Shortish trip report
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mamapajama · 09-09-2010, 08:23 AM

This trip was riddled with the consequences of my newly acquired absentmindedness. We left early on a Saturday morning. We drove from NY in our new (to us!) Dodge Durango and I didn't want to squish the kids inside for 2 days so I bought a soft-sided rooftop carrier from roofbags.com. I also bought their 3 duffel bags for packing it. We packed the duffels that were shaped like the carrier (higher in the back than in the front) so we just had to put the bags up in it and go. We bought a new slim folding step ladder for this and put it in the back under the stroller. There is no way we could have gotten those bags into that thing without that ladder! If anyone is in need of a rooftop carrier I HIGHLY recommend this one. We drove through torrential rain in GA and northern FL both ways and the things inside stayed completely dry. I don't really know the effect on our mileage since we never made this trip without the carrier but we spent about $180 each way on gas in a V-8.

So we pull out and stop at Dunkin Donuts and I promptly drop my Blackberry, which had no cover since I forgot to put the cover back on it, and the screen went out. I ran back home and got my old BB and switched the service over to that one when we stopped until Verizon sent me a replacement which I received at OKW on Tuesday. The rest of the leg was relatively uneventful. We stopped in Walterboro, SC at a Hampton Inn. Nice. Clean. It was here I thought I forgot the camera. We found the camera (more on this later). Up the next morning, ate complimentary breakfast and on our way.
We made it to Disney about 2:30 and checked into OKW. I had originally requested close to HH but amended my ressie to ask for a refurb room so my DS & DD did not have to share a bed. They didn't have that on file so we were set up in a HH room but they switched us to a refurb room. We had a great room, a ground floor corner room. The floors were covered in Allure vinyl plank flooring except for the bathroom and master bedroom. This was unfortunate for us since the people upstairs had a toddler that sounded like a herd of elephants and ran all over the place at like 5 in the morning! The appliances were the same but the countertops are now granite and the tvs are LCD. The stay was uneventful except for the washer leaking all over the floor on our last night and engineering not coming until 10 pm at which time they replaced the washer.

We began our trip at Epcot , got our APs and went in. I went to take a picture and I discovered that I did have my camera but I had left the battery on my kitchen table! I took it out of the charger, packed the camera & the charger, but never put the battery IN the camera. Fail! So I was using my BB Tour's camera until Saturday when it conked out again. This time the screen worked and the track ball would scroll but no buttons clicked! So I was without a phone/camera until yesterday when I put the battery back in and lo and behold it worked again!

Zoey was really not enjoying herself in the beginning of our stay. The first few times on the bus she got hysterical. At MK she went on Dumbo and liked that but then we took her on Pooh and she was done for the day. At Crystal Palace, she tolerated the furries only from a distance of about arm's length. A few days later she was doing fine on the bus and by our last night at Chef Mickey's she was digging Donald and Pluto. Mickey was kind of rude....she touched his nose and he gave her the "uh-uh" wagging finger and walked away! Really turned my mood sour after that. Goofy was a blast and was moonwalking during the song. There was a table of 4 women who were going crazy, having fun and they really had fun with him!

We were trying to get to the PP meet at Epcot but it was early in the trip and Zoey melted down so we had to head back and we missed it! Maybe next year.

This trip was rough with the baby and my son. He had been complaining since before we left that he didn't want to go and he was tired of Disney. Little did I know that he was just tired of staying at OKW. We toured BLT on Thursday and that rejuvenated him and his Dad and that is when I found out that it was staying in the same place that was boring him. So we added 75 points so we have more resort options. Next trip we are going to try for BLT or AKV. We've stayed at BWV, SSR & BCV but BC & BW were a while ago and they don't really remember them too well. Even though SSR is my home resort, I'm not a huge fan.

The ride home was uneventful. We stopped in Dunn, NC at a Hampton again. Nice. Clean. Weird thing was that there was no closet area in the room to hang anything.

So now I am busy planning my mom-daughter trip with Logan for December. I am glad we are doing this because she really didn't get to do a lot of what she wanted to do-some because of the baby but also because her brother was being a stick in the mud for the first half of the trip. Then I will be on to planning my trip for next summer which poses another problem: DD starts college on 8/29 which means I have to go during a slightly busier time which costs more points. This is going to be my situation for the next 5 years with her in a special 5 year bachelor/master's/teaching certificate program. My son will still be in high school or else we would go in January! Oy! I wanted a 2br since we are going to be bringing DDs BFF along. Now I am toying with the idea of sending them on their own in a studio and the rest of us going our regular time in a 1BR. But I will miss having her with us. Any thoughts?