Smoky Mountains - Williamsburg - Washington DC - New York April 2017

[janey2000]

My main purpose of this pre trip report is to hear all of your ideas and thoughts so please feel free to comment with suggestions, tell me where I'm going wrong and what I can do better!

Who's Going

Me - Janey2000
My husband and our daughter Georgia who will be 8

Background
In June 2011 we went on the Disney Magic Med cruise for 10 days. Through the dis boards I met with Amy who had a daughter the same age and we arranged to be tablemates. In 2014 we went to the states and did 14 days at WDW followed by a road trip up to Atlanta to spend the weekend with them. Last year we met in Copenhagen and had a few days together before they boarded the Magic (sadly we could not join them). Fast forward 5 years from when we met and we have just got off the Disney Norway cruise from Dover with them after 9 days together. Georgia cried the whole day and said the only holiday she wants next is to visit Maisie!

Flights

I have just booked flights departing LHR on Friday 31st March to Knoxville (indirect through Detroit where we have a 3 hr layover)
Returning from JFK direct to LHR on Monday 17th April
These are with Virgin through Expedia and came in at £477 (Total £1431). I changed £95 of nectar points into an Expedia voucher and got 1% by going through topcashback so total was just over £1300...I thought this was a bargain!

I am a little concerned about the 14 hr journey time but the shorter layover had me worrying it would take time to get through immigration and collect our bags.

Itinerary (this is subject to many changes!)

Fri 31st March - Fly LHR-DET-KNOX departing 1230 arriving 2117 local time. I know we plan to stay very close to the airport as we will be ready for bed but unsure if we will collect the car hire now or wait till the morning when we are more awake.

Sat 1st April (till Sat 8th) -definitely want to visit We want to keep with tradition and have IHOP for breakfast at 6am! (Most of the hotels do a free breakfast though so this may be put on hold till later)

Drive to our rented cabin (still to be booked.., suggestions as to Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge or somewhere outside needed please) maybe going through Cades cove as its on the way and check in likely wont be till 3pm.

We are going to stay for a week and our friends will join us from Atlanta at some point during this time.

I definitely want to go to...
Dollywood as we will need a theme park fix (as there is no Disney this trip!)

Dixies stampede

Titanic museum

We will fit in a bit of hiking, hot tubbing and mini golf I'm sure. Any other suggestions welcome.

On Saturday 8th we will leave the cabin and drive north to Williamsburg (7 hr drive) planning to stop half way. Unsure where though yet, again suggestions needed. I've seen some places with drive in movies which look great but some don't start till late and our daughter is an early to bed early to rise kind of girl (or late to bed and still early to rise! ).

Sunday 9th - Rest of the 3/4 hour journey in the morning and I'm planning on booking a night at the Great Wolf Lodge as Georgia will love this and wont have done nearly enough swimming for a holiday!

You can arrive at 1pm to use the facilities and don't have to leave till close the next day so hopefully with only a 1 night reservation we can get our moneys worth (I'm a huge bargain hunter and money saver by the way!)

Monday 10th - GWL all day and will rent 2 nights at a cheap place in Williamsburg

Tuesday 11th - Colonial Williamsburg (any thoughts on if it is worth the almost £100 cost of tickets?)

Wednesday 12th - Drive north to Washington (3 hrs) and drop hire car at Ronald Reagan airport.

The cost of hotels here are crazy! Maybe there is something going on that I'm not aware of? I wont pay £400 a night to stay in Washington! So I'm looking at cheap places outside the capitol nearish to the airport where we can drop our bags, take there car to the airport and spent the afternoon in DC from taking the metro.

Thursday 13th - Seeing the sites in DC, probably just walking around, maybe we will rent a bike. The cherry blossom should be in bloom. The zoo looks great so maybe half a day here.

