Trip Report - September / October 2024

Sunday 10/6/24 Continued
We headed out of Epcot and hopped over to Magic Kingdom.
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Scott was in the mood for a Mickey Pretzel and ate an ear before I was able to take a picture. This was a very good pretzel, soft and fresh.
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Sunday 10/6/24 Continued
We rode Buzz Lightyear; I never score well on this but it’s still fun.
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Next up was Pirates which we both enjoy. I like when the rides have photos on them.
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We watched the Tiki Birds which is always a cute show.
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As we were heading to Haunted Mansion there was a photographer who told us to dance and we would see a cute magic shot - so here we are looking goofy dancing with a hitchhiking ghost.
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We went into Haunted Mansion and something was going on where we were stuck for a bit waiting to get on our doom buggy, then when we were on the ride itself it stopped several times.
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By the time we finished riding Haunted Mansion it was about 6:30pm and a Halloween Party night so we had to head out of the park. We should have been out by 6, but we were stuck on Haunted Mansion. We actually like going to Magic Kingdom during the day on party nights since it hasn’t been as crowded as non party days. If you don’t have an annual pass or a hopper ticket, people probably don’t want to waste a day ticket when the park closes early.
 
Sunday 10/6/24 Continued
We drove to the Yacht Club for our reservation at Yachtsman’s Steakhouse. We went a bit early to have pre-dinner cocktails at Crews Cup Lounge.

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Scott had a Martini. While it wasn’t on their cocktail menu, the bartender was able to make me the Key Lime Pie martini that I’ve had here before. This tastes like you are drinking a slice of key lime pie; it’s very good.
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We were seated on time at Yachtsman’s Steakhouse. The hostess came to get us at the bar, told us to take our time. It was very nice rather than feeling rushed.
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For an appetizer we had the Shrimp Cocktail. Their cocktail sauce is really good; I would have preferred it on the side to dip but it was still really good.
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One of the best things at Yachtsman’s is their onion pull apart rolls.
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I had the filet with fries. You can’t go wrong with this dish here.
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Scott was torn deciding what to order. He finally decided on the Chicken. He was originally not sure about getting chicken rather than steak at a steakhouse, he said it was delicious and he was really glad he ordered it.
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Scott also wanted a side of creamed spinach which he said was good. I don’t like creamed spinach so didn’t eat this.
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We watched the Epcot fireworks from our table at Yachtsman’s Steakhouse.

For dessert we had the chocolate cake which is really good; it’s not too sweet.
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We enjoyed our meal at Yachtman’s very much.
 
Just catching up. Lots of good meals. I like your cute t-shirts!
 
Just catching up. Lots of good meals. I like your cute t-shirts!
Hi. Thank you. Sometimes it’s easier to remember to take all sorts of pictures when you are sitting down to eat than when you are busy doing stuff. I’m very glad for the photopass pictures or I would hardly have any pictures of us.
 
Monday 10/7/24
We went to the gym in the Bella section around 7. Back in the villa we did a little bit of packing to get some of it out of the way. It’s easier to pack to go home than going but it still takes a while since we both overpack. We’re still debating what we want to do about Hurricane Milton.

Our normal morning routine followed of laundry, jacuzzi, showers, and breakfast.

We drove to Magic Kingdom.

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It was kind of a rainy dreary day.
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How cute are the Mickey Mouse in a rain poncho photos

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Monday 10/7/24 Continued
We headed towards Tomorrowland stopping for pictures on the way

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We went on Carousel of Progress. It’s not the fanciest ride, but it’s cute and comfortable. We both bop our heads along with the chorus singing along; we walk to the end of the row while most people stop in the middle so nobody hears us singing along.

We rode the PeopleMover.

We were just wandering around the park enjoying the Magic of being there together. We were also continuing to talk about what we should do about Hurricane Milton which is predicted to be a category 5 storm. We decided we would leave early to head out of Florida the next day.

We decided we should head out since we had a few things to care for before leaving. Of course that didn’t stop us from stopping for another picture.
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And we had to stop at the Confectionary (candy store) on Main Street to get Scott more of his favorite cookies.
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The park was crowded today; not surprising since they will be closing for the hurricane.
 
Monday 10/7/24 Continued
We stopped to fill the car up with gas, then picked up the various items from the villa that we needed to return and drove to Disney Springs.

In World of Disney, a very nice cast member took care of all our returns. Of course we ended up buying a few more items while we were there.

We went to Earl of Sandwich for lunch. Scott had the Italian Hero and he also wanted the kids pizza. I had the Earl Club Hero. We drank soda. We enjoyed our lunch at Earl of Sandwich. While we don’t run around like crazy anymore, we realized we should spend more time doing things like this, just taking a little break for lunch.
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The Italian:
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The Earl Club:
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Kids Pizza:
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We thought about going to EverGlazed but didn’t feel like going all the way to the other side of Disney Springs in the heat so went to Amorette’s instead. I got a Cookie Dough Croissant. Scot got a Wilting Rose. The pictures are back in the villa later but I’m putting them here since this is when we bought them. We ate them later.

