The great Disney Expedition

[gueli]

Hello folks,
Initially I had started this as a daily report while it was happening. But I did not bring my laptop with us and only had my phone. After posting for 3 days (the start of...) I realized I could not do the typing without major errors, and the voice recognition did not always work and made new errors. After my 3rd post this way I decided to wait until I had my trusty computer and fill you wonderful intercotees in.
Just a brief (brief is relative... ) summary now. Drove down from Long Island NY to Orange city Fla in some 22 hours with a number of breaks but without stopping at a hotel. I did want to give props to the Holiday inn Express off I 4 in orange city. When we got to our room, they had these cute little welcome gifts (small water and some snacks & treats). It really brightened DW & DD day. The beds were extremely comfortable and we had a great rest. Saturday oct 12th we went to Hampton Inn & suites in Kissimmee. We had a suite for about $89 (with everything it was $96) for Saturday night. It was a double size hotel room. Nice & simple. We did tourist stuff along 192 that day and that night we went to "Arabian Nights". Good show decent food. DW was thrilled (she is so into horses). By the way for $15 more, you get VIP treatment which includes a tour of the stables. Also need to give a thanks to a discount ticket broker on 192. his name is rick and he is inside the big Orange. Sold us the tickets and saved us over $60 (would have been happy to give a 2 hour time share sell, but was good about just selling the discounted things). DD loved the Show. Ok so the brief (haha) summary is over. On to Disney.
Sunday Oct 13th, 2013
We are up and out of the hotel early. Love Hampton inn for the 'free' breakfast. Drive down 192 and enter Walt Disney Worlds property. Love How they have signs out that you cannot stop on the roadside and take pics of the welcome sign. After briefly stumbling (I missed a turn) we make our way to the Art of Animation resort. The Guard at the gate scans my Magic Band and welcomes me by name to the resort. Nice touch.
The Lobby is beautiful. Check in is a breeze, but at 9:30 am our room is not ready (not a surprise). They offer to Text me when it is. I am good with that. We leave our luggage with bell services and I parked the car.
Our dear sweet Uncle John was flying down to join us. This is his Birthday weekend (his b day is on the 15th) and my wife has gotten him a birthday button. Much to our surprise his Magic Express bus drops him off while we are still here (we expected to meet him in the park). Joyful reunion. DW gives him the Birthday button and from that point on, until we left Disney many people would wish or sing him a Happy Birthday.
So its off to the Magic Kingdom.
The bus is full, but we find seats spread out. I met a lovely woman from Rio. Brazil. traveling with her family.
The Magic bands work fine at the front gate (although DD forgets which finger she used) and we are off. I love walking down main street toward the castle. We stop and get our Photo taken. Then its off to Tomorrow Land where we stop at stitches great escape. And then with our FastPass + we are on space mountain. That is the first time I notice the Brazilian Tour group, one of many that we would encounter, filling up the standby line. But we are here and having fun.
You know after a bit Disney becomes a blur. Wether on Buzz lightyear, Pirates, splash mountain, haunted mansion one finds oneself immersed in this wonderful place having a great time.
As has been the case with numerous florida trips, the heat gets to all of us. We decide to take a break during the day and head back to the resort for some R&R. I swim with DD while DW and Uncle nap.
Then we drive over to the Contemporary for ADR's at Chef Mickey's. What a great time. Love the Character meals. At one point Mickey is at the table and after photo's bends down to kiss my DW hand. I say to him "I am telling Minnie" and quickly scoot away as he puts his hands on his hips indignantly. Our family has quite the laugh over this.
Taking the Monorail we head back to the magic Kingdom, which is open till 1 am (3 am for onsite guests). We spend more time finishing off some of the aforementioned rides and wind our way back into new fantasy land.
After we went through the new aerial ride they announce the fireworks show is going to start shortly. Outside of Gaston's we find some chairs at a table. Although we are at the back of the castle, we are not inundated with crowds. If you can picture this, if you look to the left you see the fireworks that are launched from rear the castle as you see the castle from behind. These tend to be low shots of brilliant white light, without the boom. When you look to the right the fireworks that go BOOM and have multi colored starbursts and are this brilliant display of color and sound go off so close (yet feeling safe because this is WDW)... it was quite the sight. I highly recommend watching wishes from here just once...
After that we are done. Tomorrow brings another adventure.

Hope you all Enjoyed.

Gueli

[faline]

What a lovely start to the Disney portion of your trip! Great luck - to meet up with uncle before you headed off to the parks!

[KylesMom]

I am glad you came back to post all the details of your trip! First day at MK sounds fabulous - glad you enjoyed your Chef Mickey dinner and were able to enjoy EMH! I bet sleep came really easy on this night!

[ibelieveindisneymagic]

Thanks for sharing your (brief) update ... sounds like a super way to start a trip.

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

Sounds lovely thanks for the report

[yjgirl32]

I love when things go better than planned. Great start. Thanks for sharing.