My happy place!

Let me first say, I love to travel. I like road trips. I like flying somewhere. I like to travel to the next town away and see what's there.

But one of my favorite places to go - is Disney World! I truly feel like any troubles and worries melt away when I'm there.

I earned a trip through work. So, off my Mr. and I went. We have never gone to Disney without the kids, so we knew it would be a little weird. It was at first but we did enjoy ourselves.

First, for those of you who don't understand what central Florida is like in mid-July...let me try to paint the picture for you. It's HOT!!!! It's HUMID!!!! There is blacktop everywhere! Every day we were there, it was a "feels like" temp of at least 100F by 8 a.m. with humidity in the range of 60-75%. We drank so much water and ate so many frozen fruit bars. We stayed in the shade as much as we could.

We flew in on a Thursday and out on a Monday.

Let me just say, our Thursday didn't start off too well. We had to be on the 3 a.m. shuttle (vs. the 4 a.m. shuttle we had been told before we left) from our hotel to the airport to get out of Chicago. Not happy to have to be up at 2 a.m. BUT - what can you do!? So we got to the airport by 3:30 a.m. and got in line to check in. (Thank you storms the night before that cancelled flights and added to the craziness...) We got checked in; I got in trouble with the TSA official but got to our gate and had a little breakfast. They boarded the plane, then had to wait for a member of a flight crew to get in who had been on a flight that couldn't get into Chicago the night before. 45 extra minutes sitting on a plane is not the most fun-thank goodness I had a book to read.

We finally got to Orlando, waiting for our bus to our hotel. Our bus driver...yeah - THAT was a scary ride. He had a tick that caused him to weave around. We finally arrived at the most magical place...

And arrived at our hotel

Smooth sailing right? Nope! We check in, walk to our room and....our Magic Bands (your room key; park ticket; everything) do no open the door. Housekeeping to the rescue! She made sure the batteries in the door were working but because we weren't in her section, she couldn't let us in. No problem-we understand! We called the front desk from the hallway and they tried to remote into it, with no luck. So... we sat in the warm hallway to wait (that's my 'I got up at 2 a.m. and am freaking tired and now we are going to have problems like I was afraid we would' face).

All of a sudden, here came a Disney employee, who worked with the door and our bands with no luck. Then maintenance showed up. Then the housekeeper came back - she had gotten permission to let us in our room and alerted the powers that be we were having a problem.

Almost an hour and a half later, they had us all straightened out and ready to enjoy some Disney.

The Contemporary from the Ferry on the 7 Seas Lagoon

We went to Disney Springs to shop and eat. And shop and eat we did!!!!

Lunch was at the BBQ stand at House of Blues - quite tasty!

These cakes at Amorette's were incredible. We got a dessert that was delicious!

(we MAY have had a few other desserts throughout the afternoon [like a Sprinkles cupcake])

We met up with a co-worker and his wife for dinner at Beaches & Cream. We weren't real impressed...

Friday:

I had a meeting in the morning.

My Mr. and my co-worker's wife headed to Magic Kingdom, where we met up with them after our meeting.

Mr. and I had decided we were going to try to hit all 4 parks that day. So - off we went.

Mission accomplished!

But with a small snag...this girl ended up SICK!!!! Mr. took me to First Aid at Hollywood Studios where I slept for about an hour & a half. We took the bus back to our hotel, where I promptly got sick after I stepped off.

A few photos from Friday-

The safari

We went to Frozen Sing a Long to cool off

Saturday:

We had booked the early morning Keys to the Kingdom tour. We really enjoyed it and our tour guide (Jocelyn) was INCREDIBLY knowledgeable and fun! We learned some fun Disney facts and a little of the inner workings of the World.

Magic Kingdom before it opens to the public

 (Sorry, no cameras allowed on the tour)

We headed to Epcot after our tour for a few rides and dinner

We were pretty disappointed in our meal. My highlight was Belle walking by the window and waving while we were eating. (I said it's my happy place!)

After dinner we decided to "hop" to one more park - Hollywood Studios with the idea of watching the new Star Wars fireworks show. Well while on one of the rides, the skies opened up!!!! It rained, thundered and lightened for over an hour.

Then just before showtime, the skies cleared and we staked out a spot. The show was FANTASTIC!!!! (I'm not a Star Wars fan but I LOVED it!)

We decided Sunday was going to be our "lazy" day.

We woke up about 8:00 and my Mr. said, oh I got us a reservation for lunch today. News to me... Ok, where at, at this last minute? (Insert me smiling and jumping around when he tells me) Be Our Guest. Come on lunchtime!!!!

But our morning was lounging around, coffee and watching the monorail go by.

We set out for Magic Kingdom about 11:00 (which was a nice 5 minute walk from the Contemporary)

I had seen this fountain in passing on Friday but wanted to stop and take pictures. So I did on Sunday - it may be my favorite Disney fountain/statue.

Off to one of our favorite rides!

Then lunch

Funny story about lunch...The cashier who took our order spoke in a French accent. She gave us our total and we were paying when she leans toward us and says (quietly) as American as can be "Do you have the 8 cents?" Mr. & I just looked at each other with that "What the heck?" look. When we got to our table, he said "She does a good accent." We were dying laughing.

After lunch, we took a train ride

We're SO HOT!!!!!

All aboard!

I talked him into the Enchanted Tiki show.

Aaaaand stopping for a Dole Whip!

We rode Pirates 3 times in an hour.

The Castle from Splash Mountain

Good night and good bye Magic Kingdom, until next time!

Mr. decided he wanted to go see the Star Wars fireworks again AND ride Toy Story Mania. Off we went!

We used our Fast Pass to ride Toy Story then since there was no line, we decided to ride standby again.

We staked out a spot a little farther back for the show.

We went to the Polynesian to meet my co-worker and his wife for a drink. I give you - the Lapu Lapu. Delicious!

We went back to the hotel, went to bed.

Monday:

Packed up and headed to the airport. We were home and settled by about 5:30.

(This got a lot longer than I thought it was going to - sorry! Thanks if you stuck around through the whole post)