Ferb, I know What We're Going to Do Today! - Updated 9/30
- Thread starter If U Had Wings
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skier_pete
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Wow...TR Bonus Round! You don't see that very often!
Tinkerbellarella
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WOW. That was EXACTLY what I was going to post!
Crissy - I'm super stoked about this mini-TR.
TarzansKat
Not all treasure is silver and gold, mate.
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Oooo...a trip report I didn't even know you were going to do! Those are the best kind!!!
And already a cliffhanger...
And already a cliffhanger...
If U Had Wings
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Oh, I hope this mini-trip restored all of your lost Disney magic!!!
It was a wonderful little trip. I'm thinking that I need to make all my Disney trips short, virtually unplanned trips.
I really hope this trip brought back the Disney magic for you!
It's a miracle what an unplanned Disney trip can do for you.
I'm really excited about this mini trip!!! WOOT!!!!!!! Can't wait to hear all about it and see if the Disney magic came back for you!
I wasn't expecting too much from this vacation, but it was a real breathe of fresh air.
I feel like I'm living the good life this year. 3 trips to Disney! Woo Hoo! You have to love those bonus rounds, right Pete?
WOW. That was EXACTLY what I was going to post!
Crissy - I'm super stoked about this mini-TR.
It was a great little trip. I think we all had a really good time. Getting to visit my family, just capped it off beautifully.
Oooo...a trip report I didn't even know you were going to do! Those are the best kind!!!
And already a cliffhanger...
I just love a good cliffhanger, and in this age of reality tv it's hard to get enough.
/
If U Had Wings
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Coming right up!
so you were leaving as I was coming in! that would have been too seriously funny if we did this twice in 3 months!!!! LOL!
You should come to the NYC disney meet!
That is too funny.
When is the NYC meet?
If U Had Wings
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My mini trip to Disney didn't really start off on the right foot. Our flight out was for 6:30 am on a Friday morning. Several days before we were supposed to leave I got an e-mail from Jet Blue letting me know that our flight had been cancelled.
Not post-poned or rescheduled.
Cancelled.
I was on the phone with my mom in about 2 minutes flat giving her the information, and telling her to call Jet Blue ASAP to get us on to another flight. She spent an hour or so on hold, but eventually spoke with a customer service representative who got us booked on the 9:30 am flight that day. No it wasn't perfect, but we were happy we'd still be getting to Disney with enough time to enjoy at least part of our day.
Or so we thought.
The local forecast for that Friday wasn't looking so hot. Still I got home from work on Thursday and where I live it was just raining. Hard, pouring rain, but just rain. We had made reservations at a hotel near the airport for the night before. For the price of a one night stay at the hotel, we got to park our car for up to 10 days in their lot, and shuttle service both ways to the airport. Still thinking positively we grabbed some food and headed out to the hotel. White Plains is about 40 miles away from where I live, and on a day with normal traffic the drive takes about an hour and a half or so. We were taking my car, since I was the one coming home first so I was driving as we headed out. The rain was coming down pretty hard, making it hard to see, but I was taking it slow just to be careful. My father knows how much I hate driving in bad weather, so just as we were approaching a rest area near the New York border he asked me if I wanted him to take over driving the rest of the way. The rain was looking a bit better so I told him I had it under control and I'd drive the entire trip.
Big Mistake. Huge.
No sooner did we cross the border into New York when it started snowing. Not just a little bit of snow. Blizzard like, white out conditions. My hands clawed into vise grips on the steering wheel, doing my best to keep the car going without spinning off the road. The further along we went, the worse the weather got, and there wasn't a plow to be be seen anywhere. I was calling myself just about every name under the sun for not replacing my two front nearly bald tires before making this trip. My father was trying to be as helpful as possible, giving me some tips as we went along, but really most of them weren't very useful. I don't think I've ever seen more cars spun off the road as I did that night. I was trying desparately to go slow enough where I didn't spin out, but fast enough to keep moving. There were a few times as I was driving up hills that I thought I'd get stuck in the snow and be waiting all night for a plow to come dig us out. I was so tense, that I think had anyone touched be I would have sprung like a broken spring. We had left home at about 7:30/8pm and we finally arrived at the hotel at nearly 11:30. If it wasn't for all the stupid snow I would have kissed the ground as soon as I got out of the car. I don't think I've ever driven so far in such awful conditions before, and I hope I never have to again. Lesson learned though. Next time I let someone else drive no matter if it's snowing or not.
