Ah, where do I start? It’s hard to believe that three weeks ago my family and I had just started our fantastic Christmas Vacation. Now, I am bracing myself for one of the coldest winters in 30 years. It’s amazing how much a difference of a thousand miles makes! Anyway, on to my trip report!
For a future warning, I apologize for any grammar mistakes, lagging in the report, and so forth. It has been over two years since I have actually written a trip report and quite frankly, I have missed it!
You can read my pre trip report here:http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/the-triple-threat-pre-trip-report.877490/#post-5824484
Also, if you’d like to know me more, you can read my last trip report, circa summer 2011: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/...hot-days-fun-times-and-plenty-of-food.762909/
Let me reintroduce my family and myself:
Top: Left: My sister, Jodi. Right: Me, Jessica
Bottom: My parents
Okay, now that you all know my cast, I'll get this "show" started!
The term triple-threat comes from the fact that our vacation was actually three vacations in one. The plan was to stay in the Sarasota area of Florida for a little over a week, go on a quick, three day, bahamian can cruise, and spend the remaining days (about 12) in Disney.
We left for Florida on Friday, December 13. Just a few days before we left, I came to the realization of the date that we were leaving on! I am a firm believer of this day being unlucky for a number of reason but this belief was proven true on the day we left...
I work at a school for a couple hours a day monitoring students during their lunch and recess periods, so we planned on leaving right after I got out of work. Well, that did not happen. The morning we were to depart, I woke up with, what felt like, a golf ball sized lump in my throat. I almost decided to suck it up and just go to work, but since my job requires me to talk, I made the difficult decision to call off and go to the emergency clinic. I am soooo glad I did! I ended up testing positive for strep throat, and I could have made it worse by going to work and not treating it. This was just my luck with Friday, the 13th. To add to our bad luck, my mom was down with a "bug," too. My sister, Jodi, was getting over being sick, and my dad was coming down with something, as well. This is one of the reasons why I am not fond of traveling in the winter due to everyone being sick and all, but my family is never able to get this kind of time off during any other season.
Anyway, we still ended up leaving on that day. We had no other choice. Since we were driving and pulling a camper, we had to due to a snowstorm that was going to hit our hometwon, Chicago, the next day. But, we still caught the darn thing that day. The snowstorm ended up being an entire front that stretched from northern Florida to Illinois. The snow turned into a down poor as we hit the South. In all, it was on of the worse 'drive-downs' we have ever had. It took us 28 hours to get to Sarasota, FL rather than usually taking 18 hours. Moral of this story: Never start your vacation on Friday, the 13th!
Here are some photos of the day we arrived. I won't bore you all with the first two parts of the vacation since they are not Disney related, but I will show you some of our photos on the way down and such!
On our second day of driving, I was feeling a bit better after loading up on Motrin and taking my required antibiotics. We were extremely hungry after our several hour pit stop at the rest stop, so we ate at a Waffle House somewhere in Georgia. A Waffle House stop is always a must on our way down to Florida since it is one of my favorite:
Mmmmm Waffle House Food
My mom obviously enjoyed her meal, haha
We arrived in Sarasota about 9 at night and stayed at the Myakka State Park for the night. Our campground was booked for the Saturday night, so staying at Myakka was a last minute decision. We then headed over to Fort De Soto Campground, where we stayed until the following Sunday, December 22. That Sunday was crazy! We had to leave the campground and head over to Disney to drop our pets off at Best Friends for the cruise. In addition, Disney was so kind enough to let us park our camper for free in the parking lot at Fort Wilderness until we checked in, which saved us a big chunk of money.
The sign! Jodi and I were kind of bummed that we had to leave Disney, and we weren't even excited to go on the cruise. In all, we had an awesome time on the cruise, and it was extremely relaxing, but we couldn't wait to get back to our animals and spend the rest of our vacation at the happiest place on earth.
Next: Our Disney arrival and my review on Best Friends since it was our first time ever boarding our pets!
For a future warning, I apologize for any grammar mistakes, lagging in the report, and so forth. It has been over two years since I have actually written a trip report and quite frankly, I have missed it!
You can read my pre trip report here:http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/the-triple-threat-pre-trip-report.877490/#post-5824484
Also, if you’d like to know me more, you can read my last trip report, circa summer 2011: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/...hot-days-fun-times-and-plenty-of-food.762909/
Let me reintroduce my family and myself:
Top: Left: My sister, Jodi. Right: Me, Jessica
Bottom: My parents
Okay, now that you all know my cast, I'll get this "show" started!
The term triple-threat comes from the fact that our vacation was actually three vacations in one. The plan was to stay in the Sarasota area of Florida for a little over a week, go on a quick, three day, bahamian can cruise, and spend the remaining days (about 12) in Disney.
We left for Florida on Friday, December 13. Just a few days before we left, I came to the realization of the date that we were leaving on! I am a firm believer of this day being unlucky for a number of reason but this belief was proven true on the day we left...
I work at a school for a couple hours a day monitoring students during their lunch and recess periods, so we planned on leaving right after I got out of work. Well, that did not happen. The morning we were to depart, I woke up with, what felt like, a golf ball sized lump in my throat. I almost decided to suck it up and just go to work, but since my job requires me to talk, I made the difficult decision to call off and go to the emergency clinic. I am soooo glad I did! I ended up testing positive for strep throat, and I could have made it worse by going to work and not treating it. This was just my luck with Friday, the 13th. To add to our bad luck, my mom was down with a "bug," too. My sister, Jodi, was getting over being sick, and my dad was coming down with something, as well. This is one of the reasons why I am not fond of traveling in the winter due to everyone being sick and all, but my family is never able to get this kind of time off during any other season.
Anyway, we still ended up leaving on that day. We had no other choice. Since we were driving and pulling a camper, we had to due to a snowstorm that was going to hit our hometwon, Chicago, the next day. But, we still caught the darn thing that day. The snowstorm ended up being an entire front that stretched from northern Florida to Illinois. The snow turned into a down poor as we hit the South. In all, it was on of the worse 'drive-downs' we have ever had. It took us 28 hours to get to Sarasota, FL rather than usually taking 18 hours. Moral of this story: Never start your vacation on Friday, the 13th!
Here are some photos of the day we arrived. I won't bore you all with the first two parts of the vacation since they are not Disney related, but I will show you some of our photos on the way down and such!
On our second day of driving, I was feeling a bit better after loading up on Motrin and taking my required antibiotics. We were extremely hungry after our several hour pit stop at the rest stop, so we ate at a Waffle House somewhere in Georgia. A Waffle House stop is always a must on our way down to Florida since it is one of my favorite:
Mmmmm Waffle House Food
My mom obviously enjoyed her meal, haha
We arrived in Sarasota about 9 at night and stayed at the Myakka State Park for the night. Our campground was booked for the Saturday night, so staying at Myakka was a last minute decision. We then headed over to Fort De Soto Campground, where we stayed until the following Sunday, December 22. That Sunday was crazy! We had to leave the campground and head over to Disney to drop our pets off at Best Friends for the cruise. In addition, Disney was so kind enough to let us park our camper for free in the parking lot at Fort Wilderness until we checked in, which saved us a big chunk of money.
The sign! Jodi and I were kind of bummed that we had to leave Disney, and we weren't even excited to go on the cruise. In all, we had an awesome time on the cruise, and it was extremely relaxing, but we couldn't wait to get back to our animals and spend the rest of our vacation at the happiest place on earth.
Next: Our Disney arrival and my review on Best Friends since it was our first time ever boarding our pets!
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