As J. R. planned to wrap up his second degree at Georgia Tech, and with the thought that we would soon be moving to another city, we took a family trip to Disney World over Christmas 1998 with Janie's mom and stepfather. We flew down and they drove down from North Carolina to join us.
On our first day, we visited the Animal Kingdom for the first time. This park had just opened that year. The four of us toured the park in the morning while waiting for Ike and Gale to arrive.
We met Gale and Ike at the front of the park and had lunch at Rainforest Cafe.
Gale and Ike joined us for another run around the park and then we took in the afternoon parade.
Our next stop was Disney-MGM Studios where we took in the night-time show, Fantasmic!
We took the bus over to the Magic Kingdom and got the day started with rides in Tomorrowland.
Alex was pulled out of the crowd by a cast member to participate in the afternoon parade by banging on one of the drums as the float stopped in front of us.
We enjoyed the evening parade, Spectromagic, at the Magic Kingdom
Thanks to the graciousness of the grandparents, Janie and J. R. were able to enjoy a romantic dinner at Victoria & Albert's in the Grand Floridian while the kids dined on pizza back at the hotel.
We did a character breakfast at Wilderness Lodge so the boys could meet their favorite Disney characters.
After breakfast, we took the bus over to Disney MGM-Studios. Gale and Ike took Alex so we could spend some time with Thomas.
We all met up in the afternoon to take in the Mulan-themed parade at Disney Studios.
Thomas and his grandparents hung out at the All-Star resort for the evening while Janie, J. R. and Alex went to the Magic Kingdom for the nighttime Christmas party. It was a rather cold evening, but hot chocolate, cookies and a parade warmed us all up.
On our last day in Orlando, we said goodbye to Gale and Ike as they were driving back to North Carolina and then we visited Epcot before heading back to Atlanta