A Sickie, 3 Hotels, 6 Parks, Boyfriend Drama and Fun Galore:

[LuvEeyore]

Who Are We and How Did this Come About?
My name is Lee and I live in Southwest Virginia very close to the North Carolina Line. I am a nurse on a busy Labor and Delivery Unit in Roanoke Virginia. I have no children of my own. I do have a Goddaughter Morgan who is 20 and a dance and business(Accounting) Double Major at Old Dominion University in Norfolk Virginia. Morgan’s family lives in Roanoke and her mother is my best friend. We have been friends for over 32 years since we met as college freshmen at Ferrum College.
I went back to being a nurse in July 2007 after my mother Alice was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in Spring 2007. I had received a M Div Degree and served as pastor of churches from 2000-Summer 2007. Mom will be 80 in April and loves to travel. My Dad was a homebody unless it was visiting his family or going to a race and my brother has taken after him…so I usually travel with Mom. We now take a wheelchair with us when we travel. Makes Mom feel safer and she can sit anytime she wants.

Now for the truthful introduction…My name is Lee and I am addicted to Disney and anything associated with Disney!! I have traveled on Disney cruise line twice once on a Land and Sea on the Disney Wonder Many Moons ago and more recently in 2012 on an Eastern Carribbean on the Fantasy Dec 2012. I have been to WDW many times the first being in 1976, then January 1994 a week long trip to celebrate a bachelors degree in Nursing in December 1993. Did I turn 29 then? I have been back several times since staying both on property and off property. Caribean Beach, Port Orleans French Quarter, All Star Sports. I have a been a poster on the DIS since finding these boards when planning a trip. I have also been to Disneyland once in 2008 . I will travel to Disney with anyone who will go…most recently my travels have been with Morgan and Mom.

Our 1st Selfie of the Trip

 

[KatMark]

You've started your TR. I love the intros.

I hope you are feeling better.

 

[princessbelle2015]

Joining in. I am looking forward to your TR.

 

[Dugette]

I'm here and can't wait to hear all about it!

 

[afwdwfan]

Hi!

 

[LuvEeyore]

You've started your TR. I love the intros.

I hope you are feeling better.

I am all better now. Glad you came on over. How ever you will find the sickie wasn't me.

 

[LuvEeyore]

Joining in. I am looking forward to your TR.

Welcome. I hope to have more up tomorrow night or Wednesday.

 

[LuvEeyore]

I'm here and can't wait to hear all about it!

Glad you came to join me! More is coming soon. I need to get caught up on everyone elses reports too! Lots of reading if the snow storm comes this way!!

 

[LuvEeyore]

Hi!

Hi! Glad you came on over!! More coming soon.

 

[My2Qtz0205]

Hi! I'm a 1998 graduate of Ferrum College. I love my alma mater! DH graduated from there in 1997. My aunt and uncle live in Boones Mill.
I'm a Hampton Roads native. ODU is about 20 minutes away. Small world!

 

[Biggie Smalls]

Joining in and looking forward to more!

 

[LuvEeyore]

Hi! I'm a 1998 graduate of Ferrum College. I love my alma mater! DH graduated from there in 1997. My aunt and uncle live in Boones Mill.
I'm a Hampton Roads native. ODU is about 20 minutes away. Small world!

I graduated a few year before you--1985, Morgan's Mom 1988. It is a small world. Welcome to my telling of my last trip to the World.

 

[LuvEeyore]

Glad to have you here. Hope to have more up today

Joining in and looking forward to more!

 

[LuvEeyore]

How this Came about?
I decided since I hadn’t been to Disney in a while that I would go for my Fiftieth Birthday and take at least my two travel buddies-Mom and Morgan. I decided that Jan 1-9th, 2015 would be best and we would do a first since my first trip in 1976-drive. Mom and I had also never been to Universal so we decided to spend a few days there. We chose these dates because of Morgan’s school schedule, the holidays and the ability to maximize my time off without having to take a lot of PTO (vacation time). I ended up only needing to take 48 hours but off 13 days!!

The Plans in a Nutshell
1/1 New Year’s Day-The Day of Driving
Stay in Daytona Beach at Perry’s Ocean Edge Resort
1/2 -1/3 Universal Studios and Island of Adventure
Stay night of 1/2/15 at Loews Royal Pacific Resort
1/3/15-1/9/15 WDW at Kidani by buying points with 5 day park Hoppers

 

[LuvEeyore]

The Weeks Before
I wrote a pretrip report that some of you followed, Life is Nifty, Lee Turns 50 Who is going to the Party found here on the DIS. During the 6 weeks before the trip I had to take 2 classes for work one 24 hours(3 days- 8 hours) and 1 12 hour class over 2 days. I had to take a cardiac monitoring class that had 2 hours of homework and I walked out with my 82 proudly!! I also took ACLS which I did well in however the stress was horrible, then there was Christmas. Morgan got out of school Dec 12 but worked except for the actual Christmas holiday Mon-Fri until she got off work New Years Eve.

The magic bands came!! The bags were packed. Over the last 8 months or so, I had purchased Disney Gift Cards at Sam’s club and a few American express cards at Kroger so I could get my gas points.

Just before Christmas, my check tire pressure light came on and my car had to be serviced. My less than 1 year old car ended up with a new set of tires for Christmas on Dec 23!! So much for extras. So we went back and looked at what could be cut so we did some ADR crunching. I had also purchased the Memory Maker online just after Thanksgiving.
Dec 31
I cleaned house, went to the bank, got the meds all refilled, car packed and Mom and I went to bed about 8 pm. The plan was for Morgan to watch the ball drop from home with her Mom and stepdad in Roanoke then pack her car and drive to us.

