"For 2,000+ Mile Round-Trip Drivers Only!" (Part V)

[disneysteve]

We will be driving from South Jersey to Disney in a couple of weeks..

We are in South Jersey too! Camden County!

Greetings from Cherry Hill!

 

[deedeew80]

Greetings from Cherry Hill!

Gloucester City here!

 

[TheHamm]

I find this absolutely funny.
We drove back home via I-75 in January there was quite a bit of construction and chaos around Atlanta when we needed to reenter after stopping for the kids. There was limited signage for the roads -they were lying down on the side of the road, but I could not even read them from the passenger side as we drove by- and it took several miles before we were sure what road it was at all. TEN MONTHS LATER we got a letter about the toll violation. The time lag is somewhat comical to us, and jogged our memory to the adventure we had driving down and back. I can't wait to make the drive again, and I will continue to despise driving through GA.

 

[disneysteve]

Gloucester City here!

Not far at all. I used to work on Yorkship Square in Fairview Village and would head over to Gloucester City for pizza at Jacqueline's sometimes.

 

[deedeew80]

Not far at all. I used to work on Yorkship Square in Fairview Village and would head over to Gloucester City for pizza at Jacqueline's sometimes.

Such a small world!

 

[toolmanjan]

We will be driving from South Jersey to Disney in a couple of weeks.. We typically use I95 to I4. Are the rest stops opened along the highway? Are they clean? This will be our first trip outside of our home town and we want to be careful.

search I95 rest stops on google. There are lists of all the stops north and south bound. Most are well maintained. The only rest stops I would complain about were in Florida south of the welcome center.

 

[deedeew80]

We will be driving from South Jersey to Disney in a couple of weeks.. We typically use I95 to I4. Are the rest stops opened along the highway? Are they clean? This will be our first trip outside of our home town and we want to be careful.

Also, a great app is I-Exit! It will give you a heads up of what’s at each upcoming exit on all different highways, not just 95.

 

[dvczerfs]

search I95 rest stops on google. There are lists of all the stops north and south bound. Most are well maintained. The only rest stops I would complain about were in Florida south of the welcome center.

Why is that? The few south of the welcome center are always dark and dingy looking.
We stopped to take a snooze a few years ago at the one and just always got a funny feeling about that place.
Almost as bad as the Georgia welcome center heading north. We always hit it around 5am and it always just looks shady for some reason. Lol. Dark, only a few car around , not even a lot of trucks.

 

[LBHouse]

Our family returned from Disney to Michigan one week before shut downs started. We had planned to sit this fall out to build up DVC points and take a few different vacations. Our next trip is planned for February 2021.

 

[dvczerfs]

Our family returned from Disney to Michigan one week before shut downs started. We had planned to sit this fall out to build up DVC points and take a few different vacations. Our next trip is planned for February 2021.

We were there the same time last year!!!
We are also going the end of this February.
after that, I’ll be a resident. Just another disqualified 2000 plus mile driver. Hopefully everyone can start driving again, I’m on the record board and I would like to see someone else take over. I have one more trip to make. Well, probably a few more next year but that will be moving trips so they won’t count.

 

[LBHouse]

We were there the same time last year!!!
We are also going the end of this February.
after that, I’ll be a resident. Just another disqualified 2000 plus mile driver. Hopefully everyone can start driving again, I’m on the record board and I would like to see someone else take over. I have one more trip to make. Well, probably a few more next year but that will be moving trips so they won’t count.

I am on the leader board right behind you. 52 trips so far. We usually get 4 trips per year, so its going to take a LONG time to catch up. Especially because we have been thinking maybe 3 trips a year for awhile. We just bought a new passenger van. Excited for space, not excited for 12mpg.

 

[VandVsmama]

We will be headed from AZ to Orlando at the end of May for a mega-road trip to WDW. My DH thinks that if we are all stuck in the car together, then our 12 and 14 yr old DDs will be “forced to talk to us.”

