So we decided a couple months ago to move up our vacation to the beginning of April. This way we would supposedly avoid more of the spring break vacationers in Florida and we would be able to focus on our son's baptism when the time came. We rented a home with 5 bedrooms, private pool and spa that was all close to Disney and were very excited for the trip. We had driven cross country twice last summer so just going to Florida and driving 14 hrs in one day would be cake. We left at 4am and arrived in Kissimmee around 5:30p making great time and having a great ride down. We decided to quickly pull in and grab some groceries at the store when we got there before heading to the house. This is when it all went south.
I quickly got groceries while the rest of the family was sitting outside in the car in 90 degrees. I got up to the checkout and they said my credit card wouldn't accept the charges because we were out of state. Um what? I have NEVER had that problem. I go outside to tell Kyle and he is on the phone already with the credit card company fixing it. He is livid because he actually called the company three days ago to let them know we would be traveling south. We finally get it fixed and I go back into the store to rescan all my groceries (oh joy!). Then we get to the house and the code won't work. I call the manager and after about a half hour she finally gets the right code. I say to her "while I have you on the phone, I will walk around and make sure all the baby equipment is here". One of the reasons I rented this particular house was because it said it had a crib, stroller, and highchair. I go looking around only to not find any equipment whatsoever. Now this lady who has never had any kids is preceding to describe what a pack n play looks like because she is sure it is here and I just don't know what one looks like. Um...I have four kids!!! I know what one looks like and I know there isn't one here and my 1 1/2 year old needs one NOW because she is exhausted from driving 14 hrs. She says she will call some people but thinks she won't be able to get us one until tomorrow morning. Now I don't know about you, but my kids may fall asleep in a bed if they are REALLY tired but that doesn't mean they would stay there all night. I'm sure she would have woken up completely freaked out not to be in a crib. The manager then said a lot of people just go buy one at Target and then return it at the end of the week. Oh that sounds honest. K did go out and buy one for 40 bucks but we kept it in the end. By this time it was around 10pm and we were all exhausted and just went to sleep.
The next day we woke up excited to go try out our pool and spa...the one we paid extra to have heated...the thing that was supposed to relax us from our stressful lives... Yea so we come down to Florida for the parks but mostly just to hang out in warm weather by a pool. I know kind of silly but it feels great after a long winter. Well, my husband looks outside only to realize that the pool is cloudy and the spa is not working. Come to find out the motor isn't working and after many calls and maintenance people to the house they think it was struck by lightning! Seriously!! The manager just keeps telling us to go to one of the parks and she will have everything fixed when we get back.
We do end up going to Universal Studios and Island Adventures that day. We had fun. No we didn't avoid any spring break vacationers. Nope..I think we saw every single person. They all might have been in the 2 1/2 hr long line to ride the Harry Potter ride. Butter beer was yummy. All the Harry Potter rides are MUCH better to go see at night!!!! Much less crowded. Wish we had known that. We figured it out the hard way but at least we did go back at night and actually enjoy the whole reason we went to Florida (in the kid's eyes at least!) The rest of the park was much less crowded and we had a good time and came home around 9pm ready to relax in our newly fixed spa.
hmm......yea it didn't look like ANYTHING had been fixed. When I finally got a hold of them the next day they were surprised that is wasn't fixed. Really? You didn't follow up to make sure everything was fixed. So Day three of vacation after many chats on the phone, we end up packing everything up and moving to an entirely different house 10 minutes away. The second house was much nicer, pool/spa much nicer and we loved it. We could finally relax!
A couple days later we headed to Magic Kingdom for the day. Universal was fun but didn't have nearly enough rides for our little guys so we thought it was their turn. They loved it! It was crazy crowded once again though. I started to get really frustrated with all the adults/teenagers taking up all the lines space on rides obviously meant for toddlers. But once again later that night people started to leave the park and we could enjoy ourselves a little more. We actually were at the park from 9am to midnight. Exhausted doesn't even begin to explain how we felt.
The next couple of days we just vegged out. We worked on homework, and swam swam swam. Our last adventure before we drove home was going to Medieval Times for dinner and a show. The show was awesome and the food was pretty good. My kids didn't love it but I think the show made up for the strange food.
Great weather. Warm but not too hot like our last trip in June but way way way too many people. We would probably just go in October if we had to do it over again. But it was great just spending time together with just our little family and now during the kid's real spring break we are just relaxing and working on projects.
Project today...camp in backyard to pass off some cub scout stuff. Boys are stoked!
