Sharon & Family - April 2007

Cast - DH, myself (our wedding anniversary on 5/1_, DD(6), stepDD(13), neice (17), nephew(15 on 4/30), and nephew(13).
Travel Dates: left NW PA on 4/27 arriving in FL 4?28 (more on the drive later) - leaving FL on 5/6, travel to NC on 5/6 - leaving NC on 5/8, arriving home on 5/8(more on that drive later)
Park Dates: MK 4/30 - Epcot 5/1 - MGM 5/2 - Sea World 5/3 - AK 5/4

Stayed at a home we rented. It was wonderful!! I know most people on this site only stay on WDW properties. But I find more pros than cons staying at a home. The traffic wasn't bad at all. Took at most 15/20 min from leaving our house to finding a parking place. Yes, we had to pay for parking 4 days = $40, which is a small price, compared to the $$$ we saved staying off property (cost of house vs hotel, meals, snacks, drinks, washer/dryer). I won't go into details other than saying we had as much of a great time at the house as at WDW and if anyone wants details on the house or info, please e-mail off list. I'm more than happy to share our experience with renting the house.

Well it started off to a wonderful start. We piled into our loaded (very loaded van) and were on the road by 3:20pm. We figured we would just drive straight though and arrive early morning on sat. The kids would sleep though the night and my husband and I would take turns driving. All was going well until a little after 1am. I was napping. He wakes me (not that i could really sleep) and says the alternator is going (he's a mechanic, and thoughly checked and replaced all that he thought could be a problem, and replaced parts just to avoid problems b/f we left). I couldn't believe it, thought he was kidding!!! We barely made it off the interstate and coasted into a hotel parking lot just b/f the car died. Well of course it's about 1:30am now, no part stores are open. I walk into the hotel and ask about a room. NONE, and NONE of the nearby hotels (within walking distance) have any rooms. So I call AAA (decided on thurs to purchase a AAA card, just in case). And put a call in for a tow truck. And any help they could give us. We are stranded at now 2am with 5 children and no place to go, no one to call,etc. and the hotel lady said that we couldn't stay there and had to move the van. I asked her "how are we supposed to do that when it's dead, and AAA can't get a tow driver till morning." she tells me she doesn't know, but it can't sit there in the parking place taking up a parking place for her hotel guests. Talk about helpful. NOT. Anyways, I guess it's close to 3am and AAA exhausted there possiblities and would get a tow out ASAP in the morning. And we located a parts store down the street about a mile and half. Well after letting the car sit for 2hrs. it had just enough "juice" to start and get us down the street to the parts store. and we slept (very loose term) in the van, all 7 of us.

The opened at 8am, the didn't have an alternator, but the there was a parts store across the street. The owner told my DH that he could borrow the shops tools to get us fixed(really nice of him to let Dh borrow the tools, instead of make DH buy the tools from his store). Well when the 2nd parts store opened my DH checked, again no alternator. but another parts store a few miles away. and if they couldn't deliver the part, he would run my hubby down (now that was really nice of the 2 parts store owner). finally the 3rd parts store did have 1 and would send someone down ASAP with it. Well 50min later we are still waiting for him. Finally, I'm getting a bit cranky, 50min is not ASAP, so DH goes back across the street and they call the 3rd place (we had given him our c.c. and paid for it over the phone to get them to deliver it, so i was getting nervous).Well, you won't believe this. They were waiting for DH to call them back, b/c they didn't have a # for us, and the one they had, he thought was tampered with. I'm thinking can it get any worse!!!! They had another alternator, but it was like $70 more, at this point my DH is like fine!!! 5 min later he brings the more expensive 1 and the defective 1 to show DH and after Dh looking it over and discussing it, he decided to take the more expensive 1 so NOT to go down the road and have another issue with it. It took all of 15min for DH to remove the bad 1 and put the new 1 on. Can you belive that??? it was 10:15am b/f we got on the road. We lost almost 9hrs, for a 15min job.

Finally all is well, we are on our way. had a great ride. In GA, just b/f FL, we are all doing the count down the miles to Fl, we are all singing to the radio, laughing, having a good ole time. So excited about finally hitting FL. What a relief!!!!. I'm driving now. We are now about 1 1/2hrs from the house. and all of a sudden I have no gas, gas pedal to the floor, and i smell gas. DH yells, "what did you do" (needless to say, we almost didn't make it to our anniversary, LOL). I didn't do anything. I got to the side of the road, and the cars stalls. Needless to say, our GREAT mood just deflated!!!! Well DH gets out and checks everything, like 5min later, he says start the van. it starts on the 2nd try. The fuel lines that connect poped off. What are the chances, very slim he said, that is something that is not a very common problem for cars at all. Well he couldn't get both hads on the lines, with the way the van was sitting on the side of the interstate and the van being so hot underneath. Well the problem happened 2 ore times. Now finally we are a few miles from our exits, i'm almost to the "nervous wreck" catagory. there is nothing but road work, dark, and I-95 is busy, and there is no way to pull on the side of the road, should the fuel line come disconnected again. Well we finally made it to the house w/o further incident around 10pm that sat. night. many hrs and a few hipcups later.

After all that, hubby securley connects the fuel lines the next day. We do some shopping, hang out at the house. Go to DTD. 1st time there, it was great. got up mon to go to MK. had a great time!!! Went to guest realtions got the ids "1st visit" pins and my nephew his b-day pin (i didn't even think of asking for an anniversary pin, would't think they had them, but met a couple at Fantasmic on Wed that had them, and I talked to them about it, they were married 28yrs, to our 8yrs, so i was bummed i didn't ask for a pin).

did the photopass with there photographers and just ordered the CD. only got about 25 picturs. about 1/4 didn't come out to great, the sun was in our eyes quite a bit. the 1st pic at MK didn't come out. eveyone is squinting, etc( i was bummed 1st pic right on Main St. when we walked in, i really wanted that pic of all of us, all excited, fresh, not tired, hot, cranky) and then some of the photographers didn't make sure they could see everyone. 1 photographer at MGM, said close your eyes, and when she counted to 3 everyone open. and then a sec later she snapped the pic. Why didn't the other ones think of that??? So I suggested it to the rest of the photographers from that point on. Those turned our great!!!

We got to MK around 9:30am and didn't leave till after the fire works, what a great show. and the night parade was great!!! 1st ride was Stitch, well is set a bad tone for my 6yr old, and she gave me a had time ALL though Stitch and every other ride after that. All except Space Mountain. It's my and DH favorite ride at MK and told ALL the kids they had no choice they had to ride it once. So she didn't give me a hard time about that. But everything else, especially if it got dark. What a mistake, i should of just backed out of that 1 with her, but thought she would end up liking it, but she whined and cried the whole way though it.

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