Sunday June 25- My family and I left Illinois early and landed at the Orlando airport. We checked into our hotel, we stayed on Hotel Plaza Drive but not at a Disney owned hotel. It rained but not for too long and then we had to buy some food at Goodings for our breakfasts for the next few days. We went back to the hotel and got ready for the evening. We decided to go to Downtown Disney to eat and shop. I am so happy my Mom brought with umbrellas for the trip because it rained again while we were shopping. This rain was just a foreshadowing of what would come later. We went into the World of Disney store and I loved the pirates display they had. I also saw the new princess editions they added. Mickey's Ten Dollar and under store is a great store, they had so many items to buy. I also went into the Lego Store and they changed that a lot since the last time I was there. They added in different Lego models and there is no more snoring-Lego-man-on-the-bench anymore. My family decided to eat at the Rainforest Café and afterwards we went to the Virgin Megastore for a while. Then we called it an evening and went back to our hotel.

Monday June 26- MGM Studios and rain. Not just a little drizzle but pouring rain. It was windy and pouring and I was cold. I don't remember being cold at Disney World before. This is the one time I wish Disney didn't have their air condition on because when you go into the store dripping wet, it gets a bit chilly. But it was a good thing the rain started when we had finished the rides we wanted to go on. We did shopping there too. We left the park because we had finished everything we wanted to do and we ate at Olive Garden. Then we watched the fireworks from the Magic Kingdom. How, you may be asking? Well we drove into the Contemporary Resort parking lot and watched them from there. We had a good view of the fireworks and I suggest trying it sometime. Watching the Wishes show for free, you can't beat that.

Tuesday June 27 - The Magic Kingdom and more pouring rain. It poured again and I am glad my Mom brought with her umbrellas everyday when we went to the parks and Downtown Disney. We rode our attractions, got Fastpasses for the main ones (all the mountain rides), did some shopping, the usual things you do at the Magic Kingdom. We watched the Share A Dream Come True parade but we caught it by accident. We were walking along the wooden plank path by Fronteirland and saw the parade from there. We had a good view of it too. We also saw the Main Street Electrical parade on Main Street. We watched Wishes from Fantasyland while we were eating our ice cream from Mrs. Potts Cupboard. We left when the park closed and there were practically no lines for the monorail or the trams, the rain cleared out most of the people earlier. On a sad note, Pirates of the Caribbean was still closed and I love that ride. But we did get to see a Captain Jack Sparrow impersonator in front of the ride performing a little play with another person dressed up as a pirate. The person looked and sounded a lot like Captain Jack Sparrow.

Wednesday June 28 - My family and I are done with Disney. We checked out of our hotel and continued on with the rest of our Florida vacation.

Other notes-

Pirates galore- I loved all of the pirates displays that Disney had. I love pirates and especially loved the display at the World of Disney store, but also at the Villain Store in MGM Studios. There were even more pirate displays at the Magic Kingdom stores too. Disney sure knows how to promote a movie.
Long lines- It's a Small World and Sunshine Tree Terrance by The Tiki Room. At one point the Small World line was almost to Liberty Square! We didn't wait in that line and came back later in the day when it was shorter. Now, the Sunshine Tree Terrance. They only had two people working there but my family and I had to get our Raspberry Slush to cool us down from the heat.
Cut outs- My family and I didn't see all of the attractions at the parks. W saw only the ones we wanted to. We are getting too old for some of them or we just don't want to ride them anymore.
Rain- It rained everyday while we were in Orlando. On two of the days it poured. I highly suggest carrying umbrellas around if you already don't. It may take up a little more room to carry them but it is well worth it.