The start of our first Walker family Disney trip

August 2008 
Day 1 and 2

We arrived in Orlando and went to the Disney area at the airport. We were greeted by nice Disney Cast Members and waited for about 25 minutes and our bus came and took us to Saratoga Springs. A beautiful but spread out resort. Our room was in the Springs section, which is the closest section to the food area/pool. We arrived on a Friday and our friends were arriving on Saturday afternoon. 

This is the trip that did something to me and made me "addicted" to Disney. Sometimes I joke that they have subliminal messages somewhere and some people just get it in their brain and keep going back! 

From the moment I stepped in their hotel I knew I was hooked and would want to go back soon!

Being our first vacation at the WDW resort I made a few mistakes... I know better now! 

First I thought that parks were closer to each other and I didn't really think that buses would take so long.

We arrived at the airport at 1pm and I thought I'd be at the park by 3. Big mistake! By the time we got on the bus and got to our resort (last stop) it was almost 3. Then check in, drop off things, bathroom breaks etc. The bus stop was right outside our building but the Epcot bus took 25 minutes to arrive. By the time we went into the park it was 5pm.  We had ice-cream and the park was a bit crowded so we decided to head to Magic Kingdom. That took over an hour! It was crazy! There were delays in the monorail and we were stuck in one for about 30 minutes. Then the lines to get in were huge. We later realized that it was the "extra magic hours" so everyone was heading in. By the time we got to the park it was 8pm so we went on one ride (The Magic Carpets of Aladdin) and headed back to the hotel. My youngest fell asleep in the stroller on the way out! 

Yummy Mickey Mouse Ice-Cream at Epcot!

So first lesson learned: everything takes time at WDW! If you have a dining reservation, or plan to be somewhere plan to leave an hour ahead of time. You never know if your bus will be late, or line for bag check will be long or monorail will be busy... better to be early then late! 

We had gotten tickets with park hopper and water park options. 

On our second day we got up early, had breakfast at Saratoga Springs and headed to Typhoon Lagoon. We arrived at 9am on the dot and were one of the first to get in. We did so many rides together. What an amazing water park. Not many height requirements so my 4 year old who was 42" at the time went on a bunch of slides and had an amazing time. Even my 2 year old enjoyed the family raft and a few other ones. We loved the lazy river and Crush 'n Gusher was amazing although my kids were too young to go. My husband and I took turns. There is a pool right next to it, basically the pool is a continuation of the ride so we could hang out there while waiting and could even see when we got off the water coaster! The kids loved Cast Away Creek and watching the big waves. It felt like we had been there all day. It was a Saturday and park was not full at all. By 11:30am there was a thunderstorm so we had to get out of the water. We had lunch and headed back to the hotel for naps. 

Leyli, my 4 year old had stopped napping at the age of 2, but we told her everyone had to nap so we could go back to the park later again. It's amazing how tired you get! We all napped for 2 hours and headed to Animal Kingdom at about 3:30. 

Disney's Animal Kingdom is amazing. It's beautiful, some areas resemble African villages, others Asia and so on. They've done an amazing job with every single little detail. You could spend hours just observing the love that these designers or "imagineers" as they call them put into this park. 
After walking around a bit we did the Kilimanjaro Safari which is AMAZING. Do it several times if you can. I've been to Africa and did a 4 day Safari and would see an animal every hour or two! Here in a few minutes you see a lot of them! Really well done!

I had read the Unofficial Guide To Walt Disney World and they gave great tips of which rides you should avoid for certain ages. Even after reading it and knowing this next ride was not recommended for little ones we decided to try the "It's tough be be a Bug" show next. Well, big mistake. It was our first and last time. You wear 3D glasses and my 4 year old believed everything was real and was crying and upset that the bugs were spraying us, etc. My 2 year old was oblivious to the whole thing but my 4 year old couldn't wait to get out of there! 

Kali River Rapids: a favorite ride!

A quick picture with Minnie before leaving the park -
note we are very wet from Kali River Rapids!

My daughter's favorite was definitely the Kali River Rapids. The line was only 20 minutes long (so they said but it was really just 10 minutes) so I went with her. Of course we were the ones who got completely soaked. She laughed so hard the whole time. When we finished there was no one in line so they asked us if we wanted to ride again, so we never got off, just stayed and once more got completely soaked! 
When we got off my husband went with Leyli again. Kids need to be 38" to ride. 

We also watched the parade. We avoided the big rides like Expedition Everest as our kids were too little to go. It's a big park and great to explore the little things like the African drums, the birds, and so much more. 

We left the park after a few hours and by 9 everyone was asleep!!