the most magical place on earth

It is always very sad when I get home from Disney, but this year it is a little different. Why?

Weeellll...

John and I bought real estate in Disney. We own .99% of the Animal Kindgdom Lodge Resort - click the link to see the amazing view from the rooms. As Disney Vacation Club members, we get 160 vacation points to use each year (which is equal to one huge vacation overseas or two week-long vacations in the states) in over 500 places around the world. Pretty sweet deal, and it lasts for 50 years. So, I am not too sad about coming home because we are likely going back in September and taking his family (including the three nephews) to a grand villa at Saratoga Springs (the resort where my parents own property).

The trip was a lot of fun; very exhausting, but fun. Driving down and back was fun, except for getting lost in Philly and being in the car for 21 straight hours on the way home. I was going to post a lot of pictures, but I spent hours putting them up on facebook and myspace this morning, so you can just go look at them there.

Sunday we arrived around 3pm, got to our villa and unpacked before heading over to the Beach Club Villas for our dinner reservations. That resort was super nice but I couldn't deal with the bus system they have - they share with four other resorts. Our resort, Saratoga, has its own bus which makes things waaay easier. Dinner kind of sucked because it was a buffet and those gross me out, but we got to color on the table so I was happy. Also, there was a super awesome dessert that made it worth going there. After dinner we walked along the boardwalk which was also really cool but crowded. I wish I'd taken more pictures there - it was really nice.

Monday we went to the Magic Kingdom (how can you not go there first?) and did a few rides. Splash Mountain was closed again this year (which means I have no done it since 2005 :( ), but we made up for it by going on Thunder Mountain a bunch. We rode the "people-mover," Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion. It was really crowded because Monday's are the busiest day for Magic Kingdom, so we went back to the pool after lunch. We had beautiful weather - 85 degrees and sunny. We had dinner at our resort and walked over to Downtown Disney for the night. We got drinks at Raglan Road and walked around the strip there.

Tuesday we went to Epcot. We stayed with my family for the morning and did the Nemo ride, went to Club Cool (they have different sodas from all over the world and last year my parents tricked me into drinking the Italian soda that tastes like sour cough syrup, and they wanted to get John to try it). John and I went on our own and did each of the countries in World Showcase. It was really nice to go through each of them. We stopped by a Disney Vacation Club booth and randomly signed up for the preview, only because we'd get $30 in gift cards for doing it. Little did we know we'd be signing up for DVC on Saturday  ; ). That night we had dinner at Kona Cafe at the Polynesian which was good - it had the most amazing dessert ever. It was chocolate cake filled with hot chocolate gooey stuff. Oh my goodness, so so so yummy. We watched the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom from the Polynesian resort that night which was fun but man it gets cold at night! We originally were going to go swimming there but I was so cold that I chickened out.

Wednesday we went to MGM (I dont care that they changed the name to Hollywood Studios, it will always be MGM to me lol) and because of my stomach thing I couldn't do my FAVORITE ride ever, but hopefully I'll be able to when we go back in September. We saw Indiana Jones for the first time which was so funny. They had a bunch of people from the audience go down to be in the show, and there was this one guy, "Tito from Cuba" who was the funniest thing ever. He couldn't understand English so when the instructor gave cues, he was totally clueless. He paused in the middle of the show and yelled up to his family in the audience "photo!" and posed with one of the stunt guys. I hope we have it on tape, and if we do I'll put it on here because you will pee your pants laughing. Turns out in the end, he was part of the show all along. We did the new Toy Story ride which was so cute, I loved it. John and I stayed a while after everyone else and did Star Tours and met some characters. We headed over to MK in the afternoon and did a few rides and watched the Mickey's Phillharmagic show. We had dinner at Planet Hollywood that night which was SO good. I got manicotti and completely stuffed my face - I am so going back there again. We had our own little room there, and I was sitting right under the real book of spells from Hocus Pocus (I was totally into that movie when I was ten, haha).

Thursday we went to Animal Kindgom which I looove. We went on the Safari ride and saw giraffes, lions (up close too!) and my favorite, tigers. John and I went on the river rapid ride and I got soaked, we did Primeval Whirl and Dinosaur and all sorts of fun stuff. We saw really cute endangered monkeys and got to pet goats and even saw a real live komodo dragon! That night we went to Epcot for dinner with Mickey and Chip & Dale. We went on Test Track three times in a row that night and got some funny pictures on it. I freaking love that ride, I wish we could have done it more.

Friday was a sad day because it was our last, but we went to Epcot in the morning and did Soarin' and the Figment ride and some other stuff. We went to Magic Kingdom that night for dinner at Tony's which I love just because Lady and the Tramp is one of my favorite movies. John and I got a bunch of pictures taken in front of the Castle at night, and did all of the kid rides that are usually really busy during the day. We rode Snow White, Winnie the Pooh, and the Speedway which I've never been able to do. I was so tired by the end that I was ready to head home.

And now I'm just happy that Cooper is home from the kennel, I missed that guy so much.

Oh, and I found out today that I have an extra week off from school. That totally made my day!