Following is the journal of our trip to Walt Disney World from April 11th, 2003 until April 20th, 2003.

Friday, April 11th, 2003

After picking the kids up from school, we left our house around 3pm, thinking we'd be dodging the worst of the Friday evening/start of Springbreak travel that way. WRONG! The moment we hit I-95, we slowed down to a crawl. I could have literally jogged next to the car, all the way from Springfield to Fredericksburg! What a nasty start of our vacation! It took us 2 (TWO) hours to get to Fredericksburg, usually just over a half hour's drive. Needless to say, that didn't do wonders for the spirits in the car and by the time we did get some speed, numerous squabbles had taken place already. They had watched two movies by the time we got out of traffic!

After sitting in traffic for so long, the kids were already bored and hungry, but we really felt we should make some progress, now that we could at least accelerate to 55 mph. So we stopped for dinner just across the North Carolina border, around 8pm. We wanted to eat at an Outback Steakhouse, but the wait was an hour and that certainly was *not* what we needed. So we drove down the road and ended up eating very unhealthy food at a quaint old diner. It was kind of fun though and the greasy food was just the comfort food we needed.

After dinner, our moods were decidedly better and we decided to call for a Holiday Inn hotel near the South Carolina border. The one in SC was sold out, so we ended up getting the last suite at a Holiday Inn Express 1 mile from the South Carolina border. We were bummed we didn't quite make it, but it was a nice big room, with a bed for each of us, so we all had a very restful night.

Saturday, April 12th, 2003

After a beautiful drive through springtime South Carolina and Georgia (there were a lot of beautiful red flowers along the road in the swamps), we arrived at Walt Disney World at 5pm. Much, much later than we'd expected, but we ran into traffic in Florida again and we always forget how long the drive through Florida still is. The feeling when you enter Florida is, that you'll be at destination soon, but it's still a good 2 hours from the border.

We checked into the Polynesian Resort and asked for a room with a balcony and with Magic Kingdom view, as requested when we made the reservation. I'm guessing we had a new person, as he first put us in a room without balcony and we might have been able to see the Magic Kingdom looking past another building and using binoculars. I had read up on the hotel and asked if there wasn't a better room available (I knew all second floor rooms had no balcony). He gave us a room that opened up to the Lagoon and so the Magic Kingdom was right in front of us across the Lagoon. It was however on the second floor again, so I asked if this one did have a balcony. He claimed it did. Well, it didn't.

But since we had such a great view, we left it at that, not feeling like getting all our luggage out again. The Polynesian Resort is marketed as one step up from the Contemporary Resort, where we stayed a few nights some years ago. Both hotels are on the Monorail and both hotels offer views of the Magic Kingdom. Yet the Polynesian charges about $150 a night more than the Contemporary. So, I had expected a huge difference and at least a somewhat luxurious room. But that was a disappointment. The hotel is old, from the '70's and hasn't gone through much renovation since. The room was nicely decorated, but I couldn't really distinguish what was so different from your run of the mill hotel room, as you would get in a Holiday Inn, for example. There were even plastic cups in the bathroom, instead of glass, which I found very tacky for such an expensive place.

That said, the grounds are beautiful, the pools a lot of fun. One has pirateship with slide. There are beaches to lie out on (no swimming in the Lagoon allowed) and guests can take advantage of the Spa of the Grand Floridian next door, which is about a 5 minute walk from the Polynesian. If you just want to work out, like I did, it's $30 for your entire stay, that includes use of workout room (well equipped!), sauna and whirlpool and showers (2, with 2 hairdryers, so if it's a little crowded, shower in your room). Other spa treatments are of course extra.

The main building of the Polynesian has a bunch of gift shops and 3 restaurants: one cafeteria style, one regular restaurant (with great banana french toast for breakfast!) and Ohana, with a character breakfast (Mickey, Goofy, Chip and Dale) and a themed dinner (which we didn't attend). We did the character breakfast twice, the kids loved it, though the food was mediocre, you get a skillet with bacon, sausage, eggs, Mickey waffles, biscuits and fruit salad and it's all you can eat, so if you want more, you can ask for more. We never did, as it was so filling.

