For the last time Stitch and Mickey wake us up. I think I will have to find a download of the wakeup call when we get home. It would be much better than the buzzing of my alarm clock.
Packing is over and done with in minutes. Luckily my suitcase was half empty on the way down, so there was plenty of room for gifts and souvenirs. Not that we actually bought all that many, surprisingly. POP Century refillable mug, A marathon weekend t-shirt, a postcard of the marathon course, the shirt that came with the ½ marathon entry, one radio, case, mouthpiece, antenna, 2 pairs of pants, 1 Hawaiian style shirts, one pair of hiking boots, one key ring, one lime green wish scarf, my medal, marathon Mylar blanket, 12 bottles of Mickey shampoo, 12 bars of Mickey face soap, 12 bars of Mickey bar soap, Nemo Christmas decoration, one postcard of the Grand Floridian, one airplane sign, one bear in an airplane, two beverage holders, a photo of Mickey Mouse, and a photo of Wishes from the Wilderness Lodge CMs, 6 etched glasses, extra radio battery, 2 more pairs of pants, one shirt, one bright orange beanie, 2 bottles of liquor, wooden Santa Christmas decoration, 2 boxes of Mickey pasta, one stitch antenna head, one alarm clock, one photo frame, lingerie, stickers, one magnet, one pet bandana, Candy from the gift basket that we havent eaten yet, assorted postcards, maps, brochures and other paraphernalia.
Okay so it looks like a lot when I list it all out like that. But it all fits in the suitcase, and the bag. I do decide to carry the etched glasses on as hand luggage.
Breakfast is at Roaring Snacks. Then we load up the car, and hit the road for the airport. We say one last goodbye as we drive out the Disney World gate, our journey home has begun.
A friendly CM at the front desk had printed our boarding passes last night, so we have A passes, but we still have to join the line up to check in our bags. The line up is loooooong. Bit it moves quickly. We check in our bags, and then she gives them back to us, what are we supposed to do with them? She notices the blank looks on our faces, and tells us to take them over to security. We leave our bags, and I comment to Dave that we will never see them again.
Next line up, this one is for security, and it goes all the way back past the Disney Earport Shop, and its not moving so quickly. All the signs say, please remove your jacket, laptops must be out of bags, shoes off etc etc, So why do people wait until they are at the checkpoint before they do any of that? And they are the people who are complaining about the slow moving line. Hello, youre making it slow moving!
We find our gate and the line up to board the plane already goes outside the lounge area. We join the end of the A line, I think this is going to be a full plane.
On the plane, its already looking full, and the Bs and Cs have yet to board. Where did all these people come from? Oh I know ..these are the home builders going home. The plane is full; there is not one empty seat.
We eat, read and sleep our way to Kansas City. 20 minutes to turn the plane over. Pretty much everyone gets off in Kansas City, only about 12 of us stay on the plane, and not many people board here. Dave and I move to the exit row, he takes the window and I take the aisle, the middle seat is empty.
A new crew is flying the leg from Kansas City to Seattle; they are very friendly and give us 3 4 snack boxes each. I am pretty sure that 4 Southwest Airlines snack boxes do not count as part of a healthy diet, but I am on vacation, at least for another couple of hours anyway.
Our arrival in Seattle is about 15 minutes late, thats close enough to being on time, so we wont complain. But things only go down hill from here. We stand at the baggage carrousel and only 6 bags go round, where are our bags? Well they are certainly not on this carrousel.
The other people, who were on our flight from Orlando, all appear to have lost something as well. The passengers who got on in Kansas City have all taken their bags and run. The poor guy at the baggage service counter is not going to know what hit him. Dave and I get there first. He has absolutely no idea where our bags are. He cannot tell us if they are still in Orlando or if they were taken off in Kansas City. What is the point of the tracking # on our luggage label?
He gives a form to fill in; we have to describe our bags, that part is easy. One large black hard shell Samsonite suite case with a red and green luggage strap round the middle, and one medium yellow Samsonite duffle bag with black handles. He also wants to know where we lost them. Excuse me, but we didnt lose them. Last I saw them security in Orlando had them.
