Disney World Recap

Okay, I've been home for a week now... I've finally recovered enough to blog about my trip - and I've mostly caught up on my sleep! So... about Disney World...

Our plane left Houston at 9:00am on Sunday Jan 13th. We of course woke up late and had to rush to get to the airport on time. Thank God there was no traffic, we were actually a bit early. I swear I always feel like the mom on Home Alone, rushing through the airport and then freaking out on the plane because I know I forgot something! Gaither & I are both so tempted to sit up & scream KEVIN! just once on a plane. But of course I don't really want to meet the air marshals & federal agents at the airport, so I'll just keep that little urge to myself. The flight to Orlando was pretty uneventful thankfully - I read, Gaither slept, and Benjamin watched DVD's. We landed in Orlando & headed to baggage claim. I told Benjamin his job was to find the man holding a sign with our name on it. LOL Backing up a little - as you all know, I'm a completely pampered princess. My old travel agent automatically booked Town Car transfers from the airport to my hotel on about 3 vacations we went on, and I'm completely spoiled now and require it every time if I can. My new travel agent tried to explain that Disney now offers a free shuttle bus service from the airport to resort hotels, uh-huh no way. I told her that there's just something about walking into baggage claim & seeing a man holding a sign with your name on it. He takes our luggage, loads it into the car & off we go - no waiting, no extra stopping, no crammed into a van with 20 complete strangers - it's the only way to go! So... we walk outside to the line of waiting Town Cars, and I'm hanging back to see which one is ours -- we walk right past the Town Cars and go to the LIMO! Woohoo! I wasn't expecting that! I'm riding in style this time! We even had a flat screen tv playing Pirates of the Caribbean - cool!

The trip started out really well for us... My parents were waiting for us as we pulled up to the hotel -- they don't fly, so they left 2 days earlier & drove to Florida. We decided to stay at Disney's Old Key West Resort. It was a bit more expensive than the hotels we'd stayed in in the past, but it was totally worth it. We had a 2 bedroom "villa" - basically a 2 bedroom apartment. Two bedrooms - one king, one with 2 queens, two baths - including a separate corner jacuzzi garden tub, full kitchen with all of the amenities, an island & kitchen table, full size washer & dryer, and a living room with a sleeper sofa & a tv with dvd. If you've ever been to Disney World before, you'll know that they charge ungodly amounts for food. For most meals, you pay about airport prices for airport or hospital quality food. Don't get me wrong, I've had some VERY good meals at Disney, but I've paid about twice what I normally would for them. So, we figured the extra money we spent on the villa, we'd make back in savings on meals - and I think we did. We woke up every morning around 7am, and Gaither and Cindy would make breakfast while my mom & I got ready. We started out each morning with a full breakfast of eggs, bacon, etc that held us a lot longer than donuts or muffins would have. We ate lunch in the parks every day, and then were back at the hotel to eat dinner there. We saved TONS of money that way - and we were able to eat exactly what we wanted!

Anyway... So Sunday we just vegged around the hotel. We were all worn out from the trip, plus we were still coming off of the stress from the funeral the day before. We woke up bright & early Monday morning & headed for the Magic Kingdom. I swear, that place really is magical! I love the commercial where the family goes to Disney and either the mom or the dad turns back into a little kid when they enter the park - do you know it? Anyway... that's me. I swear, I hear the music and walk on to Main Street and suddenly I'm a kid again. I took Benjamin's hand and started SKIPPING down the road. I couldn't wait to see & do everything! He wasn't too keen on having his mom skipping next to him, but I didn't care. I was in heaven! My mom's the same way too - we both turned into the biggest kids all week.

So the schedule went - Magic Kingdom on Monday, Epcot on Tuesday, Animal Kingdom on Wednesday, shopping at Downtown Disney on Thursday (they were expecting rain), MGM/Hollywood Studios on Friday, and breakfast with Lilo & Stitch on Saturday before we checked out & headed home. Oh, and I have to say - I LOVE going to Disney in January. There are hardly any people there at all! It was a bit busier this time than last - they had the Disney Marathon on Sunday the 13th, so we had leftover crowd from that, but generally the crowds were next to nothing.