That night of the 12th, we managed to get priority seating for the restaurant in the Canadian pavillion in Epcot Center. The restaurant is very cozy and as everywhere in the World Showcase, is staffed by people from the country it represents, in this case (of course) Canadians. This lends an extra fun touch, we think, especially since we've been to many of the countries represented and could chat about them with the waiters and waitresses and so we took pains to eat most of our meals in Epcot. Since priority seating arrangements are necessary for these restaurants, it did make our days a little hectic, especially with the Fastpass times for the rides thrown in, it felt like we were constantly watching the clock. Still, it was worth it for the food that we ate. In Canada, I had three types of salmon for an appetizer and halibut for my main dish. All presented very nicely. Another nice touch were the breadsticks. Each of them was made of specific dough that had something to do with different Canadian provinces.

By the time we were done eating, it was past 9:30 and Epcot was empty. Amazing how fast it clears out! Saskia was afraid to be in the park alone, but I thought it was great!

Sunday, April 13th, 2003

When we made priority seating arrangements the night before, we also took care of Sunday. We wanted to start with a character breakfast and the lady at the desk suggested we try the Crystal Palace restaurant in the Magic Kingdom, as it was that park's early opening day that day (all parks have special days they open early for guests staying on Disney property). She suggested we make a 10am reservation, so we could first see the park and then go eat.

Well, by the time we came back from dinner at Epcot, we were all so exhausted from the long car trip and the walking around Epcot, we couldn't see getting up at 6:30am, in order to get to the park at opening time. As a matter of fact, we never managed to be very early, which contributed to the fact we didn't see and do as many rides as our friends, who were there at the same time and who got up at the crack of dawn. But I strongly felt we were on vacation and just didn't want to go at such a grueling pace.

So, we took our time getting ready and were at the restaurant around 10. We did have to wait about a half hour, as early opening also means extra crowded. But the breakfast at the Crystal Palace was decidedly more enjoyable to me, than the one at the Polynesian Resort, Ohana, restaurant. Plus the Pooh characters there (Eeyore, Pooh, Piglet and Tigger) are so nice and colorful and came around numerous times.

After breakfast, Rick raced to get Fast Passes for Space Mountain. We had read that we could do child swap at rides where Saskia was too afraid to ride: we would all go, but tell the attendant we wanted to child swap. They all knew what it meant and each ride had a special procedure for it. This was a golden tip for us! It meant we only had to wait through lines once and for Kai and Katja it meant they got to do most rides twice, as the second adult can ride with companions as well. So first Rick would wait with Saskia and then he would go and I would wait.

The fast pass times were about an hour or so later, so first we made our way to the Haunted Mansion. This is where Rick made a major mistake: he talked Saskia into going in. She was already mortified of the dark and his forcing her through it made everything a thousand times worse. We battled with her fears of the rides for several days, until she at least enjoyed some of them, because she had lost trust in our judgment what was and was not scary. Interestingly, she is now very proud she did the Mansion and is telling all her friends. We also learned that the Haunted Mansion does not do child swap, so if you have a fearful child, one do not make the ride out to be less scary than it is (it didn't help we had a bunch of screaming teenage girls in front of us, either) and two be prepared to wait.

After the debacle of the Haunted Mansion, we were ready for some down time and the line for "It's a Small World" wasn't very long. This was also a good ride to show Saskia that there are cute kids' rides in the Magic Kingdom (though I have to admit, they are few and far between! Between Pirates of the Caribbean, Snowwhite's *Scary* Adventure and Alien Encounter, it's amazing this is touted as a little kid's magic).

Of course, the park has much to offer besides rides and I noticed they've definitely increased the presence of characters on the streets, the kids got signatures from Snowwhite, Captain Hook and Jafar, that day.

And everything in the Magic Kingdom is so super colorful, it's a cheerful place just to walk through. After Small World, we went to the Pirates of the Caribbean and were amazed there was only a 10 minute wait. So Kai and Katja and I went on, while Rick stayed with Saskia, who definitely did not want to wait through the dark tunnels there. As a matter of fact, this day at the park seemed a lot less crowded than when we were there in November 2000, so we were hopeful for the rest of the week (our hopes were soon dashed, as the crowds were incredible at MGM especially, later in the week).

