Trip Report - March/April 2025

[Noreen411]

Introduction:
Noreen - I am a Senior Vice President at an Investment Banking Firm in New York City. I will be the author of the report
Scott - My husband, Independent Contractor

I’m going to post a picture (or few) of Scott and I so you see what we look like

 

[Noreen411]

Planning
This should be our longest trip yet; the last few were a little over 2 weeks, but now we’re pushing 3 weeks.

We knew we planned to go away around February/March but didn’t get serious about planning until early January. We finally looked at a calendar and started to get things booked.

This trip has a new (maybe not that new since we’ve done this the past few trips) component to it of location/possible house hunting for potential places to move down the road.

Our plans are as follows:
Leave New Jersey Saturday 3/15/25, drive partway towards Alabama, spend the night in a hotel we book on the way then continue driving towards Alabama, spending the next night in a hotel we book along the way. Originally we were planning to leave Sunday and do the drive in 2 days but the more we looked at the distance thought maybe we should do the drive to Alabama over 3 days instead.
Monday 3/17/25 arrive Gulf Shores, Alabama and stay until Friday 3/21/25. We will meet with the realtor on Tuesday 3/18/25
Friday 3/21/25 leave Alabama and drive to Disney World arriving that evening and staying until Thursday 4/3/25. We’ll meet with the realtor on the West Coast of Florida during our trip.
Thursday 4/3/25 leave Disney World and drive at least halfway home, stopping somewhere we’ll book on the way
Friday 4/4/25 arrive home in New Jersey

Lodging in Alabama
We stayed at Staybridge Suites Gulf Shores Alabama. Since we were going to be in the Alabama hotel for more than just a quick overnight we booked the hotel on 1/6/25 rather than just booking on the fly like we normally do for the quick overnight stops on our drive. We didn’t need anything fancy since we’ll spend most of the time touring around, but it needs to be clean and comfortable. This is the same hotel we had booked for our fall 2024 trip, but never made it to Alabama due to hurricanes.

Lodging in Florida
We stayed at the sister resort to our timeshare; we stayed at Vistana Villages. We own one week in a 2 bedroom / 2 bath villa at Vistana Resort. It’s just Scott and I so I like to book the one bedroom premium villa. If you don’t just book your regular week, you can use “options” and we have enough to stay for about 2 weeks in the one bedroom. There weren’t any one bedroom premium villas available for our stay, but there was a smaller one bedroom available in the St Augustine section (the section we always request) so I booked that.

Both Vistana Resort and Vistana Villages are great resorts; we enjoy the large 24 hour fitness center at Vistana villages so have been choosing that resort lately when available.

Transportation
We drove from Northern New Jersey. We’ve done the drive to Disney a few times and prefer the flexibility it gives us over flying. Especially a trip like this where we have multiple stops, it makes it much easier to just have a car with us rather than flying and having to rent cars as we go.

Activities
We have Disney annual passes that don’t expire until September 2025. We have to make reservations for the parks. With our annual passes we can make 5 reservations at a time. We have Incredipass as out of state passholders (with memory maker). Once we booked our trip, I booked 5 days of park reservations which we may change once the parks hours are listed. We know we like to start our trip at Magic Kingdom to get right into that magical feeling of Disney.

We would buy the new Multi Attraction Lightening Lane as well as Individual Lightening Lanes for the attractions we want to ride. I didn’t keep track of exactly what I booked and the times. Staying offsite, we couldn’t book until 3 days in advance rather than the 7 days in advance those staying on property can book.

Dining
I had a handful of restaurants I wanted to try to get reservations for. I logged in at 60 days out each morning right before they opened and would book dinner. I kept checking and changing things as we went along.

Routine
We have a pretty normal (maybe boring) routine in the morning at Disney. We would go to the gym then once back in the villa do laundry, use the jacuzzi, take our showers, and have breakfast before leaving for the park.

Miscellaneous
I didn’t keep many notes this trip so am trying to recreate what we did from memory so I’m sure I’ll forget stuff. I would send myself texts throughout the day to remind me what we did. Between the texts and pictures, I’m hoping to be able to remember most of it.

 

[Noreen411]

Real Life Updates

Invisalign
I still have Invisalign that I started the process in July 2024. I’m definitely more used to them, but a lot more thought goes into when you are going to eat since you have to take them out, clean them, then after eating you need to floss, water pik, and brush your teeth before putting them back in. At home it’s easy to control, but while traveling, it’s a bit more challenging. I know I can do a modified version while out and about and will do that, and carry a little travel pouch with travel sized things like floss, toothbrush, toothpaste, mouthwash so I can keep up with the process. Some public bathrooms are easier to do these things in than others, but you do what you have to do.

