There is NO random dancing at Disney! A June TR *NEW 9/19 *FINAL THOUGHTS*

[cjackearl]

Hello everyone! Welcome to my very first trip report. I can’t wait to share all of the details of our amazing June Disney adventure with you all. The title will be explained shortly, so be patient.

If you’re interested in checking out any of the planning that went into this trip, click here:

The Earls Meet the Princesses: A June PTR

It includes handy dandy chapter links if you don’t want to read the chitter chatter.

On to the details:

When: June 15-22

Where: The Beach Club!!

Cast of Characters:

Me, Christine,39, Disney World devotee and general travel addict. I love most everything about the World; the planning and the rides and the resorts and the food and the characters and, and, and! I visited WDW 3 times as a child, once as a crazy college student and this was my second trip with a family of my own. This year I was the Keeper of the Itinerary and Main Family Herder.

DH, George,38(he likes to rub that younger man thing in) Wonderful husband and father. He shakes his head tolerantly when I obsess over planning minutae but loves our trips. His addictions are World of Warcraft, an online computer game, and tennis.

DD #1, Madeline, 11, thrill ride junkie and jokester. She loves music, including Broadway musicals. Her IPod is part of her regular attire and I find myself telling her to “unplug” frequently. She and George are roller coaster buddies.

DD#2, Amelia, 9 to turn 10 in August, a planner like her mom. My girly girl. She’s introspective and uncomfortable with new things, but she really pushed her envelope this trip!

DS, Ian, 4, all boy, loves swords, spy stuff, superheros and oh, dancing to Hannah Montana music. He can seriously do the entire Hodown Throwdown. This was Ian’s first memorable trip to Disney since the last trip when he was 7weeks old. He had some extra special experiences this trip that I hope he remembers for a long time.

Here’s a picture of our whole gang on our first night.



Thanks for boarding. Please remember to keep hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times. And away we go!!!

Chapter Index:

It's Really Dark at o Dark 30
What a Long, Strange Trip its Been
And the winner is...
Swimming with the fishes and Surprises in the Room
Animal Kingdom Part 1
Animal Kingdom Part 2
Title Explanation
AK Shopping results and Sanaa review
Watch out Zurg! Here Comes Ian!
TSI and a Missing Child!
A Magical MK Evening and Kona Cafe
Resort Day and Cape May Cafe
Downtown Disney
Follow the Green Line to Echpot
Photopass CD Arrived!
A Night of Planning Failures
Toy Story MADNESS, a magical mouse and a Jedi in training part 1
Part 2
Part 3
DHS afternoon and DTD evening
A Happy Epcot HDDR Father's Day
Part 2
An Illuminating Evening
We're late, we're late..
Part 2
Final Thoughts


Next post: It’s really dark at 0 Dark 30.

[MinnieNurse]

Found you. Cant wait to hear all the details and see pictures of Beach Club.

[Sunset Cliffs]

Yay! You have started your TR! Your family pic is SO cute. Our husbands would get along well.... Todd used to play that game all the time. He finally played it so much he got over it. There was one phrase that I got sick of hearing all the time, and of course I can't think of it right now. It will come to me, I'm sure. It wasn't "Yes, me lord", but it's one of the ones they repeat ALL THE TIME.

I wanted to tell you that I totally looked for your family the morning of our breakfast at Crystal Palace. Didn't you say you had an ADR there the same morning as us, only earlier? Our ADR was for 9:35 but I think we got seated around 9:50, so we probably missed you.

I hope you had a wonderful time and can't wait to hear all about it.

[MeMom]

That's a great looking family!
I'm looking forward to following along.

[BizuSF]

I love to dance

[BizuSF]

my fav color is blue...

[jenjolt]

I'm in!!! I can't wait to hear all about your trip!! My hubby is also younger than me (only by 9 months) and loves to rub it in my face that I married a younger man LOL!!!

Your family is just adorable!!

Bring on the TR!!

[Charleston Princess]

I'm here!!! I LOVE the title of your trip report, and that picture of all of you is great! I can't wait to hear all about your vacation!

[Planning fanatic mom]

I'm in. Where was that pic taken??? It is so cute, but I can't figure out where you are??

[mommytothreeboys]

YAY!! You started your report!

As I've said before, your family is beautiful! I can't wait to hear about the title and all of your adventures!

