Gracefulskinny
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2013
So I've got some Good news and bad news....
Good news: We're staying an extra night. DH and I agreed that it would just be too much to come in late from the wedding Saturday Night wake up early and get out of the hotel room on time, load up the car, spend quality time at this brunch and then immediately hit the road for home. So our new check out date is 3/21.
Bad news: All of the wiggle room we had in the budget that DH might have used to give me extra park time for my Birthday is now completely gone. And as that call was done on the speaker phone and she went through what was in the system I can tell you for sure that as of last night the system still showed 1 park day.
So I am now recalculating dining plan credits and figuring things out and trying not to be too bummed about not getting more park time.
In the mean time here are the preliminary plans for Arrival Day:
Travel Plans for 3/17:
So once again we will be driving down. This time however I am tweaking things to {hopefully} avoid issues from our last drama filled ride down.
1. To avoid the traffic issue as well as account for the travel time from the new house; we are bumping our departure time up. Our ideal leave time will be as close to 4am as possible with a goal of leaving no later than 4:30
2. I am giving our arrival plans a cushion this time and we are setting our expectations for 10 hours of travel instead of the 7 that Google Maps predicts. If we arrive sooner than 10 hours it will be a nice bonus.
3. Triple checking that DH has indeed loaded my phone with multiple choices of Radio Theater / audio books. Last trip I took him at his word that he had done it only to discover 30 minutes in that no audio books had been loaded. Not only is it easier to drive long distances when you have a long story that pulls you in, it also helps Little Miss sit still as well. Access to audio books should cut down on risk of car sickness. I am also planning on going to the library a few days before and seeing what I can check out there.
4. Pack no entertainment bag for Little Miss. This one is risky and may back fire but I don’t plan on allowing any access to anything that could remotely encourage Little Miss to not look up. We will have the tablets loaded up of course and when mounted can do a decent job of keeping her entertained. I noticed last trip that it wasn’t until the options of other toys and books where shown to her did she start to get restless and harder to entertain.
5. Have me drive first and DH second. Initially last trip we had DH drive first and me second so that DH could take care of Little Miss and not risk getting sick. What I have discovered is that because I am more used to taking care of her while the car is moving it ended up being harder than it needed to be for DH in the passenger seat. With me being more of a morning person anyways it just makes since to have me take care of the first leg and let DH sleep in the car. That frees me up for tending to Little Miss and navigating on the other end.
6. BRING MORE TRAVEL BACK UP OUTFITS!!!!!! As all will remember thanks to being caught off guard last trip Little Miss ended up arriving to Disney in nothing but a pull up and hooded towel. This time I am going to start her in her pjs, have 3 travel outfits and her arrival day outfit which she will put on once we are actually there. If, even with these precautions she still arrives naked, we will be in for a brutal trip. I have decided to pack an Emergency car sick supply bag this time.
7. Give Little MIss a dose of Benadryl as we leave the house to help ensure a good rest in the car and discourage car sickness.
At some point we will stop for food, gas and a potty break. It is at this point we will do the reveal in whatever form we end up choosing. We for sure won’t stop before we reach Valdosta but will push and see if we can get into Florida and stop at a Travel Center when we are ready.
Other than our goal of getting down there we don’t really have much scheduled for the day. If it’s warm enough and Little Miss wants to {She has been pretending to swim in disney pools for the last month}, we might let her swim. Otherwise we will probably hop a bus and go explore Disney Springs. My parents and the Mother of the Groom also have plans to arrive in Orlando on this day and if we stick with the plan to hit up Disney Springs for Dinner some combo of them may decide to join us. My mother mentioned that someone else that’s coming can be on the rather intense side and if she shows up this day as well she and my step dad may choose to use little miss as their polite excuse to get a break. Though them joining us is probably more than unlikely. My one worry about Disney Springs this day would be the fact that this is St. Patrick’s Day and I wonder what crowds and “adult like behavior” is like on this holiday. We will probably choose to stay away from Raglan Rd and that should be enough I would think. Does anyone have experience at Disney on St. Patrick ’s Day? Anything to worry about?
The only thing that could change this plan would be if by some miracle I still get an extra day of park tickets as a birthday (Feb 21st) gift. {This is doubtful though with the extra night added in. } If this happens than we will hit up Epcot as soon as we can get checked in.
