Last time we finished packing, finished our countdown and arrived at the airport
to see planes of course.
We arrived at the airport and headed to the self baggage check and checked our one large suitcase for the $15 price instead of the new $20.
Nice surprise since we bought our tickets the day before the price hike. We had decided to bring our umbrella stroller to keep DD reigned in at the airports and thank goodness we did. She can sprint away from you faster than any kid I have ever known, besides my little sister. We headed into the first security checkpoint and it was empty. We were directed to the family line *sigh* and we presented our IDs and boarding passes and we passed through.
Now for new fliers (DH hadnt flown since all the new security procedures) we were kind of prepared. We knew that we would need all of our shoes off and that the laptop would need to be taken out of its bag. I had put all of our liquid in a quart bag (which by the way I think is a scare tactic since I forgot on our way back and nothing was said). The space between the first checkpoint and the scanners is nonexistent it seemed and all of the sudden it was crowded in my mind.
I had expected signs telling you what to do, where to go, or someone helping out but we were thrown in to mix unprepared. DS and DD took of their shoes and I started filling bins
. Then came the first blow, DD had to be out of the stroller and it had to be scanned, I had known this but it had completely slipped my mind. She FREAKED out! Next the kids had to take off their sweatshirts. Then we forgot to take the laptop out of the bag
then DH forgot his watch, then his keys, then his belt.
Thank goodness our luggage all scanned okay, it was already stressful enough!
We made it through to the other side and DD refused to sit back in the stroller. This was a struggle of enormous proportions and she almost won. She put up quite a fight and was screaming like a banshee, DS bless him was trying to help calm her down but she was beyond reason. We regrouped while she screamed and finally I remembered I had bananas in a bag and that calmed her down FINALLY. I was sure that with all the commotion that TSA security agents were going to descend on us. That would have been a great way to start a trip!
I had always heard that you should arrive at the airport at least 2 hours before your flight. Since we were running slightly late and security threw me off I was preparing for a sprint Home Alone style down the airport terminals to get to our gate. We love this movie and I always laugh at the airport scene since there is no way in the world that would ever be possible. But never the less that is what was running through my mind. DH looked at his watch and that entire process had took us about 20 minutes. *WHEW* No Home Alone style running for us this time! Maybe on our return trip!
We headed toward our gate and when we turned the corner we were greeted with a full house. No seats available here! We still had an hour before they started boarding so we backtracked to a nearly deserted hallway with tons of windows and relaxed. Turns out we were near a family restroom and after DS discovered the cool self-cleaning toilets and automatic hand sanitizer we made several trips to the restrooms. DH headed around the corner for some Starbucks and I pulled out the camera.
Here we are relaxin' :
FINALLY we decided to let DS choose where we would fly. I knew his answer would be Disney World, we had been talking nothing but Disney for a month so he was well past brainwashed on the subject. Two times it had slipped from each of us that we were going and both times Ethan began jumping up and down and yelling before we retracted our statements. I was so hopeful for this moment, I had even imagined showing it to all of my friends and family, so I began taping. I was hoping for excitement, jumping up and down, tears, anything.
DS was so out of his element at the airport he could barely keep his mind on one thing at a time, I doubt he really understood anything I was saying. I finally ask him the golden question, holding my breath that the answer would not be Chuck-E-Cheese and I was thrilled to hear Um, Disney World. YES! Being as calm as I could I said Okay lets go. Now was the moment I had been waiting for the excitement and tears! Did it happen? Of course not, what I got in response was Okay lets go. No excitement, not even really an acknowledgement of the surprise.
Here is the exchange:
I am not sure what I was expecting since even though he was familiar with WDW he had no idea what going meant. He had no idea how exciting it was, but I am fully confident that our next trip will be a surprise and we will get a huge reaction!
We headed to our gate a few minutes before boarding and checked our stroller, which made those last few minutes feel like hours. DD is a sprinter and has NO concept of getting lost. DS at least usually will stay in range if he runs and he always keeps his eye on us if we are out somewhere. DD is fearless and will run a half mile away before she turns back if she looks back at all. Needless to say they were feeding off each others excitement and began bouncing off the walls.
