Trip Report So, This Just Happened! A Very Late and Unexpected Turn (In More Ways Than One).

Just arrived at Disney Springs. More details to follow.

Updates after lunch.

 

[MickeyCB]

Wish we had more time to visit VMI or Washington and Lee,

Our daughter graduated from Washington and Lee. Excellent experience. We used to like our trips there.

 

[lindawdw]

I loved seeing all your road trip pictures which looked so much like early Americana! My Uncle went to VMI back in the 40's and loved it.

 

[Dory71]

Love the trip report. It gave me hope that we can get a lot accomplished on our next trip. On another note, my son attended UAH in Huntsville and we never knew about Fractal Brewing (but we are not beer drinkers, lol). It is a beautiful city and we love visiting there. If fact we need to plan a trip to see him soon.

 

[coachwnh]

Love the trip report. It gave me hope that we can get a lot accomplished on our next trip. On another note, my son attended UAH in Huntsville and we never knew about Fractal Brewing (but we are not beer drinkers, lol). It is a beautiful city and we love visiting there. If fact we need to plan a trip to see him soon.

I wish we had more time to spend in Huntsville. I guess I could say that about several of the cities on this trip that we only had a few hours to see. Thanks for checking in!

 

[coachwnh]

So a few college visits in Florida this week lead to Disney. Go figure

Also got to spend time with Brayden at FSU. Unfortunately, Crystal couldn’t be here, so it’s been good dad-daughter time.

 

[coachwnh]

We flew from Allentown to Tampa late Tuesday night and arrived at our hotel well after 1 am. Had a rental car, but didn’t feel like getting it. Opted to get up early and go back to the airport (less than 5 minutes away) in the morning.

We toured the University of Tampa first. Maddy really liked it.

 

[coachwnh]

So far we had managed to avoid the hurricane. It was windy, but dry. We still had an afternoon tour scheduled for 2 at USF. While touring Tampa, Maddy got a call from the University of Florida that our tour on Thursday was canceled. Bummed out, but totally understand.

I have to say, we both left USF unimpressed. We have visited so many beautiful campuses over the past several years and this had more of an industrial park feel to us. Where is all of the lush Florida vegetation? The long driveway in is just so underwhelming.

It was now well after 4 and we were hoping to drive to UF and try to see the campus before the rain. It was dark, but we still liked what we saw

 

[coachwnh]

UF and Tampa have been her top choices so far, so not getting an official tour in Gainesville was a little setback. Although it was dark, it was easy to see it had character, charm, and beautiful landscaping.

Although this made me nervous

 

[Darstarr]

So a few college visits in Florida this week lead to Disney. Go figure

I would be disappointed if it didn't!

 

[coachwnh]

So we woke up to wind and rain Thursday morning. We waited a few hour before heading north to visit Brayden at FSU. Maddy applied, but because her brother is there the school might not be an option.

Other than the rainy picture I posted earlier, I didn’t take many pictures there. It was raining all day, and I was happy hanging with Brayden.

 

[coachwnh]

Here’s when Disney happened. We woke up Friday morning and decided we would head back to UF during the day and rain free. I’m glad we did. It’s a beautiful campus.

From there, we headed to our hotel near Disney Springs. We had planned to resort hop and hoped to watch the Christmas Party fireworks which we thought started at 9. We had no dining booked, but scored a 9:25 pm at Chef Mickey’s. A clutch grab we thought.

We grabbed an Uber to Disney Springs and walked around for a bit. We were enjoying the Christmas decorations

We were really missing Crystal, but we kept walking and ended up here for lunch. We were never here before and it was ok. Nothing great, but I have nothing negative to say

 

[coachwnh]

After our late lunch, we walked around Disney Springs a little longer taking in the sights before catching a bus to Wilderness Lodge.

 

[coachwnh]

So as we waited for a bus to Wilderness Lodge (and waited and waited), we double checked the time for fireworks and realized our mistake. We wanted to see the fireworks since we weren’t going to any parks, but wanted to meet a few characters while we were there. We decided to keep the reservation, but keep looking for an earlier or later time.

So we arrived at Wilderness Lodge after waiting nearly 50 minutes for a bus. We didn’t care, but others were certainly hot. In fairness, these weren’t guests of the resort, but people catching a ride to the Contemporary on their way to Magic Kingdom for the party after having dinner.

We were really disappointed that none of the resorts had any Christmas decorations up yet other than the Contemporary and Grand Floridian gingerbread houses. It was still nice to visit though.

 

[coachwnh]

We made our way to the boat dock and traveled to the Magic Kingdom. Although we weren’t going in, it was still nice to stop out front for a few pictures.

We then made the slow walk to the Contemporary. As we were walking, I checked on dinner options again, and were surprised to see California Grill at 9:55! Maddy immediately said take it! With a few clicks we switched our reservation and scored excellent viewing for fireworks

We made our way to the monorail platform and made the short trek to the Polynesian Village By now, we realized Disney was crazy packed. I hoped to get a drink for our walk from the Poly to the GF, but that wasn’t happening.

We didn’t meet @Tuvalu , but she has her own sign telling people where to look

We made a left instead of the right and walked to the Grand Floridian

 

[MickeyCB]

I have to say, we both left USF unimpressed.

But they have lots of Mickeys!!

 

[coachwnh]

We were enjoying our little adventure. We soon arrived at the Grand Floridian

We were happy to see the gingerbread house.

And it was time for that drink. We went here for the first time

Maddy had a nonalcoholic cocktail while I enjoyed a local IPA.

There was a large and loud wedding party there. The room we were in was small and very loud. Our drinks were good, but we were soon on our way to the Contemporary again and couldn’t wait to make the walk there from the GF for the first time.

 

[coachwnh]

Making our way along the trail. We were loving it!

 

[Billy6]

Nice!

U of Tampa has a great campus, and I played college soccer in that stadium back in the day...My school came down to play them..

 

[coachwnh]

But they have lots of Mickeys!!

I actually went back to take that picture. Definitely Mickeys

 

[coachwnh]

Nice!

U of Tampa has a great campus, and I played college soccer in that stadium back in the day...My school came down to play them..

We actually went back today. Campus was even nicer in the sunshine than our visit there on Wednesday