Travel Day
The countdown was over and it was time to go
Our day got off to a good start. Unlike previous trips, we didnt have to get up at 4:00 in the morning. We were able to sleep in until about 8:30 - although not that we were able to. Our journey began with us finishing our last minute packing, loading our luggage into our little red Toyota Rav4 and heading out to the airport. Despite our 1:55 pm departure time, we were on the road by 10:00 am. Why so early you ask? Unfortunately we live about 60 km from the airport and it takes us about an hour to get there, and since all our previous flights have left at 8:00 am when getting to the airport was a snap with no traffic we werent sure how long it would actually take us or how much of a wait wed have at the airport with a 1:55 pm departure.
We arrived at the airport (after stopping along the way to run some errands), and were in line to check our luggage just before 11:00 am. Unfortunately the ticket counter wasnt open yet
so we had to wait another half an hour. We laughed about it though as it seemed to be good practice for WDW.
Once our luggage was checked by the airline, we headed through US Customs and Security Screening, and were at our gate within 15 or 20 minutes, only to wait yet again. Of course if we had gotten there with only 20 minutes until boarding it would have taken an hour to get through customs. At this point it was only an hour to take-off
just enough time to phone some friends and heckle them!
We finally boarded our flight (row 10) and settled in with our electronics to keep us busy for the 2 hour 7 minute flight to Minneapolis. A passenger just a few rows up from us boarded at the last minute, still talking on his cell phone. After two announcements that all cell phones ha to be turned off he was still jabbering away. Finally the Flight Attendant told him to turn it off now or risk being left behind. You could hear most people on the plane trying not to laugh as he finally got the message.
As we got close to Minneapolis, we ran into some turbulence. Lees not an overly nervous flier but he does tend to tense up in rough skies to the point where any attempts to speak to him are met with Not now Im willing the plane not to fall apart!. My saying wwweeee and putting my arms up in the air didnt help.
Of course we landed safe and sound in Minneapolis with just over an hour until our next flight. As we were taxiing to the gate and most of the people on board were getting out their cell phones we made an observation at we would make several more times over the course of our vacation
those who didnt appear to speak very good English seemed to have no control over their volume knobs. We had several people talking on phones between these people and ourselves but they were drowning out the entire planeload of people.
After being cooped up like sardines for way too long, we decided to walk around the terminal to stretch our legs. Yes folks, Lee was moving like Quasimodo already.
We located our departure gate and joined the rest of the passengers for more waiting
our flight, which was supposed to leave at 7:10 pm, was delayed for about half an hour to wait for a flight attendant who was supposed to join our flight crew. She was delayed because she was coming in on a flight from Detroit that was delayed.
By 7:20 pm we were on board our flight and took off about 20 minutes later. Yay, we were on our way to Orlando!!
We made good time and arrived in Orlando at 11:35 pm and headed to the luggage carousel.
On our previous trips we learned not to panic if our luggage took a while. This time, however, we only had a short wait for our bags, and were off to Alamo to pick up our car. Arriving at the Alamo counter, we noticed very few people taking advantage of the new Alamo kiosk check-in. We had planned to use the kiosk on arrival and were glad we did we had our rental agreement in a few short minutes while others were still waiting in a long line. We were off to the parking garage to pick up our rental. Unfortunately when we arrived at the Alamo section there were no mid-size SUVs left.
Good thing we knew from a previous trip that when Alamo had nothing in your car class they directed you to their partner National. So off we went to the National section. When we got there, there was only one mid-size SUV remaining
a red Toyota Rav4. We snagged it and off we went!!
We were dead tired by the time got to Pop Century at 1:30 am
and were glad that we wouldnt have any line-ups at that time of night so wed get checked in and off to bed quickly. Well sure enough, as we were approaching the resort we noticed a Magical Express bus pulling in ahead of us. We got into the lobby only to realize that we had the entire busload of people ahead of us in line.
Shortly after 2:00 am we got checked in and made our way to our room.
We had a room on the top floor of the 50s building which was an absolutely fantastic location. It was very quiet yet close enough to the food court and bus stops to be quite convenient. We found the room size to be perfectly adequate for us although we probably would have found it cramped if we were traveling with kids. Upon arriving at our room, we found a friend waiting for us.
We got unpacked and had a cool drink while we took a look around, finally getting to bed a little after 3:00 am, setting our wake up call for 8:00 am.
Welcome Home!
all about it.
back to life.........
I love that you've taken so many photos... can't wait to read more about your adventures! And you were mugged??? I'll be on the edge of my seat til I hear about this!