We did all of the classic rides that are a required part of visiting Disney, though Gaither & I refused to set foot on "It's a Small World". I'd rather gouge my eyes out with a fork than go on that ride again. But Yay - that's what Grandma & Grammy are for! They couldn't wait to take Benjamin on Dumbo and It's a Small World. He attempted to do Pirates of the Caribbean, but he's going through a big 'scared of the dark' phase right now, and it was just too creepy for him. I had to give him credit though, he did try! I could go on for hours about all of the rides & shows etc. Needless to say, we had a BLAST!

The week was great until Wednesday night. Cindy started puking. We thought she had food poisoning from some bad brie (damn cheese!), but then Benjamin & I got sick Friday night. Poor Cindy, she hated being sick in the middle of vacation. She had to stay in bed in the hotel all Thursday and almost didn't make it with us on Friday. Just when she was starting to get better, Benjamin & I got sick. So obviously it was a bug & not food poisoning. Luckily Benjamin only puked a few times and then passed out asleep. I wasn't so lucky. I don't think I've EVER been that sick! Afterwards while talking to my doc this week, he asked me about how many times I puked -- I said I stopped counting at 20. (TMI?? oops! sorry!) It was so bad, I asked Gaither to call an ambulance for me. Maybe it was worse because of my new stomach. I don't know, all I know is that I felt like I was dying. Gaither & I were up all night -- poor thing, he couldn't sleep while I was so sick. We got an hour of sleep maybe two tops all night. Needless to say we cancelled our breakfast with Lilo & Stitch on Saturday (there was just no way). There was also no way I was going to make it back to Houston on Saturday either. I couldn't go 30 minutes without being sick, and I was sooooo weak with dehydration. Gaither took me to an urgent care clinic down the road as soon as they opened. Yep - the doc confirmed, I had a stomach virus. Big surprise huh? But he then became my bestest friend on the planet --- he gave me a shot of phenergen. Yay doc! In case you don't know, phenergen is the best medicine out there for nausea & vomiting. It also makes you feel like you've been clubbed over the head when you take it though. Makes NyQuil seem like speed in comparison. Once dose of that stuff, and I'm out for 12 hours! I always joke that of course it stops the vomiting - it puts you in a coma! He sent me home with a prescription for more phenergen - enough to get me home to Houston. So, now we had to do just that though - figure out how to get us home to Houston - since we missed our flight. We'd purchased our airfare in the beginning of 2007, so we had the super cheap inflexible (can't change, can't cancel) airfare. It would have cost us $300 each - $900 total - to change our flight. NO WAY! Thank God my parents were there and they'd driven. We basically had no other choice but to load up in the minivan with them and drive back home. Oh wonderful! My mom called the front desk and even though the hotel was booked, managed to sweet talk them into letting us stay another night (paid of course) and check out on Sunday. So Sunday morning we had the wonderful experience of trying to fit 3 extra people, plus luggage, and gifts etc into an already packed Ford Windstar. Oh wow was that fun! Luckily Gaither's a whiz at packing, so we managed to fit almost everything. We pulled out the things we could live without & left them for the housekeeping staff. Mainly - our umbrella stroller (Benjamin's WAY too big for that now), a big Igloo cooler, and bags & bags of leftover food & kitchen paper goods. Then we all climbed in and headed out on a 19 hour car trip across the South. BTW, have I mentioned that I HATE car trips?! I mean I HATE HATE HATE them! I can't stand being in a car for more than about 2 hours, and here we were looking at 19 hours - oh joy. Luckily for me, they'd stuck me in the very back. I had my 'little cave' as I called it - I was surrounded by suitcases, pillows, hang up clothes, and God knew whatever else. Fine by me! I plugged my ipod in, popped a phenergen, and passed out for most of the drive on Sunday. We ended up being in the car for 11 hours that day - spent the night in Gulfport MS. Then up again and on the road for another 8 hours on Monday -- until HOME finally! We'd originally planned on being home Saturday, to give us Sunday to recoup & rest before heading back to work & school on Monday. No such luck. So... that's why this is so late and not as detailed as I'd like. It took me a week to recover and get back on my feet. Oh and I'll be adding pics probably tonight -- we just downloaded them off of the camera last night!