If you haven’t seen the movie “Vacation” with Chevy Chase, you must rent it! It was out in 1983. It’s a funny movie that follows the Griswold family on a road trip. I have seen it about 6 times and it never gets old.
This year, I decided my family and I needed to do something crazy and fun that would allow us to bond, spend quality time together and not break the bank!!! So I told my husband that for Spring Break I wanted our family to drive to Florida. He embraced the idea with excitement (we like to do crazy things with the kids- sometimes I think we are the “Griswold family”)
We started to plan our road trip. It was funny seeing the reactions on our friends faces when we told them we were driving our minivan to Florida with the 3 kids. Most people said we were nuts and would end up turning back half way… some said I would be the one saying: “Are we there yet?” and then we had those people that told us they did that as a child and still remember the experience as if it were today. That’s what I wanted: that memory!
Once we decided what day we were leaving, we put together a daily schedule. We mapped it out so that we would get the most out of the week.
DRIVING SCHEDULE:
Friday- Leave home at 8 p.m.
Saturday- Arrive in NC- go to Carowinds Theme Park- Stay at Hyatt Hotel
Sunday- Arrive in Florida- Stay at Royal Plaza hotel- Go to Downtown Disney
Monday- Go to MGM Studios in morning- Go to Magic Kingdom at night
Tuesday- Go to Universal Studios
Wednesday- Go to Universal Islands of Adventure
Thursday- Go to Animal Kingdom in morning- Go to Magic Kingdom at night
Friday- Go to Sea World- Leave Florida and start driving back home
Saturday- Arrive in Williamsburg, Virginia – go to Bush Gardens- Stay at The Historic Powhatan Resort
Sunday- Drive all the way home
Very ambitious isn’t it?!
We spent lots of nights on the computer looking for hotels. My hubby did an amazing job booking the hotels. The rooms were huge and the prices were very affordable. He booked them through Expedia.
INSIDE OUR MINIVAN:
We packed everything and anything that we thought we might need. We bought a big cooler and inside it we had salami, turkey, ham, cheese, and bread to make sandwiches enough for lunch for the week. We had a pack of cheese sticks. We had diet soda for daddy, water for mommy and juice boxes for the kids and Yohoo boxes. We had snacks: cookies, chips, chocolate covered blueberries, M&M’s, fruit, gum for mom & dad and gumballs for the kids.
In a big paper bag I packed plenty of coloring books, crayons for each kid, paper to write on and notebooks. We had books for the 7-year-old to read as well as LeapFrog Tag reading books and the pen for the 5 and 3 year-old. We also packed their DS games and the kids packed their own stuffed animals and the toys they wanted to bring along.
Our minivan does not have a TV so we packed our small flat screen TV and attached a small DVD player to it. We packed lots of movies.
On the IPOD daddy loaded lots of kids songs and for mommy and daddy we had comedy shows and lots of music. Daddy also loaded on the IPOD music themes from old TV Shows, which made for a cool guessing game and brought back cool memories of those old TV Shows- and since I grew up in Portugal and missed a lot of those 80 shows my husband told me all about them while we were driving. Daddy also downloaded the Harry Potter audio books.
We had a pillow and a blanket for each kid. In the trunk we had the suitcases with our clothes and a stroller.
Lots of wipes, tissues, napkins and 4 trash bags.
It was a blast!!! My husband and I took turns driving. When one would get tired the other would take over. The comedy shows were a great entertainment as well as the Harry Potter audio books.
We had a very ambitious schedule but we did everything we had planned. It was awesome! The kids had a blast and were so well behaved in the car. No one was screaming or crying. They were very happy.
The driving wasn’t bad at all…It was neat seeing all the different billboards and signs along the way as well as the different speed limits. At one point it went from 55 to 75 so weird.
The best part of the trip though… The bonding. It’s a memory I’ll never forget. It was precious and I would do it all over again.
Sounds like a fantastic trip! Just the kind of thing our family likes to do. My wife and I are roller coaster enthusiasts, and both our kids already love amusement parks. People look at us like we're nuts on some of our trips, too. But to be successful, you just have to prepare for the trip... like you did.
ReplyDeleteAnd having a minivan helps, too. (As much as I hate to admit it.)