 

[bluezy]

We will be headed from AZ to Orlando at the end of May for a mega-road trip to WDW. My DH thinks that if we are all stuck in the car together, then our 12 and 14 yr old DDs will be “forced to talk to us.”

LOL! Good luck with that! All we ever heard from our teens during our 1,000 mile drive to Disney was:

"Why are we stopping again?" (we stop every 2 hours or so for a bathroom break)
"I don't have cell service! When will I get it again???? I'm trying to watch a movie!!"
"When are we getting lunch/dinner?"
When stuck in traffic: "How long is it going to take until we start moving again?"
"Can we stop at __________????" (fill in the blank with whatever store, tourist attraction, restaurant, etc. that was on the last billboard we passed)

And my favorite: "I'm putting in my headphones to listen to music/watch a movie. Don't talk to me."

Gotta love teens!

 

[VandVsmama]

LOL! Good luck with that! All we ever heard from our teens during our 1,000 mile drive to Disney was:

"Why are we stopping again?" (we stop every 2 hours or so for a bathroom break)
"I don't have cell service! When will I get it again???? I'm trying to watch a move!!"
"When are we getting lunch/dinner?"
When stuck in traffic: "How long is it going to take until we start moving again?"
"Can we stop at __________????" (fill in the blank with whatever store, tourist attraction, restaurant, etc. that was on the last billboard we passed)

And my favorite: "I'm putting in my headphones to listen to music/watch a movie. Don't talk to me."

Gotta love teens!

It totally made me laugh when my DH said that.

We haven't done a big road trip like this before. I've resisted in years past because, well, I know how it'll go for our immediate family. My DH has fond memories of this one road trip that he went on when he was a kid to some of the national parks in southern Utah. But when you ask my MIL about that same trip, her version is something along the lines of "Oh my gosh, that was a miserable vacation."

DH has been talking about doing a mega-road trip family vacation since our kids were born. So this was a decent compromise, I thought...the kids & I will get our Disney fix and DH will fulfill his desire to spend days on the open road.

 

[deedeew80]

We leave NJ in 23 days!! Can’t wait! This will be our third drive to FL with kids, but hubby’s and I’s 4th drive. I’m not a huge fan, hubby loves it, the kids are back and forth with it. They are 10 & 8 so hopefully it won’t be too bad. We usually drive straight through on the way down, but stop halfway on the way home. But we always have the option of stopping on the way down if we need to. We leave between 3-4am. We don’t drive over night because the kids, or I, can sleep in the car! We should arrive around 10 as long as all goes well.

 

[bluezy]

It totally made me laugh when my DH said that.

We haven't done a big road trip like this before. I've resisted in years past because, well, I know how it'll go for our immediate family. My DH has fond memories of this one road trip that he went on when he was a kid to some of the national parks in southern Utah. But when you ask my MIL about that same trip, her version is something along the lines of "Oh my gosh, that was a miserable vacation."

DH has been talking about doing a mega-road trip family vacation since our kids were born. So this was a decent compromise, I thought...the kids & I will get our Disney fix and DH will fulfill his desire to spend days on the open road.

We've done the 2,000 mile roundtrip to Disney 8 times so far -- always with anywhere between 2 and 5 kids in the car. Actually there was only one trip that we had all five kids with us and at that time they ranged in age from 4 to 22. That was an interesting trip. After that one, the older boys decided to drive or fly themselves and just meet us at Disney. In general, we enjoy the drive and DH & I plan to do a cross-country road trip after he retires. We won't be taking any kids on that trip. We helped our son move to TX for a summer co-op job last year. That was our longest road trip to date (3300 miles roundtrip).

I hope your trip goes well!

