-- FLORIDA-- Part 1

Me and my family, Magic Kingdom 1996

I finally have a few minutes to sit down and write about my wonderful trip to Florida and Disney World!!  It's been a very long time since I've been to Disney . . . by a long time I mean 17 years . . . I'm not complaining. I'm grateful my parents waited until us kids were a little older and could really remember our experience, and we've taken plenty of other trips growing up, made so many amazing memories, but it's a place I've always wanted to go back to!!  I got very lucky in a couple different ways this year.  1 my boss and friend is a huge Disney fan, 2 USA Gymnastics decided to have National Congress in Hartford so Region 6 decided not to have a regional compulsory clinic, and 3 one of the national clinics was going to be right at Disney World!!  We were in!! We did get a lot of work done, but we also had just a little bit of fun . . .
Since the clinic was going to be at Disney we spent almost our entire trip on the Disney grounds.   Seeing that sign welcoming you to Disney brought back memories.  I remember the first time we drove by the entrance when I was a kid, I couldn't believe I was there when I was younger and I couldn't believe it a couple weeks ago either.  Our hotel was beautiful!!  No matter where we were I couldn't help but marvel at the attention to detail.  The Coronado Springs was so nice!!  I've stayed at plenty of hotels, but this was a little different then any I've stayed at before.

Instead of one big building it was a bunch of smaller ones around a pond.  It had a Spanich/ Old Mexico type flair.  There were even ruins at the pool.  We found our room and didn't bother to stay long, we were off to the Magic Kingdom!!
It was raining when we left Connecticut, it was a little over cast when we landed in Florida, and we got a little wet on our way to the bus stop, but thankfully it cleared up by the time we made our way across the Disney property . . . at least for the time being :)
We got to the park just in time for our lunch reservation, but once we ate I finally got to see it!!  The castle!!  When I think of Disney that's the first iconic thing I think of.  I was just excited that it wasn't pink this time!! (Last time they were getting it ready for a big anniversary celebration and the castle was pink to look like a cake)  I probably could have taken pictures of it all day but we had rides to ride and things to see!!
Some of the rides I remembered and some were new.  We did a few of the classics like It's A Small World, and the Haunted Mansion. I remember going on them but things had certainly been updated.

 The dolls in Small World were new, some of them would even blink their eyes and their mouths would move.  Haunted Mansion was very much the same except for the graveyard.  The ride stopped while we were in the ballroom part of the mansion, I was able to get a picture of some of the ghosts, which I thought was pretty cool!! Pirates had been changed to include Jack Sparrow and more of the movie cast, the Carousel Of Progress and People Mover were others I remember doing.

I am very grateful that Shari knows what she's doing at Disney and knew how the Fast Pass system works or we wouldn't have been able to fit in half of the things we did.  It's fast passes that brought about one of the funniest moments of the trip and we had only been there a couple hours!!  We had been over in Frontier Land getting fast passes to Thunder Mountain Railroad before we were going to head across the park to Space Mountain to use passes we already had.  Well I happen to notice this nice rainbow off in the distance, funny thing was there was no rain . . . yet . . . the thought no sooner crossed our minds and it started to sprinkle.  Florida rain showers are quick, did we want to take cover and wait or make a run for it?  We decided to go for it.  By the time that was decided it was raining.  By the time we got out of Frontier Land it was pouring!!  We could hardly see it was raining so bad, and by the time we got to Tomorrowland it was hardly raining at all . . . we were completely soaked!!  Dry people coming off some of the rides were looking at us like we were crazy, we couldn't help but laugh!!

We got a little competitive on the Buzz Lightyear ride (Shari kicked my butt), laughed our butts off on the laugh floor, checked out the new Fantasy Land, and stayed for the shows that night.   I don't remember seeing the Electric Parade as a kid, but I know we watched some sort of fireworks show at the castle one night.  The new show is mind blowing.  They use the whole castle like a canvas projecting movie clips and characters on it, all to music.  It was amazing!!

We closed the park down that night, but we got to see so much!!