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Monday 10/7/24 Continued
Back at the resort, we did another load of laundry and packed. This took a while. We (Scott really) loaded most of the stuff into the car. We watched some more of Hotel Transylvania.

We continued our discussion about leaving Florida tomorrow and our plans. The parks were closing Wednesday afternoon and would be closed all day Thursday. We originally would have left Friday so leaving Florida tomorrow seems like the right decision. We tossed around the idea of heading either to Alabama or back to Hilton Head but in the end decided we would just head home.

Since we had lunch we weren’t that hungry. Probably around 8ish we were getting a bit hungry and started talking about dinner, but neither of us really felt like going out. We ordered Pizza and a Meatball Parm hero from Flippers Delivery.
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We couldn’t finish all the food. It was nice to just hang out, watch a movie and eat dinner. Not the most exciting last meal at Disney for this trip, but it was just what we wanted, something very easy.

We ate some of our desserts from Amorette’s too and they were both very good.
 
Enjoying your TR! A lot of fun park time and good food. Unfortunate that you had to leave Disney early but sounds like the right decision. Darn hurricanes ☹️
 
Enjoying your TR! A lot of fun park time and good food. Unfortunate that you had to leave Disney early but sounds like the right decision. Darn hurricanes ☹️
Hi. Thank you. You would think we would learn our lesson traveling this time of year with hurricane season, but it’s a time that usually ends up working for us with our work obligations. I know it was the right decision to leave early. We may try to push this year’s fall trip a little later to maybe avoid hurricanes. We haven’t even started planning that trip yet, but just a thought.
 
Tuesday 10/8/24
We went to the gym about 5am today. We did a small last load of laundry, then did our normal morning routine of jacuzzi, shower, and breakfast.

The weather is beautiful today; guess it’s the calm before the storm.

We left about 9:15. One of the aliens and figment are hanging out on the dashboard for the ride home.

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We stopped at Buccee’s approximately 10:20. Scott picked up some food he’ll eat while driving a little later. If it’s not too crowded, Buccee’s is a cute stop (rather than the standard rest stops) and we enjoy browsing around and will use their clean bathrooms.

The pecans came home with us
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Scott ate his Sausage, Egg, and Cheese biscuit a little later and enjoyed it
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A little later during the drive he enjoyed his Brisket sandwich.
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There was a lot of traffic on 95 North. I guess many people had the same idea of getting out of Florida now.

We didn’t get to Georgia until about 2pm. Normally the drive through Florida takes maybe 2.5-3 hours but today it took us 4 hours and 45 minutes. I know we stopped at Buccee’s and we stopped at other rest stops on the way, but we do that regardless.

There were a lot of utility trucks and National guard trucks heading Southbound.
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Tuesday 10/8/24 Continued
As we were driving through Georgia we realized that we aren’t going to get as far north as we hoped today and we should start thinking about where we planned to stop for the night. Since Hurricane Helene also came through recently, some places may not be available and with lots of people heading North to avoid Hurricane Milton, we thought we should try to figure out where to stop and get something booked a little sooner than we normally would.

We booked the Fairfield Inn & Suites in Florence SC when we were stuck near the top of Georgia. We crossed into South Carolina at 4:15 and are hoping we can get to Florence without too much more traffic.

We made it to the hotel about 7:30pm in Florence SC. A lot further south than our original goal of making it to either the top of North Carolina or ideally Virginia before stopping for the night, but with all the traffic we thought this made sense.

This picture of the outside of the hotel we took the next morning, but I’m including it here.
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We got checked in and brought our stuff to our room and did a bit of cleaning in the room.
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It’s a decent room. There is a microwave and mini fridge on this little shelf area.
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There are 2 Queen sized beds; a King bed room wasn’t available. One bed ended up storing the luggage and we shared the other one. We’re used to a King sized bed at home so this was a cozy change.

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There is a TV, desk, and some drawers.

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This is the view from the other side. There is a closet along the side of those shelves with the fridge/microwave

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I know this may sound silly, but we like a fully contained bathroom like this room had with the sink, toilet, and shower all in one room. I know a lot of hotels lately have the sink outside the toilet/shower room and maybe that makes sense when a lot of people are sharing a room and all trying to get ready, but it’s not our preference.
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Tuesday 10/8/24 Continued
After dropping our stuff and a bit of cleaning the room we headed out to dinner.

We originally drove to Tubbs Seafood and Shrimp that the front desk recommended, but it looked like a diver so we didn’t go in.

