The happiest place on earth?

     We just returned from our Disney vacation and here is the low down. First let me say for the record that we never could have afforded this vacation if not for Eric being in the military. There is a military resort called Shades of Green located right smack in the middle of the Disney area . Its $95 a night and to give you an idea of how cheap that is , the resort closest to it cost almost $400 a night. We also got a steal on our park tickets. When buying the tickets at our resort we could get a 4 day park ticket for $138 each. To put that into perspective a base ticket into Magic Kingdom will cost ya $92.33 for an adult and $83.81 for a child. That is just one park. I paid $552 for $1409 worth of tickets.
     My first choice wasn't mid June, it just ended up being the only choice I had. My children have begged to go to Disney for years . By the time I had money in hand (February) I had 4 different weeks to pick from. The first one would have been perfect. It was the kid's spring break in April but it was also the week before Eric was supposed to leave for El Salvador for a two week National Guard training trip. He just couldn't take 3 weeks off work. The second week was in May but it was the week that the kids had EOGs. The next one was August right after the kids start school. So mid June was the best choice.
     The commercials on tv show all these kids dancing through the park where "dreams come true" ending with the promise that it is the "happiest place on earth". If you are rich and can afford a $500 lunch with Cinderella for your little princess then her dream may come true. If not, then she is outta luck. Happiest place on earth? Well lets see, parks open at 9 am and by 9:30 am your clothes are wet and its not because you have been on a water ride. Let me be clear, there is no looking good at Disney. Every morning I would be amused at the number of women I saw with every hair sprayed in place and their face all made up knowing that within the hour their hair would be wet and stuck to their head and the makeup melted off . By 10 am 90% of all children are screaming and 100% of parents are yelling at them to shut up . By 11am you still haven't ridden your first ride because you have been walking around using your fastpass.
     Fast pass...meant to be the solution to waiting in line. If you are smart you get a map for the park way ahead of time and plan which attractions and rides you want to visit. You can walk up to the ride , push your park ticket through this machine and it will spit out yet another ticket telling you what time you can come back to the ride and skip waiting in line part.. Here is the problem with that. The good rides are so scattered through the park and the park is so huge that you could spend the first hour walking around the park scanning your tickets and then spend the rest of your time and energy just walking back and riding the hand full of rides . By the time you walked far enough to fast pass about 2 rides the rides on the other side of the park would be so far behind that the fast pass times for those would be like 5 or 6 pm and trust me you aren't gonna stay that long.
     First you can't afford to eat lunch in a park. 3 small baskets of fish and chips, 1 small basket of chicken tenders and fries and 4 drinks packs a $63 wallop. Second by lunch time you and your children and ready to high tail it outta there and find the nearest pool.That my friends is exactly what we did.
     We chose Epcot for our first park. By 1:00 breakfast had worn off and we were hungry and frankly too tired to enjoy even one more thing. We went back to the hotel, had some lunch and sat out by the pool til supper. We did go back later that night to watch the fireworks and even though they were spectacular we didn't try to revisit any of the parks for the rest of the week. Wednesday was Seaworld and the longest day we had . We were there til 3 pm but only because we had driven to that one . Even with cutting our days short , by Thursday morning my right foot was swollen and sore and it was all I could do to make it through our last park day. The walk back to the monorail was miserable and I was almost in tears. I am still limping.
     Hear my heart, I had fun. I enjoyed being with my family and I loved seeing my kids faces after a really awesome ride. I am glad that we went somewhere that we had never been . I wouldn't trade this last week for anything. We all got to experience Disney for the first time together.
     I will shut up after this...What kind of idiot do you have to be to drag an infant to Disney, in June no less? I wish I had just $1 for every stroller I saw with a baby in it. Babies do not under any circumstances need to be drug around a park for hours when it is close to 100 degrees. Babies don't care about Mickey Mouse . Babies care about being comfortable , having a dry clean diaper, and a bottle when they are hungry. I so wanted to grab some parents and give them a firm shake this week and scream" what are you thinking?" Can you not hear your baby screaming ?
     On a side note, while on vacation my oldest dog Sugar died. She was almost 15 years old and her health had started to decline at a rapid pace.  A friend of mine was taking care of all 3 of my dogs and called me Tuesday night with the news. As bad as I hate that Sugar died on her watch I am glad it wasn't one of us that found her like that.Sugar had been around since the year that Eric and I got married. The kids don't know life without her. As happy as we were to pull into the driveway and finally be home it was sad to walk in and not see her sweet face to greet us. It was a very bittersweet homecoming.