Traveling Traditions

[flip1125]

How far is your trip? What gets you excited as you get close (any landmarks, etc.)? What are your traveling traditions/routines? Please share.

We live in Northeast Georgia and usually travel with big groups. From where we live it is around 500 miles to WDW. A couple of weeks before we leave, we all get together and have a Disney party. We go over the itinerary. Everyone selects a Disney name...I'm Donald Duck. We don't allow anyone to choose Mickey Mouse as their name. We feel that no person is worthy of being Mickey. All other Disney characters are fair game. On our trip down we have two way radios in which we communicate. Everyone must be addressed by their Disney name. We always like to stop at the same places for breakfast and lunch. To help break the trip up, and to keep the drivers awake, we ask a Disney trivia question every 50 miles. The first vehicle to respond correctly, receives a point. The occupants of the vehicle with the most points at the end receives a nice prize...A pat on the back from Donald Duck. Also, right before we travel through the gates we play the music from the Electric Light Parade. As soon as we go under the gates, the shouts of joy are deafening. I would be very interested to hear stories from anyone else.

 

[OurLaughingPlace]

Fun thread 'Flip1125'. I enjoyed reading about your group travels. Sounds like a fun way to pass the travel time!

About a week before we go, our family has a 'Disney Day'. We have a scavenger hunt around the house for DD's (they are teens now and I suggested stopping the scavenger hunt and they were aghast at my suggestions lol). The scavenger hunt gives them 'prizes' at each clue they find. The prizes are all Disney related (e.g. Disney themed wallets for their trip, Disney autograph books, Disney gift cards). We are in Canada and can't buy US$ gift cards here, so at the end of each trip, we buy gift cards with leftover souvenir money for future trips to give to DD's later on, such as at Christmas or our scavenger hunt. After our scavenger hunt, we make Disney Pizza / Caesar salad (like Pizza Planet) and then have ice cream sundaes (try to make No Way Joses from Beaches and Cream). Later on, we enjoy rice crispy squares (shaped into Mickey heads, of course!) and watch Disney movies. Finally, we go over our plans (ADR's, FP+'s, etc) and talk about what we are excited about.
In terms of our travels, we used to drive at Christmas and rent property off site, but it's a 24 hour drive and flights out of Buffalo are reasonably priced. Once we stayed onsite, we never looked back. Now we fly and stay onsite! Usually we take a later flight and spend the night at the Hyatt Regency Hotel at MCO (love the hotel here!!!) Then we get an early start the next morning and check into our resort between 9-10am. This year however, we have a really early flight (no other option) and are thinking of leaving home at 1:00am (4.5 hour drive) for an 8:00am flight. I'm sure we will be excited enough to make the drive (and then hopefully we will nap on the plane).

 

[tcherjen]

Those sound like fun ideas! We live almost 3 hours away. The younger ones likes to watch a Disney movie on the way down. We play Disney cd's and just get excited and talk about our day. The ride home is usually very quiet. I think because we are sad and tired.

 

[IndianaRRT]

Such a great thread idea! We are 840 miles (12 hours) from Disney. When the kids were a bit younger, DH and I would have a couple of "Disney nights" where we made a special dinner and watched a Disney movie to 2. This year, I didn't know if DD would still want to so something that "corny", but of course she did!! So, we made Jambalaya in honor of staying at POR on this trip and watched a Travel Channel Behind the Scenes Disney marathon. I have a few more ideas up my sleeve before we depart, and I'm pretty blessed that even at 16, DD is all about those sorts of things.

When we travel, we go through KY, TN and GA before we get to FL. My favorite little town along the way is Manchester, TN. We've stopped there several times--at first I just chuckled at the fact it was in Coffee County (which I think is adorable because I'm all about coffee), but we discovered Old Stone Fort State Park there, and I'm hooked. We love to picnic on long drives, and this is a fantastic state park with gorgeous walking trails and lots of history. Then, it's Chattanooga, TN, another favorite city! So much history there as well. We always stay in Chattanooga on the way home from FL, and if you love BBQ, you'll totally want to eat at Sticky Fingers. Such great food, and the people at the downtown location are super nice!

Atlanta is up next. DH is a colossal Braves fan, and so are DS and DD. We love everything about the ATL--the zoo, World of Coca-Cola, catching Braves games, etc. Having college friends there makes it even better. That area has such a place in our hearts, it's on the short list for where we'll go when we retire.

We've never flown to Disney, but maybe next trip when DD graduates high school. Then we can make some new traveling traditions!

 

[DisneySOS]

Great post, sounds like you have so much fun! We plan to drive and it will take us 17-18 hours. We have 5 people & 3 are drivers. We've already decided whoever is driving picks the radio station, other than that I've got nothing!
I like the idea of a Disney themed night once a month but with DD away at college she will miss a few.
I kind of miss the days where I would make a Disney decorated paper chain the month before & the kids would take turns counting down.
Hopefully this thread will spark some ideas.

 

[WhispyPixie]

We watch old family videos of what else??? Past disney trips!..lol

 

[jodls01]

We live in south Texas. We always leave at 3-4 a.m. and we have to stop at Bucky's to eat breakfast and load up on snacks. On the way back we have to stop again-- no matter the time. If we can, we go to Luling for barbeque.

 

[DisneySOS]

We had originally planned to leave NJ around 10pm, but since DH now has the day off & I get out of work mid-afternoon I'm hoping to leave a bit earlier. We have a rather boring ride, pretty much I-95 till we get to Florida. The South of the Border signs are quite fun to read but other than that - ugh!

