Doing Disney a bit different this time! - 5K Race morning! updated 10.23

[NJlauren]

Welcome to my trip report!

I really had a hard time starting this report. For different reasons then last time. I just could not seem to get motivated as this trip was in Feb, and then i was home a week and went ot Miami for an Adult only trip and when we came back COVID started to hit hard in our area, and things are so uncertain it was hard to motivate me. I am hoping that maybe stating this report will bring me some joy! So i hope your along for the quick ride!

Anyway! here we go!

We headed to Disney in February for Princess weekend! Some background for this trip is just to much to post but some of it can be found in my PTR here... which i thought was done, but i brought back to life today!

We were in Disney February 19-23 So a quick weekend get away!

I am going to shorten the intros, but it was my family (pictured here on a walk last week).

Me Mom! I'm the queen as you can see from my shirt! The two princess are Dillon (5) and Maren (19 months on the trip) and Rob, DH who is even ready to be in Disney after being stuck in our ever shrinking house!

Not pictured but also on this trip is our Au Pair, We took her on this trip, she worked 2 days and joined us for 2 park days and went to universal one day and then to Miami to explore for 3 days before come home.

Also join us is my Sister and her Husband! They Eloped about a month before this trip!


Last but not least also joining us on this trip but again not pictured is my BFF, her husband and her son. They came for 2 weeks and we over lapped and it was so nice to see them! They are also supposed to be joining us on our next trip in Nov.

Thanks for joining in!​

 

[tinkerbell1991]

Joining along x

 

[NJlauren]

Joining along x

Welcome!

 

[DLo]

Hopping over from your latest TR . Looking forward to reading more about your adventures. I totally get your lack of motivation right now . It’s so hard to try and look forward to anything right now when you have no idea if your plans will be happening or not.

 

[missangelalexis]

Joining in!!

 

[VAtink]

I'm here! Can't wait to read more!

 

[NJlauren]

Hopping over from your latest TR . Looking forward to reading more about your adventures. I totally get your lack of motivation right now . It’s so hard to try and look forward to anything right now when you have no idea if your plans will be happening or not.

Welcome! Exactly but i am trying to stay positive because i can't let myself go down that rabbit hole!

Joining in!!

Welcome!

I'm here! Can't wait to read more!

Welcome! How are you! Do you have a fall trip planned this year?

 

[NJlauren]

We decided that me Maren and our Au Pair would travel early on Wednesday and Rob and Dillon would come in that night. Rob was worried about Dillon missing to many days of school, so he insisted she go Wednesday night to only miss Thursday and Friday. Looking back now I mean what’s 1 more day... Especially now that we are schooling at home.. but as they say hindsight is 20/20 right?

We had a 10am flight to Orlando, overall uneventful which is always good. The zipper on my bag did break going through security and that was a bit bummer for a few reason, it made for an annoyance the whole trip, and the bag was only about 9 months old!

Maren was ok, and well we had introduced a kindle fire tablet shortly before the trip so you know... that made it a bit better..



We landed and on time 1ish? and headed to the rental car. I had never rented a car in Orlando before and well i kinda messed it up. I went down in ( i think terminal A) and then we needed to cross to B to get the car (or the other way around?) Either way i was a bit frustrated by this, but turned out when we got to B the line was about 30 people deep so the walk wasn't to bad after all!

The plan was to head to Target or Walmart get some supplies and then check in to our rental house! Major change for us, i have NEVER stayed off site before!!

Well GPS was not our friend, i put it into Google maps and all seemed good, but then we tried the car navigation and it was a disaster, we started driving and well it just didn't look right. Finally we found a Walmart super market, and we pulled into the lot and i couldn't find the car keys! This was comical, finally realized they were in the sun visor... the Au Pair stayed in the car while Maren slept and i ran into get some stuff for the house!

When i finally got back to the car i used google maps instead of the car GPS and then everything started to make sense. We took a good 45 minutes detour, but it all worked out as we arrived at the house right around 4, which was check in! The house was lovely.

This is the reason for the trip report title! First offsite trip! Way different for us! Stay tuned to see how we liked it!

I did a horrible job and didn't take good pictures, but i did snap a pic of Maren freaking out when she saw all the fab 5 stuff! And i had to snap a pick of the Harry Potter room!


This has been very wordy... I promise more pics when we get to tomorrow!

Up Next Dinner
​

 

[missangelalexis]

Omg those themed rooms are too cute!!

 

[kastoney]

Brave soul doing 2 reports at once Very curious to see what you think about staying offsite. We've never done it though did Stay at Shades of Green a few trips back. While technically still on property we ended up missing the Disney vibe.

 

[Isabelle12345]

Joining in! I was in Disney at the same time... so bitter sweet to think about it now! I am certainly glad we went before CoVid-19, but it makes me sad to think of all the people who had to cancel their trip... and on a selfish note, that I won't be able to go for a while!
Looking forward to read about your adventures, especially the off-site house (we are considering this for our next trip, especially if social distancing is still in place... it would be nice to have our own space!)

 

[NJlauren]

Omg those themed rooms are too cute!!

They are really cute! The Kitchen which you will see shortly also was adorable, everything Minnie themed!

Brave soul doing 2 reports at once Very curious to see what you think about staying offsite. We've never done it though did Stay at Shades of Green a few trips back. While technically still on property we ended up missing the Disney vibe.

haha! I am almost done with the other report, dragging it out a bit... i wasn't even going to do a report for this trip but now i am missing Disney like A LOT so said why not!