More fun was still to come the next day. We were up early to catch the 7:00 am shuttle to the airport. I went online and checked our flight. Not cancelled, however it wasn't really looking promising, as this is what greeted us as we left the hotel.
Beautiful, but not promising for a day of travel. There was a ton of snow. Parts of the lot that hadn't been plowed yet where up to my knees.
We arrived at White Plains airport after an uneventful drive. It seemed like as soon as we arrived at the airport the snow started falling again. We were doing our best to keep thinking positively, and unloaded our stuff from the shuttle as the plows were doing their best to keep up with the snow.
Mom's was doing her best to be hopeful that we'd get out on time.
White Plains is a small airport. There was no one there when we went to check our luggage at the Jet Blue counter. I don't know if everyone else was smarter than us, and didn't even bother coming out in that weather, but it was virtually empty. When we got to the counter the Jet Blue lady told us we should just take a seat. It wasn't looking promising that our flight was going to be taking off, and she didn't want to take our luggage if there was going to be no flight. We sat for about 15 minutes or so when an announcement came on over the intercom system that they were shutting down the airport because they couldn't keep up with removing the snow from the runways and that all flights for the rest of the day were cancelled.
All flights.
For the rest of the day.
Groaning to ourselves we moped our way back over to the Jet Blue counter to see when in the world we were going to be able to get a flight out of New York. We get up to the poor girl stuck dealing with a bunch of stranded tourists, and told her we wanted to get spots on the next flight to Orlando. After a sizable delay we're told she can get us seats for tomorrow at 3:30pm. We really tried to get something better, but the 2 earlier flights that day were already sold out. We were looking at a minimum of two Disney days lost at this point. She gave us the option of trying to get on a flight out of JFK or LaGuardia, but we didn't want to have to worry about getting down to the city in the lousy weather. That ended up being a wise decision, as all the New York city airports ended up closing because of the snow. We grabbed the tickets for the next day before we lost those.
Tickets for a flight out of town handled, we sat down in the terminal to regroup a bit. First we called the local hotel and snagged a room for another night, and told them we'd need to have the shuttle sent back for us. Sleeping arrangements handled, next we gave a call to Disney to let them know that we wouldn't be arriving that day. My parents had booked a package, so we were figuring that the first two days were just lost. I obviously wasn't giving Disney enough credit for being Disney. I got a wonderful cast member on the phone and before I knew it she had spoken with a supervisor, and had shifted my parent's package up a day, basically cutting off the first day of the package, and adding it on at the end.
Just add it to the list of reasons why I love Disney. We were feeling so frazzled and worn out by the travel headaches, and Disney really helped keep us smiling at that moment.
We had a bit of a wait for the shuttle, and once we were heading back to the hotel, we realized just how bad the roads were again. The 20 minute ride back to the hotel took about 2 hours, and we nearly ended up in a ditch a few times.
It was a good thing we had called right away to reserve a room. The place was filing up fast. Power was out in the vast portion of White Plains, and the hotel was quickly sold out with locals who didn't want to be stuck in homes with no power.
I don't know if I ever really appreciated just how long 24 hours was until that day. On any normal day, 24 hours goes by fairly quickly. Even on a work day it passes by with some regularity. That day was the longest day ever. I'm truly convinced that it was really about 48 hours long.The hotel is really a very small place, located in the middle of a buisness park area. There was at all around it, and there was nothing at all to do at the hotel. I would have given anything for an indoor pool, an arcade, or even a gym, but there was nothing but a small business center with one computer in it (with a 1/2 hour time limit).
We did our best to entertain ourselves. We watched a lot of bad tv. We took tons of walks around the hallways. Luckily there was a restaurant on property. Normally they were only open for dinner, but with so many people stuck they opened up for lunch. That took a bit of time at any rate. Dinner later took up a bit more time. The poor hotel staff was stuck too. The same girl who had checked us in the night before was still stuck on duty at the front desk. I had brought some yarn to knit a hat on the flight. I had finished the entire hat by about 4pm.Lesson learned on that one. Always bring extra knitting on vacation. You never know.
