Disney World

Anticipation

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Here we are on the tram that goes from the parking lot to the monorail station. We arrived early and were able to park in Pluto 14. Much better than the Grumpy 112 we got when Dara and I were there 13 years ago (yes, we actually remember).

Hold small children by the head...

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On the monorail... Disney creates lasting memories. I came here with my family in 1975 and my Dad and sister still laugh about how they twisted the recording on the monorail, "Please hold small children by the head and watch your hands as you exit the monorail." Probably not the memories they were hoping you'd have.

Main Street USA

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As we walked into the park, no one knew what a long day it would be. It was a special "open-late" night – something that we thought would be helpful, but it just meant that the fireworks weren’t on until 10:00PM. Pretty late for the little ones.

Cinderella

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Jenna had been looking forward to seeing the castle for months. And she was not disappointed. They put on this little show where all the princesses come out for Cinderella's coronation -- the girls were awestruck by that. Not really Ari's cup of tea. The castle is now all gussied up for Disney's 50th anniversary.

Hardly any waits

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Surprisingly, the longest wait for anything was for the Dumbo ride -- about 45 minutes. Other than that, I don't think we waited for anything more than 20 minutes. And we took full advantage of the Fast-Pass. A million thanks to whoever thought of that.

Pooh

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We got to do everything we wanted in the Magic Kingdom, and then some. Aside from the rides and shows, we also spent some time in the play areas.

Ari

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Here's a nice picture of Ari in Pooh's play area. Although the park seemed crowded to us, it really wasn't compared to peak times. I couldn't imagine coming during Christmas week or sometime like that.

Tree House

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Hey, this looks just like Costa Rica, except everything is perfectly manicured. So not quite like Costa Rica.

Here comes the parade...

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It was pretty hot and sunny there, too. Hotter than in Heredia. Even so, the kids really did great all day.

Hold on tight

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Hey, she can't drive!

Action shot

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I bet Uncle Craig has a picture just like this one of Dara taking his picture.

Chip 'n Dale

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We ran into Chip 'n Dale after our 4th time on the Buzz Lightyear Ride (our favorite). No one was around so the kids had a good time goofing around with them.

Breakfast with the Stars!

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The day was a "down" day. In the morning, we headed to Chef Mickey's for breakfast with Goofy, Pluto, Mickey, Minnie, Chip and Dale. The kids had a ball getting everyone's autographs... and eating chocolate for breakfast.

Oh my Gawd!!!

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Imagine meeting you here! You look just gaw-jus!! The girls really enjoyed meeting Minnie! I used to poo-poo the idea of breakfast with the Mickey and the gang as an overpriced marketing driven extra, but the kids really like it.

Waving napkins like pros...

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Whenever the "special celebration" song comes on, everyone has to wave their napkins in the air...we had a lot of fun with that. Well, we pretty much had a lot of fun with everything.

It's an honor to meet you, sir!

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Even Dara got in on the action and stole a picture with the famous mouse.

Boat ride, anyone?

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After gourging ourselves with more carbohydrates than any human being should eat in one lifetime, we decided to take a nice boat ride around the Disney grounds to Fort Wilderness Resort.

The cousins and Mickey

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Great picture of the kids sitting with Mickey at the Contemporary Resort, home of Chef Mickey's.

Goggle Girls

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After brunch we went back to our house for some fun in the pool -- our house had a small pool and there was a nice, big pool with a waterslide just down the street in our community. Jenna's birthday present (official end to the birthday two-month celebration) to Ellie was a matching bathing suit. Too cute.

Not so hot tub...

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We stayed in a very nice, new house in a nice community just outside Disney. We had a pool and hot tub. Unfortunately we didn't figure out how to make the hot tub hot until the last day we were there.

Downtown Disney

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That night we went to Downtown Disney for dinner. Although this was supposed to be a relaxing day, we ended up staying out pretty late again – something that would prove to be a tactical error. Yes, these dogs are made of Legos -- it is not a bad picture from a digital camera.

Great picture from Sea World!

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The next day we went to our favorite park, Seaworld. Dara caught Shamu throwing his trainer into the air. See the guy flying?

Here fishy fishy!!

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Yum! We got to feed the dolphins. Mommy wouldn't touch the little fishy food but the kids had no problem with it...and the dolphins did come!!

Touching a dolphin

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We got to touch the dolphins too. They feel like wet, rubbery leather. Cool. (Ari's words.) By the afternoon, everyone was pretty tired. We did schlep around to see all the shows we wanted to see and still made it back to our house in time for dinner and a dip.

Nice Vacation

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After a morning of packing and relaxing in the now-warm hot tub, it was off to the airport and back to Costa Rica. Unfortunately we had a long layover in Miami and then our flight was delayed because a passenger got sick while we were taxiing out for take-off. So we had to go back to the gate and wait while he got off and they found and unloaded his baggage. Our friend, Marco (of the Volcano Poas trip) was waiting for us at the airport and made our day. He reminded us that the next day was a holiday - Costa Rican Labor Day - so the kids had no school. Phew! The trip certainly was exhausting and we were glad to have the extra day.