Liz
Make a miracle!
- Joined
- Aug 18, 1999
- Messages
- 4,909
Cast:
ME - 43, Author of this report, grew up in Florida, too many WDW trips to really count
PAUL - 50, my dear husband, several WDW trips under his belt
JEFF - 14, our dear son, this is about his 6th trip to WDW
LAURA - 13, our dear daughter, her 6th trip also. Will be participating in the U.S. Transplant Games in Orlando.
GRANDMA (generally referred to as mom) - late 60's, many trips to WDW also, but this is her first in about 5 years.
Introduction: We arrive in Florida on day 1, but we don't actually get to Orlando in my report until day 4, so if you want to skip right to that part please feel free. Since I write this mainly for our memories as a family, I wrote about everything prior to the Disney part too and for the sake of continuity I'm posting it all! Oh, also I'm pretty long winded when I type, so if its too much detail then I apologize in advance. I just can't seem to do it any other way!
JUNE 19th - WEDNESDAY
Our much anticipated family vacation to Florida began at 3:40 AM when we left for the airport. The 6:00 AM flight always seems like such a good idea when I book the reservations, but getting up the courage to ask someone to take us to the airport at 4:00 AM is tough!
Before getting in the car we said our tearful good-byes to our beloved pets. I told Laura it was time to tell the pups bye and she threw her arms around their necks one at a time and cried! We gave them each a big bone, purchased just for this occasion, and put them in the backyard. They were so happy with the bones they didn't even watch us drive away! We knew we'd miss our kitties too, but they are more independent than the dogs.
We drove to Lake Point to Paul's sister's house. Got there right on time at 4:00 AM and her husband was already in the van waiting for us. He was going to drop us off at the airport and head into work, getting there quite a bit earlier than usual! What a sport!
When we got to the airport, Paul realized he had some mini-scissors in his pocket so he left them with Dan. This was our first time to fly and go through security since 9/11. We were going to do curbside check-in since we heard it saved a lot of time, but at that hour we saw there was no one in line inside. We were met by a Delta employee who told us to put our carry on items on a table. She swabbed them with some material to check for explosive residue. She also swabbed all our hands.
Then she and another employee took our checked baggage to the counter where Paul and I showed our I.D.'s and got our boarding cards.
We proceeded upstairs and had to show photo ID again before being allowed through the metal detectors. All of us passed through the detectors without incident, but they pulled Laura aside for a more thorough screening. Who would have thought Laura would look like a terrorist! I know its not something to make light of because its such a serious matter, but I was thinking how glad I was that I had warned both kids ahead of time this might happen so she wasn't upset about it. She didn't have to remove her shoes but they had her sit down and lift up both feet to inspect underneath.
They also took one of our carry on bags aside and swabbed them for explosive residue again. Everything was very thorough.
We found seats and waited for our flight to Atlanta to be called. We passed by time by eating the breakfast I had brought, some Hostess mini blueberry muffins. The package Paul got was all squished though and his were mostly crumbs! The kids played with their Game Boys and the new Spiderman game I surprised them with for the trip.
Then, I noticed, as we were boarding the plane, they were pulling some people aside for a FULL inspection of their carry-on luggage! They didn't get us, thankfully. I would hate to be so close to boarding and have to open everything up for a complete inspection. I had packed very carefully and tried to bring as few pieces of luggage as possible, so if they had taken everything out I don't know if I ever would have gotten stuff back in place in such a way that the luggage would zip up again.
The flight to Atlanta was a little over 3 hours. Paul and the kids sat together in a row of 3. I sat across the aisle from them. I was so tired and tried to sleep. A couple of rows in front of me there was a person who snored soooo loud during most of the flight. When we landed I made a point to see what the person looked like who emitted so much noise and I was surprised to see that it was a young looking lady. Her look just didn't fit the awful sounds coming out of her!!!
During most of the flight (when I couldn't sleep) I was worried I had forgotten something, particularly Laura's medicine. On our last trip I had counted her pills wrong on one of her prescriptions and had to call back to Salt Lake and pick up some more pills in Florida. For some reason I was just sick thinking what if I had done that again. I wanted so bad to get into our bag in the overhead compartment but I knew even if I had counted wrong there wasn't anything I could do about it at that moment so I waited. As soon as we found our next gate in Atlanta I got out the foil packets and counted again. I had plenty of her meds and enough for 3 extra days.
At the Atlanta airport, Jeff's spending money was already burning a huge hole in his pocket. That kid can't stand not to buy something! Paul took him around to look but we tried to discourge him from buying something so soon. He didn't end up buying anything. We knew before we returned home he'd be down to his last dime though.
