Our Magical Weekend

Our family last visited Disney World in May of 2013. The twins were 5, Kara was 4 and Luke was 10 months from making his first Earthly appearance. It was the time of Disney. In August of 2012, we went as a family to enjoy time together before Thomas' deployment. Because we planned on staying in Florida for most of his deployment, the kids and I bought annual passes (although, our plans changed and the kids and I only stayed in Florida for about 3 weeks as opposed to 7 months). But, since we had the passes, in May, we went back to celebrate his return. Finally, in October, we went on a Disney cruise. We loved it all, so it is surprising we haven't been back. In the 6 years since, we have done Busch Gardens (both Tampa and Williamsburg), annual passes to Kings Dominion and Six Flags, and an epic trip to Universal Studios. But, for some reason, Disney just kept getting pushed to the wayside. Not anymore!

Once we knew we were going to move to Florida, difficult problems arose. Where to buy a house? To go before or after the school year finished? And, perhaps the most challenging--where to buy annual passes? Obviously, I wanted them all. But, that was not financially responsible. And, we didn't want our time to be too divided. There are other things besides theme parks after all! SeaWorld was a given, I was anxious to go back and it is so close to our house that it just made sense. Plus, it came with great perks, like some free guest passes, so we could enjoy it with our friends and family. And, we had promised Luke and Kara waterpark visits as belated birthday gifts (we never made it to Kalahari) and their waterpark is phenomenal. Finally, it is by far the least expensive (despite having the best perks). The original plan was one park per year. And, we would rotate between SeaWorld/Busch Gardens, Universal and Disney.

But, I couldn't wait a whole year to go to Disney World! So, for our first year, I thought a bit more was okay. We love Universal, but it is not great for Luke--you really have to be 48" to reap the most benefits from that park. So, we decided to add Disney. I say "we", but really this is primarily me. Thomas is okay with theme parks, but he doesn't love them the way I do (no one is perfect!). So, the plan was finalized. Then, with no warning Disney raised their prices. Substantially. And, there are 6 of us, so raising their already expensive passes by more than $100 each was crazy. I began to rethink our options. Then, I read something about Sam's Club selling discount annual passes (thank you Facebook!). I did some research and realized I could get the passes for $29 less than the old annual pass price. We were back in business! The rumor was the number of passes available at the old price was limited and once they were gone, they would go back to being just $29 off the newly raised price. So, I acted fast. We had a year to activate, but I was so excited that I went online to see what kind of fast passes I could book for the next evening. I looked at Magic Kingdom and got Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise and Big Thunder Mountain. I wasn't sure we would actually use them, but if we wanted to, we would be prepared! (The passes would become active after we first entered a park, but I could book fastpasses up to 30 days out.)

My brother, sister, JD and Amanda came to visit on Friday. We had a great visit. The kids swam while Kim, Kevin and I played Qwix. We went to Wendy's for lunch (the kids chose) and came back and played Harry Potter Clue with JD and Kara. I ran out of House Points and got booted. JD thought he had it won, but his solution was wrong. Then, we realized something--I had put two rooms in the envelope and no weapon! Ugh, it was a very embarrassing mistake. So, while no one won that game, I was the clear loser on many fronts. They left around 2:30 and Thomas and I decided to go forward with the surprise Disney trip. We told the kids we were going to an outdoor mall, so to wear comfortable shoes and hats or sunglasses. Then, off we went.

We drove through the Disney welcome sign and pretended we were lost. Finally, we said, "since we are here anyway, maybe we should just check it out." The kids understood the surprise and were very excited! We redeemed our passes and headed in. We rode our fastpass rides, and had dinner. We also rode Small World, the People Mover and the Carousel of Progress. Everyone loved everything! The lines were pretty long, so we didn't do much else. We stayed for the fireworks and nighttime show--which was awesome!

I only took a couple of pictures, this one is from the Swiss Family Treehouse.

The night show was amazing!!! Obviously, the picture can't convey.

Luke was exhausted, but it was a fantastic day. We were only there for about 5 hours and still walked around 5 miles. Our plan is to go in the evenings and see all the nighttime shows. Once we have seen all of those, we'll go in the mornings. We will work rope drop and the fastpass system until we've done everything we want to do. And, if it takes all year--that's fine with us! It is much more relaxing than trying to see it all in one week.

We intended to go to Epcot yesterday afternoon/evening to see the nighttime show. We even talked Luke into taking a nap, but shortly before we were going to leave, it started to look nasty outside. The forecast had been fine earlier, but a quick check revealed it had turned to rain all evening. So, we ran some errands and postponed Epcot to today. Since it is a work night, we decided to forgo the evening show and got there at park opening instead. Epcot has fastpass tiers, you have to choose between Test Track, Soarin', and Frozen. I was able to grab fast passes for Soarin', Spaceship Earth, and Finding Nemo. So, when we arrived, we ran straight for Test Track. It was amazing!

I loved this ride and this picture!

Then, we did the Frozen ride, which was fun (but wouldn't be worth an extended wait). From there we tried the different "cokes" from around the world and then went to Mission Space. I hated it! Luke was crying and also hated it. It was very uncomfortable and disorienting. Thomas gave it a 2 on a scale of 1-10. Kara and Jack thought it was okay. And, Anna liked it. Never again for me (unless I do the less motion version). We had lunch and then used our first fast pass on Nemo. The ride was mediocre, but the aquarium in the Seas area was amazing!

We rode Spaceship Earth, which everyone enjoyed. Then, we did the Figment ride, which was cute. Finally, it was time to use our Soarin' fastpass. Everyone loved it, although, I was the only one who proclaimed it my Epcot favorite. Thomas chose Spaceship Earth, Jack, Luke and Kara said Test Track and Anna chose Club Cool, where we got to sample the sodas. Since Soarin' was our last fastpass, I checked the system to see if any others were available and was able to grab passes for Living with the Land, which everyone but Luke liked. I grabbed one more fastpass to ride Spaceship Earth again and then we called it a day.

 Our annual pass ownership is off to a promising start! We have days lined up at Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom and then will likely start over again. Today, we were able to ride every ride at Epcot, but there is still lots more to see there and we barely made a dent in the Magic Kingdom.