Saintsfan75
Member
Now that's definately crazy!!!!:hammer:
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Tell me if I am crazy....
- Thread starter mickeymatt
- Start date
Now that's definately crazy!!!!:hammer:
I did the drive from Jacksonville to the Ham on a Saturday and then back again that Sunday just to visit a friend and go to a concert. An extra 4 hours of driving for almost 2 days in WDW would be worth it in my book.
Thanks, now I know I am not as crazy as you. I applaud you zeal for DW, and btw I understand!
whendoweleave?
New Member
You dont know what crazy is!!!
10 hour drive! I could do that with my eyes closed. I will take you back to 1993. My wife and I had just split up, my grandmother who raised me had just died and it was 3 weeks before Christmas. I had no other family members left in this world and Christmas was almost here. It was the first time in my life I had felt all alone. Needless to say I was not in the Christmas mood and was more in the mood to jump off a bridge. My friends all wanted me to come "celebrate" with them but no I was just going to shut myself off from the world and sit in the house.
About 1 week before Christmas I was watching the news and saw that an airline was offering a Christmas day special. You could fly from anywhere in the continental U.S. to anywhere in the continental U.S. and back for about 90.00! Wow what a deal remember that in the early 90's it was really expensive to fly. There were no 49.00 rates like today. The only two catches were one they had to have flights available and two you had to start your travel between midnight and midnight Christmas day.
I really did not want to go on this adventure on my own so let me find someone to go with me. I would even pay their way. Who would refuse that???? After about the 3rd call to a friend I got used to the long silence on the phone before I heard " are you nuts??" Finally I found a friend who has a strange family life and no kids. Besides he is as crazy as I am. He agrees to go. Ok so where to go???? How about W.D.W. in Florida? I called and there were no flights available. How about Disneyland in California??? Yes there are flights available. 2 tickets please I said! Oh did I tell you I was flying from Philadelphia???? Oh and that I had to stop in Ohio???? Ok I can deal with that. Now for the return flight. Sorry we are sold out!!! RATS foiled again!!! NO I said thinking quickly how about returning to Newark N.J.????? Yes they are available!!! I will take 2 please.
Now Christmas day arrives and we are catching some god awful early flight and it's lightly snowing and really cold!!! We have on shorts and t-shirts with sweat pants and sweat shirts on over them. No need to take luggage we are only going to be there for about 10 hours. ( did he say 10 hours???) As you see we needed to save as much time as possible. You also see how nuts I am Philly to California for about 10 hours???? We were gaining 3 hours from the time change or we would have only had about 7 hours there. We were going to spend more time traveling than actual time in the park. We had a short time on the ground and had to get the rental car, navigate to Disneyland, hope there is no traffic, park, get tickets and get in the park. Then had to leave in enough time to do all of that in reverse and not miss the flight. I inquired if we just happened to get a “flat tire” and not make the flight what were our options. Our only option was to pay about 800.00 each to get one-way tickets home! There was no way I was going to miss that flight!
We land in L.A. and it’s a beautiful day we peel off our sweats. Now I know how superman feels. I could not find a phone booth but i had a car to change in.
We get in the park and YIKES!!!! It’s packed. No problem we are in Disney and going to have fun!!! We actually got to ride about 8 or 9 things before it was time to go.
Oh but we cant leave before we buy souvenirs!!! I got a really cool red and black classic 1928 Mickey coat. I still wear it to this day. My friend was a Star Wars geek so he bought a few Laser light guns of some sort.
We are off to the airport and running late. (We needed that last Pirates ride to round out the day.) We run to the return the car and then run inside with little time to spare. We throw our bags on the X-ray machine run through the metal detectors and are ready to dash to the gate. We look back and see a few people looking at the X-ray monitor then look at us. What have we done? Now we see a cop heading in our direction with his hand to close to his gun for my liking. Now im in panic mode!!! All of the sudden I hear someone say “they are just toys” Then it hits me………….. THE STAR WARS GUNS!!!!!!! Good grief we are never going to make the flight. They made us take the toys down to baggage claim and find a box check them and run back up to the gate. They were nice enough to not leave with out us. Or they were running late. Which ever I was grateful to get on the plane. We got to the gate and they were closing the door to the plane. Long story short we got on sat down and the next thing we know the flight crew is waking us up. We are in Newark! We slept through the stop over in Ohio! Now to get to Philly. I make a call to a friend we need an airport run can you take us to the train station. By now its early the next day. So im not interrupting any holiday celebration just wakening him up early.
We grab a train from Newark to Philly and are now in center city Philly now we have to get another train to the airport. We finally get back to where we started 31 hours before. We traveled over 6000 mile. But we both ended up with a trip and a bunch of memories that we will never forget!!! To this day everytime i see my friend that went with me we always seem to say at some point during the conversation Remember when..............
And you’re worried about a little 10-hour drive!!
I say GO FOR IT!!!!
