Walt Disney World Vacation 2002

May 16th through May 26th

Thursday, May 16^th

    We left the house at 8:20pm for Orlando Florida. It was 59° and raining outside. That should have been a sign for us, because we were about an hour from home (just south of Ann Arbor) when I realized that we had left the tickets at home on the headboard of the bed. We quickly turned around, driving back home in the rain to pick up the tickets and to get a shirt to deliver from my Mom, finally getting restarted at 10:20pm. What a beginning!

Friday, May 17^th

    We started this day in Ohio, although we would have been in Kentucky if not for our unfortunate restart. We made pretty good progress through Ohio and Kentucky. We stopped at the Burger King in Lake City, Tennessee for breakfast and so the boys could get some playtime on the playground. The boys had a hard time deciding between breakfast and playing, and Adam couldn’t pry himself from the “computer” that was their, even though he really wasn’t old enough to figure out the games that were on it.

    We got lunch at Wendy’s just south of Atlanta, Georgia, and ate it in the van. We also made a quick stop at “Adcock Pecan’s” in Tifton, Georgia for my bag of salted peanuts in the shell (my favorite place to buy peanuts).

    The rest of the drive for the day was pretty uneventful, with the exception of two very restless kids.

    We finally arrived at the Vistana Resort (our condo complex) around 7:30pm, getting to our own unit at 8:00pm. Upon arrival, we promptly ordered some pizza and breadsticks from the Pizza Hut inside the condo complex. We unloaded the van while we waited for delivery. We ate our food and put the kids to bed around 9:00pm. Tara and I finished picking up, showering, and putting our clothes away before climbing into bed ourselves. Sleep never felt so good.

Saturday, May 18^th

    Noell was our alarm clock today, calling 11 minutes after 8 this morning assuming that we would all be up and raring to go to Walt Disney World. Wrong! Adam actually got up shortly after her call, so we decided to start our day. I woke up Tyler and put him in the bathtub with Adam. The bathtub was actually a whirlpool tub, and Adam loved the jets being on, but Tyler definitely did not. After the bath Tyler and Adam ate breakfast while Tara showered (yes, again) and got ready. We finally made it out the door at 9:45am.

    After our arrival at the “Magic Kingdom”, we decided to head straight to “Mickey’s ToonTown Fair.” On our way there, we made a pit stop at the “Tomorrowland Indy Speedway” where Tyler drove a car with me and Adam drove one with Tara. From there we toured “Minnie’s Country House” where we saw Pluto in her back yard, and taking pictures of him. We went next door to the “ToonTown Hall of Fame Tent”, where we took pictures with Minnie Mouse, along with Chip & Dale. Afterwards we went through “Mickey’s Country House”, which led to the “Judge’s Tent”, where we waited in line to take pictures with Mickey Mouse. We then moved across the street to the playground area, where Adam and Tyler played for a while. We also made a very quick walk through “Donald’s Boat” (totally not worth it!). Afterwards we rode on “The Barnstormer at Goofy’s Wiseacre Farm”, a rollercoaster that Tyler (who rode with Tara) liked and Adam (riding with me) did not. I had to try and calm him down through the entire ride.

    We left “Mickey’s ToonTown Fair” and I picked up a FastPass ticket (which allows you to avoid the long lines at certain rides by allowing you to come back between a preset timeframe and allowing you to go to the front of the line) for “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh” while Tara and the boys headed to “Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café”, which had become our traditional lunch spot over our three visits to the park. I met them there and we ate lunch. Tyler and Adam had corn dogs and french fries, but neither of them liked the breading. Tara had a chicken sandwich, and I had chicken strips.

    After lunch we rode “Dumbo the Flying Elephant” (which also freaked Adam out – each car had a lever to control the rides up and down movement, Adam wouldn’t let me move the car up at all screaming louder each time I tried). We left “Dumbo” and got some ice cream for the boys and a PowerAde for Tara. While the boys ate their ice cream we waited in line for “it’s a small world” (once again, Adam was afraid to get on but certainly enjoyed it once he did). Everyone enjoyed the ride. After “small world”, we went to “Pirates of the Caribbean”, which we thought they would enjoy due to the pirate scene in Tyler’s “Mickey Sing-A-Long” video. Tyler really liked it, yelling and screaming at the pirates the whole time. Adam cried the whole way through, clinging to Tara and wanting his mommy. On the way out, the boys stumbled onto some pirate hats and hooks (like Captain Hook’s) that they liked, so we splurged on them. All kinds of people thought they were cute as we walked through the park the rest of the day. After Adam freaked out on the pirate ride, we thought that “The Enchanted Tiki Room Under New Management” would be a nice calm show for them to see (how scary can singing birds be, right?), but once again Adam cried through most of the show. Tyler liked everything but the smoke from the Tiki God, singing along at times. We next went to see the “Country Bear Jamboree”, which Adam actually liked (!) but Tyler seemed not to. It wasn’t so much that he cried, but he pouted the whole time (most likely because they were getting tired by this point).

