Wild Africa Trek, a Disney Wedding, AoA photoshoot, and more!Aug 2013 TR update 12/21

Joining in! Sounds like a super-fun trip, although it sounds like the travel day is going to be an interesting story....

Yes, definitely interesting... and a frustrating day!


Glad to have you along!

Excited to read all about your adventure!

Thanks, I'm happy you're here!

Joining in on this one too!

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

Welcome over here!

Subbing! I loved your last dining review and thought I'd follow you over to your TR proper! (Don't worry, I'm following for the food too :thumbsup2) Can't wait to see you start!

Aww, thanks so much! Hoping to get the first post up either tonight or tomorrow!

Subbing over here too! We were just there in the middle of July!:thumbsup2

Welcome! Hope you had a fabulous time in July!
 
I just finished your solo TR, it was great, so I'm subbing into this one too. Can't wait to read more!
 


Travel Day

So our first day of traveling started off well enough. We left our house around 7am and drove to the Philly airport. Checked in with Delta, got through security, and still had about half an hour before they were going to start boarding. So we decided to grab breakfast at Earl of Sandwich! They just put one into the Philly airport I think a year or two ago? And it seemed like the right way to start off a Disney trip!

DH and I both got the Bacon, Egg, and Cheese. Sorry for the bite taken out of it!


It was very good. I love Earl of Sandwich bread!

Our flight out of Philly left on time, no problems. It was a smooth flight. Unfortunately we had a layover in Detroit. It saved us a good bit of money, but if you know your geography you probably realize that Detroit is in no way on the way from Philly to Orlando. It was totally out of the way and would in fact take us longer to fly from Detroit to Orlando than a direct flight would have from Philly to Orlando, never mind having to take another flight from Philly to Detroit. We had a short layover, only about 45 minutes, so luckily we landed on time and found our gate easily.

We boarded within 10 minutes. It was around noon now. No time to get lunch, but we should be in Orlando by 3pm so we could just grab something then! We were sitting on the plane for about five minutes when we were told we all had to get off. Okay. The plane was having mechanical issues, and they would give us an update by 1pm. It wasn't the end of the world - it at least gave us time to grab some food, so we got Quizno's. I had a pesto chicken flatbread:



I'm just posting the food pictures to make this post a little more interesting, since I have no photos of anything else!

Okay, so 1pm rolls around. They update us saying they haven't been able to fix the problem with the plane, so they're going to send a new one. No word on when it will get here. It should be here within an hour. Again, not the end of the world. We didn't have any real plans until our dinner at Sanaa at 7:00pm. So even if we were delayed a few hours we should still make it in plenty of time.

Half an hour later: they actually couldn't get a new plane. This one is being sent for repairs but it would take about two days. And then they make this gem of an announcement: "anyone that would like to get to Orlando can come and rebook a different flight at the desk." Well, EVERYONE wants to get to Orlando. So EVERYONE lines up in mass chaos.

By the time we got close to the front of the line I could hear what they were telling everyone in front of us: All flights to Orlando for the rest of the day are booked. We'll get you a flight tomorrow morning. And even before I reach the counter I am in tears. I feel a little silly, because I know that everyone else here wants to get down to Disney just as much as I do. But it was going to be a short trip to begin with (only 3 full days) and now we were going to be losing part of another day. Plus, my friend's bachelorette party was starting bright and early in the Magic Kingdom the next morning and I wanted to be there.

I guess I'm quite pitiable when I'm crying, because the woman at the counter felt so bad for me she was able to work something out. Since we were only 2 people rather than the bigger families, there was room for us on a flight to Atlanta. We could then switch there to a flight from Atlanta to Orlando. The flight to Atlanta didn't leave until 8pm, and we wouldn't get to Orlando until half after midnight, but it was better than nothing!! We settled into our seats at the airport until we had a gate number for the new flight. I called the rental car company to tell them we would be much later than anticipated. They actually tried to charge me MORE for picking the car up later (because it was after midnight so it was technically a different day and the rate I had secured would no longer be any good). Well, I was not dealing with any of that and I asked when they would let our reservation go for being late. She said up to 6 hours. So I told her to book it for 11:59pm! No one was messing with me given the mood I was in, haha! I cancelled the Sanaa reservation as well.

So we're sitting there at the gate. And then around 4pm they make an announcement - they were actually able to fix our original plane much more quickly than anticipated, and we could board it. I won't get into how frustrated I felt for so many of the others who had been rebooked for the next day and had left the airport already. Thank goodness we were still there! Though I admit I was a little nervous about getting onto a plane that was supposed to take 2 days to fix and was done in a matter of hours... the first thing I did? Make another, later reservation at Sanaa for the latest time they had, around 9:30.

