Disney, Disney, Disney

As you can tell from the title, this is going to be about Disney. To start, we decided to take advantage of the three-day Presidents Day weekend and head on up the Turnpike to go to Disney again this past weekend. I had been in contact with Courtney, who I have known since High School on Facebook and through e-mail, and she decided to take the drive over from Tampa to meet us there. Part of the reason was because I didn't meet up with them at Busch Gardens back in December, and part of the reason was because I thought they were getting moved to Alabama. Turns out at least temporarily they are staying in Tampa until Che gets other orders. But, I digress, I'm glad that they met us there. Madi ended up being almost like a big sister to Lizzie, I think Mike had a better time after he got to go on the Star Wars ride, and Angie just makes me feel old, since I saw her as a preemie 18 years ago.

We went to Animal Kingdom on Saturday. We rode the Kali River Rapids first thing, I'm still questioning why, but really, the kids love it. Since I was the one that didn't really want to go on the ride, I of course was the one that got soaked. After riding Everest, and 2 - 3 hours, I think I was almost dry. We left the park to head back to the hotel to take a shower and have dinner at Jiko in the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Dinner was very nice, the kids were a little tired and it showed. We found it somewhat difficult to have a Valentine's dinner with tired kids, but we made it through, and all in all it worked out ok, and dinner was pretty good too, I would go back there. After dinner we tried to go to Downtown Disney, we realized that was a mistake and just went back to the room.

Sunday we headed to Hollywood Studios (MGM for those that don't know of the name change). The lack of a crowd on Saturday made me think that maybe the weekend wasn't going to be that bad. I found on Sunday that I was mistaken and the crowd was bad. We went to the Toy Story ride first, and got fast passes for 12:50, by the time we got off the ride the fast passes were for 6:30, they soon ran out. Courtney and I rode 'Rockin' Roller Coaster' while everyone else watched "Beauty and the Beast." Courtney was pleasently surprised because although I mentioned the coaster went upside down, I forgot to mention how it took off. She in turn forgot to mention that to Angie when she rode it with Brenda. Whoops. We got to do everything we wanted to do by 5:30 and had dinner at Hollywood and Vine (buffet) with everyone before Courtney and her family went back to their hotel to head back over to Tampa first thing in the morning.

On Monday, Brenda and I decided we might as well sit for the sales pitch of the Disney Vacation Club. Just for sitting with them, we got 4 3-ride instant fast passes to use whenever we wanted. In the end, we feel like the DVC could be a good deal, since we go up there 5+ times per year, but we are going to hold off for now. With the amount of points we could afford right now, we would only be able to use them for 3-4 trips, since weekends are more points. We may see where or if it falls in the budget next year.

After the DVC, we went to Magic Kingdom. As busy as HS was on Sunday, MK was worse on Monday. We could barely move with the amount of people that were inside the park. Additionally, we are just spoiled, because we have gone to MK for the various parties they host there (Pirate and Princess, Halloween, Christmas) and we rarely have to stand in any line. When we got there, we got fast passes for the Jungle Cruise, used our instant fast pass on Big Thunder Mountain (which Lizzie for some reason decided she didn't like it anymore), we then went back to the Jungle Cruise, walked across to Tomorrowland for lunch, rode Stitch, Space Mountain, and Buzz Lightyear, then decided it was just too crowded and time to go home. After stopping for ice cream for the kids, we got on the bus back to the hotel around 4:45 and made our way back home.

This was our first time staying at Pop Century. The rooms were comfortable enough, and considering we don't spend that much time in the room, we figured we could save a few bucks and continue going there, as long as the "premium" rooms were available. The premium rooms put you closer to the front, and the bus stops, but there do not seem to be many rooms that are convenient to the parking lot. I still wouldn't mind going back to Carribbean Beach and seeing one of the pirate themed rooms I have read about.

If there is any lesson that I learned from this weekend, it is that I will not upgrade our seasonal passes to annual passes. Sure, we are blacked out of some times at the parks, but those are very busy times, and quite frankly judging by the crowds of this weekend, I don't care that we are blacked out.

As an aside, Eric, the group that plays that song is E.S. Posthumus and the name of the song is Pompeii.