mickeystoontown
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2006
It was frustrating! Thankfully, I was able to work things around until we had just what we wanted.
Mask up buttercup! We're going to Walt Disney World! A 15 day trip like no other! UPDATED x lots 9/10!
- Thread starter mickeystoontown
- Start date
It was frustrating! Thankfully, I was able to work things around until we had just what we wanted.
PhoenixStrength
Found my Prince Charming!
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2010
I'm here! Looking forward to reading about your trip, beyond what I saw on Facebook!
mickeystoontown
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2006
Hey! Glad to have a co-worker here!
Welcome! I think that you've commented a time or two. Glad to see you again!
stacyrains
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2020
This is the sweetest!! Following along..
mickeystoontown
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2006
Isn't it crazy! He doesn't seem old enough to be married! I've tried Burts Bees and it didn't have the burn I was looking for. LOL
Welcome! He is a sweet man even if he doesn't show it outwardly.
Clarf
Haunted Mansion or Bust.
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2012
I love all the pre-trip stuff! Just reading about it makes me excited for a trip, and we don't have our next one planned yet.
We didn't stop at any restaurants either. Just did drive thru.
I can't wait to hear where dinner was on Thanksgiving. I feel like I already know, but I forgot.
We didn't stop at any restaurants either. Just did drive thru.
I can't wait to hear where dinner was on Thanksgiving. I feel like I already know, but I forgot.
mickeystoontown
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2006
Thank gosh it's Friday!
Everyone always looks forward to Fridays and I was no different. On this Friday, I was even more anxious for the work day to be over with. We were going to Walt Disney World today! We would be starting the drive to Walt Disney World!
Wait, let me back up a little. Actually, not a little but rather about eight or so months. Yes, I start thinking about these things that far ahead.
When the planning for this trip began, we were going to leave after work on November 16th which was a Monday. Later on, we decided to change the plans and leave on Sunday. One day it hit me. Why in the heck were we waiting until Sunday when we could leave on Saturday? The drive is a little more than 800 miles one way and we always break the drive in two parts so that it doesn't seem quite so long. Whoa! Wait a minute! Why would we wait until Saturday morning to leave? Why not leave Friday after work? I mean, I get off at lunch. John is off on Fridays. Why hadn't we thought of this before now? Now being before everything started shutting down.
I started calculating how long we could drive if we left on Friday after work. I knew that we could make it Crestview, Florida which is just short of halfway to Disney. Crestview is where we typically stop when we leave around 6:30 p.m. and we usually get to Crestview around 1:30 a.m. We would be leaving four to five hours earlier so we wanted to get further than Crestview. But, we didn't want to dog tired when we stopped like we usually are.
Remember, this was pre-pandemic shutdown. Every time I would search for a hotel close to Tallahassee, the prices would rise higher and higher. I snagged a couple of hotel reservations in Marianna, Florida and two, maybe three, on the outskirts of Tallahassee. Periodically, I would check prices and they rose to extreme heights. Days Inn with a 2 star rating was almost $300.00! Holiday Inn Express was $370 something. Even the mom and pop motels were ridiculously high. The higher end hotels were $400+ and some were almost $1,000! What in the world? After some googling, I found out that there was a college football game at the University of Florida in Tallahassee. No wonder the prices were exorbitant. Thankfully, I had the cheaper reservations to fall back on. We would just need to decide where we would be staying as the trip got closer.
You really didn't think that I could leave well enough alone did you? Of course not! Once a week, I'd search the hotels again and they rose higher. And, then, one day, boom, they were back to semi-normal. I figured that people weren't comfortable in traveling and were also thinking that the game would be cancelled. Every time I would see a normal looking rate, I'd book it. At one time, I think that I had ten different reservations with free cancellation policies.
On November 9th, I told John that we had to sit down and make the final decision on where we would be stopping for the night. I did a "worse case scenario" google search. Marianna, Florida is approximately 490 miles from our house and a lot of those miles were interstate. But, the miles that aren't interstate miles are in towns that require some stop and starting and slower driving. My google search of "How long does it take to drive 490 miles going 50 miles an hour?" said it would take us about 10 hours. We could do that. Marianna would be our stop for the night. I cancelled all the reservations but one, the Fairfield Inn in Marianna, Florida.
Alright, now we can fast forward to Friday, November 13th. Yes, you read that right. We were leaving on Friday the 13th. I didn't give a hoot. We were going to Disney! First, I had to tackle work and make sure things were in order before I left. Luckily, it wasn't too bad as I had started prepping all of our clients that I would be leaving. I got everything done and was outta there by Noon.
