My Dream Vacation!

So in the first post I mentioned a dream vacation that I had always wanted to take and went back to work so that I could take this dream vacation. I bet you've already guessed that this dream vacation would involve Disney, and you'd be right. But first some background. I have always loved Disney and always wanted to go there. Now mind you I have been there before, but those vacations didn't always pan out so well for me. So the first time I went was when I was 2, I actually turned 3 in Florida, but of course I don't remember any of that. Maybe that's where my love of Disney came from, who knows? I had the opportunity to go again in high school with my then boyfriend and his parents. His sister couldn't go so they took me as a substitute. I was very excited, but things didn't turn out so well. So I get motion sickness fairly easily. I can't even ride on an airplane unless I can either be lying down or knocked out. When I do get motion sickness it doesn't go away for quite some time like hours and sometimes I'll even still feel nasty the next day. My boyfriend wanted to go on this 3d motion ride and I was thinking oh it's a movie I should be fine. Wrong!!! After we got off the ride I had to sit in a chair for like 20 minutes before I felt well enough that I wasn't going to throw up or pass out, but that was pretty much the end of riding rides. Then my boyfriend got sick and we spent the rest of night hanging out by the bathrooms in case he needed one again. So of course this wasn't my dream vacation. As an adult I finally got to be able to go to Disney again, because my husbands work gave a trip as a bonus. Here's where the problems started. I wanted to go in September when the temperatures would be a little better and the crowds would be lower, but my husband decided that he wanted to go in July. Not just in July, but the week of the 4th. Of course we flew down there, which let me tell you I was sick the whole plane ride and still wasn't feeling much better the next day. But I toughed it out because I wanted to go to Disney World. We went to magic kingdom, July 4th of course, in 100 degree weather. It was hot, crowded, and we hardly got to ride any rides. Of course back then the kids were all small and our 1 son is autistic and had trouble with his feet so he didn't make it very long at any of the parks. We did go to Epcot which was pretty good and to Animal Kingdom which was still pretty crowded, but with it being so hot I just wasn't very enjoyable. Of course my husband said "never again," which of course lead to a couple of years of me convincing him that he just picked a bad time to go. So finally I got to plan my Disney World vacation my way. So what was my dream vacation-well actually I have a few, but this was the #1 dream vacation. I wanted to go to Orlando at Christmas time. I know, I know, I was going to run into the same problem with all the crowds again, but let me explain the trip.

First of all this time we drove down, which is a little over 16 hours. We ran into all kinds of traffic in Georgia and stopped for the night outside of Atlanta. The hotel we stayed in wasn't nasty, but I wouldn't call it luxurious either. It was only for one night and we were leaving first thing in the morning. Our first stop once we got to Orlando was Gaylord Palms Resort. If you've never been to a Gaylord resort you should try one they are pretty awesome and have 5 different locations. We had stayed in the 1 in Tennessee and loved it so decided to try this one in Orlando. They do a huge Christmas event along with all of their regular activities, and of course you can't forget the huge jungle on the inside. After 2 nights of Christmas at Gaylord, which I give 5 stars, we moved on to Universal. Before we went to the Universal hotel we stopped at a restaurant called The Sugar Factory. Now we had been to one of these near Chicago and it was great, but this one not so much. It seemed a little old and run down, and the food didn't seem as good as the 1 in Chicago. The drinks were great and the kids had fun trying everybody's drink for good measure, but it was still kind of a bust. So we headed to Universal.