10 hour drive! I could do that with my eyes closed. I will take you back to 1993. My wife and I had just split up, my grandmother who raised me had just died and it was 3 weeks before Christmas. I had no other family members left in this world and Christmas was almost here. It was the first time in my life I had felt all alone. Needless to say I was not in the Christmas mood and was more in the mood to jump off a bridge. My friends all wanted me to come "celebrate" with them but no I was just going to shut myself off from the world and sit in the house.
About 1 week before Christmas I was watching the news and saw that an airline was offering a Christmas day special. You could fly from anywhere in the continental U.S. to anywhere in the continental U.S. and back for about 90.00! Wow what a deal remember that in the early 90's it was really expensive to fly. There were no 49.00 rates like today. The only two catches were one they had to have flights available and two you had to start your travel between midnight and midnight Christmas day.
I really did not want to go on this adventure on my own so let me find someone to go with me. I would even pay their way. Who would refuse that???? After about the 3rd call to a friend I got used to the long silence on the phone before I heard " are you nuts??" Finally I found a friend who has a strange family life and no kids. Besides he is as crazy as I am. He agrees to go. Ok so where to go???? How about W.D.W. in Florida? I called and there were no flights available. How about Disneyland in California??? Yes there are flights available. 2 tickets please I said! Oh did I tell you I was flying from Philadelphia???? Oh and that I had to stop in Ohio???? Ok I can deal with that. Now for the return flight. Sorry we are sold out!!! RATS foiled again!!! NO I said thinking quickly how about returning to Newark N.J.????? Yes they are available!!! I will take 2 please.
Now Christmas day arrives and we are catching some god awful early flight and it's lightly snowing and really cold!!! We have on shorts and t-shirts with sweat pants and sweat shirts on over them. No need to take luggage we are only going to be there for about 10 hours. ( did he say 10 hours???) As you see we needed to save as much time as possible. You also see how nuts I am Philly to California for about 10 hours???? We were gaining 3 hours from the time change or we would have only had about 7 hours there. We were going to spend more time traveling than actual time in the park. We had a short time on the ground and had to get the rental car, navigate to Disneyland, hope there is no traffic, park, get tickets and get in the park. Then had to leave in enough time to do all of that in reverse and not miss the flight. I inquired if we just happened to get a “flat tire” and not make the flight what were our options. Our only option was to pay about 800.00 each to get one-way tickets home! There was no way I was going to miss that flight!
We land in L.A. and it’s a beautiful day we peel off our sweats. Now I know how superman feels. I could not find a phone booth but i had a car to change in.
We get in the park and YIKES!!!! It’s packed. No problem we are in Disney and going to have fun!!! We actually got to ride about 8 or 9 things before it was time to go.
Oh but we cant leave before we buy souvenirs!!! I got a really cool red and black classic 1928 Mickey coat. I still wear it to this day. My friend was a Star Wars geek so he bought a few Laser light guns of some sort.
We are off to the airport and running late. (We needed that last Pirates ride to round out the day.) We run to the return the car and then run inside with little time to spare. We throw our bags on the X-ray machine run through the metal detectors and are ready to dash to the gate. We look back and see a few people looking at the X-ray monitor then look at us. What have we done? Now we see a cop heading in our direction with his hand to close to his gun for my liking. Now im in panic mode!!! All of the sudden I hear someone say “they are just toys” Then it hits me………….. THE STAR WARS GUNS!!!!!!! Good grief we are never going to make the flight. They made us take the toys down to baggage claim and find a box check them and run back up to the gate. They were nice enough to not leave with out us. Or they were running late. Which ever I was grateful to get on the plane. We got to the gate and they were closing the door to the plane. Long story short we got on sat down and the next thing we know the flight crew is waking us up. We are in Newark! We slept through the stop over in Ohio! Now to get to Philly. I make a call to a friend we need an airport run can you take us to the train station. By now its early the next day. So im not interrupting any holiday celebration just wakening him up early.
We grab a train from Newark to Philly and are now in center city Philly now we have to get another train to the airport. We finally get back to where we started 31 hours before. We traveled over 6000 mile. But we both ended up with a trip and a bunch of memories that we will never forget!!! To this day everytime i see my friend that went with me we always seem to say at some point during the conversation Remember when..............
And you’re worried about a little 10-hour drive!!
I say GO FOR IT!!!!
WOW! Great story! Your right I can do this!
thanks
Anyone else with crazy trip stories?
