DAY 4 Continued: Monday August 27th
We hadn't planned on visiting Toontown without DS, but we were right there and looking for something short to do before lunch, so we stopped over to ride Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin.
My cousin & I used to watch this movie alllllll the time when we were kids, so even though the ride itself is pretty cheesy, it conjures up good memories. I especially love the queue with all the references to the movie! Again, no one in line behind us so we took some silly pictures along the way.
After spinning around Roger Rabbit's Toontown, we wanted around Mickey's Toontown and stopped in a shop to look around. I tried this hat on for DS.
If you read my last DL TR, you know what this little guy is! He missed him last trip in May and was practically devastated to find out there had been one in Toontown that he didn't see.
By now, we were ready for some lunch, so we crossed the hub over to Frontierland in search of food.
What would unknowingly be our last picture of the Castle
Construction walls, although I'm not sure what Fantasy Faire is going to be. Anyone know?
We ended up at the Golden Horseshoe Saloon for lunch, somewhere we had eaten last trip so we knew we'd find something we liked there.
One of us got the fish basket and the other got the chicken nuggets and we shared. It was line getting the fish & chicken basket at Columbia Harbour House again! We were so disappointed when it was not available last WDW trip...
We got our food and decided to go sit upstairs. Although it was not really busy inside the restaurant at all, it was nice to sit up in relative quiet since there were not many tables up there and only a couple of them had people. While we were eating our lunch, DH got a phone call from a 1-800 number but he ignored it and we continued eating and discussing what we wanted to do after lunch.
After we finished eating, I ran across the way to use the restroom and snapped a picture of this neat looking fountain.
And that was our last photo of the trip before everything spiraled out of control!
When I came out of the bathroom, DH was on the phone with an intense look on his face. I asked him if it was work, but he said it was Delta that had called while we were eating and left him a voicemail saying our flight out that night at 6:40 pm had been cancelled because of the storm coming! I immediately wanted to go into panic mode, but I held myself together. While DH used the app to see if there was an earlier flight, I started calling Delta and sat on hold for what felt like forever. While I was on hold, DH saw the only earlier flight was at 2:45 pm. Of course it was after 12 at that point, so we really didn't think that was possible.
Since I was still on hold, I suggested we just start walking to the exit in case we could somehow make it to that flight. An agent finally picked up as we were walking out towards the trams. He told me we had been automatically rebooked on a flight leaving LA that night at 11:55 pm that would send us through Atlanta with an 8 am flight from there the next morning getting us in at 9:15 am Tuesday. I told DH this and we wondered if we should just stick with that since we were already confirmed. It was kind of funny because by that time we were on the tram and the started making their usual announcements. The agent asked if we were at the airport and I had to explain that no, we were on a
Disneyland tram because we had been in the park when we found out the flight was cancelled. We were trying to be positive and telling each other, well at least that gives us more time in the parks.
But then I decided to ask just to see if there were spots on the 2:45 pm flight, and he said there were. He was able to get us confirmed on that flight, but we were really going to have to book it to make it there. I thanked him profusely, and then the race was really on. I don't even want to know how fast DH was going on the Interstate to LA, but thankfully the Lord was on our side and we didn't hit any traffic. Don't tell, but DH was definitely passing people in the carpool lane!! While we were driving, we got an alert on the phone of another flight cancellation. I almost freaked, but it was telling me that the connecting flight the next morning from ATL had been cancelled. I guess since we had originally been rebooked for that flight, it was still sending us alerts. So than we were both really happy we had decided to chance hurrying to the airport for the earlier flight.
Somehow, we made it to LA, drove around for a gas station, returned the rental car, caught the shuttle to LAX, and made it there for 1:45 pm. This is one of the ONLY times I am thankful for my cheap husband! I had been so worried about only packing a carry on each to avoid baggage fees, but if we had needed to check luggage, we might not have made it.
Again, luck on our side, the wait for security was very short, so we had a little time to spare before boarding. I felt really relieved that we had called when we did because there were a LOT of people on the standby list and only a couple made it onto the flight.
DH and I had to sit separately, but it wasn't bad considering we were in Economy Comfort seats, which were a little larger than the regular coach seats. At first, I thought we must be in the wrong section of the plane! I was so nervous the whole flight that we would land in Atlanta and find out our connection had been cancelled and we would be stuck there. I was especially nervous that was the case when we landed and DH immediately checked his phone and made a face, but so far so good. I had a message from the parking lot people asking when we were coming in, so I called them back and let them know the change in plans. They let us know to call as soon as we landed in NOLA and someone would be able to come pick us up.
We landed in Atlanta somewhere around 10, and we didn't have much time between landing and our connection. But we landed a little early, so we actually had time to grab some dinner at Checker's before heading to our gate where they were running behind too. We found out there that we were on the absolute LAST flight getting into New Orleans, the rest had been cancelled due to the storm.
Our second flight, we were also in Economy Comfort, but the plane was smaller so it was only 2 seats on each side and we were able to sit together this time. It was a short, uneventful flight, and we landed in New Orleans at 11:35 pm.
Our last adventure was getting our car back! I called the company's number and a lady just answers, "Hello?" So immediately I'm thinking I called the wrong number but I asked if it was NOLA Airport Parking and she said yes. I told her we had landed and would need a shuttle to get our car. She told me that their shuttle was locked up and that we should look for a beige Camry to pick us up.
Turns out it was the owner's wife who had forwarded all the company calls to her cell phone, hence the weird phone answering, and her and her husband were picking us up in their personal vehicle. When they got there, it was the most awkward car ride EVER.
First, the husband was basically telling us how they can never evacuate for a storm because they have to stay with the business if there are any cars parked there. And then he went on about how their night guy had called in for the night so they had needed to leave their kids sleeping at home to come get us. Basically we felt like they were blaming us for having to come get us so we could get our car! Then he asked how we found out about them and I answered that we had a Groupon. No lie, he asked, "Do you have $3.48 for tax?" So DH kind of chuckles and says yes, and he says sternly, "I'm serious, you need to pay the tax it's $3.48."
Wow, really?! We have $5, it's okay! Then as we were finally pulling up to the place (seriously, the ride was less than 10 minutes but it was the most uncomfortable ride EVER), he actually asked us if we were SURE this was the place we had parked our car, like he couldn't believe people really used his business.
We paid our tax and a little extra for them coming out late at night to get us (he tried to give DH change
) and we booked it out of there. We got to my parent's house after midnight and went right to bed. I was never so happy to see my sweet DS's face as I was the next morning! Although it was not the way we would have liked the trip to end, we were so thankful we had not gotten stranded somewhere unable to get into NOLA with a storm coming and our DS not with us. We drove home well ahead of the storm.
I know that was wordy, but our trip home was just so ridiculous, it really begs to be shared! At least in my mind.
To wrap this up, I'll say that one thing occurred to me as we were driving to our house the next morning. I looked at DH and said, "Do you realize the worst part of this whole thing? Our last ride on our anniversary weekend in Disneyland was ROGER RABBIT!"
THE END
and your photos are fabulous! World of Color looks just amazing.
No wait again there, so we went over to Big Thunder Mountain next and again, no wait! I don't know if it was a slow day or the Early Entry was really that beneficial, but we did all of the headliners plus a few other attractions all before 10:30 am!
I was thinking about your trip that weekend. I wondered how the timing worked out on that storm and your travels.
