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FLA!
So, I've been MIA a bunch lately, mostly because of VACATION! Months and months ago, my brother started talking about taking his two kids (now 11 and 13, oh where has the time gone?) to Disney World. He kept talking about it to me via emails, which all seemed weird, so I finally asked, "Are you just talking out your plans or are you subtly asking me to go?" He said he had asked me before but I never said yes ... which started a huge bickering match that only he and I can master after 30+ years of harassing one another.
So over the last few months, I became SUPER worried about the trip. I'm a person who likes my space; I tend to get antsy stuck with people for far too long while being out of my element; would the kids get on my nerves the entire time; how big of an asshole would my brother be the entire time as he forced us to do whatever he thought was best; and, finally and most recently, what the fuck about my ass? I mean. Tailbone. The thing I bruised just two weeks before we were prepared to DRIVE TWENTY-SOME HOURS.
Surprisingly, it all worked out! My nephew DID get on my nerves at times, even my niece showed her newly-teenage attitude, and my brother and I began to bicker a few times, but then I stepped back and let it go ... and the whole trip was otherwise beautiful. The weather was insane - 105* WHY???? - but gorgeous scenery and so many friendly smiles. It really is the Happiest Place on Earth, and I credit that to the staff wanting to be as kind and complimentary as possible. We arrived Monday evening and left the following Sunday morning. Throughout that time, I only encountered ONE person who made me lean away and think 'god, what a bitch.' Everyone else was incredible sweet and smiley and happy to chit-chat over anything, whenever, with whoever. I found myself responding in the same way and thanking EVERYONE and wishing ANYONE a good day. It was infectious.
At one point, my niece and I moved for a handicapped person on a bus, while another family just stared at the bus driver asking someone to make room. I told her 'good things happen to nice people' and went on to explain that I don't believe in karma but I do believe that good attitudes breed more good attitudes. And it totally worked the entire time. It was beautiful.
And now, a collection of some photos from our trip ...
Our trip flew by so fast. You have no idea.
Sunday: Left Chicago burbs around 930am, stopped just south of Atlanta for the night around midnight
Monday: Left Atlanta area around 9am, made it to Disney Resort around 6, at dinner, went to Hollywood Studios until midnight for Magic Hours
Tuesday: Left around 10am for Kennedy Space Center, plans were to have a cool dinner for my birthday and go swimming at Cocoa Beach. A bad storm came through and we left just after dinner.
Wednesday: Left around 9am for Animal Kingdom, went on Dinosaur, Expedition Explorer, some other ride then got stuck in the rain while eating lunch. It went on and on and on, so after about an hour, we went back to the hotel room and stayed there all night.
Thursday: Typhoon Lagoon (one of two water parks), had unfortunately sun-block-in-eyes incident where I could barely see beyond the stinging for three hours. It was a pretty terrible day with sunburns, burning eyes, tailbone getting knocked around and sore, and ending around midnight (after TONS of walking at Downtown Disney) by falling down and cutting open my knee on the cement walkway at our hotel. Ugh.
Friday: I slept in a bit then met up with the group at Hollywood Studios for Star Wars Days! Much awesomeness with tons of characters walking around, eating at the Rebel Hangar with SW-themed foods, etc. At night, we split up and I took the niece to Downtown Disney for a ton more shopping.
Saturday: Up the earliest of the whole trip to hit Magic Kingdom right away because we had three fast passes scheduled in a row, starting at 930am. It was mega hot, but we kept stopping for indoor events, like Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor, or some stinky Stitch event (seriously, it stuuuuuunk, on purpose, because of Stink being a gross alien). We hit up Hollywood Studios again for final SW shopping, then split up because I was exhausted and my legs hurt from the hips on down from all the walking (most days, we logged 15,000+ steps/day, or 6+ miles, it was atrocious for someone who averages 4,000 steps on a good day lol). I took the nephew back to the hotel while brother and niece did Downtown Disney for shopping AGAIN. Nephew and I had dinner together then swam, which was a good time to settle down together. He's crazy and rambunctious and acts nothing like an 11 year old ... except when he's on his own and has your full attention.
Sunday: Slept in the latest of the whole trip, checked out around noon, got lunch and a few more pit stops for shopping then left the Disney area around 2pm ... for a non-stop trip home. I mean, we stopped for dinner and bathroom breaks (and lots of Red Bull for me), but we drove straight through and returned home around 9am. YIKES.
