Return to Walt Disney World, Part 1

We have just returned from the most magical place on earth and what fun we had! We promised our kids after we went to Walt Disney World back in October 2008 that we would return in five years and now we've made good on our promise.

THE ITINERARY. We pulled the kids out of school a week ago Friday (the 7th), loaded the van, said our goodbyes to Mom, and were on the road by 3:00. We made it to Cordele, Georgia, where we spent the night. The next day we traveled the remaining five hours to Orlando.

We stayed in a condo in Kissimmee this time, and after checking in and doing a little grocery shopping we headed out to Tatantinos, a local Italian restaurant, where we met all the Cotters. Uncle Bob and Aunt Linda treated all of us to supper. We enjoyed a nice visit around the table and then moved the conversation back to our condo so we could visit for a few more hours.

That brief visit was the only time we saw the Cotters while we were in the area. Unlike our last trip to Disney World they did not visit the parks with us. We had six day passes to the parks and our adventures began bright and early Sunday morning (the 9th). We visited the parks in this order:

Sunday - Epcot
Monday - Animal Kingdom
Tuesday - Magic Kingdom
Wednesday - Epcot
Thursday - Hollywood Studios
Friday - Magic Kingdom and Downtown Disney

We were really sad to see Saturday come, but by then we were also very tired and it was time to head back home. We made the trip in one day, stopping in Kennesaw, Georgia, where we met the Jones family at Saporito's Pizza for supper. Maggie was very glad to see us when we got home, and now we're trying to tame the mountain of laundry that spilled out of our suitcases.

At least we had the President's Day holiday today to give us one more day before getting back into the routine, though there were always reminders. One day Melinda at my office sent a picture of my chair at work and said, "Your roller coaster awaits! Get ready for the ride of your life—The Holy Terror." (This was in response to the occasional "look at what we're doing now" picture I would send to her and Sherri.)

We did make a lot of comparisons between this trip and our last visit to Disney World five years ago and I will be writing from that perspective to some degree. (My report on our 2008 trip can be found in the archives of the Swann Family News blog if you are interested.) Of course, the kids' perspectives—especially Nate’s—are different because they are five years older. Since this is part one I will stop with this overview for now and save the details for the upcoming parts.

Joe