Party of 28, your table is ready!!! ***Update 10/11/08-- chapter 6 beginning**

[IATink]

Great start to your TR! I LOVE road trips (especially when Disney is the destination)! We always drive from Iowa and everyone thinks I'm crazy to want to drive that far. Honestly, sometimes getting there is half the fun! Can't wait to read more!

 

[mommyofthreeboys]

Great start to your TR! I LOVE road trips (especially when Disney is the destination)! We always drive from Iowa and everyone thinks I'm crazy to want to drive that far. Honestly, sometimes getting there is half the fun! Can't wait to read more!

Yeah! My first reader!!! Thank you for posting!!

 

[chiefdragon]

What an awesome TR...I can not wait to read more. 28 people....I could not handle it with 13 so I can not wait to see how great your trip was with 28

 

[mommyofthreeboys]

Chapter 1 continued: Will we ever get past this accident?

7:10 pm. We leave McDonalds. Hoping to get past the wreck quickly.

We did our first “swapping”. My nephew was driving his mom and dad crazy so my SIL asked me “I’ll take your mom if you take Matthew.” Deal! So now my mom who was riding with us, is now riding with my brother. And my nephew is with us.

We get settled back in. More traffic. Not going anywhere anytime fast. We were stopped. Just crawling. Maybe 4mph. After the food, the mood turns a little quieter. I was too restless to read the book or listen to music. I take pictures to occupy my time.

I don’t think my dad was too happy about the traffic. But you could never tell.

I know the boys really wanted to smile for the picture—they just didn’t know I was going to take a picture.

Believe that and I got some ocean front property in Arizona.

Finally, after 3 hours of hanging out the windows, telling jokes, stopping for food, being silly, seeing things I never thought I would see, we get past the accident scene.

When I came upon this sign, I wanted to scream "No $hit Sherlock!"

9:07pm—That’s when we FINALLY passed the scene above. Yep, only 143 since we left. That was more than 5 hours ago. I’m not good with math, but I now that’s not making very good time!!!!

After passing the wreck, we were pedal to the metal!

But not for long.

Remember that pop/soda/Coca-Cola back at McDonalds? Yeah, several had too much too drink.

9:30pm. Only 22 minutes past the wreck, we had to stop for a restroom break.

10:37pm. Welcome to Tennessee!!! It was too dark for a picture. Darn it.

But good news! We made it all the way through Tennessee without having to stop!

12:49am. Welcome to Georgia! Still too dark for a photo. Darn it.

12:56am – 1:20am. Stopped for bio break and gas. Yes, with a party this size, it took 24 minutes just to stop for gas. AND to take turns in a 1 stall restroom!!! Something I didn’t think of in all my planning.

After this stop, I take over the driving for DH.

2:35am. More good news! We hit Atlanta—NO traffic!!!! I kept a close eye on a disboard post about the resurfacing project in Atlanta and we were ready to take the bypass around but after making a quick 511 call, we decided to go straight through. DH was sleeping. He wanted to see Atlanta. Oh well—next time dear!

3:20am. ANOTHER bio break. DH takes back over the driving. My eyes were hurting. Remember I didn’t sleep the night before!

6:20am. Exit 2 in Georgia. Just 2 miles from Florida!!!
We stop.
Our van doesn’t want to.
DH wants to get to Florida. But dad and then my sister says “gas is significantly cheaper in Georgia than Florida”.
So we stop.
Not happy.
We stop.

Some of us didn’t care—just happy to able to smoke:

Gas turns into breakfast. Now DH is really not happy. Everyone decides to go into the Flying J restaurant and eat a sit-down buffet for breakfast. DH is not happy. He and our boys stay in the van. We are not breakfast eaters. We packed snacks, poptarts and a cooler so we wouldn’t have to waste time and money eating on the road.

And besides, if I was going to eat breakfast, it sure hecks not going to be at a Flying J!!!! Seriously. I think there is an IHOP down the road. We just passed a Cracker Barrel at every exit. Heck, I’ll even eat McDonald’s again- it’s across the road!

But this vacation is not about me. Not about DH. Not about our boys. It’s about the whole family so we compromise and we sit and wait for them to finish eating.

