We’ve been home from Walt Disney World for a little over two weeks now and the holidays have passed. It’s time for what has become my post-trip tradition of writing our trip report.
We always take our best photos at Hollywood Studio.
If you read our previous reports, you know that we have previously visited WDW in November. Given the amount of crowds last year, we decided to change to a December trip. We made sure to steer clear of the Holiday crowds however. I mean we are not crazy, even though we do enjoy a good country bear jamboree.
Our trip began on December 8th. My super-organized wife Sara (I say that in a good way – mostly) had worked the previous week or so packing up her stuff as well as the kids’ things. Here is a photo of our cat Oliver asking us if he can on December 7th.
Ollie gets his name because he came from a “free kittens” box at a yard sale in our development. He has a sister we named Jasmine who is harder to get to stay still for a photo. Much to Sara’s dismay, I have continuously put my foot down and forbidden our cats from coming on vacation with us. Taking care of two children tends to be hard enough.
On December 8th, I stayed home with an off-day from work while Sara and Makayla went to daycare (Sara is a teacher there) and Luke went to Kindergarten. Yes, Luke is our big Kindergartner this year. I took December 8th to pack my things, which hadn’t been started yet. Sara and I are very opposite in this way. Sara and Makayla came home around 1:30, and Sara and I loaded the car while Makayla napped. Around 3:45 Luke returned from school, and after a quick potty break for him we were on our way.
After a 40 minute wait to eat a Chipotle in Leesburg, VA, and a bunch of Paw Patrol episodes on our DVD player later (both kids’ current favorite show) we arrived at the Hampton Inn in Emporia, VA, our home for the first night.
We quickly settled in for the night and prepared for bed. Luke always enjoys spending nights away, he seems them as adventures. So it took a little bit of time to get him wound down, but we ended up sleeping well. The next morning, both kids insisted on “helping me load the car again.
After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we were on our way. Here is Makayla enjoying her yogurt.
Friday, December 9th was an all-day drive affair. It included a Pizza Hut lunch in South Carolina, and a stop at the Florida Welcome Center 10 minutes after it had closed – no free orange juice for us. Makayla was terribly afraid of this dolphin statue. She would not go near it. She kept saying “Dolphin bite me.” As far as we know, she’s never had a negative run-in with a dolphin before, so I’m not really sure where this came from, but she would not go near the thing. At least Luke was willing to take his photo here.
Once we were back in the car, we hit a little traffic around Jacksonville, then made our way to I-4. As we turned onto I-4, the navigation on Sara’s phone told us we were about an hour and 15 minutes away. About 15 minutes later, a recheck told us we were about an hour and 45 minutes away. It usually seems like Disney keeps getting further away from us due to our excitement, but this time we found out there was a massive accident on I-4 closing the left three lanes.
We ended up having a major delay through Orlando, and instead of arriving around 8, we ended up not getting to our hotel until almost 9:30. We had hoped to stay at the Hampton Inn near Disney (Hampton is a long-time favorite of our family), but found out they were booked for the night. So we ended up next door at the Quality Inn and Suites, which thankfully had an opening (though for a little bit more money). Both kids helped by pulling their suitcases this time.
Luke loved the fact that we had two rooms – it is a suite after all.
After a quick game of hide and seek – yes Luke deemed the room was big enough we had to play hide and seek, we got the kids to bed. We were ready to begin our Disney adventure the next day.
We always take our best photos at Hollywood Studio.
If you read our previous reports, you know that we have previously visited WDW in November. Given the amount of crowds last year, we decided to change to a December trip. We made sure to steer clear of the Holiday crowds however. I mean we are not crazy, even though we do enjoy a good country bear jamboree.
Our trip began on December 8th. My super-organized wife Sara (I say that in a good way – mostly) had worked the previous week or so packing up her stuff as well as the kids’ things. Here is a photo of our cat Oliver asking us if he can on December 7th.
Ollie gets his name because he came from a “free kittens” box at a yard sale in our development. He has a sister we named Jasmine who is harder to get to stay still for a photo. Much to Sara’s dismay, I have continuously put my foot down and forbidden our cats from coming on vacation with us. Taking care of two children tends to be hard enough.
On December 8th, I stayed home with an off-day from work while Sara and Makayla went to daycare (Sara is a teacher there) and Luke went to Kindergarten. Yes, Luke is our big Kindergartner this year. I took December 8th to pack my things, which hadn’t been started yet. Sara and I are very opposite in this way. Sara and Makayla came home around 1:30, and Sara and I loaded the car while Makayla napped. Around 3:45 Luke returned from school, and after a quick potty break for him we were on our way.
After a 40 minute wait to eat a Chipotle in Leesburg, VA, and a bunch of Paw Patrol episodes on our DVD player later (both kids’ current favorite show) we arrived at the Hampton Inn in Emporia, VA, our home for the first night.
We quickly settled in for the night and prepared for bed. Luke always enjoys spending nights away, he seems them as adventures. So it took a little bit of time to get him wound down, but we ended up sleeping well. The next morning, both kids insisted on “helping me load the car again.
After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we were on our way. Here is Makayla enjoying her yogurt.
Friday, December 9th was an all-day drive affair. It included a Pizza Hut lunch in South Carolina, and a stop at the Florida Welcome Center 10 minutes after it had closed – no free orange juice for us. Makayla was terribly afraid of this dolphin statue. She would not go near it. She kept saying “Dolphin bite me.” As far as we know, she’s never had a negative run-in with a dolphin before, so I’m not really sure where this came from, but she would not go near the thing. At least Luke was willing to take his photo here.
Once we were back in the car, we hit a little traffic around Jacksonville, then made our way to I-4. As we turned onto I-4, the navigation on Sara’s phone told us we were about an hour and 15 minutes away. About 15 minutes later, a recheck told us we were about an hour and 45 minutes away. It usually seems like Disney keeps getting further away from us due to our excitement, but this time we found out there was a massive accident on I-4 closing the left three lanes.
We ended up having a major delay through Orlando, and instead of arriving around 8, we ended up not getting to our hotel until almost 9:30. We had hoped to stay at the Hampton Inn near Disney (Hampton is a long-time favorite of our family), but found out they were booked for the night. So we ended up next door at the Quality Inn and Suites, which thankfully had an opening (though for a little bit more money). Both kids helped by pulling their suitcases this time.
Luke loved the fact that we had two rooms – it is a suite after all.
After a quick game of hide and seek – yes Luke deemed the room was big enough we had to play hide and seek, we got the kids to bed. We were ready to begin our Disney adventure the next day.
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You and Sara have your hands full with those two, active kids, and kudos to the both of you for pulling off another vacation in grand stye. Loved all your trip photos, and Luke and Makayla are just so cute!! 
