Disney World Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving 2010 - at Disney World!

This year, my district had to take 4 budget cut days as a result of the lack of money we are receiving from California. Three of the days were scheduled during Thanksgiving week, giving us the whole week off!

That, combined with the fact that we already had purchased the premier annual pass, gave us the notion that we just might be able to swing a tip to Disney World this Fall. And here we are!

We flew out on Saturday, November 20th. We departed from LAX on a Delta flight. The good news was that our flight was non stop. The bad news was that it was Delta, so we had to pack and bring only carry-ons since we didn’t want to pay for bags. Getting through security with three carry on suitcases, two back packs, a diaper bag, a stroller and a car seat, one ziplock of liquids, one laptop, and a one year old was certainly an interesting feet, and one of my personal prouder moments as a traveler. (Come on, airline, lose the extra fees already! You are just making it an extra hassle for everyone - including TSA and your own employees!)

Also making news this traveling season is the new body scan machines that are appearing throughout airports (and the pat downs you receive if you opt not to go through the scanners!) Grant himself got a pat down - probably because of the cargo pants he was wearing.

Anyway - our flight was fine - it was full, with lots of kids. We bought Geoffrey his own seat and brought his car seat on the plane. This was very helpful for most of the flight keeping him in his seat, and especially when he napped, making him more comfortable and giving me the ability to actually do something other then hold him. We got him some new headphones that are really nice, but even sitting on the plane with my iphone full of Mickey Mouse clubhouse and Thomas and Friends he really isn’t much interested in watching TV.

We arrived in Florida after a four and a half hours at about 6. We flew in to Tampa airport this time. We picked up our rental car - they were all out of midsize, so we got the next one up - but it was a bright red, ugly thing - it looked like a clown car. (The car itself was oddly shaped, and the red was, well, RED, and when you put the two together - yikes!) But it had lots of space in the back and it was comfortable, so off we went on our drive to Orlando.

We are staying at Windsor Palms this week in a condo unit. These are the same builders as Windsor Hills, but the community is a few years older. It is located a couple of miles south west of Windsor Hills, so still pretty close to the WDW property. Our condo is nice! It is on the first floor of the building just across from the community center - the pool and play ground are no more then a two minute walk away.

Our unit has a washer and dryer, a kitchen, a large family room / dining area, and two bedrooms, on with a king bed and one with two twins. It also has two bathrooms, each with a shower/tub combo. It also has a small, screened it porch. It is a very comfortable condo, and we are happy with it - especially at $50 a night (including all taxes!!!!)

After scoping the scene and playing for a bit on the playground (and watching the basketball players at the community center “basket ball! Basket ball!” we went to Cracker Barrel for dinner. WE were hungry! Then we went to get provisions from Publix and Walmart - food and liquids that we couldn’t carry on the plane with us. Geoffrey got a 10 inch bouncy ball - which he LOVES! We headed back to our condo and unpacked.

There was no pack n play in our unit. We called and they said they would bring one out - we said the next day would be fine (Sunday). So that night Geoffrey slept with us (we didn’t think he would stay in the other room without the pack n play.

Yikes, what a night! He would not fall asleep - despite being in the dark room between me and Grant - he stayed up trying to play with us for an hour and a half! Then, when he did go to sleep, he woke up four hours later and stayed up for another hour! Oy! Needless to say, not the best night sleep, ever. He probably slept all of 8 hours.

On Sunday we had breakfast at home and played a bit before heading out. The rental car we had (It was a Chevrolet HHR) badly needed an alignment and kept pulling to one side. Grant’s arm was sore from holding it straight driving from Tampa. We headed to the Car Care Center near the Magic Kingdom and exchanged our car for a white Chevrolet Cobalt. Although the car is smaller, it runs better and isn’t so outlandish to look at!

WE had reservations for Boma, so we went to the Animal Kingdom lodge. We were early, so we headed back past the pool to the Hakuna Matata playground. It was a nice playground with two jungle gyms and a view of some of the savannah animals from the top of the jungle gyms.

Lunch at (technically dinner hours, but our 4:05 reservation served as our lunch!) Boma was delicious! I zigged on all the sides, mostly, while Grant ate repeat servings of the African spiced strip loin (with the delicious Boma mustard sauce.) Geoffrey, not in an adventurous mood, was qite happy with pitas, flat bread, chicken nuggets, and fruit. Oh - and his cookie for dessert…”oh oh, oh boy!”

We spent the evening at EPCOT. I was very excited to see the Christmas decorations. However, it didn’t seem very decorated. I am hoping that they are not finished yet and there will be more by the end of the week. However, there were some great topiaries of the Disney characters dressed in their holiday best, and lots of trees and poinsettias. In addition, there is one large Christmas Tree at the center of EPCOT, where Future World meets World showcase.

We rode Spaceship Earth - Geoffrey stayed engaged the whole time - and then headed over to Nemo and Friends. We spent some time looking at the fish in the Aquarium - Geoff loves running around the observation rings. The dolphins were cool today - they were sort of dancing - one was swimming upside down underneath the other one, who was swimming right side up, and they were sort of swimming in side to side waves. It was neat!

Next, we headed to the World showcase where we watched Off Kilter in Canada, visited with Winnie the Pooh and Tigger in England, and then watched some of the British Invasion. (Sadly, it was the same set of songs we heard in August!) We strolled around the showcase, walking through Morocco n detail while waiting for their band to set up, and then we listened to them for a bit. We continued over to Norway and rode Maelstrom twice while Geoff took a little snooze. We finished the evening at the parks watching Illuminations.

After we left, we went to pick up Taco Bell for dinner. We had been at this Taco Bell on a previous visit, and the service was exceptionally awful. We waited in line for about 40 minutes and they screwed up our order. But that was on a previous visit . It couldn’t be that bad again, could it? Famous last words, huh? Anyway, 30 minutes (and a messed up order that I had to walk up to the drive through window to fix because the dining room was closed) later , we finally get home. Fantastic.

At bedtime, Geoff slept in his pack n play. He cried for 20 minutes - and then slept for almost 13 hours without a peep! (Grant and I went to sleep after him and we BOTH woke up before he did!