The Disney Wish Trip Photo Album

I finally got around to organizing all of the photos from the trip that are worth sharing and uploading them to the web. So here they are all in one place. Click the photo below to get to the entire photo album.

Disney Wish Trip

Day 7: The Return Home

Our final day on our wish trip to Florida was spent shopping for souvenirs and traveling. We had a final breakfast in the village, spent some time just relaxing and enjoying the Florida weather, and then packed our bags for the airport. At 11am, we checked out of the Give Kids the World village, and hopped over to Downtown Disney for some souvenir shopping. Josh quickly spotted a Lego store and both Josh and Katie browsed every section of the store and came out with enough Legos to keep them busy for the next several days. Lego and souvenir shopping complete, we grabbed a quick lunch and then headed for the airport. Shortly after 9pm we arrived back in Burlington Vermont right at the tail end of a snow storm. There were 6 to 8 new inches of soft, powdery snow waiting to welcome us home. A limo was waiting to transport us home from the airport, a 2-hour trip in good weather. The trip took about 3 hours this time and all four of us ended up falling asleep during the ride. Our Disney vacation had tired us all out.

Even with a good night's sleep behind us, we are all still moving slowly today. The kids have both been assembling their Lego creations and watching movies. We need a couple more days of rest. With school starting up again on Wednesday, life will resume its normal pace soon enough.

Day 6: Universal Studios, Magic Kingdom & GKTW

This was another long day and the kids are both tired. We started off with Universal Studios, and spent several hours exploring the park. There wasn't enough there to hold our attention for the whole day, so we eventually headed back over to the Magic Kingdom. Since this was our second trip to the Magic Kingdom, we focused our attention on the two rides that we wanted most - The Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain. In just 3 hours, we managed to ride Thunder Mountain 3 times and Splash Mountain twice. Then we left Disney World and came back to Give Kids the World in time for their weekly Christmas celebration. Christmas at Give Kids the World was quite fun. The kids got to meet Santa and have their picture taken with him. They were given Christmas presents. They had a sleigh ride. They saw a parade and participated in a dance party with other kids and all of the Give Kids the World characters as bubble snow fell to the ground around them. When everything was finished, we took the kids out for dinner and they barely made it throuh dinner awake. When we got them back to the villa, they collapsed into their beds without argument and passed out for the night. This was our last big day of park hopping. Tomorrow, we check out of the village, do a little shopping and then we are headed for home. Our wish trip is almost over.

Day 5: GKTW, Sea World & Medieval Times

We are on our way back to Universal Studios so I don't have time to post much right now. However, below is a video montage of everything that we did and saw yesterday at Give Kids The World, Sea World, and Medieval Times. Medieval Times turned out to be the real highlight of the day with Josh being knighted in a ceremony with the king and Katie winning the red knight's favor after he won a tournament. We are having the time of our lives.

Day 4: Universal Studio's Islands of Adventure

Today was another big day. We spent the whole day at the Islands of Adventure in Universal Studios. It is another huge park, similar to Magic Kingdom in that there are rides and attractions everywhere. We spent much of the morning in the Dr. Seuss themed park, had a huge lunch at Bubba Gump's and then headed into the Harry Potter and Jurassic Parks. The Harry potter park was amazing and the rides (3) were terrific. Katie found another roller coaster that she absolutely loved, called "The Flight of the Hippogryph". We rode that 6 times. Josh and I also discovered the Harry Potter simulation ride where you fly over, around, and through the Hogwarts school on a broom. This was the one ride that has come the closest to making me sick. It was also so realistic that Josh was afraid to go on it again. But WOW! What an experience. 

We finished the day by getting absolutely soaked on a couple of different water rides and then heading back to our villa for some pizza. Tomorrow, we head to Sea World!

Day 3: Animal Kingdom

Today started out slowly. After dragging the kids and ourselves out of bed this morning. We spent some time at Give Kids The World getting a good breakfast and having some photos taken with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Mary Poppins. I spent some time updating the blog while Amy and the kids rode around the village on the little train that they have here. Then, we headed over to Disney's Animal Kingdom - an extra large version of Granby Zoo but with a safari ride and live entertainment. It was a good choice for the day after Magic Kingdom because meandering slowly through the animals and taking the time to sit and watch the live shows gave us a chance to recouperate. The shows were spectacular and the animals were lively and active. However, Josh couldn't wait to get to the parks 2 major ride attractions, a tube ride down a river designed to soak every rider; and a roller coaster named Everest. The river ride soaked Katie to the bone. Luckily we brought extra clothes for just such an incident. The roller coaster was big, fast, and scary - I know from personal experience because Josh needed someone to go with him and this being a wish trip I couldn't say no. At the end of the day, we came back to Give Kids the World early enough to catch a late dinner and get the kids into bed at a reasonable hour. Tomorrow. We're off to Universal Studios! :)