No worries, if we find them they will be on the next flight from Kansas which arrives in 3 hours time at 9.00pm. Not going to work, not for us anyway, we have to get the Quick Shuttle to Vancouver and the last one leaves at 7.00pm. Jeremy from Southwest says that they will FedEx the bags to us. But Monday is a holiday, so they wont be sending them until Tuesday, and they will be delivered on Wednesday or Thursday.
Oh great, so now Dave or I are going to have to take Wednesday and possibly Thursday off work to wait home for the bags. Jeremy suggests calling FedEx to set up a delivery time, I am not sure about in the US, but in Vancouver they will not specify a time, the will only say between 9.00am and 5.00pm.
Not much more we can do, so we find and board the coach to Seattle. But not so fast, we are not going anywhere in a hurry. The drive cannot get the coach started. One hour later we are still sitting in a coach going nowhere, at this rate we will still be here when the next flight from Kansas City arrives with our bags.
Absolutely no luck in getting the coach started, so we have to switch to another, this one works and we are on our way, without our luggage.
The ride up the I5 is scary, I think the coach driver is falling asleep at the wheel; we keep veering into the other lane. I think the other passengers feel the same way, they keep going up to the front to ask inane questions, and therefore keep the driver awake.
We make it to the border in one piece, we dont loose anyone at the border, and then we start all the drop offs, the Campbell River Corner Store, the airport, Holiday Inn Downtown and then back to the depot. Its about 1.00am when we pick up the truck and head home. Its been a long, long day but we are finally home.
** Footnote on our luggage**
My suitcase was delivered to our apartment on Wednesday, and it was wide open. Daves duffle bag was delivered to the FedEx office in Richmond, then Dave had to go to FedEx pick up the paperwork, take it to Customs, have it stamped, then take the papers back to FedEx and exchange them for his bag. FedEx could not, or would not tell us why they delivered my bag to our door, but Dave had to pick his up.
It has been a great week, and I would do it all again tomorrow if I had another visa card.
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Packing is over and done with in minutes. Luckily my suitcase was half empty on the way down, so there was plenty of room for gifts and souvenirs. Not that we actually bought all that many, surprisingly. POP Century refillable mug, A marathon weekend t-shirt, a postcard of the marathon course, the shirt that came with the ½ marathon entry, one radio, case, mouthpiece, antenna, 2 pairs of pants, 1 Hawaiian style shirts, one pair of hiking boots, one key ring, one lime green wish scarf, my medal, marathon Mylar blanket, 12 bottles of Mickey shampoo, 12 bars of Mickey face soap, 12 bars of Mickey bar soap, Nemo Christmas decoration, one postcard of the Grand Floridian, one airplane sign, one bear in an airplane, two beverage holders, a photo of Mickey Mouse, and a photo of Wishes from the Wilderness Lodge CMs, 6 etched glasses, extra radio battery, 2 more pairs of pants, one shirt, one bright orange beanie, 2 bottles of liquor, wooden Santa Christmas decoration, 2 boxes of Mickey pasta, one stitch antenna head, one alarm clock, one photo frame, lingerie, stickers, one magnet, one pet bandana, Candy from the gift basket that we havent eaten yet, assorted postcards, maps, brochures and other paraphernalia.
Okay so it looks like a lot when I list it all out like that. But it all fits in the suitcase, and the bag. I do decide to carry the etched glasses on as hand luggage.
Breakfast is at Roaring Snacks. Then we load up the car, and hit the road for the airport. We say one last goodbye as we drive out the Disney World gate, our journey home has begun.
A friendly CM at the front desk had printed our boarding passes last night, so we have A passes, but we still have to join the line up to check in our bags. The line up is loooooong. Bit it moves quickly. We check in our bags, and then she gives them back to us, what are we supposed to do with them? She notices the blank looks on our faces, and tells us to take them over to security. We leave our bags, and I comment to Dave that we will never see them again.
