Florida/Disney Part 1

Finally our Disney trip!!!

Kris had a conference in Florida in November and we decided to piggyback on his trip. We pulled the kids out of school for the week before Thanksgiving and drove to Florida. My sister, her husband and son joined us for the trip. We decided to rent a house, since Kris’ company would pay for his lodging. The house ended up cheaper than the small hotel room would have cost. Renting a house was one the best decisions we made. It was so nice for everyone to have their own bed and rooms. We didn’t have to worry about keeping quiet so we didn’t disturb the room next to us. The house was about 10 to 15 minutes from the gate of Animal Kingdom and Epcot.

Since I couldn’t narrow the pictures down to just one post I divided our trip into a couple of posts. We started our visit with Hollywood Studios. Several guides suggested starting with one of the smaller parks, one that could be visited in one day. We started out with Tower of Terror. I had forgotten how scary the ride was, they had the whole family go into the ride since everybody is technically tall enough to ride. Those who didn’t want to ride, just continued on to the exit. Mia decided that she wanted to ride. I still can’t believe we let her ride the Tower of Terror at 4. She was just shaking once the elevator dropped. So don’t make my mistake and forget Tower of Terror is scary, don’t take your 4 year old on the ride!!

Some of our favorites of Hollywood Studios were 1.) Toy Story Mania, this is the new Toy Story ride. It was definitely was one my kids wanted to ride again, the wait was long, so we only got to ride it once. 2.) Rock ‘n Roller coaster, we rode this multiple times, probably Karin’s favorite. 3.) Of course we had to meet some characters. 4.) The Great Movie Ride. The day was a shorter day which was perfect not to overdo the first day.

Our second day we headed to the Animal Kingdom, this time with Caroline and family. We headed out early to get an early start. Some of the highlights of our day were: 5.) It’s Tough to be a Bug, the seats freaked Mia about a bit. It really does feel like there is a bug crawling along your seat. 6.) Mia loved the Triceratop Spin. Primeval Whirl was another hit, just next door, I'm pretty sure that this was Ava’s favorite. 7.) Kilimanjaro Safari was fun for everyone. Cousin Matthew had fun too. 8.) Mia & Ava in their safari hats. Dinosaur was another ride we had forgotten how scary it was. We were smart enough not to take Mia, but Ava wanted to ride. She did pretty well, but decided it was best to keep her eyes closed throughout the ride. We had a great day, the park itself seemed crowded, but once we got in line for a ride there was hardly any wait. We were able to hit all the rides we wanted and still have time to divide up and hit our favorite rides again. Mia’s favorite was Kali River Rapids, Karin’s was Expedition Everest, Kirsten’s was Primeval Whirl along with Ava. I went with Mia to ride her favorite, and we were able to stay on the ride and just ride it over and over again. We often had our own raft. More to come soon….