Disney World

Spring Break 2009...wait, rather 'Time to be 5 years old again 2009'

Very last minute a friend and I decided to join one of her friends down in Orlando for Spring Break. I haven't been to any of the Disney parks since I was 4 years old so you can imagine my excitement in knowing I'd get to go to the land where all my favorite indulgences come from (Hannah Montana, Suite Life, etc). We were going to be there for 6 full days, where 4 of those days we would be staying free in a Disney resort with the friend and her mom. Then the last two days two of us would be staying extra in the cheapest hotel we could find.

We started the journey off a bit shaken, we all were taking seperate flights all from different airports that were closest to our homes, I arrived at the same time as another, but one was delayed almost 5 hours. I was perfectly content sitting in the warm airport feeling the lovely warm Florida breeze. It was 30 degrees or so back home and snowing, so any warm was happy enough. We spent three days at Disney World. The days that we were not at Disney was spent at Downtown Disney (shopping meca), Disney mini golf, or relaxing by one of the many pools. I was so excited to get a major tan (I know, not healthy, but neon white is not pretty either), sadly I only ended up with being a more normal shade of white.

The days we were at the park were very, very long. But smiles and giggles galore. Because we were staying with a family that was part of the Disney Vacation Club we got amazing perks like discounts at stores and restaurants AND extra hours in the parks. We got to stay at Magic Kingdom til 1am Sunday night! All of the rides and major Disney images were breath-taking at night. I would stop midtracks in desperate need to document how beautiful it was. My favorite night feature was the castle and the Epcot Ball (Spaceship Earth). It was so much fun and when we came back to Magic Kingdom the next few days it seemed all new since it was the first time seeing it in the daytime. Anyone who does not think Disney is a magical, magical place is mistaken. All the characters floating around, the joyful music, the awesome performers doing silly skits, and the crazy awesome rides.

My favorite park was by far Magic Kingdom. I never felt a dull moment and actually found that we didn't get to do all the rides I wanted to do there. I forced everyone on It's a Small World...which was the scene of a future scary movie. Effing creep as hell, but still cool to do.

My favorite rides? Tower of Terror, Rock'n Roller Coaster, Toy Story Mania (new ride!!), Splash Mountain, and the Test Track. And for your enjoyment, a picture of my friends and I on Rock'n Roller Coaster. And yes, that is me in the upper right hand corner with my lungs coming out of my mouth.

One of the greatest thing about the trip was getting to experience Disney characters that I had loved as a child. I was Belle two years in a row for Halloween, I watched Cinderella a billion times over again, and the whole shabang. Beauty and the Beast had a few opportunities to share with the characters. The first attraction we visited in the parks was the Beauty and the Beast live show. It was my FAVORITE show and I was so giddy the entire time. The actors were incredible and really put on a show. I felt like we paid money just to go see this show. And as a Belle enthusiast, I could not stop awing. We also got to meet Belle at story hour and at the meet and greet room.

Now after the friend and her mom left we were pretty much on our own. We arrived at this stingy motel near Universal Studios. We were scared it would be horrible, like horrible to the max. So when we arrived we were pleasantly surprised that it wasn't THAT bad. Yeah, I kept my shoes on the entire time, we double/triple locked our doors, kept the blinds shut all day, that sort of business, but for 25 dollars a night (yes, I do not kid), we were in heaven.

I felt really special while at the parks, as one of my high school friends works for Disney! She is a Disney PRINCESS!! How many people can say they are friends with a Princess. I have wanted to visit her and see her in costume for years. So after we met up with her and played around at the parks we got her schedule and wound up at Epcot's China and got to see our lovely Mulan. I was so happy to see her and she looked amazing.

While we were staying at the dingy motel, Mulan got the two of us into the park for free! She was the best Disney tour guide ever....seriously. She had already planned the whole day out for us and what there was to see and what we had to do. So we started the day off at Magic Kingdom to go visit some princesses, which she knew all of them. It was really funny to see how the characters while in costume would use code talk to get across what they wanted to say. It was great fun hearing Belle 'So, I saw a lovely picture of Mulan the other day, isn't she a doll...' We went on a few rides, but we spent most of the day going to see the shows and enjoying the parades. The morning parade in Magic Kingdom was too much fun. It was a block party parade that ended in front of the castle which allowed the dancers/actors/characters to interact with the public with tons of dancing numbers and singing. I had a BLAST! I seriously shook off my tail-fetha. There was an afternoon parade at MGM, but I was too hot and tired to really get into it. But it included characters from Pixar films. It was fun and included such characters from Toy Story and Monsters Inc. I really got a kick out of Mr. Potato Head. But what was even cooler was that during all of the performances my friend knew the actors. She got Little Bo Peep coming up and hugging her, winks from dancers, and even little waves from Princes! Little kids stared at awe in us... I mean we were in with the in-crowd!

Well our adventure was very tiresome and my feet were dead by the end of the vacation. It was also time to say goodbye to my first pair of Chucks (8 years old) as they were beaten to the core from Disney. All-in- all it was a great vacation. Not relaxing, but time to be a kid. Sometimes it feels good to want to carry a balloon around all day, or eat a messy popsicle, and especially meet Mickey and Minnie Mouse in their hometown.

Oh boy.