Well, our trip is pretty close, but I've decided to go ahead and do a pre-trip report again. A LOT has changed since we originally planned this trip. We were supposed to go in November -- the week before Thanksgiving. Due to health issues with a family member, we decided to reschedule our trip to May.
May is a good time for us to go, too. Mom really wants to see the Flower and Garden Festival. We'll be there for the last few days of it. Also, DH & I will celebrate our 19th anniversary while we are at Disney World this time!
Cast:
Me. Darla. 38 years old. I'm the planner. Or the over-planner, as the case may be.
DH. 40 years old. Doesn't ride much, but goes along with just about anything. It was actually his idea to go back to Disney World, which just about blew me away!
DD 11 years old. She loved Disney World, especially Splash Mountain. Is far too cool for her own good.
Last, but not least, the star of the show. Mom. She's 60 years old. Our 2008 trip was her (and our) first trip to Disney World. She loved everything about it, and it showed.
Up next: Telling Mom that she's going back to Disney World!!
Way back at Christmas 2008, we told Mom that she was going back to Disney!
Here's a shot of what she opened.
Ignore the dates on her papers. This was when we were planning to go in November 2009. We just shifted our plans when family health circumstances came about.
Well... we actually shifted a lot more than just our dates. We shifted transportation options, resort choices, etc. But we tend to do that a lot anyways!
So, Mom knows she's going back to Disney World and is absolutely thrilled.
Let's see... Oh Gosh!!! I left out some pretty important info, didn't I? I told you who we were, but didn't tell you when we were going!!!
Our trip dates are May 10th thru May 22nd. We will be at Disney World May 12th thru May 19th.
Yup! We've got less than three weeks until our trip. I'll be posting an update of some sort every day between now and then. After we come home, I'll start a trip report, too. I love doing a trip report - I get to relive the vacation.
Well, since we have less than three weeks until the trip, I'd better get started, huh?
Unlike most of our family trips, we are not leaving at the crack of dawn (or earlier). We are not leaving home until around 11:00 am. We'll spend the morning finishing up packing, loading the truck, just running around in general! Mom will either come down this morning, or she may have spent the night with us. Not sure on that one yet.
This will be our mode of transportation. Well, one of the modes of transportation. That will be explained more in just a bit.
We'll be traveling in a Ford F-150, with full back seats. We have a hard locking tonneau cover for the bed of the truck, as well as a bedliner. Our luggage will be safe and sound for the trip.
Well, as long as we don't leave the cover up!!!
This was taken a couple of days after we got the tonneau cover and bed liner. All the guys had to drool over the new toys. We actually got a really good deal on the tonneau cover and liner. I found the liner on Craigslist for $60. Not bad, considering they are around $200 new and this one was in perfect condition. We had to drive about 2 1/2 hours to get to it, though. Three houses down from the bedliner-seller's driveway, we see a hard tonneau cover for sale in a yard. We went back to look. The guy wanted $100. KEWL! These things go for $500 or more new! The only thing this cover needed was a new lock/latch. We picked one up for under $20. DH had to adjust one bracket, because the cover was actually for a Dodge and we have a Ford, but it works for us!
We want to leave home right around 11:00 am. We'll be driving South, as far as Chambersburg, PA. This is about 230 miles from our home. We'll be stopping in Lewisburg, PA, at a KFC for lunch. We love KFC and don't have one around here. I tell ya, we live in Hicksville USA.
Gotta love Google Maps.
We can check into our hotel any time after 3:00 pm. If my driving directions are correct, and we leave on time and don't spend TOO much time at lunch, we should get to the hotel around 3:15ish. We're staying at a Holiday Inn right of I-86. Where the "A" marker is -- that's an Arby's. The hotel is right behind that.
We've got a Suite with two queen beds. This picture shows a suite with a King, but they don't have a photo of a queen bed suite...
It doesn't hurt that the hotel has an indoor pool for DD -- she's such a fish.
