Now is the Best Time! Our 2024 Florida Road Trip (complete)

[mickey916]

Feel the same on CT, 84 and 91 stink too- Esp. If you are getting home in the evening. thanks for the great trip report.!

CT is such a small state but so hard to travel through! Thanks for reading along!

 

[erinch]

We live in Manheim Township, but our zip is Lititz. You need to stop in the Bullshead Pub next time you are in town.

My favorite memory of Shady Maple was the time I was staring at the pudding section, mouth agape. Imagine 25 different kinds of puddings and mousses, in addition to the cakes, pies, ice cream and other sweets. A very loud man was literally screaming at the poor young woman behind the case because they were out of the English Toffee pudding. No, he didn’t want the Budder Brickle pudding, or the Butter Pecan Pudding, or the Salted Caramel pudding, or the caramel Graham pudding , or the Snickers pudding . No English Toffee?? Get a manager.

 

[mickey916]

We live in Manheim Township, but our zip is Lititz. You need to stop in the Bullshead Pub next time you are in town.

Oh we saw that place on our walking tour! It looked really good but we weren't sticking around long enough to try it.

My favorite memory of Shady Maple was the time I was staring at the pudding section, mouth agape. Imagine 25 different kinds of puddings and mousses, in addition to the cakes, pies, ice cream and other sweets. A very loud man was literally screaming at the poor young woman behind the case because they were out of the English Toffee pudding. No, he didn’t want the Budder Brickle pudding, or the Butter Pecan Pudding, or the Salted Caramel pudding, or the caramel Graham pudding , or the Snickers pudding . No English Toffee?? Get a manager.

Can't please some people! That's crazy. We're always amazed at the huge variety of desserts. My DH says sometime he'd like to go there and just get dessert.

 

[mickey916]

Some Trip Statistics​

Number of Days: 37 days
Total miles traveled: 4723.4 miles
Number of Hotels Visited: 11
Number of VRBO rentals: 3
Restaurants/Snack Stands: 101
Desserts Consumed: 46
Total Steps: 688,253 (equivalent to 270 miles for me)
State Parks Visited: 7
Park Visits: Gatorland-1, Universal Studios-1, Islands of Adventure-1, Magic Kingdom-4, Studios-2, Animal Kingdom-2, EPCOT-4
Disney Springs Visits: 5
Weather: perfect

 

[ddluvsdisney]

I love these statistics. What a great idea!!
Can’t wait to hear about next year. Looks like we will be in Disney for Easter this year.

 

[mickey916]

I love these statistics. What a great idea!!
Can’t wait to hear about next year. Looks like we will be in Disney for Easter this year.

We're torn between going 3/9-4/15 and coming home for Easter or going 3/31-5/7. I feel like the second choice is better all around for crowds, pricing, and weather but means we'd miss Easter with our boys and my parents. So, it is looking like we're going with option 1. At least that's the current plan, we'll see!

 

[pwdebbie]

I enjoyed your posts and I'm looking forward to your next trip.

 

[mickey916]

I enjoyed your posts and I'm looking forward to your next trip.

Thank you! Me too!

 

[mickey916]

Lessons Learned​

On this trip we learned a few more things about our travel preferences. Most of these I mentioned as we went along, but here’s a summary:

1. We’re more comfortable staying in hotels (especially those with kitchenettes like Residence Inns) as opposed to rentals from VRBO. While we ended up with three very nice places this time, we were always nervous about what we would find and the Bradenton one started out scary. We spend so little time at the rentals/hotels we really don’t take advantage of the extra space or the pool. With just the two of us, off-site hotels are fine.
   
   
2. Both of us having APs really makes for a much more relaxing pace at the Disney parks. It was so nice to enjoy the parks without feeling like we had to cram everything in. It really took the pressure off knowing we could come back another day. I ended up with 22 visits on my AP between last December and this year. My DH ended up with 16 days on his more recent AP and will be using his in December for up to 8 more days. This definitely covered the cost.
   
   
3. There is a difference in Florida between a town with the word “beach” attached and just the town name. We learned to stay in the towns with the word “beach” attached…Cocoa Beach, Ormond Beach, Bradenton Beach, etc.
   
