Driving 42 hours to see the mouse..

[ZanyToes]

Yep.. we drove from Waco, TX so it was about 42 hours round trip. I know.. that makes us seem insane but I figure I'm in good company here

First, let me introduce the cast.

There is me..

My husband (who puts up with my disney obsession by ignoring it and taking me every few years and only complaining about it about 2 times per trip )
and because he doesn't like Disney I'm going to use this picture of him that my 4 year old took w/ my easy camera.

And then there is the kiddo cast..

We've got the sweet yet loves to ask annoying questions age kiddo named Brianna who just turned 7 last month.

The amazingly full of energy and instigator of all noisy fights or tickle fits Lorien who is 4.5

And the quiet cute and cuddly but pretty horribly behaved Rohan who is 2.5.

So yeah.. we are loading those 3 things into the truck for a 42 hour round trip drive. Lord.. help us! (and I say that as a literal prayer.. I think I prayed that more than once LOL)

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The pre planning..

We went to Gatlinburg TN. about 6 months ago which was our first vacation since we went to Disney about 3 years ago. Much to my shock my husband agreed to take me back to Disney when we got back so I booked that day before he could back out

I booked the Poly, then backed out of that because of cost, then I booked a family suite.. and backed out of it because of cost, then I decided to just do a value (we did have a PIN code though) and let Lorien decide what hotel she wanted on her birthday. She chose POP which is where we stayed at last time.

So.. our 180 days out to reserve our ADR fell only 4 days after I booked our trip.

Guess what day it fell on?

The date that the 90 days changed to 180 days. yeah.. trying to get in on that day was FUN. But I managed and got all of our meals booked.

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The week before the trip I decided to buy this baby..

because..

1- I could take some good videos instead of using my iphone
2- it's waterproof and tiny so no worries about hauling my big professional camera around disney and having to buy a new one before the next wedding I photograph if something happened to it.
3- it takes pictures too

So.. got that in, made the kiddos some outfits.. and we were ready to go.
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Day 1 to follow!

 

[3LittlePirates]

Cant wait to hear about your trip

 

[3lilpiggies]

This should be good.

 

[mom2shayleeandlogan]

Your kids are very cute! can't wait to hear about your trip!

 

[ZanyToes]

So... Day 1.


I packed up everything the night before except for our bathroom bag. We woke up bright and early at about 5:30 in the morning (we are a total sleep until 9:00 every morning crew so that's EARLY for us) then started driving. We had 13 hours to drive to get to Pensacola Beach and wanted to hit it with a few hours of daylight so the kids could play in the water a bit before going to our hotel.


About 2 hours into the drive a bathroom stop was needed so we found this gem.

I'm pretty sure the last person that cleaned it died about 30 years ago.

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Much to our shock the kids were GREAT on the drive!

There were some fusses but mainly tickle and pest each other giggle fits and much other goofiness.

It wasn't long before they fell asleep and slept for a bit

The kiddos were VERY impressed with the many bridges we crossed on the way there.

Notice the slightly cloudy skies. Yeah.. that got worse.

By the time we actually got close to Pensacola it looked like this..

And by the time we arrived it was raining so hard you couldn't see the road. So.. the beach got skipped.


So.. we got to the hotel at around 6:00 and settled in..

I went to a nearby drive thru and got us food since it was raining so hard outside and we just ate there. We pricelined this and were very happy with the result. Only $40! Was quite nice and brand new and included a good breakfast.

So.. we had an early night that night and got ready for the next day.

 

[DSNY4ever]

That is a long drive! Can't wait to hear more.