"I'm Gonna Need You to Hold My Eye." - A Feb. 2020 21st Bday TR! *COMPLETE 6/5*

the2ndstar2theright

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jan 7, 2017
"I'm Gonna Need You to Hold My Eye."
A February 2020 TR!



It’s a world of laughter, a world of tears

It’s a world of hopes and a world of fears

There’s so much that we share, and it’s time we’re aware

It’s a small world after all.



Hey howdy hey, DIS friends old and new, and thank you for joining me for this TR! My name is
Lindsey, and I am so happy to have you along for the ride. This trip was a whirlwind of fun, laughter, yummy food, and magic, and I am so excited to relive it with you all. It’s a little bit insane to think about how much has changed in the two weeks since I’ve been home, and with all the chaos and uncertainty, I figure there’s no better time to start this TR and focus on the magic that unites people around the world.

First things first: our cast of characters!

Me, Lindsey

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Hello again! I am a college student (currently figuring out how to navigate the whole online class thing…). I love books, coffee, my dogs, and ice cream, and I LOVE to plan! A few of my Disney favorites from this trip…

Favorite Character: Tinker Bell

Favorite Ride: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Favorite Food/Drink: Antioxidant Lemonade at the Wave Lounge

Favorite Moment: Watching Happily Ever After on Main Street


Next up is my mom, Amy, better known as 2Monkeys here on the DIS.

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She’s my ride or die and my Disney buddy forever! Some of her favorites…

Favorite Character: Pluto

Favorite Ride: Big Thunder Mountain (in the back row!)

Favorite Food/Drink: Brioche Ice Cream Sandwich w/ Mint Chip Ice Cream

Favorite Moment: Our impromptu Chopped episode at Kona (story to come!)


Next we have my cousin Emyle (pronounced “Emily”...she's on the left!).

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She’s not a big ride person, but she was a great sport the whole trip and rode everything with us! Some of her favorites…

Favorite Character: Minnie Mouse

Favorite Ride: Test Track

Favorite Food/Drink: Master’s Cupcake at Be Our Guest

Favorite Moment: Seeing Belle casually walking through France

And last but not least is my cousin Kelsey!


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Kelsey and I are just six months apart in age and have been besties our whole lives. She loves rides and is always fun to do Disney with. Her favorites…

Favorite Character: Belle

Favorite Ride: Space Mountain

Favorite Food/Drink: Wonderland Slush

Favorite Moment: Watching Epcot Forever

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That’s us! We had an absolute blast on this trip, and it truly was the best way to celebrate my 21st! Now that you know who we are, here are some more of the basics for our trip…

Who: Me, Mom, Emyle, & Kelsey

What: A Short Girls’ Trip to WDW

When: February 26-March 1

Where: Coronado Springs Resort

Why: To Celebrate My 21st Birthday!


If you’d like to read more about the planning, you can find the link to my PTR in my signature. But for now, I am so excited to present…

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Table of Contents
Travel Day 1

Travel Day 2/Day 1
Day 1, Part 2
Day 2, Part 1
Day 2, Part 2
Day 2, Part 3
Day 2, Part 4
Day 3, Part 1
Day 3, Part 2
Day 3, Part 3
Travel Day


 
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Joining! Happy Belated birthday 🎂 I agree there's no better place to celebrate and I'm looking forward to reading all about your trip!
 


Popping over from your PTR. Looking forward to reading more about your birthday adventures
 


What a great way to spend your 21st birthday! My son is 16 and always says we’re going to drink around the world for his. I’ve raised him well. Can’t wait to read!
 
Joining in - we were there from the 23rd to the 29th in Feb! Can't wait to read more!
 
Following. Can't wait to read all about it!

Welcome aboard!! :D

Joining in and can't wait to hear all about your trip!!!

Thanks for tuning in!

Joining! Happy Belated birthday 🎂 I agree there's no better place to celebrate and I'm looking forward to reading all about your trip!

Thank you so much!! :D

Can't wait to read all about it!

So excited to share all the magic!

Excited to read all about your trip!

Thanks for joining in!

Popping over from your PTR. Looking forward to reading more about your birthday adventures

Yay! Welcome! :D

What a great way to spend your 21st birthday! My son is 16 and always says we’re going to drink around the world for his. I’ve raised him well. Can’t wait to read!

It was the best way to celebrate! Love that he's planning for that already! :D

Joining in - we were there from the 23rd to the 29th in Feb! Can't wait to read more!

How fun! I hope yall had a magical trip! :D Thanks for reading along!

Here for this! Can't wait to see how everything went!!

Welcome welcome!! :D
 
*Full Disclosure: This trip came at the perfect time for me, as I had been dealing with a lot of stress and anxiety at school. As a result, I determined that this trip was going to be a chance for me to unplug and just enjoy the magic, so I didn’t take nearly as many pictures as I usually do. Thankfully, Emyle took a lot more than I did, so a lot of the photos I will share are hers, but this may be a little more photo-light than some of my other TRs.