Most of our time was spent just doing this though.
Sitting in the lobby, talking with other guests, and watching the stupid snow continue to fall. Talking with other people we realized how lucky we were. One poor couple was supposed to be flying to Fort Meyers, and wasn't going to be able to get on another flight until Tuesday.
So we waited for the endless day to end. The snow was still falling pretty heavily, and to myself I was worrying that we weren't going to be going anywhere the next day either.
Not post-poned or rescheduled.
Cancelled.
I was on the phone with my mom in about 2 minutes flat giving her the information, and telling her to call Jet Blue ASAP to get us on to another flight. She spent an hour or so on hold, but eventually spoke with a customer service representative who got us booked on the 9:30 am flight that day. No it wasn't perfect, but we were happy we'd still be getting to Disney with enough time to enjoy at least part of our day.Or so we thought.
The local forecast for that Friday wasn't looking so hot. Still I got home from work on Thursday and where I live it was just raining. Hard, pouring rain, but just rain. We had made reservations at a hotel near the airport for the night before. For the price of a one night stay at the hotel, we got to park our car for up to 10 days in their lot, and shuttle service both ways to the airport. Still thinking positively we grabbed some food and headed out to the hotel. White Plains is about 40 miles away from where I live, and on a day with normal traffic the drive takes about an hour and a half or so. We were taking my car, since I was the one coming home first so I was driving as we headed out. The rain was coming down pretty hard, making it hard to see, but I was taking it slow just to be careful. My father knows how much I hate driving in bad weather, so just as we were approaching a rest area near the New York border he asked me if I wanted him to take over driving the rest of the way. The rain was looking a bit better so I told him I had it under control and I'd drive the entire trip.
Big Mistake. Huge.
No sooner did we cross the border into New York when it started snowing. Not just a little bit of snow. Blizzard like, white out conditions. My hands clawed into vise grips on the steering wheel, doing my best to keep the car going without spinning off the road. The further along we went, the worse the weather got, and there wasn't a plow to be be seen anywhere. I was calling myself just about every name under the sun for not replacing my two front nearly bald tires before making this trip. My father was trying to be as helpful as possible, giving me some tips as we went along, but really most of them weren't very useful. I don't think I've ever seen more cars spun off the road as I did that night. I was trying desparately to go slow enough where I didn't spin out, but fast enough to keep moving. There were a few times as I was driving up hills that I thought I'd get stuck in the snow and be waiting all night for a plow to come dig us out. I was so tense, that I think had anyone touched be I would have sprung like a broken spring. We had left home at about 7:30/8pm and we finally arrived at the hotel at nearly 11:30. If it wasn't for all the stupid snow I would have kissed the ground as soon as I got out of the car. I don't think I've ever driven so far in such awful conditions before, and I hope I never have to again. Lesson learned though. Next time I let someone else drive no matter if it's snowing or not.
More fun was still to come the next day. We were up early to catch the 7:00 am shuttle to the airport. I went online and checked our flight. Not cancelled, however it wasn't really looking promising, as this is what greeted us as we left the hotel.
Beautiful, but not promising for a day of travel. There was a ton of snow. Parts of the lot that hadn't been plowed yet where up to my knees.
We arrived at White Plains airport after an uneventful drive. It seemed like as soon as we arrived at the airport the snow started falling again. We were doing our best to keep thinking positively, and unloaded our stuff from the shuttle as the plows were doing their best to keep up with the snow.
Mom's was doing her best to be hopeful that we'd get out on time.
White Plains is a small airport. There was no one there when we went to check our luggage at the Jet Blue counter. I don't know if everyone else was smarter than us, and didn't even bother coming out in that weather, but it was virtually empty. When we got to the counter the Jet Blue lady told us we should just take a seat. It wasn't looking promising that our flight was going to be taking off, and she didn't want to take our luggage if there was going to be no flight. We sat for about 15 minutes or so when an announcement came on over the intercom system that they were shutting down the airport because they couldn't keep up with removing the snow from the runways and that all flights for the rest of the day were cancelled.
All flights.
For the rest of the day.
