Disney or Bust: 40 Hours in a car with 2 Toddlers

[bwilcox]

We've been back for a month now, so I thought I should write my TR before I forget all the details. I love living vicariously through trip reports; hopefully you can do the same with mine. Well, the good parts, anyway.
This was a first trip for my son and daughter, and the first trip I actually knew what I was doing (thanks Disboards!).Noelle is my adventurous 2-year-old who has NO fear. She’ll climb anything, play with anyone, jump into any body of water-so you’d better be watching! She loves Winnie the Pooh and “babies” (dolls), so I just knew she would LOVE IASW and the Pooh ride. Here she is blindly jumping off a ledge into Daddy’s arms:

Jonas is my cautious and reserved 3 ½-year-old. He does NOT like change and the unfamiliar, so I knew this trip would be a challenge to him. He’s my little

Also along are: (left to right)
Sherri (MIL), Jack (BIL), Jonas, me (Brooke), Noelle, Jon (DH), Brittney (sister and former CM), Cindy (DM)

 

[bwilcox]

We live deep in the heart of Texas, approximately a 20 hour drive away from WDW. We couldn’t afford plane tickets (however the rest of the family flew). So I stocked up on stickers, coloring books, small toys, magic marker pads, and just about anything a kid could want at the dollar stores to keep the kids busy in the car. Seriously, I probably spent $200 at the dollar stores, and we had one of those huge tubs that my DH grudgingly fit into the trunk with all the other suitcases like a game of Tetris. But with that tub-o-toys and our DVD player stocked with-what else?-Disney movies, I felt good about the drive ahead. We left at about 5:30 a.m.:

​

The kids did pretty well watching movies and playing until we stopped at a park for a picnic in Houston at 11:30. My DH searched for parks on his Iphone (how did we ever survive without those?), and we just happened across an amazing park that had interactive water features. It was an oasis amid the skyscrapers in downtown Houston. The kids LOVED it!

Back on the road an hour and a half later, the kids finally take a nap. When they wake, we start looking for a McDonald’s or Chick-fil-a with a playland so we can have dinner and the kids can run and play. Here’s where things start to fall apart. By this time we are in Louisiana. So Jon searches for McD’s on the Iphone, and as we drive by them we look for playlands. After all, in Texas, you can’t drive down an interstate more than 15 minutes without seeing a fast food restaurant with play equipment. Well, apparently they’re not as abundant east of the Texas border. We started going down the phone book calling every McD’s, and NONE of them had a playland! This was unbelievable to us, and Jon asked, “Do people in Louisiana not have kids or do they just not like to have fun?!” My apologies if you live in LA, but it had been a LONG time in the car, and the kids were getting very fussy. Us, too. So we decided to get food from a drive-thru and search for a park to have a picnic at. The kids started eating their food. In the middle of driving around trying to find a park, we found out for the first time that Jonas gets carsick. We also found out that a bottle of Lysol at a convenience store costs 7 bucks. Vomit all over the carseat, his Mickey shirt, the book he was looking at. By this time Jon is ready to give up and go home, but instead we press on. And here’s the kicker-as we finish cleaning everything up and get back in the car, what do we see across the street but a Chick-fil-a with a …wait for it…PLAYLAND! Oh well. Jonas is now upset because he doesn’t understand that, like his mom and dad, looking at books and coloring in the car makes him sick, so the tub with $200 worth of toys is now useless. The kids watch movies the rest of the evening. We finally get to the hotel in Tallahassee at about 11:30 that night, and the day ends much like it began:

 

[bwilcox]

14 hours down, 6 more to go. We leave the hotel at 9:30, stop for lunch at noon, and finally get to our destination around 4:30-Caribbean Beach Resort!

I’ve read mixed reviews about CBR, but we had nothing but positive experiences there. We had a Nemo room, which was always very clean. CMs were friendly and helpful. The food court was decent and never too crowded when we were there. And there are pools fit for a pirate!

Our rooms were in Martinique. The kids loved it-lizards, toads, rabbits, baby ducks, and birds everywhere. Here’s the view from our room:

No time to dawdle-off to the Poly for an ADR at ‘Ohana. Now this is the restaurant I was most looking forward to and the only one I was disappointed in. We had to wait an hour after our ADR to be seated. The Cms told us it was because they already had 2 large parties of 50 or more and we had to wait on a table for 8. This was the Saturday of Gay Days, and when we were seated, we saw one of the parties in the main room all wearing red shirts. It wasn’t their fault-I’m sure they didn’t mean to make us wait, but I was frustrated with ‘Ohana since I had planned our ADR so that we could get the kids in bed early in preparation for our first park day. Also, maybe it was because of these parties taking up so much room, but there were none of the children’s activities that I had read about and were looking forward to. Despite this, the food was very yummy (and abundant)!
This was AFTER we finished eating!

 

[MOmousefan]

Ah, the good old days! Vomit in the backseat. We suffered from sympathetic vomiting; when one hurled the other two responded in kind. Keep the TR coming.

 

[alliesmommy]

subbing!

Howdy from a fellow Texan who is driving down (over) to Orlando in September with a two year old.

Looking forward to hearing more!

