Disney Day One -- Happy Birthday!

After a good night's rest at a hotel near Midway Saturday night, we got up bright and early and headed to the airport. We were a little too laid back and nearly missed our flight. Ironically, we had plenty of time, but we were eating breakfast in the food court and not really thinking about boarding the plane. As we started to walk to the gate, we heard our names over the intercom -- "final boarding call for Alan D., party of 3". So we RAN to the gate and were the very last ones on the plane. How horrible could that have been?

We had a smooth flight to Orlando, it took about 2 hours and 15 minutes. I listened to my headphones, played Go Fish with Mom and loved looking out the window. When we landed, it was warm and sunny. There was a bit of a delay with the Disney Transportation bus. We had to wait about an hour between checking in at the bus desk and actually getting on the bus. That's what you get for free service. The bus ride to our resort took about 30 minutes. We finally got to Saratoga Springs Resort at about 2pm. We had a quick lunch at the restaurant on site. We checked in, but our room wasn't ready, so we hopped on the first bus to Hollywood Studios to start the fun. When we checked in, they knew it was Mom's birthday, so they had a birthday badge for her and she got a card from Sleeping Beauty and a call from Goofy. All day, the Disney Staff made sure to say Happy Birthday to Mom and make her day extra special. She even had balloons waiting for her back at the room.

So on to Hollywood Studios. The bus service was smooth and we made it there by 3pm. Our first stop was the giant sourcerer's hat in the center of the park. Then we did the Great Movie Ride, which Dad thought was kind of lame, but I liked it. After that, we rode Star Tours. I was scared, but I quickly proclaimed it to be my favorite ride. It was a bumpy, flight simulation through Star Wars. Next we saw the Muppet Show in 3D. It was so cool and realistic, we had front row seats. The park was fairly quiet and we didn't have to wait much. Our first dinner was at Mama Melrose's Italian Restaurant. I had chicken and mom and dad had pork and steak, it was really good and they even brought Mom a special birthday dessert. After dinner, we had to hustle across the park to get good seats for Fantasmic. It was a huge show that had lots of special effects like movies superimposed on the water sprays, fire and explosions. Mickey saved us all from the dragon. I liked the floats with the princesses on them best. It was a show like none of us had ever seen, truly amazing to think Disney does this every night. After the show, the park closed and we went back to the hotel, tired and ready for bed. I fell asleep on the bus and went straight to bed. Our luggage was waiting for us in our room as well as our grocery order. The whole process was so smooth. We were very happy with the resort so far. Even though we weren't vacation club members (we bought points), we were treated very nicely and felt extra special staying at our resort. It was definitely worth it to have the comforts of home in our room.