This year’s vacation was courtesy of Lilly’s wish to go on a Disney cruise and some Christmas magic. As it turns out, our friends were the recipient of the same Christmas magic, which coincidentally put us on the same cruise ship at the same time. What are the odds? On top of it being New Years, it was our 10 year anniversary, so we decided to go to Orlando a little early and visit Disney World and Sea World before the cruise. We planned to visit the Magic Kingdom on New Years eve and watch the fireworks then Sea World on New Years day. As it turns out… this was not a unique idea. EVERYONE had the same plan. For those who don’t know, the parks can fill to capacity and will turn you away, ticket in hand. After sitting in the line just to get in the parking lot for about an hour, they turned us away.
We then went to Epcot, which we had never done before. It too was busy, but we got in around 10am. First priority was lunch, which notched another hour out of the day. After lunch, we rode a Mayan ride across from the restaurant then started walking the circle. The next ride we came across was the Frozen ride. The wait sign said 120 minutes, but it was the newest attraction and we had to do it, so we took our spot in line. The following is not an exaggeration. We waited in that line for FIVE HOURS! Five hours for a 5 minute ride. That was insane, but what are you going to do? They are masters of disguising the line where you can’t tell where it ends. After every hour you think to yourself, just another hour, but after 3 hours of telling yourself that lie, my thought process changed to beating this ride, not letting it beat me. When we finished, we grabbed dinner at a nearby restaurant. Suffice to say, eight hours into Epcot we had only been on two rides and eaten twice. Sitting in the worlds longest line allowed me to figure out the cost per ride for this trip. It was not good. Unwilling to let Epcot beat us, we continued walking around into the night and hit a few more rides. I recall we were just getting off a ride in Norway and all the staff was hugging and kissing and celebrating. My first thought is the people of Norway must be very happy people and the staff takes their job very seriously. Well, actually they celebrate New Years for many, maybe all, of the represented countries and it was New Years in Norway. The fireworks shows were pretty good and back to back every hour. After riding another ride or two we called it quits. On our way out, the girls were begging for cotton candy, so we made a deal. They could get cotton candy if they use their own money. This is significant only because we just started giving them allowances to help them develop a value for money and told them they can use their own money for things they want. They really wanted some cotton candy, so they walked up to the vendor, blew the dust off their wallets and prepared to pay. To my utter amazement, the vendors just gave them each a full bag of cotton candy. Although that was incredibly nice of the Epcot vendors, it didn’t exactly help make my point about the value of money when people just give you things.
On New Years day, we went to Sea World with our friends, the Wiles, who came in the night before. Not wanting to wait in 5 hour lines again, we purchased “Quick Queue” passes that allow you to go in a quicker line than the standard line. As it turns out, New Years Eve, VERY BUSY, but New Years Day, EMPTY. There was no need for a fast pass. Another dent in the wallet for nothing. They have a few serious roller coasters, one of which I went on right away. In hind sight, I was lucky to keep my breakfast burritos down. It was no joke. After I regained my confidence, I even convinced Laura to go with me on one of the other coasters. Malones – 2 : Seaworld – 0! We went to the killer whale show, the dolphin show, the sea lions show and the pets show. We even walked the street with a flock of pink flamingos. I have to say, all the shows are impressive, but the pet show dropped my jaw. How do they get cats, dogs, ferrets, and pigs to work together? I was tempted to leave the girls there for some training. We finished the day off with dinner at Tommy Bahamas and drove to a hotel closer to the port.
The next morning we were woke up by the sound of Katie tossing her cookies. On any regular day this is bad, but SOOO much worse when it’s the morning of your non-refundable cruise. For good reason, cruises don’t let you on board if you are sick, so we had only one choice… lie. To Katie’s credit, she was very sick and obviously uncomfortable, but she muscled though it and we got on board where she rode it out in the room. Fortunately, she was back to normal in about a day, but unfortunately, Laura ended up catching the same thing and was down for a day or two. We traveled with 3 other families, so we enjoyed meals and shows together, which was fun for the adults and the kids. In the Bahamas, we went in a submarine. I have to admit, I was expecting a James Bond style submarine, but it was more of a deep hulled boat with windows. We saw lots of fish, some ship wreckage and what was most likely a sharks dorsal fin. Unexpectedly, the best part was not the fish, but the crew. They were part tour guide, part def comedy jam. This was our third Disney cruise, so there were no surprises, but they continue to impress; we had a great time and look forward to the next time.
So glad y’all had a good time, but I don’t have patience for those lines. I’m so happy we are going to have a family vacation to St. Thomas next year.