"Are there any thrill rides in this park?" June 5-11, 2011

Intros:
IMG_1591.jpg


Doug – My DH. He works in the pipeline construction industry. That means very long hours and usually far away from home. He also is a hunter, and films his hunts for a popular production company. You can watch Doug on their TV shows and DVD’s. Doug loves to hunt and fish, and takes the boys with him as often as he can.

IMG_1442.jpg


IMG_1707.jpg


169.png


Brandy – Me! Trip planner and executor and reporter. I did everything, everyone else just had to show up. I like to read, watch our boys play sports, and hunt with Doug. I own a small business in our home town. I have young part time employees who always want extra hours in the summer, so they were glad to cover for me while I was gone.

IMG_1504.jpg


069.png



IMG_1703.jpg


Coltin – 15 year old son. He had just finished his freshman year of high school. Scary stuff! He’s a pretty great kid, but he does have some normal teenager-ish attitude sometimes. He likes to play baseball and football, run track and listen to and record rap music. He hunts with DH, but I think he would rather be on the editing side of the camera.

IMG_0771.jpg


IMG_1619.jpg


This is how most of his pics turn out. He's not in to being photographed right now. lol.


IMG_1621.jpg


Eli – 5 year old son. He actually turned 5 on our trip and having a birthday at WDW has to be the coolest thing ever! He likes all sports and can’t wait til he is old enough to play football. His goal in life is to be just like his big brother.

IMG_1707.jpg


IMG_1746.jpg


IMG_1719.jpg

 
I'm in! We were there some of the same days as you! :thumbsup2

I was going to post the same thing on your thread. lol. I loved the pic of you with your sisters in the Mickey ears at the airport!

Thanks for joining!
 


I was going to post the same thing on your thread. lol. I loved the pic of you with your sisters in the Mickey ears at the airport!

Thanks for joining!

Thank you! Can't wait to hear if we were at any of the same parks!
 

Back Story
We had planned to surprise the kids with the trip, but Coltin found out about it 3 days before we left! I was a little disappointed, but it was better than him hearing the surprise and not being excited. We did tell Eli the night before the trip, but I didn’t get the immediate reaction I was looking for. He did get excited when all the grandparents came over to say goodbye and give him money for souvenirs. He had a hard time going to sleep that night.
The Details:
When: June 5-11
Where: All-Star Music Family Suite
How did we get there: We drove 890 miles (one way!)
Tickets: Basic MYW
Dining Plan: Yes, regular version

Daily Plan:
Saturday, June 4: Traveling day 1
Sunday, June 5: Check in Day, Magic Kingdom Whispering Canyon Café 7:00pm,
Monday, June 6: EPCOT, Teppan Edo 1:30 pm
Tuesday, June 7: Animal Kingdom, Chef Mickey’s 7:30pm
Wednesday, June 8: Free day
Thursday, June 9: Hollywood Studios, Sci-Fi Dine In 1:30 pm
Friday, June 10: Magic Kingdom, Crystal Palace 8:35 am
Saturday: Check out day, repeats or do-overs

Next up: Traveling to the happiest place on Earth!
 


I had our trip all planned out, but I didn’t have a solid plan on how to get to Orlando. I knew we would be driving, and the approximate route we would take, but I didn’t have a definite plan on when we would be leaving. Doug didn’t know when he would be getting off work for our vacation. It was possible that he would have to work on the 4th, which we had planned to be our 1st day driving. Doesn’t his boss understand we need to get out of town?!?! So with that in mind, I started packing the kids a few days ahead of time. I made sure all the laundry was done, made arrangements with the girl taking care of our outside dogs and watering the plants, left my little dog with my mom, had someone washing the towels at work, and had the schedule made for the employees. I got the car’s oil changed and tires rotated. I filled up the gas tank. Then, Doug got to come home on Friday the 3rd! We would be able to leave early and spend the night on the road at the beach to play a little on the way. :banana:

Bright and early Saturday morning I got up. All of the bags were packed but they needed to be put in the car. I got dressed and loaded as much as I could before waking Doug up.

IMG_1866.jpg


Eli was really happy that I had those snacks packed for the drive. We woke the kids up to get dressed and eat a quick breakfast. We got everyone and everything loaded and pulled out of the driveway!

We left at:

IMG_1868.jpg


This was later than I had planned. We were going to drive about 8 hours to either Destin or Panama City Beach, depending on where we could get a room for the night.

Eli was excited! :yay:

IMG_1867.jpg


Colt was already plugged in.:cool2:

IMG_1870.jpg



Doug drove 1st because he knew the route at the beginning of the drive.

IMG_1869.jpg


Crossing the Mississippi River.

IMG_1873.jpg




We drove about 200 miles before stopping to eat lunch at Arby’s. Gourmet! But we don’t have one in our town, so at least it is different. I drove after lunch. About 115 miles after lunch we hit I-10 in Gulfport, MS where we stopped for gas.

IMG_1874.jpg


We drove on to Mobile, and waited in traffic for about 30 minutes before we could go through the tunnel! We finally arrived in Destin, FL about 5pm. We couldn’t find a room anywhere that we wanted to stay. Doug drove for a while and I looked from my iPhone trying to check in somewhere. And then, it started pouring! We knew there would be no beach time before the sun went down, so we decided to head to PCB to find a room for the night.

