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

Welp, last time I was in this thread was back in October 2023 when the wife, dog and I were all heading from PA to Disney.

I'm pleased to come back and say we are headed back this year, but this time to celebrate our, 1 year old's birthday! Last time we made the trip in 15 1/2 hours, and that will no where be the case this time around with a baby, but we still can't wait!
I'll be lurking in this thread until we roll out in July! It's good to be back.
I drove from PA (west of Gettysburg) in November and will be making another drive in, oh, 19 days via the inland route (81 -77- 26 - 95). I travel solo and took two nights on the road in November. That's my plan for the next trip too. Maybe an overnight stop is something you can consider to make your trip easier.
 
We will be doing our annual drive in 26 days! My DS23 will be joining us IF he doesn’t get the job he’s waiting to hear from.
We are really hoping he gets the job!!! 🤞🏻🙏🏻
I’m still at the same place, for now. lol. I may transfer but I will be in the same park, just different locations if I get the transfer. PM what days you’re planning on visiting Epcot and I’ll let you know when I work. I know, I’m hard to find…. I hide well, I blend. lol.
 
I’m still at the same place, for now. lol. I may transfer but I will be in the same park, just different locations if I get the transfer. PM what days you’re planning on visiting Epcot and I’ll let you know when I work. I know, I’m hard to find…. I hide well, I blend. lol.
I’ll let you which day we’ll be in Epcot
 
I’ll let you which day we’ll be in Epcot
Sounds good. Hopefully we can meet up. It’s always nice after talking to someone for ten plus years on the internet to meet them in person.
I’ve met so many great people on forums like this, in fact, the creator of this thread, who I never met before the 2000 plus mile thread was created is coming to our daughters wedding.
I should find out soon about the transfer. I will be easier to find. I would be doing the same thing, same park, same circus just a different ring with different animals. lol.
 
Sounds good. Hopefully we can meet up. It’s always nice after talking to someone for ten plus years on the internet to meet them in person.
I’ve met so many great people on forums like this, in fact, the creator of this thread, who I never met before the 2000 plus mile thread was created is coming to our daughters wedding.
I should find out soon about the transfer. I will be easier to find. I would be doing the same thing, same park, same circus just a different ring with different animals. lol.
I didn’t realize you were transferring again. It seems it happens often. Is that typical for Disney?
Congrats on your daughter’s wedding!! OMG It’s like just yesterday she was in the CP.
 
I didn’t realize you were transferring again. It seems it happens often. Is that typical for Disney?
Congrats on your daughter’s wedding!! OMG It’s like just yesterday she was in the CP.
Yup, time flew by. She is 32 now. She moved down with us four years ago and she lives in Clermont now.
It’s rare the company transfers you against your will. It’s usually if you are in a role you can’t do for various reasons. All my transfers were voluntary. I started at the Skyliner, you have to be with the company for one year before you can transfer. After a year, you can put in to transfer to any role you wish to pursue and a choice of ten different locations to do it in. So I transferred to Creation’s in Epcot. Once you transfer, if you want to stay in the same line of business, you have to wait six months to transfer again. If you want to move into a different line of business, you have to wait a year again.
Transfers are not instantaneous, basically you’re putting your name on a list and have to wait till a position opens in the location you are requesting. You can wait for years pending what you are going for. Example, if I wanted to go into attractions, I put my name in for attractions and list ten attractions I would want to work at. Say I put in for Spaceship Earth, if a position opens, and I’m next on the list ( way to much to explain that) I would automatically get transferred. Now, I’m a status coordinator, SCs are the step between front line cms and management, which we call leaders. Leaders wear street clothes. Coord positions are very competitive, it’s a promotion and the positions are very competitive. For you to even apply, you need the backing of your present management and proprietor, they have to sign you off just to apply. Then once you get that far, you do the same transfer process and wait for an opening and get an interview. I interviewed in four locations before I got a status coord position. (Status just means that is all you do and do it full time). They wear costumes, generally different from the front line cms but they wear a gold pin above their name tag. You see a gold coord.pin, just know that person earned that position, it’s not easy.
Nobody gets hired at the top or even the middle in park ops. Office positions, yes. But everyone starts in front line positions, from there, you work your way up. You have to earn your ears as they say.
The red tags you see on some front line CMs, earning my ears, they are new to the role and usually new to the company. Most areas will let you wear it till you are comfortable taking it off. Once you’re with the company for a year and transfer, they don’t wear them, you already know how to or you should know how to conduct yourself. I took mine off as soon as I got out of training, some people see that tag and think they can take advantage of you.
CPs are considered inters. 99.9 percent of them are great “kids”. I work with a lot of them and they keep me young, and sometimes even give me grey hair. lol.
Just like any company, interns don’t get the same advantages as part time and part time don’t get the same advantages as a full timer.
Despite what you read in some places, it’s a great a company to work for. It’s like any job, you have to show up on time, hen scheduled and work when you are getting paid and adhere to the rules, it’s pretty easy. I’ve been around for a while, the CPs ask me for advice, my advice to them, reliability, dependability and attitude is 80 percent of the job, the rest of it we can teach you. These kids are taught to keep your nose in a book, get good grades and your life will be a breeze. Some of them I pray mom and dad have a comfortable basement and they are independently wealthy because they are going to have a ruff time in the real world. lol.
 
