Disneyland/NASCAR - Terri & Cheryl - FINISHED 3/25
About This Page:

**DrDolphin** · 03-04-2005, 11:43 AM

Starring: Terri (34) 25-time Walt DisneyWorld veteran – Disneyland rookie
Cheryl (28) 14-time WDW veteran – Disneyland rookie

Dates = 24 Feb 2005 – 28 Feb 2005

Background
I guess I should start with how this trip came into being. For the last 4 years, I have been a NASCAR fan…I was a Jeff Gordon fan long before that – in fact he is the reason I started to watch NASCAR – he used to do the “safe driver” segments on Good Morning America and I thought he was just really cute!! Well, when Fox began to carry NASCAR races on Sunday – football ceased to keep my attention and NASCAR won. I have been watching races every Sunday I can since then. Last year, I started talking to Running buddy Cheryl about NASCAR, and she got interested and started watching races too. She decided that she needed to like a different driver than Jeff – and settled on Tony Stewart, “because someone has to like the bad guy” – I will admit, Tony is one of my favorite 3 drivers too.

Last year, Disneyland announced the 50th anniversary celebration would start in May 2005, and I remembered that there was a race in southern California about the same time. So we talked about it – and decided since neither of us had been to a NASCAR race, and neither of us had been to Disneyland, we could kill two birds with one stone. Then NASCAR announced its 2005 race schedule. The spring California Speedway race that had always been in April was now going to be in February – one week after the Daytona 500!! Ok – that put a wrinkle in the plans…. No 50th celebration – or we could wait and go to the October race, but we are both planning on a fall marathon in October and I did not want to have to choose. So we agreed on February.

Cheryl and I are both Hilton Hhonors members – and I have way too many points for my own good (which tells you I travel too much). She had been traveling quite a bit too and had points to “spend” as well. Unlike WDW – DL Resort does not have the plethora of onsite hotels (there are 3) and after looking at the prices; we decided we should go with the nearest Hilton property where we could use our points. We originally thought we would each “pay” for one night in points, and split the cost of the 3rd night – but in the end – Cheryl paid points for 2 nights and I paid for one. I can’t remember why it worked out that way. We ended up at the Hilton Convention center hotel 2 blocks from DL.

I had a reward travel certificate from Southwest (again, I travel too much) so my plane ride to and from California would be free, and I had a free day voucher from Hertz, as well as a $50.00 voucher due to an error they had made a few months prior. Cheryl had a credit remaining on AirTrans from a previous trip, and a reward certificate from Southwest – her plane ticket was really cheap (if not free) as well.

So the trip costs looks like this:
Hotel – Free
Airfare – Free (or close to it)
Rental car – way cheap
Car parking at hotel – 3 nights * 11 dollars – 33.00

All we needed now were race and park tickets. I since I had never been to a NASCAR race (Saturday night track races in Corpus Christi in college don’t count) I had no idea where the good seats in the Grandstands were. During my hurricane duty for Ivan – I met another NASCAR fan/Corps employee who goes to races all the time – so he helped me choose seats for the race. I called Cheryl and she agreed – $106.00 each – so now all we need is Disneyland tickets. We did not get garage or PIT passes (this time).

I checked the DL website – and they did not have 2 day parkhoppers… only 3 day for $165.00… I decided to check at Shades of Green at WDW (they seem to have tickets to everything else) when we were there in January – no luck. No DL tickets. I called our local MWR office on base (military travel folks) – they don’t have them and can’t get them…. Ok now what? I looked back at DL.com and there was a special!! A 3-day parkhopper for the cost of a 2-day parkhopper…. $109.00, so we bought those as well.

All right – other than food and spending money – I think we are good to go:

Hotel – free
Airfare – free
Rental car – way cheap
Car parking – 33.00
Race ticket – 106.00
Park ticket – 109.00

Now many people asked me why I was going to California to see a NASCAR race when I live 1.5 hours north of Daytona…. And we looked at Daytona. Pros – 1st race of the year – major festivities, definitely a great ticket to have if you can get it – then I looked at costs… In the grandstands – the tickets started at 400.00 each – and those were the worst seats they had. We could have sat in the infield – but without an RV to climb on top of – we wouldn’t be able to see anything. So…. That’s why we did not go to Daytona (plus, if we’d gone to Daytona, DL was out!).

Next - we're off to the races!

crystalloubear · 03-04-2005, 12:33 PM

Great start!! I like "the bad guy" too!! I picked him b/c of his cute butt!!
I can't wait to hear more about the trip esp. the race. Our goal is to see 1 different race a year and we hope to get to CA sometime. If you ever want to come to Pocono, it is 45 minutes from here!!

Diz · 03-04-2005, 01:21 PM

The adventure begins!

What a great start with all the discounts! Everything just seemed to fall into place!

Can't wait to hear about the hotel. We're still not sure where to say for our DL trip.

**DopeyGirl** · 03-04-2005, 02:41 PM

Gentle-women . . . START YOUR ENGINES!!!!

Looking forward to the Terri-and-Cheryl-combination take on DL!!!

Fantasmic! kid · 03-05-2005, 01:55 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Gentle-women . . . START YOUR ENGINES!!!!

[/ QUOTE ]

And "Boy's and Girls"!

Can't wait to hear about your trip!

**LizardCop** · 03-05-2005, 06:45 AM

Excellent start Terri.... Even if you're tainted by good looks...

