Our “WONDER”ful -May 10 - DCL update June 9

[Kurby]

woo hoo - i'm so excited. i almost updated the title saying the trip has begun but that would have jumped the gun LOL

Cassie goes in to school early so i can get some final cleaning and the rest of the laundry done - oh joy oh bliss LOL

 

[LC30]

Kurby,

Congratulations on your "Wonder"ful WDW and first DCL trip. We love WDW so much we went 2x last year in 2 months. We are also going on our first Disney Cruise in May just 3 days after you get back and would love to hear about your trip. Our son is a few months younger than you DD. Love your trip report so far and your FE is adorable.

Have a great time!

 

[ibouncetoo]

Safe travels! Have a fabulous time.

.

 

[Kurby]

I think I’ll start today’s post by going back to yesterday. Which I now refer to as “The Day From Hell”

It started off actually pretty good. We (Cassandra and I) woke up early and headed off to school. I dropped her off and went back home to do a mass clean up. Our room, Cassie’s room, bathroom blah blah blah. Vaccum dust, laundry and all that. With all that done before 10 I went online (shocking I know) did some last minute changes to the FE gifts and all was well in Kurbyland.

Patrick starts work at 5am but finishes by 2 but he had his own errands to run before coming home so I made arrangements to have lunch with my aunt after picking up Cassie and running a couple of errands myself. This is where my day went from pretty good to “I should have stayed in bed”

After picking Cassie up we headed to the bank. When we got back to the car I remembered I wanted to exchanged some funds in addition to the banking I did, so back we went. Next up – CAA to take out a membership for the drive south. Did all the paperwork and paid then saw a Disney World sign out of the corner of my eye. I knew they sold park passes before but was told they only went as high as 7 days and we needed 10 so I asked about upgrading and was told they now carry 10 days. Perfect, 1 less thing to worry about when we get to WDW. Paid for all that (WOW can’t imagine paying for more the 3 people – that was expensive enough) and was about to walk out then asked about maps and the books of info for the states we’re driving through. Gather all that up and again just about to walk out when the lady casually asks “do you have health insurance for your trip” AGRRRR the main reason we joined again. So our 10-15 minute trip turned into almost an hour but we got what we needed and off to lunch we went.

So now it’s after dinner, Cassie’s sleeping and Patrick and I finish packing only to realize one of our credit cards is missing. After 3 hours of searching and turning everything inside out, it’s gone. So now I have to call it in as lost (no unknown charges thank goodniness) but we have a problem. That’s the card that has all the reservations under. Not to mention I just cleared the thing to use on this trip AGRR.

So couple hundred swear words later and I give up and go to bed.
Today’s another day. Who said that??? Well whoever it was was right.

Cassie had dance class so we couldn’t leave until 11. We made really good time, zipping through the boarder and stopping in Angola, NY for lunch at 1.15. This is a stop that was an annual stop for Patrick’s family when they were kids so the last 2 trips we’ve stopped there too. Apparently it’s come a long way and now has a Deny’s and a Mickey D’s along with a gift shop and vending machines. Only today we didn’t go in. I made us lunch so we sat on the grass and had a picknic, which Cassie just loved.

Our first gas fill up in the states was a little bit of a surprise. Gas here is so much cheaper than at home so it was nice to see us fill the take for less than half it would at home.

Cassie finally fell asleep around 4 after asking if we were going to Florida ohhhh about a thousand times followed by “are we going to Disney World” agrrrr yes we are yes we are yes we are

This van isn’t big enough LOL.

By 5.30 we were in Washington and decided to stop for dinner at the Cracker Barrel. It was good. On my rating scale I’ll rate it as an 8. Great service, really good food and a very good price.

We didn’t order appetizers or dessert so we were in and out in about half an hour and on our way.

We made another pit stop for gas and to let Cassie run around and in what seemed like a few minutes it went from light out to pretty dark. It might be because we’re in the mountain’s I’m not sure.

Our goal was to get to Charlotte NC but I’m not used to driving in the mountains in pitch black so it was becoming stressful and we decided to stop in Summerville WV instead.

We’ll get an early start tomorrow and hope to be at Patrick’s cousin’s by dinner time.

So there ya go. Months of pre-trip reports and now we’re finally doing the actual TR. Woo hoo.