@dvczerfs Dave, I want to look for you as well. I know I'll be in Epcot on 4/24 (check in day at Yacht Club), but the rest of the week is still not fully planned out. When I was there in December, I did go into Creations after Luminous was over to see if I could spot you. No luck, lol. PS, I think they repainted the paint can, it looked different last week.
 
@dvczerfs Dave, I want to look for you as well. I know I'll be in Epcot on 4/24 (check in day at Yacht Club), but the rest of the week is still not fully planned out. When I was there in December, I did go into Creations after Luminous was over to see if I could spot you. No luck, lol. PS, I think they repainted the paint can, it looked different last week.
Our tentative date for Epcot is also the 24th. 🤣
 
@dvczerfs Dave, I want to look for you as well. I know I'll be in Epcot on 4/24 (check in day at Yacht Club), but the rest of the week is still not fully planned out. When I was there in December, I did go into Creations after Luminous was over to see if I could spot you. No luck, lol. PS, I think they repainted the paint can, it looked different last week.
I transferred from there in July of 2024. Ill send you a message where to find me and what time I’ll be working.
 
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lol. The cps call it David’s fan club. lol. I should be in the same spot but I’ll keep you posted. I haven’t gotten my hours yet for the 24th. I’ll let you know.
I’ll still be in the same spot on the 24th, but don’t get use to it. lol.
 
@dvczerfs Dave, I want to look for you as well. I know I'll be in Epcot on 4/24 (check in day at Yacht Club), but the rest of the week is still not fully planned out. When I was there in December, I did go into Creations after Luminous was over to see if I could spot you. No luck, lol. PS, I think they repainted the paint can, it looked different last week.
I sent you a message about the 24th. See you then!!
 
We made good time. It did take about 20 hours. We stopped for gas 2x- Maryland around 12am (bathroom)and SC 6:30 am also for breakfast and bathroom. We then stopped at Buccees in Jacksonville for lunch at 12:00.
Made it home by 2:30.
One observation I made was there was more traffic going north. Maybe bc RI and CT are off this week. It doesn’t always work out to our advantage like that. 👍🏻
 
Hello everyone! I thought for sure I had been on one of these threads before but who knows. I wanted to say Hello and join in.

We don't go to Disney World very often (although pretty much after Covid has seemed to be yearly by unplanned events). I am in the Chicagoland area and typically we like to drive down.

The last time we drove down was this past August since my brother was going to a race in Daytona & was driving plus he has a timeshare, so basically I got a free vacation as it wouldn't cost him too much extra to throw me in the car and join him. He *did* bribe me with an added "we can spend a day at Disney". My sister joined us & it became a wild adventure. We made it all the way to Macon, GA on day 1 but I personally don't recommend that for us again!

We have a big family trip planned for this August and we all are going to be driving and meeting up there. We take a bit of a backwards way but it has worked for us so far. We go Rt. 47 south until we hit I-74 (although this past time we knew there was construction and took one of the other roads near Gibson City to merge directly to I-57) then get 57-24-75 and go from there. I am still debating where I want to stop this time around. I will probably do 90% of the driving. I know it will be before Atlanta and then we will go early in the morning to get through there.

We are staying at Fort Wilderness this time and the TripTik is taking me on some side roads to get there which I'm not 100% convinced are not cast member only roads as I am fairly confident some are backstage as it appears to go fairly close to Magic Kingdom. I usually do "no tolls" when I map it out as that seems to get me places with not much time difference. Last time I stayed on-site with driving was 2011 and I know a lot has changed since then.
 
Did a short drive (definitely not 2,000 miles) from our home near WDW to Savannah GA last week. We enjoy visiting that city and had decided to spend a couple of nights there.

Anyway, the purpose of this post is to let folks coming down the I-95/I-4 route that there is a new option to avoid I-4 through Orlando. When you get to the Sanford area on I-4 West there will be an exit for route 429, which is a toll road and you would get off at Wester Way. That road is very lightly traveled for the most part and could save you 15 minutes if Waze is to be believed. Not sure how much the tolls were though.
 
Departed southeastern Mass at 2:30 am yesterday morning. Stopped twice for gas and restrooms. Arrived in Santee, SC at 4:50 pm. Smooth sailing the entire way. We considered continuing on but decided to stop for the night. Left the hotel at 7:40 this morning. Stopping for lunch in St. Augustine then on to Disney Springs! Best travel days ever!
 
Departed southeastern Mass at 2:30 am yesterday morning. Stopped twice for gas and restrooms. Arrived in Santee, SC at 4:50 pm. Smooth sailing the entire way. We considered continuing on but decided to stop for the night. Left the hotel at 7:40 this morning. Stopping for lunch in St. Augustine then on to Disney Springs! Best travel days ever!
Wondering what route you took. Did you go I-95 the whole way? How was it getting through NYC & DC? I'm originally from Plymouth and drove down several times before finally moving to Winter Garden 11+ years ago.
 
We went 95 the whole way except we went over the Cuomo bridge (former Tappan Zee) instead of the George Washington. Plymouth is so nice but I bet Winter Garden is nicer especially in the winter!
 



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