Yay for Project Management Conferences in Disney World and In-laws Willing to Watch Kids!

I'm kind of a Disney Nut and I've always wanted to visit Disney World so when Evan found out he was going to a work conference in Disney World there was really no question about it, I was going to try and figure out a way to tag along.  Luckily I have amazing in-laws who were willing to watch our kids for us while we had this adventure.

Evan "won" the chance to have his picture taken with the famous Property Brothers who were among the presenters at the conference. He had one of a hundred tickets under his chair.  They are really tall!

The resort we stayed was the Coronado Springs.  It was beautiful!

There were even crocodiles in the lake, though they were only 4 feet long or so.  The funny thing is that, before the trip, Sophia and Rhys were pretty concerned about us getting too near the crocodiles so I told them not to worry because I doubted we'd see any and then Evan sent us a close up picture of one.  Oops!

 Evan's conference was three days.  I flew down to Orlando so I'd be there at the end of his second day.  I haven't flown by myself for quite a while.  It was nice to see a familiar face, though, when the bus from the airport pulled up to the resort.  We got dressed up because we had a dinner date at the Hoop De Doo Revue at the Fort Wilderness Lodge.  The main lodge at Fort Wilderness is made to look a lot like Yellowstone lodge--it even has a "geyser" and river in the lobby.  We took a boat across a lake in darkness to where dinner was going to be.  It was surprisingly dark out on the lake so we couldn't see much but it was still beautiful and added to the adventure.

The Hoop De Doo Revue is a Old West kind of Vaudeville-style dinner show.  It was an absolute hoot!  We were seated in the middle of the main floor.  They bring out your food as part of the show and there are also actors/actresses who sing and dance for you.  The funny thing is we had no idea you could be part of the show and many of the people who were seated around us were chosen to participate in some way.  Once Evan realized this he gave me a look of pacnic.  It was hilarious!

 To Evan's relief we were not chosen to participate but it was a lot of fun.  Everyone got to "play" the washboard with a spoon for the grand finale musical number.

The next day, while Evan was attending the final sessions of his conference, I decided to explore a couple other resorts just in case we ever decided to come back with our family.  I went to Pop Century and the Art of Animation resorts.

I loved the Art of Animation buildings and pools.  Every resort we visited was amazing.  We would have a blast just hanging out there and never setting foot in the parks.

The main lobby had lots of sketches from Disney movies everywhere.

After Evan was done we quickly went to Downtown Disney to look around and purchase some gifts for our kids.  Getting around in Disney World is a kind of nice but kind of pain at the same time.  There are buses, monorails, and boats to take you where you want to go but there are always lines and usually a fair amount of waiting for the transportation to wherever you want to go but it's nice to not have to drive everywhere.

We were there during Halloween time and we went to the Magic Kingdom during specific Halloween party hours.  We had set up fastpasses for the new Seven Dwarfs Mine Train ride.  It was a fun ride--kind of like Big Thunder Mountain at Disneyland.

I of course had to have my mandatory picture taken in front of the castle.

We thought the view from the line of Big Thunder Mountain was awesome as the sun was setting on the Mountain.

We spent a good part of the time comparing Disneyland to Disney World and decided that, in most ways, it was a wash as far as rides go.  One version of a ride might be a little better at Disneyland or vice versa.  Disneyland might have a slight edge.  The one exception were the queues at Disney World.  Since it's so much bigger and more hot and humid many of the queues are indoors.  Peter Pan had the most amazing queue.  Tinkerbell "flew" around the bedroom, there were shadows of bells to "ring" and butterflies to "catch," and pixie dust fell on you.  It was truly immersive.

Since it was a Halloween party there was a Halloween Parade.  It was a fun parade and I still have the song stuck in my head =) We also did a little trick or treating but kept that to a minimum so we could ride as many things as possible since everyone else was mostly participating in the extra Halloween activities.  We were able to get onto most rides without much wait, which was great!  This was also our first experience with the difference in patrons at Disney World compared to Disneyland.  Let's just say we weren't impressed.  I'm not sure if the heat and humidity got to people or if it was the fact that they were on vacation and spending a lot of money but they had their agendas and they were not happy when they didn't get their way. (I'm talking about adults, sadly.)

The next day we visited Hollywood Studios.  This park had many things closed so there wasn't much to do, but there were some bigger rides we wanted to ride so that's why we went anyway.  Sadly, the Aerosmith roller coaster closed right after we got in line and didn't open the rest of the day.  I did get to "ride" on a speeder though.  Spencer was very jealous.

The best thing by far at Hollywood Studios was the Indiana Jones stunt show.  They show how they do movie stunts and tell a story at the same time.  It was a lot of fun and very entertaining.

After Hollywood Studios we took a boat over to Epcot.

Epcot has two sections to it.  The ride section and the country section.  We enjoyed riding Mission Space, the orange side.  It was a lot more intense then I had expected but it was a fun experience.  We also enjoyed riding on Test Track.

We didn't have high expectations for Epcot, we weren't really sure what to expect.  It turned out Epcot was a pleasant and unexpected happy surprise.  We loved exploring the different "countries."


This is Evan reading classic English literature at the England pavilion.

We were there during the Food and Wine Festival and got to taste all kinds of food from various places (no wine for us--obviously!).  We had Irish cheeses (in this picture), Crepes from France, Belgian Waffles, macaroons and mousse from France, and pierogies and kielbasa from Poland. Yum!  We were smitten by the pierogies and kielbasa and I figured out how to make the same thing (or something close to it) when we got home.  It has become a favorite meal for Evan and I.

 Norway Pavilion

 Germany Pavilion

Japanese Pavilion looking toward Spaceship Earth.  I had always wondered what the giant "golf ball" thing at Epcot was.  It's a ride.

Chinese Pavilion

One of our favorite things was the 360 degree movies they had of a few of the countries.  China was one of them.  There was also one in Canada and in France.

Because of the Food and Wine Festival they also had nightly Concerts.  The night we were there Sugar Ray was playing--a group that was quite popular when Evan and I were in high school.  I had never been to a "real" concert so it was a fun experience for me.

Magic Kingdom had late hours so we decided to end our day there.


They do an awesome show where they use the castle as a backdrop to tell stories.  They project different images and colors onto the castle making it completely change its appearance.  We really enjoyed it.

By this time we were exhausted and grumpy but I had been dying to watch the Main Street Electrical Parade because that was a huge deal when I was a girl growing up and I'd never seen it since they don't have it at Disneyland anymore.  It was fun but underwhelming compared to what they do with other parades now.  I'm glad I got to see it though and fulfill a childhood dream.

We ended the night by riding the Little Mermaid ride.  We weren't sure if they would let us on since the park was closing but the Cast Member was kind and let us go through, we didn't even have to say anything.  We were the last ones on the ride, the Cast Member rode behind us to let the others know when everyone was off the ride.  They all clapped and hollered when they saw us (ok, probably her) and knew they were done for the night.  I've never had that happen before!

This was a fun and exhausting trip.  I'm not sure we'll ever try too hard to go to Disney World again because we think Disneyland is just as much fun and a lot more convenient but we sure wouldn't mind visiting Florida again.  We never actually left the Disney resort and our one regret was not exploring further.  Despite the heat and humidity we loved our time there.  But next time we want to go to the beach!