My First Trip Report: Just Me and My Dad

This year my dad and I made a difficult decision that our family had to skip our yearly family vacation to save money for my college tuition. We were totally fine with this decision, college is very expensive! My family owns a boat business, and my dad found out that we were going to take some boats down to Florida and pick some up and take them back to Chicago. Since I am going away next year, my Dad invited me so we could bond, and we decide to stop in Disney and "rough" it. And by roughing it we camped in a tent in Fort Wilderness. Here are the pictures!

My dad always says from the words of Clark Griswold "getting there is half the fun". It took about 28 hours for us to get to Disney due to us sleeping in Georgia for a few hours. Imagine driving this haul down to Florida!

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The Florida Welcome Center! I love getting my free orange juice here. This place always makes me feel that I am close to Disney World.

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Day 1

After stoping and dropping boats off and visiting family in Sarasota, FL we head our way to WDW on January 1st. Sarasota isn't too far from WDW it's around 100 miles.

The signs always get me excited.

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I love seeing the welcome entrance. Welcome home!

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Our campsite getting set up.

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While my dad was setting the campsite, I decided to go "hotel hopping". I don't know if anybody else calls it hotel hopping, but it's when you go from hotel to hotel, and basically visit the hotels. I took the boat from Fort Wilderness to the Wilderness Lodge, then to the Contemporary, then to the monorail to the Polynesian, and the Grand Floridian. I love seeing the hotels decked out for the holidays. The trees are amazing! I love all of the Disney Resorts.

The Wilderness Lodge always looks great for the holidays. It's so cozy. I also always look for the hidden mickey on the fireplace in the lobby.

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The Grand Floridian is so beautiful! I got there just in time to hear the fantastic band playing. I also got to see the life size ginger bread house up for the last day, sadly the shop inside it was close i was hopping to buy a ginger bread house shingle. Usually it is open on New Years Day, but they closed early this year.

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Next stop was the Polynesian, but I don't know why I didn't take any pictures! While on the monorail we passed the Magic Kingdom, and I saw the dream lights! Ahhh I love the dream lights they are so beautiful. Sadly the stopped early, so I didn't see them when we went to the parks.

Day 2 (Jan 2)

Blizzard Beach. It was 80 degrees that day, and to a person who lives up north, that is HOT! So we hit the water park. It was pretty empty, but we enjoyed having some fun in the sun. Sadly I didn't bring my phone, no pictures.

Day 3 (Jan 3)

RELAX RELAX RELAX. My dad and I had bought our resort mug its around $13 bucks and you can refill it as many times as you want. I think they're worth it. Also, have you ever tried those rocking chairs outside of the Trails End Restaurant? They are so comfortable! And it's so relaxing to sit out on the porch and just take in the Disney atmosphere.

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More to come!

 

[Disneygal1]

Day 4 (Jan 4)

Breakfast and hotel hopping with my dad! We had a lovely breakfast buffet at Trails End in Fort Wilderness. The breakfast was delicious as always.

The Wilderness Lodge tree, again.

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The infamous chef mickey's sign!

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My favorite mural inside the Contemporary.

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Day 5 (Jan 5)

We park hop! Luckily that day they had morning extra magic hours starting at 8 am at Epcot. So we headed to Epcot first then went to the Magic Kingdom. We thought that it would be fairly dead because it was after New Years, but we were wrong it was pretty crowded. Waits were okay, but we had fun. We had lunch in Germany at the Biergarten, it was great! We always love going to the Biergarten.

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Off to the Magic Kingdom for the rest of the day!

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Main street! (with the extended side walk)

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The tree! (not that great of a picture)

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[Disneygal1]

Seeing the houses for the last time

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The castle at night.

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We hit most of the rides, and we were able to watch Wishes. I love wishes, it's so magical. It always gets me choked up, I don't know why. It's just such an amazing firework show!