Since our seats were in the back of the plane we hoped they boarded back to front but no such luck. We boarded and fought our way through EVERYONE. To avoid the fortune that would have been paid if we had checked our entire luggage we decided to carry-on as much as was allowed. This means DH was struggling with two rolling suitcases both with bags resting on the top of them and the laptop backpack. I was in charge of the diaper bag and DD. Now to be fair DD is equal to the backpack and one rolling suitcase, even if she is walking herself.
We boarded the tiny plane with Ethan leading the way with DH following pushing one suitcase in front of him and pulling one behind him. Anyone who has ever tried this probably has his sympathy, he was having a lot of trouble and was making quite a scene. DD was walking behind him and I brought up the rear. About halfway down the plane I casually mentioned to DH that maybe I should have taken a suitcase, thought my sympathy would make him feel better. Then he just let go of the suitcase he was pulling and walked away. I was beyond surprised and a little mad. I could barely get to it over DD and there were a lot of people behind me pushing. I am pretty sure I said some not to kind words loudly and he came back and got it. So far boarding the plane was beginning to feel as stressful as security. We arrived at our seats only to find that the guy sitting next to me at used ALL of the above storage space. DH was already annoyed and began shoving suitcases in. Use your imagination at the scene. Luckily we were able to squeeze two of our suitcases in, not without drawing the attention of the flight attendant who told DH to calm down before he had a stroke. We got settled in and I found that DD HATED the seatbelts and this would be a constant struggle that I would more often than not loose.
So we made our little home in the beyond tiny seats of the plane. I lifted the seat divider between DD and me to give myself a little comfort
you know the kind that comes with a armrest that doesnt really lift all the way digging into your shoulder and I was welcomed by DD pushing me away from her seat until I returned the divider. As we started to taxi I saw a butterfly fly by my window and felt like it was a blessing on our trip. As the plane took off I pumped DD full of gummy bears and heard DS being entertained by the stewardess across the aisle. DH said the interaction went like this:
Her: Whats blue and smells like red paint?
DS: I dont know. What?
Her: Whats blue and smells like red paint?
DS: I dont know. What?
Her: Whats blue and smells like red paint?
DS: I dont know. What?
Her: Whats blue and smells like red paint?
DS: I dont know. What?
DH: (whispering) Red paint.
DS: HUH?
LOL, DS is our comic relief in the family and loves jokes so the fact that he didnt get this one is funny. He has a knack for getting out of almost any trouble he is in by pulling a stand-up comedy routine in the time out corner.
The flight was uneventful and fast. I didnt hear much from DH and DS in front of us, but according to DH they had a great flight. DD on the other hand as I said HATED the seatbelt and sitting in her seat. She spent most of the flight standing in the floor playing on her seat. About an hour in we had I did beg DH to take DD to the restroom and change her. I did not want to wrestle with the man sitting next to me since he had moved a negative inch to let us in our seat originally.
We arrived about 20 minutes ahead of schedule and started following the mob toward baggage claim. As we left the gate I looked at all the exhausted people that had just ended their vacation and felt grateful that we had 7 days before we became one of them. Being new to MCO we had never experienced the shuttle from the gates to the baggage claim area, pretty cool. We moved with the crowd to our little baggage belt and we began to look for our Tiffany Town car escort. There were tons of people holding up names, but none were ours. After about 10 minutes I was beginning to pull out my confirmation page to give them a call, when she walked out of the elevator holding our name. Crisis averted! I was trying to get in vacation mode, but my mind was wanting OUT of the airport and IN to the Wilderness Lodge! As we were introducing ourselves to our driver Renata I looked down for Ethan and he was GONE.
