Team Renfroe's 2nd Trip Report - 1,500 pictures, dining reviews, and DISmeets!

[KatMark]

Alan, I'm here. I'm here! I'm so glad I found this before you got too far. As you know, I'm living my vacation through your report since we had to cancel our trip to the CSR/Disney this year. I can't wait to read more and see all your pictures (I hope you'll do a review on the CSR thread too!).

[ckdsnynt]

Originally Posted by englishrose47

Morning Alan !!! Last night I folded my MMM shirt after washing it and just stood there reading all the names and remembering ! When the time comes to all who don't know I am the Tiara wearing ol' gal!!
I have also started my TR, but so far no pix othr than one from last year ! Once my friend helps me I too will have lots of FOOD pix ! I a anxiously waiting the next update !!

Hey, Rosie! I did laundy this weekend and as i hung my shirts on the line to dry, I almost cried thinking about all the new friends and how it might be a whole year before we could get together again! I kept the tiara out tho! never know just when an opportunity might come along to wear that, ya know? No TR for me, not enough pictures and we didn't do enough to report on. Still too new to all this I guess. maybe next time.

[alan_renfroe]

Originally Posted by MaryAz

Originally Posted by MaryAz
I'm in-great to meet you!

Hi Mary! It was great to meet you and your DH. Wish you guys could have joined us at the R&C for a Guiness.

We were there-outside. Did not realize that everyone was inside until we left. Oh well.

Oh, that stinks. It was SOOO crowded....I guess I didn't expect it to be that crowded at 3:30 in the afternoon. Anyway, it was a great pleasure to meet you all!

Originally Posted by NotSoEvilStepmother

I'm jumping in for the ride. Sounds like this'll be a very interesting trip.

Cool! Hop on!

Originally Posted by kschafer

Ooh ooh...I can't believe I found this so quickly. I lurked around on last years TR and I'm looking forward to tons more pics of your lovely family and of course the food porn!

Welcome out of lurkdom!! So glad you are joining us...and I promise LOTS of food porn!

Originally Posted by Luis Rodriguez

Well, as a dog belonging to a family that label themselves as "The Griswolds", I'm pretty sure he was very glad about staying at home!!

Hahahaha....good call, Luis. I'm sure Truman was MUCH safer at home! We are fortunate that we have family and friends who looked out for him, took him for walks, played with him, etc., while we were gone. We certainly did MISS him though!

[pmama]

Yeah TR started!! Can't wait to read more!

[alan_renfroe]

Originally Posted by ckdsnynt

Alan:
I'm in!
My favorite parts so far:
the pictures
the report itself
seeing the names of the people I meet at the May Meet and having a face to put with their names!
Love it all!

Awww..thanks, CK! It certainly was nice to put names and faces together at the meet, wasn't it?

Originally Posted by 2xcited2sleep

Hurrah! You started!! And a great start it is!

Your kids look adorably sleepy with just the right amount of excitement at 4am!

to the accident blocking five lanes of traffic! Oy vey!!

Julianna is quite a photographer- looking forward to more of her photos and to "Rusty's" food reviews!

Very relieved to see in some of your replies that rain didn't interfere too badly.

Can't wait for more.

Yay! Christine is here!

Hahaha...I LOVE that picture of the kids at 4am...especially Wil. Can you tell it was all he could do to come up with a smile?

Yeah, Atlanta traffic is ALWAYS a nightmare. More on that later.

I think you'll find Juliana's pictures to be better than Wil's food reviews on this trip! For some reason, the boy just wasn't that hungry most of the time.

Originally Posted by dizneeat

Okay, I made it over here and it's only page 3! Relief!!!

I will sit patiently here and wait for your next installment! It's been fun so far!

Hey! Welcome aboard! Next installment is on its way...I promise!

Originally Posted by Bibbidi

Alan, what kind of dog do you have? He is soooo cute.

Too bad about the traffic holdup in Atlanta. When we drive we have to go through there as well, but usually we hit Atlanta in the middle of the day since we are coming from Cincinnati. My DH has made sure though that I can reroute us off highways when there are traffic jams due to accidents. I am his personal GPS since he won't just buy one of his own.

Thanks, Bibbidi. He is a Silky Terrior (or at least we think he is mostly silky.) He is actually a shelter dog that we adopted, and he is absolutely THE best pet anyone could ever ask for. I was never a "dog person" but Truman won my heart. What a GREAT dog!

Your hubby is a SMART man! Knowing the way around Atlanta without using Interstates is a big help.

