Chapter 1: Its 970 Miles To Disney World, We Got A Full Tank of Gas, No Cigarettes, It's Dark...And We're Wearing Sunglasses.
It's hard enough planning a Disney trip for your own family. Planning for 13 people is a whole new level. I was told by my extended family that I could take the lead since I knew the ropes, and they would just follow our lead, by which they meant they would ignore my suggestions altogether. When we made our reservations, we got a room discount and found the best price to be at Coronado Springs. So I reserved two rooms there, one for my family and one for my parents (with a couple of my kids stashed in there). My brother, however, was insistent on staying in a Fort Wilderness cabin. This was where we had stayed when we were kids, so I think there was some nostalgia involved. But they also said they wanted the kitchen. Fair enough.
The original plan was to arrive on Saturday, July 21 and stay through July 28. My family would be driving down, since buying roundtrip airfare for 6 gets expensive. My parents would fly down on the evening of the 21st. And my brother's family would arrive on the 22nd.
I made dining reservations at the 180-day mark with no problems. My strategy was to get the ones my family wanted, add the other family members to meals we wanted to do together, and leave them on their own for anything else. My brother told me he didn't want to plan every single meal in advance and he'd try and walk up at the spur of the moment when they were in the parks. I told him to enjoy Cosmic Ray's.
Keep in mind that my brother hadn't been in Disney World since 2000. A few things have changed since then. But it seemed that in his mind, everything would be just the same as it was on his last visit.
At the 60-day mark, I logged on first thing in the morning to grab Fastpasses. Toy Story Land would be open for about 3 weeks before we arrived, so I knew Slinky Dog Dash was going to be a Fastpass or bust. Same with Flight of Passage. It took some maneuvering, but I got every ride we'd wanted. So far, that was a success. Except there was one problem--my brother's family was arriving the day after us, so they were not officially at the 60-day mark. I could not add them to my FP+ reservations.
I told them about this in the afternoon, and they seemed nonchalant. "We'll just get what we can," my sister-in-law said. I was able to add them to some rides the next day, but not the most popular ones, of course. And I really didn't want to give up the times now that I had them reserved. My brother told me he didn't want to bother setting times for rides, anyway. He said he could just wing it when he was down there. I told him to enjoy the Country Bear Jamboree.
As we got closer to our departure, Julie and I started to scheme. The original plan was to leave Friday morning, drive all day, stay somewhere in Georgia, and finish the drive on the 21st. Maybe squeeze in a couple of hours at the Magic Kingdom in the evening.
The problem was Washington D.C. Our home is in Delaware. If I left at 6:00 a.m., we'd be hitting rush hour in D.C. The D.C. Beltway at rush hour moves at roughly the same speed as my boys when Julie asks them to empty the dishwasher. If it was any slower, it would be moving backwards. But if I left later, we wouldn't cover as much ground and would have to drive most of the day on Saturday to get to Disney.
Our goal, when emptying our savings account to visit Disney World, is to spend as much time on Disney property as humanly possible. It's all about the value. If I'm going to be spending my kids' college money, I want to wring every last bit of value out of that money as I can.
So we hatched our first crazy idea: we'd leave earlier, thereby bypassing D.C. long before rush hour, and we could make it as far as Jacksonville. Then we'd have an even shorter drive to Disney the next day. Then we started thinking some more (dangerous, I know). It really hurt my head to do that, but we persevered. If we were going to go as far as Jacksonville, why not just finish the drive all at once? If we left at 3:00 a.m., we could make the entire 15-hour, 970-mile drive in one day. It's so crazy...it just might work!
At first, we were excited about the idea. Yes, it would be a horribly long day, but we'd get to Disney even sooner. So I added another night to our reservation. An extra day at Disney? Sign me up!
Then we started thinking some more (I had a migraine at this point from the exertion). I'm 43 years old. Things hurt for no reason. If I started driving at 3:00 a.m., I'd be going for about 4 hours on my own with no one else awake in the car. And then we'd still have another 11 hours to go.
This seemed like a bad idea for my family's safety. So we
chickened out acted prudently, and left on Thursday evening (the 19th).
We hit D.C. around 4:30 p.m., just on the leading edge of rush hour. The Beltway slowed at points, but we managed to keep moving for the most part. The worst part was I-95 south towards Fredericksburg. It was clogged up worse than my digestive system after visiting Burger King. Fortunately, they had some high-speed toll lanes built in the center of the highway. If you had an EZ Pass tag, you could drive in those lanes for a little over $10 for an 18-mile stretch. Or you could sit in the free lanes at a dead stop. Best $10 we ever spent.
We got dinner at a Denny's just south of Fredericksburg, mostly because they were offering Super Slam breakfasts for $5.99. Hard to beat breakfast for dinner.
We stopped for the night in Petersburg, VA at a Country Inn. In the morning, we stopped for breakfast at the
World's Greatest Convenience Store: Wawa.
