Pizza for Thanksgiving

Yep, no turkey, no stuffing, no pie.  But what an amazing Thanksgiving it was.  The Welker clan- including Grandma and Grandpa- trekked out to the Land of the Mouse for Thanksgiving week.  I wouldn't want to celebrate Thanksgiving this way every year.  We had a great time.  And as delicious as that pizza was, I miss seeing the rest of my family.  And pie.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  So here are a few pictures and the stories behind them.  

After 16 hours of driving, this sign was . . . 

 . . . a very welcome sight.

The view from our room

Grandpa admiring the view from their adjoining room.

Jason wasn't impressed with the interior of our rooms.  But he's a world traveler that gets to stay in some pretty fancy-schmancy hotels on his business trips.  I liked that nothing screamed Disney, but it was there if you looked for it.  Lucy found a tiny "hidden Mickey" in the pattern stitched onto the fabric of the futon (on the right side of the photo).  Very subtle and very cool.

On our first night, we rode the boat from our resort- the Contemporary (in the background) to Fort Wilderness for dinner. The food was good, but extremely over-priced.  The boat ride was my favorite part.  By the time we headed back, it was really cold.  But Tyler, Emily and I still decided to ride in the front of the boat instead of inside where it was warm.  We took the wrong boat and ended up headed for the Magic Kingdom instead of our resort.  What a great mistake!!!  The castle was lit up with its Christmas lights and was simply beautiful!

This is how we started every morning- the kids on the floor with breakfast in front of the TV.  One of the channels shown in our room had old Disney shorts.  The same episodes were shown on a loop over and over.  Our kids must have seen the same cartoons at least a dozen times.  But that didn't stop them from entering their zombie trance every time it was on.

Two of my favorite things in this photo- grandparents and the monorail.  We LOVED having Grandma and Grandpa with us.  I didn't stress as much as I would have had they not been with us.  It was great watching our kids connect with them.  

The one thing Lucy talked about in the weeks proceeding our trip was meeting Cinderella.  When we stood in line to meet the princesses, the cast-member told us he couldn't guarantee that we'd meet Cinderella or Belle- Emily's favorite.  But when we entered the room- there they were!  I almost cried.  Lucy was so excited to see her, but got very shy and quiet when it actually came to her turn to say "hi."  

When Emily walked up to her favorite princess, Belle smiled at her and said, "Have you been in my wardrobe?"  Emily just grinned and was just as shy as Lucy.  My princesses also met Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) and Ariel.  More pictures to come when our Photopass CD comes in the mail.

On Tuesday morning, we ate at Chef Mickey's in the Contemporary.  This was another exorbitantly priced buffet- this time breakfast.  The kids got to meet Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy- Randy's favorite- and . . . 

. . . Pluto.  Each of the characters came to our table.  So the kids were able to get hugs, pictures and autographs from each one without waiting in line, which was almost worth the amount of money we spent.

Avoiding lines was the name of our game.  So when we saw a character spot with no line, we jumped in.  We were lucky enough to find Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger- Tyler's favorite Disney characters.

I think Lucy and Emily's expression says it all!

Like I said, the monorail was a surprise favorite of the family.  It runs right through the Contemporary.  So it was very convenient to walk over and ride it to where we wanted to be.  A couple of times, we were lucky enough to ride with the pilot.  Here is Lucy taking her turn in the pilot's chair.

Of course, no trip to Disney World is complete without the rides!!!  Here we are waiting for our turn outside Test Track in Epcot.  How was it?

Randy gives it two thumbs up!  In fact, he liked all of the fast, exciting rides.  Lucy did too!  She rode Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain and thought they were great.  (In case you are wondering about Randy's fashion accessory- we brought some industrial ear-protection that someone might wear around power tools.  These saved us!  Randy handled everything so well.  We only had one melt-down on our very last day, and that was basically my fault.)

My favorite ride was The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.  The theming was perfect and the ride was great.  Emily and Jason liked it too.  Tyler and Randy didn't like it as much as . . . 

 . . . Rock'N'Roller Coaster!  This ride goes from 0 to 60 in a matter of seconds, with a couple of inversions thrown in the mix.  Tyler loved the ride so much, he bought the souvenir photo with his own money.

I think their faces say it all.  Emily didn't love it so much.  She wouldn't go on it again with us the second time.

But if you ask him, Tyler will say that his favorite ride was Expedition Everest in the Animal Kingdom.  Ty and I had to (got to) sit in the front on our ride.  I agree, it was great.  The park was beautiful.  This picture doesn't do justice to how amazing the mountain looked.

The 3-D shows were a lot of fun, too.  Randy, Emily and Ty model the Bug Goggles for "It's Tough to Be a Bug" show.  Awesome.  Make sure to stay in your seats until the very end!

As great as this trip was, it was exhausting.  We only made it to one "finale"- Fantasmic in the Hollywood Studios-  and didn't see any fireworks or parades.  We figured we'd leave some surprises for our next trip.

Both Randy and Lucy pooped out pretty early.  We converted our single stroller to a double a couple of times.  By the end of the trip, that stroller was toast and we ended up leaving it there in the hopes another family could use it.

Poor Lucy got sick on the trip.  She was a trooper.  We'll go back in about 3 years when everyone's endurance is a little bit better.

All in all, it was a fantastic trip and we'll definitely go back.  

Now, on to our next adventure- Christmas!!!!