End of Vacation

The last two days of our vacation we spent relaxing at the condo.  We both caught colds from being in the rain all day on Saturday and besides after walking all day long in parks for four days, we just wanted to relax.

I spent most of the day down at the pools, soaking up the sunshine and sitting in the hot tub.  This resort had pool side service from the bar and grill, so I didn't have to get up to get my drinks.

Nothing like happy hour pool side.  On Thursday, we were planning to go to Cocoa Beach but Jennifer wasn't feeling well.  No sense in going if you can't enjoy it, so two days relaxing at the resort.

Here are some photos of our resort.

One of the pools

The other one, this one was a bit cooler

Shuffle board courts

This was our building

View from our door

Walking Contest

I'm on the Wellness Committee for the county and we had a walking contest for county employees.

The grand prize was a Fitbit Zip a $60 value.  If an employee was already a Fitbit user then they got a $60 gift card.

It was a $5 buy in to join and it was decided to have that the winner would be determined by a random draw, so it didn't matter how many steps you did.  There was a comment that if it was by the most steps, then I would win all the time.

We had 19 people sign up, for six weeks you would keep a log of your steps.  The contest started on April 16 and ended May 30.  We had a conversion chart for activities other than walking.

At the end of the contest I walked 534,452 steps which is approximately 267 miles.  About 2000 steps equals 1 mile.  I was gung-ho for the first three weeks, then just petered out.  Figured that I didn't need to kill myself.

Well, I won the contest.  I am already a Fitbit user, so I was awarded hard cash.  It worked out because I was awarded my winnings on my birthday.

Saving my money for our vacation in a couple weeks.

Disney Studios

Today was an extra excursion day for us, we didn't plan this park at first.  We wanted to do something but didn't know what.  At our condo, one of the channels on tv was a Disney travel channel so we figured why not.

We knew that we would have to pay $97 extra per person, kind of pricey but we are on vacation.  We got to the ticket booth and it was then that we found out that we could have added it on our original two day ticket at a discount, we had to buy it before we left.  The little things they don't tell you.

Lesson learned, when you visit Disney in Orlando just go ahead and pay for the 4 day ticket.  You might as well see all four parks while you are there.  We did not go through Epcot.

One of the highlights in this park was Cinderella's coach from the new movie that just came out.  It was hard to get a photo without people, but I did manage.

Had a fun time, this is a small park so didn't take too much time to wander around and look at things. Not a lot of rides but the only one Jennifer wanted to do was the Star Tours.  This was the main reason we visited this park.  Star Tours is a 3D ride, not a roller coaster.  It really made us feel that we were in the pod car race, dodging astroids and such. We watched the padawans fight Darth Vader, that was cute.  We also rode the little train through the Magic of Movies, this ride took us through all the genre's of movies.  Very interesting.  We did wander through the Disney museum.  It was interesting to see all the stuff, then at the end you watch a short 15 minute film about Walt Disney and his trials and tribulations.  We did watch the Indiana Jones Stunt Show.  Very interesting how they do the stunts and the different between a stunt man/stunt woman and a stunt actor.

We did watch the Fantasmic Show, it was very entertaining with light shows, fireworks and the Disney characters.  Thought we were going to witness a fight in front of us.  One lady was saving seats for 8 people, the theater was filling up fast with people.  It is a first come first serve theater, meaning you find a seat it's yours.  Many people sat down, but left in a huff when she told them she was saving them.  Finally about a half hour before the show started, people sat down in her saved area and they weren't budging.  There was an announcement that you needed to have your whole party with you when seating in the theater.  Her party finally arrived, they were in the line to ride the roller coaster.  They managed to sit all together and everything was fine.

Disney owns ABC Studios so there is a commissary in this park.  Many people thought they were going to see the stars from the tv shows here.  I was silently yelling at them that the ABC Studios where they actually film the shows is in  Hollywood California.  Jeez.

Here is our fun:

The only time I was able to get a photo of us together.

Wild Animal Kingdom Park

This was one of the parks that I wanted to go through.  At first I thought about Busch Gardens but this park has more animals.

Another park where you have to take a shuttle to the gate.  This park has a Rain Forest Cafe so we decided to have dinner here.  Made our way inside, got a map and decided to take the safari ride first. You get to see the big animals here and we thought that the animals would be a bit active first thing in the morning.  There was a very long line for this ride, we never did get the fast pass tickets for Disney Parks.  The wait time was just over an hour for this ride, not too bad.  Again it seemed like we were always moving.

We got on our little jeep and through the African wilds we went.  Of course we were sitting on the wrong side of the jeep, seemed like all the animals were on the left side, we were on the right side.  So glad my lens is a zoom.

We saw giraffes, rhinos, hippos, lions and a bunch of other animals.  Pretty neat.  The rest of the time was spent wandering around and looking at stuff.

We ate supper at the Rain Forest Cafe, this one is the largest one (so they say).  It was pretty big compared to the one in Mall of American and in Vegas.  Our waiter was a funny guy when he found out we were from Montana.  I think the thought we were aliens.  You can tell that he didn't know or probably never heard of Montana by the look on his face.

We had a good time and enjoyed ourselves.

Disney World Magic Kingdom

Today is the day we visit Disney World.  We bought our two day tickets in advance so all we had to do was got to the ticket booth at will call to pick them up.

We made our way to the park without any problems, got on the shuttle to take us to the gate.  We then got our tickets at will call, then had to make our way to the park.  We had a choice, the monorail or the ferry.  We chose the monorail.  We got to see a view of the park this way.

Now we are at the admission gate, we had to go through the check bag line, then we had to put our card on the scanner and fingerprint.  We were good to go.

First thing we did was get a map, then we found a coffee shop for our morning ritual.  Sat down and figured out what we wanted to see first.  The park was crowded being a Sunday but thinned out once we got out of Main Street.

A very nice day compared to yesterday, at least no rain.  It was cloudy when we started out in the morning but by afternoon the sun came out and warmed things up.

The only ride that we rode was Pirates of the Caribbean.  The line really wasn't that bad, sign said 45 minute wait.  We got in line and it really wasn't bad at all, seemed like we were moving all the time, just slow.

We went through the Hall of Presidents, that was neat with all the presidents and nice because we got to sit down and be cool. Went through the Time of Progress, sort of a ride.  You seat in a theater and it moves.

Jennifer and I both this ride a meh.  We were not impressed with it at all, feel the ride in Disneyland is better.  We watched the birds in the Enchanted Tiki Hut, it's the same as Disneyland.  We did get to see the Mickey Mouse show at Sleeping Beauty's Castle.  That was nice.

We walked alot, tried to eat supper at a restaurant but was told that we needed a reservation, especially on weekends.  We ended up eating very expensive hot dogs at Casey's.  It was $25 for two hot dog meals with a drink.  Jennifer was able to find a table outside.

A family was having a birthday party for their little girl there, they had cake and everything.  It was time for them to leave so they tried giving away the cake.  They must had half of it left over.  A family of 4 finally took it.  There was a lot of cake.  After eating we went shopping.

We had a great time, we didn't leave the park until 8:00 pm, made our way back to the front gate got on the shuttle.  It was a long day but very fun.

Here are some photos of Disney World.