   
4. When the line is too long at Gideons, the drive to the East End Market location can save time and frustration (and Gideon’s Bites are yummy).
   
   
5. Taking a break from Magic Kingdom for lunch at an area resort is a good way to refresh.
   
   
6. Foods at Quick service restaurants, especially at the resorts, are not only a good value but very tasty and good quality food. Don’t overlook them.
   
   
7. If you plan to visit or camp/stay at any of the Springs, be sure to make sure they are open before you head there.
   
   
8. If you’re only going on a Sunday to Universal and want express passes, stay Sunday not Saturday at the Premier Hotels and save lots of $$ (but be prepared for long lines at check in).
   
   
9. In April there is usually a high pressure system that makes Florida weather great.
   
   
10. There are great opportunities in the Florida State parks to enjoy nature and a good option for non-park days.
    
    
11. It’s tough to find a good burger lately.
    
    
12. Being retired is fun.

 

[ddluvsdisney]

Retirement does sound fun. I CAN’T WAIT!!!

 

[mickey916]

Retirement does sound fun. I CAN’T WAIT!!!

I hope you enjoy retirement as much as we do. I have friends who say they think they will be bored. We are never bored. Our time is spent on home projects, traveling, helping aging parents and other family members, doing things with our kids, getting together with friends, and finding interesting places to go for walks. We are constantly busy and loving life.

 

[mickey916]

Final Rankings:​

As we ate each meal, we kept a running spreadsheet of our rankings. We placed them in order from Best to Worst and gave each item/restaurant a letter grade. Here’s what our grading was based on:

A: excellent, would definitely eat again
A-: same as A but just slightly under the A items
B: really good would probably eat again
C: good but no need to rush back
D: not good, definitely won’t go back for a while

We made 6 different lists: Breakfast, Lunch (which included lunch-type meals we ate at dinner such as burgers), Dinner, Sweet Snacks, Savory Snacks, and Drinks.

We didn’t eat breakfast out often so here’s our short breakfast list:

A	Boma	Orlando
A	Old Sugarmill	Deleon Springs
C	1900 Park Fare	Orlando
C	Tiny Turtle	Cocoa Beach
C	Pongu Pongu	Orlando
C	Woody's Lunchbox	Orlando
D	Kona Cafe	Orlando

We put any donuts we had for breakfast on the sweet snacks list since they really are more of a dessert than a meal.

Up next: lunch ratings

 

[ddluvsdisney]

I hope you enjoy retirement as much as we do. I have friends who say they think they will be bored. We are never bored. Our time is spent on home projects, traveling, helping aging parents and other family members, doing things with our kids, getting together with friends, and finding interesting places to go for walks. We are constantly busy and loving life.

I don’t think I’ll be bored either!!

 

[mickey916]

Lunch Rankings
​

A	Captain Cooks	Orlando
A	Sassagoula Floatworks	Orlando
A	Cocoa Beach Fish Camp	Cocoa Beach
A	Owens Fish Camp	Sarasota
A	D-Luxe Burger	Orlando
A	Polite Pig	Orlando
A-	ABC Commissary	Orlando
A-	Space Bowl	Kennedy Space Center
A-	Java Joint	Flagler beach
A-	Tiny Turtle	Cocoa Beach
A-	Gasparilla Island Grill	Orlando
B	Boathouse	Orlando
B	Pizza Ponte	Orlando
B	Circus McGurkis	Orlando
C	Papa Vitos	Cocoa beach
C	Regal Eagle	Orlando
D	Station House Tavern	Lancaster, PA
D	Cowfish	Orlando
D	Gas Full Service	St Augustine

 

[mickey916]

Dinner Rankings​

A	Ohana	Orlando
A	Chef Art Smith's Homecomin'	Orlando
A	San Angel Inn	Orlando
A	El Gran Charro	Stafford, VA
A	Columbia	Tampa
A	Il Mulino	Orlando
A	Shady Maple Smorgasbord	East Earl, PA
A	Speedway Club	Charlotte, NC
A	Havana 33	Moorestown, NC
A	Via Napoli	Orlando
B	Liberty Tree Tavern	Orlando
B	Mama Melrose	Orlando
B	Tambu Lounge	Orlando
B	Db Pickles	Ormond
C	Clark's Inn	Santee, SC
D	Yoders	Sarasota
D	El Amigo	Kannapolis, NC

