A Family United: Disney

Oliver has been asking to go to Disneyworld for about a year. The third round of the Florida Winter Tour series was going to be held in Orlando, so we decided that would be the race that the entire family would attend and I could take Oliver and Emma Claire to Disney during the week before the races.

I somehow missed the "Disney" fever. I never sipped that "kool-aid". I could list a million other things I would rather do than go to a Disney park. Laundry and a root canal is on that list. It just isn't in me.

I wasn't going to do this alone. I recruited BeBe to go with me (apparently I inherited my lack of Disney enthusiasm from PaPaw who did not want to go).

So, before we went to Florida, I did a little research and stopped when I discovered how much it would cost for two adults and one child (Emma Claire is free) to just get a ticket to go inside a Disney park. SAY WHAT?!

So, I went the easy route. I chose Epcot. I know, I know. I have children. I should have taken them to the Magic Kingdom for the first Disneyworld experience. I chose Epcot because 1) there is less mouse, less princesses, less teacups, etc. 2) there was the flower show going on and I knew that there would at least be something pretty & interesting to look at besides mouse ears on grown adults.

Also, two weeks before the trip, Oliver declared he didn't want to go to Disneyworld anymore and he wanted to go to SeaWorld to get splashed by Shamu. Then a week before we left, he told me he was over SeaWorld and would prefer to go to LEGOLAND.

He wasn't dead set on Disney but I couldn't take him to Orlando and drive an hour and a half to go to LEGOLAND. It had to be Disney or I could never face the other moms at pre-school. They were already shocked and appalled I lacked the love of Disney.

So, on Friday morning we headed to Epcot and paid $293.94 for admission. I think the man at the ticket booth quickly learned that we weren't Disney people when he asked Oliver who his favorite Disney character was (for his ticket/card) and Oliver looked back at him with a blank stare. The man had to make his question multiple choice. Stares again until Oliver finally chose (C) Goofy (when you don't know the answer, always go with C).

And like that, we entered and began our day ~~of waiting in lines~~ of fun.

The flowers were beautiful. The park was actually a better experience than I had expected. I will probably take the kids to the Magic Kingdom when we go back to Florida next year (it's going to take me that long to save up to go). We went on the Nemo ride and saw Crush. We walked through the Butterfly Garden, we bought a $17 spray mist fan for my son who complained he was hot while I basked in the 85 degree day thinking, "Hallelujah! There's NO snow and I am warm!". We really enjoyed walking through all the countries and were really disappointed to find out Germany ran out of beer! WHAT!? I walked all the way to Germany for a beer and a pretzel and there was NO BEER! We let Oliver pick where we ate lunch and he chose very well--Morocco. We had a nice waiter who wrote Oliver's name in Arabic for him and met another nice girl in China that also wrote Oliver's name for him in Chinese.

But, most importantly, Oliver had fun ~~spending a LOT of money~~.

Our Disney day in pictures. Proof I actually went to the one place I have tried very hard to avoid.

Proof I have been to the "~~Most Expensive~~ Happiest Place on Earth". For $15 and 20 minutes in line, you would think I would get a better quality print.