Welcome 2016!

It is the middle of January and I am sitting here at my Mac and pondering what to write about. I enlisted the help of my older two children, Nick and Corri, by surveying them about their favorite parks, attractions, and resort at Walt Disney World. Even though I got some good answers I wasn't inspired so I will sit here banging on the keyboard about my first idea that came to me by listening to the WDWRadio podcast soon after the new year began. As are many broad and/or podcasts are in late December and/or early January it was partially retrospective about the previous year, 2015, so I began to jot down my favorite moments of 2015 as it pertained to Disney and my family. I also began to think about the upcoming year, 2016, and of course I began to jot down for ideas about our next trip to WDW. So, with the planning process complete, sort of, I begin to see some route to go in this my first entry of 2016 of this blog. Before I start I resolute to at least update this blog monthly throughout 2016 and beyond.

Last year my family and I headed down to WDW on Good Friday and spent Easter in EPCOT and the rest of the week exploring DHS, AK, and the Magic Kingdom while staying at the wonderful Port Orleans Riverside. Some of my firsts were the Tiki Room, Dumbo's ride, Star Tours and Test Track. We ate at a new eatery called The Spice Table in the World Showcase at EPCOT (Morocco) which was good although I was pretty hungry so any bit of food would have tasted fantastic.

This year we are switching our routine. Instead of our usual Spring Break trip we are going to experience WDW in the fall. We will head out on a Friday after school/work and drive into WDW early the next day and spending the next week experiencing the transformation of WDW into a Christmas Wonderland.

Everytime we have gone to WDW there have been some subtle changes, sometimes not so subtle. My wife and I went in 1994 in a period I like to call BK, before kids, during that time WDW consisted of the Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, and MGM Studios. Since then MGM has changed to Disney Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom became the fourth theme park and Downtown Disney has transformed in to Disney Springs. There also has been the closing of one water park, River Country, closed in 2001, and the opening of another, Blizzard Beach opened in 1995. We returned with our children in 2008 and have gone back five times since. Since 2008 we have seen a change in the parks and as I mentioned before Downtown Disney has become Disney Springs, Mickey's Toon Town is gone to make room for a huge overhaul of Fantasyland which added a fourth Magic Kingdom roller-coaster, Seven Dwarves Mine Train. There have also been changes in the resorts including the addition of the Art of Animation.

This brings me to my final part of this entry. With all of this change going on I hear or read of how people are upset over the constant changing. My only answer to this is you better get used to it. Since 1971 Walt Disney World has gone through all of the aforementioned changes as well as tons more, too many to mention in this entry. In 1955 when Disneyland opened in California there were only eighteen attractions and there wouldn't be a WDW for another sixteen years. If there wasn't change we couldn't enjoy what some of us call home.