There are some positive aspects of traveling on 6am flights. Waking up at 330am is not one of them, but having two sleeping kids on the flight may beat that. On our way to Orlando, we took two separate flights. We broke it up by laying over in Denver. It was great flying with my parents, who were fortunate to get on all the flights they stood by for. We checked our bags with them to avoid the baggage charges. The stroller and carseats were free, so we didn’t have to pay for any bags. We hit a little snag when we arrived in Orlando. First, there was one bag missing – mine. Actually, it had both Peyton and my clothes in it. Luckily, it was on the next flight over, so it wasn’t long before it arrived. It actually helped, since it was the largest, and then we didn’t have to worry about transporting it to the timeshare. We waited in the airport for over an hour for the rental minivan. Things were not looking up when we first arrived. We checked into the condo, dropped what bags we had, then went out again for some dinner and groceries. The condo come with a full kitchen and laundry. We were ready for that, only bringing a few outfits for each of us, in an attempt to travel light (we still had a lot of stuff). After we got back from dinner, my bag was waiting for us in the middle of the room! Faith restored in the airlines.
We had a hopper ticket that was good for 7 days. Clearly we were not going to be able to use all of it, since we were there from Saturday to Saturday, and we had two full travel days. We did make the most of what we had – seeing all 4 Disney theme parks (at least 2 per day), and checking out Universal. My dad had passes that he had kept when we last went as a family 20 years ago exactly. We were all able to get into Universal for free and hop there. The second park wasn’t even around 20 years ago! My parents were able to cash in on 4 days each from the old Disney passes they had. They now have biometric readers which read fingerprints, so no more card-swapping or selling the remainder of your pass. They are pretty slick down there. We slathered sunblock on ourselves each morning, given the weather was pretty sunny, and 10 degrees warmer than it usually is at that time of the year. That meant it was in the high 80s to low 90s all week. Luckily, it wasn’t too humid yet. Brandon got to broaden his experience with some more rides, like Soarin’ and (finally) a ride on Star Tours. He was almost stuck to the seat he was so scared. There were a few rides that got him that scared. Peyton was too short for most of the rides, but she did really enjoy the shows. We saw the Nemo show, which had bubbles in a pretend underwater theme. When the bubbles came cascading down from the ceiling, she looked up and screamed, “Bub-bulls!” I think that’s what the shows are really about now – staying cool and watching the kids’ faces as they light up watching the details of the show. We took a break from 4 days at Disney to change it up at Universal. We realized that we are getting too old for motion simulator rides. They are pretty rough on the body, and the 3-D effects make me nauseous. I guess we should take more caution to heed the warnings listed on each ride, but we’re curious! Dave and I did go on one outside roller coaster that was pretty cool – each rider gets to pick a favorite song from a list, and there is a camera mounted on the front of the car in front, aimed right at the riders. It then makes a video with the music selected, in addition to blasting said song in your ear throughout the entire ride. We went twice (the line was short) so that we could pick two songs each. We agreed on the first – “Insane in the Brain” and then I went a little soft (Fergie) while Dave continued with the rap theme for a little Bizkit. My dad did all the Disney coasters with us, while my mom was content to watch the kids, like she used to watch our stuff when we were younger going on roller coasters. Brandon had no complaints to stay with Grandma while we abandoned him. We got pressed pennies for the rides he conquered, like Test Track, which was a mild version because it was having technical difficulties. The 65 mph in open air section was You can ask your massage in Orlando as medical therapy for situations such as these, you can consult the doctor, foea.org cialis on line purchase make sure that Kamagra is good for you given your medical condition and find cheap Kamagra UK online to have some good time with your partner. To make it simple, imagine for a moment that you forcibly hit the curb with buy viagra uk the front tire of your car, an acute injury to the wheel, if you will. Some diuretics are chlorthalidone (Thalitone), furosemide (Lasix), and indapamide levitra generika (Lozol). Do not bring into past- This is what you do buy viagra in stores with it. not broken, so he felt all of that. It was good that the car sat 3 across, so both Dave and I flanked Brandon, trying to calm him down. I can’t believe he agreed to go on it. He worked up the nerve while watching my dad and Dave do the single rider line. We also showed him the cool cars in the merchandise area at the end of the ride. The last day, my parents “volunteered” to watch Peyton, while Brandon, Dave and I took our final lap around the parks. Both parents were happy to stay home with the little girl, while we had Brandon and his ball of energy. The three of us were able to get a lot done, since we didn’t have to worry about the stroller. This meant Brandon had to walk everywhere. We didn’t last as long as we had the other days because of this, but that meant we were able to be more efficient. We ended up not going on his two favorite rides because of the long wait times since it was Friday. He didn’t mind because he capped off his time with us with a pineapple popsicle. It hit the spot on such a hot day. It even made him forget about how much he was walking while he was eating it. He did request to stop so he could enjoy his popsicle, something we always tell him to do, eat slowly. Some funny Brandon quotes from the trip, “My tummy looks like a planet,” after eating at one of the several buffets we hit. “I’m a cool zone boy” after letting him try some Cokes from around the world at Epcot in the “Cool Zone”. One morning, he woke up early, and whispered in my ear, “Did you lose anything on Space Mountain?” (We had gone on space mountain the day before). I told him we didn’t, then satisfied, he rolled over and went back to sleep. He also kept saying, “You just stuck a bunch of 20’s in there!” We couldn’t figure out what he was talking about. When I asked him about it, he told me he heard it on the radio. We hadn’t really been listening to the radio, because we turned it down to hear the GPS. When we got home, Dave suddenly stopped mid-conversation and said, “Hey, did you hear that?” It was a bank commercial, about some guy putting money into an ATM without an envelope. Weird the things he picks up! Our long flight back went great for the first 3.5 hours. Both kids were fast asleep, stretched out head to toe taking up the three seats we had. The last 2 hours seemed to last about 4, as they were well-rested and antsy. The flight attendant was trying to feed us in exchange for free tax advice my dad provided him. We had bought food prior to the flight, so we didn’t need anything, but he did give us an entire bottle (at least 1 liter) of cold water, which we all shared. Since my parents were in the exit row, we weren’t able to send kids up, so we were all stuck. It did seem like forever before we were headed down, but it did happen. We got ALL of our bags, and headed back to recuperate at my parents’ house. We all took naps, and by midday, we were all rested enough to return home. Except Brandon, who wanted to extend his vacation. We were able to leave him with my parents, so we could run some errands, like grocery shopping, and cleaning up with just one kid. Dave changed his mind when we got home, opting for Brandon instead of Peyton, as he is more self-sufficient. We got Peyton back to sleep in our time zone without much trouble. I think since our internal clocks were all screwed up from the travel, it was fairly easy. Both kids were pretty much on West Coast time the entire time we were there. We didn’t have any problems today either, which was a big surprise to me. We all met up on Sunday for mother’s day brunch, which happened to be at a Chinese buffet. Dave totally thought I was kidding that we were eating there since he’d seen enough Chinese food. Unfortunately, I wasn’t kidding. We rolled out of the restaurant, stuffed again. It’s time for us to all go on a diet! I can’t wait until the end of the week, as Brandon is having “Parents’ Appreciation” at his school on Friday. They are having a performance and then get to fly kites with their parents on the field. We are headed out to a wedding after that, so it will be another busy week. At this rate, May will be over before we know it!
Brandon and Peyton's Blog