When I got home, John had already gotten the oil changed and almost all of the luggage was loaded in the car. The night before, I had made a big bowl of chicken salad for our picnic. Instead of stopping for fast food just down the road from our house, we made chicken salad sandwiches and ate those while putting the last of the things in the car.
I had notes all over the kitchen counter for the kids who would be taking care of the animals and checking in on Mama every day. Once we had everything in the car, we walked over to tell Mama goodbye. We assured her that someone would be coming every day to get her mail, feed the animals, etc. She gave us big hugs and we left to do a final inspection of "did you get everything" at our house. Everything done, we hopped in the car.
Even though we could still go a long way without stopping for gas, we stopped at a nearby gas station and topped off the tank.
And we were off! We were on our way to Walt Disney World! Our first stop was not long after. I had to take a potty break. My bladder plays tricks on me and knows that there's a Mississippi Welcome Center. I hopped out, ran to the bathroom and was back in the car at 2:38 p.m.
(my gosh almighty, my hand looks like a wrinkled raisin)
Potty break made, we were back on the interstate in no time.
Just outside of Jackson, we saw what we refer to as the "fake Epcot" which is a sports stadium.
I hate driving in Jackson. There's always construction going on. Lanes closed. Crazy drivers. I just don't like it at all. Once out of Jackson, we headed towards Hattiesburg and hit construction again. Thousands upon thousands of construction cones and bumper to bumper traffic. I don't have picture proof so you'll just have to take my word for it. Once we made it to Hattiesburg, we got on Hwy. 98 and started towards Mobile. Mobile is usually about a 5 hour drive and despite the construction and traffic, we were right on track. That's Mobile up ahead.
**Continued in next post
Everyone always looks forward to Fridays and I was no different. On this Friday, I was even more anxious for the work day to be over with. We were going to Walt Disney World today! We would be starting the drive to Walt Disney World!
Wait, let me back up a little. Actually, not a little but rather about eight or so months. Yes, I start thinking about these things that far ahead.
When the planning for this trip began, we were going to leave after work on November 16th which was a Monday. Later on, we decided to change the plans and leave on Sunday. One day it hit me. Why in the heck were we waiting until Sunday when we could leave on Saturday? The drive is a little more than 800 miles one way and we always break the drive in two parts so that it doesn't seem quite so long. Whoa! Wait a minute! Why would we wait until Saturday morning to leave? Why not leave Friday after work? I mean, I get off at lunch. John is off on Fridays. Why hadn't we thought of this before now? Now being before everything started shutting down.
I started calculating how long we could drive if we left on Friday after work. I knew that we could make it Crestview, Florida which is just short of halfway to Disney. Crestview is where we typically stop when we leave around 6:30 p.m. and we usually get to Crestview around 1:30 a.m. We would be leaving four to five hours earlier so we wanted to get further than Crestview. But, we didn't want to dog tired when we stopped like we usually are.
Remember, this was pre-pandemic shutdown. Every time I would search for a hotel close to Tallahassee, the prices would rise higher and higher. I snagged a couple of hotel reservations in Marianna, Florida and two, maybe three, on the outskirts of Tallahassee. Periodically, I would check prices and they rose to extreme heights. Days Inn with a 2 star rating was almost $300.00! Holiday Inn Express was $370 something. Even the mom and pop motels were ridiculously high. The higher end hotels were $400+ and some were almost $1,000! What in the world? After some googling, I found out that there was a college football game at the University of Florida in Tallahassee. No wonder the prices were exorbitant. Thankfully, I had the cheaper reservations to fall back on. We would just need to decide where we would be staying as the trip got closer.
You really didn't think that I could leave well enough alone did you? Of course not! Once a week, I'd search the hotels again and they rose higher. And, then, one day, boom, they were back to semi-normal. I figured that people weren't comfortable in traveling and were also thinking that the game would be cancelled. Every time I would see a normal looking rate, I'd book it. At one time, I think that I had ten different reservations with free cancellation policies.
On November 9th, I told John that we had to sit down and make the final decision on where we would be stopping for the night. I did a "worse case scenario" google search. Marianna, Florida is approximately 490 miles from our house and a lot of those miles were interstate. But, the miles that aren't interstate miles are in towns that require some stop and starting and slower driving. My google search of "How long does it take to drive 490 miles going 50 miles an hour?" said it would take us about 10 hours. We could do that. Marianna would be our stop for the night. I cancelled all the reservations but one, the Fairfield Inn in Marianna, Florida.
