Now is the Best Time! Our 2024 Florida Road Trip (complete)

[ThreeBoyMama]

I would have wanted out of that seating situation too! How awkward.

 

[mickey916]

I would have wanted out of that seating situation too! How awkward.

It was really awkward! Makes me cringe just thinking about it.

 

[mickey916]

4/29 Officially Our Last Disney Day
​

For our last Disney day we chose to go to our favorite park, Epcot. We rope dropped and headed straight to the Land where DH rode Living with the Land and I headed for Soarin’. I had another weird experience like ToT but not nearly as bad on this ride. As we were waiting to have our seat buckles checked someone started rhythmically clapping and other people joined in. I figured it would stop once the ride started but it didn’t. They clapped through the entire ride. It wasn’t a big distraction though as the music muted the clapping for the most part. I don’t get it but I guess they were enjoying themselves. It is interesting though that with all our trips suddenly twice in the same week we encountered groups of people who acted like they were the only ones on the ride. We’ve never really seen that before thankfully.

After riding a few attractions, we headed to Les Halles for another bucket list snack, the baguette.

This is the half-baguette. It was warm and delicious! We were very surprised how much we enjoyed this simple snack of bread.

After our snack we walked around World Showcase and stopped to see the Mariachi band.

Since we were in the neighborhood we took a ride on the Gran Fiesta Tour. As we were riding I had a brainstorm and checked for lunch reservations at San Angel Inn and there was availability right at noon!

So, we headed there after our ride. We were seated promptly but no one waited on us. This is strange but for some reason within the past year multiple times we have been seated in restaurants at tables with no one assigned to them. It happened in Lincoln, NH last fall, this time in April, three weeks ago in North Conway, NH and then this past week in Hill City, SD. So weird! We must look like we don’t tip well, lol.

Anyhow, after about a 20 minute wait we flagged down the host and asked if there was anyone assigned to our table. She apologized and then found us a server. The server apologized as well and took our order. She seemed a bit annoyed that she was given our table though and didn’t give us much service throughout our meal. It’s odd as we have found service to be excellent at San Angel usually.

We decided since it was lunch to order appetizers only.

First, the Totopos: chips, salsa, and queso.

We love this app! The chips are fresh and crispy, the salsa has great flavor and the queso is phenomenal.

We also ordered the queso fundido.

More cheesy goodness!

Despite the service issues this time, San Angel currently holds the title of our favorite Epcot restaurant, edging out Via Napoli and Garden Grill (since they recently changed the menu by cheapening the salad, getting rid of the BBQ chicken and the berry shortcake).

After our meal we happened upon some performers in the Germany pavilion.

They were very funny and talented. It was a great show!

Since we were in the Germany pavilion, we stopped by Sommerfest for one of our favorite Epcot desserts, the pretzel bread pudding.

This bread pudding was so good! The pretzels gave it a salty contrast to the delicious caramel and vanilla sauce.

We had purchased Genie+ so we were able to ride all the attractions we wanted to ride: Frozen, Soarin’, Living with the Land, Finding Nemo, Journey into Imagination, Spaceship Earth, and we ended our afternoon with one final ride on Test Track before it went down for the badly needed re-imagination. We really don’t care for this version. (We skipped Remy and Mission Space.) I also bought an ILL for Guardians. I think I got September again as it seems I get that song a lot but that ride never disappoints!

For dinner, we ordered a brisket sandwich with a side of mac n cheese from Regal Eagle to share.

This was so good last December that we were excited to have it again. Unfortunately, this time it wasn’t as good. The bread was thinner and a little soggy and the meat wasn’t as tender or flavorful. The mac n cheese was not as cheesy. The sandwich also seemed smaller.

For comparison’s sake, here’s the photo from December:

Comparing the two photos, it definitely wasn’t our imagination that December was better.

For our final Disney dessert, we simply had to get our new favorite, the Flower & Garden strawberry funnel cake.

