A Trip Full of Surprises which was Fun for the Family! *2 Updates! Completed 7/22*

[livsmom04]

Welcome everyone to the trip report that honestly had its surprises along the way...and it was fun for the whole family!

First I’ll start with the introductions of who was on this trip with us from June 12-June 19th. Yes this is our longest trip to Disney World that we have done and honestly we would do it again over and over next year if we can! This trip was more magical in more ways than one could have ever imagined it would be!!!

OK enough babbling and onto the introductions:

Charlotte (Me): I’m the queen mastermind for planning the trips from when we will go, where we will eat, and what day we will be in what park. I am notorious for stalking the boards to see what restaurants we will eat at and if there is anything new that we need to try. I am also into finding us a good deal on the package deals and to see how much money we could really save for each trip. I love all things Disney and have loved Disney ever since going back in 1996 with my family and then two years later with the Band. Then in 2010 I did a mother and daughter trip in May and that started the obsession of going to Disney World every year at least once a year!!! My favorite movies are The Little Mermaid, Pollyanna, Toby Tyler and Finding Nemo! I’m also crazy obsessed with having Disney songs on my iPhone just to listen to when we’re in the car at all times! Plus it doesn’t help that I went to Disney for my Disneymoon!

Jason (Daddy J or Hubby): Jason got into my crazy obsession of Disney World right after we first started to date in March 2011. We took our first trip together in July 2011 where he fell in love with DW. Then in April 2012 he proposed to me at CRT and we took our Disneymoon in August 2012. We are trying to convert his sister into a WDW lover too which I will be helping plan her trip for next year hopefully! Jason loves all of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and is looking forward to seeing The Lone Ranger this summer!

Carol (aka: Nanie or Mom): Carol is my mom who joined us on this trip to DW. Olivia had no idea that she was going to join us. I had planned out the Disney Vacation with my mom and Jason at the end of last year to beginning part of this year. We at first had to figure out when mom’s last day was at school and then the masterminds came together and figured it out! Mom has been to Disney World several times because when I was a baby, her parents lived in Clearwater Beach, FL so trips to DW were planned. Then in 1996 we took a family trip down to DW with some good friends and then she and my dad went to DW in either 2001 or 2002. That was the last time she had been there. Needless to say she wants to go back again!!!

Olivia: Olivia is my 9 year old from a previous marriage and yet she would rather take trips to WDW with me and Daddy J! I have spoiled her ever since taking her in May 2010 and she begs to go there every year. She is on the petite side and at 9 years old and just barely hitting the 48” mark to ride the bigger rides, this year was more fun now that she can ride all the big rides! Sweet!!! Olivia is crazy obsession with stuffed animals and trust me every time we head to WDW we have to come home with at least 3 of them. But it adds to her collection she has at home.

We booked 4 nights at Coronado Springs Resort and 2 nights at Animal Kingdom Lodge – Kidani Village.

Up Next…We’re going to the beach!!!

 

[wiigirl]

In for your TR!

 

[luckylady]

I'm in for anothe great Tar Heel report.

 

[livsmom04]

In for your TR!

Thanks for joining in! Hope you enjoy it!

I'm in for anothe great Tar Heel report.

Thanks for joining in! The Tar Heel State is hot this week! LOL Hope you enjoy reading about our crazy trip!

 

[livsmom04]

Here is the chapter links:

We're going to the beach!!!!
Are We There Yet?
Are We Going to Disney World?
We're Going to Disney World!
Breakfast with Lilo & Stitch
First Day in the Parks and at Magic Kingdom

The Little Mermaid Ride, Tangled Bathrooms and Haunted Mansion!!!
Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique & Seeing A Cousin...Hoedown
Liberty Tree Tavern Dinner
The Crystal Palace Breakfast
We Got Stuck on Splash Mountain!!!
Lunch at Sanaa
Playing in the Waters of Fantasyland!
Dinner at Tony's Town Square and Swimming at CSR
Tusker House Breakfast & The Scooter
Finishing up at Animal Kingdom
Dinner at Via Napoli & Closing Down Epcot
Epcot Day Part 1
Epcot Day Part 2
Real Life Update 1 5/2/14
Epcot Day Part 2 Continued
Epcot Day Part 3 EMH in MK
Day 5 Part 1: Leaving CSR...Checking into AKV...HS

Day 5, Part 2: Lunch & Star Wars
Surprise #2!!! We're not staying at ASM!!!
Day 6, Pool Day at AKV!!
Check Out Day...Travel Day...Completed
Enjoy! I will continue to update them as I come up with them!!

