Hello Friends, and Happy Holidays!
As you already know if you caught my Pre-Trip Report, my husband J, our 2yo son L, and I got back from a WDW trip earlier this month. This was L's fourth trip, J's eighteenth, and my twentieth! Since I already did introductions in the PTR,, let's jump straight into the trip!
Sunday, November 26th - Travel Day
I set my alarm for 4:15 am - thankfully, there wasn't much to be done this morning, since my in-laws had kept L at their house for a few hours the day before, which gave J and I time to get everything packed and get the car loaded up, save for any last-minute items that we would need to use that morning. I barely slept the night before. I always get travel anxiety the night before a trip - what if I have the dates wrong, and we get down there and have nowhere to stay? What if I dreamed about making park reservations, but didn't actually make them? What if Disney's website cancels all of our dining reservations? It always makes for a restless nights' sleep. I tossed and turned most of the night, and finally accepted my fate at 4am, and rolled out of bed before my alarm went off.
I got myself ready, woke J up at 4:30, and once we were both ready, we loaded the go bag with last-minute items into the car. J thankfully remembered that he hadn't seen me pack L's stroller flag, which is a lifesaver when you're trying to find your stroller in a crowded stroller parking lot. I knew exactly where it was in L's closet, so I asked J to very quietly and very carefully get L out of bed and take him to the car, so that I could turn the lights on in L's room and grab the flag from the closet. As J was walking down the stairs carrying L, I heard L wake up and say "Dada? What are you doing? Dada, where are we going?" and when J didn't answer him and told him to go back to sleep, L said "Dada, where's Mama?"
We were so hoping we'd be able to keep him asleep as we were putting him in his car seat, but it was not meant to be. We loaded L up, hopped in the car, and were pulling out of the driveway at 5:04 am.
Unfortunately, it took over an hour of driving before L finally fell back asleep. We love leaving early to beat the Atlanta traffic - we don't love how it messes with L's sleep. Two hours after we left the house, we made our first stop for breakfast and a bathroom break at Buc-ee's. I sat in the back with L once we got back to the car, to help him with his breakfast and try to avoid a huge mess in my backseat.
As we were leaving Buc-ee's, I checked our ETA on the GPS, and it said we'd arrive around 12:30. If only that had been the case. We stopped again just past the GA-FL border for gas and another bathroom break, and everything went downhill from there. Around the time we were driving through Lake City (where I-10 and I-75 meet), traffic starting to build up. The GPS on my phone showed nothing but red for miles and miles. I'm not sure what the issue was - it was raining, so that may have caused some problems - but traffic was backed up all the way to the Florida turnpike, and the drive that should have taken us 7.5 hours took us over 9 hours.
Finally, at 2:06 pm, we were pulling through the gates.
Our room was not ready yet, so we decided to stop in at Jambo House for lunch at The Mara. Of course, I got the room ready text right as we were getting out of the car.
We headed into Jambo House anyway, grabbed some pictures of the Christmas tree, and mobile-ordered lunch. I clicked "I'm Here" as soon as we got in the elevator to head down to The Mara. It took about twenty minutes for our food to be ready - I always forget that the resort QS tends to take longer than the QS in the parks - I guess because they have fewer staff. For lunch, I got the vegetarian falafel platter, J got the chicken strips, and L got the kids' hamburger meal with fries and grapes.
I was underwhelmed by my meal - it was unfortunately pretty bland, which was surprising for falafel. After we finished lunch, we headed over to the Flamingo Crossings Target to pick up a Drive-Up order I had placed for things like milk, bottled water, snacks for the room, etc. We probably should have dropped our stuff off at Kidani Village first before heading to Target, because we ended up having to put everything in my lap/at my feet, which made for a fun time trying to get out of the car at Kidani. When we got to Kidani, Bell Services unloaded the car, including our groceries, and we parked in the garage and headed up to the room. Of course, we made a beeline for the balcony to check out the view - not too shabby!
Once we had gotten in to the room, I tried to call Bell Services to bring up our luggage. I sat on hold for over ten minutes before the call dropped. I tried again - same thing. I ended up just sending J down to go get our luggage himself - he said when he got down there, the two CMs working the Bell Services area didn't appear to be busy, so I'm not sure what the deal was - maybe an issue with their phone lines. Regardless, J brought our luggage up to the room, and I set about getting everything unpacked and organizing the room. J and I set up L's sleeping arrangements - an inflatable toddler bed inside of a blackout tent - and finally, we were done and headed out of the room shortly before 6pm.
