What are we celebrating? Everthing! A January 2018 Trip Report - THE END - New TR link added

Ruthie5671

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jul 19, 2009
Hello friends old and new and welcome to my first official DISBoards trip report. I hope that my readers from my pre-trip report have found their way over here. To those who have been with me in the planning process - welcome back. To my new readers - hi and welcome!

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My name is Ruthie, and I will be your hostess. I am a 46 year old social worker hailing from Frankfort, KY. I also work part-time for a ride share company, and that extra income combined with an unexpected monetary blessing made it possible to have this fantastic vacation. My Disney love began at birth. My family visited Disney very regularly when I was a kiddo. The trips got fewer and fewer as I became an adult, but my love never waived. And after this trip, even with the small bumps in the road, I am fully convinced that any significant vacation in the future will have some kind of Disney component. My travel companion is my dear husband Tony. If you have read my pre-trip report (why haven't you read it???), you already know that Tony is the love of my life. If you don't already know this, here comes the lovey dovey part of the trip report. Tony and I have been married for 7 1/2 years. He is literally the air that I breathe. He has overcome so much and tries so hard to do things for everyone else. He recently turned 50 and works full-time as a security officer and is an on-line student working on his associates degree. Tony does not have all the Disney love that I do (I can get carried away at times), but I think by about day 3, he was a convert.

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This trip was six nights at All-Star Movies with a five day non-hopper passes. After Disney, we had non-park condo "relaxation" days at the Sheraton Vistana Resort. And we drove from Kentucky. We had some weird crazy weather issues (why is it so cold in Florida?) and some mega crowded days and some days it felt we were the only people around. I hope that you come along with the ride with me. It will take me a while to get this report done. I've only downloaded photopass pictures. I still have all of my pictures on my phone and the point and shoot camera I brought with me. Feel free to ask any questions along the way.
 




I'm here Ruthie! Can't wait to read all about your trip! Weird weather indeed! We just arrived in Florida to drive our DS down to start his college program. We had to wait for a storm to pass at home in Buffalo, NY last weekend! It's warm here today and will be 55 degrees tomorrow !! It is sunny though!:cool1:
 
Hi Ruthie......I've not come across your reports before, but I'm in now!! Can't wait to read all about it!

This is my first "official" trip report. I feel like such an adult!!! Thanks for reading! :welcome:

I thought about you with all the cold weather in Florida. Welcome back!

Oh yes, it was cold. I'm convinced that Mother Nature really hates me. :rolleyes:

Hi, Ruthie! It's good to see you again. Looking forward to hearing how your trip went.

It was such a good trip. Only a few bumps and well, the weather. But it could have been much, much worse!

I hopped over from your Pre-Trip Report! Let the fun begin!

Thanks for hopping over. I hope you enjoy.

Here from your pre trip report. Looking forward to reading all about it.

Glad you followed over. It will take me a while to write it all out, but it will get done!

Looking forward to hearing about your trip! :yay:

Thanks for reading along! :welcome:

I'm here Ruthie! Can't wait to read all about your trip! Weird weather indeed! We just arrived in Florida to drive our DS down to start his college program. We had to wait for a storm to pass at home in Buffalo, NY last weekend! It's warm here today and will be 55 degrees tomorrow !! It is sunny though!:cool1:

It was just crazy weather there and when we got home. Even in Valdosta when we stopped the first night had snow. Again, Mother Nature has it out for me.

Here from your PTR. I hope the weather didn't affect you too much.

It did create a couple of bumps. But overall the trip was wonderful. Glad you followed over.

Found your trip report..then went back and read your PTR. Loving it so far!

Thanks so much for reading!!! I hope I can continue to keep you entertained! :welcome:
 
When I left my office on December 28th, I was the happiest I had been in a while. I was getting ready to start a two week vacation (something I have never done before) and spending all that quality time with Tony was also making me smile. Our schedules are often opposite of each other so even just time in the vehicle together is precious. So with a final click of my e-mails to make sure my staff didn't kill each other, I went home and just collapsed in my chair. Since it was a Thursday night, Tony was at work, so it was a quiet few hours at home. I did some laundry and began the task of cleaning up the house. I was determined to come home to a clean house and an empty clothes hamper. Tony was picked up from work at 11:00 PM, we came home and went to sleep knowing that the alarm was not on and I could sleep as late as I wanted to the following morning.

I just wish someone had told my inside alarm and bladder that I did not have to get up at 6:30 AM.

