What's it take to get Disney Tickets?

Before we drove down, my sister told us about this deal Disney is running for the military: $138 4 day Park Hopper Tickets for Members of the US Military.  Pop Pop was in the military during Vietnam, so we thought he'd qualify. Unfortunately for us, you have to be current military or retired with 20 years service. Great deal if you qualify. Bummer for us as Pop Pop only served 4 years. So Monday morning (8:30am!) my sister and her boyfriend went to a time share meeting in hopes of scoring good tickets. Over 2 hours later, yeah, not so much with the deal. So we ended up going to breakfast and would try to figure out which park to go to since it seemed like we could only afford one day. While at Denny's I saw a sign for discount tickets to Disney. Another time share tour? We decided that spending a few more hours at another tour would be worth the price they were asking for tickets. So Grammy, Pop Pop, and my sister went to the the tour.

That left Ed (my sister's boyfriend) Peyton, Shay, and myself with nothing to do for a few hours. So we hit the pool at the resort.

Watch me!

By myself!

Look how comfortable she is!

This was the first time she's been in the pool without a life jacket. She was so traumatized after last years swim lessons that she was afraid of the pool. Looks like we'll make a swimmer out of her yet.

A few hours of swimming, and then Shay and I headed back to the condo to get cleaned up. After her shower, she fell asleep! (anyone who knows Shay knows that this NEVER happens!) While she was sleeping everyone came back to the condo, and we scored some sweet tickets. No soul selling today!

So off to Epcot we went for the evening! We got there around 5pm. The park is so much bigger than it looks on the map, and being our first time at Disney, we were overwhelmed!

In front of the "golf ball."

We walked aimlessly around, searching for characters, and not really knowing what to do first with so little time. We decided to go across the pond and go to see "The Hall of Presidents."

All the way over there.

When we got there, all I saw was an empty room. So I asked a cast member where the hall was, and he replied "You will find the Hall of Presidents at Magic Kingdom." Yeah. Fun times. So we walked around to the other countries instead, and made our way over to Mission Space. There was a ride to Mars, so of course we all went on it. Shay was excited.

Looks cool from the outside.

Excited and a little nervous.

So while we are in the room waiting to go on the ride, they keep mentioning how if you are unsure about this ride, to go to the exit. Yeah, should have listened. It was a simulator ride. I thought, not so bad, right. Wrong. All of a sudden we blasted off into space and Shay was gripping my hand so tight. I couldn't see her because we were strapped in so tight. We dodged asteroids, landed on a cliff, part of the planet broke, and we skidded down a runway. I don't have an after picture, because I was on damage control. Poor Shay. And now she is no longer interested in being an astronaut!

To make up for it, I took her to Club Cool for some FREE soda tasting. There was soda from different parts of the world. This might have helped me secure cool mommy status again.

Worst picture ever.

Her favorite was a ginger ale from Mozambique.

When it got dark, there was an awesome firework display. There was the Earth in the water, and fire coming out all over. It was cool. Very loud and bits of firework powder went everywhere. But it was awesome.

We saw it from the wheelchair section because of Pop Pop.

The Earth was out on the water and changed colors.

The Earth opened up and fireworks came out.

Overall, I thought Epcot was ok. It might have been nice if we went earlier. Some of the attractions closed earlier in the day, and we found only one character. This was not Shayleigh' favorite park. I heard about how the Mars ride was awful the rest of the night until she fell alseep.

Tomorrow- Magic Kingdom! Can we open and close the park?