 

[mickey916]

Beverage Rankings​

Drinks
A	Reese's Peanut Butter Shake	Hershey PA
A	Pineapple Coconut Slushy	Goods Food to Go, OKW, Orlando
A	Berry Slushie	Warung Outpost, AK, Orlando
A	Ponche Frutas	Dahlia Lounge, Orlando
A	Butterbeer, hot	Hopping Pot, Orlando
A	Butterbeer, frozen	Hopping Pot, Orlando
A	Pineapple Coconut Slushy	The Market, HS, Orlando
C	Zingiber Fizzie	Nomad Lounge, Orlando
C	Balinese Breeze	Nomad Lounge, Orlando
D	Frozen Citrus Iced Tea	Joffreys, Orlando

 

[mickey916]

Savory Snack Rankings
​

A	Chicken n Waffles	Honey Bistro, EP, Orlando
A	Gumbo	Magnolia Terrace, EP, Orlando
B	Toasted Pretzel Bread	Bauernmarket, EP, Orlando
B	Pot Stickers	Mr Kamals, AK, Orlando
B	Pepperoni Spring Roll	Spring Roll Cart, MK, Orlando
B	Cheeseburger Spring Roll	Spring Roll Cart, MK, Orlando
B	Corn Dog Minis	Caseys Corner, MK, Orlando
B	Seasoned Fries	Mr Kamals, AK, Orlando
B	Baguette	Les Halles, EP, Orlando
D	Sticky Ribs	Trowel & Trellis, EP, Orlando

 

[suse66]

For our last Disney day we chose to go to our favorite park, Epcot. We rope dropped and headed straight to the Land where DH rode Living with the Land and I headed for Soarin’. I had another weird experience like ToT but not nearly as bad on this ride. As we were waiting to have our seat buckles checked someone started rhythmically clapping and other people joined in. I figured it would stop once the ride started but it didn’t. They clapped through the entire ride. It wasn’t a big distraction though as the music muted the clapping for the most part. I don’t get it but I guess they were enjoying themselves. It is interesting though that with all our trips suddenly twice in the same week we encountered groups of people who acted like they were the only ones on the ride. We’ve never really seen that before thankfully.

I find it so rude when people take over the ride experience. What if that was a guest's only experience on Soarin' and they had it diminished in that way

Since we were in the Germany pavilion, we stopped by Sommerfest for one of our favorite Epcot desserts, the pretzel bread pudding.

I love that bread pudding so much.

This was so good last December that we were excited to have it again. Unfortunately, this time it wasn’t as good. The bread was thinner and a little soggy and the meat wasn’t as tender or flavorful. The mac n cheese was not as cheesy. The sandwich also seemed smaller.

That was the theme for me this summer. I found food quality and portion size were down while prices were sky high!

This was the worst hotel we stayed in the whole trip. It was old, rundown and the A/C was so noisy it sounded like a jet engine going off all night long. Good thing we were only there for one night.

Yuck! We had a similar experience once in Marietta, Georgia. It was just awful!

 

[erinch]

I have lived in Lancaster for 15 years and have NEVER been to Station House Tavern!
For a pub experience Lancaster Brewing is the best!
Appalachian Brewing is in Lititz, and also great!

 

[mickey916]

I find it so rude when people take over the ride experience. What if that was a guest's only experience on Soarin' and they had it diminished in that way

I agree. I do feel bad for the people on a once in a lifetime trip when others ruin the experience.

I love that bread pudding so much.

It is such a hidden gem!

That was the theme for me this summer. I found food quality and portion size were down while prices were sky high!

Oh that doesn't sound great. Hopefully things improve for our December trips!

Yuck! We had a similar experience once in Marietta, Georgia. It was just awful!

So far Georgia hasn't been great for us. Last year in Savannah wasn't much better. Next time we think we'll drive straight through to South Carolina.