Christmas in Disney World
Jacob spent a week in Orlando, Florida with his friend AJ and AJ's family over the holiday break. Jacob left on Christmas morning and returned on New Year's Day. Jacob and his "Florida family" spent five days at Disney World and one day at Universal Studios. Before I recount his week in Florida, I should back up and explain how it was that Jacob found himself in Florida for a week.
I believe it was summertime when AJ's dad, Brian, invited Jacob to go with Brian and his kids to Disney over the break. Brian takes his kids to Disney once a year. His kids have been going to Disney for as long as they can remember. Because of their yearly trips, his kids- well, at least the older kids- know the parks well by now. Brian's idea was that if Jacob could go with them to Disney, Brian would let AJ and Jacob go on their own for part of each day at the parks. AJ knows his way around the parks and how to best use transportation and fast passes within each park.
We decided to let Jacob go with Brian to Disney. We've only gone to Disney as a family once and that was years ago. While we didn't dislike it, we are not Disneyphiles by any stretch of the imagination. As long as places like the Atlantic Ocean exist, yearly or bi-yearly or tri-yearly trips to Disney are not in the cards for us. Donnie takes too little time off work to spend his vacation not relaxing. I thought it would be nice for Jacob to get one last trip to Disney in as a kid- where someone would pay his way (us) and someone else would get him everywhere he needed to be (Brian).
Agreeing to letting your child go away for a week (and leaving on Christmas of all days) is a bit like signing up for a marathon months before the race: it's something that sounds positive as a general concept. It's not until the concept ceases to be a concept and starts to become a thing that actually will occur that you begin to question the wisdom of your decision. Did I actually agree to send my child away on Christmas Day? And its marathon colloraly- Did I sign up, on my own volition, to run (or at least move in some form) 26.2 miles? When the time for the event becomes imminent, you really question your decision.
Anyway, the time did come and we bid Jacob farewell on Christmas morning. Jacob and AJ's family flew Allegiant- a discount air carrier that recently started flying out of Dayton. Jacob and his Florida family stayed at Disney's Old Key West Resort. I have more pictures to share than actual details of their time spent in Orlando so I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.
I will say that everything went very well during the trip (per Brian and Jacob). Brian updated me throughout the week in texts and said the boys were having a great time, they were behaving, etc. Jacob definitely had a good time. He texted me a bit while he was gone. His responses to my questions were banal, monosyllabic ones for the most part. I wasn't expecting much more so I wasn't too disappointed :). I was happy to hear that he was having a good time. That's all I cared about.
Jacob used a Disney MagicBand during his stay. I'm not sure exactly what he all used his for- he had no money attached to it. These weren't available the last time that I was at Disney (with Abby for dance in 2013).
Brian bought the Disney Photo Pass. That allowed him access to all the pictures that Disney employees took during the week of everyone in Brian's party. That meant that pictures taken during rides, shows and character meals were included. Brian was able to download the pictures and he made them available to me to download.
Here are some of the photos from the Disney Photo Pass that Brian bought.
At Magic Kingdom
Expedition Everest in Animal Kingdom-the guy in front of Jacob :)
This was the only picture from Epcot that Jacob was in. Jacob and his Florida family are all on the Test Track experience.
At Hollywood Studio- The Hollywood Tower Hotel
Also at Hollywood Studio (I believe...)- the Rock "n" Roller Coaster
One day, they ate at Chef Mickey's at Disney's Contemporary resort
At Magic Kingdom- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
The same ride on a different day...
Don't know what this ride is but I know it was at Magic Kingdom
The Buzz Lightyear ride at Magic Kingdom
Jacob and his Florida family ate at Cinderella's castle for their final meal of 2016.
I thought this was so cute- they all got hats- I'm assuming they say something about the new year. If Jacob was able to keep the hat, it didn't make it home with him. Still, it was cute in the picture.
Jacob took a few pictures while at Disney. I didn't have the energy in me to wrest his phone out of his control long enough to download pictures from his phone. So, I have no candid pictures that he took to display here. I'm very thankful that Brian bought the photo pass so I could access group/ official Disney pictures. And of course very thankful to Brian for taking Jacob to Disney with Brian and his family. We missed Jacob while he was gone but knew he was in the best of hands and having a great time.
