6 days and about 2000 miles later, I'm home. We hit 9 states and had a ball. Before I left, I updated on facebook that I was heading out to Atlanta, Disney and Hilton Head. I'm not kidding, like 10 people commented on my status. To sum up their comments, they basically said, "What is your secret? How are you doing all of that?"
Our secret is that we could not handle spending a week at Disney, nor could our kids. We went to the Magic Kingdom for 12 hours on Monday and we were completely exhausted the next day. We slept in (til 8AM!!) on Tuesday and enjoyed the heated pool and the 70 degree weather.
I didn't really understand their comments on Facebook though. Was it all the driving that they didn't get?
Since J's family lives in Texas we are quite used to driving long distances. We go to Houston twice per year and it's a 20 hour drive (with 3 kids.) Since we don't have the luxury of buying plane tickets for all five of us each time we want to spend the holidays with J's family we've learned to drive.
Honestly, with 3 kids, it is EASIER than flying. We took Skybus to Florida last winter and I was a nervous wreck with 3 kids couped up on an airplane. Within 5 minutes of being on the plane (we hadn't even taken off yet!!!!) the man sitting in front of Boy Wondertwin turned around and said, "Is he going to kick my seat the WHOLE trip?" What the heck do you say to that. BWT's just a little dude and it's not his fault that his feet are the perfect length to reach the back of this grumpy man's seat. That ticked me off.
So we drive. We've figured out that in 5 years our twins have been in 19 states. That's not bad for a short little life.
We saw friends in Atlanta, spent 2 nights in Orlando, drove through St. Augustine and saw a real castle as well as the BEACH!!! We then drove to Hilton Head where my aunt and uncle have a beach house.
Other than the Disney tickets (and 3 of them were FREE*), our vacation was pretty affordable since we only paid for a hotel room for 2 nights and stayed with friends the other 3 nights (in Atlanta and Hilton Head.) Not a bad vacation. I just hope the twins remember it since it was their 5th birthday and all!
*Free- Disney has a thing going this year where you get in free on your birthday. Well, having twins, we just couldn't pass this one up. Even better, our Little Dude does not turn 3 until April so he got in FREE too! Adult tickets are almost $80 a piece so it still wasn't what I would call affordable but we did save $200 which was pretty sweet. Also we used this website: www.orlandovacationhotels.com
We booked a Radisson for $54/night (during President's Day weekend which is a high time at Disney) and the Radisson website listed the same room for $150. I highly recommend this site for travel. The Radisson Worldgate Resort and Convention Center was a great place to stay if you have a car. If not it's still doable but the shuttles don't run all that often to Disney so you have to go by their schedule.
Just FYI. Many friends have been asking about the deals I found so I thought I'd post! =)
I hate drives with the kids but there's no way we could fly. Too expensive, and WAY too stressful.
ReplyDeleteI'm excited about the getting in free on your birthday thing! Very interesting. I hate Disney but Jason loves it, and we went once in 2007 because it was right before the boys turned 3, so we only had to pay for us and Athena. Maybe if our fortunes turn around we can hit them up this August and get the 6-for-the-price-of-3 deal again!
You would not believe how many pairs of multiples there were there that day, Jen! So many moms like us thinking how to save. It's almost too good to pass up...if you can survive a day at Disney with your multiples! I'm not a big Disney fan either. It really was a difficult day but worth it, as they all are. To encourage you, my friend's husband just got a job after being out since August. There are jobs out there...they just take forever to find!
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