“Family” weekend at Disney World in Orlando FL

Back on the road again… first day out, 2 hours into our travels we get a Stop Engine light on the dashboard. The engine derated to 35 mph as we pulled over on the Florida Turnpike. Seems this is the norm, that first day of travel, getting all the bugs out! Luckily, a mobile tech was able to fix the problem, it was a broken 4” clamp on the intake manifold. We were so happy, only 5 hours on the side of the road, that the problem wasn’t anything worse.

We picked up Sallie’s cousin Daphne and her wife Bren at the Orlando Airport. They were staying at the cabins at Fort Wilderness, just down the road from our motorhome. The cabin had a fully stocked kitchen, queen, bunks and sofa sleeper and a nice big bathroom. It definitely made us think twice about maybe staying in one next time, the cabins are far away from the boat ramp (to Magic Kingdom) but close to the bus depot that takes you everywhere else. You can rent golf carts to help with the trek, lots of people decorate them to make them stand out in the sea of golf carts. 

We visited Disney Springs, had to make a shopping stop at the World of Disney! We had a wonderful dinner at the Boathouse and then decided to go for a ride in the amphibious 1960’s Corvair/boat around Lake Buena Vista. What a fun time we had!

Our first full day we spent at Epcot trying to eat and drink our way through all the different countries. One or more of us had Canadian maple popcorn and beer, tried some Twinings tea in England, more popcorn along the way, German beer, coffee, mango smoothie, more popcorn (can you catch the theme?) We had a great lunch in front of the huge aquarium at the Coral Reef restaurant and dinner at San Miguel with a perfect view of the 50th celebration fireworks display, a great way to finish the day. We were able to secure the highly prized virtual queue spaces for the Guardians of the Galaxy ride… boy, that was an experience. Sallie described it as Space Mountain on steroids, backwards with graphics while circling the moon.  

Next up was our favorite, Magic Kingdom. Sallie was the perfect tour guide, setting us up with the Lightening Passes (aka Fast Pass) so we didn’t have to wait too long in any lines. We rode most of all of the classics to get that great first time experience.  We learned that Bren had been there as a small child and it was neat to watch her relive those childhood experiences and magic. Sallie also made lunch and dinner reservations well in advance at the Beauty and the Beast dining room “Be Our Guest” with a special appearance from the Beast himself. We also had dinner at the Jungle Navigation Skipper Canteen. We topped off our visit more than once, with a delicious Dole Whip… YUMMY!

It was so much fun to enjoy this experience with family…We can’t wait to do it again.

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