Once we got there, we found a room at The Palmetto Inn. It wasn’t ideal, but it was clean and it would do for only one night. We wanted a Gulf view. Why did I think I could get this without a reservation? We got our overnight bag out of the car and went to eat. We were at the beach, and where did we go? Longhorn Steakhouse. Yes, I have a few carnivores in my household. Lol. So after a delicious supper, we headed back to our motel and walked on the beach in the moonlight because it had finally stopped raining.
We planned to get up in the morning and head to the beach for a little while before getting back on the road to WDW. We had to check out by 10:30 am, so this wouldn’t put us too far behind.
 
I'm enjoying you TR. Is this the first one you've ever written? I"m not sure if I could ever do something like this. I've read a few here on the boards aand always say I wish I would do this but not sure if I could. Anyway great job so far I'm sure you had a blast!
Did you say you drove 800 miles one way?!
It's 1,300 (RT) miles from MA 800 1 way seems kinda high from Arkansas??
 
Great TR so far! We were there from the 8th-12th. :)
Destin is my favorite beach and yeah it would be impossible to get a room there with no reservation, lol. ;) We love PCB too though, I hope you had a nice night there!
Can't wait to read more about your trip!
 
I'm joining in :) My SO is a huge hunter. He managed to talk to several people in lines during our trip about it, lol.
 
I'm enjoying you TR. Is this the first one you've ever written? I"m not sure if I could ever do something like this. I've read a few here on the boards aand always say I wish I would do this but not sure if I could. Anyway great job so far I'm sure you had a blast!
Did you say you drove 800 miles one way?!
It's 1,300 (RT) miles from MA 800 1 way seems kinda high from Arkansas??

This is my 1st attempt at a trip report. I really want it for myself to help remember the trip, but I might as well share it here too! I really is that far from AR. I guess it's longer because we have to drive east as well as south. And the detour to the beach added to our travel.

Great TR so far! We were there from the 8th-12th. :)
Destin is my favorite beach and yeah it would be impossible to get a room there with no reservation, lol. ;) We love PCB too though, I hope you had a nice night there!
Can't wait to read more about your trip!

Thank you! I did have a reservation at PCB a couple of days before we left, but DH didn't know for sure if he would be off work, so I cancelled it. The kids and I did go back to Destin with my MIL for 4 nights, so they got more beach time.

I'm joining in :) My SO is a huge hunter. He managed to talk to several people in lines during our trip about it, lol.

Welcome! I always tell people that Doug would rather bowhunt than sleep or eat. lol. He got really excited once we got on property and he saw a deer crossing sign.
 
Looking forward to hearing more. We are staying at the All Star Music in a suite 8-7 to 8-13. Will be taking DD who is 15 and DS twins who are 12.
 
Looking forward to hearing more. We are staying at the All Star Music in a suite 8-7 to 8-13. Will be taking DD who is 15 and DS twins who are 12.

We really enjoyed having the suite! 2 bathrooms and a place to close the door at night so we didn't have to hear the TV or computer noises all night long. Teenagers stay up LATE! lol.
 
Travel Day 2
We got up this morning around 8 am. We had to cross the road to get there, but we hit the beach early. No crowds at this rope drop! We traveled light since we wouldn’t be there long, so there are no pictures from PCB. I will share a few pics from our trip to Destin. Eli had never seen the beach and had so much fun jumping over the waves. Colt hadn’t been in a while and really enjoyed being in the water too. When we went to Destin Colt mastered the art of boogie boarding.

IMG_2063.jpg


IMG_2059.jpg


IMG_2060.jpg



We had to check out by 10:30, so we quickly showered and got packed and got back on the road. Doug drove 1st again this day while I took a little nap. We stopped in Tallahassee to get some gas and eat lunch. We really weren’t in a hurry to get to WDW, so we ate at Red Lobster. I didn’t take any food pictures because my family would have thought I was insane!

We did get some comments on our shirts though. My big idea for a great photopass pic for our 1st day at WDW was for all of us to be wearing red AR Razorback shirts. The waitress asked us if we were fans. I also promised my family this would be the only time I asked them to match.

After lunch I drove the rest of the way. We were trusting the map on my iPhone to get us there. Now if you noticed in my daily plan post, we had a 7:30pm ADR at Whispering Canyon Café. It was obvious to us that we would not make it since we went to the beach Sunday morning. I called the reservations line and was able to get one for 9:15 that night. So, we just drove and didn’t worry too much about getting there super fast. We did get stuck in some traffic around Ocala. There was a truck on fire on our side of the road! Hopefully whoever was in there was okay.

Up next, we arrive at All Star Music Resort!
 
Hi from Arkansas!

Yes, it really is that far from here to Disney! :lmao: We drive, too! I always say they should just poof in a new road :wizard: so that we don't have to drive North East to go South! That road to Memphis sure seems long...:rolleyes1

So, how far out of the way is it to stop at the beach? We just can't decide which route we like best, but haven't gone through Mobile. If it's not too bad, maybe I can talk my DH into making a stop there sometime. It's so hard to go to Florida without going to the beach, but we don't usually go once we're there because it's so hard to leave Disney once you're there! :laughing:

I can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip! :goodvibes
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top