We're back!!

We survived our vacation!! Wow, it was really a long week. We had a lot of fun and did so many things we'd missed out on before. My computer is struggling to upload all the photos I took, so this may only have a few photos - but I'll be back with more pictures, don't worry!! I think I took about 800.

We stayed at Pop Century Resort, which is one of the value resorts at Disney. It was nice - lots of 80's inspired things around and I loved that. Giant big wheel, rubics cube, laptop, cell phone - cute stuff!! Lots of cool 80's music playing in the background. We liked Pop Century but have decided that we won't go back until we can afford to stay on the monorail line. It's just faster and more convenient - less buses!

Our first day was at Epcot and wow - it was so great. Our first trip there we completely skipped the World Showcase so my parents had not seen any of that. So that was a big plus. We got there pretty early and were able to get on Soarin' right away - which was the highlight of Epcot for me. Cole actually rode it and later said it was his favorite ride from that park. He was all ready to ride Test Track too until he heard how loud it was. Him and Grammy sat out and the rest of our group rode it - I was chicken for nothing because it was so cool. I think it was my dad's favorite ride. We also did the Seas with Nemo but Cole wasn't impressed! We walked all over the World Showcase and really enjoyed seeing everything. Paris is my favorite - just because I loved the Eiffel Tower. We bought the extra extra large tower and I'm going to find a special spot in the living room for it. I wanted one last time we were there, but didn't want to spend the money on the big one, so I did what any good scrapbooker does - I took pictures of the smaller ones in the gift shop :) - this time Jason said 'just get it' so I did!! I was really impressed by Cole - he was much more willing to ride things this time than the last two trips. We had THE best meal in Epcot. We ate at Tutto's in Italy and it was devine. Every part of my meal was fabulous. I don't even know the name of what I had but it was THE BEST meal I've ever had. Hunter (my little cousin) and I both ordered it and every meal after that was compared to this one and not one single bite was even close to as delish!!

I forgot to get a picture of my dinner (above) until I'd already eaten half of it!
It was similar to a ravioli I guess - it's like the pasta was a large circle filled with cheese then the circle was folded up around the cheese filling - then the top was twisted together and possibly bound together with something while it was cooked? I don't know - but it was delish! Below, you'll find my yummy dessert. They were pastries filled with vanilla bean ice cream and topped with hot chocolate syrup. YUM!

Monday was Magic Kingdom and we started with breakfast at Crystal Palace. This was by far the best breakfast we had (we had three different breakfast buffets). We didn't do too much at Magic Kingdom that morning. It was so hot. We planned to stay a while and then take a break at the heat of the day - go home and return when it cooled off again. We got to do a few things we hadn't done before - the Tea Cups, Carousel of Progress and Monster's Inc Laugh Floor. That was really hilarious. Cole was hesitant to do lots of things, but then really liked it once we talked him into it. I think we rode Space Ranger Spin 6 times!! We tried to stay for the fireworks, but Cole flipped out a bit (even with earplugs and giant noise reduction headphones) so he and I ducked into the Emporium and everyone else watched.



Tuesday we started with breakfast at Chef Mickey's. It was ok, but the breakfast at Crystal Palace was tons better! We had a great group shot taken before our meal though -and that was cool! But it's on our Disney Photo Pass instead of my camera - somehow my camera was set on Manual Focus, instead of Auto - so a bunch of photos from this breakfast are blurry :( - anyway, we spent part of the day at Downtown Disney and then headed to Hollywood Studios that evening for a little while. We got to watch Playhouse Disney Live on Stage and the brave ones in our group rode the Rockin' Rollercoaster (they were nuts for that!!). We also did Star Wars - and Cole rode that - which was a shocker. We ended up getting rained on pretty badly that night and missed the laser light fireworks show. But a bunch of us ended up with really cute Disney World Ponchos!! And we got to eat at Pizza Planet - which was very cool for Cole.



Wednesday we headed back to Hollywood Studios and did Indian Jones - which was really cool. I took about 100 pictures of this alone. We ate at Hollywood and Vine and got to see Leo and June from Little Einsteins and Jo Jo and Goliath from Jo's Jo's Circus. Cole was really excited to see them. We did Star Wars too and the Great Movie Ride. We did the Sounds Dangerous with Drew Carey - not a fan of that one - it was boring. But their was AIR CONDITIONING - so that was nice. Our group split up eventually and me, mom and Cole watched the Block Party Bash with Pixar and the girls did the rollercoaster again while Jason and my dad went to see Lights, Motors, Action. The three of us stayed in the park after that to watch Playhouse Disney again and see Lightning and Mater. Then we headed to the Pirates and Princess Party at Magic Kingdom.


We rode several things that night that we hadn't done yet - Pirates of the Carribean being the favorite I think. We finally got to ride it!!! After three trips! Cole enjoyed it too so that was a bonus. Jason, my dad and Cole did the Swiss Family Treehouse which Jason has wanted to do each trip and finally got to!! We also did the Aladdin ride - another first for Cole. I think we rode Space Ranger Spin several times. We did the Tomorrowland Transit Authority ride too. And we watched the fireworks too. Cole and Jason skipped it this time and did - wait for it - Space Ranger Spin. I got a few good photos of the fireworks too!


