1st Trip:
When - August 8th - 14th 2004
Where - Vacation Villas at Fantasy World
Who - Nona, PawPaw, Mom, Candice, & Me
~This was our first trip to Walt Disney World. I remember always wanting to go as a child. For some reason, it was always a dream of mine to see Cinderella's castle. When I first saw the castle on our first day in the parks, I honestly teared up. It had only been a little over a year since my Dad passed away and that was probably the first happy tears I had in a very long time. It was all so magical. I can remember the song and the performers on Main Street that morning singing "Walking right down the middle of Main Street USA!" - a song that will seriously get stuck in your head. I felt like a little kid again and I loved every single moment of it! Nothing else seemed to matter - it felt like we were in another world, far away from reality. Candice celebrated her 12th birthday in the parks everyday on this trip.
She got a button at each park that showed it was her birthday. Disney has a unique way of making you feel special while you are at their parks. We honestly had not done much research before we went and had no idea where to start. Most of our day was spent sight-seeing. We rode a few rides, watched some shows, and of course enjoyed the fireworks (I think I cried again during Wishes!)
We knew we didn't get to experience even half of what Disney World had to offer, but that just meant we would have to go back again one day!! We had a great time though!
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| First time on Tower of Terror!! |
2nd trip:
When - July 1st - July 4th 2010
Where - Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort
Who - The Newlyweds - The Coutures
Why - Honeymoon!
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| At Hollywood Studios |
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| At Magic Kingdom |
~Nolan and I had already planned to go on a cruise for our honeymoon. When I realized the port was only an hour from Orlando I mentioned to Nolan that I would love to go back to Walt Disney World. I looked into it a little and found out that we could get 4 day tickets for only $99 a person with the military discount. Nolan called while I was at school and booked it for us. He picked the resort, which was also discounted, and the dining plan. We were only 2 weeks out from the wedding when we decided to add Disney World in at the end of our honeymoon so I had to do a bit of research for the dining plan. I was able to get us some dining reservations luckily - Tony's Town Square, Le Chefs, and Sci-fi Dine in Theater. This trip was amazing!
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| Dessert at Tony's Town Square |
We literally rode every single ride, some more than once. We got real familiar with the FastPass system and even got fastpasses given to us by CMs when they saw our honeymoon pins that we wore every day. Again, Disney is magical and the CMs are amazing at providing wonderful experiences and making you feel special.
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| At EPCOT - Our favorite park |
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| Getting the Jungle Blessing on our rings :) |
We both had so much fun and learned so much more about the place. When we got home and talked about how much fun we had, my family was very interested. Which ultimately lead us to trip #3 only 4 months later!!
3rd Trip:
When: Thanksgiving week 2010
Who: PawPaw, Nona, Mom, Candice, Nolan,
Aunt Jennifer, Whitney, Tiffany, & Me!
Where: Westgate Town Center
~So after asking Nona and PawPaw, only once, if we could go to Disney on a big family trip they agreed it was a great idea! We all got together at their house for my birthday in September and revealed the surprise to everyone else. Nona had bought all princesses decorations for my party which made Whitney and Tiffany laugh because they thought she was being funny. On the Christmas tree Nona already (or still) had put up were cards hanging, one for each of us. After lunch we got to open the cards and inside was an invitation to Disney World with the date we had booked already. Unfortunately DenDen couldn't go with us so it ended up just being the 9 of us. We had 6 day tickets. One day for Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom and 2 days each for Magic Kingdom and EPCOT. Our first day at Magic Kingdom when we arrived for the opening show I know I saw some tears from some of my family members, whether they care to admit it or not! It was amazing!
