Bringin' the HAPPY back! A (do-over) Spring Break TR!

[wsushocker]

Well, I was hoping to have an update up tonight, but I found out today that I have to go back to work tonight. We're having a parent meeting for current 8th grade parents, and the counselors want me to talk about the AP course I teach that's open to 9th graders. So, no update tonight, or at least not until late. I'll try to get one up tomorrow if I don't make it back online tonight, though.

Wow, they gave you so much notice! They obviously do NOT know how important it is for all of us to have an update......

 

[michellem1118]

Wow, they gave you so much notice! They obviously do NOT know how important it is for all of us to have an update......

I know. Work really gets in the way of my DIS time.

 

[addictedtothemouse]

I know. Work really gets in the way of my DIS time.

I think it should be in every contract that you get a certain amount of DIS time per day at work.

 

[njtinkmom]

Hi, I followed your last TR and even congratulated you on a great response to a less than great comment, you were way more polite than I would have been!:: And then I have been chatting with you on another TR about our upcoming trips being the same date - so possibly a dismeet , so I thought I would get in on this TR too! Can't wait for it to start

 

[michellem1118]

I think it should be in every contract that you get a certain amount of DIS time per day at work.

I wholeheartedly agree!

Hi, I followed your last TR and even congratulated you on a great response to a less than great comment, you were way more polite than I would have been!:: And then I have been chatting with you on another TR about our upcoming trips being the same date - so possibly a dismeet , so I thought I would get in on this TR too! Can't wait for it to start

Great to have you along! I knew your name looked familiar when we started chatting over on wigd's TR.

It's 9:00pm, and I JUST got back home. It did turn out to be a good thing I was at the open house thing, but man, it's not cool to get home from work this late. The update will have to wait until tomorrow evening or Saturday morning. But the pictures are on the computer now, and I'm about to upload them to photobucket, so I'll be all ready to go when I get started.

 

[CW4DW]

I'm in Rockwall, TX (east of Dallas)

 

[CW4DW]

Thanks for joining in! Where in TX are you from?

I'm in Rockwall

 

[michellem1118]

I'm in Rockwall, TX (east of Dallas)

OMG! What a small world! I'm in Royse City! I bet we've crossed paths many times...

 

[CW4DW]

OMG! What a small world! I'm in Royse City! I bet we've crossed paths many times...

Probably so and it looks like you and your husband go to Disney more than me and my husband... We are thinking about DVC but haven't bought the bullet yet! We are going at the beginning of May and then for 2 whole weeks in November! Christmastime is my favorite - especially at Disney, makes it much more special!

Get some rest tonight so you have a good day at school tomorrow. I have to get some myself - I gotta be at work by 7 in the morning!

 

[Disneylover79]

A newbie to TR reading joining in

 

[michellem1118]

Probably so and it looks like you and your husband go to Disney more than me and my husband... We are thinking about DVC but haven't bought the bullet yet! We are going at the beginning of May and then for 2 whole weeks in November! Christmastime is my favorite - especially at Disney, makes it much more special!

Get some rest tonight so you have a good day at school tomorrow. I have to get some myself - I gotta be at work by 7 in the morning!

DVC is the only thing that lets us get to Disney so often... so it's a blessing and a curse!

A newbie to TR reading joining in

Glad to have you along for the journey!

 

[MiaBella05]

joining in

 

[MHTeacher]

I'm here and I can't wait to hear about your trip. I'm hoping it was a lot more pleasant than your previous one.

 

[__disneygirl]

Sorry to hear about the horrible time you had last trip!

Joining in

 

[michellem1118]

joining in

I'm here and I can't wait to hear about your trip. I'm hoping it was a lot more pleasant than your previous one.

Glad to have you back! I don't think I'm giving anything away by saying that yes, this trip was *much* more pleasant than the last one... once we got to Disney, anyway!

Sorry to hear about the horrible time you had last trip!

Joining in

The last trip wasn't all bad, but this one was so much better! Update coming right up!