Day 2 was going to be a full day at Epcot!!  I had heard a lot about the Test Track and the Mission Space rides and couldn't wait to check them out!!

Test Track was our first stop.  There were a bunch of future concept cars in the waiting area where you walk onto the ride.  Before you get to actually ride the coaster you get to design a car first.  Our first design of the day we decided to go for all power!! This car was so ridiculously impractical is was amazing!! It was fast but did terrible on all the other tests.  Later that day we did it again and decided to go green and give it a little flower power (no joke we painted it green and put flowers on the side . . . it was hilarious I'm not going to lie) That car did amazing and was pretty close to the top overall design for the day (go figure).  The ride was fun though.  You'd go through different tests, like testing on wet road and handling and then you go outside and fly around the building like it's a NASCAR track :)

Mission Space was another cool ride.  I've always wanted to be an astronaut so anything space I'm there!!  There are 2 different intensities and we jumped on the more intense one.  It took a little while to get on the ride and everywhere you turned there were warnings about motion sickness and claustrophobia.  I don't get either but it really made me wonder just how bad this ride really was.  It was so much fun!!  You get inside a space ship and get launched to Mars and end up in a asteroid field, then you crash land . . . so much fun!!

One of the big attractions at Epcot is the countries showcase.

While we were checking things out we saw them getting the big globe and barges of fireworks ready for the show that night

Before we went to lunch we jumped on the Land ride which actually goes right around the restaurant we were going to.  The ride talks about the Earth and farming and even takes you into some of Disney's gardens and greenhouses where they grow food that's used throughout the parks.  Some of their methods were very interesting, like suspending the plants to make bigger fruits and vegetables. 

 Lunch that day was at the Garden Grill.  It's one of Shari's favorite places, and it was a character lunch :) I remembered eating at a character place when I was younger and Minnie and Mickey were dressed in overalls with straw hats, a very country sort of place.  After looking through an old photo album I discovered I had in fact eaten at this same place 17 years ago :)  We were like little kids, getting to meet Chip and Dale, Pluto, and the big mouse himself!!

We checked out some more rides and shows like Soarin' and Captain EO, we Journeyed Into Our Imagination, and even went back to Mars.  We finished off our night with the lights and fireworks show!!

We closed 2 parks in 2 days, had been having a blast, but next day we had to get down to business and start learning the new compulsory routines!!

ESPN Wide World Of Sports wasn't that far from our hotel but only a handful of shuttle buses go there, none of them went from our hotel (the host hotel . . . yeah try to figure that one out) So our mornings started bright and early with a :45-1 hour commute to get a mile and a half down the road.

The clinic was packed!!  We saw a lot of familiar faces and learned a lot!!  We still have some practicing to do but we were able to get a jump on learning so we can teach the kids back home.  It also gave us something to think about while we were sitting on the buses early in the morning or late at night!!

Since we would be spending all day at the clinic we decided it would be a waste to spend money on a pass for the parks that day.  Instead we went to Downtown Disney to catch the Cirque du Soleil show La Nouba.  As usual with Cirque, it was amazing!!  There were cool bike tricks, the power track and tramp act was so much fun, and the little girls who did the diables were so talented and adorable.

Amazing show, shops, good ice cream, and crazy Lego sculptures . . . oh yeah, we closed down Downtown too . . .

Saturday was another full day at the clinic and we headed over to Universal in the evening.  I had 2 requests for this trip, request #1 go to the Orlando Margaritaville.  Come to find out it's at the Universal Studios City Walk.

We didn't go into any of the actual parks, but we could see some of the roller coasters and the Harry Potter castle off in the distance.

 It turned out to be a pretty special night because we were able to meet up with our friend Darcee while we were there!!  Darcee used to coach at the gym with us and moved down to Florida about 2 years ago.  Thanks to social media like facebook we can still see her and her growing family, and thanks to facebook we were able to connect while we were down there.  It was so nice to get to see her and catch up face to face!!

Well that's part 1 of my awesome trip.  Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom to come soon :)

Cheers!!