Groaning to ourselves we moped our way back over to the Jet Blue counter to see when in the world we were going to be able to get a flight out of New York. We get up to the poor girl stuck dealing with a bunch of stranded tourists, and told her we wanted to get spots on the next flight to Orlando. After a sizable delay we're told she can get us seats for tomorrow at 3:30pm. We really tried to get something better, but the 2 earlier flights that day were already sold out. We were looking at a minimum of two Disney days lost at this point. She gave us the option of trying to get on a flight out of JFK or LaGuardia, but we didn't want to have to worry about getting down to the city in the lousy weather. That ended up being a wise decision, as all the New York city airports ended up closing because of the snow. We grabbed the tickets for the next day before we lost those.
Tickets for a flight out of town handled, we sat down in the terminal to regroup a bit. First we called the local hotel and snagged a room for another night, and told them we'd need to have the shuttle sent back for us. Sleeping arrangements handled, next we gave a call to Disney to let them know that we wouldn't be arriving that day. My parents had booked a package, so we were figuring that the first two days were just lost. I obviously wasn't giving Disney enough credit for being Disney. I got a wonderful cast member on the phone and before I knew it she had spoken with a supervisor, and had shifted my parent's package up a day, basically cutting off the first day of the package, and adding it on at the end.
Just add it to the list of reasons why I love Disney. We were feeling so frazzled and worn out by the travel headaches, and Disney really helped keep us smiling at that moment.We had a bit of a wait for the shuttle, and once we were heading back to the hotel, we realized just how bad the roads were again. The 20 minute ride back to the hotel took about 2 hours, and we nearly ended up in a ditch a few times.
It was a good thing we had called right away to reserve a room. The place was filing up fast. Power was out in the vast portion of White Plains, and the hotel was quickly sold out with locals who didn't want to be stuck in homes with no power. I don't know if I ever really appreciated just how long 24 hours was until that day. On any normal day, 24 hours goes by fairly quickly. Even on a work day it passes by with some regularity. That day was the longest day ever. I'm truly convinced that it was really about 48 hours long.
The hotel is really a very small place, located in the middle of a buisness park area. There was at all around it, and there was nothing at all to do at the hotel. I would have given anything for an indoor pool, an arcade, or even a gym, but there was nothing but a small business center with one computer in it (with a 1/2 hour time limit). We did our best to entertain ourselves. We watched a lot of bad tv. We took tons of walks around the hallways. Luckily there was a restaurant on property. Normally they were only open for dinner, but with so many people stuck they opened up for lunch. That took a bit of time at any rate. Dinner later took up a bit more time. The poor hotel staff was stuck too. The same girl who had checked us in the night before was still stuck on duty at the front desk. I had brought some yarn to knit a hat on the flight. I had finished the entire hat by about 4pm.
Lesson learned on that one. Always bring extra knitting on vacation. You never know.Most of our time was spent just doing this though.
Sitting in the lobby, talking with other guests, and watching the stupid snow continue to fall. Talking with other people we realized how lucky we were. One poor couple was supposed to be flying to Fort Meyers, and wasn't going to be able to get on another flight until Tuesday.
So we waited for the endless day to end. The snow was still falling pretty heavily, and to myself I was worrying that we weren't going to be going anywhere the next day either.
MyMuse
From here...to there!
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Lady Lallie
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Oh my, you poor things!! My overpacking of books doesn't seem so silly anymore. 
I always pack way more than I can possibly read because you never know what can happen.
I always pack way more than I can possibly read because you never know what can happen.
skier_pete
DIsney-holics Anon
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Eek! Snow day! Actually, from your pictures I thought "That's not so bad" but immediately realized not everyone lives in Buffalo. I remember growing up in Mass that about 4 inches was the limit at which world shut down.
Being stuck in that hotel must've been real fun - I would've been tuning out on my Zune. Of course, for us, we would've had a DVD sleeve of Disney Movies to keep us entertained. (The good thing about traveling with a 7-year old.)
We had the same thing happen back in 2006 - the now-legendary "October Storm" that wallopped Buffalo with 22 inches of heavy wet stuff on October 13, 2006. The airport was closed, though we only had a few inches at our house. We ended up driving to Pittsburgh on the 14th to get to Disney the day we were supposed to. Ended up being a driving nightmare....Buffalo was fine by then, but it snowed from Buffalo past Erie, PA, and we literally RAN onto our flight in Pittsburgh we cut it so close. (Normally a 5-hour drive.) Of course in that same storm, we had friends who were getting MARRIED that weekend. There's always people that got it worse than you.
