From their 18 hour bus ride filled with movies and excitement to the “world’s biggest McDonalds” they had fun. And from a day at each of the main events – the Typhoon Lagoon Water Park, the Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Epcot Theme Park, Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure – the kids made their "End of the Year Reward" a trip to remember for a lifetime . . . and they earned it!

Notes from my Disney World Trip . . .

“We left for Orlando, Florida, on a Saturday, May 17th about noon. Heading I-10 East, it was a going to be a long drive, but watching movies and talking made it seem short. We made our first stop in Lafayette, Louisiana, where we stretched our legs and had a snack at a truck stop, which was about 6 to 7 p.m. We got back on the bus and headed to our next stop, which was Mobile, Alabama, to change drivers; because a motor coach operator can not drive more than 10 hours, and this was where we made our second pit stop to fill up the bus and our stomachs.

You could not believe all the beautiful things we were able to see in the cities, over bridges and in tunnels when you drive at night. After a long night of driving, we made our stop outside of Orlando, Florida. Here is where we changed and headed off to the world's biggest McDonalds to have breakfast.

After breakfast, we headed to Typhoon Lagoon, which is one of the water parks at Disney. They have a huge surf pool, about 5 different slides, a grotto and a large creek that goes all the way around the theme park. We spent the whole day having fun and getting on all the different rides. About 6 p.m. we started to get our things together, because we were exhausted and headed back to the hotel.

We stayed at the Country Inn & Suites by Carlson in Kissimmee, Florida. This hotel had a little of everything: 3 swimming pools, free breakfast, game room, fitness room, Wal-Mart in walking distance and a short drive to all theme parks. After we found our rooms and put all of our stuff up, we headed down to the swimming pool to relax and get some much needed rest.

The next morning about 7 a.m. some of us headed down for breakfast, because it was going to be a long day. They had pancakes, bagels, cereal, all kinds of fruit and drinks. We left the hotel about 8:30 a.m. to go to Hollywood Studios for a tour, a short film (One Man's Dream) about Disney World and the Youth Education Series Program (Y.E.S. Program). They showed us where the movies/cartoons were made, and they made a short movie and saw one of the cartoonist draw Tinker Bell. We stayed there about half a day. We meet Goofy, Minnie Mouse, Daisy, and saw Mickey Mouse, Pluto, Lilo and Stitch. Then we headed to eat and pick up a couple of things from Wal-Mart, and then to Magic Kingdom where we saw the Cinderella Castle, Splash Mountain, Mickey’s Toontown Fair, Monsters, Inc., Liberty Square and saw many different cartoon charters.

On Tuesday we went to Epcot where we all adventured on space mountain, test track pavilion, mission space, soaring and saw different villages in countries like Mexico, China, Norway, Italy, Canada and many more little villages. Later that night, about 7:30 p.m., we saw a beautiful fire works display over a lake which lit up the whole theme park and then went back to the hotel to rest.

Wednesday, we went to Universal Studios and the Islands of Adventure where we got on the Spiderman ride, the Cat in the Hat, Dueling Dragons roller coaster, Jurassic Park, Incredible Hulk, the Scary Doctors Doom Fearful. For lunch we ate at the Hard Rock Café. We spent the whole day getting on all the rides about 2 to 3 times. We had so much fun that it rained a little bit, and we still wanted to be at the park, and we saw Thing 1 & 2 from the Cat in the Hat, and the X-men.

Thursday was our last day in Florida. We went to Hollywood Studios where we got on the Aerosmith ride, Tower Hotel, and many more rides. We left there about 6 p.m. to return to Houston. We slept on the bus the whole night and arrived in Houston about 11 a.m.”