Before we tackled Space Mountain (which by the way is my favorite roller coaster of all times, I think because it's the first one I ever did in my life), Rick convinced me to do Alien Encounter with Kai and Katja. This was the ride that Katja was scared of 2 years ago, because she didn't know what to expect. I think I would have found it more interesting, had I not known about what was going to happen. Still, in the preshow, a little boy of about 5 was already panicked at just the look of the alien talking to them. I asked his mom if they'd ever done the ride and when she answered no, I told she may want to reconsider going in if he was panicked already. With the debacle with Saskia fresh in my mind, I figured I could spare another child from a traumatic experience. Thankfully, she listened, as the Alien Encounter is definitely too intense for most kids under 8. Disney doesn't make that very clear, unfortunately. The ride is full of physical experiences, such as Aliens "breathing" down your neck and "spitting", takes place in total darkness and at one point, the shoulder harness weighs down heavily on your shoulders, to simulate the Alien's holding your shoulders down. Too much for little ones!

Space mountain was great as always, though I seem to remember more twists and turns. The others came away with the same experience, so we were wondering if maybe the Fastpass track is different from the regular track (for which the waits were often more than one hour). We'll never know, it was probably our imagination, though.

To end our time that day at the Magic Kingdom, we talked Saskia into the Carousel of Progress. Mind you, she had the Haunted Mansion experience in mind, so it took some convincing, but she did love the ride. I, however, still have the song in my mind "It's a great big beautiful tomorrow, shining at the end of every day, it's a great big beautiful tomorrow, just a dream away", because the ride got stuck! And with it, so did we. We saw the little play on the 50's 4 times, before it started working again. All this while we had to stay seated "for our own safety". It's still a cute ride, though, nice and calming after the thrills of Space Mountain and Alien Encounter!

When the Carousel had finally finished its rounds, we made our way to the Monorail and rode to Epcot for dinner. We had priority seating at the Coral Reef restaurant in the Living Seas pavillion. This restaurant is one of our favorites, as it is like eating in an aquarium and during dinner, the kids can walk around and watch the huge fish. The food is also delicious and this time I had a salad, which was fresher than anything I ever tasted! The vegetables literally melted on my tongue. All their vegetables are grown at Epcot in the Land pavillion. I had tilapia, also from the Land pavillion as my main course. The kids got drinks with glowing ice cubes, a big hit.

Monday, April 14th, 2003

Again, we were so tired, we didn't make it out to the parks early. We had breakfast in the regular restaurant at the Polynesian, which was very good. Then I went to the Spa for a much needed workout (the long car ride had made my muscles stiff and even the walking in the parks didn't help much to loosen them) and Rick took the kids swimming. This was nice and relaxed, but of course it allowed the crowds to build in the parks.

We had designated this day to be our MGM day, again ending with dinner at Epcot. We drove to MGM and arrived around 11am (it's nice you don't have to pay for parking if you stay on Disney property) and noticed that they weren't as well organized with the bag searches here as they are at the Magic Kingdom and Epcot, so there was a quite a line for that.

Katja had talked to her best friend the night before, their family happened to be at WDW at the same time as we (they're our neighbors 2 doors down to boot), together with their friends. But Katja and Leah of course wanted to meet up. And we were at MGM at the same time, so we met them at the Rockin' Roller Coaster and the girls went on the Coaster together. This killed at least an hour of our time, waiting for them to be done. But of course quite unique to meet each other that far away from home!

After saying goodbye to them, we were hungry for lunch, but kind of wanted to do something first. So we went to the Animation Tour. When we found out that would take at least 45 minutes, we decided to eat lunch first anyway. The whole visit to MGM felt like one big wait to be honest. Thankfully, the restaurant, "The Brown Derby" had space almost immediately and their food was very good! I had chicken quesadilla's and they were in a word delicious.

Saskia was aching to go see the Playhouse Disney show, with Bear in the Big Blue House, so she and I lined up for that a half hour before show time. We were lucky to get a shady spot, there were plenty of people and little kids baking in the sunshine in the line. My friend called MGM a "hot" park, before we went and I tend to agree. A lot of the lines are outside and not much shade is provided.

Rick and the older kids meanwhile went back to the Rockin' Roller Coaster to use their Fastpasses there. I was a little disappointed not to get to experience the Coaster, but figured we'll be back. The Playhouse Disney show was cute, but *definitely* for very young kids. Even Saskia was almost too old for it, she admitted later.

When the Playhouse show was over, Rick and the others hadn't returned yet, so Saskia and I stood in line for a picture with the Lilo and Stitch characters. They were very funny, teasing the kids and especially Stitch was quite naughty. They had Saskia in stitches, very cute!

We met up again with the others and sat through the line for the Animation Tour, which was right there. I really like that tour, as you see the next animated feature being made ("Brother Bear") and you get a true behind the scenes look of how the studio works. It's very cool!

