A week in the happiest place on earth

How do you describe an entire week at Walt Disney World in such a small space? Easy. One word. Exhausting.

Seriously, though, we spent the whole week there, visiting MGM, Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, and Epcot. In preparation for this trip, I had to shift my schedule around slightly at work, and make a whole lot of extra work for myself, so I could have the week of the trip free. This busy pre-vacation, the vacation itself, and the recovery from the vacation are my only excuse for my long absence (that and a healthy dose of World of Warcraft, HA). We did take tons of pictures (also available directly on Flickr) and some video (of the vacation, not my work) for you all to look at. The video will come later, but you can follow the previous links to the pictures now.

Mistakes were made (particularly letting our selves be led around by the whims of a seven year old as opposed to efficiently planning the order in which rides and attractions would be experienced and thus limiting the amount of walking), but all in all it was a blast. I think Devin was on sensory overload most of the time.

Because of the afore mentioned mistakes, and simply the nature of The Boy, we did spend one whole day soaked to the bone; that was the day at Animal Kingdom. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

When planning this Disney extravaganza, we opted to drive down from Virginia to Orlando in order to save some travel money for nice accommodations at the park. In retrospect, I think the next time we’ll fly. It’s not that the drive wasn’t fun, I enjoyed it, but it added a whole other level of exhaustion and recovery that I just as soon avoid in the future. Still, the family road trip was something I think Devin needed to experience, and so he did.

We left on a Monday, hoping to arrive in the very early morning on Tuesday. This didn’t quite go as planned, due to a massive accident and three hour traffic jam, and to a much needed stop in Savannah, GA for a sleep break, so we didn’t actually get into the first park, MGM, until shortly after noon on Tuesday. We did this after checking into our room at Port Orleans Riverside, and freshening up a bit. All in all not much time lost and MGM really didn’t end up having enough to offer us to fill a full day anyway. We did stay until closing, though. I loved the Tower of Terror and the new Aerosmith roller coaster. Even Devin liked the roller coaster, though both he and his mother opted out of Tower of Terror as they had ridden it a couple of years ago at Disney Land and didn’t enjoy it then.

The second day we did Animal Kingdom; I really enjoyed that park. It was a zoo that had rides you could use to fill the time when the animals didn’t feel like showing themselves. Perfect. We spent just shy of twelve hours at Animal Kingdom, and a good half of it we were soaking wet due to the Kalahari River ride. We did end up going on Expedition: Everest at least two or three times, because it was tons of fun. The great apes were in rare form, and I managed to get several decent pictures. A very good and fulfilling day two.

Day three: Magic Kingdom. We got in early, because the park was open early for resort guests, and we stayed late with our little guest wrist bands. All tolled, fourteen hours in the Magic Kingdom and boy did my feet hurt. I hadn’t been to Magic Kingdom since I was nine years old, and Corrie Ann and Devin had never been. The very first thing we noticed was Main Street; it was just ever so slightly taller and ever so slightly wider than Main Street in Disney Land. What it felt like was the way Disney Land’s Main Street felt when we were little. Maybe that’s intentional, but it certainly created an air of nostalgia that lasted the whole day. The castle too was ginourmous compared to the one in Disney Land. We did all the traditional Magic Kingdom rides and attractions: Pirates, Big Thunder Mountain, Peter Pan, Haunted Mansion, Hall of Presidents, Space Mountain, and many more. We also did most of the new ones: Laugh Floor, Stitch’s Escape, Buzz Lightyear, etc. It was a huge day of big, big fun that made me grateful for the pool back at the hotel to soak my tired bones.

Our last day, at Epcot, was supposed to be our day of rest before our long drive home. Between all the cool rides they have, like Mission: Space and Test Track and a host of other edutainment rides and attractions, it ended up being just as busy as all the rest. We didn’t leave Epcot until going on 11PM. I will say, though, the food was far superior in Epcot than any of the other parks. Lunch at Alfredo’s in Italy and dinner at Marrakesh in Morocco were awesome! The sexy belly dancer during dinner didn’t hurt one bit either. Of all the places we ate all week, though, I think Alfredo’s was our decided favorite.

The drive home was less tiring than the drive out, partly because we weren’t stuck in a three hour long, completely stopped, traffic jam like we were on the way out. We didn’t stop for an official sleep, but traded off sleeping and driving and made a short couple hour stop at a rest area. That definitely helped in getting us home quicker. All in all it was a wonderful vacation, even if we did need a full day’s rest to recover from it. We’re definitely considering the whole Disney Vacation Club thing. We really had a lot of fun and I think it’s one of those trips Devin will remember his whole life. He’s still talking about it even now.