The subject of Disney World came up and I was surprised to find out that Sylvia had never been to either Disneyland or Disney World before. So, I thought we'd remedy that fact and schedule a visit. Since early March was a good time to go, I figured it was also a good time to visit Hope, my sister, in Orlando since her 69th birthday was coming up. So off we went.


Having been there several times, I knew that staying on the Resort is the best way to see it, and so we made reservations for the Saratoga Springs Resort, a beautiful, picturesque place to stay, inspired by historic Saratoga Springs, a late-1800s New York retreat famous for its spas and horse racing.

In the pictures below, you can see the living room. Sylvia was able to ask the mirror (from Snow White).."Mirror, Mirror on the wall.. (well, you know the rest). We had a small balcony and included is a selfie showing the view from our unit.

The first day there, we explored the Resort a little bit and made reservations at the Turf Bar & Grill. It was a great dining experience. Here we are drinking our Pina Coladas before the meal!

We also drove around the area outside the Disney Resort to look for souvenirs and to buy some basic toiletries for our room. We took this picture on our way back to the resort.

-Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom...

Our first park to visit was the main park, THE MAGIC KINGDOM! On arrival, Sylvia realized that she forgot her hat so it was a prime opportunity to buy our first souvenir at the park. Note her Magic Kingdom cap! The middle picture shows her standing in front of the beautiful Mickey Mouse flower garden in front of the park. I am standing with a milkman (a long, lost profession).

Above, are some of the sights we saw during our initial walk down Main Street. Sylvia took a picture of her favorite character, TinkerBell. We also had a photo op with the main man himself, Mickey Mouse.

Below, at the end of Main Street, is the famous Disney Castle as well as a statue of Walt Disney with his key creation, Mickey Mouse!


Almost as soon as we got there, a parade of Disney characters were marching down Main Street. The next series of pictures were taken.

We got to see Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto, Ariel from the little mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Captain Hook.

This was followed by Mickey & Minnie Mouse, Elsa & Anna from Frozen, Peter Pan, Prince Charming & Snow White and last, but not least, TinkerBell.

It was a great beginning to our first visit at the magical park!


As we moved off Main Street into Adventureland, we headed to the Magic Carpet Ride of Aladdin. Above are pictures of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and Casey's Corner Restaurant where we stopped for lunch before heading on.

After lunch, it was on to the "Dumbo the Flying Elephant" ride and a show at the Enchanted Tiki Room where a bunch of mechanical Toucan birds sang and told jokes!


We stopped at the Prince Charming Regal Carousel (Merry-Go-Round) and try as we might, we couldn't seem to jump up on those horses, so we settled for the bench seat! (Damn it's tough getting old!)
We also stopped in a Disney store to buy our second souvenir -- Minnie Mouse ears for Sylvia. Here I am modeling them!


Then came one of Disney's most famous rides...IT'S A SMALL WORLD! We probably overdid it with the pictures but everything in there was really beautiful!
It was a representation of all of the incredible places in the world!

As the day rolled into the early evening, we caught the MAD TEA PARTY ride and SPACE MOUNTAIN!. This was our last ride before the closing fireworks started. It was a herky-jerky rollercoaster of a ride where you're traveling like a speeding bullit through a dark cave-like building.

The nighttime firework show precedes the closing of the park every night! The show and the lit-up Castle were undeniably a magical treat.

At that point, we had been in the park about 9-1/2 hours and we were ready for the bus ride back to our resort!

Hollywood Studios...


The next day, we chose Hollywood Studios as our second (and final) day at Disney World. The first ride we ran into was MICKEY & MINNIE'S RUNAWAY RIDE. It was a wild ride that spun and twisted around strange scenes lit up with fluorescent lighting! A couple of the examples are shown below! Just outside the ride was a concession stand selling ice cream and I just had to buy Sylvia a Mickey Mouse ice cream -- ears and all!

One of Sylvia's favorite rides came next.. TIANA'S BAYOU ADVENTURE! Tiana was the princess in Disney's Princess and the Frog. It was a floating log ride on a rollercoaster full of water! At the end of the ride you dropped down a chute of water which got everyone wet. We were in the back of the log and I believe got the least amount of water thrown at us, but still got wet. It was a lot of fun!!

Since we had a couple of timed 'lightning passes' (which allow you to get into a shorter line) for two Star Wars rides, we had to rush through the Toy Story themed park. It didn't prevent us from taking a couple of pictures, however! As we were passing through, some 'Toy' soldiers came marching by playing their drums! The sights were fun! One mishap that occured, though was that we stopped for a rest room break. A short while later, Sylvia realized that she didn't have her phone. We had to head back to the rest room and fortunately, it was still there. Apparently, there are very honest families at these Disney parks!

With two lightning passes in the Star Wars area, we were able to pass through fairly quickly on two rides: STAR WARS:RISE OF THE RESISTANCE and MILLENIUM FALCON: SMUGGLER'S RUN! Despite the fact that we were constantly being 'chased' by Starship Troopers with lasar guns... we both survived the ordeal by shooting into hyperspace! Whew!