 

[livsmom04]

We’re going to the Beach!!

Today was the day we leave for our yearly Disney World trip but to Olivia we were just having any normal day.Now up to this point we had been telling Olivia that we weren’t going to leave for Disney World until Sunday and today was Wednesday. We told her that Nanie was going to come down after she got done with her last day of school (she’s a Teacher’s Assistant) and we would do something special with her. Olivia was excited because Nanie was coming to spend the day and possibly night with her and so she had to get her room cleaned up before she came. So the cleaning was happening and it was so nice too! I haven’t seen her floor in a few days before since school got out that Monday, June 10th.

The night before I had gotten all of Olivia’s things washed and packed. I also did all of the laundry for Jason and I as well and got us packed up in the morning. I had to finish cleaning the living room and the kitchen just to make sure that we wouldn’t have anything to do when we came home. What a great idea that was too!

Notice my super spicy VS clean undies. Forgot they were there when I took the pics...whoops!

Back to Nanie coming to see Olivia, Mom had called me to tell me that she was heading out of school and was heading down to the house. My parents live a little under 2 hours from us so we expected mom to get to our house around noon or shortly after. I got Olivia into the shower and got ready myself and started to pack the van up with the luggage. There are times like family vacations that I’m grateful we have a van. I asked Jason to go put the larger sized luggage in the van and I would pack the rest of the van afterwards. Not a problem, right? Well he just stood there looking at me like I was talking Chinese to him or something. I instead took the luggage out to the van and packed it the way I like it to be packed. See I’m OCD about how the van is packed and how to pack the bags with all of our clothes. It bugs me so much when it’s not packed the right way that I will go out and repack the van and repack the luggage. So while I let Jason pack his own bags, I packed Olivia’s bag and my bag instead. He just looks at me like I’m crazy but that is how my mom is and was growing up and I learned from the best!

Mom arrived around 12:30pm and as I was taking a shower and getting ready to leave the house, she was loading up her bags and rearranging the back of the van after Jason put his bags in there. Basically he just threw it all in a giant pile and it looked so unorganized. Yuck.

When I got finished with getting ready to leave and mom was finished with helping our around the house with just a few things for Olivia to do…it was time to tell Olivia that instead of us hanging out around the house it was time for us to hit the road. We asked Olivia if she wanted to go to the beach for a few days and with a high pitched squeal she replied “YES!!!” Guess that means we’re going to the beach! Yes! Our plan was working out great and we couldn’t have played that off any better. She asked if we had all of our bags packed for a few nights at the beach and then we all loaded into the van and pulled out of the driveway and hit I-95 South. Only 22 miles to the SC border...I think I could see the crazy South of the Border side show attractions. Sorry we didn't stop though! We didn’t tell her which beach we were going to so that made the trip even more of a surprise!

Driving down through Lumberton, NC

Yep it's the side show attraction of South of the Border! Honestly I made a bathroom break here before and never again! I would rather pee on the side of the road than stop there again!!!!

Up Next…Are We There Yet?

 

[luckylady]

Isn't it so nice to live close to the S.C. border. It's about 45 minutes for us. Going to the beach yep smart idea then you don't have to explain why your on 95.

 

[livsmom04]

Isn't it so nice to live close to the S.C. border. It's about 45 minutes for us. Going to the beach yep smart idea then you don't have to explain why your on 95.

Sometimes it's nice because we only live like an hour and 15 minutes from Myrtle Beach going the way my husband goes...but for me it would take me at least 2 hours to get there the way I know. The one thing I don't like about living near the border is the massive amount of rain and storms we get. It's crazy because I've never seen so much rain in my life but living here has made me rethink liking summer storms. lol

 

[emmysmommy]

Hi Charlotte! I'm here and following along.

I had to giggle at your OCD comment - I TOTALLY get that!

I saw some of your photos and such on FB but looking forward to hearing all about it. (Actually, you had a lot of great photos!)

 

[livsmom04]

Hi Charlotte! I'm here and following along.

I had to giggle at your OCD comment - I TOTALLY get that!

I saw some of your photos and such on FB but looking forward to hearing all about it. (Actually, you had a lot of great photos!)