Hope you enjoy reading this as much as I know I’m going to reliving and writing it

Cheers

 

[Carol G]

Your TR is very interesting...looking forward to future posting.
BTW Food for tought...if you pass Pecan House, market or something like that...stop in and buy fresh fruit and nuts for traveling. When we came back from our cruise we bought red oranges, pink grapefruit and different bags of nuts...couldn't stop eating them on the way home.

Have a great time. Going on my second 4 night cruise in Dec. already making FE. and deciding what to take. Talk about early planning.

 

[Kurby]

Day 2

Arrived save and sound. Several hours later then expected. Left later after breakfast then expected and an interesting GPS event turned our "around dinner" to 11pm arrival.

I'm taking 10 minutes to wind down but i'll be back later with a better day 2 report

cheers

 

[Kurby]

Official Day 2 report.

We're safe and sound and 4 hours late

We had intended on leaving our hotel in Summerville, WV sooner then we did (9.30) but Patrick and I - well mostly me since i did all the driving - were tired after a long first day and 2 hours of pitch black driving in the mountains.

We were making good time but found the time on our GPS slowly change from arriving at 7.30 to 9.30 after we had decided to give Cassandra slightly longer breaks to run around and play in the kids playground at lunch.

Interesting side note - that 9.30 time didn't sound right from about Savannah on but thought we must be calculating the distance wrong or something. Just before we hit Savannah we called Cara (dh cousin) to tell her where we were and that our7pm arrival time was looking like 9.30 according to the GPS but it didn't sound right. Cara thought it sounded ok and off we went. when 9.00 rolled around and we were still about 100 miles away. i suggested a second call saying we aren't listening to the GPS anymore and that we are x number of miles away and we figure 10.30 is more like the time we'll arrive.

Turns out - the early time change didn't effect our GPS and it was sill on the old winter time and that the 9.30 arrival time was correct as far as it was concerned.

There was some construction zones down the 95 but since it was Sunday we didn't have any delays until we reached Jacksonville but even that wasn't bad - just slowed down to about 40-50 mph

At any rate. We found their house just before 11 and stayed up for a short visit. Just enough time for Cassandra to get a second wind and want to play with every toy around

Here are some of the pictures from our drive down.


Morning in the Summerville hotel just before leaving

Just entering Virginia

Nice pic - LOVE the background LOL -

 

[momrek06]

KURBY, WONDERFUL UPDATE and WONDERFUL PICTURES!!!! Cassie is such a ham for the camera!!! Her smile is fabulous!!! What a love bug!!! Waiting to hear how she loves DISNEY!!!

 

[RLccweems]

I love all the pics of Cassie....she's a cutie! You must be a scrapbooker....i take a lot of the same shots as you do for my scrapbooks! I love your TR...it's great reading.

 

[Kurby]

Day 3 – The sun BURN

One would hope that while on vacation you could sleep in just a little bit. Ohhh so wrong.

I had hoped that because we didn’t get in until 11 last night and didn’t get upstairs to bed until after midnight that Cassandra would take the opportunity to sleep in just a little. 8am would have been nice. No such luck. It doesn’t seem to matter what time this child goes to bed 6,30-7am is her wake up time and there’s no changing that.

After hearing “it’s morning time” for I don’t know ….. the 5th time, I was finally able to comprehend that I wasn’t dreaming – that it actually was morning time. I cracked open an eye to find that it was indeed 7.02am aghhh. Al right I’m up… I’m up…

Apparently I was the last to get up LOL I’m so not a morning person. Coffee was ready as were the boys we are staying with. The oldest was off to school while the youngest and Cassandra made fast friends and the adults had coffee. Ahhhh coffee.

The house is in a beautiful community with a lake in the middle of the development, so after breakfast we went for a walk and took the kids to the park. A very nice way to spend the morning.

After lunch the little one took a nap and we headed off to the pool for 2 hours of fun in the sun. I did my wonderful mother of the year routine and sprayed Cassandra with 50+, put a hat on her and off we went. Unfortunatly I forgot to spry myself and by dinnertime I was hurting.

We went out to WalMart and picked up some after sun lotion. By the time we got back we had a full house of cousins and kids for a bbq. It was wonderful seeing everyone again. We haven’t seen them in 3 years and boy do kids grow up fast.

