Matt UGA's "Man Has a Dream" Trip Report Updated 10/20 About This Page:

[wvugrrrl]

Yeah, Matt. Seriously. Get on it. Even I'VE made some updates!

[ArielsMomto2]

All caught up. Looking forward to more.

[MaryEL8775]

And more and more and more and more and more.... do you see that we want MORE!!!!

[MattUGA]

I'm about to start my trip report. It seems that Passporter doesn't allow new photo uploads so I'm going to upload the pics to my Flickr account. Hopefully they'll show up here. If not, I guess you can click on my Flickr account and see them there!

[MattUGA]

Since I am writing this months after returning, bare with me. I do have a photographic memory fortunately but I still might be a little spotty with dates. haha

Anyways on Tuesday June 2nd we began packing for our trip. As a reminder, here are the cast of characters:

Me- 35
Bethany-27>My beautiful wife
Allie-10> acts just like her Daddy when he was a child. Calm and shy but with a wicked sense of humor well beyond her years.
Lindsay-6> acts just like her Daddy now. extroverted and totally not shy.
Audrey-1> Well she turned 1 on June 22nd but close enough
Abigail-20> My very sweet cousin who I bankrolled on this trip to help out with the kids. Best decision ever!

Tuesday June 2nd
This day was Bethany and my last day of post planning as teachers. We got out of work around 2pm and headed home to finish our packing. The girls were, of course, excited so to say they were no help with packing goes without saying. hahaha

I didn't want to pack the top of my Trailblazer just yet since I was worried about rain and because my cousin, Abigail wouldn't get to our house until late. We were completely packed by about 8pm and we settled down to some Guitar Hero. It's a little known fact that every Friday night, "The Matt Norris Band" hits the stage in my living room for some family Guitar Hero action.

Usually I'm on lead guitar while Bethany rocks the bass. Allie loves to play drums along with occasional vocals. Lindsay is our traditional lead singer though. I must say that it warms my heart to know that my sweet six year old knows every word of "Hotel California", "Eye of the Tiger", "Living on a Prayer", and "Band on the Run".

We put in our traditional five song set but the crowd demanded an encore. Crowd? Yeah, Audrey is the audience. She seems to like the chaos! After that, all the kids went to sleep er.. or at least went upstairs and pretended to sleep.

Around 11pm, Abigail arrived and it was so good to see her. It had been ages. I quickly showed her to her bed and then Bethany and I headed to sleep ourselves.

I wanted to be on the road at 7am. So needless to say, I told everybody we had to be on the road at 6:30am so that it would be possible.


Up next: The Drive Down

[MattUGA]

Wednesday June 3rd

I woke up probably at 5:30 am and then began packing the Trailblazer. Thank God it is the extended length version. It's amazing how much luggage 4 women can pack. This trip had 5. As the lone male, I am usually outnumbered and I like to make grief about the amount of estrogen flowing in our house but for the most part it's amazing to have so many ladies around.

I woke up Bethany at 6 and then went back outside. While I packed the car, Bethany got herself ready and Audrey. Abigail immediately got Allie and Lindsay ready which was a great help to Bethy. After fixing their hair and getting them breakfast, the entire family was ready to go! I did my traditional "Did we forget anything?" speech and then we got in the car and left at 6:45. Not bad at all!

It takes us about 25 minutes to hit I-75 so I decided to go ahead and get gas before we got on the interstate. I ran inside to pay and grab drinks for everybody and the guy put all the drinks in a black plastic bag. I looked at it and immediately shook my head. It looked like I was leaving the store with a bag o porn at 7 in the morning! When I get to the car, Bethany and Abigail are giggling and ask what I bought that was so bad that it had to be put in a black bag. It's nice to know I'm not the only person with a dirty mind!

Off to the interstate and we made made great timing. Once we get on the interstate, it usually takes us 6 hours to get to WDW including stops for gas, food, and Audrey. I think we made it all the way to Florida before stopping after Audrey woke up. I passed the time driving listening to podcasts while Bethany read a book. Allie and Lindsay had Nintendo DSs, portable DVD players, books, and drawing pads to pass the time. I'm going to be honest. They are amazingly well behaved kids. They have never had a tantrum. NEVER. If I say no to something, it's accepted. They might not be happy about it but they are intelligent enough not to express it. hahaha

Everybody stayed pretty calm until we hit the Florida Turnpike. At this point, I could hear the excitement building from Allie and Lindsay. Heck, even Abigail! Abigail had not been to WDW since she was 13 so she was geeked out. After we got off the Turnpike and took the 429 exit towards "Western Way", everybody stared at the Garmin (GPS). When the Western Way exit appeared, they was a collective "YAYY" that was only surpassed 45 seconds later when the "Welcome to Walt Disney World" sign appeared.

Honestly, for people who drive to WDW, is there any better sign in the world? You're there! You've finally made it. The World is here!


Coming Up Next: Fort Wilderness Here we..ARE!

[MattUGA]

June 3rd-Update #2

After a few minutes confusion after my GPS decided to take me to Wilderness Lodge instead of Fort Wilderness, we were there. I have to admit to being more excited about this resort than any place we had stayed. We had a cabin reservation and we were so looking forward to having a mini-vacation at the resort from the hectic times at WDW parks.

No one was waiting ahead us when we checked in. I didn't like the location of the first cabin so I asked to move to another loop and I was told it would be no problem. We drove to the cabin and immediately had mixed feelings. haha I'm kidding. Now, there was a ton of standing water everywhere but it had to do with all the clearing that Disney is doing around the tall trees. Not sure what the final plan is but I'm hoping they fix it soon.

Here are some pictures (I hope they show up from Flickr) of the Cabin:



The Murphy Bed is in the wall (uh obviously, Matt. haha)





The cabin was perfect albeit a tad cramped with six people. Allie and Lindsay took the bunk beds obviously. I let Abigail have the master bed that was in the same room with the bunks while Bethany and I slept on the Murphy Bed. Audrey had her portacrib and we kept it with us some nights but for the most part it fit really well at the end of the bunkbeds.

After we unpacked the car, Bethany and Abigail took off to the store to buy food and other supplies while I watched the girls. After about an hour, we were all back together and we cooked dinner in the cabin.

Up Next: Chip n Dale's Campfire Singalong!

[PamelaK]

Great TR so far! It seems that it will be well worth the wait. I am super excited to see pics of Chip and Dales Sing-Along. We plan to do this one night while we are there because C&D are DBF's faves.

[Meggera]

Great start! I'm glad you've come back and finally started this. The cabin looks so cute.

[MGW]

Great start! Can't wait to read all about the trip!

[luvnwdwgal]

I'm really looking forward to this trip report Matt! I haven't read very many with the cabins. Hurry back with more!

[chezp]

Great start! I love the look of the cabins.

[vfair]

So glad to are updating. Great start - looking forward to more.

[OhToodles!]

Great start! The cabin looks really nice and it sounds like you enjoyed them. Can't wait to hear more!

[WeRDisneyFanatics]

Great start! Can't wait to hear more.