Travel Party: me, DH, DD5, and DS2. Darling Sisters 1 and 2 joining later.
Original Plan: Leave tomorrow morning from PA, drive to Lorton, VA to take the auto train overnight, arrive in Orlando Saturday morning. Spend the day at Kidani Village, enjoying pool, eating Sanaa, watching the animals. Head to AK on Sunday morning then move over to the Beach Club for the remainder of our trip.
What Sent this Off the Rails Already: A literal freight train derailment south of Florence in South Carolina. Autotrain tomorrow is canceled. At least we got 28 hours notice?!
So we will likely drive down and take the auto train for the return trip. We’re debating leaving this afternoon after kiddos are done with daycare or waiting until tomorrow morning as originally planned. It’s a 16 hour drive without stops. But DS2 has only been potty trained for four months and well, toddlers don’t love being stuck in car seats for that long… (I know there are a lot of car seat lovers here and I appreciate all that they’ve done for our children’s safety, but I’m going to lament for a hot second here the days when my parents drove me all the way to Florida as a toddler where I got to sprawl out in the back of a station wagon with my big sisters without so much as a seatbelt…)
Plus, I only booked Kidani because I knew we’d have the day to spend and I really don’t want to arrive there late and feel like I spent more money than I wanted to only to eat dinner and sleep. (I should mention that I got the auto train tickets using all the points I’ve accumulated riding the train from Philly to DC over the last several years, so the transport wasn’t costing us a dime… and they were going to feed us. Now, we have to pay for gas, tolls, food, and a hotel somewhere along the way.)
As DH said, though, at least we got the notice this morning. It could’ve all happened tomorrow during the day and we’d be in much worse shape. So, for now, I’m off to finish packing and try to remind myself that soon, so very soon, I will be in the happiest place on earth…
You added an extra night to your vacay! Woohoo! I would leave tonight and drive until you’re tired and use hoteltonight.com to find a place. Sounds like a fun adventure!
Our first trip was many years ago and was the only one where we had to drive one way. A HUGE storm was heading for the east coast as we were wrapping up our trip. I am not sure if it was a hurricane, but they pretty much evacuated the entire coast east of I95 from northern Florida through New England. We were due to take the train home on a Saturday. While riding Peter Pan that Thursday I received a call from Amtrak that our train was cancelled. We ended up driving back to PA via the inland route to avoid all the evacuees on I95 as well as the storm).
The trip was fine, but not all that much fun. We split it in half because the inland route was longer. Definitely sealed our preference for the AutoTrain or flying!
I’m so sorry that your plans got so messed up! We are going by train from WI and this is my biggest fear. I can’t even think about what this would do to our plans. I’m sending positive vibes your way that everything else works out fantastically!!!
I’m also another vote for leaving today instead of tomorrow. It might be less stressful leaving today plus you’ll get to enjoy AKL that much more. Looking forward to following along!