Alright, now we can fast forward to Friday, November 13th. Yes, you read that right. We were leaving on Friday the 13th. I didn't give a hoot. We were going to Disney! First, I had to tackle work and make sure things were in order before I left. Luckily, it wasn't too bad as I had started prepping all of our clients that I would be leaving. I got everything done and was outta there by Noon.
When I got home, John had already gotten the oil changed and almost all of the luggage was loaded in the car. The night before, I had made a big bowl of chicken salad for our picnic. Instead of stopping for fast food just down the road from our house, we made chicken salad sandwiches and ate those while putting the last of the things in the car.
I had notes all over the kitchen counter for the kids who would be taking care of the animals and checking in on Mama every day. Once we had everything in the car, we walked over to tell Mama goodbye. We assured her that someone would be coming every day to get her mail, feed the animals, etc. She gave us big hugs and we left to do a final inspection of "did you get everything" at our house. Everything done, we hopped in the car.
Even though we could still go a long way without stopping for gas, we stopped at a nearby gas station and topped off the tank.
And we were off! We were on our way to Walt Disney World! Our first stop was not long after. I had to take a potty break. My bladder plays tricks on me and knows that there's a Mississippi Welcome Center. I hopped out, ran to the bathroom and was back in the car at 2:38 p.m.
(my gosh almighty, my hand looks like a wrinkled raisin)
Potty break made, we were back on the interstate in no time.
Just outside of Jackson, we saw what we refer to as the "fake Epcot" which is a sports stadium.
I hate driving in Jackson. There's always construction going on. Lanes closed. Crazy drivers. I just don't like it at all. Once out of Jackson, we headed towards Hattiesburg and hit construction again. Thousands upon thousands of construction cones and bumper to bumper traffic. I don't have picture proof so you'll just have to take my word for it. Once we made it to Hattiesburg, we got on Hwy. 98 and started towards Mobile. Mobile is usually about a 5 hour drive and despite the construction and traffic, we were right on track. That's Mobile up ahead.
**Continued in next post
Attachments
Last edited:
Donald - my hero
<font color=blue>Aww yes. The dreaded "mouse hand"
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2006
Yup, it was cutting it close that's for sure! We always stretch our trips to the max, take the last flight out of MCO around midnight, arrive to an empty airport at home. This year?!?! Yeah, not so much -- the customs hall was packed, longer lines than we've ever seen and we both thought it was odd that all the agents, every single worker we passed had gloves, masks and were doing their best to stand back from people. We were following the news while we were in Disney, knew what was going on around the world, so after we got our bags and then walked past not one, not two but THREE carousels just starting up for flights from China we picked up the pace and got out of there pronto! I did the math later and figured out that we went thru the same customs hall that the first documented case in our country used, on the same day. Certainly made things real!!
It's because of your trip reports that we chose CBR for one of the best trips we've had -- stayed in one of the newly refurbished rooms in a perfect location based on your recommendations. I think that was 5 years ago? This past trip your comments about All Star Movies cemented THAT resort for the first 3 nights of our trip before we moved to POFQ for another 18 nights. Girl, you have some serious influence power
OH and the sanitizers, wipes, extra cleaning products? Yeah, that's a normal day out of the house for me, I have serious food allergies and have always packed those things when we travel, it's like the rest of the world has become as obsessive with cleaning surfaces and what goes in their mouths as I've been for years! Crazy times indeed
mickeystoontown
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2006
I love all the pre-trip stuff! Just reading about it makes me excited for a trip, and we don't have our next one planned yet.
We didn't stop at any restaurants either. Just did drive thru.
I can't wait to hear where dinner was on Thanksgiving. I feel like I already know, but I forgot.
I get excited about pre-trip stuff too. Even when we do our weekend road trips.
Hello there! I sure hope that you like Caribbean Beach as much as our family does!
mickeystoontown
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2006
I'll finish up the latest installment tomorrow. Just had someone asking for some info. I'm excited to be writing again! And I'm excited to see my old friends and making new ones!
mickeystoontown
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2006
Yup, it was cutting it close that's for sure! We always stretch our trips to the max, take the last flight out of MCO around midnight, arrive to an empty airport at home. This year?!?! Yeah, not so much -- the customs hall was packed, longer lines than we've ever seen and we both thought it was odd that all the agents, every single worker we passed had gloves, masks and were doing their best to stand back from people. We were following the news while we were in Disney, knew what was going on around the world, so after we got our bags and then walked past not one, not two but THREE carousels just starting up for flights from China we picked up the pace and got out of there pronto! I did the math later and figured out that we went thru the same customs hall that the first documented case in our country used, on the same day. Certainly made things real!!