We'll check into the hotel and probably head for the pool for a while. We can just relax and enjoy the pool and hot tub for a while. When we decide it's time for supper, we'll head down the street just a bit to Red Lobster!
The upper arrow points to Red Lobster. The lower arrow points to our hotel.
We've got $75 in gift cards from MyPoints for Red Lobster, so that's a plus. Some of the stuff on the menu just looks YUMMY. And to tell the truth, NONE of us have ever been to a Red Lobster. We live out in the sticks, you see.
After supper, we'll probably hit the pool again, if DD has any say in the matter. Mom will want to also, but more for the hot tub than the pool. She had never been in a hot tub before, until we took her on one of our Smoky Mountain vacations. I think she liked 'em.
Up next, Day 2 -- and our other mode of transportation!
We will wake up at leisure today. I'm not gonna bother setting an alarm clock or anything! This particular hotel is less than two hours from the Lorton AutoTrain station. Yup - we're taking the AutoTrain to Florida! We did this on our return trip in October 2008 and absolutely loved it. We are only taking the train on the way down, because prices for the return trip this time were almost DOUBLE!!
We don't have to check out until 11:00am, and there is NO WAY we'll sleep that late. Well, at least I know Mom won't. She's an early bird.
When we do get up and around, we'll have some breakfast at the hotel.
As their website says:
Enjoy a unique breakfast experience at our new Express Start Breakfast Bar served every morning featuring a great selection of fruits, juices, cereals, breads/pastries, and even hardboiled eggs. We have also created what is possibly the world's best tasting cinnamon roll available exclusively at Holiday Inn Express® hotels. Plus, we now feature Smart Roast coffee - a special blend of 100% Arabica beans especially roasted and blended for Holiday Inn Express® hotels. It's all new, all delicious, all smart, all complimentary. . . and all waiting for you.
Well, we'll have breakfast here as long as we get up in time!!! Actually, we'll probably all be up fairly early, as we'll be excited to head to the train.
We will likely leave the hotel right around 11:00 am. We'll head on down to Lorton, Virginia. We'll pass the train station at first. We'll be stopping at a McDonald's in the area, to pick up some lunch to go. We'll take our super-healthy lunch to the train station. We will check in and give them our vehicle. Since we have an "oversized vehicle" we need to be there NO LATER than 2:00 pm. Then we sit and wait to board the train.
Last time, we were allowed to board right around 2:30 pm. This gave us time to settle into our roomette a little, and to visit the lounge car. There, they have some free snacks -- a Munchies type mix (doritos, pretzels, etc), fresh fruit, bottled water, etc.
This was DD vegging out in her roomette, with some of that free snack mix on the little table in front of her.
Our roomettes (we should have two, right across the aisle from each other:
You can get an idea of how large the seats are in this picture. DD is laying across it, and the little fold-out table is down in front of her.
Sometime before we leave the station, our attendant will come around and ask us what time we would like to have supper. They offer supper at two or three different times. I think we took the 7:00 pm option last time... We go up to the dining car for dinner. We have a choice of several entree options, as well as a couple different dessert options. Drinks -- coffee, water, milk, soda, wine -- are included with your meal as well. Last time, DH and I both had a NY Strip Steak and Mom had some Zinfandel Chicken. DD had chicken strips and mac & cheese. All was very good. The kid's chicken strips were good ones, not some icky little chicken nuggets. These were actual strips of real chicken. Actually recognizable!! Our steaks were cooked very nicely, and Mom's chicken had very good flavor.
Mom, enjoying REAL coffee, after enduring Disney's "fake" coffee for 10 days.
While we are at dinner, the attendant will go to our roomettes and put our beds down. The two seats slide together to make one bed, and another bunk pulls down from above.
Once back in our roomettes, we can read, play on our laptops, etc until we decide it's time for sleep. The rocking of the train is pretty relaxing. However, every once in a while there's an extra hard rock, and it would jerk me awake. Then again, I wasn't feeling very good on our trip home, so that may have had something to do with it...