I go over to my sister’s van and wish my niece a Happy Birthday! Today’s her birthday and a picture was the last thing she wanted!

At one point, I go inside to check it out. One quick look at the buffet and I go back out to the van. I thank my kids for not being breakfast eaters. I slip them an extra five dollar bill and say “Here, you just saved me this much by not eating. And trust your mom- that poptart you are eating is much better than what they are eating in there”

Just then, my mom comes out and says, “You’re lucky you didn’t eat in there. It was disgusting. The potatoes were raw. The eggs were cold. Your dad couldn’t get a refill on his coffee. It was bad. A waste of money.”

I glance over at my DH and I give him that look. You know that look. The look that tells him to bite harder on that tongue because my dad is getting in the van and he says,

“Much better. I think everyone is in a better mood now that we ate.”

Everyone but DH.

7:16am. We depart the Flying J. (what does the J stand for? Junk?) If you’re keeping track—1 hour after we stop, we finally leave.

DH makes sure he is first out the parking lot. He wants to be first to arrive in Florida. Must be a man thing.

Finally we see this beauty!!!!

I love Florida! Nothing says Florida like palm trees! I love them!

One of my favorite things….check that….my favorite thing about driving is visiting the Welcome Center in Florida. I HAVE to get the traditional photo of the Welcome sign. So at 7:20 am, after only driving 4 minutes, I make everyone stop—again. I’m sure there were other people biting their tongues just like DH was a few minutes earlier.

But everyone stops and smiles just for me.

It takes a couple tries…..

Not everyone is in the picture. I wasn’t going to make them. Not after a night of no sleep. That was a button I wasn’t willing to push.

The actual Center wasn’t open until 8am so we couldn’t visit inside so we leave.

7:34am. We depart Welcome Center.

This is where 1 vehicle leaves the rest of the group. My sister and family is staying in a different resort so they go ahead of us and head to All Stars Sports—their resort.

Bye Mindy!!!

8:49am. Barely over an hour and someone has to use the restroom again. Maybe packing a cooler was a bad idea. It’s all my mom. Just have one word for the next the trip. Depends.

While we are waiting, Nolan says “I’m so excited to get to WDW.”

Me too Nolan. So we share a moment and take a picture.

My 2 teenager nieces take over the driving for their vehicle so we have to back it down to the speed limit.

8:55am—back on the road! Only a 6 minute stop! Get out of town! No way!

Yep it’s true.

The time has come.

You know that time.

When you KNOW you are in Florida.

Yes, you passed the Florida sign. But that’s only one sign. You know you are in Florida when you start passing all the “We bare all” signs.

Thankfully, my boys didn’t ask any questions.

9:36 am- We decided to stop AGAIN for gas and bio. Nolan relays the message

Oh yeah, and that "cheaper" Georgia gas. HA! The Florida gas we buy on this stop was the same darn price!!!! Stopped at Flying Junk for NOTHING!!!!

Finally after how many hours of driving, countless potty breaks, and passing meaningless signs……we pass this sign!!!!

YAHOOOOO!!!!!

We pass tolls along the way. We had our quarters ready. As did everyone else. We didn’t want to waste precious time having to get change. (Not like all those restroom stops weren’t a waste of time)

My dad is pointing things out along the way. He thinks he sees resorts, the castle and other Disney things. I didn’t see a thing! Until this:

FINALLY, WE ARE HOME!!!!!

Next up: Chapter 2—the check in. Will our rooms be ready? Will we get to the Hoop Dee Doo on time? Will anyone get to take a nap?

 

[mommyofthreeboys]

What an awesome TR...I can not wait to read more. 28 people....I could not handle it with 13 so I can not wait to see how great your trip was with 28

Thanks! It was a little crazy but a great time. But I'm sure you can relate with 13! ((Stay tuned to find out if I would ever do it again! ))

 

[lisalonglash]

I'm in! We're going in October with a family group of 16, so I'm reading your report anxiously LOL Great stuff so far

Waiting for the next installment

 

[MissMichelle]

OOOOOOO!!! I can't wait to read on for this one!!! Your pics are great and to have 28 people for this trip should make for a very interesting read. Keep it coming (shhh don't tell anyone that I am pausing from my own report hehe)

 

[Nie0214]

Wow, 5 vans of people... just wow. Your family has so many kids too! I can barely handle going with my brother and my mother.

 

[heaven2dc]

What a great report! I wish we had more close family members to take a trip like this - what fun (even tho all those potty breaks can be a pain even on short trips)!

This has the makings of being my all time favorite TR - great job!

P.S. When I took 12 family members in 1997, we flew (I flew out 3 from Oregon and the rest of us from WV) and I can't even imagine everyone getting along on the road trip since there were problems with them flying).

 

[vdarrell]

Lovng your trip report.
We are from Ohio and have drove the route you drove many times so it was like old times for me to go along for the ride.
As for the potty breaks my family says I know where every potty facility is in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD.
I'm glad you made it now I'm waiting to read about time in Disney.

 

[whogirl'smom]

This is great! I'm in!

 

[bnance]

Looks like a fun trip so far!

 

[Villainess]

Oh more! More!!!!!

For taking a vacation with 28 people!

 

[mommyofthreeboys]

Chapter 2

After we passed the arches, we needed to find POP Century.

I don’t know about you, but when I arrive on property, I just want to take it all in. I want to look at the buses, other Disney people traveling, the road signs…..everything. Instead, I had to look down at a map and figure out how in the heck to get to POP. After an ALMOST wrong turn, we finally arrived at POP!!!!

10:52am!!!! EXACTLY 19 hours it took for us to arrive from leaving my sister’s house. You could say we were a little off on the time. I thought it would take us 15 hours. Since we arrived later than we thought, I was hoping the rooms would be ready.

My sister called about 20 minutes before we arrived to tell us she found their resort, ASsp, but their room was not ready. She said she was going to look around a little bit and then come over to see us.

Time to check in!!! Once we got the 4 vehicles parked, everyone got out and we walked in together. All the kids were REALLY excited at this point. My 3 yr old niece immediately said “Let’s go see the castle!”

Some of the group hang out while we go to check in:

Check in went very well.

Smooth and Fast. Just how I like it.

If you consider the 1 person ahead of us a line, then there was a line. And that 1 person was only there because he seen us coming and virtually ran us over to get in front. Can’t blame the guy. Wouldn’t you try and get in front of a large group?

At check in, each family had their own Cast Member. This is why check in went so fast. We were all checking in at the same time.

Here’s my sister Crystal checking in. My mom and dad are in the background:

My CM was very nice. He made a note of my son’s birthday and his favorite character. He then gave me 5 Magical Gathering pins, our beautiful envelope with lots of info (that I all ready knew) inside, our KTTW cards and then he gave me our room number.

Get out of town!

Yep, that’s right—ROOM NUMBER BABY!!!! Our room is ready.

I walk over to my sister and ask her what her room number is and she says “Our room is not ready.”

I walk over to my mom and dad and ask them what their room number is and mom says “Our room is not ready.”

I walk over to my brother and ask him what their room number is and he says “Our room is not ready.”

I walk over to my other brother and ask him what their room number is and he says “Our room is not ready.”

Did you read that??? That was not a copying and pasting error.

My room was the ONLY one ready!!!!!! My mom then asks “Is that because you planned everything? Is that why they had your room ready?”

Huh? Seriously? Disney is good but not that good!

No, my room was ready because the people before me checked out earlier and housekeeping got it ready. Pretty simple concept right?

Anyway, we all tried and tried to get everyone’s room number even though they weren’t ready. All 4 Cast Members at the desk would not spill the beans.

Every one of them said, “I’m sorry, I can’t tell you. Please call us around 4pm and we’ll tell you then.” Grrr…..because to make it more frustrating they added….

“We can tell that some of you have adjoining rooms but we can’t tell you with whom.”

I asked if they could tell me if we are close together. If their room was by mine. Nope. Couldn’t tell me either.

So we took our Magical Gathering pins, our envelopes and key cards to meet the rest of the group that was hanging out.

I informed everyone that we needed to go to concierge to get our Hoop Dee Doo Review tickets for tonight’s showing at 5pm. Since it was a group of 28, unlike check in-- we all had to be together. One CM helping us all.

By this time, my sister staying at the ASsp arrives. Perfect timing. We get in line for concierge and this time we had a little bit of a wait. Finally, a CM motioned us over.

CM: “How may I help you?”
Me: “We have an ADR for HDDR tonight at 5pm that we need to get our tickets for.”
After finding the reservation and confirming everyone is paying separately
CM: “Everyone will need to be here for me to do this.”
Me: “We are all here.”

He seemed a little upset we were all here. I guess it was going to be a complicated transaction. Wait, upset is not the right word—disappointed. I think he was hoping we wouldn’t have to do this one because……

HE COULDN’T GET IT RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!! And yes, I am yelling. It seemed he was making it much more difficult than it had to be.

Yes, my brother was paying cash.
Yes, my sister was staying at ASsp.
Yes, the rest are on the Dining Plan.

But no, he couldn’t get it straight for anything!!!!! First he wanted to “settle it” all together since it was 1 reservation. I guess that was the problem. It was 1 reservation and he expected 1 person to pay for it. It was hard for him to break it out. Even though I had typed everything out on paper what everyone was doing. He didn’t want to use my paper.

He had to call over to ASsp and have them manually deduct the dining credits off her room since he couldn’t do that. I can understand that. From there, it was all downhill.

At one point, he gets out a piece of paper and writes down everyone’s last name AND room number. No one else is paying attention. I did. I knew what 7215, 7216, 7218, 7221 next to everyone’s name was.

I quickly give my brother and SIL a nudge and whisper in their ear “Look- that’s your room number!” They secretly jotted theirs down and I write down the rest.

After 45, yes FOURTY FIVE minutes, he prints off our tickets (1 ticket for everyone) says it’ll take a minute to deduct the credits and figure it out but tells us to “Have a Magical Day!”

***fast forward to when my brother checked out. After looking over the bill, he was only charged for 3 adults and not 5 so apparently the CM never got it right***

While we were getting the tickets, everyone else went to get the vans, parked, found the 80’s section and starting carrying stuff up to the room.

Now this is something we could not grasp for hours. Everyone kept saying “We’re in the 70’s section!” because our room number started with a 7 and several us would correct the other and say, “No, we are in the 80’s section”. It was very confusing. Wondering who the genius was that thought of that numbering system.

Oh—We requested the 60’s section since we were celebrating my parents 45th Anniversary and they were married in the 60’s. Nope. Didn’t happen. We got the rockin’ 80’s!!!!

After leaving concierge, my brother and I walked to go find our rooms. When we finally found it, my room was full. I honestly did not mind. But I did miss out on the “insert key, open door, taking a first look at our room, smiling and then jumping on the bed yelling –I’m in Disney World” moment. My DH and kids got to experience it and apparently this little guy was there to greet them.

By this time it’s a little after 12:00pm and everyone desperately wanted to be in their room to relax a little before dinner. I can understand that. BUT what made it worse was those room numbers. Since everyone now knew the room number, they kept “peeking” in their room to see how soon it would be before they got in.

Wait….did I say “they”? I mean my mom.

No problem, we patiently waited (for now) and everyone piled into our room. For a few minutes it was fun. After all, we were finally in Disney!!! But then it got too close for comfort. Remember—most of the adults were running on no to little sleep. I have to admit, it was a little stressful at one point. I think I even grabbed my purse and asked who wanted to go to MK with me.

Screech!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My SIL did not want her kids to go because she had envisioned and/or dreamed that her whole family would walk together down Main Street for the first time. I can respect that and quickly said I wasn’t going to MK, but I had to do something. I decided to decorate all of our doors.

That’s my door. All the others were the same.

My DH decided to open himself up a cold Bud Light. After all, that is vacation to him.

Then my BIL decides to drink a few too.

The kids decided to check out the pool. So one by one, they went into my bathroom to change into their suit.

Finally, they were all ready to go and we got a little piece of quiet until….

CRACK!

Yep, with the rain brought some thunder and quickly they all came back.

Around 1:30pm, another room was ready. My brother and family head to their room.

Everyone else starts to get a little slap happy. We are running out of things to do. In the “hallway” there is a lonely wheelchair so they start acting a little silly.

