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View Full Version : So much to do and so many to do it with trip – Part 1



Mickey'sGirl
09-17-2009, 11:15 PM
CAST: Me (Jennifer), DH (Brian aka CanadianWDWFan), DS11 (Harry) and DS5 (Euan)WDW holiday Saturday August 22 to Saturday September 5, 2009 (Pop, Boardwalk, Old Key West)

.... So, I decided to take the Friday off of work so that we could get an early start, and get well on our way to Disney. We left home around 7am (to stay ahead of the Toronto traffic), crossed the border at Buffalo without incident (we even declared our case of Canadian beer!) and got all the way down to Columbia, SC by about 8:30. Brian took the boys for a swim in the indoor pool – They sure deserved it after being such troopers! – and I ordered the pizza and waited for it in the room. The boys and the pizza all arrived at about the same time, we ate then turned in. We wanted to be back on the road by about 7, as we had 7ish hours to go to get to WDW, and an early afternoon arrival would be bodacious.

We were up fed and on the road by 7, and arrived at Downtown Disney at about 2. We wanted to hit the LEGO store, and pick up our Annual Passes, and Hallowe’en Party tickets from Guest Services, so that we would be ready to go to the parks. After dropping a cool $200 at the LEGO store (the boys had been saving up snow shovelling money and my pocket change since December), and painlessly retrieving our tickets, we were back in our car and on our way to check in at POP. We had done the advance check in, so it was really just a matter of picking up our room keys and parking pass. It was an entirely painless experience. We had friends checking in later that day, and we attempted to leave them a message, but we could not as their room had not yet been assigned. Whatever. So, we decided to go for a swim.

The Hippy Dippy Pool was very popular, and very warm, but we had loads of fun. Then we went back to the room to clean up and change and get some dinner from the food court. We tend to pool our edibles when we are doing fast food, and this was no different. We had shrimp noodles, pizza, cheesesteak and fries, and we all left satisfied. After dinner, I took Euan to the playground, and Brian and Harry wandered about adding points to the GPS, and taking pictures around the resort. We found out that our friends had arrived and checked in, but were very late due to airline issues, and were going to book over to Epcot to attempt to make their dinner reservation at Nine Dragons. We made plans to hook up in the morning, before we checked out and transferred over to the Boardwalk for the next part of our holiday.

offwego
09-17-2009, 11:47 PM
Smooth trip down and swimming, nice Lego haul as well.
So glad to see the fun just starting.

mouseketeer mom
09-18-2009, 06:52 AM
A great start! Especially for your kids with all the new Legos! They must've been happy!

stitchaholic
09-18-2009, 06:59 AM
how long it the drive from T.O, i live in montreal and the thought of driving always has me nervous about wasting too much vacation time,but it must be a big savings.

CanadianWDWFan
09-18-2009, 07:29 AM
how long it the drive from T.O, i live in montreal and the thought of driving always has me nervous about wasting too much vacation time,but it must be a big savings.
For us on the east side of Toronto it takes us about 21 hours to make it down. We don't consider it wasting time, after all it is part of our vacation to get to Disney.

As for savings, we figured it cost us about $600 round trip in fuel and hotels. Flights from Toronto will sometimes run you that each!!! Plus we had our own car in Disney.

SBETigg
09-18-2009, 07:41 AM
Sounds like a really fun start! We drove down from MA when I was a kid and the road trip was part of the vacation, too. Though, getting to WDW is always the best part.

stitchaholic
09-18-2009, 07:42 AM
hmm,it's something to think about,i would go through syracuse i think. i will have to map it out.
thanks for the info!

DizNee143
09-18-2009, 09:02 AM
sounds like good travel time!! your boys are troopers for being in a car for that long! :thumbsup:
sounds like a great start to your vacation!! :mickey:

KylesMom
09-18-2009, 09:36 AM
It's always good to hear when your drive down is uneventful.

Looking forward to reading trip reports from "your side of the glass". Let the Adventure Begin! :mickey:

nicster
09-18-2009, 09:39 AM
What a great start! The boys are such great ages for WDW, too!! What am I saying? I am 11 when I go through those turnstiles too!!:mickey:

faline
09-18-2009, 12:38 PM
Good to see some more trip reports from you! I always enjoy following your family on their trips!

Actually, our trips crossed over this time as we were there from August 18th through the 29th!

ElenitaB
09-19-2009, 02:05 PM
Glad to hear that the trip down went so smoothly. You have me considering a drive down one of these days... either all the way or to Virginia where we can pick up the AutoTrain.

BelleKP
09-20-2009, 02:39 PM
Well I must say, you made VERY good time! I'm in Burlington, and we've driven a few times . . . don't know that we've ever made it in 20 hours before :) Maybe we took the scenic route!
Great start! Looking forward to reading more! :thumbsup:

dtootsie42
09-20-2009, 05:00 PM
Sounds like it was a great start to your trip!

Mickeydream
09-20-2009, 07:56 PM
Sounds like a great start to your vacation. I look forward to hearing about the rest of your trip. :thumbsup:

We will be driving down from the Albany, NY area in November and staying at POP. We're hoping to get as far as Savannah the first night. It will be a huge saving over flying.

Beach Club Babe
09-23-2009, 04:00 PM
Glad you had an easy ride down with no issues. You're off to a great start it seems.

pdrlkr
09-23-2009, 10:43 PM
Thanks for the Report! :smickey:

Dsnygirl
09-24-2009, 04:14 AM
Jenn -- I'm finally reading your reports!! ;)

Glad you had such a great trip down, and made such good time... and at least you were able to find some downtime at the pool!! :thumbsup: (And what fun at the Lego store.. how'd you fit it all in your car?? :D)

vizsla
09-24-2009, 05:21 AM
Thanks for the report.