Day 6 (Jan 6)

Ahh the last day. It's kind off depressing, but I try to do a lot to not think of it. We went to Downtown Disney. I love Downtown Disney the shops are awesome, especially World of Disney. It's so cool!

The Disney Pin Store! If you love pins, this is Disney Pin heaven! It has all of the pins in Walt Disney World. A very nice family took the picture for us.

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Lastly, we stopped for some ice cream at Peaches N' Cream at the Yacht and Beach Club. They have some really good ice cream. I recommend getting the kitchen sink if you're in a large group. It's $27, but very delicious and big! This time we didn't get it because it was just the two of us.

The best banana split he has ever had!

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YUM!

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Well, I hope you enjoyed my first trip report! It was a short trip, but worth it! I had a great time down there and I can't wait until I go with my friends over the summer!

 

[erstwo]

I LOVED your trip report! Thanks for sharing!

PS- My inlaws live in Chicago (Park Ridge), and their winter place is in Sarasota! So, I know that's one LONG drive!

 

[Mikester71]

Great trip report and pictures! :sohappy: Like your father, and Clark Griswald, I too find that getting there IS half the fun and LOVE making the 20+ hour drive down there from up here in Canada every couple of years. My friend thinks I am nuts and that I should try flying one year, but I love hitting the open highway and being in total control of where we are going. I like the drive down there almost as much as the rest of the trip. :lookaroun

And the Florida Welcome Center is a welcome sight every trip for us too! As you said...you know you are almost done the long journey. And the free O-J always tastes SO good too!!!

:wave:

 

[jhoff3405]

What a great trip with your dad!
Loved seeing the Fort Wilderness pictures, we are RV'ers and have spent more time there than anywhere else in Disney.

Thanks for sharing, and best of luck in college!

 

[PeoplemoverTTA]

Loved your TR, glad you had a fun trip!

 

[Alison1975]

Very nice..thanks for the read!

 

[lisak09]

Great Trip Report. I think a Father and Daughter only trip is a really sweet idea, wish i could do that too.

Can't believe how crowded it looked at the Parks in your photos! We usually go in late August and i thought that was bad but i don't think i've seen it that crowded!

 

[stefan74]

Great trip report. It will be a mother/son trip in March for my mom and I and we are looking forward to it. Glad you got to spend some one on one time with your dad.

 

[TakeMeThere81]

Great job! So cool that your dad wanted to stop in at WDW during a work-related trip! I agree, those rocking chairs are such a comfy spot to relax, and Wilderness Lodge is one of our favorite places too!

 

[mr_braver23]

Very good report!!

 

[Disneygal1]

Thank you everyone! I'm glad you all liked it.

 

[HollyBelle]

Great trip report! What a fun way to bond with your dad... a road trip and Disney. Perfect.

 

[corey154]

Thanks for sharing, have fun in college, and I love that your Father took you on a bonding trip, I think that's awesome!

 

[LeafsFanNL]

You certainly fit in here, as you have the Disney bug for sure. Anyone willing to sleep in a tent for that long...... Nice TR, and good luck in school.

 

[Disneygal1]

Kind of late, but as some say...better late than never!

Great trip report! What a fun way to bond with your dad... a road trip and Disney. Perfect.

Thank you! I'm sorry for not replying to this post sooner, I haven't checked this thread in a while. This trip definitely brought my father and I closer.

Thanks for sharing, have fun in college, and I love that your Father took you on a bonding trip, I think that's awesome!

Thank you! I am very excited for college. Also, my father tries to bond with my sister and I as much as he can.

You certainly fit in here, as you have the Disney bug for sure. Anyone willing to sleep in a tent for that long...... Nice TR, and good luck in school.

I can't agree with you more! I always though I was kind of weird for being so "obsessed" with Disney, but once I found this website, I was able to find a lot of people with the same bug I have! Tenting was pretty nice since the weather was in the mid 70's to 80's. The last night there was terrible. It had rained all night and I woke up wet because the rain seeped through the tent! But it was well worth it. Thanks!