Friday 14th - Travel to New York in the morning. The bus is like $15 and the train $122 but it is 5hrs on the bus and there could be traffic or 3hrs on the train. So I think my budget will go out the window here. We will check in to our hotel that I booked outside Manhattan in Long Island City

Again this was cost saving due to the high price of city hotels. This was a bargain £100 and night, with a breakfast thrown in. I don't have to pay till arrival which is a bonus as I booked this trip the day of the referendum and the dollar went down to $1.34!
I guess we will just explore Times Square and some shops today.
Saturday 15th - In no particular order and over the course of our stay we will see central park, walk Brooklyn Bridge, ride the Staten Island ferry to see the statue of liberty, probably check out the high line, the 9/11 memorial etc. I want to eat at Ellen's stardust diner as Georgia will enjoy this

Sunday 16th - Today is Easter day so we will have to find a church to attend. We go to a Baptist church so this is where I will start looking. The Easter parade takes place today so I'm sure we will check that out.
Monday 17th - We have all day to do the things we have missed and our flight is at 2130 from JFK.


Please, please let me know your thoughts and suggestions that will suit a 8yr old girl, and a money saving mummy!

[tocpe321]

Hi

Looks good. Not done it but would like to do similar but in reverse so I hope to keep an eye on this thread. We want to do Washington, Colonial Williamsburg, Outer Banks and then Gatlinburg.

Happy planning.

[paulaandhappy]

We stayed at the Hilton at Knoxville Airport as like u we arrived at night and picked up the car next day. The Hilton is a minute walk from the airport via a covered walkway, on the way home we stayed at the Candlewood Suites but this would mean either picking up your car or a taxi ride. Either way Knoxville airport is tiny and u will be through arrivals in no time

[janey2000]

Cabin has been booked!
I wanted something big enough for our friends to have a room when they come for a few days, a hot tub for the adults and air hockey for the kids! The fire pit is a bonus so I'm hoping we can have s'mores

The cabin was costly, but I got a night for free. I just hope we get to enjoy it as it seems there is so much to do in the area we may be busy!

moosecreekcrossing/property.php?pid=104

[paulaandhappy]

Looks lovely u will have a great time there. The drive to gatlinburg is nicest if you go Via Townsend there are some great little country stores to stop at and have a look around the 1hr and a bit drive took us 5 hours, there is a store near Townsend on the same side of road as I drive just before you turn off to Wears Valley Road that does fried apple pie which is just amazing!
There is also a place in Pigeon Forge called Lil Dollys I think it's called that sells lovely quilts and stuff like u get in the cabins we got one with bears on it.
If u have time Clingmans Dome is good to visit with fabulous views over the Smokies the drive their is lovely with loads of pull offs to look at the views.
Fingers crossed for u to see some bears at Cades Cove it feels really special seeing them in the wild.

[janey2000]

I've just looked online and the throes look gorgeous! Worried about luggage space now 🤔

[janey2000]

Thinking about food... anyone have good DC or NY food must haves?

[tocpe321]

NY
Shake Shack, Bare Burger, Patzeria Family and Friends.
We ate at Keens which was nice, but very expensive. TBH not sure it was worth the extra. Service was efficient but not overly friendly. On balance for value and service would probably stick to the likes of Longhorns.

[LostGirl]

Hi

We did Washington, Gettysburg, wiiliamsburg etc last year, but the year before that we had a cabin in Gatlinburg. Not much helpful to add really except, we tended to self cater in the cabin, it was lovely having all that space and and such gorgeous surroundings, it seemed such a shame to go out, plus the restaurants didn't particularly inspire us, think I Drive type stuff. Dollywood is great fun and you have to try the cinnamon bread, it is to die for We also visited Tuckaleechee Caverns, was quite expensive, and a lot of the formations were "dead", but I wanted the experience of drinking the cave water, cos I' a bit odd like that!

Williamsburg has some lovely places to each, Ocean (at the shopping outlets was nice) as was the Fat Tuna, they also have a Red Lobster and Bonefish Grill which we love. if you want your theme park fix, why not visit Busch Gardens? It's a nice little park with some great coasters.

In Washington we stayed at the Palomar, but the best and widest choice of places to eat in DC can be found in Georgetown, which in itself is great for a stroll around as it is very pretty, and I can recommend Free Tours by Foot.

You will have a fab time.

[WileyCoyote]

Exciting !
We stayed in the Hilton at DuPont Circle last summer in Washington
Clydes of Georgetown , Tune Inn diner and Founding Farmers were on our must eat list... We got to the first two

We are also looking at Gatlinburg for this September .

We took the Amtrak from NY to DC . It was good.

NY and DC are the first week in my 2016 trippy, link in signature.

Looks like a really fab trip you have in the planning there .. It will be great !