2 Girls + 10 Days = Too Much Fun (6/12-6/22) Day 10 now up
About This Page:

Tigger's Mom · 06-23-2003, 10:23 AM

We're back from our superfantabulouswonderfullyfun "girls only" trip and I am eager to attempt my first report! It will probably be filled with all kinds of detail - which I know I like to read in a report, so I hope you all do as well.

Hopefully, I will be able to get started tonight on my first post!

Talk to you soon!

[ 07-29-2003, 04:57 PM: Message edited by: Tigger's Mom ]

tikibird · 06-23-2003, 10:24 AM

Welcome back - and looking forward to your report! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

DisneyDreams87 · 06-23-2003, 01:12 PM

Can't wait to read it! I always enjoy these and learn a lot for our next trip! Glad to hear you had such a good time! (it's hard not to in Disney!) [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Tara O'Hara · 06-23-2003, 01:30 PM

Whoo-Hoo!! [img]graemlins/wavin.gif[/img] Welcome home!

Tigger's Mom · 06-23-2003, 01:54 PM

Thanks for all the responses guys - I can't wait to start posting.

I have a question for you all though - would you be interested in hearing about the entire 10-day Florida vacation or just the 3 days of Disney?

**DrDolphin** · 06-23-2003, 05:51 PM

Welcome home! I can not wait to read your TR!! I learn so much from reading all of the reports.

luvnwdwgal · 06-23-2003, 08:12 PM

All right!! Girl's trip!! Can't wait to read it!! Bring it all on!! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

PS - I LUV WDW · 06-24-2003, 12:31 AM

Welcome home! Can't wait to read a detailed trip report!

**Colexis Mom** · 06-24-2003, 12:41 AM

Welcome back Kris [img]graemlins/wavin.gif[/img] . Looking forward to your trip report!!

Coinbeach · 06-24-2003, 08:04 AM

Looking forward to your report....Girls only trips are alot of fun....I have gone twice with my Aunt and my Mom and we always had a lot of fun... [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] In fact they are bugging me about when we are going again [img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img] Hopefully it will be soon........

Peace, Love and Mickey Mouse!!! [img]graemlins/usa.gif[/img]

Denise

Tigger's Mom · 06-24-2003, 08:17 PM

OK folks – here goes my first attempt at a trip report! I hope you enjoy it! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

First, a little bit of background…(Okay, maybe a lot of background) [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img]

In August 2000 my family and I had our first ever Disney experience – something I had waited my whole life for! We (me – 33, my DH – 37, DS#1 – 11, DS#2 – 7) spent 4 days in Disney (ASSp) and then followed with a week in a condo on Cocoa Beach! I came away from that trip a total Disney junkie! [img]graemlins/love.gif[/img] I found the PassPorter travel guide while planning that trip and began avidly reading the boards – especially the trip reports! My PassPorter became my constant companion and was invaluable to my planning process!! (Thanks Jennifer and Dave!!) Since returning from that trip, I have looked for ways to beg, borrow, and steal (well, maybe not steal!) to get back there.

In the spring of 2001, my parents moved from St. Louis, MO to Melbourne, FL. I was really torn up about the move – I had never lived more than 15 minutes from my mom and dad my whole adult life, and now they were 1200 miles away! [img]graemlins/cry2.gif[/img] But, they were also less than an hour from the happiest place on earth! We went for our first visit over spring break 2002, and decided we would take my parents to MK for a day visit. HUGE MISTAKE!! [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] I know many of you have been to Disney over spring break, so you can probably relate –CROWDS! CROWDS! CROWDS! We were hardly able to do any rides or see any shows due to the crowd. My dad HATES big crowds so all he wanted to do was find a beer and a quiet place to enjoy it – oops, sorry dad, no alcohol at MK!! Suffice it to say, my parents did not come away from Disney with the pixie dust in their eyes the way I had after my first visit!

Anyway, fast-forward to January 2003. DH and I were discussing summer vacation plans and what we wanted to do – he definitely did not want to go to Florida again! (I could easily spend every vacation for the rest of my life at Disney and the beach!) It was decided that we would spend our family vacation with his brother and family in the Baltimore area where they live.

