Note: Min's trip report is in Coral and Bill's comments are in Blue. In the Gallery links, pictures without a border link to the specific picture and those with a border link to a gallery of related pictures.

This is a five page trip report, an introduction page and one page for each day of the trip, from our May 2004 trip.

Click to Read:  Part One  - Part Two  - Part Three  - Part Four

The Prelude, on this page, includes the events leading up to the trip as well as our pre-trip planning.

Part One covers the first day of our trip. It includes our drive down and spending the afternoon and evening at the Magic Kingdom as well as dinner at the Liberty Tree Tavern and a viewing of Wishes.

Part Two is about the second day of this trip which started with breakfast at Chef Mickey's followed by a morning at the Magic Kingdom. It also reports our time at Disney Studios including dinner at Hollywood & Vine and a viewing of Fantasmic.

Part Three covers the third day of our trip. It includes our breakfast at Boma and spending the morning at Animal Kingdom as well as our visit to Epcot with dinner at the Garden Grill and a viewing of Illuminations: Reflections of Earth.

Part Four reports on the final day of our trip and includes our wanderings around Epcot and lunch at the Rose & Crown as well as a summary of our thoughts about taking our moms to Walt Disney World. It also includes an email we received from Min's mom with her thoughts about the trip.

Click to Read:  Part One  - Part Two  - Part Three  - Part Four

Prelude

We are giving our moms a late Mother's Day gift, a trip to Walt Disney World. Yep, Min and me are taking our moms on a three day trip to WDW the weekend after Mother's Day.

Why the weekend after Mother's Day? Well Nancy, Bill’s mom, works at a florist so Mother’s Day is one of the busiest times of the year for her. We figured she needed a break after the Mother's Day madness, so we decided on the weekend after Mother's Day. 

Why just my mom and not both my mom and dad? Well my mom, Linda, is starting to get the magic but my poor dad is not yet there. After they spent a day at Animal Kingdom and Epcot in January, she said that my dad was no fun and she wanted to go with us the next time we went. We invited her to join us for the All Ears Net Mini-Meet in February but she already had plans, so we said some other time. Well then came the idea to take both my mom and Bill's mom to WDW as a Mother's Day gift. I figure if we show my mom some of the fun things to do at the World, then she can go again with my dad and show him the magic.

Once we told my mom about the trip, we let her borrow our Passporter so that she could pick out the things that she wanted to do and the places she wanted to eat. She returned it a week later with her choices highlighted.

When we asked my mom what she wanted to do, she said "Everything."

Read the Pre-Trip Plan

We called Bill's mom on Sunday to wish her a happy Mother's Day and get some last minute planning out of the way. She surprised us with the news that she was leaving work early on Thursday and would be on the road by 9:00 AM. This will put her in Jacksonville around noon, which means we should be in Orlando by 3:00 or so. This gives us most of the afternoon and all evening on Thursday which is something we didn't plan on.

More time at WDW, yes...

After talking it over, Bill and I decided to take advantage of the extra evening by adding a viewing of Wishes to the trip. After check-in on Thursday, we will be spending the afternoon and evening at the Magic Kingdom. Dinner will be at the Liberty Tree Tavern followed by Wishes.

This is great, Wishes was missing from our original itinerary. Now, our moms will get to see Wishes, Fantasmic, and Illuminations: Reflections of Earth, all in one extended weekend.

We finished packing on Wednesday night and got everything ready to put in the car in the morning. We also decided to surprise my mom with an early birthday present and are upgrading her Play-4 pass to a Florida Resident Seasonal Pass. Now we can bring her along on another trip, maybe in the fall for Halloween or in December to see the holiday decorations.

Click to Read:  Part One  - Part Two  - Part Three  - Part Four