Trains, Floods and Gigantic Cicadas...Nothing Will Keep Us From WDW!!!

[mtgirl29]

Table of Contents



http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=42044226&postcount=114Ready, Set, Go!!!

Will We Survive the Trains, Floods and Gigantic Cidadas???

Arrival Day to Disney - Magic Kingdom - May 29, 2011

Arrival Day!!!

Aaarrrrggghhh!!!

Does This Ferry Have A Bathroom??? (to be continued...)

Does This Ferry Have A Bathroom??? (continued)

2nd Day in Disney (full day) - Epcot - May 30, 2011

Rushing to Epcot...

Awww! Finally Some Rest and Relaxation!

I Want to Live Here!

3rd Day in Disney - DHS- May 31, 2011

A Full Day at DHS (Revenge of the Mickey Ice-Cream Bar)












to my CRAZY Trip Report! Many times during this trip things happened that would normally stress me out, but not this time! All I could think when something would happen is, "WOW!!! This is going to be great for my TR!!!"

Let me get the basics out of the way with introductions, so I can dive in to the actual vacation.

First of all, I am TK, the author of this TR and a Stay at Home Mom to two wonderful kiddos....DD - Kay (9) and DS - Jay (5) and wife to DH - Mike

Me - TK

DH - Mike

Mike is the actual planner of Disney. I let him take the reigns while there and the kids and I affectionately call him "The Drill Sargeant". He can fit more stuff into one day than I would think would be humanly possible, but he does it. While we are actually in Disney, I feel like I am going to collapse and I am always almost in a run to keep up with him. But after the trip, I am glad I was able to accomplish so much and have so many wonderful pics and memories. I have now requested a beach vacation after Disney so I can rest up....



The Kiddos

Kay is a lover of all things Disney and has been since she was born and Jay is on the same path. Kay and I have been reading PTR and TR for ages and we really enjoyed them and got us ramped up for our upcoming trip. The kiddos were overly excited to find out we would be spending part of their summer vacation in Disney. We told them in Nov. of '10 before our trip and almost every day lil' Jay would ask if we were going to Disney tomorrow....BLESS HIS LITTLE HEART! Maybe next time we will surprise them, so they don't have to wait soooo long.

 

[mtgirl29]

I Love WDW!!!!!​

 

[SimmerBaggins]

Awesome that your daughter reads trip reports with you!! Signing up to hear your story of overcoming obstacles to get to the WORLD!!

 

[Lidian]

Aww, I'm not first.

But at least I'm here! Let's get this party started!

 

[lbuzz52]

I'm looking forward to reading your report!

 

[ctink23]

I'm in! I am interested, and a little terrified, to find out why the giant cicadas are in the title. Those things scare me.

 

[MARsMama]

Joining in Can't wait to hear all about your trip

 

[TinksThree]

I'm here!! I can't wait to hear what could have stressed you! Disney has a way of changing our perspectives, doesn't it?! My DH does NO planning although he has threatend to when I skip something he wanted to do but never informed me that he actually liked it previously!!

 

[mtgirl29]

WELCOME!!!! Simmerbaggins, Lidian, lbuzz52, ctink23, MARsMama and TinksThree!!!!

I am so glad I actually have some readers!!! I am downloading my 350+ pics into Photobucket and then I am going to get this party started.

 

[mtgirl29]

We had planned to leave on Saturday, May 28th, bright and early.
The day before we left, which was a Friday, was pretty hectic. We had to be at the car rental company early because it was Memorial Day weekend and we knew that a lot of people would be traveling and getting rentals. On top of that, with all the devastation with all the tornados and people's cars being demolished, it seems like everyone was needing a car that Friday morning. The place was crawling with people and everyone seemed to be moving very slowly. We waited and waited some more until we finally got a car. It was a Chevy Equinox. It wasn't a bad car but smaller than we had anticipated. It also didn't have the auxillary option on the radio, so DH was very bummed because his beloved Zune (kind of like an iPod) wouldn't be compatible. (This man would marry his Zune if he could. He lives on that thing. ) The SUV also had some hail damage and the license plate looks like it is about to fall off. It kind of felt like we were given the bottom of the barrel. The rental guy appologized and said that they usually don't rent out cars with hail damage but the were getting desperate because they were getting low on cars. REALLY?!?! (it is not like we hadn't reserved a car 2 months earlier on their website and also called....uuuggghh!) We were a little bummed, to say the least. So Hubs has the bright idea to talk with a manager and tell him the SUV we got was a little smaller than we expected and wondered if they had something a little larger and VOILA....he brings us over to a Tahoe in much better condition. It looks huge and.... VIOLA..... it has the special auxillary hook-up that DH wanted and now we be living the life with tunes and all. It would be more $$$, but DH thought it would definitely be worth it for the auxillary hook up... Here is a pic of our rental.

