I'm Back- Boo-Hoo!!!

[tracycd]

Hi everyone,

We got back Friday afternoon. Time went by sooo fast!

We drove down this year, probably will never do that again. It was such a
long drive, and there were so many crazy drivers. It seemed like the longest
27 hours of our lives.
Crossing the border into the States we waited for about an hour to get through.
On the way home it was only a matter of minutes.
Our Trip Tik from CAA was great and very easy to follow.
Total gas(12 passanger van)- 300.00 US$

We stayed at the Best Western LBV. We truely enjoyed our stay at this hotel.
We had a room on the 17th floor. There was a great view. We could see
Down Town Disney, but not the fireworks. The room was very clean and a good
size. It had all the amenities we were looking for, a coffee maker, table and chairs
on the balcony a seperate dressing area from the bathroom, and a safe.
The lobby was undergoing a complete remodel and I would say they are 3/4 done.
It will be really nice. The pool wasn't very busy at any time which was great for us.
We were able to enjoy the pool on several occasions.The only thing I would say
that they needed to remodel would be their elevators, they looked a little worn.
We also watched the fireworks at epcot from the lounge at the top of the hotel.
We didn't use the buses at the resort because we had
our own van. But they did apear to be running quite
often. There was a sign there that said it ran 1 hour
before park openings and 1 hour after park closing.
And every half hour in between.
We would definatley stay there again.(DreamRes-59.00 a night- great service)

We went to Disney for 3 days-(Epcot, MGM, MK.)
" " Sea World
" " Busch Gardens
" " Universal
" " IOA

We had a great time everywhere we went, even though it was very busy at Disney.
All I can say is use the Fastpass- I can't believe the people that were waiting in lines.
I guess they didn't know about FP but I kept saying to my DH that it was better for
us if they didn't know about it.
It had quieted down a lot by the time we went to universal. We didn't even have to
use the express pass at universal because it was so quiet.The same was true for
BG and SW.

We ate in the parks some of the days but it was very pricey. We mostly ate off-site.
Olive Gardens are awesome, and the same is true of The Ponderosa(3.99 breakfast)

Well back to work this afternoon- night shift


Have a magical day everyone.
Tracycd

 

[TimNDansMom]

Welcome back tracycd! Sounds like you had a wonderful trip and enjoyed your stay at BWLBV. Did you take the DTD buses to the parks?

We've also found Universal and especially SW a lot quieter than Disney, the times we've gone.

I think it would seem a very long drive from North Bay. We've driven down 5 times and don't find it too bad on the I75. Going through some of the big cities is "exciting". So far we've been pretty lucky crossing at the Detroit border, only had one longer delay due to a truck breakdown on the bridge. I WOULD prefer to fly though, because it means more vacation time and will probably consider Southwest from either Buffalo or Detroit (about 2 1/2hrs from us), next time. It will probably just be me and DH next time, so it will be cheaper to fly, too.

 

[tracycd]

Julie,
I edited my post about the buses on my original post for you.
Thanks for the welcome home.
Tracycd

 

[kellyla]

Welcome home,tracycd.Sounds like you had a wonderful time.We are driving down December 2003(it will be with a 15 year old and 13 year old)Although it wont be from North Bay(SOuthern Ontario for us)I keeep wondering if we will be able to survive the ride,LOL.

 

[katypop]

welcome back Tracycd,
sounds like you had a fun trip. we just got back on friday too we drove last trip, not quite as far as you though. this trip we had a 2 1/2 hr flight from detroit and we enjoyed the extra time at wdw. we used fastpass a lot too, what's with so many people waiting in 30-45 min line-ups? i know you can only technically have 1 fastpass at a time, but we would wait until the 1st time on our pass came then get another pass before riding the 1st and saved a lot of time.

kathe

 

[#1 Disney Fan]

Welcome home, Tracycd... sounds like you'll have some nice memories of your trip.

 

[PoohBWV]

Welcome back Tracy. When we get home from driving to Disney, my hubby always says he will never do it again, also - but then the next year we are right back on 1-75 heading south . I think it's kind of like the pain of child birth, we always say right after that we'll never have another baby, but the price of going through it is worth the reward in the end!

Glad you had such a good time.

 

[Baboo]

Welcome home! I'm glad that you had such a great trip! We've driven down twice and will probably do it again when we go back. The extra couple of hours from North Bay might make a difference though.

 

[sammi]

Welcome home Tracy!