Your travel traditions

[suorkaterina]

When I was a little girl we always started really early in the morning from Long Island, NY. My BFF always came with my parents and I. We loved reading the "South of the Border" signs in Georgia I think? That's how we knew we were in the home run stretch. We always stopped at the same Days Inn in North Carolina to stay the night then continue on the next day. I remember my friend and I loved to play Frogger in their closet of an arcade =P We always did Illuminations that first night we got there. We usually arrived midafternoon. We'd get chinese food and find a good spot to eat and wait for the show. And we almost always stayed at CBR.

My fiance and I went together for the first time last year and are going back for our honeymoon Sept. 2012. Our new tradition is staying at this hotel in Portland, ME the night before the plane ride. They have a heated outdoor pool which is super awesome in the middle of winter. It's a park and fly package. Hoping to make that a tradition everytime. And CBR is our new tradition as well. So happy DF loves it as much as I do. Although I think his love stems from the tiki bar...

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

We've been flying out of BWI airport on the first Southwest flight available in the morning. Since the airport is about an hour from our home, we spend the previous night at an airport hotel so we can get an extra hour of sleep.

Once we get into Orlando, we spend the first day at SeaWorld before we check into our Disney hotel that evening. Our kids love that park, so we just like to get that done before immersing ourselves in the "Disney Cocoon" for the rest of our trip.

 

[Rhongepooh]

Interesting. Are you talking about the new connection to I-10 just south of Wiggins? We are stopping the first night to stay in Tallahassee but we are getting there pretty late since we can't leave home until after lunch time. If we can get that part of the trip shortened it would be great!

Yeah that's it I think. We have done the trip leaving in the afternoon too. We usually get stuck in De Funiack Springs with only 1 pretty crappy hotel! Now that my girls are grown we usually do the leaving early in the morning now. That stretch from Pensacola to Tallahassee is a KILLER! LOL

 

[goofyernmost]

We loved reading the "South of the Border" signs in Georgia I think? That's how we knew we were in the home run stretch.

Not as a criticism, just a reminder....If you saw the South of the Border signs southbound, headed toward WDW, you were in North Carolina. If headed north (back home) they were mostly in South Carolina. South of the Border is right on the North/South Carolina border. (or just a few feet south of it) (thus South of the Border) Clever, Huh?

 

[kkacar]

Yeah that's it I think. We have done the trip leaving in the afternoon too. We usually get stuck in De Funiack Springs with only 1 pretty crappy hotel! Now that my girls are grown we usually do the leaving early in the morning now. That stretch from Pensacola to Tallahassee is a KILLER! LOL

Hilarious! We live just south of DeFuniak & you are right it is pretty crappy. I also agree from there to Tally is terrible. Although I think Tally to Lake City is worse.

Our traditions are:
Leave work early and take the Presley (dog) to the sitter

Make sure the house is spotlessly clean - I am not coming home to a dirty house.

Eat pizza, for the easy clean up and bake muffins. DD always wants homemade muffins so I make LOTS the night before.

Help hubs pack the car that night while he swears we have entirely to much stuff and that we are never taking this much stuff again.

Pack a cooler full or DIET PEPSI (plenty more to get me through the week) juice, water and a few snacks.

Go to bed as early as we can. Get up around 2 am, hit the road. Our goal is to be headed south on I 75 before the sun comes up. Since I drive (love the hubs and all but he puts country bumpkin driver to a whole new level), I can't stand the thought of driving directly into the sun. I hate it.

DD sleeps most of the way.

We stop in Lake City at McDonalds for some breakfast and to stretch our legs.
Stop again at that SuperTarget (on the turnpike maybe... not the best at directions) to pick up whatever we have forgotten. At this point we are only 20 minutes or so from WDW.

Check in and then head to MK. As soon as we get to MK, grab a box of popcorn and slowly make our way down MainStreet.

Other things we have to do are: Eat at Ohana's, ride a boat somewhere, eat at Casey's, ride the Monorail to rest, ride the train at MK. A few others but those are the bigs ones.

Can not wait to be there in March. DD is counting down the days.

Kelli

 

[MinnieLovesMickey]

DH has a "travel shirt". It's a Hawaiian Mickey shirt that he got from the Disney Store about 7 or 8 years ago. He wears it every time we drive to DL or fly to WDW.

 

[ilovepete]

I know this thread is old but I just ran across it and had a great time reading everyone's traditions! What a great thread.

For us, we don't live far, so we have just day trips sometimes. We don't really have any real solid traditions there except that DH always gets a Mickey Bar and I always want to eat at O'hana. That is it! Loved reading everyone else's traditions, though!

 

[sharadoc]

Ours have evolved naturally. We drive.

We cheer at our first palm tree.
Stop at the Florida welcome center for orange juice and brochures
When we pass under the welcome gates, DD always sings the chorus from the "Celebrate You" song and we all have to do the "oh oh, oh oh" part. It was her idea to do it every time.

 

[goofyernmost]

Ours have evolved naturally. We drive.

We cheer at our first palm tree.
Stop at the Florida welcome center for orange juice and brochures

I had forgotten about the Florida Welcome Center. That was also a must stop. Many, many years ago I went to Florida with my parents and I remember that they gave out cold orange juice. I can still taste it...it was great. Since then I have always stopped but have never been able to duplicate that experience. They have only had grapefruit juice which in my opinion should be used to get confessions from prisoners. Tell us or you will have to drink some more!