The bathrooms in the Atlanta airport were filthy! Yuck! While Paul and Jeff were checking out the shops, I watched a news report on Elizabeth Smart. Such a sad story and I hope it gets resolved soon. There was going to be a news conference at 1:00 but we'd be on the next plane by then.
It was a quick and easy flight to Jacksonville, just about an hour or a little less. While Paul and the kids waited for our luggage, I went to get our rental car.
We had a reservation with National for a full size. The website said Buick Regal or similar. I was really nervous about how all of our luggage plus my mom's would fit when we all went to Orlando. When I reserved the full size, my mom wasn't sure if she would be accompanying us to Disney World. The car rental prices were already high this year so we couldn't afford to upgrade once she decided for sure to come. The lady told us we'd have a Toyota Camry and I wasn't happy. We drive a Corolla at home and our friends have a Camry. It didn't seem like it would be considered full size to me, but it was all they had and insisted it was a full size. They had a sign up that no cars were available to people who didn't have reservations so they were fully booked.
We found our Camry (white) and it was bigger than I expected. It seems bigger than our friend's Camry at home. The trunk was very large so I didn't worry anymore. They said we could have an Intrepid instead if we wanted to switch but we had an Intrepid last time we rented a car and it seemed to have blind spots. Our rental for the Camry was $319 for 10 days, including all taxes.
We drove to my mom's house and as we were crossing the bridge we suddenly were in a downpour! It didn't last long, or we drove out of it, and we got to my mom's house at 3:15. I had told her to expect us around 3:00 so that was pretty close. After taking everything in the house we all went to eat at Golden Corral and when we came out it was pouring rain again! Little did we know this would become a regular theme throughout this vacation!
Back at mom's house we were all beat. It was only like 5:00 or 6:00 and it felt like midnight! We all put our pajamas on and I did one load of laundry, washing the clothes we had traveled in. I wanted everything clean when we went to Orlando in 3 days and didn't want dirty clothes to pile up.
We all went to sleep pretty early. Laura and I slept on the couches in the living room. Laura wanted me to sleep with her so I did. Paul & Jeff slept in my old room.
Budget for the day:
$319 Rental car
$5 Movie for Jeff on the plane (he slept through most of it)
$33 Golden Corral dinner
ME - 43, Author of this report, grew up in Florida, too many WDW trips to really count
PAUL - 50, my dear husband, several WDW trips under his belt
JEFF - 14, our dear son, this is about his 6th trip to WDW
LAURA - 13, our dear daughter, her 6th trip also. Will be participating in the U.S. Transplant Games in Orlando.
GRANDMA (generally referred to as mom) - late 60's, many trips to WDW also, but this is her first in about 5 years.
Introduction: We arrive in Florida on day 1, but we don't actually get to Orlando in my report until day 4, so if you want to skip right to that part please feel free. Since I write this mainly for our memories as a family, I wrote about everything prior to the Disney part too and for the sake of continuity I'm posting it all! Oh, also I'm pretty long winded when I type, so if its too much detail then I apologize in advance. I just can't seem to do it any other way!
JUNE 19th - WEDNESDAY
Our much anticipated family vacation to Florida began at 3:40 AM when we left for the airport. The 6:00 AM flight always seems like such a good idea when I book the reservations, but getting up the courage to ask someone to take us to the airport at 4:00 AM is tough!
Before getting in the car we said our tearful good-byes to our beloved pets. I told Laura it was time to tell the pups bye and she threw her arms around their necks one at a time and cried! We gave them each a big bone, purchased just for this occasion, and put them in the backyard. They were so happy with the bones they didn't even watch us drive away! We knew we'd miss our kitties too, but they are more independent than the dogs.
We drove to Lake Point to Paul's sister's house. Got there right on time at 4:00 AM and her husband was already in the van waiting for us. He was going to drop us off at the airport and head into work, getting there quite a bit earlier than usual! What a sport!
When we got to the airport, Paul realized he had some mini-scissors in his pocket so he left them with Dan. This was our first time to fly and go through security since 9/11. We were going to do curbside check-in since we heard it saved a lot of time, but at that hour we saw there was no one in line inside. We were met by a Delta employee who told us to put our carry on items on a table. She swabbed them with some material to check for explosive residue. She also swabbed all our hands.
Then she and another employee took our checked baggage to the counter where Paul and I showed our I.D.'s and got our boarding cards.