I, too, married a "younger" man....only 4 months younger though!
But..for that 4 months he doesn't let me forget it! (It should be especially bad next year when I turn 40 and he's still 39!)

Let's get this party started, shall we??

[Lady Lallie]

Yay!! Your TR has begun!! I can't wait to hear all about yoru trip. Your family is just adorable, I love the picture of you all from your first night.

[cjackearl]

Before going to bed on Saturday we packed up the car, put the kids in their traveling clothes, and set the alarm for 2:15. The PLAN was for George and I to get up, get dressed, do any last minute things that needed to get done and then wake up the kiddos just enough to load them right into the car and back into dream land. What actually happened was that George and I got up, got dressed, made sure everything was in order, and got the girls up and told them to go get in the car. I went into Ian's room, picked him up and took him in to the bathroom. While he's in there he says, "Where are we going? Are we going to Disney World?" And that, my friends, was the end of any thought of going back to sleep.

We left the house at 3:10 and kept the light off hoping the kids would fall back to sleep but nobody did. They were excited! We were on our way to Disney! Poor kiddos had no idea at that point how long that way was, but they were up for it. We finally gave up trying to get them back to sleep and let them turn on some lights. Maddy started watching a movie, Amelia was reading her Birnbaums for Kids and Ian jibber jabbed for a long while about the moon, stars and other things he could see out his window that usually not there during car rides.

We stopped at 6:30 for gas and breakfast sandwiches and shortly after that Ian fell asleep for a couple of hours. Whew. I mean, I like the moon as well as the next person, but really one can only hear so much about it before going slowly crazy.

We drove through Louisville at around 8:20 and had a great talk about what a fun destination it would be to visit some day. We'd love to make it home base, then visit Mammoth Cave and some other attractions near by. I have to say seeing bits of the country that my kids had never seen and talking about them was my favorite part of driving. We compiled a list of places we'd like to visit someday, and there are a LOT, which got my planning brain a cookin'. The girls were funny, taking pictures of the mountains in Tennesse out their car windows.

The rest of the morning and afternoon went smoothly. People napped on and off and about every 3 hours I'd pull something new out of the "magic bag" for the kids to do. I passed out movies, games, pipe cleaners, sticker books, legos (that was crazy) and some small snacks. Nobody complained a bit about the car ride and it was a long one.

I thought we'd make it to Valdosta by 6 or 7, but we didn't even get to Atlanta until 6ish so we had decision #1 to make. Should we stop in Macon for the night or stop for dinner and keep going until we hit Valdosta at around 9. Since everyone was still doing fine in the car, we decided to keep going after stopping for dinner. Decision #2 then was where to eat. The girls were voting for Cracker Barrel, but we didn't really want to stop for that long, and Ian was voting McDonalds, but ugh.
I said to George, "We've passed about 12,000 signs for Waffle House. What's that?"
"You've never heard of Waffle House?", he asked, eyes big as saucers.
"No. Is it like IHOP?"
He just shook his head and pulled into the parking lot of the nearest one. I have to say, Waffle House was just what we needed. We got to sit down but service was super fast and the food was not bad, especially the hash browns. Yummy!

Our bellies full, we continued on to Valdosta where we found a Sleep Inn waiting for us. It was a generic chain hotel and when we opened the door to the room Ian said, "We stayed here before!" We checked in, brought in the hotel bag, took quick showers and were in bed and asleep by 9:30.
The next day we'd be checking into the Beach Club!

Next post: Aren't we there yet and the check in WITH PICTURES!

[jenjolt]

Isn't it amazing what Disney Adrenaline can do to small children!! I'm glad the car ride was uneventful and the kids and you were having a great time!!!

WAFFLE HOUSE...I have one of those down the street from my house and every once awhile we will head down there for breakfast we LOVE it!! Glad you enjoyed your meal there!!

OOOH....Beach Club...pictures of Check In!! Can't wait!!!!

[Lady Lallie]

Sounds like a pretty pleasant drive. I'm scared to drive to Florida again. I've done it once as a child and once as an adult and the last time was horrible....but I think there were a lot of factors for that, who I was with, the teeny car we were in.

I'm so glad that the kiddos handled it well! Yay!!

[khertz]

I'm in & ready for pictures!!

Originally Posted by cjackearl

Our bellies full, we continued on to Valdosta where we found a Sleep Inn waiting for us. It was a generic chain hotel and when we opened the door to the room Ian said, "We stayed here before!"

Too too cute!!