As I mentioned in an earlier post, this Baseball Tour is a bit different than our first two because we decided a year ago to include a stop in Orlando to visit Benjamin and Fernanda and take Ryan and Logan to enjoy the theme park sights here for the first time.  For background, Benjamin went to work for Disney in 1999.  He has worked in numerous areas of their business over the past 13 years and is now an independent contractor for them.  I consider him an expert on the parks and how best to efficiently visit the attractions.  Fernanda, who hails from Belo Horizonte Brazil and met Benjamin when he was in Denver finishing college, started with Disney about 2005 and is now the Latin America Marketing Manager for Disney Destinations.

So Saturday was spent at Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios while Sunday we visited Universal and its adjoining park Islands of Adventure.  The boys enjoyed the days with Ryan in particular feasting on the most challenging of the rides.  At Disney you can manage your day pretty well by utilizing their Fast Pass system for the most popular attractions at no additional cost.  The Universal version requires the purchase of an absolutely outrageously priced ticket with an Express Line that is mediocre at best and not available on all of the attractions in spite of the cost.

On Tuesday it is off to Miami to see the new Marlins Park for a game between Miami and Atlanta.  We head for home on Wednesday and start to plan for Baseball Tour 2013 which will most likely be a tour of some of the mid-western teams.