We wake up on the train this morning! If we want, we can even get a shower on the train. I tried it last year -- it was an experience!!
We get a continental-type breakfast on the train:
When you're seated, that basket is filled with warm breads, muffins and bagels. Yummy. While we're at breakfast our attendants will put the beds away, and we can come back to sit in our roomettes until we reach the Sanford station.
Yup, this picture of DH is one of the reasons I loved taking the AutoTrain. He just looks so relaxed. He's not dealing with other cars/trucks on the road, he's not worrying about missing an exit or turn, that kind of thing. He's simply enjoying himself.
This is the Sanford AutoTrain station:
The train should reach the station around 9:30am. Once the train reaches the station, we have to wait about a half-hour or so on the train. Depends on how long it takes them to unhook the train cars with the vehicles in them. Once we disembark from the train, we wait in the waiting rooms.
We have to grab a seat and wait until our vehicle's number is called. Once it's called, we go outside and claim our car. We can all climb in and off we go. We're heading to:
If we arrive at the train station on time, and the wait time for disembarking and getting our vehicle are not overly long, we should get to Disney World around 11:00-ish. I am going to try the On-line Check-in -- if I can. I've had trouble retrieving my reservation on the web site, because we had rebooked the trip. This trip was originally supposed to take place in November 2009...
After picking up our KTTW (and dropping off some luggage, if our room is ready), we're heading to:
Mom and DD are having some serious Splash Mountain withdrawals. Our Magic Kingdom goals for today are Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain. If possible, we want to do Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, the TTA and the Carousel of Progress. We loved the CoP, and didn't get a chance to try the TTA last time. Anything else we squeeze in is icing on the cake. Lunch will be at whichever counter service location we are near when we decide we're hungry.
Unless we've wimped out and headed back to our room before supper, we'll catch either the ferry or the monorail to the Grand Floridian -- because tonight, we'll be having supper at 1900 Park Fare, for Cinderella's Happily Ever After dinner.
I really wanna meet these guys:
I think they're a hoot! Can't wait. :biggrin:
After supper, we'll likely catch the ferry/monorail back to Magic Kingdom, then the bus back to our resort. We'll settle into the room a bit and maybe enjoy the pool (if DD has anything to say in the matter!!).
Our ressies for the Park Fare dinner are a little on the late side (close to 8:00 pm). If we decide we're hungry before that, we may cancel the ADR and grab some counter service or even go offsite for some supper. That really depends on how we feel that evening.
How's that for our third day of travel, and our first Disney day?
It's our first full day at Disney World for this trip! Our breakfast plans are to go to combine some stuff we'll have in our room (cereal, etc) and some food from the resort food court – Sassagoula Floatworks and Food Factory.
We aren’t usually really big breakfast eaters. We just need something to get us going. We will probably order one big breakfast and an order of biscuits & gravy and split it all. Maybe throw in a yogurt or piece of fruit along with the goodies in the room.
Hold onto your hats – WE HAVE NO SET PLANS FOR THIS MORNING!!!!! Most likely, we will got to Epcot, as we’ll be in Disney for the last few days of the Flower & Garden Festival.
Mom is looking forward to this, and my sister wants lots of pictures. Me, I’m gonna stay as far away from the flower displays as I can. I love them and think they’re gorgeous, but I can kill a silk plant. I will try not to touch any of the plants/flowers/etc at Disney, so that everyone else may enjoy the last few days of the Festival. :rotf: My sister got the green thumb in our family.
If we do decide to go to Epcot this morning, we’ll grab a counter service lunch somewhere in the World Showcase. I’m thinking the menu at Liberty Inn looks tasty.
Of course, we want to ride Soarin’ – we loved it, and may even try to convince DH that he might like it too.
But our main goal at Epcot this year is to explore the World Showcase. We missed SO MUCH of it last year. We barely skimmed it.
