I am not a morning person.
I know I've stated that before on other trip reports, but I can't stress enough how much I am not a morning person. Not one little, itsy-bitsy part of me is a morning person. Therefore it is baffling that I keep taking jobs and planning trips that require me to leave at ungodly hours of the morning. Case in point, this trip. Once again, my overwhelming love and desire to spend as much time as possible in Disney had me booking a 6:30 am flight.
It really says a lot about how much I love Disney.
I live about a little over an hour away from White Plains airport in good weather with no traffic. At that hour at least I knew I wasn't going to be dealing with any commuter traffic, but the weather was looking to be a bit of an issue. The entire east coast had been being hit with torrential rains, and winds the day before I was set to leave. Flights had been cancelled at my airport, so I wanted to be sure I left for the airport early in case any roads were flooded. I was alternately paranoid that my flight was going to be cancelled and I'd be stuck in New York, and terrified that if we did take off the flight was going to be a horrible bumpy mess.
My alarm went off at about 3am, and by 4am I was on the road with my father, who had graciously offered to drive me to the airport. I love my family. Only people who really love you will do crazy stuff like drive you to the airport at 4am in the middle of a storm.
Luckily the roads weren't too bad and we arrived at the airport a little after 5am. One of the things I love most about flying out of White Plains airport is it's small size, although there are some concessions like no curbside checkin. When I got there that morning a few of the airlines had lines waiting to check their luggage in, but there was no line at the Jet Blue counter except for right at the desk. I worked my way through the the roped off lines, and just as the next counter became available I got cut off by some man who seemed to think he was above having to wait in the line. The poor woman working the counter was trying to tell him he'd have to wait, as I was next, but his entitled, annoying rear end wasn't budging. I told the woman I was fine waiting. It wasn't worth listening to the idiot. People like that really drive me nuts.
In less than 5 minutes I had my bag weighed and tagged and had rolled it over to the screening area to be checked in. I still had plenty of time on my hands, and my flight wasn't being called to go through TSA yet, so I headed to the café on the upper level for a bit of breakfast. When I was done, my flight still wasn't being called to go through TSA so I grabbed a seat outside the café overlooking the gates and relaxed for awhile. Because of the small size of White Plains they call a few flights at a time to go through TSA so the gates don't get too crowded. If you want to go through before your called you can, but I prefer to just wait upstairs. There is never more than just a few people up there, and it's much more comfortable than being crammed in with a few hundred people and all their carry on stuff. Eventually they called my flight for TSA screening so I headed down. Love that it took probably less than 5 minutes to get though the check.
That is a picture I borrowed of the gates and seating area at White Plains. All of them, just to give you an idea of the size. Like I said, it's small. The morning I left was one of the busiest mornings I've ever flown out of there too. The airport's primary customers are business travelers, so I'm guessing that lots of people are traveling home on Friday mornings. I usually fly out on the Saturday morning 6am flight and it's always been really quiet.
The one bad thing about flying out of White Plains is that the people flying out of there will run you down to be one of the first ones on the plane. I've never seen anything like it anywhere else. I always feel bad for the poor person making the seating announcements. As soon as they start talking, the people are crowding in around the desk like a bunch of zombies in for the kill. First call was for guests in the extra leg room seats. The crowd pulling in closer, as the handful of extra leg room guests tried to fight their way through. Then the call was for guests needing extra help as well as guests with small children. I was sitting back highly entertained watching the crowd close in on the poor attendant watching people try to convince her that their 13 year old teenager should qualify them for this priviledge. It's just nuts. It never fails that the people pushing the most are always in row 1 or so and are in the last group called. I was in row 5 this trip so I got to watch the entire boarding spectacle.
Finally I boarded, and was really surprised to find that there were from what I could see at any rate, there were no kids on my flight at all. No kids on a flight to Orlando. I'm typing that now, and still can't believe it. For once there was no screaming kicking child in back of me. Heaven!
I ended up with the nicest woman sitting next to me who was going down to Orlando to surprise her mom for her birthday. It was nice having someone to chat with for a bit to get my mind off of the horrible weather outside. I was sitting there waiting for the plane to finish loading just watching the rain sheet down. I'll admit it was making me a wee bit nervous.
The plane was finally loaded and we took off early. The rest of the flight was blissfully uneventful. Perhaps even one of the nicest flights I've ever been on. It was wonderfully quiet, and once we were up in the air just a half hour or so the flight became smoth as glass, plus I had a really nice person to talk to for awhile. I knit a bit, while watching a few Mad Men episodes and before I knew it we were landing in Orlando. Seriously I need more flights like that.
The best thing about being in row 5 is that I was off the plane and on the mini-monorail in record time. Now I just needed to hunt down my friend.
Bad example.
I feel for her. That drive makes me grumpy too.
I ran my first half at the wine and dine race and it was such a fun experience...cannot wait to hear more about your trip!!
. I am 28 and I plan on having more kids soon so I have told DH I will be doing it at some point before I am 35. I should be able to train in 7 years right
