Disney World

We went to Disney World in Kissemee Friday and Saturday.  We left Thursday afternoon and stopped first at the place that is building the panel walls of the temple.  They are so beautiful!!  It's amazing to me what can be done to prefabricate such things.  Mark was really pleased with how they turned out and complimented the manager on the beautiful work.

We stayed at the Marriott Springfield Suites not very far from the park.  Mark had built up enough points for us to get a free night.  It was a beautiful room.  Disney World has a great deal for Florida residents--$99.00 for three days.  When each day normally costs $90.00 that is a great deal!

Friday morning, we went to the Orlando temple.  I love it there!  It was a very small session, in fact, there were only two of us women.  But it's always great to be at the temple.

Afterwards we went back to our motel, changed and headed to Disney World.  Mark and I were astounded at how enormous the Disney World complex is.  They have their own freeway system for heaven's sake!

Disney World has four main parks here:  Magic Kingdom, which is like Disneyland in California, Epcot, Disney Hollywood and Animal Kingdom.  We decided to go to Magic Kingdom the first day.  The park stayed open until 11:00, so we figured we would have plenty of time to see everything.

We had a great day!  It is interesting to compare Disneyland with Disney World, but between the four theme parks you find pretty much everything Disneyland has and more.  I was NOT disappointed in the least.

Of course we went to "It's A Small World" first.  I thought of Nana because that is her favorite place to go.  Mark and I couldn't believe how many coins people had tossed into the water!  A person cleaning that up could make a pretty good haul.  I even saw a couple of dollar coins.

There were some fun parades.  Mark and I were both amazed at the guys on stilts who danced and moved with such ease.  Wow that had to take some practice.

All of our favorites were there:  "Splash Mountain", "Haunted Mansion"  (ooh, I loved the mansion!  It looked like it came out of the movie), "Pirates of the Caribbean" to name only a few.  They are in the middle of construction in Fantasyland.  Whatever they're doing I'm sure it will be awesome.

From the graveyard of the Haunted Mansion

 My personal favorite ride was "Splash Mountain".  Even with so much to see and do we did that one twice.

It's always fun to see the Electric Light Parade.  They did some really cool movie things on the castle like it was a big screen.  We were really tired by the time we finished, but ready to go the next day!

Mark with the Tree of Life in the background

 Since I knew we would have to head back home early on Saturday, I chose Animal Kingdom for us.  It was great.  I loved "It's Tough to be a Bug" and Kali Rapids.  There are different countries to go to with animals from that area along with attractions.  The buildings are always so cool!  Disney never does anything half way.  The closest thing to the Matterhorn was Mt. Everest train roller coaster!  Very cool, but a little more intense than we wanted yesterday.  Oh well, next time.  My favorite was "Finding Nemo, the Musical"  I loved that!  Very well done.

Absolutely soaked after Kali Rapids in Animal Kingdom, Asia!

Near the dinosaur area of Animal Kingdom

Kimodo Dragon

See the bat?

 I'm so glad we decided to do the Animal Kingdom.  They actually close around 7:00, but we were both worn out around 5:00 so we headed for home.  What a wonderful weekend.  In fact we were so excited to be there that we ended up buying a year pass!  So...we will be back.  It's a good thing too because there are at least two more parks to see!!