Still excellent! The fresh strawberries along with the freshly made funnel cake and ice cream combine to make the perfect dessert. We’re really hoping they offer this next year!

After dessert we headed back to our hotel for our final night in Orlando thus concluding our bonus 5 days. While I was a little bit sad we would be leaving I was so grateful that we were able to add in the extra days. Overall we had 16 days in Orlando and had such a great time that next year we plan to spend the entire month of our spring trip in Orlando. We can’t wait (and we’re also hoping to head down this December for a quick one week trip to experience the holiday offerings again).

Total steps: 26,835

Up next: heading home with a few stops along the way for more fun and food!

 

[ddluvsdisney]

We try to have lunch at Les Halles each trip. DH always gets the ham & cheese baguette. Yes the bread alone is delicious!!!
I never knew about the pretzel bread pudding in Germany. Will need to check that out! That’s too bad your sandwich and Mac & cheese was so different. That’s so weird but not surprising either.
Guardians is my favorite ride!!!
I’m not sold on the funnel cakes.
So I was at a Portuguese feast today. They have mallasadas which is what I call the Portuguese version of beignets. They are thinner and look more like a funnel cake but soooo much better!! ( even though they are fried dough) Haha

 

[mickey916]

We try to have lunch at Les Halles each trip. DH always gets the ham & cheese baguette. Yes the bread alone is delicious!!!

We have never had lunch at Les Halles. My DH would love a ham & cheese baguette (his go-to sandwich is always ham & cheese). We have Les Halles on the list for lunch for our next trip.

I never knew about the pretzel bread pudding in Germany. Will need to check that out!

Yes you do!

That’s too bad your sandwich and Mac & cheese was so different. That’s so weird but not surprising either.

I think it was just an off day. We'll definitely try it again.

Guardians is my favorite ride!!!

Mine too (in any park) with the Milennium Force coaster at Cedar Point my second favorite.

I’m not sold on the funnel cakes.
So I was at a Portuguese feast today. They have mallasadas which is what I call the Portuguese version of beignets. They are thinner and look more like a funnel cake but soooo much better!! ( even though they are fried dough) Haha

I am very familiar with malassadas! Growing up we often spent the weekend sleeping over my grandparents' house. My Portuguese-Italian grandmother would make homemade Neopolitan pizza for dinner and get up super early the next morning to make malassadas for breakfast. Soooo good! While I love beignets and funnel cake there's nothing like fresh malassadas! We haven't had them though for many years now. Sadly, I never really learned how to make them from my Nana.

 

[ddluvsdisney]

Was

I am very familiar with malassadas! Growing up we often spent the weekend sleeping over my grandparents' house. My Portuguese-Italian grandmother would make homemade Neopolitan pizza for dinner and get up super early the next morning to make malassadas for breakfast. Soooo good! While I love beignets and funnel cake there's nothing like fresh malassadas! We haven't had them though for many years now. Sadly, I never really learned how to make them from my Nana.

My dad is a Portuguese immigrant. My mom is French Canadian. So needless to say we didn’t eat much Portuguese food growing up in MY house. My aunts and grandmother taught my mom how to cook a couple of things my dad liked. I would really only get homemade mallasadas on holidays. We took my parents to the feast… my dad suffered a debilitating stroke 2 years ago. It’s fun going to the feast to celebrate my heritage.

 

[mickey916]

Was

My dad is a Portuguese immigrant. My mom is French Canadian. So needless to say we didn’t eat much Portuguese food growing up in MY house. My aunts and grandmother taught my mom how to cook a couple of things my dad liked. I would really only get homemade mallasadas on holidays. We took my parents to the feast… my dad suffered a debilitating stroke 2 years ago. It’s fun going to the feast to celebrate my heritage.

It's so hard to see parents struggle in old age. My dad had quadruple bypass last year and it's been a very long road of recovery. Glad you were able to take them to the feast. I haven't been to one in years.

 

[mickey916]

4/30 Travel Day to Augusta, Georgia​

Since this day was really just a travel day, this will be a brief update. We got up early and hit the road. It made me sad to see this sign.

