I just found this draft – 5 years overdue – I hardly remember this trip but posting it anyway

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Yes… I am 4 months behind with this blog post… just gives you an insight into the crazy life of working family with 3 midgets…

If from the header you are thinking we are crazy, you are not far off – I am nodding my head. But we knew what we were getting into – have done it before, yet we didn’t learn. But it is the most decent family vacation to drive to from Atlanta that has mild weather and entertains close to everyone. Yes, the parents tend to need extra vacation after (or a few drinks everyday) but who doesn’t need that?

My parents were visiting for the holidays and since they  never been in Disney, here we go –  on the road on Xmas day for 7 hours  in 2 cars: 4 adults, 3 kids, 2 dogs. Oh, did I forget to mention that Max got a concussion 2 nights before, Lucas was in a cranky mood and Mia started to talk endlessly about a week before? This was our 3rd time (you’d think I learn) but here are our impressions:

accommodations

For the first time, we actually rented a house. Brian always insists on some Disney resort but we thought of this rather late, so all that was left was pretty expensive (think $3000 per room for 5 nights!) – and we needed 3 rooms! So I started researching some houses – and thank goodness for foreclosures 🙂 There are so many houses for rent in the area for a great price, it was so easy ! We opted to go to a pet friendly house in Kissimmee, with a pool, 5 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms. It was owned by a lovely retired couple who was so nice and sweet through the arrangements – and the house was in a fantastic condition. I’d highly recommend Judy and Harlan’s houses – we stayed in the Belle’s Adventure. It was great to eat breakfast at home, jump to the pool after an all day walk and relax on a  couch in the evening. And every park was 15 mins away – this is the way to go… So thumbs up to our house.

parks

Well, what can I say – thumbs up for Animal Kingdom, thumbs down for Magic Kingdom. Wish we had more time and less whiny children in Epcot – because if it didn’t go at least 100 mph and had at least 100 decibel noises and pulled out half of our vertebrae – it wasn’t enough fun.  I only ended up with one pulled muscle, my Dad had some small foot injury, Mom had sore throat but the kids were durable and kept going. I have to give it to Disney for the organization, cleanliness but food in the parks could be a little more frequent, healthier and more accessible. Making a reservation 4 months ahead, thinking you know you can estimate when you’ll be hungry, when roller coaster lets you out and how fast you can run to the other side of the park (or hang out in the restaurant vicinity for 2 hours with other starving parents) is not stress free planning. It gets even better when your dad thinks he can influence the hostess with his barely there English – and starts poking in their computer….

Jul 2018 comment – this was our last visit to Disneyworld and we haven’t gone since. Brian and I are resisting hard, Mia is slowly giving up, boys don’t care one way or the other – if there was a Fortnite ride, maybe? If anyone would volunteer to take our 7 years old with them, we will pay you 🙂 Bad parenting… or maybe just parents who know what vacation really is.

I guess this was our farewell Disney – well unlikely – I am sure somehow someone will end up there again, it is so close. But I love watching how little they were:-)