Disney World!!!

It's always nice to know people in high places...through connections of an extended family member, we were basically able to take an all expenses paid 5 day trip to Disney over the last few days in January. With hotel and park entry out of the picture, and frequent flier miles to pay for airfare, we just couldn't pass up the opportunity to go. Despite some apprehension on our part about keeping Brennan contained during the plane ride, the trip there and the trip back went relatively well. Audrey loved the plane ride - the "tummy float", free snack and drinks and all you can watch TV/iPad (we flew JetBlue) made for a happy first plane ride for her. And we had all intentions of making it a leisurely trip to WDW, with mornings spent at the parks and afternoons napping/hanging out at the resort.

Once we got to Disney Friday afternoon, we quickly got into the full WDW spirit and instead of sticking with our plan to take it easy, we decided to push the kids to the brink of meltdown instead and do/see as much as possible during the short time we were there. We spent the afternoon of Day 1 at Downtown Disney (right across the lake from our hotel), followed by almost 10 hours at the Magic Kingdom on Day 2, only slightly less time at Animal Kingdom on Day 3 and a full day of Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and Epcot on Day 4. Day 5 gave us just enough time to go to breakfast and spend an hour or so at the resort pool before heading out to the airport.

Despite some close calls, we managed to avoid all major meltdowns, and the kids had a really great time. The character interactions were a little dicey though. The first day at Magic Kingdom, on numerous occasions, Audrey said she wanted hugs from either Mickey, Daisy and/or Chip n' Dale. Our first chance was Donald - we waited in a short line to see him, and despite a lot of prepping on character-meeting protocol, she turned and ran away the minute Donald tried to take her autograph book. She warmed up much more quickly to the plush characters (for the most part) - Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, Tiger, Chip n' Dale and Pluto were her favorites. Brennan even started to enjoy meeting the characters, though he still kept his guard up most of the time. Goofy was by far the least favorite, though that may have just been because he's like 6'5" tall and a little intimidating.

A few lessons learned: 1) never turn down a very low cost trip to Disney, 2) it's impossible to avoid whiny and uncooperative kids, but that's part of the fun, and 3) never spend 3 straight days at Disney parks - kids recover much more quickly than their parents when it comes to marathon theme park trips.