 

[capegirl]

We had originally planned to leave NJ around 10pm, but since DH now has the day off & I get out of work mid-afternoon I'm hoping to leave a bit earlier. We have a rather boring ride, pretty much I-95 till we get to Florida. The South of the Border signs are quite fun to read but other than that - ugh!

We make the long drive from MA, and
those corny South of the Border signs keep us entertained too! We also keep a sharp eye out for Dunkin Donut signs. Once we pass through VA we're in trouble; NC, SC, and GA are not so much into Dunkins, so we now have a tradition of stopping at a Dunkin Donuts that we found off I-95 in St. Augustine.

 

[DisneySOS]

We make the long drive from MA, and
those corny South of the Border signs keep us entertained too! We also keep a sharp eye out for Dunkin Donut signs. Once we pass through VA we're in trouble; NC, SC, and GA are not so much into Dunkins, so we now have a tradition of stopping at a Dunkin Donuts that we found off I-95 in St. Augustine.

DH is addicted to Dunkin, I already planned on bring their Kcups with us! Good to know we can find one off of I-95 in Florida!

 

[kmoore7]

We live in PA. Takes about 18 hours to drive split over two days. Only pre trip tradition is figuring out how to luggage for seven on board. That gets trickier every trip. We make a point of stopping at welcome center for each state just to break up the boredom of I95. Dennys in Savannah,GA is goal for first night. Not sure why kids picked up on that the first trip. We have made the drive 4 times, flew the first and couldn't afford that again. Once we get through Orlando the excitement gets going, for the kids too. Always stay within "the world" so passing under the sign is the best part.

 

[Jenny-momof3]

We have a 15 hour drive with 7 of us. We drive it straight through... The only reason we stop is because we have to get gas. We stop for 10 minutes, everybody jumps out, goes to the bathroom if needed, grab food if you want, then hop back in and off we go. My kids make it a challenge to see how fast we can do these pit stops!

Our other tradition is seeing how long we can continue using 2-3 suitcases for 7 people! Lol

We go to disney 3-4 times a year. If only we were closer than I could go every month.

 

[DisneyDawg2]

Wow, this sounds an awful lot like what we do. Wait, a minute, is this Neal Gaines?

 

[tsme]

I always make a Mickey head countdown calendar 180 days out. My DD marks off a head every day. We also like to look at old pictures from past trips & watch some of our favorite Disney movies as the time gets close. And once we arrive, we always spend that day walking around our resort and embracing the Disney atmosphere.

 

[DisneyBum303]

Back when we used to drive, we would leave out around 5 am and hit Shreveport around 8ish. We always stopped at the Cracker Barrel on I20. It became part of our vacation tradition to have a pic taken playing that golf tee game or sitting in a rocker on the porch. We would stay the night in Crestview, FL then hit the Hardee's there for breakfast biscuits (We don't have Hardee's here ). Now that we fly, we hit LaMadeleine the day before and fill up on French pastries in anticipation of Epcot eating then make a grocery run for a whole bag full of snacks for the plane ride. Funny how all of our traditions are centered around food .

 

[yeheyprincex2]

flip1125, that sounds like a fun disney travel tradition. We are not so organized,I usually try to get my husband to watch a few Disney movies he has not see. It might just be me but the show Full house always buts me in the Disney mood.
We fly so we grab a meal before boarding and watch the planes load and take off to keep the kids busy.
hopefully as the years go by we will add to our travel traditions.

 

[Ambear]

I feel lame, we have no traveling traditions. I'm usually finishing as much homework as I can before we leave (that ends this year!!). Then we usually fly to Atlanta and that always sucks. This time it's southwest nonstop woot! Our trip is from Rochester NY to Orlando so 2.5 hr flight nonstop.

I guess I really start feeling excited when we touch down and step onto the disney bus. <3

 

[jacksgirl]

Really fun thread! We are about 11 hours away in North MS. We usually fly out of Memphis (about an hour away), but this time we're driving. We don't really have any traveling traditions, but I may implement some of these. Sounds like fun!

 

[HockeyIsLife]

We make the long drive from MA, and
those corny South of the Border signs keep us entertained too! We also keep a sharp eye out for Dunkin Donut signs. Once we pass through VA we're in trouble; NC, SC, and GA are not so much into Dunkins, so we now have a tradition of stopping at a Dunkin Donuts that we found off I-95 in St. Augustine.

We are always keeping our eyes peeled for a Dunks. HAHA.
Funny side Dunks story. My boyfriend and I recently went to a Carolina Hurricanes game while we were visiting family. They were playing the Panthers and we wanted to see Shawn Thornton. My boyfriend was wearing his Bruins hat and the drunk guy behind us at the game was making sarcastic comments the whole game about it.
My favorite?
"This guys obviously got lost looking for a Dunkin' Donuts."

 

[capegirl]

We are always keeping our eyes peeled for a Dunks. HAHA.
Funny side Dunks story. My boyfriend and I recently went to a Carolina Hurricanes game while we were visiting family. They were playing the Panthers and we wanted to see Shawn Thornton. My boyfriend was wearing his Bruins hat and the drunk guy behind us at the game was making sarcastic comments the whole game about it.
My favorite?
"This guys obviously got lost looking for a Dunkin' Donuts."

Love it!