The day/night Before You Leave

[RebeccaB]

What is your usual routine, or plan for killing time the day/night before you leave?

Usually we are up at the buttcrack of dawn to drive 3 hours to the airport, so noone gets much sleep the night before.

This year, I may just go right crazy. Dd and I will be leaving the house at 7am and headed for school. As soon as school ends, Dh is picking us up and we are hightailing it an hour and 45 mins to the airport. Oh yes, and we are bringing Dh's grandma to meet his aunt along the way, as they fly out two days after us. Also, my fil and mil are joining us this trip as well. So, we leave town at about 2:15, and our flight leaves at 5:55.

Which all means I have to have everything packed the night before. Which also means I will be driving dh batspit crazy en route to the airport "Did the cat/dog/turtles all have food n water?" "Did I remember blah de blah..." "Did you do this?" "Did you do that?" Oh my lord....come on Sept 28th!!!

 

[dixiegirl]

The day before we leave I take as an extra day off to prepare. I make sure everything at the house is done - diswasher emptied, trash out, cat supplies out, timers set, etc. And I also go and visit my mom (who is elderly) to make sure she has everything she needs while I'm gone. Then I finalize all of the packing that is left (little toiletry items) and wait for DH to get home from work.

We always fly out early in the AM so we stay at an airport hotel the night before. I pretty much am up all night - just CANNOT sleep no matter what. Too much excitement, anxiety, and adrenalin! I double check all of the ressies - I listen to my ipod and the tv - it's a long but exciting night!

Cannot wait - 24 days to go!

 

[KNovacovschi]

My routine starts 2 days before since we usually leave on Sunday. Thursday will be my last day of work so on Friday I will go to the bank to exchange CDN to US and make sure bills are paid and pick up any little things I amy have forgotten. I will do all housecleaning and start some of the packing. On Saturday my DD and I will go get our nails done and haircut and I will finish the packing. DH will start loading the car on Saturday night but above and beyond that he won't be doing anything. I'm to anal about how stuff is packed and when stuff is done. We try to go to bed early the night before but doesn't always work that way. This year our flight is at 12:20pm so we don't have to leave as early, which is good cause trying to wake up a 14 yr old early on a Sunday can be very detremental to anyones health.

Thats about it though. Nothing special.

 

[Pakey]

I always catch a 6am flight since I come from the west coast. I have a long work day the day before because it's hard to be gone. That night I have to make dog food for the pet sitter to feed my dogs (they eat homemade food) so I'm up late getting that done and bagged into the freezer.

Packing takes less than 15 minutes.

 

[Hallowishes]

4 days till my trip and i am in a PACKING FRENZY!! Going solo this trip .. but then my friend is coming down the second week. Im running the tower of terror ten miler too .... so, to say the least... this trip is going to be interesting!
i am off on sunday and leaving monday morning ... ive got everything packed that i can (still need to do some laundry ) the night before is normally somewhat a frantic pace ..did i remember everything? phone chargers? camera chargers? and i never sleep well i have some much anticipation for this trip its crazy!

 

[Figaro972]

I have to work the day we leave, talk about slowest work day ever!!!

 

[beansmom]

but working keeps ya busy and keeps ya from pacing a hole in the floor waiting for time to go.

 

[Figment43]

I usually have to wait until the night before to pack a bunch of things that I plan on using before I leave, such as shampoo/conditioner, shaving gel, etc. So that gives me something to do. Plus I like to finalize a few chores so I'm not walking into a messy house. There's nothing more depressing than not only having to leave WDW, but also having to do extra work as soon as you walk in the door.

This time, I also have a class that morning, so I'll only have that afternoon and evening. I'll have plenty to do to pass that time. If I finish everything early, there's always homework to do.

The only issue I'll have is that I have clinicals in the morning on the day of the trip. I'm not a fan of clinicals since I'm still learning things and it's nervewracking to be practicing on real people. So something that already seems to take forever to get through will seem even longer that day. I've already told the professor that I wouldn't mind if we got out early that day. She seemed to take it under genuine consideration, so we'll see.

 

[nancy155]

Usually we go up the night before to stay at my daughter's home which is much closer to the airport and we usually take a 6am morning flight out.. This year at Thanksgiving time we will be flying out at 4:40 PM. So DS (teenager) is thrilled he does not have to rise early and is even more thrilled he will have an early dismissal from school that day prior to break!

However for our Spring Break trip we will be flying out in the am and this time out of Denver.. We will go up the night prior and have a nice dinner out and stay in a hotel close by the airport that has a shuttle and free parking while we are gone..

As for the days prior preparation... I am one of those lets pack early! Like the week prior.. All but the carry on. I check and check my lists, get house cleaned and make arrangements for mail pick up and someone to keep an eye on the house.

This year upon arrival to MCO and rental car is where I will be double and triple checking... Last July I left my briefcase in a rental car when DS changed his mind and said let's get that car instead.. Never did recover briefcase and contents.. Thank goodness I have a folder that I keep that holds all of our tix, resevations, car rental agreement, gift cards etc. That is the only reason that folder was not in the briefcase as I had pulled it out and put i front seat of prior rental to have handy!

 

[Brook730]

DH says i'm crazy but I just like to be prepared about a week before I go shopping for a few extra outfits for each of us.

But the two days before our trip is always the craziest I have the bags all packed and ready to go. I finish up all extra house work and start setting my alarm clock for 3 am!!!! this is only because I take the two days before we leave off of work and I have to make sure i'm wide away for the two - three hour drive to WDW.

The night before we leave the bags with clothing and such are packed in the van (except the ones with electronics in them ) and everything else is sitting in front of the door. Usually there is also a big sign taped to the inside of my front door reminding me to remember the cooler in the fridge with our drinks. Then i'm off to bed by no later then 7PM so I can be up by two thirty and on the road heading to gas station for a coffee and mountain dew for the trip. Its a good thing DD is still little enough that we don't even have to wake her up to get her in the van to go so we just let her sleep in her PJ's and change her at our hotel when we get there .

 

[topmonkeygirl]

Pick up last minute things, go over the packing list one more time, clean the house, make sure the house is trip ready (timers, unplug the things we're not going to use, clean out the fridge, wash clothes), and just run myself until I'm drop dead tired that way I can sleep the night before.

 

[Redbudlover]

I have an owners locker stuffed full of cleaning supplies, OTC medicines, ponchos, and toiletries so only have to pack clothes and electronics. I take the day off the day before I leave to get everything packed - I launder everything a few days before and then wear old clothes before the trip!. two days before I make a list of everything I want to take as I overpack and the list helps me not do it too badly! It also helps me sleep as I know I haven't forgotten anything. The night before I pack my purse with chargers, phone, tickets, aleve, asthma inhaler, etc and my carryon with stuff for the flight like ipad, blanket, socks (my feet get cold on the plane) sweater and try to get to bed early - that never happens. I used to arrange early flights but have stopped doing that as i could never ever sleep worryinb about oversleeping and missing my flight so now I take a 10:30 flight and am rested and good to go the whole day at WDW. Getting in at about 1:30 gets me to the resort shortly after 2 hungry and ready for park food. I always go to the park nearest the resort - which this time means BC so my dgd6 and I will head out for the boats to HS!!! Whoo Hoo!!!