If we can DREAM it, we can do it! ..... another 30 day vacation Update 02/07

[dizneeat]

Yay to arriving at WDW!

Your breakfast looks delicious as usual

Arriving at DTD was fun, but our stay in the area was short.

We love our breakfasts at WPE! Our vacation hasn't started until we had some WPE.

Loved seeing more beautiful mountains on the return drive to Austria!

Yeah for arriving at WDW. You guys were up bright and early. Nice.

The breakfast pizza at WPE looks so yummy. I really need to try one of those. Yum!

So, where to next?

The drive from Italy is quite scenic. From flat land through the Alps, to the rolling hills where we live. It doesn't get boring at all.

Getting up the first few days is pretty easy. Our bodies haven't ajusted to the time change then and it feels like it is MUCH later to us. After a few days it gets much harder to get out of bed in the morning.

If you haven't tried WPE for breakfast yet, then you really should. It is really wonderful. And there is even a 10% discount if you have an AP or are DVC.

 

[dizneeat]

Day 2, August 12

“Aren’t you Karin from the DISboards?” - Part 2

We walked through the other stores, then finally hit the World of Disney, which was blissfully uncrowded.
It didn’t take long and I had found what I needed to buy. Two years ago we had seen next year’s calendars in the shops when we arrived and decided to buy before we would leave again. By then they had pulled all the calendars out of the stores and I had to order them online, which was quite a pain. So, ever since when I see a calendar I buy and I had not bought one the day before at the airport.
So here we were, happy to know they had the calendar at the World of Disney too. We strolled through the store checking out all the new items they offered and then went over to the section where they have all the Dooney and Burke bags.
We were just approaching the display behind the register when I heard a voice behind me, asking, “Aren’t you Karin from the DISboards?” We both turned around and there was this young girl coming up to us.
She looked somewhat familiar, but I could not place her at that time, so I told her, that yes, it was me and she told us that we had been on the same cruise and in the same Fish Extender group last summer. Now that rang a bell! She then pointed out that she had been cruising with her mum, who was over there. And then I knew it, she was “Melmar’s” daughter.
We all hugged and chatted and they told us that they were spending their summer vacation at WDW and had driven all the way down from Massachusetts. It was wonderful seeing them again and after a few minutes we found a nice cast member who took our photo,

so we had proof of our meet. It was sad to have to say goodbye again, but they were on their way and we needed to get going too. We had a “quick” look at the Dooneys and then decided to just pick up the two calendars, a Disney CD, since we had forgotten ours and two antenna toppers. Shopping done we headed back to the car

put the topper onto the antenna

and got into the car. Within a few minutes we were waving goodbye to Walt Disney World and on our way to Key Largo.
We drove onto the highway and drove and drove and drove some more. About an hour and a half into our drive we stopped at one of the rest stations to have a snack and were shocked to see how overcrowded it was. There was construction going on and we decided to just pick up a drink and some sweet treats

and headed back to the car. We still had a long way to go and were looking forward to having a late lunch at Miami’s Bubba Gump. All morning we made good progress

until there were signs that the highway would be closed at a certain exit. We didn’t even think much of it and just went on, still looking forward to be in Miami soon and then the traffic got heavier and heavier and then it stopped completely.
We sat and waited, and moved forward a bit and sat and waited and moved forward a bit more.
Time went by and an hour had passed sitting in a traffic jam. There was no end in sight and minutes were ticking away.
After almost two hours we saw what it was all about. The whole highway was closed and every single car had to get off, BUT there was a stop sign at the end of the exit. Now, we could see the light at the end of the tunnel, but in the meantime it had started to rain.
Well, rain might not be the right word. The heaven had opened up and it was pouring. Once we had left the motorway the GPS always directed us back to the highway and had trouble connecting as it was raining so heavily. We first had gotten into the wrong line and drove in the wrong direction. So, after we had turned around we had to play it by ear

and just use overhead signs to find our way towards Miami. It was still raining cats and dogs and thank god, we were driving slow as suddenly a van pulled over into our lane and all Tom could do was hit the break or otherwise the other car would have gone straight into ours.
It took me a while to get over the initial shock and we went on slowly. About 20 minutes later the rain started to become a little lighter and we were finally heading into Miami.
With all the time we had lost we decided to drop the idea of a late lunch and just head on to the keys. We kept driving and once we had reached Miami and had gone past its airport, the skies started to turn blue again

and the sun was shining again and we felt much better instantly. We drove on until suddenly an advertisement grabbed my attention. I told Tom to get off the highway and exit right here and there.

To be continued ............

 

[monica23535]

Oh I'm dying to know what you saw....

 

[eandesmom]

Wow, what a stressful drive so far! I've done the drive from Miami to Key West and Gotham was long enough but add in leaving from MCO and ugh!

