Driving to Disney Routines

[elmjimmlm]

Are there certain things that you do on your way to Disney? We always stop at the Fl. welcome center and get a cup of orange juice...We also stop in St. Augustine at the Vans outlet and buy kids new shoes...We stay in the same hotel the night before we check in at Disney...Anyone have their own routine? (or is it just us):mickey:

[Mickey91]

We always have Chocolate chip Teddy Grahams for the way down. We too always stop at the FL welcome center when it is open as we drive through. We look for the first palm trees along the Interstate in SC. We look for the beautiful LPGA intersection near Daytona, The fun Space Center Signs and Disney Signs along I-4 and the Channel 2 tower in Orlando. I-4 is also the official Disney CD time. :D

[McGoofy]

Are there certain things that you do on your way to Disney? We always stop at the Fl. welcome center and get a cup of orange juice...We also stop in St. Augustine at the Vans outlet and buy kids new shoes...We stay in the same hotel the night before we check in at Disney...Anyone have their own routine? (or is it just us):mickey:

And please don't tell me that you stop at the outlets and don't go by the Disney store??? ;) We also drive down on I-95. St. Augustine is where we always stop (both coming and going if possible) at the Prime Outlets for the sole purpose of going to Disney's Character Premier. They have so many good Disney deals. That is where we get many park souveniers at very good bargain prices. We even got a Pal Mickey there one time for $12.00!!!

We try not to stop too many other places because we want to get to Disney ASAP!! Another thing we always start doing on I-4 is having a competition to see who can spot the most Disney billboards.:mickey:

[wdw_bound]

Character Premiere in St. Augustine is awesome! We try to stop there on our way down and let the kids take their time shopping. That way, they already have a souvenier or two, it breaks up the drive, since St. Augustine is about 7 hours, we get there just as the kids are hitting the wall and getting antsy. And finally, I have noticed that DD9 especially, curbs her spending habits in the parks because "Mommy, can you believe they want $20 for this - it was only $12 at the outlet!"

We usually stop on our way home as well. One thing I have noticed though is that the selection can be slim from time to time, so you need to go hoping but not expecting to find a great deal.

[buzznwoodysmom]

Since we normally arrive in WDW around midnight the night before our official check in the kids are usually asleep. When I start seeing the spotlights in the sky we always wake the boys up to tell them we are almost there. We always, always, always all scream and shout when we drive through the gates of WDW. It is something the boys would be so mad at us for if we didn't wake them to do that. The other thing we do on everytrip is I take out a Disney Dollar just as we enter WDW and we each pick a monorail color. Whoever's monorail color we spot first gets the disney dollar. Sometimes we don't spot any of our colors until the next day. It is another thing the boys love doing and it wouldn't be a complete WDW trip to us if we didn't do it.