T-minus 57 days until the Mouse...

Hi! (It's Laura) Welcome to our vacation blog! This is something I've always wanted to do, blog daily updates of a vacation as it's actually happening. I have no idea if anyone will ever read this, but I hope you do and are amused (if you are reading, please post a comment so we know you're out there).

It's T-minus 57 days and counting until our first vacation together to Walt Disney World in Florida, June 9-17. I'm really excited, as I always am with a Disney trip looming on the horizon. We've been busy planning, and since my mom is nice enough to let us borrow her laptop for the trip, and with the wonderful use of digital cameras and Internet, my hope is to blog nightly about our day and post our pictures for everyone to see. If this works out, we may make a tradition of it whenever we take a trip.

We'll be staying at Disney's All Star Sports Resort. Many people are not fans of the All Stars; "too crowded, too loud, too busy, too far away", but I've never found this to be true. I have stayed at all three of them, and I've lost count as to how many times... I'm thinking 3 or 4 times at Sports, once or twice at Movies, and once at Music. Anyway, this is one of my favorites- not a Magic Kingdom Deluxe resort on the Monorail track, but that's ok with me. How often are you in your room? Seriously, almost never, except to sleep, so I'm totally fine with saving on the room and splurging elsewhere.

We'll also be there for my birthday, and I'm interested to see how this will play into Disney's "What Will You Celebrate" theme this year. It's officially being called our one-year anniversary trip, but since we can't go in May, we're going as close as we can to it. We're praying for the Florida drought to continue until June 18th when we are gone :o)

Now, for snapshots of our bloggers/vacation-goers:

Laura
Age: 24, turning 25 in Mouse-land
Occupation: Officially it says student, but in a few weeks, this will not be so...
Number of trips to Walt Disney World: I've lost count... 15-ish?
Favorite park: Magic Kingdom
Favorite ride: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain
Favorite resort: Polynesian, but it's too expensive these days, so All Stars is my new fav
Favorite restaurant: Plaza at Magic Kingdom, Japan at Epcot, Sci-Fi at the Studios, Flame Tree BBQ at Animal Kingdom, 'Ohana at the resorts
Favorite Disney memory: Hmm, so many... My very first trip with my dad (our last family vacation before he passed), the couple trips with my cousins were a blast, losing my hat at MGM (That's for you, Nikki and Alan), mom video taping while riding Thunder Mountain

Jared
Age: 26, turning 27 next month
Occupation: software developer
Number of trips to Walt Disney World: 3, once with family, once with high school band, and once with friends from college
Favorite park: Magic Kingdom
Favorite ride: Space Mountain
Favorite resort: never been to or stayed at any
Favorite restaurant: can't remember eating in any
Favorite Disney memory: I remember thinking that Rock 'n Roller Coaster was going to be boring, but then went on it and realized it wasn't

We'll be posting more as we get closer to our trip, where we'll be eating, planning tips/mishaps (if any), etc. Hope you enjoy and check back regularly!