Narnia_girl
He's not a tame lion, but he is good.
- Joined
- May 11, 2009
Dateline: June 2017
At this point we did not have a vacation planned for the summer. We couldn’t really agree on timing and or places to go. We briefly considered a last minute Carnival cruise, but weren’t really enthusiastic about it.
One day at work my boss mentioned to me that she was going to lose her time share points for that year because she wasn’t able to use them. She then asked what we were doing for vacation. We quickly determined that our family’s lack of vacation motivation and her time share points were meant to be together!
She was almost as excited as we were and started suggesting places to go, and explaining how much the total cost would be. We were very tempted by the last minute rates for a Hawaiian resort, but the last minute airfare was prohibitive. Then we considered Arizona as the time share company she belongs to has lots of holdings there. But seriously, Arizona in July? No thanks. It was fun looking at all the options, but in the end we sort of all knew Disney was the best bet for us. (Although Orlando in July is not much better than Arizona, it does have Disney.)
So Disney it was, and we would be staying off-site for the first time at a nearby resort. Even though using her points were free to us, she helped us upgrade to a larger unit for extra points. Our condo was a large two bedroom/2 bath unit for six nights.
Those going on this trip include Mom, Dad, Christian (22) and Carrie (16). We set about booking flights, renting a car and making plans. Carrie very much enjoys reading about our past trips so these reports become a virtual scrapbook for our family.
July 9, 2017
We had a 6:30 a.m. flight out of St. Louis. The airport is a two-hour drive from our home and when factoring in the shuttle from the car park and going through security, we determined we should leave by 3 a.m. I’ve had this early flight before and it’s a toss up: Stay half the night at an airport hotel and not sleep well OR not sleep well in our own beds and get up early to drive. We ended up sleeping at home, and surprise! none of us slept well at all. We were awake at zero-dark-thirty and at 2:40 a.m. decided to get going.
The flight was fine, most of us napped a bit on the plane.
Arriving in Orlando mid-morning we got our rental car and drove to Disney Springs. We spent some time wandering around the shops and had an early lunch at Cookes of Dublin. It was very hot and humid and we were glad to get seats inside.
We walked around some more and sat on the rockers outside the Welcome Center. There was a line to get in so we didn’t do that.
Next we moseyed over to the boat dock near Saratoga Springs and stood in the sun while waiting for a launch. This is where my parasol and mini handheld fan really helped out. That Florida sun is brutal on northerners. We are from the Midwest but everything in the U.S. is basically north of Florida, right?
We enjoyed the boat ride to the West bank.
Then returned to our car for the drive to our resort. It was early afternoon but our condo was not ready yet. Even though we were paid guests of a member (not free guest in exchange for a sales pitch) they still tried to sell me on time-share upgrades. It wasn’t too pushy so I declined and they let it slide. Since the room wasn’t ready we sat in the car for an hour with the A/C running full blast and sort of dozed off.
When we were finally able to get into our condo we marveled at how nice and spacious it was.
At this point the combination of very little sleep, a day full of travel and sun/heat had us all ready to drop. Within half an hour of getting inside we were all fast asleep. Mom and Dad slept about 2.5 hours, but the kids just kept on sleeping.
In the evening we went to Target for some groceries and cooked a simple supper of roast chicken in the condo. We walked to the resort pool to have a look around, took showers and went to bed.
At this point we did not have a vacation planned for the summer. We couldn’t really agree on timing and or places to go. We briefly considered a last minute Carnival cruise, but weren’t really enthusiastic about it.
One day at work my boss mentioned to me that she was going to lose her time share points for that year because she wasn’t able to use them. She then asked what we were doing for vacation. We quickly determined that our family’s lack of vacation motivation and her time share points were meant to be together!
She was almost as excited as we were and started suggesting places to go, and explaining how much the total cost would be. We were very tempted by the last minute rates for a Hawaiian resort, but the last minute airfare was prohibitive. Then we considered Arizona as the time share company she belongs to has lots of holdings there. But seriously, Arizona in July? No thanks. It was fun looking at all the options, but in the end we sort of all knew Disney was the best bet for us. (Although Orlando in July is not much better than Arizona, it does have Disney.)
So Disney it was, and we would be staying off-site for the first time at a nearby resort. Even though using her points were free to us, she helped us upgrade to a larger unit for extra points. Our condo was a large two bedroom/2 bath unit for six nights.
Those going on this trip include Mom, Dad, Christian (22) and Carrie (16). We set about booking flights, renting a car and making plans. Carrie very much enjoys reading about our past trips so these reports become a virtual scrapbook for our family.
July 9, 2017
We had a 6:30 a.m. flight out of St. Louis. The airport is a two-hour drive from our home and when factoring in the shuttle from the car park and going through security, we determined we should leave by 3 a.m. I’ve had this early flight before and it’s a toss up: Stay half the night at an airport hotel and not sleep well OR not sleep well in our own beds and get up early to drive. We ended up sleeping at home, and surprise! none of us slept well at all. We were awake at zero-dark-thirty and at 2:40 a.m. decided to get going.
The flight was fine, most of us napped a bit on the plane.
Arriving in Orlando mid-morning we got our rental car and drove to Disney Springs. We spent some time wandering around the shops and had an early lunch at Cookes of Dublin. It was very hot and humid and we were glad to get seats inside.
We walked around some more and sat on the rockers outside the Welcome Center. There was a line to get in so we didn’t do that.
Next we moseyed over to the boat dock near Saratoga Springs and stood in the sun while waiting for a launch. This is where my parasol and mini handheld fan really helped out. That Florida sun is brutal on northerners. We are from the Midwest but everything in the U.S. is basically north of Florida, right?
We enjoyed the boat ride to the West bank.
Then returned to our car for the drive to our resort. It was early afternoon but our condo was not ready yet. Even though we were paid guests of a member (not free guest in exchange for a sales pitch) they still tried to sell me on time-share upgrades. It wasn’t too pushy so I declined and they let it slide. Since the room wasn’t ready we sat in the car for an hour with the A/C running full blast and sort of dozed off.
When we were finally able to get into our condo we marveled at how nice and spacious it was.
At this point the combination of very little sleep, a day full of travel and sun/heat had us all ready to drop. Within half an hour of getting inside we were all fast asleep. Mom and Dad slept about 2.5 hours, but the kids just kept on sleeping.
In the evening we went to Target for some groceries and cooked a simple supper of roast chicken in the condo. We walked to the resort pool to have a look around, took showers and went to bed.
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