Disney World 2012 - The Good/Bad

The Good
* Driving straight through without staying in a hotel worked for us.  The money saved for a night in a hotel paid for the fuel.
* We brought an ice chest with water,drinks,fruit,yogurt, milk & packed breakfast cereal/bowls/spoons. Eating in the room allowed us to get ready quickly to make the first bus to the park, thereby giving us time to ride without lines and crowds.
*  Eating Supper on the hotel grounds may be more expensive, but we came back so tired, it was worth the added expense.  They do have healthy choices for the kids.

The Bad

* Next time we will add one or two days at hotel for relaxation.  Allow the kids a break, use the pool, enjoy the hotel grounds.  It was too much walking for the kids to do the park 3 days in a row. 

* Going for Mardi Gras is great but next time we will assure that it is not Presidents day weekend.

Disney World 2012 - Day 5 Trip Home

We loaded up the car with most of the things with the exception of one suitcase per person.  We drove straight through leaving our hotel 5am while the girls slept the first couple of hours.  We stopped for breakfast at a Cracker Barrel in Lake City around 730am.  The service and food were good as usual.  We swapped drivers until we we stopped for a quick lunch at a Burger King in Tallahassee.  We dropped the kids off at their house in Ocean Springs at 4:30 and headed back to our house.

Disney World 2012 - Day 4

Mardi Gras Day. Today is our 2nd day at the Magic Kingdom and the last day in Orlando. After eating breakfast in our room, we met our bus in the front of our hotel and once again arrived at the opening of the park. Today we started with Space Mountain/Tomorrowland.

After the girls got their fill of repeated rides on Space Mountain, we headed to Indy Speedway.  Afterwards we went to Stitch and then the Mad Hatter Teacups.

We skipped over Fantasyland to ride Splash Mountain a few times. 

We ate lunch at Tortuga Tavern in Adventureland.  We had taco salads and nachos.  Next we repeated Pirates of the Carribean and the Magic Carpet ride. 

Hubby and the kids practiced target shooting and the girls enjoyed a game of checkers while taking a break from walking.

Disney World 2012 - Day 3

Today we will be spending the day at Universal Studio's.  The girls are very excited to visit the new Harry Potter area, even though Paige is too young for the ride, she is still excited for her sister.  After eating breakfast in our hotel room, we drove out to the park.  We paid our $15 parking free &we were able to park on the first level.  I love the escalators that assist with all the walking between the parking lot and the entrance to the park.

We were warned that the Harry Potter lines get very long, very quickly so we arrived at the gate just as it opend and headed straight for the ride.   Hubby took Paige to Dr. Seuss area while Brooke and I stood in line.  The line was 45 mins long, whew!  The ride was spectacular and we most certainly would have rode again had the lines not been 2x as long when we got off.

Next we headed to Jurrasic Park.

We ate lunch here as well.  We shared Rotissarie chicken and key lime pie while watching the riders next door get soaked from the big plung of the ride.

We bought tickets to both parks so we headed to other park but the kids were exhausted so we only did the Shrek ride and then headed back to our hotel.

At the hotel we let the kids relax with some swim time and ate supper on the grounds.  We shared pizza & pasta.  The food on the grounds is expensive but it is convenient and was pretty good.

Disney World 2012 - Day 2

We woke the kids up at 6:00 am for a quick breakfast before heading to the Disney Park bus stop.  One of the nicest perks of staying on the grounds is the transportation. 

The buses were always clean, the drivers polite and no parking fees!


We arrived at the Magic Kingdom just in time to watch the opening of the park, first time we were able to see it.  It really is fun to watch. 

Both of the girls are older now and were more interested in rides than the opening show at the castle so we headed straight to Adventureland.  We rode Pirates of the Carribean, Safari boats & 2 rides on Splash Mountain.

Next we stopped briefly in Fantasyland for It's a Small World & Haunted house before moving onto Tomorrowland.
ate lunch at the Tomorrowland Terrace today, shared chicken nuggets and chocolate cake for dessert, it was good. 

We left around 2:00 to return to our hotel.  We let the girls swim a little before taking a nap.  We returned back to the Magic Kingdom around 6:00pm, refreshed.  We headed back to tomorrowland for more rides until it was time to walk back to the castle for the fireworks show.  The firework show is spectacular and not to be missed!

After the fireworks, we headed back to our bus, both girls feel to sleep immediately after their bath, totally exhausted.