Disney 2009 - Insert Clever Title Here! - Trip report from 8/22/09-8/30/09

[karney]

Hello and welcome to my trip report!!! I have never written one of these but I am very excited to do so!!

We visit Disney annually, and it almost did not happen this year due to some budget constraints. One stressful week at work and the temptation of free dining was all it took for me to finally snap and book this darn thing! I can happily say that I am glad I did and it was very much so needed. I go back to work tomorrow but want to start getting people hooked to my report as it progresses over the week.

The Cast:
Me, Chris. 25 Years old and had a love for Disney plenty before I met my wife. She just happens to love it there too!!! Epcot is probably my favorite park. Here is a picture of me from a previous trip to the world:

Disney 08. For the record, I was stronger

My Wife, Keri. Also 25. She is very sick year round and the annual trip to Disney is what keeps her going. I usually push her around the park in a wheelchair all day. Despite it being hard work, it sure does counteract all the poor food choices I make while on vacation. 90 degree weather + 12 plus hours of wheelchair pushing is quite the workout
Her favorite would be magic kingdom. She has an obsession over the princesses but is madly in love with Tinkerbell!

Disney 08. Rare find in DHS.

The plan:
Driving down from Massachusetts. Projected time is a 19 hour drive. My father always drove down when I was younger but when it was just me and the wife we always flew. I wanted the experience of driving it myself just one time. I will allow 2 days of travel time. We are staying at All-Star Music this time around. In the past we usually stayed at a moderate or deluxe resort, but we decided to downgrade to a value since we really only go back to the hotel to sleep and shower. Last year we stayed at AKL on our honeymoon. I have 2 days set for MK, 1 for DHS, 1 for AK, 1.5 for Epcot, .5 for Typhoon Lagoon, and 1 for Universal Studios.

Next up: Pre-Disney. The drive down!

 

[Stasieki]

I'm looking forward to hearing about the trip.

 

[karney]

Part 1: Pre-Disney Adventures

The night before our big drive to Disney! We are all packed and ready to go...sort of. Everything might be packed, but it certainly isn't in my car yet...

Since I am so awesome at procrastination, it is now 11:30PM and I have to start loading my car so I can go to bed. Driving starts at 5AM! I shut Buddy, our Yorkshire Terrier, in the bedroom while I was loading the car so that I could keep the front door open and move FAST. Loading my car was like playing tetris. I have a small Ford Focus and had to pack in a ton of stuff, including 2 large bags of Medical supplies for Keri. Only 2 bags to go and there is still a good amount of room left, I did a great job! I am grabbing my last 2 bags to pack as buddy goes running past me. Uh oh...Keri opened the bedroom door. And out the front door the little guy went. Here we are, ready to go to bed right before a much needed RELAXING vacation and our dog escapes the house. Things sure did start off well...

Blurry Pic of our little rascal!

At first he was just in the front yard. As soon as we went outside to get him he bolted to the back. A few seconds later he is back in the front and I almost grab him. Almost is the key word here. He jets off to the neighbor's front door as I quickly pursue him, with Keri hobbling behind. I get close again and he takes off down the street, onto a side street that leads to a rather large residential area. I run back to Keri who cannot keep up, and grab the flashlight from her. I swear, if he wasn't wearing his collar we would have never found him. We just followed the sound of the jingling tags and eventually tracked him down to a house 2 streets down at the end of a dead end road. He starts going up to a house and so begins the chase in circles around the house multiple times. Cue Benny Hill theme song. I finally caught the little bugger and got his collar on. That was quite the scare. It is now past midnight and I need to get to bed. Good night!!!

Next morning and we are up for 5AM. We were on the road by 5:08 and our journey begins! Keri slept most of the morning while I drove. Nothing interesting here. Around 1PM we are in Virginia and stop for lunch at subway. Keri needed to grab something from CVS, and there was one down the road so we made a quick stop. Quick stop would have been ideal, but there were chains of traffic lights. An hour later we were back on the highway.

Midway through North Carolina was the first time we hit any traffic. I strongly recommend using an AAA Trip Tik if you ever need to drive somewhere. It worked like a charm getting us around major traffic areas and we hit NO rush hour traffic, even through NY and NJ. Anyway, back to NC. So after 45 minutes of traffic we reach the front. There were at least 10 emergency vehicles and a HazMat vehicle. The accident involved an 18 wheeler, which I can only describe as the worst accident I have ever seen. The entire Truck part of the vehicle was pitch black from char, and the entire cabin did not even exist anymore. Keri got a really good picture of it but due to technical camera difficulties we lost this photo. I am going to say that is probably a good thing. It was an amazing photo but I don't know if I would want to share such a terrible image with you folks. Gotta keep the Disney mood happy!

Finally reached South Carolina and passed South of the Boarder without stopping. I stopped there once as a kid and remembered how disapointed I was. I remember a billboard advertising a GIANT shark. I wanted to see it so bad. We got to the store where it was and it was a giant inflatable shark that hung from the ceiling. I remember looking at my mother and yelling, "That shark isn't even real, this place is a rip off!". I was probably 9 or 10, kids say the darnedest things. Anyway, they seem to have less signs up then they used to and the total count came to 53 billboards for south of the boarder starting 158 miles from it, including that one ambitious sign informing us that we missed the exit and that we could turn around at the next one.

Around 9PM I pulled off the road for the night. We stopped at a Sonic Restaurant for food. This was a big thing for us! There are ALWAYS ads on TV for Sonic but previous to this trip there were none up north whatsoever. I guess during our trip they opened one in Mass 2 hours from us. Well, the meal was awesome (for fast food) and we were off to the hotel.

Next morning we woke up, had a bit of the continental breakfast, and were on the road by 7:30AM. We made a stop for Gas in Georgia and we were on our way. About 5 miles later Keri realizes her phone is missing. We pull over and look everywhere in the car for it. I even try calling it. Nothing. So, we backtrack back to the gas station 5 miles back north and look for it there. No luck. First the dog and now this...shaping up to be a real good trip huh? Well, she ended up finding it in one of her medicine bags in the front seat. It must have fallen in. The phone was on silent so we did not hear it when I called. After the most epic facepalm maneuver of all time, we were back on the road to FL! We reached Disney property at 2PM. Wow, I had my time budgeted for 2 full days of driving but we literally hit that one traffic snag in NC and that was it. We don't even check into All-Star Music until tomorrow! We found a hotel in Kissimmee (spelling?) that was only 37 dollars a night. Sarologa I think it was called? It was directly adjacent to Old Town. We quickly went out for lunch at Cici's Pizza, another thing we do not have up north. Back to the room for check in and I pass out until 6PM!

After I wake up we go out to look for some fun. At this point it is raining pretty hard so we couldn't go do any mini golf. There was one on i192 that I really wanted to try to, looked really fun Oh well, we drove over to the Boardwalk and spent some time over there. Not much going on since it was only about 6:30 and it was raining. We quickly checked out a few shops, the new restaurant (did not eat there though), and grabbed some fudge from the candy store. Jellyrolls was not open yet.

Just a pic to keep ya interested. I promise there will be more pics in the next few updates, we didn't take much "pre-disney"

After we left Boardwalk we went over to old town to do some shopping. We grabbed a bite to eat at A&W and went back to the hotel to sleep. We plan on sleeping in a bit for 11AM checkout and then go get our Disney on!

Next up Part 2: Fantasia Mini Golf, Check-in, and DTD