    The next ride was “Snow White’s Scary Adventures”, which Adam surprisingly liked (considering it says “Scary” right in the title). We then went and used our FastPass tickets on “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh” ride, where Adam and Tyler sat together. They both seemed to enjoy this ride as well.

    By this time, Tara and I were getting sick of dealing with two tired boys, so we decided to head back to the condo. On our way out, we walked through “Cinderella’s Castle”. We stopped at the “Town Hall Exposition Hall” to pick up the picture of Adam and Tyler with Mickey Mouse, and then went across the way to have their pirate hats embroidered. Since we rode the Monorail to the “Magic Kingdom” we decided to ride the ferry back to the parking lot.

    On our way back to the condo, we stopped at Winn-Dixie for groceries (we couldn’t find the Publix that we shopped at on our last trip to Disney). Once home, we cooked up some hot dogs and SpongeBob SquarePants macaroni and cheese. By this time it was after 8:00pm, so we gave the boys a quick bath to rinse off the sweat and put them to bed.

Sunday, May 19^th

    Woke up at 9:00am today, and boy did it feel good to sleep in. It was pouring outside, so we decided to make it a lazy day today. We lounged around the condo until around noon, when we decided to go get some lunch. After driving up and down the street and trying to find something we could agree upon for lunch, we finally stopped at TGI Fridays. The boys split a grilled cheese sandwich and fries, Tara had an omelet, and I had a bacon cheeseburger.

    After lunch we decided to head to “Downtown Disney” to do some shopping. Tara and I bought some Christmas ornaments at “Disney’s Days of Christmas”, as has become tradition (we have bought an ornament on each of our Disney vacations). We next bought a t-shirt for Adam, an outfit for Sam, and a photo album at the “World of Disney”. We had earlier promised the boys some Lego’s (mainly to give them something to do at the condo), so we went to the “Lego Imagination Center” and bought Tyler two sets of “Bob the Builder” Lego’s (giving him all of the main characters except Spud and the farmer) and I got a “Darth Vader” Lego key chain. Our final purchase at “Downtown Disney” was a Goofy doll that we will give to Adam for his 3^rd birthday from “Toys Fantastic”.

    Our final activity at “Downtown Disney” was to let Tyler and Adam play in the fountain. The fountain is shaped like a Mickey Mouse head and shoots water up in a random pattern. They had lots of fun running through it until Adam decided he wanted to watch the water coming out of the hole and took a big shot to his eye. It took some time, but we finally got him calmed down (along with my shorts and shirt soaking wet). He was fine, and by the time we go to the van he had completely forgotten about the whole incident.

    Shortly after we got back at the condo Jerry and Gail arrived. We made tacos for dinner, and then headed to one of the swimming pools that were in the condo complex. Jerry, Tara, and I had a good time swimming and jumping around with Tyler and Adam. To my surprise, Tyler really liked being thrown around, even getting flipped over several times. After about an hour of swimming, we headed back to the condo and put the boys to bed. We followed shortly after.

Monday, May 20^th

    Everybody was up (too) early this morning, before 7:30am. We got ready and headed to the “Ticket & Transportation Center” so Jerry and Gail could purchase their tickets. Afterwards we took the Monorail to the “Contemporary Resort” where we had a character breakfast at “Chef Mickey’s” with Chip & Dale, Goofy, Pluto, and Mickey & Minnie Mouse. The breakfast was a buffet, so everybody tried a little bit of everything and everybody also got very full.

    After breakfast we went back to the “Magic Kingdom”. Tara and Tyler rode “The Magic Carpets of Aladdin”, as did Jerry, Gail, and Adam. Although this ride is almost the exact same as “Dumbo the Flying Elephant”, Adam liked it this time around (most likely because Jerry and Gail were with him).  We next went to see the Tiki birds again, and this time around Tyler cried (only when the Tiki god made it thunder, though) and Adam liked it (go figure). Call it the Gama and Papa effect. We rode on the “Jungle Cruise” and both boys seemed to enjoy it as well.

    On our way out of the “Jungle Cruise”, we happened to catch the “Share a Dream Come True Parade” at the beginning, so we stuck around for the whole thing. At the end of the parade, children were allowed to go out and dance with the characters, and Adam went out. He didn’t get to see Donald Duck though, and this was very upsetting to him (he cried for some time). It also made it very hard to get him back to where we were standing. In the process of getting away from the crowd of people watching the parade, Tyler and Adam fell asleep in the stroller (actually, Tyler fell asleep and Adam cried himself to sleep). Jerry and Gail offered to stay with the boys, so Tara and I went to see “The ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter”.