Glad you're joining in! It's funny about the OCD because my mom was the same way when I was growing up and we used to make fun of her. I guess it has come back to haunt me. And it was funny because when Jason and I went on our first trip to DW in July 2011 he packed up the car and I had him unpack it so I could repack it the way I needed it to be. He put all of the important stuff on the bottom and I always put it on the top just in case we need to get to it like medicines and all that. Drives him nuts though!

 

[emilyindisney]

Joining in!

I love Disney surprises. I most definitely want to do that to my future children. Sometimes I consider doing it to my sister too, haha! I do all the planning anyways so she'd have no clue!

South of the Boarder looks like the Space Needle with a sombrero on. Good Lord- I can only imagine!!

I love hearing about split stays so I'm eager for details on CSR and AKL!

 

[livsmom04]

Joining in!

I love Disney surprises. I most definitely want to do that to my future children. Sometimes I consider doing it to my sister too, haha! I do all the planning anyways so she'd have no clue!

South of the Boarder looks like the Space Needle with a sombrero on. Good Lord- I can only imagine!!

I love hearing about split stays so I'm eager for details on CSR and AKL!

Thanks for joining in! The surprises went so well and I'm working on the next update this evening. Couldn't work on it like I had planned yesterday since I have school work to do. Yep I'm back in school but it's well worth it

 

[Chelley00]

Coming from my trip report

Yep it's the side show attraction of South of the Border! Honestly I made a bathroom break here before and never again! I would rather pee on the side of the road than stop there again!!!!

We drove past South of the Border on our way from SC to NC on our Hilton Head trip. I wanted to stop but we had to get the keys to our condo by 5pm and didn't have time. Apparently I'm glad we didn't stop!

 

[livsmom04]

Coming from my trip report



We drove past South of the Border on our way from SC to NC on our Hilton Head trip. I wanted to stop but we had to get the keys to our condo by 5pm and didn't have time. Apparently I'm glad we didn't stop!

Yes the place is gross. LOL. The only reason that I stopped there was because I had to pee because I was 6 months pregnant. It was not a pleasant experience at all. I heard they were trying to revamp it but still not gonna get me to stop there.

 

[livsmom04]

Let’s see…we left off at hitting the road in the van headed to the beach.  Yep that’s it! We hit the South of The Border almost 25 minutes later and it so far was smooth sailing. Since Olivia thinks we’re going to the beach she was sitting back and watching one of her favorite movies, “Rocket Man!” Yes we’ve seen that movie a hundred times or more and it’s still just as funny as seeing it the first time. We would say in the car or somewhere inside a store “Now That Was Julie!” People look around but it’s funny when you watch the movie!

Once in South Carolina we came up on this weird looking bus.

Come to find out there were 3 of them and my mom had already passed them once before further up on 95. I had to take a picture of course! We were probably a good 3 hours into the trip before someone had to go to the bathroom. So pit stop it was. We ended up stopping at a rest area in SC and did our quick run and then it was back onto the road again. Not too bad at all. The traffic wasn’t that bad either which was pleasantly nice as well because with it being summer the roads are normally always busy. About 5 hours into the trip we hit the Savannah area and we were getting pretty hungry. We didn’t eat lunch because we figured that we would stop off somewhere to grab a quick bite to eat. So with having a kid on the car her first choice was no surprise to anyone! Where you might ask did we eat at? McDonald’s of course! After eating lunch which happened to be a chicken and French fries happy meal for Olivia, Jason I think got a double quarter pounder meal and mom and I shared a 10 piece nuggets meal. Time to hit the road after a bathroom break before hitting the road.

Next stop…Orlando..or was it the beach?

Nope it was time for gas in the van near Jacksonville, FL! If we didn’t fill up soon we wouldn’t make it anywhere! So we stopped off at a gas station that had a Burger King and also had a Starbucks so it was time for a snack for us and of course the adults had to get something from Starbucks! Caramel Ribbon Crunch for me and mom and Jason got a Java Chip I believe. I didn’t pay much attention to what he got but after hitting the road again we all got the feeling that the people at the SB’s didn’t know what they were doing and the drinks tasted horrible. Ugh! Not what we wanted to hear.

We made it through the Jacksonville traffic with no surprises and it was around 6:30pm when we started through Jacksonville. Not too bad in our opinions and after telling Jason that we already passed where he thought we needed to change lanes but we were already in the lane and so he didn’t pay any attention to it. Oh well, I was right and he had to admit that! LOL So after we make it through Jacksonville it was smooth sailing to get onto I-4! We made it to Orlando and no Olivia never even looked at the billboard signs to see where we were. She was busy playing with either my iPhone or her DSi. I have a feeling it was her game she was more interested in to tell you the truth.