One thing to note about this picture is the overcast skies. When we arrived in Florida back on April 3 we arrived in a downpour. Other than that day and a two hour window of rain at Epcot on April 11, we had perfectly sunny skies the entire time. It was almost as if Mother Nature was mirroring our feelings as we left Florida by clouding over.

We were concerned about being able to get our daily walk in, so eventually while it wasn’t raining we pulled into a park to walk around. We kept our eyes to the skies as rain was definitely imminent.

We got in all our steps and then continued the drive to Augusta, Georgia. For dinner we stopped at the Texas Roadhouse, DH’s favorite chain restaurant for dinner.

We ordered our usual Chicken critter salad, DH’s with honey mustard dressing and mine with blue cheese.

These salads are always consistently good with lots of fresh veggies, crispy chicken, cheese, egg, and bacon. Plus, their rolls with cinnamon butter are to die for! It’s always good to say we “only had a salad”...lol.

We arrived and checked into our hotel, the Fairfield Inn & Suites, Augusta/Fort Eisenhower.

This was the worst hotel we stayed in the whole trip. It was old, rundown and the A/C was so noisy it sounded like a jet engine going off all night long. Good thing we were only there for one night.

Also I had been using my Discover Card or Disney Gift cards the entire trip but had a Chase offer for Fairfield Inn on my Disney Visa so I used it to pay for this room. Two days later my Visa was fraudulently charged. This was the only place I used that card…coincidence? maybe…Luckily I got an alert before the charge went through and I was able to lock my card and get a new one. Definitely not staying at this hotel in the future.

Total steps: 14,527

Up next: After a restless night, we headed out to make our way to Charlotte.

 

[DLo]

We used to go to Augusta a lot for tennis tournaments when my kids were younger. We learned the hard way where to stay and where not to . I highly recommend the Hilton garden inn if you are ever there again

 

[mickey916]

We used to go to Augusta a lot for tennis tournaments when my kids were younger. We learned the hard way where to stay and where not to . I highly recommend the Hilton garden inn if you are ever there again

That is great to know! It's so hard when going to a new area. I always try to read TripAdvisor and Google reviews but so often they are inconsistent.

 

[ddluvsdisney]

Always sad to leave Florida even when you’ll be back soon. A fraudulent charge!! How scary. Too bad it was such a yucky hotel! When we did the cross country drive it was so hard to pick good hotels on the fly. Luckily we only had one bad experience.

 

[mickey916]

Always sad to leave Florida even when you’ll be back soon. A fraudulent charge!! How scary. Too bad it was such a yucky hotel! When we did the cross country drive it was so hard to pick good hotels on the fly. Luckily we only had one bad experience.

We want to do a cross country trip really badly to include a visit to Disneyland and a drive up the coast of CA but the anxiety over ending up in bad hotels or even worse scary neighborhoods has prevented us from planning a trip just yet....right now we're still enjoying WDW so I guess we'll stick with that for now....someday....

 

[ddluvsdisney]

We want to do a cross country trip really badly to include a visit to Disneyland and a drive up the coast of CA but the anxiety over ending up in bad hotels or even worse scary neighborhoods has prevented us from planning a trip just yet....right now we're still enjoying WDW so I guess we'll stick with that for now....someday....

My DH would like to do it when we retire since I did the trip with my friend. We’re considering renting an RV. That may be a better option

 

[mickey916]

My DH would like to do it when we retire since I did the trip with my friend. We’re considering renting an RV. That may be a better option

We've looked into that a couple times and it's certainly a better option than hotel roulette but comes with its own challenges too such as the cost of gas, RV sites, and our biggest concern, the struggle with finding parking with a large rig when visiting different places. We camped all the time with a pop-up camper when the kids were little and it was great having our own "place". We may still consider it.

