Cast of characters:
Me (23, missed my Disney b-day by 2 days), WDW vet, map reader extraordinaire, could draw a map of all parks and all attractions at any given moment
Spanky (23), WDW vet, knows where ALL the bathrooms in the parks are
Celeste (26), WDW vet, Epcot lover, likes to annoy us by reading Star Wars trivia books while in line
Rosie (21), WDW vet, really needs to publish Smoker's Guide to Disney by finding all the smoking places in all the parks
Overview:
This is only a short 4 day trip for the sole purpose of the Star Wars Weekends. We have no real plans except to spend a lot of time at MGM and do an e-ride night at MK on Saturday. I have never stayed off-property so those options were never even considered. We decided to stay at the Dolphin at the teacher's rate since Celeste is a teacher and I could get us that discount. As it turns out, I had to use my mother's teacher card since Celeste's school did not provide her with one this year. Well, do you really expect the best from a tiny Catholic school? Luckily, it was the same card that Celeste had the year before, so we were all set with that one. We also decided that since, in years past, we flew down in the early am and wasted about 1/2 the day that we would fly in the night before and then be able to wake up in Disney and go right to the parks. Everything else was planned as "going with the flow."
Thursday
Well, I had been working a little extra every day this week so that I could leave early on Friday. Through a little job and losing about a half hour of sleep a day, I managed to work it out that I could go home at noon instead of my usual 4:00. Our flight was not until 5:30 so yeah, it was really early, but I had some errands to run and needed the down time before going to the parks for a few days. Well, it was a lovely overcast day in the mid 40's with some rain here and there. Since it is always colder down by the lake, the walk to my car was a little chilly. After getting home and taking my brother out for some Mighty Taco for lunch and stopping at Tops for some snacks, I was ready to go home and wait. I watched some TV and checked all my paperwork to make sure I had everything from plane reservations to hotel reservations. Finally it was time to go to the airport and wait some more. I got there around 3:15 after being dropped off by my mother and waited for the others to come since they are all sisters and had their parents drop them off at the airport. After about 20 minutes, they finally arrived and we walked up to the counter to check in. After this, we went to the BK in the airport for some snacks since we would be flying during the dinner hour and would not be getting a meal. We finished and got through security in about a half hour since the lines could only move so fast. We got to our gate, which was at the end of the airport only to find out that there is bad weather in Cincinnati. We were flying through ATL so we figured that this would not affect us except guess where our plane was coming from? Yeah, CVG. Well, we were delayed for a half hour so we were going to be cutting it close since we only had a 50 minute layover. We were guaranteed seats on the last flight into MCO but still had our seats on our original flight. Unfortunately we were delayed another 15 minutes while on the runway. That put us at a 5 minute layover. Well, we had to run for 2 terminals at ATL since we were at the back of the plane and those who did not have connecting flights were taking their sweet time getting off the plane. Well, due to this delay, we missed our connecting flight so we now had an extra 2 hour layover in the ATL airport. So we went and got some Wendy's snacks and waited. In the meantime, I called Cartier to tell them our new flight numbers and hoped that they would be at the airport to pick us up. We had never used a towncar service before and weren't too sure on it.
After no further delays, we finally got into MCO 2 hours later than our previous time. Since it was now after midnight, we were all exhausted and just wanted to sleep. It was a wonderful sight to see Ali with our sign waiting for us. After collecting our luggage, we headed off to the Dolphin to get some sleep. One note on the towncar: instead of getting a towncar, I reserved a van to pick us up. The extra space was quite nice and we were very comfortable on both ways of the trip. We actually had more than enough room for our luggage and carryon and our extra bags. We all come down with 2 bags and leave with 3. Really good shoppers, that's all I can say about that. There was no one in line so check-in was a breeze. I also want to note that I had gotten a phone call earlier in the week to confirm my reservation and had a very nice half hour chat with the woman over the phone. Extremely friendly people. Well, we got room 6083 in the East Tower, so our room looked out at the Boardwalk all lit up at night. Quite pretty. We didn't have a balcony, but we would not have used it so that is okay. Let someone who spends more time at the hotel have one. After dropping our stuff and making the usual calls to housekeeping for towels and sheets, we finally made it to sleep at 2 AM.
Tomorrow: MGM for our first day at the Star Wars Weekend!
