It's Our First Thanksgiving Trip (And I'll Start My PTR A Year Early if I Want To!)- COMPLETE 11/16

[the2ndstar2theright]

I have been resisting the urge to order one of those journals for myself for weeks now! If there's a sale for Black Friday/Cyber Monday, I definitely won't be able to resist anymore. I'll be really interested to hear what you think of it!

 

[Newsies]

I have been resisting the urge to order one of those journals for myself for weeks now! If there's a sale for Black Friday/Cyber Monday, I definitely won't be able to resist anymore. I'll be really interested to hear what you think of it!

It definitely seems like it's going to be helpful next week, and it's so cute! I'll let you know if I love it or not!

 

[Newsies]

Home for the Holidays!
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... Well, maybe not the holidays holidays, but to celebrate Thanksgiving at our favorite place on earth!

As I predicted, this was the slowest, LONGEST week of classes in my life. I've never been so impatient in my life. Sitting through classes-- today especially!-- was like pulling teeth, BUT we had an even bigger scare in NJ today while we were driving home.

I don't know how many of you are following this, but the roads in NJ were horrible today. We got half a foot of snow, and we weren't prepared for it. The entire state is a mess of gridlock and accidents tonight. My dad came in to pick me up and at first, everything was fine. Everything was better than fine, actually, we made it out of the city in record time, but once we got out of Jersey City and onto the highway, things started to fall apart. First, a van almost collided into us on my side and ended up "tapping" our mirror. It was fine, the car wasn't hurt and neither are we-- but it was the closest I've ever been to an accident and it was terrifying. Traffic was at a crawl throughout the entire night, and then we started swerving on the ice like I had never seen before. It was honestly one of the most terrifying drives of my life.

It's usually an hour long commute for us. We left my dorm at 2:00 and didn't get home until 6:00.

My mom also had it bad coming home from work as well. She left her office-- which is 20 minutes away from where we live-- at 3:00, and didn't get home until 6:30. The town her office is located in was basically a parking lot for an hour, she had to stop at a gas station that's normally 6 minutes away from her office to use the bathroom and fill her tank up. She's home safe now, but she's been on the phone with her coworkers for a while making sure that they got home safe as well.

I was going to take the train home today-- I'm glad I didn't. A car got hit by the train at the stop I normally get off at, and that city is now the most congested in our area, apparently most people who were on that train are chilling in the lobby of a hotel across the street from the station. None of the cars can move. Our town's FB community group is full of people asking for updates and posting their experience waiting in 4+ hours of traffic for what are typically 15/20 minute commutes. It's insane.

I don't think I have ever felt so grateful to be home and safe with my family in my life. My thoughts are with everyone else in NJ currently battling the accidents and gridlock traffic, tonight was so scary and came to us so unexpectedly.

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I made bacon, egg, and cheese biscuits once everyone was home and we opened a bottle of wine to celebrate being home safe and the start of vacation. Thankfully, it looks like the roads will be better in NJ tomorrow, especially by late tomorrow night, so we'll still be leaving on time. It helps that we'll be southbound as well. Truthfully, today has made me a little anxious for tomorrow, but I know that once I'm awake and the whole family is buzzing around, I'll be excited again.

For those of you who haven't followed along on one of my PTRs before, because my family drives down, I consider tomorrow the start of "TR Territory." My first update on the TR is typically about all the little errands we do throughout the day, i.e. boarding Roxie at Best Friends and getting our mani-pedis, and the first hours of the drive. Right now, I'm mixing a mug of hot cocoa and getting ready to watch the episode of Riverdale I missed this week!

I'll see you guys tomorrow for concluding remarks!! Thank you for following along with me on this long, crazy PTR journey. I have so much to look forward to, and I'm so grateful for those of you who have been reading this PTR and encouraging me along the way.

-Kaitlyn

 

[shannie102]

While no sane person ever likes this weather, and even in upstate NY we had the same problem last night (taking 10x longer to get home vs normal) it kinda makes it better to be headed south and be like "peace out snow!"

 

[Newsies]

While no sane person ever likes this weather, and even in upstate NY we had the same problem last night (taking 10x longer to get home vs normal) it kinda makes it better to be headed south and be like "peace out snow!"

You guys, too? If Upstate got hit last night, I'm sure it was hit harder than we got in NJ-- I hope everyone is safe at home now!

We absolutely agree-- the snow definitely makes us all the more excited to leave! It's all dad and I have been talking about today. We finally get to escape the snow for our happy place!

 

[Newsies]

CONCLUSION
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Dad juuuuust went upstairs to get some rest before we start the drive down, so I figured I'd wrap this PTR up real quick before the trip starts!

I'm not sure how to wrap this PTR up. Lowkey, it was kind of a weird PTR. I know there's no rulebooks for PTRs, but this just felt weird because it kept getting pushed to the side. I felt like I skipped over some of the most important planning parts, like the day-to-day plans. It didn't feel very linear. I give this PTR, like, a 6/10. PTRs just tend to kind of... go like that for me. I think I've spoken about this before, but my TRs are my children, and my PTRs are very hard for me. I will make time to write about everything I did on vacation. It's harder for me to make time to write about everything I plan to do on vacation.

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I didn't even have time to update you guys on our last itinerary change, oops We'll be going to the Sci-Fi Dine-In on Tuesday instead of the 50PTC, and that ToT FP+ changed to an Indiana Jones FP+.

This was the first vacation we've ever taken that falls in the middle of the school year, and that absolutely played a factor into everything. Normally, the PTR picks up as the trip gets closer-- but I couldn't do that while I was in school. So, this PTR kind of fell off and I apologize for that.

On the positive side, even though I didn't do a terrific job of writing about it here, I want you guys to know that I genuinely don't think anyone in my family, myself included, has ever been so excited for a vacation in our entire lives. We are so, so excited to get out of the snow and celebrate Thanksgiving at our happy place. We've been away from WDW for over a year and there are so many new things for us to see and do-- I CANNOT WAIT FOR TOY STORY LAND!!!!

I honestly have nothing left to say, so I'm going to go ahead and wrap this now. Thank you guys so much for reading along! I can't wait for this trip and I can't wait to start my TR! We trudged through a full year away from our happy place, we survived the summer without AC, and we braved the freak November ice storm! Now we're off to celebrate Thanksgiving at the Poly!

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This PTR is officially OVER!

-Kaitlyn

 

[the2ndstar2theright]

Be safe on the drive down and have the best trip ever! Can't wait to read all about it!

 

[missangelalexis]

OMG Thursday was such a mess! I'm so sorry you got stuck in it, how scary!

I missed your final post but I hope you're having a fabulous trip!!

 

[Newsies]

Be safe on the drive down and have the best trip ever! Can't wait to read all about it!

Thank you so much!! We just got home-- TR going up soon!!

OMG Thursday was such a mess! I'm so sorry you got stuck in it, how scary!

I missed your final post but I hope you're having a fabulous trip!!

It was a mess and super scary-- but we're home safe from a great week at Walt Disney World now!

We had a FABULOUS trip! Writing the TR thread now!