Good news: We're staying an extra night. DH and I agreed that it would just be too much to come in late from the wedding Saturday Night wake up early and get out of the hotel room on time, load up the car, spend quality time at this brunch and then immediately hit the road for home. So our new check out date is 3/21.
Bad news: All of the wiggle room we had in the budget that DH might have used to give me extra park time for my Birthday is now completely gone. And as that call was done on the speaker phone and she went through what was in the system I can tell you for sure that as of last night the system still showed 1 park day.
So I am now recalculating dining plan credits and figuring things out and trying not to be too bummed about not getting more park time.
In the mean time here are the preliminary plans for Arrival Day:
Travel Plans for 3/17:
So once again we will be driving down. This time however I am tweaking things to {hopefully} avoid issues from our last drama filled ride down.
1. To avoid the traffic issue as well as account for the travel time from the new house; we are bumping our departure time up. Our ideal leave time will be as close to 4am as possible with a goal of leaving no later than 4:30
2. I am giving our arrival plans a cushion this time and we are setting our expectations for 10 hours of travel instead of the 7 that Google Maps predicts. If we arrive sooner than 10 hours it will be a nice bonus.
3. Triple checking that DH has indeed loaded my phone with multiple choices of Radio Theater / audio books. Last trip I took him at his word that he had done it only to discover 30 minutes in that no audio books had been loaded. Not only is it easier to drive long distances when you have a long story that pulls you in, it also helps Little Miss sit still as well. Access to audio books should cut down on risk of car sickness. I am also planning on going to the library a few days before and seeing what I can check out there.
4. Pack no entertainment bag for Little Miss. This one is risky and may back fire but I don’t plan on allowing any access to anything that could remotely encourage Little Miss to not look up. We will have the tablets loaded up of course and when mounted can do a decent job of keeping her entertained. I noticed last trip that it wasn’t until the options of other toys and books where shown to her did she start to get restless and harder to entertain.
5. Have me drive first and DH second. Initially last trip we had DH drive first and me second so that DH could take care of Little Miss and not risk getting sick. What I have discovered is that because I am more used to taking care of her while the car is moving it ended up being harder than it needed to be for DH in the passenger seat. With me being more of a morning person anyways it just makes since to have me take care of the first leg and let DH sleep in the car. That frees me up for tending to Little Miss and navigating on the other end.
6. BRING MORE TRAVEL BACK UP OUTFITS!!!!!! As all will remember thanks to being caught off guard last trip Little Miss ended up arriving to Disney in nothing but a pull up and hooded towel. This time I am going to start her in her pjs, have 3 travel outfits and her arrival day outfit which she will put on once we are actually there. If, even with these precautions she still arrives naked, we will be in for a brutal trip. I have decided to pack an Emergency car sick supply bag this time.
7. Give Little MIss a dose of Benadryl as we leave the house to help ensure a good rest in the car and discourage car sickness.
At some point we will stop for food, gas and a potty break. It is at this point we will do the reveal in whatever form we end up choosing. We for sure won’t stop before we reach Valdosta but will push and see if we can get into Florida and stop at a Travel Center when we are ready.
Other than our goal of getting down there we don’t really have much scheduled for the day. If it’s warm enough and Little Miss wants to {She has been pretending to swim in disney pools for the last month}, we might let her swim. Otherwise we will probably hop a bus and go explore Disney Springs. My parents and the Mother of the Groom also have plans to arrive in Orlando on this day and if we stick with the plan to hit up Disney Springs for Dinner some combo of them may decide to join us. My mother mentioned that someone else that’s coming can be on the rather intense side and if she shows up this day as well she and my step dad may choose to use little miss as their polite excuse to get a break. Though them joining us is probably more than unlikely. My one worry about Disney Springs this day would be the fact that this is St. Patrick’s Day and I wonder what crowds and “adult like behavior” is like on this holiday. We will probably choose to stay away from Raglan Rd and that should be enough I would think. Does anyone have experience at Disney on St. Patrick ’s Day? Anything to worry about?
The only thing that could change this plan would be if by some miracle I still get an extra day of park tickets as a birthday (Feb 21st) gift. {This is doubtful though with the extra night added in. } If this happens than we will hit up Epcot as soon as we can get checked in.