    After the alien show the boys woke up, so we decided to do some shopping on “Main Street”, where Jerry bought Tyler a football Mickey and Adam a basketball Goofy that they each picked out. We followed this up with a ride around the park on the “Walt Disney World Railroad”.

    We left for the condo after the train ride, with plans to eat and go swimming. By the time we ate, we figured it was too late and cool for a swim. The boys got a bath instead. Once the boys were in their PJ’s, Tara and Gail went grocery shopping. Once they returned, Adam and Tyler were put to bed. Again, we followed shortly after.

Tuesday, May 21^st

    Another early morning, as we were all awake by 7:45am today. We all got ready and left the condo around 9:30am and headed to “Disney’s Animal Kingdom”. We immediately had some problems with the stroller (the wheel fell off for the second time in as many days). I took our stroller back out to the van while Jerry went and rented a double stroller from the park. When we all me back up, we made a mad dash to see “The Festival of the Lion King”, which was a very enjoyable singing/dancing/acrobatic show.

    After the show, we ate lunch at “Pizzafari”. We then went on the “Kilimanjaro Safaris”, where Adam and Tyler saw all sorts of animals, including some giraffes up (very) close.  We then walked the “Pagani Forest Exploration Trail” where we saw more animals, including the world’s smallest monkeys.

    We next took the “Wildlife Express Train” to see the “Habitat Habit!”, the “Conservation Station” and the “Affection Section” where we were allowed to pet goats and sheep. While we were there, the goats tried to eat Gail’s shorts, Tara’s shirt, and my shoelaces.

    We rode the train back to the main part of the park, and then went to “The Tree of Life”, where we saw “It’s Tough to be a Bug”. This is a 3D show where we got spit on, stung by hornets, and had bugs crawling underneath our butts.

    After the show, we went to “The Boneyard”, which is a playground/sandbox where we let the boys run off some of their energy. Next, Tara, Tyler, Gail, and Adam rode the “TriceraTop Spin”, which is similar to the Dumbo and Aladdin rides. Tara and I then rode “Primeval Whirl”, a spinning roller coaster.

    When we got off the ride, Tyler was almost asleep and Adam was crying, so we began to leave. By the time we made it to the gate, they were both asleep.

    Back at the condo, we settled in for dinner. Afterwards Gail, Jerry, Tara, Tyler and Adam went swimming while I went to Home Depot for stroller parts (to fix the bum wheel). I couldn’t get it fixed, so Tara and I went back after they returned from swimming (and after we put the boys to bed). After a lot of struggling we finally got it fixed (hopefully) before calling it a day.

Wednesday, May 22^nd

    We all woke up at different times today. When I crawled out of bed at 9:00am, Jerry was back in bed and Tara had taken the boys to the park to play. When they returned, I had Tara cut my hair. Afterwards we all went to the pool for a dip.

    When we finished swimming (the water was freezing today – major shrinkage) we went back to the condo and had lunch. When the boys finished eating, they went down for a nap. Tara also took a nap at this time.

    Tyler woke up so I decided to go to the store with him and get Tara a birthday card and an ice cream cake (not much, I know, but she kept telling me the trip was her present). When we got back everyone was awake, so around 2:30pm we headed to “Disney-MGM Studios”. Tara and I headed to “The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror” and followed it up with “Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith”, which was an excellent indoor coaster. While Tara and I enjoyed these rides, Jerry, Gail and the boys went to go see “Playhouse Disney – Live on Stage!”.

    We all met after the show and went to go see the “Voyage of the Little Mermaid”. It was a pretty decent show, but there was too much mist in it. Our next stop was “The Great Movie Ride”, which Tara and I had ridden before and could have skipped this time.

    Our next show was “Jim Henson’s Muppet-Vision 3-D”. The kids enjoyed this show, especially when Mickey Mouse made a surprise appearance at the end.

    We had dinner reservations at the “50’s Prime Time Café”. At the beginning of our meal, I was introduced to our “Cousins” in the dining room next to ours. Everybody but me seemed to enjoy their meals (surprise, surprise). The highlight of the evening came when the waitress picked up our plates. When she picked up Jerry’s plate, she showed everyone in our dining room how clean it was. When she got to mine a few minutes later, she showed everyone how much food was left on it… and then swirled my fork in my mashed potatoes only to make airplane sounds and feeding me a mouthful. She then leaned over and whispered to me if I wanted anything else that she would bring it. The wait staff also sang Happy Birthday to Tara and gave her a cupcake with a candle on it.

    We left the park around 9:00pm, headed back to the condo and called it a day.