After we got out of the tour, the parade was just coming by, so we went to look at that. If there is one thing Disney does well (of course there are many, but this is one, definitely) it's parades. So cheerful, colorful and really well done with catchy music. Lots of fun.

Our dinner reservations for that night were at the Moroccan restaurant in Epcot, a really nice and authentic place with a belly dancer. Though Moroccan food isn't my favorite, it's very well prepared there and quite tasty. We saw some of the Illuminations show after we were done with dinner, too.

Tuesday, April 15th, 2003

We had determined on Monday, that MGM really was a park that needed to be visited as early as possible in order to get the least crowds and still have a little bit of hope of getting in a popular ride. And Katja, Kai and Rick had their hearts set on the Tower of Terror, MGM's signature ride. So, up early for a change this morning!

A quick breakfast at the cafeteria style restaurant, I think we literally ate in 5 minutes, as Rick was just so in a hurry. We drove to MGM again (advantage was both times, that, by the time we got to Epcot, we were able to park close to the park entrance at Epcot.). It felt like thousands of others had had the same idea in regards to starting early at MGM, as the crowds felt no less than the previous day midday!

After they quickly got a fastpass at Tower of Terror and Saskia and I got one for the Little Mermaid show, we passed the time by going through the "One Man's World" exhibit about Walt Disney's life. It was fun to see how his art evolved and how it all came to be.

Saskia and I then went to the Little Mermaid, which was so much fun, that Saskia lamented afterwards, that it was way too short (it lasted 17 minutes). The show was a combination of cartoons, puppets and real people singing 3 songs from the movie. The special effects were such, that you really felt you were underwater with the characters.

The show lasted much shorter than the wait through the Tower of Terror for the others, so when we got out, I allowed Saskia to pose for a portret of herself. She'd been asking to be drawn and, because there were so many rides she didn't enjoy, I kind of felt like indulging her a little in that way. The portret turned out very cute, the artist really saw Saskia's spunky nature and drew her like that.

We left MGM to spend the rest of the day at Epcot and on the way, I bought a tripod for my camera, as I really wanted to take nighttime pictures and one just can't get sharp pictures without a tripod. Epcot (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) remains the favorite park of this family. The first ride we did was the Imagination ride, with the little purple dragon called Figment. Last time we were there, the ride had been refurbished into a very boring one that didn't catch on. This time, it was totally redone and about a 1000 times more fun. You get "tour" through the Senses lab by the Imagination's professor (Eric Idle), very funny and Figment of course fouls it all up. The ride includes several "sensational" special effects. At one point, Figment turns into a skunk and shoots his foul smelling air at the riders. The song "Imagination" is really catchy too. After the ride is over, you're dropped into Kodak's imagination lab, where you can play with different things and send email pictures to friends.

This time, we scheduled a lunch at one the restaurants as well, the Akershus one in Norway. Their buffet is delicious, with different kinds of herring, salads, meatballs and other Scandinavian delicacies. While we were eating, Katja and Kai did the Maelstrom ride, a boat ride through Norway's history, with a steep watery drop at the end. By the time Rick and I came out of the restaurant the line was too long, so we ended up coming back later and doing a child swap, as Saskia was afraid of the trolls.

That day, we also did the Universe of Energy ride, where Ellen DeGeneris plays Jeopardy against Jamie Lee Curtis and has a dream about energy sources in which she is taught a lot by Bill Nye the Science Guy. The highlight of this show is a ride through a prehistoric jungle with animatronic dinosaurs. The 360 degree movies are impressive too. It is a long one, 45 minutes beginning to end. Rick entertained Saskia elsewhere, as of course lifesize dinosaurs were not on her list of enjoyable creatures.

Next to the Universe of Energy lies the Wonders of Life pavillion. This has several fun features, like things that confuse the senses (hot and cold pipes next to each other, feeling different things without seeing them, visual puzzles, etc.). The ride Body Wars was something I'd never done, so I got to experience that for the first time. I loved it! You go into someone's body and get thrown around when your "craft" goes the wrong direction. Very fun!

Back at the Imagination pavillion, Kai, Katja and I saw the 3D movie "Honey, I shrunk the audience". I'd seen this movie several times and opted to keep my legs down this time to feel the "mouse tails", when hundreds of mice supposedly get let loose on the audience. A little girl sitting away from her parents was seriously freaked out by that though and didn't want to sit down again. The 3D effects are quite impressive, sometimes too much so for little kids, especially when the snake comes out or the dog sneezes and real water is felt.

