clarkekid

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

Every park had it's own HUGE structure. Animal Kingdom's was their Tree Of Life.
It has all kinds on animals carved into the trunk.

I think this was the one park that actually impressed me... but since I have always been an animal person that should be no surprise... it was like Disneyland crossed with a zoo. They had so many animals to see, but only a few cooperated with the heat, humidity and rain. There was even a safari ride that drove you through the animals environments.










Then they also had regular pens for some animals. So you actually had time to look at them and get a decent picture instead of trying to take a clear shot from a bouncing jeep.
Here are my neices and nephews in front of the park.

And my 2 brothers, me and 2 of my nephews with their Expedition Everest ride in the background... now that ride kicked ass.

Notice the pancho's on some of them? I prefered to stick it out in the rain and get wet... such a relief from the humidity and the heat.

Monday was spent at Epcot.

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

I know everyone always says how great the place is. I only thought it was ok. They did have a couple of cool rides... like Test Track, a ride where you are in a car going though driving simulations.

My nephew in the "car wash" area outside of Test Track set up to give a small water area for kids to play in.

And their Mission: Space ride was pretty cool. One of my nephews kept trying to crash our ship by pressing all the wrong buttons at the wrong time. It would have been more cool if the buttons actually did something in the ride's simulation. I also got to see their hydroponic labs where they pretty much grow a lot of the food for the park.
Then is was off to the World Showcase. That was the only ok part. Only a few of the lands had something interesting going on to see... most others were kinda lame and didn't do those lands any justice.

My younger brother's kids and the oldest of my neices and nephews in front of the Aztec temple in Mexico.
We had dinner that evening in Germany where they had a German band playing.

It was a buffett style so you could try as many different types of German foods. I ate WAY too much... but I also had a HUGE beer to drink.

It was called a "man sized" beer. I can only assume that your not considered a man if you couldn't finish it. It was about the equivalent of half a pitcher of beer... AND yes, I did finish it.
This was one of the days it didn't rain and one of the parks with the least shade.

Tuesday was a day of rest. We had 5 day passes and were there for 6 days, so we used Tuesday for the youngest to get caught up on some rest for the time change and all the walking to handle the rest of the week. My younger brother bought his family an extra day and spent it at the Magic Kingdom.

Wednesday, we went to Disney Hollywood Studios.

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

I wish we would have gone there on Sunday. It turns out they had a Star Wars Weekend event going on... but only on weekends. It would have been cool to check out. But they did have some cool Star Wars stuff there.

They had made a corridor of one of the huge ships that you could take pictures in.
Some of the other vehicles.


I even got to ride a speeder bike.

Then my nephews wanted to see the stunt and special effects show. It was pretty much car and motorcylce chases showing how they do the stunts and effects for movies... it was fairly interesting.




Then they had a few muppet things there... like a fountain with all the muppets around it and a revolving Miss Piggy dressed as the Statue of Liberty in the center.

It was another rainy day... actually it was a HUGE down pour. Again I loved it, plus it was like a Disney wet t-shirt competition going on.

Thursay was spend at the Magic Kingdom... my younger brother's family's second trip there so they were able to point out the good stuff.

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

It started off as another hot humid day but around 2pm it turning into yet another rainy day of relief. Unfortunately, they close some rides during the rain and all the covered rides people pack in so it takes forever. I never even got to go in their Haunted Mansion.

The Buzz Lightyear ride here is WAY better because the guns aren't fixed to the car like these ones. I couldn't even come close to my high scores I usually get.

My brother and sister-in-law and I spent a lot of time just shooting each other to amuse ourselves.
Of course we had to go on the Tea Cups... it's a classic.

I rode with my neice and nephew.


Then the kids wanted to drive the cars on the Tomorrow Ride Speeday. My older brother kept trying to ram me so I tried to blind him with the flash from my camera.

This ended up being a really late night. By the end we were dragging and carrying the younest of the kids back to the car.

Friday was another day spent at Epcot because there were a few places my younger brothers kids wanted to see and my older brother's wife didn't go with us on the previous day we went. She was sick with a dual sinus infection and only ended up going out on the last 2 park days. We didn't stay the whole day this time because we had to get back to get things together to check out early the next day.

Saturday was the time to leave for home. On the way to the airport (we were almost there) when I got a call from the airline saying my flight was going to be delayed 2 hours. So we went back to the resort and got some lunch at their Downtown Disney area. Then rushed back to the airport where we got me to the terminal just in time due to some traffic we hit on the way.

Today has been a day of rest and recovery before I have to venture back into the office tomorrow. So not looking forward to that, but I guess all vacations have to come to an end.

But it was some good time off and well spent with my family.