 

[Northern Disney Girl]

Love this TR so far! Please keep it coming! I dream of driving to Disney some day! Our drive would be 30 hrs - one way! My kids are a bit older and a wee bit easier to entertain but 60 hrs in a car scares me a wee bit! It would be agreat experience though!

Ah, the good old days! Vomit in the backseat. We suffered from sympathetic vomiting; when one hurled the other two responded in kind. Keep the TR coming.

sorry for laughing! That is just too funny! I once threw up on my sisters head on a drive across the canadian praries! She was not happy so the next day she got back at me by throwing up in my lap!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Hey there from a Louisiana resident! You know, I've never thought about it but we don't have many McDonald playlands. We have tons of McDonald's but not very many with playlands. Our drive is anywhere between 14 and 16 hours (depends on the weather and traffic). We made the first drive when our kids were just 1 and 11 so I totally understand the whole spending $200.00 at the dollar store mindset. Even though the youngest is now 12, I still do that.

We love the CBR too! I think it's because the resort grounds are just soooo much different than what we see in Louisiana. As a matter of fact, we love it so much that we're headed back for our 4th stay there in just 14 days.

Looking forward to reading all about your Disney adventures.

Lisa

 

[cmfranklyn]

OMGosh! That is my nightmare. We drove 15 hours over two days and every time my 5 yo complained about his tummy hurting we made a pit stop. I cannot imagine having to clean everything.

Glad you made it in one piece! Can't wait to read the rest of your report.

Carole

 

[bwilcox]

We arrived at Magic Kingdom in time for the opening show, which Jon thinks is cheesy but brings a tear to my eye. Then we're off in the stampede to Dumbo! Not surprisingly, Noelle is excited in line, and Jonas is scared because "the elephants go too fast!". Yep, we were one of THOSE famililes-the ones people on the DIS complain about forcing their crying child to go on a ride, but this was Dumbo for goodness sake. I know my son, and I knew it was for his own good. He sometimes needs a little encouragement to step out of his comfort zone. And here's where I win the Bad Mom of the Year Award-I bribed him to ride-with food no less! I told him if he would just try Dumbo, then we would get a Mickey ice cream bar. He decided this was an acceptable deal, though he whined and sniffled the rest of the time in line. I am not exaggerating when I say that the very second that Dumbo started moving, he was in love with Disney. There is not a ride the rest of the week that we went on that he did not love. He wanted to do Dumbo again, but we moved on to Peter Pan, which turned out to be another of his favorites. Noelle, on the other hand, was a different story.

As soon as Peter Pan started, my normally fearless little girl started saying she wanted to get off. Same thing for all the "inside" rides, even Winnie the Pooh (as you can see from the above picture). I think it was the darkness of some, and the noise level. She isn't fond of loud noises, and many of the rides and attractions were very loud. She was even scared of Small World! I know many adults are, but for different reasons. She still loved Disney World-there are so many different things for kids of all ages! Her favorite was the "Pooh Park." We spent lots of time there.

After Dumbo, PP, and Winnie the Pooh, we noticed Ariel was in her Grotto even though it was only 9:30, so we went to meet her.

Then we played at the Pooh Park, ate the promised Mickey bar, rode the Carrousel, and IASW. By then it was time for our ADR at Crystal Palace. Everyone enjoyed meeting Pooh and friends:

Afterwards we rode Haunted Mansion. The CMs let us do a baby swap so Noelle didn't have to ride. Jonas LOVED the Haunted Mansion (well, Halloween is his favorite holiday. Pirates of the Caribbean was another favorite. We weren't sure how well Noelle would do on this ride. Luckily, she fell asleep and slept through the whole thing.The pirate show was pretty cool, too. Jack Sparrow was awesome!

We used our fastpasses for BTMRR and Jungle Cruise. Then we climbed the Swiss Family Treehouse. It gets a bad wrap here on the DIS, but Jon and Jonas especially loved it. I think it brings out the inner explorer in boys. Jonas wanted to ride Peter Pan again with our FP, so everyone went on that with him while Noelle and I stood in line for her favorite ride-Dumbo. It was probably the longest line we waited in all week-30 minutes. I had been worried before the trip that the kids would have a hard time waiting in lines, but there is so much to look at at Disney World that we never really had a problem, not even in this line. By the time we were done it was 4:00, and we decided to head back to the hotel to swim. In all, the crowds and weather were manageable. We had a magical start to the vacation!

 

[bwilcox]

Ah, the good old days! Vomit in the backseat. We suffered from sympathetic vomiting; when one hurled the other two responded in kind. Keep the TR coming.

Thankfully this was our only vomit experience. Jon made up a song during the drive that the kids still laugh about. It's called "This Car Smells Like Throw-up and Lysol!"

 

[bwilcox]

subbing!

Howdy from a fellow Texan who is driving down (over) to Orlando in September with a two year old.

Looking forward to hearing more!

My best advice is to plan on making lots of stops. It's a lo-o-ong drive, but totally worth it!

 

[Lamping3]

Oh...we are driving with our then 2yo DD in December. 20 hours for us too. I didn't even think about her getting carsick! Another thing I need to prepare for! Loving your pics so far!