florida trip- part 3. (the Disney surprise)

I still cannot believe we pulled it off. John and I totally kept the (last minute) Disney trip a secret all the way up to driving thru the gates that say “welcome to Walt Disney World”. The big boys are so smart and usually pretty observant so it was no small feat getting all the way there without them catching on.

I packed a few bags up before we left for Port St. Lucie. When the boys asked about the luggage we told them that we were bringing some of our Florida clothes up to grandma and grandpa so they can bring them home to NY in their car when they drive up the following week. Step one- check!

Spent the day at Mets Spring Training (see below post) and had a great lunch with the grandparents. Told them we were going to drive back to Hallandale and even started discussing what restaurant we were going to go to for dinner that night (it was Anthony’s Pizza in Aventura). Step two- check!

Of course, we were made to stop at the very first rest stop on the Turnpike cause everyone had to go to the bathroom. And of course, there is a huge Mickey Mouse statue in there with all kinds of Disney and Orlando maps. No one took notice (except for Timmy who said- Mickey! but that was it). Avoiding disaster-check!

Off we drove on the 2hr ride up to Disney. It was all I could do to not laugh every time we passed one of the thousand signs on the Turnpike for Disney and other Orlando attractions. Timmy had since fallen fast asleep and the big boys were buried in their Nintendo DS’s. No one noticed that either. UNTIL…Jack decided he was done playing just before the turnoff to Disney. And he noticed a green highway sign that said Disney with an arrow pointing to the left. He said something to the fact that “that sign said Disney is that way”. And I replied (without giggling. barely.) that we’re in Florida and there are signs for Disney everywhere. And that Disney was that way, but like 500 miles away. He bought it. Avoiding disaster again- check!

We turned off the Turnpike onto the local roads where the green signs started reading Disney 10, Disney 6, etc (as in miles). John kept pulling the car up to the side of trucks where we could find them so just in case the boys looked up, they wouldn’t see where we really were. I had to keep asking them questions about their games on the Nintendo so they would stay involved. Avoiding disaster once more-check!

Then we told them that Daddy took a wrong turn and we needed their help to look for the highway signs to get us home. They looked up just as we were passing under the welcome to Disney sign. They were completely dumbfounded. They couldn’t believe we were at Disney and really couldn’t believe we weren’t just driving by and actually going and staying. Talk about shock and awe!!! Timmy woke up long enough to hear that we were in Disney- said yay!! and promptly fell back asleep until the hotel. The boys stayed in shock until we got to the Magic Kingdom the next morning, and maybe even a little after that too. Mission accomplished-check!!

We ended up staying at the All Star Sports hotel which was great and clean and Disney all the way. We got last second reservations to dinner at the Cape May cafe over at the Boardwalk area. They were so excited they were vibrating! Went to sleep at Disney. All was right with the world.

Magic Kingdom coming tommorrow…