Walt Disney World Vacations – What Happens When the Kids Grow Up?

IMG_2128If you’re like me, you dreamed for a long time of the day when you would finally take your children to Walt Disney World for the first time.  You planned and prepped (and saved!) and looked forward to the trip with great anticipation.  When that magical day arrived, do you remember the look on their faces as they discovered all the fantastic reasons you were so excited to take them there?  They see Mickey Mouse in person!  They watch Tinker Bell fly!  They’re mesmerized by the Magic Kingdom’s afternoon parade.  That look of

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wonder is something that stays with you long after your vacation is over.  It’s a big part of what keeps calling you back and you think – it just can’t get any better than this!

Flash forward a few years.  Now you are a family of seasoned Disney World vacationers.  You get a big kick out of how well your little Disney experts navigate around the parks and how opinionated they are about their favorite rides, attractions, and restaurants.  They even help you plan where to stay and what to eat.  Hopefully, at this point, they’ve each grown to become every bit as big a Disney fan as you are.  You watch them race towards Splash Mountain after rope drop, speak perfect photo 3Spanish along with the Monorail announcer, and pose for pictures – maybe even joke around with their favorite characters and you think – it just can’t get any better than this!

A few more years pass in the blink of an eye and suddenly, your sweet little Disney travel buddies are all grown up.  Oh, sure, you still see them as your “children” but they have lives away from home that involve jobs and college classes that put big demands on their schedule.  Finding time for a Disney vacation was once so easy!  Now the logistics are challenging and, lets face it – how could vacationing at Disney World possibly be as much fun now that your children have grown?

Listen to me carefully – this is important.  You may need a little extra planning DSCN2522and creativity to make travel times and transportation work for everyone.  You will worry that it won’t be the same – things that seemed fun to an 10-year-old maybe won’t be as much fun now.  Push those worries aside.  All you’ll have to do is look at their faces – walking on Main Street USA toward Cinderella Castle, waiting – next in line to board Rock’n’ Roller Coaster, jumping into a Doom Buggy or trying not to laugh during the Jungle Cruise, finding out that they are the Rebel Spy or taking that first bite of a Mickey-shaped ice cream bar.  I promise…You will think to yourself – It just can’t get any better than this!

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Halloween Homage – Disney’s Haunted Mansion

DWR2009 077We, being the normal, run-of-the-mill Disney fans that we are, have a love – a passion, for that most special, most Disney-ish of all Disney attractions – The Haunted Mansion.  So, like thousands of Disney fans everywhere, today, on Halloween, we salute our most favorite scary ride.

Ask us individually what our favorite rides are and we will each give you a different answer.  Ask us what ride we MUST ride together, multiple times on every visit to Disney World?  We will all agree it has to be The Haunted Mansion at Magic Kingdom.  In both it’s original form and it’s new post-2007-refurb-form – we have always loved every single thing about this 8-minute doom-buggy trip through one of the coolest attractions ever scared up by Disney Imagineers.

If you’ve been there, you know what I mean when I say that the “Ghost Host’ is a very important DWR2009 079part of the experience.  That voice!  Once he starts you off on your adventure, you can’t look around fast enough to take in all the carefully crafted details, thrills, oddities, surprises, not to mention ghosts the Haunted Mansion holds.  The stretching room with its crazy portraits and surprises, the dining room ghosts, the dancers, Madame Leota (“Goblins and ghoulies from last Halloween…Awaken the spirits with your tambourine!”), the bride, the cemetery, the busts singing “Grim Grinning Ghosts” , the hitch-hikers!  We love it ALL!  I guess that’s why we want to ride it again and again – we never feel like we’ve seen, heard, or experienced everything there is – and that’s just on the inside!  If you’re going, don’t miss any of the great tricks and treats that are in store for visitors in the Haunted Mansion’s queue.

DWR2009 078“Now I will raise the safety bar and a ghost will follow you home.”-Ghost Host, Haunted Mansion

Hurry Baaaaaaack……Hurry BAAAaaaaaaaack….Be sure to bring your death certificate if you decide to join us.  Make final arrangements now.  We’ve been dying to have you…”-Little Leota

Happy Halloween Everyone!