Every part of the trip counts!
). 
How nice of you to wait for Ann and Zoe at MCO!!
It's funny, I'm always trying to take pictures of the tree or other whatnots at the airport, and DBF is always like "we're not at Disney yet! How is this picture-worthy???"
Glad you got out of work on time, I don't think I could go to work the day of a flight, I'd be too stressed!
So you ended up flying down on Jet Blue? I don't understand their boarding process, they let the people on the back of the plane on first? We flew home with Jet blue in October, but I was distracted and barely remember getting on the plane (you'll see why at the end of my October TR! It's always something!
Pretty trees at MCO, I'm glad they make the effort to decorate!
At least I knew what the backpack would look like! Eventually I saw Ann and Zoe and I called out to Zoe and waved. They came over and Zoe handed me a reusable Mickey Christmas bag and inside was two boxes of chocolates and a patchwork Mickey Mouse ears. Inside, I was going 
I was going to get them good with all the little surprises I had packed away for them. And I was really glad I had become friends with them. Ann and I started talking about her flight and as we passed earport which was now closed Zoe ran over to Goofy looked up at him and did her own version of his poise. Ann asked if she wanted her photo taken and both Ann and Shelly took photos of Zoe and her poise. We headed down to ME, where by the time we got to ME, Zoe had warmed up to us and became a little chatterbox. We loaded onto the ugly yellow Mears bus and headed off. Zoe jumped on and picked a row for her and Ann, there were no seats near them so we took seats a couple rows ahead of them. I quickly packed the bags up and put them aside. Shelly got to work on the lights, while I started on the tree, then I put some window clings on the window while Shelly brought out an assortment of Christmas Disney plushes to decorate our window with and then I texted Ann and Zoe to see what they were doing and if they wanted to visit. They came over, saw the window and I gave them their gifts. Zoe then brought us over to their room so we could see their one decoration. At this time Zoe opened one gift and Ann did too,and Zoe decided that they would open one gift a day. Which only lasted, from what I understand, one day. LOL!
Yes, yes you did... but it was AMAZING! I hope you got pictures. I plan to put the ones I took up on my TR. Oh...and your tree. I have it. I just need to box it up to send back to you. (I put it up at home too since my real tree was quite dead when I got home) Course, the tree couldn't stay up for long since my Kitty, grr seemed to think that she needed to have an epic battle with it.
The week before we were scheduled to leave I told my boss that our flight had been changed from leaving at 6:30pm to 4:40pm. It was sort of true, minus the part that we cancelled our 6:30pm flight when it was no longer a non-stop. I asked to come into work early so I could leave at 3pm to go to the airport.
Can I just say I have the best BF in the world when I'm not bringing him to Disney with me?
We woke up Friday morning around 5:30 - 6am and drove to my worksite (which is very close to his jobsite), we got there by 7am and I invited him to come in and hang out before he left for work. At 8am he left for work and I was trying very hard to focus and get to 3pm. I spent a lot of time on DIS, I reread Ann's PTR to see when she was planning to get up and when her flight was and her layover and converting it to Eastern time to see when I can start texting her because I was so excited! Needless to say, I probably should have taken the day off, because I wasn't much help to anyone. Plus, I was getting texts from Shelly about when I was leave, that she was at the airport, security was a breeze. I wanted to be there too!
I was getting a little nervous because right before 3pm, my boss asked me for help regarding something and I saw BF pull into the parking lot for me. I was trying to explain to my boss, while getting calls and texts from BF that he was here. By 3:05pm, he realized I was supposed to go to the airport and I ran out of there! I promised I would bring him back some good chocolate in England and ran out and into BF's car. By 3:30pm I was in the airport, luggage checked, and in the security line. I took the rule of thumb, most people go to the right, so I went left. Wrong choice! It took me about 15 minutes to get through security and I always walked all the way through after the body scanner, that would have been interesting! Grabbed my bags, shoved my feet in my shoes and took off to find Shelly. Once again, luck was not on my side as I got stuck behind the slowest moving people who decided to take up the whole hallway and pay no attention to the fact there were people trying to get around them. I got to the gate found Shelly, we compared our Disney carryon bags and settled in for all of 20 minutes before we started boarding.
We had picked seats in Row 20, because I knew that after people with Extra Space, families, and people who needed more time for boarding, we'd be the first group on so we'd have great overhead bin availability. The flight was full, and it was sort of annoying cause a family a few rows ahead of us put their bags in the overhead and then closed the bin so no one else would go in it. Not to mention they had ribbons tied to their bag that were hanging out, but that's all stuff that didn't affect me. This plane only had two seats on each side, so Shelly took the window and I had the aisle. We took off fine and on time and I slept for a little bit, we went over plans for high score on TSM, plans for MVMCP, and the hours for the Holiday storytellers.
