The girls and I left school on Friday...it was a sad departure, however, and not as stress-free of a day as I had hoped. Before leaving for our field trip to see the play, we learned that the husband of one of our fellow teachers had been rushed to the hospital with what we thought was a heart attack that morning and it was not looking good. All day I worried for my friend and her family and prayed that everything would be well. Our stress-free trip to the play ended up with our getting there 15 minutes into the performance because our bus driver got lost, so we rode on the bus for 1 hour, sat for 25 minutes in the performance, and then rode back to school for 1 hour.
We arrived late back to school and our kids almost missed lunch. I ran to replace the makeup that Gunner, the maniac black lab ate, and to get batteries on what was left of my lunch break and when I came back, an announcement was made over the loud speaker that we would have an emergency faculty meeting after school...I knew immediately that it was bad news about our friend's husband...and it was. He had suffered a brain aneurysm and it was looking as if he were brain dead. So, the girls and I left the building sadly as this man is not only the husband of my friend, but is the founder of Boo's children's orchestra program, Elder of our church, and father to two beautiful girls who I used to babysit before I had kids of my own. It made me all the happier to see Chief waiting for us at home - you just never know what could happen at any time. God bless those women and keep them strong.
The limo arrived as I was doing some last minute shuffling of some stuff and we grabbed the Cars DVD and were off. The limo was a surprise for the girls and was a great way to start off our vacation without the stress of having to drive the 2 hours into the city to the airport. The ride went quickly and it was restful after the crazy day. We got to JFK with no problems and had checked in online, so we had our boarding passes all ready to go. We dropped our bags off at JetBlue's curbside check in and got through security lickety-split. I handed everyone their ziplock baggies and had prepared well so it was the smoothest I think I had ever gotten through security.
Next order of business: dinner. We decided on Cheeburger, Cheeburger after we saw that the choices at this terminal at JFK did not include any restaurants that we recognized (other than Gray's Papaya...but did not want to have hot dogs) and because it had what I knew would be the first of many chicken tenders meals for the girls. Chief, Boo, and Lou waited in line while I scoped out a table. I snagged one right away and defended the empty seats for the half hour it took them to sit down with me. Right after finding the table, I stood up and waved to Chief
, hoping to get his attention so he could see where we were sitting. Slowly I notice a man who looked to be 50ish sitting about 10 yards away....smiling and waving right back at me
. Hee, hee sir...you are just
soooo funny!
I give him a smile and wave
back to him and realize that for some reason my DH cannot pick up on my "Hey!! Look over here!!!" signals I am sending and decide to just wait. An airport worker-lady plops herself down in one of the five other chairs at the table without even asking
and I don't say anything as I really only need three of them...a bit later a couple comes and actually asks if they can sit there...I tell them "Sure...but I need three of these seats for my family" They decide to pass as they are with other people, too, and the airport-worker-lady just says "I'll be done soon" and I tell her not to worry about it...I was so hungry I really wanted to ask her if I could try a bite of the Chinese food she was eating...but didn't want to get
that friendly! lol
Dinner was had and was expensive...who knew that eating at JFK's counter service would be more expensive that eating at a counter service at WDW? We spent $49 on four chicken finger meals and two bottles of water!
That made us even more anxious to begin to use our DDP!!
We found our gate, sat down and waited...and waited...and waited...and waited...and waited...and waited
Soon it was 8:00 and I was thinking that we must be boarding soon...looked up and see that a line has already formed for the gate...assumed lemming mentality (it was late...I was excited...I swear I practice another philosophy at WDW!!) and got in line. About 15 minutes later we noticed that the departure board says that we will be boarding at 8:40. Did we go sit down to wait? Nope...it was CRAZY in that area and we couldn't hear any of the gate announcements, so I didn't want to take the chance that we would miss the mass migration onto the airplane. At 9:00 we finally begin to inch forward as they load us on and to JetBlue's credit, we loaded quickly and efficiently and even though we took off roughly 40 minutes later than planned, we landed only about 30 minutes behind schedule. 10 minutes on a trip to WDW is like an eternity so I was grateful for every second.
JetBlue has those great in-seat tvs that I enjoyed for all of about 30 minutes of the flight before beginning to drool on myself as I fell asleep. All of us dozed on the plane so the flight went by quickly.
We deplane and catch what we consider our first ride at WDW...the airport monorail. Here's Chief and the girls waiting for it to come pick us up:
Note Chief's half-asleep expression! We got off the monorail and started walking to the ME desk and began to get nervous when we noticed that absolutely NO ONE was walking with us there...we find the check in counter, and before we could say "Mickey Mouse" we were walking our way onto a bus. I was a tad disappointed that it wasn't a ME bus but a
Disney Cruise Line bus because we didn't get the ME video on the trip to the resort, but I was happy to hear that the WL would be the first stop tonight!
We pulled into the WL and I got a boost of energy! We were there! REALLY! Like it's not a dream!! We haul our carryons off the bus and walk into the ever-gorgeous lobby. We step up to the check in counter just as a family in front of us is beginning the check in process. There was some issue about their child being a listed on the resie as a child but was 12 years old, so should be listed as a Junior...they didn't have the DDP, but CM felt the need to call someone for help and in the end found out that it didn't matter to the hotel as long as they weren't on the dining plan. I kept thinking, "Oh, hurry up!! I want to find my comfy bed on the 7th floor and if I had just known that the CL staff left at 10 pm I would've asked for 1/2 a personal day just to be ushered up to the 7th floor!!" Finally they settle things and we are called to check in next. There were no problems with our check in and the girls were thrilled when we allowed them to have charging available on their Keys to the World cards. The CM handed over those gold key cards and YIPPEE! we were on way to the 7th floor knowing we are staying in room 7051. I got very, very excited in my over-tired state as she said we were in room 7051...I was just sure that I'd seen pics of the room 7052 on the DIS and it had a MK view...I told Chief and the girls that I just know we will be able to see the castle and the fireworks from our room!!
We were on the elevator fighting over who was going to use their key to access the Old Faithful Club floor and if I remember right, I won!! Up we went and I sighed about missing the whole CL check in and was jealous for the rest of the trip when I would see someone getting ushered to their room and their tour of the floor.
All the way from the elevator I was skipping and singing "We're gonna see the castle! We're gonna see the castle!" It didn't dawn on me until we reached our room that 7052 is on the MK side and is an
even number and that all rooms with an
odd number have a courtyard view...I was thinking that the two would be side-by-side and not across the hall. I let out a big, disappointed sigh as I figure it out and Chief told me he realized it as soon as we turned the corner into our hallway, but he was having too much fun watching me skip and sing down the corridor. He had let the girls in on the secret and the three of them had stayed behind me, watching me and waiting for the realization to hit.
Oh, well, I said...at least we were there! 7051 was a nice room with a balcony overlooking the courtyard and was a very welcome sight after the long night of traveling. Here are some pictures I took the next day from the balcony:
View from balcony to the right
View from balcony straight ahead
View from balcony to the left
View from balcony down to the right
View of balcony straight down
View from balcony down to the left
We changed right into our jammies and hit the hay knowing that the AK waited for us the next day!!
, and some really neat surprises to report about 
. 
