Disney Day 1

My parents have said for years that when all of our children were 6 years old or older, they wanted to take us all to Disney World for a vacation. Well, Josh is six, and we got to go on our trip at the end of May!

The excitement began to build months ago... the kids had a countdown picture that they had started 42 days before the trip! Faithfully they switched the number every day and pored over our Disney information books.

Before this week, our children had never been to a theme park. Never been on a roller coaster. Never been to a water park. The boys had never been on an airplane. They were about to have sensory overload!

We left the Memphis airport on Sunday morning and arrived in Orlando around lunchtime. As we made our way to the Magical Express bus, we entered one of those lines that zig zags around back and forth with the little guide ropes directing you. As we entered the line, Josh exclaimed, "Boy, I'm glad we are not in THAT line!" Little did he know, we WERE in that line... we just hadn't made it up to them yet!

We took the bus to Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort and got checked in. What a beautiful place to stay! The hotel had a distinct Caribbean flare, and the pool was designed around a pirate theme. We got our "Keys to the World" and had a quick lesson on how to use them. It would take us a little while to figure out the dining plan, but we were soon old pro's at it!

After we changed clothes, we headed to the Animal Kingdom. Our first ride was Expedition Everest. The fast passes were gone, so we decided to wait it out. As we all stood in line, we were impressed with the attention to detail that seems to set Disney World apart from other theme parks. The hour wait went by quickly. Many people rave over this ride, but we all exited the ride with queasy stomachs! Josh was convinced that he did NOT like roller coasters!
The park was soon closing, and it was time for us to head to our dinner reservation at the Tusker House. Dinner was great... a buffet with an African theme. I was hoping for some Ethiopian food, but I didn't see anything resembling injera (sp?). Everything we tried was good, though! My kids surprised me with how adventurous they were during the week!
After supper we headed back to the resort for a swim in our hotel pool... that had its own water slide!!! On the first night, Josh accidentally smashed his face on the bottom of the hot tub. For the rest of the week, he has a big boo-boo on his upper lip... It healed just in time for the trip home!