You might think that's hyperbole, but it's not. We Philadelphia-area residents take our Wawa seriously.
Articles have been written about our devotion. It's like Canadians with Tim Horton's. Or so I hear.
We still had an 11-hour drive ahead of us, but we had a good night's sleep and coffee. We were on the road just after 6 a.m.
I'm happy to say we achieved our biggest goal: getting through North and South Carolina by lunchtime. Apologies to those of you who live in the Carolinas, but if you look up "mind-numbing" in the dictionary, it shows you a poster for
The English Patient. But then right next to that is a picture of I-95 through North and South Carolina. When this qualifies as the only recognizable landmark, you have a serious problem:
By the way, don't ever stop there. Trust me on this.
We even stopped at a Wendy's for lunch, so at that point life was really testing our will to live. Thank goodness Disney World was on the horizon.
The rest of the drive continued to be uneventful. We did get to pass
Doofenshmirtz Evil, Inc.
At that point on I-4, we started getting traffic reports on Google Maps that indicated Orlando was a parking lot. In other news, water is wet.
We trusted Google with our lives and took FL 414 to FL 429. It worked like gangbusters--no issues with traffic, and it took us all the way around to the west entrance to Disney World. By this time, the anticipation was so palpable that the kids
actually turned off their electronics.
It was a long 6 years between visits to the theme parks for the kids, but right around 6:00 p.m. on July 20th, the wait was finally over.
I can't prove it, but I do feel like you can feel an actual weight lift off of your shoulders when you pass through those gates.
We pulled up to the gates of Coronado Springs, and immediately entered a construction zone. Fences were up everywhere, and you could see the cranes and new high rise looming in front of you. We found the parking lot and practically burst out of the van into the front lobby.
The first thing you do when you walk into a Disney Resort lobby is stop and inhale. It has that Disney Resort Smell®. Just another sign you're back in the bubble.
We'd never gotten a text that our room was ready, so I had to go to the front desk to check in. When I'd made the reservation, I'd requested a room in buildings 8A, 8B, or 9A. I figured it was close to the main pool, the front desk, and the last bus stop on the loop.
We were assigned a room in 7A. So at least we could work off the calories from our meals. I learned later that the buildings I'd requested were largely under renovation.
Here's the front lobby. I'm showing this just to point out the Hidden Mickey in lights at the far end. As it turned out, Drew noticed this one and turned out to be incredibly adept at finding Hidden Mickeys throughout the parks. I feel like this means we're doing something right as parents.
I thought Coronado Springs was very nicely themed. The only other moderate we've stayed at was Port Orleans Riverside, and both are gorgeous resorts. We were very happy here, even with the construction going on all over the place.
They must have known we were coming, since they brought out the jack--uh, they had the gift shop open for us.
Here's our room before we trashed it like the slobs we are.
We took the (long) walk back to the main building to get dinner.
Just to the right of this photo was a huge crane and lots of construction in the pond. They were building a new bar out in the lake. Honestly, the construction didn't bother us. We just chose to focus our attention on the nicer views.
Here's your up-to-the-minute construction update on the new tower at Coronado Springs (from July 20):
We went to the Pepper Market to grab dinner. The boys opted for boring ol' cheeseburgers or chicken strips. Since I have a much more refined palate than them (ahem), I figured when in an Artificial Recreation of Generic Mexican And Southwest Culture, I should get an artificial recreation of Mexican cuisine. Julie and Sarah and I split a plate of nachos and another plate of tacos. Sarah and I let Julie have the refried beans to herself, since we feel they have the appearance, texture, smell, and consistency of poo.
We managed to convince the cast member to put the beef for the tacos on top of the nachos as well, so that was a win. Like I said, refined palates.
The meal wasn't bad. Not the greatest I've ever had, but not bad either. Now it was on to more important things. Like I said, it's about the value--if we're paying Disney hotel prices, we're going to make sure we use the pool at least once!
The Dig Site pool is very cool. I love that they went to the trouble of building an entire Mayan (or Aztec?) pyramid here.
The kids and I spent the majority of our time riding the waterslide. It's just to the right of the pyramid. You climb up the steps, stand in the tub at the start, and then go when the light turns green. About halfway down there's a figure of a jaguar perched over the slide like he's about to pounce. But he's just vomiting water on you as you slide. Fun for all ages!
We even got Drew to go down the slide, which was a good omen for attempting the rides later in the week. However, after the second run, he went underwater for a moment at the end, and then he decided he didn't want to slide anymore. So that was less positive as an omen.
Anyway, we had a blast at the pool. The kids have loved our travels, and every trip we've taken around the states has been worthwhile many times over. They've seen and experienced things that they'll never forget. But I think if you asked all of us at that moment, there was nowhere else we'd rather be. We had a whole week at Disney World ahead of us. The real world was just a distant memory.
Coming Up Next: Drew enters the Magic Kingdom for the very first time. And there is no debate over the Christmas card photo this year. We have a winner!