Miranda and Matthew's Place: 07/05/12

Disney Day One:

The first part of our vacation was over and we were saying goodbye to aunt Betty and uncle Joe in Flagler Beach. We were up early, the car was packed, and we were off to Disney. While Flagler was hot, most days we had a nice coastal breeze and the kids could jump into the ocean when the heat was to much. Orlando on the other hand is in the middle of a big swamp in central Florida. Midafternoon relative humidity is around 58 to 59% with temperatures between 93 to 96°. A quick stop at my favorite weather website to compute the heat index and it was going to be between 106 and 115 degrees at Disney, yeeks. But then, it’s for the kids.

We arrived at Disney around 11 o’clock. Figuring our hotel room would not be ready, we were hoping they could hold our luggage somewhere for a few hours. To our pleasant surprise, Debbie, the clerk behind the desk said our room was ready and handed us the electronic keys that would open our rooms, allow entry into the parks and serve as our meal plan and Disney credit card all in one. We left the lobby and headed to our car to start unloading. While removing our luggage from the car, a maintenance worker with a golf cart offered to bring our luggage and us from the car to the hotel elevator. After heading up to our floor and a few trips back and forth from the elevator, we settled in our hotel room. Miranda and Matthew started investigating the room and found the TV remote, the mini fridge, the coffee machine, the Mickey shaped towels, and of course the Gideon’s Bible in the night stand.

Before we did anything more, I wanted to review our plan over lunch in the hotel restaurant. Remember the plan, the one I so carefully crafted while sitting in my 72 degree climate controlled home office in the North East, yea that one.

According to “the plan”, we were to spend the day at Hollywood studios and then head over to Epcot for dinner and fireworks. However, after a two minute walk from our room to the restaurant, the kids decided we were going to Typhoon Lagoon to get out of the heat. At this point I knew my plan was worth nothing more than the scrap paper I wrote it on.

After lunch we walked back to the hotel room, put on our swim suits and headed over to the bus stop for the air-conditioned ride to Typhoon Lagoon. Since mom was not too interested in wave pools, rapids and water shoots, she took a couple pictures of us at the Lagoon and then headed to Downtown Disney for a peaceful day of shopping.

The newly adopted plan was to meet back at the hotel around 6 PM, then head over to Epcot for dinner. One would think that after four hours of effortless floating down the Castaway Creek and two hours battling six foot waves in the Surf Pool, we would have had enough of the water. However, as soon as we got back to the resort, the kids went right for the pool. At this point it was clear to me that no plan was going to be the best plan. I had surrendered and as long as we woke up, did something, ate, and slept, I accepted we met the requirements of a successful Disney vacation. Later that evening, we hopped the bus to downtown Disney for some dinner at Wolfgang Puck Café and some window-shopping.

No you can’t have that – put it back.