Disney World Recap (part 1)

My perfectionism got the best of me and delayed my Disney World post for three weeks. I was hoping for a detailed day-by-day recap which I never found the time to deliver. Therefore here's the cliff notes version with my three favorite pics from each day. We drove down on Saturday, April 25 and spent that night in a nearby Motel 6, only $30! We went to Downtown Disney for a few hours that night as we couldn't wait to get into the Disney mood. The next morning we headed over to our "real" hotel, the beautiful, old Mexico style Coronado Springs Disney resort. After check-in, we took the Disney bus to Magic Kingdom. We were finally here!

The fountain in the lobby of our resort, Coronado Springs.
I was thrilled that Braewyn's fear of the Chick-Fil-A cow didn't transfer to Pooh Bear.

My self-taken photo at Planet Hollywood. I designated this as our official 10th anniversary dinner. I love you, Matthew!

On Monday (day 2), we spent the day at Hollywood Studios. I had never been at this park and found it very classy and that day not very crowded!

We all were excited to find the new Toy Story Mania ride and it met our expectations. A bonus was meeting Woody and Buzz. Philip and Braewyn make such cute toys on Andy's bed.

All of Hollywood Studios lets you feel like you're a movie star! Do these toys come in the cereal box?

I think the Star Wars simulator ride was Philip's favorite of the day. Disney does an awesome job of creating an atmosphere from the moment you get in line for all the main rides to the gift shop that awaits you after exiting the ride. Full submersion = money leaving your pockets without flinching.

Day 3 of our trip was spent at Epcot Center, my favorite park. This park feels the largest to me and so we only managed to see all of Future World and a bit of the World Showcase area. We knew we'd spend one of our extra days here again visiting all the other "countries" (we had a 6 day pass to see four parks one day each, with a day back to our two favorites).

Philip and I both loved the crash test dummy simulation ride, "Test Track", but no pictures to show for it. My second favorite was the trademark Spaceship Earth (you know, the big silver ball Epcot is known for!). I remember riding it in 1990 with my parents. Since then they've added this cool interactive feature with touch-screen monitors in the seats. At the beginning of the ride, your picture is taken and then at the end of the ride you get to design your future. Yes, I choose to have a self-cleaning house and new clothes presented to me every day!
We ate lunch in "China". I enjoy speaking to the employees as they are all native to the country represented. They come as part of the Disney program: come work at Disney world and experience American life for one year. This sweet waitress had been in America for 3 days! Culture shock, but another waitress had been here for 10 months and they all live together in apartments.
The fireworks show at Epcot and Magic Kingdom are both so worth staying late for. Lights, music and smoke! I laughed to myself because Disney is very concerned with being "green". All that goes up in smoke literally as the air pollution is palpable by 10pm. Maybe it's some kind of environmentally-friendly smoke, right?