Dinner that night was at the San Angel Inn in the Mexican Mayan Temple pavillion. This is a really nice restaurant with delicious real Mexican dishes and very nice atmosphere, as you dine next to the boat ride. The boat ride is cute with many singing dolls and nice pictures and all three kids loved that. It's nice when you're waiting for dinner and the kids can go on the ride by themselves and be entertained that way. We did that ride 3 times and then we had enough of it.

On to Test Track, where we did a child swap. I loved that ride! Funny how 65 mph feels so much faster in an open little ride car.

To end the day's rides, we convinced Saskia to give Spaceship Earth a try, the ride in the big Epcot ball. It takes you through the times from prehistoric to futuristic and is very calm and nice. She ended up loving that ride the most and was constantly asking if we could go back in.

Then we searched out a spot to watch Illuminations, but we were really too late. We were sandwiched in and had a limited view. I still managed to take some nice pictures though. That is such a wonderful show!

Wednesday, April 16th, 2003

We were so exhausted on Tuesday night, that we decided to sleep until we woke up. This turned out to be 8:30am. We went up to the counter at the Ohana restaurant and found out the wait for a character breakfast wasn't that bad. So, we put our name down and looked at the tacky photo's the photographer was taking, while we were waiting. I have to admit, nothing is more enjoyable than people watching. On thing was kind of sad, though, that some families were seriously overweight, including the young children :(. And I'm not talking chubby, I'm saying obese. It just makes me sad to see that.

One family waiting had about 6 children along and every single one of them was playing on a Gameboy. Katja noticed that first. it was kind of a funny sight, but also oddly sad. Those kids were all in their own little worlds, even though they were surrounded by such a fun place!

Anyway, our family had fun at Ohana's, though we only half-heartedly repeated the "Aloha" cry by the very Southern waiter, feeling somewhat weird about it. To start out we got some pineapple coconut bread, which Katja and I loved, but the rest didn't. We saw all the characters and took pictures as they came by our table. The kids really enjoyed themselves. As noted early, the food was good, but kind of basic, your run of the mill bacon, eggs and biscuits, basically. Certainly no diet foods!

After breakfast, we drove to the Animal Kingdom. The weather was kind of cloudy, so not that hot, which was good for a change. Our first trek was to the Dinosaur ride, where the wait was manageable so we just went in line. We did a child swap there again, as it would have been too intense for Saskia. I loved the ride though, with the unexpected twists and turns and Katja was nice enough to let me go twice this time, while she stayed with Saskia.

On our way in, we had picked up Fastpasses for the Bug's Life 3D movie in the Tree of Life. So we went there next. While waiting, we were treated to well known Disney songs, buzzed by bees or crickets. The movie itself was very fun, a great combination of 3D with puppets and special effects (I really liked the stinkbug :D) and not as scary for little ones as the "Honey I shrunk the audience" 3D at Epcot. The Tree itself is so intricately carved, it takes a while to make out all the animals (if you ever even can). Surrounding it are areas with monkeys, flamingo's and other wild animals.

Our plan was to stay at the Animal Kingdom till about 2pm and then for Rick and the older kids to go to Blizzard Beach, while Saskia and I would go swimming at the hotel. So we had lunch at the Tusker House, which is cafeteria style, but has a wonderful salad! We got Fastpasses for the Kilimanjaro Safari, but couldn't go till 1:30, so we killed (quite enjoyably, I might add) time by going through the Gorilla area, I forget the precise name of it. We did see baby gorilla's, beautiful birds and other exotic animals.

Kilimanjaro Safari is a lot of fun, you actually go into a safari type vehicle and the savannah is made very realistic and huge! We saw giraffes, elephants, lions and other safari animals. It looks like the animals are well taken care of and the surroundings are just as they would have them "at home". Disney added some adventure to the safari by making it seem as if we were chasing poachers, a good way to show the kids that such terrible people exist, that would kill these animals to sell just a small part of their body.

As planned, we parted ways after that. Saskia and I enjoyed ourselves in the 2 pools at the hotels for a little over an hour and then we went back to the room to relax a bit. This was good, because the older two can handle a lot already, but for Saskia these entire days in the parks were proving to be exhausting, even though she spent most of the time in a stroller.

