If Disney is the metric for success, it was a bust. Old Dad McScrooge put the kibosh on that idea many months ago. Too many lines, too many bucks, and too short of attention spans (the kids of course) for Disney this time. None-the-less, onto the plane we went to spend a long weekend with some good friends of ours who live in the Orlando area.

Instead of Disney, we spent a day at Sea World where we got to see both the dolphin show and the killer whale show (nobody was eaten this time around). Dolphins were the crowd favorite with the help of some birds, trapeze artists, and the times when the performers rode the dolphins around the tank like a couple of jet skis.

We didn’t completely avoid the land of the ears though. We headed into Disney the first night for a meal at Chef Mickey’s and an obligatory meet and greet with Mickey, Mini, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto. We also poked our head around the Disney Springs area where the kids bought a few souvenirs and ate about a gallon of ice cream. No smiles at all. Even dad was happy with his darn near perfect colada (even came in a styrofoam cup).

Maybe next time it will be the full on, Disney experience… or maybe not… When polled about the best part of the trip, both kids blurted out “the pool!” Yeah, the neighborhood one that was about 1/2 a mile from the house and cost us exactly $0.00 to use.