Thursday, May 23^rd

    After we got up this morning, we made a return to MGM. We arrived shortly after opening, and then went to go see “Beauty and the Beast – Live on Stage”. After this show, we went clear across the park to ride “The Disney-MGM Studios Backlot Tour”. Tara and I have seen this ride two other times and have only found it to be mildly entertaining, but the boys seemed to enjoy most of it (except when the truck caught on fire) even though the majority of the ride is over their heads. We stopped in a few shops, then headed back to the condo for naps.

    When everybody woke up, we headed out to “Epcot”, arriving just after 3:00pm. Our first ride at “Epcot” was inside “Spaceship Earth”. Both boys enjoyed this ride. Tyler really liked it when the train went backwards.

    After that, Tara, Jerry and I went to ride “Test Track” while Gail took the boys to see “The Living Seas”. From the lounge we moved to the ride, which we all liked. The ride did break down about 20 feet from the end, but they provided us with a pass for immediate access later (which we never used).

    After “Test Track” we met Gail and the boys and went to go see “Honey, I Shrunk the Audience”. The boys liked this one, although Adam got spooked early on, and a couple of the animal tricks scared the boys.

    We left the show, went to “Mexico” for dinner, rode “El Rio Del Tiempo”, which is inside “Mexico”, then went to neighboring country “Norway” to ride “Maelstrom”. While in line, Tyler bit my shoulder and came very close to not riding anything ever again (or sitting, for that matter). “Maelstrom” is a small log flume ride, and Tyler and Adam both loved it. After the rides we watched “Illuminations: Reflections of Earth”, a fireworks show.

    We headed out after the fireworks, went back to the condo, and began to pack.

Friday, May 24^th

    Tyler and I woke up at 8:00am today, and Jerry and Gail had already left. Tara and Adam were up and packing. We got all of our stuff together and began packing the van. Around 9:00am the cleaning people asked if we were ready to leave, even though checkout isn’t until 10:00am. We got everything out of the condo at 9:30am. As we were climbing into the van, we saw a couple of the cleaning crew making out on the curb. Tara complained at checkout, and they offered us $30.00 to spend at the resort. We told them no thanks, that we would never stay there again.

    After we completed checking out of the condo we went to “Disney’s Blizzard Beach Water Park” (or the Hot Hot Hot place from Tyler’s “Mickey Sing-A-Long” video). Our first stop inside the park was “Tike’s Peak”, a pool and slide area where only kids under 48” are allowed. They enjoyed slides and the tube ride in this area. We next rode the “Chairlift” to the top of “Mt. Gushmore” (which Tyler was desperate to ride, crying a lot when we said he was too short to ride it) where we rode “Teamboat Springs” back down. “Teamboat Springs” is a raft ride for families.

    After the raft ride we went in “Cross Country Creek”, a floating river that circles the entire park. We got out of the creek after circling about half of it and went to “Melt Away Bay”, a wave pool. We got out of the wave pool and took the boys back to “Tike’s Peak” because we weren’t sure that there was many other slides they could ride (because of their size) and we were ready to get started on our trip down to Sarasota.

    Before leaving we changed our clothes in the bathhouse and stopped by “Beach Haus” and bought the boys each a bead necklace and bracelet (too big!) and a necklace for Tara and I (too small! Next time we’ll try them on first). After our purchase, we headed out for my Grandma’s.

    We got to Grandma’s around 3:00pm and spent some time there. We walked to the recycle center and the pool. The boys really wanted to swim, but we needed to head up to Sherry and Tim’s to go out to dinner for Sherry’s birthday.

    Once at Sherry and Tim’s, we met up with Rick and Marta, Timmy, Grandma, and Steve and went to dinner at “The Crab Trap”. After we got back to Sherry and Tim’s, we spent some time talking before calling it a night.

Saturday, May 25^th

    We slept in this and had a lazy morning today. Tara and Sherry went to the grocery store for diapers and stuff for lunch. We ate subs around noon, and then put the boys down for a nap. Tara also slept, while Timmy and I watched a movie (Saving Silverman).

    After the movie was over, we got ready and headed out to Denny & Karen’s house for Meghan’s graduation party. We spent some time talking with them and had some food before it was time to get going.

    We finally hit the road around 7:30-8:00pm for the long drive home. Never before have we wanted to move to Florida so bad. Somebody find us a job down there! The drive the rest of the night was uneventful.

Sunday, May 26^th

    Started this day in Georgia, and made pretty good time the whole day considering the amount of police on the roads. We drove pretty much straight through today, only stopping for food and gas. We were going to stop and eat lunch someplace, but we were anxious to get home so we just kept plugging away.

    Made it home around 5:00pm. We called Bill and Noell so that they could come get Adam (it was his birthday, after all). We showered and then went to my Mom and Dad’s house for dinner before returning home and climbing into our own comfortable bed. Aaah!

    All in all, a wonderfully enjoyable trip.