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

[HowieHowie]

Hi Karin...your trip report is off to a great start. It is always nice when the flights are good (unlike ours when we left NY and had to sit at the airport for a 3 hour delay) and I'm glad that you went though immigrations without a problem. Have a wonderful time in Italy!!

 

[Linda67]

Hi Karin

I have some serious DIS board action to catch up on - you are on page 9 already!!

I'm so happy to see a new TR from you and I can't wait to follow along with your travels

Hope you and Tom had a wonderful vacation (which I am sure that you did )

 

[pas130]

Hi all,

I am off to work in about half an hour and about 5 hours later we will get in the car to go to Italy.
Once we have arrived I will try to get online, but the hotel itself does not offer internet . We will try to connect through Tom's roaming package and IF it works I will pop in to say hello!
Otherwise, see you all again on Monday (or even Sunday later at night).

Safe travels Karin

 

[dizneeat]

Ciao ya all!

We arrived yesterday after a fun drive, which avoided all the traffic jams thanks to our trusted GPS!

Here are some pics of our drive .......

Our room (just a few pics - more to come later)

Going for a walk in the evening

FOOD!!!!!!!!!!!

....... and now imagine this ......

the view from our room ....... those of you who followed my pre trippie will understand

we totally lucked out again and scored another water view!!!!!!



Will report back later tonight with a few more pics.

 

[Teri1]

Great pictures Karin. Can't wait to find out how you liked staying at the Hyatt at MCO. We might consider that before our cruise next year. I can't believe you are on a mini holiday already! I just completed a full week of work and am worn out. It is hard to go back to work mode after being off for a while. We are trying to plan a mini vacation in Dec. to visit our DD in NC. Have a great time in Italy! Our good friend is headed to Europe on Monday to do a tour and cruise on the Rein and Mosel rivers, we are so jealouse she is going to see our favorite places to visit in Germany. We may have to plan something in the future if we can give up a year cruising with Disney, LOL!

 

[Jillpie]

SO cool that you're showing us Italy now!!!!!! Just awesome.

 

[michelle9343]

WOW what a great start to your Italy weekend!!!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Yikes... I get antsy on a ~3 hour flight. Having trouble imagining a 10 hour flight!! But, of course, the destination is totally worth it. Hurrah for pixie dust at Immigration!!

Thanks for the sneak peek of Italy pics. That food looks pretty yummy! Have a great trip!!!

 

[HowieHowie]

Wow...beautiful pictures.

 

[RGirl]

Followed the link in your signature from the August 17, 2013 cruise thread! So looking forward to reading about a 30-DAY trip!!!!!

And I am really excited to hear about your Italy trips as well. Visiting Italy is one of my dream vacations - when my DD is older, I plan to make it happen!

 

[Lisha428]

Karin I've read all your prior TR's and they are by far my favorites on the boards! It's like reading a good book...can't wait to get to that next chapter! Can't wait to read more about your adventures this time around! Thanks for taking the time to write about your trips, it keeps those of us who don't have an active ticker going!

 

[Linda67]

Wonderful pictures from Italy Karin

Glad to see you went for a pizza as your first meal, I hope it was as yummy as it looks

 

[podsnel]

The pizza looks incredible.....I just discovered a pizza truck from a restaurant in nearby Summit, NJ. It parks at our Farmer's Market on Saturdays and their pizza tastes JUST like Italy. I discovered it's because they use San Marzano tomatoes which were grown in Italy, the flour comes from Naples, and the cheese is imported as well. It is to die for, the very best pizza, and it looks just like what you had! YUMMY!

Hope the rest of your trip was fun!

 

[Minnie&Nana]

Oh, what a beautiful drive! I definitely have to visit Austria within the next few years..a beauty and history not to be missed!

Prosciutto Pizza....oh my goodness....can hardly wait for Via Napoli in January!

Another priceless view - you & Tom definitely are the queen and king of getting fabulous views!

Looking forward to reading more... trust you had safe travels home (assuming you are home now?).

HUGS!

 

[dizneeat]

Great updates Karin!

That is so neat that you can see the NASA Assembly building from the plane!

Thank you!
We have seen the NASA buildings a few times while flying in, and I am always watching out for one of the Disney ships, but the flight path is too far to the north.

Yay for the quick trip through Immigrations! I hate coming off a long flight and dealing with another 2 hour line.

