Cast of characters: Sandy (45), Judy (45), Seth (17), Sara (15), Elana (11). Disney Veterans.

    We’ve been planning this vacation since last December, when we found out we were one of the lucky families to get drawn in the NYE 99 lottery. Between that time and the trip, I changed jobs, leaving a consulting job at Computer Horizons Corp. to a job as a Quality Assurance Manager with Prudential. One of my responsibilities was Y2K coordinator, so I made sure that they knew about this trip when I started. Nonetheless, shortly after I began, a vacation freeze put in effect for December 1999 and January 2000, making me very nervous. Fortunately, I did get an exemption.

    When we first knew we were going we decided to take advantage of a deal at Disney’s Hilton Head resort of $74 a night for a one-bedroom and spend four days there before heading to WDW. The only real planning we did leading up to the trip was dining decisions. As we build on our time spent in WDW, we tend to take things on a spur of the moment, only deciding what park to go to based on our restaurant of the day. Usually we try to see anything that’s new or changed since we last were there.

    The kids got home from school by 2:00pm and we hit the road on time (for a change) at 3:00pm. We hit some traffic getting out of northern New Jersey. The setting sun was murder and that caused a little bit of traffic on the turnpike. After Exit 9, the only other trouble we hit was on I-295, due to an accident. Once we cleared that backup, it was clear sailing the rest of the way.

    We stopped for dinner at the rest stop in Delaware. The girls found Sbarro’s pizza spicy, so they picked at Seth’s ziti. I had the ziti too and Judy had brought something from home to eat, because of her dietary restrictions. We finished off with some TCBY for dessert.