Shortly after our plans were decided, I learned I would be receiving 5 bonus days of vacation from work (called Getaway Days). DH, being the most wonderful man on the face of the earth, suggests I use these bonus days to take a solo visit to my folks. What a guy!! One small fly in the ointment – I HATE TO FLY!! And, it’s a 16-hour drive! What is a girl to do? Well, I wasn’t about to let this opportunity pass, so I called up my best girlfriend and suggested a “Mom’s Getaway.” We could share the driving and expenses, so it would be very cost-effective! After a bit of cajoling we got the OK from her husband and a plan was hatched! We decided to take 10 days total – (June 12 thru 22) with 2 nights/3 days at Disney and the rest with my parents. We also decided to ask my mom to join us in Disney – I thought she might enjoy a Mom’s Getaway herself!! [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

Lucy (my girlfriend and now traveling companion) is blessed with being able to be a stay-home mom, but was concerned about $, especially concerning Disney! Not to worry folks, I began scouring the PassPorter boards for discount info, etc. I got the spring discounts on the site from Jean and promptly booked us a room at CBR for $115/night. Cool!

BTW, Lucy was very concerned about how her DH might feel about her going to Disney (he sees it as a huge money-sucking conglomerate – what does he know?!?) so we kept our Disney plans totally under wraps.

Sometime later, the Florida resident discount rates came out and I called to change our rate seeing as how we had a Florida resident traveling with us. CBR was already sold out of those rooms, but we were able to get Coronado Springs for $82/night!! YeeHah! At first I was concerned that CS wouldn’t be as “magical” as CBR – but I would be proven totally wrong about that…more on that later.

Also, after polling you all here as to whether to get UPH passes or just a day ticket to 2 of the parks and 1 day of resort touring, I decided that these two “newbies” should see as much of the World as possible! And, how can you decide which parks to leave out?!? So, I ordered 3 UPH passes! Now it was hurry up and wait for June 12 to get here so we could leave…Why is it that the days of waiting take FOREVER and the actual vacation days seem to be over in about 20 minutes?!?!

Bear with me folks; I am almost the end of the background section…

June 10 is my oldest son’s birthday – he turned 14 this year! We had a family birthday gathering planned for that evening to celebrate with brownies and ice cream! Well, at about 4:00 pm ENORMOUS storms blasted through our area – knocking over trees, power lines, etc. Can you guess what happened? Power outage!! Oh yes, happy birthday son!! [img]graemlins/pout.gif[/img] We called the party attendees and told them everything was on hold since the storms were still raging and we had no power. The storms passed, but still no power! Poor Ben (DS)! When it appeared that power was not going to be restored anytime soon, we decided we were certainly not going to let a little rain and wind ruin Ben’s special day, so we got back on the cell phone and called folks and explained that we were going to celebrate out on our screened-in porch in the back yard – using lanterns and candles for light and that they were still welcome to come if they’d like, but that we would certainly understand if they chose to stay home. Guess what – EVERYONE showed up! It was a really special birthday for Ben – one he won’t soon forget, I’m sure! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

I had taken Wednesday, the 11th, as a vacation day also so I could spend the day with my boys – I had never been away from them for more than a long weekend, and I wasn’t sure how well they would do without me for that long, or me without them, for that matter. The power was still out that morning, so I took the boys out to breakfast at Bob Evans and then we ran some last minute errands where we could. After that, we went home and played board games until evening. Went out again to dinner (with DH along this time)– still no power! What’s the deal? It was getting ridiculous – every time I called the power company it was going to be another 12 hours. Back to the house to finish my packing (by candle light), shower (by candle light – kind of scary trying to shave your legs in candle light – yikes!!), set the battery-operated alarm clock, and then try to sleep!! HA! Who was I kidding?!?! Nighty-night!!

Next up – Our Journey Begins…

Cinderbrella · 06-24-2003, 09:19 PM

I'm so glad that your son's birthday turned out!! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] It must have been a little annoying to have to pack by candlelight; hope the power returned soon. Glad that you were able to visit WDW with mom and friend. Can't wait to read more about your trip!! [img]graemlins/read.gif[/img]

statelady01 · 06-24-2003, 10:41 PM

Sounds like a great trip planned and your report is great- we are looking forward to more!!

