Pre-park days in Kissimmee

Dad, Carlos, and I drove up to Kissimmee from Miami on the morning of 16 May. Mom had to leave the day before, but dad stayed with us because he had a business trip in Jacksonville (~3 hours from Kissimmee). The drive went quickly (~4 hours with a lunch break at one of the service plazas on the turnpike), but was full of thousands of flies called “Love Bugs.” The swarms were so thick that we had to stop and clean the windshield and front bumper a couple of times. Love Bugs are common in central Florida with seasonal swarm outbreaks at the end of spring and in the fall. Their acidic bodies are corrosive and may discolor car paint – so we took the car for a wash after we arrived in Kissimmee (with Love De-Bugger – it worked really well!). We had an eventful day that also involved eating Dippin’ Dots, replacing a broken tire valve, and dinner at Olive Garden.

Dad drove to Jacksonville on the 17th for business (returning that night) and Carlos and I spent the day exploring Kissimmee and the area around Walt Disney World. That night we went to Applebees for dinner.

We all went to Downtown Disney on the 18th and explored – this was a really nice place full of shops and restaurants! Carlos bought me a cool T-shirt from the World of Disney store. Dad left Downtown Disney to return to Seattle later in the afternoon and Carlos and I planned our next few days at the Disney Parks. We bought Florida resident passes that were an excellent deal: four theme parks in four days for $99/person. It usually costs $80/person for one park for one day so we ended up saving a lot of money. We stayed in a nice little hotel off Disney property too to save more money to spend on nice meals and souvenirs. We visited EPCOT, Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom on 19, 20, 21, 22 May respectively. I will post each park day with pictures once I download and organize them all!