Abby's Journey Archive

Also, as I did in the last entry, I'm only attaching a few photos here, but all the photos I uploaded are in the album starting here.

We're safely home now, the remainder of our vacation is almost a blur, but we had a fantastic time. We spent days at Sea World, Disney-MGM Studios, Epcot, and the Kennedy Space Center, as well as lots more time at the Magic Kingdom.

At Sea World, Elizabeth loved the penguins and puffins and Daniel was terrified of the sharks. We also had the best dolphin feeding session we've ever experienced.

The highlight of our time at MGM was a tossup--it was great to meet Mr. and Mrs. Incredible, but they also run 10 minute "animator" sessions where an artist shows you how to draw one of the basic Disney characters. Abby and Josiah really enjoyed that and even asked to go back and do it again. (Hm. Josiah would probably argue with me--he really LOVED Star Tours).

Epcot is where we had our Princess Breakfast at Restaurant Akershus in the Norway Pavilion. We met Mary Poppins, Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Mulan, Belle, and Jasmine.

On Saturday (2/19) we moved from the Village (http://www.gktw.org) to a cabin at Fort Wilderness. We really recommend the cabins there, they are spacious and laid out in such a way that the space is very usable. They have a near-full kitchen, and the housekeeping service even does your dishes!

My dad also flew out to join us that day, I picked him up at the airport and took him to the Village where we were already checked out, but were invited to play on site until our Fort Wilderness accomodations were ready. The Village has one of the coolest minigolf courses we've ever played on, it's a 9 hole course done in a dinosaur theme. Every hole has a sensor in it, and when your ball goes in the hole, something on the putting green does something--a dinosaur pops up from behind the bushes, something growls at you, or some such. It was a hoot.

Epcot definitely became our second-favorite park--we spent the most time there next to the Magic Kingdom. We even got Josiah and Abby onto "Mission: Space" (3 times!), which is hands-down the best simulator I've ever been in. You really feel like you are being shot into space on a trip to Mars.

The night Dad came in we had dinner at Fort Wilderness at the Hoop-de-Doo Revue. The players were fantastic, it was a very funny show. We were quite surprised when they came down off the stage and invited Josiah and my Dad to participate in the show. Josiah became "Six Bits Slocum, Fearless Bearfighter", and Dad was Davey Crockett's angel (that was, umm, comical to say the least).

Epcot's Illuminations show has been greatly enhanced since Amy and I were at WDW 10 years ago. The kids loved it, all except Elizabeth, who slept through the whole thing, how she did it I know not.

Our other unexpected surprise was that Abby became our first (and probably only) child to lose one of her teeth on the Monorail at Walt Disney World. She was so proud. The Tooth Fairy even found her all the way out in Florida, though it took a couple of nights for her to remember to put the tooth under her pillow.

Our flight home was as uneventful as the trip to Orlando. The kids enjoyed the added treat of an extra landing and takeoff as our plane stopped over briefly in San Antonio before taking us home to Phoenix. One of our wish granters met us at the airport to help collect our luggage and get us to the curb to meet our limousine.

Now we're back into our regular routine, however, a day hasn't gone by when one of the kids doesn't mention something about our trip. We will be remembering this trip with fondness for a very long time.