My family has taken a short working vacation and flown to Orlando to see the mouse. Despite waking up at 5 am to get an early morning flight, the time change had us arriving mid afternoon and not getting to the hotel until dinner time. We are staying at the mouse's "Animal Kingdom Lodge" and I must say that arriving at the airport, not having to pick up luggage, and having a coach take us to the door of the resort was pretty terrific. We were delighted to find out that they upgraded our room to a "Savannah" view which has us looking out on ostriches, giraffes, and water-buffalo from our balcony. Pretty cool.

I have got to say, while not a fan of Disney, they go all out by way of service and the hotel is very pleasant. It even has a little grocery--all be it with a better selection of wine than food staples. Could be worse.

After settling in, we went to "Disney Downtown" which is really just an excuse to trap folks in an outdoor shopping mall. It has the gaudiness of Las Vegas without the gambling.

We had a little dinner there and walked around the "downtown" for a few hours.

I'll be flickr documenting our adventures at The Mouse 2008.

Oh and Nessie up top? It is made of Lego and sits in the marina--very cool too.