This night, we went to Downtown Disney for dinner and ate at the Wolfgang Puck restaurant there. Delicious! After dinner, Katja and Rick went to the Virgin Megastore, while I took Kai and Saskia to the huge toy store there. We were quite tired, so we didn't spend much time, although there was lots to do. We did stop at the huge Disneystore and the Lego store and then made our way back to the hotel.

Thursday, April 17th, 2003

All this walking through the parks and the constant new impressions did leave us quite tired, so we decided to order breakfast in our room this time. I figured we could eat that and then I could go off to the spa for another workout. The whole week, I was having trouble with my fibromyalgia, so the thought of a workout and the hot tub was really wonderful.

As I was walking to the spa that morning, I walked by the wedding chapel of the Grand Floridian hotel. It seems like they had a wedding there every day. but this day, the carriage was there with the attendants. And I tell you, they look as much like the carriage and the changed mice in the Cinderella movie as any real life thing could! Wow! Really impressive. I can imagine wanting to use that for my wedding. I tried in the days after to show the kids and Rick, but that was the only time the carriage came out.

After my workout we all went on the Monorail to the Magic Kingdom. Every time we went on, we tried to get in the front of the train. This time, there was only space for one, so Kai got to go. Once there, we convinced Saskia to try the Pirates of the Caribbean. She had become a lot more daring after surviving the Haunted Mansion and so the Pirates were ok for her. She just didn't like when the boat dropped down at one point.

Kai and I had read in the meantime, that there was a hidden Donald on the Haunted Mansion ride (Kai had become a master in picking out the hidden Mickeys during our trip, even finding one in the painting on the wall at the Norwegian ride, but this was supposed to the only hidden Donald anywhere). So, of course we wanted to do the Haunted Mansion ride again to see where it was. Unfortunately, that's where we found out they don't do a child swap, so Rick stayed behind with Saskia, who obviously didn't want to try a second time. The kids and I were disappointed though, as we never found that Donald, even though we looked very closely at the area it was supposed to be. Oh well! As an aside, one of the attendants at the Mansion looked very scary and one child asked his autograph in his autograph book and he gave the coolest one! So if you ever have autograph assembling kids with you, ask at the Haunted Mansion, I'll bet they each have such an autograph.

Meanwhile, Rick had obtained Fastpasses to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, so we made our way there and rode it, with the customary child swap, as Saskia really didn't want to try anything remotely fast. A shame, as I think she would have liked this ride.

For lunch, we had made reservations at Tony's on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom. We arrived somewhat late because of Big Thunder Mountain and our reservation had been given away. This made me somewhat upset, but what can you do? So we waited till a table opened up, which actually didn't take that long.

Rick then took the youngest two back to the hotel for a nap (in which only Kai succeeded, though Saskia was the tired one, sigh!). Katja and I, though, took the Monorail to Epcot and had a great time together, there! We did Body Wars again, Cranium Command (a cute animatronic/film thing about the brain of a 12 year old boy) and the Universe of Energy again.

Then we rushed back to the Magic Kingdom (truly using our park hopper passes that day!) to meet Rick, Kai and Saskia and use our fastpasses for Splash Mountain. I had never done this right before and never realized how cute it was! Even the 40 foot drop at the end was fun, though all that got wet was my behind, only the people in the front of our boat got a true soaking. When I switched off with Rick, I took Saskia to get her some coloring stuff of Winnie the Pooh, as she rightfully informed me she had not done one ride she enjoyed that day :(. It was hard to get her to try stuff, I truly think Disneyworld is best with kids 9 and older.

When they came out of Splash Mountain, we rushed to Epcot to make our dinner reservations in France (the Bistro, which is quite expensive and I didn't realize it when making the reservations. But the food was truly outstanding and the people super friendly, for the kids as well).

We were pooped after dinner, so, although we had thought to go back to the Magic Kingdom for their nighttime parade, we decided to go back to the hotel and watch the fireworks from our window instead.

Friday, April 18th, 2003

This was, in retrospect, my favorite day of the vacation. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the trip, but to start out, I felt rested in the morning, something that rarely happens to me. I did a weights workout (brought my 20 pound dumbells with me, to the amazement of the bellmen ;)) in the room and then we went to Epcot. We were lucky this time as we were selected to sit at the front of the train with the driver this time. Unfortunately, there is only room for 4, so Rick and Katja (who stayed with Rick so he wouldn't be alone :)) went in a regular car and Kai, Saskia and I rode up front. I loved this, as Epcot is the most fun to see from the Monorail, as they go through the park to get to the station. I took several pictures there.

