids.

The longest we had to wait on any ride while we were there was 15 minutes for Peter Pan's Flight. We walked on every ride while we were there. The kids loved Cinderella's Golden Carousel, Mad Tea Party (tea cup ride), Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin the most. I think we went on these rides seven times each.

With going when we did we received the Disney meal plan for free for our entire family and with Jen's amazing phone skills was able to get us into all of the best dining options at Disney. We had lunch with all of the Disney Princesses inside Cinderella's castle at Cinderella's Royal Table; we had lunch with Mikey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, and Pluto at Chef Mickey at the Contemporary Resort; and we had dinner with Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore at the Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom. With the free dining plan we figure we saved around $1000 in food costs while at Disney. Since we had our SUV there with us I went to a local grocery store and purchased milk, yogurt etc. for breakfast. So while at Disney, we did not spend a dime on food and had some of the best food that Disney has to offer.

It was fun to go with a childs perspective of Disney. We hunted for all of the characters to meet them and get their autographs and pictures. I have never done this and we had a blast doing so. We have over 30 signatures from various charactures while we were there.

We made matching shirts for each day while we were there. Each shirt had West Virginia on it. We tie-dyed two days of shirts and had solid for the other two days. It was fun to see how many people came up to talk to us because either they were from WV or knew someone living in WV. It was a blast.

This post has a few of our family shots from our first day at the Animal Kingdom. This was Jen's and the kid's first visit to the Animal Kingdom so it was fun to see their reactions to the park. Sam went on the Dinosaur and Expedition Everest rides with Jen and was terrified of the rides when he got off. I was proud that he tried anyway. Dan fell asleep just as we went to meet all of the characters but he was able to meet them all over the next couple of days in the Magic Kingdom. Michael really enjoyed seeing all of the animals since he is our animal nut in the family. During the parade, Briar Bear pretended to sit on Becca and then gave her a big hug which she really enjoyed. Overall a great day, a hot day but a great day.

I will try to post and comment on our trip at the Magic Kingdom tomorrow. I need to get a sandwich before I head to bed.