alicenwonder99
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2004
- Messages
- 1,525
(NOTE: I'll insert my pics as soon as I figure out how to do it!)
WDW Vacation Trip Report
Jan 05 trip Family of 6 Driving from Chicago
Days 1-3: The drive from Chicago to WDW
The Players
Me
DH
DD 17
DN 13
DD 6
DS 4
Staying at Ft. Wilderness cabins for the first time.
January 2-4
We planned on leaving home at 4:30am. I had everything ready, and a very detailed itinerary (which I will soon find out is going to be useless).
We all woke up early, around 3am. The teenagers never went to sleep and were still getting their stuff packed. DH got all the luggage stored in our Samsonite luggage storer on top of our minivan. We ended up leaving at 5:55am.
Our first stop was planned for 240miles, but it didnt happen we had to make 1 bathroom stop, 1 gas/snack stop, and dh got pulled over for speeding just outside of Urbana, IL. Ill soon find out that my planned stops along the way were a waste of time. When I think of how much planning went into this trip especially the drive I cant believe how it was just a waste of time. We needed to stop more often then I had planned. But thats ok, the kids were being angels in the car. I had learned from our last car trip to WDW in Dec 2001 that we need to keep the children occupied at all times or else its awful in the car. We had borrowed a vcr player for the car for the 2 little ones who were sitting in the middle seats, and we bought at xmastime a dvd player for the big kids in the back seats. I also had bags of goodies I was passing out to the kids at each stop. Like new movies, games, new leappad books/cartridges, snacks, etc. The kids were absolute angels on the trip. DH, on the other hand, was speeding and it was driving me crazy. Even after his ticket for going 81mph, he still didnt slow down. His theory was as long as he was going under 15mph OVER the speed limit, he wouldnt get pulled over. After our trip, we both decided we would never drive to WDW again. Even though the children were great for the trip, it just took too much out of all of us. Ill drive if I have to. In fact, I did a little bit of driving because dh was getting sleepy, but I hate driving. So, dh did almost all of it. I probably drove only 100 miles the whole trip. So, between dh getting tired of driving, and me stressing out over his speeding, we decided it just isnt worth saving money well fly from now on.
OK, so now we made it to our first stop: Chattanooga, TN. We stayed in an awesome Holiday Inn. The room we stayed in had 2 queen beds and a pull out couch. The pool was very warm and we took the little ones to swim. The older girls went to the McDonalds across the street to get dinner. We were all getting excited and anxious to get to WDW, so we all planned to get up very early the next day and get to WDW early enough to do MK for a few hours. We had it planned that dh was going to go to MK with us, then when MK closed at 7pm, he would head back to the cabin to watch the bowl game. Then the rest of us would either head over to Epcot for Illuminations or just check out Ft. Wilderness.
Well, at around 3am, my 6 year old dd started throwing up. It took awhile to get her cleaned up, back to bed, clean up the hotel room, etc. She seemed fine, so I thought maybe she swallowed a lot of chlorine and just had an upset tummy. It was now about 3:30am and almost time to get up and get ready to leave. Instead, I turned the alarm off and figured we all needed to rest.
I woke up and it was 8:30am!!!!! I cant remember the last time I slept that late!! I knew our travel plans for the day were shot and I didnt care. I made coffee and read the local paper waiting for everyone to wake up. No one was waking up so I took a shower. As I was in shower, I heard someone in the bathroom throwing up. As it turned out, dd6 was really, really sick. I was starting to think this was an omen I even told dh maybe we should just head back to Chicago and call our vacation quits. To make a long story short, we ended up staying an extra day in Chattanooga. OK, you know how kids can get sick so fast? Well, they can get better even faster. She was FINE by 7pm that night. She was starting to keep liquids down and we planned on leaving the next day. Dh and I called WDW and explained the situation. Everything was fine. They took that day off of our reservation and didnt charge us. I had to call and cancel ALL our PSs because we just didnt know how much of the parks dd6 was going to be able to do. The staff at the Holiday Inn were bending over backwards for us. Also, they ended up not even charging us for the extra day. Talk about Southern hospitality!!!!
We left the next morning, but I let everyone sleep a bit late. We ended up pulling out of the hotel at 6:25am and getting to WDW at 5pm. The drive was so LOOOONG.
I checked us in and we headed to our cabin. Our first impression of the cabin was great. The first thing you notice is the smell. Its like an outdoorsy, cedar smell just wonderful! We quickly unpacked the car and the 4 kids and I left for Epcot. DH stayed at the cabin so he could watch his bowl game and he took a quick trip to the Tavern for some buffalo wings and drinks to bring back for the game. This was dhs first time off from work since August. And after that long car ride, he just didnt care about the parks. He just wanted to relax and watch his game, so I didnt mind. I just wanted to get to the parks!!!!