The next thing I know, its time to start landing and its only about 7:45pm when we were supposed to land at 8. I use my phone to check on Ann's flight which says it on time for 9pm. We get off the plane, use the restroom,
and head to baggage claim, we didn't want to wait for ME to get us our bags since we wanted to have the decorations up ASAP since we only had three days. After reading Ann's story about getting her bags I'm glad we didn't do ME!
But I had to stop once we finished the walk towards the fake monorail and take a photo.
IChristmas trees and twinkly lights. We took the fake monorail over and I checked out the big board which said Ann's flight was arriving early at 8:45pm, this was only 45 minutes away and totally doable since we had to get our luggage and get something to eat before loading on the ME. We got our luggage with no problem and went up to the food court and had dinner at Chick-a-fil. We then went to the Earport to check out the Disney merch while killing time and waiting for it to be time for Ann and Zoe.
Up Next: Time to go to Disney!
After wandering around earport, I got all sorts of anxious, what if they plane already landed and they deboarded and a bunch of other things. So I went over to the big board of all flights to check and decided to wait at the big HUGE tree right there and figure out which side of security their monorail would let out. Shelly was cool with waiting with me and obsessing over every group of people that let out. I knew what Ann and Zoe looked like, but I wasn't sure how tall they would be, so we just kept looking for a mom and daughter with a pink backpack.
As we slowly left the airport, Ann texted me that she just remembered she left Zoe's medicine on the plane. After that freak out, I got to enjoy the conversation of the guy in the Disney Christmas sweater talking like he knew everything Disney and the girls in the front row behind the driver talking about some France trip and the wineries and some other stuff very loudly. Shelly and I waited for the video to come on, which never did. After stopping at either the Beach Club or Yacht Club, Mr. Disney Sweater got off the bus and I asked Ann if they wanted to move up and sit next to us. I passed my phone over to her so she could read all the messages people left for her on her PTR and mine. We had a laugh over the fact that people were messaging me asking about Ann. Next we pulled up to the CBR, and finally Pop. This bus driver was the slowest one I've ever had! We probably got on the bus around 9 and didn't get to Pop until after 10pm. During this ride, Shelly and I had a lot of time to talk and realize, by the time we check in, drop off our bags and head out, Epcot would be closing so it would be better to spend the time decorating the room and get a good night's sleep.
Ann and I went up to check in together and had one of the best check in people there. We were in the same building and same floor, but Ann was was one room around one corner and we were three rooms down the other corner. I know that sounds confusing, but it took all of two minutes to walk between our rooms. Then Ann had our check in lady call Southwest to see about the medicine, while this was going on Shelly went to sit with Zoe who was starting to color on the bench. While trying to deal with the incompetent Southwest people on the phone while trying to stay in the Disney mode (it was hard to watch since they were being no help and saying it could take at least three days before it may show up if they even found it) Zoe had to run to the bathroom and Shelly took her. After we got pretty much nowhere with Southwest and got everything else settled down, we went to where Zoe left all her things for the bathroom run. A lady came up to us and asked if one of us were Zoe's mom and that Zoe said her mom was wearing a pink shirt which was me, but whatever we were together. We collected all the luggage and headed for the bathroom, where I hung outside while Ann fixed whatever Zoe needed quickly and everyone came out of the bathroom and we headed out of Century Hall and headed towards Building 1. There was a fence around Lady and Zoe was excited to be in the pink building and we had Zoe drive us to the fourth floor.
We separated here to settle into our rooms. Shelly and I went straight to work on decorating the window, while Ann and Zoe did whatever they did. Our checked luggage had all the decorations, and in my case it only had decorations and some surprises for Ann and Zoe. I packed Ann's gifts in a Tinkerbell bag and I had two Princess bags to choose from for Zoe, one was purple and pink and the other was all pink. I asked Shelly which one I should give Zoe, I got this look from Shelly and she said well Zoe is very pink.
We then headed down to Century Hall to check out the shopping, we found an easier path to Century Hall, which lets you out right where the Luggage Assistance. Once in Century Hall, Zoe ran over to the Christmas tree, plopped herself in the chair and once again poised for the cameras. We looked around Everything Pop for a bit, before Ann and Zoe got hungry. When Shelly and I were done looked Everything Pop was closed so we exited through the food court, just as Ann an Zoe were heading towards us with a tray. We took a table and sat, while Ann and Zoe split a Ham and Cheese (?) and Zoe had a hot chocolate, then we exited by the pool and went up front to wait for Alex and Steve who were on an icky bus. Zoe and I played with climbing in the 0's of whatever year we could get her in and then went back to waiting. Eventually another ugly yellow Mears bus came and Steve and Alex basically ran off of it. Zoe ran up to Alex and we tried to separate from them and give them some family time, but we all ended up on the same elevator.
We headed to bed around 1am. Shelly went out before bed to grab a diet coke and ran into Zoe in the halls. Tomorrow we have plans to head to HS -> AK -> HS -> MK! Would we get it all done?