Glad to hear that the sun is coming out and love that you put an antenna topper on the rental.

Pretty funny about the choose your car scenario.

 

[pas130]

We love our breakfasts at WPE! Our vacation hasn't started until we had some WPE.

Wow Karin..I didn't even know wpe had breakfast..such a dining slacker..LOL

Yes the convertible..you can pick any one of the one...hahaha

I'd love to take hubs down to the keys...but the drive...especially after driving from New Jersey..he'd kill me!!

 

[pas130]

Cant wait to hear what the advertisement was for

 

[RGirl]

Mmm - the WPE breakfast looks sooooo good.

The drive south sounds awful though! I hope you didn't experience any more delays or scary moments. I am looking forward to hearing about where you stopped!

 

[HowieHowie]

Traffic jams and Florida rainstorms are horrible, what a scary moment. Can't wait to hear what caught your attention!

 

[dizneeat]

Oh I'm dying to know what you saw....

You will have such a laugh once you find out .......

Wow, what a stressful drive so far! I've done the drive from Miami to Key West and Gotham was long enough but add in leaving from MCO and ugh!

Glad to hear that the sun is coming out and love that you put an antenna topper on the rental.

Pretty funny about the choose your car scenario.

We've driven from Miami to Orlando before and it is a long, boring drive. Add in a "nice" traffic jam and a rainstorm and you have a long, boring, horrible drive.
I like the drive from Miami to Key West though, so pretty over all those bridges and thankfully that day we only went to Key Largo.

No one here uses an antenna topper, so whenever we get the chance to do so, we'll do that in the US.

Wow Karin..I didn't even know wpe had breakfast..such a dining slacker..LOL

Yes the convertible..you can pick any one of the one...hahaha

I'd love to take hubs down to the keys...but the drive...especially after driving from New Jersey..he'd kill me!!

Yes, WPE offers breakfast and it is VERY yummy! We just love it! Not that we would be biased because Wolfgang is Austrian ......

You know, we mostly book Hertz and they asign you a certain car, so we were "jumping with joy" to pick a car ..... then there was only one. Yeah, that was the one we picked.

You would need to fly into Miami and drive from there. The drive along the keys is beautiful. The drive from Orlando to Miami not so much.

Cant wait to hear what the advertisement was for

It was about nothing special for you Americans, but VERY special to us.

 

[dizneeat]

Mmm - the WPE breakfast looks sooooo good.

The drive south sounds awful though! I hope you didn't experience any more delays or scary moments. I am looking forward to hearing about where you stopped!

It's the drive from Orlando to Miami that is dragging on and very boring. Once you have reached the Keys it is really scenic and nice and I can't actually wait to do it again next year.
The van pulling over was something else. I can't even blame the driver as it was raining so hard you could hardly see anything and sitting in a silvery car in that rain storm didn't help either.
We were VERY happy when the sun came out again and we had left Miami behind us. Bummer we never made it to Bubba Gump though.

Traffic jams and Florida rainstorms are horrible, what a scary moment. Can't wait to hear what caught your attention!

Since we drive a lot in Florida we have come kind of used to the rainstorms, but the traffic jam was really horrible. And then the driver pulling over .....

You will have a really good laugh once you find out what made us exit the highway.

 

[dizneeat]

Day 2, August 12

“Aren’t you Karin from the DISboards?” - Part 3

I told Tom to get off the highway and exit right here and there. He had no idea why, but followed my lead and once he saw where I was directing him, he was as happy as I was.
When we approached, we even saw that the “Hot Now” sign was on. And yes, I had found a Krispy Kreme along the way.
We parked the car, stretched our legs and headed inside. This was a brand new shop and smelled wonderfully of freshly baked doughnuts. There were quite a few guests and we got in line and ordered

a dozen glazed doughnuts,

some coffee and some Diet Coke and found a table to enjoy this wonderful sweet treat.
The doughnuts were wonderful, warm and soft and they melted in your mouth. We were hungry, since we had skipped lunch, so we both had two of them.
And after a visit to the restroom we headed back to the car to get on with the rest of our drive. By then it was already 4pm and we still had about an hour’s drive ahead of us, but traffic was light, the skies were blue and we made good progress and finally we arrived at Key Largo, our destination for the night.
We had booked the Courtyard by Marriott and we had to drive through most of Key Largo to get there. We had never thought that Key Largo went on for so long, but finally we saw the hotel on the other side of the road.

Tom made a U-turn at the next traffic light and we drove into the parking lot a few minutes later. We parked the car, picked up our paperwork and headed to the front desk.
The welcome was warm and friendly and we were handed our keys and told to park in the garage under the hotel. So, we did as we had been told und found a parking spot close to the elevator, hauled all our stuff out of the car and up to the elevator, then into the elevator and finally from the elevator to the room on the third floor. The room was very nice.

