Down Home in Daphne: Disney or Bust

We just got back from an AWESOME vacation to Disney World! Yes, we are the crazy people who took our 2 year old to Disney, but it was wonderful! None of us were ready to leave and Brad already asked me to start planning the next trip.

Let me start by saying we wanted to experience Disney but didn't want to go all out since Paige was so young. We did however want to go before she was 3 since she could get into the park free and some of her meals were free.

Our journey began early Tuesday morning at 5:30! We drove (new experience for me, as a kid I always flew to Disney) and it was actually a pleasent drive. It took us a little over 8 hours with all of our stops (lots of potty stops for Paige and me. Paige is potty training - another post about that - so stops were definitely a must).

We stayed at the Swan. The Swan is on the Disney property but it is not run by Disney; it is run by Starwood and is really a Westin. We opted for the Swan because we were able to use hotel points. The location was pretty good, in the Epcot area. When we visited Epcot and Hollywood Studios we took a boat or walked and when we visited Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom we took a bus. There wasn't anything too "Disney" in the hotel, but that was ok because Paige is so young and we got to use points. To be honest, I would not pay to stay here, but I would definitely use points again in the future.

After we arrived we got settled in our hotel room and headed over to Epcot for dinner at the Garden Grill. The restaurant rotated and Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale joined us for dinner. This was Paige's first character experience and it was an experience none the less. Poor thing loved looking at them from a distance but was scared to death when they came to the table. She would crawl into my lap and give them a glance. While there we also got to ride our first ride, Nemo. We were able to walk right on up to the ride with no wait. It was great!