We had gone early and without breakfast, because Kai had set his sights on the character breakfast in the Land pavillion. This is a perfect example of why one should double check if things have not changed. When we here in 2000, we had a great breakfast in the Land restaurant. However, it has changed to a character lunch and dinner since and the restaurant is not even open for breakfast. That was a disappointment! And the lunch and dinner were booked full too, too bad! But we ordered some food downstairs in the cafeteria and decided to do the rides at the Land.

The big ride there takes you through the greenhouses and shows how the land is being used (and abused, especially in the past!). Everyone enjoyed that.

Then we watched a 360 degree movie called "Circle of Life" with Timon and Pumbaa from the Lion King, very cute! Really not to be missed. I'll bet many people pass on that one, but shouldn't.

We didn't feel like seeing the California Raisins and their thing, so we left the land to once again go on the Figment ride at the Imagination pavillion.

Then we all saw Cranium Command and The Making of Me (cute film with Martin Short about how babies are created and born). And we played with the toys at the Wonders of Life pavillion.

Lunch that day was in England. It's a true pub there, fish and chips, several "pies" and one great salad (which I ordered). I also had Shandy, which love, a mixture of lager and sevenup. Very English!

In the afternoon, we spent time in the Inventions pavillions, all kinds of hands technology stuff the kids loved to do! We also all did Test Track, including Saskia! She didn't quite like it, but just a little bit (her words :)). Rick wanted to take Kai and Saskia on the Imagination Figment ride once more (Katja and I had seen that one!), so Katja and I made our way to the World Showcase. We looked around in France and saw some street artists doing an act with chairs. They were really quite good.
Then we walked to Italy and saw a human statue, also very well done. We looked around Germany a bit and then it was time to meet up with the rest again. Saskia had gotten a little umbrella with her name on it and it was just nice to sit and enjoy the sights for a bit, while her umbrella dried.

We had a reservation for the sushi bar in the Japanese pavillion and got there just as it started pouring rain! We were lucky all week, we never got soaked, it didn't rain much, but a couple of times we just happened to be inside when the shower hit. The sushi restaurant in Japan is great! This was the first time we'd ever eaten there. We had been to the teppanyaki place the last time, which was great also. The kids got fried chicken tempura and we got some very exotic sushi, yum!

Afterwards, we browsed the huge store, which the kids loved as they found their favorites, like Yu-gi-oh cards for Kai and the movies of "Kiki's delivery service" and "Totoro" for Saskia.

Then we found ourselves a perfect spot for the Illuminations show. I was able to set up my tripod just so and had a nice view of the Chinese and Mexican pavillions.

When Illuminations was over, Katja was too tired to go on, but the rest of us still had energy. So she went back to the hotel to sleep and we went to the Magic Kingdom to catch the 11pm Spectromagic Parade. Now I wish we had known about this sooner on our trip, as there are 2 parades every evening and I would seriously suggest to anyone wanting to see them to go to the later one! We had a front row seat on the sidewalk, there were no crowds (everyone with little kids stayed for the 9pm parade) and the characters were really interacting with us. Lots of fun! To top it all off, we were selected ride in the front of the Monorail again, fun! The Spectromagic parade is very nice, but not as impressive (I think) as the Electrical parade used to be.

When the parade was over, I dashed into the candy store to buy the kids some Easter goodies, as the Easter bunny would visit in our hotel on the way back.

Saturday, April 19th 2003

We woke up at 8:30 and packed the last things (I'd already done a lot of packing the morning before) and showered. Then we made our way down to Ohana's and unfortunately were told the wait was only 15 minutes. Well, 45 minutes plus later, I went to tell the lady, that we'd decided we were going to eat elsewhere, as we still wanted to go to the Magic Kingdom before driving off direction home. Of course, magically (as it always happens at this place ;)) a table had opened up for us, just then. Again, the forced "Aloha" (I just can't get into that fake stuff, if you're not in Hawaii or Hawaiian yourself (which these people definitely weren't!) then just be normal), but it was a fun and in the end quick (our waitress was very efficient) breakfast and the kids got to pose with Mickey one more time.

We were done around 11 and had decided we needed to leave no later than 3 pm (though Rick preferred 2pm, but once he got to the park, he wasn't in such a hurry either).