Trip Report “Parents please supervise your children, and children please supervise your parents” 2018 Graduation Trip Report! *COMPLETE*

Well, it’s been three days, but I’m back from “The World”. Still trying to recover and catch up on sleep . I was pretty exhausted, but we had a great time! The Disney depression has officially kicked in, but I’m hoping this TR will help alleviate some of the pain.

For those of you who are just joining and are wanting to know the Who, When, Where, and Why, feel free to read my PTR!

https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/the-captain-is-headed-home.940164/

This is my first TR, and the bar was set pretty high for first timers (cough cough @becca_ cough cough). Seriously, if you haven’t read her first TR, you need to! Anyways, I hope everyone bears with me and enjoys the 2,000+ pictures that I made, along with this TR!

Up next: Travel Day!

 

[KatieLVT]

Looking forward to it!

 

[PacNWTigger]

I'm along for the ride. I need to start my TR too...starting to feel a little guilty.

 

[Captain Barbossa]

Looking forward to it!

I'm along for the ride. I need to start my TR too...starting to feel a little guilty.

Thank y’all both!

 

[LeighM]

Following along

 

[Captain Barbossa]

Saturday May 19th: Travel Day Eve

I did most of my packing Saturday night, so I didn’t have much to do Sunday morning.

I think this was from Saturday night. The green Mickey duffel has been in the family for quite some time. It had all my 20+ shirts that I brought with me . Seriously, I’m not kidding.

After everything was packed, it was time to put these beauties on

Idk why, but I absolutely love these luggage tags! The 2 Mickeys were from our trip in 2013 and 2014. Pluto was from 2016 and I got Donald for this trip.

With all my bags packed and luggage tags on, it was time to go to bed. A long drive awaited us on the morrow. (Yes I said morrow. Don’t judge )


Up next: Travel Day (I promise)

 

[Captain Barbossa]

Following along

Thanks for joining!

 

[Captain Barbossa]

Sunday May 20th: Travel Day

My alarm went off at 7:45am and I was bright eyed and bushy tailed. The plan was to leave by 10am if not earlier.

We were able to get the car loaded up fairly quickly and it was soon time to say goodbye to my sweet girl.

I don’t think Maggie was too happy about us leaving

I think we left the house right at 10 and we were on our way!

It was time to watch movie #1!

Aka the best film of the franchise (along with "The Curse of the Black Pearl").

We were making good time until we got through the Columbia area and it started to rain pretty hard. It got to the point where you couldn’t see the car in front of you. On top of that, there were some accidents do to people driving like a bat out of hell. I thought we would never make it to I-95, but we did.

We finally made it to Savannah around 2pm.

We hadn't eaten lunch yet, so we decided to stop at COOK-OUT.

If you’re from the Southeast, you know what COOK-OUT is and that it’s the best!

After we finished eating, it was time to get back on the road.

Next stop: Florida welcome center!

 

[MinnieM123]

Sunday May 20th: Travel Day

My alarm went off at 7:45am and I was bright eyed and bushy tailed. The plan was to leave by 10am if not earlier.

We were able to get the car loaded up fairly quickly and it was soon time to say goodbye to my sweet girl.
View attachment 286848
I don’t think Maggie was too happy about us leaving
View attachment 286851

I think we left the house right at 10 and we were on our way!

It was time to watch movie #1!
View attachment 286881
Aka the best film of the franchise.

We were making good time until we got through the Columbia area and it started to rain pretty hard. It got to the point where you couldn’t see the car in front of you. On top of that, there were some accidents do to people driving like a bat out of hell. I thought we would never make it to I-95, but we did.

We finally made it to Savannah around 2pm.
View attachment 286878

We hadn't eaten lunch yet, so we decided to stop at COOK-OUT.

View attachment 286879
If you’re from the Southeast, you know what COOK-OUT is and that it’s the best!

After we finished eating, it was time to get back on the road.

Next stop: Florida welcome center!

Maggie is adorable!! I can tell she misses her buddy, even before you left. (I miss my dog, too, if I go on vacation.)

