Alex was selected to attend an Economics conference in Orlando so he, Bethany and Bennet flew down to Orlando over MLK weekend. Thomas drove down from Atlanta Friday night to join us and we all met Saturday morning at Magic Kingdom and, despite the crowds, were able to ride a good number of the rides early in the morning since we were doing the kiddie rides and everyone else was at Tron and Seven Dwarfs. Alex had to head to his conference around 2 but the other four stayed a little longer to celebrate Bennet's six-month birthday. We went to Miller's Ale House for dinner then dropped Bethany and Bennet at their hotel. We met up with our friends Sandy and Rusty in the morning on Sunday for breakfast before hanging out with Bethany and Bennet in the hotel because the weather was cold and rainy. After to-go lunch from Canes, Alex joined us in the afternoon and after they went to Sunday Mass, we met back up at the Grand Floridian for dinner at 1900 Park Fair, where Bennet was a huge hit, especially with Cinderella, who came around a few times to spent time with the six-month old.
We went to Epcot one morning to ride Test Track, which we had not experienced since it has been reimagined in 2025 and to browse for lunch at the Festival booths.
We purchased the Float Dine & Ride at Universal Studios again this year. After a quick visit to Animal Kingdom to pick up our Annual Passholder magnet, we drove to Universal and headed to Islands of Adventure. The parks were jam-packed due to being around President's Day weekend and school break in New York, so we wandered the parks and shops and picked up our Universal passholder magnet before heading to Confisco's for lunch. We had a great meal although the package is too expensive and too much food with an appetizer, entree and dessert per person. We walked over to Universal Studios where it was now after 4PM, so we took advantage of the Express Pass to ride MIB. We wanted to ride Mummy but it was broken down, so we did Minion Blast instead before going to Animal Actors to check in for our float. We were chosen to ride Riverboat again and had a great bead captain and a lot of fun pitching beads to the guests on Mardi Gras day.
We went early to Epcot one day in April looking to ride Guardians and Test Track, but both were closed that morning. We rode a few other rides waiting for the festival booths to open and had some good lunch items before coming home as the ride lines had gotten very long with all the Lightning Lanes being backed up from the main rides being closed all morning.
While in Iceland, J. R. saw an ad for a Candlelight Concert featuring the music of Coldplay and Imagine Dragons, two of Janie's favorite bands, so we booked seats. We had an okay lunch at a restaurant near The Abbey in Orlando. It was a cute area, but the lack of parking meant we were unlikely to visit any of the other restaurants again. The concert was a string ensemble and they were very good and we had seats right up front.
We had not been to Atlanta in awhile so we drove up on a Wednesday evening to visit Thomas and Janie's dad and stepmother. On our first night, Thomas met us near Perimeter where we had dinner with Cammie and her daughter Mary and Valerie and Tim. Cammie and Valerie were in FASET at Georgia Tech with Janie and were friends throughout college and bridesmaids in our wedding. On Friday, we met Thomas for a steak dinner after work. He drove down to Peachtree City on Saturday to hang out with Tom and Susan and have another free meal at a local Mexican restaurant. We met him on Sunday at his apartment to attend a very hot Atlanta Braves game for our first time at Truist Park.
We also needed a little Bennet fix so we flew down to Houston for Memorial Day weekend to see Alex, Bethany, Bennet and the Vuyks. Missy and Amelia picked us up at the airport and we took them out to lunch at Willy's before meeting up at Alex's house. He was off Friday so we hung out at the house and had lunch. Thomas surprised us by driving in from Atlanta because he was donating his car, our old Toyota RAV-4 to Alex as he was buying a new hybrid Honda Civic. We played with Bennet all weekend and attended Amelia's sweet 16 birthday party on Memorial Day, capped off with a boat ride from Captain Adrian in the evening. We got to to babysit Bennet while Alex and Bethany worked on Tuesday before we all flew home Wednesday.
Rebecca had some time between her classes ending in Boston and her internship starting in Washington, D.C., so she flew home to spend some time in the sun. We spent a day at Magic Kingdom and Epcot together and then Janie and Becca added on a day at Hollywood Studios and Blizzard Beach. Becca also got her deep dish pizza fix at Giordano's and spent some quality time at the pool.