General Real Life Update
I’ve been dealing with some medical issues recently and it’s getting progressively worse the last few years. Due to this, we’ve had to be more careful with what we’re planning and be flexible to change plans as we go if my medical issues cause difficulties.

New Luggage
One of the things Scott bought for Christmas is new hard sided luggage for us.

 

[Noreen411]

The month before the trip
We were both busy at work trying to get things squared away knowing we would be away for 3 weeks. We were originally planning to leave on Sunday 3/16/25 and I was going to get my manicure/pedicure on Saturday 3/15/25, but we started to think about how long a drive it is to Alabama and thought maybe we should leave Saturday instead of Sunday, taking 3 rather than 2 days to drive there. It’s just on the cusp of being too long for 2 days but not really. We re-arranged a few things to clear our schedules to be able to leave Saturday instead of Sunday (one day earlier than originally planned).

 

[Noreen411]

The week before the trip
We were busy with the usual before trip stuff getting everything squared away before we leave.

I went to get my manicure/pedicure late in the week. I chose a light peach color since we’ll be gone for about 3 weeks. the manicure is shellac so hopefully it lasts the whole time we’re away. I expect it will start growing out and i don’t like when the plain nail starts to show but hopefully with a lighter color it won’t be as noticeable. The pedicure is a normal pedicure in the same color.

 

[Noreen411]

Friday 3/14/25 (the day before the trip)
Work was busy as expected for both of us trying to wrap everything up before leaving for vacation.

I don’t know how to cook, but can make a few things. One of the things I like to cook is Kodiak Waffles, usually with banana or blueberries. Scott bought me a new waffle maker and I’ve been using that. I made some waffles to pack and bring to eat during the car ride tomorrow. I know it won’t be as good as fresh out of the waffle maker and dipped in syrup, but they hold up pretty well to being in the fridge overnight, in the cooler in the car, until I’m ready to eat them plain.

 

[Noreen411]

Saturday 3/15/25
We were up around 4:15 and used our gym. I did a step class; I know I’m dating myself but I used to do those classes when they were popular I think in the 80’s and I saw a step on Amazon as well as a DVD of a step class so got that a while ago. I enjoy doing the class sometimes and it’s super convenient to do it when it works for me.

We showered and got ourselves ready to go. We didn’t rush at all. We didn’t leave the house until about 7:45am. The benefit of the later start is we were able to stop at our local Starbucks and bagel store to get coffee and a breakfast sandwich for Scott; I’ll eat my waffle a little later.

The navigation in the car says about 18 hours / 2240 miles to Gulf Shores, Alabama. I have my old fashioned trip tik from AAA that I like to follow along the ride with. The trip tik and the navigation in the car don’t always agree on the route. I’m glad we chose to do the drive over 3 days since the estimated 18 hours will probably be at least 20 when you factor in stops for getting gas and/or bathroom stops. 10 hours driving in a day is feasible and we often do that the first day of the drive, but going into it knowing it’s going to be 2 full days of driving 10 hours each day is a lot. At least knowing we have 3 days to get there, it takes the pressure off.

We were in Pennsylvania at 9am.

It’s not Hurricane season but we keep hearing about various storms including tornadoes in the Midwest and into Alabama.

We tried something new, we started to listen to an audio book, the Judge’s List by John Grisham during the drive. I usually like John Grisham books, they often start a bit slow but then get you hooked. Normally I’m just reading books and haven’t tried an audio book before. Maybe it was the narrator, but we were having trouble getting into this book. We listened to it for part of the ride but didn’t finish it. Scott totally gave up on the book. Here we are 3 months later (June 2025) and I haven’t finished it but have started to listen to it sometimes if I go out to take a walk, it’s picked up a bit so I expect I will finally finish it.

We stopped to get Starbucks for Scott just before the Maryland border. He drinks more coffee than usual when we’re doing these long drives. While in Starbucks I used their bathroom to brush/floss/etc and put my Invisalign back in after eating my waffle a little earlier.

We were in Maryland at 11:45.

We were in West Virginia at 12

We were in Virginia at 12:15. It’s nice getting to a new state so quickly.

I booked Fairfield Inn and Suites, in Bristol Tennessee around 4pm while we were still in Virginia.