Sometime after lunch, we’ll head back to our resort. If the weather’s nice, we may try out our resort pool.
We may also take a quick trip to Hollywood Studios, just to ride Rock'n'Roller Coaster. It's closing for a quick refurb on the 15th, so we'll have to catch a ride or two on it in the first few days of our trip.
We have a 6:30ish ADR for Ohana! We loved the breakfast here, and Mom is really looking forward to the dinner. She’s seen some pictures, and we’re all drooling. Yum.
We also want to order two Adult Beverages. Mom and I will split them. One: We gotta try the Lapu Lapu. I think it’s the law, isn’t it? Two: The Pina Colava looks soooooo tasty. Yum again.
Magic Kingdom is open until 10:00 pm on this day, so we may catch the monorail over there for a little evening entertainment after supper. Spectro is showing at 9:00 pm, so we may be over there in time for that. Not sure, though. I will not rush through supper. We’ll have other chances to see it if necessary.
So, after supper is either Magic Kingdom or back to the resort for rest/pool time.
Breakfast today will either be in the room or at the Sassagoula Floatworks food court. Actually, it will probably end up being a mix. DH or I will probably go to the food court and get a meal and/or some biscuits and gravy... drooling here ... And we'll share the meal(s) along with whatever else we bring along for breakfast-type foods.
After breakfast, we'll head off to Animal Kingdom I think. We missed such a HUGE part of this park on our last visit. Just didn't see so much of it. A lot of today will be spent just exploring the park. We may hit a few of the rides, but that's not really the focus of this morning. For lunch, we're planning on getting one of the "Picnic in the Park" meals. Probably the chicken meal. Yummy.
Sometime after lunch, we'll head back to the resort to veg and/or swim a bit.
When we're ready for supper, we might just head off-property tonight. There's a Cici's pizza buffet not too far away. We don't have anything like this where we live, and enjoyed it when we stopped for lunch on our way down last time. Or maybe we'll try Sweet Tomatoes. Also not too far away, and something we don't have at home. If we had either of these nearby, we probably wouldn't consider them for meals on vacation. Since we don't, they are "fun".
Then again, there are TONS of restaurants near Disney World, as well as lots of counter service options IN Disney, if we so choose...
After supper, it's up in the air. Epcot's open until midnight, with EMH's. We may head over there, or we may just hit the pool and veg at the resort. I love having semi-plans, but not concrete plans. We can just do whatever sounds good hehehehehe.
We will be starting the day out with an early (as in 8:00 am-ish) breakfast at the Crystal Palace. We loved this last time, and early entry into the Magic Kingdom is a bonus!
Nope, neither one of them look like they're enjoying themselves, do they?? :lol:
I know that Saturday's can be kinda crazy at the Magic Kingdom, but I think we'll be OK for a while. We'll probably just be finishing up breakfast as the park opens (that's what happened last time), so we'll just be ready to go hit some of our favorites. Haunted Mansion and Splash Mountain are the two biggies for this group. When we were planning our very first trip, DD was sort of afraid of the Haunted Mansion. She wasn't sure if she wanted to go on it or not (she was 9 years old). When we got to Disney World, our first park was Magic Kingdom. I asked DD what she wanted to ride first. She surprised me by saying that she wanted to try the Haunted Mansion. I guess it was a hit. We must have ridden it 10 times or more on that trip!
I'm such a bad vacation photographer!!! This is the closest thing I have to a photo of the outside of the Haunted Mansion!!! What was I thinking????? Must do better on this next trip. I need to be sure to get pictures of the stuff we enjoyed, so we can remember it. Hard to believe that we took over 1800 pictures between the three of us, and only got pictures of about four rides!!!! So very sad... :no:
We'll likely grab a quick-service lunch at Magic Kingdom -- maybe at Casey's! We enjoyed a snack from Casey's last time, and it sounds like good lunch fare. We'll head back to the resort for some pool time after lunch. Unless, of course, we head back earlier and have lunch at the resort food court. :lol:
I'm not sure which park we'll hit for the late afternoon/evening. Possibly Animal Kingdom, to catch the parade. We didn't see it last time. Supper is either off-site someplace (maybe Olive Garden. We love Olive Garden.....) or at Cape May for the Clam Bake Buffet. I do have an ADR there, but will cancel if we decide to eat off-site.
