3 yEARS to make an 18 Hour trip to the DIS

[Maroonag1]

OK, so here is my first attempt at a trip report. I am posting this a week early as a pre- trip report but I will update as we go till it is a full trip report.

Some quick introductions on the cast of this little play.

Me - Cliff 32 (will be 33 before the end of the trip). I have been hooked on Disney since i first saw it on the Disney channel; and my first trip at 15 just made the urge even stronger. After all these years I am finally returning with my family.

DW - Dena 33 The love of my life and mother of my 2 DD's. She hasn't been to the World since junior high. She also makes a career out of driving me crazy, her OCD will be obvious in some of the following pics.

DD - 13. Yes the typical teenager. She is 13 going on 35 and will change her mind and mood as many times as it takes to get on our nerves. She is more into Selena Gomez and Zac Efron than Mickey and Minnie but seems excited this week. (I expect that to change in about an hour)

DD - 6. The little one. She is the only one as stoked as I am for this trip. Her only problem is that she is terrified of the thought of full sized characters. We were at a local minor league baseball game and she saw the mascot and almost climbed inside my shirt to get away. This will be interesting.

Information about this trip:
I have been planning this trip for around 3 years, just after I got my new job. About 7 years ago my wife and I bought into Worldmark so we have access to a timeshare just outside the gates so it has been a major debate On-site vs. Off-site. At the end of the day budget dictated that we use the timeshare and stay offsite. We will be driving this trip so we are preparing for 16 - 18hrs in the car each way; both girls have portable DVD players, game systems, and books. We are also leaving around 6pm Friday afternoon so I am hoping for them to sleep most of it.

Here is the stock photo, I will follow up with actual onsite pics once we get there.



The girls countdown chain is getting very short now.


My wife has been preparing a packing list (remember the OCD)


Being offsite does have advantages, we will be taking quite a bit of food and it should save some money on meals. Also we have enough snacks to make the 16hr drive.


We have all of the day bags and stuff dad needs to carry to get us through a day in the parks


Lanyards, tickets, photopass+; ready to go


This is just the first of what I hope is many updates. The first update is planned for Friday as we load up. Please stay tuned.

 

[AirGoofy]

Good start of the trip report. I didn't see the kitchen sink on the table to pack, but you have a few more days stil.

 

[Cinderella's Fella]

Good start of the trip report. I didn't see the kitchen sink on the table to pack, but you have a few more days stil.

If he doesn't pack it Norm, Cliff can always get one while he's there.

 

[Maroonag1]

If he doesn't pack it Norm, Cliff can always get one while he's there.

]

That's the plan. We will pick one up after a round at Winter Wonderland.

 

[Cinderella's Fella]

That's the plan. We will pick one up after a round at Winter Wonderland.

 

[BigTikiDaddy]

That's the plan. We will pick one up after a round at Winter Wonderland.

Thought about Winter Wonderland, but DW really has her heart set on Fantasia Gardens

 

[mm1971]

Will follow along. Good job getting it started early. We'll do our s when we get back. We did Fantasia Gardens last time. It looks like Winter Wonderland may be in the cards for us as well.

 

[Maroonag1]

Thought about Winter Wonderland, but DW really has her heart set on Fantasia Gardens

Will follow along. Good job getting it started early. We'll do our s when we get back. We did Fantasia Gardens last time. It looks like Winter Wonderland may be in the cards for us as well.

I tossed it back and forth but none of my girls have seen all of fantasia so alot of the theme would be lost. We will do it next trip.

 

[GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes]

I’ll follow along.
Looking forward to seeing the rest of the adventure.

 

[Maroonag1]

First update from the road.
Got started around 7 and made it till 11 till we needed our first stop. Girls are getting a bite to eat everyone made a potty stop. We have cleared Houston and made it all the way to Beaumont. So we are way ahead of schedule. Nex keg of the trip I am hoping everyone goes back to sleep cause I don't plan on stopping till the Florida line.
Next update will be from the resort.

 

[Maroonag1]

I have a few minutes while we wait on our food here in Pensacola so a quick update. Made good time across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
Topped off the gas tank while we were stopped and discovered we had a dead battery.
Stopped by advanced auto and got it charged up, looks like it was just a loose terminal.

We have a full tank, and once we have full tummies we should be able to make Orlando with out stopping.


We are hoping the rain lets up next week. I followed a thunderstorm all the way across Louisiana, finally caught it around Gulfport and it has rained non stop since.


Never a good thing when your directions include Beverly

 

[Maroonag1]

Finally arrived. 23.5 hours in the car. I had planned in 18 but a dead battery ate up 4 hours and bad weather slowed us another 2.


Surprisingly the girls traveled well lots of sleep and DVD players helped




The resort was worth it. Beautiful 1 bedroom unit.





There were originally more photos showing the kitchen, pool, patio etc but they were lost somewhere between Florida and Photobucket.

 

[Cinderella's Fella]

Finally arrived. 23.5 hours in the car. I had planned in 18 but a dead battery ate up 4 hours and bad weather slowed us another 2.
[photos here]
Surprisingly the girls traveled well lots of sleep and DVD players helped
[photos here]
The resort was worth it. Beautiful 1 bedroom unit.
(photo)
Fully stocked kitchen
(photo)
Dining room
(photo)
Living room
(photo)
Patio
(photo)

Great amenities
Pools
(photo)
Volleyball
(photo)
Clubhouse
(photo)

More to follow tomorrow.

Cute...

 

[Maroonag1]

Lol. Did you like that?
Can't upload them from here so I will have to go back and do it when I get home.

 

[Cinderella's Fella]

Lol. Did you like that?
Can't upload them from here so I will have to go back and do it when I get home.

Yes I did, here are a few of my favorites.