Jill in CO

We could not believe our luck going through immigrations so quickly.
The last few years we were stuck in that room for an hour at least, so we really enjoyed breezing through.

wow, good sleeping aid! Sounds like a lovely flight, as lovely as a 10 one could possible be and some amazing pixie dust at immigration!

Those sleeping aid pills are life savers! Sitting through 10 hours of flight time can be a VERY long time, but sleeping through most of it helps A LOT!!!!

Yay...we're finally in Orlando! Now onto your magical vacation!!!
Have a wonderful week-end in Italy!

Hi Mary Ellen!
We had a wonderful weekend, and cannot wait for the next one to come around!
Italy is just such a lazy laid back kind of vacation, wonderful!

 

[dizneeat]

Bob & I were admiring the hotel at MCO on our arrival. It looks like a place we would like to stay. It would be fun checking out all the shopping, etc. in the airport.

We are always so tired arriving after a 10 hour flight, so since we didn't go to WDW right away, we thought staying at the airport would be a good idea and it was a GREAT one.

Karin, don't underestimate the interest we all have in your vacation plans! I'm with Christine...couldn't wait to hear about your plans for next summer!! They sounds great...for some reason when you mentioned longer vacation I thought you were going to say 6 weeks but 34 days is very very nice and your plans sound wonderful.

Moving on...great update! I would love to stay at the airport Hyatt some day, it would just be neat to check out MCO instead of rushing through it everytime.

Looking forward to the next update!

I know, it's only one day, but we still have room to "grow". Tom has a complete 5 weeks off, so we can always add on if we need it. At the moment 34 days is already 4 more than we had this summer.

We really enjoyed staying at the Hyatt and will definitely return next summer.

Sounds like the remainder of your flight was perfect. Can't wait to see what the rooms at the Hyatt look like. How convenient that you decided to stay right there. Makes sense.

Uneventful flights (which are slept through) are the best. Staying right in the airport was so convenient. And the Hyatt is a really nice hotel!

Have a fun and safe trip!

Thank you! Unfortunately a weekend is such a short time. It really was over far too quickly, but we are already counting down to our next short visit.

 

[dizneeat]

Safe travels and hope you have a wonderful time in Italy!

Thanks! We did have a really wonderful time there!

Karin, as always I am in awe of your flight and it's offerings! I realize you take a sleep aid each flight but since my next trip I am flying with a fearful traveler, I now wonder- does it leave you zonked? Just relaxed? Our flight isn't as long as yours.... But I think it is quite possibly one of the longest possible when flying within the continental us(northwest most point to almost the southeast most point). We do have a layover so I didn't want the gal to be unable to get off or back onto our planes. : i
wonder if a sleep aid would help her?

How cool you didn't have a long wait at customs!!

Can't wait to hear how the hotel at mco was. What a good idea when flying in late ( I assume you arrive late... Did you?)

I am not sure how much dis time I will have in the next few days, so if I go missing for a couple weeks- will you forgive me .

Meanwhile, enjoy Italy!

Ann, I guess I am LATE with my sleep aid advice, but for us it is just the perfect solution.
Tom takes 3 pills, while I only take two and we both fall asleep within half an hour and wake up a little tired, but once the adrenaline of arriving at the destination kicks in, it's over in a flash.
We actually use in-ear headphones, that block out the engine noise as well, and it really helps with sleeping through a long flight.

We indeed arrive in the evening and it was really relaxing to know that once we had arrived at MCO we had arrived at our final destination of the day.

Have fun at WDW, Ann! Can't wait to read all about your trip!

Woo Hoo! Made it to Florida with a good flight and no problems it seems. That chocolate bar you had looked really yummy.

Have fun in Italy this weekend. Will be looking forward to next week and reading more about your vacation.

Hope you have an awesome time at WDW! Enjoy F&W for us too!

The chocolate bar is a hand made one and it comes from a very famous Austrian chocolatier. They make the most wonderful, creamy and tasty chocolate.

Italy was great - I am working on the trip report and will post one soon!

Have a wonderful time in Italy this weekend!!!
I am sure you will have some AMAZING meals I can not wait to hear all about it!!!

Thank you, Michelle!
We had a really fun time and some yummy meals. Lots of photos too!

 

[dizneeat]

Buon viaggio!

Jill in CO

Grazie!
We had a fun time!