 

[winstongator]

Sunday May 20th: Travel Day

My alarm went off at 7:45am and I was bright eyed and bushy tailed. The plan was to leave by 10am if not earlier.

We were able to get the car loaded up fairly quickly and it was soon time to say goodbye to my sweet girl.
View attachment 286848
I don’t think Maggie was too happy about us leaving
View attachment 286851

I think we left the house right at 10 and we were on our way!

It was time to watch movie #1!
View attachment 286881
Aka the best film of the franchise.

We were making good time until we got through the Columbia area and it started to rain pretty hard. It got to the point where you couldn’t see the car in front of you. On top of that, there were some accidents do to people driving like a bat out of hell. I thought we would never make it to I-95, but we did.

We finally made it to Savannah around 2pm.
View attachment 286878

We hadn't eaten lunch yet, so we decided to stop at COOK-OUT.

View attachment 286879
If you’re from the Southeast, you know what COOK-OUT is and that it’s the best!

After we finished eating, it was time to get back on the road.

Next stop: Florida welcome center!

Hope you got a shake!

 

[tasha ratliff]

Hi SC neighbor Im here for the ride! Cant wait to read more

 

[MomofPrincessGrace]

Sunday May 20th: Travel Day

My alarm went off at 7:45am and I was bright eyed and bushy tailed. The plan was to leave by 10am if not earlier.

We were able to get the car loaded up fairly quickly and it was soon time to say goodbye to my sweet girl.
View attachment 286848
I don’t think Maggie was too happy about us leaving
View attachment 286851

I think we left the house right at 10 and we were on our way!

It was time to watch movie #1!
View attachment 286881
Aka the best film of the franchise.

We were making good time until we got through the Columbia area and it started to rain pretty hard. It got to the point where you couldn’t see the car in front of you. On top of that, there were some accidents do to people driving like a bat out of hell. I thought we would never make it to I-95, but we did.

We finally made it to Savannah around 2pm.
View attachment 286878

We hadn't eaten lunch yet, so we decided to stop at COOK-OUT.

View attachment 286879
If you’re from the Southeast, you know what COOK-OUT is and that it’s the best!

After we finished eating, it was time to get back on the road.

Next stop: Florida welcome center!

We are south of Birmingham and I wish with all my heart we would get a Cook-Out. We stopped by one for lunch in September after leaving the GA Aquarium and have been craving ever since

 

[*Flynnderella*]

Looking forward to following along

I must disagree on the POTC film though- "The Curse of the Black Pearl" has GOT to be the best one IMO

 

[Captain Barbossa]

Maggie is adorable!! I can tell she misses her buddy, even before you left. (I miss my dog, too, if I go on vacation.)

She's got bad separation anxiety. Idk what we're going to do when I go off to college .

Hope you got a shake!

Nah I passed. They're shakes are really good though.

Hi SC neighbor Im here for the ride! Cant wait to read more

Thanks for joining!

We are south of Birmingham and I wish with all my heart we would get a Cook-Out. We stopped by one for lunch in September after leaving the GA Aquarium and have been craving ever since

Keep your fingers crossed! Hopefully y'all will get one!

Looking forward to following along

I must disagree on the POTC film though- "The Curse of the Black Pearl" has GOT to be the best one IMO

Thanks for following!

I should have been more clear. "The Curse of the Black Pearl" and "At World's End" are the best films of the franchise, but I give "At World's End" a slight advantage.

 

[LeighM]

Charlottesville, VA is my hometown and I've never been to Cook-out - even though the town got one a few years ago - because there are too many local mom and pop BBQ places in the area lol. The BBQ scene in Cville exploded several years ago and now they seem to be everywhere. The BBQ Exchange in Gordonsville is still my favorite out of every place I've been.

 

[Captain Barbossa]

Travel Day continued

I didn’t get any pictures, but once we got below Brunswick, we saw a couple of wild hogs in the marshes by the interstate. They’re very common in the coastal part of Georgia, so I wasn’t surprised to see them.

We crossed the state line into Florida around 4:30

It was then time to stop at the Florida welcome center so I could get my orange juice and see what kind of outdated Disney brochures they had .

