The Happiest Place on Earth - Recap

This weekend we traveled all the way (a 1.5 hour drive) to Disney World.

 We have season tickets, so it is a pretty frequent occurance in our house. Epcot has a yearly event called "The Food and Wine Festival" where all the countries set up booths with appetizer size portions of their signature dishes. You can walk around and taste all the different flavors for a fraction of the cost, and you don't get full on one thing since the portions aren't dinner size.  Win-win for me. We strapped the boys in the stroller, and around we went to taste as much deliciousness as we could fit in our bellies. 

We also got to see five characters in Epcot.  They have five characters in a row, and you only have to wait in one line to meet them all.  It is one of the best character greeting places in all the parks.

Ethan couldn't figure out what was going on.  He is old enough to understand that he sees these people on tv, but he can't grasp the fact that they are in front of him in real life.

It is quite hilarious.  No crying or screaming, just awe.  Pure awe.

On Saturday morning we headed to Magic Kingdom, and George rode Thunder Mountain for the first time ever.

I got to be the parent who experienced it with him, and it was awesome.  That was his word.

We got to meet a few more characters before heading back to hotel for nap time, which is my favorite part of vacation. 
Especially in Disney, because little boys are so worn out they will sleep for hours.

 

We headed back to Magic Kingdom after our naps.  It was 9 pm by the time we got back in.

We saw fire works.

Watched the elctro-parade with all the lit floats.

Tim and George rode Thunder Mountain again at midnight before we headed back to sleep.

Both boys slept in until 9 the next morning. 

That is a miracle, by the way.  7:30 am was our record before that. 

On Sunday we went into Animal Kingdom.

We rode a few rides.  Met with some characters.  You know, the usual stuff.

One thing that stuck out to me on this trip was the amount of unhappy parents in the parks.

I was telling my husband that it was so funny how much planning parents will do to give their kids a good time, but in the end they just end up stressed and exhausted.

I was talking to another mother at one point while Tim had George, and I was with a sleeping Ethan.

She jokingly told me that her husband wanted to sue Disney World for false advertising.

He thought the slogan, "The happiest place on earth" was far from the truth.

The sad part is that he is right for most people.

They spend their life savings to bring their kids to this wonderland, and what ends up happening is . . . exhaustion, stress, crying kids, hunger, and so on.

All that to say, I am so thankful that we live in Florida and can get season passes at such a good rate.

We don't feel the pressure to see everything in one trip.  We know we will be back, so we take it easy.

If our kids don't want to do something or see somthing on a certain trip, then we skip it and come back to it next time.

Thankfully, it is still one of our happiest places on earth.