We survived the trip and are glad to be back home! We had SO much fun and I don't know about Dave and Shawnie, but I know I didn't realize how much I needed a vacation until we got there!
We went down on the red-eye and had I known what I know now, I would have come back on the red-eye as well. We had just one plane change in Seattle and then direct from there to Orlando...that leg of the flight was just 5 hours on the way down, but, 6 hours on the way back with a 6 hour layover in Seattle!!! Owen did awesome as expected on the flights, but, that layover in Seattle on the way back about did him in...of course, he was sound asleep before the plane ever hit the runway (literally!!) in Seattle and slept the entire 4 hour flight home. In fact, he was mad we woke him up for the landing!
Here he is in Orlando when we arrived...so many people commented about him as he walked around the airports in his monster jammies, it was funny! He was SO excited and so were we...it was high 70s when we landed around 7pm there and the weather only got better! We had one rainy day, but, I think the temps were in the upper 80s to lower 90s the rest of the time. It was beautiful!!
We hit the Animal Kingdom first...big mistake, I thought it would be nice to take it easy the first day, but, Owen thought he'd been ripped off when "the castle" wasn't there. We had fun, but, definitely shouldn't have started there. We made it through the park pretty quickly and then back to the room for a nap and thankfully, with the park hopper tickets...we were off to the Magic Kingdom later that night. Did you know that Magic Kingdom is open until midnight regularly!!! It worked out great considering that was just 8pm our time!
Owen got a huge kick out of the rides at all the parks and thankfully, was just barely the 42" required for most of the rides. We couldn't talk him into the Bug's Life 3D movie at Animal Kingdom or Splash Mountain at Magic Kingdom, but, he pretty much did everything else he was tall enough to ride.
For a long time he was telling us that the TriceraTop Spin was his favorite ride of them all...its like Dumbo where it goes up in the air and spins in a slow circle. Not too exciting if you ask me...of course, that was taken care of after we road Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin where you shoot aliens as you ride in a space cruiser.
We blew it and missed the Dinosaur ride at Animal Kingdom, but, Owen loved all the other activities in Dinoland.
This tree with all the animals carved in it always fascinates me! Owen was less than impressed however!
Great pictures and reporting, Dawn! I've been looking forward to your return so I could read all about it. You probably know that I've lived in FL and know some of those characters personally! So it is a thrill to read about your trip. When we packed up and moved back to Colorado, a dead lizzie (as we called them) was in a box with a television! :o)
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