Florida 2010 - Day 1

Yes, yes I do feel it necessary to break up the trip in multiple blog posts...this is me we're talking about - queen of you can never take too many pictures...
So...day 1 - the highlights...

So after spending the day before our big trip dealing with some credit card fraud - found while trying to run last minute errands before we left...
We were still able to be up and at em and ready to leave the house by 4:30 am...
And so was our awesome friend and neighbor Denny who not only graciously offered to drive us to the airport...but snapped a family photo for us too!
(D wasn't really sleeping...he was actually in a decent mood - he just hates having his picture taken - among other things!)

The kids belted themselves in and were ready for their very first airplane ride...


And in fact, this little guy - who we were a tiny bit worried about - kept counting down (and up!) and yelling out BLAST OFF!

We had to sit two and two and trade off the kids since thanks to our not-so-helpful Delta airlines employees they had each one of us assigned to a different row...thankfully we were able to persuade a couple of passengers to swap seats...


We arrived late morning at Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort...I was nervous about staying here but read many many posts on the Disney Boards and was soo happy with our decision to book this resort...

We weren't there 5 minutes when the kids had made friends...

Sandy footers!

The white sand beaches were a pretty cool plus...in addition to 9 heated swimming pools open 24 hours a day...

We hung out and relaxed for a couple of hours and got ourselves and our groceries from The Garden Grocer - settled in...

** A must for anyone doing Disney on a budget like we were - Garden Grocer delivers a wide variety of items to your hotel for a delivery fee of just $12 - free delivery if you spend $200 - I ordered in a case of water, and while it was more expensive ($8.99 for 36 bottles) than I normally pay at home - bottled water is $3.00 each in the parks - immediate savings just 3 bottles in...I also got bread, peanut butter, jelly, cinnamon bread, donuts, string cheese, juice, and a few other items...We packed that stuff in our back pack each day and were able to snack/lunch when we were ready...for pennies on the dollar compared to what we would have if we'd of eaten in the parks each day! **

And then we decided to hit Disney - Magic Kingdom Style -

The complimentary shuttles that ran continuously throughout the day made getting to and from the parks whenever the heck we wanted sooo nice...

And someone thought this was a pretty cool ride in and of itself...

We literally walked right into the park...there were no lines at all - and were greeted by childhood favorites...

And D and I posed for a pic...Big Sis wasn't so sure about this...

But she looved the castle...


And the shows performed in front of the castle!!

We wandered around the park...and rode the carousel again and again - one of the perks of going in the off season - no lines!!

The fireworks pics from my point and shoot do not to them justice - but you get the idea...

This really is a magical place...

Again - he wasn't really sleeping in this picture - but he has an aversion to picture taking...and he DID fall asleep approximately 4 seconds after this family photo was taken!

So there you have it - a condensed version of the first day of our wonderful awesome family vacation to Walt Disney World resorts....

You can't wait for my next post containing day #2 can you? Admit it...