Tigger's Mom · 06-24-2003, 10:50 PM

day one - our journey begins... …

When I last left you I was trying to lull myself to sleep…

3:30 am – the alarm rings! TODAY’S THE DAY!! I hopped (really, I did hop – I was soooo excited!) out of bed and grabbed a cup of coffee. (Our power returned late in the evening and my DH, who was still up, set the coffeemaker for me! He is so wonderful!) [img]graemlins/love.gif[/img] I drank a hot cup of java, got myself dressed and ready, filled my thermos, loaded my large suitcase, 2 good size beach bags, cooler, and CD’s in the car and opened the garage to…FOG!!!!! [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] 96+
Very dense fog had settled in – I hoped and prayed that it would burn off quickly and not cause us any driving problems.

I went back inside and up the stairs to wake up my boys and kiss them good-bye. They were adamant that I wake them before I leave. Hugs and kisses and safe travel wishes all around and by 3:45 I am in the car on my way to Lucy’s. I forgot to mention that Lucy’s power was also out and she had asked me the night before to call her on the phone in case her power was still out and the alarm wouldn’t work. Well, I called her at 3:45 expecting her to be kind of groggy and sleepy – NO WAY! She was chipper as could be! Apparently we were pretty pumped about our “Girls Only” trip!! Lucy informed me that her power had also been restored during the night, so we both felt better about that situation.

Lucy lives about a mile away from me, so I was at her door by 3:50 am. She’d been watching for me and opened the front door for me when I got there. I no sooner stepped inside her front door and BAM – the power went out again. [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img] Uh-oh – a slight delay as she had to open the windows back up, move food from the fridge back to the cooler, and wake her DH and let him know there was no power!! Took about an extra 15 minutes! Not too bad! We decided as we left that we couldn’t wait to leave this crappy weather behind and enjoy the sunny shores of Florida – well, it’s funny how things work out sometimes, but more about that later also…

The drive was not too bad – the fog lifted after a while, we were on the road early so light traffic was in order as we left the metro area, and the sunrise was beautiful! We were on our way!!!

Our plan was to try to drive straight through – we could always sleep on the beach the next day to recover from the long drive… We stopped for a potty/smoke break in Paducah, KY; and for gas/potty/smoke in Manchester, TN. We noticed several cars stopped at the station in Manchester, and most of them had young (college age) people in them, along with camping equipment. We didn’t pay too much attention at that point – but we did notice it. We also noticed that the ladies room was GROSS!! Oh well, back on the road. We came to an overpass about a mile down the road and there were several police cars with lights flashing and lots of other cars. Hmmmm, must be a really bad accident! NOT!! Suddenly, there are signs on the highway directing people that are attending Bonneroo (we didn’t know what it was at the time) to exit at the 127 mile marker – we were at 110! The northbound lanes of I24 were backed up 17 miles with cars – people were riding on the hoods and roofs of the cars, basically partying in the shoulder, etc. It was really weird. We were just thankful that our traffic (southbound) was still flowing along! Lucy and I had no idea what this Bonneroo thing was – but it was big. I grabbed my cell phone and called my son at home and told him to get on the Internet and see if he could find out anything and to call me back when he did. While we were waiting for him to return our call, our traffic began to slow to a crawl. Lucy decides she’s just going to ask somebody that comes up along side us what it’s all about. I told her to be careful who she chose to speak to since we were two women traveling alone!!

A red Mustang pulls up next to us with two young (college age) men in it with their window down – Lucy asks and we find out it’s a huge, outdoor, multi-day concert with acts including the Grateful Dead and others. Aha!! This explains it!! How fun for these kids! But they really should be more careful – the mother in us comes out! These folks are walking all over the highway!! Yikes! As we drove through this whole ordeal, we must have seen every emergency vehicle in the state of Tennessee put to use for traffic control – even ambulances!!

