Hard to imagine, the closing of another incredible trip to the magical world of Disney. We spent time with great friends, while I enjoyed time with my wife and daughter. We maximized our days traveling back and forth between all 4 parks (Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and Epcot), while scattering in some pool and hangout time back at the resort.
Day 1 – Travel Day
After our 16 hour drive, we reached our destination at the Mariott Vacation Resort. It overlooked a gorgeous golf course and the weather was perfect. It was 75 and sunny, a dramatic difference from the 35 and overcast in Columbus. That night we went to the Senor Frogs for some drinks and food. The staff made balloons for the kids and we chatted the dinner away. After dinner we visited our hotel pool, where they served ice cream, drinks and had pool-side movies. The pool was definitely one of the nicest pools I had visited.
Day 2 – Animal Kingdom
We got a little bit of a late start and arrived at Disney’s Animal Kingdom around 11am. I will never get tired of visiting this place. The moment that walk into the park your overwhelmed with detail. Even the finger print scan-in system was awesome! We pretty much walked around all day, visiting the animals, parades, and shows. Hands down, Disney has the coolest parades (especially in Animal Kingdom). Everything from the music to the characters and the floats. Later on we rode the safari and saw a ton of cool animals. After that we traveled over to my (personal favorite), A Bug’s Life. It’s a 3D experience that could be argued for a 4D experience, given that the show spits out water, and has rumbling and gasses from the bugs. Natalie (3 years old) wasn’t terribly impressed. All she wanted to do was punch the bugs because they scared her soo much. So I guess that show was just for me. Once we finished that, we were beginning to get hungry. And there is no place better than Rainforest Cafe’. No contest, my favorite place to eat. The entire shop and restaurant is covered in a jungle. Fish tanks are everywhere and the sounds and decor’ was overwhelming to the senses. Needless to say, I stuffed my face. We pretty much ended the day with walking back to the car and enjoyed the rest of the day at the hotel.
Day 3 – The Beach and Friends
Despite the water still being cold, my wife and Stacy had to visit the beach. Ok, fine, I enjoyed it too. So we drove an hour to the closest beach (Cocoa Beach), which was crazy busy because of Spring break. Natalie and the girls (Aliviah, Isabella) played in the sand and made castles, I hung out with Brian and Katie chit-chatted with Stacy. Kaitlyn, the oldest of the Driftmyers, hung out mostly in the water.
After getting our fill at the beach, our families went our own ways for the evening. We went and visited our friends, the Maynards, for dinner. The Maynards are some of the most hospitable people we know. We stayed with them a couple years ago (2011) when we visited Disney for the first time. Peggy, made an incredible meal as we sat out at their pool, and got to catch up with Tim, Jaci and of course Peggy. Awesome family.
Day 4 – Gator Boat Rides, Pizza and Rain
After waking up, Brian and I went out for a quick run while the ladies prepped for the day. This day turned out to be a pretty wet and rainy day. After thinking that maybe we could be out the rain, we decided to book a trip to Wild Florida, a gator boat ride. Turns out that we didn’t see very many gators because by the time we got on the boat, it was pouring and the trip got turned into a quick glance at all the stops. Which was ok with us, because we were all soaked and rain hitting your face at 30mph, HURTS. Oh, and it was St. Patrick’s Day! Lucky us. Later on we went and got pizza at Giordano’s. Outside of the initial chaos of waiting for an hour to get seated and then another hour and a half for the food the place was cool and the pizza was worth the wait. There was a guy walking around making balloon disney characters. He was actually pretty impressive. He made every single one of our kids a balloon and still managed to keep going. #carpaltunnel
Day 5 – Magic Kingdom
Alright, just writing this part of the blog makes me excited. Magic Kingdom is truly the most incredible place at Disney. I literally feel like I’ve stepped out of reality and into the world of Mickey. We got into the park around 11am, and got some food. Thanks to the wives, we had a cheap lunch and were ready to move on. Brian and I ran ahead while the girls finished lunch, and we got fast passes for the day. This turned out to be a great idea, because the waits were out of this world. We signed up for: Jungle Cruise, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin and Peter Pan’s Flight. While waiting we rode the carousel, tried to pull King Arthur’s sword, and visited some princesses (Tip: Get fast passes for the princesses). Oh, and riding Astro Orbiter in Tomorrowland is awesome! Lines weren’t real long either. But the last thing we did, thanks to Stacy, we were able to score a last minute reservation at Beast’s castle for dinner. This place easily rivals Rainforest Cafe in terms of detail. Food was decent, but the decor’ was out of this world. It has everything you would expect from Beast’s castle: dining hall, west wing, art gallery, and tons more you’ll have to see for yourself. After dinner was over, we ran over to catch the fireworks, which were, of course, above and beyond and even included a 3d projected show on the castle. Lastly, we ended our night with our final trip to Pan’s Flight. Oh, and Natalie met her favorite princess on the way out, Ariel!
Day 6 – Magic Kingdom(again), Hollywood Studios, Epcot
We didn’t get a chance to catch the parade during the day, so we got to enjoy the parade. Afterwords, we were able to catch up with a few more characters: Princess Jasmine, Tinker Bell and Rosetta. Turns out waiting for characters can pretty much take up most of the day. So after that we decided to head over to Hollywood Studios.
The first thing we did was Brian, Kaitlyn, Aliviah and I, went over to the Tower of Terror. After about 45 minutes we got on the ride. Not a terribly scary ride because of height, but scary because you kind of forget that you’re traveling pretty high in an elevator, since it’s dark. But fun nonetheless. We then decided to get some lunch and went to a Playhouse Disney show. Natalie loved it, especially since she’s such a huge fun of Jake and the Neverland Pirates. And as expected, we had to get some more autographs. So we caught up with a few of our favorites: Wreck and Ralph and Vanellope, Minnie Mouse and Magic Mickey.
Lastly, Epcot, the only park I hadn’t been to yet. It was starting to get a little dark, and so our trip their was a little quick. Still, it didn’t take away from how awesome the park was. Of course, the Spaceship Earth was pretty amazing and HUGE. We then made our way past the shops, and started walking around the entire park visiting all of the countries and taking note of the detail in all of the restaurants. The lake in the middle was really cool, and as we were beginning to make our way out of the park we decided to stop and watch a little bit of the final fireworks and the show in the middle of the lake.
Unfortunately, because I had to be back for Annual Training, this was our last day. But we saturated every minute of the day and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly with our great friends.
Day 7 – Pool and Travel
We didn’t get to utilize the hotel and the facilities as much as we wanted. Oh, and this is the second hotel we stayed at. We only stayed at the first one with the golf course for a couple days, since my military schedule got changed. Anyways, we hit up the kid pool and the large pool at the club house. The cool thing about this resort we stayed at was that there was soo many other things you could do besides just hang out in your room. There was: Jet skis, blobs, fishing, pools, tennis, basketball and tons of others. So, next time we’ll plan to spend more time there instead. After our last minute of fun, we said bon voyage to our friends and started home.
Overall, this was an incredible trip that went way to quick (as all do). We hung out with great friends and I enjoyed spending time with my wife and daughter before I deploy. I look forward to bringing out next little girl, Ellie to Disney. Disney and Florida has once again provided for an amazing stay and I can’t wait for the next adventure back.
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