Trip Report: Day O/Pre-Trip Report (December 2019)

This really starts with a Day 0.

And I should probably start with a little introduction. 

This trip goes from November 30th to December 7th. It features me:

Holly

30 (almost 31)

Almost birthday girl

Daughter

Figment Fan

Manatee lover

And my dad:

Rick

Retired

Dad/Father

Mr. Grumpy Pants

Flight of Passage enthusiast

The navigator

We planned this as a fun father-daughter trip. We also bought annual passes so we'll be going back again in the next year. Together or separate? Who knows.

Our last trip was low-key. No parks, except the Christmas party. So, dad was thinking more like that, but with the parks. We'll see how it goes. I'm starting the writing of this while on vacation still.

Naturally, we started the trip with a 5 AM flight. Out of Buffalo. We live in Rochester, NY. But getting to Florida by 8 AM was just so tempting. Since it was winter, we decided to get there the night before. We were doing a Park & Fly at the Best Western. You park at the hotel and take a shuttle to and from the airport.

I was working today, but only had to work half a day. I got out at 1. I was going to hit up Target, because I wanted a protein drink for the morning. That was a huge mistake. I guess I should've known better than to go to Target on Black Friday. I ended up not going in and it took me like 45 minutes to get out of the parking lot. My dad actually went to Walmart, got my drink, and got home before I got out of the parking lot.

I won't like. I was getting pretty stressed. There was a lot. I wanted to get more done before heading out. My dad told me not to worry and that we'd leave when we do.

I didn't get everything done. Like I didn't edit a video I wanted to. But I washed dishes, took out the trash, and dropped my cat (Murphy) off at my grandma's. I love going to Disney World, but I really miss the Murphy cat.

Ultimately, we left for Buffalo around 5 PM. We decided to stop by the airport real quick to ask when the gate opened. They were closing in like 10 minutes so that was good timing. the ticket agent said they open at 3:30 AM. He also added my Trusted Traveler number and printed our boarding passes.

Then, we got dinner. We figured once we got to the hotel we didn't want to leave, so dinner first. It was my first Cracker Barrel visit-at least that I know off.

It is certainly an interesting place. And they crank people through. At least at this one.

My dad got the chicken fried steak which he liked. I got the chicken ceasar salad. It was pretty over-dressed, but tasted good. Overall, I was a good deal.

Then, we checked in at the Best Western. The parking was actually hard, but maybe the hotel was just really full. In the end, we did get a spot that was mostly on pavement.

We asked for the shuttle to pick us up at 3:00 and we set our alarms for 2:30 AM. I straightened my hair and our lights were out around 9. We went to sleep to the dulcet sounds of Live, PD.

Up Next: The trip really begins.