Refreshing as always

I was glad to see that they no longer had brochures promoting New Fantasyland (they still had them in 2016 ).

I miss the old sign, but this one isn’t too bad.

We got back on the interstate and continued our journey south.

It was time for movie #2!

Since 2013, I’ve made it a tradition to watch “On Stranger Tides” on the drive down once we get into Florida. Idk why. I guess because Florida plays a big part of the movie. It also gets me hyped for some reason .

We decided to go through Jacksonville instead of cutting through Amelia Island and hitting the bypass (which we’ve done the previous two trips) since it was a Sunday afternoon.

Traffic wasn't bad at all, and we actually made good time going through Jacksonville, which is not the case normally.

After that long depressing stretch of I-95 between St. Augustine and Daytona, we made it to I-4 around 7.

About 30 miles later, I began to notice a painful sight in the distance, so I knew we we’re close to Orlando

The infamous I-4 eye sore. Aka the eye sore of I-4. Either one.

It truly is an eye sore .

We finally got to Orlando at 8.

I think we drove another 15-20 miles before we got off on Irlo Bronson.

While we were waiting at a red light, a “Tragical Express” bus pulled up next to us.

We arrived at the hotel, which I cannot remember the name of, around 8:45. After we had gotten settled into our room, we hoped in the car and swung through the McDonalds (yuck) drive thru. There really aren’t too many places to grap something to eat on Irlo Bronson.

We didn’t stay up too late because we wanted to get an early start in the morning. I think my head hit the pillow around 11, but I couldn’t sleep any. I was too excited .

Up next: Check in day/AK!

 

[Captain Barbossa]

Monday May 21st: Check in/AK

My alarm went off at 7:25am (I think), and I couldn’t have been more excited. It didn’t take long for the three of us to get ready and we were out in less than an hour.

While I was putting my final bag in the trunk, I began to hear a familiar chirping sound coming from the drainage pond beside the parking lot. After a couple minutes of listening, I said to myself, “Yep, that’s a baby alligator.” So, I walked a bit closer to the pond, which was gated, to get a better look. I didn’t see any babies, or mama (thank God), but they were still chirping up a storm! They were in there alright, just couldn’t see them.

Anyways, I was getting nervous about the weather because it was cloudy/rainy looking. They were calling for rain all day, along with the rest of the week. But luckily, towards the north, exactly over AK (I’m not kidding), the skies began to turn blue .

We left the hotel just before 8:30 and were enroute to World Drive!

Up next: Arrival/Check in/AK (I promise)

 

[Captain Barbossa]

I apologize for not being real consistent lately, but I had some businesses to tend to yesterday.

Now that’s out of the way, so I can get back to this TR!

 

[MinnieM123]

I apologize for not being real consistent lately, but I had some businesses to tend to yesterday.
View attachment 287443


Now that’s out of the way, so I can get back to this TR!

Congratulations and best wishes for the next phase of your life (either college or a job, or both).

 

[Captain Barbossa]

Monday continued

Like I said earlier, the hotel that we stayed at was practically right next to World Drive.

You can see how close it is to the ALL-Star Resorts and that it’s literally just south of AK.

In just a matter of minutes after leaving the hotel, we were on World Drive. Then, one of the most beautiful sights in this world began to fill my eyes.

We got on Osceola Parkway for a brief period of time, then we arrived at the security gate.

Although we did the online check in, we still had to go to the front desk .

Timeout

I haven’t really touched on this earlier, but to make things a tad bit easier, I’m just going to refer to my mom as M (how clever ), and my sister as L.

Back to the TR

Once we got parked, it was around 8:45ish. AK opened at 9, but had morning EMH at 8. M and L we’re going to deal with the front desk and to see if our room was ready, so I headed on over to AK.

Luckily, there was a bus fixing to leave, so I sprinted over to the stop and hopped on just before the driver closed the doors!

IT. WAS. PACKED.

I was clearly not behind the yellow line, because it was so crowded, but the driver didn’t say anything, so I guess it was ok. I had a pretty good view though.

After a couple of minutes, I could see the snowy top of Everest and the floating mountains of Pandora come into my sight!

Up next: Arriving at AK and a chance to solo!