It's because of your trip reports that we chose CBR for one of the best trips we've had -- stayed in one of the newly refurbished rooms in a perfect location based on your recommendations. I think that was 5 years ago? This past trip your comments about All Star Movies cemented THAT resort for the first 3 nights of our trip before we moved to POFQ for another 18 nights. Girl, you have some serious influence power
OH and the sanitizers, wipes, extra cleaning products? Yeah, that's a normal day out of the house for me, I have serious food allergies and have always packed those things when we travel, it's like the rest of the world has become as obsessive with cleaning surfaces and what goes in their mouths as I've been for years! Crazy times indeed
Good gosh, y'all did cut it close!
I'm glad that you enjoyed both CBR and Movies based on my reports. We are going back to Movies next trip because we are gifting the kids a trip to Disney. Gotta go with what fits the pocketbook since we are paying for everybody.
Yeah, I've always been a hand sanitizer, wipes kinda gal and had plenty even before the pandemic. And with the CDC advising everybody to wash their hands...I mean, what did they do before?
PittypatBR
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2007
I love John's sweet note - he is a real romantic! Y'all are crazy travelers trying to go that far after a half day of work, and I know you drive all the way. Hope the rest of the drive went smoothly.
suse66
When you wish upon a star, your dreams come true!
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2008
Looking forward to hearing where you found for dinner!
Even though I am sure it is a lot of work and worry, what a blessing you must be for your mom. ❤
We always do picnics on road trips too. We only drove to Disney once (we live in southern Ontario) but it was a fun road trip!
I love laying everything out pre-trip and planning. It's part of the fun!
Leaving earlier = more Disney time!
Haha! Choice is good!
I always find something important on that last sweep of the house.
It does not.......that's just what I always teased my mom about......"chicken skin". Now I have it too, lol!
A 21 night trip!! Wow, wow, wow.....those are serious Disney goals!It's because of your trip reports that we chose CBR for one of the best trips we've had -- stayed in one of the newly refurbished rooms in a perfect location based on your recommendations. I think that was 5 years ago? This past trip your comments about All Star Movies cemented THAT resort for the first 3 nights of our trip before we moved to POFQ for another 18 nights. Girl, you have some serious influence power
Handykapper
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2020
Really enjoy the Pre-Trip offerings.
Thanks
Thanks
rdkeim
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2006
I like reading about all the pre-trip stuff. It's an exciting part of the trip! I understand you needing to get away. I did the same for my Mom who passed during the pandemic. We haven't driven to Disney for a long time - my DH is retiring at the end of this month so maybe next time it will be a road trip. I love a good road trip How nice you get to celebrate your anniversary in Disney. We're celebrating DH's retirement in Disney in early March. Anxious to hear more about your adventure!
How nice you get to celebrate your anniversary in Disney. We're celebrating DH's retirement in Disney in early March. Anxious to hear more about your adventure!
Ellester
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2003
I know exactly what you mean about the loneliness the older folks are feeling! My mom lives about 10 minutes from us, I’m the only child and she’s been single since she and my dad divorced in 1976! Thankfully, she had already planned on moving from her rather isolated house to an active retirement community before Covid hit. It’s a new place so was delayed in opening a bit but she was finally able to move in September. Now she sees people daily, instead of just when I can stop by. She is such a social person and has missed her church, Bridge, canasta, and other groups. I am so happy she has someone other than her dog to talk to on a regular basis now! 
And I am the same about planning, I have notebooks upon notebooks with all sorts of plans in them! This next trip is totally different since we just scheduled it last week and we will be arriving in WDW on February 7th! We had to cancel our 30th anniversary trip to Disneyland in September (that I had been planning for over a year).
And I am the same about planning, I have notebooks upon notebooks with all sorts of plans in them! This next trip is totally different since we just scheduled it last week and we will be arriving in WDW on February 7th! We had to cancel our 30th anniversary trip to Disneyland in September (that I had been planning for over a year).
GrantDB
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- May 20, 2018
I know it probably sounds mad but I love when you guys in the States take these long car journeys, because it's something I'd like to do myself, our roads and cars in the UK are so small.
So all the pictures inspire me, can't wait to see more and tag along with you guys.
Stay safe.
So all the pictures inspire me, can't wait to see more and tag along with you guys.
Stay safe.
Share this page
GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE
Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.
Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!
Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.
Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!
