We had a total server crash last wednesday! 
Somehow one of the drives in the RAID got disconnected and then things went from bad to worse… I had to recover the XFS filesystem, which didn’t go completely as planned (read: hoped) either, but we’re slowly getting things back up!
All important services are back up, and most of our private data is back as well… Work on the reports has resumed now…
UPDATED All pictures And Dutch reports have now been uploaded and the photo’s are linked… Now we’re back to translating!
If there is one day this vacation that deserves a golden lining, it is today!
Vanmorgen hebben we een beetje rustig aan gedaan. Tenminste… Ces en ik wel, de kinderen wildej graag gaan zwemmen! Omdat ze niet alleen mogen hier, logisch ook, ben ik met ze mee gegaan. Ben wel niet zo’n zwemmer, maar voor de kinderen…
Maar eerst ontbijt! De kids hebben de wafels gevonden en zijn er helemaal verzot op. Ik ook trouwens hoor, vooral de warme verse aardbeiensaus is overheerlijk.
Eenmaal ontbeten zijn we terug gegaan naar onze kamer om ons om te kleden om te gaan zwemmen. De kids hadden reuze lol in het water en konden er geen genoeg van krijgen. (more…)
This morning our alarm rang at 7am again. Today we’re going to the Disney’s Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM Studios!).
We started the morning with a big mug of hot chocolate and a delicious waffle. It is quite funny that the waffles are decorated with the Pop Century logo. The kids wanted waffles for breakfast as well, and they got Mickey waffles. We literally licked our fingers!
After breakfast we got our bags from the hotel room and quickly got in to the car to go to DHS (Disney’s Hollywood Studios).
We felt ready for another fun day. Especially Samantha… she’d been saying for a long time now that she wants to ride “Rock’n'Rollercoaster”! Once inside the park we had another set of pictures made, really handy, those photopasses.
At seven am the alarm rang. And we’re on vacation! But it rang with a good reason. We “had” to go to the EPCOT Center for a “Princess Storybook Breakfast”.
Samantha and Geordi wanted to go there dressed up. So I helped Geordi with getting dressed and Miriam helped Samantha. We also brought their normal clothes, so they could get on their normal clothes if it got too warm. We’d rent a safe-locker for our stuff, so we wouldn’t have to drag our stuff around all day!
We could park close to the entrance, another advantage of being early. Another advantage… Staying on Disney property, we can park for free at the parks. Saves us another $11 a day 
Since the park hadn’t opened yet, we had to enter through a special ADR entrance. Samantha and Geordi got a lot of compliments on their outfits from all sides and some cast members even made a bow for Samantha. But then again, what do you expect when you look like Cinderella!
After the Magic Kingdom yesterday, today’s schedule held the Animal Kingdom for us. One view cast outside showed is that it promised to become a beuatiful (warm) day.
First arrange breakfast, which can be done at the Pop Century foodcourt. At the different “stalls” you chose what food you’d like to eat and then you pay at one of the central registers.
As American breakfast portions are HUGE as well… we opted to have the kids eat from our plates. We really don’t have to do so for the price, but we did it since it is a waste to throw away half the food!
We also purchased a refillable resort mug. You purchase a (big plastic) mug and you can then refill it as often as you like for the duration of your stay. Quite handy! (more…)
As of today it is time to add a bit of magic to our vacation. In other words… WE ARE GOING TO DISNEY!!!
The kids were playing with their Nintendo’s and bears, while Miriam and me we reorganising and packing the suitcases.
By itself the Hyatt’s Place we stayed the last night is a pretty good hotel. Unfortunately there were a few minor points that were not as good. The A/C in the room was making way too much noise. And the rooms weren’t being kept very clean either We asked for washcloths a few times en instead of that we got extra towels or even no washcloths at all
The slogan “Shop till you drop” can almost be taken literally today. Miriam felt so worn out, she could have sworn she’d lost 8 inches in length!
This morning we started at Dunkin’Donuts. Miriam and myself were of the opinion that we had to have a donut breakfast at least once! Donuts aren’t completely unknown to the kids, since we have some back home once in a from the ones we have at home! We had a nice rebate coupon from the Entertainment Book: buy 6 and get 6 for free. Nice deal! They tasted great! It has been a whike since we last ate tasty (and especially fresh) donuts!
