So there we were. Let me remind you I had been up since 6am and worked all day. I was NOT in a good mood.
We tried to change our reservation for this hotel - after all, it's a chain, couldn't they transfer it ? But they were fully booked. The man at the front desk told us to cross the lobby, go through the train station that was a few minutes away, cross that, and that we could get a shuttle to the right hotel from there.
So off we went. It was mighty cold outside. We rolled our bag and suitcases through the RER station and waited outside for the shuttle. The man had told us it would be a burgundy van.
One yellow bus, one pink van, two green ones, a couple reds - but not
burgundy red - later, we were still waiting and about ready to call it quits when the darn burgundy van finally showed up. We made sure were going to the RIGHT hotel this time and THEN got on.
There was a place to put your luggage but it was pretty full already. Grumpy laid her suitcase on it horizontally, taking whatever space was left. The van started moving about two seconds after we got on and I had no time to put it on the right way, plus I was holding the duffle bag with one hand and my suitcase with the other one. So I just stood holding on. Grumpy kept telling me to sit, I kept telling her the luggage wouldn't stand all by itself and to move hers if she didn't want it to fly off. She said it was just fine as it was.
Of course, when the driver made a sharp turn to get into the parking lot of our hotel, off went her suitcase.
"You happy now ??"
Yeah, okay, I was a bit nasty. I blame the oysters for this.
This hotel was MUCH smaller and not as fancy as the one we'd first been in, but on the bright side, THEY had a room for us
Well, us, or a couple of leprechauns. Wanna see what $120 gets you 10 miles from Charles de Gaulle Airport ?
Fancyyyyyyyyyyy !!!!!
Oh well. We only had to sleep there one night and it was clean enough. I was way too tired to get an actual shower now, so instead I set my clock up for 5am so I'd have time to clean up properly in the morning. Mistake.
Before we went to sleep, I checked my stuff since Grumpy had been the one who packed it. My french cell phone works fine in the US but it cost me a lot to use it there, plus it costs a ton to my American friends to call me on it even when I'm in the country. So I have this prepaid phone from T-Mobile we use whenever we're in the US. The phone had been charging the night before, and I had asked my mom to unplug it and put it in my backpack.
I pulled the baggy out and found myself staring at my humongous media drive charger.
"What the f... is that thing doing here?"
"It's the charger you told me to put in your backpack."
"NO, it's not. I asked you to put the
cell phone that was charging in my backpack."
"Well, isn't that a charger?"
"Well, is there a damn PHONE on it???"
Yeah yeah I know, I was starting to sound like my lovely sister. But
seriously. The thing weighs like two pounds. It's about five times bigger than a cell phone, let alone a cell phone
charger. What on Earth was she thinking ?!
"I guess I really can't ask you to do anything correctly without me holding your hand."
Oh no, did I really say that ????
I am MORTIFIED remembering that. Poor Grumpy. She got really upset and told me a few choice words. Then she got into bed and turned off the lights.
I'd been sound asleep for a while when I heard a big BOOM. I jumped up and turned on the light.
Grumpy had rolled off her tiny bed onto the floor - but she was still sound asleep! The bed was so low to begin with she probably hadn't even noticed she'd fallen off it. I couldn't help but laugh, and that woke her up...
"mmm hein heuh but what....what am I doing on the floor?????"
I was laughing so hard I couldn't answer. She started to laugh too when she figured out what she did. I helped her back up and we tried to get back to sleep but every few minutes one of us would burst into laughter.
Phewww... thank god for clutziness and low beds. The nastiness was gone from both of us!
We did manage to get a couple hours sleep and then the phone alarm woke us up at 5am. I went straight into the shower and trust me, I needed it. I still felt oystery. We hadn't packed any toiletries because we always use Disney's but it hadn't occured to me that there would not be anything except a bar of soap provided in our hotel room. So yep - I washed my hair with soap. I have very long, very fine hair, and it didn't like the soap at all. I had the hardest time untangling it after that, and then I realized there was no hair dryer either. Two persons, two towels. If I used the other one to dry my hair, Grumpy'd have to dry herself off with her socks.
OK now I know this is just a one-night kind of hotel at the airport. But COME ON ! Towels, shampoo, and a hair dryer are basics. I guess I'm spoiled by the US where there's always a decent Days Inn for 49 bucks near any airport. And the rooms are not midget-sized.
We had to catch the shuttle - there was one per hour - and so I had to go out in the 16 degrees weather with wet hair. Luckily I had warned Grumpy before she got in the shower so she chose not to wash her hair at all rather than put up with wet soapy tangles.
The roads weren't too bad that morning and we made it to the airport in no time. We were the first ones to check in for our flight, went through security as soon as it opened. I had my suitcase searched and the guy asked me why on earth I was carrying that huge charger with me. He even wiped it with some sort of cloth - I wonder what the heck he thought it was ???
We had time to spare and had hoped we could do some duty free shopping but the shops were not open. That was odd. They are usually open by 8, and there it was, 8.30 and still closed. We asked an airport employee and he said the roads were still very icy and a lot of people were stuck on the way. Apparently there had been some accidents as well.

I was glad we'd decided to leave the night before!
Grumpy & I went to have breakfast at the one place that was open.
Pineapple juice and fake donuts, yum!
Then we went to wait for our plane. Of course, ten seconds after they announced that we would be boarding soon, the duty-free shop opened. I ran in to get Grumpy's cigarettes and was back on time for us to board. As usual we were the first ones on the plane ! No upgrade this time but we had nice coach seats in what I like to call the mini-cabin. There's only about 12 rows, right after First Class. My mom doesn't like it much though because she can see what's going on in First Class yet can't be there
I took a picture a few minutes after we took off.
Then my mom slipped me a Tylenol and I snoozed the rest of the flight away.
Grumpy woke me up about 15mns from landing so I could fill our Visa Waiver cards. No, we're not transporting livestock (
besides ourselves).No we have never plotted to kill anybody (
except that one time and he totally deserved it). No, we don't have over $10,000 cash on us (
if only!).
This year they changed that stuff and instead of filling the card when you're in the air, you have to do it online before your trip. It's good because as usual, when we got to Immigration, people kept being sent back in the line because they hadn't filled their card correctly.
We never got through Immigration so quickly in Miami before. I think it was like 5mns at the most. Awesome!!!
I hate the Miami aiport. There's absolutely NOTHING to do there. Even their Starbucks stinks. My mom loves it though, because of "her cage" aka smoking area. I didn't even know you could still have smoking areas in airports. I guess because technically this one is outside then it's legal. Grumpy's little heaven. Sad.
We were upgraded to First Class on the flight from Miami to Orlando. It's only like a 45mns flight but it didn't cost us a thing. I was still working on that Tylenol anyway and slept through it.
As soon as we landed in Orlando though, I was bright & awake !!! First ones off the plane. Take fake monorail. The shops were closed (it was New Year's Eve, after all!). Side B, take elevator to Magical Express. Check in. Wait for bus. Sit in front so that you can take a picture of that wittle thing
At last... we were back in Disney World !!!!!!!!!!!!