Back from the Mouse House

Yep, we spent three days at Walt Disney World, Saturday through Monday, with a day of driving on each side.

I think I should let the pictures tell most of the story, don't you?

We met our friends, Shawn and Kathy Linfoot and their sons Josh and Jensen. We know them from when we lived in Tulsa. Hard to imagine someone it would be easier to spend 3+ days with at Disney. It went really well.

Christine knows everything about Disney and these trips are planned to the nth degree. Not that every minute is filled, but if it's not filled, it's because that's part of the plan.

We stayed at All Star Sports because that's what had vacancies. It was fine. Disney also had a free meal plan running, which is another reason we visited at this time.

One of the cool things about this trip is we did things we'd never done at WDW before (except Christine has been to Animal Kingdom).

Our first full day was spent at Downtown Disney.

The coolest part of Disney Quest was probably the Design Your Own Roller Coaster (whatever it was called). You design it on a computer, then 'ride' it virtually in a simulator, including loops and spins. Very cool. However, I'm not that into thrill rides anymore. I don't like being jerked around. I guess I'm getting old

My favorite part was probably the Alien Invasion game. Second: Pirates of the Caribbean simulator.

Our second full day was spent at Animal Kingdom. The twins and I had never been before. It's a pretty good park. I enjoyed the East African replica stuff (though it's no comparison with the real thing!). Zoo-type stuff does not thrill me. The faux-safari was fine. I know it's a major thing to pull off. It just doesn't do that much for me.

In fact, that's part of the whole thing about Disney that I don't really like: all of the over-the-top pretending. It's no criticism of those who like it. Christine really likes it. It's great for kids. But I don't like it. It's too cheesy to me. Probably I just take myself too seriously, but there you have it. I'd rather just ride around their little savannah without the pretending that we are on a safari.

Crazily enough, one of my favorite parts of Animal Kingdom was the Finding Nemo musical. Now, I'm not a fan. In fact, I've never seen the whole video. But the technical stuff, especially the puppets, was cool.

Christine and Kathy hooked us up with a special safari plus dinner, so we actually did the safari twice.

Our third full day was Blizzard Beach. This was probably my favorite day. No pix yet because they were all taken on waterproof camera. Big fun.

That night we ate at Chef Mickey's in the Contemporary Resort. I just don't get into meeting characters and getting autographs and pictures, but that part's not for me, is it? I felt like I was a reasonably good sport.

Our final morning, we had another character meal at the Beach Club.

All in all, a good time. Christine's planning was impeccable. The only question is: how long can I hold her off before she takes us again ;-)