We ended up arriving in Orlando and went to find our hotel for the evening. It happened to be the Baymont Inn on 192 and when we arrived Jason had to use the bathroom so bad we just parked and mom went to check us in. Nothing like getting there and Olivia would be still oblivious as of where we were. How awesome was this…completely making it to Orlando without Olivia even suspecting anything! Score!!!


Next…Are We Going To Disney World?

 

[emilyindisney]

That's so awesome that you made it all the way to Orlando and Olivia doesn't suspect a thing! I would have been worried that she would have caught on along the way and started asking questions, haha!

I'm so excited to see what you do to surprise her in the morning. An off property night is perfect to keep your covert mission going.

Update again soon!

 

[livsmom04]

That's so awesome that you made it all the way to Orlando and Olivia doesn't suspect a thing! I would have been worried that she would have caught on along the way and started asking questions, haha!

I'm so excited to see what you do to surprise her in the morning. An off property night is perfect to keep your covert mission going.

Update again soon!

I will try to write up the new update tonight after I get finished with my school work. I decided it would be a good idea to take two classes this summer and I'm now thinking it wasn't such a good idea after all. Lol

 

[livsmom04]

Sorry for not updating any sooner. This month got away from us already! For the past two weeks we've been doing some more traveling and the summer isn't over yet. Plus we started up with Homeschooling Olivia so it's been a little crazy! Ok...now onto the update you've all been waiting for!!! And sorry...no pictures on this one....except for the one's I got off the hotel's website.

While mom was checking us in Olivia said she had to go to the bathroom. So that we did and when we came out she wanted to check out the gift shop in the hotel. I went ahead and started looking for a poncho for mom because she couldn’t find hers at home. We honestly think it’s in the camper but she and dad didn’t feel like setting it up to look for it. I found one but it was ugly and cost almost $20 for it. Not a good deal in my opinion! While looking inside the gift shop her eyes started to light up. She got a big smile on her face and started to ask me are we in Florida? I said well we are going to a beach and there are beaches in Florida and so I told her yes we are in Fl. She started jumping up and down and asked “Are we going to Disney World?” I just stood there looking at her with a big smile on my face and started to get a little teary eyed myself and had to tell her “Yes, sweetie we are!!” Olivia let out one of her little squeals as she likes to and started to jump up and down more. I knew she was finding out part of the surprise now!

Of course, Jason was still nowhere to be found and mom was still in line to check us in. Olivia ran out of the gift shop without asking to get anything which is unusual for her. Then she asked if Nanie was going to Disney with us. I told her I don’t know why you don’t go ask her. She ran up to my mom and said “Nanie, are you going to Disney World with me?” Mom answered, “Well we are in Florida and we are near Disney, so I guess I am going!!” Olivia was so happy. She couldn’t contain her excitement. People thought we had never been to Disney before by the way Olivia was acting but we have been several times and will continue to make this our yearly family vacation trips!

After we checked in and got our room number we loaded back into the van and drove around to our room. It was just like any other hotel room with two beds, a big television and a bathroom. It was nice but we did have to call down to the front desk several times to ask for more than 2 towels in the room, and more than 3 pillows that were already on the beds. My mom had knee surgery in April and she had to have extra pillows to prop her knee up on to sleep. Jason and I then went ahead back to the van and headed out to find something to eat. We were hungry so we drove on 192 and found a Subway that was open and got that for everyone. Olivia is a very picky eater but she loves eating Subway so it worked out best for us. Plus it was a little healthy since we were going to be splurging on food at Disney World we wanted something decent and yet now fast foods like McDonald’s. After dinner, we got ready for bed and snuggled up for the night. Everyone was exhausted and so it didn’t take long for us all to go right to sleep.

Up Next…We’re Going To Disney World!!!!!

 

[emmysmommy]

How adorable that Olivia figured it out once you were in Orlando! You played it so cool up until that moment.... I can totally picture the excited tears in your eyes! How fun!

When on road trips, I'm with Olivia. McDonald's please! It is everywhere, it's cheap, and I LOVE it! Good enough for me. You can tell Olivia that I'm a Subway fan too! (I don't think there's a sandwich there that I won't eat.)

Great update and I look forward to reading more.

Good luck with your homeschooling school year too. What a great commitment to your child.

 

[maryj11]

Joining in Sounds like Olivia was very excited