Disney World, here we come

Some of Dada's fondest memories are of frequently (nearly every year, if I remember correctly) visiting Disney World with his folks when he was a kid. I myself have been there three times, once when I was 4 or 5, once in high school for show choir (oh yeah!), and once for New Year's Eve with Dada. We both love it, and more than anything we want our Disney-crazed babies to see it, with just us. Like now. But we also wanted to be practical about taking our first family vacation with two kids who are occasionally crazy and unpredictable because they are still so very young.

Last night, Dada and I stayed up and booked a trip for the four of us to go to Disney World in January, during one of their less busy weeks. It took much discussion over the past few months for us to finally eke out when we could do it (because of Dada's and Isaac's school calendars), how we wanted to do it, and what we wanted to get out of it. We also had to account for the fact that we'd be travelling with a going-on-4-year-old and an almost-2-year-old, and think most importantly about what they'd enjoy and how much they can tolerate.

In the end, we decided to fly in to Orlando. Captain Insano Dada actually put the option of driving there on the table. Since we'd be in Indianapolis after the holidays, we lucked out and booked round-trip tickets from there for $125 per person. Cheaper than gas, Dada!

We toyed with the idea of staying for four days, but we decided on three, as a water-tester for the Disney World experience with children in tow. We know we'll be back, and we figure it will be easier for everyone to enjoy a longer stay when the boys are a bit older.

In the beginning, we had ourselves convinced we needed to stay at the Contemporary because of its proximity to the Magic Kingdom and to get up-close and personal with the monorail. But after browsing around all the resorts, we really couldn't pass up the chance to stay at the El Cheapo All-Star Movies for one-third of the price. Because really? I think the highlight of the babies' visit will probably be that they stayed at the resort with the 20-foot-tall Woody and Buzz statues.

The nice part about getting by with all this a little cheaper than we thought we would is that now we can blow all kinds of money on fun things while we're there, like a character dinner or a new Mickey-adorned wardrobe. And now that we're going, it's time for me to start investigating what all kinds of things we need to do once we get there. If anybody has any web-resource-type suggestions, I'm all Mickey-ears.