Life at the Academy

I started this post back in November, right before I found out about my uncle, and just rediscovered it today.  I thought perhaps I should go ahead and finish it and post it.  Maybe I’ll eventually get back to the rest of our trip.

We got checked into our hotel, the Beach Club, on our first full day at Disney World.  We were impressed with the level of service – the man at the gate who lets you in to park notified the doorman at the hotel and when we walked in, he greeted us by name (the best you can with our last name) and walked us to the check-in counter.  We felt special.  Little did we know that Disney does a great job at making you feel special during your entire stay.  As we were checking in, the man made a comment about us going on a cruise after our stay.  Yikes, we hadn’t told the kids yet as it was a surprise.  Boxman gave him a little look and he quickly backed his way out of it without even super observant Doodles figuring it out.  I was impressed once again.  Then they found out that it was our first trip so we all got a “1st Visit” pin and Doodles got a birthday pin.

And then we were off to meet my brother and sister-in-law, Eric and Allison, at Animal Kingdom.  The first stop there was to see Terk, who we came across on our way to the African Safari.

We saw lots of cool animals on the safari and Buster really enjoyed walking through the areas where there were birds. They supplied you with a sheet showing pictures of the birds along with some information about them so that you could identify them.

Ross’s favorite ride at Animal Kingdom was the Expedition Everest rollercoaster.

After Animal Kingdom closed, we all ventured off to Downtown Disney for dinner and shopping.    It was at this point that Boxman totally got sucked into the whole pin trading thing and spent over $60 on lanyards and pins for the kids.  That was only the beginning….

Yes, I’m 41 years old and had never been to Disney World before last month.  Never.  The kids had begged to go, but I didn’t feel like we had the money to go.  As Doodle’s 13th birthday was approaching, Boxman and I decided that perhaps we should just plan the trip and go before the kids get too old.  I know, you are never too old for WDW, but I think they were at a great age for it now.  So, back in February, I booked a vacation for us.  We thought it would be fun to surprise them with the trip at the last minute, so we didn’t tell them about it.  I didn’t realize that booking the trip was just the beginning of the planning.  On one of my message boards, people were talking of all the planning they were doing and making reservations for dinner, etc.  I didn’t realize there was so much planning necessary and I started freaking out.  We only had three months before our trip and I hadn’t even thought about where we would eat!?!  I bought a book and started reading at which point I became even more overwhelmed.  I had no idea what the kids would want to do there – we had to tell them so they could give us their opinions too.  For Boxman’s birthday in August, I wrapped up the book I bought and gave it to him.  He already knew about it so it became a fun way to tell the kids about the trip.  Doodles looked less than thrilled about it!  We had been talking about going on a vacation and she had her heart set on a cruise, not Disney World.  As the time got closer, she got more excited.  We left very early on a Saturday morning.  Fortunately, the kids are great travelers so we were able to save the $1500 that plane tickets would have cost for all 4 of us and we drove to Orlando.  We arrived around 9pm at the All-Star Music resort. 

They insisted on trying out the piano and guitar shaped pools.

The resort had different themed areas.

Doodles had a little more energy to get out after spending all day in the car.

Here they are all excited and ready to go – we had to leave early to go check in at the Beach Club and get our park tickets.  I had tried to get another night added on to our stay at the Beach Club, but declined when they told me it was going to cost $480 for one night there. Yikes.

The Beach Club.

I mentioned that I had a series of firsts that occurred for me recently, and then I left you hanging.  So, the first first, was planning a family vacation that was nothing more than a family vacation.  We did not even travel in the same direction that we have any family members.   Yes, we have taken vacations that weren’t solely to see family members, but they were always planned around family.  This trip was planned without the intention of seeing anyone we knew.  That’s not to say that we didn’t see any family members – when my brother and sister-in-law heard about our plans, they decided to meet up with us there for part of our trip. 

Okay, I was going to leave you hanging again, but I will spill the beans – we went to Disney World!  I’ll include some pictures and details in the next post.