We got to Tennessee at 5:20

We arrived at the hotel at 5:30. Fairfield Inn and Suites in Bristol TN


We were given room 409 and we brought our stuff in and did some cleaning/disinfecting. I know they clean the rooms, but we like to do this little extra cleaning.



The room is a decent layout. The living room area has a couch, coffee table, desk, TV. We didn’t really use the living room much other than putting our suitcases in there.



The bedroom area is sort of separate (but not really since there aren’t walls separating it) but it’s sectioned off. There are nightstands on either side of the bed.


Across from the bed is a dresser with a TV.


There is a small closet with extra bedding, some hangers, an ironing board and iron.



There is a little area containing a small fridge, microwave, coffee maker. It’s nice that this is here, we put some of our waters in the fridge.



The bathroom is self contained which we prefer so I was happy to see that. I like having the sink, toilet, and shower/bath all in one room. I know many hotels have split bathroom setups but that’s not our preference.

 

[Noreen411]

Saturday 3/15/25 Continued
Once sort of settled, we headed out for dinner. The front desk recommended a place nearby called Drake’s so we headed there for dinner.


We sat at the bar as we like to do that.

Scott had a Bourbon and I had a White House Sangria


We started off with a chicken quesadilla appetizer to share which was very good. We were off to a good start.


I ordered the Turkey, Swiss, Avocado with fries. I asked for no sauce since I don’t like many sauces on my food, preferring to dip if I’m going to use a condiment. This was terrible, it was greasy and swimming in whatever they cooked it in. The fries were good.


Scott ordered the fried fish mini’s with macaroni & cheese. He also asked for no sauce. While his dish was the better of the two, it was also just OK.



For dessert we ordered the chocolate chip cookie with ice cream. This was pretty good.


We would not go back to Drake’s.

We headed back to the hotel and started to watch a movie, Kraven: The Hunter. We both fell asleep during the movie, but we’ll continue to watch it throughout the trip.

 

[BellaBaby]

Looking forward to hearing all about your trip!!

 

[Stacybaeasm]

Glad to see you off to a good start. One of these days when you drive through, we have to figure out how close you come to me in VA. I would drive to meet you for a meal if it was a good place for you to pause.

How do you like your invisaline? I'm getting a ton of dental work done this summer (because I honestly don't remember the last time I went to a dentist which is terrible) and they have recommended I think about it. I'm not sure how I feel so I'm looking for people who have done/are doing it to see if it is worth it.

 

[rdkeim]

Following! You're off to a good start!

 

[Noreen411]

Looking forward to hearing all about your trip!!

Thank you for commenting. It takes me a while to do them, but it’s a labor of love

 

[Noreen411]

Following! You're off to a good start!

Thank you. Hope to get another day or two posted this weekend.

 

[Noreen411]

Glad to see you off to a good start. One of these days when you drive through, we have to figure out how close you come to me in VA. I would drive to meet you for a meal if it was a good place for you to pause.

How do you like your invisaline? I'm getting a ton of dental work done this summer (because I honestly don't remember the last time I went to a dentist which is terrible) and they have recommended I think about it. I'm not sure how I feel so I'm looking for people who have done/are doing it to see if it is worth it.

Thank you. We’re usually coming up 95 (or down depending if it’s on our way there or home). We try to stop in Virginia on the way back making it more than halfway home. On the way down we usually try to get to South Carolina before stopping. That sounds like a great plan, would love to meet up if it works out.

I am not 100% sure how I feel yet about Invisalign. Several people from work since I’ve started this have mentioned they did it in the past and loved the results. It’s definitely a commitment as you have to be very conscious of when you are eating since each meal/snack you need to take them out. Ideally you are flossing/waterpicking/brushing your teeth and cleaning your Invisalign trays each time before putting them back in. You are supposed to have them in for something like 21 hours a day (something like that). I’ve been working remotely so it’s easy to follow that on a workday. If we go out to dinner locally, I’ll usually take them out in the restaurant bathroom so you need to carry a case and one of those remover tools if you use them, but will wait until I get home to do the routine of flossing/waterpiking/brushing and cleaning the trays before putting them back in. When we were on vacation if I ate something during the day while we were out and about, I would do not as full a process but would floss, rinse with mouthwash, brush my teeth and clean my trays in a public bathroom to put them back in. The first few times I did that I was very self conscious, but then realized I’m never going to see these people again, what do I care and started to just tell people I have Invisalign. Surprisingly, that started a lot of bathroom conversations. When we went out to dinner on vacation if we were going back to the hotel after I would just do my routine back at the hotel, but if we were going to another park, I would do the shorter routine in the restaurant bathroom. You end up having all sorts of things to buy, you don’t necessarily need them all, but sometimes it’s nice to have variety. Not only do I have various types of tray cleaning tablets that you drop in water then put the trays in using a little Tupperware container that works perfectly, I also bought an ultrasonic cleaner that you plug in and has it’s own type of little tablets. Then you need a few cases just so they are easily available. I like the little remover tools (kind of a little hook that makes it easy to pull them out) since I had trouble just doing it with my fingers. Then you have these things you bite on to make sure they are on correctly. You can go a bit overboard with it, but you don’t need to. Also when going on vacation, you have to remember how often you are changing your trays and make sure to bring the next set(s). Of course there is an app to help you track it too.