SeaBreeze
New Member
No crazy WDW trip stories but as a fellow grad student, you should definitely go! There aren't enough opportunities with this gig to be spontaneous and take trips. If you don't go, you WILL go crazy. Trust me, I know. I went grad school crazy and suddenly find myself with a plane ticket to Australia in July :lookaroun (yes, it's round trip haha)
the-reason14
Well-Known Member
I remember doing something like this. I was in high school and had a 3 day weekend so my dad came and picked me up at lunch at 12 on that Fri., and from there we drove all the way to WDW. We're about 19 or so hours away so it was a pretty rough drive for him. What made things worse was when we got to WDW it was about 3 or 4 am and they didnt have a room ready for us a Pop 1/2 century.(I know its not a good time, but we checked in before around the same time and they had rooms for us then) So we kinda just hung out in the lobby and waited for the sun to rise. Once the sun came up, we got on a bus and headed to Epcot. My dad was so tired. But it was a pretty fun trip and very last minute. I think we planned it that Wed. lol. But it was fun.
So I say go for it. If you have the money and the patience, have fun.
So I say go for it. If you have the money and the patience, have fun.
OMG, if I was ONLY 10 hours away I'd be making that trek all the time!!! That's not crazy at all!! I live in California and I once booked a flight, hotel, etc just to go to Florida for like 2 1/2 days because I needed my fix. And I don't even think THAT'S crazy. I say go for it!!!
DisneyEverest
Member
Go for it!!! 10 hours isnt as bad as 18. I used to drive 18 hours to go to Disney.
ClemsonTigger
Naturally Grumpy
Sounds like a great plan. Driving, having a place to stay help to greatly reduce costs. The only thing I don't like is buying 1 day tickets. Under the current system, you really get hammered. But I guess if you look at it that gas, food and tickets are your only cost, factoring in your free ticket, sounds like a great weekend getaway!
Jones611
Member
I say definitely go!!!! For the AP preview of Everest, my brother, sister-in-law, a friend and I went down on a Friday night (after work). We live about 8 hours away. We drove all Friday night, went to AK, MK, and Epcot on Saturday and drove all night Saturday night to be back at work on Sunday. Some have said we were crazy but it was so much fun!!!! It’s a trip I’ll never forget!! :sohappy:
Australia.......Enjoy your trip mate! I am in my 1st semester of a 28 month masters program and it is completely full time. I can certainly see the potential for going grad school crazy. Thanks for the encouragement!
BTW I am an Auburn Tiger (tigger) so we are cousins! haha.
I know, we go down to see my father once a year (used to be Thanksgiving but we changed to spring break) and we usually go to a park one day and the ticket prices just eat you alive. (We went to Epcot last month) But really if you take the $74 and average the value over all the attractions it really is still a great deal, IMHO. We have a little carnival that comes to our small town and it costs $20 for an unlimited rides bracelet and that is while risking your life!
well said thanks!
Boray
Member
GO FOR IT! I'd do it if I could, but I'm a 20 hour drive away.
Crazy trip story - Spring break 1993, 5 of us drove to Key Biscayne for spring break. Trip down was uneventful, but the trip back was challenging! We left FL early on a Saturday, expecting to arrive in Madison, WI Sunday afternoon. We got to Atlanta, where they had received about 3 inches of snow. No big deal for us northerners, however, it seems the entire state had only about 3 snowplows!!! The roads were very slippery and snow covered. We got to Acworth, GA and the interstate was closed! North of us, through the Tennessee mountains, the roads were covered with over 2 feet of snow, so we weren't going anywhere for awhile. We slept in our car that night. The next morning, we were forced to turn around and go back because there were dozens of jacknifed semis on the interstate. We got to a mini-mall parking lot with a grocery store, Subway, Pizza Hut and Kmart. The restaurants ran out of food by mid-afternooon, but we were able to get some food from the grocery store. We spent the day entertaining ourselves in the Kmart, by setting up chairs in the electronics department and watching movies! Spent that night sleeping in the car in the Kmart parking lot because the interstate was still closed in both directions. Now it's Monday morning and we're still stuck in GA and our university classes have resumed. We ended up waiting in the parking lot until mid afternoon, waiting for some snow and ice on the roads to melt, before we could continue down to Interstate 20 (I think) that goes West into Mobile, AL, then travelling north. We finally got home on Tuesday night!
It was my craziest trip ever!!! (Perhaps not what you were looking for, but it was one of the best vacations I had ever taken. We really enjoyed our "stranded" time!) So I guess the lesson here is check the weather before you decide to drive a long distance!
Wow! That was crazy. I think the interstate you were refering to is I-10 which runs from florida to mobile, al. I-20 runs from atlanta to birmingham, al which is where I live. And yes you are right, when it snows we shut down. We may get one significant snow (1-2 inches) lol, that is why we dont have the snow plows ect. It just isnt cost effective.
Thanks for sharing!
Chezman1399
Active Member
I live in Huntsville, AL, and it takes me about 10 hours, I've done it before, quite a few times. It's fun, got tired really fast though the first day, then again I leave at 10 PM on Friday so i can be there for park opening Saturday.
soin2disney
Member
Go for it
I say go for it, life's too short. Enjoy yourself, and think of how excited your wife and daughter will be.
I say go for it, life's too short. Enjoy yourself, and think of how excited your wife and daughter will be.