Basically, a nice laid-back day. Ahhhh... sounds lovely.....
Not a whole lot planned for today. It's about the middle of the vacation, so it's time to take it easy. We'll either have breakfast in the room, or we might go to the resort food court. Or a little bit of both.
or maybe
I think we may hit Epcot this morning. It's the last day of the Flower and Garden festival, and I know that Mom will want to take one last look around...
We will most likely grab lunch at the Electric Umbrella. We ate there on our last trip, and enjoyed it.
We'll head back to the resort for a rest and swim, then we'll probably head our to Hollywood Studios. It's probably a crazy night to do it, but DD really wants to see Fantasmic. We'll grab some supper at Pizza Planet, perhaps.
Mom and DD liked this last time, so it'll probably be a winner this time
Unless Disney adds a second Fantasmic showing on this night, we'll be getting in line plenty early, as long as the weather is cooperative. If for some reason, we don't get to see Fantasmic this time around, well that's just an excuse for another trip!!!
This actually might not be a good evening for Fantasmic, unless they do add a second showing. DHS has Extra Magic Hours, and is open until Midnight... I guess we'll just wait and see - the crowds may just decide our plans for tonight...
Today's a bit of a sleep-in day. We will probably have been up late the night before. We'll grab some breakfast, either from our stash or the food court, or a mix of both.
After breakfast, we want to head to Downtown Disney! We'll take the ferry from Port Orleans French Quarter to Downtown Disney.
We want to wander Downtown Disney a bit, and browse the shops and such. We might even try Characters In Flight. Well, two or three of us might. DD is a maybe, and DH is a flat-out NO.
While in Downtown Disney, we'll have lunch at:
When we're finished at Downtown Disney, the day is pretty free! We may go visit a park, or we might go resort-hopping to see the sights.
For supper, we are thinking of heading back to our resort and order pizza delivery from Flippers Pizza. It's gotten some very good reviews on several different Trip Reports. Food looks yummy...
After supper, I think we'll be heading back to Magic Kingdom. EMH's go until 1:00 am tonight, so I think we'll head there for the night. Sounds like a lot of fun!
Today will be our 19th wedding anniversary. I've officially been married to DH for half my life! Got married when I was 19, and now we've been married for 19 years.
Breakfast will again be from our stash in-room and/or from the food court. Nothing terribly exciting, I'm afraid.
After breakfast -- WE HAVE NO PLANS! Just like the previous afternoon, we'll decide that morning what we want to do. TODAY IS OUR LAST DAY AT DISNEY! Since this is our last day, we'll fill it in by visiting a favorite park, hitting something we missed, or just resort-hopping to see the sights. Lunch will likely be a counter-service meal somewhere. Totally unplanned, really. Until evening.
We have dinner plans.
I know -- not the most romantic spot for an anniversary dinner. But it looks like a lot of fun, and is one place DD requested. One reason is that DD wants to go here:
She loves dinosaurs and thinks the Build-A-Dino is the coolest idea ever.
By the time we're finished eating (we have a late-ish reservation), all of the parks will likely be closed. We will probably just head back to our resort and start packing up. We'll be leaving in the morning. However, we just might have to squeeze in one more trip to the pool! This is seriously funny, but Mom is very insistent on the fact that she WILL be going down that slide at the pool!!! I will be sure to capture photographic (and possibly video) evidence of such behavior...
We have to leave Disney World today. We'll get up and pack up the truck. We want to be out fairly early, probably around 8:00 am. We plan on heading to IHOP for breakfast! Like a lot of the places we plan to eat on this trip, this is really nothing "special" -- it's just something we don't have close-by at home. The nearest IHOP for us is an hour and a half away.
