"Woooooo!!" .. "Where's Adam?" - A Spring 2012 Trip Report

"Wooooooooooo!!" .. "Where's Adam?" - A Spring 2012 Trip Report

Ladies and gentleman.... Boys and girls... Welcome to my wonderful trip report!! From April 26th - May 7th, my sister, my mother and I went on a grand adventure to Walt Disney World. We laughed.. we cried.. we argued.. we ate lots of food, rode lots of rides and even met a character or two. It was the longest trip we have been on but felt like it went by in the blink of an eye. Always seems that way, right?

Anyway, I hope you enjoy my story tonight; "Wooooooooo!!" .. "Where's Adam?" - A Spring 2012 Trip Report! :)


Overview:
This trip carries the same cast of characters as all my previous trip reports: Ashley (sister - 26) Terryn (Mom - 21 again..) and me (Darolyn - 29)


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Me, Marie and Ashley - November 2011

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Mama Dukes! - November 2011

If you have read my PTR, you know most of what I'm about to review. So you can skip to Thursday if you want. If not, here's a little bit of info:

This trip, we decided to drive to save more money so we could attend the Tower of Terror 10 Miler in September. While driving wasn't that bad, I'd definitely rather fly. Unfortunately flights were all $300+ per person with terrible times and I think we ended up driving for about $500 total! We left Thursday evening April 26 and left the world on Sunday May 6th. Our timeshare is located off property and since its within 30 miles of WDW, we cannot exchange it for DVC! :( Such a bummer. And since we didn't book our resort until January, our home resort was booked. Sooooo we ended up at Orange Lake Resort on 192. It was on the AK side of 192 and we could see the top of Expedition Everest and fireworks from Epcot outside our room. More on how we liked the property at the end of the report!

We were staying at the timeshare Friday 4/27-Friday 5/4. We weren't leaving to head home until Sunday so we needed a room for the last 2 nights. There was no question that we would stay on property. We had originally decided to stay in a regular room at the Wilderness Lodge. After a bit of researching though, I figured out we could rent DVC points at get a studio room at the Wilderness Lodge villas for $140 less. WOOT WOOT!!! So we changed over and rented the points. I'll review how well we liked this process vs dealing with Disney direct at the end. (All of my reviews will be done at the end including resorts, dining and just general things)

So now that the recap is out of the way.... My friend is dropping off a copy of Photoshop for me so I can edit my photos! I will hopefully post some more tonight or tomorrow. I have a busy weekend planned so I can't promise anything!! I just wanted to get it started! :)
 

LeCellier.Lover

Well-Known Member
YAY YAY YOU'VE GOTTEN YOUR TR UP AND RUNNING!! :sohappy: You know you've got me buckled in for the ride! :D I hope your fights weren't anything too bad.... :hammer: Haha!
 

PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Following along as I love your TRs! Can't wait to hear how your amazing trip went this time around.

Thank you! Glad you enjoy reading them. Hopefully this one won' tdissapoint!

YAY YAY YOU'VE GOTTEN YOUR TR UP AND RUNNING!! :sohappy: You know you've got me buckled in for the ride! :D I hope your fights weren't anything too bad.... :hammer: Haha!

haha, they weren't TOO bad. Gonna post some more in a little bit. You'll like that my Kane shirt makes some appearances!!

Yay!!! You started! I haven't been on here since May 9th! sheesh! It's about time I get back! lol

You're slacking!! lol I haven't been on a lot lately cause we;ve been soooo busy at work! :(

Yay!! Cant wait to read alllllll about it! :sohappy:

Thanks!! I hope it's good reading for you!!! :)

Finallyyyy. I've been waiting for this start!!!!!!

I'm such a slacker on this one. BUT - in my defense, I did take over 2,000 pics so I have a lot to edit!! Hopefully I'll finish it before we got in September... :hammer:

Well I am excited to see your pictures.

Ughhhhh stupid message boards

lol you're so weird. My pics aren't quite as good as yours yet. I'm working on it though. They came out alright.
 

PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Thursday April 26 / Friday April 27 - Here we go!!!

Since we were driving this time around, we were leaving after work. We would drive straight through on the way down (or as close to straight through as possible) Since I had everything packed and ready to go, I worked as late as possible which would be 5pm. When I got home, Ashley had already started packing her Jeep with our things. she got Vince ready to go stay at my Mom's house for the week and my step-dad would be doggie-sitting him.

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He wants to go too!!

