Spring Break - Disney World 2010

Day 1, Saturday April 3, 2010

We left early on Saturday at approximately 4:15 a.m. the town car picked up us up at our home. Still dark and the trip was fast.  We arrived at San Francisco Airport to take our Southwest flight out.  

I recommend Southwest Vacations for planning your trip (if they have a package for your trip).  They handled every thing for our trip except for what I asked them not too.  The best part they saved us $2000!  

Ok on with the trip...we board our plane and stopped in Vegas to pick up some for Florida travelers.  We arrived in Florida at 4:20 p.m.  We then made our way through the Orlando airport, which is massive.  Boarded our Disney Magical Express and off we went to the hugest place I have seen.  We arrived at the Caribbean Beach Resort.  It is a big resort, complexes and pools everywhere.  I would rate the rooms average, but our maid was such a sweet lady.  She keep everything beautiful and made cute little washcloth pets for our room.  The rooms were clean but not fancy but hey you are never there anyways!  

Our first night we ate and unpacked.  Our luggage was brought to our room by the separate company so we did not have to deal with dragging it along (thank you SW again).  

Day 2, Easter Sunday

Epcot is the park of choice for our first official park day.  Epcot was my favorite park.  We went on several rides Mission Space (we did not do the advanced training).  The one we did was good enough as I am a bit castrophobic.  We were locked into this little space ship simulator.  It was fun but I was ready to get out once I got to Mars.  We missed Test track because we had a busy afternoon.  But I think Dave would have loved it, you are in a GM vehicle, it is the longest and fastest ride in Disney History.  Then we went on Reimagined Spaceship Earth, Amanda said she liked this one, it was nice easy going ride.  

The best thing about Epcot is the World Showcase.  You visit different countries including: Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, America, Japan, Morocco, France, United Kingdom, Canada.  Each country area has restaurants, stores, and some have rides.  My favorite was China (beautiful 360 degree movie theater show) and Morocco.  Dave liked Mexico, great guacamole. Amanda of course liked Italy.  The Italy restaurant was a bit pricey but it was fun.  I also did the pick the oyster and see if you get a pearl in the Japan land.  I got a pearl but man was it embarrassing, I think I decided to do this the time that the loudest Japanese girl was working!  Amanda and I were so red.  The walk around takes a few hours, it is worth it!  Also, we picked the time at Epcot where they put on the Flower Garden Festival.  It was pretty!

 
Then we went back to the room and swam for a bit, it was very refreshing.  

Now off to the Magic Kingdom for rides and dinner.  Our dinner was a late one as we stood in line for Space Mountain for 1.5 hours.  Dave and Amanda liked the ride.  I prefer rides that are not in the dark, I could not wait to get off this ride.  It was long and dark.  Then we ate dinner and watched the firework show over Mickey's castle.  Amanda wanted to go on the Haunted House ride so we did that it was very similar to Disneylands ride.  We also went on the Pirates of the Caribbean, which was recently redone.  It was fun as usual.  We went on a little bit of a goofy ride called Jungle Cruise.  We then headed to Splash Mountain, now that ride is fun in the dark. It is longer then the one in Disneyland it was so fun!  I got absolutely soaked.

I got to go into the castle and take picture of the beautiful mosaic walls.

We then headed home we were wiped out.  I am only going to mention this once, for 3 nights we did not get to go to sleep until 1:00 a.m. every night because there was a softball tournament going on and the coaches were partiers.  Good grief.  By the third night I went into melt down.  That is all I am saying.  I want to remember the fun times more.

Day 3, Monday, April 5th - Happy Birthday Dad! (Sorry we weren't home) 

Off to a water park as we have had the best weather 83-85 degrees every day!  Blizzard Beach is suppose to be the nicest and biggest of the two water parks in Disney World.  It is very big with the highest and fastest water slide in North America.  We did not brave the tallest but we went for the one next to it.  Yes, you do have to adjust your swimsuit bottoms when you get off.  It was so much fun!  We cruised around the lazy river with Amanda and spent a good deal of time in the huge wave pool.  We went on a couple other slides and had a great time.  It was a hot day so this made cooling off wonderful.  It was extra dollars to attend this as our park hopper ticket did not include the water parks.  

We headed home.  I think I forgot to tell you how we are getting around the park.  There are buses that take you everywhere.

We are now heading to Downtown Disney for dinner and shopping.  Now I have tell you this was the busyiest place out of everywhere we went so far.  It was crazy people everywhere.  There are lots of shops and restaurants.  We went to dinner at Captain Jack's Restaurant.  It was nice but not worth the 2 hour wait we had to wait.  We did not eat until 9:30 p.m. (we got there at 7:00 p.m.).  We ate a nice dinner and then headed to Ghiradelli Chocolate.  We had ice cream sundaes that were yummy!  The place was packed!  Then we did shopping for gifts and fun stuff for us.  We headed back to the hotel at midnight.

