Calling all Chicago DISers #2

[geffric]

our time is about 18-20 hours too..

we leave at 3 am and drive all day until about 11 pm or midnight that night .. we get to gainesville, FL , sleep for a short time and then into WDW the next morning...by about 10 am..


SLO - the new job is really busy and lots of work.. I just don't have time for anything anymore..

 

[crazy4dabean]

My best time was around 17 hours from Plainfield to Orlando. But, that was setting the cruise control at an even 100MPH most of the way. These days, I'm taking things much easier and laid back.

Gosh, I remember those days of driving all night long (and driving thru Georgia at night seemed endless ) I'm soooo glad that we fly now I really dont think I have the patience to sit for 18-20 hours straight only stopping for gas and potty breaks *which were coordinated as well lol*

 

[macraven]

our time is about 18-20 hours too..

we leave at 3 am and drive all day until about 11 pm or midnight that night .. we get to gainesville, FL , sleep for a short time and then into WDW the next morning...by about 10 am..


SLO - the new job is really busy and lots of work.. I just don't have time for anything anymore..

the problem i had was getting around the chgo traffic to the route i needed to go to orlando.

sometimes that can take up to 2 hours when construction is in season...


i have driven once from st louis to orlando.
still, a very long drive.

arrived at 5:30 in the evening but had to hit the bed and wasted the next day also from being overly tired.

flying is the only way for me now.
i hate giving up 2 or 3 days of travel time for when i could be using it for park time.

 

[Disneynut71]

I took the drive the twice last year. It took me a day and a half with a stop overnight for sleep.

The kids and I love the drive. We stopped a few times to see the sights and sometimes a song will come on the radio that we heard quite a bit on the drive and it reminds us of the fun we had that trip.

 

[piglet too]

Morning!

Lauren had a great birthday yesterday. We had the family over, and it was wonderful to see my nephew who is just home from boot camp.

Kevin is at Great America today with the 8th grade class trip.

 

[crazy4dabean]

Morning!

Lauren had a wonderful birthday yesterday. We had the family over, and it was wonderful to see my nephew who is just home from boot camp.

Kevin is at Great America today with the 8th grade class trip.

Chaperoning a bus load of kids to Great America? I tried that once with my daughters field trip to Naper Settlement. I needed a serious drink after that! It's still cool to go to Great America though. I know, we're getting seasons passes for the whole family

 

[SamIAm21]

Hey there!

Well, it was a busy two weeks trying to catch up from my trip. Hope everyone is doing okay. Haven't had a chance to catch up on posts yet! I'm really looking forward to this weekend! I have four days off! Woohoo! Megan has Tuesday off and I took that day off too! NLSD teachers are such slackers. They have like a week of school left, but they had no problem getting themselves a four day weekend out of the deal. Megan's school picnic is next week and she's really looking forward to that. We are also leaving for Florida on 6/4, but won't be in Disney until 6/11.

Megan and I watched half of Star Wars last night because we decided to hit the Studios on Week 2 of Star Wars Weekend. We are going to watch the first three, which are actually the last three now over the next few weeks. The original Star Wars series from the 70s and 80s. Geesh that Harrison Ford looked good back then!! I redeveloped my Wookie-love too. Chewbaca was just the cutest! His "expressions" were priceless! Megan already hates sand people and she hasn't even seen Jabba the Hut yet! Now's he's pretty horrible!

Anyone else have any big plans for the weekend, which is expected to be ooh sooo nice weather wise?? I'm going to Lowes tonight to get some red wood mulch and a few flat of flowers. Still waiting on our check from Uncle Sam because our accountant didn't click the right box for Direct Deposit. What a loser! Makes me wonder if he gets our taxes right!! It's supposed to come this week, so I can afford a few extras this paycheck. I'm trying to be extra frugal so that I have a little extra spending money in Disney. I plan on doing a few offsite restaurants and meals. I wasn't planning on booking any ADRs, but I ended up getting one for 50s PTC and then another one at Crystal Palace. I'm a sucker for a character meal! The 1900 Park Faire was booked solid, so Crystal Palace was the next best choice, food wise.

Well that's all for now!

Take care everyone!!

Sam

 

[julezdisney]

I don't know if they have 'em anymore but I poted in Budget Boards and forgot to repeat it on here- Lunchables has had coupons in their boxes for 1 free child under 11 with every paid adult and $10 off the adult admission $54.99 at the gate. Four fam of 4, that would mean $90 for the 4 of us- better than our local park or my work discounted ticket prices!

Just a quick tip!

Hi everyone!

So many things lately.... Hope everyone is well.

