I'm back: highs and lows

[jen_uk]

Welcome home, glad to see there are more highs than lows, what was so disaterous about your first drivinge experience, I must have missed that?

Welcome home. I'll be interested to read about your driving experience and about OKW. Will you be doing a trip report?

It was my first time driving there so I was very, very nervous to start with, when we left the airport I put Animal Kingdom into the satnav and it came up with Animal Kingdom Resort, stupidly I didn't look to see how many miles away it was, if I had I would have noticed that it was over 100 miles away and therefore was wrong! Anyway off we went, we drove for miles, after about 30-40 minutes we started thinking we had gone wrong as there were no signs for Disney anywhere, we couldn't stop though as we were on the motorway and there were no turn offs for miles. We ended up near Daytona Beach I think, we basically had no idea where we were or how to get back, I pulled into a Shell garage and cried! Dh went off to find someone and a nice man wrote down a list of directions for us to get to Disney. Off we went again, after a few minutes the heavens opened and we were driving through the worst storm I have ever seen, the thunder and lighting was incredible and the rain was so hard you could barely see past the front of the car. It lasted all the way to the hotel, by the time we got there I was stressed out and never wanted to drive there again!! I made myself drive the next day and after that it was fine, it is really easy when you put the correct place into satnav!

I'm not going to do a full trippie as I think said most of what we did in the updates, I will post loads of pics though in the next day or so. If anyone has any questions I'm more than happy to answer them

 

[joolz1910]

Not the best first experience of driving. Glad it got better after that.

 

[Pegasus928]

It was my first time driving there so I was very, very nervous to start with, when we left the airport I put Animal Kingdom into the satnav and it came up with Animal Kingdom Resort, stupidly I didn't look to see how many miles away it was, if I had I would have noticed that it was over 100 miles away and therefore was wrong! Anyway off we went, we drove for miles, after about 30-40 minutes we started thinking we had gone wrong as there were no signs for Disney anywhere, we couldn't stop though as we were on the motorway and there were no turn offs for miles. We ended up near Daytona Beach I think, we basically had no idea where we were or how to get back, I pulled into a Shell garage and cried! Dh went off to find someone and a nice man wrote down a list of directions for us to get to Disney. Off we went again, after a few minutes the heavens opened and we were driving through the worst storm I have ever seen, the thunder and lighting was incredible and the rain was so hard you could barely see past the front of the car. It lasted all the way to the hotel, by the time we got there I was stressed out and never wanted to drive there again!! I made myself drive the next day and after that it was fine, it is really easy when you put the correct place into satnav!

You probably don't want to hear this but that is one of the funniest things I have read in ages. I sympathise with what you went through, really I do - but seeing as though you got through it all OK I felt comfortable almost wetting myself.
I'm sure you will laugh about it in the future and will enjoy telling it to your grandkids in years to come

 

[gemmybear83]

Sounds like you had a loely time Jen

 

[jen_uk]

You probably don't want to hear this but that is one of the funniest things I have read in ages. I sympathise with what you went through, really I do - but seeing as though you got through it all OK I felt comfortable almost wetting myself.
I'm sure you will laugh about it in the future and will enjoy telling it to your grandkids in years to come

Its ok, I can laugh about it now!

 

[disneyholic family]

lucky all that happened was that you drove out of your way and got totally stressed out...

some satellite navigation disasters don't end so happily...
you really don't know where you'll end up (just ask the people who were murdered when their GPS took them where they shouldn't have gone - not in orlando, but it could happen there too)..

it's one of the reasons i refuse to use GPS....i'm old and set in my ways....give me a good map any day....i don't trust GPS...

 

[wicket2005]

Jen, firstly you were very brave tackling driving over there, I just wouldn't fancy it at all but fortunately have a husband that is okay with it. I would do it if I wasn't with him though.

The thing with sat navs is not to rely on them and know roughly where you are going before you set off. We use a sat nav but I navigate as well but still can get lost sometimes. My husband has slowly realised that sometimes the Sat Nav doesn't know best and to listen to me when I say I know exactly where I am I can get you there. I can get quite cross sometimes when I am not listened to and routes are taken because the Sat Nav says that is the way to go. Anyway he knows now.