We took off for Orlando at 5:30. The flight was actually fine, and ultimately we arrived around 8, which was 5 hours than originally scheduled. It could have been much worse, but it was a very stressful day. I was also not happy with the way Delta handled many things. I won't get into that here, but if you're interested a did write a blog post on it (http://disneyinyourday.com/2013/08/...r-flight-to-disney-gets-delayed-or-cancelled/)

Unfortunately, the stress didn't stop. We went to pick up the rental car and waited over an hour on line. The thing that irked me the most was the fact that it took so long, but that the line wasn't actually that long! There were only about 5 families in front of us! But the people working the desk kept going into the back room and not coming out, or someone else would have a problem and it would take forever to solve. I sadly watched the minutes slip by and my hopes of being able to eat at Sanaa were fading away.

I got the rental car. We drove to the toll booth and the person there mentioned we might want to put our headlights on :scared1: It is bad that I hadn't even noticed? So I was trying to drive or find somewhere to pull over and I just couldn't figure out how to get those darn headlights on! The button was in a ridiculous spot, in my opinion ;) But they eventually got turned on and we make it to AKL. We checked in around 10:00, dropped our stuff off, and literally wolfed down some food at the Mara.


If you made it through reading all of that, CONGRATULATIONS!! I know it wasn't a fun read. It certainly wasn't a fun day to get through. But in the end we made it to Disney without missing out on too much, just one dining reservation, so I count myself quite lucky. We got to sleep so we could be up early the next day to hit Magic Kingdom!

I promise it gets more fun and interesting after this! :upsidedow
 
Oh my gosh!! What a day! Sorry for the frustration but glad you made it - 5 hours late but you made it! One ADR as a casualty isn't bad considering the fact they weren't going to get you to WDW that night.

Were you staying in the villas?

BTW: This WAS interesting!!
 


I'm sorry you had such a rough travel day! I hate traveling and I get worked up when things go wrong too, its really hard not too! I'm glad you guys made it!
 
Holy Moly Becky, that is some travel story!! Just... Wow. And YIKES.

I've always hated the line-ups at the car rentals, so I joined one of the free "member" programs. Let me tell you... DO THIS if you do much car renting. I use Dollar, and with the free Dollar Express, I basically pick up my luggage and walk outside and get in the car. No lines, nothing. Highly recommended.

Oh God, I drive without the headlights in Florida way more than I'd like to admit. I'm so used to having a car with auto headlights, that it just doesn't occur to me.

Honestly, I totally enjoyed reading it despite how lousy the day was. So glad you're finally in Disney and the good stuff can start. :goodvibes
 
Joining in! I can't wait to see the AoA photo shoot! We stayed at AoA in January and loved! Planning to go back in Jan 2015 - WAY too long!

I can't believe the troubles you had with your travel. I would have been a complete MESS. I hate flying anyway, so I would probably have freaked out about the plane being fixed so quickly. At least you made it safely! :)
 
:O I can't believe all that! I'm glad you guys finally got there!

Thank you! It was such a relief to finally arrive!

Oh my gosh!! What a day! Sorry for the frustration but glad you made it - 5 hours late but you made it! One ADR as a casualty isn't bad considering the fact they weren't going to get you to WDW that night.

Were you staying in the villas?

BTW: This WAS interesting!!

Yes, I was so relieved about not getting there a day late that the one ADR wasn't such a big deal. We were staying in Jambo House in a DVC studio. And I'm glad you found it interesting! ;)

I'm sorry you had such a rough travel day! I hate traveling and I get worked up when things go wrong too, its really hard not too! I'm glad you guys made it!

Thanks! I hate travel days because I get stressed/anxious really easily. And then when stuff like this happens it just seems to stressful!

Holy Moly Becky, that is some travel story!! Just... Wow. And YIKES.

I've always hated the line-ups at the car rentals, so I joined one of the free "member" programs. Let me tell you... DO THIS if you do much car renting. I use Dollar, and with the free Dollar Express, I basically pick up my luggage and walk outside and get in the car. No lines, nothing. Highly recommended.

Oh God, I drive without the headlights in Florida way more than I'd like to admit. I'm so used to having a car with auto headlights, that it just doesn't occur to me.

Honestly, I totally enjoyed reading it despite how lousy the day was. So glad you're finally in Disney and the good stuff can start. :goodvibes

That's really good to know about the car rental programs. I'll definitely be looking into it next time. It sounds so much more convenient!

And my car has auto headlights too, so it didn't even occur to me to try and turn them on! Actually, I've gotten in trouble with that before - when I drove DH's car once I killed the battery because I forgot to turn them off, since I'm used them turning off on their own...

I'm glad you enjoyed reading it! And everything is much more exciting and happier from here on out!

Joining in! I can't wait to see the AoA photo shoot! We stayed at AoA in January and loved! Planning to go back in Jan 2015 - WAY too long!

