Those who watched Disney DVDs (“with Fast Play!”) will remember those lines from the ad when you started the DVD.

We woke up around 3 AM to get ready to leave for the airport for our flight to Orlando at 6.  We booked the flight with points (the only part of this trip that involves the words “saving money” as anyone who has been to Orlando knows).  We decided to fly rather than drive since there are only 4 of us going.  The boys had school and weren’t super interested in going on this kind of trip. 

Normally, we drive to Florida (to save money) and stay at an Airbnb (to save money) but this time the convenience of staying on site and the fact that we were traveling with 4 rather than 6 or 7 (many past trips have included my mom) won out and we decided to stay at the resort.  We’re looking forward to #1 warm weather (-2 degrees in Milwaukee when we left and -15 expected later this week, without wind chill) and #2 not having a car and just being chauffeured everywhere.

The idea of the early flight was to take advantage of part of the resort package which was a visit to the Disney water park on the day of arrival.  Well, Orlando is also experiencing a cold snap today and their water park is closed.  Either way it was still nice to have an early arrival — it gave us some wiggle room if there were flight delays etc since we plan to visit one of the parks early tomorrow.  Plus it’s an hour later, Florida-time, so this will help us go to bed at a decent hour and get an early start tomorrow.  The Orlando weather was cool today (mid 50s) but they will hit 80 later this week.

We napped a little on the plane.  I wore some Happy Birthday ears (today’s my birthday!) and the flight crew wished me happy birthday over the speaker and gave me a bag of goodies on the way off the plane.  We got breakfast at the airport.  It was only 10am! 

There was a Moe’s at the airport!  We made plans to eat there when we fly back home. 

I asked Gemini AI what we should do with the time we had today.  One suggestion was to go to the resort early and swim.  It was too cold for that.  Another idea was to tour some of the other resorts.  We are staying at  All Star Music, one of the budget resorts.  Animal Kingdom Lodge is a deluxe level resort.  It was beautiful.  They have giraffes, flamingos, and other animals on the property.  It would be pretty cool to look out your hotel window and see a giraffe!  The animals were not very active with the cold weather so after taking a look around, we took a shuttle to Hollywood Studios to ride the Skyliner which connects some of the hotels and parks. 

We went to the Art of Animation Resort next.  They have themed areas for Little Mermaid/Finding Nemo, Lion King and Cars. 

We had four free passes for mini golf so we went back on the Skyliner and to the entrance of Hollywood Studios where we took the Friendship Boat (you can’t make this stuff up!) to the Swan Hotel which is near the Fantasia themed mini golf. 

Flowers blooming!

We saw some pin trading opportunities while we were out and about so I let each girl buy a pin in case they want to trade while we are here. 

Nova won at mini golf with the help of a little creative scoring.  I had some birthday luck. 

Our room was ready by the time we finished golfing so we walked back to the Hollywood Studios entrance to take a shuttle to our hotel.  Our groceries were arriving right when we were and we took them to our room.  Our suitcases has been transferred from the airport to our room thanks to a partnership between Southwest and Disney World.  The groceries I ordered included a rotisserie chicken and a salad along with snacks, drinks, and some easy meals.  We devoured the chicken.  After playing Fantasia golf, I wanted to watch Fantasia so we did that…and promptly all fell asleep.  I woke everyone up once Fantasia ended.  Going to bed for the night at 4:45pm seemed like a bad idea! 

We went to the hotel cafeteria and used their microwaves to make popcorn and had a look around the resort before going back to the room and where we are now watching Avatar 2 and tucking in early.