In March, we were meeting up with my family for a big DisneyWorld reunion. But since my sister's kids' spring break was the week after ours and we had to split the weeks, we decided to go early and have a little mini-vacation in the hot Florida sun. We used AirBNB to rent a retired couple's time share at the Wyndham and planned to spend five days doing nothing but swimming in the five pools. Ironically, the first day or two we spent at the Wyndham were cloudy and in the sixties with a cold wind, then all the days we were at Disney the temperature hovered around 90 degrees with nothing but sun. Alas, we still had a grand time. And though, unpictured, spent hours and hours at the resorts five swimming pools (and hot tubs!).
Caleb and Tom rocked their matching Mariners hats and Tom is wearing his name tag from the time share sales pitch we attended our first morning, where we all got free breakfast and a $100 resort voucher which we used for two meals at two different restaurants. Ah, timeshares are weird.
The resort itself was lovely. It was around a large lagoon. At the sales pitch they told us the story about how Walt Disney managed to purchase huge tracts of land under a bunch of assumed company names so no one would know it was Disney buying the land. Once the news broke, the land value shot up from about $180 per acre to $180,000 per acre overnight. There was one plot of land within the large rectangle that they hadn't finalized the sale of when the news broke, so they left it, and eventually it was bought a handful of resorts like Wyndham, Hilton, and Waldorf Astoria. So the Wyndham is one of the resorts that is fully surrounded by DisneyWorld, but isn't actually part of it.
At the top floor of one of the buildings they have model rooms on display for potential buyers, and they let people into the penthouse suite every night to watch the EPCOT fireworks.
The resort was perfect for kids as they had all sorts of events. We attended "inflatable fun" where the girls got to jump in a bouncy house, play inflatable sports, and jump around on these bouncy balls.
We also took advantage of the free miniature golf. As you can see, the girls didn't really hit the ball, but used the "drag the ball to the hole" technique. It made keeping track of their strokes impossible, so we gave up. Tom and I kept score, however, and I'm sure Tom would like you to know that he beat me...even after I gave myself five extra points for getting a hole-in-one.
The days we were not using vouchers to eat, we ate in our lovely room and enjoyed Trader Joe's yummy premade meals. Indian food is pictured. (Shout out to Trader Joe's: Come to Alaska and we'll keep you in business!)
Caleb helped us keep the place tidy by carrying clothes all over the place, but sweeping up.
Here we are using our vouchers to get fancy drinks with fancy straws.
Mom and Dad actually came a little early too, and we met them over at DisneyWorld for one day while we were still staying at the Wyndham. Caleb proved right away that he loved Disney by falling asleep in Tom's arms in line for the haunted mansion. This is the first in a series of "Caleb sleeping at DisneyWorld" pictures.
It was the Flower and Garden show at EPCOT, which meant lots of fun characters made out of plants. The girls really channeled Captain Hook here.
Their Tick-Tock Crock is a bit less convincing.
Caleb loved the Living Seas. He spent as much time as possible pressed up against glass watching the fishies.
Here he is, rocking DisneyWorld in his awake state.
We did Dumbo for the first time in years and years, which is revolutionary because there are two separate Dumbo rides now and there is a new indoor playground as part of the line. So you wait for a bit, then they give you a restaurant-style buzzer for a bit and let you play on the playground. Then you go get on the ride. It's a seriously brilliant idea.
Tom took the girls on the tea cups and I remembered, again, that I married the right guy.
We ate lunch at Gaston's Tavern. Our Alaskan girls felt right at home there, where they "use antlers for all of their decorating."
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