Being stuck in that hotel must've been real fun - I would've been tuning out on my Zune. Of course, for us, we would've had a DVD sleeve of Disney Movies to keep us entertained. (The good thing about traveling with a 7-year old.)
We had the same thing happen back in 2006 - the now-legendary "October Storm" that wallopped Buffalo with 22 inches of heavy wet stuff on October 13, 2006. The airport was closed, though we only had a few inches at our house. We ended up driving to Pittsburgh on the 14th to get to Disney the day we were supposed to. Ended up being a driving nightmare....Buffalo was fine by then, but it snowed from Buffalo past Erie, PA, and we literally RAN onto our flight in Pittsburgh we cut it so close. (Normally a 5-hour drive.) Of course in that same storm, we had friends who were getting MARRIED that weekend. There's always people that got it worse than you.
If U Had Wings
DIS Veteran
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June 26, Saturday, Bryant Park, 3pm
I'm going to have to try to make that. I think I'm Yankee game free that day.
Oh my, you poor things!! My overpacking of books doesn't seem so silly anymore.
Luckily I did have my ipod Touch with me. I am so in love with it. Keeps games, movies, and books all in one nice little device. Next time more knitting though.
There was actually a bit more snow than it seems like in those pictures. I think a grand total of about a foot and a half to 2 feet fell. What was making it bad was that it was that really heavy, wet snow. It was pulling power lines and trees down all over the place, and when it was falling it was white out conditions.
Still there are reasons why I don't live upstate, in NY or CT.
I can deal with about a foot or so when I need to, but anything after that is just gratuitous. I was happy though that it wasn't ice. That probably would have caused a breakdown while I was driving.The sad thing was that had we flown out of Bradley airport in CT we would have been fine. Normally they get more snow there, but this time they had nothing but rain.
I was so sick of that room at the end of the day. I was feeling like I was going stir crazy. I don't think it helped that I kept wondering if we'd ever get out of there.
Charleston Princess
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Oh my goodness! I can't believe your trip started off the way it did with all that snow and that drive and the canceled flight!!! Who would have thought you would end up completely snowed in that day!
If U Had Wings
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Oh my goodness! I can't believe your trip started off the way it did with all that snow and that drive and the canceled flight!!! Who would have thought you would end up completely snowed in that day!
The drive was really the first part of the whole mess. I was so tense by the time we got to the hotel I felt like I'd shatter if I touched anything. Now that the majority of my commute is by train, I seldomly drive more than 3 miles or so in bad weather. I was much better when I had a 30 mile commute.
TarzansKat
Not all treasure is silver and gold, mate.
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I just love a good cliffhanger, and in this age of reality tv it's hard to get enough.
Oh, my dear. I feel for you on driving through that weather. I've done that before and it's no picnic.
And all the flights being cancelled!
Better to be safe, but still frustrating. This is truly one of my biggest fears about traveling in the winter, but I guess you just never know at any time of year what kind of inclement weather can keep you from getting to your happy place.
If U Had Wings
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Oh, my dear. I feel for you on driving through that weather. I've done that before and it's no picnic.
And all the flights being cancelled!
I agree completely. We were a bit bummed that we weren't off and at Disney, but I would much rather be sitting in that hotel room in White Plains than flying if it wasn't 100% safe. We had that problem on the way home, but we have awhile to go before that story.
TarzansKat
Not all treasure is silver and gold, mate.
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I agree completely. We were a bit bummed that we weren't off and at Disney, but I would much rather be sitting in that hotel room in White Plains than flying if it wasn't 100% safe. We had that problem on the way home, but we have awhile to go before that story.
Oh, good lord! I have enough issues with flying, are you going to scare me, my dear?
If U Had Wings
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Oh, good lord! I have enough issues with flying, are you going to scare me, my dear?
Maybe a little, but we all made it home in one piece so it couldn't have been that bad, right?
TarzansKat
Not all treasure is silver and gold, mate.
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Maybe a little, but we all made it home in one piece so it couldn't have been that bad, right?
Well, there is that.-
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