Who invited Milton to her 21st Birthday?? An October 2024 Trip Report---UPDATED August 31st!

[buzzrelly]

Hello again!

I know I just completed my last trip report but I had so much fun writing it I thought I'd give it another go with an amazing trip from last October!
Since I had no idea I'd be writing a trip report and it was almost a year ago I'm going to have to rely on my pics and time stamps to jog my memories!

This was a crazy trip! Both fun crazy and oh my goodness, there's a hurricane coming crazy!
We were heading down in October 2024 to celebrate my DD Allie's 21st birthday.
We have been WDW many times and for many years she has been saying she wants to be in EPCOT on her 21st.

The cast of characters for this trip are, from front to back, my DD Allie, her boyfriend of 3 years Clay,
my mom (some of you know her as Grammy so that's what I'll call her here), my great-niece Ava, and my DH Mike.
No, Mike isn't the big blue guy in the middle, that's Stitch!


Trip Dates:
Mike and I started driving down October 2, 2024,
arrived at Port Orleans French Quarter on October 3rd for just one night
and then Beach Club Villas on October 4-12, 2024 in a 2-Bedroom Lock-Off.

Allie, Clay, Grammy and Ava flew down on October 4, 2024.
Allie and Clay were flying home on October 9th (or were they???)
and I would fly home with my mom and Ava on October 12th and Mike would drive home.
Got it?? Phew! You'll have to stick around if you want to see how that all plays out

So now you know the Who, Where, When and Why, but just as a little more background here's our Disney Bios:

My name is Kelly...

I'm the planner and the reason we go to Disney so frequently! I've been a NICU RN for 23 years and I love my job but I also love the flexibility it gives me to travel so much. My real schedule is 24 hours, so two 12-hour shifts but when I'm not traveling I work a bunch more than that to pay for the trips! But this is why I can take off 10-12 days at a time with only using one week's worth of PTO! I also have a side gig involving Disney that I love doing and is another great way to help me pay for these trips! We have been DVC Members since 2014 with points at Bay Lake Tower and Beach Club Villas.

Some of my favorites:
Resort-Beach Club
Park-EPCOT
Ride-Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind
Character-used to be Minnie but my puppies are Daisy and Gus so they've edged her out (though it's so hard finding Gus Merch!)
Season to visit WDW-Spring for Flower and Garden fest, followed very closely by Christmas/early December

My DH MIke...

He was a reluctant WDW fan but after many, many trips I think he enjoys it just as much as me.
He doesn't love the rides as much though and won't go on coasters or any of the bigger thrill rides.
He does love EPCOT and would probably be happy to just spend every day there.

Favorites:
Resort-Beach Club
Park-EPCOT
Ride-Rise of the Resistance (it's the one "thrill ride" he'll go on)
Character-Gaston
Season to visit WDW-Fall for Food & Wine

Allie...

She turned 21 while we were there and this trip was centered around her and was why we chose to go when we did. She is my travel partner in crime and her and I travel together at least once per year. We just went on the Treasure this past March which is what got me back into writing trip reports, and we have a December trip booked to WDW again. She is a crazy traveler and has been all over Europe and actually has a great job that gives her 28 days of PTO a year. She uses every minute of it and is always thinking about her next trip. Her and Clay are going to Japan next year and will of course be visiting Tokyo Disneyland. I'm already giving her a list of merch I want her to look for...she better have a lot of extra space in her suitcase!

Favorites:
Resort-Beach Club
Park-EPCOT
Ride-Space Mountain (unfortunate because as I get older I like this less and less because I get so banged up!)
Character-Belle, Tiana and Ariel
Season to visit WDW-Christmas...our early December trips are becoming a favorite tradition of ours

Clay...

Allie has been dating him for almost three years. For the past year or so he's been living in New Hampshire so it's been a little bit of a long distance relationship from CT but they make it work. From what I hear the long-term plan would be for them to both move to Boston next year so they are saving towards that now. He visited WDW as a kid and was excited to be going back with us. He remembers loving Animal Kingdom so I made it a point to book Savor the Savanna as a special treat. I'm going to have to guess at his favorites since he's not here to ask.

Favorites:
Resort-Beach Club
Park-Animal Kingdom
Ride-Tron? I recall him and Allie were ranking the rides in a Note and this is what came out on top I think
Character-Anakin Skywalker
Season to visit WDW-Not sure he has one but definitely NOT Hurricane Season!
(Allie just came in and told me his favorite season is fall as long as there is not a hurricane!)

Grammy...

She's been coming with us since 2010. That was her first trip and first plane ride ever. She has loved it ever since then but at 81 has slowed down a bit so we get her the scooter to get around. In real life she does amazingly well but walking 10-12 miles a day is a bit much for her. that pic looks like an advertisement for Gold's but it's not. We just love using them and find their scooters to be clean and reliable.

