Florida 2009 Vacation - Saturday & Sunday

Saturday, May 1, we left for Florida! Our flights were late (cheap) and so we left Columbia around 2:30pm to get to the airport in time for our 6:30pm flight. We missed being in what could have been a pretty big car accident by about 5 seconds within 1 mile of our home. A truck came across our lane at a pretty good speed, went up on the embankment and flipped. We stopped and called 911 for the driver as well as making sure he was alright. He was. The girls certainly had a lot of questions though. The rest of our drive went uneventfully as did the plane ride. Livi entertained herself by putting the window shade up and down repeatedly as well as the tray tables. I'm sure it was a little annoying for those around her, but I figured it could definitely be worse. The girls were very excited to fly on the plane.

After arriving in Florida, it took almost 1.5 hours to get our rental car. There was a mix-up on the reservation and this would plague us for several hours more on the phone over the next day. As you can tell by the pictures of Josie, it was a long and boring wait for the girls. It finally got resolved (we hope--still waiting to see if we get credited from Expedia). By the time we got our car and got to our hotel, it was about 1AM. We quickly went to sleep.

We had an appointment for breakfast with the princesses at Epcot at 1045. The girls were up before 0800 (groggily) and we ate our first breakfast at the hotel. We then made our way to Epcot. For us, eating breakfast with the princesses was well worth it. Olivia was too shy to approach characters in line. This gave her a chance to get used to the idea. We got to meet Belle, Snow White, Cinderella, Ariel and Sleeping Beauty without waiting in a hot, humid line for each. The girls got pictures with each of them and loved it that the princesses came to our table to chat.

After breakfast, we wandered through the countries at Epcot and the girls had little passport books that they could get stamped and signed at each country. Disney employs people from the actual countries that they represent and so they write little messages in that language in the passports. For example, the girls got their names written in Japanese which was pretty cool. There were also sticker-pictures from that country's area in Epcot that will be a nice reminder. There were a couple of boat rides and the girls loved those. We had a little trouble keeping their interest after they got a taste of the rides :) They kept wanting more. It was a good plan to visit Epcot BEFORE Magic Kingdom otherwise we never would've made it through. I would love to go back to Epcot one day though, when I have some time to piddle. The food was great and I would happily eat my way through the countries as well as shop :) My kind of place!