Thursday we slept!!! Well, not all day, but we slept late. Jason and I really overdid it Wednesday so we were ready for some chill time by Thursday. We slept in and ended up at the pool after lunch. We decided to go to Downtown Disney for dinner and try to get into Planet Hollywood. This was really fun. I loved it - although it was a bit loud for my parents - I really loved all the music and stuff inside. At one point me and my three cousins were all singing along to whatever was playing - it was just fun!! After that we headed back to Epcot since they had extra magic hours. We were hoping to ride Soarin' again and Test Track. Soarin' was amazing - again and Test Track had an hour wait. So we skipped that and headed to Mexico for the Three Cabellaro's ride (I'm probably spelling it wrong, but Donald Duck was there and Cole LOVES that duck so we had to ride again).

Friday we had planned an Animal Kingdom but it's our least favorite park for some reason. So we ended up sleeping late and heading over there in the afternoon. Just in time to do a little safari and A Bug's Life (which we'd missed before), play a bit in Dinoland (Cole's fav) and Jason, Audra and Bailey were brave enough to do Everest (I haven't uploaded those photos yet though). We had dinner at the Tusker House and it was pretty good. They didn't have anything on the buffet Cole would eat so they fixed him a special plate of McDONALD's!! I think that's the best part of Animal Kingdom - McDonald's is there for the pickest kid in the world!

Friday night was by far the best 'event' of the whole trip. We had 8 people total in our party - so that meant we were a Grand Gathering. We had the option to do a few extra things since we were a Grand Gathering. One was a Magical Fireworks thing with the guys from Peter Pan. So we went to a special pre-party with Captain Hook and Mr. Smee where we had drinks and snacks (they had cokes, hot chocolate, coffee, cotton candy, cookies, popcorn - you name it). We got pictures made with Captain Hook and Mr. Smee. Then we headed off with a pirate on a boat. We started at the Contemporary Resort and ended up in the Seven Seas Lagoon. The pirate that was leading us was hilarious. Lots of joking around and sing alongs. Very Fun!! We ended up right in front of Magic Kingdom and we could see the entire show of Wishes - the fireworks at the end of the night. This is the first time I've seen the entire show. We usually end up somewhere else hiding from the fireworks. So it was so cool we could see it all. The best part was you couldn't really hear the fireworks so Cole wasn't scared - no tears!!! He watched every bit of it!! It was absolutely AMAZING!! We headed back to the Contemporary Resort and our pirate (named Patch) did a little Disney Trivia with us. Cole answered a question correctly (with much prodding from us) and got a cool pirate sword. When we got back to the boat launch, Peter Pan was waiting for us. We got pictures made with him as well. Cole thought he was really cool and wanted to know where his "friends" were - you know, Captain Hook and Smee? Peter had to explain to him that they weren't friends. Then we had to explain to Peter that Cole hadn't actually seen the movie yet but we would take care of that as soon as we arrived home!! I felt a bit bad but hey, we've just now gotten Cole to actually watch Toy Story all the way through (he's seen it about 24 times now in about four days time!).

So Saturday was the end for us. We spent the majority of the day at Magic Kingdom with a break during the heat. We had breakfast at Tony's - another breakfast that was NOT stellar!! But Tony's danced with my mom, so that was worth it. We got to do Mickey's Philharmagic that morning as well. We ended up back at the park until closing that night and rode everything again. Grammy and Granddaddy were done though and spent some time at Downtown Disney instead. We also got to see Pooh, Tigger and Darby - which was so worth waiting in the long line. Cole wanted to see Darby so very badly. She's from My Friends Tigger and Pooh which is Cole's fav Disney cartoon right now. We rode Pooh, Peter Pan, Snow White, Dumbo.............what else? I can't even remember. Oh we did the Haunted Mansion again that morning, too. It was just a blast. Jason and Cole his in It's a Small World for the fireworks and me and the girls watched them from just behind the castle while eating funnel cakes. YUM. We left the park at closing again and we're just pooped!!!

Sunday morning we packed up - checked our luggage and got something that resembled boarding passes at the resort then headed to Downtown Disney to eat at Wolfgang Pucks. It was really good. The bad thing is their bread is so good, you fill up on it before you get your food. We walked around a bit there afterwards - getting a few more things!!! Then headed back to the resort to catch the Magical Express.

This is when the vacation went down hill!! We get to the airport over two hours early (which was fine) but then we go to check in and they don't like the 'boarding pass' that Disney gave us so we had to get new things printed and there were questions about our luggage because we didn't have any luggage claim numbers (Disney didn't give us those the right way and what they did give us - Delta took so we had nothing). We get loaded on the plane and it's hot already. Finally is starts to cool off, but then we smell smoke. Something has gone wrong with the air conditioning and that's were the smoke was coming from - or so they said! lol - well we all get off the plane - which was a pain since we had to take all our belongings with us and wake Cole up!! He was grumpy and mad!! So we get off, cool off and finally are let back on after about thirty minutes. We finally take off - over an hour late - arrive in Birmingham to find all but one piece of luggage. Now all of our luggage is important but this piece has all our medication in it, two pairs of shoes that belong to me, one pair of Cole's, our glasses, several of the goodies we bought, our left over clean clothes, a library book (good grief - a new one too that I really want to read). So many important things are in this bag - all our toiletries (except my toothbrush and make up thank goodness). So we do all the missing baggage paper work and leave. We still haven't heard anything about the luggage - they don't know where it is at all. I'm so frustrated about that. I can't even remember what all is in the luggage!! I hope it turns up today - or at least that let us know where it is? That it didn't fall our of the plane and land somewhere in Georgia.

So there you have it - our vacation!! Now I'm trying to upload photos and do laundry and get back to normal. We really needed a vacation to get over our vacation!!

Thanks for reading (if you made it this far) and have a wonderful day!!
lisa