Trip Report In Before Irma! A September Beach Club mini-trip! *COMPLETED*

We are Amber (myhappyplace) and Dave (Mrhappyplace), married couple celebrating 4 years with a quick trip to the Beach Club Resort, from September 7-10. Our short little pretrip thread is available for reading if you want background.

Let's back up to two Fridays prior to our trip, when I woke up in the middle of the night with searing throat pain. I let it go Saturday, but by Sunday, with no improvement, I had to go to the minute clinic. Yep, Strep. I have been teaching toddlers for 16 years, and very rarely get sick other than a minor cold here or there, so this was surprising, especially since I hadn't been exposed to my knowledge. I was prescribed-and finished-my prescription.

Fast forward now, to literally hours before our departure time. DH stayed home on Wednesday, September 6th to get our cats boarded and the house ready for our being gone. I came home from work, we ate a quick dinner, packed up the car, then I headed to bed for a few hours. When my alarm went off, I woke up---to searing throat pain. Crap. I decided to let it ride, hoping maybe it would go away. Nothing was stopping us from heading Home to the World!

Including....

That beyotch, Irma.

We debated what to do, but...well, not really debated, as we were always pretty certain that since our trip was scheduled to end Sunday morning anyway, that we would be fine. I did insist on taking a bunch more food than we normally would, as well as 2 cases of water, lots of ponchos, and an entire bag of shoes for both of us (can't stand wet shoes if I can help it)! Suffice to say I was WAY more worried than DH was.

So here we go!




Thursday, September 7th
We left north Georgia at about 1:00 am.


Earlier in the week, I had reposted this meme on facebook, saying it was going to be DH and I:
irma.jpg

This was the stone cold truth. I felt sort of guilty! These people fleeing for their lives and we were heading on vacation. But we knew we would be back before it got near, so on we pressed!

Here are actual images, right when we first really started to notice the difference in the lanes. It built much more as we drove, exits were full, rest stops backed up.

[NOTE: The images in this first post are from my cell, because I hadn't gotten my actual camera out yet]
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Dave drove until we stopped for gas somewhere in Georgia, The station was NOT very well set up with construction and confusing signage so it took us forever to actually get in the right place. Then there were people blocking the pumps. We have no clue if they had already gotten their gas or what, but there were about 3 or 4 cars, obviously together and each taking their own pump, but not actively pumping any gas. Just snapchatting, dancing, and being generally obnoxious. We lined up behind another vehicle and eventually got our gas. While I was in the restroom, someone else did finally yell at this group for taking up so much space when lots of people were trying to gas up. One of the main reasons we chose this gas station was because it advertised a McDonald's. McDonald's for this gas station apparently consisted of a plywood counter, where someone stood and served coffee. That was it. This whole gas station was a MESS.

After this stop, I took over and drove until Lake City, where we tried stopping again for breakfast and gas. Breakfast was at Burger King (we had coupons for b1g1 crossainwiches) There were some people getting out of their cars at the same time, who were caravaning together. The woman made sure to wind down her window, then told us that she had 4 rabbits in her vehicle, and the other vehicle had 2 cats. I'm sure that was a fun trip!

After we grabbed the breakfast to-go, we drove across the street for gas, but the pumps were bagged. So we drove across another road, where the gas station was incredibly backed up. We drove down the street, but couldn't find any other, so back to the backed-up station we went, got in line, and got to a pump fairly quickly. But the pump wouldn't work, and the woman beside us was also having issues.

Figuring we'd have to try an exit further down, we pulled out of the station, and then on a whim, tried another station on the other side of the highway. At first it didn't seem like it wanted to work for us either, until I realized that they probably weren't accepting credit? So I told DH to enter it as a debit, and it worked. WHEW!! I was so worried. So we're not sure if the previous station was out of gas, or was doing something similar with the credit/ debit. We had our gas and though it took WAAAAY longer than we anticipated, we were back on the highway, this time with DH driving.

FINALLY we see the light!!! (And no, I am not really complaining about the trip, as I said...I know, people were driving for life & death purposes, and we voluntarily chose to go on vacation. Just trying to add all the details and humor of our trip, is all!)
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We easily found our way to our home for the next few days- Beach Club!

The guard at the gate was an adorable older gentleman from somewhere in NY named Joe. He was excited to check us in because he had a new toy (ipad). He asked us for our last name (which is a Russian doozy of a name), and we began to spell:

Us: Z-A...

Joe: okay L...?

Us: no, Z-A..

Joe: L-A.

Us: no! Z!