The rest of the afternoon passes relatively problem free until we hit Atlanta! I know from past experience that Atlanta is pretty much a nightmare to drive through at just about anytime of the day. We hit Atlanta somewhere around 3 pm or so and so did a big ole thunderstorm which dropped tons and tons of water on the highway! It was really hairy! And didn’t we leave all this crappy weather behind in St. Louis? Atlanta took us an hour to get through, and we were thrilled to leave it behind.

Continuing down I75 we ran into lots of construction work and lots more rain. At Warner/Robbins, GA we pulled off the highway to wait out this HUGE storm we could see coming and get something to eat. Good thing we decided to get off the road! Buckets and buckets of rain fell – the thunder crashed – the wind blew! It was a doozy of a storm! Good Lord, were we sick of storms by now!!

We decided to grab a sandwich at Subway . Yikes – they must have had the AC set to about 45 degrees! It was freezing in there!! We ate our sandwiches and then went outside to have a smoke under the overhang. While attempting to enjoy our smoke (we don’t smoke in the car!) and dodge the wind and rain, we witnessed a car accident right in front of the Subway. No one was injured, but in the inclement weather it took the two parties over half an hour to be able to get out of their cars and talk to each other. The Subway was attached to a motel, so we walked into the lobby to wait out the storm. They had a TV in the lobby where we were able to get a look at the Weather Channel. Thunderstorms and more thunderstorms were forecast – we were under a severe warning and they expected it to continue through the night. [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img] OK, plan B…

We decided we’d just spend the night and get an early start in the morning. The motel we’d stopped at looked kind of shabby, so we asked if we could see a room before committing to stay there. The lady at the desk looked at us kind of weird, but gave us a key to check out a room. EEEEWWWWW!! I don’t think so – we brought the key back and said “no thanks” and she laughed and said they were “more of a construction worker’s type of motel.” We’d noticed another newer looking motel next door and decided to give it a try – it was quite decent. It didn’t have a name – it used to be a TraveLodge, but it was between sponsorships! Even the receipts were cut out where the chain name belonged.

We got into our room, called our hubby’s, and my parents to let them all know we’d had a change in plans. Lights out by 10:00!

We were back on the road by 6:30 am – after quick bagel/cream cheese and juice/coffee at the motel, and a fill up on the gas and coffee for my thermos at the gas station next door. (An interesting side note – Lucy is not a coffee drinker, she’s an iced tea drinker, and we had the most difficult time finding any iced tea at gas stations we stopped at – especially in the south. We thought that was odd since iced tea is a pretty big deal in the south, or so we thought. Can anyone out there enlighten me?)

The rest of the drive was uneventful and we finally pulled into my parent’s driveway around 1:00 pm. Rounds of hugs and kisses, unloading of the car, and changing into swimsuits followed. Mom and Dad have a pool in the backyard – and Lucy and I were in it, with margaritas in hand, in short order! We spent the afternoon just lying in the pool, catching up and drinking cocktails!! Yeah – vacation at last!!! This is the life!!!

We finally dragged ourselves out of the pool to go to dinner with Mom and Dad. We went to a terrific restaurant on the Indian River called Chowders. You can sit on the deck overlooking the river and have your dinner. Their New England Clam Chowder is tops and I must have a cup EVERYTIME I go there! We all had a round of chowder, Lucy and I both chose the Clam Strips basket (fried clams, French fries, and coleslaw – so much for my Atkins diet!!) My dad had a yummy looking salad with loads of grilled shrimp on it, and Mom, after much deliberation, finally chose what she always chooses – the shrimp pasta with key lime sauce – delicious!!

After our yummy, and very fattening (hey, we’re on vacation!) dinner, Dad drove us over to the beach at Patrick Air Force Base. (My dad is retired military, they live near the base, and almost everything they do, from grocery shopping, dr. and vet visits, to golf, is done at the base). It was so wonderful to take off our shoes and walk in the sand – and it was wonderful to spend some time with my mom and dad!

After taking a few photos on the beach and generally oohing and aahing over the view and the feel of the sand and the water, it was time to head back to mom and dad’s for our night’s rest.

Tomorrow – our first real trip to the beach, and our brush with the law… stay tuned.