Off to Walt Disney World!

On September 23rd our family was ready to head to Disney World. Ethan, Tanner and I had been able to go with my parents last year, but this year Brian and Bradon got to come along for their first visit. We visited during hurricane season when they offer really great deals to encourage people to visit. Fortunately there wasn't a hurricane in sight (hardly any rain for that matter), and things worked out great. We were worried about Brian able to leave his job, but things worked out so he could come along. Plus we were able to get airline tickets with frequent flier miles, so we just couldn't pass another visit up!

Brian's dad was kind enough to get up very, very early and take us to the airport. Our flight left at 6:30 a.m., and when you're traveling with three kids, three car seats, four pieces of checked luggage, three carry-ons and two strollers you have to get to the airport early.

I thought it might be difficult to get the boys out of bed and ready to go, but they were excited so it wasn't too rough. Fortunately it isn't to tough to get through security early in the morning and we were able to stop at Burger King for some breakfast to take on the plane and then we were ready to board.

Our first flight took us from Salt Lake to Atlanta where we had a little layover before heading to Orlando. Our boys were very good on the trip. We hardly heard a peep out of Bradon and he slept most of the time. He was an angel.

Tanner was reasonably entertained by playing with his new V-Tech digital camera that he had received for his birthday. That made the time go for him.

We finally arrived in Orlando. Ethan was relieved because he didn't like the way the airplane made his ears feel. I really like the Orlando airport. It's so light and bright and you get to ride a monorail. We soon spotted Goofy and stopped to get a picture.

After retrieving our rental car (a Toyota Sienna which I quickly grew to love), we were off. We stopped at a Publix to grab some milk and other goodies and then we drove to our resort. We stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort and below our some pictures of our room.

Overall I thought the resort was ok, but not anywhere near as nice as the Polynesian (where we stayed last year). After settling in we drove over to Downtown Disney to enjoy our first FREE meal on our FREE Disney dining plan. We went to the Wolfgang Puck Express and both Brian and I ordered the Rosemary Chicken with mashed potatoes. It was a really great meal, and if we had paid for it our bill would have come to $55 (!!!), since you get a drink and dessert with every meal.

After dinner we went back to the resort and decided to go swimming. We went over to the main pool at Old Port Royale. I had chosen this resort because they have a brand new swimming complex that I thought the boys would enjoy. They did enjoy swimming, but they were intimidated by the bucket that dropped water in the children's play area, and they didn't want to try the slides in the main pool. Brian and I each got one ride down the long water slide. It was fun, but you go through a tunnel and at night it is very dark in there. A little too frightening for little kids.

All too soon it was time for bed, but we were looking forward to a visit to the Magic Kingdom in the morning!