robruth
07-08-2008, 04:17 PM
Don't know how many posts this will take but the cast of characters are: self, DW, DD (age 6), DD (age 6), DS (age 6), SIL#1 (age undisclosed), BIL#1 (age undisclosed), Niece1 (age 14), Nephew 1 (age 10), SIL#2 (age undisclosed), BIL #2, Nephew 2 (age 13), Niece 2 (age 8).
Day 1 (Thursday): Plan was to leave at 5 am (driving, total of 3 minivans, [BIL#1 and nephew 1 are not driving but will fly down on Friday]), goal is to get as far into Georgia as we possibly can, actual departure time is around 6 am. Make decent progress throughtout the day including a stop in Tennessee for bbq and semifinal of Eurocup. Nighttime progress is not so great. 20 minutes after dinner break, SIL#1 pulls over so that Niece1 can get a Starbucks. At that time DDs and DS decide they have to go to the bathroom and stop ends up taking over 30 minutes. Make it just south of Atlanta (stopping around 10pm). Stay at Best Western. Too late to do anything other than crash.
Day 2 (Friday). Wake up in time to depart at 9 am. Turns out that there is a Dukes of Hazzard festival in town and overnight 4 different General Lees had parked in our parking lot. Day 2 drive goes fine until we get near Orlando. Fort the trip we had bought the Muppets seasons 1 and 2 on DVD to entertain the kids (note: Muppets on audio only are not funny, but kids in the back seat thought it was a hoot) Niece1 decides she has to take a bathroom break, but SIL1 misses the rest area and ends up getting off in suburb of Orlando with no bathroom in sight (detour ends up taking over 1 hour - don't ask). We arrive in Orlando at 4:30 pm on a Friday in time for rush hour. Stuck in traffic. SIL1 peels off from the group to head to airport to pick up BIL1 and Nephew1 at airport. Needless to say, we do not get to the hotel until after 630.
Check in to non-Disney hotel [name of hotel withheld]. Check in is a nightmare. SIL1 made the reservations and is not there yet. The hotel can only find 1 room in SIL1's name not the other 2. After a 30 minute standoff we finally get our other 2 rooms. As we pull around to the room, we see SIL1 pulling into the hotel. Hotel is set up a series of stand alone buildings. Rooms are ok (except for the natural gas leak outside the building). We reported the leak, by morning hotel had not fixed. Good news is we were not blown up ir evacuated.
Change kids into swimsuits and go for a dip in the pool. At first blush, it appears to be a nice pool. After we swam for a little while, kids report that there is poop in the bottom of the deep end of the pool. Pool is an older pool so deep end is 9' deep. Assume kids are kidding or mistaken, but borrow Nephew1s googles. Viewed from a couple feet away, 70-80% likelihood that kids are right (definitely not a leaf, could be a rock but ....). Swim ends, everyone out of the pool.
Went to Giordanos for a late dinner. Not bad, order only slightly messed up but end up with an extra Sausage & Spinach pizza. Back to hotel to sleep. Tomorrow, onto SSR.
Day 1 (Thursday): Plan was to leave at 5 am (driving, total of 3 minivans, [BIL#1 and nephew 1 are not driving but will fly down on Friday]), goal is to get as far into Georgia as we possibly can, actual departure time is around 6 am. Make decent progress throughtout the day including a stop in Tennessee for bbq and semifinal of Eurocup. Nighttime progress is not so great. 20 minutes after dinner break, SIL#1 pulls over so that Niece1 can get a Starbucks. At that time DDs and DS decide they have to go to the bathroom and stop ends up taking over 30 minutes. Make it just south of Atlanta (stopping around 10pm). Stay at Best Western. Too late to do anything other than crash.
Day 2 (Friday). Wake up in time to depart at 9 am. Turns out that there is a Dukes of Hazzard festival in town and overnight 4 different General Lees had parked in our parking lot. Day 2 drive goes fine until we get near Orlando. Fort the trip we had bought the Muppets seasons 1 and 2 on DVD to entertain the kids (note: Muppets on audio only are not funny, but kids in the back seat thought it was a hoot) Niece1 decides she has to take a bathroom break, but SIL1 misses the rest area and ends up getting off in suburb of Orlando with no bathroom in sight (detour ends up taking over 1 hour - don't ask). We arrive in Orlando at 4:30 pm on a Friday in time for rush hour. Stuck in traffic. SIL1 peels off from the group to head to airport to pick up BIL1 and Nephew1 at airport. Needless to say, we do not get to the hotel until after 630.
Check in to non-Disney hotel [name of hotel withheld]. Check in is a nightmare. SIL1 made the reservations and is not there yet. The hotel can only find 1 room in SIL1's name not the other 2. After a 30 minute standoff we finally get our other 2 rooms. As we pull around to the room, we see SIL1 pulling into the hotel. Hotel is set up a series of stand alone buildings. Rooms are ok (except for the natural gas leak outside the building). We reported the leak, by morning hotel had not fixed. Good news is we were not blown up ir evacuated.
Change kids into swimsuits and go for a dip in the pool. At first blush, it appears to be a nice pool. After we swam for a little while, kids report that there is poop in the bottom of the deep end of the pool. Pool is an older pool so deep end is 9' deep. Assume kids are kidding or mistaken, but borrow Nephew1s googles. Viewed from a couple feet away, 70-80% likelihood that kids are right (definitely not a leaf, could be a rock but ....). Swim ends, everyone out of the pool.
Went to Giordanos for a late dinner. Not bad, order only slightly messed up but end up with an extra Sausage & Spinach pizza. Back to hotel to sleep. Tomorrow, onto SSR.