Today, I'm still exhausted, but I would do it all again ... in a few months. The price was decent for what all we got - the Pop Century Resort is nice and perfectly adequate for what you're doing - sleeping and eating and swimming. It's also one of the cheapest resorts, so says the brother, so it was like $110/night and I only paid 1/4 of that. Plus we did 5-day passes for the parks with park hopper options to go to multiple parks in one day, and a meal plan ... and I only paid $800 upfront for those three items. I, of course, then spent like $600 for my share of gas, meals that were outside of our meal plan, souvenirs, etc. ... but I figure that $1400 for a week-long trip to Disney is really pretty good!
Now onto pics ...
Us leaving Atlanta on Monday morning, all bright-eyed and cheery for the days ahead.
Our resort ... which is split up into 4-5 decades. We got the 1950's with lots of bowling decor.
This is from our hotel room balcony, though it looks upside down. It's a bowling pin pool!
Hollywood Studios at night! I totally dug this place and how all the buildings were made up to look like the filming lots/sets.
Lego!Chewbacca!
The shirt I wore for Star Wars Day, thanks to http://www.6dollarshirts.com/
This was one of our return trips ... but I couldn't stop going 'ruh roh' whenever we passed the Bill Cosby head.
Regular(ish) Chewie!
Mmmm delicious mini-cupcakes at the Rebel Hangar. Served in a Han in Carbonite pail/box thing.
Kennedy Space Center! And here's the real Atlantis.
I remember going to Kennedy when last the family visited Florida ... It was literally 25 years ago. My dad worked on missiles in the Air Force, back in the late 60s/early 70s and the one all the way on the right is the kind he was responsible for. The Titan II, which was part of the Gemini series of spacecrafts.
Our stop for dinner near Cocoa Beach (check out my niece's kick ass hair ... she used to have it died purple and that washed out for the bleached blonde left behind).
Our view of the ocean while we ate ... and as the storm came in.
The weather for the water park was perfectly sunny, hot, and clear-skied.
Animal Kingdom ... this is Africa.
The kiddos at the Tree of Life.
A few random bits ...
This building was at Downtown Disney and I couldn't help but snicker every time I saw it.
This was at Disney, and I asked my niece "OMG Bears! Do you think they're real???" in an overly exaggerated voice. She replied, totally deadpan, "Well, anything is possible these days. This could be one of them." I was incredibly proud of her sarcasm.
On Thursday, my dad posted this pic for TBT on Facebook.
On Sunday, we recreated it.
When I was home and settled, the kitters were SO EXCITED to have me back. They followed me everywhere (which they already do like 70% of the time), but they've been SO NOISY about me going everywhere and begging for attention. I may have enjoyed it a lil and stared at them a lot.
So over the last few months, I became SUPER worried about the trip. I'm a person who likes my space; I tend to get antsy stuck with people for far too long while being out of my element; would the kids get on my nerves the entire time; how big of an asshole would my brother be the entire time as he forced us to do whatever he thought was best; and, finally and most recently, what the fuck about my ass? I mean. Tailbone. The thing I bruised just two weeks before we were prepared to DRIVE TWENTY-SOME HOURS.
Surprisingly, it all worked out! My nephew DID get on my nerves at times, even my niece showed her newly-teenage attitude, and my brother and I began to bicker a few times, but then I stepped back and let it go ... and the whole trip was otherwise beautiful. The weather was insane - 105* WHY???? - but gorgeous scenery and so many friendly smiles. It really is the Happiest Place on Earth, and I credit that to the staff wanting to be as kind and complimentary as possible. We arrived Monday evening and left the following Sunday morning. Throughout that time, I only encountered ONE person who made me lean away and think 'god, what a bitch.' Everyone else was incredible sweet and smiley and happy to chit-chat over anything, whenever, with whoever. I found myself responding in the same way and thanking EVERYONE and wishing ANYONE a good day. It was infectious.
At one point, my niece and I moved for a handicapped person on a bus, while another family just stared at the bus driver asking someone to make room. I told her 'good things happen to nice people' and went on to explain that I don't believe in karma but I do believe that good attitudes breed more good attitudes. And it totally worked the entire time. It was beautiful.
And now, a collection of some photos from our trip ...
Our trip flew by so fast. You have no idea.
Sunday: Left Chicago burbs around 930am, stopped just south of Atlanta for the night around midnight
Monday: Left Atlanta area around 9am, made it to Disney Resort around 6, at dinner, went to Hollywood Studios until midnight for Magic Hours
Tuesday: Left around 10am for Kennedy Space Center, plans were to have a cool dinner for my birthday and go swimming at Cocoa Beach. A bad storm came through and we left just after dinner.
