When I was a kid, my parents made it a point to take my brother and I to Disneyland once a year. It was never "Are we going this year?" but "WHEN are we going this year?". We loved it. Some of my very best childhood memories are at Disneyland with my brother. It was a crazy fun time for both of us. Over the years we learned the park like the back of our hands. We stopped needing a map around the age of 12 I'm guessing. And my parents were awesome because we would literally get to the front gate, set up a time to meet them somewhere, and go our separate ways.
I have a lot of emotional stake built up in Disneyland, and to me it has always been the most awesome place in the world. I don't have a single bad memory of that place, and it's dear to my heart. So when Joe wanted to take the kids to Disney WORLD, I felt like I was cheating on Disneyland. It was a tough one for me, but I was also excited about seeing EPCOT for the first time. So off we went.
Joe booked our reservations at the Fort Wilderness Campground nearly a year ago. Yes, we camped. And now is the time I need to go back and sort of change what I said about camping not being cheaper than a regular car/hotel trip. In this case, it was MUCH cheaper. We saved nearly 1 grand by camping at the resort rather than staying in a room. The campground still has all the amenities of any of the other resorts, too. It was awesome. Character dinners, free transportation, amazing pools, all of it. But at a fraction of the price. I will say this, though. Camping in Florida in general is not for the faint of heart. It rains, and it rains every single day. And it's HOT. Africa-hot, as Joe likes to say. There were a LOT of people camping with tents. I have no idea how they did it. It had to have been absolutely miserable. I give major props to those folks, because they clearly wanted to take their kids to Disney and the only affordable way was to tent camp. There is no way you could convince me they did it because it was fun.
There were plenty of shade trees. This is by far the nicest campground we have ever stayed at. The bus stop to the parks was right at the beginning of our loop, the bathrooms were SPOTLESS, there was an ice machine and laundry readily available. And it was really pretty.
And there was a trash can between every two campsites. If you camp often, you will understand how awesome that is. And it was emptied at least three times per day. The staff was incredibly efficient. They quietly zip around on golf carts nearly unnoticed. The bathroom staff is right there in the "comfort station" itself, and they clean non stop.
The best part about camping at the resort campground were the other families. The kids, to be specific. They were all SO excited every morning. I enjoyed my morning shower so much. The room was teeming with little girls bouncing all around talking about the princesses, and they were so cute. You cannot beat the excitement of a little girl about to go see the Disney Princess Castle.
The boys LOVED to play with the light sabers they built at Hollywood Studios. They are in their pajamas, by the way. They were unceremoniously kicked out of the camper after they started their light saber fight INSIDE.
We took full advantage of every second of the time we spent at the resort. Check in time was at 11 AM, and that's exactly when we checked in. We wanted the boys to be able to swim at the pool, and knew that we wouldn't have a chance the rest of the week since we'd be at the parks all day and night.
Gratuitous picture of the cute baby and his Daddy.
The pool at the resort was awesome! It had a great slide. There is also a separate play area and kiddie pool too.
We also brought our bikes. I didn't want to lug them with us, but Joe convinced me to take them and he was right. The boys rode all the time.
Ok, now here is where I run into a problem with pictures. I did not take a whole bunch of pictures. It rained, and it rained a lot. I didn't want to ruin my camera, so I kept it tucked away in the diaper bag most of the time instead of on my wrist. It got wet the first day and the lens was foggy so I didn't use it very often.
You may think I'm exaggerating about the rain. I'm not talking about regular old rain showers. I'm talking about thunder and lightning directly over your head, frog-strangling type of rain. Holy cow, did it rain. It would only rain for a short time, and then clear up, but when the sky opened up you better be close to a shelter or shop or you were soaked. We were soaked every day. Most people seemed cool with this scenario, but I was not. It was miserable. And maybe I was just spoiled from my childhood at the 70 degree and never raining Disneyland, I don't know.
We did bring rain ponchos, that was something that was highly recommended on the disney blogs I read before we left. SO glad we had them.
Baby Jacoby spent a lot of time tucked under my poncho. And he was just fine. The camera obviously had rain on it, hence the blurry pacifier.
The rain really didn't phase anybody but me. Jack actually enjoyed it. He hated wearing his hood, he really just didn't care about being soaked.
