Update 07/20!!! 1 Mom, 2 Kids, 3 Resorts and 6 Parks! An October 2014 TR

Tink-erin-belle

Tink-erin-belle

DIS Veteran
Joined
Aug 15, 2010
Welcome to my long awaited trip report! Well, maybe you guys haven’t been waiting forever for it, but I have! I’ve been planning this trip on the Disboards for years! Seriously! Don’t believe me? Well, the PTR for this trip actually started back in 2012! Maybe I am getting ahead of myself, and maybe no one cares :lmao: so let me tell you the important stuff about this trip first! It was a twelve day trip from October 22 to November 2! I am a single mom and I took my two kids to Disney World for a total of seven park days, Food & Wine, as well as Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party! Oh, and we started off the trip with a quick visit to Universal Orlando to see our good friend Harry Potter!

My name is Erin and I am an obsessive Disney trip planner… with the exception of this trip. I’ll go into that a bit more in a minute. I am 41 years young and I have two amazing kids – Coy, 15, and True, 11.



I took Coy and True to WDW back in 2008 and 2009, and I have been trying to get the kids back there ever since. I was practically raised on Disney. My mom and dad took me and my four siblings to Disney World once a year. I always loved going, but we typically went on vacation for either Spring Break or in the summer! I had no idea that Disney could be a completely different – and relatively crowd-free – place when travelling during the off season! In 2008 and 2009, the kids and I went in November/December and I have been planning Christmastime trips ever since then. But I started working for a non-profit a few years ago and our busy season is during Christmas/end-of-year, so I knew I couldn’t take the kids on a long trip then. So, I switched gears and started planning for October so that I could take them to MNSSHP! So, very VERY long story short: after five years of financial issues after my divorce, not getting child support for months at a time, pay cuts, a lay-off, starting a new job and getting my finances back in order, I finally got to take the kids on a trip that we all deserved!!! Because of all of the reasons I just listed, I planned trips, paid deposits on trips, almost paid off trips, and cancelled trips more times than I cared to count! So, with this trip that we just took, I was afraid that something horrible was going to happen and that I would have to cancel this trip as well! Thankfully, the other shoe that I thought was going to drop never did, and we finally made it on our trip!





I felt like that “shoe” was always dangling over my head, though, so I didn’t get into planning this trip as much as I had every other trip. I half-heartedly made ADRs and I never got around to making touring plans, making costumes for the Halloween party, or doing much of anything. I was more nervous about this trip not happening than I cared to admit. I felt like I jinxed myself with all of the planning I did for my other trips, so I didn’t truly allow myself to get into the fun of planning like I usually did. Not to mention that I was incredibly busy at work, so I just didn’t have the time to do any of the things that I planned on doing. Then I realized that this trip really was going to happen! I wasn’t in the scary financial situation I had been in for so many years. I didn’t have to worry about the trip breaking the bank. Being the sole breadwinner is a serious responsibility, so it was hard for me sometimes to take off the breadwinner hat and put on the Let’s-spend-a-whole-lot-of-money-on-a-Disney-vacation-rather-than-saving-it-for-an-emergency hat! :rotfl: Once I finally realized this trip was actually happening, I was able to make some important decisions. I cancelled my vacation package and booked room only reservations because I got the Annual Pass! Getting the AP has always been a dream for me! I was finally able to do it!

I’m still working on my cost analysis for this trip, but I’ll be able to see soon if it was a smart financial decision to get Annual Passes. If I didn’t break even on this trip, I think I will have broken even by our trip in February. At the very least, it cut down on waste because the kids and I weren’t tied into eating a certain amount of table service meals like we would have been if we were on the dining plan. But, again, I am getting ahead of myself!

So, it was 1 Mom, 2 Kids, 3 Resorts – Cabana Bay at Universal, Art of Animation, and All Star Movies. In this TR, I’ll let you know which one we liked the best!







I’ll let you in on how jumping from resort to resort played out! I’ll tell you how the kids and I liked MNSSHP! I’ll share what we tried at the Food & Wine Festival!

But first up. I’ll tell you about our CRAZY travel day! So, I hope you all will stick around and read along because I can’t wait to share all of these stories with you! I’ll be back soon with the story about how our travel day was almost a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day!
 




Tink-erin-belle said:

Welcome, Nikki! :welcome: I see you have a surprise trip planned. Do you have a PTR?
Click to expand...




No PTR. I may do a trip report after our trip though.

I can't wait to read along because I've also planned a few vacations since 2011 and had to cancel due to being a single mother and finances. I am determined to make this next trip.

My SO is coming with us for his first trip ever. It also softens the finances part for this next trip.
 
Glad you and your kids got to enjoy a nice vacation together, sounds very well deserved! Subbing and can't wait to read!
 
HI, everybody! I realized that I didn't give you all a proper DISboards intro to my family! I'll do that now, and then get into our travel day. Again, my name is Erin, and I am a single mom.