 

[Maroonag1]

Sunday 8/18

Had planned on having several hours Saturday but the late arrival meant delivery for dinner, and pushing things out a bit.

Slept in a bit then got dressed an ready for the day.


Quick round at Winter Wonderland to start the day


Think CJ would let me park this one out front?


How else would you finish a round of putt-putt??


Then a quick trip to DTD for lunch and shopping

I've always loved Legos, but I have never been this good with them.


[URL=http://s1321.photobucket.com/user/maroonag1/media/DISNEYWORLD2013075_zpsec8468a2.jpg.html]

 

[mm1971]

Sunday 8/18

Had planned on having several hours Saturday but the late arrival meant delivery for dinner, and pushing things out a bit.

Slept in a bit then got dressed an ready for the day.


Quick round at Winter Wonderland to start the day


Think CJ would let me park this one out front?


How else would you finish a round of putt-putt??


Then a quick trip to DTD for lunch and shopping

I've always loved Legos, but I have never been this good with them.


[URL=http://s1321.photobucket.com/user/maroonag1/media/DISNEYWORLD2013075_zpsec8468a2.jpg.html]

Hey Cliff! You are now officially one day ahead of my report. I started with introductions a few weeks back and have been too busy to update so far. I'll keep following along and then get mine done as soon as I get everything together. Looks like a good day 1.

 

[Maroonag1]

I stopped into guest services while we were in DTD and exchanged our paper tickets for the new RFID passes. No magic bands but at least we could use the fast turnstiles.

Got back to the resort to do a little swimming before turning in early and hit our first major snag.
The room was miserably hot. I jacked with the thermostat a minute and it wouldn't kick on.
Habit kicked in and the Facilities guy came out in me. While the DW was calling the front desk I double checked the breakers and opened up the unit. Quick check and its a bad fan motor caused the unit to freeze up. Should be an easy fix right?
I got it all put back together before their guy finally got there and started look at it. After waiting 30 min while he used the hair dryer to thaw it out, he looked and said I cant fix it. I will have to have the AC guy come in tomorrow and look at it.
So we called the desk and asked about another room, it was aver 8 pm at this time and still over 90 degrees in the room. He said he had a studio we could move to tonight then move back tomorrow...ummmm NO.
After my wife very politely explained in a voice that the neighbors heard, that would not work. We were at the beginning of a 7 day stay, and having to make 2 late night moves the first to nights was not acceptable. We just wanted to move to a room we could stay in for the week like we reserved. We were not asking for an upgrade or free rooms(yet), just what we had reserved. He said there was another 1 bedroom in the other building we could move to for the week, but all the rooms in our building were booked (not even close but that's a different story). So I went down and grabbed the keys and checked out the "new room". I quickly figured out that our building was the timeshare side of the resort and the other was the open to the public rental unit. The floor plans are identical but quality is not the same. The smell hit me as soon as I opened the door. You have all had that hotel room on the coast that never totally dries out and is never fully cleaned, the smell of just funk and mold.
Straight back to the office to try again. This time they had to upgrade us to a 2 bedroom unit but again it was in the "bad" building so I was leery.
Luckily this unit doesn't get used as much so the smell was not as bad. On the bright side the girls got their own bed and didn't have to share the fold out couch. The unit had not been upgraded like the one we were moving out of, so we had smaller appliances and worn furniture but it as a place to sleep.

Ok rant over.
On to the parks

 

[Maroonag1]

Yes I did, here are a few of my favorites.

You can go back now. I added pictures to that post.

 

[Maroonag1]

Monday and Tuesday

Magic Kingdom:
Kids first trip to Disney I had to start us out at Magic Kingdom


This was taken from the ferry while we were still at the TTC dock. My wife was checking out he zoom on her new camera.
(as you can tell by the time stamp, we missed the rope drop show)


Why don't they act like this in real life??


Headed to the back of the park for Emma's(DD6) first roller coaster ever.

I was worried but she ended up loving it so I knew we would be good for the rest of the trip. My older DD doesn't like coasters but she rode it and was willing to ride some others so I was impressed.

The required Splash Mountain pics
She had that look the whole ride, ears covered and giant grin.

And the drop
(well almost the whole ride, she grabbed my hand and covered her face)


The magic shots are so cool


This was as close as we could get Emma to a character.


But dad aint scared


Eyes are closed here but she had a blast. (Abbie is in the next car with her face hidden)


The face of concentration


There are many more but I am trying to not turn this into a boring slide show of my trip.
We had a great 2 days and had some lessons learned, all in all a good way to start the week.
Crowds were fine, before lunch almost everything was walk on, including Big Thunder and Splash. After lunch the longest waits we had were around 15min, the only thing we had to skip was Tomorrowland Speedway because there was a 70min wait. But we were able to ride everything else on our list.


Couple of thing I wanted to mention, we found a good spot for the night-time parade and met this great young couple from Australia and hung out with them while we waited. We were just off the hub, on the inside of the street where they had it taped off, the couple had the corner and we were right behind them along the tape. The cast members were coming by regularly running off people who were trying to set up in front of us outside the tape. I made the mistake of thinking we were in good shape; as the parade time neared people were shoving from behind creeping up in front of us.
As soon as the lights went down the cast members went and were never seen again. The flood gates opened and we were suddenly overwhelmed by a mob. Me and Tyson (the Australian we met) became human shields and pushed our kids to the front and just started hip checking and elbowing everyone back till the parade was done. Kids got a great show though, as close as they could get right where the floats make the turn to go around the hub. And we didn't have to move to watch fireworks on the hub.

The other thing is Casey's Corner corn dog nuggets should be a food group. For $5 in the parks there is no other snack we had that compares in value or taste.