Disney and more Disney today.... on a budget

Where are we today ?

Bee's Rv resort Clermont Florida

        What did we do today? First off I will tell you I took way too many pictures, but thats what I do, but you only will see a small portion of what I took today.
        We started off at 9 o'clock and headed to Celebration Florida only 35 minutes away. A small town with the first residents in 1996. Its kinda neat, was the product of a Disney dream that never fully developed. But its kinda cool, downtown is a small touristy kinda pretty place with a few stores, businesses, restaurants and an old style movie theatre. Quaint is what I might say, a 15 minute visit and walkabout pretty well took it all in. What is nice thou when you drive around town and look at the new-old looking homes. I am sure very expensive and kinda takes you back to the good old days, huge homes, small lots with back lane ways leading into each home.

Downtown Celebration

Doggie Bakery

back lane

         Now that was on the way to Downtown Disney, where you can see a lot more comercial stuff, Disney things, restaurants, bars, entertainment and a way too many people for our liking. Both these places are free parking and no fees (we like free!) But we looked at the weather forecast and this was a good day for us to go, with the time frame we are in the area. Lets just go and get it over with. Looked for a parking spot here for about twenty minutes and finally found a spot at Downtown Disney West side. Little did we know. Little did we know this weekend was the 37th Festival of the Masters.
         Parked here and  walked thru Paradise Island and located an information booth and got a map. Destination in mind was Earl of Sandwich my sister had recommended for lunch. Now by the time we got there it was 11:50 am (lunch time !) for everybody else too. A very long line all the way thru the restaurnat and outside, but only a twenty minute wait so they said and they were right. Boy these guys are sure organized. We got our hot sandwiches only $5.99 each (mine "The Original 1762 and Suzie had The Earl's club) and a cool beverage, then we relaxed for a pretty tasty lunch. 

Fantastic Chalk artists here

yummy fresh sandwich

real lego too

        Now to wander about some more with thousands of other Disney people and way to many "little ones" making lots noise , but thats what it's all about eh? Fun for the kids. Well we had enough fun here and headed towards the Magic Kingdom.

Magic Kingdom in the distance

Monorail

        Not too far away but by now it was getting to be 1:30 pm and a hot day. Too much traffic so we bit the bullet and paid for the overpriced parking here. $14.00 just to park and then it was 20 minutes before we got to our parking spot. Ok now we just walked a mile or so to the Monorail (at least its free) then to the Magic Kingdom. Nope we are not going in there, "been there done that" no need to go again. 
        The reason we came back here was because my brother had brought us here in 1999. Flown us first class from Toronto for a week over Christmas and toured us about all the Disney properties on his nickel. Now he was a real Disney fanatic, just loved Disney. He even purchased an engraved pavestone for the "Walk Around the Word" back in 1996. And he  had a yearly pass so that he could visit anytime he wanted. Like two or three times a month! But sadly to say he passed away in October 2000 from kindney cancer and only 38 years old. My oldest younger brother and we have so many great memories of him.

location of the pavestone

we found it again

        Well we found the engraved pavestone (a little help from my sister locating it, thanks Sis!) Then we took the boat back across the Seven Seas Lagoon to get the tram to Peter Pan Parking lot for our car. Now in the car and 35 minutes back home shortly after 4 o'clock. Certainly a long busy day for us, lotsa walking and way too much fun for one day, but hey, now we can say we did it and glad we did. And we had a very busy Disney Day total cost $27.00 including lunch!
       Back home still hot and sunny so books out, in the shade and put our feet up for a bit. Then fire up our Weber to grill a couple burgers and heat up a can of beans for supper. That did the trick for now.

quick easy supper

        Tomorrow we have invited friends of my brothers that we met way back then to come visit for supper, its been a few years for us, thats for sure and will sure be nice to see them again.
        Thanks once again for stopping by.

Check out the map below to see where we have been this winter

View Winter 2012-1013 in a larger map