Now, with that said, let’s get on with the show!



Wednesday February 26, 2020 – Travel Day 1

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My alarm went off this morning at 6am, though I didn’t mind too much because it was DISNEY DAY! I got ready to go, finished packing the last of my stuff, and then loaded it all in my car. My apartment is across the street from campus, so I normally would just walk to class, but since I was leaving straight from class I decided to drive and just pay to park close to the building.

I had a class at 9:00am—seriously the longest 50 minutes of my life. As soon as my class got out, I hightailed it back to my car and was leaving campus right around 9:55am! From there, I had about a 2.5 hour drive home, which thankfully wasn’t bad at all. It was right around 12:30pm when I got to the house, and Mom and I immediately moved my stuff over to her car. Emyle and Kelsey got to the house about half an hour later, and we ate tacos that my mom had made for lunch. We loaded the girls’ stuff into the car, and we were Disney bound right around 1:40pm! :cool1:

Thankfully traffic wasn’t bad at all. We had to stop a couple of times, but we were crossing the Florida line right around 5:00pm.


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We stopped at the welcome center for a bathroom break and a picture with the sign. It was actually a lot cooler than we anticipated, so when the first picture turned out bad, Emyle and Kelsey had already run back to the car, so Mom and I just took another one.

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We got the dinners we had packed out of the cooler, so we could eat while we drove. Mom had made turkey and cheese wraps for everybody, and they were super yummy!

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We kept driving and then had to stop for gas in Tallahassee. This whole experience was quite stressful because the signs were not great, and we ended up having to make a couple of u-turns. We tried to get a drink at the gas station, but they really didn’t have anything, so we decided to stop at McDonald’s to get some caffeine.

We started driving again, and then realized that our ETA kept getting later and later. We looked ahead on the map, and there was a huge stretch of bad traffic ahead of us. We got to Lake City, which was our last option to stop before getting to Orlando, so we decided to stop and make sure we could actually get a room in Orlando for the night. This ended up being a really good decision, because everything was completely booked. Well, that is, everything less than $400/night. So, we decided to stop in Lake City for the night!

We booked a room at the Tru by Hilton, and it was right around 9:30pm ET when we stopped. The hotel was basically new and very nice. The guy at the desk actually upgraded us to a bigger room, which was very nice of him!


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We got upstairs, took showers, and went to bed very glad that we were not still in the car.
 
Smart choice to stop before sitting in crazy traffic and look at the hotel options! It would've been super annoying to drive for so long and realize that after the fact!
 
Ah the wraps in the little divided containers are so cute :goodvibes And wow definitely lucky you called ahead about the room and the one you got looks huge!
 
Long travel days are always tiring, so probably a good call to stop earlier rather than push through. Especially if you would have had to pay >$400 for a night!!

Also I love the little meals your mom packed. I’m a snack/meal packer myself and those containers look perfect!
 
It was actually a lot cooler than we anticipated
I've always wanted to stop at the Welcome Center!
We got the dinners we had packed out of the cooler, so we could eat while we drove. Mom had made turkey and cheese wraps for everybody, and they were super yummy!
OMG - those containers are so cute!! :love:
We booked a room at the Tru by Hilton
I've always wanted to stay at one of these!

Definitely sounds like a long travel day - looking forward to more :goodvibes
 
Smart choice to stop before sitting in crazy traffic and look at the hotel options! It would've been super annoying to drive for so long and realize that after the fact!

We were definitely glad that we had done that! It would have been the WORST if we had gotten all the way there without checking!

Ah the wraps in the little divided containers are so cute :goodvibes And wow definitely lucky you called ahead about the room and the one you got looks huge!

Aw thanks! We love packing food to eat in the car just to save time! The room was really big, but it was nice to be able to spread out after being in the car all day!

Long travel days are always tiring, so probably a good call to stop earlier rather than push through. Especially if you would have had to pay >$400 for a night!!

Also I love the little meals your mom packed. I’m a snack/meal packer myself and those containers look perfect!

We definitely thought so after we stopped. It hadn't been the original plan, but we for sure felt like it worked out for the best!

The divided containers are the best! We got a big box of them on Amazon for pretty cheap when I started meal-prepping in January, and I really like them!

've always wanted to stop at the Welcome Center!

It was a great place to stop! The bathrooms were clean, and it was fun to be able to take a picture with the sign! :)

OMG - those containers are so cute!! :love:

We love them! They were perfect for our dinner on the go!

've always wanted to stay at one of these!

Definitely sounds like a long travel day - looking forward to more :goodvibes

The hotel was super nice--very clean and the staff was super friendly! It was a very long day, so we were definitely glad we stopped when we did!

Oh I love your reports, glad I have this to start reading while I'm self-isolating x

Aww thank you so much!! Enjoy! :D
 
Sounds like you made good time throughout the day, except when you hit the traffic- ugh! Good idea stopping for the night!
 

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