We ended up going to Outback instead; you know what you are getting with a chain place. We sat at the bar to eat as we like to do.
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Scott had a Bourbon and I had a Kangaroo Crush. The little Kangaroo will go nicely with my Duck from the Duck Duck Razz drink.
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The bread at Outback is always good.
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We shared our food as we often do.

We ordered the Prime Rib sandwich with Aussie Fries. We also ordered the Shrimp dish with broccoli. The shrimp dish was the better choice, but broccoli (while very good) can’t compete with Fries.
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For dessert we had the Tim Tam Brownie Cake. This was OK, but there was a bit too much going on with it.
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Wednesday 10/9/24
We didn’t use the gym at the hotel even though they had one, with all the traffic and being further south than we hoped, we wanted to get on the road. We showered and got dressed.

We had breakfast at the hotel. They had a nice setup.
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I was happy that they had a waffle maker; here’s my plate.
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Below is Scott’s plate
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We made it to North Carolina a little before 8 and were in Virginia at 11. There was a ton of traffic.

News of Hurricane Milton is still predicting a category 5 and it’s expected to hit tonight. While Scott was driving I was also checking my phone for news of the Hurricane, Disney, etc. I saw this cute picture someone posted.
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At one of the rest stops they had an Auntie Anne’s so we got a pretzel. We haven’t had Auntie Anne’s in ages.
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We were in Delaware at just after 5 and being such a quick state to drive through we were at the bottom of New Jersey by 5:25. We live near the top of New Jersey so still have about 2.5 hours to go before we’re home

We stopped at AppleBee’s in Paramus, NJ on the way home when we passed it. It’s maybe 25/30 minutes away from home and was on the way. We sat at the bar.

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Scott had a Martini and I was excited to see a Peach Palmer on their cocktail menu so ordered that. I never looked for these drinks before but now that I had some in Hilton Head I’ve been keeping an eye out for similar drinks.
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We ordered food to go since we wanted to get home. We ordered a chicken quesadilla appetizer and an order or Ribs with fries. We shared. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the food when we ate it at home. It was pretty good, with a chain you know what you are getting.

When we got home the cats were happy to see us so we spent some time cuddling/playing with them now that we are back. We (Scott) brought the luggage in from the car but we didn’t unpack tonight other than any food type things that needed to go in the fridge and/or freezer.
 
Just got all caught up. Sorry you had to leave early, but it sounds like you wouldn’t have been able to go to the parks anyway so seems like a good decision!
When we were just on our trip, we passed SaltGrass a few times and I thought of you! I wish I would have thought about it when we were thinking about going out one night. 😉
 
Just got all caught up. Sorry you had to leave early, but it sounds like you wouldn’t have been able to go to the parks anyway so seems like a good decision!
When we were just on our trip, we passed SaltGrass a few times and I thought of you! I wish I would have thought about it when we were thinking about going out one night. 😉
Hi. You are 100% right, the parks were closed so it was definitely the right decision to head home early, but still a little sad to have to leave before we planned to.

Hopefully it was just an off night at Saltgrass but we didn’t like it as much as we usually do - it was just OK this trip. We’re going to take it off the rotation for our next trip even though it’s been an easy first night dinner for us, we’ll have to figure out something else. I’m saying that now, but we’ll see what happens next trip.
 
Thursday 10/10/24
We got started on the after vacation chores like unpacking, going through the mail, doing more laundry, etc. Of course we spent more time cuddling and playing with the kitties.

Since we were home earlier than planned we didn’t want to get right back into the normal routine since we should have still been on vacation so we tried to keep the vacation vibe going.

We went out to dinner to Biagio’s in Paramus, NJ. It’s a cute Italian restaurant that we go to regularly, sit at the bar to eat, know the bartenders and many of the people that work there as well as some regular customers. It’s not fancy but it’s always good.

We sat at the bar. Scott had Bourbon and I had White Sangria. They make the best white sangria here.
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For an appetizer we ordered the fried calamari which is always well cooked, crispy, and not greasy.
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They have great bread too
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We have some favorites on their regular menu that they do very well. But sometimes we’ll venture into the “specials” if they sound interesting. We haven’t always been thrilled with the specials but we keep trying.

I ordered a special - Homemade Pumpkin Spiced Rigatoni which had grilled chicken in it. This was OK but not something I would get again.
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Scott ordered a special too - the Long Island Duck Breast. He liked his dish.
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For dessert we ordered a raspberry / white chocolate cake to go. It doesn’t look that great after traveling home but it was very good.
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Great idea to continue the vacation vibe! Might be fun to do even if you don't have to leave early - ease back into real life :-)
 
Funny you mentioned Tubbs..... a few years ago, we drove down from NY and stopped in Florence for the night. We went to Tubbs and from the outside it does look like a gas station or dive, however it was the best meal of the entire week and my kids to this day wanna do the drive again, just to stop there for dinner.
 












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