August 21, 2011 - We Head to Disney World

After all the planning, Iris and Jason's wedding was just days away. Today we head to the airport and head to Walt Disney World in Florida. Not the first time by any means, but this time will be special. We don't plan on being in the parks very much ... but oh how plans can change.

We are flying out in the evening, and storms on the east coast have been playing with air schedules most of the afternoon. Though our 6:30 PM flight is still listed as "on time" when we arrive at the airport, Newark Liberty as a whole is experiencing an average of 84 minute delays. While it hasn't started raining in the NYC vicinity yet, our plane, which was coming from Spain, was diverted to Boston. However, we are told that it is now at Newark, and when our flight does get slightly delayed, it is only a delay of 30 minutes. By 7:00 PM we are on the aircraft and ready to push. In all, we wind up getting to Orlando International only about 45 minutes late, and Iris and Jason are waiting for us.

They drive us to Disney's Boardwalk Resort (BWR) where we are staying for the next 6 nights, and the wedding will take place on Wednesday. Sandy and I are amazed at our room when we get there. One of Iris's friends has made sure that we were assigned to the largest room at the level we had selected - which is important as there will be many people in and out of there on the wedding day, and Iris will be having her hair and make-up test there the day before, as well as staying the night before the wedding. There will be 5 people getting dressed there the morning of the big day! At night, we watch Illuminations from our rather small balcony - well, something had to make up for the size of the room.

The next day, Monday, Jason and I head off to pick up our tuxedos while Iris, Sandy and Iris's friend Lee Ann stay in the room waiting for the hair stylist/make-up artist. Once both of those tasks are completed, we all scatter to take care of a number of matters. Iris heads off to have her nails done with my daughter-in-law (and others) so Bobby, the twins, Sandy and I walk over to EPCOT for the afternoon.

First thing Sandy and I do is activate our Annual Passes. Sandy needs to get a few things at France, so after that stop, we head over to Future World and take the boys through Journey Through Your Imagination. They thoroughly enjoy the ride (again - they had been on it earlier in the week and last year) and spend some time running around in the interactive area.

It is a terribly hot day - and will be so all week - so before we go to The Seas With Nemo and Friends, the boys stop for a juice break. We  then do the Nemo ride and spend some time in Seabase, including a visit with Crush. The boys love watching the fish and enjoy their  time there. When it it finished we decide to head over to World Showcase so that we are closer to the International Gateway so that when it is time to return to the hotel to meet up with everyone, we won't be stuck on the other side of the park.
We walk around, and take the boys onto the ride in Mexico, but of course, this being Florida, the afternoon downpour is starting to make its presence known, so we decide to head back to the room and wait for everyone, at which time we will go have a bite to eat for dinner. At this point we hear thunder and see lightning, and our plan to take a boat back to the hotel is stymied by the fact that the lightning has caused them to stop running, so we walk the short walk back, hoping to make it before the rain comes. We do.

Once everyone is back, we decide that we would try to have dinner at the ESPN Club, but as we get there we can see that the lines are just too long, so we try Big River just down the Boardwalk, but they too had long lines. As it turned out we went off property and all had dinner at Red Lobster.

Back to the room when done, as tomorrow would be a big day with lots of things to do.

More pictures of today can be seen here.