Me (23, missed my Disney b-day by 2 days), WDW vet, map reader extraordinaire, could draw a map of all parks and all attractions at any given moment
Spanky (23), WDW vet, knows where ALL the bathrooms in the parks are
Celeste (26), WDW vet, Epcot lover, likes to annoy us by reading Star Wars trivia books while in line
Rosie (21), WDW vet, really needs to publish Smoker's Guide to Disney by finding all the smoking places in all the parks
Overview:
This is only a short 4 day trip for the sole purpose of the Star Wars Weekends. We have no real plans except to spend a lot of time at MGM and do an e-ride night at MK on Saturday. I have never stayed off-property so those options were never even considered. We decided to stay at the Dolphin at the teacher's rate since Celeste is a teacher and I could get us that discount. As it turns out, I had to use my mother's teacher card since Celeste's school did not provide her with one this year. Well, do you really expect the best from a tiny Catholic school? Luckily, it was the same card that Celeste had the year before, so we were all set with that one. We also decided that since, in years past, we flew down in the early am and wasted about 1/2 the day that we would fly in the night before and then be able to wake up in Disney and go right to the parks. Everything else was planned as "going with the flow."
Thursday
Well, I had been working a little extra every day this week so that I could leave early on Friday. Through a little job and losing about a half hour of sleep a day, I managed to work it out that I could go home at noon instead of my usual 4:00. Our flight was not until 5:30 so yeah, it was really early, but I had some errands to run and needed the down time before going to the parks for a few days. Well, it was a lovely overcast day in the mid 40's with some rain here and there. Since it is always colder down by the lake, the walk to my car was a little chilly. After getting home and taking my brother out for some Mighty Taco for lunch and stopping at Tops for some snacks, I was ready to go home and wait. I watched some TV and checked all my paperwork to make sure I had everything from plane reservations to hotel reservations. Finally it was time to go to the airport and wait some more. I got there around 3:15 after being dropped off by my mother and waited for the others to come since they are all sisters and had their parents drop them off at the airport. After about 20 minutes, they finally arrived and we walked up to the counter to check in. After this, we went to the BK in the airport for some snacks since we would be flying during the dinner hour and would not be getting a meal. We finished and got through security in about a half hour since the lines could only move so fast. We got to our gate, which was at the end of the airport only to find out that there is bad weather in Cincinnati. We were flying through ATL so we figured that this would not affect us except guess where our plane was coming from? Yeah, CVG. Well, we were delayed for a half hour so we were going to be cutting it close since we only had a 50 minute layover. We were guaranteed seats on the last flight into MCO but still had our seats on our original flight. Unfortunately we were delayed another 15 minutes while on the runway. That put us at a 5 minute layover. Well, we had to run for 2 terminals at ATL since we were at the back of the plane and those who did not have connecting flights were taking their sweet time getting off the plane. Well, due to this delay, we missed our connecting flight so we now had an extra 2 hour layover in the ATL airport. So we went and got some Wendy's snacks and waited. In the meantime, I called Cartier to tell them our new flight numbers and hoped that they would be at the airport to pick us up. We had never used a towncar service before and weren't too sure on it.
After no further delays, we finally got into MCO 2 hours later than our previous time. Since it was now after midnight, we were all exhausted and just wanted to sleep. It was a wonderful sight to see Ali with our sign waiting for us. After collecting our luggage, we headed off to the Dolphin to get some sleep. One note on the towncar: instead of getting a towncar, I reserved a van to pick us up. The extra space was quite nice and we were very comfortable on both ways of the trip. We actually had more than enough room for our luggage and carryon and our extra bags. We all come down with 2 bags and leave with 3. Really good shoppers, that's all I can say about that. There was no one in line so check-in was a breeze. I also want to note that I had gotten a phone call earlier in the week to confirm my reservation and had a very nice half hour chat with the woman over the phone. Extremely friendly people. Well, we got room 6083 in the East Tower, so our room looked out at the Boardwalk all lit up at night. Quite pretty. We didn't have a balcony, but we would not have used it so that is okay. Let someone who spends more time at the hotel have one. After dropping our stuff and making the usual calls to housekeeping for towels and sheets, we finally made it to sleep at 2 AM.
Tomorrow: MGM for our first day at the Star Wars Weekend!