We stayed at one of the new Universal hotels, It was pretty nice, but after staying at Gaylord it was a little disappointing. Also I didn't realize when I booked the room that there was only 1 bathroom. Trying to get 4 people ready quickly with only 1 bathroom is not fun. The first night there we went to Universal's City Walk and just walked around, ate, and shopped. The next day was our first day in the park and we were scheduled for breakfast with the Grinch and a Vip tour. Breakfast with Grinch was awesome and then we met up with our tour guide. The Private Vip tour at Universal was pretty great. You get breakfast, lunch and a voucher for dinner at a restaurant of your choice. My husband and kids got onto all the rides really fast and I just shopped around while I waited. I can only ride 2 rides at Universal, but with all the show's, shopping, and of course Harry Potter, there is still plenty to do. We all enjoyed Harry Potter's World, and of course we're all fans. The next day we went back to the park with fast passes and spent the day riding whatever we didn't get the day before. That night we did a Christmas tour where we got to see the Grinch show, and have the park to ourselves. We could have gone back to Universal for a 3rd day but we were going to Disney that night so decided to give our feet a break that morning before moving on to Disney World that afternoon.

We had some time before we could check into the Disney hotel so we decided to stop at Disney Springs for lunch. There was hardly anyone there and we had some great pizza. Then it was off to The Animal Kingdom Resort Kildani Village. We got a room with a savannah view and let me tell you it was worth it, this room also had 2 bathrooms YES! We watched all kinds of animals- giraffes, ox, deers from the balcony of our room. Our first night at Disney was in Magic Kingdom but we were doing Mickey Magical Christmas Celebration, which is a separate after hours party. Let me tell you even though tickets were limited it was still crowded, but we managed to ride all of the rides we wanted to ride, saw the Christmas parade had some free snacks, and got to see the fireworks. It was pretty awesome.

The next day was Animal Kingdom, which is my favorite park. Unfortunately my husband and kids were exhausted by this point and slept in. I on the other was ready to go so I headed to the park by myself at about 8 am and walked all the trails and took many, many pictures of the animals and the tree. The husband and kids joined me just in time for lunch. Then we went on a special tour about the elephants. The elephants weren't cooperating well so we only got to see them for a few minutes, but we learned a lot. Then we went back to the park to ride a few rides before we went on a private safari. We got to talk to one of the animal care takers and a giraffe came right up by his truck to munch on some tree limbs. As part of the tour we got to eat in the middle of the savannah and even see some parts of it that you can't see on the regular safari. Even spotted some Ostrich eggs. Then it was back to the park to visit Pandora. I will say that the Pandora part of Animal Kingdom is pretty cool, but at nigh it is probably one of the most awesome things I have seen. After riding the rides and picking up some souvenirs it was back to the hotel. The next day was a big day because it was Hollywood Studios.

Hollywood Studios was a big deal for us because we had not seen the Star Wars part before, so I scheduled a VIP tour for that day just so we could make sure to be able to ride the rides. The VIP tour with Disney is a little different than Universal. You don't get any meals with it, and you do still have to stand in line for the rides just not as long of ones. We did get to ride all of the rides we wanted including both Star Wars rides, and hopped over to Epcot to ride the Guardians of the Galaxy ride. We even got to do some character meet and greets and see some shows that we didn't think we would fit in. After the VIP tour we went back to Star Wars to wait to build our lightsabers and droids. We finished our droids just as they were shutting down the park. The next day was Epcot.

Since Epcot was under construction and there weren't very many rides that we absolutely wanted to ride we took our time in the morning before heading to the park. My husband and kids wanted to ride Test Track so while they stood in line for that I walked around the whole park and did some shopping. They stood in line for 2 hours before they got to ride the ride. But they still enjoyed it so no biggy. The next day we were suppose to be going to the beach, but decided we wanted to stay at the resort so we were switching hotels.

We moved to The Wildness Lodge for our the last 2 nights of the trip. We swam, relaxed, and explored the resort before heading back home. Now what really would of made this the best dream vacation ever was if we could have fit in Sea World, Discovery Cove, and the Star Wars hotel, so we're going back this spring to accomplish those. I loved this trip and even my husband is now looking forward to going back in the spring.

What about you! Do you have a dream vacation you have always wanted to take, or maybe you would be happy to take any kind of vacation at all. Well contact us and we'll help you make it happen.