Sometimes Dreams Can Be Nightmares...

Finally home again after a trip to Boynton Beach and Disney World. After filling up on matzoh, matzoh brei, matzoh balls and matzoh kugel, we packed up the car and set off to the land where dreams come true. Little did I know that we were actually headed to the most congested place on the entire planet...you guessed it - Disney World.

We arrived at our destination a few hours later...after playing numerous car games, taking one rest stop and breaking the Passover rules with some McDonald's, we finally made it to the Animal Kingdom Lodge where we were supposed to have a room that looked out over dozens of wild animals. Except, when we got to our room, it looked like we had been placed in the one section of the resort where the animals had no desire to visit. After dropping our bags, we slipped on our sneakers and raced to Animal Kingdom where we decided to try out a few rides before dinner. (Incidentally, we did get our room changed the next day and had a much better view the rest of the trip.)

It was a balmy day at the park and the crowds were insane. I never anticipated how many thousands of people descend upon Disney during Spring Break, but now I know and hope to never visit that time of year again. Now don't get me wrong, Disney tries hard to make your life easier - with their fast passes, amazing shows, character signings, fast food joints, ice cream stands, strollers and scooters, you'll never starve at Disney and if you're lazy, you'll never have to walk either.

What I began to notice as the days progessed was that as we tried to make our way past the hundreds of strollers, double strollers and kids throwing tantrums, we also encountered several morbidly obese individuals who were buzzing around on motor scooters because they couldn't navigate through the park without them. It was actually pretty depressing and when I noticed the line for the McDonald's french fry stand was just as long as the line for Splash Mountain, I could tell that many of these people weren't about to lose weight any time soon. After scarfing down one too many fast food meals and seeing what could happen to someone if they inhaled fast food every day of the week, I have officially decided to head back to WW (Weight Watchers) and lose some serious weight before my next vacation.

But I digress. Did the kids have a magical time? Absolutely. Magic Kingdom was incredibly busy, but on the third day we were there we visited the park in the late afternoon and found the lines were much shorter. We managed to get all the autographs we were searching for...including a last minute Minny and Mickey greeting at our hotel right before we checked out. The shows were fabulous - especially the High School Musical pep rally at MGM Studios and the new Finding Nemo musical in Animal Kingdom.

All in all, it was a great trip - except for the fact that Delta had changed our return flight without us knowing so we missed our departure and spent the entire day in the Orlando airport. Note to self: next time open that email from Delta before dismissing it as spam.

For more of my personal observations about Disney and some tips on the best places to visit to make sure you have pleasant dreams in Orlando rather than nightmares, then head to The Undercover Mom for the inside scoop on Destination Disney!