Apres Vacation Musings

We're back from our week at Disney and slowly getting back to normal life. I think we'll end up with an extra day off school because today is already half over and there's still enough going on around the house that it's just not happening. I could try and work up the energy to care but...meh.

Disney was fun. And relaxing. The best part, to me, was hanging out with friends who are Air Force and now live about an hour from the Mouse. We hit their house on Saturday before the parks, spent the day, night, and most of Sunday with them before check-in. They're the kind of people who it feels like you just left, so things pick right up. Add in that they're laid back and easy going (are those synonyms? Maybe. Still.) and it was the perfect way to start a vacation.

Plus the Mr. makes an amazing hurricane and we might have imbibed many of them after the kids were down for the night. If you like fruity drinks, I'll give the hurricane a hearty two thumbs up.

We stayed in our usual spot - a Cars-themed suite at the Art of Animation. It's I think considered "middle tier" by Disney, so not too ouchy on the wallet (don't get me wrong, it's still not cheap) but has the creature comforts that I require. (I'm the high maintenance of the hotel stayers. I'll own it.)

We hit Hollywood Studios on Monday and Wednesday. Monday we even set an alarm for 6:15 so we could grab the first bus out, get through security, and be milling around with the throngs before rope drop so that we could try and snag a Rise of the Resistance boarding pass. We succeeded! Group 19 even. It was fascinating to hear the enormous crowd go silent at 8 (when they officially open) as everyone madly swiped in the app to try and grab a group. Then cheers or hearty disappointment as people did or didn't get in. I imagine all the groups were gone well within the first two minutes of the park open.

The ride itself was fantastic and I'm glad we gave grabbing a boarding group a shot. I'm equally glad that none of us were so in love with it that we had to try to ride it a second time and could hit up HS on Wednesday in a more leisurely manner.

We did also get to ride the brand new Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railroad on opening day. It's a fun little ride - great effects and a good length. Would I wait hours and hours for it? No. But then, an hour is about as long as I'm willing to wait for anything. We only rode this one because we added the disability access to our bands because of youngest. Basically that lets you wait in line without having to STAND in the line. And the ability for him to mill about and maybe get on something with a shorter line was priceless. It saved our bacon considerably, because the ADHD is strong with him and his over stimulation combined with sensory seeking did make the whole trip a challenge in parts.

Said friends also came and visited Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom with us on Thursday and Friday, which was additional fun for the kiddos to have friends along.

I think we were all not only ready to come home, but also rested and revived. And isn't that really the whole point of vacation?