 

[michellem1118]

Travel Day

2:30am, Saturday, March 13, 2010.
The alarm clock begins to ring with a most unwelcome song. We sleepily looked at each other, briefly wondering why in the world the alarm was ringing so early. Slowly, the realization set in that it was finally time to go back to Disney, and we hopped right out of bed. We made short work of getting dressed and ready, fed the cats, loaded the carry-ons into the car, and got on the road just after 3:00am. We had a 5:30am flight, and live about an hour from the airport.

Traffic was very light, as expected. We made good time getting to the airport, parked, and quickly caught our shuttle to the terminal. This was our first time flying AirTran out of DFW, and this would become our biggest regret of the trip. The airport wasn't too crowded at 4:15am, and we cleared security with no issues. Our flight boarded early, and we took off a bit early as well. At 8:15am, we landed (early) in ... Atlanta, GA. You see, we'd booked a flight with a layover to save money... what a mistake that turned out to be!

After exiting the plane, we decided to have breakfast - our connecting flight was supposed to leave at 10:45am. I noticed that there was a 9:10 flight to Orlando, and we considered trying to get on that flight standby, but decided we'd rather have breakfast, so we went in search of food. We settled on breakfast burritos from a place called Moe's, and then headed back down the terminal to our gate.

Our flight was overbooked, but we weren't worried - we had checked in the night before, and we had confirmed seat assignments on the plane. We patiently waited for our zone to board, and around 10:20am, zone 5 was finally called. We headed up to board the plane, and the nice AirTran attendant scanned our boarding passes... ERROR. She entered the code manually... ERROR. She scanned the passenger list to check us in manually... we WEREN'T THERE! So she sent us back to the desk to get it straightened out.

By the time we got to the front of the line, our 10:45am flight was gone. After several minutes of research, the attendant discovered what happened: we'd been bumped up to that 9:10am flight when our other plane arrived early, but we hadn't been notified by email or text message. The gate attendant from that flight also never paged us for boarding - we were just a short distance from that gate while we ate breakfast. We were told initially that the earliest flight they could get us on would be leaving after 6:00pm, and we were, understandably, FURIOUS. After the research time, and a quick phone call to a manager, we were put on the next flight out - leaving at 2:30pm. We were also given 2 round-trip tickets each to anywhere AirTran flies since we were bumped from the flight, and a food voucher to cover lunch at the airport.

We killed some time at one of those in-airport spas, where we both got (overpriced) massages & I got a (overpriced) pedicure. We finished up with our spa services just in time to board the 2:30 flight, and we were soon on our way to Orlando.

Up next: Were our travel difficulties foreshadowing our week to come? What do we do first when we get to Disney? And some pictures, of course.

 

[MHTeacher]

Oh, that just stinks, especially since you debated trying to get on that 9:10 flight anyway!

The good news is that now you've got your next flight to Disney covered!

 

[__disneygirl]

Wow... I would have been so upset if that happened to us! I can't believe they did that. At least they compensated you for your time. We're not flying Air Tran, and usually we never do anything but a non-stop flight, but the difference this time was over $200 so we too are doing a layover. I'm glad I know that this sometimes happens now, so thanks for writing this!

 

[michellem1118]

Oh, that just stinks, especially since you debated trying to get on that 9:10 flight anyway!

The good news is that now you've got your next flight to Disney covered!

You would think so... but AirTran has proven to be a pain in the rear about using the travel vouchers, as well...

Wow... I would have been so upset if that happened to us! I can't believe they did that. At least they compensated you for your time. We're not flying Air Tran, and usually we never do anything but a non-stop flight, but the difference this time was over $200 so we too are doing a layover. I'm glad I know that this sometimes happens now, so thanks for writing this!

AirTran is the only airline I've ever flown that has "rescheduled" my flight without notifying me, and also the only airline that has overbooked flights by the # of people that these flights were overbooked. If we ever manage to use our AirTran vouchers, you can bet I'm going to fight like crazy to get on a non-stop flight to prevent this kind of craziness from happening again!

 

[jwwi]

I am so sorry that happened with your flight, Airtran has become my favorite airline for great non stop flights. I generally pay more for the convenience, but it is most often worth it. I hope things improve on your trip, and that when you do use your voucher your next flight will be stress free.