A Fabulous Walt Disney World Vacation

The hubby and I took our FIRST EVER vacation, alone...

No, we didn't even take a honeymoon (I was hugely pregnant).

We've been married 17 years.

We went to Disney World, 

ALONE, 

WITHOUT 

our kids!

AND IT WAS FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC!!!!!

We went to Disney World for the first time in 2009, when Bill died.

We were taking him to Florida to put his ashes in the ocean, 

and decided to take the kids

to Disney World, too. 

It was our first ever family vacation!

This trip was my first time on a plane.

Pete has flown before for work.

I was SUPER nervous, but excited, too!

The flight to Orlando was fantastic- super smooth, about an hr and 20 minutes.

I even talked to the pilot on the way off the plane, and thanked him

for an 'uneventful first flight'. 

He congratulated me and patted me on the back LOL

We spent 5 nights in the Caribbean Beach Resort.

We only went to two parks- Epcot and Animal Kingdom.

We took our time, shopped, moseyed around.

No rushing, worrying about losing kids, and I 

DID NOT 

answer my cell phone!!!

As a matter of fact, I kept it turned off most of the time-

unless I was Facebook-ing photos, that is! 

HA!!

Here's some highlights....

 My dessert at the Coral Reef restaurant...

SO YUMMY!!!

A little chocolate cake, 

which was crunchy on the outside, and super soft on the inside.

Came with Raspberry sorbet and raspberry sauce.

To die for!

 Here we are with Donald Duck!

 During the Safari ride in Animal Kingdom.

We actually went back later in the day and took the ride again,

to see if the lions would come out.

They didn't, but the Giraffes

(my fave!!)

were VERY active!

 Here's Pete in the gift shop,

trying stuff on. 

He really had a good time!

 Mickey waffle!

YUM!

 Mulan with a little kid.

Mulan was so sweet, we had a nice chat.

She liked my book :)

 Me and Marie.

 Pete enjoying his Coke Float.

Fireworks at Epcot, during the IllumiNations show.

 Topiary Downtown Disney.

 Mickey head ice cream! Shwing!

 Us with Pooh!

 Eyeore!

 Tigger!

 Got my ears!

 I ordered a gift basket from Memories by Betsy, to surprise Pete.

Had to have a plush Minnie & Mickey in it!!!

 Me with Daisy Duck.

 These guys were motion activated!

Mine! Mine? Mine!

 Here we are with Mickey.

 And Minnie.

 And Goofy!

 Poor Pete, he was ready for a nap!

 Ok, I have to tell you,

the Hoop Dee Doo Review was SOOOO MUCH FUN!

The food was REALLy good-

fried chicken, BBQ ribs, corn, 

AWESOME mashed potatoes, corn bread with

honey butter, and some

totally awesome strawberry short cake.

 This dinner show uses 2 table service credits if you use the dining plan.

Soooo worth it!

And yes, we bought the little photo package. :)

 Us with Rafiki. 

I was so excited to find him!!

And here we are with Pluto <3

We flew AirTran- they had nonstop flights from Dayton to Orlando, and the price wasn't bad. 

Flight down was awesome (I couldn't have wished for a better flight), but the flight home was something else! I don't know what the heck the pilot was doing but it felt like we were all over the place. The pressure in my ears never settled down. The flight took MUCH longer than our flight to Orlando did. Still not a BAD flight, but being an inexperienced flier, it made me a bit nervous.

Here's Pete packing up a box to ship home.

Between the stuff we bought

 (we really didn't buy much, we were on a tight budget)

and the gift basket contents, we had to ship stuff home.

We packed VERY light and VERY tight so there wasn't 

room in our carry ons for anything extra!

Here we are at the Polynesian Resort after dinner at O'Hana.

OMG you MUST have dinner there!

It is ONE table service credit if you use the dining plan,

and it is fantastic!

Even a little entertainment during dinner.

We went up for the slow dance, and Pete got

two leis because she loved his shirt.

Yeah, that's right, he's so awesome, 

he got lei-d TWICE!! 

bwahahahahaaaa!!

1. Hoop Dee Doo Review is so much fun...Vaudeville, redneck goofy humor, great food, well worth two table credits...do it with family, for a great laugh!

2. O'Hana is AWESOME. The food is great, the atmosphere is lovely. We will be going there again next year!

3. At the Coral Reef, the food was excellent, our waiter was great, and we got to sit by the aquarium wall...So cool.

4. Shutters restaurant sucked eggs...OMG it was awful. It was FREEZING cold in there. Our appetizer was really good, BOTH of our entrees were down right awful. Pete's dessert was wrong (seriously, how can you mess up 3 little scoops of sorbet!?!), mine was only OK. We won't be going back there to eat!

5. If you go to the Animal Kingdom, you MUST see the Spirit of the Lion King show...it's fabulous. it has the puppetry of the Broadway show, along with Timone, Pumba, and Simba, AND some kids are pulled into the show. I can't wait to see it with my teenagers next year!

6. We went on our last day and played mini golf. We did the Fantasia Gardens...We also walked around the Swan hotel a bit (you take a bus to the Swan, then go across the street for the golf). WOW the Swan is gorgeous!!! If you have time to kill, do the mini golf. Its very inexpensive, and we had a lot of fun (but we like mini golf). 

7. Even if you don't go with kids, if you're in Epcot, you've GOT to sit through Turtle Talk with Crush....I swear it was so cute it about made me cry. :)

8. Epcot had a TON of characters...just sayin'.

9. Expedition Everest....need I say more?

10. There are little shows and things all day long at Downtown Disney....We watched a couple. Super cute.

We're planning a trip for next year...

Yep, Disney two years in a row!! 

However we won't go again for a long time (unless I run a race down there). 

Our oldest will be graduating this year, and we wanted to take the kids again

 before they start moving out.

A Disney trip is no cheap thrill.

It takes planning, planning, and more planning.

And in our case, sacrifice of other 'fun' things,

cause we live on a tight budget.

But that's OK...

We'd much rather have a fun week 

full of fabulous memories

than a bunch of fast food and junk that

everyone will break/lose/forget about

in a short time anyhow!

I used Elyssa Antonelle at Mickey Travels to book this trip.

She's FREE!

She's da' bomb!

I <3 her!

I'll be using her to book our next trip as well.

Deposit being sent in September!

Woot!