Hollywood Studios

After a quick bus ride, we are at Hollywood Studios. As we walk in it reminds me alot of California Adventure. High School Musical 2 is playing and instead of watching it we opt to head over to Tower of Terror and Rocking Roller Coaster. We fast pass tower of terror and wait in line for the coasters. All I can say about Rockin' is IT'S FANTASTIC...best ride so far. The twists, the turns the music...all aerosmith. I wanted to pull out my aqua net and lighter and rock on! Taylor loved it too. Then we go over to Tower of Terror...it couldn't be better. Our fast passes were ready to go and we walked right on. It was different than california, but not better IMHO.
We fast passed it again and went out to watch HSM2...after a little bit taylor decided she didn't want to wait for the FP and we left to head over to Epcot. CYA THERE

Animal Kingdom

We arrive promptly at 8:30am and stand in line to wait to get in. It's very exciting being there and we decide to hit Expedition Everest first and Safari second. The doors open and we head in, but I forgot that disney likes to mess with you and they only allow you to go to a corral spot and wait to countdown the opening time. Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald come out to welcome everyone and TADAA..the ropes drop. Mad dash to Expedition Everest. We walk right on that ride and it's great. A fun rollercoaster that takes you up/down and backwards. After that we head over to the Safari. A small wait in line and we're there. The Safari is amazing. We see tons of animals and right up close. It was fantastic.

I have allocated 3 hours in each park and we are only an hour in to AK, so we decide to go to Dinosaur. It's very similiar to Indiana Jones, but with Dinosaurs. I liked that ride. It was scary.
After that we head out to catch our next bus to Hollywood Studios....

4 parks....ONE DAY!

Thats right, you read it correctly. Due to our airline malfunction we only have 1 day at WDW. So we agree to go balls out and do 4 parks in 1 day. Everything starts out great. Up and catch the 8am shuttle to Animal Kingdom, then we go to Hollywood studios, then epcot and finally the magic kingdom. I will summarize each park next with pictures added later. I cannot locate my camera cable, but I know I brought it and I have a ton of great pics to add so check back!

An Airline Issue....

Airplane Blues…
So here’s the lowdown on our “adventure” to get to Orlando! We finish out the day of school. I have a mini freak out and leave early, feeling like I won’t get everything I need to do done. Taylor stays at school and waits for our ride to pick her up…thanks jean! We get picked up and head off to Oakland Airport to catch our US Airways flight at 8:30pm. Everything seems great…check in is a breeze, at the airport in plenty of time. Enough time to spend 25 bucks on dinner (2 slices and drinks!) and then board the plane. We taxi out onto the runway and stop. AND then we sit and sit and soon enough the pilot comes on…our steering broke! So we get towed back to the terminal and SIT! They remove some passengers to shuttle to SF, but the rest of us sit on the plane. Eventually, they tell us that our plane is not fixable and we need to deplane and go to check in to rebook. So off we go..a mad dash to the front desk, just hoping to make connections in LV. It’s only 9:30 so I am hopeful that we can catch a Las Vegas flight on Southwest to make our midnight connection…but alas we cannot. They reschedule us for the 6am flight and with a lot of sucking up, we get a voucher for a motel and head off to catch some sleep. Fast forward to next morning, up at 4:30, catch our shuttle back and arrive to find A LONG LINE…turns out our 6am flight has been cancelled due to maint. issues…GREAT! They want to rebook us on a 1pm flight to get in at 10pm in Orlando. BUT heck no, I get them to transfer us to SFO to catch another flight that gets in at 7:30pm but it’s better than 10. So we miss a day of Disneyworld which sucks, but we just want to get to Orlando! Everything is smooth on our flight, and we get in very early to Orlando..6:45pm! Great…as we are trying to find out way to the Magic Express..disneys free transportation system. I am overwhelmed that we are finally here. It takes everything I have to not cry at the excitement. The welcoming Disney employees, the red carpet walk through to get to our bus…it’s all great. A 30 minute ride and we are at our “home” Old Key West Resort at WDW. It’s super hot and humid here and we are cranky and hungry and tired. We realize that even though we are here, our luggage is not. It will be delivered separately, so instead of going swimming..we head down to Downtown Disney. It’s huge, far away and PACKED. So instead of getting a nice meal, we opt for a hot dog and going back to the hotel. Our luggage is in our room YAHOO so we organize, get in jammies and go to sleep. We have decided that instead of 2 parks a day, we will be doing ALL 4 in ONE Day. My daughter is such a trooper!

WE’RE HERE…more on WDW Later…..

Steph

OMG...it's here it's here

So finally the weekend before has arrived. I can't believe a year and a half of planning and paying ugh! has come so quickly. Tay is off at her dads this weekend which leaves me some good free time to pack her up for the trip. I am glad I will have her done by the time she gets home monday. Then I just need to pack me and voila...done!
We have added a trip to Disneyland at the end...more for me. They are having a DVC member reception and I want to see if they have any info on Hawaii or California. Right now they are only available in florida. Oh well, we'll see what they have planned.

I have everything else set up and ready to go but the ride home. We'll figure that out later...there's always later right?!?!?

Tay just got home from her first overnight field trip. They were gone for 3 days and 2 nights. She had a great time. She is now looking forward to next years trip. She was funny on the trip..as i was told, she asked her teacher to carry her cause she was tired...she's lucky she's cute!

Alrighty..off to get packing.

Cya

Sunday Lazy Sunday...

Ok, time for updates..

The time before last, I said I had a suprise for taylor. Well it was a quick trip to the house of mouse. We decided at the last minute to go to disneyland with our "dis" friends. Our friends met us at tays school friday before spring break and we got into their car and started to drive. 3 hours in, my daughter says..where are we going? To which my friends daughter says...DISNEYLAND...anyways. We had a good time. I think I lost another set of people to go to disney with..I get a little (or alot) OCD while down in Anaheim.
We had another suprise, Miranda came to work at school for a week. It was lovely to see her although it was to quick and we didn't get a chance to catch up.
We pretty much sat around for most of our break this year. Taylor went to visit our local public school for a day. It was a nice break for me and she had a good day, but she has decided that her school is the place for her...thank goodness.
She also got a haircut and some new "side" bangs...I don't care for them, but she likes them. She just growing up so fast....

This weekend was my scrapbooking day..although it was very unproductive. I was all ready to scrap the last of last years vacation and Creative Memories is changing their disney options and they are not available until May 1st. Bummer. I was not prepared to finish up her school pics. So only 8 pages done, compared to 40 pages last year!

Next weekend, another school auction. This one for a friends public school. I am looking forward to getting dressed up and seeing all of the items they have available.

Our Auction is chugging along, the big date is 2 saturdays away. We look like we'll be having a full house so thats nice. After the auction weekend, tay goes on her first school overnight trip. Gone for 3 days and 2 nights...yahoo...I will start my packing during those days and getting everything ready for our trip the following week.

I'll post pictures later...Have a great spring. The weather is fantastic this weekend...and I actually washed my car myself this morning..saving $9.00 what a deal!

29 days to go

So I really can't believe that this next vacation is right around the corner. After all my planning and organizing it's finally here. The only thing I have left to do is to get my ride home from the airport...but if all else fails, we'll just take a cab. I'm very excited to take my daughter to Walt Disney World for the first time. I haven't been there in 20 years so it's almost my first time too. I am totally getting a button! I tivo'd a WDW special highlighting all four parks. I have watched it about 4 times. Taking notes each time. I have a master plan of doing all 4 parks in 2 days. I know CRAZY...but I am OCD and it can be done. The countdown begins!