In 2025, when Janie was laid up with ankle surgery, we could not celebrate Mother's Day so we chose to have "Parents' Day" in June. Since we never liked the crowds on the actual day anyway, we decided to make this a new tradition, so in late May, we went to Bull & Bear near Disney World for a couple of drinks at the bar and then a great steak dinner.
Janie got a call late at night from the parents of Rebecca's friend she was staying with in Washington, D.C. saying Becca had fainted and was on the way to the emergency room. She had been complaining of stomach pain and had gone to wake up her friend when she collapsed. After a harrowing ambulance ride, the ER doctor diagnosed her with pancreatitis caused by gallstones. Janie flew up on the first flight she could make and after a series of tests and some back-and-forth and discussions with her internship coordinator, Rebecca decided to have surgery to have her gallbladder removed. This threw our plans to go to Norway into flux as we were supposed to leave on Wednesday and the surgery was scheduled for Tuesday morning. Alex and Thomas both agreed to help but since Alex was out of school and the Vuyks could care for Bennet, he flew up and met Janie and Rebecca. The surgery was quicker than expected and Becca was released early. J. R. was able to get the hotel room extended so she had a place to go and after an exchange with Alex, Janie flew home and he stayed the rest of the week to make sure his sister was fine, which she was.
Disney was offering 40 percent off selected dining during the summer for passholders and one of the restaurants was Tiffin's, a favorite of ours at Animal Kingdom. So we headed to AK in the afternoon for a ride through the safari, the nature walks, a stop at the Finding Nemo show to cool off and a chance to see the new Zootopia show in the Tree of Life. Then it was off to dinner at Tiffin's for their fantastic bread service and shrimp and grits.
Another of the summer AP discount restaurants was Toledo, another favorite. We stopped by the Dahlia Lounge for a drink before dinner then headed into the restaurant where we did the usual three course menu for two starting with tapas appetizer and cheese course than steak and dessert. We were a bit disappointed both with the service, which was slow, and the food. The steak in particular was very fatty.
While playing pickleball on a Friday night, we were greeted by a couple of spectators, a family of deer who wandered near the courts in search of food.
Rebecca had to take an ethics test in Lakeland, which meant we go to have her at home longer than we had expected after her internship in D.C. She joined us for pickleball a few times and we took her to her favorite Chicago locations, Giordano's and Portillos. She christened the hawk that perched on our wall 'Kate' in honor of the Hawkeye TV series.
The AP magnet for this summer was Kermit, and the pickup point was Hollywood Studios because of the new Muppets ride. We were already planning to meet Gerry and Don in the afternoon at Epcot but Janie made plans to see them at Studios as well so we rope dropped Studios to ride the new, old roller coaster with the Muppets and get our magnet. We walked on to Star Tours and then met Gerry and Don at Baseline Tap for beer flight, pretzel and cider. They headed to their hotel to check in while we drove to Epcot. Don and J. R. wanted another beer but the seasonal beer at the Connections area was a cider, so Gerry and Janie got another drink. We then headed to Geo-82 for a couple of drinks and snacks.
Rebecca was lamenting not getting an annual pass when she had visited in the Spring but she didn't think at the time she would be home for very long in the fall. J. R. checked and got tickets for her and Janie to H20 Glow and then also found tickets for the Halloween party at Magic Kingdom. We pseudo-dressed in costume and headed to the park where it was raining heavily as we waited in a long line to enter. But the rain slowed as we got into the park so we rode Space Mountain twice before going to Pirates and Thunder Mountain before the party. The party was not as good as we remembered as it was much more crowded. They didn't do any overlay in Pirates although Spooky Space Mountain was cool. They also were stingy with the candy. We walked away with bagfuls last time and this time they gave only a few pieces at each stop.
We had not been to Universal Studios much and J. R. was considering dropping our annual passes there so we took the opportunity to visit on the special AP night this year. We arrived early and used our Express Pass to ride a lot of rides before the party started then headed to Margaritaville for a drink and dinner since the street party was lame with only a DJ and one entertainer. We returned to the party and zipped through all of the rides again. The lines for characters were long but we were not interested in those. We got to spend some good time in Diagon Alley while it was mostly empty, which is unusual. The evening show at the lake with fireworks, water displays and drones was really good and a nice cap off for the night and our AP status.