Hi Karin...your trip report is off to a great start. It is always nice when the flights are good (unlike ours when we left NY and had to sit at the airport for a 3 hour delay) and I'm glad that you went though immigrations without a problem. Have a wonderful time in Italy!!

Thank you, Elaine!
I still remember very well what you told us about your flight troubles.
We both couldn't believe our eyes when we reached immigration. It was wonderful seeing that there were NO crowds at all.
Italy was wonderful, we had such a lot of fun ..... and yummy food! And I have pics to prove it, too.

Hi Karin

I have some serious DIS board action to catch up on - you are on page 9 already!!

I'm so happy to see a new TR from you and I can't wait to follow along with your travels

Hope you and Tom had a wonderful vacation (which I am sure that you did )

Hi Linda! Welcome to my trip report!
I cannot believe you are already back from your Route 66 trip. I hope it was a great trip for you! Is there a trip report somewhere, that I should look out for?
We had a really wonderful summer vacation and met some really great DISfriends. And our short weekend trip to Italy was a lot of fun too.

Safe travels Karin

Thank you, Jeanette!
We really had a fun time in Italy.

 

[dizneeat]

Great pictures Karin. Can't wait to find out how you liked staying at the Hyatt at MCO. We might consider that before our cruise next year. I can't believe you are on a mini holiday already! I just completed a full week of work and am worn out. It is hard to go back to work mode after being off for a while. We are trying to plan a mini vacation in Dec. to visit our DD in NC. Have a great time in Italy! Our good friend is headed to Europe on Monday to do a tour and cruise on the Rein and Mosel rivers, we are so jealouse she is going to see our favorite places to visit in Germany. We may have to plan something in the future if we can give up a year cruising with Disney, LOL!

Teresa, I cannot believe that your vacation has already been over for over a week now! Where did the time go?
I really hope that you had a wonderful time on the DREAM - glad you got our little surprise.
We really enjoyed staying at the Hyatt and will go there again. I took a lot of photos and will post some in my TR pretty soon. I am sure you would like it there too.
I'll keep my fingers crossed for you, so your mini trip to see your DD and her husband will come through!
So you want to give up cruising in favour of a trip to Europe. Now, what about a trip to Europe that INCLUDES a Disney cruise?

SO cool that you're showing us Italy now!!!!!! Just awesome.

Lots more pics to come! We really enjoyed our short trip a lot!

WOW what a great start to your Italy weekend!!!

Thank you, Michelle!
We had such a fun weekend and enjoyed our short time away a lot.

Yikes... I get antsy on a ~3 hour flight. Having trouble imagining a 10 hour flight!! But, of course, the destination is totally worth it. Hurrah for pixie dust at Immigration!!

Thanks for the sneak peek of Italy pics. That food looks pretty yummy! Have a great trip!!!

I hear you about the long flight, that's the reason why we always take some sleeping aid, so it feels a little shorter.
And as I mentioned before - we could not believe our luck at immigration. It was really great to just walk up and be done with it.

We loved our short trip to Italy. Even though the first day was a bit stressful, with work and jumping right into the car and get going, but it was SO worth it.

 

[dizneeat]

Wow...beautiful pictures.

Thank you! More to come!

Followed the link in your signature from the August 17, 2013 cruise thread! So looking forward to reading about a 30-DAY trip!!!!!

And I am really excited to hear about your Italy trips as well. Visiting Italy is one of my dream vacations - when my DD is older, I plan to make it happen!

Welcome!
I am glad you came over from our cruise meet thread!
We usually take a long trip (4 weeks) during the summer and a short, one week break in February. And there are lots of fun things to tell about last summer's trip as well.

Getting to our Italian vacation destination is just a five hour drive, so nothing really big for us, but I can see how you would love to do that. It is a beautiful country!

Karin I've read all your prior TR's and they are by far my favorites on the boards! It's like reading a good book...can't wait to get to that next chapter! Can't wait to read more about your adventures this time around! Thanks for taking the time to write about your trips, it keeps those of us who don't have an active ticker going!

Welcome!
I am so glad to hear that you enjoy reading my trip reports so much. Thank you for your kind words.
I am working on the updates and hope to be able to post more pretty soon.

Wonderful pictures from Italy Karin

Glad to see you went for a pizza as your first meal, I hope it was as yummy as it looks

Thank you, Linda! I am glad you enjoyed the photos (so far). There are a lot more to come!

I could live off the yummy Italian pizza - so you'll even see more of it.