Still hope springs eternal and we have always stopped. I went to WDW with my Daughter and her family in March of this year and we didn't stop (I wasn't driving), for some reason I felt something was missing. Perhaps, I missed the disappointment.

 

[B.B. Sots]

1) We leave the first day the kiddos are out of school.
2) Eat TX BBQ 1 last time before leaving the state
3) Eat Cajun in LA
4) Stop in Ocala for a night before we head to WDW. This allows us to wash off the road grime and de-stress the day before we arrive. (this is my FAVORITE part)
5) Travel soundtrack with only Disney music

 

[Koz]

We always make sure that Aunt Edna is firmly secured to the roof.

 

[kadesha]

We drive, and it's always the same routine. We pack the car up around 5:00 in the evening and then DH goes to sleep while the kids and I watch movies, play, run, whatever I can do to keep them awake until it's time to hit the road, which is sometime between 12:00 am- 2:00 am. Then we leave. Unless we have to make bathroom stops (which we usually don't because the kids sleep) our first stop is IHOP in Valdosta, GA. We always have breakfast here on the way to Disney. After that, we just drive until we get there. That usually involves getting lost several times, lol! We usually hit the parks the first day but this year we will be hanging out at the resort and Downtown Disney.

 

[Jennasis]

Just to update my OP on this...I realized that on our upcoming trip, we are leaving on a Sunday instead of midweek like we usually do. This is great cause we will avoid all of the AWFUL Charlotte area traffic that traditionally plagues our drive (and has the nasty habit of adding precious minutes to the ETA on our GPS). So while THAT'S great, it also occurs to me that our tradition of stopping for breakfast at that Chik-Fil-A in South Carolina is in jeopardy since Chik's are CLOSED ON SUNDAY! When I realized that I almost had DH change our trip dates hahaha! I guess I'm a creature of habit too. Guess we'll make it a Mickey D's breakfast.

Honestly, 4 months out and I have to stop myself from buying "trip food" (like our pretzels and drinks) everytime we go food shopping. It's far too early to start prepping for the trip like that, but MAN do I want to. That week leading up to a WDW vacation is like crack to me...packing...buying sunscreen...realizing I need something last minute from the drugstore...hey look at that cute top, wouldn't it be great for Disney...and on and on.

 

[maganda]

I had forgotten about the Florida Welcome Center. That was also a must stop. Many, many years ago I went to Florida with my parents and I remember that they gave out cold orange juice. I can still taste it...it was great. Since then I have always stopped but have never been able to duplicate that experience. They have only had grapefruit juice which in my opinion should be used to get confessions from prisoners. Tell us or you will have to drink some more!

Still hope springs eternal and we have always stopped. I went to WDW with my Daughter and her family in March of this year and we didn't stop (I wasn't driving), for some reason I felt something was missing. Perhaps, I missed the disappointment.

Thanks for sharing your orange juice memory. I hope my kids will have good memories of our drives to FL that they will remember forever.

I like the idea of a seat surprise/treat and will be doing that on this trip. And I'm also guilty of shopping too early for snacks, travel-size stuff, clothes. For me, the planning and preparation are so much fun.

We are near Charlotte so we leave early in the a.m. before 485 gets miserable. House is cleaned, stuff unplugged, car packed the night before. We like to stop at a Chick-Fil-A in Pooler, GA just off 95. It's one of the few Chick-Fil-As that has a hostess who roams around, handing out mints, topping off your sweet tea...

One thing that has become an unintentional tradition is our uncanny ability to pack glow sticks and forget to bring them to the parks. Every day, without fail. On our first trip we not only forgot to bring them to the parks but we also managed to leave them in a drawer in the condo when we checked out. If we had the sense to leave them in the car we'd probably forget to get them out of the trunk.

 

[lcj19]

We always go through a McD's drive-thru for breakfast and try to stop as little as possible. Ice Ice Baby has to play at least twice during our drive.

On the way home we stop at Cracker Barrel...don't want to get back to reality any sooner than we have to .

 

[maganda]

We always make sure that Aunt Edna is firmly secured to the roof.

 

[Jennasis]

Thanks for sharing your orange juice memory. I hope my kids will have good memories of our drives to FL that they will remember forever.

I like the idea of a seat surprise/treat and will be doing that on this trip. And I'm also guilty of shopping too early for snacks, travel-size stuff, clothes. For me, the planning and preparation are so much fun.

We are near Charlotte so we leave early in the a.m. before 485 gets miserable. House is cleaned, stuff unplugged, car packed the night before. We like to stop at a Chick-Fil-A in Pooler, GA just off 95. It's one of the few Chick-Fil-As that has a hostess who roams around, handing out mints, topping off your sweet tea...

One thing that has become an unintentional tradition is our uncanny ability to pack glow sticks and forget to bring them to the parks. Every day, without fail. On our first trip we not only forgot to bring them to the parks but we also managed to leave them in a drawer in the condo when we checked out. If we had the sense to leave them in the car we'd probably forget to get them out of the trunk.

Come up to Statesville. The Chik-Fil-A here has the roaming mint server (and sometimes they have brownie samples they hand out too!).

 

[linskypens]

always buy a bag of Nacho cheese Doritos for the plane.Once in flight we pull out the notebook, and write down collectively the 100 things we like best at WDW, taking turns to pick something until we get to 100.

Once in the car from MCO, we always beep the horn repeatedly when passing under the arch.