We arrived at Ft. Wilderness Campground today at Walt Disney World! It's awesome here, and even with the rain today, we are loving being here.

The entire family (myself included) will be taking a real vacation for the next 10 days (through the 20th), so we will just be doing a little email and moderate blog updates throughout this portion of the trip.

Thursday Update:

Today was spent at the Magic Kingdom, and what a blast we had. It was hot for most of the day, then around 4pm or so, the sky opened up...torrential downpour galore. Thank God we had our little ponchos and umbrella with us, we were prepared, and other than some very soaked shoes (did you know you can dry shoes in the microwave?), we did okay, and stuck around until about 7:30pm or so, then back to the camper and picked up Peanut at the kennel.

It was a fun day, and we were glad to be here at Disney. We're heading over to Universal Studios tomorrow, and I hope I can escape without Kenzie scaring me to death on some thrill ride...dads are supposed to be tough, and all of that stuff.

Sunday Update:

We've had a couple of more days of fun here, so I thought I'd post a bit. We spent yesterday at Disney's Hollywood studios, and we had a good time. This park has mostly shows and sit down type attractions, but our favorite attractions were the Aerosmith RocknRoll Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror. They're way fun, despite the blistering heat at the park.

We spent today over at Islands of Adventure, the "other" Universal Studios park. Lots of rides here, and most of them are water-related rides. These guys don't hold back on the wet-factor, and our favorite ride, perfect for another terribly hot day was the Popeye ride which features a circular raft. Getting wet would be an understatement, you get as wet as if you jumped in the pool. Luckily, we prepared and came to the park with Crocs and swimsuits. We loved the ride so much we did it 5 times.

We've decided we like the family atmosphere that Disney gives much more than Universal. It just seems like Disney is better suited for us, but that's okay, we still had fun at Universal, and might even go back before we leave Orlando.

Wednesday Update:

It's been a few days since our last update, and man, we've been busy...having fun, that is.

We spent Monday at Animal Kingdom, and this time of year, the guidebooks couldn't be more right...it's HOT. There are very few attractions to be enjoyed inside, so most of the day is spent outside. Combine that with the shear size of the park, and you can work up a pretty good sweat just enjoying the park. We had a good time though, and enjoyed the animals, Expedition to Mt. Everest (wild roller coaster), and other attractions. One day was enough there though.

Tuesday was spent at Epcot, and it was great, lots and lots to do at this park, including rides and shows, and interactive stuff for the kids. We didn't feel like we got enough done there, so we'll be returning to do a "clean up" run on Friday. My favorite ride was TestTrack, which is a GM-sponsored (everything is sponsored at DisneyWorld it seems) attraction about testing cars and taking them through the paces, including a 65mph speed run, which was big fun. We also liked the SpaceShip Earth attraction, very cool inside that big golf ball looking thing. ;->

We're heading back to Magic Kingdom tomorrow, and plan to make a full day of it. We'll finish up on Friday morning at Epcot again, then back to Universal (both parks) for the rest of the day. We plan on being back here in the evening where the girls will do the Ft. Wilderness campfire, and I'll get us road ready. We leave for Charleston on Saturday morning, and have quite the drive.

Friday Update:

Well, after a great day yesterday, it seems we are "theme parked out". The girls and I stayed late last night to watch the Light Parade and the Fireworks over the castle. It was awesome, and I'll post some pics and video later on. We had a full day from 8am to 10pm, so we were tired today.

We finished up our Disney adventure today with a few more hours at Epcot (doing some of the interactive stuff, plus one of our favorites, Soarin') and then headed over to Universal again for some more water fun. This, as it turns out, was one notch too many on the old "fun knob." We were all tired, and since it was a little cooler today, after the Popeye ride, we were a little miserable. We all decided to pack up and head "home" to the campground and relax by the pool. Mom and the girls then went to the campfire and a movie at the campground while I readied the camper. We're all hooked up and ready to leave Ft. Wilderness early in the morning.

A note I forgot to mention, Peanut got "pet of the week" at the Ft. Wilderness kennel, and received a nice little disney dog dish. Pretty funny, he's a good boy! ;->

Faith's blog:
This week we went to Disneyworld! Disney has been the best place yet. We went to four parks, one world. It was really fun! We loved it a lot. There was a whole bunch of rides! We went on pretty much every one. It was awesome!

Kenzie's blog:
This was the best! There are 4 parts of it. Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, Epcot and Hollywood Studios. We went to all of them including Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios. They aren’t Disney. My favorite was Epcot. It has different “countries” in it. Magic Kingdom has all rides. Animal Kingdom is partly a safari. It was fun!


Photos:

Disney World and Universal Studios

Video: