The Christmas trip that took forever to get there!!

[Mom2apirate&princess]

Hello! I’ve been wanting to write one of these for a long time. I wish I could have come up a more clever title!! We are huge Disney people (duh) and go 3 to 4 times a year normally. I love reading trip reports & thought I would finally try doing my own.
I’m Tawney


My Husband and I both turned 50 this year. It was supposed to be a big year but ended up being one of our toughest years yet. But we are resilient and tried to salvage the year the best we could. We started doing an annual trip every December, just the 2 of us. This was our 5th year.

This is Kevin, my husband of almost 30 years

I can’t find one of just him alone. At first he put up with my Disney obsession- but I’m happy to report he’s fully converted and loves Disney just as much as me!

Our dates were Dec 6 - 13th and we were staying at the Coronado this time. Our first time there.

We moved earlier this year from the Chicago suburbs to Maryland - for a new job. We had plane tickets but the govt shutdown was going on and we had to cancel a trip to Chicago for a Hawks game (go Hawks!). We started thinking about the possibility of driving to Florida. When we saw it was definitely doable, the idea of a road trip started to sound really amazing. We would leave on a Friday after he was done with work and drive as far as we could, at least halfway if not more and get in Saturday early afternoon and be at the pool and get some sun! What could go wrong???
So even once the shutdown ended - we said nope, we are driving! And the best part ??? I could move the Disney countdown up a day!!

My husband decided the weekend before he needed a new car. Not just any car but an electric car. He buttered me up by telling me about all the money we could save on gas. I had once been given an electric car on a trip I took solo to visit family and I hated everything about it. Mainly because Budget didn’t tell me it was electric and I was traveling between Phoenix and Tucson and stopped to get gas and quickly realized I didn’t need gas I needed electricity. It was a disaster, but I digress. He buys the car. He comes home from work, early even! We load up and before we know it we are on the way.


What could possibly go wrong??

 

[Mom2apirate&princess]

Saving for updates

 

[Nicnicnic.nic]

Following

 

[NYCgrrl]

Sounds interesting

 

[SEAGULL59]

Following!

 

[WWhitehead]

Following!

 

[DLo]

Following along. Looking forward to reading more .

 

[nikmasteed]

Looking forward to hearing the rest! Hope you had a great trip

 

[Paulaparm]

Following along!

 

[Noreen411]

Following

 

[Mom2apirate&princess]

Hi everyone! I’m so excited I have followers!

When we left off we had just left and were on our way.
Pretty soon we saw this

After driving through Virginia for awhile the miles available? Is that a thing? The number was getting low. Not a big deal right, we will just find a charging station. Easy peasy.

Well maybe not. We find a Target with a charging station. Score! I love Target. He drops me off and I start walking around. 20 minutes or so pass and I call him, no answer, keeps sending me to voice mail. Finally I get a text that he’s on his way in. We meet up and he had some issues, had to call the company but it’s charging and it’s only going to take 50 minutes to charge. 20 minutes later he notices the car has stopped charging. He had to run outside and mess with but got it going again. Finally the car is charged and we are on our way. This is when I realize we have a range of 175 miles. I start googling how to maximize our miles, we had to turn off the heat in the back seat, honestly didn’t know it was on, so not a big deal. I stopped charging my phone through the car and switched it to a charging bank. He turned off the seat warmers and so on.

I’m starting to think this isn’t the best idea and kind of wanted to turn around and go get my gas car - but we were in this now.

Pretty soon we this, sorry for the bad picture.


Fayetteville, NC was about our halfway point and we really wanted to make it there that night.

Our mile range was getting lower and lower and my husband didn’t want to get below 60 miles. We find a charging station at a gas station- but for the whatever reason we couldn’t get it to work. I found another charging station a few miles down the road. It’s after 10 pm so the chick fil a that it was by was closed. It took 5 or 6 tries to get this one going’s. He’s getting frustrated, I’m frustrated, tired and hungry. We didn’t have dinner. I get a notification on my phone that my chase Disney card suspects fraud and they are going to cancel my card and send me a new one! No! I had to call and get that all settled. My card is the card attached to my Disney app.

We are sitting there in silence for 50 minutes while we wait for the car to charge. Did I mention I’m tired and hungry? I know he felt bad so I tried to tell him it was okay.

Eventually we are on our way. We were getting closer to Fayetteville, but for some reason we were like let’s go a little bit further. I found a hotel with a charging station. So we make our way to Lumberton, NC.

We pull in to the hotel at 1 am. I go in to get the keys to our room while he sets up the charging station.

I get the keys, drag my overnight bag up to the room and start tapping the key. It wasn’t working, I tried 4 or 5 times. Next thing I know a voice from behind the door telling me I have the wrong room and to go away. I double check, no he gave me keys for room 405. I drag myself back downstairs & tell the worker there was someone in my room. He was super perplexed and said there was no way someone could be in that room, the computer wouldn’t let him make keys if there was. I said I don’t know what to tell you He needed to call his manager. She told him to put us in a different room. I go back upstairs and thankfully the new room was empty.

An hour later my very upset husband made his way up to our room. He could not get the charger to work. It was a Tesla charger, we don’t have a Tesla but we did buy the adapter. We didn’t find out until the next day but it has to be a certain generation of charger to work with the adapter.

We ended up going to bed after 3 am with plans to get up at 7. Tomorrow has to be better, right?

 

[Mom2apirate&princess]

.

 

[hardcorestitch]

View attachment 1039135Hi everyone! I’m so excited I have followers!

When we left off we had just left and were on our way.
Pretty soon we saw this View attachment 1039129

After driving through Virginia for awhile the miles available? Is that a thing? The number was getting low. Not a big deal right, we will just find a charging station. Easy peasy.

Well maybe not. We find a Target with a charging station. Score! I love Target. He drops me off and I start walking around. 20 minutes or so pass and I call him, no answer, keeps sending me to voice mail. Finally I get a text that he’s on his way in. We meet up and he had some issues, had to call the company but it’s charging and it’s only going to take 50 minutes to charge. 20 minutes later he notices the car has stopped charging. He had to run outside and mess with but got it going again. Finally the car is charged and we are on our way. This is when I realize we have a range of 175 miles. I start googling how to maximize our miles, we had to turn off the heat in the back seat, honestly didn’t know it was on, so not a big deal. I stopped charging my phone through the car and switched it to a charging bank. He turned off the seat warmers and so on.

I’m starting to think this isn’t the best idea and kind of wanted to turn around and go get my gas car - but we were in this now.

Pretty soon we this, sorry for the bad picture.
View attachment 1039135

Fayetteville, NC was about our halfway point and we really wanted to make it there that night.

Our mile range was getting lower and lower and my husband didn’t want to get below 60 miles. We find a charging station at a gas station- but for the whatever reason we couldn’t get it to work. I found another charging station a few miles down the road. It’s after 10 pm so the chick fil a that it was by was closed. It took 5 or 6 tries to get this one going’s. He’s getting frustrated, I’m frustrated, tired and hungry. We didn’t have dinner. I get a notification on my phone that my chase Disney card suspects fraud and they are going to cancel my card and send me a new one! No! I had to call and get that all settled. My card is the card attached to my Disney app.

We are sitting there in silence for 50 minutes while we wait for the car to charge. Did I mention I’m tired and hungry? I know he felt bad so I tried to tell him it was okay.

Eventually we are on our way. We were getting closer to Fayetteville, but for some reason we were like let’s go a little bit further. I found a hotel with a charging station. So we make our way to Lumberton, NC.

We pull in to the hotel at 1 am. I go in to get the keys to our room while he sets up the charging station.

I get the keys, drag my overnight bag up to the room and start tapping the key. It wasn’t working, I tried 4 or 5 times. Next thing I know a voice from behind the door telling me I have the wrong room and to go away. I double check, no he gave me keys for room 405. I drag myself back downstairs & tell the worker there was someone in my room. He was super perplexed and said there was no way someone could be in that room, the computer wouldn’t let him make keys if there was. I said I don’t know what to tell you He needed to call his manager. She told him to put us in a different room. I go back upstairs and thankfully the new room was empty.

An hour later my very upset husband made his way up to our room. He could not get the charger to work. It was a Tesla charger, we don’t have a Tesla but we did buy the adapter. We didn’t find out until the next day but it has to be a certain generation of charger to work with the adapter.

We ended up going to bed after 3 am with plans to get up at 7. Tomorrow has to be better, right?

Madame Leota sure had a presence at every charging port… definitely the reason I’m not getting any Tesla.

 

[DanceDisney23]

Oh good gravy. What a start to the trip!

I probably would have had a good cry and then turned around to trade in the car. I take it you eventually made it to Disney. Kudos!

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

Yeesh

 

[buzzrelly]

Oh no! You have officially de-influenced me from ever buying an electric car! (Wouldn't have considered it anyway...most I would do is a hybrid but I'm not even too sure about that!). Is this your first time driving down? What a terrible experience! Hopefully things get better!

 

[Woth2982]

Joining in! This is my big fear with an electric car, not being able to find a charging station! I have a Hybrid Highlander and get almost 500 miles to a tank of gas. Hope after a good nights sleep things went better for you guys!

 

[DaisyDuck001]

OMG, that's exactly why I don't want an electric car!

 

[tkd lisa]

I know this is after the trip, but with a non tesla electric car, chargepoint becomes a good option. It's a consistent network, I've never had a compatibility problem with any of their chargers. And the app shows what's in service, in use, or out of service.

Also, in my opinion, 30 miles range is about the equivalent of the fuel light in a gas car, at least as long as you've identified a charge point.

In our extended family we have two plugin hybrids, and one full electric car. We just did a day trip to Disney with the electric, and were able to fully charge at epcot. But if I absolutely need to charge at Disney I use the ones at Disney Springs.

 

[AquaDame]

Oh man that sounds like a nightmare! I've had a Tesla since 2018. I wouldn't buy it again, but we've driven it all over and haven't run into those kind of issues on the west coast. We have had to strategize a bit, couldn't go the route we'd have liked between Banff and Red Deer Alberta last July as there wasn't a charger that way when we'd need one, but otherwise it's been great. We drove it down to Disneyland from Portland, Oregon and it was a breeze. It does add time to charge, but we've been successful walking our dog during or having coffee/lunch during the stops. If anything we stay longer than it says we have to... it generally pushes more frequent stops but only for 10-15 minutes at a time. Superchargers really make it easy, but they're still building out the network and standardizing things. Hybrid is the best of both worlds..! So many miles per gallon... and you just go to a gas station... it’s the same as full gas but needing less. I'm not sure if maintenance costs are higher though... aside from tires, wiper fluid & wipers I've had zero maintenance cost on my electric car in 7 years.