Disney Adventures - Fun-Filled Explorations In and Out of this (Disney) World

It was excruciatingly painful for several reasons, but I believe my blog and I survived the transition to the new Blogger format.  If you have any trouble viewing the post or notice any other type of problem, please do let me know.  Thanks much!

This post represents another installment in The Big Switcheroo series – tales from last spring’s epic journey from the northeast to the Florida Keys and back – involving family, friends and an extraordinary range of adventures.  It also represents the third post recounting our one week visit to Disney World with our daughter (Kyra), our son (Ryan), and our son’s girlfriend (Anya.)

I’m a cheap date.  Actually, Alan is, too.  Although we certainly do spend money on activities that are important to us, we don’t have to spend much (or even any) money to have a good time.  Picking up coffee and bagels on our way to the park on the river costs about five bucks for the two of us, and the time we spend observing the seagulls and eagles, the commercial and pleasure boat traffic or even just the waves quietly lapping on the shore is time well spent and much enjoyed.  Taking to a bike trail for an hour or two, cruising along and simply watching the scenery float by is an inexpensive way to pass a lovely afternoon.  Or, we just head out to do some “poking around.”  I consider poking around to be our guilty pleasure.  It accomplishes nothing other than allowing us to satisfy our curiosity, take in some gorgeous or otherwise memorable sights and scenery, enjoy each other’s company and pass some time in the most relaxing of ways.

During our week-long stay at Disney World’s Fort Wilderness Campground, Alan and I decided to poke around several of the Disney hotels – more out of curiosity than anything else.  During our past visits to Disney World, we had always stayed just outside the gate in Kissimmee either in a hotel suite or at the KOA there.  We never were the family that would go back to our hotel room for an afternoon nap; instead, we chose to start our days in the theme parks early and finish them early, as well.  Now that we were staying at Fort Wilderness, we realized that we had a perfect opportunity to explore several of the Disney properties that had caught our eye.  Would any of them catch our dollars on a future trip?

Our Spring Travel Plans Went Right Out the Window

I feel awful.  Right after I posted a reminder to sign up for email delivery of new blog posts from Reflections Around the Campfire, I read that several other blogs were having problems with their Feedburner email subscriptions.  If you recently signed up for email delivery and are having any issues receiving new posts, please try unsubscribing and/or signing up again.  I do apologize for any trouble you are having.  That being said, my last post was published on January 30th, so if you haven’t received any new notices since then, it’s me, not you.  Life has been a bit hectic around here lately . . .

Around this time last year, Alan and I took a look at our camping map of the United States.  When the kids were young, we had printed off a basic map and started coloring in the states in which we had camped with colored pencils.  It’s not fancy and it’s not the type we would put up on the travel trailer; it’s just a simple map on cardstock that lives in one of our travel binders.  A good look at our camping map made it obvious that we really needed to make a concerted effort to visit some of our southern states, so we decided to make a loop through that area of the country, focusing mainly on the states between Florida and Texas.  Then I started planning our itinerary.