Friday, July 23, 2010

the wonder years -- 1998-2001

In the summer of 1998 I planned my daughters' first trip to WDW.  Jen was a few months shy of her 8th birthday and Becca had just turned 6.  It was supposed to be "the trip of a lifetime", a trip where we'd do "everything" because we didn't know if we'd ever come back

We loved it so much we came back four more times -- summer 1999 and 2000 and winter trips in 2000 and 2001.  the winter trips were just me and my kids, but in the summer we were joined by my three sisters.

by now WDW had grown to four theme parks (Animal Kingdom opened in 1998), three water parks (this was before they closed river country), countless hotels, the Downtown Disney area ...

We always stayed on site -- the Polynesian Hotel (my personal favorite), Dixie Landings (now Port Orleans-Riverside) (not my favorite at all), the Boardwalk Inn, Beach Club...

Our favorite parks turned out to be MGM Studios (now Hollywood Studios) and Magic Kingdom. Our least favorite was Animal Kingdom, we didn't go back after the summer of 1999.  we took the girls to one of the water parks (Typhoon Lagoon?) once; they loved it but the adults were bored.

the winter 2001 trip was really a trip to Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure -- we stayed at Portofino Bay -- but at the last minute I added a couple of days at Disney, i couldn't bear the thought of being in Orlando and not paying a visit to the Mouse.

over the next few days I'll post favoirte moments form the "wonder years" trips.

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