 

[paintnolish]

Another drive by here! Going to take the kiddos to lunch and then run errands. Keep your fingers crossed for me tomorrow- I have an interview at a high end Italian place (Maggiano's-ish). I so need the money. Just found out why I haven't gotten my stimulus check. Since I wait tables, I barely make anything per hour. I missed the income minimum by $200! Yep- cost me $900! Ugh!
Driving to FL- We did it once with my dcs. Not too bad, but much easier in the olden days when you didn't need to ride in a car seat. I rode in a sleeping bag in the "way back" for the station wagon, reading "Ramona" books. So safe, right?

 

[disneygal922]

Good Morning Everyone! i don't know why but i have been really flighty lately. can't focus on anything. i think it is the lack of sleep and stress. but it's making it hard for me to focus on the boards. it's not like i'm multi-tasking or anything. i read the posts but for some reason am finding it hard to respond to everyone! i just wanted to let you know that i am still reading and caring, just am having a hard time focusing. but if i miss something, i'm sorry in advance! Also, school is majorly stressing me out. i'm only taking 2 classes this summer and am getting quite frustrated and annoyed with it. i'm thinking of transferring to Robert Morris. They are about half the price of Harrington and are located in Orland and Chicago so that will hopefully work out well. I'm also doing research for the wedding. is it too soon for me to start purchasing things like favors or save the date cards, etc? i know we are 22 months out still but i think it would be easier on my wallet if i spread out the purchases.

Hope every one is doing well!

 

[paintnolish]

Dgal- Where are your priorities? I mean, really, this is the DIS for goodness sake. You need to find time!!!

 

[piglet too]

Fortunatly, I think it is all teachers who are chaperones today, I know I could not deal with it.

My younger two are getting free tickets for the reading program they did, so we "only" have to buy three tickets to go. Fanta (and other Coke products I'm sure) have $20 off coupons, so we will go early this year and use them.

 

[peterloveswdw]

Slo, Crissup, Geffric, and anyone else I may have missed - Impressive times. My time is 26 hours because whenever we would stop to rest, we would do so for about an hour every four or five hours. The van we use to go there has over 350 thousand miles on her. She needs to rest every now and then just so that we can keep her in the family for as long as possible.

Also, I am a speed limit freak so unless it is extremely important, like the day my niece was born, I am always at or below the speed limit. Still, driving 26 hours straight without sleep is impressive. My new record for driving straight without sleep is 42 hours. Chicago to Vegas. Slept two hours driving back.

 

[julezdisney]

......Still, driving 26 hours straight without sleep is impressive. My new record for driving straight without sleep is 42 hours. Chicago to Vegas. Slept two hours driving back.

That sounds dangerous. Are you some kind of insomniac?

Sorry, I'm in healthcare, and when I think of someone staying up like that.... I have to think of their health and if they're driving... those around them.

Hope I'm never on the road next to you!

 

[irish dancer]

Hi guys!

Wow, all of you fast (and brave ) drivers. I drove to WDW as a kid, no idea how long it took. We've never been brave enough with the kiddos to try it. We did drive to HHI for Spring Break, it was OK so we could probably do WDW but the 2 1/2 hr plane ride is so much better .

paint, mac and slo - thanks for the feedback on our Oct trip dilema. I've talked to a couple of moms at school with older kids. They all agreed that the 6th grade teachers are very nice and wouldn't have a real prob will DD missing. mac, the girls go to Catholic school so there isn't any strict policy on absences (thank goodness). I know she really wants to go and would love to see all the fall stuff so I'm sure she'll have a great time. Plus the change fee is $150 per ticket .

piglet - happy birthday to Lauren!! I'm glad you were able to see your nephew. Haven't been to Great America for years and no real desire to go, as the kids get older though I'm sure they'll start asking.

Sam - I hope you have a great trip. We've been during SWW, it is fun.
*We're going to BILs cabin in Wisconsin for the weekend, lots of up close and personal time with the family .

paint - best of luck with the interview, I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.
*Bummer on the stimulus check, why is it those that could use it most don't get it .

disneygal - I know how you feel, for some reason I haven't really been posting as much. Keeping up reading but just not posting.

 

[HERSEY]

I had to chime in we make it to Orlando in about 3 hours. How we let United do the driving.

It sounds like this is going to be a great weekend weather wise. I think I'm going to sit outside and catch some rays. I plan on getting warm finally.

Is my son the only kid who still has tons of homework. I honestly don't remember this late in the year having soo much homework.

 

[peterloveswdw]

That sounds dangerous. Are you some kind of insomniac?

Sorry, I'm in healthcare, and when I think of someone staying up like that.... I have to think of their health and if they're driving... those around them.

Hope I'm never on the road next to you!

Nope. Just extremely determined.

