Walt Disney World, Florida

Disney World is pretty cool. Kyndall and I just got back from the happiest place on earth and with few regrets. Anna Laura and Alexandria thought they were visiting heaven with all the characters, rides and - of course - the princesses.

We had worried that the girls (age 1 and 2) would not remember the visit and that we should wait. What a goofy thought (no pun intended). Why were we wanting to make lifetime memories, the girls are here now and we seized the moment.

We stayed at the Double Tree, because it was nearby, inexpensive and was a suite, so we could put the girls to bed and still move around in the room. That was the right decision for us this time, but I look forward to the time when we can stay at the Disney's Contemporary. I have not seen the rooms, but the location and short, direct monorail connection to the park makes it the hands down winner.

Kyndall was smart enough to find out ahead of time that you have to reserve good on-campus restaurants 4+ weeks in advance. We ate the first night at Chef Mickey (inside Disney's Contemporary hotel). This let the girls really get saturated with the characters and relieved us from having to stand in line at the park (in the heat) so they could meet them. Later the girls also had breakfast in Norway at Epcot where the princesses will come to your table.

Our days were neat because we often would go to one park in the morning, then bring the girls back for midday naps, then go to a different part in the afternoon. In order to do this we had to buy a hopper pass.

Disney tickets were complicated to buy, but not as expensive as I expected. We ended up buying on the Disney website and paying only $1 extra per ticket over so-called ticket broker sites. Get this, a 4 day hopper was $220, but a 5 day was $221, a 6 day was $221, and a 7 day was $223 and so on. It was crazy.

Because it was not a big cost to go longer and because I would already be there for Microsoft TechEd (a conference for software developers), Kyndall got a 8 day and the girls (since they are under 3) got in free.

I just went for three days and added the no expire option to my ticket. What a mistake. It added $50 to the cost of my ticket, but the odds of me only needing 3-4 days next time we go is unlikely. Kyndall will want to add days for a $1 for hew new ticket and I won't be able to because adding a day will mean having to buy a new ticket all over again. What I should have done is not get the no expire and just suck it up that I would buy a brand new ticket the next time we go.

Other than that one snafu, it is fair to point out that after 8 days, the girls were sick of Disney World. Now that we are home, they talk about It's a Small World and other rides constantly. It was great and if they can bring themselves to forget the experience, Kyndall and I will remember it for them.