Day 4, Tuesday, April 6, 2010
We rented a car to go out of Disney World and head out into Florida to investigate two places of interest.  We called this Dave day.  We went to Blue Springs State Park and Daytona Beach. 

Blue Springs State Park -  We saw a lot of wild life here.  There were Anoles (lizards that change color), squirrels, birds, long nose gars, turtles, and the most fantastic an Alligator, no tame one either a wild Alligator.  He was a big one!  We wanted to see the manatees but they were not around.  We walked on trails that led us to the end of the river and there was this big vault type line in the bottom where people scuba dived with tanks.  They could swim along it for miles.  There were kids and adults swimming the water was suppose to be very warm.  I would not swim in it with the alligator down the way, no way!  There was a big plantation house on the property, it did not have much in it but a few displays and a wood burning stove in every room.  

Daytona Beach - Dave wanted to go see Daytona Beach or was it what was on Daytona Beach.  It is Spring Break.  What I found must interesting is you can drive on the beaches in Florida.  In fact this past week sunbathers were ran over by drivers.  The sand is so soft and very firm on the beach..  The water is a comfortable cooling temperature, much different than our water.  You could see people for miles and Daytona is filled with various colleges and apartments.  We played in the water and then headed over to Bubba Gump's for dinner. If you are not familiar with Bubba Gump's it has everything to do with Forrest Gump.  It was one heck of a dining experience the food was good and they played Forrest Gump trivia.  

We then headed for home, in the evening it is very hard to get around in the Disney World.  We for sure were lost driving and giving up and heading for the freeway again.  Finally we made the turn we needed and headed for our resort hotel room.  The next day when we got up you would not believe the pollen on the car.  It is ridiculous in Florida, the pollen is blowing in the air you know you are inhaling the stuff. Ugh.


**Note to self, if you are tall don't get a Mitsubishi Eclipse... my back was killing me...and they are the most noisest cars no insulation at all.

 

Day 5, Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Today will was the last park day so we headed to Animal Kingdom.  This park was one of the most crowed.  It also was the hottest day.  We headed to Expedition Everest - Legend of the Forbidden Mountain.  Ok I am no longer afraid of heights or plummeting backwards in the dark.  It is a very fast roller coaster.  It was a lot of fun.  If we did not have to wait another hour we would have went on it.  I screamed so loud!  Amanda laughed and fun!  The main theme of this is Everest and Yeti.  

We then headed to a nice wet ride on the Kali River Rapids.  One poor lady was just soaked!  I got wet but nothing like her.  Amanda really wished it could have been her that was dripping wet.  Next we went to a bird show which was pretty funny and Dave got his fix of birds.  But were we done no, off we went to take the Kilimanjaro Safari.  We saw lions, giraffes, monkeys, rhino's and many other animals.  By then the heat was taking its toll on Amanda.  We stopped and did a few more little peeks at Animals.  We watched a parade through the streets and off we went to get a retreat from the heat. 

We had a nice evening in the pool.  The salad and pizza in the room.  The salad tasted so good after days of eating out.  Dave and I then took a walk around the lake that is on the property.  We saw all kinds of animals and the public area pool was packed with music, swimming, and a little bar that severed drinks that I think may have had about a teaspoon of alcohol in them.  

Off to bed again. 

Day 6, Thursday, April 8, 2010

We slept in today until 10:00 a.m.  It felt so nice.  No rushing around, just relaxing.  We ate breakfast, then swam, and walked around the lake some more.  Then off to Epcot for dinner at Mexico.  I had a drink at the tequila bar, and let me tell you that tequila had a nice relaxing effect.  I had a cactus pear margarita.  We waited for dinner and then had a wonderful tasty Mexican dinner.  We then headed back to the resort to pack our bags for the trip home. 

The trip seemed to zip by like I thought it would.  We did not go to ESPN Sports Zone Park or to Hollywood Park. We were pretty much done with the theme park and crowds.  So it was time to go on home.  We did some more swimming and walking at the resort.  Packed it up and off to bed.

Day 7, Friday, April 9, 2010
Wow 4:00 a.m. sure came fast.  We dressed and wheeled our bags down to the Disney Magical Express.  We arrived at the airport way early.  We then boarded SW home, with a stop in Vegas.  I spent my $10.00 on the slots and off we went to board our plane to SFO.

Mom and Peanut picked up at the SC airport after we rode the AirportExpress home from SFO.  (I really do not like coming home on the express, it takes to long).  Amanda was happy to see her puppy.

Well all I can say is thank you Mickey and all the other wonderful Disney Characters for the great vacation!  It already seems so far away.... it is freezing here!!!  TO SEE MORE PICTURES: http://picasaweb.google.com/ChristineBarryPhotography/DisneyWorld10#