For Jared's 6th Birthday we decided to take him to Disney World. I think overall everyone had a good time. In hindsight, we probably stayed one day longer then we should have. The days are very long, since we spent about 12 hours each day in the parks and were pretty worn out by the end of the week. Even though this was not peak season at Disney, there were still a lot of people and sometimes lines were long. Generally, we waited approximately 20 minutes for the more popular rides. Fastpass really makes the trip that much more enjoyable. We also did the dining plan and I would highly recommend it. Not for the food, but for the money, it would easily have cost us $200 a day in food. The food was horrible and do not expect to eat healthy.

     The first day we flew out in the morning and arrived at Disney World around 2:00. Once we got everything settled with our room we took the Disney transportation to Downtown Disney. Their transportation is really well organized. The only complaint I would have is when you are going to a park that is a good distance from your resort, you might end up standing up for most of the trip. We stayed at the All-Star Movies resort which was fine for the amount of time we actually spent in the room. Since you do not spend a lot of time around the resort area, I would not recommend spending a lot of money for the other locations.

     Our first day in the parks and everyone was excited and we arrived for the opening of the Magic Kingdom. The last time I was in Disney was 30 years or so ago and the only thing I remember is the road leading down to the castle. Magic Kingdom is really neat and setup really well, so we headed to the back of the park for some of the rides that we thought Jared would like. It was a little chilly this day and some rain was expected, but we never got any. We had a great time here and it was a great start to the vacation.

     Animal Kingdom was one of our most anticipated parks, specifically for the safari in a real safari jeep. That ride is one of the most popular in the parks, so we headed straight to it and picked up a fast pass. We all really enjoy animals so we ended up going through this park a couple of times before leaving to eat dinner at Epcot. This was the coldest day of all, notice the heavy jackets.

     I believe this was Jared's favorite park. They have some really neat rides including test track which was like a real car that goes 65mph and then banks hard on a turn. I took a video on this ride, so make sure to watch it. His favorite ride of all was the Spaceship Earth, the giant ball that symbolizes Epcot. It was neat to see the different events going on at each country (within the park). The Chinese acrobats were really talented.

     We spent Jared's Birthday at MGM Studios. Jared got to wear a pin that showed everyone it was his birthday, so he got special treatment from everyone. Star Wars is a family favorite and one of the first rides we went to. Very cool and once we got out of the ride, Lightening McQueen and Mator (as in Tow Mator) from Cars, were waiting for us. They had a lot of visual affect rides where the ride moves to the screen. A little disorienting for the adults, but Jared really liked them. Especially the hang gliding. There are a lot of pictures of the cool stunt show. It was cool but not as fast paced as I had hoped.

     Today we had the option of park hopping and going back to parks where we had missed some rides or wanted to do something again. We started off the morning at the Magic Kingdom and hung out there until after lunch. After lunch we took the bus over to Animal Kingdom. At this time, we noticed that Jared was lagging behind a little. It did not seem like he was having a good time, so I offered to take him back to the resort and go swimming in the heated pool. The pool was comfortable, but getting out was freezing. Turns out Jared was running a fever. I think he was just worn out from all the long days. Once we got some Motrin in him, things brightened up and we had a nice evening.

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