After this sweet breakfast we quickly walked in to the Walmart in the same block. They had very nice Disney merchandise, but we want to check out the parks’ merchandise first. Because the kids will be swapping bedrooms after the vacation, we also walked in to a DIY/Interior Decorating store, as it was in the same block as well anyway! Samantha wants hers in TinkerBell/Fairies style again and we saw a lot of nice things for her! For Geordi it is unfortunately somewhat more difficult. He wants a Mickey and Disco theme. And for boys most Disney themes are Cars based. And Cars do nothing for Geordi. (more…)
[Is being translated...]
Voor vandaag hebben we Kennedy Space Center op het programma staan. Dit park, gelegen op Cape Canaveral, zijn Cesco en ik nog nooit geweest. Maar met het oog op Geordi, die dit soort dingen altijd wel schitterend vind, vonden we dat we daar nu eens naar toe moesten gaan! Het Space Center staat, zoals de naam al doet vermoeden, helemaal in het teken van NASA en de ruimtevaart.
Het was ongeveer 1:15 uur rijden. Onderweg was het een beetje knijpen geblazen… Het “tanken” lampje was gaan branden en er was in geen velden een tankstation te bekennen. Maar gelukkig net voor Kennedy Space Center kwam er dan toch nog een benzine station! (more…)
Because Geordi had to go to the toilet at an ungodly time this morning, Miriam woke up a tad early as well! We had been planning to get up early, but 6 am was a bit too early to be honest. Still she decided to get up anyway and transfer some more pictures from the camera to the computer.
Today’s plan is to go to SeaWorld and we are all very excited to go. (It is the first actual park after all!) We have told the kids quite a bit about SeaWorld, but they still haven’t got a clue of what they are about to see and experience today. Although ‘Killer whale show’ does sound intriguing!
Picture PlaceholderThis morning we were – of course – awake way too early! We’re still not quite used to the 6 hour time difference. Miriam and myself decided to give the kids their mp3 player, so they could listen to some music in bed and still rest a bit.
But at 6 AM we really couldn’t take it anymore and got out of bed.
This morning the alarm rang at five thirty. What Miriam never expected yesterday evening did still happen… we slept just fine!
Today it really happens: WE’RE GOING TO AMERICA!!
First we made sure we were almost done ourselves before we woke the kids. Well… Waking up they did! We we al VERY ready for this!Picture Placeholder
Woot! We’re checked in! And for some reason Miriam shows up as Platinum Elite too, so we have access to the preserved seating rows! 
We got the best we could get short of being upgraded to Business Class, or Economy seats on the second deck of the 747 to Miami, but we’d pretty much given up on those already! (Some :crazy: has removed our upper deck rezzies, and we found out when upper deck was already full! 
) Yesss!
Next week this time we’re driving from Miami to Orlando! :laugh:
It’s starting to itch now! And there are still so many little things to take care of before we leave too! :crazy:
The date is getting closer, and so is the finalization of the planning! Car, Hotels, Tickets… All are done now… We actually completed the Kennedy Space Center order today… Rezzies and photoshoots are arranged… I don’t think there is much to plan anymore! :laugh:
Well, the final payment went out yesterday, so the Disney Package is now all paid… Another big step closer to our vacation! 
It is getting closer, only 47 days to go! It feels like there so much to to and so little time though! :O
Our vacation is getting closer and closer! We have all our “Table Service” rezzies we wanted, and also made a (surprize!) appointment at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique in Cinderella Castle for a Disney Princess Makeover for Samantha and a Cool Dude Makeover for Geordi.
We just ordered our Seaworld Passport and booked a “Dining with Shamu” package as well! Yay!
After that we looked at Tourguide Mike’s advise for park-days and schedules a few restaurants. We sent those to Laura, our MagicForLess agent, to see if she can actually get us ADR’s for those dates… [lang_nl]We hebben net onze Seaworld paspoorten en een “Dining with Shamu” buffet besteld! Jippie!
Daarna hebben we naar Tourguide Mike’s park adviezen gekeken en een aantal restaurants ingeplanned. Vervolgens hebben we die naar Laura, onze MagicForLess agent, gestuurd om the kijken of ze ook daadwer
Well, this is the first entry in the new 2008 WDW vacation blog…
It took some tweaking, but here it is, all ready for our vacation to WDW in July/August 2008! :laugh:
A random photo
A random photo
people went before you!