11/08/2011
Traveling & Check-in
We woke up around 4:00 am, an hour before our alarm was supposed to go off, but we got up anyways to make sure we had everything packed. I was getting hungry and sorta anxious (I am a nervous flyer), so Chris went to our 24-hour Walgreens to get us a snack and left me with a little bit of peace and quiet. He returned with a cookie and water for me and a Red Bull and bag of gummy bears for him.
I finished packing up my bag and then hopped in the shower. We got dressed and decided to take all of our bags down to the front door and wait for the limo driver.
My suitcase...Praying it's not over 50 lbs.!
The limo pulled up right at 6:00 am, we lugged our bags out to the car and hopped in! It was a pretty awkward trip to the airport. I'm usually not one to talk first thing in the morning, so it was just a quiet ride. The ride took longer than usual because we hit some horrendous rush hour traffic. I just wanted to get there FAST. I was starting to get super nauseous.
To the point where I actually thought I was going to yurk. I popped one anti-nausea and one anti-anxiety and sipped on my water, closed my eyes, and did some heavy rhythmic breathing. We finally got to the Boston Logan International Airport and all of those sick feelings subsided. We went inside, checked our luggage (my bag only weighed 37 lbs.!), and headed to our gate.
Waiting at our gate with my wedding dress, a.k.a. The Beast.
We were flying AirTran this trip with a layover in Atlanta. I went up to the boarding kiosk and asked if there would be any place to hang my wedding dress. No dice. So, we boarded and hoped for the best. I had to put my dress in the overhead bin, which I wasn't too happy about. Our flight was uneventful. I am pretty sure we fell asleep (fun fact: I'm one of those people who falls asleep on airplanes with their mouth open and does those head-slipping nods to the point where you startle yourself awake
). We arrived in Atlanta, grabbed some lunch at Popeye's, took our bathroom breaks, and received a lot of 'congratulations' when people spotted the giant dress bag. We boarded the second flight (again falling asleep) and arrived in Orlando around 3:30 pm. It had already been such a long day, oi! We hopped on the Magical Express, which was practically empty, and made our way to the Grand Floridian!
First sighting of the Grand from the bus!
We got off the bus and were immediately greeted by a cast member who led us inside to check-in. As we were walking inside, I heard a 'crack'...the dress hanger broke.
Poor Chris had to hold it during check-in like he was giving someone the Heimlich maneuver. The cast member at check-in was awesome and gave us a marina-view room in building 5, Sago Cay, which turned out to be a perfect location.
She even turned the computer screen around to show us what the view looked like!
She gave us our key cards and we went to find our room.
Our room upon arrival.
We had a dormer room, which added to the magic.
View of the marina and the main building-Perfect!
I was dying to get my dress out of the bag and into the closet, praying that wrinkles didn't form on our way down. Chris went to de-stress and take a shower so I was able to fully tackle the dress. The first task was putting it on a new hanger and then I unfolded the train. I was able to put the dress on the far right side and drape the train over the safe that was in the closet. It was a pretty elaborate set up, but it worked! The best part...there were really no wrinkles in my dress.
I called bell services and had all the guys' tuxes delivered to our room. The cast member showed up about 20 minutes later and headed straight for the closet.
I literally screamed, "NO" and pushed his arm away from the closet door.
I told him my dress was in there and that there was no room for the tuxes. He told Chris to turn around, he peeked inside the closet, like he didn't believe me.
I told him just to put the tuxes on the bed.
This is what a bed of tuxes looks like!
Chris tried his tux on and everything fit very well. I made some phone calls to alert everyone that we had arrived and then we decided to go and grab a bite to eat at Gasparilla's. Our Disney wedding trip had officially kicked-off!
To be continued...
(Not knowing there was a bridge in the middle of the darn lake we could have taken! 