Next report: trying to upgrade our PH tickets to MYW tickets and our first night at the parks in Epcot.
WDW Vacation Trip Report
Jan 05 trip Family of 6 Driving from Chicago
Days 1-3: The drive from Chicago to WDW
The Players
Me
DH
DD 17
DN 13
DD 6
DS 4
Staying at Ft. Wilderness cabins for the first time.
January 2-4
We planned on leaving home at 4:30am. I had everything ready, and a very detailed itinerary (which I will soon find out is going to be useless).
We all woke up early, around 3am. The teenagers never went to sleep and were still getting their stuff packed. DH got all the luggage stored in our Samsonite luggage storer on top of our minivan. We ended up leaving at 5:55am.
Our first stop was planned for 240miles, but it didnt happen we had to make 1 bathroom stop, 1 gas/snack stop, and dh got pulled over for speeding just outside of Urbana, IL. Ill soon find out that my planned stops along the way were a waste of time. When I think of how much planning went into this trip especially the drive I cant believe how it was just a waste of time. We needed to stop more often then I had planned. But thats ok, the kids were being angels in the car. I had learned from our last car trip to WDW in Dec 2001 that we need to keep the children occupied at all times or else its awful in the car. We had borrowed a vcr player for the car for the 2 little ones who were sitting in the middle seats, and we bought at xmastime a dvd player for the big kids in the back seats. I also had bags of goodies I was passing out to the kids at each stop. Like new movies, games, new leappad books/cartridges, snacks, etc. The kids were absolute angels on the trip. DH, on the other hand, was speeding and it was driving me crazy. Even after his ticket for going 81mph, he still didnt slow down. His theory was as long as he was going under 15mph OVER the speed limit, he wouldnt get pulled over. After our trip, we both decided we would never drive to WDW again. Even though the children were great for the trip, it just took too much out of all of us. Ill drive if I have to. In fact, I did a little bit of driving because dh was getting sleepy, but I hate driving. So, dh did almost all of it. I probably drove only 100 miles the whole trip. So, between dh getting tired of driving, and me stressing out over his speeding, we decided it just isnt worth saving money well fly from now on.
OK, so now we made it to our first stop: Chattanooga, TN. We stayed in an awesome Holiday Inn. The room we stayed in had 2 queen beds and a pull out couch. The pool was very warm and we took the little ones to swim. The older girls went to the McDonalds across the street to get dinner. We were all getting excited and anxious to get to WDW, so we all planned to get up very early the next day and get to WDW early enough to do MK for a few hours. We had it planned that dh was going to go to MK with us, then when MK closed at 7pm, he would head back to the cabin to watch the bowl game. Then the rest of us would either head over to Epcot for Illuminations or just check out Ft. Wilderness.
Well, at around 3am, my 6 year old dd started throwing up. It took awhile to get her cleaned up, back to bed, clean up the hotel room, etc. She seemed fine, so I thought maybe she swallowed a lot of chlorine and just had an upset tummy. It was now about 3:30am and almost time to get up and get ready to leave. Instead, I turned the alarm off and figured we all needed to rest.
I woke up and it was 8:30am!!!!! I cant remember the last time I slept that late!! I knew our travel plans for the day were shot and I didnt care. I made coffee and read the local paper waiting for everyone to wake up. No one was waking up so I took a shower. As I was in shower, I heard someone in the bathroom throwing up. As it turned out, dd6 was really, really sick. I was starting to think this was an omen I even told dh maybe we should just head back to Chicago and call our vacation quits. To make a long story short, we ended up staying an extra day in Chattanooga. OK, you know how kids can get sick so fast? Well, they can get better even faster. She was FINE by 7pm that night. She was starting to keep liquids down and we planned on leaving the next day. Dh and I called WDW and explained the situation. Everything was fine. They took that day off of our reservation and didnt charge us. I had to call and cancel ALL our PSs because we just didnt know how much of the parks dd6 was going to be able to do. The staff at the Holiday Inn were bending over backwards for us. Also, they ended up not even charging us for the extra day. Talk about Southern hospitality!!!!
We left the next morning, but I let everyone sleep a bit late. We ended up pulling out of the hotel at 6:25am and getting to WDW at 5pm. The drive was so LOOOONG.
I checked us in and we headed to our cabin. Our first impression of the cabin was great. The first thing you notice is the smell. Its like an outdoorsy, cedar smell just wonderful! We quickly unpacked the car and the 4 kids and I left for Epcot. DH stayed at the cabin so he could watch his bowl game and he took a quick trip to the Tavern for some buffalo wings and drinks to bring back for the game. This was dhs first time off from work since August. And after that long car ride, he just didnt care about the parks. He just wanted to relax and watch his game, so I didnt mind. I just wanted to get to the parks!!!!
Next report: trying to upgrade our PH tickets to MYW tickets and our first night at the parks in Epcot.