 

[dvczerfs]

111 days for us but who’s counting? I don’t even remember how to get to wdw anymore without looking at a map, it’s been 8 months.
lol
Still working on the house, getting the electrical done. Or well on its way. I just don’t have the patience anymore. Lol
Storage areas are all cleaned out. Going down lean and mean. Still watching the housing market and the four corners area is it!
We have now turned our attention to short term rentals. Finding a house is easy, finding a rental is nuts.
(This will make my phone ring, this is new information) lol
Our DD, who is a Disney College Program Alumni, has decided she is heading down with us in March/April to live with us and not wait till fall of 2021. She started looking for a job in the Orlando area, figured my take some time, she has her second interview at a Orlando law firm this Tuesday, she may beat us down there. Lol
If your friends with any of us on FB, please don’t post anything, she is currently employed here in Pa and don’t want anyone to know.
She is very excited to become a Floridian again.
As the time keeps ticking away, it is getting more and more interesting and we can’t wait.
That’s it for now, stay safe everyone!

 

[LadyBeBop]

111 days for us but who’s counting? I don’t even remember how to get to wdw anymore without looking at a map, it’s been 8 months.
lol
Still working on the house, getting the electrical done. Or well on its way. I just don’t have the patience anymore. Lol
Storage areas are all cleaned out. Going down lean and mean. Still watching the housing market and the four corners area is it!
We have now turned our attention to short term rentals. Finding a house is easy, finding a rental is nuts.
(This will make my phone ring, this is new information) lol
Our DD, who is a Disney College Program Alumni, has decided she is heading down with us in March/April to live with us and not wait till fall of 2021. She started looking for a job in the Orlando area, figured my take some time, she has her second interview at a Orlando law firm this Tuesday, she may beat us down there. Lol
If your friends with any of us on FB, please don’t post anything, she is currently employed here in Pa and don’t want anyone to know.
She is very excited to become a Floridian again.
As the time keeps ticking away, it is getting more and more interesting and we can’t wait.
That’s it for now, stay safe everyone!

Hope she gets the position in Orlando. I remember, when she graduated, asking our opinion about working at Disney. And my response....a good place to visit, but probably not a good place to work full time and keep the magic. I had a summer job at Kings Island. And I learned to hate it. Several years later, I learned to love it again.

Land the position in Orlando. Buy a season pass. Go as often as you want. And don't think of it as a chore.

Good luck to you and your family.

 

[dvczerfs]

Hope she gets the position in Orlando. I remember, when she graduated, asking our opinion about working at Disney. And my response....a good place to visit, but probably not a good place to work full time and keep the magic. I had a summer job at Kings Island. And I learned to hate it. Several years later, I learned to love it again.

Land the position in Orlando. Buy a season pass. Go as often as you want. And don't think of it as a chore.

Good luck to you and your family.

Thank you!!! Can you believe it’s been 7 years already since she did the program. I still remember her exact words when I ask her if she was going to stay and make it a career. “Dad, do you like to vacation where you work?” She said she got to watch ever parade, fireworks show the magic kingdom had, over and over and over. She worked Halloween and Christmas. She got to work in the castle. She met great people from all over the world, a lot of them she still in contact with. She can tell you stories for hours non stop of the good, the bad and the ugly. She wouldn’t trade her nine months for the world but, she wanted to keep it her happy place. I could respect that.
I feel sorry for the next few years of kids who won’t get the experience she had. It was life changing for her. This still hangs on our dining room wall.

 

[ddluvsdisney]

Thank you!!! Can you believe it’s been 7 years already since she did the program. I still remember her exact words when I ask her if she was going to stay and make it a career. “Dad, do you like to vacation where you work?” She said she got to watch ever parade, fireworks show the magic kingdom had, over and over and over. She worked Halloween and Christmas. She got to work in the castle. She met great people from all over the world, a lot of them she still in contact with. She can tell you stories for hours non stop of the good, the bad and the ugly. She wouldn’t trade her nine months for the world but, she wanted to keep it her happy place. I could respect that.
I feel sorry for the next few years of kids who won’t get the experience she had. It was life changing for her. This still hangs on our dining room wall.
View attachment 536975View attachment 536975

So happy for your daughter!! Good luck to her!
My godchild waited sooo long to get Disney CP. She applied so many times. She finally got it in January and got sent home in March. She was devistated! I got to visit her working in HS (her favorite park) in February. She looked so cute in her uniform. She was so excited. I do hope she gets to go back before she’s too old to do it.