Of the two, I'm with Cheryl!!! But then, my 2 favorite drivers are retiring this year so I guess I need to start looking for another one or two!!!

MORE [img]http://smileys.*************.com/cat/23/23_31_4.gif[/img]

**Colexis Mom** · 03-05-2005, 06:49 AM

Great start Terri

I never knew NASCAR tickets were so expensive

Glad you're trip was mostly free

Hurry back

Phoebe_Cates · 03-07-2005, 03:38 PM

(Note: I’m just going to add my thoughts to Terri’s report so it’s all together)

Clarification:

I only had to pay a $2.50 handling fee for my Southwest Airline ticket b/c I used a credit

My Airtran airline ticket was about $103.00

Cheryl’s Night Before:

Luckily, I was able to catch an earlier train out of Philadelphia, PA – although there was a bit of confusion at the train station b/c I was standing in the wrong line and didn’t realize it until I got to Amtrak window. Opps! … I was also not in the clearest frame of mind b/c I was alternating between Dayquil and Nyquil. Earlier in the week, my contractor had gotten the flu and had passed it on to me (Hope you didn’t get sick too, Tara!) By this point, I was really anxious to get home b/c I had a lot of errands to do, like find my airline tickets! … My train arrived at Union Station in Washington, DC around 4pm. At which point, I had to hike all the way to the top level of the parking garage to clear the snow off my car with an old eye glass case b/c I didn’t have an ice scraper handy. I was a bit concerned that I was going to hit rush hour traffic, but I found out later that the Federal Government was let our early. This actually worked out to my advantage b/c I was able to make pretty good time driving and got to my neighborhood around 5pm. Instead of going home and packing like a sane person, I decided to quickly swing by Target to pick up a vacuum cleaner. One hour and a full shopping cart later, I find my car in the parking lot and proceed homeward. By this point, it’s around 7pm and I STILL haven’t packed for my trip yet. Instead, I’m cleaning my house, reviewing my mail/bills, returning phone calls, etc. I didn’t start officially packing until 9pm and that’s when I got the shock of my life – I COULDN’T FIND MY AIRLINE TICKETS ANYWHERE!! For the next two hours, I tore my house apart! In the end, I decided to go to bed and look for the tickets in the morning when I could think more clearly. … When the alarm went off at 2am, I decided to look in my box of shredding b/c it was the only place I hadn’t looked the night before. Low and behold, there were my airline tickets! Thank goodness I procrastinated on my shredding! Phew! … Even with all of that drama, I got out of the house on time and made it to BWI around 4:30am to catch my 6am flight, which was delayed due to de-icing. In the end, I still arrived at LAX before Terri and was waiting for her at baggage claim as previously planned.

Next Up: The Car Rental Shuffle and Getting Lost w/ “Never Lost”!

MickeyMAC · 03-04-2005, 02:47 PM

Glad your writing a trip report....my son likes Tony Stewart--I didn't know he was a bad guy (shows what I know about races).

Tink and co. · 03-04-2005, 07:59 PM

Great Start--can't wait to hear your impressions of disneyland!

disneyfan4994 · 03-04-2005, 08:38 PM

Sounds great. Can't wait to hear more.

Tara O'Hara · 03-04-2005, 11:18 PM

Terri, it sounds fabulous!!

Can't wiat to read more!!

snoozy · 03-05-2005, 10:26 PM

Excellent deals on the hotel, airfare and park tickets. Wow I was not aware that NASCAR tickets were so pricy. Can't wait to hear more

**DrDolphin** · 03-06-2005, 12:47 PM

24 February 2005 – Off to the Races

I left work right at 3pm but with traffic and such, did not get out of JAX until 330pm. I drove to Orlando via I-95, I-4 and Hwy 417 since I knew that traffic on I-4 in downtown Orlando would not be good at 6pm on a Thursday.

I arrived at the Hampton Inn on TG Lee Blvd right at 630pm and checked in. I had packed an overnight bag so I could leave the suitcase in the trunk. I also reserved a seat on the 5am shuttle to the airport, since I will be leaving the car in the hotel parking lot. This meant no costs to park the car at the airport.

After checking in, I went to my room, talked to Scott for a few minutes and then tried to decide on dinner. There are four places to eat within walking distance of the hotel: 1) Denny’s, 2) Tony Roma’s, 3) Chili’s and 4) Bennigan’s. Denny’s was out immediately. I knew that I was not in the mood for ribs (too heavy) – so cross off Tony Roma’s. That left Chili’s and Bennigan’s. And while Andy and Annabel love Chili’s – a friend of mine got very bad food poisoning at Chili’s – and now I am gun shy about eating there. So – Bennigan’s it was.

I walked there (it would have taken longer to drive) and was seated right away. I ordered ice tea and the southwestern sampler – chicken quesadillas, chili nachos, and southwest eggrolls. I will say it took more than 30 minutes for this to arrive (it was off the appetizer menu) and it wasn’t that good. Plus I was FREEZING – I had on my green pullover fleece – but I was still so cold. I ended up only eating 1/3 of my food and ordering a hot chocolate to go!!

I went back to the room, finished packing my bags, took a hot bath (remember, I was cold) and headed to bed – all before 9pm… now if I could have only slept. I think I finally fell asleep around midnight – and I had a 4am wake up call scheduled…. UGH!!!

Next - are we there yet?