It never fails. I get the rare opportunity to sleep in on a weekday and I am wide awake way earlier than I want to be. But after "taking care of business" it was quite nice to be able to snuggle back down in bed and not have to do my normal Friday routine. That day - December 29th - was a huge University of KY sports day. A home basketball game against rival Louisville and then that evening was our football team at the Music City Bowl. So I left Tony at home with a lengthy "honey do" list and I spent the rest of the day driving for the rideshare company. It is always a profitable day when sports are going on, and that day was no different. It was worth the time away from the house.

The 30th and 31st were the tedious job of packing. I had been monitoring (AKA stalking) the Weather Channel app to see what the temperatures in Orlando would be while we were gone. I had bought several super cute outfits that I wanted to wear while we were at WDW and had been attempting to have some of Tony's outfits match so we would look super cute. This cute outfit/matching plan would only work if the weather was warm. Well, guess what? The predicted temperatures went from highs of mid 70's to highs of mid 50's. Cue sad music. So I sadly replaced all of the cuteness with Under Armor sweatshirts for Tony and a few sweaters for me. I optimistically put in a couple of the super cute outfits in the suitcase. It couldn't hurt right? Little did I know that Mother Nature had bigger plans for us.

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We also had a small suitcase, the laptop so Tony could finish homework and bags of snacks. On Monday, January 1st, Tony went to work that night. The plan was for him to come home, change clothes, load the van and we would be on the road no later than 8:00 AM. Would this actually happen? Only time will tell . . .
 
WE LEAVE TODAY!!!!!!!

I had been counting down for 115 days. I had been slightly irritating on these message boards about my countdown. Slightly obnoxious at work and well, lets just say that Tony was ready to smack me a couple of times with my countdown obsession (kidding about the smack - but I had gotten silly). My alarm went off at 6:00 AM and I sprung out of bed. Well, probably not sprung. More like - crap it's 6:00 AM and I have a lot of driving ahead of me. I had to shower, get ready, finish the last of the packing and bring all of the suitcases to the front door. Why not out to the car? Because it was freezing outside. This was a trend the entire trip - the weather. It was literally 5 degrees when we left that morning. Tony got home at about 6:45, changed out of his work clothes and began to load the car. I cheered him on - I was not getting outside until it was time to actually leave the house. One last check of the house to make sure we turned everything off, lowered the heat and had everything, we finally pulled out of the driveway.

But I cannot count that as when we left for vacation. Because we had to make one quick stop before heading on I-75 south.

CAFFIENE!!


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There was no way in the world that I was going to embark on this trip without caffeine and lots of it. Once the cup of magic was secured in the van, I took a note of the time we actually left Frankfort.

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My goal was to leave by 8:00!!! Score!

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This is our "we're still in the parking lot of Speedway but lets get a selfie picture". Keep smiling honey, there are 9,000 more pictures to be taken.

Have you ever driven from Kentucky to southern Georgia? It is boring on a good day. But it was cold. And Tony slept. Not that I can't blame him. He had worked all night and loaded the van in the frozen tundra. Luckily I had Pandora to entertain me during the ride. There was my own 80's hair band concert going on right there in the van. Things were chugging along fine. We stopped for lunch at Denny's because I was craving pancakes and I couldn't find a I-HOP. And then we started getting close to Atlanta. Now I'm not a newbie when it comes to driving to Florida. But hard as I try, I can never time the drive so that we are not in some kind of rush hour traffic when we get there. I had decided to just stay on I-75 instead of the bypass since there was really no time saving with the bypass route. I just don't know how people can navigate that mess every day and if you do, I salute you! What should have taken us approximately 45 minutes stretched out to almost 2 1/2 hours. Yup, you read that right. Because even after we got out of the Atlanta downtown traffic, there was even more gridlock heading into the Macon area. I mean really, is Macon that popular on your average Tuesday afternoon? By the time we finally made it to Valdosta, it was close to 8:00 PM. We were tired, hungry and still cold.

Coming up next - OMG it's snowing in Florida.
 
Just found this TR and caught up on reading! You seem like such a delight and I can’t wait to keep reading! I have a friend that just moved from Florida to KY so that’s from cold to even colder! :crazy2: I’m from Texas and even with a few cold front, we are happily used to 40s degree weather as our winter. I always remind myself it’s colder other places.
 
Let me start this chapter by saying - I took no pictures of the hotel, the snow or the rest of the drive. So we will all have to use our imagination and whatever pictures I can find on Google to make the content slightly more interesting. So let's press on . . . .

