Gonna be a short one guys. Life's been busy. Transferred to a different facility but still with Nike. Also, my father in law is in hospice so we've been dealing with that as well.
Long story short, we basically went down for the last MNSSHP on November 1st and also tossed in some shopping at outlets, Disney Springs, and had a couple of beach days at Cocoa Beach.
We rented a house via Airbnb and this time was the first time we've been disappointed. The house itself was fine but it was the lack of amenities that surprised us. Only one towel per person, no extra beddings, no coffee filters, 2 rolls of tp per bathroom for a family of 7 for a week. If you know what Florida food and drink do to the bowels, you know that's not enough. Oddly enough, there wasn't a baking pan for the oven. There was some other stuff but the main issues was that the right basin of the sink leaked to under the cabinet and they never had someone come fix it. Also, I told them the dryer was taking 5 or 6 cycles to dry and they simply said to use another setting...
So anyways, you guys know most of the cast. There's me, Dave. I turned 46 on October 19th and we were actually supposed to be down during that week but we waited too long to buy tickets and they sold out so we pushed it back. Then there's Mrs. Dray, who is younger than me. Our oldest daughter, Ashley(23), Justin(22), Christopher(7), Jace(6) and the newest member of the group, Grayson(8 months).
So we rented the Airbnb and it was located in the Indian Point subdivision. Nice pad for sure. The price was pretty legit as well, less than 100 a night for a 3/2 only 10 minutes from Disney property.
We arrived around 9:30pm on the 29th after a 14 hour drive. We had to stop a lot due to the baby but that's no biggie. The only real day we had planned was November 1st for the Halloween party and of course Halloween the night before.
For Halloween, we decided to hit Old Town for their trick or treat event and then come back and walk the neighborhood. They got tons of candy from Old Town and the neighborhood. I'd wager that they got just as much from those places as they did the party at Disney. After those, we headed to Disney Springs for a bit and the kids enjoyed people commenting on their costumes. Chris was Doodle Bob and Jace was Super Mario. The Mrs had to adapt since Graysons original costume fell through so she got a yellow shirt and drew a zig zag black line and he went as Charlie Brown.
The Halloween party at Disney was ok but definitely crowded. We've gone to other sold out parties and it didn't seem as crowded but meh, what're you gonna do? One thing is how cold it got. By the end of the party, it was barely over 50 degrees. Was it worth it? For the memories, yes. But cost wise, hell no. It cost me 1250 bucks for 6 people. That's insane. But I digress.
We hit Cocoa Beach twice over the next few days and the boys absolutely loved that the most. After all of these trips over the years, I just discovered the free parking at Lori Wilson park. What a dope. We finished the trip off by hitting the outlet malls on Saturday(parking nightmare) and went to Disney Springs to finish it off.
Overall, it was a great trip even with limited plans. My main gripe is the cash grab by Disney that made APs so ridiculously priced for families. Four years ago, it cost us 3700 for 4 adults and a child. This year, to add one child the total would be around 9600. That's beyond justification. My other gripe is Florida drivers. I'm not talking about tourists and foreigners, I'm talking about state residents. I thought Tennesseans were bad about not getting tf out of the fast lane but they have nothing on Floridians. Ludacris was playing in my head the whole way through the state.
Anywho, thanks for reading and if you stuck around until the end, thanks even more. I used to do more detailed reports but with everything going on, I've gotten lazy about it. Hope you enjoyed and have a magical day!
Long story short, we basically went down for the last MNSSHP on November 1st and also tossed in some shopping at outlets, Disney Springs, and had a couple of beach days at Cocoa Beach.
We rented a house via Airbnb and this time was the first time we've been disappointed. The house itself was fine but it was the lack of amenities that surprised us. Only one towel per person, no extra beddings, no coffee filters, 2 rolls of tp per bathroom for a family of 7 for a week. If you know what Florida food and drink do to the bowels, you know that's not enough. Oddly enough, there wasn't a baking pan for the oven. There was some other stuff but the main issues was that the right basin of the sink leaked to under the cabinet and they never had someone come fix it. Also, I told them the dryer was taking 5 or 6 cycles to dry and they simply said to use another setting...
So anyways, you guys know most of the cast. There's me, Dave. I turned 46 on October 19th and we were actually supposed to be down during that week but we waited too long to buy tickets and they sold out so we pushed it back. Then there's Mrs. Dray, who is younger than me. Our oldest daughter, Ashley(23), Justin(22), Christopher(7), Jace(6) and the newest member of the group, Grayson(8 months).
So we rented the Airbnb and it was located in the Indian Point subdivision. Nice pad for sure. The price was pretty legit as well, less than 100 a night for a 3/2 only 10 minutes from Disney property.
We arrived around 9:30pm on the 29th after a 14 hour drive. We had to stop a lot due to the baby but that's no biggie. The only real day we had planned was November 1st for the Halloween party and of course Halloween the night before.
For Halloween, we decided to hit Old Town for their trick or treat event and then come back and walk the neighborhood. They got tons of candy from Old Town and the neighborhood. I'd wager that they got just as much from those places as they did the party at Disney. After those, we headed to Disney Springs for a bit and the kids enjoyed people commenting on their costumes. Chris was Doodle Bob and Jace was Super Mario. The Mrs had to adapt since Graysons original costume fell through so she got a yellow shirt and drew a zig zag black line and he went as Charlie Brown.
The Halloween party at Disney was ok but definitely crowded. We've gone to other sold out parties and it didn't seem as crowded but meh, what're you gonna do? One thing is how cold it got. By the end of the party, it was barely over 50 degrees. Was it worth it? For the memories, yes. But cost wise, hell no. It cost me 1250 bucks for 6 people. That's insane. But I digress.
We hit Cocoa Beach twice over the next few days and the boys absolutely loved that the most. After all of these trips over the years, I just discovered the free parking at Lori Wilson park. What a dope. We finished the trip off by hitting the outlet malls on Saturday(parking nightmare) and went to Disney Springs to finish it off.
Overall, it was a great trip even with limited plans. My main gripe is the cash grab by Disney that made APs so ridiculously priced for families. Four years ago, it cost us 3700 for 4 adults and a child. This year, to add one child the total would be around 9600. That's beyond justification. My other gripe is Florida drivers. I'm not talking about tourists and foreigners, I'm talking about state residents. I thought Tennesseans were bad about not getting tf out of the fast lane but they have nothing on Floridians. Ludacris was playing in my head the whole way through the state.
Anywho, thanks for reading and if you stuck around until the end, thanks even more. I used to do more detailed reports but with everything going on, I've gotten lazy about it. Hope you enjoyed and have a magical day!
Thanks for taking the time to share all of this!!