We survived Walt Disney World!

We returned from the big Wiker family vacation to Walt Disney World last Friday. Eight glorious days of fun and chaos! Deron and I, the kids and my mom and her friend all stayed on property at Saratoga Springs in a Treehouse Villa. It was nice to spread out and have the kids in their own room, which made bedtime interesting! Our villa was right on the water and the girls loved watching the ferry boats from Port Orleans and the Treehouse launch go by all day and night. Annalise would shout "boat, boat" every time she saw one pass. The guests would wave back so that was neat.

We made the mistake of taking the scenic water route on the ferry boat to Downtown Disney one night...40 long minutes later (and a three stops!) we finally arrived at our destination. Needless to say, it was our first and last Disney transportation experience. I highly recommend a rental car to get around property. It's nice that Disney provides transportation, but it's quite inconvenient and inefficient at the end of the day when you have two tired girlies in tow (not to mention their mom and her frazzled nerves!)

This was a big family vacation- Deron's brother, Dirk, his wife Rachael and our niece and nephew, Alexa and Lucas, Rachael's mom, Joann and Grammy and Pee Paw were all there. The whole trip was really Rachael's idea to begin with and she did an outstanding job planning and organizing all the activities. I think she's qualified to run her own Disney travel site now. Thanks again Rachael for all your help and also a thank you to my friend Beth for all the information (PS. the kids loved the chocolate slipper dessert!) We would have been blind without you.

At EPCOT we had lunch with the princess at Norway and we dined with them again at Cinderella's Royal Table, the most covenant reservations in all the WDW. The character meals were a little hectic, but worth the look of awe on Katherine Claire and Annalise's faces. As a lady I met on the monorail said, the most magical thing about Disney is that the little ones think it's all real...and you knew this was true by the mesmerized look on my little princesses faces.

Annalise could care less about the princesses, she was all about the Mouse! Luckily for her, we also dined at Chef Mickey's where she got to see the whole gang. Both girls were starstruck to say the least! It's like they got to meet their all time favorite actors - imagine that!?! And to them, every experience was the real deal. Ahhh, the beauty and wonders of childhood!

Before heading to the airport, we used the last few minutes on our camcorder tape to interview the girls about their favorite things about the trip. Katie Claire had a priceless response to what the best part of the trip was - seeing Alexa and Lucas. I think Annalise would have said the same! Favorite rides included: Big Thunder Mountain (if you look close, you can see Katie Claire and Deron in the front seat - Annalise and I found a good viewing spot and just happened to catch them coming around the corner) and the Dumbo rides (Dumbo, Alladin's Magic Carpets and the Baby Dino ride at Animal Kingdom). Even Annalise knew these were all the same! She kept saying Dumbo every time we would ride one of the other ones and "all done" - guessed she didn't enjoy them quite as much as Katie Claire.