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Y O Leung's Family tour to Walt Disney World in Florida in Christmas 2000

We started driving down from Chicago on 21st Dec 2000. We have just had a biggest snow storm in 30 years and the roads are still very hazardous. We took Interstate Highway I-65 and I-24, through Indiana, Kentucky to Tennessee. There were a lot of traffic accidents en-route, lots of trucks and cars slipped off the road and resulted in hours of traffic Jam. YO's flu also make the journey less enjoyable.

We arrived at the Read Hotel (Radisson) in Chattagona, Tennessee at 2 a.m. slept for a few hours and continued driving down I-75 through Georgia to Florida. We arrived Holiday Inn at Main Gate East at around 10 p.m. 22nd Dec. Everyone's tired and we slept early.

Our Van was coated with salt (they use it to melt the snow/ice on the road and keep the roads usable in the North). People asked us about the white coating as they have never seen it in the South. We arrived at the Ticketing and Transportation Center of Magic Kingdom at around 10 a.m. 23/Dec and split into two teams, Johnny and Jacky will be on their own with the "Hopping" tickets, that they'll ride "ALL" the trilling rides in Magic Kingdom, Epcot, MGM and Animal Kingdom in the 3 days that we'll be staying in Disney. On the other hand, Elaine and YO will fulfill Joyce's wish to shake hand with Micky Mouse and visit only Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom in a slow pace. We had Vietnam food in Orlando that night.

Elaine, Joyce and YO enjoyed a rest day on 24/Dec, that helped a lot with YO's cough. we only visited locations around the hotel. We had Chinese food that afternoon and have roasted chicken in the evening.

On 25/Dec we visited the Animal Kingdom, this is a new theme park since we visited WDW last time in 1995. Again, we split into two teams with Jacky and Johnny focusing on trill rides and Joyce and us taking a slower pace. We left the park early at around 8PM, we then went to the Chinese restaurant near the hotel to have diner. We picked up the kids at 10:30PM at MGM.

Overall, the parks are not too crowded this year and I think we'll revisit WDW again a few years later. Driving back home is easier as the weather is not as bad as it was before. We stayed at the same Read Hotel and they upgraded us to a suite. We arrived home safe around 11 p.m. 27/Dec.

- Photo Album Magic Kingdom 23/Dec

- Photo Album Animal Kingdom 25/Dec

- Photo Album at home and Woodfield Mall Dec/2000