The RAT rite of passage

It was my idea.

Believe it or not.  In spite of my disdain and disgust for greed and excess, and things otherwise known as Mickey, somewhere deep inside I felt I might be doing a disservice to Dyleva by shunning them from Disney.

It is essentially an American rite of passage.

So we went.

We drove to Cleveland, hours after being done with work.  We spent the night and flew to MCO the next afternoon.

We picked up our rental car.....no.  Not that one!

And then we were off on our adventure!

The first task involved finding food for four very hungry travelers.  

It was 7PM on a Saturday on International Drive.  Every restaurant had a two hour wait.  We settled for pizza in walking distance.  But it was a very cool, and busy, area.  

Check out these swings!

Next morning we hit the ground running at Universal.
This is Presidents' Day weekend.  It was a sea of people.  We couldn't see much else.  We just moved with the mob.  We had "fast passes," which expedited the wait to ONLY 45 mins a ride.  We used these for Harry Potter, King Kong, and Jurassic World.  The rides were amazing; but not worth waiting the crazy wait times.  

Food was also a challenge.   Inside the park it was difficult to find anything but hamburgers, hot dogs, and chicken nuggets.  I didn't see a vegetable in the place.  I don't mind supplementing at times with that, but all day for 7 days it gets a little old.  

Our shining light the first day, was that Dyleva discovered a Jurassic play water park.  It was so hot.  The ninos ran around and Jeff and I chilled with a cerveza.  This was Dylan's favorite part of the day; running through the rope course and exploring the caves below.  

We ended the day with the second Harry Potter ride.  Earlier in the day, it was a half hour wait just to get to a locker to store your things before the ride; let alone the ride itself.  We walked away.  But later that night, 
(8PM) the wait was much less; or so we thought.  We got in and the ride broke down and added an extra 30 minute wait time.




The second day at Universal was much better.  Why?  Well, we could move for one.  The 'sea' of people was much less.  Since we had no fast passes today, we each chose something we wanted to do.  We were able to actually explore Harry Potter World.  Thank you Titi for the wands!  We took the Hogwarts Express train and explored the shops.  The ninos tried butterbeer and pumpkin juice, and loved the candy!  This was my choice.

Next, Eva wanted to explore Dr. Seuss world.  It was very cute.  We rode a few rides and explore a book shop.

Jeff wanted a Jaws photo and to have a decent lunch, which we did (after a very long wait) at the Greek Mythos Restaurant.   I had Pad thai with Eva.  It was delicious.  

Dylan wanted to go back to the Jurassic play area.  Which was a nice break in the heat of the day.  

We ended the day with finding an awesome Popeye water ride with no line, and the Spiderman ride.  
Dyleva really wanted to go back to our hotel to swim.  So we had pizza by the pool and hung out the rest of the night.

Day 3.  Mickey.

I had really low expectations.  Jeff booked us a really cool campsite to stay.  Before we went we hit the grocery store.  We chose a Whole foods, which was Jeff's first experience.  He was not a fan.

Our place was really, really nice.  It was so clean.  (For a cabin in the woods?)  I could have hung out there all day and have been perfectly content.  The only bad thing is that we had to pay each day additional to park at our cabin...even though we rented the cabin.  The parking space in front of the cabin was apparently extra.  Score one for Disney.
Disney 1     Wagners  0

We did our own breakfasts and lunches, and bought snacks and dinner along the way.  The first Disney day was kind of just orientating ourselves.  It was cool that we had to take a boat to Magic Kingdom.  

Swiss Family Robinson treehouse

Mark Twain Island Adventure

Big brother might know where I am, but does
Jeff know what I am ordering at the bar?

The good thing about Disney vs. Universal, is that their fast passes were actually fast. (About 15 minute wait).  We rode some rides.  Pirates, Haunted House, Small world.  We explored the Swiss Family Treehouse, Tiki show, Mark Twain island.  This was a rough night.  I think we were just tired, Dyleva was not on their best behavior.  We ended up at a buffett.  $160 for dinner.  Seriously?  Eva ate green beans and mashed potatoes.
Disney 2     Wagners 0

The next day we regrouped, and headed for the Animal Kingdom.  We rode a few rides, explored the Tree of Life.  We did a Bug's Life, Dinosaur area, etc.

We returned early that day so Dyleva could swim and we could have happy hour.

We decided to go back to Magic Kingdom that night, which was anticlimactic.

The next day was probably our best at Disney.  We went to Epcot.  We did a couple of the rides, but our greatest success  was the discovery of the Aquarium!
Disney 2   Wagners 1

I am so proud of Dyleva, that with all the princesses, cheesy shows, thrilling rides, that they were fascinated most, by something real.  We must have spent 3 hours total in the amazing aquarium.  They watched the fish, searched for sharks, and took a million photos.  This was the most excitement I had seen from them since we began the vacation.  

We passed through the different 'cultures' of Epcot.  First, it was the heat of the day, second it was a lot of walking for little legs.  Third, I found it disappointing.  It was all shops.  There was some 'authentic' food, (I had a margarita in Mexico), but I was not impressed.  Dyleva was bored.  There was one lone Japanese drummer providing entertainment, but other that that, not much to do or see.

Eventually, we returned to the Soaring Around the World attraction for dinner.  It was reasonable and fairly healthy.  Success!
Disney 2  Wagners 2

We went back to our Fort Wilderness to watch the fireworks.  It was a good day.  Jeff took Dyleva for a night swim.

Our last day, the hottest, we decided to forego the amusement parks and head to the water park.

Imagine our surprise at the gate to discover the water park was not included in our package.  
Score another one for Disney.  That will be an extra $300 please.
Disney 3   Wagners 2

The water park was fun; it was not over crowded, it had an awesome lazy river, and entertained Dyleva for hours.

We left at dinner time to stay and visit with friends for the night.  We did not look back.  No tears about leaving the rat.  
Cross it off the list!  Check