Forever Magical
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Doobie and I just returned from a wonderful two-week working vacation to Walt Disney World. Below are day-by-day highlights of our 14-day trip. Also in Walt Disney World during the same period (though not necessarily with us the whole time) were Indigo (John) and Staceypooh (Stacey) and Rebekah's family - mom, dad, two brothers and a sister.

Day One
Stepping off red-eye at 6:30 a.m. at Orlando International we knew this would be a very different trip - we needed to put on our jackets. It was wonderful!! Normally we step off the plane and fall under the humidity but the air wasn’t heavy and there was a beautiful breeze. We caught up with John and Stacey at the baggage claim.

The Yacht Club

We checked into the Yacht Club and headed over to Yacht Club Galley to eat. We were all looking pretty tired and ordered off the menu instead of the buffet simply because to get our own food would be too much effort. After devouring the meal, our first stop was to purchase our annual passes at the International Gateway at Epcot. Thanks to a very helpful cast member we were informed of the discounts available and purchased our annual pass at a lower price that we had budgeted. We then headed to Test Track for a FastPass. It would only be 20 minutes until we could redeem the FastPass, which was perfect for visiting Spaceship Earth. Back at TestTrack the FastPass return path took guests through the full queue and the standby line didn’t which I found to be really interesting considering that many Disneyland regulars dislike FastPass because they feel it cheats guests out of experiencing the queue. Here we could only experience the full queue by using an FastPass. We all enjoyed it although we decided that riding around the freeways of Los Angeles with Stacey was far more scary.

Lunch was at the Coral Reef Restaurant, Stacey’s special request. There was a large turtle that parked itself by the far window for a very long time. Occasionally a large school of fish or a shark would pass by the large windows. The décor had changed since my visit in 1996, it is much prettier. Doobie and John had a tofu dish that was a bit bland but still pretty good. I had a coca-cola since I was still full from the bagel and lox at breakfast. Then we all headed back to our hotels for much needed rest before dinner at Citricos.

A sea turtle visible in the Coral Reef restaurant

Ahh…the Grand Floridian. Someday we’ll stay there. The staff is so friendly and the flowers throughout the hotel are stunning. While we were enjoying our appetizers we noticed the the people at the tables around us all looking out the window. The just-launched space shuttle’s large plume of smoke could be seen rising over the World. We were even able to see the booster rockets separate. It was awesome. I’d always wanted to see a launch since I’d seen the shuttle land many, many years ago. I was ecstatic, but it couldn’t top my favorite dessert at the World which I was able to introduce to our dining companions Pete Werner (webmaster of The DIS) and John that night - the chocolate ravioli with licorice ice cream. If you like black licorice I guarantee you will love this dessert.

Flowers at the Grand Floridian