Panic set in! I had not put his ID bracelet on him yet and there was a set of automatic doors right behind us. I began to panic and started yelling his name. It felt like forever but in reality it was about 10 seconds when his head popped up from behind the trashcan about 15 feet away. I ran and grabbed him and told him never to do that again (yeah right). Now has anyone ever looked at other parents around you when something like this happens? There is two ways other parents look at you
Parents who have kids who are faster than lightning at disappearing look at you with pity and give you a weak smile as they are holding on to the collar of their own child who is fighting to get away. Parents who have the perfect children that never step more than a few feet away look at you with a smug disapproving look that makes you feel like the worst parent in the world. Lucky us the latter was standing right next to us and gave me a smug look of huge proportions before herding her family far away from us. *shrug*
As we waited we made small talk about the weather. Finally the luggage conveyer began to move and DH went to stand closer to the beginning to grab our bag and suddenly DS needed to go potty. NOW! So our driver guarded DD in the stroller and our carry-on bags and I took DS to the restroom. DS tends to be fascinated with bathrooms. It is hard work to keep him on task and most trips include repeating the sentences Ethan hurry up. Ethan, dont touch that. Ethan, stop flushing the toilet. Ethan PLEASE pull your pants up and come on! about 20 times each. It is almost comical. This trip was no exception and I believe he flushed the toilet 3 times.
When we made it back out to the luggage 3 hours later
I expected DH to have our one checked bag and a camp set up in the airport. But no such luck! It turned out our luggage belt was being shared with another flight that arrived well after ours and their luggage was on the belt not ours. We finally got our luggage and loaded the elevator at 12:30. Quite a long time to wait for luggage seeing as we arrived at 11:40, but since we had arrived early we were still on schedule. We headed to the tunnel to load into our van and I began to get into vacation mode!
DS began asking where Donald Duck was and we spotted him in the fun wall with all the characters. We headed out of the airport and got our first glimpses off palm trees. Wahoo we were not in Chicago anymore! We were getting excited
.
First off was our stop at Publix. We had decided that I would run in by myself to make it faster and less stressful. I had made a list of things to pick up before we left and of course had left it on our dining room table, lol. So I was repeating what I needed to get, DH was convinced I would forget half of it. He took this photo as a before picture, saying that he would take an after picture when I realized what I forgot. Ha ha ha, honey! I ran in and the first thing I saw was aisles of Disney merchandise. Of course I had to pick up a stuffed Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck.
I have to say the prices here are great! MUCH cheaper than in the parks and resorts I found out! I picked up bread, diapers, 2 cases of water (on sale for $3.77!), cookies and a gallon of milk. Then I spent what felt like hours searching for jelly since I had shipped peanut butter. Turns out it was at the very end of the store next to the bread and water, which I had walked by at least 3 times. They only had one lane open so I got in line. Soon a supervisor called me over to the customer service desk to ring me up and surprise of all surprises I remembered to use my Huggies coupon! I may be on vacation but I havent paid full price for diapers in YEARS and I wasnt starting now! Vacation could now begin!
Here is my "before" photo and a couple from the transport:
When I got back to the van DH told me that they had lanyards in the store. Our driver had run in and picked a couple up for her grandkids who were going on a cruise. I had been torn on if we needed lanyards or not since we werent trading pins and I ended up regretting not buying them before we left. I ran back in and they were great! I picked up a Minnie one for me and Stitch for DH; they had clear plastic ID pouches. They were super cheap $3.99 I think, either way they were half the price that I could find online. Let me tell you, we will never take a trip without these! They were fantastic!!! It was so easy to keep our KTTW, IDs, Credit card and Fast Passes in them for very easy access. We didnt actually see many other people wearing these, but we didnt care. DH wore his constantly up until we walked into our front door. LOL
Just for the record there is no after picture showing when I forgot something at Publix! I remembered everything I went in to get!
We were off! Next stop the wonderful Wilderness Lodge! Here is the obligatory entrance photo:
I wasnt fast enough to take one of the Wilderness Lodge entrance. We were climbing the hill and turning the curb
.
NEXT UP: Were Home, Now we have get to Epcot NOW!
Feels more like the Amazon!
I knew this would not happen but it was a wish none the less. LOL Those of you who read my Pre-TR know that DH had extreme dental surgery about a month ago. We were hopeful that he would be completely healed by the time we went to Disney but as we got closer we knew it was going to be a stretch. This was devesating to me since we had booked the DxDDP specifically because DH loves food. Now I was worried about what and even if he could eat. This made getting into vacation mode hard!
