This year we took a much needed vacation to Disney World. Although the parks were very crowded, we had a great time. It was Aidan's first trip to Disney. Mac and Galit had been to DisneyLand in California a few years ago, but hadn't been to DisneyWorld in 20 years. Our trip couldn't have been more perfect! Aidan was excited and thrilled and had a great time.
This was the park we kept coming back to -- it had the most rides for kids and is the biggest of the 4 parks. It has all the original rides we remembered as kids: the teacups, Dumbo, It's a Small World, etc. and Aidan was happiest here.
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| Aidan poses in the spot were millions of children have before him! (Including his own parents!) | |
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| We put on our 3-D glasses for what was supposed to be an amazing show -- as the doors opened to the theater, Aidan decided he didn't want to go. | |
| Pooh's Thoughtful Place: A play area for younger children | |
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| Are you home, Pooh? | Coming down! |
| FantasyLand | |
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| Cinderella's Castle | Dumbo the flying elephant |
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| Will Aidan get sick on the teacups like his Mommy did? | Guess not! A big hit! |
| AdventureLand | |
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| Aidan & Mommy get ready for their Jungle Cruise | Aidan's favorite part of the ride |
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| Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse | |
| TomorrowLand | |
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| Space Orbiter: Daddy was even scared of this high ride, not Aidan | One of Aidan's favorite rides: the Indy 500 Race Cars |
The World of the Future never looked so good! While Epcot had some neat rides that Aidan enjoyed, it had a lot of shows and exhibits that he wasn't as interested in. He especially liked "Soarin" -- a ride where you are strapped into a "hang glider" and soar over the land and the "Test Track" -- a race car ride where the cars go more than 50 MPH on twists, turns, and crashes. Who knew our cautious Aidan would be such a daredevil!
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| The famous Epcot "golf ball" | Posing with Nemo and friends in front of the aquarium |
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| Bruce the shark has eaten Aidan! You can just see the top of his head. | The golf ball at night |
Lots of animals -- some quite rare -- and an amazing parade! But this park meant a LOT of walking and we were all tired by the end of the day.
| The Parade | |
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| Safari (We had to explain to Aidan that these were REAL, since he'd seen so many fake ones on previous rides!) | |
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| The Tree of Like: An amazing "tree" with hundreds of animals carved into it. | |
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| Kangaroos lounging at the base of the Tree of Life. | |
| DinoLand, U.S.A (Aidan's favorite place in the Animal Kingdom) | |
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| Dinosaur "fossils" in DinoLand | |
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| The amazing brontosaurus bridge | |
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| Excavating to unearth... | |
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| ...a woolly mammoth! | |
| Animal Conservation Center & Petting Zoo (where we met a cow named "Kitty" who made donkey noises because she was raised with donkeys!) | |
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We spent only one day here -- again, not many rides and lots of shows, which Aidan just wasn't interested in. But we did see a very cool stunt show with cars and motorcycles and had front row seats (by pure luck as we were one of the last few people admitted in!) Aidan LOVED this show.
| The Sights of MGM | |
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| Mickey's hat from Fantasia | The "streets" of San Francisco |
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| Posing with Herbie the Love Bug | |
| Honey, I Shrunk the Kids -- A play area for younger children | |
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| Backlot Tour | |
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| Demolition Herbie (from the recent movie) | The amazing special effects: a tanker blows up then is doused with a flood. |
| Lunch at the Sci-fi Drive-In Restaurant | |
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| Inside the restaurant are cars lined up in front of a big screen, with the roof made to look like the nighttime sky. Wait staff come to the car to take your order and you eat on a counter in the car while you watch clips of old sci-fi movies. | |
To get pictures with most of the characters, you had to wait in lines that seemed MILES long. But we were smart enough to reserve two character dinners -- sit-down dinners where the characters come to your table. It was the perfect opportunity for Aidan to meet his favorite characters up close.
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| Pluto | Chip |
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| Dale | Mickey Mouse |
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| Tigger | Winne the Pooh |
We stayed at the Port Orleans French Quarter -- one of the moderate Disney resorts on the Disney property. It was a usually short (but quite bumpy) bus ride away to each of the 4 parks. The hotel was themed after New Orleans -- the French Quarter & Mardi Gras. It was absolutely beautiful and plus, who can resist beignets every morning? Yum!
| The Lobby | |
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| The Buildings (Rooms) | |
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| The Pool | |
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| The Grounds | |
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| Saying Good-bye | |
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