Up Next: Day 1 - 12/10
Glad you were able to get the decorating done, etc., and found a shorter route to Century Hall.
3 parks in one day?
I'm here!
I wouldn't have done it if I didn't want to, plus I wanted to meet her in person since she was key in me keeping my calm most of October. It was really nice being so close, since Ann couldn't call Pop and put the same request because Zoe wasn't doing well right before the trip. You'll find out what happened on our first day soon!
After wandering around earport, I got all sorts of anxious, what if they plane already landed and they deboarded and a bunch of other things. So I went over to the big board of all flights to check and decided to wait at the big HUGE tree right there and figure out which side of security their monorail would let out. Shelly was cool with waiting with me and obsessing over every group of people that let out. I knew what Ann and Zoe looked like, but I wasn't sure how tall they would be, so we just kept looking for a mom and daughter with a pink backpack.
As we slowly left the airport, Ann texted me that she just remembered she left Zoe's medicine on the plane. After that freak out, I got to enjoy the conversation of the guy in the Disney Christmas sweater talking like he knew everything Disney and the girls in the front row behind the driver talking about some France trip and the wineries and some other stuff very loudly. Shelly and I waited for the video to come on, which never did. After stopping at either the Beach Club or Yacht Club, Mr. Disney Sweater got off the bus and I asked Ann if they wanted to move up and sit next to us. I passed my phone over to her so she could read all the messages people left for her on her PTR and mine. We had a laugh over the fact that people were messaging me asking about Ann. Next we pulled up to the CBR, and finally Pop. This bus driver was the slowest one I've ever had! We probably got on the bus around 9 and didn't get to Pop until after 10pm. During this ride, Shelly and I had a lot of time to talk and realize, by the time we check in, drop off our bags and head out, Epcot would be closing so it would be better to spend the time decorating the room and get a good night's sleep.
Ann and I went up to check in together and had one of the best check in people there. We were in the same building and same floor, but Ann was was one room around one corner and we were three rooms down the other corner. I know that sounds confusing, but it took all of two minutes to walk between our rooms. Then Ann had our check in lady call Southwest to see about the medicine, while this was going on Shelly went to sit with Zoe who was starting to color on the bench. While trying to deal with the incompetent Southwest people on the phone while trying to stay in the Disney mode (it was hard to watch since they were being no help and saying it could take at least three days before it may show up if they even found it) Zoe had to run to the bathroom and Shelly took her. After we got pretty much nowhere with Southwest and got everything else settled down, we went to where Zoe left all her things for the bathroom run. A lady came up to us and asked if one of us were Zoe's mom and that Zoe said her mom was wearing a pink shirt which was me, but whatever we were together. We collected all the luggage and headed for the bathroom, where I hung outside while Ann fixed whatever Zoe needed quickly and everyone came out of the bathroom and we headed out of Century Hall and headed towards Building 1. There was a fence around Lady and Zoe was excited to be in the pink building and we had Zoe drive us to the fourth floor.
We separated here to settle into our rooms. Shelly and I went straight to work on decorating the window, while Ann and Zoe did whatever they did. Our checked luggage had all the decorations, and in my case it only had decorations and some surprises for Ann and Zoe. I packed Ann's gifts in a Tinkerbell bag and I had two Princess bags to choose from for Zoe, one was purple and pink and the other was all pink. I asked Shelly which one I should give Zoe, I got this look from Shelly and she said well Zoe is very pink.
We then headed down to Century Hall to check out the shopping, we found an easier path to Century Hall, which lets you out right where the Luggage Assistance. Once in Century Hall, Zoe ran over to the Christmas tree, plopped herself in the chair and once again poised for the cameras. We looked around Everything Pop for a bit, before Ann and Zoe got hungry. When Shelly and I were done looked Everything Pop was closed so we exited through the food court, just as Ann an Zoe were heading towards us with a tray. We took a table and sat, while Ann and Zoe split a Ham and Cheese (?) and Zoe had a hot chocolate, then we exited by the pool and went up front to wait for Alex and Steve who were on an icky bus. Zoe and I played with climbing in the 0's of whatever year we could get her in and then went back to waiting. Eventually another ugly yellow Mears bus came and Steve and Alex basically ran off of it. Zoe ran up to Alex and we tried to separate from them and give them some family time, but we all ended up on the same elevator.
We headed to bed around 1am. Shelly went out before bed to grab a diet coke and ran into Zoe in the halls. Tomorrow we have plans to head to HS -> AK -> HS -> MK! Would we get it all done?
Up Next: Day 1 - 12/10
cant remember what it was. I thought turkey..but now that you mention ham...it probably was.
For the life of me I could not remember when we took the picture of Zoe in front of the Pop Christmas tree. I am glad you remembered.
I also didn't know Zoe ran into Shelly. Was she with Alex? Again, I think I was pretty tired and I remember so little from the rest of that night.
And the sandwich...
What a little monkey she is!
One day I will learn!
The Santa hats.