Next line up, this one is for security, and it goes all the way back past the Disney Earport Shop, and its not moving so quickly. All the signs say, please remove your jacket, laptops must be out of bags, shoes off etc etc, So why do people wait until they are at the checkpoint before they do any of that? And they are the people who are complaining about the slow moving line. Hello, youre making it slow moving!
We find our gate and the line up to board the plane already goes outside the lounge area. We join the end of the A line, I think this is going to be a full plane.
On the plane, its already looking full, and the Bs and Cs have yet to board. Where did all these people come from? Oh I know ..these are the home builders going home. The plane is full; there is not one empty seat.
We eat, read and sleep our way to Kansas City. 20 minutes to turn the plane over. Pretty much everyone gets off in Kansas City, only about 12 of us stay on the plane, and not many people board here. Dave and I move to the exit row, he takes the window and I take the aisle, the middle seat is empty.
A new crew is flying the leg from Kansas City to Seattle; they are very friendly and give us 3 4 snack boxes each. I am pretty sure that 4 Southwest Airlines snack boxes do not count as part of a healthy diet, but I am on vacation, at least for another couple of hours anyway.
Our arrival in Seattle is about 15 minutes late, thats close enough to being on time, so we wont complain. But things only go down hill from here. We stand at the baggage carrousel and only 6 bags go round, where are our bags? Well they are certainly not on this carrousel.
The other people, who were on our flight from Orlando, all appear to have lost something as well. The passengers who got on in Kansas City have all taken their bags and run. The poor guy at the baggage service counter is not going to know what hit him. Dave and I get there first. He has absolutely no idea where our bags are. He cannot tell us if they are still in Orlando or if they were taken off in Kansas City. What is the point of the tracking # on our luggage label?
He gives a form to fill in; we have to describe our bags, that part is easy. One large black hard shell Samsonite suite case with a red and green luggage strap round the middle, and one medium yellow Samsonite duffle bag with black handles. He also wants to know where we lost them. Excuse me, but we didnt lose them. Last I saw them security in Orlando had them.
No worries, if we find them they will be on the next flight from Kansas which arrives in 3 hours time at 9.00pm. Not going to work, not for us anyway, we have to get the Quick Shuttle to Vancouver and the last one leaves at 7.00pm. Jeremy from Southwest says that they will FedEx the bags to us. But Monday is a holiday, so they wont be sending them until Tuesday, and they will be delivered on Wednesday or Thursday.
Oh great, so now Dave or I are going to have to take Wednesday and possibly Thursday off work to wait home for the bags. Jeremy suggests calling FedEx to set up a delivery time, I am not sure about in the US, but in Vancouver they will not specify a time, the will only say between 9.00am and 5.00pm.
Not much more we can do, so we find and board the coach to Seattle. But not so fast, we are not going anywhere in a hurry. The drive cannot get the coach started. One hour later we are still sitting in a coach going nowhere, at this rate we will still be here when the next flight from Kansas City arrives with our bags.
Absolutely no luck in getting the coach started, so we have to switch to another, this one works and we are on our way, without our luggage.
The ride up the I5 is scary, I think the coach driver is falling asleep at the wheel; we keep veering into the other lane. I think the other passengers feel the same way, they keep going up to the front to ask inane questions, and therefore keep the driver awake.
We make it to the border in one piece, we dont loose anyone at the border, and then we start all the drop offs, the Campbell River Corner Store, the airport, Holiday Inn Downtown and then back to the depot. Its about 1.00am when we pick up the truck and head home. Its been a long, long day but we are finally home.
** Footnote on our luggage**
My suitcase was delivered to our apartment on Wednesday, and it was wide open. Daves duffle bag was delivered to the FedEx office in Richmond, then Dave had to go to FedEx pick up the paperwork, take it to Customs, have it stamped, then take the papers back to FedEx and exchange them for his bag. FedEx could not, or would not tell us why they delivered my bag to our door, but Dave had to pick his up.
It has been a great week, and I would do it all again tomorrow if I had another visa card.
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
