Day 1: On the Road

Today's the day, we're on our magical Disney way! We were all up bright and early and out the door by 6:45. C was a bit sluggish, as he didn't get back from his promo until after midnight, but him being a sleepy-head is par for the course on vacation! With some coffee (and a bit of Disney anticipation) he was ready to go and even volunteered to drive first. He is sooooooooooo good to me (or maybe the thought of me driving early in the morning scares him)!

We were concerned that Hurricane Faye might be a problem for us today, but as you can see the sky was beautiful when we left:

Through out the day we would occasionally hit a band of heavy rain, but we would always travel though it with in a few minutes.

Here's our crew in the car, what a handsome bunch we are!




Around lunch time we made our quick stop for gas/bathroom/food. I took the kids to the bathroom while C was filling the tank, or so I thought. When we returned to the car, C was no where to be found and the gas nozzle was still in the tank. No biggie, I figured he decided to quickly run to the bathroom too, so I closed the tank and finished the transaction. When he had left, C had locked the doors, so the kids and I waited patiently for his return. We waited and waited and waited. I tell you, it is no small challenge to keep two kids from playing in oil filled mud puddles while waiting in a gas station lot. Ten minutes later C finally reemerged, with many apologies. Apparently, his coffee decided to fight back unexpectedly and he didn't plan to be away as long as he was. All was forgotten by the time we were all fed!

After our break (for some longer than others) we were on the road again. E decided to try a new fashion by wearing the travel pillow around her head:


We approached Orlando around 3 EST and, following the directions of C's GPS, we left the highway in search of our resort. This is were we begin to have some problems. You see, C didn't mention to me that he had just chosen the preset destination of Disney World, leaving us at the mercy of "Amanda" the talking map as far as which part of Disney World we would be directed towards. Go figure, her directions ended in the middle of a parking lot for WDW maintenance! After about an hour of driving though Mickey's big back backyard, we finally found our home for the next week: Pop Century!


The check in was super quick and then we were off to our room. We managed to get a great room, as it was very near the parking lot. We have discovered that we much prefer driving our own car to the parks instead of waiting for the crowded buses. Our location was quite a distance from the main part of the hotel, but anytime we needed to do anything there, we figured we would just drive over that way. We unpacked our stuff, changed into comfy shoes, and prepared to head to the Magic Kingdom. Just before leaving, I gave everyone their first present of the trip, refillable mugs for the hotel's food court.


We loaded back into the car to leave for the parks but stopped over at the food court to fill the new mugs. Both kids decided to get blue raspberry icees. It was a quick drive over to the MK and we enjoyed riding the tram and monorail, but the best was seeing the castle off in the distance when we got closer!



E decided our first order of business should be to take H to ride Goofy's Barnstormer roller coaster, since he was finally tall enough to ride it. Watching it go by, H wasn't too sure about riding, but once around on it, he was hooked.




The line wasn't too long, maybe 10 minutes, so we rode it 2 more times. By then, the two old folks were really feeling the coaster, so it was time to go to another attraction. H had spied the Tomorrowland Speedway as we were making our way back to Toontown, so that was our next destination. This is one of our family's favorite rides, even if it's not one of the most popular in the park.


Next was Buzz Lightyear, as we had grabbed fast passes when we first arrived in the park and our time slot was now open. Again, this was a great ride for everyone!


After riding BL, it was time for dinner. Since we have managed to dine at every counter service restaurant in the MK except the Tomorrowland Terrace Noodle Station, that was where we decided to go. In the past, when we have been in the park, TTNS was closed, as it keeps odd hours. We had noticed that it was in fact open this evening, but when we entered, we were made aware that it was temporarily converted to a sit down restaurant to help in containing some of the overflow from free dining. Oh well, we'll catch it the next time around! Since we were still in Tomorrowland, we just decided to go over to Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe. This may have been a big mistake, as it was extremely busy, but we did manage to get food and a table to eat it at!

Knowing tomorrow was going to be an early morning, we left the park after dinner. It was a nice evening with just enough attractions to whet our appetite for even more the next day.


We enjoyed leaving early as we could take the transportation at our leisure, not having to fight the crowds. We opted for the ferry boat and said our farewell to the castle until the next morning!