Good Times in Orlando: Days One and Two

It was more than a family vacation.  It was an extended family vacation with 12 of us on the trip.  The Seid family graciously arranged for all of us to stay at their time share near Disney World.  And although the time share had a pool fully decked out with water cannons, oversized inner tubes and a river-like loop through the pool, the kids were only able to enjoy the pool twice because of the late nights that we spent at the theme parks.  This was even though the pool was open until midnight.

We flew into Orlando on different flights.  The Seids and our family flew in on US Airways from Oakland via Phoenix.  The flight was uneventful, but the baggage claim process was like a Disney ride with an hour long wait.  This "ride" was followed by another hour long wait at the Budget rental counter.  In this time, both the Tam and So families who were on two separate flights were able to catch up to meet us at the rental car counter.

That night at the time share, we ordered out for pizza and kids were able to go swimming at the pool. The evening sky was a reddish, purplish hue which could've meant that good weather was in store for us based no the fisherman's adage: red sky at night is a sailor's delight, but it was not meant to be.


The next day started out fine. We made our way to Disney World by car, tram and ferry, stopping along the way to pick up our tickets. That's Alden at the window picking up our tickets.

If you've never been to Disney World, you will be surprised to learn that it has four parts: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom that are interconnected by road, tram and ferries in some manner. Anyway, we made our way to Magic Kingdom and decided to stand in line to get on the new Seven Dwarfs Mine Train ride. It turned out to be one of the longer lines of our entire trip. There still was no rain and it was quite warm.



But by later that day the weather had changed and rain ponchos and umbrellas were in order for most of the rest of the day.


The plan was to make it over to Hollywood Studios so we could see the Symphony in the Stars fireworks show.  At Hollywood Studios, we checked out The Great Movie Ride, Star Tours, Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, and The Tower of Terror.  Must have to say that the fireworks show was terrific with the fireworks exploding almost directly over where we stood.