Missing the Disney vibe happened for sure!

Joining in! I was in Disney at the same time... so bitter sweet to think about it now! I am certainly glad we went before CoVid-19, but it makes me sad to think of all the people who had to cancel their trip... and on a selfish note, that I won't be able to go for a while!
Looking forward to read about your adventures, especially the off-site house (we are considering this for our next trip, especially if social distancing is still in place... it would be nice to have our own space!)

Welcome! Thanks for joining in, if your doing a report let me know would love to follow along!

I know i am so sad about the lack of trips and Disney right now and i wasn't even supposed to be there! But our other trips to other places did get canceled and its way sad!

The space is the best part for sure! Do you have a trip planned for when you may want to stay at the house?

 

[Isabelle12345]

They are really cute! The Kitchen which you will see shortly also was adorable, everything Minnie themed!



haha! I am almost done with the other report, dragging it out a bit... i wasn't even going to do a report for this trip but now i am missing Disney like A LOT so said why not!

Missing the Disney vibe happened for sure!



Welcome! Thanks for joining in, if your doing a report let me know would love to follow along!

I know i am so sad about the lack of trips and Disney right now and i wasn't even supposed to be there! But our other trips to other places did get canceled and its way sad!

The space is the best part for sure! Do you have a trip planned for when you may want to stay at the house?

I have started a trip report but I am a very slow reporter...
We have a tentative trip planned for next spring break. We are from Canada so I doubt we will be able to go this summer or even in the fall... I am hoping we can get there in March but we will have to see how things go!
I am thinking the parks will be different by then so we might do a trip less focused on the parks (maybe just a few days...), so the extra space would be nice! I am also looking at houses or condos in a resort complex to get access to water parks / pools / playgrounds... no serious planning yet but it makes me happy to dream about a future vacation!
I will be happy to read more about this house and how you liked / dislikes the experience offsite!

 

[NJlauren]

I have started a trip report but I am a very slow reporter...
We have a tentative trip planned for next spring break. We are from Canada so I doubt we will be able to go this summer or even in the fall... I am hoping we can get there in March but we will have to see how things go!
I am thinking the parks will be different by then so we might do a trip less focused on the parks (maybe just a few days...), so the extra space would be nice! I am also looking at houses or condos in a resort complex to get access to water parks / pools / playgrounds... no serious planning yet but it makes me happy to dream about a future vacation!
I will be happy to read more about this house and how you liked / dislikes the experience offsite!

Found your report! Will try to catch up on it this week!

Not to spoil to much, but the house gets very mixed reviews, and it really comes out to personal decision... I did not hate it which is what most people thought was going to happen

Fingers crossed for you next year! I know i just heard the Canadian bored is closed till June 21st! We vacation in Maine in the summer, with lots of people from Canada visiting the same area, and my company is based in Toronto so i have been following a bit!

 

[KsGiGi]

Looking forward to reading about your trip. We have been thinking about staying off site on our next trip, so I am anxious to hear more about that also.

 

[NJlauren]

Looking forward to reading about your trip. We have been thinking about staying off site on our next trip, so I am anxious to hear more about that also.

Welcome thanks for joining in! Hopefully some of my info will be helpful!

 

[cajunfan]

OK, I need pictures of this house, lol...that looks like FUN!

 

[NJlauren]

OK, I need pictures of this house, lol...that looks like FUN!

There are a few more pics in the report but i am horrible of taking pictures of things like the rooms and food! haha!

 

[NJlauren]

So after we arrived at the house we unpacked the car.

I was happy to see the double stroller we reserved was delivered to the door and waiting for us, one plus to the house since this is not a great option on site any more.

We were meeting my BFF at dinner at Disney Springs, and i had shirts to bring them so i got them ready and proceed to leave them on the bed.

I have only been to Disney springs a hand full of times and i have never driven there... SO well this was fun.

We followed GPS and couldn't figure out parking and drove in circles for a bit, Is Disney Springs parking confusing or is it just me? Or after i do it a few times i will be fine?... But finally found a spot and went to dinner. We met my friends outside of Paradiso 37.


We checked in and were seated quickly. I hadn't been before but food was good and lacking pictures or details on what I ate.

I did get this drink which was made table side which was a fun little touch.

I am pretty sure it was a Strawberry mojito but that could be wrong . Maren saw the strawberries on the cart and the waitress was extremely nice and gave some to Maren, which made her really happy.

Maren did get a Quesadilla, which she didn't really love. But we took the left overs back to the house.

I did have to limit myself to 1 drink, first major negative for staying offsite.

Maren was getting pretty fussy and we decided to head back to the house. We made our way back to the car with no issues on getting back to the house.

We put Maren to bed, The Au Pair stayed with Maren and I went to CVS, i was very excited to see wine there!

One major negative to NJ is no alcohol in super markets or pharmacy type stores. Then I dropped off the shirts i forgot earlier to my friends and head to the airport to pick up Dillon and Rob.


They had an uneventful flight and we were home around 1030 and everyone was asleep.

Hopefully this is the last really text heavy update.​

 

[missangelalexis]

Sounds like the rest of your day was good!

I still get so amazed when I'm outside of NJ and see stores selling alcohol!!