This is the IHOP we usually stop at when traveling south. It's in Hagerstown, MD. Hopefully, the IHOP we visit on this particular day will NOT have this amount of snow. Then again, if this amount of snow ever hit the middle of Florida, there would be a BIG PROBLEM!!!
After breakfast, we're headed to GATORLAND!!!!
We'll spend a couple of hours here, looking around and maybe catching a show or two. We'll probably grab some lunch here, as well.
When we're done at Gatorland, we'll all pile back into the truck. We're driving to St. Augustine today! We want to stop and see the Ripley's Believe It Or Not! in St. Augustine. DD is addicted to these places. We all enjoy walking through them.
Once we've toured the Ripley's museum, we'll be heading to a Comfort Suites for the night.
We've got a Queen Suite for the night.
The hotel has an indoor pool, so the kiddo can wear off some energy.
They also have an outdoor pool and hot tub, if the weather is nice enough.
For supper, we'll probably hit a nearby Cracker Barrel. We love that place.
This is sort of a lazy-morning type of day. We do get a free hot breakfast at our hotel.
When we finally get ourselves out the door, we plan on heading to the beach! None of us have ever really seen the ocean, except for Mom. And that was at Virginia Beach, when I was about 4 months old! We're going to go to a beach area in the St. Augustine State Recreation area. Below are a couple of pictures of the area, snagged from Google Maps.
Plans here are not certain. This really depends on what time we actually leave the hotel/arrive at the beach, and how long we want to spend at the beach...
When we do finally leave the beach, we'll be traveling North. No other real plans for the day. We'll be stopping at a Holiday Inn Express in Florence, SC.
There's a nice indoor pool for the kiddo's enjoyment...
Not sure where we'll end up for supper on this night. There are several restaurants withing walking and/or driving distance. There's also always the option of having pizza delivered in. I love having options!
Today's an early day! We want to be up and around and out of the hotel by 8:00 am. First, though, we get a nice free breakfast:
We'll be heading to Myrtle Beach today! First, we'll be stopping in at ANOTHER Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum. DD loves these places...
Once we've seen the unbelievable, we might head over to the beach. Not sure on this one. From what I can see on the maps, the Ripley's museum is only about a block away from the beach. This will depend on our mood at the time.
After either the museum or the beach, we'll be heading inland a bit. We're also going to see the Ripley's Aquarium in Myrtle Beach. We love the one in Gatlinburg, and feel that we just can't pass up seeing this one!
After the aquarium, we'll have lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, nearby.
After lunch, we'll be traveling North again. We're going to stay at the same Holiday Inn Express that we stayed at on our trip down in October 2008! We enjoyed the hotel then, so it's a fairly safe bet for this return trip.
Supper will likely be at the same Cracker Barrel we visited on the last trip, as well.
After supper, we'll enjoy the indoor pool and hot tub. However, if I remember correctly (and I don't have any photos of the pool/hot tub from last time) this pool was warm and the hot tub was cold. Let's see if they've corrected that situation yet...
DARLA!!! I bet you are so excited!! I wish I was still going so I could meet you. You will have such a magical time, I can't wait to see more pictures of your Mom.
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Mom will either come down this morning, or she may have spent the night with us. Not sure on that one yet.
This particular hotel is less than two hours from the Lorton AutoTrain station. Yup - we're taking the AutoTrain to Florida! We did this on our return trip in October 2008 and absolutely loved it. We are only taking the train on the way down, because prices for the return trip this time were almost DOUBLE!! 
Well, at least I know Mom won't. She's an early bird.
However, we just might have to squeeze in one more trip to the pool! This is seriously funny, but Mom is very insistent on the fact that she WILL be going down that slide at the pool!!! I will be sure to capture photographic (and possibly video) evidence of such behavior... 