Wednesday: Left around 9am for Animal Kingdom, went on Dinosaur, Expedition Explorer, some other ride then got stuck in the rain while eating lunch. It went on and on and on, so after about an hour, we went back to the hotel room and stayed there all night.
Thursday: Typhoon Lagoon (one of two water parks), had unfortunately sun-block-in-eyes incident where I could barely see beyond the stinging for three hours. It was a pretty terrible day with sunburns, burning eyes, tailbone getting knocked around and sore, and ending around midnight (after TONS of walking at Downtown Disney) by falling down and cutting open my knee on the cement walkway at our hotel. Ugh.
Friday: I slept in a bit then met up with the group at Hollywood Studios for Star Wars Days! Much awesomeness with tons of characters walking around, eating at the Rebel Hangar with SW-themed foods, etc. At night, we split up and I took the niece to Downtown Disney for a ton more shopping.
Saturday: Up the earliest of the whole trip to hit Magic Kingdom right away because we had three fast passes scheduled in a row, starting at 930am. It was mega hot, but we kept stopping for indoor events, like Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor, or some stinky Stitch event (seriously, it stuuuuuunk, on purpose, because of Stink being a gross alien). We hit up Hollywood Studios again for final SW shopping, then split up because I was exhausted and my legs hurt from the hips on down from all the walking (most days, we logged 15,000+ steps/day, or 6+ miles, it was atrocious for someone who averages 4,000 steps on a good day lol). I took the nephew back to the hotel while brother and niece did Downtown Disney for shopping AGAIN. Nephew and I had dinner together then swam, which was a good time to settle down together. He's crazy and rambunctious and acts nothing like an 11 year old ... except when he's on his own and has your full attention.
Sunday: Slept in the latest of the whole trip, checked out around noon, got lunch and a few more pit stops for shopping then left the Disney area around 2pm ... for a non-stop trip home. I mean, we stopped for dinner and bathroom breaks (and lots of Red Bull for me), but we drove straight through and returned home around 9am. YIKES.
Today, I'm still exhausted, but I would do it all again ... in a few months. The price was decent for what all we got - the Pop Century Resort is nice and perfectly adequate for what you're doing - sleeping and eating and swimming. It's also one of the cheapest resorts, so says the brother, so it was like $110/night and I only paid 1/4 of that. Plus we did 5-day passes for the parks with park hopper options to go to multiple parks in one day, and a meal plan ... and I only paid $800 upfront for those three items. I, of course, then spent like $600 for my share of gas, meals that were outside of our meal plan, souvenirs, etc. ... but I figure that $1400 for a week-long trip to Disney is really pretty good!
Now onto pics ...
Us leaving Atlanta on Monday morning, all bright-eyed and cheery for the days ahead.
Our resort ... which is split up into 4-5 decades. We got the 1950's with lots of bowling decor.
This is from our hotel room balcony, though it looks upside down. It's a bowling pin pool!
Hollywood Studios at night! I totally dug this place and how all the buildings were made up to look like the filming lots/sets.
Lego!Chewbacca!
The shirt I wore for Star Wars Day, thanks to http://www.6dollarshirts.com/
This was one of our return trips ... but I couldn't stop going 'ruh roh' whenever we passed the Bill Cosby head.
Regular(ish) Chewie!
Mmmm delicious mini-cupcakes at the Rebel Hangar. Served in a Han in Carbonite pail/box thing.
Kennedy Space Center! And here's the real Atlantis.
I remember going to Kennedy when last the family visited Florida ... It was literally 25 years ago. My dad worked on missiles in the Air Force, back in the late 60s/early 70s and the one all the way on the right is the kind he was responsible for. The Titan II, which was part of the Gemini series of spacecrafts.
Our stop for dinner near Cocoa Beach (check out my niece's kick ass hair ... she used to have it died purple and that washed out for the bleached blonde left behind).
Our view of the ocean while we ate ... and as the storm came in.
The weather for the water park was perfectly sunny, hot, and clear-skied.
Animal Kingdom ... this is Africa.
The kiddos at the Tree of Life.
A few random bits ...
This building was at Downtown Disney and I couldn't help but snicker every time I saw it.
This was at Disney, and I asked my niece "OMG Bears! Do you think they're real???" in an overly exaggerated voice. She replied, totally deadpan, "Well, anything is possible these days. This could be one of them." I was incredibly proud of her sarcasm.
On Thursday, my dad posted this pic for TBT on Facebook.
On Sunday, we recreated it.
When I was home and settled, the kitters were SO EXCITED to have me back. They followed me everywhere (which they already do like 70% of the time), but they've been SO NOISY about me going everywhere and begging for attention. I may have enjoyed it a lil and stared at them a lot.