Originally Posted by englishrose47

Morning Alan !!! Last night I folded my MMM shirt after washing it and just stood there reading all the names and remembering ! When the time comes to all who don't know I am the Tiara wearing ol' gal!!
I have also started my TR, but so far no pix othr than one from last year ! Once my friend helps me I too will have lots of FOOD pix ! I a anxiously waiting the next update !!

Hi Rosie! That's funny that you are getting all sentimental about folding a t-shirt! We did have fun though. I am enjoying your TR so far!

Originally Posted by Ellwood

Hi Alan, Glad to see that you started your trip report. I lurked on your previous reports and enjoyed them very much!! Figured I would bite the bullet, and actually post on this one We were there about the same time that you were. The 16th to the 25th. Had a great time, despite the rain..

Cool! Now you are OUT of lurkdom and decided to join the Griswolds! Good for you guys for having fun in spite of the rain. So did we!!!

Glad to have you along for the ride.

Originally Posted by Mirb1214

I was SO excited to see you were starting a new trip report. Yours from last year was the first ever report I read on the DIS. I remembered you being from AL in your last report but I just realized you're from Jacksonville. I live in White Plains; we're practically neighbors. I can't wait to read more of your trip. We're heading down June 8-12 and again Oct 10-17 so I will be looking for some good tips.

Oh you are KIDDING? I can't believe someone is on the DISboards from White Plains! How cool is that! You're right...we ARE practically neighbors! In fact, we always go over the mountain through White Plains to Heflin to get on the Interstate...so we probably passed near your home on the morning we left!

Originally Posted by karajeboo

Great start Alan! Hoping to beat rush hour in Atlanta??? Even minimal traffic in Atlanta is heavy!!!!! Silly man!

Thanks, Kara! Yeah, I don't WHAT I was thinking. Atlanta and minimal traffic do not belong in the same sentence! More on that in my comment below.

Originally Posted by CRdisMom

my silly sister lives in Atlanta. She says it takes her 1 and half to get to work every morning. That just crossing town. Yikes! Sorry about the delay. Love the pictures too!

I've gotta tell ya....I have this Love/Hate relationship with the city of Atlanta. First of all, I was born there and consider myself to be from there. When the Olympics were there in 1996, I was in heaven!!! IT was so cool! My favorite NFL team is the Falcons, my favorite baseball team is the Braves, etc. HOWEVER, within the past few years, Atlanta seems to have become almost impassible. Can't go through downtown...can't go on 285....it has become really difficult to get around the city. I still LOVE Atlanta, but I hate having to pass through on the way to somewhere else.

Originally Posted by mickeystoontown

Thank goodness you made it through Atlanta. My daughter goes to missionary college in Cleveland, Georgia and the only way to get there is either straight through Atlanta or the loop around Atlanta....both of which are horrible. It's like her leader said..."pick your poison" when traveling Atlanta.

Pick your poison is exactly right. I recently had a business trip to Chapel Hill, NC, and I contemplated going through Knoxville and down through Chattanooga just to avoid having to go through Atlanta.

[alan_renfroe]

Originally Posted by podsnel

OMG, Kara, you are sooo funny all the time!!

Hi Team Renfroe! Very excited to read about your adventures!! I can't beliee you're already on PAGE 3!!!!

I KNOW! Geeeeshh....I must have picked up some extra readers with those billboards along I-4!!!

Originally Posted by Jeanine3kids

Great start Alan. I wish I had a 10 hour drive to disney, unfortunately it is more like 24. Good Luck on the hot Dog Business If I lived in your area I would be a really good customer Hot Dogs are DS 7 favorite food.

It is nice to know that if we have the fundage that "The World" is reachable by car in one day!! (Our issue is with having said fundage!)

Thanks for the good wishes on the hot dog restaurant! Things are moving very quickly. We paid the deposit on the lease this week and took out our liability insurance policy. There's no going back now!

Originally Posted by UsNew2Disney2008

Hey Alan - great trip report! Can't wait to read more!

Thanks! Great to have you along for the ride! Next chapter is coming up.

Originally Posted by M & E love WDW

Thanks TEAM RENFROE. It's so good of you to share your vacation. I am in the pre-planning stages and we will be staying at CSR too. Thanks again.

Oh, we LOVE sharing our vacation with readers here on the DIS! It is a therapeutic way of reliving the adventure and getting back to the real world! Glad to have you along! We've got TONS of CSR pics to share.

Originally Posted by KatMark

Alan, I'm here. I'm here! I'm so glad I found this before you got too far. As you know, I'm living my vacation through your report since we had to cancel our trip to the CSR/Disney this year. I can't wait to read more and see all your pictures (I hope you'll do a review on the CSR thread too!).