And soaked he was.
I was excited about going to EPCOT, and it was indeed pretty cool. They suck you into the park with two really intense and awesome thrill rides. The rest of the rides are actually educational. But still fun. I'm not sure how they pulled that off, but they did. Kudo's to them. I really enjoyed this day.
This ride was cool. I mentioned everything there was educational, and this ride was neat. You create your own ride in the beginning, picking either a plane or snowmobile, then you choose the flight plan. Once you have done that, the operator loads the card into the ride thingie and the ride simulates whatever you designed.
Joe's feet are straight up in the air. I had a hard time getting pics of this one because there was a large pane of glass in front and the glare was bad.
Jack was too cute. This was one of those strength testers. He was way too little. No point in telling him that, though. The bigger boys were good to him, they clapped like crazy when he was finished.
Joe's favorite place is Hollywood Studios. I'm not sure why. I don't care for it a whole lot. They also suck you in with a few intense thrill rides.
Let's talk about thrill rides for a second. Below is the Tower of Terror. I went on the Tower of Terror at California Adventures. I will never go on it again. I am scared of heights. SCARED of heights. I don't do open air roller coasters either. So there was no Tower of Terror for me. Justice didn't go either. He was traumatized from the one time he went at California Adventures too.
My man Jack went, though. He LOVED the thrill rides. His favorite ride was Space Mountain. When we got off of Space Mountain and looked at the pictures that they snap, I about died. Justice had his eyes closed and he looked scared to death. Jack? Jack had his eyes wide open, his mouth open and had his hands straight up in the air. It was SO FUNNY. Same thing with Splash Mountain. When we started to go up that giant drop, he kept screaming "HERE IT COMES, HERE IT COMES!" and then when we crested and started going down, he threw his hands up and started to scream "YEAH BABY, YEAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" I was so glad he had so much fun.
Jack also loved seeing the characters. From afar. He would never go up and actually touch or meet them, but he would always want to stop and watch for awhile. Justice on the other hand...
The only character Jack wanted to meet was Mickey Mouse. And we waited in a long line to see him, too. And once it was our turn, he almost didn't go.
And at this point, my camera is not focusing properly because it got wet so many times. Not awesome. You get the idea though. He was very shy.
I love the old nostalgic rides. And although I'm not a roller coaster or thrill ride person, I enjoy every single ride at Disneyland or the Magic Kingdom. I mostly enjoy the slow rides though. I enjoy the Jungle Cruise, the train that goes around the park, The Haunted Mansion, and my favorite smell in the whole world is that of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.
The Jungle Cruise. Jack was crying because the line was long and he didn't want to wait in it. We waited because the line was covered, and it was POURING outside. We stayed dry while in the line and it had stopped raining by the time we got on the boat.
I talked everyone into going on the train. It will be fun, I said. They humored me.
Justice has been talking about the churro's since we took him to Disneyland when he was five. The first thing he did was buy a churro and eat it in about 30 seconds flat.
Wet outside, no? Sheesh.
Joe talked about the turkey legs as much as Justice did the churro's. Jack loves them, too.
The jury is out on this one. Jack is either giving Justice a little love, or he's about to push him off the platform and in front of the roller coaster car.
In line for Big Thunder Mountain.
Jack really enjoyed the shows. He always wanted to stop and watch. Justice never liked them, he was always "let's go, let's go, let's GOOOOOO".
OK, I will admit that the Cinderella Castle at Disney World is absolutely AWESOME. It's huge. I loved it.
We opened the park every day, and then closed it at night. We were absolutely EXHAUSTED. Jacoby was a champ. He didn't fuss the entire time. Rain, heat, no matter to him. He was good to go. I have a great stroller with an awesome rain cover and he never got wet. The loud noise from the fireworks didn't even phase him.
Jack LOVED the fireworks. That was the first time he'd ever seen a live fireworks show and he was floored. We watched the fireworks both nights we were at Magic Kingdom.
I did enjoy our trip to Disney World, but I am still a bigger fan of Disneyland because of the weather. The boys had a wonderful time regardless of the rain and heat, and that is all that matters to me.
Our next Disney journey will be in around five years, or whenever Jacoby hits the magic height of 44 inches tall.
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