When I first got them, it took some getting used to. I didn’t have any pain or problems like that but it takes time to get used to having something in your mouth. I was lisping when I spoke in the beginning; I was more aware of it than others were. I spend most of my work day on zoom calls so it became a great ice breaker if I was speaking with someone new and I would tell them right away that I recently got Invisalign so don’t mind if I lisp; this is how I found out so many others have done it also.

I’ve had Invisalign since last summer and was originally told it would take 8-12 months. I was just rescanned for refinements (I think that’s what they call it) and now have another 31 trays. When I first started I was changing trays every two weeks, then every 10 days, then every week, now I’m changing trays every 5 days. I’m not sure if when these trays are done it will be time to go to a retainer or if I’ll need more trays. They say the retainer afterwards you initially wear like you did your Invisalign trays but then you start to just wear them at night. They also mentioned a permanent wire that can be cemented behind my teeth to make sure they don’t move; I don’t think I want that but will talk more to the orthodontist when the time comes. The reason I did Invisalign is I didn’t want something permanently attached and want to be able to floss like normal.

I definitely see my crooked tooth looking straighter than it did when I started. Given how I take pictures of so many things I probably should have taken tooth pictures of my progress but only remembered to take a picture here and there. But I feel like my top teeth are now further out than my bottom, it’s part of the process since they need to move them out first to straighten them, then they get moved back. They also make room by sort of filing a space in between some teeth. I feel like my smile is a bit off. I also feel like my bite is slightly off when I chew food, this is a new development so think it may just be based on where I am in the process.

I guess that was a long winded way of saying, I’ll be able to give a better answer when I’m all done and see the final results. It’s an interesting process but I am looking forward to seeing what my smile looks like when I’m done. Happy to answer any other questions/concerns about the process.

 

[Noreen411]

Sunday 3/16/25
Scott went to the hotel gym at 4:45 and I went about 5:15. We purposely look for hotels that have 24 hour gyms. The gym wasn’t huge, but it worked.




We showered and got dressed.

We headed down to the hotel breakfast. While not a deal breaker it’s a nice treat when the hotel has these breakfast set ups. They had a decent selection of both hot and cold items as well as different beverages. I was disappointed not to see a waffle maker section, but one of the hot items was waffles. I’m not sure what they did but these were really good waffles; better than the ones I make, they were kind of sweet.






This was my breakfast plate.


This was Scott’s breakfast plate. Scott also ate one of the fish mini’s from Drake’s that he didn’t eat last night and it was actually chicken. They had chicken minis too so gave him that one incorrectly. He said the chicken was just OK and the fish ones were better.

 

[Noreen411]

Sunday 3/16/25 Continued
We left about 8:25. The car navigation said we were 631 miles to Gulf Shores, Alabama and that it should take just over 9 hours. With stops we know it will be longer; we’re still not sure if we’ll make it all the way there today.

As we were driving we saw a sign that said Scenic Overlook so we stopped. We were still in Tennessee and since we knew we had time we figured let’s take a Quick Look. It was not that scenic since all we saw was trash on the ground.


We continued driving and hit traffic by Chattanooga, Tennessee; two of three lanes were blocked for an accident. There were more fire trucks and police cars than the cars in the accident. Hopefully everyone was OK and that was just precautionary.

We were in Georgia at 12

We made it to Alabama as 12:27. We stopped at the Welcome Center.


There was a “Sweet Home Alabama” sign and we wondered if that’s a premonition. I texted the picture to my sister with that question and she was being very practical and said it’s just from the song/movie. She doesn’t want us to move to Alabama. She’s planning to move to Florida and wants us to end up in Florida too.

There were cute rocking chairs.