YAY! Kathy is here!! As I stated above, I took a TON of CSR pics this year. I will be posting them on the CSR threads as well, but not before they are revealed in the trip report!

Originally Posted by ckdsnynt

Hey, Rosie! I did laundy this weekend and as i hung my shirts on the line to dry, I almost cried thinking about all the new friends and how it might be a whole year before we could get together again! I kept the tiara out tho! never know just when an opportunity might come along to wear that, ya know? No TR for me, not enough pictures and we didn't do enough to report on. Still too new to all this I guess. maybe next time.

No! No tears....just great memories!! Sorry you all didn't get enough pics on this trip, but under the circumstances it is understandable. Well, maybe you can just enjoy OUR pictures!

Originally Posted by pmama

Yeah TR started!! Can't wait to read more!

Yay!! pmama is here also!! It is so cool when all of your DIS friends come together on one thread! Welcome aboard. By the way, I can't wait to read your Disneyland trip report also.

[acellison]

I loved your last report
Can't wait for more!

[valleygirl]

Hi Alan,
I loved your first trip report and have been waiting for the second. We leave tomorrow for St. Augustine and then arrive at CSR on June 2nd. Can't wait to get there and can't wait to read about the rest of your trip!
Maura

[alan_renfroe]

Originally Posted by acellison

I loved your last report
Can't wait for more!

Thanks very much! Chapter 2 is coming up.

[alan_renfroe]

Okay, so when we last left off, we were just getting into the state of Florida. Normally, we like to stop at the rest stop at the state line. (I'm a sucker for that free orange juice and grapefruit juice!) But not this year. We decided we didn't want to waste any time getting to Disney World!!

Our Honda Odyssey has a six disc c.d. player and will play mp3s. Nice! I made several mp3 discs in the weeks leading up to the trip....so I had TONS of tunes from which to chose. The other family members all had their own forms of entertainment. For Elizabeth, it was her books, her laptop, and her beauty sleep! For Wil, it was his mp3 player and his cell phone for texting friends back home. For Juliana, it was her Nintendo DS or the dvd player with her own headphones. That meant I had full control of the c.d. player in the Odyssey!!! I took full advantage of this opportunity to listen to every guilty pleasure song known to a child of the 80s like myself!! I had made one c.d. in particular that had 170 mp3s from the year 1984!! SWEET!! Can you say Van Halen, Billy Idol, The Cars, Culture Club, Huey Lewis & The News, Rick Springfield, Prince, Madonna, Twisted Sister, and Z.Z. Top? WOOHOO!! This dad is on vacation TOO!

But I digress....

Anyway, the tunes kept me humming along until before you know it, we were on the Florida Turnpike.





And suddenly.....we start to see THE signs!!!







There it is!! Just ahead!!! Whoa kids....whoa kids!!







and, of course, Juliana gets the award for capturing the best picture of THE sign!!



So, we've made it to Disney World!! Now it's time to make our way to Coronado Springs Resort.



I can see it in the distance!







and there it is!!



Coming up next....a worry-free check in at Coronado Springs and our first snack credits!!

[podsnel]

Cool tunes, Mr. Thong wearing organizer. I listened to them in 1984, too- when I was in COLLEGE!

We stopped at CS on the way to AKV on the ME- it looked really nice! Did Kara get you an upgrade?

[englishrose47]

Just keeping up with the TR !! Julianna ... Great Pix of the SIGN!!!!!

[dvc4life]

Wow, what a report so far. Followed you from the "DisMoms Gone Wild" report. What fun you guys must have had.

You seem to be alot like my DH, only he wouldn't have waited an hour to get everyone up like you did. He gets up at 2 am and we are pulling out of the garage at 2:20. We don't stop, except for gas and potty stops, until we hit Atlanta, GA and we live in the middle of Iowa! What a day's drive that is.

I will say we hate driving through Atlanta! Hate it, hate it, hate it. Last time we drove down in March 2008 was when the tornado went through downtown and we were driving in it . But no matter what it seems you better plan on it taking at least 2 hours to get through Atlanta. I would love to know the route around Atlanta on side roads just to avoid that city.

Love the sound of your CD music. I lived through that era too! Ahhhhh, the 80's.

Can't wait for more of the Griswold's do Disney report!

[Jeanine3kids]

Great update!!!!!!!!!!!!

[TigerKat]

I don't want to say how old I was for those 80's tunes...

No matter how many times I see the WDW welcome signs I get teary eyed!

Great update Alan!