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We got to Mom's house around 6:30 and packed everything in her car. It was a tight fit and I personally thought too much junk was packed (TONS of snacks for the road which we didn't really need) but it wasn't me who packed the junk. I had limited myself to 1 suitcase and 1 small bag. Driving or flying, I pack the same. Apparently my co-travelers did not.... But I digress....

We hit the road at 7pm on the dot. Per the GPS, barring zero stops and no traffic, we would be getting to the resort the next evening around 6:59pm. Almost 24 hours exactly.

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On the road... Won't miss this weather!!


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Are we there yet?

Now, if you have read my PTR, you know that my car has been in and out of the shop 4 times the month and a half prior to this trip. I was worried I would have to shell out most of my vacation money to fix it, but things fell into place and I was able to go!! (obviously I went, since you're reading this TR!!) Unfortunately I had to spend my money I had saved up to buy a new camera lens to fix my car. (I had bought a new Nikon D3100 shortly after Christmas with money I had received for Christmas and my birthday from my mom, Ashley and other family members.) So, we come to the first exciting part of the trip (for me anyways) My Mom asked to see my camera as she had not really seen it yet. I had put the camera bag in the backseat behind her seat. I told her I didn't want to get it out right now. She insisted. I said no. She asked again. So finally I said "ok" and Ashley handed me the bag from the back. I opened up the bag and there were some things in there I had not put in. I figured my Mom had stuck her manual for her camera in there so she would have it (she got a new camera a week before the trip) At closer look, I notcied there was also an additional lens in the case and I knew my Mom's camera was not a DSLR. I looked at the manual and it was the manual for the Nikon 35mm f/1.8 lens I had wanted!!!!! Mom and Ashley had gotten the lens for me as a surprise! How awesome are they?! :)

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The first part of the trip was uneventful... Just driving and singing songs in the car. We stopped in Connecticut at Sonic around 10pm. We don't have a Sonic up here and we LOVE it! Closest one to us is just outside of Boston so we always stop there whenever we go to Boston.

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I got a footlong chili dog and sweet potato tots with a strawberry slush. So. Good.

Now, here comes where we got one part of the title to this TR.... Ashley hates spiders and before we got to Sonic there was a spider in the backseat with her. She tried to kill it but she doesn't think she did and it fell somewhere in the car. So she decided he wanted to come on the trip with us and gave him the name Bob. Then she decided Bob wasnt a good name so she changed it to Adam. A couple days later she would decide that Adam had morphed into a crab and was no longer a spider. (We would spend the rest of the trip looking for a crab plush but the only one we found was a Sebastian one and we didn't really like it) So we had a little stow-a-way named Adam the spider, later turned crab for the trip and randomly throughout the trip we kept asking "Where's Adam?" (We're a weird family, I know!)

Continuing on, after we left Sonic, I got in the backseat so I could sleep and drive the next part of the trip. I figured a couple hours of sleep and I would be good to go.

We took the Garden State Parkway as to not have to deal with the Geo Washington Bridge in NYC. If you hit any sort of traffic there, it could easily delay you for quite a while. Once we got into NJ, Mom was getting tired so we pulled over so she could sleep a bit (I was still sleeping in the back) After a quick half hour power nap, she was ready to go again. A little while later we reached the Jersey Pike and we made a stop to use the bathroom and I took over driving. I finished off the Jersey pike and over the Delaware Memorial Bridge (Hi Courtney!!!)

We made a stop at a rest area in Maryland and Mom took over driving. I fell asleep in the front seat and when I woke up, it was around 6:30am and we were just going through Washington DC. I saw a sign for the Verizon Center and still being bitter from the Bruins loss to the Capitals on Wednesday night, I suggested we look for some Capitals fans to throw stuff at. We didn't see any though. I lost interest once we got out of the city and I fell back asleep after that.

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I don't think I slept for very long because when I woke up, we were stopping for gas and food in Petersburgh, VA. We were halfway there!!! Per my post on Twitter it was 7:46am! While we were stopped at McDonald's to get some breakfast, Ashley and I decided we were going to get concert tickets for a show up here in September (Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan. YAY country music!!!) So we ordered tickets for that and I enjoyed a delicious Egg McMuffin. Not a bad way to start off the morning.
 