Up next: A Damp Dinner at Disney Springs
As you already know if you caught my Pre-Trip Report, my husband J, our 2yo son L, and I got back from a WDW trip earlier this month. This was L's fourth trip, J's eighteenth, and my twentieth! Since I already did introductions in the PTR,, let's jump straight into the trip!
Sunday, November 26th - Travel Day
I set my alarm for 4:15 am - thankfully, there wasn't much to be done this morning, since my in-laws had kept L at their house for a few hours the day before, which gave J and I time to get everything packed and get the car loaded up, save for any last-minute items that we would need to use that morning. I barely slept the night before. I always get travel anxiety the night before a trip - what if I have the dates wrong, and we get down there and have nowhere to stay? What if I dreamed about making park reservations, but didn't actually make them? What if Disney's website cancels all of our dining reservations? It always makes for a restless nights' sleep. I tossed and turned most of the night, and finally accepted my fate at 4am, and rolled out of bed before my alarm went off.
I got myself ready, woke J up at 4:30, and once we were both ready, we loaded the go bag with last-minute items into the car. J thankfully remembered that he hadn't seen me pack L's stroller flag, which is a lifesaver when you're trying to find your stroller in a crowded stroller parking lot. I knew exactly where it was in L's closet, so I asked J to very quietly and very carefully get L out of bed and take him to the car, so that I could turn the lights on in L's room and grab the flag from the closet. As J was walking down the stairs carrying L, I heard L wake up and say "Dada? What are you doing? Dada, where are we going?" and when J didn't answer him and told him to go back to sleep, L said "Dada, where's Mama?"
We were so hoping we'd be able to keep him asleep as we were putting him in his car seat, but it was not meant to be. We loaded L up, hopped in the car, and were pulling out of the driveway at 5:04 am.Unfortunately, it took over an hour of driving before L finally fell back asleep. We love leaving early to beat the Atlanta traffic - we don't love how it messes with L's sleep. Two hours after we left the house, we made our first stop for breakfast and a bathroom break at Buc-ee's. I sat in the back with L once we got back to the car, to help him with his breakfast and try to avoid a huge mess in my backseat.
As we were leaving Buc-ee's, I checked our ETA on the GPS, and it said we'd arrive around 12:30. If only that had been the case. We stopped again just past the GA-FL border for gas and another bathroom break, and everything went downhill from there. Around the time we were driving through Lake City (where I-10 and I-75 meet), traffic starting to build up. The GPS on my phone showed nothing but red for miles and miles. I'm not sure what the issue was - it was raining, so that may have caused some problems - but traffic was backed up all the way to the Florida turnpike, and the drive that should have taken us 7.5 hours took us over 9 hours.
Finally, at 2:06 pm, we were pulling through the gates.Our room was not ready yet, so we decided to stop in at Jambo House for lunch at The Mara. Of course, I got the room ready text right as we were getting out of the car.
We headed into Jambo House anyway, grabbed some pictures of the Christmas tree, and mobile-ordered lunch. I clicked "I'm Here" as soon as we got in the elevator to head down to The Mara. It took about twenty minutes for our food to be ready - I always forget that the resort QS tends to take longer than the QS in the parks - I guess because they have fewer staff. For lunch, I got the vegetarian falafel platter, J got the chicken strips, and L got the kids' hamburger meal with fries and grapes.
I was underwhelmed by my meal - it was unfortunately pretty bland, which was surprising for falafel. After we finished lunch, we headed over to the Flamingo Crossings Target to pick up a Drive-Up order I had placed for things like milk, bottled water, snacks for the room, etc. We probably should have dropped our stuff off at Kidani Village first before heading to Target, because we ended up having to put everything in my lap/at my feet, which made for a fun time trying to get out of the car at Kidani. When we got to Kidani, Bell Services unloaded the car, including our groceries, and we parked in the garage and headed up to the room. Of course, we made a beeline for the balcony to check out the view - not too shabby!
Once we had gotten in to the room, I tried to call Bell Services to bring up our luggage. I sat on hold for over ten minutes before the call dropped. I tried again - same thing. I ended up just sending J down to go get our luggage himself - he said when he got down there, the two CMs working the Bell Services area didn't appear to be busy, so I'm not sure what the deal was - maybe an issue with their phone lines. Regardless, J brought our luggage up to the room, and I set about getting everything unpacked and organizing the room. J and I set up L's sleeping arrangements - an inflatable toddler bed inside of a blackout tent - and finally, we were done and headed out of the room shortly before 6pm.
Up next: A Damp Dinner at Disney Springs
If you've read this far, thank you for following along! I will sum up our final thoughts on the trip in a separate post.
(Also, his facial expression in front of the Christmas tree was so cute. 
)