I can't believe the troubles you had with your travel. I would have been a complete MESS. I hate flying anyway, so I would probably have freaked out about the plane being fixed so quickly. At least you made it safely! :)

Yes, AoA looked incredible! After our photoshoot I told DH we definitely needed to stay there. We will be going next February!

I feel like I should've been more worried about the plane being fixed so quickly, but I was just so eager to get there at that point that I didn't care! Haha but I hate traveling too so I was definitely feeling the stress. I'm always happy to arrive in Orlando but arriving this time was probably the happiest I've been to see MCO!
 
wow, so sorry to hear about the travel issues - but at least you go down there that day and it didn't impact the bachelor party

Your trip kinda reminds me of our honeymoon trip where our first leg flight was delayed causing us to miss our transfer in Puerto Rico and we kept getting put on standby and were worried we wouldn't get to our final destination that day (spoiler alert: we didn't) and when we were up at the ticket desk, with my wife already near/in tears, the ticket agent told us we "just have to look at this as an adventure" - thought my wife was going to lose it on her
 
:scared1: What a nightmare travel day! I also had a bad experience traveling on Delta when we were coming home from our Disneyland trip (although I'm willing to chalk it up to a mistake on my part, the overall situation just leaves a bad taste in my mouth). Sorry you missed out on Sanaa! But I'm very glad you made it there the same day - nothing like collapsing into your hotel bed after a long day of travel knowing you've arrived!
 
Whoa! Your travel day was HIDEOUS! :scared: I am so sorry. :( I'm glad that it didn't end up as bad as it sounded like it would, but still. :crazy2: I hope the rest of the trip makes up for it! :thumbsup2
 
Oh what an awful way to begin a trip, not sure if I would have been brave enough to get onto the "fixed" plane.

Glad all turned out well eventually with getting your rental car and other tha missing your Sanaa reservation arriving at 10pm still allowed you to eat and get a good nights sleep.

I had an arrival day ADR for Sanaa but changed it just in case.
 
What a dreadful travel day. Glad you got there before that day was over though. :)

The one time Ballet Girl used Delta it was a disaster, as well. :sad2: Actually, the only two times she hasn't used Southwest have been disasters with huge delays -- now she's a Southwest fan for life, I think. :p

And I think I forgot to say how neat it is that you're at AKL! Kudos to unnamed relative. :cool1:
 
wow, so sorry to hear about the travel issues - but at least you go down there that day and it didn't impact the bachelor party

Your trip kinda reminds me of our honeymoon trip where our first leg flight was delayed causing us to miss our transfer in Puerto Rico and we kept getting put on standby and were worried we wouldn't get to our final destination that day (spoiler alert: we didn't) and when we were up at the ticket desk, with my wife already near/in tears, the ticket agent told us we "just have to look at this as an adventure" - thought my wife was going to lose it on her

Oh no, that sounds awful! If the ticket agent said something like that to me I would've gone nuts!

:scared1: What a nightmare travel day! I also had a bad experience traveling on Delta when we were coming home from our Disneyland trip (although I'm willing to chalk it up to a mistake on my part, the overall situation just leaves a bad taste in my mouth). Sorry you missed out on Sanaa! But I'm very glad you made it there the same day - nothing like collapsing into your hotel bed after a long day of travel knowing you've arrived!

This was my first time on Delta and I have heard from a lot of other people that had problems.... someone told me DELTA actually stands for "doesn't ever leave the airport"! :lmao:

Whoa! Your travel day was HIDEOUS! :scared: I am so sorry. :( I'm glad that it didn't end up as bad as it sounded like it would, but still. :crazy2: I hope the rest of the trip makes up for it! :thumbsup2

Yes, in the end we were lucky that it wasn't worse! Everything else was a blast after that though!

Wow! What a headache! Glad you finally got to your room:yay:

It was so nice to finally be in that room!

Oh what an awful way to begin a trip, not sure if I would have been brave enough to get onto the "fixed" plane.

Glad all turned out well eventually with getting your rental car and other tha missing your Sanaa reservation arriving at 10pm still allowed you to eat and get a good nights sleep.

I had an arrival day ADR for Sanaa but changed it just in case.

Yeah, we ended up booking an ADR for Sanaa for our trip next February. So we will get there eventually, just about 6 months later than we were planning!

What a dreadful travel day. Glad you got there before that day was over though. :)

The one time Ballet Girl used Delta it was a disaster, as well. :sad2: Actually, the only two times she hasn't used Southwest have been disasters with huge delays -- now she's a Southwest fan for life, I think. :p

And I think I forgot to say how neat it is that you're at AKL! Kudos to unnamed relative. :cool1:

That's what I've heard about Delta from a lot of people, unfortunately. I love Southwest, I just wish their prices would come down a little!

And you can thank Uncle Ed for AKL! ;) We were so thrilled and in love with it!
 

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