 

[cannp123165]

Sounds like you had a good time!

 

[Dimplenose]

Jen, firstly you were very brave tackling driving over there, I just wouldn't fancy it at all but fortunately have a husband that is okay with it. I would do it if I wasn't with him though.

The thing with sat navs is not to rely on them and know roughly where you are going before you set off. We use a sat nav but I navigate as well but still can get lost sometimes. My husband has slowly realised that sometimes the Sat Nav doesn't know best and to listen to me when I say I know exactly where I am I can get you there. I can get quite cross sometimes when I am not listened to and routes are taken because the Sat Nav says that is the way to go. Anyway he knows now.

We used satnav in Florida for the first time this year. We do use it as a tool but having used it here and in Europe and succeeded in getting to specific houses or car parks without a hitch we were surprised at how unreliable it was over there.

We got lost a number of times (although logic did take over we would be heading the wrong way on a road with few exits before we discovered our mistake - we also found it much harder to leave a motorway and head back in the opposite direction than it is here. One big problem we found was that we'd miss an entrance to a mall that was parrallel to the main road and because we'd come so close the satnav believed we'd actually reached our destination.)

 

[wicket2005]

Sometimes in Orlando it was unclear which road the sat nav wanted you to take as sometimes there are 2 roads turn offs very close together. It has taken a while but we do now know how to get about without a sat nav. The sat nav once told us we had reached our destination (to Prime Outlets) when we were in the middle of the I4, we got there in the end and in fairness to the sat nav we hadn't specified we wanted to park there and we could see the outlets.

 

[jen_uk]

Our satnav couldn't find DTD for some reason, it took us to BB and told us we had reached our destination!! Also, it often wanted us to go to cast member entrances so we quickly learnt to just use us to get i#us near to the place and then followed the signs.

 

[wicket2005]

They are good at getting you where you want in the main.

 

[Netty]

welcome home Jen, glad you had a great trip!

 

[Pegasus928]

We feel that we know our way around the Disney/Universal/I-drive area really well, but we take sat nav with us for one reason. The time that we make a wrong turn and have absolutely no idea where we are and we just want to get home - or back to something familiar.
It's really handy to just go into your favourites folder and pick out the nearest thing you know and tell it to take you there

 

[howlongtillsummer?]

I do not trust SAT Navs! Although the point of needing one if you get lost is very valid. Are they very expensive?

 

[Snowy-girls]

Welcome back Jen,sounds like you had a great holiday with only a tiny few hic-cups.x.

 

[wicket2005]

I do not trust SAT Navs! Although the point of needing one if you get lost is very valid. Are they very expensive?

Sat Navs have come down a lot in price, Tom Toms usually get the best ratings in reviews but if you ever intend to buy one you should look at the reviews of the current brands available.

Sat Navs are not perfect but they do get you where you want to be and as Pergasus said earlier the ability to just press a button and say 'home' on it is invaluable especially in a country you don't know the areas (good/bad) to be in. We only really had problems with ours when you hit turn offs where 2 roads are very close together and it isn't apparent which right turn it is till you are right on top of the turning but that is just what some of the US roads are like. The only other place is in Disney itself where the roads have changed but our map is an older version so doesn't always realise a road is there.

They certainly beat using a map and especially make life easier for the single driver who doesn't have a navigator telling him/her where to go, or has a lot of roads to remember. However, they do need to be used sensibly and also still with you looking at the signs on the roads as well.

 

[Pooh's-Honey-Pot]

Sounds like a great trip!!!

 

[Booknut]

Welcome home Glad you had a great trip, I knew you'd take to the driving well

Are you going to go back to AKL next year then?

 

[jen_uk]

Welcome home Glad you had a great trip, I knew you'd take to the driving well

Are you going to go back to AKL next year then?

Hopefully, we will probably book the flights in the next month but can't book AKV until December, I really hope we get in