Notice that housekeeping cart in the background? Yep, they are STILL cleaning our rooms. By this time, my mom loses all patience and goes and asks the housekeeping staff how she can help!!!!!!! I didn’t know this at first until my DH comes up and says,

“Go get your mom. Doesn’t she know we are not suppose to know the room numbers?”

Ugh. So maybe I shouldn’t have given out all the room numbers after “stealing” them from concierge.

I go talk to my mom and she said that they don’t mind. I leave her alone and let her do her thing. Because if it was going to get people out of my room faster, I was all for it. ONLY because I wanted to get settled in.

Meanwhile, my niece is tickled pink to be here!

My sister Crystal came up to me and asked if everything was driving me crazy because if she was in the same situation, she would have went off by now. I forget my response exactly but I said something to the regards that I didn’t mind. Yes, I was stressing but it’s family and what was I to do? I guess I didn’t mind everyone in my room—it was ALL the stuff in that small room.

More hanging out in my room pictures:

My son and nephew

My son and neice

After 2pm—my brother’s room is ready.

Around 2:30pm—my sister and then mom and dad’s room was ready.

My sister’s room at ASsp was still not ready. So my niece took a shower in my room. It’s her 18th birthday. Here she is with my son.

My sister calls and says they finally got into a different room at ASsp.

YEAH!!!! Everyone is in their rooms!!!! Yahoo!!!!

So time for some showers and quick naps for some. The plan is to meet at the Magic Kingdom bus stop at 3:45pm to head to the HDDR.

My love after getting a shower. That Bud Light is now what is keeping him awake.

Up next: will anyone take a nap and not wake up for dinner? Will everyone make it to the bus stop? Will they like the HDDR? Will my niece have a Happy Birthday?

 

[Disneygirl26]

I am so enjoying your TR your family reminds so much of mines, I'm from a big family also and your TR is reminding so much of our family trip last June. I thought our group was big we had 22 family members but you have me beat, I hope you and your family had as much fun as we did. We going back in 3 weeks it's only going to be 10 of us this time, so please hurry up and finish so I'll have something to read on the plane

 

[brandi~momof3]

can't wait to read some more

 

[mommyofthreeboys]

I'm in! We're going in October with a family group of 16, so I'm reading your report anxiously LOL Great stuff so far

Waiting for the next installment

Thanks! Glad you are here!

OOOOOOO!!! I can't wait to read on for this one!!! Your pics are great and to have 28 people for this trip should make for a very interesting read. Keep it coming (shhh don't tell anyone that I am pausing from my own report hehe)

Welcome! I'm headed to go check out your report!

Wow, 5 vans of people... just wow. Your family has so many kids too! I can barely handle going with my brother and my mother.

LOL Thanks for posting!

Lovng your trip report.
We are from Ohio and have drove the route you drove many times so it was like old times for me to go along for the ride.
As for the potty breaks my family says I know where every potty facility is in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD.
I'm glad you made it now I'm waiting to read about time in Disney.

Good ole' 75 all the way down!!! Thanks for posting!

This is great! I'm in!

Thanks for stopping by!

Looks like a fun trip so far!

So far, so good! Will it stay that way? hmmmmm.....

Oh more! More!!!!!

For taking a vacation with 28 people!

Thanks!! I got more coming your way!

 

[mommyofthreeboys]

I am so enjoying your TR your family reminds so much of mines, I'm from a big family also and your TR is reminding so much of our family trip last June. I thought our group was big we had 22 family members but you have me beat, I hope you and your family had as much fun as we did. We going back in 3 weeks it's only going to be 10 of us this time, so please hurry up and finish so I'll have something to read on the plane

My DH and I are going on a 10 year anniversary trip. I leave in 16 days! I hope to get most of the TR completed by then because when I get back, I'll have to start on another one. Hope you have fun on your trip!!!

can't wait to read some more

Great! Thanks for stopping by!

 

[disneycrazycatlady]

Just found your trip report and I'm lovin it!! Great format and pics- Thanks for posting it.

 

[GiGiJoeysMom]

I am sooo happy you are doing this report, it reminds me of my family, all the way down to the vast amount of people.

I am always the one that does the ADR's for our huge group, so much pressure, but I love it.

Kim