cmonroe
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2004
- Messages
- 995
Well as with all other reports there is so much to write, so I'll try to break it down to the essentials.
We drove from Mass to Disney. My wife didn't like the idea of travelling down 95 (Hurricane Charlie, coast, bridges, etc.) We took I - 84 to around Scranton, PA, to I-81, to I-77 to I-26, and caught 95 south.
From northern Mass to Orlando was almost exactly 1500 miles. The route, was nice and scenic (a little boring through PA). We left Mass on Friday at midnight ( I moved the time up because of the hurricane coming up the coast) and landed in our first stop in Roanoke, VA in 15 hours (Comfort Inn, $63 AAA discount). That may sound excessive, but I have a 3 year old and a 7month old in the car.
Leaving the next morning around 8 am we landed in Daytona Beach, FL around 8pm to land at our second stop.
This was interesting. Daytona Beach got pretty hammered by the hurrincane, complete blocks were without power. I pulled up to our hotel ( La Quinta Inn also $64 AAA discount). As we pulled in, in the same parking lot as the hotel was an outside bar with people drinking everywhere. This did not give us the warm and fuzzies. As I pulled around to the lobby entrance, I noticed the parking lot looked awfully full. I left my family in the car and went inside. My fears came true, the hotel was overbooked by central reservations. The desk people told me if I'd like we could drive to the "La Quinta Inns and Suites" down the strip (about 10 minutes away) for FREE. I didn't see that we had any choice and the environment wasn't very good, so I accepted.
We drove down the strip and there was all kinds of construction crews out repairing things. Random street and traffic lights were out. Pulling up to our hotel we notice that it and 2 other adjacent hotels have power. the rest of the block was pitch black.
The desk clerk here was nice yet frazzled. I got our room keys. My in-laws room air conditioning unit was not working, so they stayed in the other bedroom in our suite. It was a little tight, but free. The floor was a little wet by the door from the hurricane. We noticed the next morning that most of the windows were cracked as well.
In the end La Quinta did their best, we had a place to lay our heads.
My wife will not stay there again after the experience though.
The next morning we drove in and saw all of the damage they had sustained. Once we reached I-4 it got a lot better where there were just trees and almost every Billboard blown down on the highway. It took us about 45 minutes from Daytona beach to reach the Disney entrance. We were finally there. Our trip's real beginning. Part II to come soon.
We drove from Mass to Disney. My wife didn't like the idea of travelling down 95 (Hurricane Charlie, coast, bridges, etc.) We took I - 84 to around Scranton, PA, to I-81, to I-77 to I-26, and caught 95 south.
From northern Mass to Orlando was almost exactly 1500 miles. The route, was nice and scenic (a little boring through PA). We left Mass on Friday at midnight ( I moved the time up because of the hurricane coming up the coast) and landed in our first stop in Roanoke, VA in 15 hours (Comfort Inn, $63 AAA discount). That may sound excessive, but I have a 3 year old and a 7month old in the car.
Leaving the next morning around 8 am we landed in Daytona Beach, FL around 8pm to land at our second stop.
This was interesting. Daytona Beach got pretty hammered by the hurrincane, complete blocks were without power. I pulled up to our hotel ( La Quinta Inn also $64 AAA discount). As we pulled in, in the same parking lot as the hotel was an outside bar with people drinking everywhere. This did not give us the warm and fuzzies. As I pulled around to the lobby entrance, I noticed the parking lot looked awfully full. I left my family in the car and went inside. My fears came true, the hotel was overbooked by central reservations. The desk people told me if I'd like we could drive to the "La Quinta Inns and Suites" down the strip (about 10 minutes away) for FREE. I didn't see that we had any choice and the environment wasn't very good, so I accepted.
We drove down the strip and there was all kinds of construction crews out repairing things. Random street and traffic lights were out. Pulling up to our hotel we notice that it and 2 other adjacent hotels have power. the rest of the block was pitch black.
The desk clerk here was nice yet frazzled. I got our room keys. My in-laws room air conditioning unit was not working, so they stayed in the other bedroom in our suite. It was a little tight, but free. The floor was a little wet by the door from the hurricane. We noticed the next morning that most of the windows were cracked as well.
In the end La Quinta did their best, we had a place to lay our heads.
My wife will not stay there again after the experience though.
The next morning we drove in and saw all of the damage they had sustained. Once we reached I-4 it got a lot better where there were just trees and almost every Billboard blown down on the highway. It took us about 45 minutes from Daytona beach to reach the Disney entrance. We were finally there. Our trip's real beginning. Part II to come soon.