This SUV seemed huge when we first took it off the lot. I currently drive a Jeep Grand Cherokee and this Tahoe seemed much more bigger than that. Hubs drives a Hyundai Sante Fe (which is smaller than my Jeep) so he thought it was HUGE. I ended up driving off the lot following hubs and there were some people parked and talking on either side of the drive to get back to the highway and I prayed I would not mow them over.... It literally felt like I was driving a bus. I was happy to know that all my stuff would definitely fit, but not at the aspect of it being a gas hog.

After we picked up the rental we ran over to Kohl's. I had $40 Kohl's Cash that expired while we would be on vacay. So we stopped in and DH picked up some swim flipflops and sunglasses. I found a swim shirt (the one that has built in sunscreen). So we paid and then I ran to walmart and got some drinks and snacks to bring to on our trip and for our room. When we got home I ran over the dogs kennel, food and beds to my mom's house. Got home and ran the dogs over to my mom's in my jeep (not to get dog hair in the rental) and then I came home and got dinner ready and then got the kids in the shower and to bed by 8 pm. DD whined that was still light out. I told her she would be happy tomorrow when she had to get up so early. I finished up the laundry and cleaned. I hate coming home to a messy house. Mike and I didn't get to bed until midnight. It seems like we just got to sleep and the alarm went off at 3am. We hopped up and showered, finished getting all the luggage in the car and getting the cats squared away with extra food, water and litter boxes and then woke the kiddos at about 4:30am.

I have pics of their sweet little faces when we first woke them. Heeeee!

Kay first thing in the morning

Jay

Jay after we reminded him we were going to Disney!

He danced around for about a minute before the above pic was taken singing, "I'm going to Disney!!"

I had the kids just sleep in the shirts they were wearing the next morning and had the in jammie pants. I wanted them to be able to quickly get their shorts on the next morning so we could get on the road quickly.

A pic of the kiddos once we are on the road.

We just pulled out onto a back road off from our subdivision and Hubs states he forgot something. ARE WE EVER GOING TO GET ON THE ACTUAL HIGHWAY!!! I was like, "Come on!"
So we turned a round and went back and it seemed DH was in the house for hours, even though it was only about 5 minutes. He returned, hopped in the car and we were off.....for real this time. We left about 5:15am.

Our first stop was QT to fuel up the party bus which was like $80 bucks and the tank wasn't even empty..... We just kept reassuring each other that it was still cheaper than flying....RIGHT?!?

We drove until around 9 am then stopped at Burger King and got some breakfast sandwiches through the drive thru and then we were off again.

Will we survive the trains, floods and GIGANTIC cicadas??? Up next.....

 

[ctink23]

Wow, you were busy the day before you left! I also like to come back to a clean house, so I would have stayed up cleaning, too!

And it is definitely difficult to drive a big car when you are used to something smaller. I drive a small compact car and when I would have to drive a mini-van (I babysat for three kids), I would always feel like I was driving a bus. I eventually had to learn to parallel park it, too, which was interesting.

Your kids look so excited! I love the "I'm going to Disney" song face!

Excited to hear about the drive down!

 

[Lidian]

I feel ya on the gas tank. After we finished filling up, we did the math ... and I could have gotten us on a plane for about $200 more dollars! Sheesh!

So what did DH forget that he had to go back in for "hours"?

And they shouldn't have charged you for the upgrade since the one they gave you was in poor condition. Why didn't your DH put his foot down and stuff? I would have.

Thats cute that Jay was dancing around singing!

Guess I'll have to keep reading if I want to find out if you survive the trains, floods, and scary bugs!

 

[mtgirl29]

Wow, you were busy the day before you left! I also like to come back to a clean house, so I would have stayed up cleaning, too!

And it is definitely difficult to drive a big car when you are used to something smaller. I drive a small compact car and when I would have to drive a mini-van (I babysat for three kids), I would always feel like I was driving a bus. I eventually had to learn to parallel park it, too, which was interesting.

Your kids look so excited! I love the "I'm going to Disney" song face!

Excited to hear about the drive down!

Wow! You paralleled parked a big vehicle. I cannot even parallel park my Jeep. Well, actually, I have a hard time parallel parking period. They now have these new cars out that parallel park for you. Maybe I should get one of those....

The drive down was quite the adventure. I made sure to take plenty of pics.
I am so glad to have you on board.

I feel ya on the gas tank. After we finished filling up, we did the math ... and I could have gotten us on a plane for about $200 more dollars! Sheesh!

So what did DH forget that he had to go back in for "hours"?

And they shouldn't have charged you for the upgrade since the one they gave you was in poor condition. Why didn't your DH put his foot down and stuff? I would have.

Thats cute that Jay was dancing around singing!

Guess I'll have to keep reading if I want to find out if you survive the trains, floods, and scary bugs!