HouCuseChickie

Well-Known Member
Funny- I never saw a Sonic until I moved to TX 15 yrs ago- I even have one up the street from our neighborhood....yet, I still have yet to try it. :lol: Can't wait to read more. :wave:
 

PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Back on the road, we didn't stop again until we stopped in Lumberton, NC around noon for lunch. I wanted to take my mom and sister somewhere my ex bf took me when I went to visit him in NC back in 2010. Smithfield's!!!!

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While reading the menu, clearly I was blind because I thought they got rid of the BBQ sandwich. So I ordered a BBQ platter with baked beans, hush puppies and cole slaw. Mom got the same thing. Oh, and sweet tea! I loooooove sweet tea!!

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Ashley got the BBQ chicken platter. Only after we were done eating did I see the BBQ sandwich right there on the menu. DUH!! Anywho, Smithfield's was super good as always.

Back on the road and we were all just ready to be in Florida. We passed by the million and one South of the Border signs lol

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Another rest stop...
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We got into Georgia around 3:30 and stopped for gas at El Cheapo. I liked this little donkey.
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And then.... finally into Florida around 4:30pm. Woooo hooooo!

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PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Haha, yayyy I got the first shout out! :D

and DOUBLE YAY for country music... I'm obsessed with Luke Bryan atm.

I LOVE Luke Bryan!! I am watching The Bachelorette right now and he just performed on it actually. He's nice to look at! :) hehe

I am loving the trip report so far!! :)

Thank you!!

Funny- I never saw a Sonic until I moved to TX 15 yrs ago- I even have one up the street from our neighborhood....yet, I still have yet to try it. :lol: Can't wait to read more. :wave:


I always say that if we had Sonic here I would eat there all the time but I probably really wouldn't. We didn't have a Cracker Barrel for the longest time and I love it there and said if we ever had one I'd go there all the time. Yet, I've only eaten there a handful of times since it opened a couple years ago lol

Thanks for reading!! :wave:
 

PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I took a nap between Jacksonville and just outside of Orlando. I woke up and was on the lookout for Disney billboards. We passed a couple Universal billboards and there it was... The first Disney billboard of the trip!!

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We passed a few more and after what seemed like an eternity we saw this:

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YAY!! FINALLY!!!

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We reached 192 and planned to make a stop at Publix before checking in so we could stock up the place with snacks, water and breakfast stuff. Well, Mom missed the turn off for Publix so she took the next right, which led us right onto 429 which was a toll road. We had to scramble to find exact change because it seems like that's all Florida toll roads accept. So we paid a dollar and got off the next exit. This brought us to Western Way. Oh, there's the back entrance to WDW!

Back onto the toll road and back off the next exit. We made it to Publix this time with no issues and stocked up on stuff. We were all just really happy to be out of the car!!! lol I picked up a case of Cheerwine. soooo good.

We pulled into the parking lot to check into Orange Lake at 8:05pm. So driving took us 25 hours which really isn't bad, considering we stopped twice to eat, once to take a small nap and a few other times to gas up and use the restrooms. We hit zero traffic and overall the drive was a good time.

Our unit was a 2 bedroom on the 4th floor, right next to the main entrance. I was happy with this because Orange Lake Resort is HUGE. Less driving to get out of the place and less driving at the end of the night to get back to the unit!

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Just some of our luggage...
 

fractal

Well-Known Member
Always love a good road trip! What a great surprise by your
Mom and sister- im sure you put that lens to good use.

Smithfields looks yummy!
 
Great TR so far! :) It's making me want to finish mine from last year. I got busy when school started and didn't finish it. :(

I know what you mean about flying vs. driving. I definitely prefer flying and I'm not as far away as you are. Of course, a road trip now and then can be fun!

Looking forward to reading more!
 

diddy_mouse

Well-Known Member
Oh em gee...South of the Border AND El Cheapo in the same post?! :lol: My grandparents use to live in SC so I know all about these guys.

That's awesome that you got your new camera lens! Can't wait to see how it did at the parks.
 
Back on the road, we didn't stop again until we stopped in Lumberton, NC around noon for lunch. I wanted to take my mom and sister somewhere my ex bf took me when I went to visit him in NC back in 2010. Smithfield's!!!!

smithfields-1.jpg


DSC_0366-1.jpg


While reading the menu, clearly I was blind because I thought they got rid of the BBQ sandwich. So I ordered a BBQ platter with baked beans, hush puppies and cole slaw. Mom got the same thing. Oh, and sweet tea! I loooooove sweet tea!!

I love Smithfield Chicken and BBQ too! (NC girl here!)

Are you sure you're not Southern? (country music and NC bbq :D)
 

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