We proceeded upstairs and had to show photo ID again before being allowed through the metal detectors. All of us passed through the detectors without incident, but they pulled Laura aside for a more thorough screening. Who would have thought Laura would look like a terrorist! I know its not something to make light of because its such a serious matter, but I was thinking how glad I was that I had warned both kids ahead of time this might happen so she wasn't upset about it. She didn't have to remove her shoes but they had her sit down and lift up both feet to inspect underneath.
They also took one of our carry on bags aside and swabbed them for explosive residue again. Everything was very thorough.
We found seats and waited for our flight to Atlanta to be called. We passed by time by eating the breakfast I had brought, some Hostess mini blueberry muffins. The package Paul got was all squished though and his were mostly crumbs! The kids played with their Game Boys and the new Spiderman game I surprised them with for the trip.
Then, I noticed, as we were boarding the plane, they were pulling some people aside for a FULL inspection of their carry-on luggage! They didn't get us, thankfully. I would hate to be so close to boarding and have to open everything up for a complete inspection. I had packed very carefully and tried to bring as few pieces of luggage as possible, so if they had taken everything out I don't know if I ever would have gotten stuff back in place in such a way that the luggage would zip up again.
The flight to Atlanta was a little over 3 hours. Paul and the kids sat together in a row of 3. I sat across the aisle from them. I was so tired and tried to sleep. A couple of rows in front of me there was a person who snored soooo loud during most of the flight. When we landed I made a point to see what the person looked like who emitted so much noise and I was surprised to see that it was a young looking lady. Her look just didn't fit the awful sounds coming out of her!!!
During most of the flight (when I couldn't sleep) I was worried I had forgotten something, particularly Laura's medicine. On our last trip I had counted her pills wrong on one of her prescriptions and had to call back to Salt Lake and pick up some more pills in Florida. For some reason I was just sick thinking what if I had done that again. I wanted so bad to get into our bag in the overhead compartment but I knew even if I had counted wrong there wasn't anything I could do about it at that moment so I waited. As soon as we found our next gate in Atlanta I got out the foil packets and counted again. I had plenty of her meds and enough for 3 extra days.
At the Atlanta airport, Jeff's spending money was already burning a huge hole in his pocket. That kid can't stand not to buy something! Paul took him around to look but we tried to discourge him from buying something so soon. He didn't end up buying anything. We knew before we returned home he'd be down to his last dime though.
The bathrooms in the Atlanta airport were filthy! Yuck! While Paul and Jeff were checking out the shops, I watched a news report on Elizabeth Smart. Such a sad story and I hope it gets resolved soon. There was going to be a news conference at 1:00 but we'd be on the next plane by then.
It was a quick and easy flight to Jacksonville, just about an hour or a little less. While Paul and the kids waited for our luggage, I went to get our rental car.
We had a reservation with National for a full size. The website said Buick Regal or similar. I was really nervous about how all of our luggage plus my mom's would fit when we all went to Orlando. When I reserved the full size, my mom wasn't sure if she would be accompanying us to Disney World. The car rental prices were already high this year so we couldn't afford to upgrade once she decided for sure to come. The lady told us we'd have a Toyota Camry and I wasn't happy. We drive a Corolla at home and our friends have a Camry. It didn't seem like it would be considered full size to me, but it was all they had and insisted it was a full size. They had a sign up that no cars were available to people who didn't have reservations so they were fully booked.
We found our Camry (white) and it was bigger than I expected. It seems bigger than our friend's Camry at home. The trunk was very large so I didn't worry anymore. They said we could have an Intrepid instead if we wanted to switch but we had an Intrepid last time we rented a car and it seemed to have blind spots. Our rental for the Camry was $319 for 10 days, including all taxes.
We drove to my mom's house and as we were crossing the bridge we suddenly were in a downpour! It didn't last long, or we drove out of it, and we got to my mom's house at 3:15. I had told her to expect us around 3:00 so that was pretty close. After taking everything in the house we all went to eat at Golden Corral and when we came out it was pouring rain again! Little did we know this would become a regular theme throughout this vacation!
Back at mom's house we were all beat. It was only like 5:00 or 6:00 and it felt like midnight! We all put our pajamas on and I did one load of laundry, washing the clothes we had traveled in. I wanted everything clean when we went to Orlando in 3 days and didn't want dirty clothes to pile up.
We all went to sleep pretty early. Laura and I slept on the couches in the living room. Laura wanted me to sleep with her so I did. Paul & Jeff slept in my old room.
Budget for the day:
$319 Rental car
$5 Movie for Jeff on the plane (he slept through most of it)
$33 Golden Corral dinner
