Hello friends! We're baaack!
We had fun but like Betsy and Marsha both said, it was hot and crowded and that slowed us down a lot. We took breaks midday and found we had the most fun when we went back for the evenings. MK was open til midnight 3 out of our 4 days in the parks and the other night DHS was open until 10. That evening we rode Star tours 4 times in a row ~ walked right on!

Sadly we only experienced 2 of the 54 new sequences!
I doubt we will go again when that kind of heat can be expected. And I was suprised at the crowd levels... they were much higher than any of the predictors I looked at.
On the positive side ~ we did some firsts this trip! We saw Muppets 3D... saw the Narnia exhibit/video... rode TSM FINALLY (4 times!)... rode Dinosaur... Tom and Abby rode ToT with her friend Kali (the girls rode it many times, for Tom once was enough)... went to Tom Sawyer island (snore)... rode Jungle Cruise in the dark... had a DOLE WHIP (ummm hello.... yummy!)... saw Wishes and the ELP. Those don't run at Christmastime, which is when we always go.
OH and hoppers!!! I've got one word ~ AWESOME! I don't think we'll ever go again without them. They totally made us feel like we crammed as much as possible into the trip. Without them I wouldn't have been able to ride Soarin. The girls hated Epcot... we never even got to WS. It was packed and hot and they were cranky! We left at lunchtime the day we went and they didn't want to go back. Thursday morning Tom and I took just the boys (left the moody teenagers at the condo to sleep in) and went to Epcot just to ride Soarin. By the time we got back they were up and nearly ready to head to MK.
Anyway, all in all ~ fun! I mean, it's Disney World... and we know how to make the best of it!
Unfortunately, while we were there we got news that Tom's aunt passed away. We got home last night and today I'm getting the laundry done so we can pack and head to SC early tomorrow morning. The funeral is Tuesday and we'll come back home Wednesday. Ugh... too much driving but what can we do?