Thanksgiving

As Althea was nice enough to point out, it has been way longer than one weekend since I promised to write more about our trip to Disneyworld. I decided I better get busy and write something about that before Christmas was here!

We left for Disneyworld on Wednesday. Since we were staying on Disney property there was a bus waiting for us at the airport. We didn't even have to wait for our luggage. They sent special tags prior to our trip and the luggage was delivered to our room. As soon as we got checked in to the hotel - The All Star Sports Resort - we were off to the parks! We decided to start our trip at the Animal Kingdom since there were late hours at that part that night. We took in several rides as well as a safari tour, which provided fantastic views of a variety of animals, including a lion which was extremely exciting for Wendy!

Thursday we were off to the Magic Kingdom. This day included several rides on Space Mountain, one of our favorite, Thanksgiving dinner at Cinderella's castle, and too much other fun to remember. We did stop mid-day for a quick nap back at the hotel so we could take advantage of the late hours at the park that night. Dinner was a traditional Thanksgiving meal and very well done atmosphere / show. After dinner we watched the fireworks show and then headed off to take advantage of short lines and Pirates of the Carribean and several other rides.

Friday was spent at Hollywood Studios. The park was painfully crowded, but thanks to the fast pass option we were able to do everything we wanted but the Toy Story 4D show. The hit of the day for Wendy and I was the Rock and Roll roller coaster. It goes 0-60 in 4 seconds or something ridiculous like that. They play Aerosmith music at a deafening volume while you fly down the track doing loops and lord only knows what else. Zach thought this ride wasn't as fun, and if I had time to think about it I might have agreed with him, but I tried not to think about it!

After a short nap we spent Friday evening at Epcot. We wanted to see the fireworks and take in a few of the attractions that night since the park had late hours. The fireworks show was very cool and we were able to do a bunch of the rides with minimal wait because of the late hours... oh, for those of you that don't know, during the late hours only people staying at Disney property can ride the rides. You have to show your room key before you get in line. Zachary loved the Crush show (Crush from Nemo) as well as the Test Track ride. This is a car demo ride that takes you outside and up to speeds of 65 miles per hour.

Saturday we went back to Epcot to visit all the different worlds. Surprisingly, Zachary loved looking at all the shops. We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant and dinner at a Japanese restaurant. After dinner we went to the Candlelight Service held at the stage by the water. This is a Christmas presentation that starts with a Choir processional with candles. The music was beautiful and definitely put you in the Christmas spirit. After the show we headed back to take in a few more rides while everyone else was watching the fireworks.

Sunday we went to Downtown Disney to do some shopping and then to Disney Quest, which is an indoor amusement park. This turned out to be a perfect plan because it was raining that day. Several of the day's highlights included free classic arcade games, such as Qbert, Joust, Donkey Kong, Pac Man, etc. I'm not sure who enjoyed this more, me or Zach! The other big attraction was the roller coaster simulation. You got to use a computer to create your own roller coaster, then went into a simulator to ride it. It was a very cool experience.

Monday we headed back to Oklahoma City. Our arrival home was delayed slightly by problems at the lovely Chicago airport, but we arrived home safely and with all our luggage, so I won't complain too much. I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!