I believe it was summertime when AJ's dad, Brian, invited Jacob to go with Brian and his kids to Disney over the break. Brian takes his kids to Disney once a year. His kids have been going to Disney for as long as they can remember. Because of their yearly trips, his kids- well, at least the older kids- know the parks well by now. Brian's idea was that if Jacob could go with them to Disney, Brian would let AJ and Jacob go on their own for part of each day at the parks. AJ knows his way around the parks and how to best use transportation and fast passes within each park.
We decided to let Jacob go with Brian to Disney. We've only gone to Disney as a family once and that was years ago. While we didn't dislike it, we are not Disneyphiles by any stretch of the imagination. As long as places like the Atlantic Ocean exist, yearly or bi-yearly or tri-yearly trips to Disney are not in the cards for us. Donnie takes too little time off work to spend his vacation not relaxing. I thought it would be nice for Jacob to get one last trip to Disney in as a kid- where someone would pay his way (us) and someone else would get him everywhere he needed to be (Brian).
Agreeing to letting your child go away for a week (and leaving on Christmas of all days) is a bit like signing up for a marathon months before the race: it's something that sounds positive as a general concept. It's not until the concept ceases to be a concept and starts to become a thing that actually will occur that you begin to question the wisdom of your decision. Did I actually agree to send my child away on Christmas Day? And its marathon colloraly- Did I sign up, on my own volition, to run (or at least move in some form) 26.2 miles? When the time for the event becomes imminent, you really question your decision.
Anyway, the time did come and we bid Jacob farewell on Christmas morning. Jacob and AJ's family flew Allegiant- a discount air carrier that recently started flying out of Dayton. Jacob and his Florida family stayed at Disney's Old Key West Resort. I have more pictures to share than actual details of their time spent in Orlando so I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.
I will say that everything went very well during the trip (per Brian and Jacob). Brian updated me throughout the week in texts and said the boys were having a great time, they were behaving, etc. Jacob definitely had a good time. He texted me a bit while he was gone. His responses to my questions were banal, monosyllabic ones for the most part. I wasn't expecting much more so I wasn't too disappointed :). I was happy to hear that he was having a good time. That's all I cared about.
Jacob used a Disney MagicBand during his stay. I'm not sure exactly what he all used his for- he had no money attached to it. These weren't available the last time that I was at Disney (with Abby for dance in 2013).
Brian bought the Disney Photo Pass. That allowed him access to all the pictures that Disney employees took during the week of everyone in Brian's party. That meant that pictures taken during rides, shows and character meals were included. Brian was able to download the pictures and he made them available to me to download.
Here are some of the photos from the Disney Photo Pass that Brian bought.
At Magic Kingdom
Expedition Everest in Animal Kingdom-the guy in front of Jacob :)
This ride was at Animal Kingdom- I know that only because it was on the Animal Kingdom photo page. I have no idea what it is.
This was the only picture from Epcot that Jacob was in. Jacob and his Florida family are all on the Test Track experience.
At Hollywood Studio- The Hollywood Tower Hotel
Also at Hollywood Studio (I believe...)- the Rock "n" Roller Coaster
One day, they ate at Chef Mickey's at Disney's Contemporary resort
At Magic Kingdom- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
The same ride on a different day...
Don't know what this ride is but I know it was at Magic Kingdom
The Buzz Lightyear ride at Magic Kingdom
Jacob and his Florida family ate at Cinderella's castle for their final meal of 2016.
I thought this was so cute- they all got hats- I'm assuming they say something about the new year. If Jacob was able to keep the hat, it didn't make it home with him. Still, it was cute in the picture.
Jacob took a few pictures while at Disney. I didn't have the energy in me to wrest his phone out of his control long enough to download pictures from his phone. So, I have no candid pictures that he took to display here. I'm very thankful that Brian bought the photo pass so I could access group/ official Disney pictures. And of course very thankful to Brian for taking Jacob to Disney with Brian and his family. We missed Jacob while he was gone but knew he was in the best of hands and having a great time.
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