SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 2007 - Once Upon a Time...
PLANS: Fly down, Magical Express, check in at Animal Kingdom Lodge, head to Animal Kingdom, get Sandy on Expedition Everest, Finding Nemo the Musical, back to Lodge for dinner and exploring, early night
BREAKFAST: At the airport
LUNCH: Tusker House or AKL Food Court, depending on the time (CS1,2,3,4)
DINNER: Boma - 8:00pm (TS1,2,3,4)
REALITY: It was a dark and stormy night
well, ok, actually it was rainy for 3 days
before the trip
Saturday dawned bright and beautiful. I think. I woke at 3am, so
bright was not an option.
Sandy, Rhonda, and Ruth had all gotten to bed extremely late Friday night. I, on the other hand, had planned ahead.
Tylenol PM
CHECK! In bed by 6pm
CHECK! I wasnt
asleep the whole night
WHY did the people downstairs have to congregate in the room under
MY bedroom at about 8pm and make toot, toot noises???
But I was drugged and resting
thats all that mattered.
By 4:00am, I was down the block with my suitcases and carry-ons. Sandy was already at Rhondas her town car was early. We loaded up the car and picked up Ron Judis husband to take us to Midway Airport.
Ruth is not there yet when we get there. Rhonda says shell wait off to the side and Sandy and I should check our luggage.
It's very early, so Rhonda blearily (blurrily?) waits for Ruth:
About 10 minutes later, Ruth arrives and they get in line. Just as Sandy and I get near the front, I hear the Southwest agent say something about using your confirmation number to check your luggage. I happen to be holding mine and Sandys boarding passes together and see that they have the same confirmation number! I flag down the Southwest girl and ask about Rhonda and Ruth being so far behind us in line. Because there's only 1 confirmation number, do we have to check all the luggage at the same time. Yup. I offer to stand to the side to wait for them to catch up, but she waves them through the line and we all get to check in right away.
Midway has a great check in well, compared to Orlando
but thats a story for another day (7 days, to be exact!)
Its off to security! IDs out; shoes off I really dont mean to, but I Ow! Ow! out loud the whole time Id not wearing shoes in the airport not that anyone paid any attention; body scan got through with earrings, a watch, and an Ace bandage with metal clasps although I can bend the metal clasps with 2 fingers, so really, how much metal can there actually be there anyway?
Now, when we are walking through the airport, I notice that Im out ahead and the 3 of them are following me about 3 feet behind. I turn and inform them that, despite what theyve
obviously heard, Im
not Japanese royalty and they can walk
with me, not
behind me if they want.
Its a lost cause and will continue most of the trip.
Needless to say, Im the first through security, and pass the few minutes I wait for the 3 of them to get it together by talking to the security guard. Oh, yeah Im in Disney mode!
Rhonda wants coffee. I point out Pegasus. No, not the winged horse.
The bakery.
Rhonda, Sandy, and I each get a large coffee (I would have gotten a small coffee airplane restrooms are not much bigger than I am, ya know! But I caved under the peer pressure.
) and a bottle of water; Ruth just got a bottle of water.
The plane takes off at 6:25 and its about an hour before that, so I need to eat if Im going to take the Valium. And I
am taking the Valium. Sandy brought cranberry loaf and grapes for us all. So its almost 5:30, Ive been up for 2 ½ hours. Im starving! Im still on the steroids for my foot and have been eating ravenously for days now! I scarf down everything she gave us and 10mg of Valium. Plus the coffee. I need to hit the head before we leave. (Do
girls hit the head?
)
I teetered across the airport. Wow. Really feeling those pills here.
I almost fell twice.
Then we get on a plane!
We had A boarding passes in case you dont know how Southwest works, heres the Readers Digest version (in case you dont know the phrase Readers Digest Version, well, youre too young and I would like you to stop reading my report now
or go ask your grandfather... or nebo
)
Southwest lets you check in online 24 hours prior to your flight. Its first come, first serve. They do not believe in assigning seats. They have 3 types of boarding passes A, B, and C. First, they let the people with wheelchairs and children under the age of 4 board, then the A group, etc. The closer to the start of the 24-hour window prior to your flight, the better your chance of getting seats for your entire party together.
In the case of 4 grown women not a huge deal. But for families with children, sitting with the children is kind of important. So you get online 24 hours ahead of the flight and print out your passes. Of course, my computer decides it wants to be restarted 10 minutes before our 24-hour window starts. But I got it done, A passes were ours for the printing.
(Left to Right) Ruth, Sandy, Jaime:
Rhonda:
I was testing my new camera setting, where someone can be moving but it takes a clear shot... (1/1000??? I don't know - Meg set it up!)
This is your Captain speaking, I want more snacks:
And our first encounter with the Bad Shoe People:
You think that's bad, you should have seen her hot pink sequent headband!
Plane ride was the smoothest Ive ever taken and thats NOT the Valium talking! I complimented the pilot on the way out.
Have you heard the Crazy Frog song??? As we were taking off, I thought it would be really funny to start going, Da-da-ling-ding-ding-ding-ding
. really loudly down the runway
we laughed about it at work for a couple of weeks.
I controlled myself.
COMING UP ON THE BACHELOR, I MEAN THE TRIP REPORT: Magical Express??? Seriously, do you people even know the
definitions of either of those words??? [post=18573158]
CLICK HERE[/POST]
Hope youre having a great time! Ive figured out nebo and smidgy avoid Rhonda and I like the plague
I think its Rhondas fault. 
Double digits!!! We're at 121, I think. 
I have some info for you - the AKL mattresses are...(drum roll, please...) Sealy Posturepedic Encore 720 pillowtop. BUT, here's what I found out online today... 
subbing!
