24 hour drive home post-cruise

[stout]

We disembarked a fabulous 5 nights on the Magic (Lookout Cay is lovely now and will be incredible in years to come). We heard about the IT issues around the world (while watching the news and eating churro waffles yesterday), but did not think it would impact us significantly because we had a nonstop flight from FLL to home this afternoon.

We boarded our plane this afternoon in FLL, sat on the plane for 45 minutes, and then heard, “well gang, we are sorry to report that we do not have pilots for this flight and the flight is cancelled.” We got off the plane, learned that the earliest flight home was on Monday afternoon, collected our checked bags, rented a car, and now are headed for home…1800 miles drive from FLL!

Stopping first in Orlando to pick up some blankets and plushies (car-pets).

We just need to be home by midnight tomorrow…tomorrow will be a long day, but at least we had nothing planned. I would be more upset if we were trying to make a cruise rather than just trying to get home. Always an adventure!

 

[Marthasor]

Safe travels!

 

[auntlynne]

Yea! For finding a car.

 

[Girl of the South]

I used to drive the 24 hours between college in Sarasota and home in Connecticut. In the 1970's, gas for my Ford Pinto cost $38 and Tolls (bridges) were $12. Always stopped at South Of the Border in Hamer, South Carolina for pancakes. Nothing like a road trip! We stopped at truck stops for black coffee. To this day, I can't drink black coffee without thinking of those drives. Caffeine is the key . . . Let us know when you get home!

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

That sucks you had the whole hassle of the airport before it got cancelled!

We're supposed to be in California right now (not for a cruise, for national parks), but woke up at 5am today to find our flight was cancelled. They're getting us out tomorrow, but will have a 7-8 hour drive after that since the only way we could get there was by getting to a different airport, the cost of our rental car for our trip doubles, and the Yosemite hotel will not guarantee they won't cancel our reservation if we are beyond 7pm tomorrow (even though it's paid for, we've informed them of the delay, and we can't get any refund at this point). So maybe we will have 15 hours of traveling tomorrow (starting with waking up at 2:30am), and then find nowhere to sleep. I don't generally buy travel insurance for domestic travel, but I think I'm going to start doing that.

Anyway, safe travels. 24 hours is a long drive. Pull off if you need, change drivers frequently, and coffee. If you drive pretty late tonight and really need a break, sometimes hotels will give you a good discount when you check in late at night. We got one maybe around 1am once because we were exhausted and it was not safe at all to be driving, but we only slept there for about 5-6 hours before we were up and going again, and the front desk gave us a really good rate that time of night. Even a few hours deep sleep can get you recovered enough to push through the remainder.

 

[CamColt]

I'm sorry this happened but it seems like you found a way to make it work. It's not ideal, but it's doable.

We have done the drive Boston- WDW or Port Canaveral quite a few times, and even once to Miami and once (this past April) to Ft Lauderdale. Our first drive was right after 9/11 which sort of forced us to try it, and I found out I really don't mind driving. Something good came of it as we have taken more trips than we would have if we had to fly every time (especially school vacation weeks when air is outrageous).

I hope you are having a safe and uneventful drive home!

 

[AgentMama]

Hope you made it home safe!

 

[stout]

Hope you made it home safe!

We just got home at 12:36am. Tried to push through, but realized that was not a good idea, so we stopped and slept for 5 hours.

Next vacation I am bringing a few extra days of my daughter’s medication…that was the reason we had to get home tonight. One extra “just in case” dose is not enough.
To all of those with vacations missed due to the IT issues, I’m so sorry.

I feel blessed that we came out with very few negative implications and a family adventure to remember (and learn lessons from)!

 

[dreamer17555]

Glad you made it home safely.

With all the travel\flight mess lately (crowdstrike and others) I am rethinking of flying and just going to suck it up and do the 12hour drive (still arriving the day before)

 

[lanejudy]

Next vacation I am bringing a few extra days of my daughter’s medication…that was the reason we had to get home tonight. One extra “just in case” dose is not enough.

Very good recommendation! My rule of thumb is an extra day of medications for every 3-4 days we're gone. So for a weekend I'll take 1 extra day's worth, for a week-long vacation it's at least 2 extra, etc. I'd much rather bring home extra meds that we didn't need, than find ourselves stuck without.

 

[Becx N Gav]

Very good recommendation! My rule of thumb is an extra day of medications for every 3-4 days we're gone. So for a weekend I'll take 1 extra day's worth, for a week-long vacation it's at least 2 extra, etc. I'd much rather bring home extra meds that we didn't need, than find ourselves stuck without.

We did 3 weeks in California (we're from the UK) and I took an extra weeks worth - just in case!

I wish we could drive from the UK, would take a while but I bet much cheaper than flying!

 

[croschek05]

I have driven Long Island to Disney and back about 20 times. Leave 10:30 at night! Doing it again next summer. Doing a 4 night Disney Magic Cruise and then heading to Animal Kingdom Lodge for the first time! Very excited!