She doesn't really have favorites and doesn't really give input on the planning. She's just happy to go and is happy with whatever we have planned.


Ava...

This will be her 5th trip with us and she's crazy about the parks...but she loves the resort pools just as much!

Favorites:
Resort-I say Beach Club, Allie seems to recall her saying that Riviera was her favorite. I'll have to ask her and see which of us got it right.
Park-Magic Kingdom
Ride-The People Mover! We laughed when she told us that but hey, she has great taste! She's not much of a thrill-seeker either and is happy to sit out the coasters.
Character-Stitch! Or at least it was on this trip. You know how fickle kids are though so I'm guessing that's changed since then.
Season to visit WDW-Any! She just wants to go all the time!

When we planned the trip and even for the first few days of our trip we had no idea we were going to have another joining us...his name was Milton,
or should I say, Hurricane Milton!
We've been to WDW many times in October but this was definitely a first (and I hope last) for us!
So yes it was hot, yes it was muggy, and yes it was rainy!
Did we have to adjust our plans more than ever before? Yes!
But did we have a great time? Also yes!

Stick around if you'd like to hear more about this wild trip!


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[buzzrelly]

Reserved

 

[buzzrelly]

OCTOBER 2, 2024
TRAVEL DAY


Mike and I were packed up and hitting the road from CT at 3:38am.


We try to hold out on coffee until a little later in the morning to cut down on any necessary bio-breaks but that first cup of road coffee really hits We also bring a cooler with breakfast items like hard boiled eggs and cheese sticks and I pack some sandwiches for the ride to cut down on the length of our stops.

From CT we have a couple of choices for getting to WDW. The straightest shot is I95 which takes us through NYC/NJ/The DC Beltway, etc. The other option is to head West a little on I84 and then get on I81 that takes us through Pennsylvania and West Virginia, before heading back East to get on I95. It's a little out of the way but in years past we liked this route because there's no tolls and little to no traffic. Well just a couple weeks before we were leaving hurricane Helene hit North Carolina and because of that my maps on my phone rerouted us around that area and it ended up adding on hours plus took us through literal neighborhoods and back roads. It was so crazy and we decided then and there we were just going to suck it up and do I95 the whole way on future trips.

Despite all this we did get to Florence, South Carolina Buc-cees by 6pm
and stopped for a bit of a leg stretch and some snacks.


Our goal was to get to Brunswick, GA which was still 3.5 hours away. We did briefly discuss whether we should stop somewhere closer but the appeal of Brunswick is having just 3.5 hours to WDW the next day, plus it was really too early to stop for the night as we'd just be sitting around in the room so we decided to suck it up and keep on going. I had stupidly waited to make the hotel reservation for the night to see if we were actually going to get to Brunswick and by the time I went online to make it all the hotels in that area were booked. We ended up having to book a Holiday Inn Express in Saint Simon's Island which is about 30 minutes from Brunswick over a bridge. Not the best planning on our part. After 19 long hours on the road we finally made it to the hotel around 10:30 pm


We woke up refreshed and ready to get the rest of the drive over with.
Ready to go at 7:43am...

Of course, since we were on the island we had to get back across the bridge in some crazy traffic...ugh...we will not be doing this again. When we drive down this coming October I already have a hotel reservation made in Brunswick!

By around 9am we saw this lovely sign...

And by noon we saw this glorious sight...

https://media0.giphy.com/media/v1.Y...ZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/e89O4B2XLw1m5l65rT/giphy.gif

Hallelujah! This is the best feeling after such a long ride!

We headed over to our hotel for the night...

Port Orleans French Quarter.

I think when planning we thought we were leaving on October 3rd to check-in to BCV on the 4th but when we got our calendars all figured out we ended up going a day earlier. Of course by that time we couldn't get a DVC reservation so we booked this. I stayed here in 2019 and haven't been back since and I've always loved it. They were in the process of redoing the rooms and I was really hoping for a newly redone room, though I didn't put in a request since we were just going to be there one night. Let's see if we got it!

Side note: When we go down this October I did get a DVC room for one night before our "real" stay. I like doing this and adding on the DDP for just one night which you can do in DVC but not with a regular room only reservation. We like to get the refillable mugs and then use the dining credit for something that would cost a little bit more. We are using it this year for the F! Dining Package at Hollywood and Vine.

Anyway, what else would you get when checking into POFQ...




Seriously, the best beignets! These are so good and was the perfect first treat to get to start our trip
After sharing these we headed off to our first park of the trip.

That's next!

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[pkondz]

First!
Back to read a little later.