Earlier this spring, we began thinking about what we wanted to do for our summer trip 2010. Last year we flew to Southern California and went to Disneyland, Sea World, San Diego Zoo and Huntington Beach. We decided that it was time to camp again and Jack and I began talking about a week in the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee. Having never been to Tennessee before, we sent away for the big Tennessee tourist book and poured over the pages. We figured it would be a good two day drive from Houston with the national park being on the eastern side of the state. We also figured Pigeon Forge would be a good place to base our trip. The more we investigated though, the more this area seemed like Branson, Missouri which is where we camped summer 2007. We loved that trip! It was so much fun. But, Pigeon Forge shares many of the same attractions and parks as Branson, and we just didn't feel like rehashing that trip again, only much further away. While the Smokey Mountains attracted us, we would much rather see them in the fall when color abounds, as opposed to oppressive summer. It didn't take Jack long to voice a second opinion: DisneyWorld. (Except said in Jack tone: DisneyWorld! DisneyWorld! DisneyWorld!) As soon as that option was on the table, the girls expressed their agreement and it wasn't long before I was begrudgingly booking another week long trip to the World. (Mind you, I love DisneyWorld as much as the rest of my family, but we did Disneyland the summer before, and DisneyWorld the summer before that.) I just didn't want a lackluster vacation because we have become so accustomed to Disney.
Well, I should not have feared that, because it was another absolutely magical, fantastic trip. We are just a Disney family, I guess. The magic is always there and we never fail to have anything other than a near perfect trip. I had booked a week at a Disney's Beach Club Resort in the Epcot resort area. We had never stayed there before, but it accommodated the five of us in one room and I had read good things about it. Well, we were blown away by this resort complex. The pool, Storm Along Bay, is the best and biggest of all of Disney property and it lived up to it's reputation. Our room was spacious and beautiful as was the resort itself. Epcot was less than a five minute walk from our room! That was awesome! There were movies on the beach at night and the Boardwalk hotel (with actual Boardwalk and accompanying entertainment were just a 10 minute walk around the lake. In short, we LOVED it. So much to do and see. It was hard deciding whether to go to the parks, or hang out at our resort.
We visited all four parks that make up Walt Disney World....some more than once. We ate many great meals and took the girls to see La Nouba one evening. Everything was wonderful. Yes, it was hot. And yes, the parks got quite crowded at times. But by getting to the parks right at opening and taking advantage of Fast Pass, we rarely waited in any lines longer than 5 minutes. We went back to Storm Along Bay every afternoon and/or evening and cooled off in the gigantic pool complex. It was so much fun. Try as we might, we just can't not have fun at DisneyWorld. It holds magic for us and we get to all act like kids. Jack was on a giddy high the entire week and that was just contagious.
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| Our arrival at Beach Club |
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| The lobby of Cape May Cafe restaurant |
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| A giant rainbow when we first arrived! |
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| The grounds and a very small part of Storm Along Bay |
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| The lobby of Beach Club Resort |
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| About to wake Anna up on our first full day! She slept on the daybed. |
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| A little of the room decor. Claire is grabbing something out of the fridge in the room. |
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| Our first day: Magic Kingdom of course! First castle picture of the trip. |
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| Jack floating in the lazy river part of the pool |
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| Claire and Megan hanging out |
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| Anna coming out of the wading pool. It was huge and only about 2 feet deep...great for playing and sitting in the sand bottom. |
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| The girls lounging |
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| More pictures of the pool area |
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| Looking back at our hotel from the pool |
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| Another pool picture |
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| and another |
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| Another pic of our room...Jack and Meghan ipad-ing & texting |
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| Claire and Jack in front of Jack's favorite place.....the quick food shop at our resort |
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| Anna with her Angel and Stitch purchase with CB |
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| This is the view of our resort's courtyard at night |
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| This is the view from the courtyard looking across the lake to the Boardwalk Resort |
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| and this is the view of the Yacht & Beach Club Resort from the Boardwalk |
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| Anna ran into Baloo during our day at Animal Kingdom... |
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| ...while her sisters rode Expedition Everest (the first of 4 times that day!) |
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| The girls in front of the Tree of Life |
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| I think I will leave the animal pics for a separate post, but these tigers were amazing! |
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| The Jammin Jungle Parade |
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| Mickey! |
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| Meghan enjoys her refreshment in "Africa" |
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| Claire checks out the Stitch pins. I cannot tell you how many she has collected! |
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You may have noticed the lack of captions after the first day. I have somehow messed up the formatting and I can't figure out how to caption the rest of the photos. I will try to figure it out (Honestly, I am the only person alive who can't blog on a Mac.) | |
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