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| Watching the Welcome Show! ;) |
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| Wonderful Grandparents - 50th Anniversary |
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| PawPaw & Nona on Space Mountain |
While we were there PawPaw & Nona celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary! Yes, 50th! They wore their buttons all week that showed it was their 50th anniversary and you wouldn't believe how great it was! When PawPaw saw their picture from Space Mountain he had to have it! He thought it was so funny that he even had to buy us all a copy! When he was getting out his wallet to pay for the pictures, the CM said "No sir, you don't owe me anything. Happy Anniversary!" Yep, gave him over $50 worth of pictures! I don't know if it was because it was their anniversary or because she thought it was so cute that he wanted this fun picture of them. Probably a little bit of both but either way it was extremely nice of her! PawPaw also wanted ice cream every day and I'm not sure how many times they told him he didn't have to pay and Happy Anniversary! Really, it's just the little things like this that make Disney so awesome and special for people.
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| ICE CREAM TIME |
I can't even begin to describe all of the wonderful memories from this trip that I will never forget. I never imagined when we were planning this trip how many rides my grandparents would ride with us. Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, and soooo many more!!
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| EVERYONE on Splash Mountain! |
We grandkids will always hold these memories dear to our hearts because only 4 months later, our wonderful PawPaw was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer. He passed away only a month later. How could this happen to our PawPaw who was just acting like a kid with us at Disney World only a few months earlier?
Reason #1 why I will always LOVE Disney World! We have all these wonderful, happy, family memories there.
4th Trip:
When - October 8th - 15th 2011
Who - Nolan & I; Kasey & Seth
Where - Westgate Villas
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| At Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party |
~Kasey and I were in Ultrasound school together at the time and planned a great trip to Disney during the Food & Wine Festival.
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| Norway |
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| China |
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| Splash Mountain |
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| Pearls from our oysters |
We also went to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party and to Sea World. We had the 4 Day military tickets as well as the MNSSHP tickets so we had 5 total days in the parks. We rode everything-multiple times and dined at some really good restaurants. The Food & Wine festival was great; as well as the Halloween party --Best fireworks show by far! This was (FINALLY) my first time to ride Rockin' Roller coaster. Also the first time eating at Via Napoli which has amazing pizza! Absolutely an amazing trip!
5th Trip:
When: December 31st 2012 - January 6th 2013
Who: Nolan & Me; Steve, Kelly, Hailey, Gracie, & Charlie
~Kelly and I planned for months to surprise the kids with their very 1st Walt Disney World Trip. We had a big reveal for them with balloons and Disney attire. They were very shocked and excited! My favorite quote from Charlie "We get to meet Mickey?!?"
When we got to our resort to check in we were upgraded. They gave us a 2 bedroom instead of a 1 bedroom and the Olsens got a 3 bedroom instead of a 2 bedroom. First bit of Disney magic and we weren't even on Disney property yet. For our first morning at Disney World we had breakfast with the characters at O'hana.
We rode so many rides! They were tall enough to ride everything except Charlie couldn't ride Rockin' Rollercoaster.
Our ride photos were probably one of my favorite this from this trip. I have way more than this, but these were the best ones to me. I don't know which I think is the funniest. Everyone but me worried and looking at Charlie on Tower of Terror, the Rockin' Roller Coaster picture with Nolan and "Honey BooBoo" on the front of the ride (she was hilarious), or the one with Kelly manning 2 guns on Buzz Lightyear with that hat on her head! The hat that we had to track down for Charlie in about 5 stores because it was sold out every where! All great and funny stories!
Lucky for us, Disney keeps all their Christmas decorations up until after the first of the year. The lights are so beautiful! The Osborne Spectacle of Dancing Lights at Hollywood Studios is fabulous! We were on the street for the countdown that night. When the 5 million lights come on, it also SNOWS! Yes, it snows in Florida because Disney is just a magical place like that! ;)
This blog only has a few of the highlights from our trips. I have probably over 3,000 pictures from Disney World and if a picture tells a thousand words, well, I could go on forever! I love to travel and I am open to going anywhere in the world but this WORLD is my happy place and always will be!! :)
---->CHRISSY