After a wonderful dinner the extended family left and we had to put 3 very hyper kids to bed. 2 mummy’s upstairs with their respective kids don’t the, but mummy but mummy but mummy dance while the 2 daddy’s are down stairs watching some car show. It only took about 30 seconds for the oldest boy to get his pj’s on and hop into bed and grab a book. The other two – not as quick. Cassandra wasn’t too bad though. She was over tired and wanted to play with the others but within a few minutes she was out so I headed down stairs to join in the fun. Poor Zack, he was not having anything to do with sleep and took ages to finally go down. But eventually all was quiet in the house.

Up next – The beach and sunscreen.

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

LOVING your TR so far!! Can I just ask...why is it that you do most of the driving? The reason I ask is because I, too, do most, if not all, of the driving among DFi and myself. We've never done a road trip all the way to WDW but in the future I'm sure we will and I KNOW I'll be doing the driving.

 

[Kurby]

I have major motion sickness and i'm not driving i can only last about 20 minutes before i'm asking dh to pull over and let me drive again. it's why it takes us 2 days to drive down since we have to stop for the night when i get tired.

LOVING your TR so far!! Can I just ask...why is it that you do most of the driving? The reason I ask is because I, too, do most, if not all, of the driving among DFi and myself. We've never done a road trip all the way to WDW but in the future I'm sure we will and I KNOW I'll be doing the driving.

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

I have major motion sickness and i'm not driving i can only last about 20 minutes before i'm asking dh to pull over and let me drive again. it's why it takes us 2 days to drive down since we have to stop for the night when i get tired.

Oh I see! Are you worried about the cruise with that problem?! I get a little car sick and I have vomitted on a boat before so I'm a little worried about my upcoming cruise... but it sounds like you have a way worse case of motion sickness than I do!

 

[momrek06]

I had hoped that because we didn’t get in until 11 last night and didn’t get upstairs to bed until after midnight that Cassandra would take the opportunity to sleep in just a little. 8am would have been nice. No such luck. It doesn’t seem to matter what time this child goes to bed 6,30-7am is her wake up time and there’s no changing that.

LOL, Kurby...that is why you NEED a vacation AFTER your vacation!!!!

Great Update!!! Oh, I love Cassie's CROCS!!!

 

[Kurby]

Oh I see! Are you worried about the cruise with that problem?! I get a little car sick and I have vomitted on a boat before so I'm a little worried about my upcoming cruise... but it sounds like you have a way worse case of motion sickness than I do!

no i'm not really worried about the cruise. i brought some ginger pills and my mil told me that on her non-disney cruise they had a shot in the a** you could get if you found it too much - if i find myself getting sick i'll go to the ship dr but i'm hoping not to have to.

LOL, Kurby...that is why you NEED a vacation AFTER your vacation!!!!

Great Update!!! Oh, I love Cassie's CROCS!!!

for real eh (ya i'm canadian LOL ) we haven't been gone a week and already i need a vacation

 

[Kurby]

What a beautiful day to go to the beach. Another early wake up with the kids, breakfast and about an hour to get everyone ready and we were off to the beach. Seeing that we have 3 kids and 4 adults we took 2 cars and off we went.

It took us about 20 minutes or so to drive to the beach (we didn’t go to Daytona) but where we ended up was so nice and peaceful (at least until we got there LOL). After walking a little ways down the beach we pitched our umbrellas and we headed down to pick shells and sand flees (seriously who on earth created these ugly things). My little nephew thought it was be loads of fun to hand me shells, then put one of these things in my hand AGRRRR it moves. Shiver. Not funny (ok a little funny now but not then)

I was a good little girl today and put on my 70+ sunscreen not once not twice but 3 times. Unfortunately the 3rd time I forgot my lower legs and feet so….. yup…. Sunburn. Ahhh will I ever learn????

We stayed at the beach until about 4pm then packed up and headed home. By 5pm I was in a lot of pain so Patrick and I went to the drug store to buy aloe and solercane (sp). By 10pm we were all up in bed but it was a rough one for me. Not much sleeping and a lot of pain.

Up next – It’s DISNEY TIME.

 

[Marcy Mouse]

Loving the tr!

I will be on the 7 day westren May 16th. I may have to do my first trip report.

Marcy

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

Oh that face!! Adorable!

 

[mousetravel]

Subbing!

 

[Grumpyismyfavorite]

Great report so far. I can't wait to hear more!