Joe: L-Z!! (We have no idea where he got the L from).

We were laughing so hard. DH just pulled out his id and then he was able to type it in correctly.

We pulled up to the lobby, unloaded our luggage with bell services. The man then recommended that we go right then and top off our tank, so we did that quickly, came back, and parked. We had done online check-in, but wanted to let the from desk know that we were there this early. And our room was ready! Yay!

In-room pics (and more pics in general) coming up! Thanks for reading along!
 
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prfctlyximprct

Well-Known Member
Thanks for sharing your short yet sweet trip!! Loved your food and wine pics.. I am starving now! Eerie to see Disney with so little people, it's truly like there is no "off season" anymore because I never see pics of the parks that empty regardless of the season! Thank you again for sharing the magic and glad you got away before Irma!!!
 

myhappyplace

Crazy Cat Lady
Original Poster
Thanks for sharing your short yet sweet trip!! Loved your food and wine pics.. I am starving now! Eerie to see Disney with so little people, it's truly like there is no "off season" anymore because I never see pics of the parks that empty regardless of the season! Thank you again for sharing the magic and glad you got away before Irma!!!

Thank you, we had a good time on our short sweet trip. It was eerie, I kept feeling very strange! Thanks for reading :)
 

Tiggerish

Resident Redhead
Premium Member
I love that smell!!! We all inhaled deeply too when we arrived! We even have the Beach Club candle at home and it smells very similar - at least enough to give us a hint of what we miss:inlove: I can't remember where exactly I got it - maybe Walter & Rosie, but it's similar to this
View attachment 229638
Loving your report - especially your pictures! You took so many great ones at the BC. I only took a few, but really, really enjoying your photos! Can't wait to read more - glad you made it home safe and sound due to the circumstances.

OOh I am going to have to search for this!! And thank you for the compliments :)

These posts are several days old, but I was away for the weekend and am just catching up now...another source for WDW resort-scented candles is The Columbia Fragrance Co., columbiafragrance.com. Here's a screenshot of their "Remini'scent" collection.

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Not only do they have Beach Club, but Wilderness Lodge as well!!

I enjoyed the rest of your report, excellent job at the Fooding & Wining, you covered a lot of ground and a lot of dishes! It was wonderful to read and see the photos. Glad you enjoyed Skipper Canteen, too!

Will look for the new pre-trip.:)
 

myhappyplace

Crazy Cat Lady
Original Poster
These posts are several days old, but I was away for the weekend and am just catching up now...another source for WDW resort-scented candles is The Columbia Fragrance Co., columbiafragrance.com. Here's a screenshot of their "Remini'scent" collection.

View attachment 231005

Not only do they have Beach Club, but Wilderness Lodge as well!!

I enjoyed the rest of your report, excellent job at the Fooding & Wining, you covered a lot of ground and a lot of dishes! It was wonderful to read and see the photos. Glad you enjoyed Skipper Canteen, too!

Will look for the new pre-trip.:)

Thanks for that!! I did find a wax company very near me which makes Disney scents including many of the foods, attractions, and lobbies. They don't have WL yet though. ..they're working on it their website says.

We tried!! Now that we've been home a week, we realize how much we missed eating, but there's only so much we can do in 3 days!!

Enjoyed your report! You've got me wanting to stay at Yacht/Beach again. Maybe on the Beach side next time :)

Thank you!! Definitely worth a stay, it is definitely my solid #2 resort!!
 

fractal

Well-Known Member
Skipper canteen is now on my "to do" list.

I liked the HEA shots of the projections and the fireworks. The smoke is something you almost always have to deal with. If you shoot RAW files you can clean much of it up in post processing. The "dehaze" slider in Lightroom helps. I would have shot them wider, 18mm on the lens you were using and the camera (cropped sensor). Also slightly longer - maybe 8 seconds at around f/8 - to get more bursts in the photo. Just my two cents. :)
 

myhappyplace

Crazy Cat Lady
Original Poster
Skipper canteen is now on my "to do" list.

I liked the HEA shots of the projections and the fireworks. The smoke is something you almost always have to deal with. If you shoot RAW files you can clean much of it up in post processing. The "dehaze" slider in Lightroom helps. I would have shot them wider, 18mm on the lens you were using and the camera (cropped sensor). Also slightly longer - maybe 8 seconds at around f/8 - to get more bursts in the photo. Just my two cents. :)

We really enjoyed the corniness, and I think there's something for everyone on the menu!

Thanks, I was quite happy with the HEA ones. I will gladly take your two cents and even more, lol!! Will try your advice next time!
 

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