We are officially on the road! Our group includes me, DH, DD5, DD1 (who will actually be 2 in 2.5 weeks!), my parents, my brother, his wife, and their two kids (niece is 4 and nephew is 2). My parents and brother left from Mississippi this morning. We left from Tennessee yesterday afternoon, spent the night in Georgia, and now we’re all meeting in Lake City tonight, then arriving in the World tomorrow! Our kids aren’t really used to long car trips, so we decided to break it into manageable chunks this way. We almost talked ourselves into flying, but the prices really weren’t great with it being weekend, and I had a coworker get stranded in FL last month during all the Southwest cancellations, so we decided to avoid that. So, here we go, checking out all the Tesla superchargers on the way to Orlando.
We’re all staying 11/14-11/20 at Bay Lake Tower (on rented points) in a theme park view grand villa. I can’t wait to see the fireworks from there! DD5 has been once when she was 2.5yo, but this is the first trip for all the other kids. My SIL has only ever been on cheerleading trips as a teen, so this will be her first trip to focus on the parks. My parents adore WDW, so treating them to DVC rooms this trip and last time has been really special for us. We’re all also celebrating that they both retired this year!
I’d love to promise this will be a live trip report, but we will just have to see. Hopefully I can at least post a few photos during the day and then do more updates in the evenings/during breaks. Even if I get behind, I’ll try to give all the updates I can on how things go using Genie+/ILL/Rider swap, etc. I’ve loved following everyone’s trip reports here, so happy to finally contribute some of my own!
My DH works in Brentwood and we live in Clarksville and my son goes to school in Nashville so we know all about the traffic. It’s gotten so much worse since we’ve lived here.
Leaving Lake City, ETA to BLT 1030! The kids had an absolute blast with their cousins last night. Luckily, we were the only people eating indoors at the Panera by our hotel, because they just ran buck wild after being cooped up in the car all day. We all got some decent sleep and hotel breakfast, and I got us Jungle Cruise LL for 1225 and 7DMT for 1400.
So, while I’m here in the car re-optimizing my TP with our LL return times, I also decided to see what Genie would suggest for our day. I filled it all in as if I were genuinely planning to use it, all the attractions we have planned, and that we want to eat at Sleepy Hollow and CHH. The plan it spit back out to me is hilarious! Literally the only attractions on it are the two LL we already have booked! Otherwise, it tells us to do nothing but cavalcades and audio tours all day, eat at Friar’s Nook and Pinocchio Village Haus, then watch Enchantment. Definitely won’t be wasting my time even experimenting with that.
ETA I’ve not met anyone in person so anyone could have any form of accent but from the trip reports I kept thinking the fab five are all from out west!
Just 2 of the 5 iirc. I actually don’t know where @Shanneepantslovesdisney hails from, so it might be 3 of the 5 now. When it was Fab 4, 2 were east, 2 were west.
I keep putting @93111tink in with the Five because of her friendship with @Wahoohokie, and Tink is very much a West Coaster too.
