annaaidan99
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2006
The story of this vacation dates back several years. I am the Disney nut in my family, which consists of myself, my son Aidan (15), my daughter Lily (just turned 6), and Lucy (almost 4). At the time I began planning (2011) I returned to college to pursue a degree in ultrasound. I would buy Disney gift cards whenever I had any extra money and it would go in a box for "one day". I originally planned to stay at Art of Animation for nine nights with the QSDP. In fact, that's exactly what I booked. I changed resorts to All Star Music when the spring promo came out. My dates fell right after my graduation from college (May 28- June 6) In February of 2014, I told my parents that I was going to Disney. In my wildest dreams I would never have expected them to want to come! I've invited them on all my previous trips, and they've always declined. This changed everything. Mom and Dad hadn't been in 25 years. The last place they stayed was the Poly. They had fond memories of Discovery Island and their memories of resort morning hours was just the Poly, CR, and the Fort. They didn't like buses. We considered other options and settled on Wilderness Lodge. I chopped two days off my trip, ditched the dining plan, and booked us all in a deluxe room. Then, my brother and his family decided to join us. I changed dates to June 5-12 to accommodate the later school ending in Texas. I also got a summer pin code for free park hopping I was able to apply to his room as well. So, to summarize what wound up being a long story....my value resort trip morphed into a deluxe club level trip, and wasn't much more. We opted to drive. June 4, 2014. The traveling day It's a ways from Baton Rouge to Disney, but we opted to drive out the day before and spend the night in an inexpensive hotel outside the gates. And, of course we drove in a van. Just like 1989!
[ That's me in the back. No, I wasn't wearing makeup. I had gotten a pitiful amount of sleep and was up at 5:30. The kids and I had dropped my dogs off at the vet to board that morning at 7, and we then went directly to my parents house to leave in the van, which was packed the day before. My kids are not perfect, but they are fantastic travelers. We made the trip from BR to the maingate in 9 hours, with a single stop for gas. My dad had packed homemade sausage biscuits, coffee mugs, drinks, beef jerky, chips, and cookies. The view from our single stop. The kids occupied themselves well. Lily and Aidan played on iPads. Lucy slept. They watched one movie in the car, Cinderella.
We decided to wait to have dinner until we got checked in to our one night hotel, which was the Clarion Maingate. It is a cute, clean little motel that served us pretty well for what we needed. The room slept 6, had a fridge, a microwave, and a nice bathroom for $70 per night. It included a hot breakfast. The girls enjoyed "relaxing" by the pool. No swimming though, as we were starving. We opted for Cracker Barrel, as it was walking distance to the hotel. Like, right next door.
It was better than we expected, and was inexpensive as well. The hotel was fine, but no way could we have been in it for more than a night. The a/c didn't work well, the dividing wall for the sofa area wasn't very good at separating the space. Aidan slept on the sofa and said it was not super comfortable. The girls had trouble sleeping that night, and they were in the bed with me. That meant I didn't sleep well either. However, we were excited because we were so close to Disney and knew the next day was going to be great.
[ That's me in the back. No, I wasn't wearing makeup. I had gotten a pitiful amount of sleep and was up at 5:30. The kids and I had dropped my dogs off at the vet to board that morning at 7, and we then went directly to my parents house to leave in the van, which was packed the day before. My kids are not perfect, but they are fantastic travelers. We made the trip from BR to the maingate in 9 hours, with a single stop for gas. My dad had packed homemade sausage biscuits, coffee mugs, drinks, beef jerky, chips, and cookies. The view from our single stop. The kids occupied themselves well. Lily and Aidan played on iPads. Lucy slept. They watched one movie in the car, Cinderella.
We decided to wait to have dinner until we got checked in to our one night hotel, which was the Clarion Maingate. It is a cute, clean little motel that served us pretty well for what we needed. The room slept 6, had a fridge, a microwave, and a nice bathroom for $70 per night. It included a hot breakfast. The girls enjoyed "relaxing" by the pool. No swimming though, as we were starving. We opted for Cracker Barrel, as it was walking distance to the hotel. Like, right next door.
It was better than we expected, and was inexpensive as well. The hotel was fine, but no way could we have been in it for more than a night. The a/c didn't work well, the dividing wall for the sofa area wasn't very good at separating the space. Aidan slept on the sofa and said it was not super comfortable. The girls had trouble sleeping that night, and they were in the bed with me. That meant I didn't sleep well either. However, we were excited because we were so close to Disney and knew the next day was going to be great.