When we last left off, Tony and I managed to find our way to Valdosta, GA. We had made a reservation at the Holiday Inn and Suites Convention Center in Valdosta. I had some points built up, so we got a really good rate on a king size suite room. To say we were exhausted when we pulled in was a huge understatement. All I wanted was to check in, get the luggage in and find someone to deliver us some food and call it a night. As the weather had been all day, it was quite chilly. I had hoped by the time we had gotten to southern Georgia it would have been warmer. But remember the theme of the trip - Mother Nature hates us. Well, probably just me, but I don't want Tony to feel left out. So while Tony was outside (see what I did there - made him deal with the luggage), I checked us in. The check in part was simple. After it was done, I asked the clerk what places could deliver us some dinner and did they have any menus we could look at. The answer was a flat "no" and that "we should do an internet search".

What? Because I am tired, cold and cranky, so surely you are just being funny.

No, she was not kidding. They had no menus to offer and no recommendations to give me. Alrighty then.

The room was very nice. It had a king sized bed, mini fridge, microwave, Kuerig coffee maker and a nice bathroom with fluffy towels. Did I mention the king sized bed? I was ready to stretch out! Tony and I then had to figure out the problem of dinner. There was a booklet in the room that offered some dining options, but only one with delivery. I called and they said that they do not deliver on Tuesday nights. Are we in Mayberry? The final decision - McDonalds. Guess who got to go back out in the cold? That would not be me! While Tony was out finding sticks and berries for dinner, I was listening to the weather report. They were predicting snow in southern Georgia/northern Florida for the overnight hours. Now I'm not talking about great big gobs of snow. But for an area of the world that never sees winter weather, this was big time news. Schools were closing. People were warned to stay off the roads. Buy your milk and bread! I had one concern - how would the roads be in the morning? Does this area even know how to clean the roads? Only time will tell. McDonalds was eaten, pajamas were found and a blissful sleep was had. We were exhausted.

I had set the alarm for 7:30, knowing full and well I would already been awake. I was but enjoyed the warmth of the down comforter and had no desire to get up. But I knew we had to get moving because we were a mere four hours away from the final destination!!! I peeked outside hoping that Mother Nature had eased up and decided to make a change. No such luck. See, this is where some nice pictures would be good. There was a slushy mess out there. It had snowed a bit which was already beginning to melt making the slush. There did not appear to be much effort to clear the roads or even make the parking lot safe. We got ready for the day and got things packed up. I checked us out and - of course - Tony loaded the van. The parking lot was a mess and there did not seem to be much interest in cleaning things up for safety. We decided to eat breakfast at the hotel restaurant. BTW - would have been nice to know this restaurant existed the previous night when we were hungry. But I digress. The placed was quite busy but there was only one cook and one waitress/hostess. There was supposed to be another waitress, but she could not get into work because her "roads were horrible". I felt horrible for the one woman who came to work. She was running around trying to meet everyone's needs, but that was near impossible. Despite the low staff, the eggs and bacon were yummy and the Diet Coke was cold. We left the hotel close to 10:00. I was hoping that by being exceptionally slow that would give the road crews an opportunity to clear up the roads adequately.

Yeah, not so much.

We made the slow drive out of the parking lot and back onto I-75 south. The traffic was slow but steady. Considering that most of these drivers had never seen any kind of winter weather, I was glad for people not zipping down the highway. Even as we passed into Florida, there were still some slushy roads. Yes, it snowed in Florida. But here is the funniest part of the day. We were coming upon a bridge and there were state troopers parked on either side of the roadway. The officers were out of their vehicles actually walking onto the interstate checking to see if it was slick. This is what is done when you do not get much snow. It was something to see. We got down the interstate and went to the Florida Turnpike. I was really starting to get excited now because the billboards were advertising all kinds of Disney stuff. Several toll plazas later, we finally saw the sign that I did not take a picture of . . .


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Up next - checking in!
 
I always find the few days before a holiday weird. bet you was glad to have a few days to get ready before you got off.

I did enjoy those few days before we left to be at home relaxing and doing the last minute chores. And with Tony working, it was pretty peaceful.

So it turned into an epic drive. Bet Tony was glad he got some sleep.

He was exhausted.

Oh yes!!! 80's hairband girl right here!!! Rock on!!!
:dance3:

Isn't 80's music the best? It is my go-to music.

Snow in Florida? Yikes!

Yup, just enough to freak people out.

Just found this TR and caught up on reading! You seem like such a delight and I can’t wait to keep reading! I have a friend that just moved from Florida to KY so that’s from cold to even colder! :crazy2: I’m from Texas and even with a few cold front, we are happily used to 40s degree weather as our winter. I always remind myself it’s colder other places.

:welcome: and thanks for reading along. I hope that I can keep you entertained. Where in KY did your friend move?
It was cold most of the trip. I just cannot explain the craziness.
 

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