Ten on Tuesday

Should this be a totally Disney Ten-on-Tuesday post? Weeeellll, let’s see…

1. We’ve spent 10 of the last 14 days in sunny Florida. Notice that I didn’t say WARM Florida, because there were a couple of days in there that were decidedly NOT WARM.
2. And we ‘kidnapped’ our boys and had them to ourselves the entire time. Well, not the entire time because we did leave them sleeping in the room a few days and they went their own way a few times too.
3. We love Disney; it’s just that simple – it’s a great place to “get away from it all.” Each time we go there’s a different park we tend to gravitate to, but we always [always] ultimately end our nights at Epcot.
4. We enjoyed celebrating the season with Steven Curtis Chapman reading The Christmas Story [Luke2] with area choirs singing carols to Christ during The Candle Light Processional. It’s so neat that Disney continues to have this celebration despite all the other changes in The World. [The music in Epcot was continuous Christmas Carols all over the park as well – not silly holiday songs, but carols to Christ – loved it.] It was [literally below] freezing that night, but worth it to set aside a little time for the true Reason for the Season.
5. We had the dining plan this go ‘round – and just as we suspected – it’s waaay too much food. We ended up getting sandwiches ‘to go’ for our trip home and using 12 + ‘snacks’ for goodies to eat these next few weeks. [Helps extend the Disney deliciousness, I guess.] Favorite meal for everyone [without question]: Le Cellier [Canada.] Even I, the non-steak-lover, enjoyed it. It was just Very. Nice. Close second [for me]: the quick service build-your-own salad [mandarin chicken] at our resort food court. Yum.
6. Loved our resort btw – Port Orleans – French Quarter [not Riverside which is HUGE.] Fun and festive, a boat ride from Downtown Disney, good food courts and restaurants and shops, and buses direct to each park. Another plus – we could see the Magic Kingdom fireworks from our balcony. Fun. [We did NOT miss our camper – but did miss the friends we usually camp with.]
7. We also had ‘length of stay’ passes this time too – and it was good because we didn’t feel that frantic need to be in the parks from opening to closing [we usually only go in the parks 4-5 days with a day of rest in the middle] but not-so-good because we were in the parks for Seven. Days. Straight. Gotta admit, we were weary toward the end.
8. But it was so fun to go to all of our favorite places [rides, shops, shows, restaurants] in the parks and reminisce about visiting in the past and be surprised by changes in the last few years. Seeing new parades and old [The Electric Light Parade] added to the magic. We love Disney, what else can I say?
9. Oh, and we took a day trip over to Hogworts to visit the students who go to school with Harry Potter. It was a little smaller area than I was expecting – but very [very] realistic. I’m glad we went, and the Dr. Seuss characters [and comic book characters too] were an unexpected surprise [since I did no research on this park at all.]
10. All-in-all we figure we walked hundreds of miles last week [not really, duh – but certainly more than any of us except Matt-the-college-student has walked in quite a while.] Still, there was no weight loss [guess it was all those delicious meals that always included a scrumptious dessert.]