We stopped again a little later to get Starbucks for Scott and in the strip mall there was a cute store I had to investigate called “Nothing Bundt Cakes”. This store was adorable, all sorts of Bundt cakes in various sizes. The lady working there was very nice and mentioned Red Velvet is the most popular. They had samples but with my Invisalign it’s too much trouble just for a taste. I bought a cute little red velvet mini bundt cake. We found out later this is a chain and we saw other Nothing Bundt Cakes during the trip. The little Bundt cake made it to Florida (later in the trip) before we ate it and it was very good.

 

[Noreen411]

Sunday 3/16/25 Continued
We continued driving and were making pretty good progress. We ended up getting to Staybridge Suites in Gulf Shores, Alabama by 6:25 that night. We were a day early since our reservation here was to start on Monday 3/17 (when we thought we would arrive) but before making a different reservation just for tonight we figured we’d check at the front desk. They were super nice and able to accommodate us keeping us in the same room for our whole stay.


The room is sort of similar to ones we’ve had at Residence Inn. I think Staybridge Suites is a Holiday Inn brand, where Residence Inn is a Marriott brand.



When you first walk in to one side is the kitchenette area.


Beyond that is the living room area.


The bedroom is separate



The bathroom isn’t our favorite type of setup with the sink outside the room with the toilet/shower but it was OK. One thing I did like is there was liquid soap at the sink; I normally bring my own since I prefer that to a bar for handwashing.


There is a closet behind the sink area


We did a bit of cleaning/sanitizing even though we know they clean the rooms. Then did a bit of organizing. We didn’t unpack but ended up opening our suitcases in the living room area leaving them open to make it easy to get what we needed. We unpacked some toiletries that we’ll use while we are here but left the toiletry suitcase opened on the table. Normally, I like to fully unpack once we’re settled in our hotel room, not for a quick overnight, but if we’re staying for a while. I’m not sure why we didn’t unpack our clothes a bit more since we’ll be here until Friday, but we decided we would try to do it this way and see how it worked out.

 

[Noreen411]

Sunday 3/16/25 Continued
We were hungry so headed out for dinner.

We saw a Longhorn Steakhouse, it’s a chain we’ve been to before so you know what you are getting so figured let’s just go there. We sat at the bar as we like to do and nobody acknowledged us. It was weird. After a few minutes we left. If someone had said something like “we’ll be right with you” or anything, we probably would have stayed, we’re pretty easy customers, but not to even be acknowledged was rude. It’s not like it was that busy either.

We found Lulu’s and sat at the bar. It was night and day compared to Longhorn, we were greeted immediately and made to feel welcome. We sat at the bar as we like to do. The bartender was great and we had a good time chatting with him and getting some recommendations.



This is going to make us sound really ditzy and maybe we should have already known this, but we were super confused with the time. We thought it was about 8:30 at night, but the phone said 7:30. It took us a few minutes to realize we’re on central time now rather than eastern time. We gained an hour,

I ordered the Bama Breeze and Scott had a Martini. We continued toasting to a great trip ahead of us.


We shared the Seafood Trio for two; choosing shrimp, grouper, and Mahi Mahi. It came with French fries and hush puppies. We asked them to hold the Cole slaw since we won’t eat it.



Scott also got an order of Mac & cheese (he loves Mac & cheese).


Scott was thinking of getting an order of the fried crab claws but the bartender advised him against it saying it was just too much food and we should get it another time.

For dessert we got the Krispy Cream Bread Pudding. We like Crispy Cream Donuts and like bread pudding but it wasn’t our favorite bread pudding.


We really enjoyed Lulu’s, the atmosphere, the people, the food. My only complaint is the hard wood chairs that aren’t very comfortable. That’s a pet peeve of mine, when I’m out having dinner, I like a comfortable chair to sit on.

We went back to the hotel. We watched Big Bang Theory on TV while getting ready to go to sleep.

 

[BellaBaby]

We have Nothing Bundt Cakes in our area. If you sign up with them you get a free bundtlet on your bday. We've tried them, but I think they use the cream cheese icing and I'm not a fan unfortunately.
We have stayed in Staybridge Suites several times on road trips and mostly they've been nice. A few could've been better.
We eat at Longhorn in Colorado. And recently tried the one in Kissimmee near WDW. Consistently very good. Sorry to hear you were ignored, that is rude! We would've left too and we have in the past for that kind of treatment.
Lulu's looked fun!!

 

[buteraa]

Following along for another great trip report!