 

[LuvEeyore]

January 1, 2015-Travel Day and Surprise!!
About 1 am the phone rang and Morgan had left. She got to the edge of town and realized that she forgot stuff so back to her house she went. She arrived at my house about 2:30 am. Now I live rural and turned everylight on I could. I still watched her drive past. She arrived and we packed her stuff. How can 3 ladies fill a Rogue stuffed?? Have a wheel chair in the car will do it fast. Now Morgan arrived complete with a temp of 101!! Surprise a sickie!! We got packed. Put Mom in the car. Parked Morgan’s car so my brother would start it and locked the door. Was driving down the road maybe 2 miles from home and Morgan says’ “I’m hungry.” Okay, so sickie who hasn’t eaten all day is hungry. I live in nowhere…the only thing open is Sheets which will be 20 miles and at least 30 minutes out of the way. Okay off to sheets we go. 3:45 am with food for everyone, drinks, Morgan meds(ibuprofen and cold medicine) off we go with Mom up front with me driving, Morgan eating some. Morgan was asleep in 30 minutes. We stopped once before we ate at Cracker Barrell outside of Darlington SC at about 8:30 am. Back on the road by 930 after some rearranging, Morgan is driving. In about an hour, we stop to potty and a driver change and Morgan is sleeping again. Before 11 am we were in Georgia. We stopped at Peach World, got a slushee and were off again. By noon, any ideas where we were?
Yes Florida. We stopped at Welcome Center wanting our orange juice. Soooooo disappointed. They were closed for New Year’s Day.
So off we went. We did see an oddity when we decided to get something to eat from fastfood and potty.
A RedBox at the McDonald’s . I couldn’t believe it.

It started raining. Morgan was driving again at this point. Morgan who loves to drive my car only drove about 3 hours. What this tells me is she is miserable. We checked into our hotel at about 3 pm. We stayed at Perry’s Ocean Edge Resort in Daytona Beach. It was cool and gloomy but Morgan and I walked out to the beach after check in. Then we decided to head back out for an early dinner then make an early night of it. We decided on Bubba Gumps Seafood.
I had gotten a Landry’s card at the suggestion of someone I work with since Bubba Gumps, T Rex, and Rainforest and Yak and Yeti are all Landry’s. I had a 25 dollar credit for getting the card(what I paid for the card) and 25 dollar credit for my Birthday. We had a bill of 1.98 !! We ordered Seafood Hush Pups appetizer and A Shrimper’s Heaven which had Coconut shrimp, chilled peel and eat shrimp, fried shrimp and Japanese style tempura shrimp with fries and the sauces and a Forrest’s seafood feast which had some seafood hush pups, fried shrimp fish and chips and was susposed to come with cole slaw which we didn’t get but we really didn’t care. The two meals and appetizer were split and the 3 of us barely ate it all.

We left stuffed. Morgan ate some not much. Morgan loves Bubba Gump’s and seafood…Dinner with a sickie. We went back to hotel and called it an early night. Morgan and Mom took shower’s and were both asleep by 8pm even after Morgan and I checked Universal park hours on line.

Perry’s is an older family resort that is on the beach. The hotel is dated but renovations are in progress. For 75 dollars, I was pleased even with outdated paint and furnishings. It was clean, had an indoor pool and hot tub. They also had a tiki bar and 2 outdoor pools, shuffleboard and plenty of chairs on the beach. I would stay here again. They offer parking for 1 car per room free.

 

[Dugette]

That's too bad that Morgan was sick! I hope it doesn't last long into the trip. Glad you had a safe drive down and a decent place to stay.

So, I am planning a meal at T-Rex in May - how does this Landry's card thing work? Will it help?

 

[KatMark]

That's too bad about Morgan being sick and unable to drive much. I laughed though when she said she was hungry and you had to make a detour.

I never knew the Welcome Center was closed on holidays, but I guess they deserve the day off too.

You are NOT going to believe this. We have stayed at Perry's Ocean Edge a number of times. In fact, Mark and his parents stayed there for over 25 years growing up and his parents went and stayed there twice a year for about fifteen years after Mark and his sister moved on and got married.

It's a great family resort. Unfortunately, we have found Marco and love that area much more. Daytona just isn't the same since the last hurricane.

 

[afwdwfan]

It really is too bad that Morgan wasn't feeling well. It seems like she's going a great job of just trying to deal with it and push on though.

I thought your comment about the Redbox at McDonald's was kind of funny. The first Redboxes I ever saw around here were all at McDonald's locations.

Perry's resort looks nice! I'm always a little bit hesitant to want to book a room at places like that, not knowing what you'll get into once you're there. At least chains are a safe bet, but if we get back to Daytona sometime, this might be worth looking into.

 

[LuvEeyore]

That's too bad that Morgan was sick! I hope it doesn't last long into the trip. Glad you had a safe drive down and a decent place to stay.

So, I am planning a meal at T-Rex in May - how does this Landry's card thing work? Will it help?

The Landry's Card
You pay 25 dollars to get the card. Landry's include T Rex, Yak and Yeti, Bubba Gump, Rainforest Café and Many others through out US. You accumulate points that will give you rewards. You get an automatic reward for signing up-25 dollars or your money back and every year in your birth month you get a 25 dollar reward. As a cardholder, when you arrive at the hostess station, present your card, gets you next available table for your party size. There are also promotions that will be sent by email. Easy great card to use if you go to Universal and Disney.

I used the promotion sign up and birthday for our dinner on the 1st.