Disney Magic Part 1

Okay, I have been VERY delinquent on posting new pictures and blogs.  It's been sort of a mad-house here, trying to catch up on school work, so I decided I will break up the Disney trip stuff into several posts...So, today's will be the first in the series.

Day 1:  Travel

We got up VERY early in the morning (5:30 am) in order to get to Nick's house and then to the airport.  Landon did really great on the airplane, and he even got to go into the cockpit with the captain and see all the buttons!  Of course, we all got a little nervous when Landon started saying "Landon push the button!"

In his seat, with his toys:

In the cockpit with the captain:

Our trip started out on a GREAT note, when a family getting ready to go home gave Landon two Mickey balloons that they couldn't take on the plane!  He was SUPER excited, and we were too, when we later found out said balloons cost $10 each!

Once we got to Orlando, we realized that our rental car company was NOT in the terminal as promised, so we had to lug all of our luggage onto a shuttle and over to the company...NOT fun.  But, it was quick and easy to get our car, and we headed off to our hotel, with the help of Nick's GPS.  It took us some time to understand the GPS, and the freeways in Florida, so it seemed to take FOREVER to get to our hotel, the Liki Tiki Village (how's that for a name?).  We got checked in and our room was AWESOME!  It had a full kitchen, master bedroom, huge bathroom, laundry room, dining room, and living room, with TWO flat screen TV's, and a jetted tub!  Not to mention the fully screened in lanai with gorgeous views of the woods!  Here's some pics of our room:

Kitchen:

Dining Room:

Living Room:

Bathroom:

Master Bedroom:

Jon, on our lanai:

Since it was only 6:45 pm when we got settled in, we decided to go to Downtown Disney for dinner, and to get a look around.  Downtown Disney is an AMAZING shopping/dining complex on Disney property.  They have EVERYTHING there, and I probably could have spent everything there, too!  There was a 40,000 sq foot Disney store!  Seriously!  40,000 sq feet!  It was AMAZING!  We got Landon his very own Mickey ears (the most expensive felt ever), and went to dinner at Emilio and Gloria Estevez's Cuban restaurant, Bongo's.  We got this cuban roasted half chicken that was to die for, but so was the price!  I guess that's what vacation is all about!  Afterwards, we walked around the shops, and Landon got SO excited when he saw the statues of the characters.  He HAD to give Mickey/Minnie kisses.  It was adorable!  And the Lego store had these AMAZING life-sized statues of dragons, and dinosaurs, and families.  It must have taken weeks to put them together.

Landon's ears:

The lego statues:

The character statues:

After dinner and shopping, we went back to the room to get a good night's sleep before heading to the parks the next day.  Landon had a BALL staring at himself in his Mickey ears, in the giant mirrors in the living room.  And it was SOOOOO nice to be able to put Landon to bed, and still hang out and talk/watch movies afterwards, which we can't normally do when we stay in hotels because we're all in the same room.

Okay, that's all I have time for, today, next time we'll get to the parks!