Once again the year started off quickly with visiting guests. We had a relatively cool winter, but considering how cold it was elsewhere in the country in March and April, we had some wonderful weather. We went to shows and multiple Disney events. We even had a busy weekend when Mel came into town.

2018—Miscellaneous Orlando Adventures

Brian and Mickie came to town because Mickie was running the Dopey Challenge. Later, Madeline spent time at Epcot with fellow cast members and friends.

We went to the Bob Carr Theatre to watching Dancing with the Stars, which included Jordan Fisher and Frankie Muniz, along with Jenna Johnson, who would win the TV show season in May. A couple of months later, Dana nearly ran into Jordan at Magic Kingdom, and Alicia served him at the Grand Floridian Café. He is a big fan of Disney.

Madeline also went with cast members to Animal Kingdom for a backstage safari.

More visitors, with Beth & Tony and Shirley & Leon, both of whom are from CHS, visited in the same week. Madeline also saw Trish & Sam from Camp.

Madeline and Dana did a Gardens Tour at Epcot during the Flower and Gardens Festival.

March is Spring Break time, so the Harris family came to visit. We tried a new restaurant at Disney Springs: The Edison.

We also spent a day at Epcot, where Michael and Karen went on Test Track for the first time ever. We even ran into Dana and took a nice group photo while she was at work.

Angela and Raegen were also on Spring Break, visiting Hank & Mary at their place in Holiday. The four came to Disney one day, where Madeline and Alicia toured them around the Magic Kingdom.

Dana toured us around on her Backstage Magic tour, which included behind-the-scenes visits to the American Adventure, Creative Costuming, Textiles, and Central Shops. Also had lunch at Whispering Canyon.

Amanda & Jacob visited, and so they spent lots of time at the parks in WDW. Dana even worked her magic to get them up in the Castle Suite.

The Barnett family came to town in late May. We took the kids to Hamburger Mary’s Broadway Brunch. They also came by the house and Peter even helped prepare a meal. Of course, we spent a little time at WDW as well.

For Father’s Day, I decided to have a Disney Date Day, so we went to the Grand Floridian Café for some lunch, and then to the Magic Kingdom as well. We surprised the girls at both locations. Madeline even stopped by the Contemporary to see an old friend.

Mel came to town and we spent a couple days at his old hotel. He and Alicia had a major suite, which we enjoyed photographing from.

We bought a Groupon for going to some of the ICON Orlando 360 attractions. We began with Madame Tussauds, which was fun for all of us. We took photos with all of the celebrities.

We continued with going on the Eye, which gave us a great view of the area.

The Sea Life Aquarium was next door. Although not very big, it did have some pretty nice exhibits.

We also spent a little time at Disney.

Felicia came to visit for several days at the beginning of July. She enjoyed our pool and rode on the balloon at Disney Springs.

Mickie and family spent time at Universal, so we saw them a couple of times. Gary & Sue also came back into town.

We booked a room at the Polynesian and went to the Halloween party in September. We also went to ‘Ohana and to Hollywood Studios to go on the new Slinky Dog Dash.

Not everything we did revolved around Disney. We went to see Chicago in Tampa, and then spent the next day at the Ringling Brothers Circus Museum in Clearwater.

For Dana’s birthday, we got a suite at the Grand Floridian and had fun over the weekend. We went to Cinderella’s Royal Table for breakfast, which was a first for us.

Mel visited at the end of October and they went up into the Castle Suite.

November began with the Wine and Dine 10k. Then, we visited Hank and Mary in Tampa. The next day, Dan reconnected with Gecelyn, a friend that he hadn't seen in more than 10 years. We met each other’s families.

In December, we began with Jennifer and Lena coming to town with their family. We met up with them a couple of times. We also checked out Christmas Tree Lane and saw shows in both the theatre and the theater.

We didn’t get to celebrate Christmas at home with the kids because Madeline’s brother passed away. When we returned from Atlanta, though, we went right to Bay Lake Tower for New Year’s. The kids brought Christmas to the resort, so we opened gifts there. It was great seeing Mel again and ending the year with the family.