Orlando International Airport to Boardwalk VillasThe trip from the airport to the hotel took about 30 or so minutes. The Boardwalk Inn & Villas was the first stop, which was fine by us. Did I mention that it was sunny and hot?
I checked us in. Our room was not yet ready, but we did get our passes (which are also our room keys) and a whole bunch of information. While the rest of the gang waited in the hotel lobby, I booked it over to the Dolphin Hotel to pick up the car rental. It was a Toyota Rav 4. Nice. Drove back to the hotel and parked the car. Tina checked our carry on bags with Bell Services.Since the room wasn't ready and we were hungry, we decided to drive up to Magic Kingdom to get into the Disney spirit.Posted by Adam
Windsor, ON to Orlando, FL4:00 AM Time to wake up, have a quick shower and breakfast and load up the van for the drive to Detroit Metro Airport. Thankfully is stopped snowing. Everyone eventually woke up, had some food and got dressed.5:15 AM Left the house and headed toward the Ambassador Bridge. Two customs booths open. No waiting and only a few questions. I-94 was limited to one or two lanes but was drivable. The North Terminal was a bustling place at 6:00 AM. Unloaded the van and had a porter take the bags and do curbside check in while I parked the van.6:30 AM
Made it through security with no problem - talk about organized mayhem. A few more benches to put on shoes and coats would be useful. Walked over to the gate for Spirit Airlines and waited. Tina grabbed some hot food from McDonalds. More waiting. Corbin, Jeremy and myself played games on our Nintendo, Tina read a book and Babcia watched the action on the tarmac.8:35 AM
Boarded the plane and had to wait while a replacement crew member arrived. First time on an airplane for Corbin and Jeremy. Both were a little anxious. Jeremy just wanted to play with his Nintendo DS and Corbin just wanted to get to Disney. Jeremy has numerous washroom visits.It was cloudy most of the way, so there wasn't much for the boys to see. Over Florida, the clouds began to break and the boys got excited. I got excited because there was no snow on the ground. 11:50 AMWe made it to Orlando. Sun. Warmth. Palm trees. Tina simply loved it.We checked in at the Disney Magical Express line. It was long but moving at a good pace. About 15 minutes or so later we were on the bus to Disney.Posted by Adam
A Happy New Year to all. Posted by Adam
After the boys opened their Santa presents and we (including Guinea) all emptied our stockings, we packed the van and head down the 401 and 403 to spend a few days with Babcia and Grandpa in Brantford.The drive was uneventful. Next to no trucks but lots of cars. No police to be seen.We had a wonderful turkey dinner and then we opened presents. Babcia naturally had presents for everyone - even Tina and myself. The boys opened their presents with eagerness and excitement. Corbin loved the new WWE Smackdown Vs Raw DS game and Jeremy loved his Hot Wheels 10 in 1 racing track and Kung Fu Panda DS game.Babcia was amazed with her Samsug Q1 mp3 player and Grandpa quickly stowed his Tim Hortons Gift Card.On Friday, Tina and I headed out for some browsing and shopping (Jeremy's race track needed batteries - doh). The stores did not seem that busy. The Christmas section at Canadian Tire was full of stock - there were plenty of lights. I don't think retailers did that well this year. We maximized our time away from the boys, returning after a three hour trip.Saturday was "Babcia and Jeremy Day". We drove over to Walmart so that Jeremy could pick out his birthday presents from Babcia. Corbin and I checked out the electronic section. We didn't spend too much time at Walmart.Then we headed over to Future Shop to look for a DVD Jeremy wanted. While the store was busy, we were able to find everything we wanted. I suggested to my mom that she pay at the digital camera counter, thereby avoiding the long line at the front of the store. My mom appreciated that.The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing watching TV, playing games or just hanging out. Jeremy chose Boston Pizza (after some campaigning on my part) for his Birthday supper. Corbin, Tina and I split a Great White North Pizza, Jeremy had the grilled cheese, Alex had the Ribber and Babcia had the Chicken Parm. After dinner, the staff came out and sang happy birthday to Jeremy and gave him a desert. He seemed to enjoy himself.After a quick breakfast Sunday, we packed up and headed back to Windsor. The drive was okay save for the winds. The van was not driving in a straight line.Our four Christmases went well this year. No one went to the hospital and the outbursts and breakdowns were minimal. Woo hoo.Posted by Adam
The Szymczak Family wishes everyone a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.Posted by Adam
Despite "Snowagedden", we managed to make it up Goderich with no issues. We left around 7 pm, stopping for gasoline at the Pilot in Tilbury and a food and bathroom break in Watford. The roads were, for the most part, clear. The worst part was Highway 21 between Grand Bend and Port Franks - the road was not that well cleared.Arriving at Bev & Gerry's house, we put Jeremy on the couch to fall back asleep and unpacked the van. It was cold. Really cold.The next morning, Tina and I went out for breakfast. After that I went out looking for a snowblower (none to be had).As some point, Corbin had dropped his Nintendo DS and broken the case. It still worked. Tina and I told Corbin he had to be much more careful and that he will pay for his replacement. I knew that most of the stores in Windsor were out of the DS, so Corbin and I drove over to Walmart and they had one left. I purchased it but I didn't let Corbin play with it.I patched up the 'old' DS with some electrical tape and gave it to Jeremy to play with.Teegan and Madigan came over and the four kids played and played and played. They went outside at one point, but that did not last long.Late afternoon, Chris and Lisa came over and we opened presents. Then we had a wonderful roast beef dinner with mashed potatoes and gravy. Yummy. We let the food digest and packed the van.We left Goderich around 6:00 pm and arrived back in Windsor around 9:20 pm. A nice Christmas in Goderich.Posted by Adam
I decided that the family needed to get out of the house. So we travelled over to the Detroit Science Center. It took about 20 minutes to get through US Customs at the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel. The drive from the tunnel to the Science Center was about 5 minutes. This was Tina's first time and she could not believe how short the drive was.We parked in the Wayne State University parking garage and walked over to the center. It wasn't too busy - which was a good thing. We bought tickets to the IMAX movie "Santa Versus The Snowman". We wondered around and tried every exhibit it seems. Tina liked the fact that the facility was not too large. We grabbed a bite to eat in the cafeteria and then checked out more exhibits.The movie was at 3:00 pm, so we worked our way down to the IMAX theatre and grabbed some seats. The beginning of the movie was very intense in that your stomach started churning. The boys loved the movie and Jeremy had no motion sickness issues.It was back to Windsor, with not much of a wait at Canadian Customs.Everyone seemed to enjoy the time out of the house.Posted by Adam
I checked us in. Our room was not yet ready, but we did get our passes (which are also our room keys) and a whole bunch of information. While the rest of the gang waited in the hotel lobby, I booked it over to the Dolphin Hotel to pick up the car rental. It was a Toyota Rav 4. Nice. Drove back to the hotel and parked the car. Tina checked our carry on bags with Bell Services.