The original plans whenever I get behind the wheel for traveling is to stop in a large city for the night and stay at a hotel. Thing is, I don't drink coffee often, if at all. So if I get a cup of coffee, I'm usually awake for a loooooooong period of time. Plus, I always like to look at and remember everything from the start of the vacation till we get home.

For those of you that are curious, I was awake for a grand total of about 60 hours when we went to Vegas and about 64 hours coming back, though there was a 2 hour nap in there somewhere between Oklahoma City and St Louis so it wasn't really straight through. My personal best for staying awake for our Disney World trip is 38 hours straight.

Yes. I am extremely determined.

 

[macraven]

Macraven - That would put you in the Gurnee/Waukegan area, am I right? It's so cool to meet people from my neck of the woods.

.

bingo, you are so close...
i'm a ten minute drive to six flags.

near the border of wisconsin is the town i am in

 

[slo]

OMGosh - So Tired!!!!!!!!!
Our Furnace and Air Conditioning installation didn't get finished until midnight The guys started at 9am, and they finished at 10:30pm. They then realized that the hot water tank wouldn't light up, so they had to call someone else to the house, to fix that problem. That was then finished at midnight. Kevin kept telling me to go to bed, but I wanted to stay up and keep him company. We both get up at the same time, so we may as well suffer our tiredness together


While the men were working yesterday, I had a very awesome, productive day I cleaned Katie's room (this took forever, but I threw away 2 bags of garbage, and have a HUGE bag for Goodwill), went through both girls closets (took out small clothes, and moved winter to summer things around), sorted things out in the playroom (it's no wonder why those girls never find anything, they never put things away properly), did several loads of laundry, and other misc things. I was very happy with my day!!!!!!


Crissup - You have a good drive time too
When we drove, Stephanie was 3, and the only time we stopped was for us (the parents) to go potty (I had a portable potty that Stephanie could use anytime in the car) and the drive-thru for food (we always ate in the car while driving). It was quite the adventure - good memories!!!!!

geffric - I'm sorry that work is so busy. Where (location) are you working now? Are you still going into the city?

Crazy - You reminded me, we did stop for gas too I didn't mention that as a stop. I"m glad we fly now too, because Katie wouldn't have the patience to sit that long She's never been as patient as Stephanie.

Mac - Kevin was exhausted the next day too, and this is why he doesn't like driving either.

Disneynut - That's great that you and the kids have such a fun time driving - that's great memories for you guys!!!

piglet - Happy belated birthday to Lauren arty:
**How was Kevin's day at GA?

Sam - That's great that you have a 4 day weekend
**I was watching The Empire Strikes Back the other night, and now I want to watch Return of the Jedi. I actually really want to see the prequels, but I never have a chance to because Kevin has no desire, and Stephanie doesn't like Stars Wars at all
**I need to get going with my ADR's for October. I did make my LTT ADR last weekend, and I'm glad I did, because there wasn't many times left to choose from We are also going to some offsite restaurants this year, since we are staying offsite. We are having dinner at Shells one night, and I'm excited because I love that place. They have the best Shrimp Fettucines Alfredo

Julez - Thanks for telling us about the coupon!!!!

paint - Good luck with the interview!!! Please keep us posted on how it went.

DG - I'm sorry you are so stressed out Whenever you need to talk about things, you always have us to talk to

Peter - That's good you drive the speedlimit - I can't say the same I've always had a lead foot, and I can never get to where I"m going fast enough. The only time I drive the speedlimit, is this time of year in the subdivision. I"m always nervous about a child running out into the street in front of me.

ID - I'm glad everything will work out with continuning to go to WDW in October

HERSEY - I'm sorry Alex still has tons of homework. Stephanie is still bringing the same amount of homework, and she is having a hard time concentrating on it. This week is the last week for spelling words, and I'm so glad, because I'm tired of fighting with her to study them .




Well, I gotta run and color my hair - no workout today
I'm to tired, and not in the mood, so I'll color my hair instead
Have a good day today everyone!!

 

[SamIAm21]

Okay,

Who else is starting to really freak out about these gas prices. I'm getting way out of sorts about them. There was a guy on the news this morning that said gas was going to hit $12.00 a gallon in the next two years. I almost fainted!! How in God's name is anyone supposed to get to work or just live normally. I feel like the grasshopper that's been dancing around and playing when I should have been socking away every last morsel of food. I keep thinking I have way too little savings to get by under those types of conditions. I picture expressways completely empty. I don't live in a great area for not being able to drive. There are no stores I could even walk to unless of course, that little corner liquor stores starts stocking food instead of beer.

YIKES. I gotta get talked off this ledge!!

I told Megan this morning that we are going to enjoy this trip to Disney because I really fear it may be our last for a very very long time. Eeek! I almost feel that I should cancel this whole shebang and save the money.