I know if we truly figured it up with the car rental (larger at that and more $$$) gas, lodging and time....it very well might have been more cost efficient to fly. We will definitely have to run the numbers next time. The only advantage though was that we had transportation while in WDW and for our trip to the beach and the trunk was sooo big I could have packed up the house (and I almost did )

We were a little astounded at how crazy the rental place was. Mike had talked with his friend that knows one of the managers there, too, and we did get quite a nice discount since DH works for the company, too. So it all worked out. But we were stressed out while we were there. People were throwing fits all over the place and all the workers looked like they were sweating bullets. We kind of felt sorry for the employees.

Jay was sooo excited! I am sure he had felt like he had waited for years to go....

I will give you this little hint: The cicadas in mid-Tennessee were HUGE. They put the ones here in MO to shame. The ones here are tiny in comparison. I have pics. Cannot wait to share.

 

[Singledad]

Did you go deaf by the cicadas? You left the day I checked into CBR!

I can't wait to read more...

 

[mtgirl29]

Did you go deaf by the cicadas? You left the day I checked into CBR!

I can't wait to read more...

Singledad!!!
They were crazy loud here. Did you all have any in Wisconsin? We really lucked out though, because apparently they were at their peak in Missouri while we were in FL. All my friends kept posting on their FB pages that they would kind of attack them while mowing the grass. (apparently they are attracted to the humming noise - but they don't bite) When we got home they were covering the ground.....most of them dead. You can still hear them in the heat of the day but they are getting a lot less loud.
Did you like CBR??? We were in the pirate section and it was 100 miles from the pool and everything else. I see you have a TR cannot wait to check it out!

 

[Singledad]

Singledad!!!
They were crazy loud here. Did you all have any in Wisconsin? We really lucked out though, because apparently they were at their peak in Missouri while we were in FL. All my friends kept posting on their FB pages that they would kind of attack them while mowing the grass. (apparently they are attracted to the humming noise - but they don't bite) When we got home they were covering the ground.....most of them dead. You can still hear them in the heat of the day but they are getting a lot less loud.
Did you like CBR??? We were in the pirate section and it was 100 miles from the pool and everything else. I see you have a TR cannot wait to check it out!

I have yet to hear one in this state, but having traveled in June to other states, I've certainly have heard and seen them. I am GLAD I don't have them this far north. DD would be freaked by the noise.

We were in Aruba, and I am sad to admit we didn't spend much time at all at the resort. What I did see I liked! If I ever hit the lotto (that I don't play) I'll make sure to have a dis trip with resort days. However, I still don't think that will happen, as I discovered what makes my daughter rash at Disney... You'll just have to keep reading the TR to hear about that.

 

[Lidian]

I know if we truly figured it up with the car rental (larger at that and more $$$) gas, lodging and time....it very well might have been more cost efficient to fly. We will definitely have to run the numbers next time. The only advantage though was that we had transportation while in WDW and for our trip to the beach and the trunk was sooo big I could have packed up the house (and I almost did )

We were a little astounded at how crazy the rental place was. Mike had talked with his friend that knows one of the managers there, too, and we did get quite a nice discount since DH works for the company, too. So it all worked out. But we were stressed out while we were there. People were throwing fits all over the place and all the workers looked like they were sweating bullets. We kind of felt sorry for the employees.

Jay was sooo excited! I am sure he had felt like he had waited for years to go....

I will give you this little hint: The cicadas in mid-Tennessee were HUGE. They put the ones here in MO to shame. The ones here are tiny in comparison. I have pics. Cannot wait to share.

Wow... glad I don't live in Mid-TN then! But that was good that you had a vehicle for your beach trip and not have to worry about making things fit into limited suitcases for flying.

However, I still don't think that will happen, as I discovered what makes my daughter rash at Disney... You'll just have to keep reading the TR to hear about that.

Oh no! So sorry to hear! I'm glad that you figured it out though ... but hate that it existed in the first place. I'll obviously be following along so I can hear about it. And doesn't Disney know she's too cute to be given rashes?

 

[Corrine 1973]

So I rushed right over when you told me you started your TR on my TR and I am still on page #2. Oh well, better late than never right. It seems I have been a little late to everyones TR.

What a great start to your TR. You definatly got me hooked. I am loving the pics of the kids just waking up in the morning.

Your SUV looks great. I bet the extra money was worth having all that extra room. I admite that I didn't even think about driving to WDW. There is no way that I could have driven for cheaper with gas prices, eating on the road (though we could have had a cooler), and having to pay for a hotel at least on night. Plus just being me able to drive I don't know how well I would have done with the 20 hour drive.

I don't remember seeing/hearing any cicada activitly hear since we got back.

Can't wait to read more and to see those pics.

 

[mrssmith06]

Yay, I'm here and reading along!

 

[lbuzz52]

I never even thought about how all the recent tornados could affect the rental cars. yikes, those employees probably were not having fun!

i'm glad the cicadas have stayed away from us. dd would probably wear a beekeeper's suit. she is such a bug hater.

i can't wait to hear your CBR thoughts. it tends to be loved or hated.