Doing That Disney Dash!
If any of you have read my previous 3 trip reports, you know that I have a pretty basic formula for my Disney travel days: leave as early as possible to get there as early as possible to play in the parks! Normally that means I leave at like 3 in the morning from my house for a 6 am flight.
This time things were a little bit different.
I got up at 6 am and after finishing my morning routine I had this conversation:
Going to Disney in April, while so much less stressful and far more wonderful weather-wise than July or August, means that I still have to work the day before vacation starts!
Originally it was a non-issue. We were leaving Saturday, early morning, as per usual.
Until we went to get the plane tickets.
What happens the first weekend of April Break in Boston guys? You know, the big thing that happens on a Monday in April every year? The thing that bumps all the prices of everything in and out of Boston up 120% price-wise?
Yeah, the marathon. And not just the marathon. Our plans meant we were leaving marathon weekend and coming back PAX East weekend. Not the best timing. Not at all.
So we had to replan.
We decided to just leave as late as possible Friday evening and just get an extra night added to our package. It wasn't in the cards for us. We had already changed hotels in Disney once this trip - we were originally booked at All Star Sports, but I....really don't think I can go back to the Values after staying Deluxe and Moderate. So I paid for the upgrade to French Quarter. But by the time we decided to add on one more night, French Quarter was already booked up, so I had to make a room only reservation at Riverside. Since I was the one booking the extra night I figured that either Riverside was the easiest choice.
So, anyway, back to the 15th!
Because I'm an adult, I had to work the day we left. This was not good, because I was totally in Disney mode! I got up a half hour earlier than normal to finish any last minute packing of things I needed that morning (my makeup, my face stuff, my toothpaste, etc.) then hit the road. I actually thought I had left with so much time and was doing so well I stopped for coffee!
Which made me "late" for work. Womp. By "late" I mean I wasn't actually late-late. I was on time by work standards, but since I normally get to work 15 minutes earlier than I need to I felt like I was rushing in. My coworkers teased me about it all day, thinking I was going to find a way to skip out and just go to Disney instead.
On Jey's side of the coin, she had shifted her schedule around. She normally works a standard 9-5 Monday thru Friday at her office, and Fridays are her most crucial day of the week so she couldn't really miss two in a row. So she just headed in early and worked 7:30-3:30 instead.
We spent all day texting with a countdown and kind of cheering each other on every time we had a chance to. The day felt like it was dragging. My students all know how much of a Disney nerd I am and every class was asking me my countdown and so on. It was kind of adorable.
Finally it was 3 pm! I dashed out of work as fast as I could (seriously - I had my coat on and my bags ready to go at quarter of when my last student left on their bus and was just waiting for the last few buses to get there so it would be easier to leave) and hurried home.
I changed into a light sweatshirt I bought from Myrtle Beach last year and a pair of running leggings that on anyone else are capris but on me are peddle pushers, and packed up the car. My dad was driving to the airport because we switch off - he picks me up then I pick him up next time he needs it. We stopped in one of the suburbs of Boston to pick Jey up, then headed to Logan.
The traffic was honestly not as bad as I thought it would be. We were stuck in the tunnel for close to ten minutes (which was not my favorite thing in the world - it creeps me out) but other than that traffic hadn't gotten bad yet. Even security at the airport wasn't bad yet. We were there by 6 and had about an hour and a half to find food and our gate.
I snagged this picture:
Then we made our way through to one of the "healthier" options in our terminal. We each got this:
This is technically our first meal of the trip so I had to take a picture of it! It's a turkey sandwich of naan with a diet coke. It was....subpar at best. Mine barely had any turkey on it and the naan was more a pita pocket that hadn't been cut open than anything else.
Our flight was uneventful and we were soon in Florida!
Hello, Disney!
Except it was 11 at night, so we had to go to claim our own baggage. Womp.
Like usual our bags were some of the last out so but we managed to get them both easily and were soon booking it from Terminal A to Terminal B to get to the Magical Express. I posted on Twitter that we had our bags at 11:30 and were seated on the bus by 11:36 so we were really going fast - Jey just wanted to get out of the airport and into bed so she was going as fast as she possibly could and I was just scooting on behind her!
I had had a little bit of trepidation going to the Magical Express check in because last time we went together in 2014 we had done as we had this time - originally we had booked a Value resort then switched a few months before to a Moderate resort (in that case it was ASMu to CBR). That time they had sent us DME info - twice - both of which said ASMu and when I had called a CM had assured me that everything was fine. the DME CMs that time were great and made our changes easily but it meant having to go through some hoops to get our luggage and even though this time we didn't have to worry about luggage I just kept worrying.
But this time everything was fine! If, you know, you couldn't tell from our speed-walk onto the bus.
We got to the hotel and went to the front desk, as per instructions from the helpful text message I had gotten just as I was leaving for the airport. A very nice CM named Maria gave us our room in Alligator Bayou, building 18, and a map with how to get there. We asked her the best way to deal with our luggage in the morning and thanked her and walked out.
Now, it was past midnight at this point and we had both been up since 6 am and had both worked 8 hour days before our flight, and Maria had given us too many rights vs. lefts but we left the lobby and everything looks so different in darkness than it does on a map. We started out towards what we felt was the right way, but ended up in the Magnolia Bend area. We quickly realized that the map Maria had given us only had the Alligator Bayou side of things on it, so we back tracked.
And ended up turning right too quickly and ended up on Ol' Man Island. Next to what looked like a dead end.
So we turned back around and finally figured out what Maria's instructions meant when she said "walk past ALL the dining options" and found building 14 and, finally, building 18.
Of course we were on the back end of 18, and you'd have thought I'd write down our room number but it was so late at night I didn't even think to - it was one of 5 pool view rooms so that narrows it down at least! Jey dipped her feet in the pool after showering while on the phone and I took a few pictures:
I was so in love with all the Princess and the Frog stuff in here but I couldn't full appreciate it because we were beat. Jey showered and then we set the alarm for 7:30 and were both asleep by 2 am.
I've seen the Murphy bed but never pictures of the AB rooms at Riverside - so cute!