My favorite Disney character is Tinkerbell, hence my DIS name Tink-Erin-Belle. After working in telecom for the majority of my career (my family always comes to me first with questions about their cable TV/Internet service!) I got laid off and unexpectedly ended up working in the membership department of an international nonprofit. It was a complete culture shock for me, but I love it! My job is fulfilling, but it is also very busy. I am going to do my best to keep up with this trip report! I was bad about keeping up with my PTR, but I think writing this report will be more fun since I will be able to relive the trip. I love writing, crafting, cooking, and I used to do Dinner and a Disney Movie Nights with my kids. I am going to try to do those again so that we can keep up the Disney magic until our next trip. Anyway, as you can see, I have a tendency to ramble and go on tangents! So, back to the intro: my favorite park is the Magic Kingdom and my favorite ride on this trip was actually Dinosaur! Normally, I'm a roller coaster girl, but Dinosaur was really fun for me and the kids on this trip.

I can describe both of my kids the same way, but they have very different personalities. They are both wonderful, caring, giving, intelligent, creative, crazy, smart-mouthed cutie pies! We are always alternating between having fun with each other and getting on each other's nerves! LOL! We're nuts and we accept that! Coy is growing into the strong, silent type.



He's 15 and he is a very introspective person, so he's had a lot of anxiety issues over the past few years. He went from being the class clown to the quiet kid. He's growing out of it and he's come out of his shell quite a bit around strangers. He is interested in video game design and testing, and he built his own computer completely from scratch a few months ago! His favorite park is EPCOT and his favorite ride, in his words, was, "Club Cool, because it was a ride of flavors!" :lmao:

True is 11 going on 17.



She's a very mature acting girl, but she thinks she's more grown than she really is. She definitely has that teenager attitude down, so I'm scared to see when she's going to be like when she really is a teenager! She's a sweetheart, though. She's a nurturing type of person and she's very artistic. She loves singing, dancing, and she's been working on a short story about witches! Her favorite park is Hollywood Studios and her favorite ride on this trip was Living with the Land.

If you guys are on Facebook, then you might be familiar with Timehop. It's an app that shows you the pictures etc. that you posted on social media over the past few years. I thought it was fitting that this past weekend, Timehop showed me a post from 6 years ago when the kids and I were about to start our long drive down to Disney World! It was the first time I ever took them:



Fast forward to present day...

The travel day is usually the most uneventful part of the trip report for most people. Boy, did I envy those people! I hope this isn’t TMI, but I woke up on the morning of our travel day with cramps because my Aunt Flo came to visit a few days late! I was so worried this would happen when she didn’t come to visit on time! I just knew I was going to have horrible cramps and I did! They weren’t the regular cramps I usually get, either. They were so bad that I had to stay in bed for a couple of hours and finally take a pain killer! Usually, I can work through them and occasionally have to take a Motrin, but not this time! Ugh! OK, I am sorry if you all didn’t want to hear about my personal problem, but it is relevant to the story!

Since I couldn’t get out of bed when I wanted, I didn’t finish packing and I hadn’t finished cleaning the house. I don’t want to have to think about cleaning as soon as my vacation ends. It’s bad enough that I always have to do laundry when I get home from a trip! So I finished cleaning and organizing, then I finished packing. Well, the time got away from me and I realized we were running late!

I am a very punctual person because I can’t stand being late, so I was very nervous about getting to the airport in time! The kids and I hopped in the car and we were off! Dulles airport is about an hour from our house, so I knew we were cutting it very close, but I believed we would make it with enough time. After what seemed like an eternity, I pulled into the parking lot of the airport, made a note of where we parked, and walked to the shuttle stop so that we could be taken to the terminal. The shuttle took at least 10 minutes to get there. I refused to look at the time because I knew it would just make me more nervous than I already was. When the shuttle finally came, it made a few more stops in the huge parking lot before finally getting to the terminal! I knew we were in bad shape then. The kids and I ran to the check in counter – all the while, I was hoping that the flight had been delayed for some reason. When I got to the counter and told the agent that we were there for the flight to Orlando, she looked at me unsympathetically and just said that we missed the boarding for that flight. :sad: No!!!

I asked if there was another flight we could get on with that airline and she said the next one was for the same time the next day! Seriously??? Only one flight with that airline out of a major international airport to Orlando per day??? She gave me the number to call for rebooking and said that there would be a fee of $75 per person if I decided to do that. Well, these were the tickets that I got on sale for $15 each, so I wasn’t too happy that these tickets would end up being six times more than what I originally paid! I went to sit down and the kids sulked behind me. True was very upset, asking what we were going to do, and Coy was in problem-solving mode. He suggested that we drive to Orlando, but I knew there was no way that I would feel comfortable driving my car down there and back. My car runs well, but it has nearly 200,000 miles on it, and I didn’t want to push it. I looked at other airlines flying to Orlando that day. We had to be in Orlando by the morning because I had planned for us to have our only Universal day that day. We couldn’t bump Universal to the following day because we were going to be checking out of Cabana Bay, checking into Art of Animation, and going to MNSSHP that day! What to do? What to do??? I felt horrible because it was completely my fault that we were late to the airport. I felt like I had ruined the whole trip because I was sick that morning! I knew I was overreacting a little (there was still some logic going on behind all of the guilt!) so I took a few minutes to collect my thoughts. None of the flights that other airlines had to Orlando that day were anywhere near a reasonable price! I knew it was a long shot that I would catch a day-of sale, but I had to try. Coy kept saying that I should rent a car, but then that would mean I would lose the money I paid for the flight home, as well! Then I realized that I could rent a car just one way! :idea:

I wasn’t renting a car in Orlando (I needed a designated driver for Food & WINE :rotfl: ), so I knew that I was going to have to rely on cabs until we got on Disney property and could take Disney transportation, so it sort of made sense to rent a car instead for the first few days. I could drive down to Orlando so that we could make our first park day as planned, and I could drop the car off at MCO after we checked out of Cabana Bay, and we could just take Magical Express to AoA! Yes! Now it was time to see if that would actually make sense financially. If it only cost a little more than the $225 in total change fees I would have if we flew, then it might actually be worth it! I called the car rental agency I usually use and the rental ended up being $207.99 including taxes and fees! Yes!!! Of course, that didn’t include the money I would be spending on gas travelling all of the way from Northern Virginia to Orlando, but I felt like it was totally worth it! We wouldn’t get to Orlando a day late, we wouldn’t have to get cabs from the airport to Cabana Bay or from Cabana Bay to Art of Animation, and we’d have a car to go do a supply run to a grocery store! Totally worth it!

Mind you, it was almost 4pm at this point and I was running on the adrenaline of finding a solution to our problem, so I was ignoring the fact that I had a 13 – 14 hour drive ahead of me. I was completely aware that I had the drive and I was going to be tired, but I was actively trying not to think about it! :laughing: The kids and I left the terminal and took the shuttle to the car rental location at the airport. We ended up getting a nice, roomy Camry. We drove back to my car in the long-term parking and got my window mount for my phone (so that I could use it for GPS) and the car charger for my phone, as well.

I told the kids that we needed to take a selfie to commemorate the fact that we had to drive instead of fly to Orlando:



First world problem selfie! Then I said we should make crazy faces:



Coy wasn’t as into it as True was:





Finally, we were on our way, so I took a screenshot of our GPS:



Riveting stuff, right? :lmao: As you can see, we were on the road by 4:43pm and if we took absolutely no breaks, we would get there at 5:30am. We usually end up taking about 13.5 to 14 hours getting to Orlando between filling up the car and potty breaks, so I figured we’d get to Universal by 7am at the latest. That would give us all time to hop in the shower and get to UO by 9am. We would miss the early entry at 8am, but the crowds were predicted to be low, so I wasn’t too worried…



Yeah, we ran into some serious rush hour traffic about 30 minutes later. This is typical of Northern Virginia, so I really shouldn’t have been surprised! This was a back road! I-95 would have been even worse! After being stuck in traffic for about 45 minutes, we finally got to the more moderate traffic of I-95 and we were on our way. Until the kids said they were hungry. Of course they were hungry! We were supposed to have been in Orlando by then. We pulled over in Stafford, VA to get some snacks at Target and we went through the drive-thru at Wendy’s to get dinner. We didn’t stop again until we reached North Carolina. It took us almost an hour for a potty break and to put gas in the car:



We were tracking to reach Orlando a little before 7am, so we were still going to be on schedule if we could keep the next potty breaks shorter than this one! Well, when we got to South Carolina, we lost another hour:



Yikes! By the time we got to Georgia, we needed to fill up the car and I needed a little nap. The kids were doing a fantastic job keeping the conversation going, and they took turns sleeping so that one of them would always be awake with me. They were awesome! Or maybe they just feared for their lives because they knew it was crazy for me to drive to Orlando completely unprepared! LOL! So we pulled over and I took a nap for about 45 minutes. After that, I felt totally refreshed! Our time was impacted quite a bit:



But I didn’t care because we would still be at Universal that morning! Then we hit major traffic in Jacksonville!



It wasn’t even 7am yet, so I thought it was too early for rush hour! The morning rush starts before 7am in NoVa, but in Jacksonville? Turns out, it was construction:



Ugh! We were doing so well! But we passed the traffic after a while and we started going at a good clip again. Then I started getting sleepy again, so I decided it would be safest for me to pull over and catch a few more winks for about 30 minutes. When I woke up, we hit the road again and this was our ETA:



9:36am. That was OK, though, because at least we made it! By the time we actually pulled into Cabana Bay, it was 9:45:



I was so happy! And I was fully awake! Our 14 hour drive was actually a 17 hour drive! Insane, but I was so glad that I did it and that we arrived safely! So, what could be more exciting than our wild ride down to Orlando? Checking into Cabana Bay, of course! No, not really! But my next posts will have some pictures of the room and our visit to Universal Orlando! Do you guys think that the kids and I made it through the whole day???
 
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