 

[mickey916]

5/1 Kannapolis, NC
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We awoke early after not sleeping much and headed to Charlotte. We stopped in Charlotte last year on our trip and felt like there was more to do and see so this time we planned on staying for three nights. DH is a huge NASCAR fan (and I’m now one through marriage). Our plan for our Charlotte visit was primarily NASCAR-focused.

When we arrived in the Charlotte area, we headed for the Carrabus County Visitors’ Information Center. There we were greeted by two very friendly women who loaded us up with maps, locations & hours for various NASCAR team shops, free CheerWine and Sundrop soda, Carrabus County T-shirts and lip balms. They were so friendly and accommodating!

My DH was always a huge Dale Earnhardt fan so we decided to go to Kannapolis where Dale grew up to see what landmarks we could find.

We stopped at his memorial garden.

We also located his original home and garage where he grew up. His mom lived there until her passing.

We next stopped by Stewart-Haas racing and got to see their Talladega Nights’ tribute racecar.

We went to the Curb Museum for Music & Motorsports which is also in Kannapolis. I had no idea how many highly successful musicians were (and still are) produced by Michael Curb as well as how many successful NASCAR drivers were sponsored by him. Interestingly enough he also produced theme music for some Disney projects during the Eisner era. The museum is half dedicated to displays of artists, records, and awards and half race cars. The first car Earnhardt drove for a Winston cup championship is on display as well as several other significant race cars.

The museum is free but accepts donations. Definitely a great stop for both music and NASCAR fans.

To get in our steps, we walked the Bakers Creek Park Greenway and then headed to dinner at El Amigo Mexican Restaurant, the #1 restaurant in Kannapolis on Tripadvisor. So far, we had great luck with Mexican food on this trip.

Complimentary chips & salsa were brought to the table.

These were just okay. The chips were fine. The salsa was watery and had very little flavor.

We both opted to get the “Especial de la Casa”: A sampler platter consisting of a chalupa, chile poblano, crispy beef taco, pork tamale, rice and beans. It was so much food it arrived on two plates for each of us.

This was not good. It was obviously made with very low quality ingredients and flavorless. We would have been better off at Taco Bell. Neither one of us finished our food and we definitely didn’t take home leftovers. We had a great run with Mexican food but this place finished dead last of all the restaurants we visited on our trip. Not really sure how it gets all the great reviews on Tripadvisor. Perhaps we just ordered wrong.

After our disappointing meal we checked into our hotel, Springhill Suites Mooresville/Lake Norman. This hotel was very clean, spacious and quiet, a nice change from our Augusta hotel.

Overall, despite our dinner, it was a great start to our visit to the Charlotte area.

Total steps: 13,697

Up next: NASCAR Hall of Fame, a terrific lunch, and more race shops.

 

[nascargirl]

Enjoying your trip report. I am a big Nascar fan, so these pictures were right up my alley.

 

[ddluvsdisney]

I can see how this visit is exciting for a NASCAR fan. Sounded like a fun place with cool memorabilia. I laughed when I read Winston cup. We got a puppy in May and I named him Winston ( nothing to do with NASCAR). My DH still doesn’t like his name. If I told him there’s a Winston cup for NASCAR…. It won’t be pretty.

 

[mickey916]

Enjoying your trip report. I am a big Nascar fan, so these pictures were right up my alley.

Lots more of that to come! Love your screen name!

 

[mickey916]

I can see how this visit is exciting for a NASCAR fan. Sounded like a fun place with cool memorabilia. I laughed when I read Winston cup. We got a puppy in May and I named him Winston ( nothing to do with NASCAR). My DH still doesn’t like his name. If I told him there’s a Winston cup for NASCAR…. It won’t be pretty.

Haha! It's no longer called the Winston cup (it was originally sponsored by the cigarette company)...so I think your dog's name is safe.

 

[Paulaparm]

I also married a NASCAR fan and am now one by default
We went to the Charlotte race 2 years ago. We visited Dale Jr’s garage. We are heading to Bristol in a few weeks for the first time.
Looking forward to seeing what you thought of the Hall of Fame, we enjoyed it!