It was spacious and friendly and had a lovely balcony overlooking the pool. It looked just like the room we had seen on the internet. We rested for a little while, then decided to do some shopping at the nearby Publix.
By then it was late, we both were getting tired and we just threw out the idea of going out to lunch. Since we were going to Publix anyway, we were going to pick up dinner there. So we headed back to the car and drove up the road to do some grocery shopping. The supermarket was a large one and we strolled through, pushing our shopping cart, picking up items along the way. We even found a bottle of Silverado wine,

the winery that belongs to Diane Disney Miller. Shopping done, we loaded everything into the car, drove back to our hotel and hauled our loot upstairs. We sat outside with a drink for a while until we were really hungry and went inside, put all our picnic dinner foods on the table

and started to dig in. It was nice to have some down to earth food. Once we were full, we sat outside for a while again, but it had gotten dark and we were both dead tired. So around 9pm we went to bed, tried to watch a little TV, but the jet lag caught up with us fast and we fell asleep.

To be continued ............

 

[monica23535]

I would have got off the highway for some Krispy Kremes too!

Looks like a great dinner you had too

 

[wilma-bride]

Hey Karin, I'm a little late to the party - hope you can forgive me. I have been desperately trying to find a way for Gary and I to get back to Disney in a couple of weeks, just the two of us, so have been busy researching and surfing the net and haven't had much time to DIS.

Still, I am here now - and just in time for Krispy Kremes, I see It was thanks to your trip reports that Gary and I finally got around to stopping for KKs when the 'hot now' sign was on and, oh my, I didn't think you could get any more divine than a Krispy Kreme but they were out of this world delicious. How I crave those warm, melt in your mouth doughnuts now we are back home...

Looking forward to reading more of your adventures soon

 

[WDisneyMom]

Karin, great updates!! The food in Italy looks amazing and I am now wanting to recreate the pistachio ice cream sandwich...yum!!

Wow! what a selection at the rental place...one car! sheesh!! Can't wait to read more!

 

[dizneeat]

I would have got off the highway for some Krispy Kremes too!

Looks like a great dinner you had too

The first Krispy Kremes of the trip .... we had to get off the highway.
I was really glad we didn't have to go out for dinner. It was so relaxing to just nibble while watching TV.

Hey Karin, I'm a little late to the party - hope you can forgive me. I have been desperately trying to find a way for Gary and I to get back to Disney in a couple of weeks, just the two of us, so have been busy researching and surfing the net and haven't had much time to DIS.

Still, I am here now - and just in time for Krispy Kremes, I see It was thanks to your trip reports that Gary and I finally got around to stopping for KKs when the 'hot now' sign was on and, oh my, I didn't think you could get any more divine than a Krispy Kreme but they were out of this world delicious. How I crave those warm, melt in your mouth doughnuts now we are back home...

Looking forward to reading more of your adventures soon

Hi Joh, welcome here! You are not late at all, I am only at day 2 of our trip.
So, DID you find a way to go back to Disney? I wonder if you would consider cruising on the DREAM during President's week? Guess who else is cruising then?
Those Krispy Kreme are divine, aren't they. We stopped a few more times to pick up some. And I really can't wait to have some more in February.

Karin, great updates!! The food in Italy looks amazing and I am now wanting to recreate the pistachio ice cream sandwich...yum!!

Wow! what a selection at the rental place...one car! sheesh!! Can't wait to read more!

You really need to try the ice-cream sandwich if you like pistacchio! It was SO good!
Yip, one car to choose from ....... HUGE advantage!

 

[HowieHowie]

Krispy Kremes...can't beat that, of course you had to get off the highway. A little pleasure after the trip you had and this makes the rest of the trip a little easier.

 

[Linda67]

All caught up Karin

Now that I have seen a WPE Breakfast, I know that your TR is well and truly underway

Your experience with the hire car is exactly the same as ours, whenever we use Dollar they say "pick your own car" and there will only be one to "choose from"

Can't wait to read about your time in the Keys

 

[pas130]

Krispy Kremes...can't beat that, of course you had to get off the highway. A little pleasure after the trip you had and this makes the rest of the trip a little easier.

It was about nothing special for you Americans, but VERY special to us.

Special to me The ONLY time we get those delicious morsels is on our vacations...I can eat 6 all by myself

 

[Tink rules]

All caught up Karin

Now that I have seen a WPE Breakfast, I know that your TR is well and truly underway

Your experience with the hire car is exactly the same as ours, whenever we use Dollar they say "pick your own car" and there will only be one to "choose from"

Can't wait to read about your time in the Keys

For me it was the Krispy Kremes!!!

 

[WDisneyMom]

I knew it was Krispy Kreme!! Haha!